The Northfork and Chocolate Chip Muesli Cookies

Hope everyone is enjoying the last few lazy days of summer before the craziness of the fall kicks in.  Although, as much as I love the beach I must say I do love when everyone returns to the city and not having to pack all the time!  This past weekend we had a lovely day in Southold, which is on the north fork of Long Island.  In the past we have spent a lot of time on the South Fork, but this summer we had two glorious days on the North Fork.  It is a lot quieter and less crowded on the North Fork which is a nice change of pace.  While out there this weekend we visited some of the wineries and farm stands, which I love to do!  For those of you who do not know I am 7 months pregnant so I did not get to enjoy too much of the wine, but I still love the atmosphere and to learn about wine.  I have been to a few wineries on the North Fork before, but this is the first time I visited Croteaux, which is a must if you make it out there, limos and buses are not allowed so it has different feel than the others.  They only sell Rose, which is not always my favorite, but my fellow companions told me it was delightful on a summer afternoon.  They have what they call their tasting Barn and it feels like you walked into the French countryside when you step in.  

Now on to the cookies, we stayed at a friends on Saturday night and for breakfast we had some Muesli.  While eating I noticed a recipe for Chocolate Chip Muesli Cookies.  I immediately wanted to try them, they were whole wheat, heart healthy and had no butter!  What made them even better is they only required one bowl and no mixer (I don't have a mixer at home).  I have been enjoying sweet treats while I am pregnant, but I try to make them healthy for around the house since I am surrounded by butter the rest of the day :)  I was very happy I tried them out, they tasted like a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie and you really did not miss the butter.  I recommend them if you are looking for a sweet, but healthy treat :)

Chocolate Chip Muesli Cookies (from Bob's Red Mill Muesli)

1 cup Bob's Red Mill Muesli

3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour

2/3 cup Applesauce

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

6 oz Chocolate Chips (I have the dark chunks from whole foods)

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1 Egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Sift Flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt together.

3. Add in applesauce, vanilla and the egg.

4. Mix until well combined and all of flour is absorbed.

5. Fold in Muesli and Chocolate Chips.

6. Drop teaspoons full on a baking sheet (about 12 per sheet).

7. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Yield - 24 Cookies

Little Miss Party Planner Events

Hope everyone is having a fabulous August week!  I wanted to share some of the treats I made for the wonderful parties that Little Miss Party Planner put together this spring and summer.  I have included the links for each party so you can check out their entire spread and beautiful decorations!

For a 30th birthday party on a boat in April, I made mini lemon meringue tarts, white chocoalte covered oreos, cheesecake pops AND the cake.  The birthday boy loved Kite Surfing :) LMP did a such a great job with the nautical theme.

For a 40th brithday party I made some fun cupcakes with an old photo from when the birthday boy was little as well as some 40 cake pops!  Don't you just love the way LMP displays everything!?!

For Seri's (one of the LMP owners), son's bris she put together an amazing party only a week after she gave birth!  This had a fun "Got Milk" theme and she used some pictures that were captured in the hospital.  I made "Got Milk" cookies, cupcakes, cow cake pops and some white chocolate covered oreos with an L for Luke! 

 For a lovely rustic bridal shower, I made some chocolate espresso cookies, pie pops and purple glitter cake pops!

 

We both share the same wonderful and talented photographer, Raquel, from Raquel Bianca Creative, and Raquel's sisters asked LMP to plan her Bridal Shower.  LMP centered the theme around Long Beach Island, where they are getting married, but added in a lot of cool camera props as well :)  If you check out Raquel's website you can see her cool paper design that she did for her wedding. For the party I had the pleasure of making some mini pie tarts, chocolate espresso cookies and some really cool camera cookies!

  

A Garden Bridal Shower

I am honored to be the Maid (Matron :) ) of Honor in one of my best friend's from college weddings.  Caitlin's family is from Toronto, so I had the pleasure of planning her bridal shower in New York City.  Since most of her family lives in Toronto or other parts of the country it was a small, intimate shower.  I decided to have it at Bobo in their garden room.  Bobo did an amazing job, the food was incredible and the service was impeccable.  Grace, who is the event planner there, was extremely helpful throughout the whole process and our servers were over the top attentive without being over-bearing!  The garden room holds up to 35 people, but they have other rooms that hold more.  

Me, Caitlin and her Mom!

I decided to do the flowers myself (I found the idea on pinterest) and they were really easy and inexpensive DIY project.

I put together a small dessert table.  Caitlin hates chocolate so much I thought she was allergic to it the first few years that I knew her.  One of her favorite things to eat is a peanut butter and banana, sooooo I decided to make a banana cake with peanut butter buttercream for her. She loves candy so I made sure there was plenty of candy and had a few chocolate chip cookies for the other guests :)

As the favors I made mini peach pie jars since we have had such a great peach season!  

Isn't the space just great!

They had fresh fruit, croissants and banana bread on the tables.  We had burgers, a salad and two different egg dishes.  They continued to bring out fresh dishes :)

Shimmer NYC

At the NY Magazine Wedding Event I had the pleasure of meeting the woman behind Shimmer NYC.  It is a new event planning and production company based in NYC.  They can help you with any type of an event and assist with planning from the beginning stages all they way through the end for onsite management.  I recently did a cake for them for a lovely 40th birthday party they put together.  I shared some photos below.  Head to the website, ShimmerNYC or drop her a line at nancy@shimmernyc.com.