Soft Batch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wow that is a mouth full! Soft batch cream cheese chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies. My go to recipe is the good 'ol Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe on the package. I wanted to try something different and I found this recipe on Pinterest. I of course adapted it to my liking.

I did a classic move and didn't read the entire recipe. I should have known since it has cream cheese that it would need to refrigerate but I didn't. I have a batch in the refrigerator and I will bake later to see if there is a difference. The original said they would bake flat. Mine stayed up so I'm curious to see if the cold batch does better.

*Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.

1 stick or 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1/2 of block or 4 oz of cream cheese
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoon
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoon corn starch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips. (I used 1/2 cup of mini chips and 1 cup regular size chips)
3/4 cup of chopped walnuts

In a large bowl beat with a hand mixer butter and cream cheese until blended. Add sugars, egg and vanilla and beat until lighter and fluffy. In a small bowl mix flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt. Add to batter and mix until combined. Add chocolate and walnuts and mix in by hand. With a large scoop place about 8 mounds on your baking sheet. *At this point you can refrigerate them for at least 2 hours before baking them. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges have browned and the tops are set.

These are delicious, just what I needed coming off of a cold and it's raining outside. I sure hope you enjoy these as we did.

Garden Bed Covers

I am still working on the layout for my first garden bed, but I will definitely be posting it next week!!  In the meantime, I could use some advice from anyone with experience in using garden bed covers.  I am hoping to use covers to help extend the growing season, and I have seen so many different options - but not the exact one that I want.  I have a few below that I like, but don't quite meet what I would like to do.  I will also do my best to explain what I am thinking about - if you have an opinion I would love to hear it!!  I need all the help I can get :)

 

The first thing I was thinking about is something like this:

 

Find the page here.

 

 I love the tidiness of the rollup covers and how the beds look in general.  My first reservation is that I want to have trellises on at least two of the boxes, which would make it hard to roll up the backside.  Also, my boxes are 10' long and I'm not sure I could roll the covers up over that length.

 

The next one I like is this one:

Find the page here.

This was another great option - and it even shows an irragation system - but it doesn't include the trellis in the cover like I was hoping. I also think it would be dificult to use once the trellis plants started growing - so no early starts for those veggies. However, this trellis looks like the one used in the Square Foot Gardening book and is very close to the one I plan to build. 

 

Finally, here is the third option:

 

Find the page here.

 

I like the look of these boxes as well, and it's getting a little closer to my idea.  The hoops are taller, but the trellises aren't the same as what I am planning to use.  I also worry that if we had a decent wind storm, the hoops would take the trellises out.

 

The trellis I plan to use is built using conduit and I thought it would maybe work if I used 4 way corners and fittings and have the flexible pvc pipes attach to the top of the trellis and connect to the boxes.  Since my trellis will be moved one foot into the box (like above), this will allow the cover to reach both sides.  Also, since my boxes are 10' long there will be 4 vertical supports.  I want to find a way to allow the cover to slide up and down the pipes without falling off  and to stop at any point along the way - I thought something like the plastic shower curtain rings might work if I can figure out how to hold them in place.  This will allow me to reach the plants inside without removing the whole thing - a huge plus for me! 

 

Does anyone have any experience making these?  Any advise on what to do (or not to do)?

 

Have a great day!

Beth   

 

 

Super Bowl Party Food

Game Day Food

I stuffed my self silly on Sunday! I had great plans to make fun food for the Super bowl. My hisband somehow had too much Mexican food leading up the big game day. So I had to change up my meal plan.

I wanted turkey taquitos, guacamole and chips, chili, wings and brownies. I then changed it to dips and chips, guacamole and chips, sliders, pigs in a blanket and popcorn.

I of course did not take any pictures. Let's just say it went too fast to take pictures. Plus we were distracted cheering on our team.

I then got sick and wanted to recreate some of the things I made. I'm still sick so I pulled some photo's to give you an idea of what I made.

I first made pigs in a blanket. I have been switching over my grocery shopping to Trader Joe's not everything is exchangeable. I have found other alternatives. Their crescent dough is wonderful. I have found with either brand the dough comes out dry. I roll out the dough and then cut strips with my pizza cutter, then cut each strip in half then roll them up. I'm super bad and brush melted butter over the tops.  Then I bake them at 350 for 16 minutes. Keep an eye on them and brown them to your liking.

Then we had some guacamole and chips. I went to our local Mexican restaurant and ordered a big bag of chips, they make the best! For the guacamole, I add tomatoes, red onion, garlic paste and salt. I was reading through one of my many food magazines and someone said they do this. They had a mortal and pestle and the mash the garlic into paste. I cheated and used a tube. It was so good. My ratio for avocados to tomatoes is 2 to 1. It seems to work well. We couldn't finish it but it was so good! I made a lot!

Then I made the sliders. I pinned a great recipe. But of course I changed it and I shouldn't have this time. I will give their idea a try next time. I was supposed to form my patties, season then add a tablespoon of butter. Then put them on the bottom bun and then go under the broiler. I was uneasy about it. What I learned is that I needed the bun to soak up the butter to keep it from splattering. Also that I couldn't cook it as long, the smoke alarm went off before it was done. I found these awesome grill foil sheets. I grabbed some for my meatloaf. I works great for that. I think I will still put them on the bun but also the grill foil sheet so that most of the fat will run off and not make the bun soggy.

That was all we could eat. I never made the brownies and we did end up eating popcorn later in the day. I bought an air popper, love it. I'm slowly trying to eliminate my microwave. I love popcorn and now I don't have to make it in the microwave. Not to mention it makes so much! My best friend makes caramel  corn with hers now I can get her recipe and make some for me. That could be dangerous!

Square Foot Gardening

 

Yesterday, I mentioned that I am planning to use a Square Foot Garden Plan for my new garden.  This is one of about 5 million ways you can garden, but this is the one I find most interesting.  Basically, you lay a grid out and plant everything in it's own square - how much you plant depends on the spacing it needs.  I have done this in small ways in the past, but never as an entire garden.  I am excited to see if it works as well as the book claims :)  I will also need to keep myself from 'cheating' too badly - I am always tempted to put in some extra something (like adding carrots or garlic in the corners of some of the squares- which I am totally doing lol).  There are some things that I am not sure about, but all I can do is try and see how it goes!!     

 

Anyone else spend an unhealthy amount of time staring at seed catalogs??  I can't wait for Spring!

 

Have a great day!

Beth

Planning My Future Garden

Planning is one of my favorite things to do - although the execution is a little harder!  I really need to get on my seed starting, but I am still trying to figure out what I am planting this year.  I am making pretty good headway and hopefully I will be back later this week with an update.  Since I am building my first set of garden beds this year, I also need to have an idea of what I want to accomplish with my final garden plan.  I worked on a couple of different ideas, but I think the one above is the one I like the most.  I am hoping the shed will be able to be closer to the fence so there will be a little more room between the beds and the shed, but I am still working on figuring that out :)

It's definitely ambitious, but I really want to have enough space to grow most of what we will eat while not taking over the entire yard.  There is approximately 20' between the beds and the house, which I think will work well (at least there will be less mowing!).  I still need to go out and stake all of the corners, just to make sure it works as well in real life as it does on paper - fingers-crossed!!

I have decided to do a Mostly Square Foot garden with some good Companion Planting thrown in, which will maximize the amount of growing space I will have.  I will do a little more explaining when I get my first bed planned out.  For this year I wanted to keep it manageable - not only do I need to build all the beds but I still work full-time and will not have as much time as I hope to in the future.  So money and time are definitely a big factor in taking it slow - even if I do want to build and plant all of the beds RIGHT NOW...lol

So in the next few weeks I need to finalize my first veggie bed, plant my first set of starts, decide what I want the beds to look like (how high, what type of wood/box) and figure out what I want to put in-between the boxes (I hate walking on bark, but it is the easiest - but the tiny gnat bugs are the worst!// gravel is kind of a mess if it gets in the grass// grass will just become weeds because there isn't enough room to mow :/ ).  I better get it figured out - I have to have the garden beds built by the end of March!!

Anyone else getting ready to garden?  I am so excited, I hope I can make it all work!

Have a great day!
Beth