recipes

oatmeal butterscotch cookies ♥

how are you all holding up during this crazy time?
we’re spending lots of time in the kitchen baking all the things and trying lots of new recipes
it’s been a bit of a strange feeling for all of us – my oldest was at the tail end of her senior year and we found out yesterday that the remainder of the school year here in upstate NY has been cancelled – along with senior trip, ball, exams & their graduation ceremony 😦
my youngest was in 8th grade, the last year of middle school here, her trip to Washington DC was also cancelled and her 8th grade formal, for which she had already picked out a dress (tear)


so even though all of that is disappointing – God is still good.
we’ve been using this extra time to do all the things we never seemed to have the time to do… crafts, water-coloring, watching lots of movies and doing projects around the house, actually my husband & my dad decided to finish our basement
no big deal.

if you’ve followed along here for a while you know my hubby loves cookies
cookies are actually the reason we met ♥
but that story is in a post somewhere if you scroll back ….
my dad also loves cookies.
my father-in-law too.
so i’ve been keeping the guys fueled up with plenty of cookies while they work on the house … 
butter, sugar & eggs are on repeat on the grocery list over here 

all three of them love these oatmeal butterscotch cookies – they’re definitely a favorite!
i’ve always made the toll house recipe on the butterscotch chip bag, but lately i’ve noticed that the cookies were coming out of the oven realllllly flat … and crunchy 😦
around here we all love a perfectly soft/done cookie with a bit of height and golden bottoms 🙂


with a little modification to the dry ingredients – i think i’ve finally got this recipe right where i want it – i upped the flour ratio and lowered the oats – i love the flecks of cinnamon in these cookies but if you’re not a fan of cinnamon you can leave it out, it won’t affect the recipe.

click here to save and print the recipe – then add to your recipe book ♥
make sure you don’t over bake these – they will continue to bake for a few minutes after you take them out of the oven so when you open the door and are trying to figure out if they are done or not? if they’re golden all around and *mostly* in the middle – they’re done. 

i’m also in the process of tearing apart my pantry so that i can move all of the baking ingredients down into this baking area cupboard in my kitchen – it makes life so much easier to just reach down and scoop instead of carrying all these containers back and forth to the pantry – i’m not sure why i haven’t done this sooner? #gamechanger i’ll come back here and talk about it in more detail when i’ve finished putting everything together 🙂 
it’s the little things friends.

a few weeks ago our trusty red kenmore toaster oven died on us – and it was then that we realized how much we use and depend on a toaster oven … i hopped online and this cuisinart popped up as one of the best rated, plus it’s a combination air fryer … so far we really like it.
and let’s be honest – i was sold as soon as i saw that it came in white 🙂


we also took some time this morning to decorate our front door for my daughter while she was at work – i got the idea from a friend who’s daughter is also a senior at the same high school – was a fun way to encourage & make her feel special ♥ so that’s what’s been going on around here these past few -strange but in a lot of ways nice and also peaceful- weeks …


i hope you enjoy these cookies as much as we do!
and if you make them tell me how it went in the comments – i love hearing from you all!
much love & sending hugs ♥

recipes

old-fashioned apple cake ♥


3 blog posts in 2 weeks? who am i? 🙂
so i posted about this old-fashioned apple cake on instagram two years ago and so many of you made and loved the recipe – it prompted me to do a little digging because the recipe i had was good, but something seemed a little different from what i remembered… i’ve been making this cake with my mom since i was a teenager, but we hadn’t made it for many years when i came across the recipe in my old cookbook


i followed that recipe exactly and shared it on instagram at that time – since then i’ve been talking about it with my mom and her sisters – the recipe came from their sister in law who has since passed away but my aunt found her original recipe card and we realized that the copy i had – had probably been copied so many times or the recipe was cut in half  – so basically it was still very similar to the origianl but not really the right recipe if that makes sense


after making it a few times since then, and evaluating it with them 🙂 we got it down to the original ingredients and method that we remembered it to be ♥ the cake is moist and so good + the cinnamon sugar on top gives it that yummy crunch – i recently took the cake on a visit with me to my aunt’s house with all of us there and this version got a thumbs up from everyone – especially my daughter jayla ♥ 


so we’re passing this cake down to the next generation and i’ve printed a copy for both of my girls’ cookbooks – i have binders for each of them filled with our family favorites and that i add to whenever we try somthing new that we decide is a keeper – i’ll try to do a blog post on that sometime with more info and pictures




i made a cute printable recipe sheet for you to print out at home – fit it into a 8.5×11 recipe binder with a plastic sleeve or resize it to fit a 5×8 binder, which is what my recipes are in here pictured below – these binders were project life recipe binders that i believe are no longer in print but any 5×8 binder will work with plastic inserts from an office supply store




 take note that in this new revised recipe i used an angel food pan like this one – with a higher & thicker cake, this pan comes apart in the middle making cake removal very easy – just make sure to grease & flour both pieces as i mentioned in the instructions – don’t skip that part!

♥ ♥ ♥

now… and i hope i haven’t lost you yet … but the original recipe i shared from 2018 (pictured below) was made in a bundt pan like this one, is close to half of the size of the revised recipe and is pictured here with step by step pictures and the recipe from my cookbook – it’s reminds me more of an apple danish (because of less batter) but is just as delicious!




make either version of my family recipe and you won’t be disappointed – they’re both so yummy… and thanks for following along with me on this one! it’s caused me to really think about how we document our family information/memories/stories and about how we pass information down to the next generation – i’m sure so much gets lost in translation! i think that’s why it’s SO important to write down as much as we can and ALSO to get into the kitchen with our kids and show them how we cook/bake these recipes so that they have first hand knowledge of how their family traditions are carried on! showing them face to face (mixer to mixer 🙂 what was taught to the generation before them ♥
(me & my aunt 1999 ish)
(jayla & my aunt this last Christmas)