The Best Cookies Ever!

Here is a recipe we have recently acquired that instantly became our favorite recipe.  Aubrey insisted this was a no brainer post and she could take it from here...

Hello folks!  Anybody there? ... Oh well, if anyone out there is interested here goes... I am Miss Aubrey Jean!  I'm here today to introduce to you the most FABULOUS Cookie you have ever tasted! The kind you can't stop eating even if you wanted to.  But trust me, you WON'T want to. If you are one of those people, like me, that chubby looks good on, you'll thank me for the rest of your days!  If you're one of those people who is constantly fighting the battle of the bulge you should stop reading right here, right now, and forget you ever saw this post. I really don't want to be hated by anyone. If you fall into the latter category and choose to continue reading, just remember, YOU BEEN WARNED!

Oh wait, this here is a special occasion and calls for some added props.

 First let me slip my tiara on...

 like so.  

Okay, now, lets see...where's my  glasses? 

Now we're talkin' !  I know you're thinkin' "Is this really necessary? Can't we just get on with it already?" or something to that effect.  Well, I assure you it is!  This recipe is fit for kings and queens, princes and princesses, celebrities and superstars...you get the picture. Now please don't interupt me with unintelligent questions. Thank you.

Okay, so ya'all ready for this!?

Off to my right , or your left, (however you want to look at it) we have our bowl of dry ingredients, which is very simple:

2 1/2 cups of flour

2 tsp. soda

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 tsp. salt

Pretty basic. Nothing fancy here. Well, to be honest there isn't anything fancy in the recipe at all, it just somehow tastes like more. So now we're gonna put 

2 sticks of softened butter

 into the kitchenaid mixer and beat it around in there with

 1 cup of brown sugar

 and a 1/2 cup of white sugar.

  Then add 1 egg

 and 2 tsp. vanilla to that.

 Now turn your mixer to low speed and add that bowl of dry ingredients that's a sittin' there. Unless you feel the need to powder your face, then go right ahead and crank it up!

Okay, ya still with me?  It's kinda dark behind these glasses. I think I'm gonna go ahead and forego my stylishness and ditch 'em.

 So next up is the last step for what we call Macadamia Nut Cookies. If you consider yourself the Macadamia Nut type then you'll be supremely happy with these.

Just add

 1/2 cup finely chopped Macadamia Nuts (unsalted) 

 and 

1 pkg white chocolate chips. 

These are Uh-Mazing! Even folks who aren't fond of Macadamia Nuts love them.

 We liked them so well we decided they should be chocolate chip cookies, because everything is better with chocolate, you know. So if you want them as Chocolate Chip Cookies here are the few small changes you will need to make.  Use only half as much of the cream of tartar, (just in case math isn't your best subject, that would be 1 tsp.) and leave out the nuts and white chocolate. Instead, put in a package of the real deal. Rich, luscious, smooth, decadent CHOCOLATE. Done!

 So there you have it folks! If you've never tried this recipe before, and you love a cookie that's crispy on the outside and ooey gooey yummy on the inside, then give it a try and tell us if you think its all that we cracked it up to be. :D

 Bake 'em for 7-9 minutes @ 350. Pull 'em out when they're starting to crack on the surface and have touches of golden brown.

 Cool 'em on the rack for a minute...

and have at 'em with your best judges face.

You'll probably need to eat at least 2

...

 or 3...

 or 4...

 or 5...

 or maybe even the whole panful to give a proper assessment. 

So go ahead!

 Betcha can't eat just ONE.

Enjoy!

Notes: 

1.  For best results chop your Macadamia Nuts in a high powered chopper thing, even if they're already chopped. It adds to the excitement. 

2. When you measure out the flour, be particular. If you like to fudge it and eyeball your ingredients, like my mom, you will find that a surprisingly small bit extra can mess up this recipe.  This dough is already fairly thick so if you want 'em perfect, FOLLOW IT. DON'T FAKE IT.

3. If you are not a cookie dough fan this recipe makes exactly 3 pans of cookies, with 16 cookies per pan, for a total of 4 dozen. However, I'll be honest with you and tell you that at our house this recipe always makes one row shy of three panfuls. ;D

4.The recipe these cookies are based on is actually called "Crack Cookies". I haven't decided yet if it is because of their addictive quality, or because of the cracks that form across the top when they are cooked to perfection.  We'll go with the latter just to keep it kosher on here. ;D

Little Miss Aubrey

Well, Our Little Miss is growin' up way too quickly as usual. :) At 5mos she is 17 lbs and 27in.

I decided to interupt my catchup posts to do an up-to-date post on some of the little changes I've noted in her growth over the past few weeks...

She has migrated to the BIG bathtub instead of the kitchen sink, and she loves "swimming" around in it and splashing. Sometimes I let Miss Kate join her, as long as Kate's not too rambunctious in the wavemaking department. Kate loves to give her sister swimming lessons. ;)

Her eyes are fastened on Kate. :)

On a side note...what is it about bathwater that tastes SOO GREAT!!! Bleck!! My kids are constantly trying to drink it. :[

She found her toes awhile ago and loves to play with them.

She is my most vivacious and enthusiastic baby yet! :D She frequently gets so exuberant that she can hardly contain herself and gives these joyous little whole-body-shivers along with squeals of delight. She also loves to be in middle of the action and be interacted with often.

She also seems to like adrenaline rushes...such as from being thrown in the air, sat up and left to topple in a heap onto the bed, or frightened by a dramatic BOO! When undressing her I grab her sleeves and pull until she drop out on the bed with a flop and a bounce and she thinks that is THE GREATEST! Silly kiddo. :)

She's been practicing the self portrait thing...

...and she's getting pretty good at it! :D

She has been developing a special bond with big sister (or maybe the other way around) now that she enjoys the interaction so much. After the initial excitement of a new baby wore off I think Kate found her to be somewhat boring, but now she is enjoying her more often than not and it is fun to see. Tay-O has always doted on Aubrey but I have no pictures to show for it...I'll have to work on that.

I was attempting to load a video but am having issues so guess it will have to go on a different post.

Back in October...

We had some lovely leaf piles to jump in! Somewhere between then and now I lost access to my blog...plus with a new baby, a big Thanksgiving trip, a lot of sick, another big road trip to Cali. Conference, a visit to grandparents, a lot of more sick, some company, life in general and another round of colds...I haven't blogged in a long time...even though I did finally figure out how to get back on blogger. So, I thought I would do a few of posts I had backed up in the files from the past couple of months, starting with October.

Kate loves this photo simply because it was taken when Aunt Susie was in town and she has Gramma Jo's beloved Baby. If you look close you can see "Baby" is sommersaulting right along with Kate and in pretty much the same pose. :)

Elliotts attempt at sommersaults. :D

When your tired of sommersaults throwing leaves on your head is always fun.

better yet...

throwing them on someone elses head!

Or even just up in the air!

Such a glorious fall day!

Sunshine and leaf piles = fun times!

And of course October was Miss Kate's birthday!

She wanted a farm cake this year so we did one out of our traditional chocolate zuchinni cake with a twist of chocolate mint frosting. Yumm!!!

I went simple this year and bought some cute farm animals for the centerpieces and "built" a simple farm shed and fences from popsicle sticks. Can you tell she LOVED it! :D

When it came time to serve it up Kate wanted the piece with the ducklings on it...

And Tay-O wanted the "wild little donkey". :)

Another (much colder) glorious fall day that I couldn't resist snapping a photo of just 2 wks after the kids had been outside in their T-shirts.

Still not too cold to go out for walks/bike rides. I was able to go out walking or rollerblading with Aubrey and Tay-O in the double stroller and Miss Kate riding her new bike...though more often than not, I would end up pushing her bike and the stroller at the same time, on the way home. Somehow I missed getting any pics of kate on her bike, but did get a few of Miss Aubrey all bundled up.

she spent most of the ride asleep...

usually with her hood over her eyes to keep out the bright sunshine!

But she did come alive after we got back to the safety of home. :)

My little eskimo baby. :)

And then began many days indoors...fighting over who got to give Aubrey her binky and other such things. :D

And so began our winter months...