Rolo Cookies...So yum!

A few of you have been asking for my rolo cookie recipe, so I've decided to FINALLY post it and share it with the world :). You must be warned though...these are HIGHLY addicting! So here goes.
Rolo Cookies
2 1/2 C flour
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar, firmly packed
1 C butter
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
48 Rolo candies

Extra: 1/4 cup sugar for rolling
Non-stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine flour, cocoa & baking soda. Blend well.
In a large bowl beat 1 C sugar, brown sugar & butter until light & fluffy. Add vanilla & eggs. Beat well. Add Flour mixture. Blend well.
Roll 1 tablespoon cookie dough into a ball; flatten with the palm of your hand. (it's a very sticky dough, so it helps if you spray some non-stick spray on your hands/fingers while working with it) Then place 1 Rolo in the center of dough; bring sides together and roll into ball. Roll ball in the remaining ¼ cup white sugar. Bake on parchment lined, or sil pat, baking sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes. Cool on tray for about 5 minutes to let the ooey, gooey caramel inside to set and then move to a cooling rack.

*1 tablespoon batter may not seem like a lot, but trust me, you don't want a lot of excess dough. You want just the right amount of cookie for the caramely goodness to fill the inside. Does that make any sense?? I hope so*

Hope you guys enjoy making/eating these! They are delicious. And if you don't agree with me, then you're crazy and we can no longer be friends :)

Becoming more domestic.

Lately I've been feeling that my domestic-ness (yes, I do believe I've made up this word) has been improving. I actually enjoy cooking, a lot! But I do still need a lot of work on "enjoying" the cleaning part of domestic-ness but maybe someday I'll get there, or at least our cleaning lady will :) I also love to bake, but I've loved baking since forever. So I just thought since there really isn't anything big going on in our lives right now, I would post some of my cooking/baking accomplishments. Enjoy!
Homemade BBQ Chicken pizza

Cooked but not "crisped" pierogies

Crisped pierogies

Chicken dumpling soup (one of my new favs, never had it before until I made it)

Creamy veggie and wild rice soup

And the last of my cook book story book is...Rolo cookies! YUM!
Here's the sweet, gooey, delicious, cookies uncooked, but still lookin mighty fine!

And baked Rolo cookies. Probably one of my favorite cookies ever.

And the inside goodness

Well that's it for now. Sorry it's not very exciting stuff but it sure is yummy stuff!

A very cold Christmas

This year was my first Christmas away from my side of the family. We spent it here in the freezing state with the hubby's side of the fam. His sister and husband were able to drive down and spend a week here. Christmas day/week was filled with tons of family and tons of food! And I really wouldn't have it any other way. I really missed my family but I am so lucky and blessed to have wonderful in-laws who take such good care of us.
On Christmas morning the Hubby and I went through our stockings and opened our presents. I made breakfast for the family and afterward we ended up watching "Four Christmas's" which I give maybe 3 out of 5 stars. It had some funny parts but over all...it was eh. We then had Christmas dinner at my brother-in-laws. Which was AMAZING! It was filled with great family and great food. South Africans make yummy food! But I'm so sad that "this time of the year" is coming to an end. I absolutely love everything about Christmas. I can already tell that when I have kids and they talk about their mom, I'm going to be the one where they say "Christmas was always a big deal to my mom." I can't help it, I love the lights, the decorations, the baking, the chilly outside but warm and cozy inside, the music and most importantly a time to remember our Savior. Oh and it's also my favorite because that's when I got engaged...2 years ago!
But enough of that. Here are some pictures from Christmas
Presents under the tree, that wouldn't have happened unless mom and dad b. didn't send us any :)

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Yay for Snuggie!!!

Now he really wasn't so excited for it, but I make him wear it. And he does :)
Here's the family

And here is us! Our 3rd Christmas together.

Happy New Year!!!

Walking in a winter wonderland

Snowy, snowy, snowy! Those are the only words to explain our weather we're having. And to be honest, I'm actually semi enjoying it this winter. I figured complaining about it wouldn't make it go away any faster or make it any more enjoyable. So I've decided to look at the beauty of it and be grateful for this wonderful white blanket of snow that has completely covered everything. One thing I do really enjoy about the fresh snow though, it means Christmas is just around the corner! And in case you didn't know, Christmas has always been my FAVORITE holiday and my favorite time of the year. Everyone is so cheerful and the lights make everything look so...delightful :) I also love watching our dog play in the snow. It's so cute. And well yeah, she's a complete spazz but she's so entertaining. It was so funny, I would throw some snow up in the air and she'd chase it and try to catch it, but by "catching" I mean she would just shove her face into the 5 inches of snow. And I was able to catch a few shots of her during this whole play action.

This is her playing...can you see all of that snow that fell in one morning!? Crazy huh!

And here is her looking up at me after she slammed her head into the snow.

And well I've just realized that this blog post will be almost identical to the one I did a year ago. So bare with me.
Last weekend I FINALLY got the hubby to decorate our apartment, with what decorations we have. I hope though, to someday buy a few...okay many many more, things to decorate our place with. But here is our Christmas tree and our fire place. Looks pretty much the same except for the new Christmas stockings :)


Happy Tuesday! We're almost half way through the week!

"I'm going back to Cali... Cali, Cali"

Well, I guess it's more like I went back to Cali. For Thanksgiving the hubby and I were FINALLY able to go back to see the fam. It was so nice to be able to go since it had almost been a year since our last visit. I loved seeing and being with my whole family. We had so much fun. We went to Disneyland, ate great food, spent time with everyone, got a pedi, hiked and ate some more good food. Life doesn't get much better than that. Oh but before I forget, remember this?

Well that, turned into this...

Just kidding. We had a huge Thanksgiving lunch at school and I volunteered to cook one of those beasts. This was my first turkey that I've ever cooked. And it looks pretty dang good to me :)
But back to my trip at home. We spent all day Wednesday at Disneyland and had so much fun. We were exhausted though by 8:00pm. We're getting old, what can I say? After Wed. came Thursday which meant...TURKEY!! My dad made a deep fried turkey, which was delish, and my mom made EVERYTHING! She made potatoes, stuffing, ham, another turkey, yams and cranberry sauce. It was amazing! She did a great job. Best Thanksgiving ever! Friday was a pretty relaxed day. I got a much needed pedicure and then we finally ate our top cake from our one year anniversary. Best cake in the world! And then came our last day,Saturday, and we spent it by hiking and by watching the BYU vs Utah game. Which was INSANE!! Luckily, my smarty pants hubby found a site that streamed the game live so we were able to watch it. And it was probably the greatest win ever! But sadly, that day ended and we off to the freezing cold state again. But all in all, Thanksgiving was a blast. I enjoyed every second of every day. And I am so grateful for my loving husband and my amazing family. We're so blessed and I am so unbelievably thankful for all that I have been given.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and I am so excited for CHRISTMAS TIME!!!

What the turkey?! And my cake recipe!!

So one of our teachers/"learning leaders" at school who is in charge of student council has a pet turkey! Weird right?! Well, today she took those who are on the student council to go see and play with it. And let me tell you, alive turkey's are way more intense than your cooked ones! This thing was huge and actually really intimidating! It would gobble at us and it chased me! I think it could sense my fear of it, so it fed off of that. Anyways, I attempted to take many pictures with it, but it didn't quite work out so well...
First attempt (it scared me so I ran away)

Second attempt (I tried to touch it but not too sure about it)

Third attempt (close enough and brave enough to touch it with one finger)

Fourth attempt...Alas! I got one! Sort of :)

So that was my turkey adventure for the day. And to be honest, I think I prefer my turkey's on a platter...even though I still don't even like it then.
And I also wanted to wish my father a very very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! He's the greatest dad in the world, hands down. Can't wait to see him next week!
In other news, my niece is shown in this Neiman Marcus ad, http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/templates/SC3.jhtml?itemId=cat3820732&parentId=cat7680747&masterId=cat10130733&cmCat= Isn't she just the cutest?! Of course she is!
And lastly, I've decided to post that Pumpkin Chocolate chip cake recipe! Yippee! So here goes.
Ingredients

Cake
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
2 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 3/4 teaspoons nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1-10(depending on how "chocolatey" you want it) handfuls of mini chocolate chips

Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 8oz packages of cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar
A lot of cinnamon sugar (I didn't measure, I just dumped in however much I wanted)
1 teaspoon vanilla
(this made a ton of frosting, so if needed, cut in half maybe and make more if needed)

Cake Directions
1. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
2. Add pumpkin,eggs and vanilla,beat until smooth.
3. Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl.
4. Add one cup at a time to creamed mixture,stirring until well blended.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Spoon into greased bundt pan or cake pan.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan 10 minutes,then transfer onto serving plate and cool completely.
Frosting Directions
1. Cream together butter and cream cheese.
2. Slowly add powdered sugar, mix until fluffy consistency and right to taste.
3. Add your vanilla and mix.
4. Mix in cinnamon sugar and spread over cake when ready :)

F.Y.I. Mine came out a bit dry, so I would suggest removing it from the oven a little bit early. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Pumpkin chocolate chip cake w/ cinnamon sugar, cream cheese frosting

Long title I know, but it had to sound interesting/appetizing in order to catch your attention. Now, For those of you who have been to P Town have probably heard of a little bakery place known as Kneaders. Well, they have the most AMAZING Pumpkin Spice cake there that is to die for. I tried it once and fell in love. And so after tasting this delicious slice of heaven, I decided that I needed to make this for myself at home. So I hoped onto Google and I searched around on a few different sites to find the perfect cake recipe. Well, that was a fail. I couldn't find just one recipe that sounded right, so I pulled one and then adjusted it to my liking. And I must say, I did a pretty good job. It may need a few tweaks, but hopefully within the next few tries I should have it down perfectly. I made a cream cheese frosting to go along with it, but it tasted a bit off, so I thought to myself..."What is this missing?!" And then it hit me. It needed cinnamon sugar! So a little, well a BIG, dash of C.S. and BAM! It was complete. And smart me, I didn't take a picture of it so I've stolen the artwork of somebody else...again.

Yum right?! If any of you are interested in making this for, oh say, your Thanksgiving dinner let me know and I'll hook you up with the recipe :)
And good news, I finally got an updated picture of the hubby and I. We went to the temple last week and I forced him to take a picture with me because I was so sad that I didn't get any of us over the summer.