I've done it again. I fell into baby land so hard. Between being consumed by my beautiful family, work and sleepless nights blogging has become that thing I'll never get to. I know most of my latest posts start this way. I feel bad, I do.

<< MORE >>

Finding the perfect Red Velvet Recipe is quite a daunting task really. I searched and searched and searched some more. You know what I found?  There are a lot of Red Velvet haters out there. You either love it or you hate it. That was shocking to me.

<< MORE >>

These cookies are the reason for New Years Resolutions. The might single handedly be my reason. Okay, well maybe the fact I had a baby 8 months ago and not done much about losing the baby weight might be my reason. Still the majority of this batch of cookies was embarrassingly consumed by yours truly.

You see, we were supposed to have a block party last week. << MORE >>

It's that time of year again. Who doesn't love baking for the holidays?? You know what else I love?  Getting home baked cookies in the mail from other bloggers. It's such a tasty surprise!  I was lucky enough to participate in the 2nd annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I partook last year as well and made these Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies and got some great ones in return.

 

You know what else is awesome about this cookie swap?  It also helps donate to a great cause, Cookies for Kids' Cancer. It is a national non-profit organization committed to funding new therapies used in the fight against pediatric cancer, which claims the lives of more children in the US than any other disease.

<< MORE >>

Look at that guy. Just sitting there, staring at me with a blank face. "Add Post"...."Last added 80 day(s) ago". In this case the "s" is a necessity. I feel like such a failure. Every time I start to become motivated again to be that wonderful blogger, I let myself down.

<< MORE >>

A few smiles to brighten your Monday!









Also, I am challenging myself to give up sweets (not all sugar, just desserts and snacks) for 2 weeks to see how I do. But might have some delicious Black bean soup posted for you soon!

Have a great week! << MORE >>

I have a new addiction.  Yes, I know I might have been late to the party to realize how amazing salted caramel is.  I think I might have been a little intimidated by making caramel sauce in the first place to attempt anything.  Then, it came to me.  I had a craving for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies- alright, so maybe I had a craving for the dough...but a craving is a craving, one of which you should never give in to when trying to lose baby weight.  However, I did remind myself that I am nowhere near the shape I used to be in pre baby (maybe 3 years before baby).  I played 2 long tennis (singles) matches.  Now I can barely walk.   

Back to the salted caramel.  Really, I am a huge fan of anything that is both salty and sweet.  It usually means what I am eating is super healthy.  *Note sarcasm.  Either way...this flavor combo is super delectible.  The buttercream in the middle makes for a very rich and decadent cookie sandwhich.  As a bit of a side note, I did double the original caramel recipe that goes into the buttercream.  I only ended up using about 3/4 of it, then saving the rest of the caramel sauce for other treats.   Guess what, this weekend is a long weekend, so you have an extra day off so you can make these! 

Whats your favorite salty and sweet recipe?

Again, just a reminder....be on the lookout over the next couple weeks for a new hosting site. Which means my RSS readers will have to resubscribe.  I will resubscribe my email readers, but you will need to look for the link to confirm again in your email.  Thanks for reading!

___________________________________________________________________________

Printable Recipe

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Sandwiches w/ Salted Caramel Cream

 

For the Cookies:
Adapted from  My Kitchen Addiction

Cookie Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon  table salt
1 package high quality semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup Vanilla sugar (or raw sugar works too)

Caramel Buttercream Ingredients:

Adapted from Chow

1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons water
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon fluer de sel or sea salt
1 cup powdered sugar

 

For the cookies:
In a large mixing bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars.  Add egg and mix until well combined.  Cream in the corn syrup and vanilla extract and blend until well incorporated.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients (Oats, flour, baking soda and salt) with a whisk.  Add to the butter mixture and beat until combined.  Mix in chocolate chips.  Refrigerate dough until firm (at least 30 min, I refrigerated overnight).

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Place the Vanilla sugar in a small bowl.  Break off about 1 ½ tbsp size pieces of the dough and roll into a ball.  Roll in vanilla sugar then slightly flatten with the palm of your hand on the cookie sheet. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just golden and puffed up(don’t over bake or the cookies will not be as soft and chewy). Cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Frosting Directions.

 

Combine water and sugar in medium saucepan.  Bring to boil over medium-high heat.    Cook leaving caramel undisturbed until caramel is a dark amber color.  Remove from heat and immediately but slowly add in the cream while stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth (might take a while).  Set aside and allow to cool completely. 

 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and salt on high speed until fluffy.  Reduce speed to low and add in powdered sugar until  well incorporated then turn to high and beat until light and fluffy.  Slow mixer to low-medium speed and slowly drizzle ¾ of caramel sauce.  Beat frosting on high speed until flight and fluffy and thoroughly incorporated.  Add additional powdered sugar if too runny.

 

To assemble:

 

Place all cookies bottom up and spoon or pipe the frosting onto one of the cookies.  The frosting will be a little gooey so don’t over do it.  Place other cookie and make a sandwich out of it.  Put cookies in the refrigerator until ready to eat.  When ready to eat, set out 15 minutes prior to eating.

So apparently I suck at keeping my blogging word.  No more empty promises of soon to be wonderful posts of recipes.  Truth is, it takes quite a bit of time to do these recipe posts.  Time isn't really something I have a lot of lately.  I have about 3 things I've photographed, but need to edit and type the recipe up.   I guess for now, a blog post full of updates (aka, pictures of my baby) is better than nothing.  Instead of Caleigh's Kitchen...might as well be Caleigh's Nursery for a while .  I so badly want to find the time to post more....guess what. Being a working mom is a lot of work! Who knew? .


(Anyone have any Pottery Barn Kids connections? She needs to be in the next catalogue)

Miss thing is 4 months on Friday already.  Dang that time, it flies.  Motherhood is amazing. So amazing.  I've learned so much about myself during the past 4 months too. It's really been an beautiful journey so far.  I am so addicted to this little girl and my happy family.  I am one of those "over posters" of baby pictures on Facebook even.  I need to go to a 12 step program to cut back.  It's hard, folks.  When you have something this cute in your face all the time....how can you not share her with all your close friends and family, and friends you met once or twice at that thing that one time?

 


I'd really love to document all the things she has learned in the past month.  I'm not really sure when she started doing things, but she is really developing fast.  I saw a post on another mom blog that lists the number of new things your baby has learned or started doing based on how many months she is.  Thus...4 months, here are 4 new things:

1. She loves to blow bubbles and raspberries with her mouth and make all sorts of noises as forms of communication.


2. Kissing her cheek, or touching anything to her cheek results in lots of smiles and giggles (giggles are new this month and I LOVE it).



3.  She has started grabbing on to things more accurately.  Not limited to, but including...my hair and jewelry.  Its a good thing I have a hard head and she hasn't got a hold of one of my big earrings yet.



4. Has yet to master rolling from stomach to back, but has done it several times.  She really loathes tummy time all together.  SO very close to rolling from back to belly.



It is so amazing to watch her grow and develop so much.  I LOVE being a Mom, I just wish time would slow down a little.



One more note. Over the next month I will be transitioning my hosting site.  The address will still be the same, but I will need to resubscribe my email subscribers, and you RSS readers, you will need to also update your feed.  It will look much cleaner and easier to navigate.  Not to bash too much here, but don't ever use GoDaddys - Quickblogcast program.  Totally hard to personalize and not very user friendly...super outdated.  So, bare with me a bit on the changes.  I will update you when the transition is made, so keep your eyes out!

Yes friends, I am still alive.  I just saw its been 172 days since my last post.  I guess pregnancy just made me too tired.  I took a long hiatus from the kitchen to sleep.  Which I am glad I did, because I'm not getting near as much now.  It's all worth it though because now Caleigh's Kitchen has a new assistant...Kirkley Mae! 

Quick side note...I have to share this picture of my dear husband baking my birthday cake this year. 




 
        

Despite another disappearance on my part, I have been a part of the food blog world in some manner since my last post.  I was lucky enough to get in early on the first ever Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!  Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen (both girls I had the pleasure of meeting at the Nashville Food Blog Forum)  put this swap together and recruited over 600 food bloggers to partake this year. 

It was amazing!  I didn't really have to think too hard about which cookies to make, I have had these by How Sweet It Is  (I am sure I have told you all how much I love her blog before...) on my radar for sometime now.  With a little adaptation, they are perfect for the holidays and Santa!...and oh so amazing and addictive! I sent these on to my matches - Alan at Cooked With Luv, Tina at My Life As A Mrs. and Carrie at Kiss My Whisk.  Go check out the delicious cookies they made!

Of course the best part of the swap was getting the wonderful cookies in the mail from 3 other food bloggers.  SCORE!  These were all so amazing!!

I got to try some amazing Zaletti cookies from bell'alimento
(Photo from bell'amiento)



Some "Crack" Cookies from Confessions Of A Recipe Junkie:  And they were just that...highly addictive!  (Photo from Confessions of A Recipe Junkie



And lastly some delicious Butternut Squash Snickerdoodles from the kitchen of From Apples to Zucchini (Photo from Apples to Zucchini)




If you are interested in participating when it comes around next year, you can go here and sign up for notifications.

Oh, and I know I owe you all a post update about our little bean...that will be coming soon! I promise!! 

                                                                                                                                        Printable Recipe
Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from How Sweet It Is
Makes approx 30 cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons red food coloring
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 and grease 2 large cookie sheets.

In a stand mixer or with a electric mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars until smooth and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing until smooth and scraping down the sides after each addition. Add the vanilla and red food coloring and mix until well combined.

Whisk together all of the dry ingredients, cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt, in a medium bowl until well combined. Gradually add to butter mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the white chocolate chips last. Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop a heaping tablespoon of dough and place on cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart from one another.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then move to cooling racks and allow to cool completely.