No Bake Cookies

I frequent a chatboard and someone posted this recipe so I decided to try it for the holidays. I know I've had these before, but can't remember where. They are super easy (no baking!) and very good!

No Bake Cookies
1 stick butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk (I used skim)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used creamy)
1 tbsp vanilla
3 cups quick oats

Put first 4 ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil about 1min then remove from heat. Add vanilla and peanut butter and stir until smooth. Gradually add oats and stir until combined. Drop by tablespoon full onto waxed paper (I didn't have any so I used foil) and let cool one hour. Enjoy!

Brownie Candy Cups

This Christmas I decided to do some baking. I wanted to make my usual cut out cookies since they are my favorite, and I also wanted to try a few new recipes as well.

I found this recipe over at Heather Drive and I had to try it! Why I didn't ever think of this myself is beyond me!

Brownie Candy Cups
- 1 box brownie mix
- eggs, water, and vegetable oil (in the amounts listed on your brownie package)
- 25-30 mini Reeses cups, frozen, then unwrapped
- 1 Box Reynolds 2-inch aluminum foil mini cups for muffins (I used the paper liners)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place approximately 30 foil liners on baking sheet.

2. Combine brownie mix, eggs, water and oil. Stir with spoon until well blended. (about 50 strokes)

3. Fill each liner with 1-2 tablespoons of batter. You want them to be about 3/4 of the way full.

4. Push a peanut butter cup into the center of each "brownie cupcake."

5. Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven.

6. Cool 5-10 minutes in pan and then move to cooling rack to cool completely.

Ok a few things-I totally missed the fact that it said to use the mini liners so I used full sized ones-and only got 15 cookies instead of the 30 or so it says it makes. So I put 2 peanut butter cups in each one! I used paper liners instead of the foil ones and they did just fine, although a few of them didn't hold their shape very well so next time I might just put them in a cupcake pan instead of on a cookie sheet. I did freeze the peanut butter cups but found them to be way harder to unwrap. The foil came off easily, but the paper liners were all stuck to them. So next time I might not freeze them. My baking time was longer since I made monster sized ones-I think I baked them about 22 min and they came out just fine.

These are very good! I'll be making them again for sure!

Since it's Christmas time, I made them a little festive with some red frosting on them:

Christmas with Grandpa!

Yesterday, my Dad and Colleen came out to do our Christmas celebration. We aren't sure if we'll see them Christmas Eve or Day, since it's usually very hectic while we're in Buffalo those 24 hours or so. Since they both had the day off, I suggested doing our Christmas a little early so it wouldn't be so rushed and if the weather didn't cooperate, we wouldn't have that in our way either.

It was very nice-they came during the afternoon and Gabe and I made a nice dinner-steak, potatoes, salad and bread-very tasty!

Avery was very fond of Grandpa's face...first the glasses:

then the mustache:

Grandpa and Avery:

After our nice dinner, we opened presents. They got Avery a Fisher Price dog that sings, talks, etc. My Dad took it out of the bag and had it start talking to her:

Then we brought it over to us for closer inspection



She likes the dog so far-it's a cute toy that'll grow with her the first few years. It teaches body parts, colors, and lots of songs. She'll enjoy it I think! Overall we had a very nice visit-they normally don't get to stay over very long when they come so it was nice to have an extended visit with them yesterday! Avery had some good quality time with Grandpa!

Starting Solids!

Last night we gave Avery her first taste of food....well, if you want to call rice cereal food! To be honest, it smelles pretty gross-kind of like bread dough.

I fully expected her to be all over it. She has been very, very interested in food for weeks now-watching your every move if you eat or drink anything. So I thought when the opportunity came, she'd be wide-mouthed and ready to go.

In actuality....not so much! She wasn't a fan at all-she didn't open her mouth, she spit most of it out, gagged most of the time, etc. She wasn't all that into it. But of course I had to take a zillion pics of it all! These are just a few of them....
Sitting in her high chair for the first time:


First bite (She's thinking "I don't know about this-are you sure?):

Down the chin it goes:

What do you think you're doing?! (Love this one!)

Another taste:

Love this one too-caught it just at the right time!

I don't think I like this guys!

Rice face:

This was her mid gag:

So our first time wasn't a true success, but hopefully she'll get more used to it as the days go on!
Later we practiced sitting....or I should say Avery's current version of sitting:

Diaper Baby!

Gabe had Avery stripped down to her diaper last night and I realized I hardly have any photos of her in just her diaper. So I had to take the opportunity to take a few shots...
Daddy and his little girl:

Super baby!





I love this one of her trying to get her feet!

Kisses From Daddy

Woo Hoo!

As of tonight, I am officially done Christmas shopping! I've had one last gift to get for about 3 weeks now and I finally went out tonight and got it! I had been meaning to go for weeks but something always came up where I couldn't go. I'm just glad I'm finished-one thing to cross off of my list! And I can say that I did all of my shopping this year without stepping foot in the mall! How great is that?! No crowds, no parking chaos....love it!

Now all I have to do is wrap everything and bake....theres still a week left, right?!