Cookies, Cookies, and Cookies

My little sister just moved back to college. I have decided I will make her a ton of cookies.

My first adventure actually came from an experiment from earlier this week. Well, two experiments. Last weekend, I found myself obsessed with wanting to make Olive Oil Ice Cream. I happened to have Lime Olive Oil from The Olive Oil Shops in Fredericksburg (which I know I keep raving about). So I made the ice cream. Honestly, I didn't care for it. As a matter of fact, I believe I spit it out.

But I took it to my work anyway to see what the girls thought. They all loved it. So, now I'm confused. I wasn't sure if they were lying to me to make me feel better or if they were being honest.

It turned out they were honest. It's gone. They wouldn't go back for seconds if they hated it. My assistant said her first bite is the one that is off, but the more you eat it, the more you love it. Okay -- I can work with that. My other assistant said I had a marketing problem. I shouldn't call it Olive Oil Ice Cream. I should call it Key Lime Pie Ice Cream.

Light bulb.

I hate Key Lime Pie. That must be why I didn't like it. As soon as she said that, everyone vehemently agreed. Okay, problem solved. So this then spurred me to another outrageous thought. Chocolate and chipotle. These two flavors compliment beautifully, and I wanted to see if their affair would make it through an ice cream marriage.

Oh my goodness, they did. The Chocolate Chile Ice Cream is incredible. I'll take it to the girls on Monday, but I did have my co-worker try it Friday night. *bing!

So it was because of the Chocolate and Chile marriage, I wanted to see what a baby would look like. I made a chocolate jalapeno cookie. I first made a compound butter of jalapeno and used that instead of regular butter.

Insert image of me spitting out the cookie. I'm sorry to say that it was a very ugly baby. My mom had a good suggestion though so I didn't just waste 30 cookies. I will freeze and crush the cookies and press it into a pie shell for a Chocolate Mousse Pie.

Next cookie: Coconut-Lime Ginger Butter cookies. I did the same thing of making a compound butter with ginger and using that as my butter for a regular butter and did a basic sugar cookie recipe adding lime zest instead of orange or lemon, and i put lightly toasted coconut in.

It's a hit! The Lime in the Coconut song comes to mind.

The next cookie to go into the oven will be a regular sugar cookie with chocolate and peanut butter chips for a Reece's effect (my sister's favorite). And the last cookie that will be made tomorrow will be a Chocolate Nutella Cookie. If you have not been blessed to meet Mr. Nutella, you must run out and find him. He is well worth his acquaintance.

On a healthier note, I've been going to the gym twice a day. Okay, most days. I've been going to the gym every evening. Yes, there were two days last week where I just went to bed too late and couldn't get up the next morning (most likely because I was at the gym late), but I've been going twice a day. I feel fabulous. The scale hasn't changed too much as of yet, but I'm still optimistic.

One more batch of cookies, and I'm heading back to the gym after a grueling spinning class this morning. Or maybe I'll just do Jillian Michael's yoga. The thought of going out in the Texas heat is making me sweat in my chair.