27. Go To Meals/Recipes When I Have Guests

This list assumes you actually have people over to your house. We almost never have guests. My daughter occasionally has a friend over for dinner but, most of the time, it is just us. We have a ton of animals in our house and it just isn't very easy to have people over. So, we don't really have a "go to" recipe for guests. Instead of giving you a "go to" meal, I will give you the recipe for my husband's "go to" dessert.

My husband makes chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes. Basically, these are cupcakes with a chunk of chocolate chip cookie dough in the center. He makes these for almost every event. Now. You can make these with any type of cupcake you want. However, we have found that the best combination is vanilla cupcake with the chocolate chip cookie dough center and a buttercream chocolate frosting. We did try a chocolate cupcake but it didn't taste nearly as good.

Please note that you will be making chocolate chip cookie dough and then freezing it for two hours before you make the cupcakes. Take this into account when you are deciding if you want to make them.

Here are the directions:

Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/4 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 egg 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips 1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix 1 1/3 cups water 1/3 cup canola oil 3 eggs

Directions: 1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside. Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls; place onto a baking sheet, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours. 2. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. 3. Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer to break up. Add the cake mix, water, and canola oil; continue beating for 2 minutes on medium speed. Spoon into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each 2/3 full. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake. 4. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake portion of the cupcake (not the cookie dough ball) comes clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy!