take the mallow, put it on the chocolate...

...and then, you stuff.

as i said, in the post below, thursday may 20th was chocolate marshmallow nutty goodness bar night. mostly these pictures are just of the baking process...it was a busy night and i didn't really get a chance to photograph the lovely guests! 
anyway, here is the recipe...i could NOT get it rotated right (or left?) to save my life. so...sorry :[

anyway...melting chocolate is really fun kinda. 

and stirring it into cookie dough is even funner. (or more fun, for you grammar nazis out there)

it baked up REAL happily...i set the oven a tad below 325 instead of 350...that seemed to do it!

well, this time around, anyway. stupid oven.

now, to pour on the sugary mallowy awesomeness...

ready to roast

a few minutes later...

golden toasty perfection!!

and laura made peanut butter cookies again.

they were so. yummy.

and rich. lots of people went home with marshmallow fudge brownie-bars that night.

aaaand cassandra's amazing 3D photos. 

i thought the results were excellent. so i'm proclaiming a victory. anyone want to argue? i THOUGHT not!!

attendees: 9...?

us, cassandra, chad, emily, zach, my parents, and 2 of laura's friends who i can't remember

love, colleen

click "read more", and see laura's e-mail that week!

april 29th 2010

tollhouse "bars"

 

the first step in baking is organization and preparedness. i'm getting that DOWN.

 

kitchen, ingredients, everything: ready.

this week's recipe, as hinted in the genius graphic that week, was tollhouse cookie bars...

note my little scribble at the top: to "buy ice cream...just in case..."

and when saying "just in case" i was thinking of the last time we tried to make bars...that being, the infamous march 11th white chocolate fudge bars.

 as we learned that night--vanilla ice cream is always an excellent back-up plan in this business.

dough happily baking...

 

as i hover over it praying for at least an inkling of success this time around...

RESULT:

basically, somewhere in between tollhouse bars, and a gooey mess. i hate our oven. they were starting to burn so i had to take them out!! and i had lowered the temperature and everything! oh well.

in spite of a 50% victory, it was a delicious cookie-crumbly-gooey feast.

good thing we had that ice cream. :)

in the midst of everything...

evan read books...amy tried to tickle me...

we browsed the latest issue of Under the Radar (the magazine laura writes for)

chad poured us beer...

cassandra showed us her amazing homemade 3D photography.

because she's just rad like that...

 

and then laura and ian had their own private dance party.

 

i call it a victory. half-baked bars or no.

attendees: 11

us, amaris, amy, cassandra, chad, evan, ian, laura b, melissa, uncle tom,

love, colleen

jump down to laura's e-mail that week!

nesties

Thursday, April 22

firstly, that week's graphic...portraying our return from coachella.

 it really isn't far off the truth. 

and we actually did take this as we were getting home...those are real live dirty-laundry-filled bags, heineken and autograph wristbands and in-n-out shakes you're seeing!!

anyway. on to the cookies...

now, i don't remember exactly, but if this picture is any indication, the baking got off to a rather questionable start...

though if this picture is any indication, they were turning out just fine...

once again, coconut makes everything even better, even chocolate. 

i think i just made some chocolate lovers heads explode.

~friends~

chad doesn't like having his picture taken.

the finished cookies...chocolate birds' nests indeed!!

cassandra's rad polaroid of our feet...

laura and i toast to a successful night...ching!

mr trololo approves.

oh yeah and then the 3 of us ate grilled cheese sandwiches!

i don't believe in diets.

attendees: 8

us, cassandra, chad, evan, ian, shannon, shelvy

love, colleen

jump down for laura's e-mail!

[insert clever pirate cookie joke here]

Thursday, 14 January

the early years, pt 3

seeing as we flipped to a recipe that called for rum (specifically, "rum spice cookies"), we therefore decided that 1.14.10 would be our first themed parrrrty. that being, naturally, a pirate party!

complete with a bottle o' rum!

 

laura and i decked out in our pirate-y finest

 of course rum shots were had all around

oh, and guess what? we were still on the 2-recipe system. so not only were there delectable rum spice cookies (which are still one of my favorites we've made thus far), but some goooooey chocolatey fudge cookies. just...amazing.

as cousin amy wrote in the cookie book: "why bake them?"

just look at that dough...

they weren't half-bad all baked up, either.

our abundant spread...

i seem to remember it being a particularly fine evening outside.

 arrrrg. success, matey!

 attentees: 9

us, amy, andrew, cassandra, chelsea, evan, melissa, pip

love, colleen

dropping gum

Thursday 7 January, 2010

the early years, pt 2

first cookie night of the brand-new year! and we started it off well, i think.

still in double-recipe mode, we went to town with "chocolate cherry cookies", and "gumdrop party cookies" here you see the chocolate cookies baking happily in the oven...

recently halved gumdrops waiting to be baked...

 

 working in the kitchen...

 

gumdrop cookies hot from the oven! believe it or not, these are still some of my favorite cookies we've made. they baked up so well...and i LOVED the hot, melty, gooey gumdrops.

 

the chocolate cherry cookies were also excellent. i'll put the recipes up soon!!

successful cookie night? yes. 

attendees: 7

us, bettina, cassandra, ian, pip and shannon

love, colleen