These cookies were a happy accident born out of bad math.  I was making a batch of peanut butter fudge rice krispy treats and I accidentally doubled the peanut butter part.  Being the quick thinker I am, I wrapped up the extra and threw it in the freezer.  All the while contemplating what to do with this left-over goodness.  It came to me yesterday just before a dinner party.  Sandwich cookies!  After a quick google search for chocolate cookies, I landed on this recipe.  I liked the use of molasses and the pretty picture didn’t hurt either.  I made mine in mini size and sandwiched the peanut butter mixture in between two cookies.  It was a big hit and I’ll definitely be making it again!

Here’s the recipe from Stylish Cuisine:

1/3 cup granulated sugar plus 1/2 cup for coating
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
4 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  Line two large baking sheets with parchment. Put 1/2 cup granulated sugar onto a plate and set aside.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside.

In another small bowl whisk together the corn syrup, egg white and vanilla and set aside.

Beat the butter, brown sugar and remaining 1/3 cup of white sugar together until light and fluffy (2 minutes). Add the corn syrup mixture and beat until combined (20 seconds). Add the flour mixture and chopped chocolate and mix until just combined (30 seconds), making sure there isn’t any unmixed flour pockets.

Chill dough for 30 minutes (but no longer than 30 minutes, according to the recipe). Divide the dough into 16 equal portions (or use a 1.5″ ice cream scoop to create the cookies – this will yield more than 16 cookies), roll between your hands into a ball and then roll the balls in the sugar to coat. Put on baking sheets, 2 inches apart and bake 10-11 minutes.

Cookies are done when they have cracked and still look wet between the cracks. It’s important to not over bake the cookies. Allow the cookies to cool 5 minutes on the cookie sheets and then cool fully on a wire rack.

And here’s the peanut butter filling from Joy the Baker:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pound powdered sugar

Microwave butter and peanut butter for 2 minutes on high. Stir and microwave on high for 2 more minutes. Add vanilla and powdered sugar to peanut butter mixture and stir to combine with a wooden spoon.

Because I was making the poms for a backdrop, I decided I wanted them on the smaller side so their texture would photograph well.  If I made them too tight and puffy, they would read as balls, instead of the rough texture of yarn.  First, I wrapped yarn around two finger widths about 20 times.  After cutting off the yarn, I slipped it off my fingers and tied it tightly in the middle.  I cut the loopy ends, then fluffed it up with my fingers.  Remember to leave the ends a little longer on the middle tie, so you can use them to tie the pom-pom to whatever you’re using it for.

My pom-poms were used for a photo backdrop.  I made A LOT of them.  Don’t be intimidated.  It took about an hour to make the pom-poms I tied to the backdrop.

I wanted a graphic look, so I strung the yarn back and forth haphazardly across the canvas.  At first I strung wire across all four sides, but it wasn’t taut enough to hold the yarn in place.  Eventually, I settled on stapling the yarn to each side.  Which means the sides are ugly, but if you were using this for a headboard or a birthday party backdrop, you could simply hot glue ribbon around the edge to cover all the staples.

I completed this project on a Saturday afternoon.  My kids are no strangers to piles of fabric, yarn and hot glue around the house.  What I love is that they get inspired to make their own projects when they see me creating.  Jillian started collecting my yarn scraps and when I was cleaning up, I found this on the table.

The almond milk and the peanut butter cover any ‘green’ taste, so don’t be scared.  TRY THIS.  Try it before I tell you about it again and you have to pretend I didn’t just tell you how much I love green smoothies.

Here’s the lowdown:  Thinly slice a banana and freeze it until solid.  Add this to a blender with 1 cup of almond milk (I particularly love vanilla flavor), a big handful of baby organic spinach and a tablespoon of natural peanut butter.  Blend it until you don’t see any more flecks of spinach.

On a personal note, we had a great week of school, a speech meet for Jillian, out of town friends, in town friends and lots of great meals.  Work was wonderful and I got to see so many great clients that I now consider friends.  Here’s a bit of what I photographed…

I will be offering two dates:  May 15 4:00-4:20, 4:20-4:40 and 4:40-5:00 and May 16 10:00-10:20, 10:20-10:40 and 10:40-11:00.  Email or call to book your date!  562-980-6480

I had been wanting to make a terrarium after I read about them on The Brick House blog.   After finding a few glass vessels around the house and a quick trip to Lowe’s, I set to work.

The process goes something like this…fill the vessel with rocks, it’s the drainage system.  Add some soil (you can buy it for palm and cactus, which works best), then dig a little whole to transplant the succulent.  Arrange more soil on top, give it a little sprinkle of water and add some moss.

Quite a few of you asked about Baby Blake’s nursery.  Melody has graciously offered to share all the sources for the items in her nursery:

Also, I wanted to share another exciting bit of news!  One of my images was used on People online.  It was for my work with Little Skye Children’s Boutique!  I shared it with instagram and facebook a few weeks ago, but wanted to share it on the blog too.

I found this recipe on Joy the Baker:  Peanut Butter Fudge Rice Krispy Treats  I’ll also post her recipe here:

• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 package (10 oz., about 40) regular marshmallows
• - OR -
• 4 cups miniature marshmallows
• 6 cups Rice Krispy Cereal (or any puffed rice cereal)

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

2. Add Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until well coated.

3. Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. ( You may want to line your pan with parchment paper or waxed paper large enough to have flaps hanging over the sides. This will make it easy to pull the giant block of goodness out of the pan when it’s done. I just forgot this step. But as recorded in the comments below, some people had trouble with the wax paper sticking to the Krispie treats.  A well sprayed pan might just be your best bet!) Cool.

Make Peanut Butter Fudge.

• 1 cup butter, plus more for greasing pan
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pound powdered sugar

It was such a spontaneous thing that I’m so glad we did.  I don’t normally bring my big camera along, but decided to this time.  It’s those little in between days that are fun to document.  Not the big play at school or the trip to Disneyland, but those things you do as a family on a Saturday night.

Cooper likes to collect seaglass and shells, so he always spends a good amount of our time at the beach taking this job very seriously.