Chocolate Macarons with Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

When I made the Fireworks Cookies & Cream Cookies for work I had a ton of eggs leftover plus 4 oz. of cream cheese. So I decided to try making macarons again using the same method that I had used last time. For the cream cheese the only solution I could come up with was cream cheese frosting to I started looking at every cream cheese frosting recipe on my Pinterest Frostings board until I found one on Wicked Good Kitchen that only required 4 oz. of cream cheese (and for once, I stayed with the first one I found instead of saving it for consideration). Because it was a caramel frosting I decided to make chocolate macarons since caramel is one of the many things that goes deliciously with chocolate. I finally decided on a chocolate macaron recipe from Diethood.

Fireworks Cookies & Cream Cookies

A few years ago I had a temp job gave employees a 4-day weekend because the 4th of July was on a Thursday that year. They probably did the same this year since the holiday was on a Tuesday. My current job isn't that generous (government/federal jobs must be like this in general since I had to work the day after Thanksgiving when I had a temp job at a bank one year). So to make up for it I decided to make some patriotic cookies to take into work on Monday. After looking at my patriotic treats Pinterest board (because really, where else do I have to look? 😏) I decided on Fireworks Cookies & Cream Cookies from Inside Bru Crew Life.

Girl Scout Thin Mints (homemade)

My brother Kevin, like nearly everyone else in the country, loves Thin Mints. It's kinda my dad's fault: come Girl Scout cookie selling time, he'd only buy Thin Mints (and of course immediately put them in the freezer. Dad likes everything cold but this was the one thing that we agreed is better when cold). Kevin even asked me to make the Thin Mint Gooey Cake Bars just for him for his birthday a few years ago because he'd like them so much the first time I made them for everyone. So this year I decided to make him Thin Mints (thanks to the internet, there are a lot of homemade Girl Scout cookie recipes). I looked through my pins and finally settled on a recipe from This Grandma Is Fun.

Chocolate Velvet Cake

Last weekend we had a family birthday party for Kevin and Declan. I offered to make something so my mom said I could make the birthday cake. Kevin and Declan both wanted chocolate cake so I started looking through my thousand or so chocolate cake pins. I eventually decided on a chocolate velvet cake (yes, velvet, as in red velvet but without the red food coloring. Apparently there's a velvet cake for all colors/flavors. I now have a Pinterest board for them) from Add A Pinch.

Strawberry Coconut Cake Mix Cookies

For Mother's Day this year I knew I had to do something simple. Auntie Vicki was having a brunch and my mom wanted me to make the orange pound cake I'd made her a couple birthdays ago (the night Anthony and Kati announced their engagement). Because I would be limited on time I decided to look at what kind of cookies or bars I could make with a box mix (I have no idea who it was that first came up with the idea to doctor box mixes but I will never not thank that person. The recipes are great when I'm short on time). For the flavor I decided to make something with coconut (I can't seem to not make something for my mom with coconut. Not that she's complaining) and that was strawberry flavored. The latter I did for two reasons: 1) I love strawberries and I know she's not picky about what flavors her treats are and 2) my dad (for whatever reason) hates strawberries so even if what I picked didn't have coconut, he'd stay away from them. I eventually settled on Strawberry Coconut Cake Mix cookies from The Frugal Girls.

(P.S. I know it's been two weeks since Mother's Day. My first excuse was that iCloud wasn't working so I couldn't get the pics on my iPad to make the collages. My second excuse is that I've been hesitant to do certain things lately. Like cut cable and switch to paid streaming services like Netflix.)