Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Before the month of June gives way to July, I wanted to squeeze in a post of a scrumptious dessert I made this month.  A few weeks ago, I was able to make the dessert for a friend's baby shower.  I knew immediately I wanted to make cupcakes.  Reviewing my options for flavors, I came up with two that I thought were do-able and ones that my friend would like.  But I had a hunch she'd pick this one as she did with absolutely no hesitation.
I found the recipe here, where the blogger refers to these cupcakes as being "life changing".  Sounds a bit over the top, right?  Well, after I tasted one, I didn't think she was exaggerating all that much.  The flavors in this cupcake are spot on.  Each part of the dessert blends together perfectly.  And the frosting?  Uhh, DE...LI...CIOUS!  Tastes just like cookie dough.  These cupcakes are so good in fact, that I used a few to pay off a baby-sitter the next day and she felt handsomely rewarded for her time.
If you've got a reason to make these I highly recommend them.  Although you should know that you will get more than just 24 cupcakes from one recipe.  I doubled this so we'd have enough to keep a few at home and plenty for the baby shower and ended up with 66 cupcakes!  Oh well!  There was plenty to share that way.  But doubling the filling gave me way more than I needed.  I probably could have made 1 filling recipe work for all 66 cupcakes.  Also doubling the frosting gave me the perfect amount for decorating all the cupcakes with a little bit leftover.  When I make these again I'll probably make 1/2 of a filling recipe for a full cupcake and frosting recipe.
Hope you all enjoyed a sweet moment or two in June.

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Edited to add...
And you should also know that this isn't a recipe that's just a little more time consuming than using something from a box.  You'll definitely need plenty of time to make each part of the entire cupcake.  I also recommend making these for folks who will enjoy and appreciate your effort.  For me, that doesn't include small children who I think generally eat the frosting and toss most of the cake--just saying.
The recipe for the mini chocolate chip cookies came from this blog.  I used a rounded teaspoon to get the right sized dough balls--worked like a charm.
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Busy June

I can't believe how quickly our summer is flying by already.  I knew it had been a while since I posted but I was surprised when I checked and saw it has been 3 weeks!  Where has the time gone?  Well I'll tell ya where...

We've been camping...with the youth group from church,

overnighting in Sitka to celebrate our 10th anniversary, 

coordinating a wedding...I had my first full blown wedding to coordinate, it was a lot of work but it was a beautiful day for a beautiful couple and I actually like that sort of thing...

 (photo by Courtney Johnson)

and some of us had flower girl duties this month as well,

(photo by Courtney Johnson)

In our spare time we did some chores around the house, 

took walks with our friends

all the way to the glacier (Just try to look at this picture without laughing...I dare ya!), 

We practiced pulling up,  

did some swinging, 

let our bare toes enjoy the cool grass, 

did some bird watching, 

and even more camping.

June has been wonderfully full of lots of discoveries and fun.  Sort of makes me wonder what's in store for us in July.   Hope your summer is off to a fantastic start too.

Violin

A few weeks ago, the little miss had a violin concert.  At this concert I was able to produce FAR better photo results.  Better than the winter concert that included a very cute and curly haired girl right smack dab in the middle of my view of my own daughter.  (You're probably wondering why I didn't just get up and take my photos from a different spot. Well, I tried but I was also holding a baby and trying to keep a 3 year old happy with a mere granola bar as my "bait".)  And these photos turned out much better than the concert for the Alaska State School Board--the one where I pulled out the camera and realized I'd left the memory card at home.  Anyway, I'm just glad I was able to get some decent photos of her playing her violin.

And I'm glad she is enjoying playing this beautiful instrument.

 

It's not the instrument I had imagined she would try playing, but the violin program at her school opened our eyes to this instrument.  The program is so wonderful and we're really thankful for it.

She started playing the violin at the beginning of the school year.  (See this post.)  So far she has really taken to it and is doing well.  In fact, so well, that we decided to purchase her own violin and have her start taking lessons over the summer and probably on into the next school year too.  Right now her lessons are with three other kids once a week.  Today was the first lesson and she did very well.

These next few photos are of her the other night when we went to the school to pick up her violin and learn about how to care for it.  The pictures aren't the greatest, because I took them with my phone, but I think you get the idea of how excited she was to open up her very own violin.  That moment when her music teacher handed her the small black case and she turned around to look at me...the look on her face was absolutely priceless.

We're looking forward to many more violin concerts.  And now that she has one of her own, if you make it up here to visit us, I'm sure we could arrange a private concert for you.