I'm Back!

Well, needless to say it's been a while and a lot has changed.  No, I didn't quit law school, but I have been super busy.  Also blogger has changed in a BIG way - probably the biggest change that's happened since I last blogged in February.

So before I share a recipe with you, I'll just share some highlights since February:
1. It's summer, if you haven't noticed and it. is. hot. in. Missouri.  I'm talking Oklahoma kind of heat and dryness.
2. I finished yet another semester of law school, and I am happy to say things went much better than the first semester.
3. I am working at the Department of Revenue near the capitol being a law slave research-er person girl.
4. Mike and I have officially registered for the 2013 Disney World Marathon so that should be death fun.
5. Kora is still Kora, doing things like this:

Well, and that's really about it.  Except that I cut most of my hair off.  Yeah, forgot about that.  No, I don't have a current picture; call it camera shy or whatever you want, but I just can't seem to catch a good one yet.  I will say this: it's short. The shortest I've ever had it and let me tell you, I love it.

Okay so, onward to the recipe.  With summer in full swing, it means two things: Mike is running around in circles being busy with youth group activities, and I am just sitting around wondering what to do with myself and all my free time.

So, I concoct things like these:

I call them Chocolate Peanut-butter madness cookies - you'll figure out why when you read the recipe.  It turns out Mike aided me in creating these beauties.  We both love peanut butter M&Ms and once upon a time, I put them in a basic cookie dough recipe.  However,  I didn't really like them that way.  I ended up usually picking out the M&Ms, eating them on their own, and then eating just the dough part.

This time I wanted to put them in either chocolate or peanut butter dough, but I couldn't decide which.  So I just clumsily mixed them all together and out came these goodies.

Seriously, I can't keep my hands off these things.  So, give them a try and tell me if you have the same problem I do.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Madness Cookies
Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Peanut Butter Dough:
1 cup flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup butter (about 5 and a little T), softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 egg

Chocolate Dough:
2/3 cups all purpose flour
2 T cocoa powder
1/4 t baking soda
6 T butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 T white sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract

1 medium bag peanut butter M&Ms, divided.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peanut Butter Dough:
Mix flour and soda; set aside. Beat peanut butter, butter, sugars and vanilla with mixer until fluffy; beat in eggs. With mixer on low, gradually beat in flour mixture just until well blended. Stir in half bag of peanut butter M&Ms.  Set aside.


Chocolate Dough: 

Sift flour, cocoa, and baking soda into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth but not fluffy. Add both sugars, vanilla, and sea salt; beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; beat just until blended (mixture may be crumbly). Add peanut butter M&Ms.  

Now here is the very technical part of the recipe: dump the chocolate dough into the peanut butter dough.  Using a large spoon, chop up chocolate dough to distribute throughout the peanut butter dough.  I found a chopping/folding combo motion worked well for me.  You don't want this to be homogeneous; you should be able to distinguish the chocolate dough from the peanut butter.  When the dough is mixed to your liking, take a cookie scoop and place mounds on a greased cookie sheet.  

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops are golden brown.  Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.