Gourmet Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe

One of the things that I really love about Disney World is the food. When I stumbled on the recipe page on allears, I was pretty sure I found heaven on earth. Here is a recipe for one of my favorite cookies in the Magic Kingdom.

Gourmet Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies from the Main Street Bakery
Ingredients:

1 cup Butter
1 tablespoon Brown sugar
1 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 cup Cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
18 oz. Semisweet chocolate chunks

Method:

Preheat oven 375 F. Cream butter, sugars, vanilla, and cocoa powder. Stir in remaining ingredients and blend well. Refrigerate 30 minutes. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet about 2" apart. Bake until cookies are set, 5-8 minutes. Cool slightly and remove from pan. When making large cookies, press down slightly on cookie dough to help cook more evenly. Bake slightly longer, 8-10 minutes.

These cookies have a spongy, cakey like consistency, but taste like a brownie. I had a bit of a problem finding a happy medium for a cooking time using our new pans that we got for a wedding gift. I ended up having to cook mine for 8 minutes on the bottom shelf, and then for 3 on the top.

Lights Before Christmas and Warm Woolies

I missed out on making a Thanksgiving post, so I hope everyone had a wonderful one. I didn't actually bake anything this year, Ronnie and I went to my parents and enjoyed everything they made over there. Yummy!

On Friday my mom, Kevin, Kevin's girlfriend Emily, Aunti Kay, and Sarah and I all made our way up to the Toledo Zoo to see the Lights Before Christmas. Although it didn't snow, it was pretty cold. The temperature was in the low 30's, but with the windchill it felt like it was around 15 degrees. I invested in a pair of super warm snow boots this year that make me look like I'm walking on the moon. I also covered myself from head to toe in my knitting.

there is a reason I look like a marshmellow

I wore my ear flap hat (made from Patons Wool) , my squish scarf (made from Misti Alpaca Super Chunky) , a tee-shirt over a thermals with my Oh Stewardess cardigan (made from Shepherds Fiber Mill Shepherds Wool) over that, all under my jacket. I wore my cabled mitts (in Patons Wool) over a pair of regular ole gloves (I ended up shoving the mittens inside of my coat because I was just too warm), jeans with my thermal leggings annnnd my In The Woods slipper socks (made from Patons Wool) inside of my boots with their super warm booties. All links go to items on my Ravelry profile. :)

I usually despise doing these kinds of winter things because I hate feeling cold, but I have to say with all of my woolies I was INCREDIBLY warm. I kept taking items off if we would step inside a building because I was getting too hot. All this stuff should come in handy next month when we do Christmas at Greenfield Village. Let's just hope it doesn't sleet this year.

just for fun, here is a picture of my brother on a metal gorilla. mom you're embarrassing me! ha!

I've been hard at work on my knitting. I've got about 90% of one of the Ringwood gloves done for my moms Christmas present. I took a break from the Percy Shawl I'm knitting because I need another cake of yarn, and I think I will order a few more with it. Decisions, decisions.

I've read A LOT this month. I probably won't be writing any reviews, but I will do a round up of what I've read at the very end of the month. I'm going to try to squeeze one more book in before I do. Thank heavens for audio books. Knitting and listening to a book is pure heaven.

Yuletide Cheer

I found this menu of specialty holiday drinks from Disney's Hollywood Studios today while reading one of my favorite blogs, The Disney Food Blog. While it's not technically baking, I would love to try making a few of these drinks. The Snowball in particular looks yummy.

Pillars of the Earth on DVD

The DVD for one of my favorite historical novels came out today. It was on the Starz network, but we don't have that channel so I've been waiting for this for a long time. We've only watched the first 2 episodes so far, but it's really great. I read the book early last year, but then I read World Without End twice. I found myself saying 'I don't remember this part' a lot so I'm going to have to re-read the novel after we finish the series.

Alice for the iPad

I wish I had an iPad, because this looks super fun:

get the app here.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

Description from Amazon.com: An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time.

The narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul.

A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life—and, finally, in love. He is released into Marianne's care and takes up residence in her huge stone house. But all is not well. For one thing, the pull of his past sins becomes ever more powerful as the morphine he is prescribed becomes ever more addictive. For another, Marianne receives word from God that she has only twenty-seven sculptures left to complete—and her time on earth will be finished.

Already an international literary sensation, The Gargoyle is an Inferno for our time. It will have you believing in the impossible.





A few days ago I was Christmas shopping with my mom, and I came across a sale copy of The Gargoyle at Borders. This book is one of my very favorites and at $6.99, you can't beat the price! I just started re-reading it 2 days ago and I'm already 3/4ths of the way done with it. The story can be a little cringe worthy at points, but I really think it's worth sticking it out to the end. If you have a Borders near you, I highly recommend picking this book up.

Holiday Knitting

I'm really behind on my holiday knitting, but here are some things I had in mind to make:

Ringwood Gloves for mom

Cerus Scarf (via Ravelry) for dad

Cosy basket-cardigan for Alexis
Non Stop Top for Janalynn
Seaside Sweater for Ethan

Percy Shawl for Kay. I'm about halfway done with this right now.

I realize there is no way I will be able to get all of this stuff finished by Christmas, so some people might be getting gifts a little late.

Rich and Creamy Potato Casserole Recipe

If there is 2 things that I love, it's cheese and potatoes. Put the two of them together and I'm in heaven. My mom e-mailed me this recipe yesterday and I went out early today to get the ingredients to try it out. They are easy and absolutely DELICIOUS!

Rich and Creamy Potato Casserole
6 medium potatoes
2 cups sour cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 green onions
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover and cook for additional 15-20 until tender. Drain and cool.

Peel & grate potatoes; place in a bowl. Add the sour cream, cheddar cheese, 3 tbsp of butter, onions, salt & pepper.

Transfer to a greased baking dish. Drizzle remaining butter (1 tbsp). Bake uncovered at 350degrees for 30-35 minutes.



I cut this recipe in half since I was only cooking for myself and Ronnie. I picked up 4 potatoes from the grocery store, but 3 was plenty. I've never boiled potatoes in their skins so this was a first for me. From now on if I ever need to boil potatoes I'm going to do it this way. It makes peeling them so easy, I could peel the skin off with my fingers. I didn't use the onion in mine since we aren't big fans of them. My mom made hers with a sweet onion. Next time I make this, I will cut the potato cubes a little smaller because they were a little awkward for me to eat in one bite. So Yummy!

Boiled potatoes cooling off

All of the ingredients ready for the oven.

Anxiously awaiting them to cool so I can eat them up!

Oh Stewardess!

Pattern : Emerald Isle Cardigan by Melissa Wehrle from Knitscene magazine Fall 2009

Yarn: Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd's Wool in Navy

Needle Size: 5 for the ribbing, and 7 for the body

Dates: November 5th - November 15th

My Project Name: I knit this for work. As you can see, I named it Oh Stewardess as opposed to Oh Flight Attendant. I named it this for 2 reasons. #1, it's what my husband used to say to me when we first started dating and #2 because when I was at my local yarn store picking up the yarn the owner asked me what I was going to make with it. I told her it was a sweater for work and was deep in thought when she asked what my job was. When I answered I distractedly said 'stewardess' confusing both her and my husband who I dragged along yarn shopping.

Modifications: The only huge change I made to this was the sleeves. I needed the sweater to look as similar to our uniform sweater so that meant no sleeve tabs. I also wanted a more fitted sleeve so although I knit the sweater in a medium size, I knit the sleeves in the smallest size listed. I also knit them in the round.

New techniques learned: Tubular cast-on I LOVED this cast on and will be using it a lot more in the future.

Although these techniques weren't exactly new to me, these two tutorials were very helpful to me. One Row Buttonhole and Mattress Stitching for the seams.

Notes: I really love this finished product. The fit is really good. I wanted to make it a little big, so I knit a size 37.5. I didn't actually end up blocking the pieces because as I was trying it on while knitting, the fit was coming out perfect. The waist shaping looks great. Also, the yarn is super soft. I had originally wanted to knit this with a superwash, but quickly changed my mind when I felt how great this yarn is. I would definitely knit something with it again.

More Pictures:

The color is off on this shot, but it's a good picture of the cast on.

Happy birthday Mumsie

Today is my moms birthday, but we celebrated yesterday. I decided I wanted to bake her something but since I was in a bit of a rush, I didn't go complicated. I ended up making her some Duncan Hines cupcakes straight from the box. I made these for Ronnie when we first started dating and they were such a big hit with him that I decided to make them for my mom this year. I have to admit I'm a sucker for these cake mix boxes because they're so easy to make. This mix has a separate fudge packet (which looks like instant hot chocolate) that you mix with the vanilla cupcake ingredients. It's given me an idea for some of the ghirardelli hot chocolate mix I have laying around. I have so many things on my 'to bake' list, but this is certainly something I'd like to experiment with.

Speaking of my 'to bake list', my mom gave me 2 recipes that I can't wait to try out here. Her famous banana bread, and some cheesy potatoes. Yum, I can't wait!

Cassie Maddox

Pattern : Ishbel by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: Wolle's Yarn Creations, Color Changing Cotton 100gr in the color 'tealish purple'

Needle Size: 4

Dates: October 28th - November 3rd 2010

My Project Name: I've been completely enthralled by Tana French's Irish detective novels this month and I'm particularly in love with the character Cassie. I listened to 'The Likeness' in it's entirety while knitting this up.

Modifications: My original plan was to knit the larger size of this shawl on smaller needles so that all I could use up all of this pretty yarn. I thought I was going to be alright, but it became pretty evident that I was going to run out of yarn while I was knitting section D. I ended up omitting rows 7 & 8, and then pretty much so did the yarn overs where I knew they were supposed to be for the one row of chart E.

New techniques learned: None.

Notes: Starting my Christmas knitting a little late. This one is for Sarah. She's allergic to wool so I was on the look out for something cotton. This color reminded me of a shirt she has, but after I finished knitting this up I'm a little worried about the pink. It's not her most favorite color, which I of course forgot about because it's one of my favorites. I hope she likes it anyway.

I stumbled on this yarn on etsy. I picked up this color and one more in the color in 'Carrot cake.' The yarn took me a little while to get used to. It's a 4-ply, but the strands aren't twisted together. It didn't cause me any problems while knitting but I really had to watch what I was doing to make sure I wasn't knitting into separate strands and making a big ole mess of my lace. The strands actually ended up being a god send in the end when I was running out of yarn. When I did my bind-off I pulled 2 strands apart and tied them to the end of the other 2 pieces to make myself a longer piece.

More Pictures: