GIANT M&M Cookies

My dear friend Kacie got me a muffin top pan for Christmas. She told me I could use it to bake cookies in as well. How cool is that?! Sooo, my first batch of cookies in the muffin pan were M&M chocolate chip.

Here's the ingredients:

• 2 sticks softened butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• chocolate chips
• M&M’s

Beat the butter and sugar, then add eggs & vanilla and beat until combined. Slowly add flour, baking soda, and salt...mix it all up. Throw in your chocolate chips (however many you want).

Now since I was using my muffin top pan, I added a big scoop of cookie dough...pressed it out a bit, and then placed some M&M's on top of each cookie.

Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes or until done.

Let cool for a few minutes...

Look how HUGE these babies turned out! Perfectly round cookies. If you don't have a muffin top pan, pick one up the next time you see one! :)

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

Coffee cake muffins. Mmmm... These are delish! Not your normal muffin consistency by any means. You've gotta try these :)

Ingredients:

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pint fresh blueberries
  

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I cut the original recipe listed above in half, so that's why there's not much in my mixer...

With the mixer on low, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. With the mixer still on low, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat until just mixed in. The batter will be this super thick, wonderful consistency. Taste it. Mmmm....

Now fold inyour blueberries and scoop into your muffin pan. I used my cool new muffin "top" pan. Thanks Kacie!

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until nice and golden brown...

Serve and enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Who doesn't love cookie dough?! I believe it makes everything better :)

These were thrown together to take to a friend's house for game night when I didn't have time to do anything else. Just dressing up a store bought cake mix :)

All you need is 1 chocolate cake mix and chocolate chip cookie dough (the "break in bake" kind from the store is what I used).

Prepare the cake batter (I used Devil's Food) according to the directions on your box. Pour into your cupcake pan and place a little spoon of cookie dough on top of each one. It's pretty easy if you buy the "break and bake" cookie dough and just use 1 square per cupcake.

Now, bake according to your cake mix and look how pretty they turn out...

Remove and let cool while you mix up your frosting. Now, no matter how short on time I am, I refuse to do store bought frosting. Sorry. Luckily I was able to whip up some frosting and ice them all as we were running out the door. Late, of course.

I cut my normal frosting recipe in half and just mixed up the following ingredients:

• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/4 cup crisco
• splash of vanilla
• splash of almond
• about 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons milk (not quite sure on the exacts, I just pour in some milk until it gets to the right consistency)
  

Ice 'em up...

And check out the surprise that's inside!

Bacon Ranch Cheeseball

This is a slight variation of my sister's recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 packages Cream Cheese
• 3-4 tablespoons (or 1 package) Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning
• 6 green onions, chopped
• 1 package real bacon bits
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup (or so...I've never measured) chopped pecans

It's pretty simple. Add everything in a mixer and combine. Wet your hands slightly to keep it from sticking to you and shape into a ball.

Place your chopped pecans on a sheet of wax paper and roll the cheeseball in the pecans to coat. You can actually shape it to whatever figure you want. I did a football here with string cheese on top.

Firecrackers

This is my sister's wonderfully addicting recipe. Thanks Steph!! All you need is:

• 2 boxes Mini Saltine Crackers
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp craked red pepper flakes
• 3 tbsp Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning
  

It's pretty simple. Pour the crackers in a big bowl (one that you have a lid for), or you can use a big ziplock bag...Add the oil, red pepper flakes, and ranch seasoning...cover with lid and shake to distribute evenly over the crackers. Taste and add more red pepper if you want some extra kick. You can cut the recipe in half if made for a smaller crowd. We made this delicious snack for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and 2 boxes didn't last long! Enjoy!

Champagne Cupcakes

Champagne? Delicious. Cupcakes? Delicious. How could you go wrong combining two wonderfully delicious items?

Cake batter:

• 1 stick softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup

Frosting:

• 1 cup plus 1 tbsp. champagne
• 2 sticks of softened butter
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

On to the cupcakes now! Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing between each egg. Add vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together champagne and sour cream...

Now, alternate adding the flour and champagne mixture to the batter. The batter's gonna be pretty thick. And delicious. Try it.

Fill your cupcakes and bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes until done. While the cupcakes are baking, start on the frosting...

Add 1 cup of champagne in a saucepan and cook over medium high heat until it's reduced to a couple tablespoons. Takes about 15-20 minutes or so. Once it's reduced, pour it in a small bowl to cool.

Cream the softened butter and powdered sugar together. Add the almond. The frosting will be a super thick buttercream. Now add the 2 tbsp of the reduced champagne and 1 tbsp from the bottle and mix well. The frosting turns super light and fluffy...almost whip cream like...

Next important step -- refill your glass of champagne. Let's be honest, the bottle is already open...champagne doesn't keep well...we can't let it go to waste here people.

Frost the cupcakes and serve and enjoy!

No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies

These are great little treats for when you need something fast.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Karo syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 cups peanut butter
• 3-1/2 cups Rice Krispies

In a medium sized pot, cook the syrup and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Continue cooking until the mixture starts to bubble and then remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and then add the Rice Krispies.

Drop by spoonfulls on wax paper...

Once cooled, serve and enjoy!