July 4th Festivities!

**how cute are these little kiddies?**

For the holiday weekend, my cousin, Amber, her husband, Don and their two little adorable kiddies, Conner and Addison, came down from VA to visit. We picked them up on Friday a.m. and they stayed through yesterday morning. We had a great weekend down at the beach...the weather was perfect! I made a few new things for the weekend... peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered peanut clusters, twice baked potatoes and snickers pie (a weight watchers recipe, which will be in a separate post). Although the potatoes were awesome, I did not get any pics so I'll post that recipe with pics another time. We'll just stick with all of the sweet stuff for now. First up, the peanut clusters as as a welcome gift for Amber & Don (they are her favorite!). And above you can see the beachy gifts I put together for the kids.

Chocolate Covered Peanut Clusters
milk chocolate chips

butterscotch chips

lightly salted peanuts

I didn't measure any of it. I used 1/2 the amount of butterscotch chips as chocolate chips because I knew the butterscotch flavor would be strong enough. I threw them in a bowl and popped them in the microwave for about 30 seconds on high. Then I stirred it up, dumped some peanuts in and a little more until the consistency seemed right. Using a spoon, I plopped little clusters down on wax paper. Let them cool for a few minutes and then put them in the refrigerator to harden. Easy peasy!

Cookie time...

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

source: BakingBlonde's Weblog

1 cup + 2 tbsp peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Peanut Butter chips (I omitted)

1/2 cup Chocolate Chips (I used 1 cup since I didn't use pb chips above)

3/4 cup Sugar (for rolling dough balls, may need more or less)

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchement paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter, butter. Once combined beat in the white sugar, and brown sugar until well blended. Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla. In a large bowl wisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gently add to creamed mixture and mix until almost combined. Fold in chocolate and peanut butter chips.

Chill dough for at least 15 minutes. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls. Genlty roll the dough balls into sugar and place dough balls on parchment lined baking sheets. Carefully press each ball with fork tines to create a criss-cross pattern.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheets for 5-10 minutes until sturdy enough to be transfered to a wire rack to cool completely.