Monthly Archives: April 2011

This is what I have to do when my parents are drinking too much alcohol…

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I’m just kiddding… My parents hardly drink at all. But we did have a couple cans of beer hanging around and since I know canned beer is repulsive to my father I decided to put some of it to good use. Have you ever heard of beerbread? Well, now you have. This bread, it’s definitely unique. Aaaand it requires like 4 or 5 ingredients, 3 is you have self-rising flour.

I’m not sure what this bread is going to be used foryet.Probablyanything. Use your creative juices! A turkey sandwich? A quick snack with some butter? Maybe you can carve it into a cool bread-sculpture. (Send me a picture! hehe) Speaking of carving, has anyone seen that new show on Food Network, “Ice Brigade”? I can’t tell what I think about it yet. It just doesn’t seem like Food Network. You can’t eat it. What’s the point? Then again, they do make some pretty amazing things. Way better than I could do with play-doh, let alone ice.

Our Star!

Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah! Beer bread. Well, let me warn ya, it smells soo good when in the oven. It’s like a little bakery in here. And the taste, well I almost don’t even want to tell you because to be honest I didn’t have very high expectations of this recipe myslef. But dang, this stuff is good. Its got a nice crust with a soft, bread inside. The perfect amount of sweetness greets your taste buds, that makes you want to do a little victory dance. How about you get your little heinie in the kitchen now and bake some. You’ll be surprised :) Plus it may just be the easiest thing I have ever baked.

Beer Bread

1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle of beer

3 c. self-rising flour (or 3 cups of flour sifted with 1 1/2 t. salt and 4 1/2 t. baking powder)

3 T. white sugar

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large bow, mix together the sugar and flour. Add beer and continue to mix, using a wooden spoon. Batter will be sticky. Pour into a 9 x 5 inch greased loaf pan.
  3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes. The top will be crunchy and the insides will be soft. Serve with butter or cheese spread.

Why are you still here? Shoo! Turn that oven on!

Life is too short…

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  • To take a half hour in the morning doing your hair…every day

  • To pick out the bad things and complain about them, as if everyone else is living a fantasy

  • To pray for yourself instead of others

  • To think about plan for everything instead of enduring enjoying every moment you’ve got

  • To become addicted. To anything. (are there any good addictions?)

  • To regret instead of learn

  • To open an umbrella.

  • To make a bucket list

  • To please others

  • To wait for text messages. (CALL)

  • To sit for more than a half hour (thank you school…)

  • To worry

  • To count how old you are

  • To be bored

  • To stand still

  • To choose one dessert

  • To shut up

  • To fight

 

mmm m&m’s!

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Some days you just want something classic. Something that reminds you of something your mom would bake for you as a kid, that gives you that nice, warm, cozy feeling inside. I can’t help you get all that motherly-love taste inside your cookies but I can bring you pretty darm close to those tasty memories.

What is one of the most classic pieces of candy? Why, an M&M of course. And what is the most classic cookie? Obviously, a chocolate chip cookie. It is almost destiny for the two to come together and join hands.

 

These cookies are the ultimate no-fail cookies. Even my dad could probably make them. And that is saying something, considering he cooks scrambled eggs in the microwave and eats bratwurst on regular loaf bread when there are no buns left. Whatta guy…

M&M Cookies

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

1 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

1 c. butter

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla extract

2 1/2 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

2 c. M&Ms

  1. Mix sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla thoroughly. Add flour, salt, and baking soda to creamed mixture. Blend well. Add about 3/4 or 1 cup of M&M candies.
  2. Drop dough onto cookie sheet. Slightly push a few candies on top of each dough ball with remaining candies.
  3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 9-11 minutes, to how you like it.

What’s your favorite kind of candy?

Apparently technology hates me and I cant get the comments to work on this post, I still love you technology anyways :) …am i talking to technology. I think i need a cookie

Girl Scout Cookies-Tagalongs

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I hope everyone had an awesome Easter! I sure did, it involved lots of yummy yummy treats. I’m on day 3 of the treats and finally got to dig in that mini apple pie yesterday. I shared it with my mom and ooo-eee YUM! That was good. Apple slices are awesome but a whole different beast than an apple pie with a lattice crust. Something about the lattice crust makes it taste better to me. Maybe I’m crazy? …I wonder how apple slices would be with a lattice crust….oooh the possibilites!

Anyways Tagalongs are amazing. Whoever invented them, they are my idol. Is there a better combination than peanut butter on top of a nice butter cookie covered in a layer of chocolate? I’ll respond for you. NO. Unfortunately, one can only buy so many boxes of girl scout cookies without looking like a nut. And here comes the double wammie. The girl scout cookies that we ordered came over Lent and my mom ate them all. Dum, dum dum. What now? The internet saves the day once again!

http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/01/07/homemade-girl-scout-cookies-tagalongs/

My sister actually found this recipe for me that was on our Yahoo homepage from a food blog. Not only was there the recipe for home-made Tagalongs, but there was all the other flavors too. So far, I’ve only made the Tagalongs (which are my absolute favorite Girl Scout Cookie), but I plan on making a few others with my sister as soon as she comes home from college and we’ll see if they are just as good as the Tagalongs. It will be a tough one to beat, but now that I’ve tried these Tagalongs, nothing seems impossible.

 

If you neve bake anything else in your life, just please bake these. They aren’t hard, I promise. The cookies, those are easy-slice and bake. The peanut butter tops- just like playing with play-doh. I must warn you though, the chocolate can be a little tricky. I would recommend melting the chocolate in a double broiler and then dipping the cookies in and taking them out with a fork. I tried using the microwave to melt the chocolate, bad idea. Also! There is nooo need to add any butter, margarine or oil to the melted chocolate. I found that just made things more difficult.

The melted chocolate for dipping
Yummy peanut butter filling
 
Takin a bath

I ended up having more cookies and chocolate than peanut butter, so I just put some chocolate on top and those even turned out great.

Tagalongs

(from The Family Kitchen)

1 c. unsalted butter, room temp.

1 c. sugar

1 large egg

1 t. vanilla extract

1/2 t. kosher salt

3 c. flour

1/2 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. confectioners’ sugar

2 c. chocolate chips

  1. Cream together butter and sugar, until smooth. Add in egg and beat until well incorporated. Add in vanilla. Beat until smooth. With mixer on low, add in salt and flour. Mix until completely incorporated and dough is uniform. Shape dough into a cylinder with a diameter of about 2-3 inches. Wrap in parment paper and freeze for at least a half hour.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Slice dough into 1/8 inch disks and place on baking sheets, about a half inch apart. Once you have made 30 cookies, wrap up the cookie dough, freeze and save for later. Bake for 8 minutes. Place on a cooling rack and let cool completely.
  3. Mix together peanut butter and powdered sugar. Form into small disks and press onto cookies. Melt chocolate in a double broiler ( You may use the microwave to melt the chocolate, which is what I did. But I would HIGHLY recommend using the double broiler). Coat cookies completely in chocolate and lift out with a fork. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and let set, or freeze/refrigerate to speed up the process.

What’s your favorite flavor Girl Scout Cookie?

Praise the Lord!

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YESS! Finally! HALLELUIAH! LENT IS OVER. This Lent has gone by surprisingly fast for me now that I think about it. There were of course many temptations along the way like when we had team bonding for soccer which involved about 6 dozen cookies, apple slices, puppy chow, nutella with marshmallow fluff on preztel crisps, and more. Needless to say, I was ready to break down and cry. That night consisted of me sitting by the veggie tray drowning my sorrows in celery and carrots dipped in ranch. <3 Lent… Being in a baking and pastry class at school has been a real burst of sunshine everyday too. Especially when we are making cream puffs, napoleans and sticky buns. However, we did make mini apple pies this week and I did happen to put mine that I made in the fridge in hopes of eating it after Lent before someone else gets to it.

Isn't it cute?

Even though I did not get to baking yesterday, I did get to do a bit of Easter baking on Friday. Although, I didn’t get to as much as I would’ve liked too.

One of the things I made were these sugar cookies.

Not up to the standards :( Oh well, there is always next time.

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com and I can honestly say this was the first time I’ve been dissapointed with a recipe from there. I feel 100% sure that I added the right amount of flour to the recipe, however, after I had the dough in the refrigerator for 3 hours (which is way more than they said you needed) and I tried to roll it out, it was just one big sticky mess. I had to add at least a cup and a half of flour to the dough and I could never roll out the dough, I kind of just pressed it down using my hands, then used a cookie cutter and some cute little cookie presses to make designs on the tops of the cookies. After that, I put sprinkles on top. Even though I love putting icing on top, my dad doesn’t, so I just stuck with sprinkles. At least they were cute sprinkles!

Can you even tell it's a duck in there..? haha well at least they taste alright.

Alright, on the the good stuff! As I mentioned earlier, everybody always associates apple baked goods with Fall, but this is too good to have just in the Fall. I mean why should Spring and Summer be deprived? These apple slices may be life changing. That is not an understatement. Seriously, I’ve never liked fruit in baked goods when I was younger until I tried this against my will at my Aunt and Uncle’s house at Thanksgiving a few years ago. The cinnamony (sp?) apples between the two flaky crusts with the glaze on top come in the most perfect proportions. Its fantastic warm or cold. For dessert or breakfast ;) (I’ll close my eyes) It’s like a sheet of apple pie times 2384701874. Try it.

Apple Slices

4-5 apples

1/4 or 1/3 c. sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)

2 T. flour

1/2 t. cinnamon

4 pre-made pie dough crusts (or you can make 4 home-made pie crusts using the recipe below)

Icing

2 c. confectioners’ sugar

a few Tablespoons of milk (sorry for the non-exact measurement)

Home-made Pie Crusts

(You will make two of the this recipe for one batch of apple slices)

2 1/2 c. flour

1/2 t. salt

1 c. chilled butter

1/4 c. + 2 T. ice water

  1. Whisk the flour and salt together in a medium size bowl. With a pastry blender, cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle 1/4 c. water over flour. Toss mixture with a fork to moisten, adding more water a few drops at a time until the dough comes together.
  2. Gently gather the dough particles together into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 45 minutes before rollling out.
  3. Roll out dough and fill with desired filling.

Apple Slices Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Peel apples and slice into small slices, then place into a large bowl. Sprinkle sugar, flour and cinnamon over them. Mix them up good.  (If you are in a pinch you can just use a can or two of apple pie filling)
  3. Now, cover a cookie sheet (9×13) with two pie crusts, making sure that it goes up the side of the cookie sheet. Empty the bowl of apples on to the cooke sheet and spread around until the ingredients are level.
  4. Now cover with the remaining dough crusts and pinch the sides tight. Use a fork to make holes in the top of the crust, or a knife to make slits (I think the slits look much prettier)
  5. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.
  6. While the apple slices are baking, make the glaze. Place into a bowl the confectioners’ sugar and milk. Beat until it is thick.
  7. When apple slices are done, pour the glaze even on top and let it stand. Cover with aluminum foil.

HAPPY EASTER!