Cucumbers, Cookies, and Coils

See what I did there, with the reverse alphabetical order. Caught your eye and interest, didn't it?

There are also brownies, but not being a word that starts with the letter 'C', the brownies could not be included in this post title.

For those of you who care, this is my 100th post on this blog, taking place on Day 369 of this blog's existence. Overall, not a bad average.

I have been baking today! A combination of personal cravings, cravings of those around me, and guestdom at parties this weekend led to a day in the kitchen. I made Chocolate Chip Cookies (with dark chocolate chips), Cream Cheese Coils, and Turtle Brownies today.

The cookies are mostly for my own satisfaction, although others are enjoying them as well. The coils will be split three ways between our household and the party that Mom is going to tonight, as well as the party that Carrie and I are attending. Mom will also be taking a pan of brownies to her party, and the other pan will stay here for our personal consumption.

Overall the baking went well, although I think the cookies got a little too done, and I had issues (again!) with the bread of the cheese coils rising properly. When I make cookies I like to make them large. I much prefer to grab a big cookie than a lot of tiny ones. For reference sake, the recipe I made today should have yielded 5 dozen. I got just over 3 dozen out of it. Accurately adjusting baking time for larger cookies, however, is not one of my strong points. Guess I just need to keep practicing. :)

This was my second attempt at the Cream Cheese Coils. The first time I made them the bread rose too quickly and way too much, effectively ruining the coil. Today the bread did not rise at all! I had to force it with a lot of heat, and even then it took 3 hours (it is only supposed to take 1) to get the coils to just barely double. I don't know if the rising issue affected the overall product since I have not tried a coil yet, but I sure was frustrated! The delay in the dough rising led me to put the filling in the refrigerator, which thickened it. This caused me to not have enough filling, so I ended up with 5 coils that have strawberry preserves in them instead.

I know the last time I made these I promised the recipe. I discovered after I made that promise that there was no reason for me to retype the recipe since Taste of Home puts everything online. For the Cream Cheese Coils recipe, go here.

As if all of this wasn't enough, I rounded out the day with Turtle Brownies! I cheated with these and used a basic brownie mix. I did add the pecans and caramel myself to turn them into turtle brownies, but that was easy.

In non-baking news, my garden is doing great. The first cucumbers came out yesterday, with many to follow. Given the number of buds, by the time the cucumber plants are done we will be close to triple digits with the harvest. Anyone have any good cucumber recipes?!

Time to eat and go party!

Love!

~g