A Day in a Life

Our bird brained life

2012-05-28T00:35:00.001-05:00

We have birds on our minds 24/7 around our house. Peacocks, ducks, pheasants, chickens, guineas...turkeys!

We've had several baby birds hatch recently....coolest thing ever!

I've also had quite a few personal issues arise. I'm still cooking and enjoying all the great recipes, I will be back with you all soon...

Best Grilled Cheese Ever: Spinach Artichoke Grilled Cheese

2012-04-25T21:21:00.003-05:00

I'm really quite the fan of grilled cheese sandwiches...Anything with cheese, where it's melty and glorious is a must. Enough said there...I think. Let's tell about how I stumbled upon this recipe...sitting in my hairdressers, Heather, waiting on the color in my hair to percolate into that perfect shade we adore so much, we cruised through Pinterest checking out great recipes...especially after I gave her some surprise brownies (made with black beans)!

When you add into the grilled cheese concept one of my favorite dip combinations it just puts the icing on the proverbial cake.

*sighs*

I love Pinterest and I really thank it for some of the rockin' recipes I have found and this has been by far a recipe that I saw, and then immediately went and bought ingredients and came home and made them.

Let just say a lot of my favorite ingredients are in this recipe: garlic, artichokes, cheese, bread, garlic, bread, cheese, artichokes...garlic.

After drooling over your garlic for quite some time you should perhaps chop some really super fresh spinach! Don't forget to remove the stems!

Next crack open the cans or jars of artichoke hearts, I believe in the concept of "more is more." So I love artichokes and um this is where I go way off from the original recipe...2 cans! Lay them on me!

*drools just thinking about artichokes*

This is what I will term...a Hot mess...It doesn't look super appetizing but its artichokes and spinach and oh man it's sooooo good!

Let's start up the heating of the skillet with a bit of an olive oil and butter mixture...then let's slap on some cheese!

Perfectly toasted bread makes the grilled cheese yumminess that much better....

Spinach Artichoke Grilled Cheese

Adapted from A Couple Cooks

Ingredients

2 cloves fresh garlic, diced
3 cups fresh spinach, chopped
2 cans artichoke hearts
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 tablespoons sour cream
sliced Havarti cheese
sliced sun dried tomato cheddar
sliced fresh mozzarella
shredded parmesan
sliced turkey or ham lunch meat
slices bread
to taste kosher
butter

Cooking Directions

Sauteed Spinach!

Dice the 2 cloves garlic.
Chop the artichokes.
Wash and stem the spinach, then chop it coarsely.
Heat about 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet.
Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
Then add the spinach and a pinch of kosher salt, and saute for a few minutes until just limp.
Add the artichokes and saute for another minute or so, until heated through.
Drain off any liquid from the pan.
Stir in 4 tablespoons sour cream and another pinch of kosher salt.
Spread butter (or olive oil) on one side of each of the bread pieces.
Heat a griddle pan to medium high heat.
Place pieces of bread on the griddle, buttered side down.
On each piece, place slices of sun-dried tomato cheddar, fresh mozzarella, Havarti cheese and parmesan cheese, the spinach artichoke filling, lunch meat, some more cheese (1/2 cup cheese per sandwich), and the other piece of bread.
When the bottom bread is browned, flip the sandwich and cook until the bread is toasted and the cheese is melted.

Enjoy!
~Nikki

Nutella Gooey butter cake

2012-04-22T11:02:00.000-05:00

Gooey butter cake...anytime this is said my ears perk, my tummy starts grumbling and my mouth starts watering. Gooey butter cake is almost the epitome of that desert that everyone loves and fights over to eat the last piece.

My sweety, Josh, loves gooey butter anything...he's tried it all. Needless to say he had a huge chunk of this delightfully fun version of gooey butter cake! I mean adding Nutella to anything makes it somehow better right? I stumbled upon this recipe on two different blogs I follow, Plain Chicken and Let's Dish Recipes.

First we just mix up a lovely chocolate cake mix with butter and egg. Then spread and smoosh into the bottom of your dish...as the base to your lovely gooey cake.

Next we take cream cheese, lots of gooey Nutella, egg, vanilla, butter, and powdered sugar...mix together toss on top of that lovely base we baked then put back into the oven. Yes, it will be gooey when you are trying to determine if it was done.

Nutella Gooey Butter Cake

Ingredients

1 package devil's food cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 package 8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup Nutella
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 16 ounce box powdered sugar

Cooking Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer.
Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and Nutella until smooth.
Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together.
Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well.
Spread Nutella mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.
Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey.

I dare you to wait until the dessert has cooled to try eating it...when it first makes its way out of the oven its delicious and gooey and warm...after it's cooled its delicious and gooey...
This is one dessert that when shared with the ladies I work with...didn't make it home.

Enjoy!
~Nikki

Honey Sesame Chicken

2012-04-17T20:27:00.000-05:00

I should start off by apologizing to those of you who disdain crock pots in all of their glory...I have come to realize that crock pots are really quite a nice contribution to a working families meal plans. I used to be that person who had this disdain for anything crock pot.... until I tried this recipe.

For those of you who don't have those fancy new crock pots that the insides lift out of the base...my recommendation get one. It's so hard to clean this old one we share in our house. I'm always afraid I'll ruin ours by getting water in any number of areas.

I stumbled on this recipe from Chef in Training the other day, and I almost wrote it off as a non-recipe because I didn't want to do something in a crock pot...yes I am one those people mentioned above who disdained crock pots...

Anyway. I thought heck, why not...you want to try more things and do more in your cooking besides baked goods...

"save"

It should be noted, I don't like to follow recipes exactly to the t, but I really do mean well...

With that all being said, I tried to make this dish the night before. So...you can only get so far with that...duh...raw chicken...crock pot...leave it on low all night all day...you'll end up with some foreign looking chicken parts...

I started by just getting my sauce ingredients (honey, soy sauce, diced onion, ketchup, canola oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes) mixed well in a tightly sealed bowl so I could keep it in the fridge overnight and then I could set it out in the morning before I went to work so my mother could put it all in the crock pot later in the day.

I cry when chopping onions...I hate it! I come close to it with garlic. Which brings up an excellent question...how do you all get rid of that garlic smell that seems to permeate from your fingers for weeks on end after touching it?

I used these nice little chicken tender frozen pieces instead of a chicken breast or thighs. I just wanted the easiest bit of meat that I could find in our freezer, and dear lord bones and then taking the meat off bones…not my favorite!

I don’t really have any pictures of it during the cooking process until the end when I finished it. I love coming home to the smell of something super awesome cooking and then getting to play with it and finish it up.

In haste to try something new, we used rice noodles, which claim to be this amazing supplement to fried rice. We found them a bit dull to go along with the honey sesame chicken…however; we have used them before and liked them in other preparations.

Honey Sesame Chicken, crock pot style
from: Chef in Training

Ingredients

2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken
to your liking salt and pepper
1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 tablespoons diced onions
4 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 teaspoons cornstarch
6 tablespoons water
to your liking sesame seeds

Cooking Directions

Season both sides of chicken lightly with salt and pepper, put into your crock pot.
In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic, and pepper flakes.
Pour the combined ingredients over the chicken.
Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1.5 - 2.5 hours, or until chicken is cooked through.
Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce behind.
Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine.
Replace lid and cook sauce on high for 10 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over your choice of rice or noodles.

Momma T's recommendations: More red pepper flakes it wasn't spicy enough for me, and also cashews or something on top would have added a really nice crunch that it seemed to be missing
Nikki's recommendations: less honey, dice the onions finely, and thicken the sauce more
Pappa T's recommendations: the sauce needs to be a lot thicker...this has been his comment on everything recently...perhaps a theme for him

Enjoy!
~Nikki

The TegCaprese Salad

2012-04-12T20:30:00.000-05:00

We've always done some kind of tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil salad. It's just something we grew up with. It was always something I knew I didn't have to fight my brother for a lot, but I definitely had to fight my Dad for seconds. We've never come to blows, but someday if there is a basil shortage, mozzarella shortage and also a tomato shortage, and we only had one spoonful left, I do think we might have some kind of "war." More than likely....thumb wars...

Anyway, we have many variations and always feel free to substitute anything. We've used all different kinds of mozzarella cheese, some fresh, some herb encrusted, some small little balls of mozzarella or large slices.

This version uses a herb encrusted rope cheese from Costco. Those of you who are huge fans of Costco, we drive 3.5 hours to our closest Costco every once in a while to obtain this beaut. Clearly, we don't go often, so we savor what we have.

Any kind of tomato you want to use, we used yellow sweet tomatoes.

Basil!!!!!

There are no measurements for this recipe...I've never much enjoyed measurements

TegCaprese Salad

Your choice of Mozzarella or other preferred cheese
Your choice of Tomato
Fresh Basil (use as little or as much as you want)
olive oil (optional)
balsamic vinegar (optional)

Chop ingredients as fine or as chunky as you want, mix together in bowl. Cover with your favorite balsamic dressing or create your own with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Close up of the pretties that go into the salad, this is before I dressed with a Balsamic dressing we bought at the store.

This is how a real woman eats her burgers. Covered in the TegCaprese salad. Dear lord! Heavenly!

Check out not only the lovely burger but the yummy mixture on top! This is the perfect salad for my honey and I by the way love tomatoes, he hates them. I get all of his tomatoes, while he enjoys his delicious cheeses. Let's just say if you have a similar situation like that you'll be able to share and share a like.

Enjoy!

~Nikki

Happy (Belated) Easter

2012-04-09T20:04:00.002-05:00

Well, first off I want to start by saying Happy Easter to everyone. I'm a bit behind on my blogging. Been a bit busy and distracted lately with work and life.

I started out having a rather lovely weekend, involving a nice relaxing Saturday, I decided to tackle a project my Mom had on her “list,” this thing grows daily as she finds more tasks that she needs to do, yard work, housework, etc. Needless to say I figured me taking some gumption and doing this would be a nice surprise. Plus!!! It looks awesome!

I guess I could say what I did…we used to have a top waterfall by our front door, and then a waterfall leading down to a lower pond by our basement. Due to yard work and other things that went on the bottom pond got axed. Now a waterfall to nothing…it’s not that cool…or aesthetically appealing. My mom was thinking something floral or herbal in the sections would be really pretty. I not only agreed, I thought it was brilliant. Hence why I jumped at this task on her list.

Needless to say, draining the yucky water out of each section, drilling holes in the bottom, lining with rocks, and then covering with a thick layer of dirt was a fun task…and I’m not your typically get my hands dirty kind of girl. I wash my hands constantly when handling raw meats…so it’s hard to work in dirt. Yuck!

After accomplishing this feat of a project I decided that was it for me. I was done. I thawed some shrimp and added to some fun shaped pasta and made some shrimp mac and cheese. Not too shabby…

Sunday rolled in with a lovely day and a few more projects to complete. First, what was I going to cook from scratch this weekend that I could blog about, and also be something nice to enjoy for Easter? Raspberry Oat Bars! Yum! Plus, I’d found this lovely jar of Raspberry preserves at the store, that wasn’t Smuckers…so I knew the recipe was meant to be. No offense Smuckers, but I wanted something a bit more…

I got this recipe from Ziplist, my new iPhone addiction app. I highly recommend it if you don’t already use. Plus a lot of really great bloggers use the app directly on their blogs, so you can just click a button and add it to your recipe box/list.

Raspberry Oat Bars
adapted from All Recipes

INGREDIENTS:
¾ cup butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 ½ cups rolled oats
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 (13 ounce) jar raspberry preserves (originally called for 10ounce, what does one do with leftovers...)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. I like to use convection bake a lot, I just feel like my baking is a bit more even and I get happy little treats instead of sad…Grease a 9x13 inch pan, then line pan with parchment, grease parchment.
2. In large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar, until smooth. While this mixture is creaming. Measure out and combine in medium bowl your oats, flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir into the creamed mixture.
3. Now to get our hands dirty. Dive right in and crumble the mixture a bit until it’s a nice crumbly consistency. Take about half of the mixture and press into the bottom of the pan onto the parchment.
4. Next spread the preserves on the crust. Then crumble the rest of the mixture onto the top for a truly divine look.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in preheated oven. Until light brown. Cool completely, then enjoy!

Anywho, I didn't take step by step pictures this time, I was too into making and baking and moving on to another task...spraying off all the nasty crap that falls from the tress in good ole Missouri...

~Nikki

Strawberry White Chocolate Donut Muffins

2012-04-03T19:45:00.001-05:00

Around Valentine's Day I stumbled upon a recipe from the Confessions of a Cookbook Queen for Chocolate Strawberry Donuts. They looked awesome! She even had this super cute donut pan that was in the shape of a heart. As I'm just really starting off on my journey of food, I definitely do not have the super cute donut pans like everyone else does. I turned her donuts into donut muffins...still tasted awesome!

I only changed a few things about this recipe when I made them, as I didn't have any buttermilk...whooops. I also didn't have my boyfriend here at the time to tell me that I could add vinegar to milk and make my own version of buttermilk. Seriously!?! What? Did everyone else know this but me?

Sometimes I wonder if Josh knows a bit more about cooking than he lets on, just so he can let me cook and clean up after myself all the time...just a thought. Ha ha.

Back to the recipe...instead of buttermilk I used heavy cream, I think that really just accomplished making the batter a bit fluffier, and when they baked they were pretty much what I thought of a cake donut but much better. Clearly, that statement shows I wasn't a fan of cake donuts to begin with. I always feel like I need 6 gallons of some kind of beverage to stomach one cake donut...again could just be me.

Once you've seen these tasty "donuffins"though you do kind of get curious about them. I will admit to having seconds...I think...

CHOCOLATE Drizzled STRAWBERRY and white chocolate DONUT muffins

Slightly adapted from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

INGREDIENTS

1 Box Strawberry Cake Mix
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped white chocolate
For the Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 teaspoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425. Grease muffin tin or spray with nonstick spray.
2. In the bowl of a mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, heavy cream, and melted butter. Beat on medium until just combined. Stir in white chocolate chunks. Scoop the batter into the muffin tins.
3. Bake for about 8 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in pans for a few minutes, then remove to cooling rack. Make glaze.
4. For Glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Add milk and vanilla and whisk until there are no lumps. If the glaze is too thick, add a bit more milk.
5. Drizzle the chocolate glaze over the donuffin for an extra hint of chocolate yumminess with each bite

Hope you enjoy!
~Nikki

Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Brownies

2012-03-28T20:23:00.000-05:00

Typically any brownie no matter its size or shape is delightful and heavenly. Gone before you can even tell what type of brownie they are and what went into them. Melting chocolate down mixing in sugar, flour, and other delightful things and then shoving cookie dough into the middle...baking and then shoving a reese's peanut butter cup on top and letting it melt just enough to melt into each bite.

Did I mention this recipe is a two-fer. You get two recipes for one dish. You have to have the recipe for the perfect brownies first before you can make the Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Brownies.

Slap some chocolates in a bowl with pieces of butter and melt them over heat, stir slowly until completely melted.

Look at this delightful chocolate that glistens and shines and ugh! I just want to eat the whole thing!

After you've gotten your brownie mixture somewhat prepared continue on to the remainder of the recipe...aka Cookie Dough...then oven...then cooling rack...then peanut butter cups.

Cookie dough! Oh my lordy! I used dark chocolate chips that made the slightly sweet dough a bit more delightful.

So I don't know about anyone else, but I will tell you I really struggled with molding the brownie batter to my baking tins to allow me to not smoosh the cookie dough into the brownie. End result...a scoop and smooshing!

Before the smoosh

If you don't like getting your fingers in your dough, you should probably grab a spoon or use the back rounded edge of your scoop and try and make the surface of the cookie dough meet the surface of the brownie mixture. I have no problems sticking my fingers in the batter, I'm sweet so therefore it makes life and things I bake that much sweeter. ha!

Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Brownies
Add a Pinch

Ingredients

For the brownie crust:

1 recipe Chewy Fudgey Cakey Brownies

For the chocolate chip cookie dough layer:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cups chocolate chips

For the peanut butter cup layer:

12 peanut butter cups

Instructions

A full tin of scrumptious brownies!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Butter muffin tin and set aside.

For the brownie crust:

Melt chocolates and butter in a medium bowl in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir until well-combined and smooth. Reheat in 10 second increments if needed.
Whisk in sugar and vanilla.
Whisk in eggs, one at a time.
Add dry ingredients, whisk until just incorporated.
Scoop batter into prepared muffin tin. Lightly butter your fingertips and lightly press to form a crust, causing the sides to be higher than the center of the brownie dough.

For the chocolate chip cookie layer:

Cream butter then add sugars and mix until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla.
Mix until well-combined.
Add flour, sea salt, and baking soda to butter mixture.
Mix well and then stir in chocolate chips.
Scoop chocolate chip cookie dough into the center of the brownie crust.

Look at how puffy and delightful they look while baking!

Baking instructions

Place muffin tin in preheated oven on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for about 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out with just a few crumbs.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 3 minutes.
Run a knife alongside the edge of each muffin tin to assist in the release and then invert the muffin tin on top of a parchment lined wire rack.

For the peanut butter cup layer:

While the brownies are still warm to the touch, turn back right side up and place a large peanut butter cup on top of each brownie.
Serve with a big glass of cold milk and a smile.

What a real brownie with no regrets looks like before you sink your teeth in and make it regret not being bigger...

I ran out of peanut butter cups...shoot...shouldn't have been snacking on the products again...

Check out the melty goodness of those peanut butter cups when they sit on the fresh from the muffin tins. This is the stage where they are slightly melty and adhering nicely to the brownie muffin to make for an even bigger and better chocolate taste...

Hope you enjoy!

~Nikki

Ugly Cookies: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip w/ Marshmallows

2012-03-27T19:21:00.002-05:00

Remember about a week or two ago when I posted a really scary picture of oatmeal cookies and called them ugly cookies? Well, here's the dilemma of everyone who loves food. Sometimes you just make the most delicious and delightful tasting concoction ever, but it looks like baby vomit, poop, some indistinguishable toxic waste, or something that resembles brains...it just happens. I've decided to somewhat embrace the ugly side of food, because we all know that even though it may not look 100% fantastic, it's all about taste.

I took a classic Chocolate Chip Recipe out of our Pillsbury Kitchens' Cookbook, see picture below, and somehow managed to make it look horrible but taste really good. It's still beyond me how I managed this, but there it is.

Original Recipe

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Marshmallow cookies

Adapted from Pillsbury Kitchens' Cookbook

3/4 c firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c margarine or butter, softened

1/2 c shortening

1 1/2 t vanilla

1 egg

1 1/4 c All Purpose Flour

1 c Quick Cooking Oats

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

6 oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips

6 oz marshmallows

1/2 c nuts or sunflower seeds (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 365.

2. In large mixing bowl combine first 6 ingredients; blend well.

3. Stir in flour, oats, soda, salt; mix well.

4. Stir in Chocolate chips, marshmallows and nuts (again these are optional); mix well.

5. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

6. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown.

7. Remove from oven and immediately remove from cookie sheet.

* note: do not use muffin tins or anything that will not contain a very quick spreading cookie dough. It will bake over and burn on the bottom of the oven (yes, I did that. ha).

Pretty much all of the ingredients you'll need

The dry ingredients mixture, yummy check out those delicious rolled oats!

A rough idea of spacing on your cookie sheet.

Hey looky there, Marshmallows!

The results of an attempt at using a mini muffin tin for a super spreading cookie dough, not a wise move...

Just so everyone knows I had a very hard time keeping people from eating these tasty morsels. I took quite a bit of them to work and our department munched and enjoyed them all day and then my family ate quite a bit of the leftovers over the course of the week. So remember just because our treat may look burnt or ugly or really just unappetizing, doesn't always relate back to the taste of it. Happy cooking!

~Nikki

Paula's beef stroganoff

2012-03-26T20:17:00.001-05:00

In all honesty this recipe caught me by surprise. I love beef stroganoff and all of the gloriousness that comes along with it...and I thought quite honestly, Paula Dean's recipe and uh not a lot of butter...Love you Paula, honestly I do, but you're known for butter and let's face it, only 2 tbsp makes one feel not representing Paula.

Anyway, on to the cooking...

First order of business is slicing up the cut of beef into manageable strips. I say manageable because you want to be able to eat this without a knife.

Next mix up the House Seasoning. It seems a bit odd to do something like this, but it's a really wonderful smelling blend that smells and tastes yummy.

Close up of the blend. Yum!

Meat, glorious meat, covered in our delightful blend of house seasonings.

Now add enough flour to coat well the beef strips

Two swirls of Olive Oil and 2 tbsp of butter melted in the pan, before adding the beef to brown. Remove beef after cooking through

Depending how you like your onions, slice or chop them large or fine, then add them to the already heated pan that you just removed the beef from.

Add your 8 ounces of fresh mushrooms. I did Portabella mushrooms as I adore them. However you can use any mushroom that your heart desires.

After adding the steak back in to the mix. You'll add your beef broth and mushroom soup. I used garlic mushroom soup instead of plain cream of mushroom.

Noodles! Yummo!

Finished Product! Need I say more :)

Paula's Beef Stroganoff

Paula Deen via Food Network

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds cubed round steak, cut into thin strips
House Seasoning, recipe follows
All-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, sliced
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can beef broth
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
Salt and black pepper
1 cup sour cream
Cooked egg noodles

House Seasoning:

1 cup salt

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

Mix the ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Yields: 1 1/2 cups

Directions

Season the steak strips with House Seasoning, then dust with flour. In a large skillet, quickly brown them on both sides in the olive oil and butter. Remove the steak from the pan. Add the onion slices and mushrooms to the pan drippings. Saute for a few minutes, until the onion is tender. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon flour. Put the steak back into the pan with the onion and mushrooms. Add the mushroom soup and beef broth. Cook over low heat for about 30 minutes, covered. Adjust seasoning to taste, adding salt and pepper, as needed. Stir in the sour cream the last few minutes, right before you serve. Serve over cooked noodles.

~Nikki

Strawberry Poundcake w/ Strawberry Marsh Icing

2012-03-19T22:17:00.002-05:00

Typically...I'm not that girl who reads the side of boxes for the suggested recipes and ideas from their "kitchen." However, I bought a Duncan Hines Strawberry Supreme cake mix because I love strawberry anything and had no idea what I was going to do with it.

Peeking at the side of the box on a Sunday afternoon I saw a recipe for a Strawberry Poundcake. Oh dear lordy! My two loves thrown into one delicious cake. Score!

Reading the directions I see it calls for pudding mix...I know that it's been years since I've bought a pudding mix and the same for my mom, but I check the cabinets anyway...just in case.

No dice! After much pouting, thinking, pouting and thinking some more...I thought of an Idea!

I took a stick of butter and cream cheese...slapped those suckers into a bowl and softened so they'd be a bit more manageable for creaming together...

After getting those to a lovely creamy consistency I added 3 large eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. I added a bit of heavy cream to get a more whipped consistency, but it's not necessary. I also added about 1 cup of powdered sugar, again not necessary, but I wanted the batter a bit sweeter without the granulated sugar.

Next the fun part! Pour in the strawberry cake mix...I get messy when I add dry ingredients to wet so be careful.

After mixing well and making sure to scrape the sides of the mixing bowl pour into bundt pan or angel food cake pan, whatever you prefer. Make sure it is well greased. Then slide that puppy in the oven for heavenly goodness in 1 hour.

If you like your poundcake without a glaze or icing you're done and when it's cooked through and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean...I suggest enjoying while it's still warm.

If you like icing continue on.

I decided about 20 minutes left into baking that I wanted an icing for my poundcake because hey let's face it, I like strawberry....Pardon my shaky pictures, I clearly get excited and shake when I like things

I emptied both jars into a microwave safe bowl and then heated on 15 second intervals until I could easily mix the two together.

Isn't it so pretty and swirly!

Once you've placed your somewhat cooled cake onto the desired plate start plopping that delicious concoction all over the top of the cake.

Now slice and enjoy!!

Nikki's Creamy Strawberry Poundcake

1/2 c butter

8 ounces cream cheese

3 large eggs

1/2 c Heavy Cream

1 c powdered sugar

1 box strawberry cake mix (your choice of brand or flavor)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Spray or grease your desired baking dish

3. Soften butter and cream cheese and cream together until smooth

4. Add eggs 1 at a time until well blended, being sure to scrap the sides of the bowl after each addition to get a well blended batter.

5. Add optional 1/2 c Heavy Whipping Cream and 1 c powdered sugar for taste and texture.

6. Mix in the Strawberry cake mix and mix until no more powdered residue remains.

7. Pour batter into the greased baking dish of your choice and place in preheated oven.

8. Bake for 1 hour or until reaches desired doneness.

9. Let set for 10-15 minutes to cool before removing from baking dish and glazing or icing.

Strawberry Diabetic Coma Fluff Icing
1 jar marshmallow fluff
1 jar strawberry icing

1. Empty both the marshmallow fluff jar and the strawberry icing jar into large mixing bowl (make sure it's microwave safe).
2. Microwave for 15 second intervals until the icing and marshmallow are easily mixed.
3. Drizzle or pour over the top of your cake.

Lumping icing on is gooood

Too much icing means you need a larger plate or less icing

Heavenly!

Seriously this was soooo yummy!

I seriously hope you all enjoy my creation.

~Nikki

To the World's Best Brother...

2012-03-14T18:02:00.000-05:00

All I can think about is how blessed I am to have such a great big brother. Not every sibling would do what mine did...nor would they be so nice and generous about things either.

Yes that's him the only guy in this photo

My brother arrived at Barnes & Noble at 5pm to get tickets to meet Ree Drummond, listen to her speak, and get me her newest cook book signed. I mean seriously brother of the year award right there....

Then because I asked he took some photos...

and then had the brilliant idea, "You know they have her first cook book, do you have it?" Of course I say yes, but he makes a great point of, she's willing to sign multiples. SCORE! I say snag me one and I'll gift my unsigned copy out.

Ree Drummond signing my cookbook!

Then because he's the bestest big brother ever (yes I talk like I'm all of 12 or so, 27 by the way)...he takes a picture of him with my cookbooks that she just signed and a picture of her signing them. *sighs* I am forever in his debt and have begun plotting how I will repay him for his wonderful kindness.

My brother and Ree

She of course said that I had a very nice brother, since he was so willing to do this for me...I mean come on of course he's nice or else he wouldn't have agreed to do this for me...

My brother is da bomb diggity and I loves him!

~Nikki

Pumpkin Donut Muffins

2012-03-12T20:01:00.000-05:00

One of the ladies that works for us has been very good recently with watching her sugar intake and making sure to not partake in many of the goodies I've brought in recently. So after she asked what I would be baking and bringing in the next morning one day I decided it was time to make something special for her.

Yes, I know you're thinking seriously you spoil your employees. Yes...I do. I like the ladies who work for me and I like that they will eat most anything I bring in. Actually, they've eaten everything I've brought in and asked for recipes.

I went for something that I thought wouldn't be too sweet or unhealthy so that she wouldn't feel completely guilty by partaking in the yumminess.

I dropped on by A Little Bit Crunchy A Little Bit Rock and Roll and dug around for a recipe I felt I could achieve fairly quickly and easily.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

By Crunchy/Rock (I'm sorry I'm abbreviating the name)

Let's start with what you'll need, Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 can pumpkin

1/2 cup milk

For playing dunk the doughnut/muffin (you should have plenty of extra):

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup sugar mixed with 2 tablespoons cinnamon

I'm trying this whole process of trying to snap pictures of each step through the recipes process here, but let's be honest, I am struggling.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin pan (you can use any size depending on how large or small you want your muffins).

2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set aside.

mixing together the dry ingredients

3. In a small bowl, mix together the milk and pumpkin. Set aside.

Seriously, this is such a gorgeous color!

4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter and ½ cup of sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue mixing.

5. Add the dry ingredients gradually, alternating with the pumpkin mixture.

It kind of loses the gorgeous color

6. Fill the prepared muffin cups to about ¾ full and bake for about 20 minutes.

7. Cool for a few minutes on a cooling rack. When cool enough to handle, roll in the melted butter and then in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

cooling...

cooling....

cooling...

the messy part is just beginning

So don't let anyone tell you dunking your muffin doughnuts about in butter is a clean job. I had to wash my hands a lot. I'm kind of finicky about things like that I guess. Anyway, dunk those puppies in butter then toss them in a bowl...if you like to shimmy and shake things about when in the kitchen this is your time to get funky with the cinnamon sugar coating. I had a blast tossing them in the cinnamon sugar mixture...walking around the house.

Interesting side note, I tossed the first few in a bowl and walked from the kitchen to the living room where my parents were face-timing with my brother and his wife. They were having issues seeing what I was doing and why on earth I'd do it.

Truth be told I didn't have any of these...I kind of let everyone else enjoy them. Happy eatings everyone and I hope you enjoy these as much as my employees and family did.

~Nikki

Zombies...

2012-03-10T21:06:00.001-06:00

Let's just say I'm easily amused by super cute kittens and the things they do...

Ugly food with great taste

2012-03-06T21:37:00.001-06:00

Has anyone ever cooked or baked something that when it came out of the oven, stove, etc you did a double take? Wow! That's just gross looking! Then you actually taste it and go oh wow, that actually does taste pretty darn good!

I did that tonight. I was so excited to come home and just try and make things really amazing in the cookie department. I obviously tried too much at once...yes let's say that. By default this is my fault.

I will leave you with a teaser of my hideous creation, but will post the recipe and more pictures soon.

So so sooo ugly! Seriously what was I thinking?!

Reese's Stuffed Oreos

2012-03-02T20:00:00.000-06:00

I know what you're thinking, Reese's stuffed Oreo's? Do you really need to eat Reese's and Oreo's together? Clearly we like to live on the edge especially once I see someone else has already had this clever idea. Truth be told it was an easy undertaking as far as "cooking" is concerned. Smash Reese's in between two Oreo's, easy no problem. Piece of cookie.

The bonus is...you can eat a plain double stuffed Oreo, and say you're sampling the product. Hello! I'm in. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd had a double stuffed Oreo...ya those are good...tempting to eat more than one...let's just leave it at that.

I found the hardest part of this recipe to be dunking the Oreo's with a Reese's peanut butter cup wedged in the middle in a bowl of melted chocolate...I mean seriously...I need advice on how to not buy 10 zillion pounds of chocolate and feel like I'm wasting half of it trying to dip, dunk, or pour to cover anything. Advice anyone?

In the beginning of my stumbling upon food bloggers, I stumbled upon Shelly over at Cookies & Cups, let's just say that I've added quite a few of her creations to my ever expanding to do list of recipes that I keep finding. It's honestly a sickness if you love to cook, all these amazing food bloggers out there, I mean seriously!

clearly I can dunk them in chocolate, My chocolate to item ratio is not appropriate though

I'll be honest in stating, I did exactly what she started out the post saying, buy golden Oreos and stuff those too. I did. They were tasty. It's easy to give suggestions when someone is willing to try new things.

Reese's Stuffed Oreo's

Reese's cups (full size) my suggestion get more than you possibly think you'll need
Oreo's I used Double Stuff and Golden Oreo's (with chocolate in the middle)
Chocolate pieces out of laziness I grabbed those cups you can melt in the microwave

First, we put our Oreo's through a rigorous mid section workout or core workout, aka lets twist those puppies apart. Attempting to keep most of the filling on one side; this is easier said than done however, just sayin. As you separate the sides you can figure out what you're going to do with the naked pieces. I went ahead and started putting the naked sides into baggies so I could save them for a cheesecake crust.

I was prepared to make the entire bag of Golden Oreo's and Double Stuff Oreo's into glorious piles of chocolate concoctions...however, the dipping and chocolate was killing me. I mean lets be honest it's not like dipping strawberries or half of a pretzel.

Once you've gotten even amounts of stuffing sides to sandwich on a Reese's, start making those happy little towers. Do not use a ton of pressure when squeezing the two sides of the Oreo to the Reese's cup. I used a bit too much pressure on one, first attempt, and squished the Reese's cup a bit more than I intended to.

Now honestly, she says 5 minutes, she's a much more skilled dipper of items into chocolate than I am, so set aside some time to dip if you're not skilled like me...

We ended up having to cut them in quarters because one was too much for our family

***Honestly, the only idea I've had since making these was using the Golden Oreo's sandwiching between a White Chocolate Reese's Cup and then dipping in White Chocolate. Yum! For those who love white chocolate could be a real treat!
****Before I even attempt to do Chocolate dunking again soon, I'll be going to some dipping 101 training first.

The things that truly make me happy: Part 3: Josh

2012-03-01T20:00:00.000-06:00

Josh my sweetie pie is a pretty supportive guy, and puts up with a lot from me. He samples every recipe I make and try and will even tell me honestly when he thinks it's missing something. That's truly all I can ask for...honesty.

When you finally find someone genuinely honest and sweet and caring and and and...(yes I know that's grammatically not correct to create a sentence that way, but that's how I roll...) it's hard to let go of that person, like, ever. Honey, you're stuck with me and that's all I'm sayin'

Silver Dollar City, our first super cute picture together!

Francie is trying to escape the terribleness of being held

Josh has sat through me scouring blogs and recipes to find something that sparks my interests during the weekends, he's dealt with me going to HyVee and seeing fresh salmon and going oooooo I want! He typically shakes his head at my oddities and then joins in to throw some ideas out at me. Duck for instance has been a suggestion. I mean seriously his first suggestion was duck. Babe, you're one in a million!

Terrible picture quality, but waiting on our flight to take off when we went to NYC to visit my brother and sistah!

The things that truly make me happy: Part 2: Family

2012-02-29T20:00:00.000-06:00

There are constant reminders in my life why my family is so important and special to me. I speak mostly of my immediate family, my Mom, Dad, and Brother. I include my Brother's wife in this mix as well, as she's like a sister to me and I do not honestly feel comfortable calling her my sister in law.

Christmas 2010, New York City, New York
Christopher (Big Brother), Amber (Sistah), ME, Sally (Mom), and Chris (Dad)

My family is really great at cheering me up and just really recognizing when I'm having a rough week, and seeing the unspoken and going out of there way to be there for me.

Dad, Amber, Mom, and Christopher

Yes, we love Mizzou

My Dad, Chris, is a huge goof and we spend a vast majority of our time together cutting up. He's also my sous chef when I take on large cooking projects, however recently I've been trying to fly solo, to release him from some temptations. He's your resident bird man, more on that later...

I make this face when I wait on the Subway....

I smile huge when I realize my Daughter's taking my picture

My Mom, Sally, is like the rock. She's your typical grew up on the farm and did everything you can think of on a farm with animals and planting crops and then some. She's now our prototypical animal "lover," we use lover loosely obviously. The most amusing thing is she's allergic to birds, dogs and cats and we have all three. All animals love her, but she doesn't love them (but she does). Case in point, She left for three days to visit her Mom and little sister, and Francie missed her terribly. My Mom came home on a Wednesday and Friday Francie had finally started treating her normally again...kind of.

My brother, Christopher, is mister calm and collected. He reminds me of my Dad in so many ways it's not even funny. Sometimes when we talk I feel like I'm talking to my Dad. They even laugh the same! It's hilarious, and their laughter is infectious, you can't help but laugh with them. My brother recently surprised me with his awesome brother skills, by agreeing to go March 13th and get me The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook, signed. He lives in NYC with his wife, their dog and two cats...so it hopefully won't backfire on us. Did I mention that he's the bestest brother ever?!! Seriously...I don't think I can find a complaint about him, because he's just that cool...

Finally, my sister, Amber, is your animal lover. This time I'm not being sarcastic. She sees an animal and wants to take it home, much like myself...hence why I'm not allowed to go to Humane Society....ever... She's honestly been there for me through thick and thin during college and much of our time together after. She's always been encouraging to me to do what I love, and love what I do. Needless to say, in law, will never come after her name, as I always call her my sister first, then when people question me, I say my brother's awesome wife!

He sure does look pretty in that Headband!

The things that truly make me happy: Part 1: Francie

2012-02-28T20:00:00.000-06:00

There are many things and people in my life who truly make me happy...here are just a couple that I recently have had to rely upon to get through some rough weeks.

Francie:

Our cute Siamese Manx kitten. There are endless opportunities for our precious girl to keep us entertained and cheerful. Our favorite is the classic Francie burnout. You may think...what the heck is a burnout when it involves a cat...well imagine if you will a cat trying to run away super fast, but not moving at first... Yes, a burnout like you'd do in a car, though none of us I'm sure do that!

First Day home, already being tortured with a bath!

I'm a percher...the better to see you

Back when I was still a baby and I loved to snuggle

I love my perch that Nikki and Josh made me...

This is just one of the many ways they let me play with my newest toy

Stop holding me funky or you're liable to lose that hand

Must eat string!

Almost got it!

Stop buggin' me I'm tryin' to blend

I'm way way behind: Homemade Fudge Rounds

2012-02-27T20:07:00.001-06:00

I am way way behind on blogging, but I am still cooking constantly and trying to take pictures of what I make...either with my phone or my camera...sometimes I make it through the entire process...sometimes I don't.

I owe this recipe a moment in the spotlight since back during the Super Bowl. Yes, that's how far behind I am!

Fudge Rounds. Little Debbie's fantastic fudge treats that most any chocolate lover will devour. Unless you don't like chocolate; in which case this recipe is so not for you.

Up Close and Personal

Look at how delightful and fluffy that filling is. It's rich so be warned now, I made my fudge rounds huge, by mistake so try and scoop according to the size of cookie you want, the dough spreads.

I stumbled upon this recipe and many more on Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. I can't wait to cook additional treats and treasures that I discovered on her blog at a later date.

Homemade Fudge Rounds

courtesy of : Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

COOKIES

1 1/4 cup salted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

FILLING

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup salted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3 cups powdered sugar

4 tablespoons warm water

Heat oven to 350.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Add slowly to the butter/sugar mixture in the mixing bowl. Beat until combined.

Drop spoonfuls** on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 7-9 minutes. Remove baking sheets to cooling racks and remove cookies after a few minutes to continue cooling.

While cookies cool, make your filling.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat the shortening and butter on medium speed until smooth and combined. Beat in vanilla. Add cocoa powder and powdered sugar and beat on low until just combined. Add water and beat on medium high for about 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.

Once cookies have cooled, pipe or spread filling on the flat side of half of them***. Gently press another cookie on top of the filling.

****For the stripes, microwave 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil in a microwave safe bowl, stirring every 15 seconds until smooth. Drizzle or pipe on top of Fudge Rounds. Refrigerate until chocolate is set.

Nom, Nom!

**Spoonfuls, are a very generous measure. I would suggest using a scoop if possible to keep them more uniform and this way you can control the size somewhat.
***Just another reason you want to try and keep your cookies uniform. If they aren't similar in size and shape sandwiching the filling between cookies will get really messy really fast.
****I omitted the stripes because I really didn't feel like adding more to them. Frankly, I'm glad I didn't because they were so rich.

Huge cookies!!!

With all of that being said, I love chocolate. I mean I love chocolate as much as the next person and typically I can eat it like it's going out of style when I have to, however I took one bite out of Josh's fudge round and I was done. I guess to me it was too rich for my tastes, plus let's be honest I made monster Fudge rounds, normal people can't eat a hole one.

(Sorry honey, I love you but your belly isn't normal)

Cookbook Purchase: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

2012-02-20T19:32:00.000-06:00

Okay...I'm going to admit it. I bought a new cookbook this weekend. Now not just any cookbook though, one that I've heard a lot of mentioning and have really been curious about the contents it held.

That's right I bought The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond. No, this isn't her new cookbook, but I will tell you that I was sucked in from just turning to the first page. I actually sat down and read her entire cookbook Saturday, much to the chagrin of my honey. Poor guy doesn't get much time with me and suddenly I discover a new shiny and he waits until I focus on the world again.

Anyway, honey I love you and you’re a sweetheart.

Back to the cookbook. I actually sat down at read it. I know you're thinking it's a cookbook, you can't really read a cookbook, but this one you have to! You actually end up wanting to read sections from the book and learn more about Pioneer Woman and her romance between her hubby Marlboro man. It's a really sweet story and she gives tons of visuals. If ever I felt like I couldn't cook something I would definitely feel much better having viewed her pictures and step by step processes.

I mean honestly she made something with prunes look like the most amazing dessert I'd ever seen. I'm not kidding, I wanted to eat the picture. It looked that good!

Anywho. Huge plug for her book, obviously I don't know Ree Drummond on a personal level nor do I get anything from referrals for her cookbook, I just really enjoyed it and wanted everyone to know.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my Employees and colleagues.

2012-02-15T22:04:00.003-06:00

Let’s just say I’ve been getting teased a lot recently, due to my cooking so much, as it must be because I’m “nesting.” Turns out some of my employees and colleagues want a miniature Nikki running about terrorizing the world. I however am not anywhere near that stage and give them a hard time right back.

As of yet though, everything I’ve made and brought into my girls has been met with lots of praise and lots of sharing of the recipes. Everyone always has something they think you should try, once they find you adore anything food. I love it, and I’m in love with creating something new!

Getting back to the topic of Valentine’s Day and the special treat I made for our group of girls at work. As it was not only Valentine’s Day, but also practically the entire departments birthdays of 8 staff lie within November, December, January and February, we decided a fun birthday lunch would be a great way to celebrate the staffs’ birthdays and also thank them for all of the hard work they do. I don’t thank them enough, and they are Awesome!

I didn’t decide until last week that I had found the perfect recipe for them, and I truly didn’t decide until Friday the 10^th that I wanted to create them this wonderful White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake from Sweet Anna’s. I’ll be honest her most recent blog sent me into a panic with her use of the “b” word. No no, she’s not using expletives, she’s using that word that no woman ever wants to hear! Budget! Ugh! I hate that word so much, but as an avid food lover, I cannot help but feel I might be headed that way as well.

Back to the cheesecake…the name of the recipe may be a mouthful, but the mouthful of cheesecake you have at the end is truly delightful. I’m a huge cheesecake fan, and my honey went shopping with me for ingredients, so a few items changed from Sweet Anna’s recipe.

White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake Recipe

Adapted from Sweet Anna’s

Ingredients:

1 (10oz) package frozen raspberries

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 cup water

Oreos (I used leftover double stuffed, golden Oreos tops or bottoms without the icing)

1/2 cup melted butter

2 cups chopped white chocolate (roughly)

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 (8oz each) packages cream cheese (1/3 less), softened

1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 regular sized Hershey bars, milk or dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 cup chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate

left over Raspberry Sauce

Directions:

Make the raspberry sauce: Stir together the raspberries, sugar, cornstarch and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, and boil 5 minutes. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer into a small bowl and store in the fridge until you are ready to make the cheesecake.

Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Stir together the finely crushed Oreos and melted butter in a medium bowl until well mixed. Press into the bottom of a Springform pan and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the crust is set. Remove from the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 325ºF and let the crust cool while you prepare the filling.

(This is where Nikki started getting creative, if you will. I very roughly beat the tar out of those Oreos in their plastic baggy, mixed in the golden Oreo tops and some additional tops. Double stuff Oreos were a temptation; I’ll admit I ate one…ok two…but still. The mixture I came up with for my crust was really quite lovely, the contrast of golden and black with tons of Oreo filling made a lovely albeit thick crust.)

Make the filling: In a medium saucepan, heat the half & half to almost simmering. Remove from the heat and stir in the white chocolate until melted and smooth. Set aside.

(note: though the recipe says roughly chopped, don’t just chuck it in there and expect it to melt perfectly, you’ve got to work with it constantly…also would have helped had I followed the recipe and chopped my pieces down a bit more.)

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure to blend completely after each one. Beat in the vanilla, salt and the melted white chocolate mixture.

Wrap the pan with the cooled crust in it tightly with foil. Place the foil-wrapped pan in a roasting pan, and put a pot of water on the stove to boil (you will be making a water-bath for the cheesecake to bake in).

(My first thought upon reading water-bath for a cheesecake, Holy crap…it’s a spring form pan! That suckers going to leak that’s just the worst idea ever…sometimes my brain reads but doesn’t comprehend recipes…obviously. This is a brilliant idea, and honestly I’ll probably be doing this all the time now when using spring form pans.)

Pour half of the filling over the crust. Sprinkle with the chopped Hershey's bars. Drizzle 4-5 tablespoons of raspberry sauce over the filling and chocolate bits and swirl with the tip of a knife. Pour the rest of the filling on top of that, drizzle with another 4-5 tablespoons of the raspberry sauce and swirl again with the knife.

(I will admit I had a hard time doing the filling halfway, then sprinkling, drizzling, and swirling. Holy heck! I was thinking to myself at this point. EPIC FLOP! It was only after I saw the second round of drizzling that I realized just how gorgeous the top of the cheesecake was going to be. I also realized how much extra raspberry sauce I had…)

Place the roasting pan into the oven and pour water into the roasting pan to reach about halfway up the sides of the Springform pan. Bake the cheesecake at 325ºF for 60-70 minutes, until the center is almost set.

(Yes it will jiggle, yes I had a panic attack thinking it was too jiggle-y, this was my first cheesecake…forgive me here, but I finally had the cheesecake cooled down enough that I brought it into the room and showed my parents and said, “Is this right?” Poor Mom and Dad they suffer through so much with my ignorance sometimes)

Remove the roasting pan from the oven, let the cheesecake sit in the hot water for another 30 minutes or so, and then remove the Springform pan from the water onto a cooling rack to cool. Let the cheesecake cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge to chill at least 3 hours.

The recipe calls for a lovely ganache to be poured over the top of the cheesecake. I just couldn’t bring myself to cover my pretty swirls on the top that I had worked so hard on creating. I decided instead…I would follow the guidelines for the ganache but make it my own. You can follow the original recipe below, or you can make a drizzle…

Make the ganache: In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream just to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth. Pour the ganache over the top of the cooled cheesecake, smoothing with a spoon and allowing some of the ganache to drip over the sides of the cheesecake. Return to the fridge to chill an additional 3 hours or until the ganache is shiny and set.

Nikki’s take on a Raspberry Chocolate Drizzle: In a small saucepan, I also brought the heavy cream just to a boil, I added the chopped chocolate and the remainder of my raspberry sauce and stirred it all up until everything smelled heavenly raspberry and delicious. Save to the side in a container and serve on the side.

The primary reason why I made a drizzle instead of the ganache was beauty and appealing to the eyes. The other reason is sometimes people don’t like a lot of chocolate. I like to have some form of control in my eating experience when someone else makes something, so the more I can control my chocolate levels on a cake the happier I am. Odd I know, but that’s just me. Turns out this was a great idea as our lunch included strawberries, which several of the ladies dipped their strawberries into my “drizzle” chocolate for their own version of chocolate covered strawberries.

Bird's Nest Breakfast Cups

2012-02-13T20:17:00.000-06:00

All I can say to truly explain our household is to say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We don’t skip breakfast…ever. We will eat almost anything for breakfast too. I’ve been known to grab a cold slice of leftover pizza and eat that on the drive to work. Now I’ve found something new that I can snag out the door instead of waiting to grab some eggs at work.

I found this great recipe on Pinterest, and had to check out the blog it came from, The Little Birdie Blog. They looked so tasty I just couldn’t say no to a recipe that would entice my entire family to munch!

I made a few modifications but not much. It also would’ve helped the bottoms of mine to read the recipe first, not after having started them. Ha! This is what happens when you’re anxious!

Bird’s Nest Breakfast Cups

Modified from The Little Birdie Blog

Original Recipe

1 24 oz. bag of shredded hash browns (more or less)

2 t salt (I forgot)

1 t pepper (I forgot)

2 T oil (I forgot)

1/3 cup shredded cheddar (I forgot)

Hormel Real crumbled bacon (be your own judge)

8 eggs

1 cup whipping cream

salt and pepper

Extra shredded cheddar (cheese of your choice, I used a Colby Jack blend)

Muffin tin, I used small

1. Take your bag of hash browns and mix in the salt, pepper, oil and 1/3 cup shredded cheese. (I neglected this one)

2. Divide amongst the cups in your muffin tin, making sure to grease tin beforehand. (Did this and they still stuck, however that extra oil you use to coat, helps)

3. Bake hash browns at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until toasty.

4. Once they're finished, take them out and lower the temp of the oven to 350 degrees.

5. Top the hash browns with a hearty helping of bacon and extra cheese

6. Pour your egg mixture over the top of the bacon and cheese until you feel is an appropriate level. Don’t get too full or they will expand and cook over (ever seen an egg in the microwave?)

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 13-16 minutes

8. Slide a knife along the edges; we didn’t wait until the pan was cool so this could have been the problem with sticking. Also, I used a spoon to help scoop out more of the hash browns that got left behind.

I used Hormel real bacon crumbles, because that’s what we had on hand. Not saying this is your best choice by any means, you can use any bacon pieces or cook up some fresh bacon and crumble into the cups. I also didn’t follow the amounts in the original recipe. We’re big on protein in this house so I added lots of bacon and cheese.

YUMMY!!! Bacon!!

The recipe calls for one egg per cup, however you can take 8-12 eggs and beat them with some milk or whipping cream to make them a bit more thick and yummy and pour over the top. It works just the same. My mom and I are not yolk people, plus that was a lot of our farm fresh eggs, and I felt guilty using one egg per muffin cup.

This recipe really allows for you to have some creativity here. I would say adding broccoli to a larger breakfast cup would be a good idea, sausage would be another…basically what I think and what the original blogger of the recipe think are the same. Add, add, add. It’s yours to play with.

I'll be honest it never ceases to amaze me all of the wonderful and great recipes that I've found on blogs recently. I cannot stop cooking, and wanting to cook!

Bake Apple Fritter Muffins

2012-02-08T20:29:00.000-06:00

In my household we have two dieters currently, Mom and Dad. So when I make the items on my list that are considered “cheat food” for them, I have to keep those to weekend days, typically Saturdays. Due to the Super bowl we moved the cheat day to Sunday. For breakfast I tried Baked Apple Fritter Muffins from Sweet Anna’s.

AMAZING!

To say I was shocked at how much I loved them would be a lie. I love apples and so does my family. The fact I veered from the amount of apples a bit didn’t make me change any of the other ingredients though. I probably added 2 cups more apples than it calls for.

I apologize in advance these picture do not do the fritter muffins justice. Let’s just say biting in to them was appley delicious and Sweet Anna deserves some kind of medal for coming up with this idea.

Below is Sweet Anna’s recipe in parenthesis is my change.

Baked Apple Fritter Muffins Recipe

Adapted from Sweet Anna’s

Due to the size tin I used, I got about 12 small muffins and 5 extra large

Ingredients:

For the coating:

2/3-cup sugar

1-tablespoon cinnamon

½ cup butter, melted and browned*

For the muffins:

1-½ cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup sugar

1/3-cup butter, softened

1 large egg

1-teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ cup milk

3 cups finely diced apples (about 3 large) (I used one large granny smith, and 3 medium sized baking apples)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon for the topping; Set aside.

*To brown the butter: In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat until melted and starting to foam. Stir occasionally while the butter continues to cook, turning a bit brown on the bottom and smelling rich and nutty. When the butter is browned and aromatic, pull it off the heat and set aside.

Browned butter has the most delicious smell and taste to it; seriously don’t be afraid to brown the butter!! Honestly, the nutty flavor the butter gets when browned only adds to the heavenliness of the fritter muffins.

Butter or spray 2-24 ct. mini muffin pans and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg & salt.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the 1/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.

Gently stir in the flour and milk, a bit at a time and alternating (1/3 of the flour, 1/2 of the milk, 1/3 flour, 1/2 milk, 1/3 flour) until just combined.

Fold in the apples and spoon into the muffin tins, about 3/4 full. (You won't probably fill all of both pans, but you will get more than one pan-full!).

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the muffins a springy when you press them and a toothpick inserted in to one of them comes out clean.

Remove the muffins to a wire rack until they are just cool enough to touch.

When you can pick them up... take each muffin and dip it in the browned butter and then roll it in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Serve warm with a big glass of cold milk!

A picture snapped quickly with my cell phone, Naked Baked Apple Fritter Muffins (they taste just as good, ask my Dad)

Not only can you serve nicely with cold milk, my boyfriend drinks ice-cold milk with everything (so it was a given he would drink milk with his). My Dad couldn’t wait to try them so he ate several naked fritter muffins (those without the cinnamon sugar brown butter bath) covered in syrup. He loved them like that. Bless my Dad’s heart, he had it set on French toast. My mom and I popped a few into our mouths and savored the flavors while we each moved onto our next cooking project for the day.

Baked Cheese in Bread Bowl

2012-02-06T21:54:00.005-06:00

For those of you who are addicted to anything involving cheese this is the world’s most fabulous dip! To die for, yes I probably am over exaggerating, however this is honestly how I feel.

Due to finding this fantastic loaf of bread at HyVee, I decided we would have to make this dip for the Super Bowl, as I just had to have it.

On top of my infatuation with cheese, I love garlic, hence the choice of Garlic Crown, plus this is just a gorgeous loaf of bread, the ridges and the dark gold and brown just make it lovely as a bread bowl at a party.

When you make this the first time, play with your choices in cheeses, just because the recipe calls for a very specific cheese that isn’t particularly your favorite doesn't mean it can't be substituted. Always keep this in mind when cooking; it's ok to make something your own!

First we used a different kind of bread both times we've made this. First time we used King's Hawaiian-Original Hawaiian Sweet Bread, we also used mascarpone as this was the only other cheese product we had in the fridge at the time. This turned out really sweet and surprisingly delish. Our family kept going back for more and before the family event was over the entire thing was gone.

This time we doubled the artichokes used, added black olives, and used the garlic loaf from HyVee. Hardest part of the recipe is removing the guts of the bread. Carefully is in caps for a reason! I ripped a hole in the bottom of our loaf by mistake by being overzealous! Whoops. Note: even when it's slightly bruised and not gorgeous, it's how it tastes that matters (unless you're on Chopped, in which case don't put disgusting tasting or looking food in front of them). Also, if you have too much of the filling, it never hurts to have some spare rolls just lying about.

Below you'll find the recipe:

BAKED CHEESE DIP IN SOURDOUGH BOWL

Borrowed from: My Mom's friend Carolyn

Before Baking

1 10 inch sourdough bread - remove most of the inside of the loaf CAREFULLY. Save...

1 can drained or 1 cup chopped baby artichokes.

1 cup Brie (cut into small pieces)

3 minced cloves of garlic

2/3 cup mayonnaise or thick plain yogurt

2/3 cup jack cheese grated

2/3 cup Parmesan grated

2/3 Cup sharp cheddar

1 small white or brown onion chopped

Mix all ingredients in large bowl. (We use our hands to mix it all together and to put it inside the bread bowl.) Put ingredients inside hollowed out bread bowl then place bread lid on top! Line baking pan with foil and place bread bowl in center of pan.

Bake 1 ¼ hours at 350 degrees.

Serve with French bread cubes or Wheat Thins or slightly cooked broccoli or slightly cooked carrot strips.

Inside a delish pretzel roll!

Kalamata Olive rolla

Super Seed Bread (I honestly don't know what it's called)

We save all of the bread we take out of the insides of the rolls to use for later dipping.

I hope you enjoy!