Loaded Peanut Butter Cookies

So for our cookie recipe contest this year with my family I decided to make peanut butter chocolate chip pretzel cookies. That's a mouthful so I think I'm just going to call them Loaded Peanut Butter cookies. I was looking for a chewy cookie not a crunchy one and found this one from the Novice Chef to use as my base.

One of the requirements for the contest was to use whiskey as an ingredient so I made a whiskey vanilla extract in place of one made with a vodka base. I also added pretzels and chocolate chips to the recipe. Good enough to for third place!

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1 tsp whiskey vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup pretzel sticks, broken into pieces

Cream the butter, sugars and peanut butter until mixed. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix. Then add the flour, baking soda and salt. Once everything is fully combined, add in the chocolate chips and pretzels.

Drop rounded tablespoons onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 11 minutes (I have a convection oven so I actually did 340 for 10 minutes)

 

Christmastime!

We had quite a busy December around here. Lots of activities and time with the family.

We started out the month by participating in a parade. I haven't been in a parade since high school and my kids have never had this chance before. Lots of fun for us!

That same night we participated in a fundraising walk for Phoenix Childrens Hospital (a cause near and dear to my heart). We walk along one of the major roads with (fake) candles until we get to the hospital and then hold the lights up so the kids stuck in the hospital at Christmastime can see. A few carols are sung and a short concert is held.

Santa visited J's school this year

And we got a chance to go see some pretty lights. (J kept making faces instead of smiling for the picture.) The boys got to go to a petting zoo and have caramel apples while we were there.

We also went to a carnival at my parents' church. In addition to some bouncies and games, they had a snow hill for sledding. This was my kiddos first time sledding (being Arizona kids). Yes, C is sledding in a tshirt and sandals.

On Christmas Eve we went to church and then came home and put up Luminarias. Our whole neighborhood lines the streets with them - it's an amazing sight to see!

I also finished the boys sweaters as part of of their Christmas gifts

(Pattern is Alec in Cottonish. The one with the tan buttons is a size 5 and the one with the black buttons is size 7 but both have about an extra inch added to the length - I have tall kids)

We had our annual food contest at my mom and dad's house on Christmas Eve. This year we had to make cookies. The twist was they had to include peanut butter and Seagrams whiskey. I only came in third but I was really happy how they turned out. We also had breakfast with the inlaws. I think everybody was really happy with their presents too.

Merry Christmas!

 

Christmas is Coming

(Some of my faves!)

 

Busy days

Man the weekend really goes fast when you're busy. I felt like I was constantly on the go. I did a little bit of Christmas shopping yesterday - in fact, aside from stocking stuffers and a book, I'm pretty much done shopping for my kids. I'm knitting sweaters for each of them but I'm not really counting that since I don't have to buy anything more for them.

I also finally got around to hanging a few picture frames. It was fun to go through my photos and decide which to print and where to put them. I made liberal use of sticky notes in my planning (why yes I may be a wee bit compulsive.) They're slightly visible in the background of the last picture.

Plus I did some baking. My family is once again doing our Christmas Eve contest - this year we are doing cookies, but with a twist. We all wrote down an ingredient on a piece of paper and drew out two of them. We ended up with peanut butter and Seagrams (gee thanks to whoever suggested that). So I decided to make a few test batches this weekend to see if I could come up with a recipe that works. I have definitely found my recipe!

 

 

 

 

Another Sweater

While I was working on Serina my boys kept asking if I would make sweaters for them. I had to explain that as fast as they thought I was, I couldn't just whip up a sweater in just a few days (oh how I wish, though). However that got me thinking and led me to the idea of sweaters as Christmas gifts for them. A few days is not doable, a few months however...

I had two main criteria when starting this project. One, the sweater had to be dk or worsted weight. Any lighter weight would take too long (see Serina above). Any heavier and well, it's Arizona. It wouldn't get worn more than 1-2 days a year. Based on the first criteria, I picked Alec. I can do top down or bottom up sweaters but prefer top down. It's knitted in the round for the most part, which is good for me in terms of speed and tension. And as a bonus, it's got the most darling pattern on the front, with buttons too!

Two, the yarn had to be machine washable and good for this weather. The second criteria led me to Cottonish, a fairly inexpensive cotton acrylic blend. When I purchased it, I had the boys with me and subtley asked them about their favorite colors. They both ended up picking Royal Denim, a nice dark blue with purplish undertones.

It took me a couple of weeks and a couple of false starts to get through the pattern on the front but now I'm just cruising along. In the last week I've managed nine inches. I will probably have the body done by this weekend. This has been a super easy to understand pattern.And once I finish this one, the next sweater will be just like it, but two sizes bigger.

For more WIPs, check out Tamis Amis

 

 

It's about time!

My Serina cardigan is finally finished! After being on the needles for 25 months, I completed it a few weeks ago - I began swatching August 24, 2012 and cast off Septmeber 14, 2014. Granted I wasn't knitting on it the whole time; it sat in hibernation for a while. In fact it looks like I went five months between swatches on two different sized needle. I didn't even blog about it until I had been working on it for four months and it was sort of just an off handed comment.

With that said, I couldn't be happier with the final result. Much to my surprise and delight I have an item of clothing, made by me, that can go to work or be casual.

This photo was taken after wearing it to work for the first time (I've actually worn it once more since then). I love this picture - the color is not quite true to life but I can't wipe the smile off my face!

This is a little more true to color - the blue is brighter in person but this picture shows the color variation. The amazing detail in the pattern also shows better here.

Okay one last time on the details. The yarn is Bernat Sox multi in Wooded Denim, bought on clearance at Joann's. I used a Size 2 needle for the body and collar and Size 3 for the sleeves. The pattern is Serina. My Ravelry project page is here. I also talked about it on the blog here, here, here, here, and here.

Now onto to the next project!

 

 

Work in Progress Wednesday - the home stretch

I am still plugging away at my cardigan, however with any luck, this will be the final time the cardigan shows up on the blog as a work in progress! Since the last time I posted, I have finished the sleeves and have begun working on the collar.

This is actually attempt number two on the collar. The first time I was about six or seven rows in when I decided it wasn't turning out right - I hadn't picked up nearly enough stitches. So I redid it, picking up about 100 more stitches than the first time. This time around, I'm much happier with the way it looks and I'm now past the point where I ripped it out before. I have a mere eleven rows to go and then this will finally be 100% done!

For more WIPs, check out Tami's Amis!