Can I have s'more cookies please?!

Last Thursday, our friend Adam turned 24 (Yes, that means he was in 6th grade when Aaron and I were graduating high school) WOW!!!  But, age means nothing when you're awesome, and we think he's awesome!  That's beside the point though.  On Saturday night, he and Ashley had a big fiesta themed birthday party at their apartment.  Everyone brought a little something to share, so this time I decided to try a new rendition of my oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies and went with this genius recipe for s'more stuffed chocolate chip cookies instead!  Heeellloooo!  

Thank you www.http://smells-like-home.com

I know that these aren't necessarily at all fiesta themed, but who cares, right?!  S'mores in chocolate chip cookies?!  I only wish I had thought of it first!

I will say that I tweaked the recipe a bit, just because I didn't have all the right ingredients and knew I wouldn't be able to get some of them (considering I live in Korea), but the cookies still turned out to die for and a teensy bit more healthy than the original recipe, too!

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 tbsp of all-purpose flour (I actually used Wheat Flour, because it's what I had in the fridge.)

½ tsp baking soda

6 tbsp of I can't Believe It's Not Butter spread

1 cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 chopped up Ghana Chocolate Bar (as a chocolate chip substitute) 

1 chocolate bar (for the s'more layering)

8 Korean Lotus brand caramelised biscuits (as the graham cracker substitute)

7 marshmallows (snipped in 1/2)

Instructions:

1. To make the cookie dough: Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl mix the margarine and sugars until thoroughly combined.  Beat in the egg, single yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add the dry ingredients and mix it until it's thuroughly combined – the batter should look a little lumpy.  Stir in the chopped up chocolate bar.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. To assemble and bake: scoop a spoon full of cookie dough onto the parchment paper. Put 1/2 of a caramelised cracker on top of it, pressing down slightly. Then put one piece of chocolate and 1/2 of a marshmallow on top. Then take another spoon full of the cookie dough and place it on top. Do your best to close the gap between the cookie dough on the top and bottom, resembling a cookie dough brick! :) 
4. Space the cookies at least 4 inches apart on the two baking sheets.  Bake for 20-24 minutes or until the tops and edges are lightly browned and the edges just lift off the pan with a spatula.  Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and cool the cookies on the sheets for at least 5 minutes.  
5. The cookies won't look beautiful... mine actually looked kind of ugly, so I cut them into 1/4's (also known as bite size). I personally like how you can see the inside of the cookie this way and people always love them because they don't feel like they're eating a WHOLE calorie filled cookie, even though they usually do end up eating the equivalent! :)

So, here you go!  This too could be yours, with the just the right ingredients and about 45 free minutes to play in the kitchen!   BTW: This is about 1/2 of the finished batch.

I'm sorry, did I hear you say you wanted a closer look?!  

I understand... you can almost taste them can't you?!

Sad news for me, or good news, depending on how you look at it, is that every last cookie bite got scooped up at the party last night and none made it home in my bag.  Just might have to make another batch for my co-workers this week... :)

Foam mustaches and friends!

Last year, (or was it the year before - geez, time goes by fast) I would get together every Wednesday night after work and have tea or coffee with my two girlfriends Gill and Truchen.  We cleverly named it Tea For Three! Truchen has since moved back to South Africa and Gill's long time friend Sam has moved to Busan and taken her place in the Tea for Three outings! 

This weekend, Gill, Sam and I all met up in Nampodong and had cheese bi bim bap (YUMMMY) for lunch, did a little shopping through the market and then loaded up on foamy coffee at our favorite little coffee shop!


We were all good girls and bypassed the bakery section this time... We're not always so health conscious though!

Foam mustache portraits! 

It's hard to get a foam mustache to stay when you have little bird lips like me!  

But don't think we didn't give it our best shot though! 

Close girlfriends, yummy coffee, and the kind of laughter that makes you almost tinkle your pants are three of God's greatest blessings!  When they're all mushed into one fun afternoon, it's pretty darn awesome! 

Baby Trip

The photo's of our inagural newborn baby photo shoot are up on the blog!  

You don't wanna miss this one!

Click HERE!

Kids!

Yesterday, Loola asked me to take some pictures of our 4th grade students making funny faces for a power point she's creating, to use in our open class next week.  I tried my hardest to get them to do something really funny, but Korean kids are sssoooo darn shy and NEVER want to take pictures doing anything remotely embarrassing... So this was the best I could get!  Since I haven't done any school related posts for a while, I figured I'd post these little schmooches! :)

DIY custom coffee mugs!

Back in early July, I saw a post on Pinterest for how to make a custom coffee mug with a sharpie marker!  FANTASTIC!  I love all things custom, and love them even more when they're easy to make!  

Directions:

"All you need is a sharpie (any color) and a porcelain dish that you want to permanently alter. You can even use super cheap mugs from the dollar store to create gifts or party favors. Just draw on the surface of your mug and bake it for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Allow them to cool completely before washing or using."

Here's the direct link from  the darling blog: A Beautiful Mess

... and here's my own little rendition of the DIY custom coffee mug!  I made it before I officially became Mrs. Osteen, but Aaron told me I couldn't use it until we were married... so, today it made it's grand debut in my classroom at school, along with some hot water and a yummy bag of green tea! :)

Happy mugging!