baking

Hannah and cookies

Hannah recently entered a local teen fashion contest. The contest was for teen girls to show how to dress up a basic outfit in an inexpensive way while also providing shopping tips.

She asked me to take her pictures, and of course I said yes. I love being behind the lens of my camera. I’m not sure when Hannah will find out who won, but I do want to share the photos she submitted!

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Her “plain” outfit.

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Her fully accessorized outfit!

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Very schnazzy.

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Love her. So much.

Cookies

This summer has been the summer of zucchini for my garden. The zucchini grew and grew like crazy. I think I still have some to pick.

garden

I have made countless loaves of zucchini bread. I’ve tried every variation, too–chocolate chip, nut and raisin, banana and Nutella. You get the point.

I was staring at a zucchini laying on my dining room table a few days ago. I was in the mood to bake (as usual), but didn’t want to make another loaf of zucchini bread. So I made cookies.

You would think I’d be tired of cookies by now. Nope. Definitely not.

Here is a lovely recipe for milk chocolate chip zucchini cookies.

cookies

cookies2

These cookies are different from “regular” chocolate chip cookies for two reasons. They have milk chocolate chips and they’re super soft. I think the softness comes from the moisture in the grated zucchini.

If you enjoy soft, chewy cookies, definitely try out the recipe and let me know what you think!

1,004 cookies

As many readers know, my brother tied the knot on July 27th!12

In May, my brother and his then fiance, Racquel, asked me to bake 500 cookies for their wedding. The plan was that I was to bake 500 cookies, and Racquel’s friend was to bake 500 cookies.

Then her friend bailed.

So I baked all of the cookies. And I loved every second of the whole process. It took me a week to bake all of the cookies, so I averaged 1-2 different types per day.

Here’s a list of the cookies:

Chewy lemon (8.5 dozen)
Double chocolate (12 dozen)
Peanut butter, pretzel, and milk chocolate chip (11 dozen)
Almond butter (7.6 dozen)
Zucchini cookies (8.5 dozen)
Mexican wedding (7.5 dozen)
Chocolate-dipped shortbread (8.2 dozen)
Glazed orange (5 dozen)
Chocolate chip (7 dozen)
-Lady locks (I ordered these because they’re hard to make! Sorry I’m not sorry.) (8 dozen)

Some photos:

lemon cookies
Lemon cookies

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Peanut butter, pretzel, and milk chocolate chip cookies

cookies
Almond butter cookies

Zucchini cookies
Zucchini cookies

mexican wedding cookies
Mexican wedding cookies… plus a messy kitchen table 😉

shortbread cookies
Chocolate-dipped shortbread cookies

glazed orange cookies
Glazed orange cookies

chocolate chip cookies
Chocolate chip cookies

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This is a picture of all 1,004 cookies before I brought them over to Racquel’s house the night before the wedding.

I didn’t take any pictures of the cookies at the reception, but I did visit the cookie table a few times throughout the evening to hear people’s opinions on the cookies (yes, I realize that is very creeper-ish).

The top three cookies that I heard guests rave about most were:

Double chocolate
Peanut butter, pretzel, and milk chocolate chip
Glazed orange

My thoughts on the experience:

-I LOVE BAKING.
I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
-I’m sad it’s over. Seriously!
-I’m not sad that my freezer now has space for something other than cookies.
-My family and I loved taste testing every single batch of cookies!
-I’m really glad I could help with my brother’s wedding in such a fun way.

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