Something Saturdays (6/28/14)

So much fun this week! On Sunday I officially felt like I was a. home and b. it's summer! I went to the first Sunday pool party/cookout at my grandma's--we pretty much do this every Sunday all summer long and I've missed it soooo much! I had such a wonderful time with my family and enjoying the sun and the water, ahhh.

I also finally got to enjoy the pool in my complex! My brother and his...Katherine (complicated) came over and we all went swimming. They also made me do laps to work out in the pool. So...fun and tiring.

AND IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!! After rescheduling like 4 times we finally took our engagement pictures! We had them set for Wednesday and then....rain....so we just pushed them back 1 day to Thursday and, luckily, that completely worked out! (Thanks to the amazing flexibility and overall awesomeness of our photographer Joe Tate!) I also was able to do a trial run of my hair and makeup that day and completely fell in love with Erica and Joleane (Beauty Therapy)-and officially booked them for the wedding! These girls are so talented and so much fun! I'm so excited to have them come and make me beautiful for the wedding!! They did such a great job on Thursday so I know it'll be perfect. <3 Anyway, we ended up spending about 3 hours taking pictures and it was...weird? Lol it was fun but I'm not used to merging my photo shoot portion of my life with my Michael life, so I think I struggled being completely natural with my like "be pretty" knowledge. But I think we worked it out-and it was fun getting to be all lovey with my favorite boy for a few hours. I think/hope we got some good shots and I can't wait to see them and then share with you guys!

Now, today is Michael's cousin Allison's wedding-I know it's going to be spectacular (like, my wedding will not even have a chance, lol) so I'm super excited for the day and to see how stunning Allison looks (she'll be insanely beautiful, she always is!)

Browned Butter Mini Chip Cookies

It took like...a crazy amount of time after we moved before I made cookies. Michael even pulled out the old "You know what we haven't had in awhile? COOKIES!" and he.was.RIGHT! And so I decided to go classic and try one of my bjillion chocolate chip cookie recipes that I had saved. Cuz...I mean...you gotta try lots of different ones! They're all different! And these ones have browned butter, which is my bestie.

I also added salt to the tops of these cookies because my sweet and salty situation is like...out of control. It's necessary. I ate a cookie the other day and it didn't have salt and all I could think of how much better it would've been with salt on top. Silly people here are all like "What? Salt on a cookie?" and I'm like "ahhhh you guys have not lived yet! GET SOME!" 

Speaking of cookies, I was soooo excited to make some cookies this week for Michael's cousin's wedding (which is TOMORROW!) Making my food for people I know and love gives me such a happy feeling. It's almost as satisfying as the feeling I get when I eat the food I make. Mmmm.

(speaking of good food....can we talk about the fact that my autocorrect consistently corrects the word "food" to "good"...like...I know food is good....but food is in fact a word, Apple, and it does not need autocorrection! Especially because, let's face it, I talk about food a lot.)

Like right now: These cookies are classic. They're crisp and chewy and have that little extra oomph from the browned butter and salt. Are they my favorite CCC recipe? No. These are...or maybe these...or perhaps these...oh no...or maybe these...or these ?? TOO MANY!

But am I happy I made and proceeded to eat the everloving crap out of these cookies?

Yes. Yes I am.

and I made my brother break his diet to have one. So that was a victory too.

buahahaaaaa....

Chocolate Chip Cookie Mud Hen Bars

These mud hen bars are the FIRST thing I baked for the blog in my kitchen!

Isn't that crazy? I feel like it makes 'em super special.

You know what else makes these mud hen bars special? How much better the photos are when you compare them to the last mud hen bars I made (go ahead. Click the link. Take a look. Laugh at my atrocious pictures. Then come back here to continue reading and get the ooey gooey recipe.)

Now that we've all had a good laugh. Let's discuss THESE mud hen bars. They're not your typical MHB (got tired of typing out that whole, long, random name. Yeah, I've no clue where the name "mud hen bar" came from). Most MHB's have a sugar cookie base topped with choc chips and marshmallows and  a brown sugar meringue. And like...they're ok. But-I'm not in love with sugar cookies (notice how I have no recipes for them in the archives?) so it makes sense that it wouldn't really speak to me.

But these are CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE MHB's and...um...I sort of loooove CCC's!

Ooooh these bars are crazy goooey and brown sugar-y wonderful! That meringue on top is all crackly and wonderful-mmmmm. Now, mine might have been a little extra gooey beeeecause....I underbaked 'em a bit. 

Oops.

It's cool though! A yummy gooey cookie bar is a win, regardless!