Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay so everyone has a recipe for chocolate chip cookies!! I am no exception. However, I think as we grow and change, so do our taste buds. (I really have know idea if thats true, but it sounds good right?) My recipe simply just wasn't cutting it anymore, so I went on the quest for MY perfect chocolate chip cookies recipe. I say "MY" because everyone has different tastes, ie. soft and chewy, thin and crispy, etc.

First I tried these... from Alice at savorysweetlife.com

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER
Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
• 3/4 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy.

Notes

*please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie. If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.
*I realized grocery stores sell bags of chocolate chips in 12 oz bags but this recipe really needs every last chip. Otherwise you’ll get cookies with only a few chips in each one and this recipe requires lots of chocolate to bulk the cookie up. You’ll need about 1 1/2 bags.

They were just as she described them, "you get a nice crisp bottom, but the rest of the cookie is soft and chewy." I used the 1/2 tsp. of regular salt and....Good, but not really what I was looking for.

Let the hunt continue, until next time.....

Ruffle T-shirt Dress

My sweet baby girl is 3 yrs. old but wears a girls size 7. Clothes these days try to make the kids look older than they are. However, I still want my 3 yr. old to look 3.

This past weekend, I had the challenge of finding an inexpensive, cute little-girl dress to fit her. After looking at seriously 5 different stores, and finding 1 that I liked, that was $35, I just gave up and bought this clearance T-shirt for $1.50. Then I headed over to hobby lobby, got 3 coordinating fabrics, and some tulle. (I got 1/4 of a yd. of 2 fabrics and 1/3 of a yd. of 1(a bit extra for a bow I thought) and then 1 yd. of the tulle. This came to $4.

Here's what I did....

I measured where I wanted the skirt to start on my little girl, added 1 inch, then cut off the rest.

I then took some extra white cotton I had. It was only 9 inches by the width of the fabric. I hemmed one edge, then started on the ruffles. As I measured, they had given me a bit of room to play with, so I had 10 inches and cut 2 strips 5 inches by the width of the fabric. I did this with all 3 coordinating fabrics, and set the extra aside. Then I sewed the strips together, hemmed and ruffled. I repeated this on the other 2 fabrics too. I wanted a full skirt but didn't want to spend the $$ for it, I cut the tulle at 5 inches by the width just to give it fluff. I ruffled 3 strips together and repeated 2 more times.

Then I laid out my white cotton and started with a row of tulle just an inch above the hem. I continued to add tulle then fabric until I got to the last row of fabric. It looked like this.

Then with right sides together I sewed the cotton edges together, leaving out the ruffles. (I sewed these individually after I sewed it on the T-shirt. Then you couldn't tell where the seam was.) I then sewed the skirt part onto the T-shirt. Just the extra part at the top was used. I wanted it to lay nice, and the ruffles would have been bulky in the seam. You can see it in the 2nd picture above.

Once sewn, it looked like this.

Then I needed to cover up the ruffles seam. I added a strip of ribbon, attaching it to the just below the seam of the ruffles and the T-shirt. It looked like this.

It still didn't look right, so I cut the sleeves off at the elbow and used the extra material I had reserved for a bow and added a bell sleeve. I also added a bow in front for "extra beauty"!! And I used some of the extra ribbon around the waist to make a bow and this was the end result.

A very happy little girl (and Mom too!!) Dad loved it too, especially cause the final cost was $7. Give it a try if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I know my instructions and pictures aren't the best, I should have waited for better lighting, but I am learning!!

Until next time....