This is a little story about the largest cookie I have ever baked. If you get the Williams-Sonoma catalog or receive their emails, you may have seen their latest Valentine’s Day heart cookie cutter. In the description they mention it’s giant, but it wasn’t until I saw it in the store that I realized just how giant it was – bigger than my Z’s head in fact (proof). So, we obviously bought it immediately and it happened to be Tuesday afternoon just in time to be snowed in all day yesterday and bake a batch of cookies! I decided to use our favorite Vanilla Bean Sable Cookie recipe. Here’s how we made them…

Just before adding the flour to the cookie dough, I added some red food coloring to make the cookies pink because if you’re making giant heart cookies why not make them pink too?

After chilling the dough, I rolled it to about 1/2″ thick and cut. I am still amazed at the size of this cookie cutter!

It was tricky maneuvering the cookie, so I used a little butter knife to scoop out the smaller pieces, then a large spatula to help me move the giant cookie.

I got 2 giant cookies out of a 1/2 recipe.

Once cooled, it was time to decorate. I made a quick icing with powdered sugar and milk – thick consistency so I could use it as a glue for the sprinkles.

I have to say it was slightly intimidating deciding on decor for a giant cookie!

I opted for simple.

And lots of sprinkles on the little guys. Enjoy!

PS. You’re probably wondering where the cute, tiny cookie hearts went? Well, my little sous chef was helping me with this project and…well…these are her absolute favorite cookies and she literally ate all of them in the process of decorating and photo-taking. They were super cute though, trust me!

PPS. I know it’s annoying when a blogger links to something sold out online (as I did with the cookie cutter) but there are tons in the Williams-Sonoma stores, so go grab yours today at your local W-S before Valentine’s Day. Nothing says I love you like a cookie bigger than your face.

The Super Bowl is this Sunday night! No matter who you’re routing for or if the game is even important to you at all, one thing is for sure – SNACKS are a must. This year I thought I’d share a classic football snack – Potato Skins. And once you have the skins under control, you can really fill these guys with anything!

First: bake your potatoes at 350 for about 45 mins to an hour. Cook until soft. Let them cool, cut in half, and scoop out a fair amount of the potato from each half. That is so vague, but it’s really up to you how much potato you leave in. I like a moderate amount of potato left in my skin.

Next: place your skins, cut side up, on a baking sheet and coat with butter (the perfect job for your sous chef). Bake at 400 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes (depending on how crispy you want them to get!). Then flip, coat the outsides with butter and bake again at 400 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes.

While all that baking, buttering, and flipping is going on you can prep your toppings. As I mentioned above, we went classic with these and opted for chives, cheddar cheese, and crumbled bacon.

Watch out for that snacky sous chef…

Once your skins are at the desired level of “crispy-ness,” take them out of the oven and load them with toppings! Bake one last time for 3 to 5 minutes or until your cheese is melted.

Top with sour cream (or we actually used creme fraiche because I had it on hand) and ENJOY!

Chinese food. Boy, have I been craving Chinese Food this pregnancy but it sure is BAD for you! I am always trying to find at-home Chinese Food recipes that give you that same satisfying flavor of take-out without the unhealthiness. We’ve made our own fried rice and Chicken Tso’s Chicken that come out fantastic (and worth the time investment these recipes take to make) but recently we were looking for more of a homemade Chinese Food QUICK fix. Then we found this recipe for Beef Lo Mein in the Cooking Light cookbook that is just awesome so I had to share it with you…

First, saute a clove of garlic and ginger in olive oil for just a few seconds. Add your broccoli and sliced onion and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Meanwhile, boil water and cook your spaghetti according to the box directions.

While that cooks, whisk together your sauce – soy sauce, brown sugar, oyster sauce, and chili paste with garlic.

Stir beef into the broccoli and onion mixture. When the beef is just about cooked add the sauce, spaghetti, and stir. Cook for just a couple minutes until sauce us heated through.

This really curbs the Chinese food craving and not only is it “not bad” for you, it’s from Cooking Light so it’s low calorie! For a 1 1/3C it’s only about 330 calories. Eat up and enjoy!

And ps. we’re not usually into leftovers in our house, but just like take-out Chinese, this lo mein is delish the next day for lunch.