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The Green Mountain state

2/24/2018

VERMONT

Where most people think of their beautiful mountains, skiing, lake Champlain and a crazy amount of Subarus on the road. (Hey, they are reliable in those snow conditions, I would probably own one if I lived there, too.)

Some cool facts about Vermont:

In 1978, Ben and Jerry opened their first Ben & Jerry’s Homemade ice cream shop in a gas station in Burlington, Vermont. I mean, we all have those nights where we eat our feelings in one of the many delicious flavors of Ben and Jerry's... or maybe thats just me...
Vermont is the largest producing state of pure maple syrup in our country. There is this amazing restaurant by Smuggler's Notch called 158 main. They make the BEST French toast. It's a full baguette, deep fried and sprinkled with powder sugar. To make it better, it's topped with 100% pure Vermont maple syrup! Maybe one day, I will be able to recreate it and not just have unsuccessful soggy bread. For now, I think I'll just stick to cookies :). If you are ever in the area, it should be your number one stop.

The sixth largest lake in America, Lake Champlain, was announced as the 6th Great Lake but it was only for a brief time. Not only is this place beautiful, lake Champlain chocolate is AMAZING! It is so smooth and can be found at Whole Foods if you can't drive all the way there. :)
Vermont is also home to the teddy bear factory. Not only is this a factory that runs tours on how they create teddy bears but it also is like a HUGE "build-a-bear," It is the same concept where you can create and stuff your bear to your liking. The only memory that I have there is when I made my high school boyfriend drive out of our way to go skiing so we could make a bear together. It was an essential to our relationship... or at least I thought so.
Vermont does not have any skyscrapers so they make up for it with many ski lifts and gondolas. This is where my post gets more personal and the embarrassing pictures come out. Vermont is special to me because this is where I learned to snowboard. And speaking of ski lifts, they were my biggest enemy. I think I still have no feeling in part of my left knee because of learning to get off a chair lift on a snowboard. My family vacations at Smugglers Notch every year and for the first 4 years, my mom sent me to ski school. All vacation, it is was the same routine, I would wake up complain about my injuries and refusing to go, she would give me Advil and say I was fine, drop me and my cousin off at the school and LEAVE! That was repeated all week for YEARS! But I can snowboard pretty well now so thanks mom for always pushing me. :)

The day I passed ski school.. big moment in my life.

Last fact, this state is the most rural state in America. With that being said, it took years for us to get cell phone service on our vacations. So we all were assigned nicknames and walkie talkies so we could communicate with each other on the mountain. We even had matching sweatshirts with our nicknames on them. My nickname was big red... This name meant one of two things.. I was hot and sassy like the big red gum or I was a little beef cake with red hair... I'm pretty confident it was the first one.

Ridge rider, pineapple man, big red, poison dart frog, black sheep, and sweet ninja robot

And on to the whole reason you read the blog.. the cookie.

This is the
"TEDDY"

Maple S'more Chocolate Chip
made with pure Vermont maple syrup, lake Champlain chocolate, and teddy grahams. :)

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The place I call ... HOME

2/23/2018

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Pennsylvania
First US capital, First in my heart

Introducing the
"#numberone"

So for those that don't know, I was born and raised in Pennsylvania (aka PA which if you live here that's most likely how you refer to our state) making this one the easiest cookies to make. After doing research though, it ended up being pretty difficult because actually A LOT of good things originated from PA.

TastyKakes: Home of the amazing krimpet and creme filled cupcakes. I grew up watching my Grandma eat the "creme filled chocolate cupcake" and black coffee for breakfast.
Wawa: yes, I know our state is split between Wawa and Sheetz but I am completely bias since I am from the east side of the state. I grew up, probably like most kids around here, getting a hoagie every week before/after soccer practice. Nothing could compare to a fresh WAWA hoagie to prepare you for practice or two-a-days. When they started toasting hoagies, it was life changing for me. And how can I forget their coffee, cheap and good quality coffee. When I lived in North Carolina for the past two year, I would come home and binge so much on WAWA coffee that my body would go into caffeine overdrive. And for those of you who personally know me, you know I don't need help on having energy. :)

Wawa was always my first stop when I landed in PA

Pretzels: And when I say pretzels, I am talking about all different kinds. Philadelphia is clearly known for soft pretzels which are amazing and I swear they have butter or something infused in them to make them addicting. But PA is home of Snyder's pretzels located near Lancaster (and I am hoping you pronounced that correctly).

Whoopie Pies: these originated here by the Pennsylvania Dutch. Supposedly they were so good they replied with, "Whoopie" when they ate them giving them their name. I just learned that 30 minutes ago, all I know is that you need to go to Shady Maple outside Blue ball, PA and get a true Pennsylvania whoopie pie. Side note -- if you didn't know, PA has some of the great town names where you can get cool gear that say things like, "I heart intercourse..... PA" :)
HERR's: What more is there to saying besides the fact everyone likes potato chips. I could honestly eat a whole bag of HERRs sour cream and onion, you know the one in the green bag, all by myself.
HERSHEY'S: I saved my favorite for last. I mean clearly I love chocolate and was kind of the reason I love baking CHOCOLATE chip cookies, it's the main ingredient. I have so many memories there... I don't mean just memories of me stuffing my face with chocolate like the Willy Wonka Factory but more meaningful memories. For one, I went to Messiah College which is right next to Hershey. It was one of the most fun things to do in good old central PA besides ghost hunting in Gettysburg and the Carlisle pike. This was a strip by school that had any store you needed, you would be surprised how exciting that is. I also was a ball girl for the Downingtown Girl's soccer team in the state finals that took place in the Hershey stadium. I was able to watch my older sisters win the FIRST (another first) state championship for Downingtown and having the privilege of handing them soccer balls when they went out of bounds. Believe it or not, I loved it because I looked up to them so much and all that they did. Then, I had my chance in 2004 to also be a part of a state champion team.

I am the one in the middle, I know I'm adorable :)

With that being said it was hard to come up with a cookie where so many sweets are made here in good old Pennsylvania!

So I have created ...

#numberone
"First USA capital, First in my heart"
A mocha, pretzel, chocolate chunk

PA ingredients included:
WAWA coffee, Synder's pretzels and Hershey chocolate chunks

And since this is the cookie from my home state, I could make my cookie with the ones I love... my favorite helpers. I am lucky to have them call me Aunt Jessie :)

Yes, they have matching aprons :)

Thanks for reading! Please continue to follow me through my journey to create a "chocolate chip" cookie for each state!

xoxo

Jessica Rose

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FOREVER WILD

2/17/2018

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New York -- The Empire State.

Most people when they think of New York state, they think of the city that never sleeps, NYC. Yes, NYC is populated with over 8 million people but only encompasses about .55 percent geographically of the whole state.

When I think of New York, I think of a place I call my second home, The Adirondacks. The Adirondack state park is approximately 6 million acres of BEAUTIFUL land. The grand canyon, yellow stone and glacier national park can all fit inside the ADK park.

What I love about the Adirondacks

The Adirondacks is it home of some of my favorite mountains. 46 mountains (46ers) in the Adirondack that reach just under or over 4,000 feet. Many of these mountains hold valuable memories to me as I spent many holidays and summers hiking these high peaks with my dad and siblings.
I LOVE the Olympics, especially the winter games! Lake Placid was home of the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympic games. Only three places have ever hosted the winter Olympics twice. This place has been a place where I have been able to become my own version of an Olympian! I have been curling on the Olympic ice, I've skied the face (white face mountain), I've bobsledded on the Olympic track, and completed a biathlon with my siblings. And to add to that, the Miracle movie is one of my favorites and where I used Herb's speech to pump up for NCAA championship games.
It is home to the American Maple Museum. I'm thankful for a place where I can binge eat maple soft served ice cream and have maple iced donuts.

So instead of creating a big apple cookie or a bagel/pizza cookie I decided to make a fun creation of a maple cookie.

And since it is Olympic week and we are in the city that is home of the MIRACLE game and where the United States hosted TWO Olympic games...

This is the MIRACLE cookie...
This one is for you Jim Craig, our USA goalie for the 1980 games.
I hope you're everything like the Disney movie portrayed you to be :)

Maple, salted caramel, chocolate chip. Made with pure ADK maple syrup

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Hi, my name is Jessica Rose and I have a cookie obsession.

2/17/2018

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So a little bit about me before I get into the point of "traveling baker." I am a fourth grade teacher in Downingtown, Pa with a strong love for anything chocolate! I have always loved making cookies and its become my passion. I was that girl with a Kitchen Aid in her college dorm and always hosting dinner parties just so I could make dessert. I mean seriously, who brings a Kitchen Aid to college? I was and still am always trying to come up with new recipes to make my cookie better! It was not until my nephew who has an egg allergy that I started really exploring other options for the basic chocolate chip cookie! (especially for my sister as she was still nursing him). After many experiments, I feel like I've created a recipe that I cannot get enough of! (You know its good when you still have to have one from each batch you make) So with that being said all Jessica Rose cookies are made completely egg free. Please let me know your allergy or allergies, I love creating cookies that can be loved by all!

Recently, I have been doing a lot of travelling, finding myself in a new place every weekend. It has inspired me to come up with specialty cookies for each state I visit... (along with some inspiration from my brother in law, i'll give him a little shout out :) ) Don't get my wrong I love making my classic cookies but I figured why not take my cookie obsession to the next level and combine my love for travel with my cookie business. So what I am going to try and do is to research on the specialties of different states and use my baking skills to create something delicious. Feel free to follow me throughout my journey :)

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Traveling Baker

The Green Mountain state

The place I call ... HOME

FOREVER WILD

Hi, my name is Jessica Rose and I have a cookie obsession.

Jessica Rose

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