Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

It's International Bacon Day! To celebrate, here's another awesome cookie with bacon in it!

 Shortly after I made the Peanut Butter Cookies, I saw an article on 22 desserts improved by bacon, although I'm not sure why they only listed 22 because isn't everything improved by bacon? Anyway, after seeing the article I was like, "Bacon in the cookies; how did I not think of that?"

So OF COURSE I decided they needed to be made ASAP.

I meet up with a group of friends on Tuesday nights for trivia. I brought these along and they were an instant hit. Even the servers at the restaurant wanted in on the action (yes, I shared). 

I then decided to bring the rest with me on a visit to my parents' at sea level. When I pulled them out and told my family they were peanut butter and bacon they all scoffed at the idea. I was a little upset that they were being so closed minded, especially since my dad had devoured the Caramel Bacon White Chocolate Chip cookies I had made previously. The next morning my dad shows me the container, now half empty, and says he couldn't stop eating them. So, I win.

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies
 

1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup cooked, chopped bacon

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In a mixer, blend together butter and sugars until smooth. Mix in egg, vanilla and peanut butter. Slowly mix in the flour mixture a little at a time until everything is completely blended. Stir in bacon. Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and place on a cooling rack or wax paper.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

My husband recently went off to the middle of nowhere to stay in a cabin with a bunch of dudes for a
bachelor party. I figured they might get hungry at some point and decided to make a few treats for them. I asked hubs to ask the bachelor what kind of cookies he wanted, but it turned out he preferred brownies, which is awesome, cause they require a lot less effort than cookies. He mentioned he really like chocolate and peanut butter (and honestly, who doesn't) so I thought I'd finally make my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies (you know, the ones I was supposed to make when I actually made the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies) but decided not to cause I figured a bunch of dudes in a
cabin in the middle of nowhere would probably need more than just one batch of something and I wanted to accommodate the bachelor's request.

So the bunch of dudes in a cabin in the middle of nowhere got Bacon Chocolate Chip Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookies and these, Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies.

I have a confession to make. Oftentimes when I bake, I don't actually ever taste what I make. I'll give you a second to let that sink in.

Yes, I rarely taste my own baking. But, per usual, hubs asked if he could have some and insisted I split a brownie with him. I did, and the first words out of my mouth were "holy shit!"

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
4 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cups vegetable shortening
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons 2% milk
10 ounces peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt chocolate with shortening in a large bowl in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
Add sugar into the mix and stir until completely mixed. Add in eggs and vanilla until those are completely mixed. Mix in flour, baking powder, salt and milk until all is thoroughly blended.

Stir the peanut butter chips into the mix. Spread in a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan (glass works best).

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool completely before cutting.

 

Peanut Butter Apple Spice Cookies

My latest concoction was actually inspired by none other than this:

Yes, a Vanilla Coke.

I was in my local pharmacy the other day and noticed they had vanilla Coke in the fridge section. It got me thinking about fluffernutter sandwiches. Go ahead and look it up; I'll wait.

With memories of the deliciousness swirling in my head, I decided to go ahead and purchase one, you know, for nostalgic reasons.

I didn't have bread or marshmallow fluff at home and I was too lazy to go to the grocery store so I decided the Vanilla Coke would probably go equally well with apples and peanut butter, which I did have.

While chomping on my snack, the wheels in my head started turning and I started scheming as to how I could combine the apples and peanut butter into some sort of delicious treat. I'd made Peanut Butter Cookies and Apple Spice Cookies, now I just needed to figure out how to combine the two.

And I did.

And the results were awesome.

And may or may not have caused a family rift because nobody wanted to share.

Apple Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
8 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup peeled and chopped apple

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In a mixer, blend together butter and sugars until smooth. Mix in egg, vanilla and peanut butter. Slowly mix in the flour mixture a little at a time until everything is completely blended. Stir in apples. Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and place on a cooling rack or wax paper.

Plain Ole Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well, grab a coat, because Hell must have frozen over - I finally made good on my promise to make good ole regular chocolate chip cookies (thanks to my High Altitude Baking cookbook).

I know, I know, I am just as shocked as you are.

There's really no funny little anecdote to go along with this. I made chocolate chip cookies. They tasted good. Boom.

But here's a picture of a kitten for stopping by:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup shortening

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
2 tablespoons water
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder. In a large bowl, cream sugars and shortening. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add flour mixture slowly and thoroughly, a little at a time. Stir in chocolate chips and water. Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and place on a cooling rack or wax paper.

Pizza Chicken

This is a super easy and totally customizable dinner option. I've made it simply with just sauce and cheese and it was great. In this version I decided to add some vegetables (because they were in my fridge and I didn't want them to go bad).

I decided to make this recently because I didn't feel like going to the store and didn't want to order out. Also, I've been trying really hard to cook at home more often. Also, I hate wasting food so I wanted to use the leftovers in our fridge. I call it "re-purposing" and it's quite possibly my favorite thing to do (hey, when you are fearful of cooking you gotta try to take the edge off by making it "fun"). 

What I found: marinara sauce left over from cheesy bread we had ordered, half a tomato, 8 stalks (plus or minus 2) of cooked asparagus and mozzarella cheese.

Pizza Chicken

2 chicken breasts
1/4 cup marinara or pizza / tomato sauce
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
vegetables (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

Wash chicken and cut off fat. Place into a glass dish. Cover with desired amount of sauce. Add vegetables (if you want). Covered with the desired amount of cheese. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breast.

Canteloupe Strawberry Blueberry Smoothie

I was visiting my parents for a few days (at sea level) and my mom made mention to my brother about that "crazy thing" he does. Turns out, that "crazy thing" is making smoothies. Apparently blending fruit together is pretty wild to my mom. My mom had stocked up on fruit (per my request) so I decided to whip up my own crazy thing. They didn't have any white grape juice, which has been my staple, and I won't use orange or apple juice so I was left with the cranberry pomegranate, which, much to my surprise, turned out awesome. I was afraid the cranberry would be overwhelming, but it blended quite nicely with the other fruit. This may be my favorite concoction to date.

I also made a poor joke when my mom mentioned cantaloupe by saying "I already did."

Cantaloupe Strawberry Blueberry Smoothie

1 cup cantaloupe, sliced, no rind
1 cup strawberries, quartered
1/2 cup blueberries
 1 1/4 cups cranberry pomegranate juice

Clean fruit. Cut cantaloupe and strawberries. Place into blender with juice. Blend until smooth.