Cake Batter Pudding Cookies

Pudding cookies. Words can't describe how awesome they are. I've always made my chocolate chip cookies with pudding and they're marvelous. Recently, I found this recipe at Chef in Training for Cake Batter Pudding Cookies: link here.

As usual, I used Funfetti cake and these cookies are so delicious. When I try a new recipe, if I'm not sure how it'll turn out, I make it for the high schoolers who meet twice a month upstairs. They're my guinea pigs. I made a full batch of these and there were only 3 cookies left by the time the 14 kids got done with them. The sprinkles make them extra cute.

And once again, there's that lovely spot.

I'd write more, but I have to go bake a cake for my mother's birthday!

Love and Cookies,

Leah Joy

Pudding Cookies

To prepare you for Thursday's post, here's a video of how I feel about pudding cookies, except I am of course capable of making them for myself.

Love and Cookies,

Leah Joy

Rainbow Revue

I told you I was going to make a million rainbow things (okay 4 or 5) and I did! To review today, here are some pictures!

I started with rainbow yarn. I actually found the yellow in the worsted weight, which is not shown in this picture. (That's the sport weight I used to make my sock!)

The first thing I tried was the vertical stripes scarf. I posted about that one already and this picture is about the best it ever looked. Now it just curls awkwardly, like my hair in the morning.

Then I made this hat, which unless I wear it hipster-style, makes me look like a cancer patient. This hat may be the reason why I am growing my hair out again - so I can actually wear it in public.

The only problem with this hat is where I stitched it up. I'm not cool enough to change the stitching color for every stripe, so it looks strange.

Then I made rainbow wristwarmers. I did a blog about the blue ones I made for a Christmas present. These turned out less cute but more colorful. Each new stripe has, of course, new ends to tuck in, so the edges look funny.

Plus where I stitched them up, I used purple and it shows against the red (duh).

My final project is the best and definitely the one I will wear the most. If not the only one I will wear in public.

Rainbow flower scarf!!!

(The spot is on my camera lens and can be found in every picture. I know it's there and I've tried to clean it but it won't come off. And I don't know how to load pictures off my husband's camera, but I want to learn because his camera is awesome and not crappy and then I'd get pinned more. Because that's the whole goal of blogging.)

Since then, I've used up the green, so unless I get more, there will be no more rainbow things for a while. But since I already have a horizontal stripes rainbow scarf, I really can't think of anything else to make.

Unless you readers have any rainbow suggestions. Do you? Or do you have any projects you'd like to see me try? (I have a mega-project I'm working on right now, which may not be finished for months, so when I get bored with that, I need other things to do!)

Love and RAINBOWS!,

Leah Joy

Cinnamon-Sugar (Doughnut) Muffins

I found this recipe on Pinterest a while ago. Recently, we were having some friends over for dinner and Caleb asked me to make a dessert. Looking around the kitchen, I realized we were out of chocolate chips, which negated any of my usual quick picks. I decided to check out my Pinterest desserts board and find something. I was left with two options that weren't completely ridiculous, and both of them were cinnamon-sugar muffins. I chose this one because the other required cornstarch or something else we didn't have.

And I am so glad.

These seriously taste like doughnuts.

How can they not when you dip them in melted butter and then cinnamon-sugar? :)

Find the recipe here.

Love and Doughnuts Muffins,

Leah Joy

P.S. I forgot to mention that mine turned out much darker once the cinnamon-sugar was on them because I may have put it on too thickly (no such thing). I also had to make more cinnamon-sugar and melt more butter. They were still delicious.

This Song is So Good

I guess this must be my favorite song right now, or rather, everyone's favorite song.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, here is yet another version of "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye.

Love and Fruit Juice,

Leah Joy

The Monday Rant: Talent vs. Spectacle

This will be a short rant because I'm very sleepy. I am very sleepy because I stayed up until 11:30 last night to watch the Grammys. 11:30 is very very late for me.

I noticed - as it would be impossible not to - a very striking difference between two kinds of performers. The first category includes artists like Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj. These ladies felt the need to strut/dance around stage while strange men dance around them and fireworks go off. The second category includes artists like Adele and Paul McCartney who stand or sit at a microphone, sing, and are far better than category one.

I am not saying that Katy Perry is or is not talented. I am merely asking why it is necessary to distract so much from the music. Or is it just our culture's desire for more stimulants to trigger the release of more dopamine in our brains?

Then why is it that Adele can do that with just her voice? No blue hair, low-cut top, or fake-exorcism required.

The end.

Love and Zzzzs,

Leah Joy

Crafty Friday: SOCK!

Tuesday I worked all day and then felt sick.

Wednesday was too beautiful outside to be on the computer all day. (Not a real excuse.)

Thursday was laundry day and then I spent time with my husband.

This will clearly be harder than I thought to get back into this daily swing.

Nevertheless, I crocheted a sock! I'm using a pattern that I found on Red Heart here. However, I had a skein of sun yellow I Love This Yarn! sport weight yarn on hand which is nearly sock yarn, so I decided to use that. I used a 3.75mm hook, because it the smallest I have. This meant that even though I have a women's size 9 foot, I made the smaller version of the sock because my gauge was a bit bigger. This won't affect foot length (you pick that), so I guess that just depends on if you like a tighter sock, or want a looser slipper-type feel.

So far I have finished one sock. I went wrong somewhere, because I ended up with 11 stitches around at the end instead of 12 but I'm not sure that's going to kill the sock. It looks pretty good - and it's definitely sock-shaped, which is a huge plus!

I tried knitting socks years ago. A friend offered to teach me but after 3-4 months of getting 2 inches done and then giving up, she wanted her circular needles back and I was okay with that. Very sweetly she finished the project for me and even made the match to give to me! However, I was certain I was done with socks forever. Until I found a crochet pattern. I hated knitting with circular needles, and while I might like it better now, I don't have circular needles. So to be able to crochet a sock instead of knit it was pretty exciting.

However, before you undertake this project, be warned: It took me at least 6 hours to make this one sock. I'm hoping the next will be quicker, but if you are not an expert crocheter (as I am not), you must have patience!

Love and Socks,

Leah Joy

The Monday Rant: The Superbowl Edition

Sorry I didn't post on Friday; I was too busy going on my Christmas date with my husband. Yes, that's right. Christmas date. We knew it wasn't going to happen until the new year, but we didn't know it'd have to get put off until the point when it could be more reasonably called an early Valentine's Day date. Anyway, Caleb had planned a full date from morning through afternoon, and then we got home just in time to make dinner for our friends who came over for the rest of the day. So now you'll have to put up with one more Superbowl rant.

I'll be honest. (Oh good. No liars allowed.)

I only go to Superbowl parties for the food. Yes, the commercials are funny, sometimes. But I couldn't care less about the game, the halftime show usually sucks, and there are usually too many chocolatey delights for me to pay too much attention to the commercials.

So I go to Superbowl parties and start eating and then about the end of the 1st quarter, I wonder why I came. Couldn't I have just gorged myself on food at home? Then I wouldn't have had to stay up late for a football game.

Last night did surprise me in a couple ways. First of all, the halftime show didn't completely suck. I don't know if Madonna has to be auto-tuned or not, frankly I don't care. I'm just glad that if she does, her sound people managed to keep their jobs by keeping auto-tune on, unlike last year's Black-Eyed Peas catastrophe. And speaking of keeping things on, I was glad to see that most of the clothes of the performers stayed that way. The cheerleader bit was the most awkward, but we can't attribute that to the depravity of the 21st-century. That looked like something you'd see the Rockettes wear, even back in the 1920s, and frankly, I didn't think it was that inappropriate.

However, the second way in which I was surprised was something that I thought was inappropriate, but a lot of people seem to think was amusing. Did you see the M&M commercial? They're trying to make the brown M&M more appealing, since everyone wants that one gone and a purple one made in its place. So the brown M&M is at a work party with a bunch of people and apparently, because her candy coating is the same color as her chocolate, people think that she's going nude. Then the red M&M comes in and says, "Oh, it's that kind of party?!" and strips off his candy coating and dances in just his chocolate. Now, of course there is nothing inappropriate about chocolate (believe me, I will never say that!). But the idea is what bugs me. And children watch the Superbowl. And children imitate things.

And children also saw the GoDaddy commercials, and the Teleflora commercial, and the one for that one car that was advertised by a scantily clad woman, and the other one for a car with another scantily clad woman.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me anymore that these commercials air during the Superbowl, but I was mostly surprised that M&Ms did one.

That being said, I had delicious food and that part was all I could have wanted.

Love and Popcorn,

Leah Joy

I'm Back

I'm back in more ways than one, but I may ramble about that on Wednesday. Meanwhile, here's a delicious recipe that I made recently. I was going to not bake after what we made for the New Years Party until February. A little month for detox or something. On January 27, I gave in.

(Note: not my picture. I stole it from the internet. But that's basically what they looked like, minus the nuts.)

This recipe is from Nestle and it is wonderful.

I didn't have an 8" square pan, so I made them in my pretty red 9" stoneware pie pan. If anything, they tasted that much better because they were made in such a beautiful pan.

And I didn't have any nuts around the house, and they're too expensive when we don't really like them that much anyway, so I skipped those. But it turned out okay, because then my friend who has every known allergy under the sun could eat them. However, I could understand why one would want a layer of crunchy, protein-filled nuts.

As usual, I ate them before I got any pictures, so rather than post a picture of a beautiful-yet-depressingly-empty pan, go make your own. They are worth every single calorie. Unless you're on a diet where you're trying to lose a lot of weight. But still.

Love and Caramel,

Leah Joy