Kristi, Vale and Mark's BFF and Lucy's Fairy Godmother, came to visit for Lucy's Christening a few weeks ago all the way from Texas.
Kristi is kind of a phenomenon to me. I think I first knew her as the supplier of these amazing care packages sent to Vale stuffed with the cutest clothes for the Vale and the kids. Care packages are the coolest, I don't care what you put it in. It's just so exciting to have something sent from someone especially for you. In person, Kristi is even more exciting than her care packages. She's cheerful as heck, but she can also just tell it like it is. And it is freaking hilarious when she gets going on a rant or a story.
And no doubt, when Kristi had the opportunity to take Oscar into a corner store for 5 minutes while Vale waited in the car, she gave him the green light on a 5 minute candy spree. I mean, as a kid, that's like heaven. Heck,I would even get fired up about that. That brown bag of candy loot that put Oscar on marshmallow cloud 9 got appropriately dubbed by Kristi as "The Hookup"....and that's just what she does. Girl hooks it up.
When Cole was flying standby to STL (for Victoria's wedding!) with a layover and got stuck in Texas overnight, I knew he'd be in good hands staying with Kristi & Rob at their House of Love and Swearin'.
When Cole finally met up with me in STL, he came bearing a care package for us from Kristi --- The HOOKUP! She fully stocked us with Reese's Cups, Gummy Bears, Snickers, Twix, Kit Kats, Swedish Fish, ETC. It was amazing. I actually packed those Gummy Bears in my clutch at the wedding. Now THAT was a good call.
Well, we wanted to send Kristi a little thank you and tag her back with The Big H in the form a few homemade cookies including Chewy Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookie (Ghirardelli's recipe...which I can't seem to find online), and Hoppy's Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut and Apricot Cookies (which Madie and Vale shortened down to "White Delight"). Recipe below from Hoppy :)
I was very excited about putting together cute packaging, especially because of the sweet new stamp I got from Paper Source. I also was SOLD on the heat embossing thing after the nice guy at PS gave us a demo. Honestly, if you're into stamps... you NEED this. And you'll never want to go back to the 2-D stamp world! It's like how you feel after seeing Avatar for the first time.
Hoppy's Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut and Apricot Cookies
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 sticks of butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz white chocolate chips
7 oz dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup pecans --> ( I substituted one small package macadamia nuts)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oatmeal, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together together butter and white and brown sugars. Beat in the eggs on low speed, one at a time, scraping down sides of the bowl as necessary, then add in the vanilla and mix another 30 seconds.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and stir until just incorporated. Mix in the white chocolate chips, dried fruit, and nuts with a rubber spatula.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 2 in apart.
- Bake for about 14 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool slightly on baking sheet.