WOoooo!!! Today is my 2 year blogoversary!

I can not even believe that two years ago, I was just posting my first post on Beautiful Disasters. I still have fun looking back on some of my first posts and looking at the photos

The other day I had to go through a lot of old posts and get rid of all the pictures and just keep one for every post because I was running low on memory on the blog and needed to clear up some space..YIKES some of those pictures had reaaaaallly extended their stay on the blog a wee bit too long.

Those were the days before I snagged my mom’s fancy, nice Nikon D80 camera (thanks mom!). Slowly, I have become more used to the camera and have picked up on what works and what doesn’t work. The most important thing I have picked up on for good pictures is to take picture with NATURAL lighting when possible. For me, this has meant that I bring my food outside and set up my photo shoot out there. There certainly are days that I get lazy or it is too dark or there is just some down-right icky weather out where I just say screw it, I’m gonna take pitiful pictures in my cozy house.

I have researched ways to take high-quality photos inside, but I have found it requires a bit of set-up and more supplies than good ‘ol Mr. Sun. So whenever I can, I try to take pictures outside.

But I digress from all this photography talk…on to these cookies!

I was having a little trouble deciding what to make for my 2 year blogoversary (granted, I realized my blogoversary was happening 3 days before today). So I turned to my mom for some suggestions. I was thinking something along the lines of a cake or cupcake, maybe something with funfetti to bring out the whole “blogoversary-birthday” theme. But, my mom came up with an idea that I liked even better. Soft chocolate M&M cookies!

One of the keys to making these cookies fabulous is to make them fairly generous sized cookies. I’m talking 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup size of dough here. Be sure that you flatten them slightly, so they bake up nicely. And then, of course, you can’t forget the M&Ms! These cookies sure are a winner and I’m glad that I can share them with you all for my 2 year anniversary of Beautiful Disasters.

Double Chocolate M&M Cookies

(Makes 1 dozen large cookies)

1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

about 1/4 cup M&Ms

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Mix in egg and vanilla extract. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined, be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Drop the cookie dough by large spoonfuls (between 2 Tablespoons and 1/4 cup of dough) onto the ungreased cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges of cookies are set and slightly firm to touch. Let cool and sit on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer cookies to wire rack to finish cooling for 5-10 minutes. Store in sealed container.

Random Fact of the Day: The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven!

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