father's day celebration

I think I have the greatest husband in the world. I also think he's a wonderful father.

I'm so grateful to be doing this parenting thing all over again with him. I couldn't do it otherwise. Ella loves and adores him. They have so much fun together. She was excited to give him his gifts in the morning. (Check out her bed head.)

I asked Ella what she wanted to give Lynn for Father's Day. Her first suggestion was a sprinkler. (She loves to run through the sprinklers.) I told her he already had one. She said, "Okay, a trampoline then." I suggested that maybe it was her who wanted a trampoline. She assured me she and Dad would share. Well, he received a gift card, a movie he wanted and a new outdoor George Foreman grill. Ella picked out a cute card for him.

One of our traditions is that we get to choose what we want for dinner and dessert on our special day. Lynn chose Monterey Chicken. (I almost forgot to take a photo again, but yelled, "Stop!" as everyone was eating so I could. Kate had the biggest piece so I used hers. Check it out here. You're going to want to make it!

For dessert Lynn asked for Homemade Oreo Cookies. One word--addictive!

Here's the recipe:

(Click to enlarge) Just kidding. It doesn't work, so here's the recipe big. I'm still leaving the photo and recipe together because I love the way it looks.

HOMEMADE OREO COOKIES

1 box deluxe devil's food cake mix (I like Betty Crocker brand)
3/4 c. Crisco butter-flavored shortening, melted
2 eggs
cream cheese frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients until they pull away from sides of bowl. Roll dough into 1" balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake on top rack for 4 minutes and bottom rack another 4 minutes. Allow to cool. Scoop cream cheese frosting on flat side of one cookie; top with another and press together to spread frosting.

A few tips for making these delish cookies:
Use the small Pampered Chef scoop filled right to the rim with dough to get perfectly even-sized cookies. (You'll also get exactly 42 single cookies.) Also use it for the frosting. I scoop it just a little over the top and plop it in the middle of the cookie, then work it around with the other half to get it evenly spread. Lynn bought the whipped frosting by accident and I actually like it much better.

When the boys were young, I made a jumbo-sized version of these cookies once for all the scouts and leaders when they went on a camp out. It became a tradition and I ended up making them every time. Good memories.

Happy Father's Day, Hon. I love you more than chocolate!

***Photo Club girls: These are my "food" photo submissions from last month.