Recipe 1 - Turtle Cookies!

So as some of you reading this may know my best friend, should have been sister, and ultimately the best taste tester ever, Ashley, passed away in June 2012 after fighting Cystic Fibrosis. There are so many days that I miss her more than I could ever express in words. I find myself sitting in a car and just start crying, or dreaming about the ridiculous, and usually fatty things we did together. I feel the urge to get Richie's slush any time I drive by, and sour patch kids make my heart skip a beat thinking of her. She was just incredible. There really is no point spending this first blog trying to explain her because there is no way you will ever realize how much she meant to me or her family. She was just incredible. Anyway - when I am upset I bake. I bake until I am so tired that I just want to go to bed - it seems to work for me. Ashley would always be over to taste what I was fixing. Well, she loved her sweets! And on her pinterest account she had a "sweet treats and desserts' board. I have decided tonight while missing her like crazy that I am going to bake all of her recipes and write about it.

So first on her list are turtle cookies...here is the recipe!....http://www.nlrockrecipes.com/2012/01/turtle-cookies.html  These are what they are suppose to look like....delish right?

First, I had no butter and its snowing a tad bit and I HATE the cold so I used I Cant Believe Its Not Butter....dad will be soooo happy to realize I used the rest of the tub (Thanks Dad)! Also, the recipe called for individual wrapped caramels but I only had Kraft caramel bites in the house, and like I mentioned before - I do not want to get out of this house! So this recipe didn't start out as planned ingredients wise but hey - I have chocolate for it so all is well, right!

Well after I made the cookies and went to make them into balls they were too soft and just mush in my fingers so I only made 4 and put the batter in the fridge where it is right now trying to get a little firmer (I know I am using such exact cooking terms - Rachel Ray, Julia Childs, Betty Crocker haha be proud). The ones in the oven do not look so great - the smell however is wonderful!

I should pause here to apologize for the color of the font and the background. It is horrible to read, but Ashley's favorite color is purple and you can see it better against a black shadow - we will all have to deal. Unless of course you don't want to see how the cookies turn out, then just X out of the screen and I will be a fat ass by myself! ;)


Ok - first round out and oh boy do they look weird! haha I definitely need more caramel and the nuts are too spread out. See below!

Second batch is in the oven. Putting the batter in the fridge helped but only a little bit. I don't like cookies that aren't easy to work with. I also put the nuts in the food processor (Ok, it isn't a food processor, I put it in the Jimmy Buffet's Margartiville maker - but hey, alcohol is always great with baking....speaking of which I might go uncork a bottle of wine!!) and make the nuts a lot smaller! I put waaayy more caramel bites on the top too. I didn't like how the last ones spread out too much! Hopefully this helps! Now to try a cookie!....

I DO NOT LIKE THEM! haha the taste is great but they have the consistency of hard sugar cookies. You all know what I am talking about - the sugar cookies that seem over cooked but they just feel like they stick to your teeth (for those who don't know me, I have issues with me teeth and feeling food be sticky to them makes me cringe!). I am going to take the batch thats in the oven out early! Hopefully that helps! Ugh, Ash - you would be so disappointed - that is if you didn't fill up on eating the batter!

Ok, the second batch came out a little more chewy but I am still not in love with them. The caramel still doesn't look the way it should - I will need the right ingredients for the next recipe! I did like the smaller nuts!

I guess Ash really was here in the kitchen with me today. She was the WORST baker...ok maybe Mackenzie is worse haha but it makes me a smile a bit that the first recipe I decide to try I consider a fail! I encourage you all to try it and let me know how yours turn out!

Breathe Easy for Ashley, and eat some baked goods too!!