Ready for Halloween?

I saw these Mickey pumpkin cookies and couldn't pass them up!

Who's ready for Halloween?! :D

Salted Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies

I've been wanting to try some new things for awhile, but it's getting hard being so pregnant and everything haha...I found this cookie recipe in one of my baking books: Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich and it sounded so yummy (well, if you're a peanut butter fan!) Check it out!

Ingredients: -1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour -1/2 tsp. baking soda -3/4 tsp. reg. salt or 1 tsp. coarse sea salt -1 stick unsalted butter, melted -1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar (dark or light) -1/2 c. sugar -1 large egg -1 tsp. pure vanilla extract -1 c. natural chunky peanut butter (not unsalted)--stir well to blend in the oil before measuring -1 c. toffee peanuts, very coarsely chopped *So, first off, I only had regular peanuts in my pantry, so I found a quick recipe to make some toffee nuts! It was really a small mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, and sugar and then I coated the nuts and baked them in the oven for about 15 minutes. They smelled so good and are easy to make if you don't have any already on hand!*

To Make the Cookies: 1. Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together thoroughly in a medium bowl and set aside. 2. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter with both sugars.

Whisk in the egg, vanilla, and peanut butter. Add the flour mixture and mix with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon just until evenly incorporated.

3. Cover the dough and refrigerate for an hour or two, or up to 2 days. 4. Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. 5. Pour the chopped nuts into a shallow bowl.

Scoop about 2 level teaspoons of dough for each cookie, shape into a 1-inch ball, and coat heavily with the chopped nuts, pressing in any pieces that fall off, so that there are no bald spots. Place the balls 2 inches apart on the lined baking sheets.

6. Bake the cookies until they are lightly colored on top, 12-15 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. The cookies will seem very soft to the touch, but they will firm up as they cool. Set the baking sheets on a rack to cool completely. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for at least 2 weeks.

Birthday Carrot Cake

Happy Birthday, to my wonderful mom! I made my special carrot cake as per her request--and it turned out dynamite :) What's your favorite birthday cake?

More posts to come soon!