Monthly Archives: February 2012

whoop whoop!

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My sister and I thought this gloomy, rainy day needed cheering up. These babies will take your day from 1 to 10 in no time.

We eat so many when we make them that get get sick. Really. It’s hard not to.

I will be so bold as to say we have the best whoopie pie recipe out there. Unfortunately, my dear mother is very protective of it. It was my grandmother’s recipe, and apparently we must guard it with our lives. To apologize for making you drool over a recipe-less post, I’ve found some amazing cookie sandwiches from other awesome bloggers. All photos belong to the corresponding blogger.

(Top to Bottom, Left to Right)

Brown Sugar Sandwich Cookie from 101 Cookbooks

Homemade Oreo from Baking with Basil

Red Velvet Cookie Sandwich from Bakerella

Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie from A Farmgirl’s Dabbles

Dark Chocolate Cookie Crisp Sandwich from Best Friends for Frosting

Oatmeal Cream Pie from Baked Perfection

Strawberry Macaron from Sophistimom

FILLING TIP: Put the filling in a ziploc bag, cut a quarter inch off a bottom corner, and squeeze onto every other cookie. Put another cookies on top and BAM you can get it done much faster and cleaner. My husband likes the cleaner aspect. I like that it’s faster.  :)

ADIDAS – All Day I Dream About Sweets

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I’m going to come right out with it. I have a problem. I eat sweets, a LOT of sweets. Like, more than anyone I know. If you think you’ve got me beat, BRING IT. I’m up for the challenge. While Little Debbies have their place in this world (sometimes you just can’t beat a Zebra Cake, right sister?), I’m kinda into baking and creating my own delicious treats. Then you can add as many chocolate chips to your cookies as you want…

Luckily, I’m willing to share my ideas with you. I’m an avid blog-creeper, so most of my recipes are based on what I find on the good old World Wide Web. Trust me, I can find for you the best baking blogs on this planet. Not that I’m positive other planets have blogs…

Anyway, my mom recently gave me some very ripe bananas and DUH I made banana bread. Not just any banana bread. This stuff is banana bread on steroids. I ended up making them as muffins because Kyle doesn’t like banana bread (um, weird) and I can easily freeze these as to not eat it all at once.  Does anyone else do that with a 9×5 loaf? The original recipe calls for Werther’s Original Chewy Caramels, but from past experiences with them I thought they’d be too hard. Instead I used softer caramels, which I could only find at Fleet Farm. And while you’re there, you may as well pick up a bag of licorice. Who can leave Fleet Farm without a bag of licorice?

My banana-hating husband even ate one of these. It’s the steroids. You simply cannot resist a combination of nuts, caramel, and chocolate.

 

Banana Bread on Steroids

(adapted from joyofbaking)

 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup pecans

25 soft chewy caramels

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

2 large or 3 small ripe bananas, mashed

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled

1/4 cup applesauce (or another 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled)

1/3 cup plain or vanilla yogurt

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

 

Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter or spray your 8-cup 9×5 pan or a regular cupcake pan.

Chop your pecans and caramels. The caramels take time; it’s not the most enjoyable food to chop. Toss them into a bowl with the chocolate chips.

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and half to two-thirds of the pecan mixture.

Mix the remaining ingredients (minus the rest of the pecan mixture).

Fold the wet mix into the dry mix. I added the wet in two parts. Don’t over mix, though! This will give you tough bread. It’s okay for the mixture to have some lumps.

Scrape the batter into the pan or divide among the muffin cups (it made 14 muffins for me). Sprinkle the rest of the pecan mixture on top. YUM.

If you’re making the loaf, bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out just about clean. Muffins only take 22-25 minutes.

Read more:http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/BananaStreuselBread.html#ixzz1nWo5uzsw

 

 

There’s always hope…

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I was so anxious to start this blog…until I started it. I suddenly had nothing to say; that’s not like me. At all. Well, we are finally settled in to our new home and I’m taking it as the perfect opportunity to debut my blog of all things DIY and kitchen. For those of you who know me and Kyle, you know our lives revolve around these two things. Our new dwelling is definitely offering the chance to use all we can muster in the DIY category. I, personally, was totally overwhelmed by our ugly, dark, boring, not-so-us house and didn’t even know where to start when we got the keys. While I was standing there, staring at what I thought I could never enjoy living in, Kyle was tearing up carpet, replacing trim, painting walls, deconstructing cabinets. Honestly, he was like the Superman of DIY.

I really thought this room was hopeless. But with a ton of help from Kyle’s parents (that’s his dad painting) and lots of tasty meals-on-wheels from my mom (Mexican Lasagna anyone? YUM) we totally transformed this space.

Oh how I love our new house. Much an improvement, eh? I know, it looks like an IKEA adverstisement. I’m okay with that.

Yes, that is a bicycle on the wall. Lesson #1 I will give you: you can make wall art out of anything. All we (and by we I mean Kyle) did is go to our favorite local bicycle shop and grab a junkie used bike for $20. Kyle took off the brakes, shifters, and a few other things to make it look more streamline. After cleaning it, he spray painted the wheels and the frame separately, reassembled it, and VOILA – a totally unique piece of art!

 

 

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