I'm Being Eaten by a Cookie Jar

Hello, hello! So I took a trip to Florida last week which you might have noticed if I was any good at posting between Monday and Friday. I really want to be, but just amn't (I know that's not a word but it should be). However I *expect* to compose a series of posts from my trip to Florida because of all the pretty pictures I took and the shenanigans I encountered. Or something. So look forward to THAT. I'm now wishing that I had taken better notes for comic strip ideas. 

Moving along. I finally revised Media Monday's day icon to reflect more than just TV. I know this is very exciting for all of you. Look for it tomorrow! Oh my I am boring myself. 

New recipe! I finally made cookies with the cookie cutter Kirsti sent me. So yeah its just a recipe for sugar cookies but sometimes they can suck and I will guarantee you that these are delicious!

Kangarookies

The looked less like dinosaurs once iced brown and with an eye. I advise you ice your sugar cookies anytime you make them even if they aren't animal shaped because it makes them even better. I also like to sprinkle them with sugar to make them sparkly.

And I believe that will be all for today. Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Recommended

I actually have blog stuff to talk about! I am thrilled to report that 20 Something Bloggers has made me one of their "20SB Staff Recommends" bloggers! It's really cool to be recognized for what I'm doing here since I don't get much feedback these days. I still love all of you who are still reading, whoever you are, but I'm excited that some new people might be reading my blog because of this. And p.s. welcome to anyone who's new to my blog!

Some other stuff, for anyone who uses Google+, there's a new little icon at the bottom of blogger blog posts (it's a little +1) that you can click if you like my post! So if you read a post, even if it's in reader, go and click it and maybe that will get me more people to write for! 

Oh and it's been a while since I've asked for facebook page likes so I'm putting that out there again! I try to post stuff there and if I got a bunch of followers I might be more inclined to be interesting. My tweets go there at least...

This week's Scrumptious recipe was for:

Irish Biscotti

It was made with Bailey's but ended up not tasting like it at all but was still delish. Yes, I said delish. Twice.

For anyone who doesn't know, I also have a recipe blog and I make and post recipes every Saturday. And they are guaranteed to be awesome, delicious and fairly easy to make!

I think that's it for this week so do me a favor and have an awesome week!

So Much Pain

So here's the thing about banquet serving for weddings... when you only do it once every 4 weeks you find yourself in copious amounts of pain. Or at least a fair amount over widespread parts of your body. Including blisters on parts of your feet you wouldn't think would blister. 

Okay this post has gotten kinda gross. I should probably think of something to write about before telling you what my Scrumptious Saturday recipe was... hmmm yeah I got nothing. Deal with it.

This week I made... Bailey's Cookies!
They are super good, people said so. And they're made with Bailey's so how could they not be good?












So I think that's all for today. Have a great week!

If you can't tell... It's Garfield and Jon are under the couch.

That's how I feel too.

Cinnamon Festival

Sorry guys, another dessert this week. I just like them better. I'll do something healthier next week. Also I want to say that as of yesterday I made it to 50 followers!!! I know that is not really that many but I feel like its a milestone worth mentioning.

I was inspired to make this recipe because of this episode of Psych in which Gus and Shawn eat more slices of cinnamon pie than I can count (okay, I could but then I'd have to watch the whole episode, which I don't have time for today).

Looks good right?

Cinnamon Pie
Printable recipe

Ingredients:
1 c. white sugar
1.5 Tbsp flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 c milk
1 unbaked pie crust (10", these are found in freezer section)
Optional: Whipped cream


Procedure:
1) Preheat oven to 400º F
2) In a medium bowl combine sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt.
3) Add beaten egg, butter and vanilla. Mix well.
4) Add milk. Mixture will be very thin, aka "liquid-y".
5) If using the aluminum pie plate it came in, place crust on cookie sheet first. Pour mixture into pie crust and place in oven.

No, I didn't put my crust on a cookie sheet first, that was an after thought.

6) Bake at 400º for 15 minutes then reduce to 350º for an additional 45 minutes.

Will look cooked on top, but pudding like underneath until it sets.

7) Let cool completely to set before serving (I did not do that when I cut the slice in the above picture. I suggest refrigerating). Refrigerate leftovers.
8) If desired, serve with whipped cream!
9) Watch Psych.

Chocolate Chip Macaroons

Click me!

Not the simplest recipe but follow directions precisely and it will be well worth the work. Crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside, these are sure to please!

Chocolate Chip Macaroons

Ingredients:


1 14oz package sweetened shredded coconut
4 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk
pinch kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large egg whites at room temp.
2/3 c granulated sugar
1 c. mini chocolate chips


Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 325º F

2) Combine coconut with the condensed milk, salt chocolate chips and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.

3) Mix egg whites in a separate bowl using a mixer with a whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until foamy. 

4) Gradually add the sugar and continue to whip until medium peaks form m6-7 minutes.

5) Gently fold beaten egg whites into the coconut mixture.

6) Scoop Tbsp-sized mounds onto a parchment lined (DO NOT USE SILICONE) sheet pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. 

7) Immediately transfer parchment sheets to a cooling rack. 

8) Store in an air-tight container.

Egg-cellent

Remember when I posted this with the link to a recipe for homemade Cadbury eggs? Yesterday I finally made them. Here's how I did it.

Homemade Cadbury Eggs

Ingredients:
12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c light corn syrup
1/4 c softened room temp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP vegetable oil
2.5 c powdered sugar
Silicone egg mold



I got this silicone egg mold from a Joann's Fabric store. Also available on Amazon.

1) Melt chocolate in microwave using 30 second intervals, stirring at each interval.

2) Spoon into egg crevices, and smooth up sides with the back of a small spoon. You should have about have the chocolate remaining. Refrigerate.

3) Cream together butter, corn syrup and vanilla.

4) Mix in 1/2 c at a time powdered sugar. After the first cup add vegetable oil.

5) Continue to mix in sugar 1/2 c at a time until done. If this becomes hard for your mixer switch to mixing by hand. 

6) Remove egg molds from refrigerator and spoon tablespoon sized balls of cream into eggs, flattening with back of a spoon.

7) Microwave remaining chocolate for 30 seconds then spoon on top of eggs, sealing in the cream. Use a spoon to 

smooth if needed. Refrigerate for an hour then remove from molds.

8) If wanted, cut out pieces of foil, wrap and give out to friends!

Splendid! Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

I've always been the kinda girl who would like to eat healthy but can't be bothered to follow through. One day when I was at the store in the baking aisle buying sugar, I saw the vast array of Splenda products. I remembered seeing previously that they make a granulated variety so that people will buy it to bake with. I guess it's awesome for diabetics who will die if they eat sugar but I picked up a bag so that I could pretend that I'm eating healthier. 4 months later I found this recipe box at a store and remembered having that bag of sugar and yada yada yada, I finally made a recipe with Splenda! P.S. You can get these recipes on Splenda's website if you want to try more! Also I'm sure I will be making more in the near future. This one actually called for the Splenda sugar blend which is 50% real sugar. BTW I'm in no way making money from Splenda for this, just wanted to fill you in! 

Let me mention up top that they bake for 2 hours so plan ahead when making these! I chose to do their recipe for Chocolate Chip Meringue Crisps but I made it without walnuts and they came out different than the picture. While I'm still crediting Splenda for the recipe, I bring you my version of recipe:

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

Ingredients:

2 Egg whites*

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 c. Splenda® Sugar Blend

3/4 c Semisweet chocolate chips

parchment paper

Directions: 

1) Preheat oven to 200ºF.

2) Beat egg whites with vanilla at high speed until foamy.
3) Add sugar 1 tbs at a time (I found that mine were a bit sweeter than I'd like so I suggest using 1/4-1/3 c. instead), continue beating until stiff peaks** form.
4) Gently stir in chocolate chips.
5) Spoon rounded teaspoons onto parchment lined baking sheets. (I used a tablespoon sized scoop so the ones pictured are larger than they should be). They can be placed fairly close together as they do not expand or spread while baking.

6) Bake for 2 hours. Cool slightly then move to wire racks to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Splenda says these have 35 Calories each but my recipe will be more due to the extra chocolate. Lessening the sugar blend will bring it back down a bit.
 

*How to separate eggs

**Stiff peaks

Yada yada yada

These Pretzels Are Making Me Thursty

Here's a really simple, fun, quick, tasty recipe (What? Too many adjectives?) for an elegant treat. Enjoy them yourself or give as a gift!





Chocolate Covered Pretzels:

Ingredients:
2 Bags Pretzel Rods (I use Snyder's)
1 Bag (14 oz.) Chocolate Wafers
1 Bag (14 oz.) White Chocolate Wafers

Equipment:
2 Tall coffee mugs
Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Sheet

*Note: When buying pretzels, look for bags with the least amount of broken rods. This is harder than it sounds.

1) Lay out sheets of parchment flat on a counter top where you will be dipping the pretzels.
2) Pour approx 3/4 of each bag of the chocolate wafers into each of the coffee mugs. (In the picture I used bars of chocolate).

3) Microwave one mug of chocolate on high for 1 minute and then for 30 second intervals, stirring (i would use a knife, less messy) at each interval until melted. *Make sure to stop and stir or chocolate can get ruined.

4) Once completely melted, dip pretzel rods into the chocolate, holding the mug at and angle to coat the length of the pretzel leaving an un-coated bit at the end as a handle.

 5) Let excess chocolate drip off then place on the parchment paper to set. 

6) Once done with the first half of the pretzels, repeat this process with the white chocolate. *Be even more careful when melting, white chocolate burns faster and becomes very hard to work with.




7) After all pretzels are dipped, melt the rest of the unused chocolate and use a spoon to drizzle it over the contrasting dipped pretzels.



8) Place in freezer or refrigerator to set chocolate.





* Do not use regular food coloring if you want to color the white chocolate. Either buy colored chocolate or use and oil based food dye. 
**Instead of drizzling chocolate you can decorate with sprinkles or colored sugars.

9) Enjoy!

I didn't mean to have two recipes in a row that would inspire Seinfeld reference titles, but that's what happened and thus, another Seinfeld video clip: