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Chonky Boys: The Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches that Scream Summer!

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Featuring my thick and nuggy Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookies, these ice cream sandwiches are the stuff that summer dreams are made of.  If you've ever had the Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich at Disneyland , you are going to LOVE these!  These big and bold chocolate chip cookies are based on a recipe from my culinary school studies at Auguste Escoffier, but with a few modifications to give them that Jennuine touch.  They make the perfectas book for a fat slice of real vanilla bean ice cream.  And those mini chips?  You just gotta have that extra cronch! Thank goodness this recipe only makes 8 sandwiches, otherwise I would be eating them for breakfast lunch and dinner.  This way, my big family can help save me from my inner child diet-saboteur.   Print With Image Without Image Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches Yield: 8 Author: Jenn Erickson Loaded with chocolate chips and buttery, brown-sugary vanilla flavor, these mall-sized cookies form a perfect partnership with a
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My Favorite Salad for Holiday Celebrations ~ Butter Lettuce with Fennel, Mandarin Oranges, Avocado and an Orange Muscat Shallot Vinaigrette

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I really can't say enough about this salad ~ The combination of the thinly sliced fennel, creamy avocado, sweet mandarin oranges and butter lettuce make for a storybook marriage of flavors.  The orange muscat shallot vinaigrette is light and adds the perfect notes of bright citrus to the celebration. This is one of those few salads that makes me want to ask for seconds and simply skip the main course. Butter Lettuce Salad with Fennel, Mandarin Oranges, Avocado and an Orange Muscat Shallot Vinaigrette For the vinaigrette (Can be prepared up to 5 days in advance) 1/2 cup Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar (Trader Joe's.  Or you can substitute regular champagne vinegar and add 1 Tablespoon orange juice). 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 Shallot, minced pinch of Cayenne Pepper 1 teaspoon Kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon table salt) For the salad 7-8 ounces fresh butter lettuce, chopped 2 ripe avocados, peeled, seeded, and chopped into bite-sized cubes 6
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Easy Succulent Garden Centerpieces in "Pumpkin" Planters

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I love the subtlety and elegance of white pumpkins.  Their neutral color makes them the perfect piece of fall decor to carry you through Halloween, Thanksgiving and even on in to winter.  The best part about these elegant, living centerpieces is that they are made from "Funkins", those faux foam pumpkins from the craft store, so they won't decay and can be used year after year.  The succulents themselves are easy to care for and are long-lasting. I think the combination jade and celdon tones of the succulent plants and alabaster pumpkins is rather sublime.  Succulent Garden Centerpieces with White Pumpkin Planters Materials White foam "funkin" pumpkins X-ACTO or pumpkin carving knife Large pebbles or broken pottery Potting Soil, Cactus/succulent blend Mulch (fine sand, gravel, or bark) Assorted Succulent Plants Step 1:  Using an X-ACTO or pumpkin carving knife, carve the top off of your foam pumpkin. Step 2:  Flip pum
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DIY: Custom Earrings With Your Favorite Characters
(Shrink! Shrank! Shrunk! Book Review and Giveaway)
#MLPFIM #Adventuretime

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My girls and I are in LOVE with a new craft medium.  Well, maybe not so new .  Shrinky Dinks have been wowing kids with their shrinky "magic" every since I was a kid.  I guess I never really stopped being a fan; I just got a little sidetracked with my boring grown-up stuff.  That all changed when a copy of Kathy Sheldon's new book, Shrink! Shrank! Shrunk! arrived in the mail from Lark Crafts .  One look at the whimsical, artful, sophisticated, and playful projects on the cover and I felt like a kid again.   Shrinky Dink s now come in several different formulas depending on the look you want to achieve.  My favorite is the inket Shrinky Dink paper -- If you know how to print from a computer and turn on an oven, you have all the skills that are required to make some pretty incredible, professional-looking stuff. Inspired by the R ussian doll earrings and bobby pins on page 39 of Shrink! Shrank! Shrunk! , my girls and I set out to make our own crea
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Mummy Bagels ~ An Easy & Healthy Halloween Party Food

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  For the past two years, my daughters have been asked to bring a "healthy snack" to their classroom Halloween parties.  There are tons of adorable treat ideas out there, but the challenge was to find a non-sweet treat that was cute, would be quick and easy to make and that even the pickiest of kids would enjoy eating.  And that's how the Mummy Bagel was born. If you have time in your schedule to run to the grocery store, whip some cream cheese, and open a can of olives, you can make Mummy Bagels.  I used pre-sliced whole-grain bagels -- healthy and time saving!  Mummy Bagels makes 24  1 dozen mini bagels, halved 2 8oz. packages cream cheese, softened at room temperature 2 2.25 oz. cans sliced black California olives Pastry bag or large Ziploc freezer bag Prep:  In a medium bowl and with an electric mixer, whip cream cheese for five minutes on high speed.  Set aside. Assemble:   1.  Arrange bagel halves on a serving
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Art Deco Halloween Ladies ~ Bridge Tally Graphics of the 1920s

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Happy Halloween friends! No tricks here today, just some little vintage treats: A few charming Halloween images that I scanned from my vintage Bridge Tally collection.  The ladies of the 1920s certainly had style! Enjoy!      
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The Best Reese's Peanut Butter Cake EVER!

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  It's a bold statement, I know -- "Best Reese's Peanut Butter Cake EVER!".  But I stand firmly behind my assertion that you'd be hard pressed to find a more delicious Reese's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cake than this one.   Inspired by a few different Reese's cakes I saw online, I used my own recipes from my boutique cakerie days to create this four-layered fantasy of chocolate and peanut butter.  I started with my signature sour cream fudge cake, a wonderfully moist and chocolatey cake that balances perfectly with the not-too-sweet peanut butter frosting.  The chocolate frosting is cocoa based, so it too isn't too cloyingly sweet, leaving room for the Reese's chunks to shine through and take center stage. Read to begin?  Let's go... Best Reese's Peanut Butter Cake EVER Flour Shop Signature Sour Cream Fudge Cake:   This is a per fect cake for stacking and sculpting because of its tight crumb and firm structure. (
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Easy Troll Doll Halloween Costume

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If you were around in the 1960s or 70s, you'll likely remember Troll Dolls - the wild-haired, pointy-eared little nudists that inhabited dashboards and dressers.  Only one troll doll remains from my childhood collection, but he's become a favorite with my girls who have a soft spot for weird little trinkets, just like their mom!  A few weeks ago, we were  breezing through the Halloween aisles at Target, when my youngest daughter came across a fuzzy green wig.  She put it on, and we all immediately chimed, "Troll Doll"!  Bringing the retro collectible toy to life became our mission.  Here's how we did it...     Materials: Fuzzy Wig (Ours came from Targe t for $ 9.99) Bal Togs Mock Turtleneck Body Suit/Unitard (Amazon, $32) 1 large jewel (flat back) from the craft store 1 button (slightly smaller than the jewel) Hot glue gun Clothing (optional)   All that this costume requires as far as preparation is attaching the jewel .  I di
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