Oatmeal Pie Cookies

Last week in honor of National Education Week our PTA ordered a catered lunch for us.  My boxed lunch came with the most perfect Oatmeal Pie cookie I'd ever had.  A few days later I wanted another one and set out to find the recipe.  

After searching online forever I was about to give up when I decided to browse through this local church's cookbook that my mom gave me several years ago.  And miraculously, I found a recipe that I thought would work for the cookie part.  It was simple and I had all the ingredients already.  With the addition of cream cheese frosting it was as good or better than what I was aiming for.  I have to give out credit to Julie Hoffner from St. Luke's for this one.

Quaker's Best Oatmeal Cookies

Makes 24 cookies (12 sandwich cookies)

1 1/4 cups butter, softened

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

3 cups old fashioned Quaker oats

Heat oven to 375.

Beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and spices; add to butter mixture, mixing well.  Stir in oats.  Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet.  Flatten out batter for a flatter cookie.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes.

Cream Cheese Filling

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

Halloween Spider Cake

This cake was made for my kid's halloween party.  I went with the spider so the Jehovah's Witnesses could still partake in it.  I made this using my soccer ball Wilton pan (also used for the Hydrangea cake).  It's proven to be quite the multi-tasker.  

Everytime I make black frosting I always wonder why I started.  I used a chocolate frosting recipe to begin with but it still took the entire jar of black coloring.  It was really easy besides that.  Cherry sours for the eyes, candy corn teeth and licorice legs.  The kids were really impressed.

Nutella + Brownies= happiness

Lately I've been on a nutella kick.  So naturally I've been lookng up all the nutella recipes I can find.  The first I've tried (of many I'm sure) is from Giada De Laurentiis.  

Gianduja Bars

Ingredients

Brownies (I just used Betty Crocker's Supreme Brownie mix) 

1/4 cup nutella  

1/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts  

1/4 cup chocolate chips (I used a mix of white chocolate and milk chocolate)

Directions

Bake the brownies as directed on the package.  Remove from oven and spread with nutella. Sprinkle the brownies with chopped hazelnuts. Top the nuts and chocolate chips. Put brownies back into the oven and bake for 5 to 7 minutes until the chocolate is starting to melt. Transfer the brownies to the refrigerator and let cool until the chocolate hardens, about one hour.