GF Peanut Butter & Nutella Cookies

Oh. My. Gosh!

I can't even tell you how good these are! Mark made me these cookies for my birthday (all I wanted was a meal made just for me & he DEFINITELY delivered!)

I even had Molly try these cookies and she agreed that they do not taste GF at all and taste so much like the real thing. Plus, it's got Nutella. Anything better than that? I think not.

He got this recipe off of Tasty Kitchen.

You need:

1 cup sugar
1 cup creamy Peanut Butter (don't use homemade...don't think they'd stick together as well)
1 whole egg Beaten
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
9 teaspoons Nutella

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2. Into your stand mixer add sugar, peanut butter, egg, salt and baking soda. Mix until well combined.

3. Measure approximately 1 tablespoon of dough. Roll dough into a ball and place onto cookie sheet. Gently press dough ball down using the palm of your hand. Continue forming balls until dough is gone. Space approximately 1″ apart.

4. Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes. Using a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon, GENTLY make an indentation in the middle of each cookie. Fill each cookie with a "dollop" of Nutella. Return tray to oven and continue cooking for 2-4 minutes until golden. (I don't think Mark put them back in the oven, but they turned out just fine!)

5. Transfer cookie to a cooling rack and allow to cool.

So good! These are a repeat for sure in the Bennett household!

Happy June 23rd!!!

Today, is indeed, a Bennett family holiday! Today is known in our household as "The Day That Mark Is Right About Everything!"

I'm surprised I haven't mentioned it before, but one of the things that Mark and I love best is our little celebrations of our own personal holidays. Many moons ago when Mark and I were just dating, there was a day (it was a Sunday...I remember it well) where Mark was just right about EVERYTHING!

I can think of at least 4 or 5 instances that day where he was just right about stuff and I was completely wrong. After each of these instances, his excitement continued to grow as I had to admit time and time again that he was right, I was wrong. We were both in shock and decided right then and there that this particular day needed to go down in history. We both agreed that each year we would celebrate that June 23rd was the day that Mark was right about everything!

We truly do celebrate this every year. We've done everything from special dinners, small gifts from me, and myself always conceding in any argument or dispute on this day. I got a text this morning that simply said, "Do you know what day it is?" This is without a doubt one of Mark's favorite days! So, babe, enjoy your day! Have a blast! You are truly the king of it all today and you are right about anything and everything today!

(Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow!)

Postsecret

Loved this one from Postsecret this past week...

Postsecret

California: Day Seven

This was our last full day in California. It was so hard to believe that we were at the end of our vacation because there were still countless things that we wanted to do, but didn't get a chance to do (i.e. San Diego, Joshua Tree, go out on the sailboat, etc). Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't go back and do anything differently....we just needed to be there for another month to do everything we wanted to! Guess that just means we'll have to go back (which we do plan on doing this summer).

That morning, we rode our bikes down to a restaurant called Flake for brunch. Mark was very excited about this place because they had a cereal bar! If you know how much Mark loves cereal and how he's always wanted to visit a cereal bar, you know that he was in heaven. I didn't partake in the cereal bar, but had an amazing bagel sandwich and a big cup of organic coffee. Joy!

Mark enjoying his cereal!

DELICIOUS bagel sandwich

Then, Mark and I went riding along the beach soaking in as much of the sunny weather as we could before we had to leave.

My favorite picture of the trip. This sums it up for me.

Still sportin' the UK gear on the beach. Go CATS!!!

That afternoon, Ticean and Amy took us over to Malibu for a day trip to do some hiking. We hiked several miles were able to watch the sun set over the ocean while we were hiking. There are no words to dexcribe how beautiful it all was. All I can say is that you can not see the things I saw and not believe in a God. So amazing!

We stopped and got Thai food on the way home and I have literally never had chicken fried rice as good as the rice that I had there last night! We went to Marina del Rey for a little bit after that then headed home for the evening.

We had a wonderful time on our vacation and we just cannot wait to go back!

California: Day Six (Our Anniversary!)

On our sixth day, which also happened to be our anniversary, we decided to sleep in. When we finally got up and going, we agreed that we both really wanted to go to The Getty Center. The Getty Center is a state-of=the art building that features art throughout the ages. It was featured recently on Project Runway, which we both LOVE to watch, so it was a real treat to go together.


Mark and I are nerds and we both have the best time going to museums. In fact, Mark wants to be a curator after he retires. As a teacher, I could spend hours in museums and be content as ever. The Getty is free admission, but you have to pay parking. I've come to discover that parking is how all of L.A. makes their money. You HAVE to park, so they get you there. After the $15 (yeah, that's right) parking pass, you take a small train up the side of the mountain to actually get to the museum buildings.



The architecture and sculptures of The Getty

The fountains outside the buildings


View of the cactus garden and the city


Just some really cool trees

Besides having remarkable architecture, breathtaking views of the city, and amazing furnishings gathered from over the years, there was an outstanding amount of artwork. All of the artwork is on the second level of every building with skylights so that the art can be seen in natural light as it was meant to be seen. We saw paintings from Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Rousseau, and my favorite, Monet. It was a wonderful day and a fantastic way to spend our anniversary!


Vexed Man

French bed featured on Project Runway

(I loved all of the light blue and gold in all of the French furnishings)

Rousseau painting

Irises by Van Gogh

Monet

(I recreated this painting in art class in high school)

That evening, we went to Cha Cha Chicken, a caribbean restaurant (another favorite), in Santa Monica with Ticean and Amy. It was delicious like all of our other meals! Then we went to the Promenade (outdoor mall that takes up blocks) to see the different acts in the streets, window browse, and get some Pinkberry frozen yogurt. Yum!!!

California: Day Five

OK, I think this day may have been my favorite!

Day started out normal...sleep in, hang out at the beach, read, good food, etc. But that evening, Mark and I went on our anniversary date. We decided to spend the night before our anniversary going to Cirque du Soleil's Kooza at the Santa Monica pier.

Mark and I agree that it was some of the best money we've ever spent. I felt like a kid while I watched all of the acts. My favorite act, by far, was the Wheel of Death.

My palms were sweating as I watched the whole thing. There were several times that I had to catch myself from screaming in either shock or excitement.

So much fun!!! It was the perfect date with my husband!

Then, as if the night wasn't good enough, I went with the girls again to see the midnight showing of New Moon.

Me and Amy at the theater

(She bought me the shirt. I swore I'd never wear one, but it was a gift...and I loved it)

Lindsay got us the amazing, reserved seats in a theater so there was no standing in line for us at all. We actually made pizzas and sipped wine until it was time to go see the movie. Keep in mind that it was a midnight showing so it was 3 AM KY time before the movie started and it was over after 5 AM KY time. I was sleepy, but it was worth it!

California: Day Three & Four

The love of my life

As I said before, I spend most of my days on the beach reading....and I see nothing wrong with that! I read The Hunger Games and it's sequel Catching Fire thanks to Amy. I absolutely loved them. They were an easy read and were exactly what I was looking for in a good read for vacation. Plus, anything's easy to read when you're sitting next to this...

My view as I biked to the beach

One of the big events for us took place on Wednesday. Since Daniel works for WCPO in Cincinnati, he was able to get us VIP tickets to the Ellen show. It was either that or Jimmy Kimmel Live, but because they knew I'd rather see Ellen, Daniel and Mark graciously agreed to go with me!
It was so neat to see the taping of a show and I had a blast. She is so funny and so kind. We got to see Simon Baker from The Mentalist, Leona Lewis perform, and Andre Agassi (biggest highlight for me). We got a free Leona Lewis cd and Andre Agassi's new book. They also came up and gave us shirts from the show since we were VIP. Despite looking like a couple together, I think Daniel and Mark had a good time and even danced a bit. We were dead center and you could see both of them on tv several times, but I was too short to be seen.

California: Day One

So, I decided that I wanted to add my pics from California because I literally had the time of my life and I just needed a way to catalog all of my memories. So, here goes...

We left EARLY Sunday morning from Cincinnati, which landed us in LA around 10:45 in the morning. That left us with plenty of day left to explore. Daniel and I went to LA years ago, but actually didn't spend a whole lot of time there. Mark had never been at all. It was great to experience it from a local's point of view. Ticean (Mark's brother) and his wife, Amy, let us unpack at their place and then we headed out to the weekly farmer's market to get lunch.

Under recommendation of Ticean and Amy, we got these GIGANTIC burritos. They had homemade sausage (ours was a chicken and shrimp sausage) and these burritos had everything imaginable in them (even french fries). Mark wouldn't share, so I had to get my own, which I put a tiny dent in. Daniel finished the rest for me. It was literally one of the yummiest things I've ever eaten though (and I'm sure it was because it was so good and not just that the airline pretzels let me starving)!


Next, we headed out to walk all along Venice Beach (just blocks from the house). We checked out an awesome skatepark where kindergarten children were just putting everyone to shame.

Then we just enjoyed the warm weather and breeze off of the ocean. Daniel checked out some awesome shades while on the beach (there were TONS of vendors), but decided on a more tasteful pair.

We were so tired from the flight and the day of walking between the Venice pier and Santa Monica pier that we had to go back and take a nap around 3, but finished off the night with dinner at the house.

5 Years....

It is so hard to believe, but 2 weeks ago Mark and I celebrated our 5th anniversary.

We wanted to do something exciting and out of the ordinary to celebrate our 5th so we decided it was the perfect time to go visit his brother and his wife in California. We had an amazing time and while I will upload pictures, I wanted to include this link to view a video that my brother made of our trip.

California Video

Date Night

Now that I'm at Williams-Sonoma, I am constantly getting new ideas for dishes. I'm trying to step out of my routine box and try at least one or two new recipes a week. Last night was a spur of the moment date night for Mark and me. We went to church last night in Lexington, but on the way I mentioned that I would make some brownies for dessert.

I've been making these Double Chocolate Brownies that Ami made for Mark and I one day. I wanted to step outside of the box brownies and this recipe is just fabulous. I stole Ami's idea and I put grey sea salt on them right before putting them in the oven. I just LOVE the salty-sweet taste! I made them for Labor Day and for our small group dinner the other night (I paired them with some homemade pumpkin ice cream!), but that only left us with one each. I decided I'd make a whole batch just for us last night. I also decided to make some homemade vanilla ice cream to go with it.

At this point, we were ready for a good meal to go before it. We literally spent an hour and a half at Meijer just exploring all of our options for a great meal. Mark even had the great idea of going over to their book section to look up some new recipes!

We ended up buying some ciabatta bread that I paired with some fresh sliced mozzarella, roma tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar. Yum! We also sipped on some shiraz by Barefoot Wine. It's a very tasty wine that is very reasonably priced.

For the main course, I made ravioli with a creamy pesto. It was SO good! I can't find the recipe anywhere online, but I have it in my cookbook at home. It was so colorful because it had green beans, yellow peppers (I added some extra grilled peppers that Mark grilled up), and roma tomatoes. The creamy pesto sauce was just a mixture of pesto, sour cream, and lemon. It was such an easy recipe and just full of flavor (but they all paired together so well).

For dessert, we had our brownies along with our fresh ice cream. We also got some french vanilla coffee beans that we ground up in our chopper/grinder. Mark made us coffee for after dinner in his french press. I am just starting to love coffee, which could be very dangerous. I still like cream and sugar in mine so I took a small spoonful of the vanilla ice cream and plopped it into my coffee. Delicious!

By the end of the night, we were absolutely stuffed. We had a multi-course meal for a fraction of what it would have cost us to go out on a date and we have leftovers to boot! Great night!

Next time, I'll take pictures so I can actually display the dishes!

Spring Break Weekend

The last weekend of my spring break was mainly spent with Mark, Matt, Jordan, and his sister Lindsey. We hung out Friday night and had a really great cookout Saturday night while watching the NCAA Final Four. My kinda night!

I absolutely love this picture! I especially love the fact that Jordan and I were the only ones who didn't get the memo to make stupid faces!

However, on Saturday during the day, Mark and I went on a tour of Woodford Reserve. You have to know at this point that Mark and I are huge dorks and absolutely love museums and tours of any kind. We are currently trying to complete the Bourbon Trail.

It was such a nice day Saturday and it was great to be outside doing something. For $5 a person, Mark and I were able to enjoy the history behind KY bourbon in Woodford County. They walked us through all of the steps including the copper triple distilling process (it's what make Woodford Reserve unique). Finally, at the end, we got to sample the bourbon as well as bourbon balls. YUM!!!

My cute husband taking in all of the knowledge when it comes to making bourbon.

Me standing next to 7,500 gallons of yeast feasting and creating what would later before bourbon.

Woodford Reserve is the ONLY distillery that uses strictly copper in its triple distillery

They transfere the barrels by tracks solely. No energy required!

Our favorite part of the tour. All the barrels are stored for approximately 7 years. When you walked into the storehouse there was the smell of bourbon sitting still for a LONG time. They call this "Angel Share" because of how heavenly it smells.

It's really hard to see the date on the barrels, but it says
FILL DATE: 11-20-01

November 20th is our anniversary. Although this barrel was filled 3 years BEFORE we got married. I was in high school when they filled this!

Kinda rough picture of me with no make-up but I'm showing off the glass they gave us our samples in. I'd already eaten my bourbon ball!

I had a wonderful weekend with my adorable hubby and we had really enjoyed our weekend with our friends!

Why I Love My Husband

A bunch of my married friends have done this and since I never get tired of talking about Mark I figured I would too!

1. Where we met - At Crossroads. We were going on the winter retreat and I saw him getting on the bus. I remember asking Emily, "Who is that guy?". She replied that she thought it was Eric's friend. I was infatuated with him from the beginning.
2. Our first date - I wasn't sure if it was a date so I actually tried to pay. We went to Common Grounds where he got coffee and I got tea. We just sat and talked for a long time. Next we went to Coldstone for ice cream. He knew the way to my heart from the beginning.
3. How long did we date before we were married? - 2 years and 8 months
4. How long have been hitched? - a little over 4 years
5. Favorite feature - His smile. He has a dimple when he smiles really big.
6. Favorite quality - How laid back he is. This is also something I hate at times, but he really does balance me out. I also love how artistic he is. He just blows me out of the water!
7. His nickname for me - He calls me babe or baby. It's actually very weird for him to say my name.
8. His favorite color - Green, yellow, and brown. He also likes orange. He likes nature colors.
9. His favorite sport - Hockey! That is by far his favorite. He's been begging me for the NHL channel for years.
10. Who said I love you first - I did. This is hard to believe, but Mark was EXTREMELY timid when we were dating. He was very old-fashioned and very patient. I finally couldn't take it anymore and said it to him. He said it right back.
11. Our first kiss, when and where - I kissed him on the cheek when we were at the coffee house one night. His face got bright red. We'd been dating for about a month at this point (I told you he was old-fashioned!). He kissed me later that week.
12. Favorite couple thing to do - Hiking, camping, or going to museums.
13. His hidden talent - He is very empathetic. He can relate to others on a level that I can't. He has an eye for fashion. He's also very good with kids even though he doesn't believe it.
14. His favorite music - Led Zeppelin, Deftones, Zao. Other than that, I'm not touching this subject. When you mention music with Mark, you are opening a whole can of worms.
15. What I admire most about him - What a wonderful artist he is. He can pick up any instrument and literally learn to play it in a day or less. He doesn't read music, but he can play back any song to you after he listens to it. He can create an entire song in a day. He can also draw really well. He thinks outside the box. He acts like a big kid. He has so much compassion for others and lends a helping hand whenever he can.

16. His favorite pastime - Playing music. He's in the other room doing it right now.
17. Will he read this - Probably. Eventually.

Alright, now all of my other married friends need to do this!