Ah, no-bake cookies!  The perfect go-to weeknight craving-crusher.  The dessert appropriate for any season.  The one treat I can make and say to myself, "Hey, they're healthy because they have oatmeal and peanut butter in them."  I've made this recipe since college, and I eat them for breakfast- without shame- until they are gone.

So last week, one of my students handed me The Nightingale with the assurance that it was "the best book ever."  She didn't lie.  It was incredible in so many ways.  Once I crawled inside the pages,  I didn't come up for air for days.  I was in a book stupor.  I thought about the book constantly, wondering what would happen next in the 400+ pages.  I couldn't sleep, but when I did I dreamed of the characters and their dramatic lives.  Seriously!  Finally, after 3 days of this madness I was an emotional trainwreck and knew I had to get back to reality.   With only 50 pages to go I looked up the ending on CliffsNotes to have some closure (gasp!  I know...), gave the book back to the student with my heartfelt thanks and instructions to (jokingly) NEVER recommend a book to me again, and came home in a fog. 

I know you think I'm a crazy person.  You're probably right.  But this usually happens to me once or twice a year.  I think my last time was with The Girl on the Train.  Has anyone else experienced this?  And now I just keep thinking I need to read the ending for myself.  Sigh.

 Anyway... determined to reconnect with my real life, I decided to make a huge batch of no-bakes with Reed.  Toddlers and chocolate.  It was the only logical solution.

​Yep, that's right.  #ReedCooks is back!  Y'all ready for this?!

Reed was pumped to be back in the kitchen!  This recipe is perfect for weeknight book-induced baking frenzies.  5 minutes of prep, 10 minutes of cooking, a little cleanup, and you'll have fudgy chocolate cookies just in time for a bubble bath before bed.  No books allowed.

Start out by melting a stick of margarine on medium-low heat.  (The "eat healthy" part of my brain ignores this step.)

As the butter melts, add in two cups of granulated sugar and a quarter cup of unsweetened cocoa powder.  
​(Also ignored.  It gets easier the more you do it.)

Add 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter.  See, I told ya it was healthy!

Crank the heat up to medium high and stir often until all the ingredients melt together and eventually come to a boil.  It smells so good!  

"Get... out... of that peanut butter jar!!!"  
I love how he thinks he's getting away with something.  Mr. Rebellious, right there.

Stir constantly and let the mixture boil for 2 minutes.

Turn off the heat and pour the chocolate mixture into the oats.  Stir it together quickly.  Lay out some wax paper on the countertop or in a tupperware container.  Spoon the mixture onto the wax paper, moving quickly.  They will firm up fast!

I like to put my cookies in the refrigerator so they get cold quickly, which means I get to eat them quickly.  Other, more practical folks like to let them sit on the counter to dry and firm up at room temperature.  Keep in mind that these no-bakes are quite gooey, so I think eating them cold makes for an extra-fudgy treat.

And that's all there is to it!  So easy and so delicious!  

Now that the cares of The Nightingale are past, I have moved on to Wonder by R. J. Polacio.  It is a delight!  Please feel free to leave any book rec's in the the comments along with thoughts on the recipe!

Last week, The Little Outdoorsman had spent a little too much time outdoors.  He was tired, cranky, and sniffly. As the muggy temperatures climbed into the lower 90's (again), I resolved to keep him inside and spend the evening making sugar cookies.

My family has been making these sugar cookies for years and years.  My mom passed the recipe to me; I remember she cut the recipe out of a magazine when I was a little girl and pasted it in a red notebook. It is a classic sugar cookie recipe- the cookies are soft, the icing is sweet and fluffy.  They are a dream at Christmastime, but Christmas in July is a thing, right?  

I am watching Sleepless in Seattle as I type this post during nap time...  
"Now that was when people KNEW how to be in love. They knew it! Time, distance... nothing could separate them because they knew. It was right. It was real. It was..." 
What a movie!  It is seriously my favorite movie of all time.  I am basically Meg Ryan's character in real life.  It's scary.

Anyway, I tried to involve Reed in every step of the process.  We collected measuring cups, spoons, mixers, and bowls, set out all of the ingredients, and got to work (see recipe at end of post).

We started out by measuring and mixing together all of the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt.  I'm trying to teach him to flatten out the ingredients when he measures them and count the cups and teaspoons as he pours.  He loves being in charge.  He says, "Lemme do it all by myself, Mommy.  I want to do it all by myself, please!"  So what if by the end of the night there are eggs on the floor and flour on the dog?

Put the dry ingredients aside and cream Crisco, water, and sugar until it is fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time and mix well.

Beautiful!

In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir together 1/2 cup of milk with 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.

Time to put it all together!  Turn the mixer on the slowest setting possible (to avoid spraying flour all over the kitchen) and add in the dry ingredients and the milk mixture, alternating the two.  Stop the mixer as soon as the ingredients have mixed together to avoid the cookies getting too tough.

Cover the dough and let it chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  We ordered a pizza and cleaned the flour off of Oliver's head.  He was not amused.  "I'm sorry, Walter.  Are you bleeding?" He's fine.

After an hour, we floured the counter top and rolled out the dough.  I need to get one of those cloths that you roll dough out on.  For now, a clean counter works just fine.

Then the fun really began!  Most of my cookie cutters are holiday shapes, but I managed to find a star, a heart, and a blue cup to serve as our summer sugar cookie dough cutters. Mr. Independent took over from there.

8-10 minutes later, voila! Beautiful!  

While I was taking my classes at Miami this summer, Reed's Cha-cha (grandma) taught him how to dye icing.  He remembered this, of course, and insisted on dying some of the icing green and blue.  Boys.

TLO was getting pretty tired by decorating time, so I did most of this part by myself before rewarding him with a big, blue cookie.  I left some of the icing white with colorful sprinkles, some with green icing, and some with blue icing.

Hard work pays off!

By bedtime, I had a full belly, a sink full of dishes, and a happy boy.  These are the nights that fill me up.  They are my soul food time!

"H and G!" (Hi and Goodbye!)  I just know you will love these soft cookies. Enjoy!

Cookie Dough Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups sifted flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter flavored Crisco
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 6 teaspoons of water
-2 cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Set aside.  Cream Crisco, water, and sugar until fluffy in a standing mixer.  Add eggs one at a time and beat well.  In a measuring cup or small bowl, mix milk and vanilla.  With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients, one cup at a time, alternating with milk and vanilla, beating until mixed well.  Wrap and chill for at least one hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface.  Cut dough into shapes and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Do not overbake!

Icing Ingredients
- 4 cups confectioner's sugar
- 1 stick margarine
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2-3 Tablespoons of half and half

Mix together confectioner's sugar, margarine, and vanilla.  Add half and half a tablespoon at a time until the icing reaches a creamy consistency.


Allow the cookies to cool before icing.

When my birthday rolled around each June, my grandma would switch up from the chocolate cake with vanilla icing and mini-chocolate chip sprinkles to a strawberry poke cake- just for me.  It was my favorite!  And whenever I eat a strawberry poke cake now, all the memories of the candle and Sunday dinners and family fun come flooding back, and I can feel that special birthday feeling again.

So I decided to replicate my beautiful birthday cake for the annual Fourth of July party (recipe at end of post).  The ingredients are pretty simple: white cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, water, whipped topping, strawberry gelatin mix, and sprinkles (optional but fun).

First, just make your favorite white cake mix according to the instructions on the box.

You'd think that would be the easy part (because it is).  Apparently, I can't follow directions because my bundt cake turned out like this...

Yikes! I still have no idea what I did wrong!  I wanted to do a bundt cake because that is what my grandma always does.  Not happening! So I tried again, just a sheet cake this time, and managed to do that right. Whew.

Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, and poke it with a fork every 1/2 inch or so.  Get it- poke cake?  Ooooohhhh!

Add the strawberry gelatin mix to 1 cup of boiling water and stir for about 2 minutes.  Add 1/2 cup of cold water to the gelatin mixture and pour it over the cake.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours.

Spread the whipped topping evenly on the cake and add the sprinkles of your choice.  Try not to eat the cool-whip with a spoon like I do.  Refrigerate again for another hour. 

Enjoy!  It was delicious- flavorful and moist and fun- a big hit.  I think it would be neat to experiment with some different gelatin colors, but I haven't tried that yet!  Let me know what flavors you have tried in the comments!

Strawberry Poke Cake

Ingredients:
- 1 package boxed White Cake mix
- The ingredients needed to make the cake mix (on the back of the box- vegetable oil, water, egg whites)
- 1 (3 oz) package strawberry gelatin mix
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1 tub (8 oz) whipped topping

Prepare the cake mix as directed in a 13x9-inch cake pan.  Allow the cake to cool for about 15 minutes.  Poke it with a fork every 1/2 inch or so.
Boil one cup of water.  Add the strawberry gelatin mix to the boiling water and stir well, about 2 minutes.  Stir in 1/2 cup of cold water.  Pour carefully over the cake and refrigerate, at least 3 hours.

Use the entire tub of whipped topping to frost the cake.  Add sprinkles (optional).  Refrigerate for at least one hour and serve.