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I am the cookie maker in my family. Well, I guess that's sort of a lie because my mom and sister both make cookies too, but recently it seems that when my family has gotten together around the holidays they look forward to my cookies-- especially the ginger molasses and white chocolate chip cookies. This past holiday season was no exception. I made both recipes, wrapped them in cookie tins, and packed the tins up in our luggage we took with us on our way to Colorado.

I would be lying if I weren't to say that the white chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. When baked just perfectly, they have almost a brownie-like texture. And I always choose to use really good white chocolate (none of that Nestle white chocolate chip crap!) which I'm almost certain makes this cookie just that good. During our stay in Colorado, one bite into a chocolate cookie, my sister asked me if she could have my recipe and I promised her that I would write a blog post about them. A month passed and I still hadn't written the blog post, so finally, today, I am sharing it with you all. However, this one especially goes out to my sister!



Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa (I use Hershey's)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup of soft butter (2 sticks)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 pound (16oz) white chocolate (I used Lindt white chocolate bars chopped into smaller pieces or Ghirardelli white chocolate chips)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar together until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in baking cocoa. While continuing to mix, slowly add in flour, salt, and soda until you have a smooth consistency and the flour is fully incorporated. Finally, slowly stir in white chocolate by the handful, until it has been evenly distributed within the dough.

Once the cookie dough is ready, scoop tablespoon sized amounts of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. If you want the cookies to turn out perfectly round, I use my palms to make the dough into a sphere. Once the cookie sheet if filled, bake cookies for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, rotate the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 4 more minutes. After the 4 minutes is up, take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for two minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. I have found these times to be perfect for a moist and delicious cookie. Letting the cookies cool on the baking sheet for those two extra minutes is huge as well!

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do! Let it be known that I ate the last two while I wrote this blog post! ;)

Let's talk about how I've been a little absent in this blog world lately. How I'm not going to apologize because I was kicking some ass while I was gone. I just happened to notice that I have some new readers, so it only seemed fair that I give them a blog post so they don't have to return to my stuffed peppers recipe on the daily and wish that they hadn't followed my blog after all.

So hi, new readers! I am happy to have you and I promise I am normally more entertaining. However, like I was saying, I was busy kicking some ass. And by kicking some ass, I mean making Valentine's Day cards like nobody's business AND baking cookies as if there was a chocolate chip surplus. You see, I needed to finish all of my ridiculous amounts of cute butt orders, but I also needed to make 12 dozen cookies for my students for their middle school dance. And it needed to happen in one night.

How do I manage to pull this off, you might ask? I decided to hire my trusty card-folding intern, Andrew.
He folded cards and I baked cookies. And then he still folded cards and I made more cards. I'm lucky he decided to come back to work for my design firm after I was a total butthead to him the other night. I was tired, cranky, and just wanted to sleep and he messed up the tiniest thing. So I was a butthead. Plus, considering that I stole his copyrighted design, I'm surprised he was willing to sign a new contract. Apparently 25 cents per card idea was not enough, so I upped it to 26 cents. His wallet will be padded in no time.

By now, you all are wondering what I'm talking about and wish you hadn't followed because you think I am crazy. Trust me, it gets better. Remember that copyrighted design I was talking about? Well it just so happens that my card-folding intern was a butthead to me a few nights ago. He decided to apologize with this beautiful specimen.
That P.S. You do cards way better part was a challenge. When I was a butthead to my card-folding intern the next night, it only seemed appropriate that I take him up on his challenge and follow up with this:
Some of you may realize that I have a history with fart cards. I mean, let's face it, farts are kind of funny. You know I couldn't pass up a great opportunity to put a farting butt on a head. This bad boy will in fact be making an appearance in the shop--- for real.

And now that I've lost all of my new readers because they think I am gross, I should probably conclude this wonderful post by letting you all know that I actually have a winner of a giveaway from last week. I was supposed to announce this on Wednesday, but you all now know why that didn't happen. Sooooooo.... congratulations Edi! You are the winner of the Milo and Molly giveaway! I'll be emailing you shortly!

And to everyone else, have an amazing weekend and happy Friday! Woot woot! :)

I must have jinxed us because right after I wrote about it feeling like spring in the middle of January, a cold snap arrived and it was a lovely 21 degrees today with a wind chill of 8. Brrrrrrrr. I don't know about you, but you'd think I could handle this weather after spending five years of my life in snowy, cold Syracuse, New York. However, I've acclimated to balmier temperatures of the south (ok, more like mid-Atlantic) here in Baltimore and I, quite frankly, don't have time to mess around with weather like this!

Last night, we wanted a meal that would warm us up and stick to our ribs. Being in full swing of Valentine season and the shop being busier than ever, I also needed something that I could throw together quickly for dinner. Having bought a ton of green peppers at the grocery store the other day, we decided to go with stuffed peppers. They definitely hit the spot!

Ingredients

• 4 large green bell peppers, cored and hallowed out
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1 1/2 cups cooked white rice
• one small onion, diced
• one clove of garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• a few dashes of cayenne
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Hallow out green peppers and set aside. Prepare your rice (about 3/4 cup dry rice will make 1 1/2 cups cooked). While rice is cooking, brown the ground beef along with the onion and garlic. Add spices to ground beef mixture. When rice is cooked, stir rice into ground beef mixture. Using a large spoon, fill green peppers with filling. Top off green peppers with cheddar cheese and place peppers upright in a baking dish. Bake for 25-35 minutes at 350. Peppers should be soft and tender and cheese should just be browning when the are finished. Serve with a dollop of sour cream (and a decent glass of red wine if you're like me!).

What recipes have you been enjoying lately?

Top - Gap // Cardigan - Express // Jean - Worn // Scarf - Gift // Shoes - Nine West // Bag - Steve Madden
It's hard not to want to do a little dance when the sun is out and it is 60 degrees.... in January. Something about this weather made us want to do it all this weekend. And we most certainly did do it all. The weekend was made complete with a date night on Friday, a Home Depot run, watching the Syracuse basketball game with a friend on Saturday, a trip to the architectural salvage yard, some "spring" cleaning, homemade pizza, and of course Downton Abbey. Not to mention all of the other odds and ends that we were able to sneak in somehow or other. I'm telling you, spring-like temperatures in the middle of January are practically like a whole new lease on life.

Anyone else able to enjoy a beautiful weekend like us? What did you get accomplished this weekend?

P.S. There are still a couple days left to enter into an awesome giveaway! 

This is a story that happened last month, but I just can't shake it. You see, in Baltimore there are some things that you just get used to. Crazy cracked out lady walking down the street yelling "Stop! You're scaring me! Stop! I'm scared!" on the Fourth of July while people are shooting off fireworks? Yup, that's nothing.

Lady across the street waking you up at 3am from yelling, "Uhn uh, she just done disrespected me!" and then proceeds to say the same thing five million times as loud as she can to anyone that will listen including the cops that showed up because another neighbor was sick of listening to her? Not unusual.

Ditzy college girls walking back from the bar, drunk, and announcing that they're going to pee on your sidewalk so you get up to bang on your bedroom window to let them know you heard what they just said? Yup, definitely happened once.

The things that happen after midnight on our street are sort of typical Baltimore things. Until one night....

I shot straight up in bed and looked at the clock. 12:57am to be exact. And yes, what I tweeted was true. Clear as a bell (except for the fuzzy sound of speakers that were working much too hard) I hear the Lumineers. Blasting. So loud that it woke me up.

Excuse me? HUH??????? Is this truly what I was hearing?!?! I was so shocked that it wasn't gangsta rap that I literally thought I was dreaming and had to pinch myself. Then I nudged Andrew awake from his deep sleep and asked, "Do you hear that? Is that REALLY what I am hearing or is this just a dream?!" We both listened for a second and then laid in bed laughing before finally falling back asleep.

Now normally I would be mad. "Stupid car! I don't want to hear your stupid music with your stupid cuss words and your stupid pounding bass! I'm trying to sleep!" is the normal response when my windows are rattling from gangsta rap bass beats.

But this! This was just too much! I mean honestly all I could think was 1) Who blasts the Lumineers? Ever? At all? and 2) Who blasts the Lumineers???

As bizarre as it was (clearly, because I am still thinking about this a month later!) I can tell you, if I had to choose Lumineers or gangsta rap, I'd choose Lumineers every time.

I mean, would you prefer this (I apologize for the explicit nature of the video, but needed to make my point)--


Or this--


At one in the morning while you're trying to sleep? I think the answer is clear.

And NOW I think I have officially seen and heard everything in Charm City.