A Little bit About What's Been Happening...

Hey everybody! So I'm not even sure where to begin to be honest. So much has happened since my last post. So many new life experiences in such a short time (relatively speaking)! I must have burned myself out because I noticed I was posting less and less, and then I felt guilty, and then posting felt like such a CHORE. This is a rookie blogger mistake! 

I have been genuinely busy though. Lots of work experience, romantic forays (expect an...in depth post about this, haha), life experiences. All of which I will dive into. Eventually. For now, I feel the need for some serious changes.

So here is my plan for the coming months: I will be enacting a major blog overhaul. I still need to upload all of my lost photos from past posts (I'm still tore up about that!), but beyond that, I will be changing the background, banner, color scheme...basically everything! I will even be reinventing the "brand" of my blog. I've been thinking, I would really like to make this more of a lifestyle blog. This isn't to say that I'll be getting rid of the fashion aspect. Neva'! Instead, I'll be writing about how fashion intertwines with my life, including my work life, family life, and love life. If I expand the topics of the blog I will have more material to put into interesting, meaningful - and most importantly - relatable posts. :)

Now you all know the plan! I have not died and only today I finally felt the spark again; the spark that drives me to have a great blog. I'm super excited for the changes I have planned. I may do a post in the near future with a sneak peak of the planned changes...

Thanks for sticking with me if you're a return follower, and thanks for showing interest if you're new to my blog! I hope you're not disappointed with the changes, but as always I am open to hear my readers' opinions. If there is a feature that you'd like to see or any other comment please let me know! I can't promise anything of course, but I'd love to hear from my readers.

Thanks everybody, see you on the other side! :D

My Favorite Holiday Cookie: Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookes

This cookie has been my most desired Holiday fare for as long as I can remember. My sister and I have begged my mom to make these cookies many times before in the past. Of course, we could have made them ourselves - they're a snap to prepare - but don't you find food cooked by your loved ones always tastes better?

I decided to make these bad boys a little earlier than usual this year. My dad has been recovering from his surgery, so when I was over at my parents' house I decided to get all Martha Stewart up in there and whip up a batch. The original recipe is one my mom cut off of the side of a Hershey's Kiss bag. It's ancient! But I found it nestled in the "cookies" file of my mom's equally ancient recipe box.

I made some slight modifications: First, we didn't have any actual Hershey Kisses, so I got extra Stewart-y and melted some chocolate chips, poured that into a ziplock bag, snipped the corner off, and made a makeshift frosting piper (or whatever they call those things! :P). Second, I have developed some kind of food allergy over the last year or so, and have a strong suspicion it is a corn allergy. Thus, I have been avoiding a lot of foods due to all the cornstarch and corn syrup in just about everything. So my mom kindly bought me some all natural peanut butter at Costco that worked perfectly. Actually, we didn't even realized until later that it was chunky peanut butter! But in the grand scheme of things...it made absolutely no difference at all! They were still delicious!!!

I've transcribed the recipe to share with all of you here. I know it's an easy recipe to find anywhere, but I'm going to do it here too! So enjoy everyone!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies with Hershey's Kisses

1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy (or crunchy!) peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar
1 bag (9 oz.) Hershey's Milk Chocolate Kisses, unwrapped

Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. In large mixer bowl, beat shortening and peanut butter until well blended. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to beaten mixture. Shape dough into 1" balls (I used a rounded tablespoon so all my cookies came out uniform in size). Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes (I would err on the lower side of that amount) or until lightly browned. Immediately (Seriously. Right away) place unwrapped chocolate piece on top of cookie, pressing down so cookie cracks around edges (but not too hard!). Remove from baking sheet. Cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

I know the recipe SAYS to cool completely, but I can tell you right now that there is nothing - NOTHING!!! - more tasty than a peanut butter cookie with still-melty chocolate! And with that, I think I will leave you. Enjoy your holidays!

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