Two Quick Recipes to keep you warm!

School is absolutely insane this semester, I am enrolled in 21 hours, graduating in may (yay!) so I don't have much free time to blog these days :(
But it's a snow day! The pups are outside (yes pups, we recently adopted a stray) and I have a free moment to throw some delciousness your way!
First up, one of my favorite, go-to recipes: Roasted Brussels Sprouts. I used to think I would never like brussels sprouts, they can be an intimidating vegetable, but after tweeking this one, I (and Scott!) LOVE these. They're great as a quick snack or as a side dish, but either way, you will never look at them the same way!

Jessalyn's Roasted Brussels Sprouts

About 2 cups of fresh Brussels Sprouts, washed and halved
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
Sea Salt
Pepper
a handful of shredded Parmesan Cheese

Preheat your oven to 420 degreees
Simply place a sheet of foil over your cookie sheet (easy clean-up!) To make sure all of my sprouts get coated, I play them in a bowl pour in the olive oil and toss. Then, lay your sprouts flat side down on your cookie sheet and sprinkle generously with slat and pepper (you can also add some garlic here if you want to). Then pop them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. About 1/2 way through, flip your sprouts, then with about 5 minutes left, go ahead and return them to their flat sides and finish cooking. Then simply sprinkle on your Parmesan cheese and ta-da! beautiful, tasty Brussels Sprouts! Who would've thought these little guys could be so delcious! I love the crustiness of the outside! It almost reminds me of a french fry, but even better!





Next we get to enjoy one of the best cookies I have ever made/tasted! I never thought this combination would be as delicious as they turned out, but everyone has been raving over them!

I can't even remember where I found this recipe because I've had it so long and never tried it out, but you will really enjoy these!

Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies

2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 cups oatmeal (I used old-fashioned oats)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

First preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Now whip out your kitchen-aid, or you can do this by hand, and mix butter, both sugars, vanilla and eggs on medium or until all mixed in. Next add your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and continue on medium until everything is well incorporated. Now, I took my bowl off the mixer to add the oatmeal and chocolate chips because I figure all of that would cause an oatmeal explosion. So I simply added one cup at a time until everything is mixed well. Now, place about a tablespoon of dough for each cookie and bake away, about 11-14 minutes, depending on your preference. I felt like I was baking batch after batch of these, it made about 48 cookies, so if you don't need that much, feel free to half it!
Yum!



Happy Baking!! And stay warm out there!

snickerdoodle blondies

WOW, WHERE HAVE I BEEN?
I have actually been in the kitchen plenty since my last post, but my camera has spazzed out on me and I've been too lazy to post anything without pictures. Who wants to read a food blog with no pictures! But, I just have to share this one with you, I am in looovvvee!

Snickerdoodle Blondies
(adapted from Recipegirl.com)
For the cookies:
1 cup of butter, softened
2 cups of packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
2 & 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour
2 tsp. of baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. of cream of tartar
1 tsp. salt

For the topping:
2 tbsp. of sugar
1 tsp. of ground cinnamon

For the glaze:
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 tsp. of ground cinnamon
3 or 4 tbsp. of heavy whipping cream
pinch of nutmeg


Ok, first, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper, then spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Now whip out your mixer and combine the butter and brown sugar and cream for 2 or 3 minutes.
Next, add the eggs and vanilla and mix well
Add all of your dry ingredients for the cookies, and mix on low until everything is nice and mixed.
Scoop mix into pan, flour your hands, and pat down the mixture evenly.
Next, in a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon for the topping and using a sifter, top the mix.
Bake for about 30 minutes, then cool in pan, on a wire rack until cool.
After the blondies have cooled completely, whisk together ingredients for the glaze, and decorate your blondies! I just put my glaze in a ziploc bag, cut off a small triangle off the corner and made a criss cross pattern! To set your glaze, put blondies in the fridge for a bit.
To remove your blondies from the pan, lift the parchment paper carefully and set blondies on your counter and cut into small squares.
Enjoy!

And to let you know what will be coming up next, I have officially dived into the world of homemade flour tortillas and am perfecting a great recipe I came up with, so get ready, they are sooo good and except for being a bit time consuming, are very easy! Everyone so far has loved them and I'm excited to share them with you!

-Jessalyn