Oatmeal Crispy Cookies!

As a true choco-holic (for example see cookies and fudge cakes) I don't understand why anyone would like a cookie without chocolate. That is like a Saturday without football in the fall, Easter without church, or Halloween without trick-or-treaters.  

Alas, the hubs like sugar and oatmeal cookies best (ie NO chocolate!! don't worry he has many other great qualities to make up for this). This is my first attempt at oatmeal cookies (without raisins, because I hate raisins... unless they are chocolate covered of course).  

Thanks a lot to made-famous-by!  My husband thanks you :)

You'll Need

• 1 Cup Shortening
• 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Cup Brown Sugar
• 2 Well Beaten Eggs
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 ½ Cups Sifted White Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 3 Cups Quick Cooking Oats

Step-by-step

1. Thoroughly cream shortening and sugars; add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

2. Sift dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture.

3. Add oats and mix well.

4. On wax paper shape the dough in the shape of a roll and then roll the dough up in the wax paper.  

5. Chill thoroughly.   (About an hour)

6. Slice ¼ inch thick and bake on an un-greased cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake!

This makes 30 BIG BIG cookies.  They get even expand quite a bit when you bake them, so I ended up using 3 cookie trays

Well I have to admit, for not having chocolate these are really REALLY good.  But next time I may just add 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips.... then they'd be PERFECT :)

-Domesticated Duchess

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Icing

Fall is officially here!

Our church has annual “Hands and Hearts” market.  It is a craft sale, bake sale, silent auction and most importantly a whole lot of fun!  The funds raised go to Youth missions and other events in the church.  

I volunteered to make a fall treat for the annual event.  I love pumpkin treats, but really only make them from about mid October through Thanksgiving.  Here is a delicious treat with my yummy cream cheese frosting!

You’ll need:

Bars

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of oil
• 1 can of pumpkin (15 oz)
• 2 cups of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of nutmeg

Frosting – click here for pictures and step by step (bottom of page!)

• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 3-4 cups of sifted powder sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Step-by-step:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan
2.  Mix eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until smooth

3. In a separate bowl mix flour, powder cinnamon, salt and baking soda

4. Pour flour mixture into pumpkin mixture and blend together

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes

6. Fully cool before frosting

7. To frost – Blend cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Add the sugar, one cup at a time, and stir in vanilla. Click here for step-by step pics on frosting

What is your favorite fall treat?

-Domesticated Duchess

eDomestication! Invitations and Labels

I have really good computer skills.  Not to show off. It's true though. I make PowerPoint presentations that are presented to my company's leadership teams. I can make Excel sing (I do pivot tables and vlookups in my sleep.. not really that would be weird).  I can even dabble with HTML.  But using these ‘skills’ to enhance my domesticated-ism?  Hmmm....

I co-hosted a baby shower for my dear friend Jessica (click here to read about her gender reveal party!).  I knew I wanted to do something special for her favors that people would actually enjoy.  I put together cookie mix bags that would be tasty, simple and cute!

For each bag you need:

I bought 10 pounds of sugar, 10 pounds of brown sugar, 15 pounds of flour and 3 24 oz bags of chocolate chips!!!

• 1 cup of flour + 1 tablespoon
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/3 cup of white sugar
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Please note, if you are making a lot of these, put some paper towels underneath because this was MESSY!

Now back to the computer skills.  I needed to make labels for these bags.  I didn’t want to handwrite the directions (I had to make 24 bags!), and I wanted them to be cute and feminine.  So I got to work and eDomestication was born.

I managed to make a zebra border after a lot of trial and error, then add the text in the middle.  I taped these onto the white bags and they were quite the hit!

After feeling so computer crafty, I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and make bachelorette party invitations for a party I am co-hosting with one of my best friends, Danni.  These were also a bit tricky to make, but here is what I made!

All I had to do is go to Office Max and get them printed on high quality paper! It was easy, and they look great! 

If you would like this sample invitation, or label just email me and I will send you the template!  All you need to do is change the text. And it's FREE :)

Signing Logging out,

-Domesticated Duchess