More Cookies please!

Yesterday I got to spend the afternoon with one of my favorite people…Elana =-D It’s been months since we’ve gotten to hang out and chat, so finally we picked a day and made a plan! Cookies and pasta were on our menu for the day.  First up…COOKIES! We decided to make Toffee Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies and I had 3 extra special helpers today, Elana’s 3 oldest children. (The baby isn’t quite ready to help bake cookies yet!) I set to work getting out all our ingredients while my helpers washed their hands and got on their aprons. Luckily there are plenty of jobs to share when making cookies, and we all took turns pouring in our ingredients and mixing them all together. Soon our dough was ready for the oven, and we could hardly wait to try our tasty treats! 10 minutes later, they were ready and with an ice cold glass of milk in hand we dug in! They were DELICIOUS! Now we were ready for some lunch. We decided to make the Farfalle Alfredo with Chicken and Spinach, a yummy dish which happens to be one of my favorites! The garlic smelled divine sauteing in the olive oil =-D Of course we had to make some bread as well, so we topped some sourdough pugleise with a little olive oil, garlic powder, and fresh grated parmasan cheese and into the oven it went to get nice and toasty. Our lunch came together in no time, and while the kids played Elana and I sat down for a nice meal and some more chatting =-D Soon it was time to say goodbye, but not before we decided that we must plan another cooking day soon since this one was so much fun! I really don’t think there is anything better than cooking and chatting with friends =-D

Happy Cooking!!

Toffee Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
(adapted from Toll House Cookies Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 -1 1/2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 3/4 cup chopped Hazelnuts
• 3 chopped up Heath or Skor bars

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl. In a seperate bowl beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla together until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips, hazelnuts, and chopped heath or skor bars. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.
(For the Farfalle Alfredo with Chicken and Spinach recipe see blog by the same name.)