Snowy Sundays Are For Baking

I hear the East Coast's getting walloped pretty darn good with yet another storm. Sorry, guys. I wish I could control the weather. One day... one day...

We're getting a bit of a blizzard here today, too. About 6 inches forecasted. Strong winds off the lake. Whiteout conditions. Pretty spot-on, Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. Weatherperson. I can barely see out the living room windows. Spectacular.

A perfect day for baking, which is just fabulous, because I got the weird itch early this morning to fill the house with the warm ooey gooey buttery chocolaty melty lovely aroma of COOKIES! 

Before I braved the storm to head out for groceries, I called Mom to say hi and see how those New Jerseyans were faring. She suggested I [also] make Rice Krispie Treats. Clever lass! 

The walk to and from the grocery store was pretty brutal. Whipping winds, freezing rain - not subzero temps, thank heavens, but blizzard-quality atmosphere for sure.

After returning home, I put on incredibly comfy clothes, unloaded my haul, preheated the oven, and went to work. 

#1: Rice Krispie Treats

Funnily enough, though I've eaten about eight billion in my lifetime to date, I had never actually made these babies on my own. It's just as easy and inexpensive as Mom had said. (Also, melting marshmallows is crazy fun!) I added some red food dye to make them Valentine's-Day-Tastic, just enough to turn the soupy marshmallow mixture pink. Or so I thought. Sadly, the finished product more closely resembles raw hamburger. But they smell and taste great! Honest! .... *Sigh*

Next up was a classic...

#2 Homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Onto the baking! Okay, so -- I love cooking. I cook all the time. But I rarely bake, just cause, I guess. I've baked with my mom, for sure. But never really on my own (aside from easy-peasy coconut macaroons - mmmmm). 

Oatmeal cookies are by far my favorite kind of cookie on God's green earth. I absolutely adore peanut butter cookies and gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies and those totally perfect chocolate-dipped and sprinkled cookies you get at Italian bakeries - but oatmeal cookies have got to be my favorite because I could eat about 29 thousand of them and still ask for more.

I typically add raisins... but decided to go to chocolate town. Nothing says Valentine's Day like chocolate. (And flowers and stuffed animals and scallops and steak and wine and hugs and kisses, etc. etc. etc.) So! Milk chocolate chips were tossed into this bowl 'o batter, which was then chilled for two hours, and finally, transformed into gooey chewy perfection.

#3 Chocolate Chip Cookies, With Love

So - you know this has been one of my first bake-fests. It should come as no surprise, then, that I have never baked with shortening before. That was interesting. I won't disclose how much went into this batch... but... this was a pretty classic recipe, as far as I could tell. 

In addition to milk chocolate chips, I also tossed in a bunch of white chocolate chips as well as milk chocolate and peanut butter M&Ms. Just as many as I felt like. (The one liberating part of baking.) A dash here, a dash there. Shooting them into the mixing bowl like little mini basketballs. Three-pointer from the foul line, swishhhhh! Mehh... I don't even like basketball.

Despite my novice nature, glad to say the end-results were pretty alright!

A lovely afternoon of baking indeed. No need to leave the apartment (again) on a day like this.

She agrees.

Stay warm, friendos!