Cookie, from my children’s’ book series, Cookie and Olivia, is based on my cat, Oreo.

  Oreo and her sister, Olivia came into our lives in June 2009.  My husband and I were enjoying a walk around our neighborhood when one of our neighbors stopped and asked if we wanted to see some kittens.  She also asked if we would be interested or if we knew anybody that would be interested in adopting them.  She had found a momma cat and her kittens in a box.

  I said no because I never pictured myself as a cat owner.  (Don’t tell my cats, but I wanted dogs.  Ha, ha.  Jokes on me because the cat are now my very spoiled fur babies. ) We also had plans to travel to New York to see our families and then we were off to Europe to visit my brother in law.

  However, at the same time my husband enthusiastically said yes.  He was so excited, and he rarely gets excited about anything, that there was no way I could say no!

  So, we followed my neighbor to her house and out on her back porch was a long haired brown and black cat just relaxing.  In different areas of the porch, were four kittens playing.  Two black and white ones and two tabbies.  (I still remember Olivia playing with a sparkly ball when I first saw her.)

  Our neighbor had a ten year old son at the time who had already named the kittens.  Oreo was originally named Black and Whitey.  However, I had decided long ago if I ever had a black and white animal, I was going to name it Oreo.

  Olivia was originally named Hidey, because we were told, she liked to hide.  However, a few days before, my husband had joked that if we ever got a cat, they were going to give it a regal sounding name.  Olivia’s full name is Olivia Fluffybottom the III.

  Since we had been talking about getting pets, we decided to adopt two of them.  It’s a coincidence that we ended up with two girl cats.  Our neighbor asked us which ones we wanted.  I chose Olivia because she was adorable playing with her sparkly ball and Oreo got chosen because se was closest to us.

  Don’t worry though.  Their brothers and mom are living their best kitty life with a nice lady in South Florida.  It’s weird to think there is another Oreo and Olivia out there, but boys.

Some fun facts:

• Cookie and the Frowny Face Day came about from a time I was going through a bought of depression.  I decided instead of wallowing in my misery, I was going to make something positive come of it.
• Oreo’s name got changed to Cookie in the books because I didn’t want to worry about trademark issues with Oreo cookies.
• Oreo loves to cuddle!  She also enjoys lounging in boxes, paper piles and the sun.

• She loves soft food and tuna! (Which she only gets as a treat.)
• Oreo has several nicknames. They are: Cuddle kitty, the black and white one and Sunshine Kitty.
• Not only has Oreo been the inspiration for Cookie, she’s also been the inspiration for various art pieces such as Cat Rave Dance Party, Here’s Looking At You Cat and I Can See You Cat to name just a few!
• Cookie and Olivia also have their own store! You can check it out on Zazzle.

Do you have any pets?  How did they come into your life?

Not to long ago, I made cookies for a bake sale. However, I didn’t want to make the same old, same old. I thought about it for a while and wondered what would happen if I made a cookie using chocolate hazelnut spread instead of peanut butter.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup chocolate hazelnut spread
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

2. Put butter and sugar into mixing bowl and beat until fluffy

3. Add eggs and hazelnut spread to bowl and combine with the other ingredients in bowl

Helpful Tip: It’s helpful to spray your measuring cup or spoon with cooking spray before placing something like hazelnut spray, peanut butter or honey in it. This helps more of the ingredient go in your batter and less stuck in the measuring cup or measuring spoon.

4. Add the flour and baking soda to the bowl and combine with the other ingredients in bowl

5. Chill mixture for about 10 minutes

6. Scoop onto greased baking sheet

Helpful Tip: I used an ice cream scoop to get the cookies to be a uniform shape and size

7. Press the center of the cookie down

8. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

9. Let cool

10. Enjoy!

They’re delicious and super simple to make! Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

3 cups quick oatmeal  1/2 cup coconut

1. Mix sugar, cocoa powder, butter, vanilla and milk in a medium to large saucepan.

2. Place pan on top of stove and cook on medium high heat until the mixture comes to a boil.

3. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, oatmeal and coconut.

4. Let the mixture cool in the pan for a little while.

5. Spoon cookies onto wax paper.

6. Let cool.

Caramel Oatmeal Fudge Cookies

For fun, I decided to replace the peanut butter with a 14 oz bag of caramels. It was delicious! Follow the instructions above, omitting the peanut butter and using the caramels instead.

Just a note though. The caramel oatmeal fudge cookies took longer to cool. Although they were delicious, they sometimes could be a little sticky.

If you try either of these recipes, I’d love to hear how they turned out!