Saturday, April 28, 2012

what a WONDER FULL world

today my sister participated in a 5k run for
the Wildlife Conservation Society at New
York's Bronx Zoo to raise money to protect
lions and other threatened wildlife.

as a nurse, I hear about so many charities
raising help and hope for us people, that
sometimes i forget about the other beings in
the world who need help.

so when i see videos like these,
i think to myself...
 
THANK YOU 
sissy and everyone for helping our animals and for all that you are! :)
YOU 
make this a WONDER FULL world. 
<3!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

nacho cookies and dip

(warning!!! this post will take up a lot of your time away from doing really important things like laundry and bills)

hey i am so much a sweetaholic 
it's not even funny.
yes i would rather eat sugar for 
breakfast, lunch and dinner.
and then of course dessert in between.

thus the reason for turning a salty snack into a 
sugar lover's dream.

nacho cookies and dip.
huh?!
before you say "Oh you are SO creative!" I must tell you that this is definitely NOT my creative concoction. nope this is Callye from The Sweet Adventures of SugarBelle here.
she is so completely and utterly awesome that if i ran into her, i would bow down at her presence! and then ask her for a cookie.

i decided to try a version of her awesomeness here. 
her recipe calls for the following:
first sift your dry ingredients and put it aside.
by the way, i found it strange to sift poppy seeds but i follow directions on a recipe to a "T". i mean, it said sift dry ingredients, and poppy seeds are not exactly pourable...

but if it said stand on your head and hold your breath for 55.2 seconds while stirring i would probably do it...ok let's focus back to this recipe...
cream the butter and sugar, then add the egg, vanilla and lemon extract. 
then you will add your sifted dry ingredients:
cuz if you don't, and just dump it,
you will get a winter storm in the middle of your kitchen. not that that happened here y'know since i follow recipe directions to a "T". ahem...

mix well til you get a nice dough.
now roll it out.
take a knife (i used a butter knife)and cut the dough in 2-3 inch strips, 
then again the other way,
then lastly cut each rectangle or square into 2 triangles.
now to prepare your cookie sheet.

take about an 8 inch piece of foil and roll it loosely into a log. 

do it again about 4-5 more times and lay your foil logs on the cookie sheet, like so:
now take a piece of parchment paper the width of your cookie sheet and lay it over your foil logs.

then take your triangle cookie cut outs and lay them over the logs so they will cook in a curve shape to resemble a real nacho chip.

but here's the darn tricky part. 
my stupid parchment paper kept rolling and would not lie still on top of the foil.

so i had to put the salt and pepper shakers and whatever else I had by me to put weight on the paper while i was laying the cookies down. 
darn it that salt came into my nachos after all!

anyway, hope the visuals help:
do i have to tell you to remove the foil and shakers or whatever you use as weights before you stick the pan in the oven?
oh good!
actually, you want them to lie all crooked and not straight!

bake the purtties and:
OK, so i am not the world's best baker.
i get that. but if you want all your chips to look uniform in color so they look store bought, go ahead and make them all one color and amaze everyone. but if you want your chips to look homemade, burn the edges a little like i did and tell your friends you meant to do that. not that i would ever say that! :>P

anyway, let them completely cool before you remove them from the cookie sheet or they will be little pieces of nacho chips like you see in the bottom of a nacho chip bag. 

OK so,
whew! this sure is a dang long post!
time for a pee break...

tick tock... 
   tick  tock...
     tick tock...

i am back!
you can't have nachos without dip right?

the next step callye suggests is to get this:
mix that marshmallow and cream cheese together and add the food coloring to make a guacamole looking color thingie to fool everyone. 
or at least close to the color-whatev.
OK so now you need your tomatoes and wait a sec...huh?

sounds yucko huh?

hows 'bout some strawberry and kiwi "salsa" instead?

go on, cut them up in little cubes and mix 'em together.
another dastardly foolish trick! 
forget cinco de mayo, make these for april fool's!

you have just completed step 2.

now FINALLY for cryin' out loud, put them all together they spell mother and serve it baby! tell your guests to spoon the dip on top of the cookies and then spoon the "salsa" on top of that. or they can just spoon some dip and salsa on the side of their plate and dig in with their cookie.

now remember,this is a PARTY treat and meant to be shared OK?
unless of course you can eat 48 cookies and a pound of fruit dip then you are good to go.
oh my gosh!
i fell asleep reading this post & 
almost forgot the recipe duh!

here ya go:


Callye’s Lemon Poppy Seed Nacho Cookies
 *Preheat oven to 400° *

1c unsalted butter
1 ½ c confectioner’s sugar
1 egg
2 tsp lemon baker's emulsion 
1 tsp vanilla
2 ¾-3 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
2 tsp poppy seeds
Cream together butter and confectioner’s sugar.  Add the egg

and lemon extract and vanilla.  Sift together flour, baking

powder, and salt, adding this mixture one cupful at a time to

the wet ingredients.  Mix until the dough forms a ball on the

paddle. Roll out on floured parchment paper and cut into

triangle shapes.  Bake at 400° for 7-8 minutes. Cool

completely before removing from parchment paper. Serve

with dessert dip and chopped strawberries & kiwi fruit.
Cream Cheese Dessert Dip from Kraft
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 jar (7 oz.) JET-PUFFED Marshmallow Creme

Mix ingredients until well blended.

-oh word of advice, callye's recipe calls for lemon baker's emulsion. 
i asked, what the heck is THAT? i ain't no fancy baker!

but i searched and searched every publix, sweetbay, walmart, etc etc no where to be found. and i was too impatient to buy it online and wait for it to come so,
 i ended up using 2 tsp of this instead that i found at homegoods. it was $5.99 a bottle?! yikes! but i figure it had to be better than generic lemon extract so i got it. just be sure whatever you get is a good one-it makes a difference in the final taste. and yummy they were!

so what are you waiting for? go make these already! 

"¡Andale! ¡Andale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!"

THE END
(finally!)

Friday, April 20, 2012

hothothot

i'm hot.

like really hot.

as in smokin' bbq hot.

not to be confused with this lady:
but more like this:

 well, maybe not with the curlers but you get the picture...

cuz menopause wants to be my best friend 
and likes to stay over...

a lot.

and i don't even invite her.

hot flash?
it surely ain't no flash!
who makes these things up?

cuz hot + flash=
I think it was someone like this who made the term "hot flash" up.

so i keep my house at a comfortable 
-43 degrees 
and i am fine.

so is my family.

which i want you to meet:
 
she's got her fancy makeup on for you today!
he brushed his hair for you!
dang! he never smiles right for pictures! 
sorry guys.

anyway,
everything is under control over here cuz when i hear this from my hubby,
i handle it by being 
cool, calm and collective.
ahhhh! inner peace.

 yes. 
getting old can be kinda fun...(kinda)...

so i can put my best face forward,


and face the world.






Tuesday, April 17, 2012

easy peasy peanut butter filled pecan chocolate chip cookies

OK.
so i admit it.
i am not the most punctual person around.
i used to be really!
until i married and my 2 kiddos came along.

but it's not their fault all together,
because if i didn't put the time into helping them get ready, then we would all be on time for everything...we would look like hobos but hey!
we would be on time.

thus bringing me to this post.
some of you may be wondering why that pic above looks a little funny. like it's been altered somewhat?

well, see, i want to share an easy peasy recipe with you cuz i know some of the things on this blog are quite lengthy and time consuming to actually do it, so hopefully you will actually make this for you and your loved ones.
and maybe, just maybe, that pic above actually says
Happy Easter but i want to be timely on this so thus, the "alteration".

first off,
get some ready made chocolate chip cookie dough and pecan chips.
take a cookie and dip it in the pecans.

{if you look at this pic, you will see a non-wrinkled beautiful hand. that is my son's with a little bit of red easter egg dye on his finger. i did not want you to see my ugly old decripet hand so you won't want to make these, so i volunteered him to be my hand model. also, if a 9-yr-old can make these cookies, anyone can!}
now it's time to bake the purtties.

you know how your mom would always tell you to be quiet when she was baking a cake in the oven cuz she didn't want the cake to sink?

well, LOOK!
YUP! the deeper the well,
the more room for this stuff..
yummmmmmmmmmm!!!
melted peanut butter and white chocolate chips mixed together!

be warned that when melting the chocolate chips, they may give you a hard time and not melt all the way and turn all funky on you cuz that's what chocolate does sometimes, causing you to scream cuz this was supposed to be an easy peasy recipe, but actually just put the pb in and give it a good stir and it will all work out.

the next step is fairly obvious, putting the filling in the welled cookie cups. you can spoon it in yourself and have a heart atttack trying not to make a mess or do it this way.

get a tall glass and put either a ziploc baggie in it or even better, a plastic icing bag. stick your hand in the glass to open the bag up. now fold the top over the glass and then fill the bag up with the peanut butter filling. like this:

don't forget to cut a small hole in the bottom-duh.

it's much quicker, neater and easier to do it like this than use a spoon. like i said, my 9-yr-old did it and didn't make that bad of a mess!now when you fill your cookies, check it below. you want the "yes" cookies-shake them a little to get it
smooooth (like Keystone-sorry I couldn't resist) 
but don't shake them too much or they will overflow like the one in the pic above.
now let them cool a little and...
what?! i thought this wasn't an Easter post!

ahem...
it's a SPRING post cuz Easter is over lady! and,
whoa! where'd you guys come from?

i repeat-this is NOT a post about Easter!
Easter is over!-duh!

this is a post about SPRING cookies!
see?!
 
dang it!
you got me...
but i got you back!...
(hey lisa! the daytona 500 was in february!)

yeah whatevs!
i swear to you this is NOT an Easter post!

:>P

recipe adapted from Pillsbury Bake-Off contestant Mary Fields of Gilbert, AZ
(i would totally vote for her!)
as you can see i made these more than a few times-that's how yummy/easy they are!
Peanut Butter Filled Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup Pecan Chips
  • 1 package Pillsbury® Ready to Bake 24 refrigerated chocolate chip cookies
  • 1/2 cup Hershey’s white baking chips
  • 1/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
Procedure
  1. Heat oven to 350°F. Have an ungreased small muffin pan ready.
  2. In small bowl, place pecan chips. Coat each cookie with pecans; press into dough. Place each cookie in muffin cup.
  3. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool in muffin cups on cooling rack 30 minutes. (Centers of cookies will sink slightly.)
  4. In small microwavable bowl, microwave white chips on medium 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth. Stir peanut butter into melted chips until blended. If chips do not melt all the way, and you heated them already 1 1/2 minutes, go ahead and stir the peanut butter in but stir quickly to get all lumps out.
  5. Spoon about 2 teaspoons peanut butter mixture into each cookie cup. Store in covered container.
thisisthebestlittlecookiei'veevereaten.
yumyumyum.



Friday, April 13, 2012

the Etsy curse


darn you Etsy! darn you!!!

if you haven't heard of Etsy, and you like handmade
totally awesome
cute
whimsical
original 
stuff you don't need,
but want,
kind of stuff,
then check out THIS site.
it will kill your pocketbook.

(not that that is what I did dear hubby...! :>P)

cuz you see that pic above?
do you think anyone really needs it?

of course not.

but I am 12 years old
and I need it.

so do you right HERE.

join the empty wallet club!

yay! you can put the few pennies
you have left
in your new cupcake jars...

...now...

I am eyeballing THIS:
Fake Cupcake Cupcake Lovers String of Lights 12 Legs Orignal Concept Design 10 Mini Assorted Cupcakes Perfect for Bakery Decor Kitchens\
Fake Cupcake Cupcake Lovers String of Lights 12 Legs Orignal Concept Design 10 Mini Assorted Cupcakes Perfect for Bakery Decor Kitchens
and THIS:
Candy Sprinkle Colorful Fun Keychain Pendant

what can I say?
i am just a kid.

it certainly beats being a grown up.