Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

For a staff get-together we made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes, which are basically cupcakes with cookie dough inside of them, which unfortunately makes them sound better than they actually were. They were served at a office family dinner. Of the 24 cupcakes, roughly half were eaten by the boss's kids. (Math time! If the kids ate 3 cupcakes each, how many kids were there?) Kelly and Carol decided to prank Lee by putting fish sauce on his cupcake to look like caramel sauce. Lee happily ate the whole cupcake but later warned someone else that they tasted a little weird, still unaware of the prank--until he saw Carol and Kelly giggling in the corner. In revenge he pushed a cupcake in Carol's face. Hailey thought that this was a waste of perfectly good cupcakes. (There are no reaction shots so if you know what the boss's kids look like just imagine it.)

Broccoli Casserole

This is a great meal to prepare in a short amount of time. It has not strange ingredients so it doesn't require a trip to the grocery store. (Even though we only live a 3 minute walk from a grocery store it's always nice to just come home and have everything you need to make supper.) The rice, broccoli and cheese complimented each other very well. We were very pleased with this recipe and were surprised we had waited this long to make it!

Josiah's Cheese Biscuits

Biscuits are one of our faves and so is Josiah and so is cheese! We knew we would love this recipe! It was quick to make; we were able to whip them up for dinner after coming home from work. They went very well with the Broccoli Casserole, pasta dishes, chili and soup. A highly recommended recipe by both Josiah and us!

Duggar Day: The Sequel

Excited about Duggar Day!

Back by popular demand: Duggar Day!

Since we still try to bring up the Duggars in conversation as frequently as possible when at work, we figured it was only appropriate to bring back Duggar Day - and this time we stepped it up a couple notches, preparing breakfast, lunch, dessert and 3 o'clock treats for everyone in the office.

Waiting in line for Duggar lunch

The menu was as follows:

Breakfast: Honey-Baked Oatmeal
Lunch: Salad with homemade Italian dressing and Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti
Dessert: Apple Dumplings
3 o'clock treats: Oatmeal cookies

Tiffany is in heaven because she loves the Duggars!

Duggar lunch

The announcement of the 2nd Duggar Day was met with great anticipation, and required a great deal of planning. We spent two evenings preparing the food and brought EVERYTHING to the office on the bus thanks to some strategic planning. As is required on Duggar Day, we set up the projector in the lunch room to watch an episode of 19 Kids and Counting during lunch: this time we watched "Duggars on Ice" which includes the Duggar's family friends, the Bates and their 17 children, as well as the announcement that Josh and Anna were pregnant with Mackynzie!

While it was a lot of work, the second Duggar Day was a success - we just might do a few less recipes next time!

Apple Dumplings

This recipe was made for Duggar Day: The Sequel.

These were DELICIOUS! Probably because of the amount of butter we poured on them. They were pretty easy to make using Crescent Rolls and Sprite (to create a nice glaze). They looked very professional and were a big hit! Crescent Rolls can be a little expensive if you don't find them on sale. This recipe could get a little pricey for both your wallet and your waistline...there is a lot of fat.

 

Daddy's Favourite Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe was made for Duggar Day: The Sequel.

This was listed on the website as Jessa's favourite cookie dough and it was, indeed, very tasty. Why then, Duggars, did you take the recipe off the website? A few weeks after Duggar Day Katie wanted to make the recipe again, but to her dismay, it was no longer available. So don't even bother getting your hopes up about these cookies, folks!

And the moral of the story is: when you find a recipe you like - write it down!

Honey-Baked Oatmeal

This recipe was made for Duggar Day: The Sequel.

Ok, so this we were excited to try since we've used a similar baked oatmeal recipe on several occasions - and this one was sugar-free... which turned out to be its downfall. See, the great thing about baked oatmeal is that it's like eating cake for breakfast but it's healthy. This was just like eating something healthy. Not altogether bad, just a little... bland.

Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

Yes, that is a bowl full of cheese

This recipe was made for Duggar Day: The Sequel.

This was the main course for lunch and also the main reason that we charged our coworkers this time! Can you believe all the cheese that went into this meal!? While delicious, this is a very rich meal, and not recommended for those who are lactose-intolerant. Definitely something to make again, though in a smaller quantity!

Golden Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe was made for Duggar Day: The Sequel.


Or at least it was supposed to be. If you are one of our coworkers, you're probably looking at this and saying, "I don't remember those from Duggar Day" and don't worry - your brain is not playing tricks on you! The photo, however, certainly is. You see, this recipe took us 4 tries; the dough wouldn't rise, we ran to the store and bought new yeast, the dough still wouldn't rise - but Hailey was determined! On the fourth try we finally baked the rolls, and looking at this picture, you're probably thinking that they look great - what's deceiving is that the plate they're on is actually a dessert plate, and the rolls were about the size of golf balls and they didn't taste very good. Katie nevertheless took to snacking on them when she got home from work and was too lazy to start making supper. We're not sure where we went wrong, but we probably won't be trying this recipe again!

Italian Dressing

This recipe was made for Duggar Day: The Sequel.

This Italian dressing was easy to make and it was delicious! Not as delicious several weeks later when we discovered that we had left it in the fridge at work. Thanks for cleaning that out, Hailey!

As a sidenote, please disregard our unattractiveness in the subsequent photos. In the words of Hailey, "we were cooking for an army and when you're cooking for an army you don't have to be attractive, you just have to be efficient". Well said.

Jeanne's Sloppy Joe's

Hailey, thinking she is about to enjoy her Sloppy Joe

 So we were really hungry when we made these Sloppy Joe's and we thought they would be really yummy. They weren't. The sauce was too strong - BBQ sauce, ketchup and onion soup mix need something milder added to take it easy on your taste buds. If only we had Liquid Smoke in Canada (called for in the recipe) - maybe it would have made a difference!