Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

This week my sweet hubby turned 29!!! EEEP!!! I love getting to spoil the crap out of my loved ones! Of course I took him out for an ENTIRE day of everything he loves but, I also started his spoiling off with some of my addicting Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies, the night before. 

Look at the handsome face!!!

Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

- 1 cup Salted Butter(2 sticks softened)

- 2 cups Packed Dark Brown Sugar

- 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

- 2 Whole Eggs

- 1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

- 1 tsp. salt

- 1/2 tsp. baking soda

- 3 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

- ***OPTIONAL*** 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.

Begin by adding the softened butter and brown sugar to your mixing bowl with the regular metal paddle attached.

Mix until well combined.

***(ALWAYS break eggs into their own bowl ONE AT A TIME then add that one egg and repeat! You DO NOT want to get a bad egg and have to start any recipe ALL over!)***

Add in eggs, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. Combine until well mixed and add the flour.

***Add in the chopped nuts at this time too, if you're opting for them. Unless you have an allergy I recommend this option. The nuts give this cookie a WHOLE nother taste.**

Once all is well incorporated, reduce the speed to the lowest setting and SLOWLY begin adding the oats. Be sure to not dump it all in at once, most mixtures don't do well with a LARGE glob of dry ingredients all at once and you do NOT want to have to clean up sticky oats from your counters lol.

Using a cookie scoop(or a spoon) place scoops 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Continue until all the dough is gone or until you have the amount of cookies desired. The rest can be stored in the freezer up to 3 months.

Bake on 350 for 10-12 minutes, depending on your oven.

Remove and place on wire racks to cool.

ENJOY!!! =D

Alabama's Snow-mageddon 2014

Where in the WORLD is Carmen San Diego?! Hahaha No silly, finishing my sentence,  I'm not a 90's video game. Where in the WORLD have I been!? Lol

Yes those of you who sent me emails and facebook message, I AM still doing my blog. I got behind on EVERYTHING this passed month or so. BUT, I am BACK and will be BEYOND more efficient ALL AROUND!!! More crafts, new recipes, STAYING ON TOP OF MY WEIGHT LOSS, etc. etc. It's passed time to pay WAY more attention to my New Years Resolutions!

Here recently in our little overly dramatic, bipolar piece of Alabamian paradise has been SUPER moody! Mother Nature has been throwing fits like a toddler! Ice, warm weather, below freezing, 72 degrees, 6 inches of snow, WE CAN NOT GET A BREAK AROUND HERE!!!

However, it was B-E-A-U-TIFUL!!!

SO...my lucky little self made sure to get around someone that had the flu and bless their hearts if their experience was ANYTHING like mine!!! Miserableness to NO END!!! But, on the plus side it did help my weight loss get a kick start! 10 lbs GONE thanks to that misery =) Well, when I got home from the pharmacy I just wanted to nap. I thought I'll take this first dose then I'll go get groceries and what not. Besides it's only a "little dusting"...

LITTLE DUSTING MY PATOOTIE!!! This second picture was a mere THIRTY MINUTES into my nap when my husband woke me!

GOOD GRIEF!!! We aren't use to all this winter weather...but it sure is GORGEOUS!!! But Lord Bless the ones that have this EVERY year! I'm not sure if I could ever get use to this! It would give me an excuse to get an AWESOME jacked up, four wheel drive. MMMmmm my country raising is showing ;)

I just couldn't handle the thought of being stuck inside with all this wonderfulness just waiting to be taken in.

How precious are these little bird prints!? I give credit to Pawpaw for this pretty site. He LOVED his birds =) 

 Ahh the beauty...

...

I did get to knock a small thing off my bucket list though. I saw on Pinterest a winter game they came up with of manipulating the snow on random cars to look like they belong to the movie Cars. I couldn't RESIST when the opportunity came available =D Just a kid at heart lol

Despite being sick we took the chance and walked to town. 6+ inches of snow only a crazy person would drive on those icy roads around here with out the absolute NEED!!! So I was able to capture these pretty pictures...

The Career Tech Center

The little side creek.

And of course, our apartment.

By the third day, the snow started melting, well off the pavement at least.

Oh but this hill! Our last snow we had SO much fun! Our friends Danna and Cory had just moved in across the way, we did QUITE a bit of sledding that day. F.Y.I. note and steer AWAY from any puddles lol

 Sad to see it go but, GLAD it's GONE!!!

SNOW CREAM!!!

When it begins snowing sit a bowl outside to gather CLEAN snow! Don't try to scrap up snow unless it is VERY deep and you know FOR SURE you can WON'T get any dirt, etc. 

Once you have your heaping bowl of snow, gather sugar, vanilla extract and evaporated milk(regular milk is fine but evaporated milk is SO MUCH BETTER). 

If you aren't ready to make your snow cream straight away you can store the snow in the freezer until you're ready.

In a separate bowl, I scooped roughly 4 cups of snow. Add about 1Tbs Vanilla Extract and 1/4 cup of sugar. Begin stirring and slowly start adding the evaporated milk. You won't need the whole can, I only used about half.

You're ready to enjoy! Snow cream tends to have the consistency of homemade icecream BUT, don't leave any extra to be stored in the freezer. Once you store it it turns to a hard block of BLEH!!! 

You only live once ENJOY THE WHOLE BOWL!!!