Confessions of a Kitchen Failure

Super Bowl Sugar Cookies

2012-02-05T14:29:00.006-05:00

In case you didn't know, Indianapolis is hosting Super Bowl 46 today and the city has been crazy for the last 2 weeks with everyone getting hyped for the game and surrounding festivities. I'm excited to go to a super bowl party with Back on My Feet, so of course I signed up to bring cookies.

As usual I had grand ideas of making some really neat sugar cookies but then life got in the way and I had to scale it down. I decided to do the obligatory football cookies and then wanted to incorporate XLVI since the roman numerals downtown on the circle have been a HUGE hit.

The sunlight/shadows weren't cooperating for my picture, but you get the idea. At night they project game highlights and team symbols etc on the numerals for some really neat photo ops.

They also had a smaller set of numerals in the Super Bowl Village and my dad, brother, and I had our picture taken in them.

My original thought was to use candy melts and monogram the XLVI and set it on the wet flood icing. For a week I forgot to print out the letters at work so I could use them as a stencil since I dont trust my free hand when it comes to monograms. My printer at home was out of ink so I said forget it and decided to use flood icing and make it smooth.

I used my goto sugar cookie cookie and royal icing recipes from Bake at 350 so these won't count toward my 30x30 plan but that's ok - can't mess with the perfect cookie recipe!

30 by 30

2012-02-01T09:02:00.004-05:00

The time has come for me to say goodbye to my 20s later this year. I know a lot of people dread turning 30, but so far I'm not afraid. Ask me again in 6 months and I might have a different answer though! Fortunately I'm the youngin' of my groups of friends so everyone else will hit the big 3-0 before me so it shouldn't be as scary.

I've seen a number of people create mini bucket lists of things they want to do or see by their 30th birthday. I don't think that far ahead so I can assure you I don't have a bucket list for for 50, let alone 30. However I did start thinking that I could incorporate a little cooking/baking challenge from now until my 30th birthday to try to motivate myself to do more cooking and blogging.

It isn't that I'm not baking anything, but rather I keep making the same things over and over. So my challenge to myself is to try 30 new recipes before my 30th birthday on September 24th. While I'd be happy to make it 30 new desserts, my running has cut back a little so I probably should focus on some non-dessert recipes too just to be safe.

My plan:
5 main dishes
5 side dishes
10 desserts
10 more in any of the categories above

I think this goal will help motivate me to try new recipes and also keep me in the kitchen a little more.

Stay tuned for some new recipes!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

2012-01-29T20:34:00.002-05:00

If you're looking for a rich, chocolatey dessert look no further. Back in December I was out with college friends for our annual pre-Christmas lunch. One of my friends mentioned she'd been wanting flourless chocolate cake for a while, but sadly it wasn't on the menu of the restaurant where we were. Since I was in the midst of my Christmas baking frenzy I decided to look up recipes and see if I could find a fairly easy one to make for her.

If you don't have the epicurious app on your smartphone or tablet you should definitely get it. I found a number of recipes and one jumped out at me, mostly because it was super easy! 5 ingredients and about 40 minutes? Yes please!

The only "difficult" part of this recipe is you're supposed to use a double-boiler to melt the chocolate. However you can bypass that by melting it in the microwave. I melted it at 50% power in 30 second intervals. It takes a while doing it this slowly but you don't want to risk burning the chocolate.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
From: Gourmet, November 1997 via epicurious
Yield: 8x8 cake

4oz bittersweet chocolate (or you can use semi-sweet)
1 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder plus additional for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375 and grease an 8x8 pan.

Melt the chocolate and butter together either in a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar. Add eggs and whisk well. Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder over the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Cook cake and invert onto a serving plate. Dust with additional cocoa powder if desired.

This is an excellent cake to satisfy any chocolate craving. Not only is it easy but it also uses ingredients you likely have on hand today. It got an A+ from my friend so I definitely think it was a success!

Black Bean Brownies

2012-01-17T20:19:00.002-05:00

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack! I actually have been baking a few things lately but haven't gotten around to writing any of it down. Maybe I should have made blogging my New Year's Resolution!

I forget when I first heard of black bean brownies but it's been a couple of years. I was very skeptical of them because trying to make baked goods healthy doesn't always work. And if you're throwing beans into the mix....well that just doesn't seem right!

Even though I was skeptical, I was also intrigued and knew that someday I wanted to try them. Last week I was talking to a co-worker who is vegan about desserts and what she can/can't make. I was surprised to learn that some "regular" products work for vegans, and she mentioned she can use Duncan Hines cake mixes. That triggered black bean brownies in my head and I asked if I found a vegan-friendly brownie mix if she could eat the brownies and she said yes.

You definitely have to read the ingredients, because out of the 5 brands I looked at (Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, Ghiradelli, Pillsbury and Target store brand) only Duncan Hines contained no dairy products. I bought the DH brownie mix, a can of black beans and said a little prayer.

One of the best things about this recipe is it is super easy to make. Open the black beans, rinse and return to the can and fill until water reaches the top of the beans. Dump it into a blender and puree until liquified. And then let it go a little longer just for safe measure. Pour the liquid into a bowl with the brownie mix, stir, and pour into a prepared pan. Bake according to the directions on the box, though you might want to check them a few minute before the regular time is up.

I felt pretty good about these when I licked the spoons after I was done and it tasted good - that is typically my measure for a good recipe.

The texture is a bit denser than a normal brownie, and they taste less chocolatey but it is pretty good. I decided not to tell anyone the secret of these brownies and then solicited opinions afterwards. My vegan coworker thought they were great and seemed happy to have them. A couple of other coworkers said they were good but could definitely tell they were different than usual. I think anyone with texture issues (like me) might find them a little odd, but if you're looking to make a healthier dessert these are definitely a good option!

Reindeer Cupcakes

2011-12-21T19:06:00.005-05:00

So I know I said I was done with my Christmas treats, but I couldn't resist adding one more. Earlier this month I asked my coworkers for suggestions on things to make over the holidays since most of what I make ends up at work. They all gave some ideas and then as the weeks went on sent me a few more ideas when one of them ran across something cute. I don't know where these reindeer cupcakes originally came from but they were too cute not to make. Even better is the fact that these are super easy to make, especially if you stick with store-bought cake mix and frosting.

I used a yellow cake mix and store-bought chocolate frosting. After frosting the cupcakes, take a red or brown M&M and use a little frosting to stick it to a mini nilla wafer (I think regular-sized ones would be too big so definitely look for the mini ones) and then place the wafer on the frosting. Using either a food writer pen or black icing make the pupils on the mini marshmallows and stick on the eyes. Using a mini pretzel twist add the antlers and you're done.

I do recommend setting aside the required decorations before proceeding to eat the extras so you don't run into the problem I had. I kept the pretzels around for a while and by the time I was ready to make the cupcakes the bag had diminished and I barely had enough pretzels left for the antlers.

As I was piecing together whatever pieces I could find for antlers I realized that if you use the loop part of the pretzel you can make ears and easily turn these into bear cupcakes - who knew!

Christmas Sugar Cookies Version 2.0

2011-12-18T21:00:00.006-05:00

We're a week away from Christmas and I think my holiday baking is done. I haven't really done much this year, I've just made the peppermint crisscross cookies, brownie truffles, and now Christmas sugar cookies. I'm sure I had bigger plans for this holiday season but it kind of mirrors the entire year where I didn't accomplish as much as I wanted - oh well!

Even though they are time consuming, cut-out sugar cookies are still my favorite Christmas cookie. This year's Christmas cookies resemble last year's so maybe I need to work on my creativity for 2012! I made about 7 dozen cookies this year and while it seemed like a lot at the beginning I probably should have made another dozen or two for gifts.

Apparently this guy wasn't willing to be given as a gift and took matters into his own hands...

I also made brownies in some silicon molds a friend got me. The molds are fun but I couldn't figure out a good way to frost anything and still keep the details from the molds.

Peppermint Crisscross Cookies

2011-12-15T19:50:00.002-05:00

Well it's almost Christmas and that means making something with peppermint or candy canes, right? I don't really use mint much, that flavor is usually reserved for Shamrock shakes in March and Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks in the winter. Although I did make some good chocolate mint cookies a year or two ago - Winter Wonderland Cookies so that's something!

This is another one of those recipes that caught my eye, I tore it out of a magazine, and proceeded to let it sit in my binder for a long time. I pulled it out a few weeks ago because it screamed Christmas and I'm glad I finally got around to making these. I didn't even realize that this was a Weight Watchers recipe until I went to type it up so that's even better, although I think it uses a little too much butter for WW but oh well!

Peppermint Crisscross Cookies
From: Weight Watchers Magazine, November/December 2010
Yield: 36-40 cookies

2.5 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 to 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies or candy canes

Preheat oven to 350

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In the bowl of the electric mixer beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and beat for 4 minutes or until well blended. Reduce speed to low and beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add the flour mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in crushed candies.

Form dough into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Firmly press top of each cookie with a fork to form a crisscross pattern (just like you would with peanut butter cookies).

Bake until cookies are golden on the bottom and firm in center, about 14-15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through.

3 WW points per cookie (not sure if this is the old points or the 'points plus' though)

Overall I liked these cookies. They don't have a lot of sugar so I think it is good to add a little extra peppermint candy for flavor (which is why I said up to 1/2 cup). I had a few issues making these, with the first batch forgetting the crisscross, the second batch baking too long, but just like with Goldilocks the third batch was just right!

Oatmeal Caramel Bars

2011-12-05T07:33:00.000-05:00

My mom's birthday was the 2nd and I planned on going down and surprising her at work. I wanted to bring a birthday treat so I went through my overflowing binder to see if any recipes jumped out at me. My mom has always been a fan of anything carmel so when I saw this recipe I knew I had to make it.

I made a couple of changes to the toppings on the bars and while I'm sure the original recipe would be good I really liked the flavors I used instead. These are easy to make so maybe I'll make it again the original way.

Oatmeal Caramel Bars
From: Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 package (14 oz) caramels
3 Tbs water
1 cup of cinnamon, peanut butter, or butterscotch chips (I used cinnamon, the original recipe called for peanut butter, and I think butterscotch would be good too)
1.5 cups M&Ms (I didn't use this)
3 oz white candy coating or white chocolate

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 7x11 or 9x13 pan with cooking spray or line with non-stick foil.

In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and mix into the creamed mixture. Stir in oats.

Press the oat mixture into the pan and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely.

In the microwave, melt the caramels with the water, stirring every minute or so (**I used about 1/2 pack of caramels and 1/2 the water and it worked fine, the recipe originally said it was for a 15x10 pan but no way do you have that much dough so I recommend cutting the caramel part in half too). Once completely melted and smooth, pour over the oatmeal crust. Sprinkle immediately with chips and m&ms. Melt the white candy coating and drizzle over the top. Cut into bars when the coating is set (FYI it takes a lot longer for it to set than normal since it is sitting on top of warm caramel - I learned this the hard way!).

As I said above these are really easy and really good. The original recipe said to make it in a 10x15x1 pan but there is no way there was enough dough for something that size. I used a 7x11 pan and it worked perfectly; you could probably use a 9x13 for a thinner cookie base but no way would you use anything bigger unless you wanted the cookie super thin. As much as I love chocolate and oatmeal together something about this bars made me not want to use chocolate (aka the M&Ms) and I think cinnamon was a good choice to complement the other flavors.

Grandma's Peanut Butter Cookies

2011-12-03T07:08:00.000-05:00

First and foremost, Happy Birthday Grandma!!

I made these cookies a couple weeks ago but wanted to wait to share the recipe on her birthday since she's the one who gave me the recipe. I solicited recipes from family members a year ago and I'll admit I've made almost no progress in making those recipes but I'm going to do my best now that I'm back in the mood to bake.

I don't even know the last time I had peanut butter cookies but I know I'd been craving them for a while. Figured it was a great way to feed the craving and try out a family recipe.

Grandma's Peanut Butter Cookies
Yields ~ 5 dozen

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup shortening
2 eggs, beat well
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
3 cups flour, sifted
Pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 350.

In a small bowl mix baking powder, cream of tartar, flour and salt, set aside. Beat together sugar, shortening and peanut butter. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Slowly mix in the flour mixture until it is all mixed thoroughly. The dough will be stiff. Roll into balls about the size of walnuts and use a fork to make a criss-cross on top of each cookie.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until light brown. I overcooked my first batch and the cookies ended up being too dry so pay attention not to overbake.

Hershey's Dark Chocolate Truffle Pie

2011-11-27T18:49:00.005-05:00

Just from reading the title I'm sure you're thinking "yes please!" because I know that's what I did when I first saw this recipe. I picked up a couple bags of Hershey's dark chocolate chips knowing they would get some use over the holidays. My mom asked me to bring a dessert to Thanksgiving and when I saw this recipe on the back of the package I knew it would be a winner.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you know if it made the packaging it has to be good. Bonus points for the fact that it was really easy to make too. I will definitely make it again.

Hershey's Dark Chocolate Truffle Pie

1 pre-made pie crust (I used graham cracker, shortbread would be good too) or refrigerated pie crust baked as directed on the package
2 cups miniature marshmallows or 20 large marshmallows
1/2 cup milk
2 cups (1 12oz package) dark chocolate chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Whipped Cream/whipped topping optional
Chocolate curls optional

Prepare and bake pie crust as directed if necessary.

Place marshmallows and milk in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at 50% power for 1 minute and stire. Continue to microwave at 30 second intervals until smooth (mine took about 3 minutes total). Add chocolate chips and stir until melted and smooth. You may have to microwave at 50% power at 15 second intervals to completely melt the chocolate. Spread 1 cup of the mixture onto the bottom of the pie crust and refrigerate. Let the rest of the mixture cool to room temperature.

Beat whipping cream until stiff. Gradually blend into the chocolate mixture, combining thoroughly. Spread over the chocolate layer. Refrigerate 4-6 hours until well-chilled. Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate curls as desired.

This is definitely a very rich dessert so I recommend adding the whipped cream layer or at least having some on hand for people to add to their own slice. I used a pre-made graham cracker crust and it was fine but I think I'd like it in the shortbread crust next time.

And yes, there will definitely be a next time!

Halloween Oreo Cupcakes

2011-10-30T07:56:00.000-04:00

Oreos + cupcakes? Yes please!

This is one of those recipes I've had stashed away for who knows how long. I was looking for cupcakes to make for Halloween since I bought a bunch of Halloween cupcake liners last year and decided it was the perfect time to make these. I've never been a huge fan of oreos by themselves, but I love it when they are incorporated into something else like cookies or cupcakes.

Oreo Cupcakes
Yield: 30 cupcakes (the original recipe said 24, but I definitely got 30)
From: Annie's Eats

Cake:
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbs butter, at room temperature
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1.5 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

Frosting:
1 3/4 cups plus 2 Tbs whipping cream
3 Tbs powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 Tbs Oreo cookie crumbs

Garnish:
24 Oreo cookie halves

Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter on medium until smooth. Gradually add the brown sugar and continue beating until fluffy. Beat in vanilla; add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.

With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix just until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated, do not overmix (FYI the batter is thick).

Spoon batter into liners and bake for 18-20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.

To prepare frosting, combine whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla and beat with the whisk attachment on medium-high until the whipped cream holds stiff peaks. Gently fold in cookie crumbs with a spatula. Either use a pastry bag or knife to frost cupcakes. Garnish with Oreo halves.

These cupcakes are really easy to make and really good. I didn't make the frosting recipe noted above, I cheated and used store-bought frosting and mixed in crushed oreos. I tinted the frosting orange and used the orange Halloween oreo cookies to make it more festive, but I'll admit I think I'd like it plain white better!

Next time I might try filling the cupcakes with a little frosting to break up some of the dense chocolateness of the cupcakes. I've also heard of putting one half of a cookie in the bottom of the liner and adding the batter on top, that might be something to try the next time too.

Back on My Feet 42K (solo) Relay

2011-10-24T14:16:00.002-04:00

On Sunday I ran the Back on My Feet (BOMF) 42K relay race held downtown Indianapolis. A quick background on the organization since the whole reason I ran the race was because of the cause.

BoMF is a non-profit organization that uses running to help combat homelessness. Back on My Feet It promotes the self-sufficiency of the homeless population by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem. The Indianapolis chapter launched this spring at 2 locations downtown. While I haven't been able to join the organization as a runner due to scheduling I have kept the organization in mind and when I saw they were doing a race I knew I wanted to participate.

Even though I had this race in the back of my mind for a while I didn't sign up until the Wednesday before. Part of me didn't feel like doing another race after my 50K and the other part of me felt like I still needed to do something else besides 'just' the 50K. I know it sounds weird to say a 50K wasn't good enough to feel like the training cycle was worth it, but when you originally were training for a 50 mile race it feels like a lot of wasted miles to drop down to a 50K and then do nothing the rest of the fall. The only problem with that logic is that while training for the 50M I focused on long, slow miles because the goal was survival - I didn't do any speed work or anything resembling prep work for a "race". So once I decided to run the BoMF race it was a matter of figuring out how I would approach it.

The race was designed as a relay for teams of 2-4 people, or you could run it solo though only 4 of us chose that option. The course was a 2.2 mile loop in White River State Park along the canal by the zoo and IUPUI campus. Running solo meant doing the loop 12 times, which might turn some people off but I actually welcomed it because I like knowing what to expect.

Pre-race didn't start off so well when I spilled half a bottle of water on my lap while driving to the race. In my infinite wisdom I turned on my seat warmers hoping it would dry my pants, but instead all I ended up with was a warm, wet butt - whoops! Fortunately that was my only pre-race problem! I found the start area easily and got my bib and tshirt and went to set up camp. There were 90+ teams (and 5 solo runners) registered for the event and the race director encouraged people to set up tents and chairs to make it a fun time hanging out between loops. I only had my bag since I wasn't planning on stopping during the race but I set up next to a nice couple from Columbus and then a team from BoMF Progress House set up on the other side. We all chatted pre-race and one of the non-res members from the PH team was so nice asking if I needed anything before the race and telling me that if I needed anything while I was running to let them know. Runners really are a great group of people!

After the serenity prayer and National Anthem we were off. The biggest challenge for me was going to be trying to take it slow and not get caught up in the pace of the other runners since most of them were running 2.2 miles and then getting a break so they could afford to go out faster. I fell in step with a woman named Amy and we ran most of the loop together. She was doing a 2 woman team with a friend of hers in preparation for the Monumental Marathon in a couple of weeks. It was nice to run with her and then she remained a source of encourgement when she was waiting for the handoff and I came through the start/finish area. I can't say enough about how supportive people were, especially when they realized I was running solo, and would cheer for me each time I came through the main straightaway. A lot of teams were in costume which was fun to see, I'm still trying to figure out how the guys ran in jorts and of course you had your requisite superhero costumes for some others. One of the solo runners was dressed as the Lone Ranger and I'm impressed that not only did he kick my butt in the race but he did it in costume!

The loop itself is pretty uneventful, it is mostly flat and takes you along the canal behind the zoo, along the New York St bridge, past IUPUI and then through part of WRSP and back down a longer straightaway where everyone was camped out. They had timers at the start/finish line to record your bib # to keep track of where you were. They never said what loop I was on but fortunately it wasn't hard to keep track myself.

I didn't have any specific goals for the race other than less than 4:30 and not DFL! I figured DFL was a real possibility seeing as I was the only female solo runner and most relay teams would likely be faster. I finished loop 1 just under 20 minutes and thought, hmmm, that was probably too fast. I chalked it up to getting caught up by the start and figured I would just slow it down a bit with the rest of the loops. Instead of slowing down I ended up hitting the next few loops a little faster than 20 min which meant I hit the half in 2 hours - uh oh. A 2 hour 1st half meant I was on pace for a 4 hour marathon .... my marathon PR is 3:59 when I was actually in decent shape. While I didn't feel like I'd been pushing it for the first half I also knew that the liklihood of me holding on was slim to none but I wanted to try anyway.

My goal for the 2nd half was to hold on for dear life and see if I could maintain that same pace. Unfortunately the wheels started to fall off after loop 7 (well ok that is how it felt, if you look at my splits the story is completely different so who knows!). At first it seemed like I was just 15 seconds slower on the loops, then 30 seconds, then a minute - in reality marathon math could have been the problem and I really had to idea how far I'd run or how long each loop was actually taking! By that point, though, I'd resigned myself to realizing that I wasn't going to break 4 hours so I allowed myself to slow down and not feel guilty about it. I knew that I'd still come in with a good time if I stayed steady so that was my new goal.

Unfortunately the miles took a toll on me those last few loops and I was steadily slowing down. It was all mental at this point. The worst part of the course for me was just after the exchange zone, mostly because the loop felt really long right at the beginning. Once I made it over by IUPUI (maybe around the 1/2 way point) and I could see the start/finish area across the canal I'd get a little energy but that first 1/3 or so of the loop was brutal on 9-12. I was very thankful to the other runners who were still there and cheering me on at the end of each loop. There was a resident member sitting about .2 from the start/finish line who would tell me he'd been looking for me on that loop, it was nice to have a friendly face to look forward to at the end of each loop. I also saw my friends from PH a couple of times and was excited to tell them when I was going out on my final loop.

I thought for sure the last loop would be great, knowing I was almost done but once again the first 1/3 killed me. To say I was shuffeling at this point would be an understatement - my legs just didn't want to move. Sometimes when I'm running a race I like to picture where I would be on the Monon if I had XX miles left to go. It helps me to feel like it is doable when I can picture myself on my home turf like that. Once I hit New York St I knew I was home free because I felt like I had just crossed 75th St heading back into Broad Ripple - once I cross 75th St I always know I'm going to make it, no matter how bad the run has been. I started to get some energy and realized I was still going to have a good time, even if it wasn't sub-4. I went into the WRSP for the final 1/2 mile and saw 3 of my PH friends standing at the end of a mini loop, where the last .2 straightaway starts. I figured they were out cheering while waiting for one of their runners to finish but when I got there one was like "let's run her in guys". They had already finished as a team but were waiting for me to finish and were congratulating me as we ran to the finish. That was such an unexpected moment but it was such a great feeling, they have no idea what it meant to me to have them waiting on me and running the final portion with me as if I were one of their own.

I finished in 4:07 and should feel good about my time. I finished 73rd out of 98, 1st place for female solo runners (but then again I was the only one hahaha) and I beat 2 of the 4 solo males.

The ironic thing is that prior to the race running a 4:07 would have thrilled me, because my "top" goal for the day was 4:10. But hitting the 1/2 at 2:00 and realizing I could go sub-4 and then imploding the last 2 loops really sucked. Looking at my splits, what I thought was a steady decline really was just an implosion in loops 11-12.

This race taught me that I'm in better shape than I thought I was, but it also taught me there is a big difference between being "in shape" and being in race shape. I feel like this race beat me up more than it should have and I honestly felt worse after it than I did my 50K, what's up with that??

All in all it was a great experience and I met a lot of great people. I definitely want to do this race again, just next time not by myself!!

12 4:07:49.9
1: 19:54 19:53.9
2: 19:59 39:52.2
3: 19:52 59:44.2
4: 20:09 1:19:53.0
5: 20:16 1:40:08.5
6: 20:03 2:00:10.7
7: 19:15 2:19:24.9
8: 18:41 2:38:05.5
9: 19:00 2:57:04.8
10: 20:47 3:17:51.1
11: 24:14 3:42:05.0
12: 25:45 4:07:49.9

Skinny Minny Tortilla Soup

2011-09-30T08:36:00.000-04:00

Fall is officially here! Not only does that mean better running temps, but I get back in the swing of cooking and baking again. One thing I liked making last winter were soups, since it is a perfect thing for a cool day.

This recipe comes from a cookbook my sister-in-law's school put together. I've been on a mexican kick lately so the tortilla soup recipe jumped out at me right away. The recipes in the cookbook are all supposed to be on the healthy side and, at least in this case, it was easy to make too.

Skinny Minny Tortilla Soup
By: Lisa Dale

1 can (16 oz) fat-free refried beans
1 can (14.5 oz) low-fat or fat-free chicken broth
5-6 oz of chicken, cooked
1 can corn (optional)
1 can (15.5 oz) black beans, rinsed
3/4 cup chunky salsa
2 cups light shredded mild cheddar cheese, divided
Low-fat or baked tortilla chips (optional)

Combine first 6 ingredients in a 3 quart pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the refried beans are completely mixed with the other ingredients. Turn down to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add 1 cup of cheese and stir until melted. Remove from heat.

Crumble chips in bottom of each bowl if desired. Ladle soup over chips and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

I'm kind of so-so on this recipe as far as calling it "soup". It is a pretty thick soup and reminds me more of chili than a traditional soup. I would definitely make this again but next time I'd probably double the chicken broth to thin the soup out. Either that or treat it more as a dip and dip your chips in it. I'd also recommend using a spicy/hot salsa to add some additional flavor to the soup.

I definitely want to try this again though and it will be good to make while shedding a few tears watching the Colts suck it up this year!

Germantown 50K Race Report

2011-09-26T08:32:00.001-04:00

This post doesn't have anything to do with food but I wanted to share my race report from the 50K race I ran this past Saturday.

For the non-runners out there a 50K is 31 miles and this course actually measured at 31.6 miles. Anything longer than marathon distance (26.2 miles) is considered an ultramarathon and the 50K is the shortest of all ultras since it is just an extra 5 miles. Most are run on trails although they do have them on roads sometimes. I'm not one of those people who remembers every detail of the run....which is probably good because even my brief synopsis is pretty long!

Short story: 5:51 (watch time) - official results said 5:53 which I really don't think is right but oh well! 3rd female overall (out of 15-20)

Long story:

I decided to run the Germantown 50K (near Dayton, OH) about a month ago as either a training run for the 50 mile race or as my "big" race for the fall, I really wasn't sure which. Training for the 50 M hadn't been going so well so I decided to see what races I could find in case I wanted to downgrade. Germantown was about 2 hours away, $20 entry and on my birthday so I went for it. I didn't have any goals going into it and until race day wasn't sure if I was going to try to race it or run it like a training run.

Race morning it was a little chilly but not bad, probably high 50s. The parking lot had a lot of puddles because apparently it had rained a lot over night. While I didn't know much about the course, anything involving trails and rain is undesirable. I don't have trail shoes and didn't think I would need them because I knew the course had about 6 miles of road and some grassy paths too in addition to trails. As it turns out much of the course was on grassy trails or on horse trails (or whatever they're called) which were really annoying since it was wet.

The course is divided into 2 loops - the first one is 12 miles and supposedly the easier of the 2 and the second is 19 miles. You come back by the start/finish area in between which was nice so I could leave some extra shoes and clothes. I'm really glad I did that because I needed to change shoes halfway through.

We started right at 7am and it was just getting light. The first 2 miles are on roads though so no problems seeing. I tried not to go out too fast but at the same time knew that I'd be able to make up time on the roads so I went with it. I hit the trail around 19something and joined the line of people for the first grassy section. I'm not much of a trail runner and I know I get antsy behind people going slowly but I tried to keep it in check since slow was probably a good thing. However after a mile or two on the trails I found an area to pass and went for it. Rushed through the first aid station and got out just behind another group that I couldn't quite catch up with most of the time. The rest of this loop was pretty uneventful, more grassy trails than real trails and while some hills required walking it was relatively easy. I tried to make up a little time on the 2 miles back too. I hit the start/finish area and changed shoes and socks because my feet were already feeling blistered. I was so glad I brought extra shoes or it would have been way worse for the rest of the race. I headed out for the second loop after 2:17 so the first loop was probably 2:14 or so - I don't think I took too long changing clothes.

Loop 2 is about 19 miles and you do about a mile on asphalt and then go into the trails. There were some grassy sections in this too but more actual trails too. The hills were bigger too and definitely required more walking. I was alone most of this loop; I passed 2 people at the beginning, then another maybe 15-20 min in and then didn't see anyone else for a while. Eventually I passed a guy and then come across a man and woman running. We briefly chatted and I passed them on an uphill section but the woman decided to stick with me. We were at mile 18 or so I think and I was a little surprised because they had seemed to be going slower before. It was a little difficult not knowing what mile we were at, but I only wear my Polar watch (yes, that's right, I got a replacement from the old one that died!!) and not the Garmin since I would go crazy tracking each mile during the race. We hit an aid station that was around mile 20 and I got a quick drink of coke and headed out for a 4 mile loop. The woman caught up quickly and was about 20 feet back or less the whole time. I could tell she was trying to stick with me which annoyed me because I didn't want any more females in front of me The nice thing about Loop 2 was that it was mostly an out and back so I knew for sure there were 2 females ahead of me but because of the 4 mile loop I didn't know if any others were there. This woman stayed on my heels and eventually I was like uhhh if you want to pass you can because she was right on me the whole time, especially on downhills since I totally suck at those. She passed me and got ahead quickly and I figured she would definitely beat me. I caught back up to her and when we got back to the aid station I had a quick bottle fill and got outta there. I'd been pushing the pace ever since I first met her, mostly in hopes she'd back off, but she didnt and out of the aid station I could tell she was a little ways back. I decided it was now or never since there were about 8 miles left and I would continue to push the pace and run up more of the uphills and see what happened. I felt like if I left it all out there that was all I could do. I've never really "raced" a race and here I was doing it for 12 or 13 miles.

Eventually I realized I couldn't see the woman behind me but figured she was lurking just far enough back to make a move at the end so I kept pushing. I came across a guy and caught up to him until a downhill were he FLEW down and I lollygagged like a lumbering elephant behind him. Downhills on trails are my major weakness, I would rather run up a hill than run down one - I'm weird like that. I complimented the guy on his downhill running and he said it was his favorite part; I said I was partial to the uphills and proceeded to run up that hill while he walked and he was like "yeah I guess so!". I never saw him again and soon realized the woman was further back too. I felt pretty sure I was in 3rd place for women which was an unreal thought to me but I knew I had to keep pushing to be sure. There were some nice downhills and I just went for it and I ran as many uphills as I could.

When I hit the final aid station I felt good about my position and the fact it was 3.7 or 3.9 miles to the finish. There were 2 guys ahead of me but I could never quite catch up. This last section was pretty hilly and I did a lot of walking. I could tell I'd really lost my focus because I had a near fall, a real fall, and then tripped up some steps all within about 2 miles Finally we got out of the woods and onto the bike path which meant a mile or less to the finish! I have no idea how fast I was running but it felt "fast" and I wasn't stopping til I hit the finish!

My watch said 5:51 and something, and I'm guessing the official time should be close to that since it was a small race there was no real delay crossing the start line. The RD said the course was 31.6 miles long. All in all I am really happy with my race. I'm really happy that I was able to do something resembling a race/strategy when I came across the other woman since it was something new to me. I had no idea if a 6 hour goal was achievable or not but it worked. The course was easier than the 50K I did back in 2008 but it was still tough, especially for a flat, road runner!! There were some pretty good-sized hills but also a lot of runnable sections. The RD did a great job marking the course and I was never really afraid of being off course. The woman I was concerned about finished maybe 10-12 minutes after me so she must have slowed down considerably at some point but I never noticed.

This was a nice run and I would recommend it to anyone within a decent driving distance to the area. It was also a great way to spend my birthday!

I got the giant plaque for being 3rd woman and everyone got the pint glass for finishing.

Peanut Butter & Pretzel M&M cookies

2011-09-22T08:28:00.000-04:00

I think pretzel m&ms are one of those things that you either love or hate - there isn't much room for middle ground. The first time I had them I didn't think they were good but slowly they grew on me. Ever since then I've been trying to think of a way to bake with them since I haven't seen many recipes using them.

I think I may have learned that reason.

They're really not that good.

I baked with pretzels one time before when I made Chocolate Chip & Pretzel Cookie Bars and it was ok but the pretzels had a weird stale taste. I was worried about the same thing happening with the M&Ms but hoped that because they were already encased in chocolate it would be safe.

As it turns out, depending on the bite sometimes it tastes stale and some bites were good. So I'll give these cookies a so-so rating. If nothing else I think the cookie base is really good and would be perfect to substitute other types of M&Ms.

Peanut Butter & Pretzel M&M Cookies
Based on a recipe by Patricia Lisby in the 1988 Northeast Elementary School cookbook (no joke!!) - I cut the recipe in half and put in an 8x8 pan but the full recipe is below

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1-2 cups m&ms, chopped if using pretzel or peanut

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat together butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Beat in eggs. Beat in peanut butter. Gradually add flour mixture. Stir in M&Ms

Spread in 9x13 pan for bars or drop by tablespoon on cookie sheet. Bake for 20+ minutes for bars and 9-11 minutes for cookies.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

2011-09-14T08:56:00.002-04:00

Apparently the cold weather has made me get back into the spirit of baking. The next item up on the list was something to celebrate a co-worker's birthday. I asked around and found out her favorites were Boston Cream Pie, Cheesecake or Strawberry Shortcake.

Really???

For a quick recap you can check out my previous attempts at Boston Cream Pie and Cheesecake. The Boston Cream Pie (errr Boston Massacre Cake as my lovely brother called it) weighed about 10 pounds and would have been a good shot put substitue, and the cheesecakes, well, yea, we're not going to talk about those.

So yea, needless to say I wasn't feeling too good about her choices. I decided it was time to try the Boston Cream Pie again and would just keep my fingers crossed. Instead of dealing with an actual cake at work I thought cupcakes would be a better option. I had an actual recipe for Boston Cream Pie cupcakes but I needed to take a few shortcuts due to time so I used parts of two different recipes to make it happen.

Looks pretty good, huh?

I used a yellow cake mix to make the cupcakes, though next time I think homemade would be better. Use the cone method to fill the insides with custard, top with chocolate and voila!

The custard and chocolate were easy to make too. If I made these again I think I'd prefer an actual ganache instead of the glaze I used, but it still turned out really well!

Vanilla Custard Filling

1 3oz box French Vanilla instant pudding
1 cup half and half
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Combine pudding mix and half & half in a medium bowl. In a stand mixer bowl combine cream, vanilla and powdered sugar and whip until soft peaks form. Gently fold the pudding mixture into the whipped cream until it is fully incorporated and smooth.

Put in pastry bag or spoon into cupcake openings.

Chocolate Glaze
From: Taste of Home
1.5 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbs baking cocoa
1.2 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tbs milk

Combine powdered sugar, cocoa and vanilla. Add enough milk to achieve desired consistency. If using on cupcakes you want it to be a bit thicker so it doesn't run down the edges of the cupcake liners.

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

2011-09-09T09:13:00.000-04:00

You know it has to be a Paula Deen recipe with 'butter' in the title! A HS friend posted these on facebook at least a year ago and I printed off the recipe and stuck it in my binder never to be heard from again. Fortunately I was looking for something different to make for Labor Day and these fit the bill.

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies
By: Paula Deen

1 8oz block cream cheese, room temperature (do not use fat-free)
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 18oz box of moist chocolate cake mix
Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Beat in vanilla and then the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so you can roll the batter into balls -- this is an important step, do not skip!

Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon-sized balls, roll in powdered sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart (flatten slightly if desired).

Bake for 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and gooey. Cool completely and sprinkle with more powdered sugar if desired.

Even though these are technically cookies, you use a cake mix so the taste and texture resembles mini cakes - totally awesome. I will say that once the cookies cooled I didn't really get the "gooey" part of the recipe, it was like they were super gooey out of the oven but once they cool it is just a nice, moist cake. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining or anything, these are still really good!

Fantasy Football Treats

2011-09-02T08:56:00.001-04:00

Despite the fact that it was 98 degrees today, football season is upon us and for the first time ever I'm playing Fantasy Football. While I am a big sports fan, and a football fan too, I've never gotten into the whole fantasy sports thing (aside from March Madness of course) so I'm not really sure what I'm doing. But when I found out the group was doing a live draft (aka party) I knew I had to bake something football-y.

Last year, during my sugar cookie phase, I made Colts football cookies but those seemed like way more effort than I had in me so I tried to think of something else. I've been in a major chocolate/brownies phase lately so I thought football brownies sounded like a good idea. I already had a football cookie cutter so my idea was to make a thin pan of brownies and cut out the footballs, kind of like the sand trap rice krispie treats from my brother's birthday.

I used a regular brownie mix and followed the directions to make cakelike brownies figuring they might be better to cut than super gooey ones. I also used a 15x10 cookie sheet instead of the traditional 9x13 pan to make them thinner. Make sure to line it with foil to prevent sticking.

I adjusted the cook time to 20 minutes at 350 instead of the 25ish minutes given for a 9x13 pan. Let them cool a bit and then start cutting with the football cutter. Let them cool completely on wax paper and then frost on the football lines. I used prepackaged Betty Crocker cookie icing to paint on my lines since I had it on hand; otherwise I would have made a quick batch of royal icing since it would be easier to pipe on.

After you cut out the footballs you are left with a predicament - what to do with the brownie scraps? You could try to be healthy and just throw them out, or snack on them for the rest of the evening, or (and this is what I chose) you could make brownie truffles.

I didn't really know if brownie truffles were a real thing but I figured you could easily take brownie scraps and make truffles just like oreo truffles and cake balls. I put the scraps in the mixer and let Arty do his thing. Threw in maybe 1/3 to 1/2 tub of frosting, rolled them into football shapes as best I could and stuck them in freezer to firm up. Melt some chocolate bark or chocolate chips, dip each football, and set on wax paper to cool. Once the chocolate has set, draw lines on the top to simulate football laces.

The brownie truffles were pretty intense, it reminded me of chocolate-dipped fudge so next time I should probably use more frosting to even out the flavors. Overall I think both items turned out well and are great to take to a football party.

Sand Trap Rice Krispie Treats

2011-08-18T09:29:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago my family celebrated my brother's 30th birthday. His wife planned a golf-themed party based on this website. Everything looked really cute and the golf-themed appetizers and desserts were great. She asked me to make the "sand traps" which were basically just rice krispie treats cut into circles.

Believe it or not I was a little afraid, mostly just because I made rice krispie treats for a friend a couple months ago and it took two batches to get them right. Embarassing, I know. And the final product really wasn't any good. I'm still not sure what went wrong with it that time but fortunately this time it worked out well.

You follow the regular rice krispie treat recipe and spread it out on a baking sheet so it is still relatively thin. Let it cool for a little bit but not all the way and then start cutting out the circles. I used a 2 inch biscuit cutter (I think) and it worked well, though I had to spray it with Pam a few times to keep it from sticking. The good thing was that since sand traps are not circular in real life I didn't have to worry if they came out odd-shaped.

Activia Selects - Free Coupon link

2011-08-08T21:41:00.004-04:00

Recently I received an email from The Foodie Blogroll with a link to a coupon for a free Activia Select yogurt. I'll admit I haven't been a big fan of Activia yogurt since it has a bit of an odd taste in their regular flavors I've tried. But I figured I might as well check out the new kind for free because you never know!

I decided to try the Greek style since Greek yogurt is all the rage lately, though I've always been afraid of the texture. I chose strawberry and was pleasantly surprised during lunch today because I really liked it. The texture was fine and the flavor was good - no weird aftertaste like you get from a lot of yogurts. The only real downside is that it is 190 calories for one 6oz cup which is quite a lot higher than other yogurts around. If you like Greek yogurt though I would definitely recommend this!

Visit the Activia Selects Facebook page to get your FREE coupon now!

Disclaimer: This sponsorship is brought to you by Activia Selects who we have partnered with for this promotion.
FREE coupon offer good 8/3 /11 - 8/15/11, up to 1 million coupons, on any Activia Selects Single Serve, up to $3.00. One coupon per household. Offer valid in the U.S only. VOID IN LA, NJ, CA. Coupon valid until 8/15/11.
Residents of LA, NJ, CA will be given a '$1 off 3 Activia Selects' coupon.

Toaster Oven - 1, KV - 0

2011-08-05T09:48:00.000-04:00

My good friend the toaster oven has betrayed me. I finally got in the mood to do some baking and asked my coworkers what they were in the mood for. Strawberry cupcakes were the winner and it sounded pretty good to me too.

I decided to use cake mix for the cupcakes and then make a strawberry buttercream frosting. I decided to use the toaster oven since I was making both regular-sized cupcakes and minis and it would be easier to divide them with separate baking times.

After about 15 min of the first batch I started to smell something burning which surprised me since I figured it would be at least 20 minutes for the first batch of regular-sized cupcakes. I opened the door and the tops of the cupcakes were black and pretty hard. I took it out immediately and put in the minis but tried to be more diligent watching the cooking time to make sure I didn't burn them.

While the minis were cooking I noticed that the regular-sized cupcakes were black on top but totally uncooked on the bottom. Like soggy, liquidy uncooked. What the heck?? I chalked it up to a bad baking day and when the mini's starting to brown on top took them out. They seemed to be ok if not a tad too done. Then the next round of regular-sized cupcakes went in and the tops browned nicely so I took them out. Once again the bottoms were soggy and totally uncooked.

And then it dawned on me......the toaster oven was on Broil. I vaguely remembered setting it to broil a week or so ago though I have no idea why seeing as I just learned what Broil meant a year or two ago. Needless to say my cupcakes were ruined and I wasn't in the mood to make more tonight.

Pretty pathetic to mess up cake mix cupcakes like this, but hey, this isn't called Confessions of a Kitchen Failure for nothing!

Intense Mint-Chocolate Brownies

2011-07-26T09:49:00.000-04:00

It's summertime in the Midwest which apparently means temperatures in the high 90s, heat indexes over 110, and no rain for weeks. All of those factors (and, if I'm being honest, sheer laziness) have lead me to avoid doing much cooking and baking this summer. I have been craving brownies lately but was able to satisfy it with a Betty Crocker box mix so there hasn't been anything to blog about.

The brownie craving hit again today but I decided I would make it from scratch and use the toaster oven so I wouldn't heat the house up too much. I took out my handy dandy Creative Countertop Oven Cooking cookbook to see if anything looked good. A recipe for Intense Mint-Chocolate Brownies jumped out at me. I'm not a huge chocolate-mint person (though I do recommend these cookies) but I decided to try this recipe since I picked up some peppermint extract at Jungle Jim's last weekend.

Intense Mint-Chocolate Brownies

2 sticks butter (I used 1.5 and it seemed fine)
4 squares unsweetened chocolate (each square should be 1 oz)
1.5 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp mint extract
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour

Melt butter and chocolate together either on low in microwave or in a double-boiler. Beat together the chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs, salt, mint and vanilla until well-blended. Stir in flour.

Spread in an 8x8 or 9x9 square pan and bake at 325 for 35 min in toaster oven until top is firm and edges begin to pull away. If you're using a regular oven

The original recipe calls for adding mint to the brownies and then also doing a mint frosting on top of the brownie. That seemed a bit overkill to me so I decided to just do the brownie part. That proved to be a good idea because these were intense with just the brownie. I don't know if my peppermint oil was more potent than the mint extract in the cookbook or what but these are very minty. I would probably cut the extract in 1/2 next time to be safe, though they were still good as-is. In true kitchenFAIL style I decided maybe I could lessen the mint flavor by melting some chocolate chips on top to spread out. But I only have white chocolate chips so I did those and couldn't figure out why they didn't melt. Will I ever remember that white chocolate chips don't melt like "normal" chocolate chips??? Luckily I was able to just brush off the not-melted white chocolate chips and be on my way.

Ode to my HRM

2011-07-13T21:07:00.006-04:00

OK I know I haven't posted anything in forever (mostly because I haven't been baking much this summer), but I wanted to share something with you since I know there are other runners reading this blog. This isn't food related in any way but I still hope you enjoy.
_________________________________________________________________

I lost a dear friend today.

A lot of people didn’t understand our relationship or why I took you everywhere. They said we didn’t belong together, that black plastic watches don’t go with pretty dresses and heels. But they don’t understand the bond between a runner and her Polar Heart Rate Monitor watch.

We’ve seen boyfriends come and go and been out on countless dates. Spent weddings together, gone on job interviews, and spent many nights out on the town.

But the one constant has always been you, my dear Polar watch, and you will be missed.

We’ve spent thousands and thousands of miles together, in silent harmony. If I’d known our time together would be so short I would have let you use your real talents more often – monitoring my heart rate – instead of just using you as a stopwatch. I wish I could have given you one more time to tell me my HR was way above my limit.

We’ve been together for 5 marathons, 1 ultramarathon, a crazy 200 mile relay and who knows how many half-marathons. I’ve never been to a race without you and I’m not sure if I will make it through another. This fall was supposed to be our biggest event ever, to see just how far you and I could really go. During my 50K I found out your stopwatch function stopped after 6 hours - but I didn’t hold it against you, I just reset you and tried to remember my split. This fall I knew would test your true limits, having to reset you hopefully just once in a quest for 50 miles. But now we’ll never know if you would have made it.

I fear I’ll never find another quite like you, so I’m not sure what I should do. I could replace you but I know it won’t be the same. I know I wasn’t always faithful…remember that brief affair I had with the Nike Sport watch? I even started cheating with you when I got the Garmin 305 (which had its own built-in HRM, though I could never bring myself to use it)…but I always came back to you.

You stuck by me through heat and cold; through snow and ice and blinding rain. I changed your battery and cleaned you, and showed you off to friends.

I fear that the thing we did the best together may have ultimately led to your demise. I took you out in the heat and sweat until I could literally sweat no more. And much to my chagrin I looked down and noticed I could no longer read your screen. So I stuck you in rice, because that’s what I do to my ipod when it gets wet, and I knew of no other magic remedy. For 2 whole days I missed being with you, but I left you in there, too afraid to disturb you and stop the magic rice from working. When I pulled you out you were confused – you thought it was 1989. I tried to reset you but apparently the 21st century no longer exists in your eyes. It is currently July 11, 1999 and the time is 7:09:85pm. That’s right, each minute now has 90 seconds instead of 60. While this new calculation may make me feel extremely fast, for I get an extra 30 seconds per minute, ultimately this will backfire in races. So it is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to my dear friend and wish you luck on that great big treadmill in the sky. I will always carry your memory with me through my permanent tan line on my left wrist.

12/2005 to 7/2011

5 minute Microwave Brownies

2011-07-05T07:59:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get cravings for baked goods, particularly chocolate ones, and don't want to have to wait long for it to be made. Or to have a bunch of dirty dishes to wash. Or to bust out Arty (sorry dear, I love you and everything but sometimes I just don't want to mess with you). So I was definitely intrigued by this recipe, though I don't remember when I found it or where it came from. It also had the added bonus of being called "low fat & whole wheat" which in theory means "healthy" in my eyes.

Sadly this didn't live up to the hype. Although if I'm being honest with myself I'm not really surprised. Let's face it, wheat flour really just doesn't cut it in baked goods, even if the recipe was intended to use it. It adds an odd texture to the finished product, even when using whole wheat pastry flour as opposed to regular wheat flour.

Maybe with regular all-purpose flour it would be better? The flavor isn't bad, but the texture gets me.

5 minute microwave brownies

1/2 cup minus 1 Tbs whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup + 2 Tbs white sugar
4 Tbs butter
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 Tbs vanilla
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Sift together wheat flour and baking powder and set aside.

In a microwave safe bowl, heat butter and unsweetened chocolate for 1-2 minutes until melted. Stir until shiny and smooth. Add vanilla. Set aside to cool slightly.

Beat eggs and sugar and set aside. You can just use a fork or whisk, no mixer needed. Add the melted chocolate mixture to this, making sure the chocolate is not too hot so it doesn't scramble the eggs. Add flour until fully incorporated. Fold in nuts if desired. Sprinkle on chocolate chips on top.

Pour into greased 9" pan and cook for 4-5 minutes in microwave (depends on how powerful your microwave is, mine was done in 4 minutes). Cool and cut into pieces.

I suppose this is good in a pinch if you're desperate for something and don't want a lot of leftovers, because I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to eat the whole pan.

Chocolate Banana Bread

2011-06-24T13:02:00.002-04:00

A couple days ago a few of us in the department decided to make some treats for those who celebrated their birthdays in June. We looked at the treat preferences of the birthday people and I knew I would make something chocolatey. While going through some bookmarked recipes I came across one for Chocolate Banana Bread. This recipe actually came from someone in another department who made it for her group and it was really good. I decided it would be a perfect recipe to make since it was chocolatey and I thought most people also liked banana bread.

Yes, that's right, despite my epic fail with the imploding banana bread, and my semi-successful rescue attempt, I decided to make banana bread again! I've stayed away from making it this last year. Part of the reason was the aforementioned baking issues and the other part was the fact that I don't really like bananas or anything that has banana in it. But every once in a while I try to convince myself I should eat bananas and of course they end up going bad. This time I got the bright idea to actually use them before they started to go bad - I'm learning!

This recipe is definitely one you will want to make. I think the chocolate does enough to mask the banana so it isn't too overpowering and most people will like it, including banana haters like me. And, more importantly, the middle of the bread didn't cave in. Success!!

Chocolate Banana Bread
From: Joy of Baking.com

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 unsweetened cocoa powder (regular or Dutch-processed)
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe bananas, approx 1 lb, mashed well (I only used 2, the coworker who gave me the recipe used 4, so whatever you have on hand)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup white or dark chocolate chips (I used white)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, combine mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter and vanilla.

Lightly fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined. Batter will be thick and a bit chunky. Fold in chocolate chips.

Scrape batter into greased loaf pan (9x5x3 in) and bake for 55-65 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

KC Masterpiece Buffalo Marinade

2011-06-16T13:49:00.002-04:00

It's (almost) summer, its hot and the storms have been rolling in which means one thing - it's grilling time! As part of the FoodBuzz program I signed up to receive one of KC Masterpiece's new marinade flavors - Buffalo. It's no secret I've developed a taste for buffalo sauce with things like buffalo chicken pizza and buffalo chicken hot pockets, so I was excited to try this out.

Unfortunately my excitement was a bit short-lived. I used the marinade for chicken and left it on for a few hours (the bottle says at least 30 minutes but longer for more flavor) and then grilled the chicken to perfection. I was excited for the taste of buffalo chicken without the calories of getting boneless wings somewhere but this just didn't turn out well. The chicken was good but there was no buffalo flavor. At all. Not a hint of it...which is weird considering usually if you use something with a buffalo sauce the flavor can be pretty overwhelming. But not this time.

The only consolation I can give is that it did give the chicken a nice flavor and I tasted some of the spices and peppers from the marinade, which is good, but if you're looking for an actual buffalo chicken marinade this isn't the one for you.

*I received a bottle of the KC Masterpeice Buffalo Marinade as part of this FoodBuzz review.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

2011-06-10T07:58:00.002-04:00

This recipe nearly became a kitchen fail, through no…..or, ok, little….fault of my own. I would have been very disappointed since I’ve had this bookmarked for a year and it would have been sad to see it fail. Because of this I’ve decided to share with you a little cooking Public Service Announcement. Before you share a recipe, remember:

WWKD

What Would KitchenFAIL Do.

Or even What Would Kelly Do?

This goes for emailing a friend or family member a recipe, writing it up at a cookout, adding it to a cookbook or posting to a blog. As you well know, some of us are more challenged than others in the kitchen and our kitchen intuition isn't the same as everyone else's.

When I was making the snickerdoodle blondies I noticed that after I creamed the butter with the sugar, egg and vanilla like it said it just didn't look right. The butter was a bit chunky and the texture seemed off. It was definitely way too wet of a mixture. I read and reread the recipe and said no, all I have to add next is the flour mixture and I'm done.

But wait! What about the brown sugar? It was still sitting out on the counter but I didn't see where I was supposed to add it. I read it again, nope, no mention of brown sugar. Finally it dawned on me that when it said to beat together butter and sugar it must have meant brown sugar and not the 2 Tbs of white sugar I added. If it would have said sugars - as in plural - I would have added the brown and white right away, no problem. But the singluar sugar implies regular ole white sugar, doesn't it??

Sugar = white sugar
Brown sugar = brown sugar
Sugars = white, brown, and any other color you may have

Fortunately the crisis was averted as I realized where the brown sugar belonged before I attempted to bake it (which really, that discovery in itself is a win since we all know I forget ingredients a lot).

So please, for the sanity of those who may not catch on as quickly in the kitchen, please spell everything out. Share your recipes as if KitchenFAIL were reading it. Ask yourself WWKD.

Or think about it like the Caution: HOT warning on a coffee cup. Most normal people know that coffee is hot, but there are those few outliers that caused companies to have to issue common sense warnings on their products. So use that line of thinking when sharing next time.

And now to the recipe...

Snickerdoodle Blondies
From: Beantown Baker

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 Tbs vanilla
2 Tbs white sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, beat together butter, BROWN sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth.

Slowly stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Spread evenly into a greased 9x13 pan. ** TIP: wet your hands and spread the batter that way, so much easier than trying to use a spatula to get it level.

Combine WHITE sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well. Sprinkle evenly over batter.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the surface springs back (mine took 30 minutes and are probably a bit underbaked but they are awesome underbaked!). Cool and cut into bars.

I will definitely make these again. They aren't super cinnamon-y so I think next time I might add some cinnamon in the batter or maybe use a bag of cinnamon chips instead??

(and by no means was the above PSA directed at the awesome blogger who shared the initial recipe!!!! Sadly this seems to happen a lot)

Aunt Birdie's Peanut Butterfinger Cookies

2011-06-07T19:45:00.003-04:00

I'm still here, I promise. I made these cookies a few weeks ago but just now got around to writing it up. I should have shared sooner, because these would have been great to take to a Memorial Day cookout.

I found this recipe back when my mom, grandma and I made forgotten chicken. After we found the first grade cookbooks I started looking through the desserts and this one caught my eye. It became a must-make when I realied that it was submitted by none other than my Great Aunt Roberta - aka Aunt Birdie. I remember that Aunt Birdie joined my grandma for Grandparents Day at my school back in first grade so it was fun to see a recipe from her in the book 20some years later.

I'm not entirely sure why these have butterfinger in the title because they don't have butterfinger candy bars in the title, but that's ok. Maybe because it is a similar taste with peanut butter and chocolate? Who knows! Either way they are good!

Aunt Birdie's Peanut Butterfinger Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup peanut butter (creamy)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350

Cream together butter, white sugar and brown sugar; add egg and peanut butter and mix well. Add baking soda, salt and vanilla. Add in flour and rolled oats and mix well.

Spread in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until lightly brown.

Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and let stand for 5 minutes. Put back in the oven to melt the chips for another few minutes. Use a spatula and spread the melted chips evenly over the cookies. Let cool and cut into bars.

Forgotten Chicken

2011-06-02T09:47:00.001-04:00

When grandma was in town a couple of weeks ago she and mom called asking me to find a recipe from a cookbook from Grandparents' Day my elementary school put out when I was in first grade.

Really???

I can barely remember what I ate for dinner last night, or what I did 2 weeks ago and I'm supposed to know if I have a 20something year old cookbook? I think not!

I actually did come across 2 old cookbooks from the elementary school but apparently not the ones they were looking for. Of course once mom started digging around her house she came across the cookbook and we were able to make the recipe.

We ended up making the recipe for dinner that night and I liked it enough to make it again at home which is saying a lot. I'm not really a casserole person and have never made anything using "cream of ____" soup so I was a bit nervous when we made this. Surprisingly I really liked it and its a great dish for leftovers too.

Forgotten Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts (or enough to cover the pan)
1/2 cup dry rice
1 can cream of chicken soup (or whatever flavor you prefer)
1/2-3/4 cup milk (**we used 1/2 the first time and the rice was a bit dry, I used 3/4 the 2nd time and it was a bit soupy, so somewhere in the middle)
1/2 packet dry onion soup

Preheat oven to 350

In an 8x8 dish, mix rice, soup and milk. Place the chicken on top in a single layer. Sprinkle dry soup on top of chicken.

Cover with aluminum foil and back at 350 for 1.5-2 hours. Do not peek!

You can also double the recipe and make it in a 9x13 pan

Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Toffee

2011-05-31T09:13:00.000-04:00

OK it is about time I got back to the desserts around here. The beer recipes were fun and there's still one more I want to try, but my sweet tooth was calling.

A week or so ago I was talking to my mom and she mentioned that she tore out a couple of recipes from the newspaper that she wanted me to try. I think it was code for "you should make this for us". Both recipes looked good to me so I asked her to choose one and I would make it for their race day cookout. She chose the Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Toffee and it was a great choice!

These bars are very easy to make and don't take too much time - both key characteristics for my kind of cooking.

These bars are a great mix of gooey yet crunchy. The flavors go great together and I'm pretty sure Paula Deen would approve since it has "butter" in the title.

The bottom layer of the bars is melted butter topped by saltine crackers. I used wheat crackers because that is what I had on hand and it worked fine.

The next layer is a mixture of butter, brown sugar and sweetened condensed milk.

After baking for 10 minutes it comes out nice and bubbly. I was a little concerned because the recipe said it should be slightly darkened and mine was definitely more than slightly darkened.

The next step was to sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

I have this really bad habit of buying chocolate chips on my lunchbreak and then leaving them in the car on days where it gets really hot in the car - even in the winter. The result was the mess you see above. I tried chopping them into chunks but it really just left me with bits of chocolate all over the kitchen. Did I mention I have white countertops, cabinets and light wood floors :(

I think I need to try out for Worst Cooks in America to finally learn some knife skills (and please, no comments from the peanut gallery on the fact that I'm just now deciding I need to go on that show!!)

The final step was to spread the chocolate once it melted for about 5 minutes and add the chopped almonds. My almond chopping skills are about as good as the chocolate ones mentioned above.....I'm pretty sure there are still bits of almond hiding in the kitchen.

The end result was good though!!!

Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Toffee

1 cup of butter (2 sticks)
1 sleeve of saltine crackers (original or wheat)
1 cup brown sugar
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 2/3 cups dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped almonds, dry toasted

Preheat oven to 425. Line a 15x10 baking sheet with nonstick foil (DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP)

Melt 1/4 cup butter and pour into the sheet pan. Arrange crackers in a single layer on top of the butter, breaking pieces as necessary to make it fit.

Melt the rest of the butter in a saucepan. Add brown sugar and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and heat for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in sweetened milk. Pour mixture over crackers.

Bake for 10 minutes until mixture is bubbly and slightly darkened. Remove from oven and let cool for 1 minute. Spring chocolate chips on top and let stand for 5 minutes, then spread the chocolate evenly. Sprinkle with chopped almonds and press in lightly to secure in the chocolate.

Cool for 20 minutes and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. Cut into small pieces. It works better to store it in the refrigerator because as the bars come to room temperature it gets even more sticky and becomes harder to eat.

1554 Beer Bread

2011-05-24T08:42:00.000-04:00

To round out my beer recipes I decided to make beer bread. It was something I'd heard of before but never thought to make until my recent beer experiments. Of course I knew I had to try it since I recently had a little success in the bread-making department. Beer bread is super easy to make and aside from it taking forever to bake it really doesn't take long.

The rule of thumb for cooking with beer is to make sure you use a beer you would also like to drink. I didn't follow that rule with my beer bread. According to the folks at New Belgium, 1554 Enlightened Black Ale is described as redifining what a dark beer can be. I don't like regular dark beers, let alone wanting to redefine one, unless by redefining we mean making it lighter. But still I wanted to try the dark beer in something so I crossed my fingers and hoped it would work in bread.

I'm honestly not sure if I can say it worked or not. As you can see above the bread was kind of falling apart. I baked it for an hour as directed but the middle didn't seem to be done (much like my banana bread experiment) so I left it in for another 10 minutes.

Aside from falling apart it came out ok and was good....for a few bites at least. I soon realized that my beer bread didn't taste like normal bread but rather resembled a cross between pumpkin bread and banana bread. Which would be fine if I'd used either of those ingredients, but since I didn't it started to weird me out. Obviously it was the flavor of the 1554 coming through the bread. It didn't really taste beer-y or anything, and honestly it didn't really taste bad but fruity-tasting bread when I didn't use any fruit just doesn't cut it. If you like dark beers you might like this. I think I'll try it again with a lighter beer and maybe add some additional seasonings to kick up the flavor a notch.

Beer Bread

3 cups flour, sifted
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
12 oz beer
1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix dry ingredients together. Add beer and stir well. Add melted butter and continue to stir. Pour into greased loaf pan.

Bake for about 1 hour and then remove from pan and let cool about 15 minutes.

This makes a pretty hearty bread, but it came out pretty soft too, it just didn't stay together for whatever reason.

**I received a stipend through the FoodBuzz Tastemaker program to buy the beer.

Fat Tire Chopped Pork

2011-05-22T19:45:00.002-04:00

The next item I made using a New Belgium brew was Fat Tire Chopped Pork.

Out of all of the New Belgium beers I've had, Fat Tire Amber Ale is definitely my favorite. I hoped it would not only help create a melt in your mouth pork but also add some additional flavor. Originally I tried it for shredded chicken but it didn't seem to do anything for it other than I really smelled the beer while it was cooking and I don't know about you, but hot beer doesn't really appeal to me!

I used pork butt steaks, which I'd never heard of before and the only reason I used it was because I couldn't find what I was looking for. Granted I didn't really know what I was looking for but I couldn't find anything that seemed to be for pulled pork so I opted for the "steak" cut and decided chopped pork ala Famous Dave's would work just as well.

I liberally seasoned both pieces of pork with onion powder, garlic power, salt & pepper and then poured in about 1/2 bottle of Fat Tire. I used the Lil Dipper crock pot and about 1-1.5 lbs of pork. I let it cook for about 7 hours, which was mostly just because I was gone a lot longer than planned but I figure the longer its in the crockpot the better. The meat came out sooooo tender, it really was melt-in-your-mouth perfect. I'm sure it would be good pulled pork style too but it also worked just chopping it into small pieces.

I will definitely try using beer as the liquid in a crockpot again!

Beer Pizza Crust

2011-05-18T08:51:00.001-04:00

Ahhh, pizza and beer, such a great combination. As part of my New Belgium experiment I didn't want to just drink beer with pizza, I wanted to incorporate beer into the pizza.

I decided to use the Mighty Arrow Pale Ale for the crust, which is one of the spring seasonal beers New Belgium offers. I decided to use this beer because I figured it would be light enough not to affect the crust too much and it is the type of beer I would be happy to drink while eating pizza so it should be a good combination.

I used the Fleischmanns pizza yeast packet to make the crust. I'd made it once before and it was ok but a little bland. I decided not only to add the beer but also to add some sicilian seasoning to add a little more flavor.

Pale Ale Pizza Crust

1.5-2.5 cups of flour
1 envelope Fleischmann's Pizza Crust Yeast
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp Sicilian or Italian seasoning
2/3 cup very warm beer (120 to 130 degrees)

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt in large bowl. Add warm beer, mix until well blended. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough - it should be slightly sticky. **I had to add closer to 2.5 cups because my dough was really sticky. Knead the dough ball until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes.

Shape onto pizza pan or baking sheet. Spread with sauce and top as desired.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until crust is light brown.

New Belgium Beer Recipes

2011-05-17T08:36:00.000-04:00

Click me to get the party started!

The song in the link above always cracks me up, its my favorite Beer tribute song though I have no idea what's going on with that video!

Anyway, back in April I was given a fun opprtunity through FoodBuzz to use New Belgium beers in recipes. I was familiar with New Belgium because they make Fat Tire but I hadn't tried any of their other beers. I was given a stipend to purchase the beer and decided to pick up their Spring Folly pack which includes 4 different varieties.

The Spring Folly pack includes:
Fat Tire Amber Ale
Mighty Arrow Pale Ale
Ranger India Pale Ale
1554 Enlightened Black Ale

I did a little research online and most sites said that you can use beer in just about any recipe that calls for some kind of liquid. You do want to make sure that whatever type if beer you use in a recipe is also something you would like to drink since the beer will impact the flavor.

Stay tuned this week for some ways to use beer in your cooking this summer!

*I received a stipend through FoodBuzz and New Belgium beer for the posts

Decorative Roses for cakes

2011-05-11T08:13:00.002-04:00

I had the pleasure of spending the day with my grandma, who was in town from FL for a couple of weeks. I knew I wanted to do some sort of baking project with her and my mom suggested learning some cake decorating tips. I baked 2 round cakes ahead of time and then she and I went to town decorating. We decided to focus on making roses which was fun since they look fancy but actually aren't that hard (and that's saying a lot coming from me!).

I frosted the cake in regular canned frosting and then we made the frosting for the decorations. The decorating frosting is a lot stiffer than the canned variety which makes it stand up a lot better.

1/4 cup shortening
1/2 Tbs water
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients. Beat on low until mixed. Then beat on Medium for 3-5 minutes. Separate into smaller bowls and color as desired.

Directions: Use a 104 tip (here) to make the rose. We used a plastic flower nail - Here - to make it easier to turn and make circles. You don't have to have this but it was nice.

Basically just make a small oval with the icing. Then keep completing the circles, using 3-4 separate strips to build out each circle so it gets enough volume. If yours isn't shaped quite like you want you can use your fingers to guide it into a more rose-like shape. I was partial to making footballs, but grandma was able to squish it into a respectable looking rose.

After you make each rose you want to set it aside to dry out a little. Sitting for at least 10 minutes seemed to make them stiff enough to easily transfer to the cake. The longer it sat the easier it was.

In true kitchenFAIL style we had trouble with the leaves, which grandma said should have been the easiest part. Our icing seemed to be a bit too stiff and was breaking and cracking when we tried to make the leaves. They turned out ok but we never got the point at the end of each leaf like we hoped.

The one thing that might keep me from doing this too often is the gigantic mess you end up making, especially when you accidentally bust through a few pastry bags in the process!

All in all I think we did a great job, especially since I'd never tried anything like this before.

Most importantly, though, we had a great time!! Thanks Grandma!!!

Revenge of the peanut butter cup oatmeal cookies

2011-05-08T08:50:00.000-04:00

OK so after last week's easter candy/oatmeal cookie FAIL I decided to go to the best oatmeal cookie bar recipe I've tried so far - click. I knew that I couldn't go wrong with this recipe and the addition of peanut butter cups would only make it better.

I do think I overcooked these a bit; every time I checked them they seemed too gooey in the center so I put them back in for another few minutes. I think they went a little too long, so while they still taste good it was a bit more dry than the first time. The peanut butter cups add a nice subtle peanut butter flavor to the cookies, although the chopped pieces melted into the dough so you don't really good the full effect. Definitely a good way to use leftover Easter candy though!

Chewy Oatmeal Bars
From Amish Acres Recipes (original recipe for 15x10 pan is below, feel free to cut in half for 8x8

1 c. butter
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 c. flour
1/2 c. peanuts (I omitted)
2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
2 c. quick oats
6 oz. chocolate chips.

Grease 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 pan.

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla together until fluffy. Stir in flour, soda and salt. Add oats and mix well.

Spread in pan. Sprinkle nuts and chocolate chips on top.

Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Do not over bake. **mine didn't seem anywhere near done after 10 minutes and were still gooey after 16 or 18 so watch them closely.

Cinco de Mayo Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes

2011-05-05T09:40:00.001-04:00

First off, Happy Birthday to my Sister-in-Law Christy! Yep, creator of the Yo Gabba Gabba cake :)

I planned on making something to bring in to work to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and I remembered the Margarita cupcakes I made last year for dinner at a friend's house and thought I might try them again. However I remember that Friday is a co-workers birthday and on our treat list she had strawberry cake listed so I thought why not make strawberry margarita cupcakes and kill two birds with one stone.

The strawberry margarita cupcake recipes I came across were mostly adding strawberry margarita mix and tequila to a cake mix. Not bad, but I felt like I'd already been there and done that and I didn't care for how sticky the cupcake were with the mix last time. Instead I decided to just make strawberry cupcakes and make them resemble margaritas in look only.

I actually made some pretty good strawberry cupcakes last year for Mother's Day but this time I wanted to see if I could just adapt a box cake mix for the strawberry flavor. I made the mix according to the box directions and then chopped and mashed maybe 3/4 a pint of strawberries and mixed them into the cake batter. For the frosting I just used the canned variety because I was pressed for time. I used the colored sugar I'd originally prepared for the homemade peeps and rimmed the cupcakes in sugar. The sugar definitely looked a lot better with the plain white frosting instead of the tinted pink.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip + Peanut Butter Cup cookie bars.

2011-05-02T09:07:00.000-04:00

Wow, that title is a mouthful!

Ever wonder what to do with that leftover Easter candy or those items that happened to jump in your cart the day after a holiday? I magically had a 6 pack of Reese's Peanut butter eggs jump in my cart and I decided it was probably best for me to bake with them instead of just eating them all.

Originally I thought it would be nice to add them to brownies but then I decided oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with chopped peanut butter cups would be a nice change. I searched for recipes and decided on one from Taste of Home, partly because it called for molasses and I'd randomly picked up a bottle of molasses a couple months ago and wanted an excuse to use it.

Wrong choice! The molasses seemed to overwhelm the cookies and even though these have a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a cup of chopped peanut butter cups all I taste is molasses. Ugh. I think the idea behind these cookies is a good one, I just need to use a different recipe.

In case you like the idea of molasses in a cookie the recipe is below.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
From: Taste of Home

1 cup shortening
1.5 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbs molasses
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Cream together shortening and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Beat in molasses and vanilla.

Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to the creamed mixture until well-combined. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

Spread in a 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes until golden brown and edges pull away from sides of pan.

Yeast Bread

2011-04-30T08:43:00.000-04:00

When I made grandma's yeast roll recipe I wasn't sure how many rolls it would make. I had 20 in the pan ready to go and still had about half the dough left. The recipe included instructions for both the rolls and for making a loaf of bread so I decided to use the 2nd half to make a loaf of bread.

The idea of making a loaf of bread scared me a bit since the last time I tried to make some sort of bread it didn't turn out so well. Remember the great imploding banana bread?

Fortunately this one turned out a little better:

I'm not sure you can beat warm, homemade bread with lots of butter. It was sooooo good!

Grandma V's Bread
Yield 2 loaves, or cut in half for 1

Combine 1 cup of scalded milk, 1.5 Tbs shortening, 2 Tbs sugar and 1 Tbs salt. Cool to luke warm.

Add 2 packages of yeast to one cup of lukewarm water and let it soften.

Combine the milk mixture with the yeast. Blend in 5 3/4 cups of sifted flour a little at a time. Knead the dough on a floured surface. To knead, fold the dough toward you, then use the heel of your hand and push the dough away from you; turn the dough and fold it over and continue to knead. Repeat for about 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a large, greased bowl and place it in a warm place with a damp towel over it until it doubles in size, about 1.5 hours.

Punch the dough in the center to relieve the gasses, fold the edges toward the center and turn the ball of dough upside down. Let it rise for another 1/2 hour.

Divide dough in 1/2 if using full recipe. Roll out dough to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and oblong. Fold one end to the center, fold the other end to the center and seal the ends together. Place in a greased loaf pan and let it rise another 1.5 hours until the center of the dough is well over the edge of the pan.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. **the top of my bread started to burn after 25 minutes so I recommend checking on it and covering with a piece of aluminum foil as necessary to prevent the top from burning too much.

Grandma V's Yeast Rolls

2011-04-28T09:24:00.000-04:00

Sucess!! I feel like making these rolls was a big accomplishment for me and its a post I'm happy to share. If you missed the backstory, check it out here.

I must say that making yeast rolls by hand was tiring. Not only do you have to be around most of the day for the various rising, but kneading dough by hand is tough! I decided to do it all by hand instead of letting Arty do the work since I knew that's how Grandma would have done it.

My first obstacle to the recipe is that it called for scalded milk. While I've heard of it I had no idea how to do it. Thank you Google for instructions! I'm including the link since I thought it was pretty interesting that scalded milk is common in old recipes but it isn't something that is necessary today due to pasteurization of milk. Here: http://www.howtobaker.com/techniques/baking/how-to-scald-milk/

Once I learned how to scald the milk everything went pretty well. Although I must say that my arms about died while kneading the dough for 10 minutes. I work out quite a bit and do strength training at least twice a week but my arms were tired after about 3 minutes - wow!

The dough came together well and survived the first rise quite nicely too. Then you were supposed to pinch of walnut-sized pieces, shape them into mushroom caps and fold the ends under and put in a pan. Once in small pieces the rolls didn't rise well the second time even though I let it sit for about 2 hours.

Still, I was very pleased with how they came out even if the rolls were smaller than anticipated.

No backyard rolls tennis this Easter.

Grandma V's Yeast Rolls
Yield about 4 dozen rolls

Combine 1 cup of scalded milk, 1.5 Tbs shortening, 2 Tbs sugar and 1 Tbs salt. Cool to luke warm.

Add 2 packages of yeast to one cup of lukewarm water and let it soften.

Combine the milk mixture with the yeast. Blend in 5 3/4 cups of sifted flour a little at a time. Knead the dough on a floured surface.

To knead, fold the dough toward you, then use the heel of your hand and push the dough away from you; turn the dough and fold it over and continue to knead. Repeat for about 10 minutes.

Place the dough in a large, greased bowl and place it in a warm place with a damp towel over it until it doubles in size, about 1.5 hours.

Punch the dough in the center to relieve the gasses, fold the edges toward the center and turn the ball of dough upside down. Let it rise for another 1/2 hour.

Pinch off dough about the size of a walnut and shape into a ball. Shape it with your fingers to make it look like a mushroom cap; then fold the edges under. Place in a greased dish (9x13 pan or pie dish). Let them rise for about 1.5 hours, they should be taller than the pan edges after rising.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until the rolls have a hollow sound when tapped on top.

Yeast Rolls and Backyard Tennis

2011-04-23T14:15:00.005-04:00

Believe it or not the two items in the title actually go together, at least in my family. Our family doesn't have a lot of traditions but one we do have is playing backyard tennis or softball with leftover dinner rolls. And no, we're not some weird redneck family, we just have a penchant for bad cooking and a love of sports and thus a tradition was born.

To understand we have to go back a number of years, probably at least 15 if not more. Unfortunately I was blessed with a terrible memory so you are going to get my memory's version of how our family came to play sports with rolls. Any family members reading this who want to chime in with the real details feel free!!

When I was in late elementary school or maybe middle school my mom decided to make my grandma V's yeast rolls (my dad's mom). As you may have gathered from previous posts, I get my kitchen skillz from my mom; her attempt at grandma's yeast rolls were the original and ultimate Kitchen FAIL.

I don't remember anything about the actual making of the rolls but I remember that when she took them out of the oven and let them cool they were hard. Hard as a rock actually; definitely not something we could eat. Being the loving kids we were, my brother (he of Yo Gabba Gabba cake fame) and I grabbed the rolls and went outside to play with them. I think we used either tethertennis rackets or old tennis rackets and started hitting them back and forth. I remember rolls landing on the shed or garage nearby -- I don't think my mom was too happy!

Fast forward another 10 years or so - by this point we strictly served Heat 'n Serve rolls for all holidays. I don't remember if it was on an actual holidays or a couple days after, but there were some leftover rolls that had gotten stale. My mom was the one to recommend we bring out the tennis rackets and volley the rolls back and forth - my how things had changed!!

It's actually a lot of fun to hit around the rolls as they explode and fall apart during out games. We usually stick to tennis rackets but have played some roll softball once or twice. When my parents moved to a new house a few years ago, I wondered what the neighbors would think when they saw us out back playing with dinner rolls. I'm pretty sure that my mom makes extra rolls during the holidays just so we have more to play with.

Last year my brother wanted to check our a slow-motion feature on his camera so we decided to try to capture a roll exploding on the racket.

Yes, we are that family. It may be a silly tradition but its definitely one of my favorites.

In honor of the original kitchen FAIL I am trying to make Grandma V's yeast rolls for Easter tomorrow. Only this time I want them to be edible. Stay tuned to see how it turns out. At least I know Kroger will be open tomorrow morning in case I need to make a last minute heat 'n serve roll run.

Homemade Peeps

2011-04-22T08:48:00.001-04:00

It's Easter time which means it's Peeps time! I think I'm one of the few people who doesn't like Peeps, but I was intrigued to try to make them when I read a blog post about it probably 6 months ago. There are a few recipes where you use small cookie cutters to cut out the shapes but I was looking for one where you actually make the 'chick' shape. Believe it or not it was hard to find a post that gave a good step-by-step direction.

The recipe I chose comes from Martha Stewart ... that really shouldn't be too surprising because why wouldn't Martha make her own Peeps? Like she'd ever consider buying them at the store. The recipe is here.

Since I lost track of the original post I read, I searched until I found a suitable alternative. This site gives a great tutorial on how to pipe the peeps.

And this is where this blog post ends. My piping never worked, it never came close to resembling a peep; instead it looked more like a pile of rope on the ground or some sort of snake. Of course I started cleaning up before I got any pictures of the mess but trust me, you're not missing out.

So if you're feeling adventurous you should try your own - check out Serious Eats and show me how its done!

Yo Gabba Gabba Birthday Cake

2011-04-20T09:24:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I headed home to celebrate my niece's 2nd birthday. It was a Yo Gabba Gabba themed party and my sister-in-law and brother went all out on the cake once again. I just had to share it with you guys to show that while I may be a failure in the kitchen, not everyone in the family is kitchen-challenged. I actually think my brother was the baker in the family growing up....I know it definitely wasn't me!

If you have no idea who or what Yo Gabba Gabba is, don't worry, I didn't know until I bought my niece a CD for Christmas. And if I'm being honest, I think I'd be ok if I still had no idea who they were. Its like the Teletubbies for the current generation I think.

They decided to make a cake of the character Plex, a yellow robot:

How great is that? They covered the cake with a marshmellow fondant and painted it the necessary colors.

In case you wondered what the 'real' Plex looks like, here you go:

They also created cupcakes that looked like the rest of the characters. The other surprise was the inside of the cake:

Great job guys!!! Can't wait to see what you come up with for her 3rd birthday!

Homemade Snickers

2011-04-18T08:54:00.005-04:00

I came across the recipe for homemade snickers bars at Carly's Kitchen last summer and I knew I had to make them. The recipe was pretty intimidating because it involves 4 separate steps and a ton of ingredients. Usually just one step is about all I can handle so it was a big undertaking to try this but I was (somewhat) looking forward to it. I decided to make them for a party, figuring that if these really did turn out well I definitely didn't want the entire batch sitting around my house!

Looks good, doesn't it??

Despite being time consuming, these are easy to make. You just need to have enough time to allow each layer to set, so if you have a lazy Sunday planned I totally recommend these.

Homemade Snickers Bars

Line a 9x13 pan with foil and butter the foil to prevent sticking.

Bottom Layer:
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

In a small saucepan, combine the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and peanut butter. Stir over low until melted and smooth. Spread evenly into pan and refrigerate until set. ** make sure you melt it on low - I turned the temp to medium and ended up scorching some of it, kind of like when I made the homemade butterfinger bars.

Filling:
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1.5 cups marshmellow creme/fluff
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups chopped peanuts

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add sugar and evaporated milk and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and let it continue to boil for 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and stir in marshmellow creme, peanut butter and vanilla. Add peanuts and spread over bottom layer. Refrigerate until set.

Carmel layer:
1 14oz package carmels
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

In a small saucepan, combine carmels and cream and heat over low until melted and smooth. This will take FOR-EV-ER (seriously, about 15-20 minutes). Cook and stir an additional 4 minutes. Spread over the filling layer and refrigerate until set.

Confession time: I totally misread the recipe (don't act so surprised) and thought it said to use 14 carmels, not 14 oz. Well I had a partially opened 6oz bag of carmels and used those, even though it was probably 1/3 of the amount the recipe called for. Fortunately it worked out fine and I don't think the carmel is lacking in the bars, so not a total fail.

Top layer:
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

In a small saucepan, combine chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and peanut butter and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Pour over carmel layer and refrigerate at least 4 hours or even overnight.

Remove from refrigerator for about 20 minutes prior to cutting into 1 inch squares.

Notes:
1. These ROCK!
2. Store leftovers in the refrigerator. The original recipe just said in an airtight container but they get soft pretty quick so the refrigerator, or even the freezer, is a must
3. Semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips would be really good too
3.5 Next time I might cut the butterscotch down or leave it out altogether, I definitely taste it in the chocolate layer
4. Someday I hope to read and execute a recipe correctly just once
5. Yes, the bottom and top layers are identical....unless you're me and you screw up the bottom layer, then they are different textures and thicknesses

Cinnamon rolls

2011-04-14T22:01:00.003-04:00

OK so it doesn't exactly look like a cinnamon roll now does it. I've had a recipe for cinnamon rolls for around a year and finally had the perfect opportunity to make them. After letting the butter sit out to soften and getting the rest of the ingredients together I noticed a problem.....I was out of flour.

How the heck can someone who bakes a lot run out of flour??? I had some wheat flour and some bread flour but I wasn't sure if either of those would cause a problem so I had to resort to the boxed variety of cinnamon streusel muffins.

FAIL!

Baked French Toast and a Review

2011-04-10T10:51:00.001-04:00

The FoodBuzz Tastemakers program has been on a roll lately with a number of products up for review. I signed up for a few of them since I didn't actually think I'd get chosen, so imagine my surprise when a giant box arrived on my front porch just a few days after the Tostitos box:

The box contained a loaf of Nature's Pride Hearty Wheat with flax bread. It arrived in great condition so I guess the huge box was worth it! We were challenged to use the bread in a recipe, but it didn't matter what kind. I don't eat a lot of bread; the last time I used regular bread was either for grilled cheese or egg bake.

One of the first things I thought of making with bread was something involving french toast because I've never actually made it but I've been thinking about it for a while. As luck would have it, RM from my online running group posted about a baked french toast recipe she made for her family so I asked for the recipe. She gets all of the credit for this recipe!

RM's Overnight Baked French Toast

20 slices of bread (any kind)
10 eggs
2 cups milk
1 Tbs vanilla
1 Tbs cinnamon

Cut bread into cubes and put in a 9x13 baking dish. Mix together eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon and pour over bread. Allow to sit several hour or overnight.

Bake at 375 for 1 hour, or until a knife comes out clean.

Variations: Add an 8oz brick of cream cheese and layer half the bread, half the cream cheese, repeat. You could also cut up fruit and mix it in with the bread.

And now for what happened in the KitchenFAIL kitchen.......

I wanted to make a smaller version of the recipe since I'm cooking for one and the original recipe serves 8. I ended up cutting it in 1/4 and making it in an 8x8 dish. I had wayyyyy too much bread. I think because the Nature's Pride bread is so hearty it takes up a lot more room than 'regular' bread from the grocery.

The bread kind of overtook my dish so when I made 1/4 of the wet ingredients it didn't seem to cover enough. Worse than that, I mixed the wet ingredients in a cereal bowl which was woefully too small. I tried to stir thoroughly without making a huge mess and thought I succeeded until I poured it over the bread. An entire egg yolk still 80% in tact. How the heck did that happen? I should have scrambled it with a fork before adding the milk and other ingredients. It also didn't appear to be nearly enough of the wet ingredients so I poured some more milk and eggs into a bowl and added it.

The french toast still tasted good after I baked it, though I think it needed more cinnamon and vanilla since I added the extra egg and milk. I was a little worried about the bread since it is so hearty and has some seeds in it which always freaks me out a bit, but I didn't mind the seeds at all. This bread was really good and I was happy to get to try it. The french toast recipe is also good and I definitely recommend it. I will try this again with a better ratio of wet to dry ingredients.

One good thing did come from this recipe - I finally used up the end of a cinnamon container. As I was knocking out the last few particles from the container I noticed the bottom of it said "Sell by Feb 2003". This might be the oldest thing ever! And I'm pretty sure my mom gave it to me a few years ago, so I blame her for this too :)

*I received a free loaf of Nature's Pride Hearty Wheat bread for doing this review

Tostitos Artisan Chips review

2011-04-06T10:42:00.003-04:00

A month or so ago I recieved an email from FoodBuzz (see link to the right of my page) about an opportunity to be a "Tastemaker" and sample Tostitos Artisan recipe tortilla chips. I'm a sucker for tortilla chips so I signed up though being chosen for the sample wasn't a guarantee.

A few weeks later I came home to a box on my front porch which threw me off a bit since I didn't remember ordering anything online, although you never know. As luck would have it there were 2 bags of Tostitos artisan chips in there - perfect since I gave up grocery shopping for March and I hadn't had any chips in quite a while!

The 2 flavors are Fire-Roasted Chipotle and Roasted Garlic & Black Bean.

The Fire-Roasted Chipotle chips are like a grown up Dorito. It starts with a bit of a ranch flavor and then there is definitely a kick at the end. These are so good on their own I can't imagine ruining them with salsa. I did make some ground turkey nachos with these chips and I didn't have to add any salsa or hot sauce since the chips provided so much flavor, but I think I'd still rather eat them plain.

The Roasted Garlic & Black Bean chips have a smokier flavor and you definitely get the black bean taste. The flavor isn't as strong and these chips would be perfect for nachos or other dips since the flavor of the chip wouldn't override your toppings.

One of the first things I noticed about the chips was how sturdy they are. We all know how annoying it is to scoop up dip or nacho toppings with a tortilla chip only to have it crumble under the weight of the toppings. These chips won't do that. Of course with the Roasted Chipotle chips you wouldn't want to ruin the flavor with extra toppings anyway.

The only real downside to these chips is that one serving is 8 chips and its 140 calories. Since the chips are larger and more sturdy than a normal chip it seems like you're getting more bang for your 8 chips but it would be disappointing to have to restrict yourself to so few at one time.

I feel a little bad because I really wanted to create a recipe and incorporate these chips, but they were so good on their own I just couldn't do it. Aside from using some for nachos and crumbling some more on some chicken tortilla soup it just seemed like a waste of a tasty chip.

** I received 2 bags of Tostitos Artisan recipe chips for doing this review

Butler cupcakes!

2011-04-04T08:21:00.000-04:00

In honor of Butler playing for the NCAA Championship tonight I brought in some Butler-themed cupcakes to work.

I used liquid food coloring so I ended up with a light blue instead of anything resembling Butler's navy but, well, it was the thought that counts. I also thought about making monogrammed 'B's for the tops of the cupcakes but since I made mini cupcakes I was afraid letters would be too big.

GO BUTLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

2011-03-30T08:24:00.000-04:00

Stop the presses - this may be the best pizza I've ever made! It was one of those things that just kind of came together and the flavors were perfect.

This past weekend my mom came up to visit and I planned for us to make pizzas. The original plan was to use the Fleischmanns Pizza Crust Yeast and make my own crust. But then I was looking through a Trader Joe's ad and saw they had whole wheat refrigerated dough for 99 cents. This dough isn't like the Pillsbury cans you but rather it comes in a plastic bag and feel just like dough you made and let rise. They have whole wheat and garlic herb and I got one of each.

Mom and I made the whole wheat with pepperoni and some sicilian spices and it was really good although the plain crust edges weren't very flavorful so I'd add something to the edges next time.

I didn't plan on making the other crust right away but then I got the idea in my head that buffalo chicken pizza on a garlic crust would be good. And I was right! I used the same general premise from the Buffalo chicken hot pockets I made a while back. I used crockpot shredded chicken and for the grand finale, provolone cheese. The provolone with the garlic herb crust was the perfect pairing.

I also used my CSN stores pizza pan which works great. The pan is the Farberware Insulated Nonstick Carbon Steel pan - and its HUGE. It is 15.5 inches and doesn't fit in any cabinets, whoops. I love the handles on the sides though, that was a requirement for buying a pan so I could easily grab it from the oven without putting my fingers in whatever I was cooking.

Daring Bakers Challenge March 2011

2011-03-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

I haven't used yeast very often but the few times I have the dough didn't rise. I blame it on it being too cold so this time I decided to let the dough rise in the guest bathroom since the room seems to be the warmest in the house. Fortunately the yeast actually rose!

This recipe is actually pretty easy and the end result is tasty. In true KitchenFAIL form my version didn't turn out quite like I planned.

My favorite part of this recipe was where it says to knead the dough until it is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic. What the heck is sexy dough supposed to look like??

I feel like I can hear Kenny Chesney singing "she thinks my dough is sexy...."

Once the dough has risen the recipe is pretty easy to follow. Roll out the dough and spread the meringue.

Springle on the cinnamon and sugar and add chocolate chips. You can also add chopped nuts here but I left those out.

This is where things went wrong. I didn't have a cutting board big enough to roll out the dough so I had half on wax paper and half on a plastic cutting board. I liberally floured both parts but the dough totally stuck to the wax paper, to the point that I couldn't roll it up. I ended up cutting it in half and rolling the cutting board side as best I could. It was too short to put in a ring like the recipe called for so I just kept it in a log shape.

For the most part it came out ok, although I think it was overbaked and therefor the end result was kind of dry.

I didn't want to just throw away the dough that stuck to the wax paper, so I threw it in a loaf pan and hoped for the best. It actually turned out really well and I thought the loaf variety turned out way better than the ring/log. Go figure!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2011-03-23T21:27:00.002-04:00

I'm still around I promise. Despite not buying groceries this month and living out of the freezer I haven't had anything interesting to share. I do have a few recipes I haven't gotten around to sharing so I thought I'd start with some soup since it is going to be getting cold here again this week.

Tortilla soup is one of my new favorite soups so I wanted to make my own version. An old HS friend posted about making tortilla soup on facebook and I had her send me her recipe. I took that and blended it with another recipe from Crockpot 365. I opted to make mine on the stovetop and not in the crockpot, mostly because I was impatient, but I bet you could make it either way.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 cups cooked chicken
32oz chicken broth
1 15oz can Rotel
1 cup salsa
2 tsp cumin
2-3 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic power
1-2 tsp onion powder

Put all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with crushed tortilla chips and cheese if desired

St. Patrick's Day Carmel Corn

2011-03-16T21:16:00.004-04:00

Ahhh, St. Patrick's Day, the day we all get to pretend to be Irish, drink green beer and eat green food. I'd been thinking of something to make for work but I couldn't come up with anything aside from the standard green icing on a cupcake or cookie.

Actually that's not entirely true. I had an idea for something to make from a cupcake I saw here - I wanted to make cake truffles into a pot o' gold. But I couldn't find black candy melts or mini yellow m&ms so I had to abandon my idea.

I saw a recipe on Taste of Home for making green carmel corn and it reminded me that when I solicited family recipes last year my grandma had given me her recipe for carmel corn. I decided to follow her recipe and add green food coloring to make the green carmel corn.

The recipe is pretty easy to make and doesn't take long either which is a plus. It also uses the microwave which is always a nice change too.

Grandma's Shake 'n Bake Carmel Corn

4 quarts popped corn
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 stick butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
8-10 drops of food coloring (optional)

In a large, microwave safe bowl heat sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt on high for 4 minutes. Stir, add baking soda and food coloring (if desired) and stir.

Put popped corn in a large brown paper grocery sack. Pour the syrup mixture on the popcorn and shake. Put the bag in the microwave and cook on high for 1.5 minutes. take out and shake and microwave another 30 seconds and shake again.

Spread on an opened grocery sack or wax paper to cool.
___________________________

Oh St. Patrick, I'm not sure where to begin on this one. I decided to use microwave popcorn since I had a few bags that had been in the pantry forever. It was carmel apple flavor and while the flavor is pretty subtle, I think carmelizing it intensified the flavor.

Then we have the food coloring. My McCormick's food coloring didn't come out in drops it came out in a steady stream and I think I used wayyyyyy too much. I also had too much of the liquid since I decided to use 2 bags of popcorn and I doubled the syrup recipe when really I should have just done 1.5 times.

As you can see the brown paper bag was nearly soaked-through and it was a big of a mess.

The popcorn did turn out nice and green and looks like what you might find at a fancy popcorn store, but it tastes a bit rubbery and isn't crispy like normal carmel corn.

I think I'd try this again but maybe just do one batch!

Sweet and Spicy Pork Chops

2011-03-10T08:01:00.000-05:00

For the month of March I am trying to live out of my freezer and pantry instead of buying groceries every week. I've tried this briefly before but it usually fizzles pretty quickly. My inspiration came from my parents who did this for the month of February so I figured I'd try it for March.

The first item to tackle in the freezer are pork chops. I don't really know why I keep buying them because I'm not sure I actually like pork chops....at least not the way I seem to make them. In the past I've made asian crockpot pork and taco pork chops, but this time I decided to make Sweet and Spicy Pork Chops from Taste of Home. The original recipe was for chicken but I decided to try it for pork instead.

Sweet and Spicy Pork Chops(or Chicken)
From: Taste of Home magazine, May 2010

4-6 4oz pork chops
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs paprika
2 tsp onion powder
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder

Mix spices together and rub onto pork. Cook in skillet for 5-6 minutes per side until done.

------------------
I have mixed opinions on this recipe. I didn't really get the "spicy" part from this recipe and it had a bit of an odd flavor, I think it was the abundance of paprika. Next time I think I'd cut the paprika down to a teaspoon and make the chili powder a tablespoon at least.

Stuffed Biscuits and Gravy

2011-03-07T08:28:00.013-05:00

Finally! I've had this idea in my head for probably a year to make a biscuit stuffed with sausage gravy. I don't really know where the idea came from but sometime in the last year I got it in my head I wanted to try to make stuffed biscuits and gravy. At that time I'd never heard of it being done anywhere and I haven't knowingly seen it so I just kind of made it how I envisioned.

In some ways this resembles the pizza pot pie I made a couple months ago. If I had to pick between them, I'd go with the biscuits and gravy.

In line with how things go in my kitchen, it didn't start off very well. I browned some turkey sausage and planned to add it to one of those frozen packages of sausage gravy that you heat in the microwave. My microwave is super powerful and after about half of the recommended cook time had passed I could see it was a giant bubble about to burst so I turned it off. Good thing because it had sprung a hole and probably would have made a mess soon.

Fortunately it was smooth sailing after that.

Use refrigerated biscuits and roll it out as flat as possible.

Press it into a muffin cup as best you can.

Add the filling to the top of the dough.

Flatten a biscuit to make the tops - one biscuit should make 3-4 tops.

Bake according to package directions.

This turned out really well and its almost a portable version of biscuits and gravy. Plus its a lot less messy than traditional biscuits and gravy which was an added bonus.

I will definitely make these again though next time I might make them in jumbo muffin cups so you can have more filling in there. Other than that though I can't think of anything else I'd change.

Monogram Sugar Cookies

2011-03-04T09:19:00.000-05:00

One of my running buddies just had her first baby in January so I wanted to send them a treat to celebrate. I saw these on Bake at 350 and thought it would be great to make some sort of monogram cookie. The blog mentioned that you could use either royal icing or candy melts and I opted for candy melts since she said they were less brittle than royal icing.

I decided to make a bunch of Ws with the dark chocolate candy melts to celebrate baby Will. I knew I needed something else for decoration so I used light blue flood icing to add the dots. Not the most creative thing in the world but I thought it turned out pretty good.

Making monograms with candy melts are super easy. I melted the candy melts in a bowl and then transferred it to a ziplock back. I didn't mess with pastry bags or any tips since I wanted thicker letters and I figured snipping the ziplock bag would work fine.

Pick a font you like and print of a page or two of the letters. Put wax paper over it and trace the letter. Its as easy as that!

Once the monograms are set you can store them in an airtight container. I'm not really sure how long they last, but mine are about a month old and are still good!

I used royal icing and outlined the cookie and then flooded it with white. While the icing is still wet gently press in the monogram. When the cookie dries the monogram will be set. Add other decorations as desired.

Nestle Florentine Cookies

2011-03-01T08:31:00.000-05:00

Nestle Florentine Cookies are the 2nd part of the February Daring Bakers Challenge. I wanted to make this a separate post since these were so good and they deserve their own attention.

I'd never heard of this kind of cookie before, but being associated with Nestle sounded like a winner. As it turns out it is basically 2 crispy oatmeal cookies sandwiched together with chocolate. These cookies are really simple to make and I'll definitely make it again.

If you're like me, one of the biggest drawbacks to baking is the amount of dishes you have to wash. These cookies are great because you just need one bowl and a wooden spoon, no need to use a mixer or anything. I'll admit that the lack of extra dishes to wash makes these cookies even more appealing.

I was a little concerned about how much these cookies would spread because the directions mentioned placing them at least 3 inches apart. Of course I didn't really listen and mine were a bit too close together.

They looked ok going into the oven, but then....

They spread!! It sort of created one giant cookie that first batch. Whoops. For subsequent batches I dropped the batter in smaller spoonfuls and didn't flatten it like the first time. It worked better this way but still produces some really big cookies.

Despite their size I still made the sandwich cookies even though the recipe said you could just drizzle chocolate on them.

I used both semi-sweet chocolate and vanilla bark for the filling - both were good, I'm not sure which was better. These got pretty good reviews at work and I'll definitely make them again, just hopefully smaller next time.

Nestle Florentine Cookies
Yield 2-3 dozen sandwiches

2/3 cup unsalted butter (I may try cutting down on this next time)
2 cups quick oats
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/4 cup corn syrup (dark preferred)
1/4 cup whole milk (I used skim and it seemed fine)
1 tsp vanilla extract (make your own!)
pinch of salt
Chocolate for melting

Preheat oven to 375

Melt butter in saucepan and remove from heat. add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla and salt. Mix well.

Drop by the teaspoon full onto a baking sheet, make sure to use parchment paper or a silpat to prevent sticking.

Bake for 6-8 minutes until golden brown. Let cool completely on the baking sheet.

Melt the chocolate and spread on the flat side of one cookie. Add another cookie on top and sandwich together - be careful, these cookies are brittle and break easily.

Daring Bakers Challenge - February 2011

2011-02-27T16:09:00.006-05:00

Don't mind me, just sneaking back into the Daring Bakers after a two month absence. I sat out the December challenge because the holidays were just too busy and I sort of spaced the January challenge so I had to make sure and get back in it with February's.

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

I don't know about you, but while I know who Giada is I didn't know what panna cotta was; and I wasn't sure what a florentine cookie was, although if the recipe comes from Nestle it has to be good! As it turns out panna cotta is an Italian cream dessert, kind of like a pudding, and the florentine cookies were crispy oatmeal cookies sandwiched together with chocolate.

Sign me up!

I definitely like the cookies better than the panna cotta. The recipe for the panna cotta was "Vanilla panna cotta" but it didn't really taste vanilla-y - it actually just taste like plain whipped cream. But it also had some texture issues with it which is probably why I wasn't a big fan.

The nice thing about this challenge is that the basic recipes (which I followed) are super easy and a great way for a novice cook to make a fancy dessert. You could get creative by adding different flavors to the panna cotta but I stuck with the basics.

I'll post the panna cotta recipe below and then post the cookies separately since I'm sure I'll make them again!

Giada's Vanilla Panna Cotta

1 cup whole milk
1 Tbs (1/4 oz, one packet) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups whipping cream (30%+ butterfat)
1/3 cup honey
1 Tbs suagr
pinch of salt

Pour milk into a bowl or pot and spinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over milk (make sure bowl/pot is cold by sticking it in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes).

Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat over medium on the stove. Heat until hot but not boiling, about 5 minutes. Whisk a few times while cooking

Add cream, honey, sugar and salt. Continue to heat but don't let it boil, until honey and sugar have dissolved, about 5-7 minutes.

Remove from heat, allow to sit and cool slightly. Pour into glasses or ramekins. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

I wasn't kidding when I said this was easy. I cut the recipe in 1/3 because I didn't want to have a ton leftover which was good since I didn't really care for it. It just didn't seem to have a lot of flavor on its own so maybe the chocolate recipe or adding another flavor would have helped.

I also had issues with a film forming on top when I took the ramekins out of the refrigerator.

Underneath the film it was nice and creamy but the lack of flavor just didn't do it for me this time.

Baked Taco Bowls

2011-02-23T09:18:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh Mexican food, what could be better? Especially if its a taco salad. Sounds healthy, doesn't it? Of course if you've ever had a taco salad at a mexican restaurant you know its anything but healthy but that's beside the point. If you are looking for healthy and homemade, look no further. Sure it doesn't taste as good as the deep-fried kind at a restaurant but its a good compromise.

I came across this technique on Annie's Eats sometime last year and have kept it in the back of my mind but never got around to using it until recently. Its the perfect way to make healthier baked taco bowls in minutes right at home.

You can use any type of tortilla you want - I used Chi-Chi's whole wheat tortillas that were maybe 8 or 9 inches in diameter. Warm them slightly in the microwave to make it more pliable. Spray each side with Pam and stick it between the muffin cups on an upside down muffin pan. I used a Jumbo muffin pan I had which worked well for the larger tortillas.

Bake at 425 for 5-10 minutes. I started smelling my bowls burning after about 3 minutes so I put some aluminum foil on top to prevent the tops from burning more but still allowing the rest of the bowl to crisp up (WOW I've really learned something in my kitchen adventures this past year!!)

Doesn't this just look fun? Fill with whatever you want - chicken, beef, turkey, beans, whatever. I used one of mine and added buffalo chicken leftover from the buffalo chicken hot pockets. Who says it has to be mexican food in the shell?

Shredded Crockpot Chicken

2011-02-18T09:19:00.000-05:00

Ok this isn't a recipe but I've been using it lately so I wanted to give a shout-out to making shredded chicken in the crockpot to use for other recipes. I don't know about you, but I get really annoyed when I realize a recipe calls for pre-cooked chicken because that means I have to add another step to my cooking plans. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a pretty lazy cook, so adding a step like cooking chicken before I can get to the actual recipe is a big deterrent.

What I've started doing on the weekends is throwing a piece or two of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast into my lil dipper crockpot and letting it do its thing for 4-6 hours. Sometimes I've added chicken broth to it but I've also just let it cook in its own juices.

After 5 or 6 hours I check to see if the chicken is cooked through and I pull it out and shred it. I put it all in a big square ziplock container and pop it in the fridge. You could also pack individual portions in ziplock bags and freeze it that way. Not only is this great for when a recipe calls for cooked chicken, but its an easy way to make chicken tacos, BBQ chicken pizza, buffalo chicken wraps or hot pockets, etc etc.....the list could go on forever.

This literally takes about 5 minutes of active work so even the laziest of cooks can do it!

Chocolate Peanut Butter-Filled cookies

2011-02-15T08:38:00.000-05:00

Chocolate peanut butter-filled cookies, really? How awesome does that sound. These are based on nutella filled cookies I've ready about but I didn't actually have nutella and also I didn't care for the cookie recipe so I decided to venture out on my own.

I had some Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter by the Peanut Butter & Co that my mom bought and didn't want for some reason. Dark chocolate dreams is similar to nutella, though nutella tastes better and is more addictive :)

The biggest drawback of the originally nutella cookie recipe was that the dough had to be refrigerated or it would be too warm to work with. It reminded me of the first sugar cookie recipe I tried which drove me crazy so I knew I wanted something that didn't need refrigeration. What better to use than my go-to sugar cookie recipe. I followed the sugar cookie recipe and used a biscuit cutter to cut out round cookies, just like with the Steelers cookies.

Add about a teaspoon of peanut butter to one half of the cookie.

Fold it over and use a fork to press down the sides

My plan didn't quite work out as I hoped. Most of the cookies started cracking on the seam but I wasn't sure what else I could do. They baked up ok but aren't the prettiest-looking cookies. The sugar cookie may be too substantial of a taste for this and overpowered the peanut butter a bit too much but it wans't bad.

Maybe I'll try the real nutella kind soon.

Strawberry Cake Truffles

2011-02-12T13:18:00.000-05:00

Happy (early) Valentines day! If you're looking for a last minute treat to make I highly recommend cake truffles (calling them cake balls just sounds weird!).

I first heard about cake truffles a year ago after I made oreo truffles and thought something with cake would be cool. Some quick google searching told me that cake truffles were the hot item from a blog called Bakerella, complete with "cake pop" cookbooks and everything. For whatever reason I never got around to making these, but someone else did - my mom!! She made them for Christmas and it was great so I knew I wanted to make some soon.

Since Valentines day was coming up I decided to make some to bring it work. I thought about doing red velvet since it is the cliche Valentines cake flavor, but I wanted to make it simply with a cake mix and use what I already had on hand. Strawberry cake mix won out, partly because its pink and partly because it just sounded good.

To coat the truffles I used bark chocolate, both regular chocolate and white/vanilla bark. I'm usually not a white chocolate fan but I definitely preferred the white in this case. Unfortunately the white bark doesn't cover as well so you might want to coat them twice for even covering. Of course I'm too lazy for that!

Directions:
Bake any flavor of cake in a 9x13 pan and let it cool completely - you can make the cake from scratch or use a cake mix.

Crumble cake in a large bowl or your stand mixer bowl. Add in 3/4 to 1 full can of frosting and mix thoroughly. Using Arty was much better than trying to mix it by hand with either a spoon or even your hands but you can use whatever method you want. I will caution you not to use "fluffy" frosting, at least not from Pillsbury because it was too wet (for lack of a better word) and I would have liked the truffles to be a little firmer.

Roll mixture into balls and refrigerate for a few hours. For quicker results stick in the freezer for 1-2 hours. Ideally I would have liked to let these chill overnight but I only got to refrigerate for 1.5 hours and the truffles probably needed to chill longer.

Melt chocolate according to package directions, roll chilled truffles in chocolate, tap off excess and place on wax paper. Chill again for at least an hour for the chocolate to harden.

Enjoy

Ground Sirloin Chili

2011-02-10T11:42:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite meals to make is chili. It's easy, tastey, and easily adapts to whatever ingredients you have on hand. My favorite way to make it is the spicy turkey chili I've posted about before, and whenever I make a new batch I use that recipe as a shell.

Usually if I deviate from the recipe its only because I don't have certain ingredients on hand, which is what brough me to today's ground sirloin chili. During our lovely ice storm I did some cleaning out of the pantry and went through the freezer to see what was hiding in there. I came across a package of ground sirloin that I knew had been in there for a while so I decided to thaw it and make something. I didn't want to make burgers since I don't like those in a skillet, and mexican didn't sound good either, so I thought I'd put the ground sirloin in chili.

I also didn't have any salsa on hand (blasphemous, I know) so I had to improvise a bit. I used an 8oz can of tomato sauce and just threw in some extra chili powder for the kick. I also mixed it up a bit by using both black beans and chili beans instead of just chili beans and that was a good change too.

This version of the chili was definitely less spicy, probably because of the lack of hot picante salsa and also the elimination of one can of chili beans. I'm not sure how I feel about ground sirloin in chili, it almost seemed a bit tough and I definitely prefer ground turkey.

Ground Sirloin Chili
approx 6 servings

1/2 pound ground sirloin
2 generous shakes of onion powder
2.5 Tbs of chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground oregano
Few twists of pepper grinder
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 2 cloves garlic, minced)
2 cups chicken stock
8oz canned tomato sauce
1 can black beans
1 can chili beans

Heat the oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the ground sirloin, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and garlic powder. Cook until the sirloin is well browned, stirring often to separate meat.

Stir the stock, tomato sauce, and beans in the saucepan and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the mixture is hot and bubbling.

Buffalo Chicken Hot Pockets

2011-02-08T08:58:00.000-05:00

Don't worry, this isn't a post about microwaving actual hot pockets - do they even make a buffalo chicken one? Since I was stuck at home due to ice I decided to spend some tme in the kitchen. I had one more package of refrigerated breadstick dough (after using the first package on the pizza pot pies) and decided to make something resembling a homemade hot pocket.

I thawed some shredded chicken that I made in the crockpot a couple weeks ago and mixed up a bowl of ranch dressing and wing sauce. I didn't really measure anything but I'd guess maybe 3/4 cup of chicken, 1/3 cup of ranch and 1/4 cup of wing sauce. Mix together the ranch and wing sauce and add the chicken and toss it to coat evenly. Let it sit in the sauce for a few minutes to let it soak in extra flavor.

Meanwhile open the breadstick dough and roll out into rectangles or squares. Place the chicken mixture in the middle and top with a little bit of shredded mozzarella cheese. Fold over the sides of the dough to close it as much as possible. If you don't get it closed all the way it may open during cooking so do the best you can.

Bake according to the dough package directions.

I was very pleased with how these turned out. In some ways it reminded me of the pizza bites I made for the superbowl last year, just with a different filling. I managed to get 5 hot pockets, although I think if you made 4 it would stay together a lot easier.

Revenge of the Kettle Corn

2011-02-06T08:49:00.000-05:00

After my recent kettle corn FAIL I was determined to turn it into a success. I mean cmon if mom can do it I can too :)

I kept the recipe the same but changed up the preparation a bit . I kept the small saucepan and heated the oil until it started to sizzle. I dropped in a few kernals and they popped right away so I knew it was hot enough. My theory on the first FAIL was that the kernals were in the oil too long when it wasn't hot enough and it threw it all out of whack.

Since the test popcorn popped right away I quickly added the rest of the corn and sugar and closed the lid. It still took a while to pop it all (about 8 minutes) but nothing burned and the taste was great so I considered it a success!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

2011-02-04T09:01:00.001-05:00

My mom got me a big, deep, 10 inch cake pan for Christmas since I'd mentioned needing some good ones. This pan is larger than your traditional cake pan so I wasn't sure what I would do with it at first. We were having a going away gathering for my oldest brother (the one who is afraid of expiration dates) because he's moving to SC. I offered to bring a dessert since I'd been in the mood to bake but didn't have any reason to make anything.

I knew I wanted to incorporate this pan but I wasn't sure what I should do. Those giant cookie "cakes" you get at the mall or in the grocery store bakery are great so I wanted me own twist on that. Those are usually thin and I wanted something thicker, closer to a normal cookie bar but not too thick. I decided to use a cookie mix since I have a bunch that are nearing, errr uhhhh past, their expiration dates and also just because while I was in the mood to bake I wasn't in the mood to do it from scratch. Using a box mix has advantages too since you only use one bowl and just need a wooden spoon to stir it. As much as I love Arty, sometimes I just don't want to clean him.

After spreading it in the cake pan I baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes until the edges were just slightly golden brown. I let it cool and ended up leaving it in the pan overnight since I didn't need it until the next day.

I'm not sure if the problem was leaving it in the pan or what but the freaking thing wouldn't come out. I used a knife to loosen the edges and it wouldn't come out. After banging it on the counter a few times it finally loosened and came out - thankfully all in one piece!

To finish it off I used the lofthouse copycat frosting from Martha's layered cookie cake last year and then chopped up some mini snickers bars. According to my neice it was delicious so I guess it got the toddler seal of approval. The adults thought it might be a tad too sweet with the cookie, sweet frosting and candy bars but I liked it. Then again I have a major sweet tooth :)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-02-02T08:31:00.000-05:00

Snow day snow day! I never thought corporate America would get a snow day (or an ice day if you will) but it actually happened! In honor of this occassion I decided to spend some time in the kitchen. I started with pancakes that were actually edible for breakfast and then made buffalo chicken hot pockets for lunch and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

The recipe was in the Healthy Cooking Feb/March 2011 issue and I knew I had to make these right away. The original recipe was actually for an oatmeal raisin cookie, but I don't like raisins so I subbed in chocolate chips. Dark chocolate chips to be precise!

Oatmeal "raisin or chocolate chip" Cookies
From: Healthy Cooking, Feb/Mar 2011
Yield: 15-20 cookies depending on size

1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbs white sugar
3 Tbs water
1 egg white
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips or raisins

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl, combine oil, sugars, water, egg white and vanilla. In another bowl combine flours, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet bowl and mix well. Stir in oats and chocolate/raisins.

Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet sprayed with Pam. Flatten slightly (otherwise it will be a mound, these don't spread out). Bake for 10-12 minutes.

You know you want to make these. They taste great & they came from a healthy cooking magazine - what more could you ask for?

Ice Ice Baby

2011-01-31T12:09:00.002-05:00

Ice Ice Baby......Indiana, Ice Ice Baby.

This post isn't just an homage to one of my favorite songs, but a look into the weather forecast for the next few days. Forecasters are getting excited talking about this major weather system approaching the midwest with the potential of 2 feet of snow north of me and up to 2.5 inches of ice in my area. I'm not one to get into the hype of the weather forecasts since they're usually wrong, but ice isn't something we usually get so I thought I just think ahead a little on what I would do if we did get all of this ice.

And what I mean by "what I would do" is what would I eat. I have enough food in the freezer to last a month but what if the electricity goes out, then you have a problem. Cereal? Check. Granola bars? Check. Something-else-you-can-eat-that-doesnt-need-cooked-or-refrigerated? Maybe a check?

I think I'd get bored with cold/room temperature food pretty quickly so if we lost power I'd have to figure something out. What about roasting marshmellows? Ohhhh or smores?? I've made awesome smore's brownies so why not traditional smores. All you need is a fire. And I have a fireplace! I wonder how well mini marshmellows fit on those poker sticks for heating because I only have mini ones. And if I'm being honest I don't have any metal poker things....would a golf club work? It's metal! Well ok scratch that, mine are graphite so maybe not.

And if I'm being totally honest I have no earthly idea how to turn on the fireplace. I have a key for it on the mantle but I'm not sure if you just turn it and voila the fire starts or if there is more to it than that. I've been here for almost 4 years and have never turned it on, mostly out of fear of blowing up my house. My neighbors surely appreciate it since the houses are pretty close together so if I blow mine up there's a good chance a few more might get hit.

Sorry that was a bit of a tangent. Anyway I figure I have a few more hours to pray that the weatherman is wrong like usual and if not, to figure out how to survive a potential power outage.

Homemade Kettle Corn

2011-01-28T21:03:00.002-05:00

Nothing says fairs and festivals like kettle corn. Cooked in those big vats right in front of you, piping hot, salty sweetness, how can you resist? My mom and I share a love of popcorn and certainly a love of kettle corn. On Christmas Eve she said she had a treat to make and made kettle corn on the stovetop. I didn't even know you could do that!

It's taken me a while but finally I got around to making some on my own. And I created burnt carmel corn instead of yummy kettle corn. Kitchen FAIL :(

I followed a recipe from Rachael Ray and since I wasn't sure how much it would make I put it in the largest pot I had. I think the pot was too big for the amount of popcorn and it wasn't cooking well. Plus it was really difficult to try to shake so I transferred it to a smaller sauce pan with one long handle - much easier to shake.

I had to turn the heat up higher to like 7 or 8 out of 10 before it finally starting popping (and this was after 10 min on the heat). While it started popping it also started burning. Boooooo.

My mom's version turned out great so I guess I need to try it again. Maybe using the smaller saucepan will make it cook evenly, and quicker, and will prevent burning. That's my hope anyway.

I still want to share the recipe though because I know most of you aren't as bad as I am in the kitchen:

Kettle Corn
From: Rachael Ray

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt

Directions:
In a large pot with a tight-fitting lid, heat the oil over medium-high heat. add the popcorn. When the oils sizzles, sprinkle the sugar over the kernels. Cover and shake the pan until the popping slows down, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and toss with the salt.

CSN Stores product review

2011-01-26T15:34:00.003-05:00

Ok I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I was contacted by CSN stores (the same company that as provided gift certs for a couple of giveaways on here) to do a product review. They sell just about anything and everything you'd want from outdoor playsets to furniture to kitchen accessories.

Everytime I go to their site I get pulled in many different directions looking up all sorts of things so this should be fun. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to get but I'm thinking some sort of proper bakeware is in order since half of my stuff came from the dollar store (::blush::).

Stay tuned!

Kid Friendly Meal: Chicken Nuggets

2011-01-25T08:56:00.000-05:00

About a week ago I received an email from FoodBuzz promoting a cause called Save the Children. They challenged bloggers to post a kid-friendly recipe and help promote Save the Children and http://www.maketimeforchange.com/ FoodBuzz and Frigidaire will donate $50 to the cause for each blogger who posts a kid-friendly recipe.

It was a no-brainer for me to participate, especially since I have a lot of kid recipes. And no, I don't have kids. But I do have the palate and, until recently, the cooking skills of a kid so it was easy for me to participate.

I went through some kid cookbooks I have (don't judge) but ultimately decided on chicken nuggets. Chicken nuggets scream kid-friendly and it is the first food I learned to make when I was out on my own so I thought it was a perfect one to share.

These chicken nuggets are made in the skillet so not only are they quick, but they are healthy because they aren't fried like traditional nuggets.

Adults need to cut boneless, skinless chicken breasts into bite-size chunks.

Kids can take a large ziplock bag and add bread crumbs and seasoning (I like to use Chicken grill seasoning, Italian or cajun) and shake it around. Add the chicken chunks and shake it even more.

Heat the skillet to medium and lightly spray with Pam. Add the chicken chunks and cook about 3-4 minutes per side. Cut into the largest piece to make sure the middle is no longer pink.

Yes I know this is basically homemade shake 'n bake, but it tastes good and kids will like it so its a win-win.

Steelers Sugar Cookies

2011-01-22T08:39:00.000-05:00

A friend at work is a Steelers fan and a couple weeks ago when I brought in Colts cookies she asked if I'd make her Steelers ones. I didn't know if she was being serious but I said that if the Steelers made it further in the playoffs than the Colts I would.

Well we all know how well the Colts/Jets game ended up so Steelers cookies made the list.

Unlike the Colts cookies where I could use a horseshoe I wasn't sure what to do for the Steelers. I finally decided to make round cookies and put the Steelers logo in the middle. Originally I was going to use royal icing to make the colored parts of the logo but I was afraid it wouldn't look right since I'm not very good at drawing with piping bags. Then I had the bright idea of using white candy melts so I could put the logo under a piece of wax paper and trace the shapes.

Unfortunately melted chocolate + food coloring don't mix. After some research I learned that most food coloring is water-based and chocolate and water don't mix well. Apparently there are some oil-based food colorings that would have worked, but my Wilton gel ones don't.

So it was back to the drawing board, again.

By that point I was a bit discourage and decided to use my food writer pens and just draw everything on there. I knew these would look as good as I originally envisioned but I figured it was the thought that counted.

The main drawback to drawing with the pens was that I have no drawing talent whatsoever. Back in middle school I remember they had two different art classes, and while it was never advertised this way I'm 99.9% sure they had one for people with art skills and one for people without it. No surprise I landed in the "can't draw a stick person" class :)

(ignore the shadows - I got an Ott Lite for Christmas to help take better pictures but apparently it had the opposite effect...)

Baked Potato Pouch

2011-01-20T09:41:00.000-05:00

I found this in my stocking Christmas morning and before I could give it a look that said "what the heck is this" my mom intervened. She said it was a microwave potato bag that is supposed to create a "just right" baked potato.

I've made potatoes in the microwave before and they seem to end up either wrinkly or overcooked so I was intrigued to try this. The bag holds up to 4 potatoes and you just need to wrap each in a paper towel and bake according to microwave settings.

My microwave has a potato button but it defaults to 2 lbs so I just manually set it for 10 minutes and hoped for the best. The potatoes came out cooked well, although the skin was a little wrinkly but better than just throwing it in the microwave without a bag. I still think my way of making baked potatoes is better but this is great when you're crunched for time.

The pouch also came with directions for cooking corn on the cob, acord squash, flour tortillas and even refreshing day old bread.

My mom made this pouch for me and I'm sure you can make them pretty easily if you want to try it yourself. I did a google search and found this page for instructions on how to make your own. I'm not sure if this is the same pattern my mom used but maybe she will weigh in and let us know!

Pizza Pot Pie

2011-01-18T08:45:00.000-05:00

Ok don't run away just because of the odd title, it is good, I promise. During my treadmill run Sunday morning there were slim pickin's on tv. I wound up watching some show called Best Food Ever on a random channel called Planet Green or Go Green or something like that. The theme of the show was cheese and it showcased cheesy dishes at restaurants across the country.

The top cheesy dish was a pizza pot pie from a place in Chicago called Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder. It looked pretty interesting since it was kind of an upside-down deep dish pizza. As the day wore on I decided to try to recreate it for dinner.

As usual it isn't the prettiest dish but it turned out pretty good.

I used 6oz glass ramekins and made 2 versions - 1 with Kraft singles and 1 with shredded mozzarella. Kraft singles don't exactly scream pizza but I used them because on the show they used slices of Wisconsin brick cheese to layer on the bowl and I thought slices were important. As it turned out taste was more important and the shredded mozzarella worked out fine.

The process is really easy and you can easily incorporate whatever flavors and ingredients you like.

You can use ramekins or small, oven-safe bowls (cereal size). Spray the inside with Pam. If you have sliced cheese line the ramekin as best you can.

If you are using shredded mozzarella you still want to spray it with Pam and pile in as much as you want.

On the show the toppings were whole mushrooms and a meat sauce. I diced smoked sausage and cooked it in the skillet; threw in some jarred pasta sauce and let it warm through. Layer as much or as little as you want in the ramekin. You want the filling to reach the top of the container. You can add more cheese if you want too.

For the "bowl" part of the pizza pot pie I used Pillsbury refrigerated breakstick dough because I had some to use up. You could use any sort of premade pizza or bread dough or homemade if you're feeling adventurous. Roll it out and cut it so it stretches completely over the top and hangs down at least 1 inch to help create the bowl shape.

Bake according to the dough instructions. On the show the dough puffed up into a big, mushroom-shaped blob that looked really neat. Mine didn't puff up at all but that's ok.

Carefully turn the ramekin over so the dough is on the plate and lift up the ramekin. I had to use a knife to cut it loose a bit.

Again, not the prettiest thing in the world but the taste was great! I'm not a huge fan of Kraft singles and I definitely didn't like it in this dish. The ones made with shredded mozzarella were excellent and I would make it again.

If you use premade crust this can be a very quick dinner to make and it is versatile enough that you can make it to suit any taste.

One (or Two) Potato Soup

2011-01-15T08:26:00.002-05:00

What did we do before the internet? For someone like me who has to constantly look up cooking tips online I'd be lost without it. This time I had to look up how to chop an onion.

I'll give you a moment to contain your laughter.

Better now?

Ok so see I've never actually used real onion before. I mostly opt for onion powder if a recipe calls for onions (::blush::). This time I was determined to use a real onion even if I didn't know how to cut it. Really I just wanted to make sure I got rid of the parts that you aren't supposed to cook with. I watched a video and felt prepared to do it.

But I forgot one cardinal rule I learned from Shrek: Onions have layers. I took off the peel and started chopping. But then I noticed there was maybe another layer of peel, or at least a layer of non-normal onion looking stuff. So I abandonned ship and tried to pick out the possibly-still-part-of-the-peel pieces.

Crisis averted I added the garlic and started the rest of the process.

And then another crisis when I realized that for whatever reason the pot I was using didn't have a lid that fit. I used the next size up but the steam/water/whatever kept dripping down on the burner and making scary sounds. Fortunately once the temps got lower for the simmer it was quiet again.

The verdict? Not bad. Better than the healthy potato soup I made a while back. This one had more flavor but is still missing something. Maybe the problem is I'm used to potato soup from restaurants where it is loaded with salt and cheese and goodness knows what else.

One (or two) Potato Chowder
From: Beantown Baker

1 Tbs butter
1 onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced (I didn't have any)
1 garlic clove, minced
4 medium white potatoes cut into 1/2 inch cubes (or 2 white potatoes and 2 sweet potatoes)
1 14.5 oz can broth
2 cups milk
3 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
Dash ground cayenne

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, celery and garlic; cook and stir 304 minutes until vegetables are crisp-tender.

Add potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender.

In a medium bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the milk and the flour - mix until smooth. Stir in the remainig milk, salt and cayenne until well mixed. Stir into soup and cook over medium for another 3-5 minutes until bubbly and thickened, stirring constantly.

Garnish with green onions, cheddar cheese and bacon as desired.

Makes about 5 servings (2 ladels each bowl)

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate

2011-01-12T19:42:00.005-05:00

Hot chocolate on a cold, snowy, winter day. What could be better?

Maybe if you made it into Peanut butter hot chocolate instead of the standard stuff!

I was perusing facebook yesterday and saw a post from someone down in Georgia saying they were out of chocolate and peanut butter and he was sad since he obviously couldn't get out to get more. That made me think, hmmmm I wonder if I can put peanut butter in hot chocolate to spruce things up a bit.

I decided to try it tonight and it is a great treat. Plus its insanely easy if you do it my way.

Dump the packet of swiss miss in a mug, add a big dollop of creamy peanut butter (a little less than a Tablespoon I think). Heat the water in the microwave, stir thoroughly and enjoy.

I was a little concerned that the melted peanut butter might end up being too hot and burn my mouth because of the oils but it turned out perfectly. Next time I would probably double the peanut butter because while it was good I think it could have used even more.

I just used Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate mix prepared with water but I bet it would be even better made with milk, or do it the fancy pants way with real chocolate on the stove top. The possibilities are endless. I wonder what else can be added to hot chocolate to jazz it up?

Colts Sugar Cookies

2011-01-07T08:47:00.000-05:00

Playoffs? Playoffs? PLAYOFFS!

That's right Jim Mora the Colts are back in the playoffs. While things weren't looking so great the past month or two they pulled out 4 in a row to land a spot in the playoffs. That was good news for me because back in the fall I bought some football/Colts cookie cutters at Sur La Table and with the holidays and life getting in the way I never got around to using them. Fortunately we made it in so I decided I better use the cookie cutters while I still could.

I decided to make these for work since everyone seemed to enjoy my Christmas sugar cookies. Even better they decided to let us celebrate Blue Friday with jeans and jerseys so it was the perfect thing to bring in today.

I used the same amazing sugar cookie recipe which will always be my go-to recipe for sugar cookies now. The dough is supposed to be kind of crumbly but this time it was almost too crumbly. I had a hard time getting it to roll out cleanly and the horseshoe and helmet didn't work well since the dough was flimsy on the thin parts. Kind of a disappointment but not terrible.

Unfortunately laziness reared its ugly head and I had a hard time motivating myself to decorate these after I baked them. The icing didn't come together very well and I attribute that to my lack of desire to make it. The outline icing was too thick and the flood icing was too thick too, which is a perennial problem I have.

I only made 2 helmets becuase the mouth guard part kept breaking off when I cut the dough and I gave up quickly. I'd like to try these again sometime.

The horseshoes had potential, and while they aren't terrible I don't think they look that good. Next time I think I should outline the cookie in black and then floor it with white to make it pop more. I used blue flood icing for the dots to make them smooth since I like that look. Not sure if it would have looked better as raised dots?

And finally we have the footballs. I had an abundance of these since they performed the best with the crumbly dough. Originally I was going to use the remaining white outline icing to pipe on the seams but I decided to try the white flood icing for smooth seams, mostly because it allowed me to get it done all at once instead of waiting until the next day to add the seams. I thought I would like the smooth decoration but it would pop more if the seams were raised.

I guess the only thing left to say is GO COLTS!!!!!!!!!!!

Homemade Taco Seasoning - Version 2

2011-01-04T21:20:00.003-05:00

I'm still around, I promise. Between the holidays, being sick, and just general laziness I haven't done much in the kitchen but hopefully that will change soon.

You may remember I tried using homemade taco seasoning once before with lackluster results. I decided to try again when I came across another recipe and I am much happier with this one. My original goal was to make up big batches to give away at Christmas but I only managed to make up a few batches. Once I restock on the spices it might Valentines day gifts or something hehe.

I'm not sure how many servings the recipe below makes. I quadrupled it for each batch to fill up a 6 or 8oz jar. It definitely is for more than one serving, just a heads up.

Homemade Taco Seasoning (version 2)
From: Beantown Baker

3 T. chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried onion flakes
3/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp oregano
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 T. cumin
2-2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 T. black pepper

Use 2.5 Tbs per 1 lb of meat. Add 1/2-2/3 cups of water and simmer for 5 minutes until liquid is gone (I go light on the water because it always seems like I have too much liquid)

Stovetop Mac 'n Cheese

2010-12-28T20:36:00.004-05:00

I'm baaaaaack! I've been sidelined for most of the last week with a nasty cold and haven't had any energy or desire to cook or even to type up some posts. Fortunately I met my new best friend Sudafed today and was up for both cooking and blogging!

For some people Mac 'n cheese is a comfort food so it might be the perfect thing for others suffering from the colds that seem to be making the rounds at work. I've never really considered mac 'n cheese a comfort food for me, but they may be because I've never been good at making it. Sure I've made the blue box powdered cheese variety, but even that was rare because I don't like reheated pasta and a box is way too much for me. I even tried making some from scratch though it didn't turn out very appetizing - here.

The real reason I ended up making this is because I don't like to waste ingredients. I had some evaoporate milk left from my Chocolate Marshmellow Fudge so I started googling to find ways to use it up. Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese recipe came up multiple times so I decided to try it.

Of course I didn't have elbow macaroni, dry mustard, or shredded cheddar like the recipe called for but that didn't deter me.

Hello creamy, cheesy goodness! This recipe did not disappoint despite the fact I had to sub in shells instead of elbow macaroni and Habanero/Mexican blend cheese instead of cheddar. I'd definitely recommend sticking with cheddar though!

It also makes a ton of sauce, I cut the recipe below in half for the sauce but used 3/4 of the pasta it called for and there was plenty of sauce so just beware.

Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese
From Alton Brown

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 Tbs butter
2 eggs
6 oz evaporated milk
1/2 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp salt
Pepper (didn't specify amount)
3/4 tsp dry mustard
10 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese

In a large pot of boiling water, cook pasta until al dente and drain. Return pasta to pan and add butter, stirring to melt and coat evenly.

Whisk together eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper and mustard. Stir into the pasta and then add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until creamy.

Chocolate PB Fudge

2010-12-22T17:06:00.000-05:00

After my success from fudge round 2 I was hoping to make another version - peanut butter and chocolate. I looked at a number of recipes and settled on a recipe that was different than any others I previously saw since it doesn't use condensed milk or evaporated milk.

It was an easy 4 ingredient recipe which is really what enticed me. And it was microwavable too!!

I had a slight freak out during the melting phase when it started to resemble the homemade butterfinger bars. It got a weird consistency but I did a taste-test and it tasted ok so I went ahead and made it.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
From About.com recipes

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Melt chocolate, peanut butter, and butter either over the stove or in the microwave. Stir in powdered sugar until melted and smooth. Pour into 8x8 pan and until set, at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.

It set pretty easily and taste ok when I tried it although I thought it tasted really buttery, which kind of makes sense because it uses a lot of butter. Maybe next time I should try it but cut it down to 1/2 stick? Also I used milk chocoalte chips instead of semi-sweet, not sure what difference that made?

Peanut butter and Oreo cookies

2010-12-20T09:06:00.000-05:00

I got the idea for these cookies from a local candy shop/bakery called Simply Sweet Shoppe. They sell a lot of old school candy and also have a small bakery section. I went in there one day and they had a HUGE cookie with big chunks of oreos in it. (when I got it home that night I weighed it on my kitchen scale and it was just over 11oz!) I thought it was a chocolate chip cookie when I bought it but the shop owner said it was actually a peanut butter cookie.

The cookie was pretty good and I was intrigued by the flavor combination so I decided to make my own for my work Christmas pitch-in. I took the easy way out and used a Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix and followed the directions on the package and then through in crushed oreos. Total success!!

I forgot to take pictures of the final product but you can see the big chunks of oreo in the batter before I put it in the oven:

Yummmo! This is a great, easy way to change things up from a standard cookie mix. I will definitely make these again.

Peanut Butter and Oreo Cookie bars

1 Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix - follow directions on package or use your own peanut butter cookie recipe
10 oreas, coarsely crushed, you want some bigger pieces in there

Make the peanut butter cookie mix as desired and stir in the Oreos at the end. Spread in a 7x11 baking dish and bake for about 15 min at 350.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

2010-12-17T10:31:00.001-05:00

A few days ago I shared a link to my new favorite sugar cookie recipe. I still think cut out cookies are a royal pain in the butt, but this recipe makes it more tolerable.

Now as for the decorating part. Wow what a chore! The great thing about these cookies is that people will be impressed by them even if you're not that great at it. I do think it is one of those things where you get better the more you do it - these Christmas cookies are definitely better than the ones I made for Halloween.

The biggest issue I'm still having is with icing color. I have the Wilton gel colors that I bought since I'd heard gel colors were better than regular liquid food coloring. Unfortunately I still have a lot of trouble getting the shades right. As you will see below my red was pink and after half of a tub of red gel color I gave up and embraced the pink. My next thought is to try mixing some colors to see if maybe that somehow achieves a deeper shade even though all I want is the color advertised on the color tub!

To make these cookies use THIS sugar cookie recipe and THIS royal icing recipe. The link to the royal icing also provides great FAQs for working with royal icing including outlining and properly thinning the icing for flooding. I still need to improve on thinning the icing properly because I think mine is still a bit thick. Update: Use this link for the recipes and decorating tips.

As an FYI the royal icing recipe says it is good for 2-3 dozen cookies so I took the blogger's advice and doubled it. I decorated 5 dozen cookies and still have tons of icing left over. Next time I'd do maybe 1.5 times the recipe for 6 dozen cookies.

And now to the stars of the show:

The Christmas Trees were my favorite - what is yours?

Oh fuuuuuuudge, round 2

2010-12-15T05:04:00.000-05:00

After last week's fudge FAIL I received many "fail-proof" fudge recipes from various friends hoping to help me through this last kitchen FAIL. I still think that my main problem was just needing to grease the foil even though it claimed to be "non stick". Regardless, I decided to try a new recipe just to be safe.

Woohoo, it actually looks like fudge! And it is super easy to make.

I made it in the microwave and learned a trick - if you want to melt ingredients in the microwave do it on defrost mode to melt it more slowly and lessen the risk of burning.

Chocolate Fudge
From Allrecipes

3 cups chocolate chips (I used 2 cups semi-sweet, 1 cup milk chocolate)
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional - I omited)

Place chocolate chips, condensed milk and butter in a microwavable bowl and cook on defrost mode for 3-5 minutes until melted smooth. Stir every minute. Stir in nuts if desired.

Pour in a well-greased 8x8 pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until set.

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe

2010-12-13T11:19:00.001-05:00

Since its Christmastime and I have no less than 25 Christmas cookie cutters in my kitchen I decided I better get moving on making some cookies. I was not really looking forward to this since my last trip to sugar cookie land proved frustrating. The taste of the dough from the first recipe was good but the dough was such a pain to work with, mostly because it constantly had to stay cold in order for the cookies to retain their shape while cutting.

This time I decided to use another recipe - one from Bake at 350 which is an AMAZING decorated sugar cookie blog. The things she designs are wonderful, so I figured she must be using a pretty good recipe.

This does not disappoint. Not only does it have the great sugar cookie taste, but the dough does not require any refrigeration and the shapes cut out easily and retain their shape during transer. Total winner!

I haven't gotten around to decorating my cookies yet, but I wanted to share this recipe now in case you are looking to make your own decorated cookies this holiday.

Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies
From Bake at 350
makes 3-4 dozen cookies depending on size

3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 sticks butter, cold
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350

Combine flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add egg and extracts and mix. Note: I didn't have almond extract (and I don't like almond flavors) so I did 1 tsp of vanilla and it tastes great. Gradually add flour mixture and beat until just combined, scraping down the bowl as needed.

The dough will be crumbly, so knead it together with your hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling.

Roll onto a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, freeze for about 5 minutes, and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let stand for a few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

This will definitely be my go-to sugar cookie recipe. If you want some cookie inspiration check out her blog, its amazing.

Grandma's Almond Bark Snack Mix

2010-12-11T10:01:00.000-05:00

Almond Bark Snack Mix

AKA Christmas Crack.

As my Grandma told me, this recipe is not a good keeper because it is addictive and you won't leave it alone. Trust me, she's not kidding. I'm already thinking of how I can make more this week since I'm planning on sharing it with friends and at this rate I won't have enough left for the gifts.

I've had this mix before though never knew how it was made or what gave it the great vanilla flavor. My grandma sent me this recipe last March and I've hung on to it waiting for the holidays so I could include it with some homemade gifts.

But maybe the people receiving this won't like me since they won't be able to resist it and might gain a few pounds in the process. Sorry guys! Totally worth it!

I will say I had a slight scare and flashback to my recent fudge FAIL when I went to break off a piece to taste test and I ended up lifting up the whole sheet of candy:

Fortunately this didn't stick to the wax paper like the fudge did and I have been sampling pieces all night. Probably need to get this into ziplock bags for storage ASAP before I do much more damage.

Almond Bark Snack Mix

16oz almond bark
2 T oil
2 cups pretzel sticks, broken
2 cups Rice Chex
2 cups Corn Chex
2 cups Cheerios
1 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts (optional)

Melt almond bark over low heat either on the stove or in the microwave. If using microwave check every 15-20 seconds and stir to prevent burning. Remove from heat and stir in oil.

In a large bowl place all dry ingredients. Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well to evenly coat the cereal. Pour onto wax paper to cool and harden.

Store in an airtight container.

I will admit I wasn't sure how I felt about adding the oil to the chocolate but I think it is necessary because it thins it out. I was curious if you could just do something like add water but I didn't want to screw it up so I stuck with the oil (I used canola and it worked fine).

Now go make some almond bark mix to give to friends or share with co-workers. You'll earn brownie points, I promise!

Chocolate Marshmellow Fudge

2010-12-09T10:05:00.001-05:00

Well friends, it was a nice run at some pretty good baking, but I greet you today with a FAIL. A pretty big FAIL :(

I received this recipe from a running friend and I was excited to try because I've never made fudge before and thought it might be something good to include with some Christmas gifts. It seemed pretty easy, melt together some ingredients in a saucepan, stir in some other ingredients, throw in a pan and let it set. Almost as easy as the homemade butterfingers.

This took a lot longer to set than I thought it should, even after being in the refrigerator overnight it was still something you'd eat with a fork instead of eating it like a normal piece of fudge. I stuck it in the freezer while I was at work in hopes of it firming up more and it worked.

Except for one slight problem.

Would you like some foil with your fudge?

The original recipe said to use Pam on the pan, presumably to make it non-stick. So since I hate to wash dishes I opted for nonstick aluminum foil to ease the cleanup. Unless you want to bite into piece of foil I don't recommend this method. It apparently didn't provide the nonstick-ness I'd hoped for. Not sure if parchment paper or wax paper would work better?

And if the picture above didn't convince you I did something wrong, try this one:

I held the fudge up perpendicular to the counter top and it didn't budge - if I had 3 hands I would have held it upside down and it would have stayed attached I'm sure.

I definitely want to try this recipe again because it really did taste good, just next time I'll put it directly in the pan.

Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge

1 1/4 cups sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2 Tbs margarine or butter
1.5 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
14 large marshmellows, or 1 3/4 cups mini marshmellows

Coat 8x8 pan with cooking spray. Seriously, do this!

In a medium saucepan, stir together sugar, evaporated milk and butter. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring constantly.

Stir in chocolate and marshmellows. Warning: the marshmellows take a long time to melt, so don't be discouraged. You may have to heat over low for a bit to speed up the process.

Pour mixture into pan and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours. Can also freeze for firmer consistency.

Homemade Butterfinger Bars

2010-12-07T20:45:00.005-05:00

Crispity, Crunchity, Peanut Buttery Butterfinger. Nobody better lay a finger on my butterfinger!

I don't know about you but when I think of butterfinger that slogan pops in my head, complete with Bart Simpson saying it just like here .

Butterfinger is one of those candy bars that tastes really good but was kind of a pain to eat since it falls apart and gets stuck in your teeth. I like it when they had the bite-size pieces years ago so you got the taste but not the mess.

A few months ago I came across a recipe for homemade butterfingers and decided to give it a try. This recipe is EASY! It takes 3 ingredients and about 5 minutes to make so you have no excuse not to make them. They would make a great holiday gift or could be an addition to a cookie platter too.

If you're like me I never really figured out what exactly was in a butterfinger bar, but thanks to this recipe I learned: Melted Candy Corn! Seriously!!

Melt candy corn, stir in peanut butter, let set and cover with chocolate. That's it. I promise. So go make it!

Although since its the holidays and I'm feeling nice, I will warn you, this recipe didn't come together quite as easily as I may have let on. Well, ok, it comes together easily but it sure doesn't look like its good at the beginning.

The recipe says to melt the candy corn for 1 minute, stir and then continue melting for 15 second intervals until fully melted. After 1 minute it still looked like candy corn, I stirred what I could and melted another 15 seconds, it was partially melted by then so I went for another 15 seconds and ended up with the picture above.

In that last 15 seconds the mixture started to harden on the edges of the bowl and it went from being saucy/melted to being sort of stiff. I added the peanut butter and it just sat there - wouldn't stir in at all. So I melted it some more and eventually got it mixed together and poured it into the pan.

I still wasn't sure this looked right and I contemplated tossing it but I decided to let it set and see what happened.

I'm glad I waited because despite the initial ugliness this turned out pretty well. Once the base is hardened you can either cut into small pieces and dip in melted chocolate or take the lazy route like I did and just cover the top with chocolate.

Butterfinger Bars
From Recipecircus

8oz candy corn
8oz creamy peanut butter
8oz chocolate (I used semi-sweet but might do milk chocolate or chocolate bark next time)

Melt candy corn in microwave for 1 minute. Stir and continue melting at 15 second intervals, stirring each time, until melted. Add peanut butter and mix well (I had to melt the candy corn/peanut butter mixture for about 20-30 seconds to get it to mix together). Spread in 8x8 pan, preferably with foil or parchment paper for easy cleanup.

When completely cool, melt chocolate and either spread on top and cool again before cutting or cut bars into small pieces and dip each piece in the melted chocolate and let set.

Enjoy!

And the Winner is....

2010-12-03T08:39:00.002-05:00

ok before I get to the winner I have to say: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!!! My grandma is a faithful follower of this blog and is always emailing me recipes to try, tips on why mine turn out so bad, and also sends me tools for the kitchen so I have to show her some love today :)

I used Random.or'sg Random Integer Generator between 1-18 (the # of comments) to find the winning comment.

Congrats to Comment # 14 Lindsay from life + kitchen who said she would probably use the certificate to buy new baby toys.

Congrats Lindsay! I will send you an email with the promo information from CSN Stores.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

CSN Stores Reminder

2010-12-02T08:19:00.001-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!

Celebrate mom's birthday by entering the CSN stores giveaway here. It ends at 11:59pm EST TONIGHT

Chili Potato Wedges

2010-12-01T15:51:00.000-05:00

While making the taco pork Tuesday I decided to try out another recipe from the same Taste of Home magazine - chili potato wedges. Now that's what I'm talking about! If it comes from a potato I'm usually a fan, especially if it resembles a french fry.

The chili potato wedges looked like a quick, easy, and tasty side dish to throw in with the pork even though it meant my entire plate was beige. Well actually it wasn't all beige because of the taco sauce :)

These potato wedges take about 1 minute to make but didn't provide the flavor I was hoping for. And before you ask, I made them correctly, I promise.

I think the recipe has potential and just needs to be tweaked a bit. For starters there is no way the original recipe will coat an entire potato if you want it to have some flavor. So I would recommend doubling it. And instead of tossing in a bowl I would use a ziplock bag next time because it did not coat well in the bowl. My changes are reflected below:

Chili Potato Wedges from Taste of Home October/November 2010

1 large baking potato cut into 8 wedges (or 2 small potatoes)
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt

In a small ziplock bag combine spice and toss to mix. Cut potato into wedges and coat with cooking spray. Toss wedges in seasoning and place on baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 25-30 minutes. ** Works great in the toaster oven

Taco Pork Chops

2010-11-30T20:27:00.004-05:00

** Don't forget to enter the Cyber Monday CSN Stores giveaway HERE before Thursday night

I'll be honest I don't know if that picture will entice you to try this or send you running away but I figured I'd post it anyway.

Taco Pork. Say what?? Believe it or not, I didn't make up this recipe - it came from Taste of Home magazine. My mom gave me a copy of it and I decided to try it since I had some pork chops defrosting in the refrigerator and I love anything taco/mexican.

I will admit, though, that the thought of a taco-flavored pork chop weirded me about a bit. I know you can find pork on mexican menus, but usually it is shredded in a burrito. Something about it being shredded makes it sound more appealing.

But being the (sometimes) adventurous cook I am I decided to go for it. Plus it gave me another excuse to use my homemade taco seasoning!

Believe it or not this turned out pretty good. You brown the pork and then simmer it in sauce for 15-20 minutes so the pork is tender instead of chewy like I often make. The taco flavor isn't that prominent so I actually would recommend this dish!

In the interest of full disclosure I did butcher this recipe. Like really, really butchered it. And not even (completely) on purpose. So I'm going to make this a two-fer Tuesday and give you both my version and the magazine's version of this recipe.

Taco Pork (Taste of Home version)

4 boneless pork loin chops (6 oz each)
1 Tbs canola oil
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 cup water, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
1 envelope taco seasoning
2 Tbs flour

In a large skillet brown the pork chops in oil. In a small bowl combine tomato sauce, 3/4 cup water, onion and taco seasoning. Pour over pork and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until meat is tender.

Remove pork to a serving plate and keep warm. Combine flour and remaining 1/4 cup water until smooth. Stir into skillet. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for 2 minutes until sauce is thickened. Serve with pork chops.

Taco Pork (Kelly-can't-read-a-recipe-correctly version)
** I did cut the recipe in half

2 boneless pork chops
1/2 cup Bertolli's pasta sauce
1/2 cup water, forgot to divide
Big shake of garlic powder (meant to use onion powder but grabbed the wrong one)
1 Tbs homemade taco seasoning
1 Tbs flour

Follow the same directions as the Taste of Home version above. Mine still ended up pretty good so go ahead and experiment :)

Cyber Monday & a $35 CSN Stores Giveaway

2010-11-29T09:17:00.004-05:00

Happy Cyber Monday! If there are things you didn't get checked off your Christmas list on Friday today is a good day to check online. I don't know about you but my email box was flooded with ads and promo codes for Cyber Monday sales for the online stores I frequent.

In conjunction with Cyber Monday and to kick off the holiday shopping season KitchenFAIL style, I am once again teaming up with CSN stores to offer a $35 online credit to their stores. For anyone who may not have been around during my birthday giveaway, CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from tv tables to fantastic fitness equipment to cookware.

This giveaway is a great opportunity to get something for someone on your Christmas list or even just pick up a present for yourself (don't worry, I won't tell - I shop for myself during Christmas all the time!).

To enter the giveaway, visit CSN Stores and leave a comment mentioning what you would use the $35 for and if it would be a gift for yourself or someone else.

Entries close on Thursday, December 2nd at 11:59 pm EST (Happy Birthday MOM!).

You can enter the giveaway once per day for a total of 4 entries into this contest. Please make sure to include your email address in your comment if it isn't visible in your profile or if I don't know you in real life :)

Daring Bakers Challenge - November 2010

2010-11-27T09:03:00.001-05:00

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

So I bet you're wondering what exactly is a crostata? When I first read the challenge I had no idea what it was. The quick & dirty is that it is an Italian baked dessert tart. It is usually filled with jam or preserves but you can fill it however you want. Since I'm not a fan of baked fruit desserts I wasn't sure if I would try this challenge or not.

After thinking about it though I decided I should go ahead and try it, especially since it seemed to resemble a pie crust and I've never made one before. I wanted to do some sort of peanut butter & chocolate filling so I found a few good recipes and had to make a choice. My mom asked me to bring a dessert to Thanksgiving this year so this was the perfect excuse to try the crostata.

I will admit I was most afraid of making this because a pie isn't something you can easily taste-test to make sure it is ok to serve. Yes, despite a year of improving my cooking skills I'm still afraid of killing someone :)

Isn't that pretty?!?! It is a dark chocolate ganache with white chocolate & peanut butter swirled in to it.

Jealous? Not only do we get Chik-Fil-A nuggets for Thanksgiving but we get that pie/crostata above too!

Below is a quick run through of the basic steps in assembling the crostata. I will also link to recipes and more information on how to make it below.

Since the filling isn't one that you bake I had to blind bake the crust. Blind baking is basically pre-cooking the crust and then you add your cold filling after it is fully cooked.

Originally I'd planned on using a tart pan my grandma gave me but it was 10 inches in diameter and I was afraid I would run out of dough so I used an 8 inch cake pan which worked out fine. As you can see I did have a little dough leftover so I used a mini pie pan I have and made a mini crostata - perfect for taste-testing!

To make sure the crust doesn't puff up when you bake it you need to line the inside of the dough with foil or parchment paper and weight it down with something heavy. They suggest using dry beans or rice if you don't have pie weights but since I had neither I used spare change and it worked out just fine.

You bake the crust for about 15 min with the weights and then take off the foil and weights and cook another 10 minutes or so until golden brown on the edges. It will pull away from the sides of the pan too.

I transferred mine to a larger glass pie pan to make it easier to work with and to cut/serve later.

Someone on the Daring Bakers site recommended spreading a thin layer of melted chocolate on the bottom of the crust to prevent it from getting soggy when you add the filling. I used a piece of Baker's chocolate although next time I might use something with more sweetness.

Once the ganache is done you pour it into the shell and then add big dollops of the peanut butter mixture on top of it. Use a knife to gently mix it together but don't stir it too much.

Put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set and then let it set at room temperature for a few more hours. Serve at room temperature.

All in all I think this is a good dessert. I think I would actually prefer this with a graham cracker crust vs the crostata shell. I thought this was supposed to be like shortbread but it didn't quite taste right to me. The filling is really good, especially the peanut butter, but I think I would try semi-sweet chocolate instead of dark chocolate next time. I love dark chocolate but for some reason it almost seemed like too much.

The filling recipe came from Phe.MOM.enon and I definitely recommend it. To learn how to make the crostata dough you can go here.

Black Friday Deals and a Giveaway

2010-11-22T16:26:00.004-05:00

If you're like me, the week of Thanksgiving is more about shopping than food. My mom and I have gone shopping on Black Friday for many, many years even when there isn't anything we need. We probably end up buying more for ourselves than for gifts but that's half the fun. There is just something about the thrill of the hunt and being with the crowds that keeps up coming back year after year.

Of course I know that some people stay far far away from the malls on Black Friday, preferring to let their fingers do the shopping.

Remember my birthday giveaway with CSN Stores back in September? Well, I can't give away the details just yet but keep your eyes open for a little Cyber Monday fun with Confessions of a Kitchen Failure.

Until then, I did receive word that CSN stores are having some pre-Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales on their sites so I thought I'd pass along the info in case anyone is interested.

http://www.csnbaby.com/holidaydeals

http://www.everygameroom.com/holidaydeals

http://www.fitnessequipmentandmore.com/holidaydeals

http://www.toysandgamesonline.com/holidaydeals

Check back on Monday for more details!!

Pumpkin Pie Bars

2010-11-19T19:56:00.005-05:00

Are you still searching for that perfect dish to make for Thanksgiving? If so, look no further. These Pumpkin Pie Bars scream Thanksgiving while being portable, tasty, and, most importantly, easy!

I should probably go back to the tasty part of the description of these bars. Add a dislike of pumpkin to my growing list of things that make me unAmerican.

I suppose it is another texture issue that keeps me away from pumpkin; that and the spice aspect of it that I don't usually like with my dessert. But since I have read recipe after recipe after recipe about pumpkin and how it is a way to make semi-healthy desserts I bought 2 cans of pumpkin a month or two ago. And then like every other new ingredient I buy, it sat in the pantry forever.

Until now.

I decided to make these bars for our work Thanksgiving pitch-in figuring it might be a better alternative to an actual pumpkin pie. As with anything I bring to work I did a taste-test the night before to make sure they wouldn't make anyone gag and had a nice surprise - these are good. Really Good!!

If lil' Ms. Pumpkinhater things they are good you will too. Heck I was even happy to have leftovers because it meant I could eat more.

Have I convinced you yet?

How about now?

Thought so. Now go ahead and add these to your Thanksgiving menu - your guests will thank me. Even the pumpkinhaters.

Pumpkin Pie Bars
From Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

For the crust and topping:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
12 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup old-fashioned oats
½ cup chopped pecans (I didn't include these)

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree
1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Butterscotch chips, for topping

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Lightly grease the foil.

Combine the flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a small mixing bowl and toss with a fork. Add the pieces of butter to the dry ingredients and cut it in with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the oats and chopped pecans.

Reserve 1 cup of the crust mixture and set aside. Add the remaining crust mixture to the prepared baking pan and press onto the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Bake the crust alone in the oven for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the filling.

To make the filling, combine the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until smooth and well combined.

Once the crust has been removed from the oven, pour the filling into the pan and smooth over the crust. Sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture and butterscotch chips, as desired. Bake for 25 minutes, remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Slice and serve.

** I would have liked a little more of the crust on top so next time I might increase the crust/topping recipe by 1/4 and reserve the extra 1/4 for the topping.

I was a little concerned making these because this was my first time using a pastry blender and I wasn't sure I'd ever get the butter and flour to go together. It liked to get stuck....

Luckily I was able to work it out.

These bars should probably be refrigerated if you won't be serving them right away or if they will be sitting out for a long time. They are good cold and at room temperature so they will travel well.

What are you waiting for? Get in the kitchen and start baking!

No Bake Cookie Bars

2010-11-17T21:43:00.005-05:00

Last Thursday I walked into a late afternoon meeting at work and one of my co-workers asked if I was baking that night. I said nope, and in fact I wasn't going to be in the next day because I had a vacation day scheduled. After pausing for a moment to let her soak in the fact that I didn't have to work and she did, I asked if she was trying to request something. She thought for a moment and said she'd been wanting chocolate no bake cookies for a while.

Mmmmmm no bake cookies. Yummmmm.

I remember having these in the lunchroom at high school, except we didn't call them no bake cookies, we had other names for them to describe what they looked like. But since that name isn't very appetizing I will refrain from using it.

Fortunately when I went to college I made an awesome discovery (ok not so awesome for my waistline...) - no bake cookie bars.

YES!

Just as good as the cookies from high school but in a much more appealing shape. So when my coworker mentioned she had been craving them I figured I would make the bars I loved so much in college. I don't even remember the last time I had no bake cookies so I was happy to oblige.

The nice thing about no bake cookies is they are super easy to make, and even less work if you make it in bar form. The only speedbump I ran into was that I was out of butter and had to make a last minute trip to the store to make these. Totally worth it though!

No Bake Cookie Bars

1/2 cup butter

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

4 Tbs cocoa powder

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups quick-cooking oats

Add butter, sugar, milk and cocoa powder to a 4 quart saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and then let boil for 1 more minute. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Stir in oats.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto wax paper or spread into a 9x13 pan covered with wax paper (for thicker cookies use 8x8). Let cool until set (put in fridge for quick cooling)

Since I wanted to make sure the requesting co-worker got her share I made her a little goodie bag from these cute bags I picked up at Target:

Shark Attack Cupcakes

2010-11-15T09:44:00.001-05:00

Duh-nuh; duh-nuh; duh-nuh duh-nuh duh-nuh duh-nuh..........SHARK!!!!!!!!

No, no, it isn't a tribute to Shark Week, although this would be a great recipe for that. Well assuming you do something to celebrate Shark Week, which I don't, but that's beside the point. However bf has an affinity for sharks so with his birthday coming up I decided to try my hand a Shark Attack cupcakes.

These cupcakes come from the book Hello, Cupcake! which is an amazing book of crazy ways to decorate cupcakes. The best part though is that they use store bought cake mixes and frosting and do all of their piping with ziplock bags - no fancy equipment required. If you're at a book store sometime you should flip through this book or the newest edition What's New, Cupcake?

I kept pretty quiet about my attempt at these cupcakes because I knew there was a big chance for it to turn into a FAIL. While these aren't perfect I am proud of how they turned out and I learned a few lessons in case I try to "build" a cupcake again.

The Pièce de résistance is of course the shark itself. I ended up making 3 (well 4 if you count the one that committed suicide, errr, sharkicide?) but the one above was by far the best.

Below you will see a photo journal of the building process for the sharks since they are the biggest part of Shark Attack Cupcakes.

Hello junk food central!! Fortunately I bought most of the ingredients at different times, otherwise I would have gotten a few stares in the store.

The 1st step is to build the body of the shark. You slice off about an inch or so diagonally from one side of the shark. At the other end you cut off a thin wedge from each side to make the snout.

Cut a notch in the shark's spine to insert the fin (I used graham crackers which were a bit too thick but I didn't want to buy a special pack of chocolate wafers just for 3 fins). Use a little frosting to secure the shark to the cupcake. As you can imagine the sharks are very top heavy and it takes a little work to figure out the best way to shape the shark so it doesn't topple over.

Once the sharks are attached to the cupcake you need to freeze it for 10-15 minutes to make sure it stays together well and can handle the warm icing.

Houston, we have a problem. This was my first shark and he basically fell into the icing. It was too thin where the back of the shark attached to the cupcake and it couldn't hold its own weight. You'll also see how bad the icing looked - there was a fine line between good consistency and bad. I was afraid to warm the frosting too much but that really is the best way to cover it.

This one was a little better since it didn't fall over, but the icing was still too thick and you can see how it isn't very smooth-looking.

The 3 who survived.

You can definitely see that the one closest to the camera is smooth - the consistency on this one was correct.

The teeth were actually really easy to the pipe on with the ziplock bag. The red part of the mouth is the fruit by the foot/fruit rollup stuff. The book uses mini chocolate chips for the eyes but I just piped on black eyes.

By far the best one.

The book also included ides of life rafts, schools of fish, buoys, and other ocean markers. I decided to make the life rafts and schools of fish.

The life rafts are just mini donuts with slices of fruit by the foot wrapped around it. The recipe called for plain mini donuts but all I could find were chocolate or powdered sugar so I opted for powdered sugar since it was already white and wouldn't require more frosting! You can use a fork to cut out a shark bite if you want.

Swedish fish make an easy school of fish cupcake although it would be nice to have some a little smaller I think.

This was definitely the most involved decorating project I've tried. Even though it was pretty basic with store-bought ingredients it was time consuming for the assembly.

I think that building cupcakes like this again would be fun now that I have one version under my belt. However if you are thinking of making the sharks I would recommend making jumbo cupcakes instead of the standard size. I think a jumbo cupcake would make a better base and make the shark less likely to topple over.

Smore's Brownies

2010-11-10T21:03:00.006-05:00

Ham Porter: Hey, Smalls, you wanna s'more?
Smalls: Some more of what?
Ham Porter: No, do you wanna s'more?
Smalls: I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing?
Ham Porter: You're killing me Smalls! These are s'more's stuff! Alrite now pay attention. First you take the graham, you stick the chocolate on the graham. Then you roast the 'mallow. When the 'mallows flaming... you stick it on the chocolate. Then cover with the other end. Then you scarf. Kind of messy, but good!

Name that movie??

The Sandlot!

Hopefully you're more in tune to messy treats than Smalls was. Smores are the quintessential campfire food. Although its probably getting too cold outside for camping or even campfires but that's beside the point. But while we're on the subject of camping.....:::shudder:::.... let's just say I am so not a camper. I can't figure out why you want to sleep outside and on the ground when we have nice comfy beds and temperature-controlled houses. To each his own I guess!

And while we're on the subject of things I don't like, I don't really like marshmellows. Add it to the list of foods that normal people like but I don't. If I were making smores it would be light on the marshmellow and double chocolate. This recipe is sort of like that - regular smores ingredients + a nice fudgy brownie to make it extra chocoately. Yummm.

To make you drool a bit I'll start with the final product.

Doesn't that look good? If this marshmellow hater likes them you know they're good! Whip up a batch of these for your next pitch-in or holiday party and you'll come home with an empty plate.

Smore's Brownies from Beantownbaker

10 graham crackers, broken in half (20 squares), divided
3/4 cup butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
2.5 cups miniature marshmellows (or chop large ones into smaller pieces)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks or chips

Heat oven to 350.

Line a 9x13 pan with foil (DO THIS!) and spray with cooking spray. Place about 15 grahams in the pan with the sides overlapping. Do the best to make sure the entire bottom is covered. Crush remaining graham crackers into small pieces.

Microwave butter and chocolate for about 2 minutes - stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix well. Stir in flour. Pour mixture over the graham crackers in the pan.

Bake for 30-32 minutes until toothpick comes out with fudgy crumbs - do not overbake.

Sprinkle with marshmellows and chocoalte chunks/chips and press down a bit. Bake for 3-5 minutes until marshmellows begin to puff. Press crushed graham crackers into marshmellows to make sure they stick.

If you have a kitchen torch you can toast the marshmellows some more for a more authentic look.

** I used an 8x8 pan and just cut the recipe in half. These definitely will taste best served that day, especially when slightly warm. Mine sat out overnight with saran wrap over the pan and they seemed a bit dry in the morning but seemed to get nice and moist as the day went on even though they were sitting out at work. Either way they are good!

After baking, sprinkle the marshmellows and chocolate chunks/chips on in the desired quantity. I'm not sure how many marshmellows I used but it may have been too many.

Final product...yumm...

Cookies in a Jar

2010-11-07T18:57:00.007-05:00

Now that Halloween is over I can sort of tolerate Christmas stuff being in the stores, although I still don't think they should be allowed to play Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. I'm not Scrooge or anything, I just like my holidays in order.

One of the most popular homemade Christmas gifts seems to be mixes in a jar. If you don't know what I'm talking about, or if you want some ideas, check out this link - it seems to be the mecca of "things in a jar". But wait, I'm not writing to tell you how to make one, you can follow the link above for that. Instead I'm sharing my recent experience with one of those mixes that I received as a gift.

Maybe I shouldn't use the word recent since we last celebrated Christmas 10 months ago. And, if I'm being perfectly honest I didn't receive it 10 months ago. You might have to add a month or twelve to that calculation. It isn't that I didn't want to make them, but more like I just kept forgetting to make it. Have no fear though, I'm an expert at expired ingredients, remember?

Ignore the fact that this picture is sideways (for some reason some pictures get flipped when I upload them to blogger even though it was rightside up on the camera and on my hard drive).

When I attempted to dump out the mix the chocolate chips, m&ms and almond came out fine and then....nothing. It wasn't budging at all.

In fact you can see the m&m imprints in the brown sugar. That can't be good. I was finally able to get it out by taking a knife around the edges and then chopping at it until all of the dry ingredients came out.

It took a lot of extra mixing to get everything incorporated, especially since there were some big chunks of brown sugar that didn't want to separate. I finally felt like it was mixed well I stuck it in the pan for some delicious cookie bars.
These look pretty good! I ended up cooking them for about 20 minutes and they came out just the way I like it - slightly undercooked and chewy and wonderful. Phew, I saved a FAIL!

Something was nagging at me though and I wasn't sure if I should actually bring them in to work. Even though I sampled one, errr uhhh one row, I wasn't convinced these would be good to share.

A woman's intuition is to be trusted, apparently even as it applies to baking. As I was cutting the bars into pieces my knife hit a hard spot and wouldn't go through. I thought maybe it was a cluster of almond or m&ms that was being stubborn. Instead I got...

A rock. A brown sugar rock to be precise.

If you bake a brown sugar rock the outside gets white and the inside is dark brown, kind of cool. So anyway I decided that even though these taste good and I didn't think there were anymore rocks, my coworkers and their dentists might not appreciate these cookies.

Healthy Baked Potato Soup

2010-11-03T20:51:00.002-04:00

Ahhhhh, the temperatures are getting cold, football is on tv, and the leaves have fallen and are piled up in bags .... errr uhhh mulched into tiny pieces from my lawnmower because I'm too lazy to rake. But that's beside the point. What it really means is fall is here, winter is on the way and it is time for some soup!

Believe it or not I haven't been a soup person for too long. I think chicken noodle soup smells funny and the scary vegetables in most soups turn me away. But then there is potato soup - the greatest soup on earth. This is the first soup I remember eating and it is definitely my favorite. Unfortunately it isn't the healthiest of soups, so I was glad when I stumbled upon the recipe on Cooking Light.

Baked Potato Soup
From Cooking Light

2.5 lbs of baking potatoes
2/3 cup flour
6 cups milk (I used skim and it was still super creamy)
1 cup reduced-fat shredded cheese, recommend sharp cheddar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream (I used fat-free becuase that's what I had on hand)
3/4 cup chopped green onions
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled.

Bake potatoes completely - I recommend this method but you can also cook them in a regular oven or completely in the microwave. Once the potatoes have cooled, peel if desired and coarsely mash.

In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, add flour and then gradually add the milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook until thick and bubbly, about 8 minutes. Add the mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup of shredded cheese, salt, and peppers and stir until the cheese melts. Remove from heat.

Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup green onions. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Top each serving with remaining cheese, green onions and bacon.

Serves 8 (note: I made a 1/2 recipe and it made 4.5 cups of soup)

I made a few adjustment to the soup (shocker!): I omitted the onion because I don't like chopped onion and I left out the bacon because I didn't have any though I can assure you I wanted some.

These omissions, and maybe the recipe itself, resulted in a rather bland soup. I can't imagine the onion would make all of the difference in the soup flavor but maybe it does? I solicited some suggestions on ways to add some flavor to the soup and received the following: garlic, sage, rosemary, oregano, hot sauce.

I plan to make this soup again soon - mainly because I bought 10 lbs of potatoes the other day and I have at least 6 lbs to go. I think I will try adding maybe a teaspoon of garlic and teaspoon of oregano next time and seeing what happens.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T12:16:00.008-04:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Here are the rest of my Halloween cookies. I used Halloween cookie cutters from Sur La Table,
the sugar cookie recipe from the September Daring Bakers Challenge

and the royal icing recipe from Annie's Eats.