..:chocolate chip banana bread muffins

Perhaps this is a strange thing, but I am addicted to baking though I rarely more than sample my finished product.

My love, however, is a different story.  He loves all things sweet and dessert-esque. He is slim and muscular despite his dessert for breakfast habit (he despises regular breakfast foods). 

Yesterday I think I was nesting! I decided store bought soup for lunches for this week was out of the question.  Instead I made my chicken and wild rice soup in the crockpot (look for that recipe later in the week!) for the hubby and I.  In the process, I decided the refrigerator was in DESPERATE need of a cleaning and, while I was at it, the freezer needed to be cleaned out for the freezer meals I will be making for after the baby arrives.  

After all of this, I decided I couldn't let my lovely starve for breakfast and I had four banana that were just going by.  I set to work to make the most delightful chocolate chip banana muffins. I only got about twelve muffins out of this because I used a muffin tin that was a little larger than a standard cupcake size tin. Here is the recipe:

Preheat your oven to 350.

You will need:

4 ripe bananas

1/3 cup melted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 pinch of salt

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup or so of chocolate chips

Peel bananas into a large bowl, add melted butter, mash together until smooth.

Add sugar, egg, and vanilla.  Mix until just combined.

Add salt and backing soda and stir together.

Add flour and mix until all of the flour is combined (if the batter isn't perfectly smooth, that's ok).

Add in chocolate chips and mix until incorporated. 

Generously grease a muffin tin (they tend to stick to liners... I don't recommend using them).

Fill muffin tins about 3/4 of the way full. 

Put in preheated oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes (until tester inserted into the middle of the muffin is clean).

Place on cooking rack, eat, enjoy!

.:Christmas cookies...

JThis weekend was a busy one for us! Working everyday of the week means that there is little time, save for the weekend, to get everything done.  Around the holidays it becomes especially difficult!

This weekend was designated for holiday baking and gift wrapping.  It was a productive weekend, but my goodness am I exhausted today! 

Two batches of cream cheese cookies, two batches of saltine toffe, and a double batch of butternut bisque later, I am in pretty good shape in terms of prepping for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There will still be food preparation to be done that day, however this puts a pretty good dent in the work!

Our cream cheese cookies are a Christmas tradition in my family.  As my sisters and I get older, the baking ordeal gets larger! Not only do we help mom and mammie (my grandmother) with their cookies,  but we do cookies for our own holiday festivities as well.  

The recipe is too delicious!  Please don't cringe when reading the ingredients list.  Just remember, a cookie or two won't make you fat, just like a salad or two won't make you skinny =) 

What you will need: 

1 lb butter (4 sticks softened)

6 oz. cream cheese (softened)

1 cup sugar

4 cups flour 

1 tsp vanilla 

Red sprinkles 

Green sprinkles 

Cookie press

Preheat oven to 350

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese. 

Add vanilla, sugar, and flour (I recommend not adding it all at once) and combine. 

**I feel here is a good time to mention that I generally switch from using the spoon to cream the ingredients together, to using my hands to knead the ingredients together.  Good arm workout!

Once ingredients are throughly combined, load your cookie press. 

** we have the old fashioned crank kind of cookie press that we use in conjunction with the star plate.

Shape your cookies into candy cane or wreath shapes and place on ungreased cookie sheet. 

**I do mine on two separate cookies sheets so I don't mix the sprinkles!

Sprinkle cookies with red or green sprinkles and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until just turning a golden color. 

Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool. Enjoy! 

This recipe yields roughly 4-5 dozen cookies (they are not large cookies by any means!)

Happy Christmasing!!