Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Pistachio Cookies with Apricot and Surprise -)

Filled with chocolate chips, apricots and toasted pistachios, these cookies are just right with a glass of cold milk.

I have another version of Chocolate chip cookies, also very unique, with Flax, Chia and Hemp Seeds, for recipe visit here.

And the surprise -)) Recently, I received  an amazing song about the Chocolate chip cookies from Notebook Noise.

Notebook Noise just finished his 3rd album Strange Tongue.  You can download it free. Thaddeus is from Chicago and wrote the song Cookies for his daughter and his mom.  The song features his 9 year old daughter too.  It's acoustic and catchy. Enjoy! We sure did-)




Makes: 2 dozen

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 white chocolate chips
• 1 cup roasted, unsalted toasted shelled natural pistachios, coarsely chopped, plus more about 2 Tbsp for sprinkle the top
• 3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer; beat on medium speed until smooth. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating on low speed to incorporate between additions, then add the vanilla extract. Beat on low speed until smooth. Stop to scrape down the bowl.



Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, gradually add to the bowl, beating on low speed until well incorporated.
Stir in the chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, then 1 cup of the pistachios and the dried apricots.

Drop heaping tablespoons of the dough, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart, onto the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle some of the remaining pistachios on the top of each cookie. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are just set but still soft to the touch. Cool completely before serving or storing. Repeat to use all of the dough.

Decorated Pumpkins Contest and Chocolate Rice Crispies

Every year our Town has the “Paint Our Town” competition. Last year my daughter and I entered for window painting. We were assigned a big window in one of the restaurants. We liked our idea: we invented a new character, the Tree-Cula, a big happy tree with a cape and Dracula teeth. Our Tree-Cula turned out very funny and very nice. We did such a great job and had lots of fun. Although we did not win anything, our experience was wonderful.



This year we decided to do something different, and we entered  the “Decorating Pumpkin” contest. One of the rules was not to carve our pumpkins. My husband gave us the idea about how to do the snow man, and we liked that-))
Three white pumpkins were carefully collected from our local Styer Orchard farm. We worked diligently and every day came up with new ideas for the decoration. After a week of creative work I proudly can show you our splendid results.



Although, our pumpkins were white in the beginning, we gave them a little color for a rustic effect. The bottom one we decorated with fallen leaves from our backyard, the tummy piece with apples that we cut from the fabric I have. We found wild pecan nuts in the park and converted them into buttons for our snow man. The nose is a stem from the middle pumpkin, and an old lamp shade was turned into the hat. When the snow man was done we decided to call him Fall-Man, after all he is made from pumpkins and has a scarecrow on his head.
Enjoy!



For more photos visit Newtown Window Painting 2011

After a hard work and lots of fun we treated ourselves with the Crunchy Chocolate Rice Crispies.

Kids love to make them, specially round them with a coconut oil hands-)))



Ingredients:

•  8 tbsp (4 oz, 120 g) unsalted butter
•  1/3 cup (32 g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
•  Two 10-oz bags (565g) mini marshmallows
•  10 cups (300 g) crisp rice cereal
•  ¾ cup (150 g) semisweet mini chocolate chips

Preparations:

Combine the butter and cocoa powder in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Let the butter melt, and stir so that the mixture is well combined. Add the marshmallows and let them melt completely.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the rice cereal.



When it is well coated in the marshmallow mixture, stir in half the chocolate chips. Let the mixture cool for about 5 minutes, then stir in the remaining chocolate chips.
Let cool to room temperature.

  

Oil your hands with coconut oil, and shape some of the cereal mixture into a ball the size of a golf ball (1.68-inch, to be exact). Using an ice cream scoop for measuring helps to achieve the uniform size of the balls. Place the ball on a baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining mixture. Let the balls set, then store them in an air-tight container in a dry, cool environment for up to 3 days. If you like you may refrigerate them, they will harden. I like them that way.
What are you eating these days?