Chocolate Raspberry Chip Sixlet Cookies

It's really hard for me to resist buying baking supplies, especially when I find specialty items. I have drawers full of specialty chocolate chips, candies, flours and extracts. When I came across these raspberry flavored chocolate chips at an Amish market, I knew I had to have them. They look just like regular chocolate chips but pack a punch of sweet raspberry flavor. I knew they would be the perfect addition to a dark chocolate cookie.

Rolo Cake Mix Bars

Every now and then I disappear from my blog for a week or so. Not because I don't enjoy blogging, but sometimes I just need a break. The past few weeks have been busy, mostly thanks to a new little guy in my life - our rescue puppy, Tucker.

Coconut Cream Eggs

You know it's Easter in central Pennsylvania when you find baskets of homemade peanut butter eggs for sale beside every cash register in every restaurant or store. Somewhere in church basements, ladies gather to make hundreds and hundreds of peanut butter and coconut eggs to sell. You'll find them wrapped in colored foil or in wax paper bags, and they're so reasonably priced you'll find yourself buying them by the dozen. And if you're like me, you'll be eating them by the dozen too.

Take 5 Cookies

I hinted to this giveaway a few weeks ago on Facebook and Twitter but I am happy to finally announce that I have this cute little spatula to give away to one lucky reader!

The limited edition "Be a Good Cookie" spatula from OXO was created to raise awareness for Cookies for Kids' Cancer, a charity devoted to raising money for pediatric cancer research through local bake sales. Founded in 2007 by two OXO employees who sadly lost their son to cancer, Cookies for Kids' Cancer has raised 2.5 million dollars for pediatric cancer research.

A White Halloween

Source: cakeinfo.blogspot.com via Amber on Pinterest

My roommate and I had been planning a Halloween party since we moved into our apartment two months ago. We set the date, sent out a Facebook invitation and covered our apartment from top to bottom in Halloween decor. I went to three costume stores in search of the perfect costume, only to settle on a homemade costume instead. I scoured Pinterest and some of my favorite blogs to come up with the ideas for cute treats for our guests to enjoy.

And then, Snowtober hit. Five inches of snow and widespread power outages led us to postpone our party until November 12.

So, our Halloween decorations will stay up for two more weeks. And our neighbors will probably think we're crazy when our guests show up in costumes, mid-November.

Here are just a few of the things we had up our sleeves for the party.

Octoberfest Pretzel Caramels

I've been subscribing to Food Network Magazine since they launched their first issue about three years ago. I love the design and layout of the magazine, it's reader friendly and it really showcases the food. Not to mention the recipes are outstanding (I have had a few fails, but the good far out-number the bad). I never threw away an issue, until just this summer when I finally decided to go through the magazines and tear out the recipes I wanted to save and organized them in a binder.

I flipped through the latest issue of the magazine and stumbled upon a recipe for Beer Pretzel Caramels. I've always been intimidated by making homemade caramel. I knew it was easy to burn it and it would require a candy thermometer, which I did not have. However, the list of ingredients was short and I thought it would be the perfect thing to make on a chilly Football Sunday. So I got my butt off the couch after a Baltimore Ravens loss (though I still proudly wore my t-shirt) and went to the store to buy beer and a candy thermometer. I'm sure the cashiers see that purchase every day.