Recipe : Horchata

Have you ever had Horchata (pronounced - or-chata)? 

I recommend you try it.  I had never had it, ever, in my life.

Until now.

I enjoy watching cooking shows on PBS Saturday Mornings (when I am not out and about doing anything else), and there is was Mexico One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless show on.  (I see now it is on the Live Well Network) 

At any rate, I saw an episode a long time ago, where Rick talked about how fabulous Mexican Horchata is.  It goes great with a spicy carnitas burrito he said.  I was like whatever dude, you are a crazy nut berger.  Basically what it was that he had described, was a sweetened almond/rice milk. 

A few weeks later I ended up seeing a post on the America's Test Kitchen Feed, and was like.. well, what do we have here?  Sounds simple enough!

And it was.

So, basically what you do, is you take slivered almonds, rice, vanilla, cinnamon and water and combine them.  Let them soak 12-24 hours, pulse it in a blender until smooth-ish, and then strain it, mix it with some evaporated milk and sugar. 

And WHAM-O!  Throw it in a glass over ice, maybe an extra sprinkle of cinnamon, and you have a delicious glass of Horchata!

 

It was quite sweet with the amount of sugar they said to add, they noted you could add 2 less tablespoons if you do not like yours quite as sweet, but I am thinking like maybe cut the sugar in half, and it might be more adequate. 

I may have had it in the morning while I sat outside eating cinnamon-sugar toast.

DIY Horchata (Adapted from America's Test Kitchen)

Makes about 5 cups

1 1/3 cups Slivered Almonds

1 Teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/3 cup Long Grain Rice

4 1/2 cups Water

1 cup Evaporated Milk

1/4 cup Granulated Sugar

Take the first 4 ingredients and put them in a blender, and put the lid on. Shake it around a little.  Let it sit for about 16 hours - up to 24.  (Please note I did mine for 24 hours, and it was about 70 degrees out - if it is warmer, you might want to shorten the time.)

Line your strainer with some cheese cloth, put it over a large bowl and set aside. 

 

After your almond rice mixture has set out long enough, turn on the blender, and blend that stuff up!  (You could probably use a Cuisinart, but I am not that fancy.) Blend the mixture until relatively smooth.  It took me almost a minute or so.

 

Then pour the mix into the cheesecloth strainer set up you have going, let it strain itself out.  Once it has pretty much done it's work, take up the edges of the cheesecloth, and twist the cloth in a pouch to squeeze as much as the almond rice goodness out as you can.  Then toss the pulp packet out.

 

Stir your almond/rice water mixture, evaporated milk and sugar together in a pitcher/bowl until the sugar is dissolved.  (you can add more sugar if you would like, or leave out a sugar bowl when serving it for individual tastes.)

 

Then chill it for about 2 hours, and enjoy! 

 

You can store leftover Horchata in a jar with a tight fitting lid for up to 3 days in the fridge.

I will admit, I am pretty impatient, and I automatically put it in a glass over ice, tossed a little more cinnamon on it, and loved it up.

Recipe Page

Online Source

Dinner : Spaghetti and Garlic Knots!

Yesterday I came across this blog post for Garlic Knots by Baking in my Bathing Suit.  It was snowing outside (I know... in May. How gross!).  And I really needed some comfort food. (Comfort food - see pasta, white bread, carbs.)


Everyone at work seems to be bringing salads right now.

I had my salad packed and ready to go for lunch, and it wasn't seemingly all that appealing.  But I ate it anyways.  Since I was so good about eating 'right' for lunch, I decided I should be able to splurge for dinner, at least a little bit.

And her Garlic Knots looked DELICIOUS! (plus I hate vampires).  Well, maybe I do not hate vampires.  But I do not feel like meeting any, any time soon.

Ready for the oven!

Let's just say that I perhaps am quite inept at making knots with dough. I can tie my shoes with relative ease - but those are tied in bows!

Right out of the oven, last brushing of garlic butter mixture.

Don't they look tasty?  They smelled wonderful too!  I had to hold myself back from trying one straight out of the oven, trying not to burn my tongue (which always happens with pizza!).


Heading to the table!

They made it to the plate (mostly).  Not going to lie, there were a few casualties.  But they were devoured with care and consideration (you know, so that I did not burn my tongue!).

This morning I woke up to a text from the hubster's brother, thankfully none of our snow that fell stuck around.  In Southern Minnesota however, the story is quite different.  A total of 10" fell. So glad we are heading down tonight for a 'Wild Ladies Night Out'. (I know, on a Thursday??)

Please note, I do not drink Coors

I am the odd duck out every time I go down there (if the girls are not drinking wine anyways).  I am currently dabbling with some Smartini in the Pomegranate flavor.  1.5 oz has 34 calories.  I fill a glass with ice, top it with Sprite Zero, and a splash or two or the Smartini. It is pretty tasty, but it's only 25 proof.  (not nearly as tasty as my Cherry Rum at 42 proof - or Bacardi Torched Cherry-no idea on proof. Did you check out how I make the Torched Cherry Lemonade? Basically lemonade with a splash of Torched Cherry, splash of grenadine, and a cherry, oh summer, how I wish you would come soon..)

Do you have any low calorie favorites to share?

Dinner : Sriracha Burgers and Potato Wedges

When I was looking ahead at the weather forecast for the week, I knew I needed to get out and use the grill Monday.  The rest of the week has the possibility of either - turning very cold, or maintaining Spring. 

I hope it can maintain!!  We have had a very long, cold, and particularly snowy April.  I am hoping that May will be the warmth that everyone knows and loves.  Especially since we will be camping at the end of the month for Memorial Day.

Monday's lunch was pretty disappointing from the cafeteria.  It consisted of stir fry veggies, a piece of grilled chicken (like, a slice of it) soggy rice, and peanut sauce.  I put more Sriracha sauce on it to give it a little extra kick. And am I ever glad I did.  If you have read a few of my past posts, you may have seen my posting on Poor Man's Pad Thai that I was making for lunch for a month, for no other reason than I LOVED it.

But that got me thinking,

1. I needed to figure out dinner
2. We should use the grill tonight
3. There is ground beef in the fridge that needs to be used
4. I love Sriracha!

So I came up with this brilliant idea of Sriracha Burgers!  Knowing I am not the most ingenious person in the world, I knew I could google it and find something that would work.

The results I came up with ended up leading to The Sriracha Cookbook.  Which I should probably own. I decided to use the Serious Eats Ultimate Sriracha Burger recipe.  I followed the recipe pretty much, I posted the recipe here too.

And while I was floating for a recipe for the burgers, I knew I wanted to make 'oven fries' on the grill, and came across Serious Eats for Grilled Potato Wedges - sounds good to me!  I made a couple of changes to the Potato Wedges, my version can be found here.

One of the number one things I would say, is you should ALWAYS set up a topping station, for anything that requires assembly.  You can see in my photo the bacon slices, onions, tomato slices, blue cheese-Sriracha sauce and the Arugula, waiting patiently for the burgers to finish.

All we did was put a slice of cheese on the burgers and let it sit on the grill an extra minute, and then put them on the buns.  I was eating a Pepperidge Farm Deli Flat. Not the same as a beautiful hamburger bun, but with the average calorie count for the burger being at about 780, I needed to cut corners somewhere.

There she is in all her glory. She was super tasty!  I really liked the extra bite the Sriracha gave the burger, and the sauce? That was so delicious that I needed to dip some of our slightly over done potato wedges in.

I let the hubster do the grilling, I mean, I did buy him the grill.  However, I think we would have better results if I took it over.  He seemingly has no idea what he is doing. 

What do you like to make on the grill?  Have you checked out my Chipotle Mango Chicken Kabobs?  I am going to make them when it warms up again. 

Which hopefully will be next week.

Recipe : Almond Biscotti

Have you ever had a biscotti before? 

Well, usually when people bring these in and lay them out to share, I will avoid them. They are dry, and  crusty. 

I tried a scone once, that was gross.  And they look similar to a biscotti - dry, crusty.  My niece ate a scone once, she said it was good.  She is a kid, what does she know anyways?

At any rate, a lady at work brought in some Almond Biscotti back in December, and she came to my desk and said, "Please have one, I made these to share for Christmas."  I mean, what was I going to say? No?  Yeah right, so I took one.

Eventually I had some down time for some mindless eating.  Which would probably be why I am a chubster.  And I ate it.  It was mighty tasty!!

So tasty, that I asked her for the recipe.  And she sent it over.  I have been holding on to it ever since.

Until today! 

I made them.  They are just as delicious as I remembered.  Never you mind that I *might* have dropped a loaf on the floor.  Good thing I swept and cleaned the kitchen prior to starting any baking today.  I think I might make this a habit, for instances such as this.

The thing about biscotti, is you have to bake (and cool) them twice.  Once to firm them up, and once after cutting, to dry them out.

The recipe is pretty simple, the only really special things you need are the extracts.  Almond and orange extracts.  Oh, and the almonds, in the event you didn't have sliced almonds on hand.

Almond Biscotti

So basically what you do is you whip the eggs and sugar together, while this is happening, combine all the dry ingredients (including finely chopped almonds) in a separate bowl.  Once the eggs are a light/pale yellow color - trust me it does get there after about 5 minutes - then you start adding the flour mixture, slowly so it does not create a HUGE flour cloud.

After you get it all together, you plop it down on a flat floured surface and knead a little extra flour into it, and throw it in a couple of loaf pans, bake it, let it cool on a rack, and then cut it into slices, put it on a baking tray, cook for another 12 minutes, let them cool completely, and then BAM! You have biscotti that is perfect to enjoy while you are drinking coffee on a lazy morning.  You can find the recipe here, or check out my recipe page and see the other tasty morsels I have on there.

If you wanted to be real fancy, you could melt some chocolate and dip an end into it and let it cool, and enjoy with that little bit of fun too!

If you have tried the Biscotti Mocha at your local Caribou Coffee house, this tastes just like the crumbled biscotti they have on top.  I swear.  Super delish!

I am planning on bringing them to the nursing home. I am visiting the Hubster's Grandma B back in his hometown.  Taking a little mini-road trip, his buddy owns an Auto Shop, and is going to do an alignment on my car, and some other miscellaneous work, so I figured I could visit her while I wait.  When I was growing up, that's what you did.  When you happened to be in town, you stopped by and visit.

Generally you didn't call before you stopped in, and well, Grandma B doesn't really go out, so the chances of her being there are high, but I wanted her to invite me to eat lunch. So I called, and asked what time lunch was, she said 'dinner' was at 12, I said I would stop by around 1, she said, well you could come by at 12:30, I said sure not a problem (sad face).  Then she said, well would you like to have lunch here? I said, "If there is space at tehe table, I would be more than happy to join you." (SCORE!!)   She said she would let the staff know, that she would have a guest!

Hopefully it isn't gruel serving day.

***

Side note, I was at the gym for 2 hours today.  Yeah, for realz.  I did week 2 day 2 (W2D2) of the Couch to 5K program (C25K), a Body Works + Abs class, and some more treadmill and some shooting some B-Ball.  With the estimated calories burned on my LiveStrong.com Daily Plate, I burned approximately 864 calories.

And based on what I shoved in my face for the rest of the day, I still have 837 calories I *could* consume, and still stay under 1,134 for the day.

So basically a super win! :)

***

Lunch : Bagel Dogs!

So, something that I used to eat as a kid, and when I say kid, I mean 14 year old.  Were Bagel Dogs.  My mom got them from the Schwan's Man, when he dropped off our milk. Yeah, we had a milk man.  My mom was busy doing whatever work she was doing, and it was easier to make sure that we had milk in the house if we had someone drop it off.  I guess.

Either way.  Bagel Dogs. I came across a pin on the Pintrest, which brought me to Circle B Kitchen's blog post.

I made them and can cross them off the list of wish to re-create at home.  But I will never do it again.  I am sure the original recipe is fine, and it was probably more of user error or something.  But they were way too much work, and took way too long to make.  And I burned my little fingers.

So, for a true bagel, you need to boil it before you bake it.  All of my hot dogs fell out of their wrappers.  So once I thought they were boiled sufficiently, I took them out, and burned my fingers trying to put them back in their jackets, and getting them to seal up as they dried a little.

They don't look terrible, other than the not being too brown, they were chewy, the salt and seeds were delicious.  I didn't know what else to serve it with, all I could think about was Kraft Cheese and Macaroni.  And then I decided to bust open a can of fruit cocktail for good measure.  We also dipped the Bagel Dogs in traditional hot dog condiments.

I am putting this in the Fail column.

Have you made them and had better results?

Dinner : Crock-Pot Sesame Chicken!

OH MY GOSH!

Have you tried this?  It is so yummy! And it was quite easy.

I found the recipe on Pintrest.  The link matched up to chef in training blog.  She is gorgeous.  I followed the recipe as written, only thing I changed up, was I cut up the chicken while it was still chilled prior to putting it into the crock pot, so I didn't have to do it later when it was messy. 

I will also say, I took the sauce out of the crock-pot, and put it in a pan to try to reduce it.  COMPLETLY forgetting that I had the corn starch out for some reason.  Once I realized the err in my way, it was quick and easy.

I served it with some steamed broccoli, and some brown 'asian' rice from Uncle Ben's.

Again, it was SUPER delicious!  You should try it, and tell me all about it!

Dinner : Mexican Style Corn and French's Fried Onion Chicken

I first had the French's Fried Onion Chicken in Florida a year and a half ago, when we were attending my Hubster's half sister's wedding, and we were staying at his dad and step-mom's house.

I searched the Internet and came across this recipe for the Mexican Style corn, it is similar, but made with roasted corn cobs off the grill, a chipotle mayo, and a different cheese.  Looks good!

The recipe is super simple.  Basically, you take a can of corn, or a bunch of frozen kernels, and put them in a pan, add a bit of butter, and heat them up like you would normally.  Then, once you have reached preferred done-ness, add half a cup of Mayonnaise (mind you I am generally a Miracle Whip girl, but this needs Mayonnaise), and stir it together.  Then add some queso fresco on top.

For the French's Fried Onion Chicken, just follow the recipe on the outside of the container.  You take some fried onions, and crush them, add a couple tablespoons of flour, pepper to taste, stir.  Coat in egg wash, and then dredge in the crumb mixture.

Bake as you would normally for chicken.

Dinner: Gumbalaya Time!

Did you know that when you crush raw garlic, the juice is sticky?

I didn't know that either.

So, you may be asking yourself, what is Gumbalaya, surely she meant Gumbo, or Jambalaya.  Didn't she?

Well, I, in fact, did not.  Those recipes included chicken, or used flour.  I used neither.  I did use rice though, and sausage, and shrimp. I used this recipe from Iowa Girl Eats, and altered it to what I wanted. And it was delicious!

Not pictured, corn and crushed garlic.

Basically what you see is what you should get, also grab a 2 green peppers, large onion. You can find more info on the ingredient list on the Gumbalaya recipe page.

This is what I did:

First find the LARGEST stock pot you have.  I would have used a large dutch oven, but I do not own one.  Then finely dice all your first 3 ingredients (onion, pepper, celery) - this is the 'Holy Trinity'. Set aside.

I sliced the sausage at an angle, and put it in the largest pot I had.  I browned the slices.  Once they were done, I put them on a plate, leaving the oil behind.  I added my Holy Trinity ingredients, and I ended up adding a little extra oil.

  

Saute these until softened, about 10 minutes or so.  Once everything softens, add your crushed garlic cloves, cook for about a minute.

Return the sausage to the pot, add all the other canned items.  Add the broth, hot sauce and rice, and stir it all together. 

Turn the heat down to medium-low, and cover.  Keep it at a simmer for for 15 minutes, stirring frequently, then add your shrimp.  If you purchased them with tails, I recommend you remove them before putting them in the pot.

Cook for about 10 minutes, or until your shrimp are cooked, and serve.  I always add a little more hot sauce.  But taste yours first, my hubster is not a fan of anything too spicy.

Looks Delicious, doesn't it?!

Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits!

I stumbled upon this recipe today, as I was wondering if I should make regular biscuits or something more super fantastic with our Pot Roast made in the crock pot.

I took a poll on the face page, and consensus was that I should make the cheddar bay off the Internet.

They were actually pretty close. I am sure if I had the required amount of Bisquick, or cheddar, they would have been spot on!

Here is the link!

Have you ever made a copy cat recipe and it turn out fantastic?
Do tell!!

Poor Man's Pad Thai

I love peanut butter.  I actually quite enjoy Ramen Noodles.  They are super cheap. And completely unhealthy.  I never had to live on Ramen, I lived at home through college. Both times that I went full time.

Chicken flavor is my favorite.  I tried one a couple weeks ago that was a spicy shrimp or something, it was good too.

But anyways, I saw a pin on the Pintrest.  Peanut Butter, Sriracha Sauce, and Ramen?!  WHAT!  That is out of this world! I had to try it.  So I did, and I have been eating it probably 1-2 times a week, for the past month.

Here is my delicious concoction.  Mind you, this is purely my preference/flavor combo for eating.

So, basically you make your Ramen, drain out about half the water, add 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (not organic, I tried that, it wasn't good). And add 2 tablespoons of Sriracha sauce. Or if you don't like it so hot, start with less, and increase to your liking.  They say you can use chunky peanut butter, I have also tried that, it didn't really do anything for me.  I posted the reicpe on my Recipe page, if you want it without all my posty stuff, check out the other stuff there too!

Once you have eaten all of your noodles, slurp, yes, slurp all of your delicious noodle water juices.  I LOVE that part.

Have you tried a weird flavor combination that was a little questionable at first?

Super Simple Snack : Peaches and Cottage Cheese!

It's August, and I have posted before about the super awesome Colorado Peaches at BoB's Produce.  Love them, absolutely without a doubt.

I also really enjoy cottage cheese.

When I was growing up, my mom would have dinner, and would sometimes serve us up for dessert, peaches and cottage cheese.  I actually like it.  She used canned peaches, proabably because that was what she had on hand.  Well, I have fresh, ripe, super juicy Colorado Peaches! 

I ate this a couple of times for breakfast, and a couple of times as an afternoon snack waiting for the Boyfriend to come home.  He's been working until 6:30 lately, and, in order for me to not be starving and cranky, this was a nice mid afternoon snack for me.

Here we have it 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, and a cut up peach. SO yummy!!

Peach segments and cottage cheese.

Tonight I made beef kabobs on the grill.  Kabobs are so simple, a great summer time dinner.  Cut up peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes if you would like, some meat if you are into that. Thread them on some skewers and pop on the grill. Turn every 5 or so until the meat is to your liking. 

I cut up some beef cubes the last night threw some soy sauce, wirshesher, garlic, red pepper flakes and ketchup.  Ahh.. yes, quite odd combination, no idea what I was doing, but thinking, they probably taste good on a piece of meat, right?

Turns out I was right, as per usual. (ha, ha.)

I tossed them in the marinate this morning, and again when I got home from work. Once I knew the Boyfriend was on his way home, I fired up the grill, and while it heated up I threaded the cut up veggies and meat on skewers, and threw them on.  Cooked the kabobs for about 15-20 minutes.  And viola!  Dinner.  I picked up some coleslaw and stuffed mushrooms(to throw on the grill) on my way home too, so we had a little mini feast!

Dinner!

I like my veggies charred.  If you aren't into that, turn the heat down.  It was all so yummy. 

Do you have a go-to marinade recipe to share?

Visitors and the Museum

The Boyfriend's car had some sort of serious issue this week.  I am not a mechanic, and quite frankly, not going to lie, I don't really care what the problem was.  His best friend and his son came over on Friday night and started to fix the issue.  Now, the Boyfriend's best friend's kid is like 9 or something. I have no idea really, old enough to the point where he should be able to control himself, or at least figure out how to be calm.  He doesn't.  The kid isn't a bad kid, just has a hard time being good.

On Friday the kid and I played Uno, and there was a little bit of cheating going on, so, I had to end that.  Otherwise the kid wanted to talk about his DS game.. not sure which one.. but he is very passionate about all the cool things it can do.  I asked him if he wanted to go find the park or something, but he replied he was more of an 'indoor kid'.  I asked what that was, he said I just like to be indoors, I asked why, he said because that's where all his video games are.  Well, that does make sense.  He said his grandma will sometimes tell him to go outside though.  I asked if he had ever been out of breath before, he asked what that was.  Slight problem there..

But anyways, the guys weren't done playing car mechanic on Friday night, the Boyfriend had to work on Saturday, so I knew the kid would be heading over with his dad, not a huge problem, but I have to figure out how we are going to be entertained together, I figured he was old enough to cook or something, so I hatched a plan.

When they came over, I heard some more about his video games and what not, and then I asked him if he liked to cook.  I am not saying everyone who is an indoor person has to like to cook (but what the heck are you doing inside all day if you aren't cooking?!).  But I figured if we worked on creating something, rather than being destructive, than it was okay in my book.  What is one of the simplest things to make?  Well, heck, Rice Krispies!  But, I didn't have any of those, what I did have though, were Peanut Butter Cheerio's that did not have a very strong peanut butter flavor.  So, let's make PB Cheerio Bars!

Behold, the magic of peanut butter!

It's basically the traditional Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Bar Recipe but made with Cheerios instead.  I had him measure out the marshmallows and the cheerios. And stir it all together.  You can see the full PB Cheerio Bar recipe here.

I had to put them in the freezer to get them to harden, because it didn't take the Boyfriend and his best friend to finish whatever it was that they were doing.  I was baking some boxed cupcakes to hopefully frost with the kid too, but he left before they were really ready.

I had made some Crock-Pot Chicken Taco meat earlier in the day, threw in some extra jalapenos to use to make Chicken Tostadas, I had some cilantro, and threw on some extra salsa and Queso Blanco for extra goodness.

Chicken Tostadas

I asked if anyone wanted any, no one did, it was 7pm, and I was starving, more for me then!  So I ate mine, it was SO filling!! You kind of eat it like a pizza.  When the Boyfriend ate some later on, he crushed up the tostadas, and poured everything on it, threw on some regular shredded cheese, added some sour cream, and ate it that way.

I also frosted those cupcakes once they were cooled.  I used my ultimate favorite Rainbow Chip Frosting by Betty Crocker, which is surprisingly hard to find where I live.  When I go down to Southern Minnesota, I stop in at a store in Bricelyn to pick some up.  And since I was there last weekend, it only made sense that I would come home with some.  But that means, I needed to use up an older container that I bought apparently in the Spring, since it was called Spring Chip, date was good, so let's slap it on some cupcakes.

Yellow Cupcake with Spring Chip Frosting

I ended up bringing the cupcakes with me to a picnic with my little sister and her son.  We went to the Children's Museum on Target's Free Sunday.  The Children's Museum was listed in Parent's Magazine 10 Best Children's Museum in 2011.  It was good entertainment for the Nephew (he's just over 2 now).  I will say this, I wish I could go when there were no kids there, then I could get everything to work like it should.. me and my adult sized brain can figure it out all on my own! 

After the museum we went back to the parking ramp, and ate sandwiches, veggies crackers and juice and my cupcakes.  Yes, we ate IN the parking ramp, in the corner on a blanket, next time I think I will suggest bringing outdoor chairs.  I sent her home with some extra PB Cheerio Bars to share with my dad.  I transported the cupcakes in upside down Tupperware.  You can sort of see it in the photo.  It worked out decently.

On a side note, my older sister had her 3rd kid on Wednesday. So now she has a 12 (girl), 6(boy) and newborn(boy).  That's really all there is to say about that.

Do you have a better way to transport goodies?  Do share!!

Birthday Party!

This past weekend was the Boyfriend's sister in law and good family friend's birthday celebration.  Their birthdays are 1 day apart, and they share a bunch of mutual friends (ha - and probably family members), so it really only makes sense to have a joint birthday party!

The birthday party was super fun, had a great time, and met a couple more of my Boyfriend's Southern MN friends.  Got to catch up with the Boyfriend's family, and play Corn Hole.  Which I ABSOLUTELY love.  I love lawn games.  I think there might have been some miss calculation of the score, so if you are playing, I definitely recommend having a score board of some sort.  Here is a site I found on how to make a few different score boards, and with drink holders no less!

Growing up, as a family, we rarely showed up with out anything to share.  I sent a text to the Boyfriend's sister in law, and she said bring a yummy dessert.  AWESOME!  I have been waiting for a reason to make Oreo Truffles.  I know they are extremely unhealthy, and make a ton of servings, so it would be best for me to have a reason to bring them somewhere before making them.  So that is exactly what I did!

Yummy Peanut Butter Oreo Truffle!

I couldn't decide what flavor of Oreo to use.  But it was a Birthday Party! So I made two different batches.  One batch was made with Birthday Cake Oreo Cookies, and the other was with Peanut Butter Oreo Cookies.  How AWESOME!

Basically you take a package of cookies, crush them into a fine powder, and mix in 8 oz. of cream cheese, form them into balls.

Oreo Cookie Truffle Base

Dip each ball into melted chocolate (I used Bakers White Chocolate), sprinkle something to make them prettier on top, and DEVOUR!   Wait, I mean package up so others can enjoy!

Dipping the Oreo Truffles in melted chocolate

I put sprinkles on the Birthday Cake Oreo Truffles, and mini semi sweet chocolate chips on the Peanut Butter Oreo Truffles, so that I could tell them apart from one another.  They were so good!  And were devoured pretty quickly at the party. 

I will say this, they were a little putzy, I found a rhythm once I started dipping, and you can certainly tell that I dipped the Birthday Cake Oreo Truffles first, but I would make again, for sure!  You can find more information about the Oreo Truffles and other recipes over on my Recipe Page too!

Focaccia Bread

I first made this recipe last year, and I absolutely loved it.  And have been wanting to make it again ever since.

I love the America's Test Kitchen TV show on PBS, and their cookbooks.  America's Test Kitchen does the Cook's Country show also, but I like America's Test Kitchen more for some reason. I greatly enjoy how they break things down and tell you why things are the way they are, what they did to make it better, and how you can re-create things on your own at home.

The show has a Rosemary Focaccia bread.  I don't buy Rosemary, and didn't bother with it either time I made this.  I just used the Italian Seasonings grinder that I already own.  I used it on the big grinder setting, and then I twist it to a small grind halfway through, so I can get a big bits, and little bits on my bread.  I don't know if it makes that much of a difference?  But I do it anyways.

You can find the recipe for Focaccia Bread on my recipe page.  You can also view it on America's Test Kitchen site too!

I will admit I made the Biga, let it set for 24 hours, and then threw it in the fridge this time, and on the 3rd day, I made the focaccia.  It still was delicious.  When I first made it, I had cheese on it, and then this time, I forgot the cheese at the store.  I liked it more when I had the cheese.

Dough and seasonings waiting for the oven.

Focaccia witch cheese and pasta!

Focaccia without cheese.

Close up with the cheese!

I love spending my Saturday mornings watching all the cooking shows on PBS.  I don't have cable, otherwise I am sure I would watch a TON of cooking shows.  But I am sure I would always tune in to America's Test Kitchen.

Is there a cooking show that you love?  Let me know you try this recipe! (or well, any of the recipe's I have posted)

Cookies - 2 Ways

My Cookie Jar I found at Goodwill a few months ago!

The temperature has died down today, and I thought that was for sure a reason to start up and use the oven!    So I did.  I knew I had leftover white chocolate chips from when I made Magic Strawberry Ice Cream, and didn't have much to do with them.  I also *might* have opened up a bag of dark chocolate & mint chips.. so.. I should use those up too!

So I made up a batch and a half of Hershey's Chocolate Cookies, and split it in two batches.  I poured most of a bag of white chips in one bowl.  And then I poured most of a bag of Hershey's Dark Chocolate and Mint Chips into the other.  Formed them into balls (about 2 tbsp.) and then I pulled the dough ball apart turned the two halves a quarter turn, and pushed together to look like this:

Forming a rough edged cookie - changes the look of an end product!

By doing the pull - twist and push process, it makes it so the baked cookie doesn't look so store bought, but rather more like a home made cookie!  I did this with both batters, the White Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookes, and the Dark Chocolate and Mint Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies.

White Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cookie

See the top of the cookie? It is not smooth like when you roll it in a ball and plop it on the sheet.

Here is a photo of the end product of the Dark Chocolate and Mint Chip cookies.  The flavor isn't bad, it kind of tastes like if you were to chop up Andes Mints and mix that into the batter.  Because of the mint, I think it makes it hard to eat these in multiples. But, that's not such a bad thing really.

 

Dark Chocolate and Mint Chip Chocolate Cookie

I have posted the recipes on my recipe page, check out some of the other items too!

Breakfast and Dessert, not in that order.

Last week was a busy week at work.  I put in some over time, and almost wonder if there wasn't more work for me to do.

I got a massage during the week to.  I know that they masseuse always says, to let them know if the pressure is too much.  How are you supposed to do it 1 - without looking like a wimp.  And 2 - without sounding like you are dying.  I have no idea.  I would think if they paid attention to their clients breathing, they could figure out if they were massaging too aggressively.  There were a couple of times, where she was pushing through a muscle... and it was a little painful.  But I'm no wimp.  I made it through.  But here's the thing, I want to be sore the next day.  I am a freak like that.  I have had 3 massages now in my entire life, and I have never been sore.

But either way.  I had my last softball game of the summer season on Monday.  We won, barely.  Closest game ever for either of the teams I played on this year. 

On Friday Cook's Country emailed a recipe for Magic Strawberry Ice Cream.  It takes no special equipment, so I knew I wanted to give it a try.  On Friday night the Boyfriend and I went out to Tuttle's and had a pizza and a pitcher, and then went to Target.  He wanted to pick up the move Gangs of New York.  I had never seen it, and he thinks it's just great.  But when we were there, he couldn't find it, decided to pick up the Transformer's Trilogy.  And I had a light bulb moment, and picked up the stuff I needed for this 'Magic' ice cream.

When we got home the Boyfriend's dad called, and I ended up grabbing a beer, and going over to the neighbor's house, he was sitting outside.  The Boyfriend wandered over, we chatted it up for a bit, and then we headed back.  The Boyfriend could not find the remote for the DVD player, so gave up on trying to watch a movie.  He had to work the next day anyways.  So to bed we went.

On Saturday, I had lots of big plans.  I hadn't been out for a run in a week, and I have a chair reupholstering project that has been halfway completed for awhile now.  I didn't do a darn thing.  Other than the dishes, watch TV, and make the ice cream and get it into the freezer.

Making the ice cream was not hard at all.  It takes some pretty simple ingredients, and is ready to freeze in a matter of probably 10 minutes.

Get ready for magic!

The original recipe says to use a food processor, but my blender was already out.  When they say whip until foamy and then turn it up until soft peaks form.  They mean SOFT peaks.  I might not have been paying enough attention, and whipped the cream until stiff peaks formed.  I just googled it, and a blogger wrote about how to make butter.  Yes, butter.  I stopped at what he called the 'halfway' point.  So, when it says soft peaks.  They mean it.  They always do. 

Once I let it set in the freezer over night I scooped it out with a melon baller, because, well a photo with spooned ice cream isn't as pretty, and I do not own an ice cream scoop.

Magic Strawberry Ice Cream

You can find what I did here, or check out my other recipes I have tried here.  The end result wasn't bad.  But I can kind of taste/feel the buttery-ness of it.  I took the photo, ate a couple of the ice cream balls, and put them in a baggie back in to the freezer.  I am thinking I will drop them in to a glass of sprite or something - or maybe strawberry soda!

Once the Boyfriend got home from work on Saturday, he was whiney about working (he has been putting in 10 hour days, and 8 on Saturdays for the past few weeks), and tired, so we decided to make it a movie night.  He watched all 3 of the Transformer movies, had popcorn, and then went to bed. 

When I woke up this morning and started watching CBS Sunday Morning - which I absolutely love - I came across a pin to this page for a Honey Cloud Pancake on the blog by things{we}make.  I had left over strawberries, so I figured what the heck, I have eggs, milk vanilla, flour and honey.  So let's do this!

I gathered my supplies, and of course took a picture.

To make a Honey Cloud Pancake

This recipe calls for you to whip 1 egg white to peaks.  I did it by hand, it took a while, and I did take a break in between to mix the batter together. My end result didn't turn out quite like what I was trying to imitate.. but it still tasted good.


Honey Cloud Pancake

It did have an egg type texture.  I let it sit before I ate it, as I was frying up bacon, eggs and making toast for the Boyfriend.  I think that if I had patted the strawberries dry prior to putting them on the pancake, it wouldn't have been as bloody looking.  Either way, I may make it another time with raspberries or peaches.  Colorado peaches are coming into season soon - I can't wait!! (update: I just checked - it's time right NOW!)

The Boyfriend and I haven't done anytihng today, folded some clothes, washed the dishes, and now we are just being bums.  I will probably take a shower, and then paint my nails. (I might have spent $20 one morning on my way into work last week on nail polish at Walgreens).

Animation Domination starts in a couple of hours too.  Easy weekend here.  Hopefully this easy weekend set me up to start running in the mornings again the TC10Mile is coming up soon.. and.. well, I want to be able to say I ran most of it.

Do you enjoy lazy weekends?  What is your favorite thing to do on a Lazy Sunday?