howdy folksies! i have got a super sweet treat for you today!
well – i suppose it is two if you want to get all technical on me.
first of all – my friend sarah is here to hook you guys up with a quick and easy recipe. sarah is the awesome. she is hilarious and makes adorable babies. she is the bloggy lady behind the cootie queen – and no it isn’t about lice.
secondly – she is whipping up for you guys a really yummy lookin’ sweet treat! (see what i did there?) please be the gracious hostesses i know you all are and welcome my friendy-friend sarah!
Hello lovely Neathering our Fest readers! I’m Sarah, and I’m lucky enough to be one of Skye’s in-real-life friends AND bloggy buddies. Far out! I’ve known Skye for… well, like forever? It’s been awhile… let’s just say that. Skye’s cousin, Jen, has been my BFF since I was 12… that’s 24 years. Ouch. (If you can do simple math, you now know how old I am. Tricky!). Anyway… I met Skye when I was in high school, I think. Which would have put her in middle school. Awwww. We really got to know each other when Skye would come to Dallas and hang with us… and we had lots of fun being in Jen’s wedding together. Skye can pretty much make any old normal night fun though. She’s cool like that. Y’all wanna see a picture? OK!
Ha! That’s our resident Rindercella there on the left, a large plastic Santa in the middle, and yours truly on the right. …and we’re pretending to lick the Santa. Why? You ask? Why not, I say! … This pic makes me giggle.
Moving on! I’m over here guest posting on Neathering our Fest to show you guys a deeeelicious cookie recipe. My husband told me about these macaroons his mom used to make every Christmas, and he loved them. So I asked her for the recipe and fell in love myself. Get this… Only 4 ingredients. And get THIS… No measuring! Um, hellloooo perfect cookie recipe! I kind of put off getting the recipe from her because I absolutely loathe coconut. Therefore I do not normally like macaroons. But when I saw only 4 ingredients and they were easy as pie to make, I figured I could whip them up and the Hubs would be happy and I wouldn’t care if I didn’t get to eat any. Good plan, right? Except I absolutely adore these cookies. They are sooooo good. Coconut and all! So let’s get to it!
My Mother-in-law’s Macaroons
Here’s what you’ll need:
A bag of Baker’s Angel Flake Sweetened Coconut, mini-chocolate chips, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and some vanilla. You can totally make these with regular size chocolate chips if you can’t find the mini’s. You can also make them with milk chocolate chips if you prefer those over semi-sweet.
Next just dump the whole bag of coconut, the can of condensed milk, 1/2 the bag of chocolate chips, and about 2 tsp of vanilla… just eyeball it. I’ve never measured vanilla before in my life. I encourage you to do the same. Just pour some in there… 😉
Now get in there and mix it up. This batter is super sticky, so go with a sturdy spatula or wooden spoon. Just make sure everything is incorporated. Use a mixer if you want too… Whatever floats your boat!
Now scoop! The original recipe says to drop these on a generously greased cookie sheet by the teaspoonful. That’s TEAspoonful. As in the little one… tiny little bites of cookies these are. And you really need to spray the heck out of your cookie sheet, too. They’re sticky little suckers. I really don’t have the patience to drop these by the teaspoonful, so I started using my smallest scoop and I just make sure the batter is not tightly packed in there. Keep it loose, yo.
Since there isn’t anything in these cookies to make them rise or poof or go crazy when you cook them you can squeeze quite a few on one sheet.
Now bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. If you use a teaspoon and not a scoop go for 15 minutes and keep an eye on them. The key to these little beauties is to make sure to cook them long enough. When they start to brown ignore your instinct, shut the oven and let them go another 2 or 3 minutes. They should look almost burned.
I could have let this batch go another 2 minutes and still been a-ok. But letting cookies “burn” makes me twitchy.
While you’ve got the cookies in the oven get a metal spatula and a stick it in a pot of simmering water. Just trust me on this one. I ignored this advice the first few times I made these. Don’t make the same mistake.
When the cookies are done take them out of the oven and immediately transfer them with your spatula you’ve had in hot water. Dip it back in the hot water after every couple of cookies. Again… they’re sticky. This helps get them off the spatula in one piece.
Cool them on some parchment paper.
They should be at least this browned on the bottom. A little browner is better. Now make sure your dental work is secure and dig in. They’re bite size little beauties.
Try them. Even if you don’t like coconut. Trust me on this one! And ignore my little test patch of teal nail polish. Sorry about that… it’s distracting! Enjoy!
My Mother-in-law’s Macaroons:
1 Bag Baker’s Angel Flake Sweetened Coconut
1 cup(ish) mini chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla
Mix all ingredients together until everything is incorporated nicely. Scoop by the teaspoonful (or use a small loosely packed scoop) onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 350-degree oven until browned. Remove with a spatula onto parchment paper immediately after removing from the oven. Dip spatula into hot water between cookies to help with cookie removal.
If you’d like to see more of my recipes or perhaps some pictures of my freakishly cute sons (one of ’em has arm rolls… be warned), come visit me at the cootie queen! And a big thanks to Skye for having me over to her little slice of the Internet. Bye now!
That is all,
Sarah
and just for fun – here are some more pictures from the same era:
please don’t be jealous of my uber-coolness. there is plenty to be spread around.
sarah and my cousin jen in the front, adrian (other girlfriend) and i in the back
me and my cousin jennifer
and i would be totally remiss if i didn’t include this lovely picture. it totally makes me giggle!
I think it's important to point out that I never drink beer directly from the pitcher now that I have babies. I drink my beer directly from sippy cups now like any respectable stay at home mother does. 😉
Love the additional pics! I still want to know what you did that made Adrian try to look out of the side of her head. Ha! 🙂
i have no idea what i did to make her do that!! it still cracks me up to this day though! haha 😉
I do not know why I look like a demon in the above picture of the 4 of us…where did my eyeballs go? I would also like to point out that the picture with the oddly oversized Santa head was taken at the bar that didn't know how to cut me off when I asked for my 12th shot. I was probably laying in the parking lot with my shoes off throwing up while you 2 were taking pictures 😉
You didn't throw up until we got to Whataburger. And that is still one of my absolute FAVORITE stories to tell! 🙂