Cookie dough has a special place in our hearts.  We all love eating cookies and have been known to sneak the occasional cookie dough nibble.  Of course, any food safety expert could tell you that this is a no-no.  Cookie dough invariably contains eggs and eating eggs without cooking them is basically putting a giant welcome mat in front of your insides for salmonella to enter.  So the lure of the cookie dough is always tempered by the knowledge that one heavenly bite now could lead to days of pain and suffering later.

Enter The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook: Cookies, Cakes, Candies, and More by Lindsay Landis (aka LoveAndOliveOil).  Now, I haven’t actually read this book (yet), so don’t consider this a review.  However, Lindsay has released a few of her recipes via her blog and other blogs that were giving away copies of her book.  I tried the Cookie Dough S’mores recipe.  Minus the S’mores part.  So just cookie dough.  Delicious, salmonella-risk-free cookie dough!

First you gather your ingredients:

That’s milk, brown sugar, white sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, and flour.  First, you put the butter (at room temperature) and the sugars in a bowl together.  Use an electric mixer to combine them.  NOTE: I forgot the brown sugar at this point, I realized my mistake after the next step and added it then.  Fortunately, the recipe seems very flexible to minor mistakes.

Once the butter and sugars are creamed, add in the milk and vanilla and mix that in.  Next, add the flour and salt and mix this together.

Now for the final ingredient.  For those of you keeping track, you’ll notice that I’ve used all of the ingredients.  However, I left out one very important secret ingredient.

Mini-chocolate chips!

Add these to your batter and stir to combine.

At this point, you could use this cookie dough in any of a dozen different ways.  Or, if you are like my family, you can channel your inner Cookie Monster, shout "Cooooookie dough!" and devour it! (Om nom nom nom nom.)

Want some?  Here’s a spoonful.

What’s that? You can’t eat cookie dough through a computer screen?  Oh well, more for me!

We will definitely be purchasing Lindsay’s book at which time I will prepare so many cookie dough recipes that even my kids will be sick of cookie dough!  (Ok, let’s be honest, they’ll never get sick of cookie dough!)

Note: To see all of my posts on DisneySMMoms 2012, go here.

After we left the introductory cocktail reception, I headed over the the beach near the Yacht Club.  (B and I had actually gotten separated during the Adventures By Disney.)  There, I found B, her parents, and the kids.

We were each given a bandana (which some of us fastened around our heads pirate-style) and drinks were offered with cool light-up "ice" cubes.

As we entered, we were serenaded by a pirate band and the centerpieces on our tables included a treasure chest.  (NOTE: We didn’t try digging up the beach looking for buried treasure.  That’d be bad form.)  Even the food was being guarded by a pirate.

Luckily, the pirate food guard didn’t mind us chowing down on some grub.  And what food there was!  A feast fit for a Captain (Hook)!

Many of the dishes had a decent kick to them.  Not burn your mouth spicy, mind you.  Disney wasn’t trying to get us to soak our mouths’ in the nearby waterway.  The food did have a spiciness about it that felt perfectly appropriate for a pirate party.  After all, what pirate would choose to eat bland food?

This wasn’t even all of the food, mind you.  There was also a kids table with corn (a non-spicy version), hamburgers, hot dogs, fruit, and, of course, Mickey-roni and Cheese.

Of course, there were plenty of people to meet.  I had finally met Rene Syler (aka Good Enough Mother) in person at the cocktail reception, but we took the opportunity to have our photo taken.

(Hmmm…. Is that dadarocks in the background checking his smartphone?  I believe so!)

See this calm looking spot over here?

Well, it wasn’t calm for long.  They called all the kids over and started playing some pirate games.

Yes, those are hooks on their hands.  Just like a certain Captain had.  Speaking of whom, he made an appearance with Smee and Jake.  Sharkey and Bones couldn’t make it – I think they were busy cleaning the Jolly Roger – but a pair of singing pirates helped get the kids dancing.

Finally, there were amazing desserts including a fantastic bananas foster and, of course, Mickey Ice Cream Bars.

With the sun setting and the kids getting tired, we headed off of the sand for some much needed sleep.  It was a long, but very fun day at Disney World and our trip was just getting started.

Disclaimer: We paid for our own trip to Disney World to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Though we were given an incredible deal from Disney, they never asked us to blog about this event. All opinions expressed above are my own.

Before Valentine’s Day, B purchased a Valentine’s Day treat for the boys.  Given their love of Disney, this treat hid a special surprise.  Can you see the special hidden character?

Yes, these are Hidden Mickey Valentine’s Day cookies!

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What special Valentine’s Day treats did you have?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #126

Three weeks ago, B and I got to experience that all-too-rare event known as “date night.”  We ditched dropped the kids off at B’s parents’ house and went to Outback Steakhouse.

I had called ahead, but, due to circumstances beyond our control, we wound up arriving about an hour later than our reservation.  Even so, we were seated rather quickly.

After placing our order, we were presented with two big loaves of bread.  I knew we had a big meal ahead of us, but it still took all of my willpower not to devour this bread.  I took a little taste, but that made it worse.  It tasted so good!

Before long, our appetizer, Spinach Artichoke Dip, arrived.  This tasted heavenly.  The dip itself was wonderful, but the addition of the garlic toast pieces was incredible.

Next up was the main course.  B got steak with shrimp and a baked potato.  I had a mahi dish with rice and veggies.

I can’t speak for B’s dish, but mine was very tasty.  I wound up finishing all of mine up while B had some of her meat (and the rest of the bread) packed up to eat for lunch the next day.

When it came time for dessert, we were too stuffed to eat any more.  Still, we ordered the Sweet Adventure Sampler Trio.  This comes with samples of three different desserts.  And by samples, I mean what might be regular sized portions of each dessert anywhere else.  Since we were full, though, we ordered it to go.  I was quite amazed when our server showed us how they had packaged the desserts.  Each segment of the desserts was in a different container.  (I’ve got to apologize for the overexposure of some of these shots.  The white packaging made photographs hard to take.)

First up was the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under: A chocolate pecan brownie topped with vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.

Once combined, they formed this delicious dessert:

After this was the carrot cake (with coconut and pecans) and the classic cheesecake.

Both of these were good, but the brownie was by far my favorite.  All in all, we had a great time at Outback Steakhouse.  While steak is not my thing, they have enough other options that I look forward to going back there again.

Disclaimer: B received a coupon for a free steak from an online promotion and I received an Outback Steakhouse gift certificate during a blog tour.