Glide Zen

Looking for an exciting and indulgent upgrade on the plain old chocolate chip cookie? Well here you have it! I saw these over at Ambitious Kitchen , a blog I love as well as it's name, and I couldn't wait long to make them. So, I made them the next morning =). I'm telling you, they are one of the best cookies you'll ever eat! I'm unequivocally in love with these purely divine cookies. Have you ever seen a cookie loaded with so much goodness? Browned butter, two kinds of chocolate chips, Nutella, vanilla beans and sea salt! You could even add in some finely chopped, toasted hazelnuts for one more upgrade and an added crunch.  This cookie = love. You don't know food love until you've tried it =). I want to hoard them all away for myself.  I know the prep work is a bit more work and definitely a longer wait than your average chocolate chip cookie but it is so worth it.  Warning! Don't eat the cookie dough...but it is the BEST cookie dough in the world...

Have you ever tried banana bread in cookie form with a thick fluffy layer of frosting sandwiched between two of them? With these cookies now is your chance. They taste just like banana bread with an added bonus, a luscious layer of vanilla bean frosting. Lightly said, these cookies are amazing! I saw the Banana Whoopie Pies over at Martha Stewart and new I just had to try them. Lucky for me I keep a stock of overripe bananas in the freezer for emergencies such as this, where I need an overripe banana in it's prime but don't want to wait 7 more days for it to hit its peak ripeness. I used to question whether or not freezing bananas was a good idea until I tried if for myself a few months ago. It actually works great. You simply just leave them unpeeled and pop them into the freezer when they are nice and spotty. Then when you are ready to use them, thaw the frozen banana out (to room temperature, sometimes I cheat and even thaw them in the microwave) then peel and prepar...

What is one out of the ordinary thing you should add as a new highlight to the Thanksgiving feast this year? Something that probably wouldn't have come to mind, whipped specialty butters to go along with those fresh out of the oven, homemade rolls. These butters are amazing! I was at my mother-in-laws a few days ago and she had fresh bread and some whipped cinnamon honey butter she'd bought at the store. I knew it would be a breeze to recreate after reading the ingredients list on the packaging label, so I came home and made it. In my opinion the homemade version may just be a bit better because it's freshly made, but other than that they taste exactly the same.  I also decided to create a few other versions as well because why stop at just one flavor? There are many more I wanted to make but didn't have the time. Here's a few I had in mind: orange honey butter with orange extract and fresh orange zest, salted caramel butter with caramel sauce (rather than ho...