Cinnamon Blondies with Vanilla Buttercream

You know what's really awesome? I just wrote a whole blog post, and it inexplicably got deleted right as I was about to hit publish.

No, I lied. It's not awesome. It's a giant load of crap, and now I have to remember everything I wanted to tell you guys about these blondies from memory. Here are things I'm good at remembering: birthdays of everyone I knew prior to joining Facebook, lyrics to 90s pop songs, every line ever spoken in Friends, my locker combination from 5th grade (5-11-37, thankyouverymuch), and the password for all 85 email addresses and social media accounts that I attempt to keep track of.

So, basically I can remember ridiculously miniscule details from as far back as 1994, but can't remember what I wrote 30 minutes ago. My brain works in mysterious ways. I just realized that I addressed my very bad memory in my last blog post also. Maybe I need to see a neurologist, but...meh. I get by with day planners and checklists.

I don't even have any of these blondies left with which to console myself, since I made them 2 weeks ago and am just now getting around to sharing the recipe. I actually created this recipe with the sparse collection of ingredients I had on hand, since I didn't feel like venturing out to the grocery store for ingredients. I wasn't sure if they'd be blog-worthy, but they turned out to be shockingly delicious. 

They are generously spiced and perfectly chewy, and are topped with a layer of vanilla buttercream that takes the deliciousness to the next level. The worst thing you can do to blondies is over-bake them, so start checking these at the 20 minute mark. I think these would also be amazing with some chopped crystallized ginger mixed into the batter, or even some toasted walnuts. Someone play around with this recipe and report back!

Crispy Chicken Salad Wraps

Saturday night, I channeled my inner 80-year old and stayed home for the evening. I drank juice box wine, talked to my sister on the phone for an hour, watched old episodes of What Not to Wear, and read the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook from cover to cover. It was glorious. I also got sucked into a really bizarre Wikipedia vortex that resulted in me reading about obscenity laws in America...don't even ask. Clearly, my New Year's resolution to use my free time more productively is not going very well.

Apparently, these seemingly mundane activities got the creative juices flowing in my brain, and I woke up at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning with a really funny idea for a blog post. Usually, when I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, I send myself an email from my phone and deal with it in the morning. However, I must have fallen asleep again too quickly to email myself, and now I forget what I wanted to write about. I remember that I had an awesome idea, but I have no clue what it was. I am so stinkin' pissed right now. Just know, it was really, really good, but probably super weird since it came to me in a dream. I've been rendered completely incapable of remembering things on my own, without the aid of technology. Awesome.

Let's move forward and discuss these wraps. This chicken salad is outstanding. Who knew that putting loads of green onions and cilantro in chicken salad would take it from good to great? This is usually where I'd try to convince cilantro haters to just taste it one more time, but I recently learned that cilantro hatred is actually genetic. Apparently, those of you who hate cilantro have a gene that makes it taste like soap! That makes me very sad for you, because I think cilantro tastes like unicorns, pug puppies, and angels are having a wildly delicious fiesta in my mouth. To each their own.

The chicken salad gets wrapped up with a generous amount of extra-sharp cheddar, and then the wrap is toasted in a skillet. The wrap gets crispy, the cheese gets melty, and lunchtime nirvana is yours.

Soft-Baked Peanut Butter Cookies

Usually when I bake something, it's for a specific event, a party, or someone's birthday. I didn't make these for any of those reasons. I made these cookies on a complete whim, for no reason at all, after finding Sally's recipe via Pinterest last Wednesday. As far as whims go, this one worked out extremely well for me. Whims that have not worked out well for me in the past can be filed under the categories of: tequila shots [subcategory: epic embarrassment], haircut [subcategory: bangs], and kissing [subcategory: former coworker]. Whims involving cookies usually turn out much more favorably.

These cookies are a peanut butter lover's DREAM. In addition to a hefty scoop of peanut butter, these contain honey roasted peanuts, peanut butter baking chips, AND miniature peanut butter cups. I was a little unsure about how I'd like the honey roasted peanuts in this recipe, but they add such a nice crunch to an otherwise super soft cookie. These stay soft and chewy for days, and bake up nice and thick! In case I haven't convinced you to make these already, I'll also mention that you only need to dirty one bowl for this recipe!

I still have a lot of these left as I type this (sadly, woman cannot live on cookies alone) and I'm already thinking of ways to switch things up the next time I make these. I may add some Reese's Pieces, or peanut M&Ms. Or both. Oh boy...I think I got diabetes just thinking about that combination.