Root Beer Cookies

In the 15 years she's been around, there are a few things I've learned about my cousin Carly when it comes to food: she's allergic to peanuts, she'll eat almost everything non-Italian with ketchup, and her soda of choice is root beer. So when I was pinning all my bookmarked recipes I was reminded of a root beer float cookies recipe I made sure to remember for Carly's birthday. However, when I looked at the recipe, I realized that not only was it too simple but it required an ingredient that's mainly available online: root beer concentrate. Since I was looking up the recipe with not a whole lot of time to get the concentrate shipped, I started searching for a recipe that used actual root beer. I finally found these Root Beer Cookies on Simply Bakings.

Peanut Butter Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Back in December I decided to bake the gifts I gave my family (parents, brothers, brothers' SOs, grandmas). With my mom's help (because I suck at paying attention to and remembering people's eating habits), I started compiling a list of everyone's favorite flavors. Since baking gifts has been successful so far, I kept the list for future reference. Like Anthony's birthday. I decided to take a chance and use the flavors of his favorite candy bar Twix, even though caramel wasn't on my list of his favorite flavors. After searching through my Cookies Pinterest board, I finally decided on Peanut Butter Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sugar & Soul. In a way it's like the cookie version of a Peanut Butter Twix so I couldn't go wrong.

Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This year the Super Bowl coincidentally landed on the day after my dad's birthday. So when I asked my mom what she and Dad were doing for the game, she decided to invite friends over and asked me to contribute a birthday cake for my dad. I decided to focus on peanut butter and chocolate since Dad loves both flavors. And because I knew I'd be baking his cookies, I decided to look at the cake mix books I have in search of a chocolate or peanut butter cake I could dress up. I quickly found a Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting in the first Cake Mix Doctor book.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips

Ever year on our way to Lake Chelan, everyone in the family has to stop at the Cle Elum bakery. They have these Italian cookies called torchetti that we all love as well as fresh doughnuts and other baked goods. My dad's favorite is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. When my mom and I stop, we always get a dozen just for Dad (we tend to go before him). So for his birthday I decided I'd try to make them myself. I decided to use a basic peanut butter cookie recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookie Book and just add chocolate chips.