Showing posts with label I am cooking?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I am cooking?. Show all posts

Peanut butter bliss

OK, peeps – I don’t claim to be a fantastic cook or baker. I mean, there was the cake fail of last summer, ifyouknowwhatI’msayin’.

Well, even that one tasted good. I just looked all wrong. :)

But every once and awhile I open my recipe binder (it creaks and a cloud of dust poofs out) and find one I love and I just have to share. You will thank me. :)

I’ve made this “pie” for years, but for some reason it’s been a while since I last did. And now that we’ve had it again, I’m quite sure I’ll be making it weekly. Or so.

It’s SO easy. And insanely good. You will LOVE it. That is, if you like peanut butter. Or chocolate. Or sugar. Or for all that is GOOD – if you like anything YUMMY. Then, you will LOVE it.

You’ll need just a few ingredients:

3/4 c. confectioners sugar

6 oz. cream cheese

1/2 c. peanut butter

one container Cool Whip

2 tbsp. milk

graham cracker crust

I buy the crust ready made, and I add a little somethin’ extra by using a chocolate crust:

Aw. yeah.

It takes about five minutes to whip this baby up – first, mix the cream cheese and sugar:

Sorry, these pics were taken at night, spur of the moment. Not my best work. :)

Then mix in the peanut butter and milk:

I took the pictures in case you’ve never mixed anything in your life. :) Mr. Obvious, I know.

Then just fold in a container of Cool Whip (leave a little bit for later), plop it into crust, and resist the urge to eat it up with a (large) spoon:

Oh. em. gee. Isn’t it so fabulous and fluffy? Does anyone else love Cool Whip so much they could eat a whole container? Or, think they could eat the whole container? I wouldn’t know that first hand.

Or something.

Then comes the hardest part of the whole pie – you have to let it chill for a while. A few hours is best, but I can tell you from experience that one hour is just fine.  :)

After it’s chilled a bit, lather the pie with more cool whip. Then drizzle some chocolate over it, maybe sprinkle some peanuts, and you have one of the easiest, yummiest desserts EVER:

I am aware it looks like I had our four-year-old drizzle the chocolate. But only I can take credit for this beauty. I told you earlier I don’t do well with the whole presentation thing.  (Aqua and coral Fourth of July cake ring a bell?)

Anyhoo, who cares what it looks like? It’s FANTASTIC to eat. Whoooeee.

It’s called Jimmy Carter Peanut Butter Pie. I call it peanut butter heaven. Try it, love it. And don’t blame me when you eat the whole thing in 24 hours. :)

I’ll be back with a quick Christmas project tomorrow!

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Cake FAIL

Many of you know I share the good and the bad on this little ‘ol blog. I have shared my house at it’s worst, as well as many projects I deem “science fairs” (translation = they don’t go well).

Well this one is in the science fair category for sure.

One of the many things I love about blogging is that I will now try things that I may have never attempted, because if it turns out I’ll want to share it with you all. And if it doesn’t turn out, I’ll want to share it with you all.  ;)

Let’s preface the rest of this post by saying I have baked a cake before. Many. You may not believe me after I show you this, but I cross-my-heart-swear I have.

Swear.

OK, a few weeks ago, someone on twitter sent along a picture of one of the cutest cakes I’ve ever seen – I can’t remember for the life of me where I saw it, but it was an ADORABLE Fourth of July flag cake. Not the regular sheet cake, but one that looks all boring with white icing and then PADOW!, you cut into it and there’s this gorgeous American flag cake.

Adorable.

So I’ve planned for weeks to try this out. And today I did.

And it:

a.) took FOREVER

b.) did not look like the picture

c.) like really, really did not look like the picture

d.) still tasted really good. :)

I figured I was going to have issues when I added the food coloring to the batter:

I needed some of the batter to be red for the red stripes, some white, and some blue for the blue corner of the “flag.”

Ummm…that batter up there? It’s not red. It’s pink. Maybe coral? Not red.

I added a little gel food coloring, then more, then a lot. Still coraly pink. Ohhhhkay.

I trudged on…and it was just one thing after the other. I learned some things this first time around so next year (oh yes, I will try it again!) I’ll remember them.

First tip is to just make all of the cake batter at ONE time, then segment it into five equal parts batter for all of the stripes. You can then color each batch whatever color you need, instead of making separate batches and coloring them as you go.

I did the red pink batter first and baked those cakes. Then I was going to make the white stripes, and put some of the batter aside to make the blue cake I needed. But I lost my mind for a few seconds and put the blue coloring in before I separate them – and then tried to get it out before I mixed it.

It didn’t work.

Hot mess. HOT.

I ran out of cake mix (oh yes, I used box mix!) and found a white Christmas cake mix in the pantry that didn’t expire till next February – SCORE!! I used that for the white layers I needed.

But it was still just a mess. I got whipped icing cause I LOVE WHIPPED ICING and it did not cover the cake well at all – I mean, seriously. Are you kidding me?

I just said forget it, garnished it with some stinkin’ fruit, and from the outside it looked OK:

OK, it was a hot mess. Just humor me.

But when you cut it open, the fruit on top accentuates the clash of the blue/aqua and red/coral/pink:

american flag cake

Awesome.

In the original cake I saw, there were two bottom layers of red and white, then two smaller white and red layers on top next to the blue. I didn’t have room for the top white layer. So my flag is red, white, red. Gah.

To make the flag, the bottom layers are just round cakes. The blue corner is a layer of cake, cut into a ring and placed on top of the other two. The middle two layers (what should be two layers) are the inside circle of two additional cakes. You ice between layers and then piece them together.

It’s just that easy.  :)

When hubby saw it today he was so excited I had made cake!

Then I asked, did you see it, the inside? Do you like it?

“Yeah it’s cute!” (He says just seeing the fruit and white icing. From far away.)

“See the flag inside?”

He steps closer.

“The what?”

“The FLAG.  See the three layers of pink, white, pink and the aqua? It’s an American flag!”

Crickets.

 “Ohhh, yeah. I see it! It’s cute!” (LYING. Because he loves me. And he still wants a slice of cake.)

I must say, the leaning tower of pink and aqua cake is absolutely scrumptious:

It’s not so pretty but ummm umm it’s GOOD!! :)

I have a ton of cake scraps left:

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(Uh, is it me, or does it look NEON?)

So tonight I made some itty bitty trifles:

mini trifle

The cutey itty bitty trifle bowls courtesy of WalMart -- $2 each!

Again, I continue to accentuate the pastel tone of the cake with the fruit, but you know what? It’s GOOD! :)

So there you have it – my science fair cake fail. But what do you consider a cake fail – if it looks like a hot mess, or if it tastes like a hot mess?

Maybe it’s not a complete fail? Just a half-way one? I’m going with that.  :)

I’ll be back soon with an update on the kitchen! Kitchen projects I’m pretty good at. Fourth of July cakes – notsomuch.

 

P.S. The cake was from a blog with the title that was something like 18 and baking, or something like that? If you know of it, let me know! :)

**Thanks! I found it! Click here – this girl is ahhhmazing!!

P.P.S. Many are suggesting gel food coloring and that’s what I used – maybe the whole tube just isn’t enough?  ;) I have no clue – any other ideas?

This post brought to you by:

rustedcapture125

Before and After Party: Strawberry Jam!

009Geez Louise, you could practically pull my fingerprints off that picture! ;)

I have to start off this post by letting my Dad everyone know that yes, yes I CAN cook. I can bake. I can make dinner. And I can even pour milk into a cereal bowl.

All of the above. (The last one I do very well, thankyouverymuch.)

I just don’t cook and bake very often. With hubby’s crazy work schedule and a three-year-old who lately eats nothing other than cheese and hot dogs, I just don’t do it as much as I’d like.

But something about my transforming (beautiful!) kitchen and summer is making me want to cook and bake up a storm. (I’m going to try a out a doozy soon and will be sure to show you.)

So when I saw my friend Beth’s post about making strawberry freezer jam (and how unbelievably easy it was), I knew I had to try it!

Today was an absolutely positively gorgeous day here in the Midwest, so I corralled my BFF and her daughter, and the four of us took a trip out to a local berry farm to collect strawberries:

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It was a big-fat-white-clouds-in-a-perfectly-blue-sky kind of day – lovely!!

We put the kids to work starting picking the berries:

003And the smart ones (the kids) realized VERY quickly that picking strawberries – not so fun. It’s hard work! So they stood around pointing to the good ones while the moms picked through the plants. :)

We finished our afternoon with some ice cream and a visit with the resident cutie-patootie doggy:

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He’s just a BIG SWEETAY!! (If you can tell me where that’s from, I’ll send you a dollar. Just kidding. I’ll really want to send you one but won’t. Maybe a virtual dollar.)

Anyhoo, this evening I got to making my JAM – for the first time ever!! It was SO incredibly easy! If you read Beth’s post, this is pretty much a complete copycat of hers, but I have a dark stove and counters and she has light ones.  :)

I started with my luscious berries – I got extra just in case, and ended up with about five pounds of berries:

After rinsing and cutting off the stems, I used a potato masher to smash up the berries to two cups (smashed):

I didn’t even chop up the strawberries first. I had to start with about 2.5 cups (maybe a little more) of berries to get the two cups smashed.

Then, add to the mashed berries FOUR cups of sugar:

YES. Four cups.

Yes, that is only two. Add FOUR. Like Beth said, “Just don't think about it.” She’s right. I had to force myself to pour it all in. But I hear it’s totally worth it in the end so just close your eyes and POUR. :)

Mix it all together, and keep mixing here and there for about ten minutes:

For the last two minutes of that ten, take a package of Sure Jell and mix it with 3/4 cup of water on the stove:

 

After it starts boiling, let it boil for one minute and keep stirring!:

Take the mixture off the stove, add it to your berries and heart attack sugar, and stir for about three minutes (maybe a bit more).

Then take your so-cute-I-could-just-die jelly jars from Wally World:

I think it was about $8 for 12 of them?

And fill them up, about a half inch from the top of the can:

 strawberry freezer jam 

Let them sit at room temperature for 24 hours, then you can freeze them. I plan to bring them to cook outs and Fourth parties throughout the summer as gifts to the hostess – maybe with some yummy bread on the side? How precious is that?

And once I make a super cute label to dress them up, they’ll be too cute for words. Anyone know if these are OK to freeze until the holidays? If so, then the mailman better like strawberry! :)

I haven’t tried them yet, but I did have to lick the spoon at the end and YUMMO – it was good!!

I couldn’t believe how easy this was! I did two batches and that made 11 jars of jam and both only took me about an hour to make. Rinsing and cutting the stems off the strawberries took longer than the whole process did!

I still have about a pound of berries left too, so I didn’t need nearly all that we picked.

So my different kind of before and after for this month…

Before:

And after!:

Yes I'm wearing an apron

And yes Dad, I do own an apron.  ;)

So now it’s time to see your before and after projects!! Anything goes – as long as you have a before picture to share, cause we all know that’s half the fun!

PLEASE link to directly to the post, not your blog. (I have to delete those and I hate it!) To link to your post, right click on the post, copy, and then paste that url into the linky.

You can link up till next Monday -- have fun!

 

Thank you to my sponsor!:

rustedcapture125

How I throw a Christmas party

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I LOVE to entertain – it is my joy sharing our home and having friends and family here, eating great food, drinking good drinks and laughing. Lots of laughter. :) This year, we will host three parties this month, and the first was this past weekend.

A few of my girlfriends and I get together every year for our annual ornament exchange. It’s been six or seven years now – none of can remember how many. (We’re getting old.) Since almost all of the Christmas decor is done, (except the main tree -- it just had lights, which was still beautiful), I was able to focus on my regular freak out preparation for the party.

Every time, I say to myself…”I’m not going to clean like crazy. No one will notice the dust on the table. No one will see the toys stuffed under the bed. No one will even go into most of the rooms of your home Sarah, sogetagripwoman!” Yeah. No one will know I’m super psycho and have to clean every inch. Crazy woman.

I don’t clean before the day of the party though – it’s just asking for a special dose of crazy. The little tornado in this house makes that impossible. :) So I’ve learned a trick so I can pace myself to get the house picked up impeccably clean in time for the party.

First step, send the Bub off to the ‘rents. Hubs was out of town, so it was just me. I turned up the ipod and set my timer – 20 minutes per room. I start with picking up, then vacuuming, then dusting. Once the timer goes off, I have to stop and move on.

This works for me because I’ll get lost in cleaning and keep going and going in a room if I don’t have that timer reminding me to move the heck on.

Once the cleaning is mostly done, it’s time to cook. Contrary to popular belief, I can cook. I do cook. I just don’t do it often. :) When it comes to parties, I have a few standbys that are cheap, easy and quick. You can totally make them in between dusting the family room and curling your hair:

Pinwheels

dash of pepper

2 tbsp onion

1/4 c bacon pieces

1/4 c black olives (chopped)

8 oz. cream cheese (softened)

package crescent rolls

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Take the crescent rolls and lay them out on a cookie sheet, smushing the edges together so it makes one large sheet of dough. Then just spread the mixture evenly all over:

004

(This picture was pre-spread.)

Then, just roll it up long ways, so it looks like this:

005

At this point, I like to put it in the fridge for a while so it firms up just a bit. Then, just cut it into sections, and bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

YUM-O:

010

They are such a perfect mix of buttery roll, a teeny bit of onion and bacon flavor. Who doesn’t love bacon? Serious. Obviously you can take out or add whatever you want for your taste.

The next one is to. die. for. Do you love those cheddar biscuits from Red Lobster? Those buttery, flaky, uuuhmazing biscuits? These are from Southern Living and are so similar. And only three ingredients!

Tiny Cream Cheese Biscuits

one 8 oz. package cream cheese (softened)

1/2 c butter (softened)

1 c self-rising flour

Easiest recipe eva. Mix all ingredients with a mixer, (it will be very thick) then spoon the dough directly into mini muffin pans. Bake for 15-17 minutes at 400 degrees.

I didn’t take a picture of these because I was too busy eating them entertaining. But this is close to what they look like:

biscuits

(Source)

A friend said you can make your own self-rising flour, which I didn’t know! If you want that real Red Lobster taste, just mix in some cheese, or sprinkle some on the top after they are done. They are incredible without though. Seriously, you’ll thank me. :) Heaven in a teeny little biscuit.

I found the easiest cookie recipe, and the easy is mostly because it’s the cookies you get in the package, already cut. But with a few more minutes of work, they become especially scrumptious and adorable.

Three ingredient Christmas cookies

package Pillsbury Christmas tree cookies

one tub icing (you need very little)

sprinkles

Make the cookies as directed, then let cool. Take the bottom of one cookie and ice it (I always use whipped icing and it was especially good on these!). Then place another cookie on top, making a sandwich. Push them together so the icing smushes out, then roll in the sprinkles.

We were ALL surprised at how good these were. I added red hots to the trees just for some spice, but they are not needed:

007

I’m not even kidding, these were SO GOOD. Makes me what to make more right this very minute. Yums.

There were only ten of us and we ended up having a TON of food (this wasn’t all of it!):

013But we ate most of it. ;) The beverage of the evening was Sangria, and it is absolutely my new favorite drink. So sweet and fresh and fruity. I’ll show you how I make that after the upcoming Mexican Fiesta!

Are you hosting family and friends this month? Do you go with the flow to prepare or there others like me out there? (Please say yes.) This was the smallest of our three parties, which was a good way to start off the season. Can’t wait for the next two – I just wish they were this week, cause my house is still clean.

I’m off to eat some biscuits peeps.

Pfeffer HUH and I need HOW many cookies??

WARNING: You will want cookies after reading this. Don't say I didn't warn you.
So my other new BFF, Lori, posted at the Favorite Things party about their love of pfeffernuesse cookies. HUH? What the? I had never heard of these things, but I was intrigued to say the least. They have spices in them, as well as peppermint, but they are cookies? I say it again...HUH? I guess you love them or hate them. Well, Lovely Lori sent me some...look how sweet:
I stood there popping them in my mouth, trying to figure out if I liked them. After about 20 seconds I looked down and realized how many I had eaten:

And I decided I loved them. (Thanks Lori!!)

So my girlfriend has thrown a cookie exchange for a couple years now, and everyone votes on their favorite packaging at the end of the night. Last year, a few of us brought cookies, but one girlfriend and I said "What HUH, HOW many cookies am I supposed to bake?" And said forget that. But then we got there and realized how fun it was, how creative everybody was and decided this year, it was ON BABY!

So I was supposed to make like 30 dozen cookies this year. OK, not 30 dozen, but 12 dozen. Or something like that. I said, "What HUH?" And freaked out. But then remembered I had seen these in blogland a while back:

Easy, cheap, quick. Right up my alley. You gather the following:

Wait, I need some PfefferHuhs while I "bake":



The recipe I saw used regular kisses, but I had something else in mind. Of course I had to use my kisses of minty love instead. Just place the kiss on top of the pretzel, heat oven to 200 degrees and put them in for about three minutes, or just till they get soft. Then put M&Ms on while hot.

It was after making about eight dozen that I realized something very important:

These are not cookies. They are candy.

Whatever, really. You going to argue with me?? So I had to go a little crazy with this "recipe" and used some peanut butter cups with red hots too. These were AWESOME:
So onto the cookie contest. Check out our competition:






After standing there staring at these for about 2.4 seconds, Sister turns to us, gives us the Stink Eye and says, "Whoa, you two are SO not winning."

UH, DUH. And we thought ours were kind of cute, at least throwing-them-together-two-minutes-before-we-leave-cute:


Gah. I KNOW I KNOW, they were pitiful. Just pitiful. They were NOT the worst there though. Just sayin'...

But we have decided, we are going to start planning in February, and next year
IT IS SO ON.

For reals.


Have fun at your parties this weekend and I'll be back with some easy, cheap, last minute decorating ideas!

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