Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER! (Perfect with Christmas M&Ms!)

     These turned out so great! I'm thrilled. I usually can't stand making cookies because they don't turn out how I like them. I don't like them to be super crunchy or hard. I like a little bit of crispiness around the edge and perfect gooey chewiness on the inside. I decided to wing it with the recipe. Thankfully I wrote it down as I went. Do note that it is doubled. Use half the amounts of ingredients listed or you'll have A LOT of cookies. They are so tasty and so unhealthy!

2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups brown sugar (packed)
4 eggs 
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups shortening
3/4 cup butter (soft)
5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
3-4 cups chocolate chips

*don't forget this recipe above is doubled so you only need half of this for a regular batch*

     A few things: 1) The butter needs to be soft. Not hard. Not melted. It just needs to get to room temperature.  2) I didn't use a mixer for these. I used a spatula then my hands. 3) This dough really needs to sit in the fridge or freeze for at least a few hours but overnight is even better. 4) If you need to preheat, go for it. I don't because our current oven doesn't like it.

      In one bowl, add the sugars and butter and cream them together. Add the shortening, oil, and eggs and stir with a spatula until it's all blended together. In another bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. (The BEST way to do this is with your hands!) Finally, add in the chocolate chips.

    This dough is slightly crumbly but it should press together really well and hold it's shape. Put it all on some parchment and let it set in the fridge for at least a few hours. Roll the dough into small balls, press gently for a flatter cookie or leave it round for a puffier cookie. Use a non stick pan or butter it up. Cooking spray is fine too but butter works better, in my humble opinion. (Add M&Ms!!) Bake in the oven at ~325 degrees for 8-10 minutes. They are done when just the edges are golden. The center will still be pretty mushy. Let them sit for 10 minutes or so on the pan. If you try to move them too soon they'll just break or fall through the edges of a cooling rack.

     Oh yeah, and I let my sweet girls help "make cookies" (put the candy on top) and they are really great at it! They have perfect proportioning skills at just 2 and 3 years old.

Homemade Salsa and Easy Pumpkin Spice Cookies!

It just occurred to me this past week that it could be awesome to try homemade salsa and if we liked it to jar some! Hello, duh! Everyone stop buying the canned and bottled and jarred stuff at the store. It's ridiculously easy to make it at home and it tastes so good. Plus, you can tweak it however you like! Here's the recipe I came up with after reading a few different ones like this and this

3 vine tomatoes
3 tomatillos
1 very large bell pepper
1 poblano pepper
1 jalapeno pepper
1 large clove of garlic
lemon juice
2 tsp cumin
a lot of cilantro
1 tsp sugar


      I tossed everything, one or two at a time, into my blender and added it all together in a bigger bowl.  My blender is annoying so any big chunks I'd just throw back in for a minute. We won't be saving this batch so I put it right into the fridge for a while to let all the flavors meld together. This is a sweet, tangy salsa with a decent kick to it. I left the cores and seeds of the peppers out or it would've been much spicier. I also used just a little bit of lemon juice to make sure everything stayed pretty and fresh but it also adds a nice smidge of flavor. My husband (salsa connoisseur) prefers a heavy, bold restaurant-style salsa but he liked this too! It's so easy to pick up the produce, chop it up, and throw it all together. You can tweak it however you want too so it's more to your taste.

 Also, I've seen this simple recipe bouncing around pinterest the past few weeks so I finally gave it a try. There are only TWO ingredients: a boxed spice cake mix and a can of pure pumpkin. I plopped the mixture on the pan and put them in my oven at 350 for about 15 minutes. They came out very soft, almost sticky. They are comparable to cookies you'd make with pudding. Definitely a quick and easy, festive cookie.  Oh, and if you get the cake mix and pumpkin at Aldi's then it's only going to cost a couple bucks! I wish I had some butter pecan ice cream to go with them. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of these. The kids ate them up before I remembered to take one. They were sneaking them so have no doubt they were tasty!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Full disclosure: I'm no super-cook/baker lady. Also, I'm not even remotely trying to be healthy. 

    I wanted some chocolate chip cookies. I'm terrible at making cookies most of the time. No idea why. I can whip out brownies or a cake without any trouble but my cookies either burn or they are obnoxiously crunchy. I went on pinterest looking for a recipe to try out and found this from What a Girl Eats. The original recipe can be found by clicking that link. I doubled it and replaced some of the shortening with brown sugar. I also didn't add any walnuts since I just used up my last bag on brownies but next time hopefully I will.

These cookies are very good! I took heed of the note at the bottom of that blog and tweaked the recipe in hopes of getting the cookies to be just right (slightly crunchy and chewy but not too flat or crispy). They are messy to make but simple enough. Here's my version of the recipe (this is doubled so it makes A LOT):

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies:
3 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda

4 eggs
2 cups brown sugar (unpacked)
1.5 cups white sugar
1.5 cups shortening
2 tsp vanilla extract
1tsp hot water

~9oz of chocolate chips
4 cups of rolled or quick oats

     Directions: Add the flour, salt, and baking soda together in one bowl and whisk/fork/spin/stir/sift it together. Put the eggs, sugar, shortening, and vanilla in another bowl and whip it up but BE CAREFUL not to go to crazy or you'll break it down too much. Add the hot water to the liquidy bowl of stuff (no idea why but the original recipe called for it so I went ahead) then combine the two mixtures. I started out trying to whisk it all together. Don't ask me why I didn't get my electric mixer out. . . no idea. I digress. Just stick your hands in. It's very, very sticky at this stage but AVOID the urge to flour it up. Get it together pretty well, rinse your hands, and then toss in the oatmeal and chocolate chips. Stick your hands back in and get it all combined. The consistency should still be slightly sticky but easy to roll into balls (think play dough).

      Lay out parchment paper in whatever pan (I used a cake pan because I didn't feel like cleaning the other one, no big deal) and spread 1-1.5 inch balls so they don't seem to close or to far (I guess). I was able to fit 12 dough balls in a standard 9x13 cake pan. Sometimes they'd roll a bit and bake together but I didn't really care that much. Bake 10ish minutes around 350 in your oven. Our oven is a butthead so I tend to put it a little lower and cook things for shorter periods than most recipes call for. I also don't preheat it. The original recipe says 375 for 10-14 minutes. Use your own good judgement.

  Like I said before, this recipe is ALL READY doubled so it makes a LOT. I made 4 batches I think (so 48 cookies) and still have a bag full of dough balls in the freezer!

  If you like crunchy, slightly chewy, dripping with chocolate, perfect-for-milk-dunking, oatmeal-laden cookies then this should make you happy! I won't use butter for oatmeal cookies ever again that's for sure. Fill your favorite cup or mug with some milk and enjoy!

Edit:

      I had to come back and add this. After making a batch with the frozen dough balls I HAVE to recommend that if you can contain your cookie monster for just a night it is sooo worth it. They are even BETTER after sitting in the freezer for a while. They are slightly softer and chewier than when they are cooked fresh!! Don't thaw at all. Just pop them on the parchment paper or pan and cook them same (they may take a smidgen longer). So good!!!