Desserts All Around

Our PTO hosted a potato bar for the teachers last week as part of Teacher Appreciation Week. I asked one of the officers if they had anything lined up for dessert and I offered to make something. She thought it was a good idea. Then she told me the lunch would be for 65 people and said, "Do you still want to do it?" Oh, sure. I'm not busy or anything. No, seriously. I was very happy to do it. Even if I was up a little too late that night and didn't even get to watch any of my Thursday night shows on Thursday night. Hey, teachers are more important than TV.

I ended up making some cookies and cupcakes because they thought the teachers would prefer something they could eat on the run. I hate to beat a dead horse here, but these flower cupcakes are the cutest cupcakes I make so here they are again. I also made some oatmeal raisin cookies and my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe ever (which just happens to be low-fat!). I've gushed about that chocolate chip recipe from Cooking Light before, but my mother told me about these oatmeal raisin cookies. The recipe on the lid of the Quaker Oats container is the best homemade oatmeal raisin cookie I've ever had. And apparently, the teachers agree. Some even asked for the recipe and, sadly, I had to tell them where it came from.

I made some more oatmeal raisin cookies today for my MOMS Club service project. Every year, we take dozens of cookies to a local hospital's NICU. This is the third year our club is doing it and it's a service project that means a lot to me. Two and half years ago, I was a mom in that NICU and I received cookies from another MOMS Club. I asked our club to pay it forward and we've been doing it ever since. Here's what it looked like the first year. That crazy gal is my soon-to-be sister-in-law (wow, that's a lot of hyphens), Meg. And check out Matthew in this photo! He's six months there. Meg just graduated from college this weekend so please give her a whoop whoop, or whatever the kids are saying these days.