Can I get some cookies?

Have I ever mentioned how much I love baking? You could probably tell that by looking at my muffin top.

Baking is such a fun activity for me. I love to gather up all the ingredients and whip it up into something yummy. Mack & Amelia love to help me and we all anticipate the final step when we can grab our spoons and have some "snitchies" (not too paranoid about salmonella poisoning in my kitchen). It's always fun to have a treat, but for me it really comes down to the feeling I get when I bake. It's festive. It makes me feel like there is something to be happy about, someone to please with the product, tangible love to share.

Last week I was channeling my Gram in the kitchen. She invented a recipe many years ago and it has become a staple in my extended family for the last three decades. Dan loves these cookies and they're a little off the beaten chocolate-chip-cookie path, so it's fun to make them. They are called E.T. Munchies and they have Reese's Pieces in them (I'll let you connect the dots).

I'm going to share the recipe with you because this amount of goodness should not be kept undercover. But if you keep the recipe, will you credit it to my Gram, Jeanette Cox? Then maybe I won't get in trouble for sharing a family secret!

E.T. Munchies

{cream together}
1/2 cup soft butter
1 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
{add}
3 eggs
1 tsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking soda
{mix well and add}
4 1/2 cups oatmeal
8 oz. Reese's Pieces

Bake at 325 for 8-10 minutes

Now, a couple of hints on these babies. You have to flatten them a bit before baking, like so:

A rubber spatula works best because it doesn't stick to the dough as much as a spoon.

You have to watch them because they burn easily. You don't want to wait until they're brown or you've overdone it. This is what they look like when they've gone 3 or 4 minutes too long because you were too busy commenting on someone's Facebook post.

This is what they should look like, firm but not brown:

Unfortunately, E.T. Munchies are not my kids' favorite. I don't know who their parents are.

Whilst the E.T. Munchies were baking, I whipped up some sugar cookie dough. Mack & Amelia helped me roll them out and cut out shapes until they were bored and I did the rest after they'd gone to bed. The next night we mixed up several colors of frosting and the girls and I went to town.

Lily is getting to be pretty good with a frosting bag.

Amelia has yet to master the less-is-more concept. It's tricky getting just the right amount of pressure so you don't overdo it.

Although it's not yet Thanksgiving, the girls insisted that we do Christmas trees. Here are a few I decorated:

Amelia frosted the most cookies and loved mixing up the colors.

And marking her territory.

Lily didn't have as many to show because she nibbled along the way!

And she made a few special cookies for her brother and sister.

When we ran out of cookies to frost, Lily continued to practice her decorating skills on the lid of the cookie box.

Here is my favorite sugar cookie recipe. Nice and soft and just the tiniest bit of tang to them.

Sugar Cookies

{cream together}
1 cup soft butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
{add}
2 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla
{mix then add}
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 cups flour

Chill dough 1 hour. Roll out 1/4 inch thick and cut out shapes.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Cool and frost.

The cookies are good enough to eat without frosting if the thought of eating something piled in butter and powdered sugar makes you want to gag. But that's not you, right?

Let me know if you try either of these recipes. What have you been baking lately?