Bringing a little sunshine

I love being an encourager. I love gift giving.  I love baking.  Lucky for me, these three things go really well together :)

I love gift baskets.  My friends, family, and even people who are close to strangers are often roaming around my mind...especially if they are going through an extremely exciting or trying time. I love being able to pick up little things here and there that might bring a smile to someone's face and maybe change their day for the better.  I love being able to take the time to be on the lookout for things (this is why I start Christmas shopping in January and always have a stock of upcoming birthday gifts stashed away!).  I made this basket of "sunshine" for our daycare provider.  She's so sweet and takes such good care of our kiddos, she deserves a little special treat now and then! It was super easy - I just wandered around and picked up anything small and yellow!  It was a great start to her week & her summer!

You can't go wrong with a gift basket.  You can't go wrong with baked goods (at least that's my motto).  Herego, you can't go wrong with a cookie basket. If you're looking for an easy way to send someone a pick me up, or a nice "thank you", or an excuse to go see an old friend, get to baking.  I've said it before and I'll say it again...find some cute, cheap tins and containers and keep them handy so that you can throw together a nice little gift in a pinch. It's super easy and costs very little, but it means the world to those on the receiving end!  Your thoughtfulness & time speaks volumes!  You can make it as cute and personal as you want!  Go make somebody's day a little brighter! :)

I made LLS ribbon cookies & tied verses/quotes on each one as a pick-me-up for a family whose daughter was fighting leukemia.

I made several different types of cookies and packaged them up for a cute door prize at a church event.

Cookies!!!

I like cookies...a lot.  Lucky for me, so do my friends and family!  And here's the secret...the chocolate chip cookies that everyone loves and requests are just the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips...not so secret after all! 

Every time I make these cookies, I am flooded with memories of home.  I loved baking (and cooking) with my mom, especially these cookies.  And when my love for baking started to grow, this recipe was my go-to.  I love my memories of spending Sunday afternoons in the kitchen baking these cookies and watching Chiefs football with my family.  If you ask me, nothing makes a house smell warmer and more inviting than the scent of chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven! 

I make these for everything...random desserts, thank yous, and holiday get togethers. I even made them the night before I went to the hospital to have my babies and took them in for the nurses & doctors to enjoy while I chewed on ice chips.  We won favor in labor & delivery quickly, so I would suggest that as welll! 

Hope you enjoy them too!  Make sure and read to the bottom for some additional ideas and tips!

Note: I'm a rule breaker.  Nestle instructs you to mix up the dry ingredients in a bowl by themself before adding them in with the others.  I just throw them all in one bowl (as I do with almost any recipe).  Rebel, I know...but it's one less bowl to wash, right?

Also, I do not like nuts in desserts...so those have been removed from this recipe.  You will not see nuts in desserts on this blog, so you should accept that now!  Accepted it?  Good.  We can still be friends. 

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies - Beth Style

Here's What You Need:
1 cup Crisco (you can use butter instead if you like that better)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2  1/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 oz. Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chips (I usually use more like 9 or 10 oz!)

Here's What You Do:
-Preheat oven to 375
-Mix together everything except the flour & chocolate chips
-Slowly mix in the flour until well blended, then stir in the chips
-Drop by the spoonful onto cookie sheets
-Bake for approx. 7 minutes or until lightly golden brown, then let cool

Now share them!



Here's the Rest:

*I cover my cookie sheets in aluminum foil whenever I bake cookies.  The cookies bake evenly, it protects your cookie sheets, and allows for SUPER fast cleanup!  Triple win!

*I also make these with some Andes mint chocolate chips thrown in...they are heavenly and should be made on a regular basis. Throw in about 4 or 5 oz. of those with the same amount of semi-sweet and you have a no-lose situation.

* I always keep extra, cute little containers in the house so that I can package some of these suckers up and run them to friends on a moment's notice.  Keep your eye out for cute tins that are air tight and can be used year-round and pick them up when they're on sale!  Tuck a little card in with it and make their day :)

Hooray for food blogging!

OK, so I'm not much of a blogger...but I like sharing my ideas and opinions with the few people that care about them, so here I am for the two or three of you that might read this!!  I've enjoyed documenting our crazy life at "Life of Schafers" and I love sharing recipes, so this is going to be that kind of blog! 

I love food.  Mostly of the dessert variety.  I've been running a part time bakery out of my home for a couple of years now.  While that's been a really fun and creative adventure for me, my time constraints have started to limit how much I can take on, so I'm taking a bit of a break.  Hopefully, by sharing some of my favorite recipes here, I can still have the joy of helping make people's special days even better!

I'm a planner.  I like to start thinking of the kids' party themes and holiday parties well in advance.  I mean, good grief, I'm already planning my 30th birthday party for 2015 - in saying goodbye to my "20's", we'll be having a "flapper" party, so all of my friends should start collecting fabulous dresses now...consider yourself warned ;)  So you'll get to reap the benefits of my uber-planner personality as I think of holiday and party plans well in advance and share them here!

I love the holidays, especially the 4th of July.  What better way to celebrate our country's independence than to get together with my loved ones and eat good food while praying no one gets injured?  I love my family...I love spending time with them - crazy, right?!  We grill, we eat homemade banana ice cream, and we ooooooh and ahhhh at the massive fireworks that we spend way too much money on.  There is no pressure, no rushing...we just get to hang out and enjoy each other...it's wonderful. So I'm thinking about plans way in advance...cute decorations for our house, how much to spend on fireworks, cute outfits for the kiddos, and of course - what to make for the family get together!

My favorite red, white, and blue recipe to date is this Berry Cheesecake Trifle, adapted from a parfait recipe from Kraft Foods.  It's super easy and quick and such a great treat all through the summer!!!

Here's what you need:
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1.5 cups milk
1 pkg (3.4 oz) Jell-o French Vanilla instant pudding
1 tub thawed Cool Whip

1 box of Nilla Wafers

Sliced strawberries - approx. 1 carton

Blueberries - approx. 1 carton

Here's what you do:

-Beat cream cheese until creamy.

-Add milk

-Add dry pudding mix

-Mix well

-Whisk in half of cool whip

Here's how you make it pretty!

- Layer of Nilla Wafers

- Mix of strawberries & blueberries (as many as you want!)

- 1/3 of pudding mixture

- Repeat 3 times

- Top the whole thing with the left over Cool Whip and any remaining fruit & wafers

I'm going to have to learn to take better pictures!!!

I've also made this in individual cups for snacks for the kids at daycare and they are always a huge hit! 

Happy summer everyone!!