Half & Half Chocolate Chip Cookies

Shawn and Grady's favourite cookie is the classic chocolate chip cookie but for Father's Day, I wanted to give the classic a little oomph. I didn't want to fundamentally change the basic chocolate chip cookie, but I did want to make it feel a little more special. These half & half chocolate chip cookies look impressive but don't take much more time to make than regular cookies. The recipes can be made as standalone cookies or they can be combined to make a fancier-but-still-classic chocolate chip cookie.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I tweaked this recipe slightly to suit my purposes.

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Melt butter.

Stir in sugars and salt until a smooth paste has formed.

Whisk in the egg and vanilla until combined well.

Stir in flour, baking soda, and chocolate chips gently until combined. Do not over mix. 

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour, preferably overnight. (I know. I know! What a pain. But it honestly results in tastier, more flavourful cookies.) 

Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾  cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

Melt butter.

Stir in sugars and salt until a smooth paste has formed.

Whisk in the egg and vanilla until combined well.

Stir in flour, baking soda, cocoa, and chocolate chips gently until combined. Do not over mix. 

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour, preferably overnight. 

Half & Half Cookie Assembly

Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Scoop spoonfuls of chocolate chip cookie dough onto prepared cookie sheets. (I use my 1-teaspoon cookie scoop and the cookies are the perfect size.) Scoop similar-sized spoonfuls of double chocolate chip cookie dough and then roll the two balls together in your palms to create one ball of cookie dough that is half plain chocolate chip cookie dough and half double chocolate chip cookie dough. Flatten slightly and place two inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly browned. Remove from cookie sheet and cool completely. Enjoy!

Makes approximately 40 cookies.

Thank You Teacher Gift - Customized Pencils

We're stumbling toward the end of the school year with a calendar full of spirit days and classroom events. The thought of adding one more thing to my to-do list is daunting but I wanted to give Grady's teachers a gift from the heart. Grady's first year of school has been more positive than we could have hoped for, largely because of his teachers. Teachers are my heroes. I say that without an ounce of humour. I could not teach 22 five-year-olds and maintain my sanity. 

I realize that teachers probably accrue a lot of stuff, and my desire to give a heartfelt gift doesn't outweigh their desire to not be buried in things. I wanted to find the perfect balance of meaningful and useful. 

I used 1/8" metal hand stamps, a black ink pad, and a rubber mallet to make custom pencils for Grady's teachers and I love how they turned out. With that being said, this was not a fun craft to do with an almost-six-year-old. It requires too much dexterity and the risk-reward ratio was off. My fingers got whacked a few too many times is what I'm saying. 

We added a card with sincere messages from both of us (I may have cried a little while writing mine) and a coffee gift card. It may not be the most elaborate or fancy teacher thank you gift but it checks all my boxes. 

Do you do teacher thank you gifts at the end of the year? What do you give?

Make Cold Brew Coffee Easily with a French Press

I love coffee. This is...not shocking news, I know. I love the taste. I love the smell. I love the ritual. I love how it makes me feel so loved when Shawn gets up early to brew me a cup. 

As we roll into summer, I start to crave cold brew coffee. Cold brew coffee is not the same thing as iced coffee. Iced coffee is coffee that's been brewed regularly (with heat) and then cooled down. Cold brew coffee doesn't introduce heat to the equation at all. Cold brew is less acidic, and tastes almost sweet. It's smoother than iced coffee. And it's ridiculously easy to make, especially with a French Press.

I blogged about my love for cold brew years ago but I've since simplified the process.

I use the Bodum Brazil 8-cup French Press. I put 1/2 cup coarsely ground coffee in the bottom, top it with cold water, give it a quick stir, pop the lid on (without depressing the plunger) and let it sit on the counter (at room temperature!) for approximately 12 hours. Then plunge and pour your delicious cold brew into a vessel that can be covered to store in the fridge (I put mine in a 1L mason jar).

To serve, pour cold brew over ice and top with milk. You'll have to play around to find your perfect ratio but I find 1:1:1 is a great place to start. Add sweetener or a splash of cream if you're feeling fancy. Enjoy! Preferably while sitting on the patio in a sunbeam. 

Tiny Happy Tuesday: 14

It's 9am and Grady and I have already had a *tense discussion* about food, he's lost his screen time privileges for the day, and he's not well enough to go to school. I'm digging deep for Tiny Happy Tuesday is what I'm saying. 

What is Tiny Happy Tuesday? It's a prompt to acknowledge and appreciate all the little happies piling up to give me my beautiful, chaotic, lovely life. Want to join? You can find more info here.

• Shawn went on a car cruise thing-a-ma-bob last weekend and they stopped for lunch at a winery. He texted me a gorgeous photo as I was standing in the pouring rain, wrestling a furious Poppy, while attempting to watch Grady's baseball game. He brought home a bottle of wine from the winery so I quickly forgot about the pouring-rain-kid-wrangling. We drank it last night while watching stand-up on Netflix and it was a perfect, low-key Monday evening.
• Last week I got a surprise care package in the mail from one of my dearest friends. It was unexpected, extremely thoughtful, and exactly what I needed on that day. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by caring people.
• Poppy had a rough appointment yesterday and Grady was the only thing that calmed her down. He cuddled her and soothed her crying and after, as we were driving home, he told me he loves Poppy so much, one hundred times more than he loves screens (which is great because today he's lost all his screen time privileges but at least he's got Poppy to keep him entertained).

Want to join me? I'd love for you to grab my graphic and join the Facebook group, and share in the fun (don't forget to use the hashtag: #TinyHappyTuesday so I can follow along!).

Let's find the happy, friends.