The "Best" Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week's recipe was something I found off a blog that I frequent regularly called Bake Or Break. I really like this site because of the photos they take. One day I hope to photograph my good half as well as they do. This recipe intrigued me simply from the title...My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies. I'd been wanting to give these a try for a few weeks, but hadn't had a good reason to until my parents graciously spent their whole weekend helping us to finish the backyard. They LOVE chocolate chip cookies, and I must say, they were pretty tasty. Not your typical toll house cookie, but overall very good. Chris especially loved them as they were coming out of the oven and I ate more than my fair share as well. The best part was that they are still soft and chewy the next day. I think that I will be making these again. Try them, you won't regret it!

Click here for a copy of a printable copy of the recipe.

Stay Away Fay!

Not from us, since we are safely in the desert thousands of miles away, but from Chris' parent's house in Islamorada, FL! For those not familiar with South Florida, Islamorada is located in that popular chain of islands known as the Florida Keys. See below for a map of exactly where they are located. We have been out of touch with the news the past few days, but yesterday I read that the Keys were under evacuation notice for tourists because of tropical storm Fay. Then this morning I read that Fay is expected to become a full blown hurricane in the next 24 hours! Fay has already killed more than 7 people in Haiti and right now the National Weather Service is predicting more than 10 inches of rain and and storm tides more than 5 feet their normal size.

The only good news is that Chris' parents are spending their summer in New Jersey, like they do every year for this exact reason. Their house was fully hurricane proofed before they left in case of an event like this. While their house might not be immediately affected, their yard is especially vulnerable to storms. A few years back, their yard had severe damage after hurricane Rita hit. His parents spent countless hours trying to bring their plants back to life. Some things survived, but many did not. I just hope that this won't affect them like Rita did. Their home in Florida has brought me so many great memories over the past few years, and I know how much they love living there. I will post again once I have any updates, but for now I thought I'd post a few photos from our most recent trip.

Recipe Wednesday Is Back

Even though I've reformatted the blog, I still want to keep Recipe Wednesday. This week's recipe is dedicated to summer...Cherry Pie! My mom's birthday was July 3rd, and since she is usually the birthday dessert maker in our family and I didn't want her to make her own birthday treat, I volunteered. On the cover of her Cooking Light magazine was this recipe and that's what Mom wanted, so I went with it. The only thing I did differently was that I used homemade pie crust and didn't have a coffee grinder for the tapioca so I skipped that step. Everything else is the same. I guarantee this will be one of the best cherry pie's you've ever had. I highly recommend buying the cherries at Costco/Sam's Club too to avoid the high price of some grocery stores.

Instead of typing the recipe, just click here to get a printable version of the recipe. One more thing as well, I highly recommend buying the cherry pitter they suggest. I did and it was so easy to use. It only took me about 20 minutes to pit all the cherries. This is a messy process though, so be aware of flying cherry juice!