Ouita's Christmas Rolo Cookies

Every year during the Christmas season growing up, we used to get these AWESOME cookies with Rolos baked into the middle from a lady at our church named Ouita. Hence the name "Ouita's Christmas Rolo Cookies." So, I decided to continue the tradition now that I have a grown up kitchen of my own. So I made some for my pastor and his family. Being a PK (Preacher's Kid, for those of you who don't know), I know how important it is for your church staff and their families to know how much you appreciate the work they do and the sacrifices they make for the church on a daily basis. This is just a simple and thoughtful way to do that!  They are soooo good and really easy to make, so drop everything you're doing right now and make them. I mean it. Drop. Everything. Then write your pastor a note and tell him you're thankful for all he (or she) does.

Ouita's Christmas Rolo Cookies

 
1 pkg. Rolos
1 box Devil's Food cake mix
1/3 c. oil
2 eggs



See?! Four ingredients. That easy.
Start by unwrapping lots and lots of Rolos. And put them in a bowl. You can eat a few, I give you permission :) But save most of them for later! Also, now is a good time to preheat your oven! 350(F)!

Combine cake mix, oil and eggs (in a different bowl). Only use a whisk when you combine the oil and eggs. Trust me. This stuff is thick.

When you're done, it should look like this! It'll have the consistency of..well, cookie dough. If there are a few powdery balls of cake mix left, don't worry about it. You can mash them out as you go. It's not too important to mix it really well.

Now take a little wad of your dough, press it flat in your hand and put a Rolo on top. Wrap the dough around it, making sure to completely cover the Rolo. My recipe said to only use enough dough to cover the Rolo, but I found that adding just a little bit more to the bottom keeps the caramel from sticking to the pan and burning while you bake it. You should use about 1 tbsp. of dough for each cookie.

 

I spread them really far apart on the cookie sheet because they spread a LOT.

Bake for 7-10 minutes (mine took closer to the 10 side), then let cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes. This is important because they keep cooking. If you try to take them off hot, they'll just fall apart because they're still soft. And they WILL get really ugly. Trust me.

 

Transfer to wax paper and coat liberally with powdered sugar. :) I used a strainer to make sure there weren't any clumps. Just like the stars on Food Network! Ignore the blank spot where there used to be a cookie. It was the ugly one, so I ate it.... :)

And a few pictures of the finished product. Gooey DELICIOUSNESS. Mmmmm yum.

All wrapped up and ready to give away! So pretty :) Got the tins at Target on sale for $3.20. Granted, the original price was $4, so it wasn't that much on sale....But on sale is on sale!

The recipe yields 3 dozen, although if you do the extra thick cookies like I did (which are way better than the thinner ones), you'll get 2 dozen. Easy peasy! Here's version of the recipe I followed, in case you want to copy and paste it:

1 pkg. Rolos
1 box Devil's Food cake mix
1/3 c. oil
2 eggs

Mix cake mix, oil and eggs. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the Rolo. (Only use enough dough to cover the Rolo so it can spread through the cookies.)
Place on greasedcookie sheet and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. Yields about 3 dozen.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

That's it! Easy peasy Rolo Cookies. :) So delicious. I'd suggest making two batches of this recipe because you will eat several while they cool. Fresh from the oven, they're irresistible. Now, go write that thank you note!

First Post-- Mural Recap!

Well, this is my first post as a blogger. I figured I would get started on it while procrastinating studying for finals. Best time to do it, right? I wouldn't call my blog pretty yet, but I'll work on it, promise! I haven't done many DIY projects recently, but I have one or two up my sleeve to get done over Christmas break. But we'll start with this.

Last Christmas break, I finished a project I had been working on for quite a while. I decided to paint my bedroom at my parents house (yes, the bedroom I never get to see because I'm here at school) purple and cream. I have a very graceful and put-together style. It's a little bit Victorian, lotta bit me. My biggest project was a mural. Nothing super artsy-fartsy. I made it on Publisher. Here's a quick peek at the final product.  (One quick note- The Alpha and Omega design is by James Avery and is copyrighted!)

 

It took me a total of about 60 hours to finish. (I'm not exactly sure how many...but I think it's a pretty good estimate of how long it took.) Don't get freaked out about the time. You could do something just as cute but simpler with a lot less time. It's also a good project to take your time on. I think I worked on this for 6 months from start to finish. (Don't judge me! I started it in the summer while I wasn't working and finished while I was home for Christmas break.)

Here are the steps I used to do the project:

I started out by creating the different fonts and words I wanted on Publisher. I got the spacing how I wanted it, but it ended up not making much difference because my wall wasn't the same size as the document.

SO I had to go through and save each text box as a picture. Sounds more complicated than it actually was. 

Once I did that, I pulled up each picture individually and set up my projector in the general area I wanted. Since my room is small, this required some furniture rearranging, stacking the projector on top of books, etc. 

I started with the word "Adonai." (Quick note-- if you decide to do words in a different language, make sure you get the correct spelling. At first, I had it spelled "Adoni," which just means "king," not "King." Small difference, but knowing it was wrong drove me nuts until I fixed it, which was easier than I thought it would be.)

When you decide where you want to place the word, get out a leveler. This step is important! Go to your wall and make sure your word is leveled horizontally AND vertically. I didn't realize this step was important until I started moving my projector to do the words closer to the ceiling. You'll have to adjust the lens on your projector (I forget the actual word for this button) until it is level both directions.

So this may all seem complicated and time-consuming, but it's totally worth it in the end. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my mural when I get to see it! Another picture just to keep you motivated if you're going to do it.

 

So I traced the lines onto my wall with a pencil. If you mess up, just lightly use an eraser. As long as your wall isn't a dark color, it shouldn't affect it. The guy at Lowe's told me to use a Magic Eraser, but this was a BAD idea. It took the paint right off my wall. Not so bad that you could see what was underneath (Luckily! The people before had painted it bright pink with a silver sheen for their 8 year old girl.), but if you decide to erase pencil lines after you have painted with dark purple like I did, you'll get streaky purple-ish red marks all over your newly painted wall. Bad news bears.


So I traced all of my words in pencil before I started painting. That way you can figure out the spacing as you go. I would suggest starting in the middle and working out from there, that way you can adjust spacing and size of words as you need, so you can work around light switches and door frames.

After that, I started painting.

And painting...

And painting...

This is the part that took forever, but it was totally worth it in the end. It took 2-3 coats of purple depending on how thick the letters were. (For example, The A in "Adonai" took three coats, but the thin lines of "King of Kings" took just one.)

I should put a sealer coat on it, but that final step of the project is still waiting to be done...a year later. Next project is the bathroom! Which neither me or my sister with whom I share it when I'm home will be using in six months. Ha! Sometimes I think I'm a crazy person.

But this is life. I love beautiful things, even if I don't get to enjoy them very often. I apologize for the crummy pictures. I took them on my phone, and they're the only ones I have.

Once again, the final product.

Ahhhh :) So beautiful, and it always reminds me of who my Savior, my Immanuel, my Abba is. Final pictures of the completed bedroom (except for the bedspread..I still can't bring myself to buy one since I won't be living there anymore) to come soon!