Corgi Butts Secret Santa Exchange

 A Box arrived.

 

Christmas Day The dogs start to investigate.

 

Laci is not to sure about it.

Of Course I had to help open it.

 

Look Gifts from a Bloggy Corgi friend our Secret Santa

 Krystle Briese and Luna and Twinkie 

from Briese Corgis

 

Hmm now she is interested, must small something tasty.

 

Hmm the first wrapped Gift, wonder what it is?

Its a Bottle Buddy!

Ohh!!! Buddy spied this fun toy and took it for him self.

 I think Laci wants in on the fun!

 

Oh this is what I smelled, Mom I want one!

 

Finally a toy for me, Laci got a Konk Tugga Wubba toy!

The dogs love their toys and It was so fun gifting someone something and getting something unexpected.

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cookies for Kids' Cancer

The Great Food Blogger 

Cookie Swap

I loved being able to help in a little way with a great Charity, Cookies for Kids Cancer. I had a great time with this Cookie Swap, to only did I bake 3 dozen of my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe and sent out One Dozen to Three other Bloggers, but I also received 3 separate dozen cookies from other Bloggers. I got White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies from Fran's Favs, Hazelnut Dusties from Small Town Cookie, and Molasses cookies from Bake Not Burn. All three were wonderful I personally loved the Hazelnut Dusties. 

Now on to my recipe Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies, admit it you all started off using the recipe of the bag of Chocolate Chips, Probably Toll-house brand. I did but once I started really learning how to cook and bake I wanted to search for and find that Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe! And I did what a lot of you now probably do I Googled The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. And what did I find three links down is this recipe. Its from Savory Sweet Life and it is now my go-to Recipe, that is until I find a better recipe. So try out this cookie recipe and then come back to my blog and let me know if You thought they were your Favorite!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever!

Author: Savory Sweet Life

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 12 mins

Total time: 22 mins

Serves: 48 Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
• 3/4 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use triple Chocolate Chips)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
2. Freeze for 5 minutes before baking
3. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Notes

* Please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie. If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.
* I realized grocery stores sell bags of chocolate chips in 12 oz bags but this recipe really needs every last chip. Otherwise you’ll get cookies with only a few chips in each one and this recipe requires lots of chocolate to bulk the cookie up. You’ll need about 1 1/2 bags.
* I buy a mixed bag of chocolate chips at a Amish grocer but I'm sure you can find them at other stores it measures out to 2 1/4 cups so I just use one bag.
* I also like to freeze the trays of scooped Cookie dough in the Freezer for 5 minutes to firm them up they don't flatten as much.

Before Baking

After Baking

 Oh and thank you OXO for sending me a lovely Orange Silicone Spatula and for supporting Cookies for Kids' Cancer. And Thank you to Love and Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen for organizing this whole Cookie Swap.

Photo a Day Challenge

Trying to start up the blog after a very busy summer and fall and I decided to challenge myself in Photography and in doing so I entered myself in a Photo a day challenge on the website Fatmumslim. Its called November Photo-a-day and so far its November 5th thus their have been 5 days of photos which I started late on this but made up all past 3 days then I continued on till today's picture. In doing this challenge I step up a small studio in my bedroom which I have one window with good light and am using that for some of my photos, like small things and food photography. So I'm having fun and getting inspired with this challenge, I might as well blog and post my photos as well.

Lets start with day 1
The theme is Something beginning with "C"
I just bought a half pound of Brie cheese and knew I had these lovely peppered Water Crackers and I just found some delicious Spiced Cherry Cider so this is titled...
Cheese, Crackers, and Cherry Cider.

Day 2
The theme is Colour
This is Sugary Rainbow




























Day 3
The Theme was breakfast
This is Ricotta and Blackberries and Toast with Ricotta and Blackberry Jam
























Day 4
The Theme was TV
This is my dads TV and all his cool pictures in his room.























Day 5
The Theme was 5 o'clock
This is trees and the sky on November 5 ant 5:00pm



























Day 6
The Theme was a Favorite thing
This is my puppy Laci my most favorite thing I have.

Day 7
The Theme was Reflection
This is Life through a Bubble

Day 8
The Theme is something you do everyday.
I take Laci out for a walk.

So that's it for now but next time I blog I will update you with the latest pictures.

2nd Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

I’m very excited to announce that I’m participating in the 2nd Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! This event, hosted by the bloggers behind Love and Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen, brings together food bloggers from around the world in the celebration and sharing of my (and Cookie Monster’s) favorite dessert.

Once you sign up, you’ll receive three mailing addresses for participating bloggers. Then you make a favorite or new cookie recipe the send each blogger one dozen of your homemade treats. In a few days, you’ll receive three different boxes of delicious cookies from other food bloggers. Then post your own cookie recipe on your blog and share your favorites.

 By participating in this cookie swap you are not only contributing to the food blogger community, but also supporting a great cause.  The Cookie Swap is partnering with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer and, is requiring a $4 donation from each participant. Even more exciting, the kitchen and appliance brand, OXO will match each donation dollar for dollar, up to $100,000! And, to sweeten the deal, U.S. bloggers will receive a free Be a Good Cookie Spatula!

Last year 600 bloggers signed up for the swap and nearly 22,000 cookies were sent all around the world!

Great food blogger Cookie Swap 2012 

Introduction to my New puppy Laci!

A while back I introduced you all to my dog Emma, since I have been gone from blogging for so long I have not told you the bad news about Emma passing away. On Sept 26 she died ealy that morning of Anemia, she was only 5 years old. We took her home from the vets and buried her in our yard. I needed time to heal from that this winter. I stayed with my older brother in South Carolina and the Warm air, sunshine, and time healed me. When I returned home I knew I wanted another dog. A puppy for sure and a favorite breed of mine was a corgi. I researched about the corgi breed and luckily found my girl around the beginning of May. So here is Laci with some pictures of her 3 months here with me.

First here is the picture of her from the family I got her from.

I brought her home May 6th and we had to stop at the Store and buy some puppy food for her, She enjoyed our walk around the parking lot and posed for me. She just turned 4 months old on May 5th, so her birthday present was to have me as her mommy.

She is getting bigger and loves to play with her brother Buddy, and loves being outside on her dog run. She is 5 months old here.

We came home in the evening one day and we took the dogs outside to play she is about 5 1/2 months old here, but sorry for the blurry pic.

I was busy the end of June through well now so next I have pictures from when she was 6 1/4 months old I was brushing her out on our front steps.

And these pictures were taken just a week ago at about 6 1/2 months old. We were inside and before bedtime I captured her smile then she got all cozy in her crate.

Finally just this afternoon I took her and her brother Buddy outside on the dog run and tried to get some Glamor shots to enter into a Calendar Contests and my new favorite blog, Corgi Butts.

So that is my Girl Laci, I know she will be making a appearance here alot.

Back on Historic Route 30

After Monday's journey we had a new adventure on Tuesday. Our plan was to head to Bedford county and visit a very nice orchard in the town of Fishertown, as luck would be they were all out of cherrys for the year but as we had planned to go fishing afterwards we at least had not made the trip out here for nothing. But I am getting ahead of my self I will start our journey at the town of Reels Corner in Somerset Pa as that is where we met up with our friend from yesterday Historic Route 30. So heading out of Somerset County we go a closer view of that Windmill Farm.

 

And soon we are in Bedford county at the site of where the Ship Hotel once stood. Here you can see 3 states, and 7 counties!

 Then at Shellsburg we turned onto 96 toward the Orchard but here are some other Farms and Orchards on the way.

After we learned the cherrys were gone we went on a search for Covered Bridges the first we came to was The Cuppett Covered Bridge
http://www.visitbedfordcounty.com/bridges/cuppetts.html

We explored and I took pictures and my dad and brother tried fishing a bit here, after not catching anything we decided to move on to the next bridge the Ryot Covered Bridge
http://www.visitbedfordcounty.com/bridges/ryot.html

After exploring this one we fished yet again I do think my brother caught the first fish of the day but it was a chub and was set free. After no luck here after a while we left and headed to the next bridge.
The Dr. Knisely Covered Bridge
http://www.visitbedfordcounty.com/bridges/knisely.html
I really loved this one I love the openness of it and the setting and stream around it was so pretty and very easy to get down to the stream, I even ventured almost under it but it was a bit muddy but I got a underside picture.

 We explored and yes fished again then stopped at a really nice store just up the road for bait, bathroom, and drinks and beef sticks to snack on. Then we headed off across 56 to Fish hatchery road to the Snooks Covered Bridge
http://www.visitbedfordcounty.com/bridges/snooks.html
We explored and then decided to fish not at the bridge but just upstream where their was some waterfalls. I caught my first and only fish here some type of bluegill and then let him free. My dad and brother also caught some perch and chubs but all got to go free today. 

We left the area then and headed west on 56 to Cessna trying to find a nice spot on the Juniata but just getting a little lost we headed down 220 to the Turnpike Interchange and got lunch at Mc Donalds for the guys and Sheetz for me. Then we headed to a nice spot we have been to before about 2 years ago out 30 west to lutzville road and soon came to the little park there, after trying to make it through the overgrown trail the river was low and could not get to the water I headed back to the parking area to explore the park trail. We saw a Bald Eagle as we were getting here It flew off across the river toward the Mill House so I wanted to see if I could see it again. This trail is right along the road but they have put 3 little Informative areas along it then you get to the Stone Mill House.

Heading back to the Van I spied a snake, fortunately it was dead, but yuck!

It was time to head for Somerset county so we stayed on our road and then got on a few back roads to get back on route 30. Once back in Somerset county we agreed to check out one more Covered Bridge and we headed down past the Elephant Farm to the Packsaddle / Doc Miler Covered Bridge
http://pacoveredbridges.com/packsaddle_photo_album.htm

 Once again we explored and the guys went fishing while I was talking to a nice Fly Fisherman that asked me if we were at other Covered Bridges that day, I told him we saw 4 bridges in Bedford County and showed him some of the pictures I took. After trying for a bit here we dacided we were done for the day and headed toward Berlin and we stopped at a favorite Ice cream shop here, I did have a coupon so we all got the best thing there a Orange Cream swirl headed back to the Van and ate our ice cream before it melted and headed on home. Me and my dad saved the last bit of ice cream in the bottom of our cones for our dogs. Tomorrow I will introduce you to them. Wewere tired but glad to of had the adventure.