Kitchen Sink Cookies

These are my new favorite cookies. There is something for everyone. There are a lot of ingredients and that's why I'm calling them kitchen sink cookies. They are just about fool-proof. If your cookies tend to fall flat, try these. They are hard to screw up.

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Ingredient List

1/2 cup unsalted butter
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 cups packed light brown sugar (or sugar in the raw)

2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose white flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
generous ½ teaspoon salt
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

2 cups corn flakes, crushed
1 ¼ cups (5 oz.) chopped pecans
1 ¼ cups (about 3 ½ oz.) shredded or flaked sweetened coconut
Optional:
*1 tablespoon peanut butter
**2 cups Chocolate chips

The instructions, with pictures

preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a mixer or a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and brown and white sugars until light in color.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until fluffy.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until combined. Stir in the pecans, corn flakes, coconut and oats.

This is a good time to add chocolate chips. You can add peanut butter here  too.

Let the dough stand for 5 to 10 minutes, or until firmed up slightly.

Use an ice cream scoop and place balls about 2 inces apart on silpat or greased cookie sheet.

Use your hand to pat down the balls until about 1/2 to one inch thick.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. The sides will be a light brown and the center will look slightly underdone. Set the cookie sheet onto a wire rack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly, about 3-5 minutes (this is super important so they don't break apart!). Transfer cookies with a spatula to wire racks. Let stand until completely cooled.

Makes 24-30 3 inch cookies. Store in an airtight containes for up to 1 week or freeze for up to one month.

Enjoy! Try them and let me know how much you love them.

Little note: you can make them larger or smaller, just adjust the cooking time. :)

Birthdays Project Thanks

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for all my wonderful friends who donated items for the infant kits. You rock!  I'm still receiving items (donations are coming from all over the US and Canada!) so I will probably have the kits complete by month's end. I'm hoping to personally bring the kits to Welfare Square in Salt Lake City. I'd love to take a tour of the facilities and learn other ways that I can help relieve some of the suffering around the world. If I go, I'll take pictures for sure.

Have any of you been there? Is it amazing? What service projects are you working on now?

Thank You Card

I am loving the beautiful Teresa Collins papers and elements.

For this card, I used a reversible (light blue check/black floral) paper from Teresa Collins Welcome Home collection. The frame is a Teresa Collins chipboard piece from the same collection. It was in a package of really fun elements given to me by Stephanie as a prize at her class on Saturday. Thanks Stephanie. <3

The sentiment is a Stampin Up stamp on a scrap of DCWV paper. I added sparkle to the flowers with aqua and wheatfields Glimmer Mist and finished them off with turquoise brads.

Thanks for stopping by today. And, welcome new visitors. :)

Some Fun Cards

I woke up early on my birthday and started making cards. When my mum got up she joked, "are you making your own birthday card?" Funny. Here are 2 of the cards I made (you will just have to trust me that they look better in person).For both cards I used Bo Bunny and DCWV papers. For the first card I used my odd bird planet scallop circle and Hero Arts sentiment. The heart was punched with my Fiskars scalloped heart punch. Vintage ribbon.The next card uses CHF sentiment and tree stamp. The hearts are Stamps by Judith. I used my Fiskars border bunch and ribbon from the stash.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I'm going to Sacramento tomorrow but I have at least one post to share while I'm gone. Okay, gotta pack.

The Home Book

I was so excited to see on Stephanie Ackerman's blog, Homegrown Hospitality that she was teaching a class in my town. We made a gorgeous book using Teresa Collins Welcome Home products.

Stephanie showed us how to make our own embellishments including paper roses. Stephanie is taking it upon herself to bring letter stickers back. I have faith that she can do it. She taught us how to change the color of the stickers to fit our project and to make them dimensional. I added several photos that were on my laptop. I used picnik to make my photos black and white with a touch of color. This is only half of the pages. I'm not done yet. I'm going to add journaling and maybe some doodles. It will be all about my home and family. Also, since I took the pictures, I added sparkles to the cover and tabs.

It was a fun class. It was also a Fiskateer reunion.  And those are always fun!

Thanks for stopping by today. I have lots of things to show you this week before I go away for my birthday. ;)

The Latest on the Birthdays Project

I feel so blessed and overwhelmed by the amount of help that is coming in for my Birthdays Project. So far, I've collected and received emails from ladies all over the U.S. and Canada willing to help me collect items for poor infants. If you would like to help, there are still many things needed including:

20 bars of Ivory soap

40 flat fold diapers (these are sold in packs of 12 at Walmart)

10 pairs of baby socks or booties (storebought or homemade) 

For more information on what this project is all about, go to my original post. You can either email me ( h_mcewen at hotmail dot com ) or leave a comment here with questions or to volunteer to help me collect infant items for my birthday. Thanks so much.