The Hands Down the BEST Brownie Pillow Cookies

**Note: I've discontinued this blog. Come follow me at Fresh Eats Happy Teeth for more recipes! **

Some of you may remember my brownie pillow cookie recipe from 2011 when I was on a quest to create brownie pillow cookies like the ones from Fresh Market. I scoured the internet and my imagination. I thought the best way was to cover a cooked brownie square with raw cookie dough, then bake the concoction. It was decent enough.....

....but never "right"....

...until fate intervened.

The consistency and brownie-to-cookie ratio wasn't quite right, and while it wasn't keeping me up at night, it secretly drove me nuts that I couldn't figure it out. What began as a cooking mishap over the weekend turned into a lightbulb moment. Ladies and gents, the proper brownie pillow cookie.

I spy a secret brownie surprise...

The perfect brownie-to-cookie ratio in every bite

Oh.my.

The real secret is to refrigerate the brownie batter while the cookie dough stays "dough-y".  Recipe details are below:

1. Make batch of brownie batter. You can use a box if you like, but we are pretty obsessed with homemade brownies. They are so easy and once you taste the difference, you can't go back. We make the recipe on the box of Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate with a few modifications. Our recipe:

- 1 pkg (4 oz) Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate (be sure to look at box, they're recently changed their packaging quantity)
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup nuts (optional)




(when we make brownies by themselves we add 1 tbsp sea salt -- amazing!)

Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH for 2 minutes, or until butter is melted. Still until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugars. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and nuts (if including). Mix well. Don't eat it all.

2. Refrigerate brownie batter until it becomes hard, like fudge (overnight is best)

3. Make cookie dough. It seemed just a bit overly chocolate-y with the full amount of chocolate chips, but not quite right without any. We settled on 1/4 the amount. We're big fans of a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe.


- 1 cup butter (softened)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp hot water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips






Preheat oven to 350F. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour. Stir in chocolate chips.

Refrigerate cookie dough approx 1 hour or until firm.

Remove brownie batter from refrigerator. Form brownie batter into small balls. This is where the magic happens. Cover brownie batter balls with a thin coating of cookie dough, just enough to cover it.

Slightly flatten each cookie/brownie combo dough ball.

Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes or until edges of cookie begin to brown.

Now, contain yourself while the cookies cool. It's worth it.

Hello, gorgeous.

Are you salivating yet?

Now, go on and get yourself a glass of milk and enjoy this delectable treat.

**Note: I've discontinued this blog. Come follow me at Fresh Eats Happy Teeth for more recipes! **

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Polishing Silver with my Grandmother

My grandmother died in 1991. Sixteen years later, I received a wedding gift from her.

Last night, I took out my grandmother's silver in preparation for Thanksgiving and realized how meditative polishing is for me. It gives me a chance to feel like I'm spending time with my Nana and the generations of women who had the silver before me. I cherish the ritual of it all...taking each individual piece and making it shine in anticipation of loved ones who will be traveling near and far to share a day of celebration and fellowship. While polishing, I can see my grandmother's face so clearly and remember her voice, her scent, the way she carried herself with poise and grace. I think back to all of the women in my family who spent hours going through the same ritual before a special meal and feel connected to them. 

I wish my grandmother was still with us to share stories of the silver with me and explain the different engraved monograms and tell me about the origins of various pieces. While my mom and I aren't positive of how far back the collection goes, there are pieces with dates from the early 1900's and late 1800's. 

I'm so appreciate that my grandmother had the foresight to share this special gift with me; that I can feel as though I'm spending time with her through polishing the silver. Now that I have a daughter of my own, I look forward to sharing this ritual with her and telling stories of her great-grandmother.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Our Worst Fears Lie in Anticipation

Ever since I heard this line in an episode of "Mad Men" a few years back, it's bounced around in my head from time to time. It was never as pertinent as it was this past year, when it became more of a mantra. I've spent this last year waiting for this moment....when I can finally step back from everything we've been through and accomplished to take a deep breath and enjoy a fleeting moment of peace.

This time last year....I was overcome with fear and anxiety about things to come. My husband and I were about to spend the next 8 months living in separate states. Along with that came a new batch of fears. How would I handle not having my husband home to balance me out after a stressful day? I am a big scaredy cat and have trouble sleeping when he's away on a trip...how would I fare sleeping by myself every night? Another fear I spent years anticipating was getting off my rheumatoid arthritis medications so we could start a family. While I was fortunate that my flare-ups had been well controlled through medication for years, the memory of being in chronic pain was still fresh. How would I handle it without medication?

While I counted down the days until I finished up dental hygiene school in Denver and could finally join my husband in California, I was consumed by other fears; passing national boards, Colorado clinical boards, California clinical boards, finding boards patients, finding both a boards patient and assistant to fly to California, selling our house in Denver, finding a new house in San Diego, all the while pregnancy hormones were raging. The list seemed daunting and never-ending.

Slowly but surely, these things I spent nights worrying about were crossed off the to-do list. While many were extremely stressful and brought me to the brink of losing my sanity, we finally made it to the other side. While I would not want to repeat the intensity of this past year, it was a good reminder that we are always stronger and more capable of handling adversity than we think.

One year later, Carter, Tally, and I are hanging the final pictures on the walls of our new house. With our first child coming any day, I feel nervous about not knowing what to expect with labor, delivery, and motherhood. Let's face it, childbirth is a little scary. However, I keep reminding myself that our worst fears lie in anticipation, and while it may not be all that great when we're "in it", we always make it to the other side. And it's always worth the struggle we endured to get there.

Gratitude

If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that it takes a village to move the Sigmon's out of Denver! This has been an extremely challenging year on many levels, and I'm so grateful to the friends and family who helped to ease our burdens.

This time last year, I was filled with anxiety and trepidation. I knew that starting in September, Carter and I would begin 8 months of living in different states. I would be staying in Colorado to complete my final year of dental hygiene school, while he would move to California to start his new job with the Navy following residency. I spent months dreading what was to come.

Thankfully, while our living situation was less than ideal, it was nowhere near as terrible as I built up in my head. However, once we put the house on the market while I was studying for boards....well, that was a different story :) We had so much help from our friends...you guys helped make this year much less stressful than it may have been otherwise.

Friends who helped us out by housesitting (and shoveling snow) over Christmas break so Tally and I could spend a month with Carter in San Diego. Friends who dog-sat Tally when I had to be somewhere before day camp opened. Friends who gave Tally and I a place to live when we closed on the house and moved out with 3 weeks of school left. Friends who let me complain when pregnancy hormones were in overdrive and I was feeling overwhelmed by all that had to get done and felt that the world was against me.

5 years ago, we moved to Denver without knowing anyone there. I could not have imagined meeting such kind and caring people. So many friends have let me lean on them for support and have kept me sane during times when I was losing my mind. I cannot thank you enough and am so fortunate to have you in my life.

It's been a long, long road to complete everything we had to do this year, but the light at the end of the tunnel is looking brighter. In less than a week, our little family will be reunited and we will move into our new home in San Diego as we prepare to welcome our first baby. Our chapter in Denver has been one of the best ones yet and I'm sad to see it closing. I'm really going to miss you guys.

Celebrating 80 Years

We had a blast going back to Richmond last weekend to celebrate a huge milestone - my father-in-law's 80th birthday! It was a surprise party that was not to be missed.

We departed on Friday afternoon and prepared for one of the most whirlwind weekends we've had in a while. After flying from DEN -> BNA -> ORF, we landed around midnight. I had forgotten what a special little place in my heart I have for Norfolk airport. When Carter and I first met almost 8 years ago, we were living 3,000 miles apart. When I came to the east coast to visit him in Richmond, I would take the red eye to Norfolk. As we walked through the airport, it was a walk down memory lane: "There's the pillar I jumped out from behind with a bouquet of flowers", stopping at Pierce's BBQ on the way to the airport, etc. Aww. Next, we picked up our rental car and drove the 90 miles to Richmond. We finally arrived in Richmond at 2am and got some sleep.

Saturday, we HAD to go to Sheetz for a shmiscuit. It wasn't even an option. I was so excited to be able to  catch up with my wonderful friend Liz. I got to see Home Sweet Hanna, meet sweet George the lab, and enjoy a long walk around U of R on a beautiful day. It's so good for the soul to catch up with girlfriends in person.

Next, we met up with our dear friends Sonia and Terral at our favorite thai place, Elephant Thai. No joke, of all the thai food I've ever had, none compares to Elephant. Especially their won ton soup, it is seriously phenomenal! Their spices and seasonings make it simply divine. We had the best time catching up with old friends, and likely disturbed the other patrons with our nonstop laughter, but whatevs :)

Next on the agenda was the 80th birthday surprise party!! Everyone outdid themselves with the decorations, super yummy food courtesy of Buzz and Ned's BBQ and my sister-in-law's cooking, a slideshow, great music and dancing, etc. Hob was so surprised and touched when he walked in and saw everyone. We had a fantastic time catching up with our family and friends. We even had a "kids" after party, too. You are never too old to be the kids :)

Sigmon Family Photo (including Gill via iPhone Skype, who was in China)

On Sunday, we got to meet up with our good friends Steve and Anne for brunch at Millie's. Again, we had so much fun catching up with dear friends and spending time together. It was so great to hear about what everyone has been up to. Unfortunately, the 36-hours in Richmond went by too fast and it was about time to turn into a pumpkin. After getting the plane de-iced, since we managed to be there on one of the few days it snows it Richmond, it was back to Denver!

Thanks everyone for a great weekend! Hopefully we can get back to Richmond again soon. We had the best time seeing our family and friends, and hope for a longer trip the next time so it's not so crazy.

For Sale

Our house officially went on the market on Thursday! Coincidentally, this was also the day that the biggest snowstorm of winter arrived. While it threw a few wrenches in plans, we still had 4 showings before the storm hit. We've had showing requests everyday since so it didn't seem to interfere too badly. I measured a foot on the "official patio table scale", but they say metro Denver got about 15".

As excited as we are to be moving onto the next chapter of our lives, it is still bittersweet. As we packed up our final box and plopped onto the couch, we got a little wistful thinking of all the good times we've had in this house. It was our first home together, and we have fond memories of visits from our family and friends. Holidays, ski trips, crazy nights out....we will always look back on these memories with fondness. Thanks to our family and friends who added life and love to our home!

February 4th - Snow Day!

One thing I will never forget about our first winter in Denver is adjusting to snow being normal. I remember being at work one night and asking if we would be starting late the next day since the forecast was for 8-10" of snow. Crickets. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Sure enough, every single patient arrived on time. In Denver, there are no runs on the grocery store. Toilet paper, milk, and bread remain in stock. This also meant I had to learn to drive in the snow, since I never actually had to do this on the east coast since everything shuts down for half an inch. If you grew up in my hometown, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout. School would be cancelled just because the word "snow" was uttered in the forecast. It didn't necessarily need to snow more than 1" to be out of school for a week. And let's not forget about the year we didn't go to school for over a month.

5 years later, we finally got a storm in Denver big enough to induce snow awe. I had to fight my east coast instincts to run to the store for random items I would never need in excess. I did happen to need bread, but fortunately we manage to have a regular supply of TP in the house and resist the need to buy 10 packs when it snows. And we don't buy multiple loaves of crummy bread when it snows. No way....nothing but the best crusty, bakery fresh loaf to make mouth-watering grilled cheeses. There are few things I enjoy more on a snow day than tomato basil soup and grilled cheese with crusty bread and parrano cheese. I'm getting excited for lunchtime just thinking about it.

Isn't it fun to have that snow day excitement? For the first time since we've been here, everything school and community related were cancelled. I got a bona fide snow day on Friday, complete with shoveling 15" of snow. Somehow, Carter always manages to be out of town during the snowstorms. Impeccable timing ;) I do miss his world-famous hot chocolate, though. It's just one of those things that doesn't taste as good when you make it yourself. Tally and I are having a great time snuggling, playing the snow, catching up on trashy shows in the DVR, studying, and watching the over-achieving Denverites jog in over a foot of snow. 

Missing: one hot tub, and one shovel

And true to Denver form, as I finish writing this and head out to shovel one final time as the last snowflake falls, the sun is coming out and already starting to melt everything. Love it!