Cookie Swap Cookies, 2012!

I am a terrible person, so I waited until the last minute this year to make my cookies before sending them out. I'm also super picky about my bananas (I won't eat them unless they're a little green), so I always end up with oodles of bananas in my freezer, waiting for cookies, or bread, or some kind of baked deliciousness.

That prompted my Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies this year.

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 scant c. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
generous 1/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 egg
3 bananas, mashed
2 c. quick oats
lots and lots of chocolate chips!


Preheat the oven to 375. Mix your dry ingredients, then fold in butter until mixture is a little crumbly. Add egg, bananas, and oats. Mix it all up again. Finish with lots of chocolate chips! Spoon onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 13 minutes.

Then take pictures with a better camera than my phone.

Enjoy! These are super moist cookies - best enjoyed within a few days, but will keep for about a week.

Another big thanks to the three ladies who sent me delicious cookies this year, as well as the organizers for putting in all the hard work required behind the scenes!

xo

Woohoo! Cookies, part two.

Today, I received part two of three cookies in the mail. Thank you so much, Julia!

Adorable packaging - and what a cute card! 

She sent Double Chip Chocolate Chunk cookies. Peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, and huge hunks of chocolate. These, I'm going to bring to work to share. I already ate two, plus the dozen I received in the mail a few days ago, and I can't possibly fit into my dress for my sister's wedding in two weeks if I eat the rest!

I'm going to be baking and sending out my cookies tomorrow, since I don't have a whole lot of time next week. I hope everyone is looking forward to my cookies as much as I did theirs!

My first cookies!

I received my first dozen cookies this morning, from Corinne over at Reverberations. DELISH!

Super adorable packaging. Plus they're German, which is a huge bonus for me. And Corinne reads lots of German books and makes lots of German food, so I think we're going to get along famously.

I know, quality blows. But the container is so cute!

Was I supposed to take a picture of the cookies before I ate them all? ...oops.

German shortbread cookies with sea salt. And I'm really looking forward to this recipe!



As a side note, I'm sorry I haven't been around again lately. The in-laws moved in, so I moved out, and I've just been under a lot of stress. My 7-lb. weight loss in the last month is probably an indicator that I haven't been cooking for myself very often. I'm having spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow night and then perhaps I'll get back into the swing of things around here.

The 2nd Annual Cookie Swap!

I just signed up for this year's Great Food Blogger's Cookie Swap, and I couldn't be more excited! I hope to see all of you that joined me last year join me again this year, with an added bonus! There is a mandatory fee to participate this year that will go toward Cookies for Kids' Cancer.

Now, for the next month, I'm going to be racking my brain for a new cookie recipe that's more delicious than the one last year. :)

In other news, I have been cooking lately, but haven't concocted anything original enough, homemade enough, or delicious enough that I thought warranted mention. Stay tuned! I may have a few things up my sleeve, thanks to my newest Food and Wine magazine.

Ciao!

Ginger Chocolate Dream Cookies

These are a wonderful twist on your regular chocolate chip cookies. Everyone I've given them to has raved about them and most have asked what that sneaky special ingredient is. A few days after I brought these into work for the first time, we had a mandatory 6AM meeting. Management tried to spice things up a little bit with a game of sorts - one interesting fact about each employee that you had to match with their name. Mine was "makes delicious ginger chocolate cookies."

I first had these tasty gems when I unexpectedly moved in with someone who became one of my best friends earlier this year. This recipe was given to her at her bridal shower by a friend of hers from high school who called them Sweet Dream cookies. I altered the recipe a bit and then changed the name, since I think that name is a big overused.

So without further ado, Ginger Chocolate Dream Cookies!





1 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
2 Tbsp. vanilla
1 egg, room temperature
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 - 12 oz. bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
powdered sugar

Cream butter, then add the sugar, vanilla, and egg. Combine all dry ingredients and mix into wet mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. (I used the miniature ones and think they're easier to work with than the regular size. Plus they're cute!) Refrigerate dough until firm. While dough is in the fridge, preheat oven to 375*. Lightly grease baking sheets. Roll 1" balls of dough in powdered sugar and bake 12 minutes.


So yummy!!

As mentioned in the last post, I received a dozen delicious cookies each from Tiffany at Strudel & Streusel, and from Claudie at Bohemian Kitchen. Update: my third dozen have arrived! Huge thanks to Melissa at Orlando's Food Trucks. 

As soon as finals are over and my brain has time to recover, I'll deep clean the house and find my elusive camera cord. It will be some time before the weekend, because my sister and her new fiance are coming over to have dinner with Prince Charming and me on Saturday.

Speaking of Prince Charming, he was so wonderful this morning and made me a tasty finals breakfast before my Java exam. (I wish it would have been on the coffee instead of the programming language!) Yummy breakfast sausage, some spicy hash browns, biscuits, and eggs with spinach and pico. I've never had eggs like that before, and was pleasantly surprised!

My last final exam is tomorrow afternoon, and I have Wednesday off work, so look forward to a feta bread recipe before the weekend!

Huge thanks again to Lindsay and Julie for organizing this swap! If you are interested in participating next year, you can sign up here to get notifications. And it's not just a US event, so if you're overseas and interested in doing a little extra holiday baking (thinking of you, Veru!), there were several different countries participating this year.