Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I've always loved sugar cookies. You really can't go wrong. I mean, you can make them into any shape you want (Yoda, anyone?). And you get to decorate them and make them pretty with frosting and sprinkles. 

I also love chocolate. That one's pretty self explanatory. And I began to wonder a few months ago what it would be like to combine the two??? Amazeballs. That's what. They were so good, I took them to our Friendsmas and did a "decorate your own" and they were mostly gone that night. Then I took them to my in-laws and they were most definitely gone. Very quickly.

I found the recipe from Smitten Kitchen and they turned out great. A fun new twist on the classic Christmas sugar cookies. Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

// 350 degrees // 8-11 minutes //

Ingredients

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened (I used sweet cream butter)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Directions

1. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and cocoa

2. Add in flour, salt, baking powder (recipes usually say to combine the flour mixture first, but I never do and it usually turns out fine!) and mix until smooth

3. Wrap and place in fridge to chill for an hour or so

4. Roll out dough using flour so it won't stick.

5. Cut in desired shapes

6. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheet for 8-11 minutes

7. Enjoy!

Busy Season's Coming...

Husband is home finally. It's been a rough week. Rough. Week. I'm finally feeling a little better after staying home sick from work four days last week. Ugh. Isn't it the worst? Something's going around and there was no way I was going to be "that person" that still goes into work when sick. OK, I did try to go in on Thursday for a couple hours, but that plan failed and I was soon back on the couch at home. This, whatever it is - flu, bronchitis, etc. - was nasty. I was hacking up a lung, nose completely stuffed and utterly exhausted. Probably top three worst times I've been sick in my life. And Zach was gone (he's in Shelton for five weeks doing his OBGYN rotation - luckily home on the weekends). 

But now he is home and I am happier. It's just nice having that support from him to help out with the pups, pick up my trail of kleenex (if the pups haven't gotten into), and cook me a non-saltines and gatorade meal. I'm so glad he's home and so glad he's so good at taking care of me when I need him to. 

So that's where I've been for the past week... how have you been? I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging after a little bit of a break. I think I have some fun projects in the works! 

But, busy season is coming. So I'll be working a lot more with a lot less time for blogging/ projects/ cookies (booooohooooo). Probably my least favorite time of the year, but at least at work I can stay busy and feel like I'm accomplishing a lot. 

So fear not, if I'm posting less, it's just because there are not enough hours in the day and I want to try and put awesome stuff on here! 

I hope your new year is starting out better than mine right now!

Pretty flowers found here.

Happy New Year!

Hey guys! It's 2013! Can you believe it? So glad the world didn't end, because we had a pretty awesome holiday season with our families. We spent a few days with the Kane's and had so much fun. I love our loud and crazy family! We always have so much fun. We ended up having Christmas Eve and Christmas morning a day early since we left on Christmas Eve to head over to my parents' house. It worked out really well and it was fun having two Christmas mornings. 

At the Kane's, we frosted chocolate sugar cookies, ate way too much, made cute stocking place settings, and Buster enjoyed chillin' in his cousin's bed #awkwardpuggle.

On Christmas Eve we went down to Centralia and had a great time with my parents. More games, laughing, a couple movies (Django Unchained - yes, The Hobbit - Eh, I might have fallen asleep). We even got a White Christmas!

We rounded out the break at home with a chill weekend complete with Friendsmas, a Seahawks victory, a fun New Year's Eve, and a Homeland marathon. That show is good.

And I can't end a family holiday post without a shout out to my favorite boys (yes, that's a puppy mug I made for my husband) #christmasbeard.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Here's to an amazing new year!