Life as an Aced

WOW! I can't even remember the last time I made homemade Cookies - so for Valentines I decided to do something special and made some cookies from scratch INCLUDING the frosting!! All Super easy too btw and DELICIOUS :) Homemade Loft House Sugar Cookies FOR THE COOKIES Ingredients: 2 Sticks of butter 1 cup sugar 1 egg 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp almond extract 3 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt Directions 1) Beat together butter and sugar --- Add in egg and extracts --- Add in flour, baking powder and salt (1 cup at a time) 2) Form Dough into a Ball then cool in fridge for at least 1 hour 3) Pre Heat Over to 350 Degrees 4) Cut Dough into 1 inch squares then roll into balls and smoosh 5) Cook about 10 at a time on a cookie sheet for about 9 minutes or until tops are set FOR THE FROSTING Ingredients: 1 Stick of butter 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar splash of Vanilla a few drops of food coloring (if you want) Directions Beat together but...

I have been using the basic cookie recipe that I have been using for my Reese's Pieces Egg Cookies To do a few different variations Here is the basic recipe and below you will find some of the variations I have tried Basic Cookie Recipe Ingredients: 1 cup butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 3 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt Directions: 1) Pre Heat oven to 350 degrees 2) Cream butter and sugars 3) Add Egg and vanilla 4) Add Flour  (1 cup at a time), baking soda, and salt 5) Spoon onto cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes Variation 1 -  Mint Chip 1/3 Cup Dark Chocolate, 1/3 Cup White Chocolate, 1/3 Cup Mint Chips   Variation 2 -  M&Ms 1 cup M&M's

I made Pretzel Bites over Easter without the Square Pretzels and they still came out just as good and just as cute Chocolate Pretzel Bites  Ingredients Pretzels Hershey Kisses M&Ms Directions 1) Pre-Heat Oven to 200 degrees 2) Place Pretzels on Cookie Sheet and top with a Hershey Kiss 3) Place in Oven until Chocolate melts (about 5 minutes) 4) Top each Kiss with a M&M

I threw an event at work saturday and didn't realize until midday sunday that I forgot the leftover chocolate in my car. Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal but 1) it was good chocolate (reese's peanut butter eggs) and 2) it has actually started to get hot FINALLY!! and the chocolate was melted. Eddie wanted me to make cookies to bring to work Wednesday so I decided to freeze the peanut butter eggs, cut them up, and throw them into a cookie :) Reese's Peanut Butter Egg Cookies Ingredients: 1 cup butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 3 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 12 Reese's Eggs (chopped) Directions: 1) Pre Heat oven to 350 degrees 2) Cream butter and sugars 3) Add Egg and vanilla 4) Add Flour  (1 cup at a time), baking soda, and salt 5) Stir in Reese's Eggs 6) Spoon onto cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes NOTE: -Mix makes about 46 cookie

For Thanksgiving this year me and Eddie went to his moms house so we didn't have to cook but we did bring quite a few side dishes. Here's What we brought Spicy Beer Jerky Ingredients 1-2 pounds stir fry meat 1 tsp liquid smoke 2 tsp salt 1 tsp chili powder 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp cayenne pepper 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp pepper 1 tsp red pepper flakes 1/4 cup soy sauce 1 beer Directions 1) Place all ingredients in a large Ziploc bag and marinate over night 2) Place in Dehydrator and cook for 3-6 hours at 170 degrees Cheesy Bread Ingredients: -Homemade pizza dough with 1/4 tsp garlic powder added into dough -1/2 cup of butter (melted) -8 oz of Mozzarella Cheese -Parmesan Cheese -Greek Seasoning Directions: 1) Pre-Heat oven to 425 degrees 2) Follow the Homemade Dough Recipe found here adding 1/4 garlic powder to the dough 3) Melt 1/2 cup of butter and place into the bottom of a baking sheet with a lip 4) Roll out dough and place on top of ...

Watching FRIENDS I have become obsessed with figuring out what kind of candy Monica Makes in season 7 . . . I even bought the "Friends" cookbook in hopes that it will be in there but being a fictional candy there is no hopes So I took the next best option and started searching candy recipes on Pinterest. Being football season buckeyes have been popping up everywhere (peanut butter chocolate candy) - - after reading a few recipes and seeing how easy they actually were to make I decided to try them out for myself and i'm glad that I did Buckeye Candy Ingredients 1 1/4 cups Peanut Butter 1 cup Powdered Sugar 2 tbs Butter - melted Almond Bark (Chocolate works too) Directions 1) Mix Peanut Butter, Powdered Sugar, and Butter together 2) Roll mixture into small ball and place On a Baking Sheet 3) Put in Fridge for about 10 minutes 4) Melt Almond Bark 5) Dip Balls in the Almond Bark (found a fork to be the best method) 6) Place Back on Baking Sheet 7) ...

Avalanche Bars have been a HUGE hit here. They are soooo good people eat them up and joke that I can't make them anymore. I have made avalanche bars a few times and am always surprised that chocolate and peanut butter are what hold these bars together rather than marshmallows. Since I had extra chocolate lying around I decided to make these with just milk chocolate and peanut butter and these turned out pretty darn good too :) Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars Ingredients 1 bag of Milk Chocolate Chips 1/4 cup Peanut Butter 3 Cups Rice Krispies Reeses Pieces or Mini peanut butter Cups Directions 1) In 30 Second Increments melt the Chocolate Chips in Microwave until smooth) 2) Add Peanut butter and microwave for 15 more seconds 3) Stir in Rice Kripsies 4) Let sit for 5-10 minutes 5) Place into a greased pan 6) Top with Reeses Pieces or Mini peanut butter Cups 7) Let cool in Fridge or Room Temperature before cutting to serve

Eddie's Work is having a potluck tomorrow to celebrate 4th of July and he has requested 2 special dishes Homemade Salsa and Avalanche Bars. If you are looking for something easy to make and take with you to a BBQ tomorrow here are two recipes that will definitely please a crowd! Copy Cat Chili's Salsa Ingredients: 28oz can of tomatoes drained 4 whole jalapenos (canned) 1/4 of an onion 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cumin 1/2 teaspoon sugar 2 teaspoons lime juice Directions: 1) Drain the can of tomatoes 2) Cut the tops off of the jalapenos 3) Throw all the ingredients in the blender or food processor and blend NOTES: -For the jalapenos make sure that they are not pickled - you can find them in the Mexican section of the grocery store - I am sure fresh would work too but haven't tried them yet -It doesn't matter what form you buy the tomatoes in (whole - diced -etc) just make sure they are plain (no flavoring/ seasonin...

In my quest to actually make some of these recipes I have been pinning on Pinterest I came across a recipe for "Avalanche Bars". Apparently theses are sold at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and are sooo addicting that a Copy Cat Recipe was created . . . After making them last Sunday for family dinner I now know why . . .they are like rice krispy treats but totally knocked up. If you love the taste of Peanut Butter - White Chocolate with the crunch of rice krispies this is totally something to try. Copy Cat Avalanche Bars   Ingredients 1 bag of White Chocolate Chips 1/4 cup Peanut Butter 3 Cups Rice Krispies 1 1/2 Cups Mini Marshmallows 1/2 cup Chocolate Chips     Directions 1) In 30 Second Increments melt White Chocolate Chips in Microwave until smooth) 2) Add Peanut butter and microwave for 15 more seconds 3) Stir in Rice Kripsies 4) Let sit for 5-10 minutes 5) Stir in Marshmallows and Chocolate Chips 6) Place into a greased p...

For Christmas Eve this year we had Eddie's mom, brothers, and grandparents come over to our house to celebrate. Eddie's family loves their sweets so we started off the night with a few sweet treats and appetizers, followed by a lot of fried food, and finished off with more sweets . . . It isn't the holidays with out a bunch of junk food right? lol   Here is a few recipes from our Very Fried and Sweet Christmas that we would like to share with you   Appetizers : Smoked Salmon Dip and Chocolate Pretzel Bites Main Course : Spicy Chicken Poppers   Smoked Salmon Dip (Ina Garden - Food Network) Ingredients                               8oz Cream Cheese                  1/2 cup Sour Cream       ...

The other day we had eddies mom and brother over and he wanted to do something different for dessert. I was watching Food Network earlier in the day (surprise surprise) and on one of the shows they made ice cream sandwiches . . . I had never made my own ice cream sandwiches before soooooo I did :)   Double Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches Ingredients: Betty Crocker Double Chocolate Chuck Cookie Mix 1/2 to 1 cup White Chocolate Chips 1/4 Cup Oil 2 Tbsp. Water 1 Egg Vanilla Ice Peppermint Bark - chopped (optional) Directions: 1) Add White Chocolate Chips to the Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie then make according to package directions 2) While Cookies are cooling take Ice Cream out of freezer to defrost (about 30 minutes) 3) Add one scoop of ice cream to half of the cookies and top with the other half 4) Roll in chopped peppermint bark to cover the ice cream 5) Place in freezer for at least 1 hour to set up NOTE: -You can roll the sandwiches in...

For 4th of July this year we went over to Eddie's Moms house for a BBQ and Fireworks. Since I didn't need to cook I whipped up a few desserts all in the red, white, and blue color scheme of course!  Candy Bottle I want to say that this was the simplest of the 3 but really they are all super easy. For the candy bottle I had an empty wine bottle from the night before that I cleaned and took the label off of. Then painted the bottle with blue and white paint (I used nail polish) filled with red candy (hot tamales) then corked it with the cork. 2 Ingredient Fudge Ingredients : 1 bag of chocolate chips and 1 container of Frosting (optional) Sprinkles or other fudge toppings Directions : Melt chocolate chips in the microwave (stirring every 30 seconds) once melted and smooth stir in frosting. Spread smooth on a dish covered with wax paper top with sprinkles and put in fudge to cool for at least 1 hour  Chocolate Brownies Can't really take too muc...