An Anniversary and Two Recipes; Maple Chocolate Chip Bars and Sun Dried Tomato Pesto-Goat Cheese Crescents

Today is the 15th anniversary of when my husband and I first met. We met through some mutual friends. I'm so terrible with names and when I met him, I really made a conscious effort to remember his. Later, I said something like, "Your name is D, right?". And he replied with a smirk, "no, it's John". I should've known then.... Anyway, the next day was the Superbowl and we talked on the phone for most of the day. We went on our first date the next weekend. He cooked for me. He bought the stuff in a jar they used to sell called "Chicken Tonight". The best part is that he scribbled some notes down on a piece of paper, threw away the jar of sauce and pretended it was an "old family recipe". Then, he told me the truth. He couldn't even go through with the charade. I didn't care. I thought it was so sweet that he went through all that trouble to try to impress me. Happy 15 Love! Anyway, I have two recipes for you today! the chocolate chip cookie bars I made a few days ago, but the crescents I made tonight. They were both really good. I mean, really, really good.

Maple Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp maple extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 12 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• sea salt for the top (optional)

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. cream together butter, shortening and sugars
3. add eggs vanilla and maple extract
4. in another bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda
5. add dry ingredients to wet ingredients
6. fold in chocolate chips
7. spread dough into a buttered 9 x 13 casserole dish
8. bake for 20 minutes or until golden
9. cut into bars when cooled
10. sprinkle with a tiny bit of fine sea salt

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto-Goat Cheese Crescents

• 1 package refrigerated crescent rolls
• crumbled goat cheese
• 1/2 cup prepared pesto (or home made)
• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil

1. in a food processor, chop sun dried tomatoes
2. add pesto and pulse a few times until combined
3. open and separate all of the crescents into triangles
4. spread triangles with pesto-sun dried tomato mixture
5. sprinkle triangles with goat cheese
6. roll triangles starting from widest side, moving towards the narrowest, to form crescents
7. place crescents on a baking sheet
8. bake in a 375 degree oven for 13 minutes

These pics are pretty bad. I know the lighting really sucks, but these are so good! You must try them. I used the reduced fat crescents. I am going to make baby ones for appetizers.

xoxo

Melissa