YUM!!!!

So, let me tell you about my sweet friend Odilie (rhymes with totally!). We met in Barnes and Noble when we both only had 1 kid each. She had her little girl Sofia and I had Reagan. They were only 6-8 months or so. Sofia and Reagan started having a "conversation" and all of a sudden I was inviting Odilie to a mom's group called Beyond Laundry led by one of my other sweet friends, Angela.

She came and we have been friends ever since. She now has had 4 kids in the time that I have had 2 so she has been super busy. Like having 4 kids is not enough, she also is opening an audiology practice as she is a certified audiologist. Check her website out here for more information. She wanted to have a grand opening so I offered to make some cookies for her big day. I ended up making homemade strawberry lemonade as well.

As I started baking and juicing, I realized, I should make this into a blog post and share the recipes! I also realized that I should double both recipes and give the other half to our awesome neighbors The Morris Family. They are so much fun and we absolutely love spending time with them. Oh, and I must note that I literally found the most amazing spinach quiche in our MAILBOX from Laurie Morris and we ate every bite. It was so good. You have to return favors like that. You just have to.

I must acknowledge first where I acquired these recipes and funny enough, from two different women whose names both happen to be Nancy! So, thanks Nancy and Nancy for the recipes. I have used them both dozens of times and get rave reviews every time.

Disclaimer: By the way, I don't claim to be a photographer, so the pictures are not the best. I figured some pictures are better than none!

So, here we go. My first ever food post!

Chocolate Toffee Cookies
2 sticks of butter

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of brown sugar

2 t. vanilla (I do a tad less)

2 eggs

2.5 cups of BREAD flour (very important)

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 package semisweet (I use milk chocolate) chips

1 package Heath Bits O Brickle (picture below)

Cookie ingredients

Whip butter. Add sugar and brown sugar, vanilla and eggs. Mix well.

In separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Then add this mixture a little bit at a time to the butter mixture above just until mixed. Don't overdo it.
My little mixer

All mixed!

Then add the bag of chocolate chips and the bag of toffee pieces. Stir together with a spoon.

Final cookie dough mixture. Ready to spoon onto cookie sheets and bake at 375 degrees for 10-11 minutes. Start with 10 and you might be good. Let rest for 1 minute and place on cooling racks.

Strawberry Lemonade

1/2 c. fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 lb. strawberries, washed, chopped in quarters

2 c. sugar

Water

Strawberry Lemonade ingredients

This electric juicer is awesome. My mom gave it to me and it works great! The kid working it is pretty adorable too!

Dissolve the 2 cups of sugar with enough water to cover the sugar on a med-high heat. Stir often and keep it on the stove just until it dissolves completely.

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender (strawberries, lemon juice, sugar water and add some cold water)

Then I put it into a pitcher with some ice and keep adding cold water to the pitcher until I like the sweetness level. I also cut a few slices of lemon to put on top of the pitcher to make it pretty.

Hence the title of the post, YUM!!! ;)