Cookie

What does this:



Have to do with baking, you say.

Okay, so the past couple of months I have been making cupcakes for my husband's co-workers.  One day, my husband comes home handing me a piece of paper with a recipe written on it. Apparently, one of his co-workers wanted to see if I could make this cookie recipe.  A Maple Bacon cookie recipe, of all things!

I have to admit, I was very curious how it would taste but at the same time I was wary about recipes with weird recipes like these.  Not because I don't like experimenting with different flavors, but it called for ONE POUND of bacon!  I mean, I am one of those people who believe in the saying "bacon makes EVERYTHING taste good", but come on, ONE POUND?!  So, to make myself feel a little better I decided to only make 1/2 of the recipe (which meant I only needed 8 ounces of bacon). Doesn't sound and feel as bad than using 1 Pound of bacon.

Before baking:

(The bacon needed to be cooked and crumbled first which made the whole process a little longer) other than that it was a pretty easy and straight-forward cookie recipe.

After baking:

I have to say, it was very good! The recipe was almost like a sugar cookie and the bacon gives the cookie the bacon-salty taste that complement the maple flavor of the cookie. YUM! Bacon DOES make everything taste better :)

Espresso Brownie Balls

I have been inlove with Bakerella's cute cake pops for a while now. Although I love, love, LOVE her beautiful creations, I have yet to try something from her awesome book. The chocolate melts are a little scary to work with along with the different shapes to mold that I figure starting with the basic shape first is the priority.

  What I have been trying to work with lately are brownie balls, cake balls without the icing to keep everything together since brownies are so dense to begin with. Anyway, our last 2 big parties (my dad's and my mother-in-law's 65th Birthday) I was inspired to make brownie balls. A few tablespoons of espresso powder into my brownie batter... et voila! Espresso Brownie balls/pops.

For my MIL's Birthday Party I went with a peachy color scheme for the brownie pops.

For my dad's birthday, I ended up making just brownie balls because we had to hand carry them all the way to Texas and I was afraid that adding lollipop sticks to the equation (along with dragging a toddler and a preschooler) will end up into a big mess.

 Don't they look yummy?!

One of these days I WILL make an honest to goodness Bakerella cake pop, my son already picked out which one it will be.