You just got done eating dinner. You’re full because you just had a full course meal, but you are craving that something sweet. There is always room for dessert. Like I say, ice cream and pudding just slide through all the cracks in your belly. I get days where I do want that something sweet after dinner. I’ve never been a huge dessert person, but the older I get the more I appreciate that delicious piece of pie with a hot cup of joe.

OK, OK. So, it’s not joe. It’s hot tea. Listen, the older I get, the more I enjoy sweets, but my taste buds haven’t seemed to change in the coffee department. Growing up, my Pap and Gram Liddick (Floyd and Lois) loved coffee. I loved mornings at their house because my parents never really brewed coffee in the mornings. So, smelling it was a special treat. Love the smell, not the taste. I wish I did. I’d feel so grown up, and cool drinking it. (Hahaha!) So, I guess I’ll just have to pretend, like when I was eight years old with my Little Tikes kitchen. Hey, hot tea is cool too. Don’t judge. There is nothing like a cold winter’s morn, and wrapping your hands around your favorite mug, sipping on a hot liquid. Warms your soul. Then dip your favorite cookie in it. OH! OH!! You know another favorite!? Hot chocolate with fluffernutter on toast! Oh mannnn!! Now that right there is the best!

(Andrea, come on now, you are getting off topic!) Back to desserts. Or was it coffee?

Does it really matter? They both pair together. I still get to smell coffee every morning, since my husband is one of “the cool ones” that can drink it. Yea, that’s right. My man drinks coffee. I get it ready every day for him, and make sure he has his flavored specialty creamers. Can’t have coffee with no creamer. Guess he’s not that cool. *insert cheesy smile here* Wish I could hack it with Oreo flavored creamer. Nahh, instead I’ll dip my double stuffed Oreo in my hot tea like a badass. (I wish I could insert the laughing crying face emoji right here.)

Most of you know, I love to cook, not bake. I CAN bake, but love cooking more. Give me a day in my kitchen and I want to prepare a bunch of food for my freezer or make a big dinner for my family. But every now and then I will bake so my family has something sweet to enjoy. I make sticky buns a lot, and make puddings too. I try to have dessert at least twice during the week. When I saw these puppies, I had to try them. I mean look at the filling!! They are a labor of love, but dang, are they worth every darn minute of putting them together. Come on you cool coffee drinkers out there, you know you wanna dunk this cookie, right in your hot cup a joe! Doooo it.

Oatmeal Monster Fluff Cookies

• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups M&Ms

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Mix the peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat mix until well combined. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until well combined.

Mix together the oats, flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in the M&Ms.

Bake 1/4 cup scoops on ungreased baking sheets for about 13-15 minutes or until they look done. Allow to cool before filling.

Fluff Filling

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Bring a shallow pot of water to a boil. Place all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl that can rest in the boiling pot without its bottom touching the boiling water. Beat the ingredients until the bottom of the bowl is too hot to touch. About 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove the bowl and beat with the whisk attachment on your stand mixer for about 10 minutes or until fluffy and pretty stiff. You can also use a handheld mixer, but it will take longer.

Use filling to sandwich together the cookies.