Chocolate Mocha Sugar Cookies
Today I decided to try to use up some of the ingredients I had sitting in my cupboard. So, I picked these cookies. Now, we were out of eggs, so since I only needed one, I used a substitute I found online. It worked fine…the cookie dough was a little crumbly, but maybe that’s just the nature of the cookies. They turned out delicious! I ended up making a sort of glaze for the top of them out of peanut butter, maple syrup, and honey. Then I decorated them with sweet little snowflake sprinkles from Williams-Somoma. See below for the recipe and some photos!
Chocolate Mocha Sugar Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen
Dust these cookies with equal parts powdered sugar and sweetened cocoa powder, if you like.
Nutrition:
Per serving (1 cookie/17g-wt.): 70 calories (25 from fat), 3g total fat, 1.5g saturated fat, 15mg cholesterol, 25mg sodium, 10g total carbohydrate (0g dietary fiber, 5g sugar), 1g protein
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups flour, plus more for rolling out cookies
1 tablespoon instant coffee
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions:
In a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well blended. In a separate bowl combine flour, instant coffee, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. With mixer at low speed, beat flour mixture into butter mixture to blend well. Divide dough in half and shape into two discs. Wrap in waxed paper and chill until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Dust work surface and rolling pin lightly with flour. Working with one disc of dough at a time, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick and cut out cookies with floured cookie cutters. Transfer cookies to parchment paper-lined baking sheets, spacing them 1 inch apart, and bake until lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Decorate as desired and store in an airtight container.
A taste of our honeymoon.
So I had to go into our honeymoon photos to pull out a few pics for a friend, and I ended up pulling aside a few favorites…most of which were taken in Paris. Now, let me forewarn you so you don’t get your hopes up too much, this is a VERY small edit out of all of the gorgeous things that were seen and photographed. I will do a MUCH larger edit at some point when I have the energy. Perhaps I will do a post on each city…we’ll see.
Anyway, here’s a few, just to show you a tiny portion of the fun that was had! Best honeymoon ever. We win. :)
In the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles
Another image in the Hall of Mirrors. This place was out of control.
The Eiffel Tower on our last night in town. Just gorgeous.
Another. I couldn't resist. It took us about 20 tries to get some photos that weren't blurry.
Some overpriced and creepy colored gelato...but it made for an awesome photo. (In Rome.)
That’s all you get for now…so sorry. :)
More to come!
something new to love…
on my favorite blog ever, design*sponge, today she posted this artists gorgeous and sweet little love messages that are painted (or printed?) onto a whitewashed board, then framed. don’t tell, but i might copy this just with paper. it won’t be quite as cool…but each of these little guys costs around $200+!! i’m not totally sure, but i’m pretty positive that we can’t afford that, considering we are already only eating rice and beans for dinner every night. haha. i think these would be darling hanging above our bed though!
and then there is this one, which would be fun to create at some point, but right now we really don’t have any wall space for this in our house…
xx
Treats!
Today I decided to whip up a couple of snacks for the house! First, roasted some almonds I had around in the oven with olive oil, garlic, and cayenne pepper. They’re alright….not the best thing I’ve ever made. I’m never too crazy about my almond roasting results. Any suggestions, anyone?
Secondly, I made some delicious granola. I bought a bunch of dry, old fashioned oatmeal for $1.50 yesterday to try my hand at this. It was so easy. I’m definitely going to make my own granola from now on. All I did was mix 4 cups of oatmeal, 1 table spoon of cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, then in a separate bowl I mixed the wet stuff: 1/2 cup of honey, 1/4 cup of canola oil, & 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Then I poured the wet onto the dry, mixed it together, put it on a baking sheet for 10 minutes, then flipped it and baked it for another 10, then I mixed in some dried fruit! And voilà!! Delicious granola. Next time I’ll get more creative with flavors..this was just a trial. Haha.
one more…
my sister made this thinking of me.
she is amazing. please, go look at her blog…now!!!
Abolition SF
Next Friday, October 23rd, I am curating an art show in San Francisco to raise awareness about the issue of Human Trafficking.
(Did you know there are an estimated 27 million slaves worldwide?!)
There are things that regular people like you and I can do to help, and that is one of the reasons we are doing this art show. Through the show we will be focusing on teaching those that attend about how they can help by having art that focuses on three areas:
-Intentional Shopping (buying Fair Trade)
-Personal Advocation (spreading the word that we need to abolish slavery)
-Political Involvement (which can be anything from writing a simple letter to your senator, to going to D.C. and lobbying)
Here is the artwork that my fantastic husband has created!!! (Which will be part of the show.)
(we need to change the photo as it was juse something found on google!)
If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, please come to the show! Here are the details:
When: Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Time: 6:30-9:30 PM
Location: 455 Dolores St. (Between 18th and Dorland)
Cost: $5-10 Sliding Scale Donation (All proceeds will go to SOLD and SAGE – local efforts to end slavery)
Ahh, my lovely sister…
My sweet sister is in Lacoste, France for the quarter, and is furthering her passion for fibers there. Man is she talented.
Anyway.
I got to Skype with her the other day, and it was amazing!
My sister is freaking hilarious. And beautiful. Her blog is on the right!
Anyway, I will post more soon about what is going on (mostly my wonderful husband’s incredible artwork that he has created for our Abolition Art Show)!
With love and peace.
Torrential down pour, flood advisory, and winds up to 40 MPH
Today was an insane weather day in SF. I opted out of going into the office to stay dry. Instead it was a lovely, relaxing day which included: errands, skyping with my fab sis, baking sugar cookies, napping, and the ABOLITION workshop. Lovely.
Clean up!
Yesterday I took the day to partially clean and organize the house a bit. I set up my sewing machine again!!! That has hardly been used since being in our new house! Exciting.
Living the life.
My sweet little sister is studying abroad for the quarter with her school SCAD in Lacoste, France. I would highly recommend checking out her blog not only for fun stories, but for her creative insight. Here’s a link to Janelle’s Blog.
Goodnight!
