Cookie of the Month!

                                                              

It’s time for the cookie of the month! This is a feature I was really excited to start and I’ve only done it one month…last year...but, I’m ready to start it back up again, and this time not let it go!

So for this month I decided to keep it simple with chocolate chip cookies! They are the PERFECT cookies to have in containers for all the guests you may have over this month, or just the cookie hungry folks living in your house.

And the best part about this recipe, after my attempt to create the softest homemade cookies of all time (which they are) they also make the perfect ice-cream sandwiches! They are just as soft as store bought cookies but taste richer and just overall better. When I was taste testing them I was afraid they were maybe too soft (is there such a thing?) and realized that just wasn’t the case. So in turn, they are the ultimate texture for homemade ice-cream sandwiches! In this case I used plain vanilla with star sprinkles, and coffee flavored frozen yogurt with chocolate chip edges. Is there such a thing as too many chocolate chips? Absolutely not.  But you can use any combo you like!

Warning: Whether enjoying just these cookies alone or as a sandwich please be advised they are extremely rich and delicious. Please serve with a large glass of milk.

Enjoy!!!

Ingredients:

2Cups and 2Tablespoons All Purpose Flour

½ teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

½ Cup Light Brown Sugar

½ Cup Granulated Sugar

¼ Cup Dark Corn Syrup *This is why they came out ridiculously soft.*

1 ½ sticks melted butter (NOT HOT! –This is very important or you’ll curdle your eggs. Yuck.)

2 Large Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Mini Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

½ Cup Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (I used the Ghirardelli larger ones so I had some nice texture with the tiny ones.)

First in a large bowl add flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Whisk together and set aside.

With a mixer combine melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and corn syrup until well blended together (about a minute.) Then add eggs one at a time followed by vanilla extract. With mixer running on a low speed add the dry mixture in 3 parts. Mix on medium speed until flour is well blended in wet mix. Fold in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour.  Dough will be a bit sticky so don’t let that frighten you.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Scoop out dough with a standard ice- cream scoop.  Place into hand and roll dough into a kind of ball, then tear apart. Place the dough on a cookie sheet (best to use a silpat mat or parchment paper!) with the torn side facing up. Bake for 10- 14 minutes depending how dark you like your cookies and how your oven bakes.  Enjoy with a glass of milk!

If making ice-cream sandwiches find two cookies that are about the same size after cooled. Scoop slightly softened ice-cream on the bottom side of one cookie. Place top on and gently press down until ice-cream reaches the edge of the cookies. Set on a plate and place in the freezer for just a couple of minutes until icecream has slightly hardened back up. Roll sides in the topping of your choice and also serve with milk! Yummy!

Other suggestions:

Pumpkin Flavored ice-cream rolled in graham cracker crust crumbs –Perfect for the holiday!

Peanut butter ice-cream rolled in nuts

Vanilla ice-cream rolled in Pecans or M&M’s

Cookie Dough Ice-cream

Caramel ice-cream rolled in coarse sea salt -Oh my gosh so good!

What is your ice-cream of choice for making these types of sandwiches?

ATLien

I love my city. Atlanta is not where I was born, and I've bounced back and forth a bit between states and cities within them my whole life. But it's certainly the place I've always felt the most at home. It's where I've always wanted to come back to. Now that I've reached my 7th year anniversary of being back I can say it's where I've lived the longest consecutively. And I have no plans of bouncing anywhere else anytime soon.


Here are a few photos Mr. Peter Fodero took on top of the roof of his apartment building. So I guess this is my first outfit post. I probably won't have too many of these considering my main focus will still be Films & Foodies, but I really liked how these pictures turned out. Plus I adore the city as my background. Je l'aime ma ville.

                                                                      Dress and Tights: Target
                                                                     Hat: H&M
                                                                     Cat Shoes: Amazon
                                                                     Camera: Vintage

Flapjacks and Jazz

Happy fall all! Peter and I are constantly looking for fun activities to do when we’re together on weekends now that I finally have them off. Some of the neat ‘Fall Dates’ we’ve had include cooking dinner and watching a Halloween themed movie, hayrides at the pumpkin patch, apple cider mixed with Jack Daniel’s Winter Jack while cuddling, pumpkin painting and carving, along with some other simple things. One thing we found via Scoutmob was a cool event called Flapjacks and Jazz. At one of the food truck parks in Atlanta they were going to be having live jazz while you walked around the park stuffing your face with mimosas and yummy breakfast foods from some of the best trucks in the city! We planned to wake up early that Sunday morning to get all dressed up and enjoy this fun sounding experience together! So when we went to buy the tickets in advanced we saw they were $34 a head! Really? For pancakes? That seemed a bit much considering I just took a huge pay cut to switch jobs and Peter is about to close on his first house at the end of this month. We’re trying to save money where we can. Now even though we have to be smart with our money that didn’t’ mean we had to sacrifice the experience!

So Petes and I decided to do our very own, right in the comfort of home no less. Plus we’d get to serve up exactly what we wanted to eat. We still woke up early and got dressed up that Sunday morning and served up our own homemade Flapjacks and Jazz. We decided to stick to a fall theme and made Pumpkin Pancakes topped with yummy nutella and powdered sugar. I even warmed up some maple syrup on the stove with a few cinnamon sticks to add some cinnamon syrup if wanted. Which I did.

We fried up some turkey bacon, scrambled a few eggs with cheese, and made a giant pot of coffee.  Simple and delicious! I found the recipe for the pancakes on Pinterest which I’ve linked to here and they were wonderful. I used a metal cookie cutter (please don’t attempt with plastic!) and did some pumpkin shaped pancakes for fun! Also, since it was our menu we got to make the mimosas the way we prefer, with grapefruit juice instead of orange juice. I love the traditional way as well, but this is an Erin and Peter original and we really love them made like that. While we cooked and ate we threw on some awesome jazz records and had a very lovely brunch. My roommate Megan was even able to join us since she was home and smelled the yumminess that was going on downstairs. And overall we only spent $15 at the store for everything we needed to make it happen! I had a bunch of stuff already at home and that’s all it cost to get the rest of what we needed to make the ultimate fall and jazz breakfast! That’s way better then the $70 we almost spent and we had just as lovely a time! Plus it was pouring rain that morning so being warm and dry at home was MUCH more pleasurable I think. It’s nice you don’t have to sacrifice an experience to save some money. This is definitely a fun date morning I recommend everyone trying!

 

 

 

*Photography by Peter Fodero