Pumpkin Cookies with Penuche frosting!

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I made these easy drop cookies a couple weeks ago for a football party at Sweet One and TT's house, they are so soft and chewy. Then, I posted a picture the other day on Twitter and you all went a little nuts!! 

Easy Oatmeal Apricot Bars!

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 I splurge every once in a while when I am shopping at Pasta and Co. in Bellevue, Washington and I buy a apricot bar. I love them and thought........Hmmmm I should make a few for my daughter, as she has been wanting sweets with oatmeal. She could have them for a yummy dessert or a fun breakfast treat. They are quite tasty and the apricot is a nice change of pace from my normal flavor palate. I made up a batch and served in a dessert buffet for a party we recently had, then, I packaged up the left over's and sent them home with her. She and Nate were so happy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars!

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What happened to the lovely warm weather we have been having here in Seattle? I have spent most of the Summer in flip flops, shorts and capri's only to wake up this morning to a definite chill in the air. A fire in the fireplace, on the veranda chill! The good news in this is, we now have an excuse to turn on the oven and bake up something delectably good!

These chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake bars are a mouthful.....of deliciousness! Just picture a bottom layer of graham cracker, a middle layer of creamy cheesecake, and a top layer of classic chocolate chip dough. Does this sound too good to be true? They are for real and are so easy to make! You are only a few steps to reality!!

Lactation Chocolate Chip Cookies!

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"This recipe is great for mothers who are breastfeeding. It helps to keep your milk supply up or increase your milk supply. Use more brewers yeast and oatmeal if you are wanting to increase your milk supply. You can use more chocolate chips if you like or any kind of chips," says Noel Trujillo. You can also safely eat these cookies during pregnancy in preparation for breastfeeding.

JJ's Peach and huckleberry crisp!

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Every June it happens-large bins of beautiful peaches arrive at the market. A lot of people in their haste to taste summer, grab a bagful of the pretty rock-hard fruit and take it home. And every year, they are disappointed. 

Cinnamon Pin Wheels!

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Have I got a treat for you today! I don’t know if I was craving cinnamon rolls or what, but, I decided, I am going to make a cookie that tastes like a cinnamon roll!  Brace yourself friends, you will NOT be able to stop eating these, they are that good!

Funfetti Sandwich Cookies

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Can you believe July is here! What are your plans for the 4th? These cookies would be the perfect treat to bring along if your going to a BBQ or hanging out to watch a firework show. They are festive and the perfect size for a little something sweet. This is another kid-friendly recipe, so get them into the kitchen this week and have some fun whipping these up!

Red, White & Blue Funfetti Cookies
-adapted from two peas & their pod

Lil' Monster cupcakes for the Kiddo's!

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These were one of the cutest cupcakes we have made to date! We got the idea from a very creative blogger, Hollie, over at The Seven Year Cottage. We are vacationing with 22 family member's in Lake Chelan, Wa. and made these for the kids at a family BBQ. It goes without saying that these were a HUGE hit with not only the kids, but the adults loved them too. Your kids or grand kids could easily help with these in the kitchen. It would be a great way to spend a Summer afternoon with them! One of the kiddo's said, "You are the best chef in the world!" We all got a good laugh, but, other guests where we were staying came to have a look, wanted the blog address and asked for a cupcake......Yay!

June SRS -Red Velvet Cake!

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Today Amy and I are involved in the SRS, Surprise Recipe Swap!  We are involved once a month in this fun swap! We love doing it because, it introduces us to other food blogger's, build's blogging friendships and is a lot of fun for our readers too! It's also a great way to add more exposure to your blog - increasing your traffic by getting link backs from others, being mentioned on social media networks, simply finding new followers.  Jutta over at Hungry Little Girl, started a "Surprise Recipe Swap", where we make a recipe from a blogger who I am assigned to and post it on the 20th of the month. Someone else get's my blog, chooses a recipe and posts it on their blog. If you are a blogger who would like to join in on the fun, just pop over to Hungry Little Girl.

This month our partner is Sarah, from Sarah Lynn's Sweets.  To say she loves to blog about sweet's is an understatement!! She has just about every sweet tooth covered!! When she first started blogging she only blogged about cupcakes, noting that she didn't get much traffic, she has expanded to pies, cookies, bars and most recently she has added some savory dishes. I had a hard time deciding what recipe to make and blog about, so, I asked Amy to take a look. Amy was so quick to say, " Nate's Birthday is coming and Holly says he would like Red Velvet Cake!" We were planning to make the cake together, however, Wee Bear and I were called on for a friends wedding in Las Vegas. So, Amy made the cake! Oh my, was it delicious! We had a lot of fun with family and Nate was surprised by his delicious Red Velvet Cake and his Mother's surprise visit from her new home in Eastern Washington!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes!

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Grandma Dorothy celebrated her 93rd birthday this past weekend and we all gathered at her house for a family BBQ! The cousins kids loved my Cookie Monster Cupcakes, I made for them at her 92nd birthday, that I wanted to treat them to another fun cupcake this year. JJ found a great ice cream cone recipe and immediately sent it to me. I had every good intention of transporting these to Grandma's house but had an incidence of top heavy ice cream cone cupcakes that I decided there was no way they would make it over in one piece. I was really bummed because they were so cute! I decided to make some regular cupcakes and decorate those to take over for the kids. Good thing there was extra batter, otherwise, I would have arrived empty handed!

I'm glad I was able to get some pictures of these cones to share with you all. A word of advice would be that if you make these for a birthday party or special occasion or just because...make sure you intend to consume them where you made them!  

Whole Wheat, Sugar-Free CC Cookies

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TT and I are eating healthier, cleaner food these days. In order to stick to this lifestyle, I had to come up with something to satisfy our sweet tooth without compromising flavor. I did a bit of research and came up with a healthy and sugar-free version of our favorite family chocolate chip cookie. 

I went to the grocery store and bought some whole wheat pastry flour as I read that this is worlds better then using all-purpose flour in baked goods. Its finer, therefore creating a fluffy texture, as you would expect in baked goods. I could not get away from absolutely no sugar because I have yet to find a substitute for brown sugar and vanilla and I have not found sugar-free chocolate chips.

Whole Wheat Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fleur de Sel Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce!

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This chocolate cake concludes any meal on a rich note. A delightful salted caramel topping poured over the top and out onto your plate, this is a little piece of heaven that will leave your guests begging for another invite!!

Two new appetizers- Pancetta wrapped mango & veggie shooters!

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 Memorial Day holiday weekend is here! Have you decided who you will be celebrating with? Have you decided what you'll be eating? Whether you are hosting a barbeque or would like to place flowers on a loved ones headstone, we are hoping you enjoy your Holiday and have very pleasant memories. 

We decided we wanted to get one last pizza party in with our outdoor pizza oven, before we fly back to Seattle for the "Summer of babies"! What about you? If you're still figuring out what to make, here's 12 delicious ideas to consider that will be a great addition to the holiday table...

Jungle Animal Onesie Sugar Cookies

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As promised -here is part two of Tink's jungle animal themed baby shower. This post is to share with you all the jungle animal onesie cookies I made as favors. 

You can get the complete tutorial on how to make the sugar cut-out cookies, including the royal icing recipe here: http://www.sewwhatscookingwithjoan.com/2013/03/onesie-sugar-cookies-gender-reveal-party.html

I bought the fondant jungle animal toppers from a gal on Etsy. One of these days I would love to teach myself how to work with fondant, but because there were so many other details to attend to, I made it easy on myself. Plus, I could not resist buying from these talented women on Etsy who make all sorts of adorable toppers! 

Tink's Jungle Themed Baby Shower!

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What a weekend! JJ, Laura and I have been preparing for this shower for weeks and it was finally upon us! All the hard work paid off and we put together an incredible shower for Tink. There are so many great pictures to share with you guys I am going to break it up into two posts. I want to show you guys the sugar cookie cutouts I made specifically for this event -they are so stinkin cute!! I will blog about those Friday.

Our hope is that you get some inspiration from this shower to use in an event you may have around the corner. Some of our inspiration came from a few pinterest ideas, which is so helpful when beginning to plan. 

We strung jungle themed onesie's to string and attached to the fireplace mantel. Under this we placed all the gifts. We found the foam jungle animals on Etsy. Those finished the banner perfectly!

Baked Alaska with Italian chocolate gelato for Mom!

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A Three generation picture , my Mom, my daughter and me. This was taken on Holly's wedding day, over 4 years ago. Now my beautiful daughter is expecting and we will welcome Madison in the next few months! A fourth generation about to be born!! Happy Mother's Day!

With Mother's Day coming up on Sunday, it got me to thinking even more about my Mom and how grateful I am to her for giving me a love of sewing and cooking. My mother is an exceptional seamstress and home chef and I grew up in a home of several sewing machines, ranging from the fancy to the antique and with lot's of family functions with food ranging from a family barbeque to a multiple course sit down dinner for 40-75. I grew up loving large family/friends gathering's and to this day, love to have large parties! I just love life and I have my Mother to thank for that!

JJ's favorite Chocolate flan with salted caramel sauce! Cinco de Mayo!

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How do you spell romance? I spell it D-E-S-S-E-R-T! In particular I love this Ibarra flan. The first time I tried Ibarra flan I was at a restaurant in Seattle on Queen Anne called Barbacoa (which has since closed). Chef John created this fabulous recipe with Mexican Ibarra chocolate that I fell in love with and I ordered it, every time we went! I begged for the recipe and finally got a scribbled recipe for 24 people, that quite honestly was not accurate! Last year I made an Ibarra flan and blogged about it, but, I have perfected it to serving eight and added a few more touches of my own that I think you will love! This can be served in individual ramekins as well!

Oreo Truffle Brownies

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I just realized how good Oreo cookies are! I haven't had them for many years until just recently when I made those Oreo truffle cake balls and now these heavenly brownies. My pregnant sister-in-law has been requesting desserts to satisfy her sweet tooth cravings during pregnancy so I helped her out by making these the other day especially for her!

Of course, we couldn't let her get away without leaving a few behind for us to enjoy! These were seriously good. Moist brownie layer with finely crumbled Oreo cookies mixed with cream cheese and then finished off with a layer of melted chocolate. The only part you need to bake is the brownie layer, so these are pretty quick to put together. 

Oreo Truffle Brownies
-courtesy of www.chef-in-training.com

Extreme Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

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The other day I whipped up a batch of  these Chocolate Chunk cookies. Our nephew was flying in from California, and I thought they would make a nice snack when he arrived. These are for serious cookie connoisseurs! A friend of mine, Mojdeh, gave me this cookie recipe a few weeks ago, she got it from a friend who made it from Saveur magazine. They're absolutely over the top delicious!! And they were one of Saveur's top 150 recipes.

They're basically 9 ounces of rough chopped chocolate in between three layers of cookie dough...........trust me, you will die and go to heaven with the first bite!   Ed, our nephew said, "they are moist and fudgy like brownies, layered with chunks of chocolate, with a slight crisp outside!"  And they are! Moist and tender inside, and so marbled that every bite contains the consummate balance of sweet dough, melting bittersweet chocolate, and crystalline salt.....mmmm You can't miss with these!

Oreo Truffle Cake Balls {with Rice Paper Butterflies}

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I am fairly certain that these are the best cake balls I have ever tasted! TT thinks so too and enjoys them straight from the freezer as the chocolate shell is hard and inside is moist and firm. They are rich like a truffle and so different from the usual cake and frosting mixture. It's a no bake treat, so it takes no time at all to put together!

I wanted to do a test run of these as I'm thinking about making some in the colors of my sister-in-laws nursery colors for her upcoming baby shower in May. For this batch, I just used some dark eating chocolate I had in my pantry for the coating.