
Chocolately goodness in a cookie! We love these!
DeDe Smith
Out of the ordinary chocolate cookies!

Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup oil
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/3 cup flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- powdered sugar for rolling
Instructions
Combine sugar, oil and cocoa in a large bowl. Beat until well blended.
Beat in eggs and vanilla.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to cocoa mixture, beating well.
Cover and refrigerate dough until it is firm enough to handle. If you are wanting them to firm up faster, like me, stick the covered dough in the freezer until firm enough to handle.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a cookie sheet.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls then roll them in powdered sugar. Place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart from each other.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.
On Recipe Thursdays, I am going to be sharing a recipe with you! I will pick a recipe from my collection and I will be sharing where I got the recipe and everything. But I am going to include my own photo of the finished food, the original recipe, and try and share the things I changed when I made it!
Recipe Thursday | Red Velvet Oreos

These are the perfect treat for holidays (especially Christmas and Valentine’s Day) and really any day that you want to make better!
MORE FUN: Now here’s where you can get lots more creative and make these cookies more festive! After baking the cookies with the recipe below…
Using small metal cookie cutters – take the cooled baked cookies and cut out shapes. Then put small amount of filling in between 2 shaped cookies.
You could try coloring your filling too! After filling and topping your cookies – roll sides in sprinkles!
YUMMY and so much fun! Have your kids help too!
DeDe Smith
Yields 12 Cookie Sandwiches
When you usually think of homemade oreos – you think of using a chocolate cake mix – but I promise you the Red Velvet ones are so much better!

Ingredients
- 1 box red velvet cake mix
- 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 lb powdered sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients until combined.
Put a spoonful of cookie batter into your hand and roll it into a ball. Place onto baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool.
To make filling: mix butter, cream cheese and vanilla. Gradually add sugar and mix until smooth.
Spread filling on one cookie and then top with another one!
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On Recipe Thursdays, I am going to be sharing a recipe with you! I will pick a recipe from my collection and I will be sharing where I got the recipe and everything. But I am going to include my own photo of the finished food, the original recipe, and try and share the things I changed when I made it!
Recipe Thursday | Soft & Chewy Snickerdoodles

I love these perfect snickerdoodles. Just the right amount of chewiness, but still soft. Perfect! Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to take a photo of them when I make them – so this photo is from Our Best Bites!
DeDe Smith
Make them today – you won’t be able to eat enough!

Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 1/2 flour
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter
- 8 tbsp vegetable shortening
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in shallow dish and set aside. Whisk flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl.
Beat butter, shortening, and remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl as needed.
Reduce speed of mixer to low and slowly add flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Give dough final stir to ensure that no flour pockets remain.
Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll into balls. Working in batches, roll dough balls in cinnamon sugar mixture to coat and set on prepared baking sheet spaced 2 inches apart.
Bake 1 sheet at a time until edges of cookies are set and just barely beginning to brown, but centers are still soft and puffy, about 10-12 minutes. The cookies should look raw between the cracks and seem underdone. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature.
Notes
Adapted from Our Best Bites - http://ourbestbites.com/2012/02/soft-and-chewy-snickerdoodles/
On Recipe Thursdays, I am going to be sharing a recipe with you! I will pick a recipe from my collection and I will be sharing where I got the recipe and everything. But I am going to include my own photo of the finished food, the original recipe, and try and share the things I changed when I made it!
Recipe Thursday | Thick ‘n Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the best Chocolate Chip Cookies ever! I will never need another recipe for chocolate chip cookies and you won’t either!
DeDe Smith
Yields 2 dozen cookies
The best chocolate chip cookies ever! The only recipe you will ever need!

Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cups milk chocolate chips
Instructions
Cream together butter and sugars. Beat until creamy and the sugar has dissolved. Add the syrup, vanilla and egg and beat until just mixed through.
Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined. Dough should be soft but easy to handle and firm enough to form a ball. Add extra flour if needed (don't use too much). Add chocolate chips and mix.
Roll the dough into balls and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
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On Recipe Thursdays, I am going to be sharing a recipe with you! I will pick a recipe from my collection and I will be sharing where I got the recipe and everything. But I am going to include my own photo of the finished food, the original recipe, and try and share the things I changed when I made it!
Recipe Thursday | Swirl Cookies

I made these for Christmas. But it is a great light cookie for all seasons. You can color these any color you want so it’s great for anytime! Do this one with your kids – its fun!
DeDe Smith
Fun swirls!

Ingredients
- 1 pouch Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix (or make your own sugar cookie recipe)
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp flour
- food coloring
Instructions
Combine Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix, egg, flour and butter in medium mixing bowl. Mix until smooth. Or make your own cookie dough.
Divide dough into three sections. Tint each section with a few drops of your choice of food coloring.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out one section of dough into a 9″ x 11″ rectangle. Repeat with other sections.
Lay the three rectangles on top of each other and roll into a log.
Cut log into 1/2 inch slices with a very sharp knife.
Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes until barely brown. Cool completely.
On Recipe Thursdays, I am going to be sharing a recipe with you! I will pick a recipe from my collection and I will be sharing where I got the recipe and everything. But I am going to include my own photo of the finished food, the original recipe, and try and share the things I changed when I made it!
Life 365 | Week 44
Monday, October 25, 2010
Yummy Halloween cookies are always great for a treat!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Snow today – it was gone before the day was over, but it was a nice change!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The kids love dressing up and we have new costumes this year. Beth was excited to be Jasmine and JJ is Superman! So much fun!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
We spent lots of time getting things ready for the Halloween parties at school tomorrow. I’m in charge of JJ’s class party and I had a lot of fun creating these fun treats!
Friday, October 29, 2010
The kids had their Halloween at school today, beginning with their little parade! We got to hear JJ’s class do their monthly song time for us too. And JJ’s class party went really well and I think they all had a great time. We finally got around to carving our pumpkins tonight and since Joey was gone to do his podcast – I did the carving. I was actually proud of how they turned out. JJ’s pumpkin was Jack from Nightmare before Christmas and its my favorite ever pumpkin! Beth’s was a girly vampire pumpkin! The kids wouldn’t touch all the gooey stuff so basically I did all the work but they were thrilled anyways!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
What a day. It started with taking Beth to sign-up for Girls Scouts. When we came home, Joey had all the kids bedroom torn apart. Their stuff was everywhere and they were pulling up the floor to replace it. We have had horrible constant leaking problems that we just can’t seem to get rid of. Joey and Aaron spent all day replacing the floor and I spent the rest of the night putting the bedroom back together. It’s not perfect, but its better than it was. I was so sick and because of all the fixing going on and the kids having colds too – we just decided not to do trick-or-treating this year. They had lots of candy still and so it worked out.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Cody, Becki and Mallory came over for Halloween Dinner. We had Mummy Dogs (hot dogs wrapped in biscuit dough) and Bat Wings (Mac & Cheese made with bow tie pasta) and Dirt Dessert. It was delicious and it was fun to hang out with Cody and his family. Mallory was a hoot and its been so fun seeing her grow up. She was dancing to Beth’s Pony Castle music and making my kids laugh so hard!