Family Dessert: Strawberry Yellow Cake.

My 14 year old brother,Joe, made family dessert the other Wednesday night, and it was soo good. He did not follow any recipe for this cake, he just made up the recipe on his own! (how awesome is that) I helped Joe by making the yellow cake, but he did everything else! Let's just say I could get used to Joe making dessert for me every once in a while.

The cake is yellow cake mix from a box, and the frosting is cool whip mixed with chopped strawberries. Then he put strawberry jam and sliced strawberries on top!

-Sarah-

Did Someone Say Chocolate Chip Cookies?

Okay, so I know that you have heard this a billion times, but I'm going to say it. You ready? These are the best Chocolate Chip Cookies ever!  yes, I did just make that claim, but when you try these little guys for yourself, you will agree with me. I made about 30 of these anything-but-ordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies on Wednesday  and on Thursday all that was to be found of them was a few crumbs. That is a lot of time for these cookies to be around, considering that I live with 4 Brothers.But in order to get my share of the cookies, I had to slap some boy's cookie-snatching hands.


Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

Directioins:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.

3. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the vanilla.

4. Dissolve baking soda in hot water.

Make sure the water is fairly hot.



Once the Baking Soda is dissolved, the mixture will look opaque.

5. Add baking soda to batter along with salt. Stir in flour. It HAS to be All-Purpose flour!(To get an accuarate flour measurment, put the flour in the measuring cup with a seperate utensil. This ensures that the flour will not be compact, and therefore,there will not be too much flour.) 

 Then the Chocolate Chips.

Add the Cream of Tartar. This is my secret weapon...it makes the cookies crackly.

 6. Drop by large spoonfuls onto greased pans.

7. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Family Dessert

Early 90's kids.
Sam, Ben and me looking forward to some dessert.
Have you ever seen kids more excited about cookies?

Throughout childhood Mom and Dad were always trying to find times to get everyone together at the dinner table. However, when this means coordinating 9 kids schedules and your life is absolute pandemonium having a family meal is no easy task. So Mom creatively came up with an idea that on Wednesday nights (post church, swim practice and soccer) we would have "Family Dessert." After a few weeks Family Dessert became a huge hit. Even now, years later, on any given Wednesday you will find 20 or so young people crowding around the Reynolds table to delve into a delicious dessert. 

Nowadays getting everyone together isn't the issue; but, knowing what to make is! Imagine, being expected to perform week after week by providing a sweet treat for hungry teenagers-- Not easy. Some weeks are so crazy that we grab a carton of ice cream from Publix and some chocolate syrup. Some aren't as bad and we'll whip up some fantastic concoction. 

Anyway, I hope this brief post has explained a little about our baking fetish and it's roots. You're more than welcome to join us for Family Dessert if you're around on a Wednesday... Keep in mind, if you're a first timer you may or may not be asked to perform and song and dance for Big Joe for your initiation. I'm just saying.