Friday, September 16, 2011

S'more Cookies?

Food Finding Friday!

This is the first among many new recipe adventures. Heather, Katharine, and I took on S'more Cookie Bar thingies today! I must say they are absolutely deli-sh! However, we ended up forgetting one key ingredient. As most know; a S'more consists of chocolate, graham cracker, and marsh mellow! Well, we forgot the mellow. Turning this into a absolutely fabulous chocolatey haven for a food connoisseur mouth! I know this is not a healthy recipe, but I am hosting a girls night tomorrow evening for the women of the BSM! So something fattening is just what the Dr. ordered! 


I will leave you with the recipe and a couple of images for eye candy!



11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. I used one 11x17 pan and one 9x13 pan but you can really use any sized pans you want.

Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching). I used 16 graham cracker squares on one pan and 10 squares on another. You may have to add or remove graham crackers according to how much dough you have. If you want your cookies thicker you will use more dough and less graham crackers.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight (I did one batch right away and another after chilling overnight and found there was no difference.)

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. I averaged about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per graham cracker square as seen in the picture above. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top. You can place as many pieces or as little as you want depending how much chocolate flavor you want.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool. For clean cutting make sure cookies are completely cool and cut with a sharp knife.


Fabulous, Fun, and Quick!
Enjoy. I know that we will! Miss and love you all!

Be Blessed,
Beck's


Thursday, September 15, 2011

What is going on woman?

Wow, talk about a hectic crazy life! None of those adjectives should describe the life of a follower of Christ! This shows me just how little I am really relying on my savior to be my supplier of energy and my source of life! Any who now that I am done admitting I am a slacker and haven't been making the wisest of decisions. I am going to move on and accept the blessing of grace!

So here goes! My goal is to begin to blog everyday about each area of my life. Maybe I will chose each day of the week to be a specific topic! That sounds good! Today has been a weird day! Not doing so great, I got this killer sunburn while hanging out at "Life's a beach" today and it is wearing me out. I mean I where some large sunglasses, so these aren't even reasonably called raccoon eyes.. I feel like they are more like you got beat up and then got a sunburn around it eyes!

I have finally found a church to make my home here in CC and it is Lexington Baptist Church! I love the heart of this church family! I have found the fullness of community here and am beyond thrilled! This week we received our new minister of music and youth! He is awesome and is really excited to begin impressing upon our youth true discipleship. Wow, way to many exclamation marks, can you tell I am excited :) . So, this wednesday was the first youth night. It was cool to get to meet all of the students, they are really awesome kids and I can't wait to get to know them more.

Afterwards we had college discussion group. This time feels almost like seminary for average people. We dig into the topics that most Christians settle on and don't really care to dig to find the answers. We investigate controversial topics, I truly feel as though I am being sharpened and challenged here! Most often they are topics that non Christians struggle with understanding and hinder them from committing to turn towards a life of freedom in Christ.

This week the topic was "If heaven is so good, then how was "satan" able to do something so evil causing sin to enter the world." The way pastor scott sets it up is we pick a topic usually the week before so that we can investigate and then come back with some ideas. This week, there were none! So we begin looking through scripture, and googling the question. We come up with passages in Isiah, Ezekiel, John, Genesis, Revelations; yet none really tell the story. No where in scripture are we able to find this, it eludes to what happened, but no where is it flat out said. ( An hour and a half of searching and finding no answers to the Sunday school a+b equation is really exhausting!) In the last two minutes of discussion pastor Scott broke down for us what theologians have to say. It doesn't flat out say, however had Satan not been evil, the polar opposite of God, then we would have no free choice. If Good is all there is , there is no choice. Wow, never have I been thankful for Satan... but in this and only this aspect of him, I am.

God is so much bigger than our little brains can comprehend... " Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; its too high, I cannot attain it" (psalm 139:6).

God, you are so much bigger than the moment, so much bigger than the minute, the hour, the day, the week, the month, the year, the decade, the century, and even my lifetime. "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in your book were written all the days that were ordained for me, When yet there was not one of them" (psalm 139:16). Your plan and purpose is beyond my selfish existence. I am thankful for a father who is all knowing and all sustaining! Show us that even in a moment of weakness and in a pattern of chaos, you are still on your throne!!! "Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way of the everlasting" (psalm139:24).

Be Blessed,
Becks