this should have been posted thursday 7/30

So last night, after watching the hilarious “Bad Santa” for the first time with my fiancé, I set out on my internet search for a new and improved choco chip cookie recipe. I found many similar recipes, but with no new ingredients that really made me think, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?!”. I also found a lot of recipes that called for nutmeg. Really? Nutmeg? This makes me think people are just adding ingredients all willy nilly.

Then, while on a baking forum [forgive me now because I don’t recall which one], I found it. It’s the exact same recipe I use, courtesy of Nestlé Toll House, but with one added ingredient: 1 box of dry Vanilla Pudding mix. Duh! Ok, seriously, why didn't I think of that? You can add it to cake mix to make super moist cuppiecakes, so why not choco chip cookies? I am so excited to try this recipe. I stopped by Target on my way to work to pick up the necessary ingredients that I didn’t already have in my “emergency baking back stock”. One box of pudding mix [$0.84] & two 12oz. bags of Nestlé Toll House choco chips [$2.69 per bag]. Side note, how can Target charge less for the chips than the sale price at the grocery store? This makes me wish any of our targets were those super fancy ones with a grocery store.

In case anyone was wondering what the recipe looks like you can find it on the back of any bag of semi sweet choco chips. But, to make things easy on you, I thought I’d post it on here as well. This is not my recipe in the sense that I created it, but it is my favorite, and I’m hoping with the addition of my new not so secret ingredient it will be even better!

Original Nestlé Tool House Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1 Tsp. baking soda

1 Tsp. salt

1 c softened butter

3/4 c granulated sugar

3/4 c packed light brown sugar

1 Tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 c [12 oz. pkg.] Nestlé Toll House semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1 c chopped nuts [optional]

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; move to wire racks to cool completely.

I’ve tweaked this recipe and the directions just a smidge. Instead of one 12 oz. pkg. of choco chips, I use 1 1/2 bags [or 18 oz.], as I stated in my previous post, 1 pkg. of dry vanilla pudding mix [this is entirely optional but intended for added moisture and tenderness], and when adding the eggs, I put both eggs in their own bowl and beat them and then add 1/2 to the sugar mixture, beat, and add the rest of the eggs and beat again. I’ve found that in doing this the cookie dough becomes much fluffier, producing chewier cookies. And really, who doesn’t love a soft, moist, chewy chocolate chip cookie? Also, don’t get to hung up on the idea of having to use an electric mixer to “beat” the dough, I’ve found that using a simple large dinner fork and doing it by hand works just as well, if not better. Lastly, when I’m scooping the dough out, I don’t do it “rounded” for some reason every time I try to do this the cookies come out weirdly misshapen, I use the same fork I used to mix everything and just drop it off the fork, this works great! And there’s really no point in dirtying up anything else because that just adds for more mess at clean up time, besides we’re in a drought here in Cali, so use as little to clean as little!

I’m so excited about this new recipe that I can’t wait to get off work, run home, and try it! I’ll probably update after I make it. My fiancé will be the judge of whether or not it’s d-lish. I trust his taste buds more than my own.

a tiny break from wedding topics.

I love that my fiancé loves it when I bake fresh goodies for him. I love that he appreciates it, and how excited he gets! Like last night, for instance, he came home and proclaimed, “I don’t even want dinner, I’m just going to eat these cookies for dinner.” I know it’s silly, but these silly things he says & does make me fall [in]love with him all over again. He’s always so appreciative, of even the smallest things. It’s great to feel so loved.

Now, back to last night’s cookies, I am by no means a pro baker, but I do love to do it. And chocolate chip cookies are one of the easiest and most delicious things to bake. In my opinion that is. I’ve tried so many different recipes, but I always find myself going back to the recipe on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse bag. I just haven’t found anything better. If you haven’t tried it I highly recommend running out to your local grocery store and grabbing two bags of the 12oz. bags, right now! The reason I say two bags even though the recipe only calls for one 12oz. bag is that I’ve found there is still always those cookies that have barely any choco chips. Those stragglers never get eaten, and I feel so sad for them, they end up leading a very short and unfulfilled life then it’s off to the trash! I am against choco chip cookie cruelty. So my solution is to add 1 ½ bags [18oz.]. Everyone’s happy and no cookies are left behind!

While baking yesterday I found myself increasingly annoyed with my mother’s random and mismatched baking equipment. We do not have an entire set of measuring cups, we have two different ones, with pieces missing, but what’s annoying is that both sets are missing the same pieces, seriously, what is that?! Same goes for our two different sets of measuring spoons with identical missing pieces. And the sets aren’t even duplicate sets, they are so totally different, it’s just thrift store worthy. My mom, the yummy cook she is, is not a baker. So these things just don’t seem important to her and probably haven’t been updated since her own wedding registry.

Out of my annoyance I’ve found myself lusting after the KitchenAid breast cancer line. Measuring cups, spatulas, measuring spoons, mixing bowls, ice cream scoop, they’re all the most delicious shade of bubblegum pink. I so badly want them, and have become a little distraught over the fact that they are not carried at target, nor target.com, which means I cannot add them to my wedding registry. I thought for a moment, “well, I want the pink stand up mixer, so I’ll just delete it off my target registry and register on KitchenAid.com as well.”, but no, impossible. KitchenAid.com does not have a registry option. How can this be? It’s so sad. So I’ve settled for registering for the all white KitchenAid baking set from target.com, a poor second choice, but what other option does a girl have? Especially since I know I won’t be able to convince my fiancé that I need to buy the pink ones myself even though I can register for different colored ones someplace else. The sensible, financially responsible man that he is [and for the most part I completely adore], he’s already expressed that something being pink does not qualify it as a necessity. Darn it.

Back to the point of this post, Chocolate Chip Cookies, I’d love new recipes! If anyone has one they’d like to share. My fiancé has informed me that in his mind, there is nothing better than warm choco chip cookies, or fresh baked brownies. And being as silly [in]love with him as I am, I love to make these things for him fairly regularly. So I’m always trying to top myself and find something better. Plus, trying new recipes is like an exciting new journey! I’m ready, give me a new adventure!

finally, free time! kind of.

The party has come and gone. & it was magical. Thank you to everyone who came & helped! It really was one of the best nights of my life. I couldn't have planned it any better myself! well, I did plan it myself, but it turned out better than I had even hoped. I had tons of help from my wonderful fiance, awesome bridesmaid, and magnificent maid-of-honor. I am one lucky bride-to-be.

I was even lucky enough to recieve a few gifts, which is really like two gifts in one because now I get to do Thank You cards! Some are being made, and some are purchased from target, but they're both so pretty! I just finished making one for my aunt, and i took a few pics along the way!

My starting supplies:

18x18 paper is from the Martha Stewart collection, along with the scissors and bone folder and opaque craft markers [at this point I was undecided if the markers would be used, but they're brand new, a gift from my cousin, and I am really itching to use them!], the card is from the dollar section at Michael's.

My aunt has a tea room in her home, and she actually said "I hope the thank you card will match my tea room!" haha, she's adorable, so here's hoping I picked a good design!

I wanted to spiff up the inside of the card and the envelope, so I used the 18x18 craft paper from Martha Stewart to make an envelope liner and background for the inside of the card. I'm quite happy with the end results.

Not pictured is the little heart I cut from printed paper and ran through my a-mazing Xyron 250 machine to turn it into a sticker and use as an envelope seal.

It's not even noon yet and I'm done with everything that "needed" to be done, which means i have a lazy day ahead of me, and I am so excited for it!

pinwheel love!

The engagement party is less than a week away, and I felt like it still needed something. So, on saturday evening, while I was awake until 3am being completely obsessive with DIY wedding blogs, I came across the adorable idea to use pinwheels at your wedding as decorations/things for your guests to play with. I found the idea/tutorial at Once Wed, and I went to my craft stash to see what I had and what I'd need. To my delight I needed to purchase very little, I only spent a few bucks, and I am more than thrilled with my results!

I needed to cut the 12x12 paper into 6x6 squares, I happened to find a piece of 12x12 that already had 6x6 squares of different designs on it so I took the easy road and used this as my guide for the other 12x12.

The directions on Once Wed suggested using a flower shaped paper punch, but i didn't already own one of those and thought I've gotten this far in my life without one so I didn't want to spend $12 on one now. so I opted for the already cut scrap booking paper flowers, they're incredibly cheap and convenient for this project.

The push pins I was able to find at Michael's were probably my favorite purchase for this project. I love that they have a little gem instead of a pearl as their head.

I added a little something extra to my pinwheels by adding some ribbon to the dowels and I couldn't be more pleased with how they came out!

As I was making them my mom mentioned how much she likes pinwheels, and growing up [there's 6 children in her family and they didn't have a lot of money] every once in a while my grandmother would buy them pinwheels while she was out grocery shopping. I love that these pinwheels for my engagement party conjured memories of my mother's childhood. That's exactly the old-timey feel I was going for!

may flowers! well, more like june.

so delayed.

a few weeks ago, one of my bridesmaids [the most amazing one ever] and i spent an afternoon making mock center pieces for the wedding. we just wanted to get an idea of how everything would work, and see our ideas in something other than just our heads.

we found a few really great whole sale flower distributors to get flowers from and have decided we just wanted all of the vases/containers to be different, we want all of the tables to have their own personalities.

this is what we started with:

and this was the finished result:

these are just a few close-ups:

our flowers won't have any pink in them, just white, but these were the best peonies we could find. being in bloom for such a short amount of time, they're very popular, making white ones hard to find. but that's ok, we'll be placing our order for flowers months and months ahead of time.

so, what is everyones thoughts/opinions/critiques/advice? above all else i really want the flowers to look smashing.

I am obsessed.

That's more than likely an understatement. I just can't stop thinking about or looking at flowers. Well, not just flowers, but Peonies to be exact. I absolutely love them. They're lush, romantic, vintage, elegant, everything I want my wedding to be.

photo found on the knot.

The white Peony is absolutely gorgeous. Which is perfect since we're having a white wedding, so our floral arrangements will be strictly white and green. I'm just having a hard time deciding on centerpieces. I can't decide if they should be a more basic look:

photo found on...i can't remember.

I love the simplicity of something like this. I might want to add a lace ribbon around the jar, but other than that I love this as is.

photo found on flowersduet.com.

On the other hand, I love this as well. I'm a sucker for a leaf lined vase.

As much as I love the idea of using only Peonies for everything, budget wise I don't think that's going to be realistic. So I'm happy to know that they look amazing with other flowers favorites, such as gerbera daisies & hydrangeas.

photo found on... i don't remember.

photo found on bbrooks.com.

photo found on isn't she lovely blog.

The Peony is a seasonal flower, blooming May-June, so I'm hoping and praying that we'll be able to have them for our July 11th wedding. I'm waiting to hear back from the florist. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Step One.

Engagement Party!
July 18, 2009.
I'm so excited. I think my favorite part about this party is it will be the first time my parents meet Mr. Awesome's parents. And my second favorite part is the flowers! I'm such a sucker for pretty floral arrangements. My aunt & uncle have an amazing backyard perfectly set-up for entertaining, and they are kind enough to let us have the party there. Which is amazing for so many reasons, one being that leaves us with more money for flowers! haha. I'm also really excited for all of my bridesmaids to meet eachother and meet the groomsmen.

I have a lot of ideas for the party, but I've never been to an engagement party, so if anyone has any ideas or tips, I'd love to hear them!