My First Hat

I made my first hat a little while ago :)

What do you think?

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I have a get together to go to tomorrow so I decided to make cupcakes since everyone likes cupcakes. However, since I have a 20 page paper that is due Sunday, I decided to take the easy way out and just use box mix and canned frosting (GASP). I know its blasphemy but - hey - I'm busy.

Well of course I had to find some way to make it time consuming so I decided to get some cake decorating tips and make them pretty looking. But since I'm scatterbrained, I forgot that using fancy cake decorating tips to frost cupcakes would require a lot of frosting. I OBVIOUSLY didn't get enough to cover 48 cupcakes. So instead of running out at 10:30pm to try to find frosting I made my own - YAY ME!

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened

4-5 tbsp cocoa powder

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

2-3 tbsp vanilla extract

3-5 tbsp water (can use cream or milk as well)

Cream the butter and shortening until smooth. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl often. Add cocoa powder, making sure it blends well. Frosting will look a bit dry. Now add the vanilla and the water. You can add more depending on how stiff you want the frosting to be.

Cheers!

Pepperoni Rolls

I totally copied this recipe from Suzanne. It's delicious and can be grabbed as a snack or you can pack 2 for a lunch. I only made minimal changes. Check out her website - it's awesome and she has step-by-step pics of this yumminess.

Pepperoni Rolls

Dough

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 teaspoon yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 egg

1/3 cup oil

1 cup chopped pepperoni

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

4 cups flour (approx)

Filling

pepperoni slices or sticks

mozzarella or pepper jack cheese (approx. 2 cups)

In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, salt, sugar, minced garlic, egg, oil, chopped pepperoni, and the 1/2 cup of cheese. Let sit five minutes. Stir in the first cup and a half of flour with a heavy spoon. Add the next cup of flour a little at a time as needed, stirring until dough becomes too stiff to continue stirring easily. Add a little more flour and begin kneading. The amount of flour is approximate since dough can be temperamental.

Continue adding flour and kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled. (Usually, about an hour. Mine took about 2 hrs to rise enough.) Uncover bowl; sprinkle in a little more flour and knead again before dividing in half into two balls.

Working with one half of the dough at a time, roll each ball of dough out onto a floured surface into a rectangle (approximately 8×12 inches). Sprinkle flour over the dough to keep from sticking as you roll. Make one slice lengthwise down the dough. Slicing from the other direction, make a slice down the middle, then again, until you have eight pieces. Sprinkle with cheese. Place about 3 pepperoni slices or sticks on each piece. Roll up, pinching seam to seal.

Let rise approximately 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Bake for 20-30 minutes. (Watch carefully–the size of your rolls will vary the baking time–they’re done when they’ve browned.) Makes 16 rolls.

Cheers!

Life happens

SonyaAnn told me to post something so here I go....

I have been in school for last semester (2 classes) and this summer (2 classes) and working full time with extra responsibilities. I am still cooking - I even just got a pressure canner off of Craigslist for $50 :). I even took pictures of the stuff I cooked so that I can post about them later. Right now, I'm cleaning my apartment and trying to finish homework because tomorrow I get to have all 4 of my wisdom teeth extracted (and I'm not even getting knocked out to have it done). Then, I don't even get to have Monday off (observed 4th of July) because I have to be at work at 4am for International coverage.... maybe at 4am I'll have time to post something more substantial :) with pictures of yumminess.

Well wish me luck with the teeth thing.... maybe I'll lose a few pounds since all I can eat is applesauce, yogurt and jello :)

Cheers!

Shrimp Burritos

My BF wanted me to try to make a mexican dish with shrimp. So I opted for shrimp burritos. They turned out pretty good. I would just make the rice a little different next time.

Shrimp Burritos

15-20 shrimp

1 tbsp butter

3-4 tbsp chopped onions

splash of lemon juice

light sprinkling of garlic powder and cilantro

First, prepare the rice. I made mine like a Chipolte knock-off. Boil rice with a dash of salt, a splash of lime juice and a generous sprinkling of cilantro. When the rice is almost done, melt the butter on a frying pan and saute the onions until they are translucent. I liked mine fairly browned. Add the shrimp, lemon juice, garlic powder and cilantro. Cook until shrimp are pink. I made my slightly browned. Remove from heat and wait for them to cool a little. Cut into little pieces.

Serve the shrimp and onions with your favorite burrito toppings. We had black beans, salsa verde with corn, sour cream and shredded cheese.

Makes roughly 4 medium sized burritos.

They were yummy :)

S'more Topped Brownies

Last weekend the BF and I met up with some friends to play some video games and hangout. I decided to make this to bring along. Eaten by itself or with some vanilla ice cream, it's delightful, as you can tell by my friends' face....

S'more Topped Brownies: adapted from Kate

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1-1/2 cup chocolate chips
3 eggs
1-1/2 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda (use 1/4 tsp if you like fudgey brownies)
1 1/2 cup broken graham crackers
3 tbsp butter, melted
2 cup mini marshmallows
1 Hershey bar, broken into individual pieces

1. Heat sugar and butter in a medium pot over low heat until butter is completely melted, stirring often. Remove from heat, stir in 1 1/2 c. chocolate chips until melted, and let cool to room temperature.

2. In a small bowl, briefly whisk the eggs. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of chocolate mixture to the eggs and stir to combine, just to temper the eggs. Then pour all of eggs into the pot with the melted chocolate. Stir to combine.

3. Stir in flour, vanilla and baking soda until well blended. Pour into a greased 13×9 casserole dish.

4. In a small bowl, combine the graham crackers and butter and sprinkle over the brownies. Add the marshmallows and the chocolate pieces.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy :)

Egg Bread

Mmmm. Yummy egg bread :) We were out of sammich bread so I pulled out my recipe book and made this delightful egg bread. It's almost like a challah but the texture is a bit different.

Heres my version:

Egg Bread
2-1/4 tsp yeast
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp nonfat dry milk
2 tbsp butter
1 cup water
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 medium eggs
1 tsp lemon juice

Add all items to bread machine in order for your model. You can bake it on white bread setting or you can remove it from the machine and place in a greased bread pan. Punch down the dough and let rise for another 10-20 mins in a warm place. Bake at 350* until top is golden - about 20 minutes. Quickly slice off the end of the loaf while it's still warm and slather with butter.

~Enjoy :)

Chicken Quesadilla

A few weeks ago, I had a craving for a Taco Bell quesadilla but didn't feel like going out because there was a ton of snow out. Luckily, I came up with this recipe. It's delicious and comes together in about 15 minutes.

Sauce

1 part softened cream cheese or sour cream

1 part mayo

1 tsp sugar

cayenne - to taste

paprika - to taste and for color

I usually do 3-4 tbsp cream cheese and 3-4 tbsp Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil

Chicken

2-3 breasts cut into little pieces

season chicken with Old El Paso seasoning or a mixture of cumin, garlic powder, seasoned salt and paprika

Fry the seasoned chicken pieces until no longer pink. Put chicken in a large bowl. Pour the sauce mixture over the chicken and mix well.

Spoon the chicken/sauce mixture onto half of a large burrito shell on a pan on medium heat. Sprinkle fiesta cheese over the filling and fold shell in half. (I love my split pan for this recipe :))

Let it warm enough to melt the cheese - about 1-2 minutes per side. Remove to plate and cut with pizza cutter. Makes about 6 quesadillas.

Enjoy!

Crocheted Dish Scrubbies

I got this idea and pattern from Suzanne. I haven't used them yet because they are too cute... I love the ruffles :)

I think they can double as trivets or pot holders. I've been using them to carry hot bowls of soup to the table/couch. They came together really fast too. I made the purple one at work while I was on break and lunch - total time about an hour and a half.

Cheers!

Custom Earrings

My friend Kerry started making custom earrings! I bought 2 pairs from her :)

Pretty pink pearls

Pretty blue trumpets with silver dangly bits

Aren't they pretty?!

If anyone wants a pair, check out her Etsy shop.