Sarah's first guest blog! Chewy Oatmeal M&M Cookies & Oreo Chocolate Chip PB Bars

Much of my early interest in baking and cooking was due to inspiration from my big sister, Sarah. When I was in high school and college she and my mother would tease me relentlessly that I only knew how to cook eggs and pasta. My sister had begun cooking at a fairly young age and was quite the natural. It was from a desire to mimic her, and of course my family's loving prodding that finally pushed me to begin exploring the kitchen. So, it seems only fitting that she write a guest blog here and there! Oh, and I mustn't forget her cat, Mrs. Kitty. Mrs. Kitty lived with me for much of my childhood; in fact, she used to urinate all over my bed while I slept in it! (We think it was stress-related from living with our dogs). Luckily, this...cute...habit stopped once my sister moved out for college and took her kitty with her!

Welome to my first guest blog! A love of both cats and baked goods runs in the family, so lucky for you, my first guest blog will include both of those things! :)

First though, this is me:

 This is my 18 year old cat, Mrs. Kitty:

And this is my husband (who also loves cats!):

Some of my likes include: cats, baked goods, most shows on the Bravo! network, exercise, soft-serve ice cream, happy people, and Essie nail polish. 

Some of my dislikes include: Snakes and spiders.  Oh, and camping.  I am REALLY not into camping...but I do love roasted marshmallows!

Much like my sister, I love to bake.  My earliest memories of baking include my maternal grandmother...these early experiences baking with her are where my love for cakes, cookies, breads, and other yummy treats all started! 

I also love to cook, and learned a great deal about cooking from Rachael Ray.  When I was in college I watched 30 Minute Meals  often, and frequently made recipes from Rachael's cookbooks...

Although I love both cooking and baking, I often find myself in the mood to bake up a storm, as I did this weekend.  I was craving cookies...but I couldn't decide on just one kind of cookie, so I decided to make two, one a traditional cookie, and one a bar.  Thank you to Sally's Baking Addiction and Picky Palate.

First I made Sally's Chewy Oatmeal M&M Cookies:

I started with my ingredients, most of which I had on hand (all but the M&Ms!).  Sally's recipe calls for mini-M&Ms, but I couldn't find them at my grocery store, so I got regular size instead, and they worked just fine!

 First combine the softened butter and two sugars:

 

After beating them together till fluffy, I added an egg and vanilla extract:

In go the oats and flour (oh, I also used quick oats, not rolled oats, as it calls for...I think this worked fine):

Beat those together:

And then add your mix-ins!  I always like variety, so I decided to divide the batch in two, and added M&Ms to one, and chocolate chips and raisins to the other:

Then, I chilled the dough for well over an hour, as Sally suggests.  By the time I took my dough out of the fridge, I was certain it was cold enough to start portioning out into cookies.

Popped them in the over for exactly 10 minutes and they were done!  Here is the finished product:

My cookies turned out rounder in shape than Sally's (which was ok) and a little browner in color (also ok).  They tasted sweeter than other oatmeal cookie recipes I've tried, but they definitely weren't too sweet! 

Next cookie recipe was courtesy of Picky Palate, Oreo Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars:

Here are my ingredients, all of which I had on hand expect the mini oreos (didn't mind making a special trip to the store for those though!):

 First I had to make my base by beating together the sugars and butter. 

Then I added in my peanut butter, and beat to combine.  Picky Palate calls for natural peanut butter, but all I had on hand was the sugary Jiff stuff, and it worked just fine:

After I beat in the peanut butter, I beat in an egg and some vanilla extract, and then added my dry ingredients:

And now the fun part, adding the mix-ins!  The Picky Palate recipe calls for milk chocolate chips, but I used semi-sweet: 

I actually used my electric beater to combine the mini oreos and chocolate chips...it broke up the cookie pieces a bit, and evenly distributed them.  Here's the finished dough:

And here it is pressed into it's bakeware:

Mmmm...the ooey, gooey, finished product!

These bars were delicious!  The peanut butter flavor was subtle, but the oreos and chocolate chips make it a rich bar.  I also think they tasted a little better a day after they'd been baked...it was as if the flavors had some time to settle, so they didn't taste as sweet as they did while they were still warm, and I was better able to pick out the flavor of the peanut butter, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and oreos.

At the end of my baking spree, I had more cookies on my hands than would be possible to eat, so I put some in the freezer to enjoy later, and then shared the rest with family, friends, and co-workers :) 

That's all for now! See you next time!