I took the classic peanut butter kiss cookie and dyed them hot pink for Valentine's Day.
I also added a "Hugs and Kisses" to make them extra special and cute.
Ingredients:
* Hugs and Kisses chocolates * 1/2 cup shortening * 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter * 1/3 cup granulated sugar * 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar * 1 egg * 2 tablespoons milk * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract * 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour * 1 teaspoon baking soda * 1/2 teaspoon salt * granulated sugar
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove wrappers from chocolates. 2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl. Add 1/3 cup granulated and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into mixture. 3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet. 4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate heart into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely
They turned out to be just as delicious as cupcakes.
This recipe was fabulous.
Chewy, moist and tasted just like cupcakes in a cookie form.
Perfect for Valentine's Day.
Ingredients:
*2 cups all-purpose flour
*1/2 teaspoon baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened baking chocolate, broken into pieces
*1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
*2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
*1/3 cup white sugar
*1 large egg
*1 tablespoon red food coloring
*3/4 cup sour cream
*1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I actually used white chocolate chips when I made them this
time)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) with the rack in the middle position. Grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Break the chocolate squares into chunks, place in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on High until the chocolate melts, about 90 seconds. Stir the chocolate until smooth and set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy; pour in the egg and beat until smooth. Mix in the red food coloring and chocolate, scraping the bowl down regularly, until evenly blended, about 30 seconds. Add half of the sifted dry ingredients, stirring until well incorporated. Beat in the sour cream and mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips. Drop spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake one sheet at a time in the preheated oven until they spring back when pressed, about 9
minutes. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
I made Chris a surprise Valentine's Day Package, he thinks he's already gotten his, but he's got a little surprise coming his way :)
This one is filled with ALL Valentine's Day themed goodies.
Everything in the box is red and pink with hearts.
Girly?
Yes, I do believe so.
Cheesy?
Maybe, just a little bit.
But if he knows me at all, he should expect it.
It's even complete with a mini stuffed dog holding a heart that says I Love You, sprayed with my perfume so it smells like me.
I normally just package up his cookies in tupperwares, but this package I decided to decorate mason jars and put his cookies and candy in them.
He also got all his candy in treat bags covered in red hearts tied with Valentine's Day ribbon as opposed to how I normally send him candy....throwing the bags of candy in the box.
Cute?
I think so.
It'll be interesting to hear what he thinks about the box.
Or what he says everyone else thinks about the box.
I am almost 100% positive that no one else will get such a cute Valentine's Day package.
And I am almost positive that he will love his box because I put so much love and thought into it.
And because it's something I would do for him if he was home.
Either way, from the moment we started talking, even admist our drunken (ok, ok I admit; I was taking advantage of those dollar beers and completely forgetting about my 8am class the next morning, Chris was being the responsible one) haze, we knew that there was a spark.
An instant connection.
I'm talking sparks flying everywhere.
He was such a gentlemen he even texted me the next morning to tell me suck up my hangover with a gatorade and keep my butt to class.
But from the minute we started chatting up a storm, he let me know he was leaving on a deployment in a couple weeks.
I kept telling him that wouldn't be a problem, I was an excellent pen pal and I put together really awesome care packages.
Neither of us not really thinking how tough going through your first deployment as a couple when you'd only begun dating a few weeks before.
So for the next few weeks, we spent every waking minute together, getting to know each other but also knowing that "this was it."
We had found what everyone searches to find.
Now, our first major hurdle was upon us and it was a challenge to say the least.
But we made it day by day.
The night we were saying good bye this song came on the radio.
I of course started crying harder, but we both sat in silence and just listened to the words.
We understood.
It instantly became "our song"
I listened to this song all the time through that first deployment, when I was having a bad day, when I was lonely, when I needed to remind myself that soon enough he would be home.
And he would be just as excited as me.
I got goosebumps listening to it.
It seemed like it was speaking directly to us.
Tonight on my way home from work, while I was randomly flipping through the stations, I heard the beginning beats of this song.
I immediately turned it up full blast and jammed out for 4 minutes and those goosebumps came back just as they always do whenever I randomly hear it.
I reminded myself that he would soon be home.
I reminded myself that he is just as anxious as I am to get home, that those faces and that place is getting old.
That he's coming home to the place where he belongs so very soon.
Our last song at our wedding was played by my uncle.
It was this song.
It was OUR song.
It was sang so beautifully and it was the perfect way to end that night.
Starting a new chapter with the song that our relationship started with...it seemed perfect.
To remind us that whenever we are separated, it won't be forever.
That we will eventually find our way back home.
Back together.
To remind us that he will ALWAYS come back home where he belongs after he serves his country.
And that I'll ALWAYS be here waiting to fly into his arms.
This song holds a special place in my heart for us.
"I am a military wife - a member of that sisterhood of women who have had the courage to watch their men go into battle, and the strength to survive until their return. Our sorority knows no rank, for we earn our membership with a marriage license, travelling over miles, or over nations to begin a new life with our military husbands. Within days, we turn a barren, echoing building into a home, and though our quarters are inevitably white-walled and unpapered, we decorate with the treasures of our travels, for we shop the markets of the globe. Using hammer and nail, we tack our pictures to the wall, and our roots to the floor as firmly as if we had lived there for a lifetime. We hold a family together by the bootstraps, and raise the best of 'brats', instilling in them the motto: "Home is togetherness", whether motel, or guest house, apartment or duplex. As military wives we soon realize that the only good in "Good-bye" is the "Hello again". For as salesmen for freedom, our husbands are often on the road, at sea, or in the sky, leaving us behind for a week, a month, an assignment. During separations we guard the home front, existing until the homecoming. Unlike our civilian counterparts, we measure time, not by years, but by tours - married at Petawawa, a baby born at Gagetown, a special anniversary at Uplands, a promotion in St Jean. We plant trees, and never see them grow tall, work on projects completed long after our departure, and enhance our community for the betterment of those who come after us. We leave a part of ourselves at every stop. Through experience, we have learned to pack a suitcase, a car or hold baggage, and live indefinitely from the contents within: and though our fingers are sore from the patches we have sewn, and the silver we have shined, our hands are always ready to help those around us. Women of peace, we pray for a world in harmony, for the flag that leads our men into battle, will also blanket them in death. Yet we are an optimistic group, thinking of the good, and forgetting the bad, cherishing yesterday, while anticipating tomorrow. Never rich by monetary standards, our hearts are overflowing with a wealth of experiences common only to those united by the special tradition of military life. We pass on this legacy to every military bride, welcoming her with outstretched arms, with love and friendship, from one sister to another, sharing in the bounty of our unique, fulfilling military way of life."
*½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature *3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature *1 cup granulated sugar *1 teaspoon vanilla extract *1 cup all-purpose flour *½ cup mini chocolate chips *1 cup Oreo cookie crumbs
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and well-combined.
3. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and mix until the ingredients are well-combined. Add the flour and mix on low until the flour is incorporated. Stir in the mini chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.
4. Place the Oreo cookie crumbs in a small bowl. Scoop the cookies into about 1½ to 2″ balls and then roll in the cookie crumbs. Place the cookie balls on the baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the tops are slightly puffed.
I wrote a post when we were about a month into this deployment and now we're about a month away from this deployment being over. Finally. 5 months since I've hugged my husband. Five months since his hand has filled the empty space in my hand. Five months since I've kissed him. I've been surrounded by people but I've been so lonely without having him here. There's not a day that goes by that I don't this "gosh, i wish Chris was here" at least five times a day. There's nothing I do that I don't think "I wish Chris was here to share this with me." There's not a day that goes by that I don't think "I just wish I could text Chris or call him really quick to tell him something." This has been hard. The limited communication has been the worst. But we've gotten through it, and we've done it with no tears; just laughter and a growing relationship and bond. For that little fact, I'm so proud of us. I'm so proud of how far we've come as a couple in the last five years. We've grown up so much and we've done it together. We've learned the important things in life and we both know that these deployments have played a huge part in that. I know that we can make it through anything and I know that we will make it through anything that life throws our way.
It's amazing the little parts of your day that you take for granted. Coming home and being able to tell your significant other about your day, vent about the bad parts, laugh about the funny parts. Just being able to connect. Having someone to share dinner with every night and just talk about things. Little things like a text message in the morning saying I love you that have come to be a part of your daily routine are suddenly missing from your day. It's those simple weekend nights, curled up on the couch together, doing absolutely nothing but being together and eating pizza that you long for. It's being able to roll over in the middle of the night and have a warm body to snuggle up to instead of the cold bed. It's the little parts of my day where he's absent that I really miss him.
This has seemed like one of the longest deployments we have ever been through, for the both of us. Maybe it's because we're newlyweds, we're not supposed to be spending six months apart right after we get married. We're supposed to be enjoying the honeymoon phase and slowly building our life together. So maybe that's why it feels like these last couple months have crept by for the two of us, we are both so anxious for him to be home so we can finally start this next chapter in our life together, as a family.
This deployment has taught me so many things. I'm strong and capable of doing things on my own. Stronger than I gave myself credit for in the beginning. I moved to Florida without my husband, got a new job and I'm doing just fine. I'm away from all my true, life long friends but we've proved that friendships only grow stronger with distance, nothing changes. I've done so much this deployment to make not only myself proud, but to make Chris proud of me. But, I can't wait for him to be here with me. Because it will be so much easier to have the man I love here with me as we try to start a new life in this new city.
He is my other half. He is the person he makes me whole. He is my missing piece. He is the other half to my heart to make my heart complete. And I love that fact about us. Without the other person, we are each a little lost. When we are together we are whole. We are both perfectly capable of surviving on our own when we have to. We both have our own interests, hobbies, goals and friends which is how it should be. But together, we can take on the world and anything that it has to throw at us. Together we are a force to be reckon with; we can beat all the odds. I'm counting down the days until he is home so we can continue to see what life has to offer us, hand in hand.
