Scotcheroos

When I was growing up we'd spend most of our 4th of Julys camping on Camano Island. My dad's high school friend's parents owned property there and my dad and all their friends had been camping there since they met. This is where I first remember having scotcheroos: peanut butter Rice Krispies treats topped with a melted chocolate-butterscotch chips mixture. I even copied the recipe from what the mom had written down - which ended up being unnecessary as it's pretty much from Rice Krispies itself.

I'd been craving them for a while so I decided to make them for Rowan Fae's annual St. Patrick's Day weekend road trip - except due to scheduling conflicts, we only had two shows on Sunday night. Oh well - these last a while so more for me!

Chewy Sprinkle Cookies

Birthdays are a call for celebration - especially the milestone ages. And what says celebration more than funfetti/sprinkles? So of course I had to keep Carly's birthday sprinkle treats tradition going for her 18th birthday. I even found a sprinkle-themed card:

I looked through my entire cake batter and funfetti Pinterest board until I found what is probably the most appropriate treat I can bake for Carly: sprinkle cookies. The way the blogger at Pear Tree Kitchen described them, they're basically snickerdoodle cookies but rolled in sprinkles instead of a cinnamon-sugar mixture. For the sprinkles I decided to use jimmies since that's what I have on hand; however, the blogger used nonpareils and said you can use pretty much any kind of sprinkles.

Chocolate Mint Crinkles

Another one of my favorite cookies that we make around Christmastime is chocolate crinkle cookies. They're so chewy and chocolatey and delicious that I don't care how messy they are (which is saying something because I'm the baker who cleans as I work). One thing we've never thought to do, though, is add peppermint. Even without the internet to give us recipes with the exact amount, it's a pretty easy addition.

Which is why I decided to make peppermint crinkle cookies for work's usual Valentine's Day potluck. You see, we got some snow. Which lead to me staying close to home for about 4 days. During the first couple days I tried to use up two things: my packets of hot chocolate (because of the calories I don't drink it as often as I would like) and the almost-empty bottle of peppermint extract. Except using peppermint extract to make peppermint hot chocolate is A HORRIBLE IDEA! So with Monday off I decided to find a recipe and make the cookies in order to use up the extract (who says peppermint is only for Christmastime?). I ended up modifying a recipe from Betty Crocker's website. The recipe was for a chocolate crinkle version of the peanut butter blossoms (kinda like the peppermint thumbprint cookies I made once) except I left out the candy cane Hershey's Kisses.

Condensed Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

I hate having leftover ingredients. With a few exceptions (mainly coconut), I try to use them up as soon as I can. Even if they can last a long time, like the leftover sweetened condensed milk I had from Auntie Paldina's coconut truffles. Coincidentally, I came across a cookie recipe on Pinterest that uses a small amount of sweetened condensed milk. It seemed very simple and easy. Also, it's egg-free and low in sugar since the milk makes up for that. The recipe is from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs.

Buttery Spritz Cookies

Growing up my mom had a cookie press that we would always bring out at Christmastime. We made trees, wreaths, and ornaments with it using colored and chocolate dough, usually topping them with sprinkles. I think we also brought it out at other times of the year every once in a while too (there's a heart plate and a bunch of flower plates). So when Mom had a Pampered Chef party to benefit her Relay for Life team years ago, I bought one. Or so I thought. Turns out it's a decorator of some kind. So I did a little research and added a Wilton cookie press to my baking-themed Amazon wish list.

Somehow Kevin and Helen found out about this (possibly from Kati - it was one of the ideas I gave her for Christmas) because look what I got from them:

I decided to break it in last week when I had a day off from work. I also wanted to use up the half-dozen eggs I had leftover - except the only recipes I could find had just one egg (oh well - I do like egg salad sandwiches). I finally settled on a recipe from one of Taste of Home's special edition holiday magazines as this one also allows for food coloring (something I also wanted to use up).