Eggless Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies and Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Baking with our Easter Chocolate Bunnies looks like this.




Flour everywhere




Luscious Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies! I'm giving instructions for 1/2 a batch. We have to show some restraint here. Also, this recipe forgoes eggs, so if you like, you can be naughty and chow down on the dough.



Disclaimer:
I’m not the best at writing out recipe instructions. If you have any questions just leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you.

Ingredients:

1. ½ cup of butter
2. 2 tbs of milk
3. 1 cup of flour
4. ½ cup of oats
5. ¼ cup of brown sugar
6. ¼ cup of white sugar
7. The magic elixir of baking: 2 tsp of vanilla
8. 1 cup of milk and dark chocolate Easter Bunnies chopped up. You can use a combination of milk and semi-sweet chips if you are bunny-less.

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees

1. Cream butter and sugar together well.
2. Add the milk and vanilla.
3. Add the oats, and mix into the creamed butter and sugar mix.
4. Add flour and mix well.
5. Add bunny pieces or chips and mix once again.
6. Now, make 10 cookie balls with a spoon and space them evenly on a cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. All ovens are different so you may need to experiment with the time factor.

If you don’t want to bake the dough, then you can eat it (no eggs)! You can also mix this dough into vanilla ice cream and make cookie dough ice cream.

To make Cookie Dough Ice Cream:

1. Form the cookie dough into tiny little balls, and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
2. After the hour, take the vanilla ice cream out of the freezer, and let it soften on the counter for 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Mix the ice cream and cookie dough together in a large bowl.
4. Put your new favorite dessert back into your ice cream container. Put any excess ice cream into another covered container, freeze again, and eat at your leisure.

This makes the yummiest Cookie Dough Ice Cream ever.

Enjoy!

Candied Rose Petals for Easter

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!

Candied rose petals are a fun and easy project to do with your kids. My Double Delight roses are blooming right now as you can see in the photo below. They'll make beautiful decorations for any dessert I may want to make.

For this project you will need:

1. Rose petals from your garden. Please make sure they are pesticide free (never been sprayed). Otherwise, you might be able to get some organic roses from Whole Foods or your local health food store.

2. One extra large egg white at room temperature. You will want to beat this with a few drops of water to thin the egg white a bit. Just beat until the water is mixed in and a few bubbles are showing.

Important: If you'll be serving candied rose petals to pregnant women, young children, the elderly, or anyone whose health is compromised, be sure to use powdered egg whites (from Martha Stewart's web site).

If you're uncomfortable using egg white click on this link here for a recipe that creates a sugar syrup for coating your rose petals.

3. Clean Paint brushes

4. Superfine sugar. If you don't have superfine sugar, you can put your regular white sugar in a food processor or coffee grinder and grind a bit (not too much or you'll get powdered sugar).

5. Cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. If you plan to use the oven method to dry these, I would use parchment paper.

6. Spoon

Pluck and rinse your petals and then pat them dry.

Take a single petal

Paint the back and front with a thin layer of the egg mixture.

Now with the spoon drizzle some of the superfine sugar over the front and back, coating it completely. Gently tap off any excess sugar, and set on your parchment or wax paper lined cookie sheet to dry.

It can take 1 to 3 days for these rose petals to dry depending on the moisture in the air. They should be thoroughly dry before you use them. To make the process faster, you can put them in a warm oven at 150 degrees for several hours. Make sure your oven door is slightly open. You can store these rose petals for a year in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

French Lovelies ~ Make My Heart Go Pitter-Pat!

What is it about French artisans? Everything they touch is beautiful. The attention to detail, the magic in the pieces they create. No wonder we Americans are crazy for their design aesthetic.

Here are some of the details that make my heart go pitter-pat.

Curvy lines and gilt metal . . . need I say more?

Antique Linen

Candlelight

Amazing construction

So there I am on the floor taking photos of Maria's wonderful antique linen bag, when I notice the underside of this French chair. I'm mesmerized by the burlap tape and the hand tied coils.

I just received my goodies from Melanie's Giveaway, featuring items from Maria of Dreamy Whites. I've had such a fun time corresponding with Maria. She is as sweet as she is beautiful.

Now . . . why was I on the floor taking photos, you may ask? Because when I opened my fragrant package of lavender, I was inspired to photograph the beauty of its contents. The linen sachets and tote bag with their silky soft feel are scrumptious to the touch. The wonderful vintage green bottle with its deep depression on the bottom is perfect for my purple pincushion flowers. To see more of my French inspired photo shoot visit Maria here.

Happy Day! and a Wonderful Opportunity

I have won the loveliest giveaway hosted by Melanie of My Sweet Savannah. All the gifts were generously given by Maria of Dreamy Whites. I feel so lucky to have won! Thank you both so much!!

I've been inspired by Melanie and Maria. They both share gorgeous photos and the greatest ideas on their blogs.

So here is the wonderful opportunity. Melanie has a fun promotion from Canvas People on her blog right now. Visit her here and click on the button to the left that says, Get your free 8x10 Canvas Here.

I wanted some glamour, so I chose my blogger header for my free canvas. I love the end result!

Now, I just need to find the perfect place to put it.

Beautiful Ballet Creations

I know that many of you out there enjoy owning vintage ballet slippers. This post might give you ideas for what you can do to spice yours up a bit.

This weekend I was invited to help with a fundraiser for a dance school in our area. One of the ballet moms had a brilliant idea to paint pointe shoes and sell them at the school's next performance.

The students gathered together after rehearsal and their imaginations took flight. We had a black swan shoe, shoes with the sun, moon and stars. Shoes painted like candy and one that Marie Antoinette herself would have worn. It was marvelous fun and even the teachers got into the act. Below is a favorite shoe created by one of the students.

The little Mermaid Slipper