Butterscotch Caramel Cookies

Butterscotch Caramel Cookies

While I was at Target the other day I walked by something that seemed like it might be wonderful in cookies.
Kraft Caramel Bits.
Have you ever seen them? I hadn't. They are tiny little balls of caramel. just about the size of a chocolate chip. I guess they are for melting but you know what? I thought they would be good in cookies. So I bought them. Then I decided to make butterscotch cookies because my daughter loves Butterscotch cookies. (she hates chocolate chip cookies which I find totally incorrect.)

So I made them.

1 stick Margarine
1 stick unsalted Butter
1 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown which I rarely do)
cream together 2 minutes

add 3 medium eggs
2 tsp vanilla
mix in eggs one at a time.

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt ( I didn't level it on account of the unsalted butter)
mix in at least three parts.

1 bag Kraft caramel bits
1 bag butterscotch cookies.

Bake at 350.

My thoughts-
The caramel bits sort of exploded out of the sides of some of the cookies which I didn't love.  But my daughter told me I was the best mom ever and that she loves me forever so go figure.
My mother updated me that unsalted butter was the way to go because it doesn't store as long as salted butter so normally when you look at the butter on the shelves the unsalted butter will be relatively new whereas the salted version can sit quite a while without going bad.
So of course I bought unsalted butter because my mom put the fear of salted butter in me.

Friday Night Shopping For Fakesies

Today I am planning to go shopping. Online. Sometimes while other people go out I like to look at awesome sales online. and Facebook. It's a special kind of shopping. The kind of shopping where you don't spend any money because you don't have any. Sort of like all the clothing items ever posted on pinterest. On account of not really being super rich, for example. But I might post some of the things I would buy.

Right this second Fabric.com is having a sale on Minky fabric and I would buy this fabric for my little one. It's the 

Kaufman Minky Cuddle Boy Toys Aviator Teal 

They have such great customer service- if anything doesn't work or gets damaged they take care of it and have some of the best fabric prices around. I love fabric.com

Ok I already made a blanket with it but I really feel like it's a fabric that would catch on with boys. 

I posted my blanket on Instagram. 

Then in my Etsy shop HERE.

one of the neatest things about making things you love is that if no one likes it maybe someday I keep it. 

Next I would go get Mark a new car seat since his was lost is a freak post divorce car repossession accident. 

And duh. It would be This Batman Car seat from Amazon.com.

Then I clearly need to go look for some children's shoes.  Maybe ones like the adorable shoes that my son's aunt Kathryn and Uncle Peter gave him. Luckily I only ever want to buy shoes on sale at Nordstrom. I love buying shoes. I have not been buying very many shoes lately, or even pretending to want to buy them online.

Naturally my productivity has had an unbelievable spike.

But if I was buying shoes online or maybe just browsing for twenty or so minutes online today I might get some adorable ones from See Kai Run.

See Kai Run is one of my favorite children's shoe brands.  Once I won a pair of them in a blog contest and IT ROCKED! I am not doing a giveaway of shoes right now. You could imagine though.

Finally I would buy an adorable art print I found online today and Pinned on Pinterest.  (P.S maybe follow me on Pinterest? thanks!) I wouldn't necessarily say it's for boys but I might put it up at work and I work with boys. Close enough? I know some people who are "bloggers" and some of what they do makes me envy them less. They are human like all of us, so we sometimes mistake the brand with humanity. 

It's important to remember that maybe those people online in their beautiful engagement photos do have a better life. Maybe they don't. Who cares. It shouldn't destroy my life. Even Martha Stewart outsources though, so once you have an army of assistants start comparing. Emily McDowell is an amazing artist. 

Overall a very satisfying night of shopping. What did you fake buy online recently?

xoxo

Cookie Sunday

Every Sunday Something Magical Happens in my House.

We make cookies.

A Short History of cookie Sunday.

To understand cookie Sunday I should probably explain a few things about myself.

1. I am a single mom

2. I am Mormon

3. I used to blog about Sunday Thoughts.

4. I like eating.

When I grew up I think my mom made bread on Sunday. She also helped us make our school lunches.

which normally contained ginormous cookies I could easily trade for a Nutty Bar at my leisure. 

Also we didn't really get to watch awesome shows on Sunday. And we didn't really go to friends houses. And we didn't play outside.

I always felt like Sunday was a huge "dont." Don't go crazy and Don't go shopping and Don't watch TV.

Then I had children. These children asked me what we should do on Sunday. This Sunday dilemma is one of the first realizations of how arbitrary parenting was. I don't actually care if you watch TV all day on Sunday. Sitting in church discussing what to do and not to do and when you would consider your Ox in the mire and hearing stories of cars miraculously producing gas to the family wouldn't have to spend money on Sunday got mixed in with really really wanting to order pizza on Sunday. Like more than I would normally even consider eating pizza.

Then I became a single mom and my world sort of fell apart. 

One of the things I realized was most helpful for me was to have a schedule. To know what I was doing so I didn't just sit on the couch and cry all day. I realized I wanted to be actively in control of my life. I didn't want to blame other people for the bad things that had happened to me or for my circumstances. I didn't want my life to be a great big list of "Don'ts." To me Sunday just seem like a bunch of questions I couldn't answer.

I thought I should take a different approach. I would try to build traditions of things that we "did" on Sunday. To distract my children from my existential breakdown about their television habits and keep me from throwing away all their electronic devices. If Sunday was to visit the sick and afflicted and help the needy and build family time I would do that.

So we make cookies. Every Sunday. for over a year now. We bring our cookies to our neighbors. Or a friend that needs cookies. Or people visit us and we eat cookies. Or we take them with us when we hike the Y. (that's another good Sunday activity- haul my children up the mountain.) I bring cookies to work on Monday.

To prepare for the kids helping I split the ingredients into bowls. One bowl for each egg and vanilla, one bowl for the sugar, three bowls for the dry ingredients (I split them into three separate additions because that's what my mom taught me) one bowl for the chocolate chips.

One child dumps in a bowl and the other one starts the mixer. Then they help eat the dough while we are baking the other cookies. Then they run a plate over to the neighbors. Then they eat cookies.

I'm trying to make a point of being more proactive about the type of person I want to be. If I want to be religious I need to have something to show for it. I happen to have lots of cookies to show for it. they are something I make on Sunday. Something I am DOING rather than just a list of rules.

Cookie Sunday is the most fantastic religious decision I've ever made.


Recipe for the pictures:
Preheat oven to 350
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 stick margarine (I used Imperial for this recipe)
1 stick salted butter
cream 2 minutes

2 extra large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
add eggs 1 at a time

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Giradelli this time- brand has a HUGE impact on the taste)
stir together- add to other ingredients in at least three different parts.

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips

I am always experimenting with how many chocolate chips to add.
Line cookie sheets with aluminum foil.
scoop out cookies with an ice cream scoop.
refrigerate at least 5 minutes before putting them in the oven.bake around 12 minutes. 
Check your cookies. then if you are me add 2 more minutes.

The total cook time depends on the size of your cookies.
every week I try to make the cookies just a tiny bit different so I will post what I think. This recipe is pretty classic and easy.
I hope you can make it for Cookie Sunday this week!
xoxo

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