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Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Speechless Sunday: 25 years + 1 day
I made it. I turned a big whopping 25 years old yesterday. Part of me has been grudgingly acknowledging this fact any time it has been brought up in conversation. Then, I came across this and thought, yes, I am thankfully 25.
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I think my resentment for this birthday stems from a lot of different things I could list out, but ultimately, I'm thankful. Not every gets one more day. I have a lot of things I want to do with my life still, but I am so happy and thankful for everything I have done so far. This is a grand life, isn't it?
Monday, September 10, 2012
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers
I have always loved sports, but really only follow basketball, well mostly, the Portland Trail Blazers. Okay, I'm a huge Blazers fan. I could go on, but I'll spare you for now. I played fantasy basketball last year and finished second in the league - not too shabby for a rookie. This summer, I was somehow convinced to join my best guy friend Andy's fantasy football league, probably for some easy competition. At the time, I could not name more pro football players than I have fingers and I still can't tell you what position a player is on the field at any given time, with the exception of the quarterback. Being from Oregon, we don't have a pro football team so my only loose ties lie with the Seattle Seahawks by default. (I did make it to my first Seahawks game last year though!) The only tailgating I ever partake in involves Oregon State Beaver football, so going to visit Andy up in Seattle during the opening weekend of the NFL was reason enough to try out a new recipe.
Andy loves spicy food and was drooling when I mentioned making bacon wrapped jalapeño poppers for Sunday football shenanigans. I like spicy foods, but can't handle too extreme of a kick. These were very tasty, but were nearly too much for me. I am not one to eat a jalapeño by itself, but add bacon to something and it's good to go. The cream cheese helps, too. Andy scarfed about 70% of them.
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers
Makes 12
Ingredients
12 pieces of bacon
12 jalapeños, seeded
6-8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of salt
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Partially cook bacon however you wish (stove top/oven/microwave) but just make sure you can still wrap it around a jalapeño. While the bacon is cooking, slice one side of a jalapeño lengthwise to open it up, in order to remove the seeds. Repeat for the 11 other peppers. Now, mix cream cheese with all of the spices. Spoon the cheese mixture into the seeded jalapeños. As you can see from photos, I may have stuffed my jalapeños with a little too much cream cheese, that is if you have a problem with exploding cheese. Finally, wrap each popper with bacon and place in oven safe dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until bacon is done.
Not that jalapeño poppers are rocket science, but I based mine off of this recipe from Doughmesstic. (Isn't that just the greatest blog name? Dough + mess + domestic. It's one of my faves.) Not to worry, these poppers are very easy to assemble.
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers
Makes 12
Ingredients
12 pieces of bacon
12 jalapeños, seeded
6-8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of salt
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Partially cook bacon however you wish (stove top/oven/microwave) but just make sure you can still wrap it around a jalapeño. While the bacon is cooking, slice one side of a jalapeño lengthwise to open it up, in order to remove the seeds. Repeat for the 11 other peppers. Now, mix cream cheese with all of the spices. Spoon the cheese mixture into the seeded jalapeños. As you can see from photos, I may have stuffed my jalapeños with a little too much cream cheese, that is if you have a problem with exploding cheese. Finally, wrap each popper with bacon and place in oven safe dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until bacon is done.
Happy football season! Maybe this year I will have something more to root for (thanks to my fantasy football team) than the tailgate food. Fingers crossed!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Speechless Sunday
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| via deadlink on Pinterest - let me know if you know the source |
I believe this 100%.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Homemade Pizza Rolls
Yummmmmers.
If you've been looking for a quick and tasty food for tailgating or appetizer for you next party, you have to try these homemade pizza rolls. My sister was the one who wanted to make these and I'm definitely happy we tried them out.
It has been a while since I have made a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs The Girl Who Ate Everything. I forgot what beautiful photos she has on each post. This may be the first non-sweet I have made from her blog. This recipe is super kid friendly and super easy to make. Oh, and I would suggest doubling this recipe if you have a hungry husband, teenage son or have a hard time eating just one of anything small and yummy.
Homemade Pizza Rolls
Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything
Makes 8
Ingredients:
1 (8 oz) package refrigerated crescent roll dough
4 cheese sticks, halved
3-4 oz. pepperoni or Canadian bacon or sausage
1/2 cup pineapple, chunked (if you choose Canadian bacon)
marinara or pizza sauce or ranch, for dipping
Garlic Butter Glaze:
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasonings
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper or oil spray.
Separate the crescent roll dough and lay flat. Place toppings at the bottom, large part of the triangle. Add half a slice of string cheese on top of the toppings and roll up.
Arrange on baking sheet, seam side down and bake for 10-14 minutes or until golden brown.
While rolls are cooking, combine the melted butter, Italian seasonings, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese in a small bowl.
When rolls are done, remove them from the oven and brush with the garlic butter glaze. Serve with marinara or ranch for dipping.
Mmmm. Butter glaze. Hard to go wrong here.
If you are a fan of crescent rolls, you definitely need to try a chicken broccoli cheddar braid or baked chicken cheese filled rolls.
This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.
If you've been looking for a quick and tasty food for tailgating or appetizer for you next party, you have to try these homemade pizza rolls. My sister was the one who wanted to make these and I'm definitely happy we tried them out.
It has been a while since I have made a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs The Girl Who Ate Everything. I forgot what beautiful photos she has on each post. This may be the first non-sweet I have made from her blog. This recipe is super kid friendly and super easy to make. Oh, and I would suggest doubling this recipe if you have a hungry husband, teenage son or have a hard time eating just one of anything small and yummy.
Homemade Pizza Rolls
Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything
Makes 8
Ingredients:
1 (8 oz) package refrigerated crescent roll dough
4 cheese sticks, halved
3-4 oz. pepperoni or Canadian bacon or sausage
1/2 cup pineapple, chunked (if you choose Canadian bacon)
marinara or pizza sauce or ranch, for dipping
Garlic Butter Glaze:
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasonings
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper or oil spray.
Separate the crescent roll dough and lay flat. Place toppings at the bottom, large part of the triangle. Add half a slice of string cheese on top of the toppings and roll up.
Arrange on baking sheet, seam side down and bake for 10-14 minutes or until golden brown.
While rolls are cooking, combine the melted butter, Italian seasonings, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese in a small bowl.
When rolls are done, remove them from the oven and brush with the garlic butter glaze. Serve with marinara or ranch for dipping.
Mmmm. Butter glaze. Hard to go wrong here.
If you are a fan of crescent rolls, you definitely need to try a chicken broccoli cheddar braid or baked chicken cheese filled rolls.
This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Salted Caramel Soaked Chocolate Cake
It's probably not hard to tell, I love baking, especially with my friend Michelle. For girls' night a few weekends ago, she texted me a picture of this pin, asking if we should make it. Yeah, I am not really sure how I even could have said no to making this with her.
If you didn't click the pin, I'll just tell you, it was a recipe from Martha Stewart. For whatever reason, Martha and I don't mesh well. I seem to find her recipes a little too elaborate and my attempt never turns out like her pictures, which actually is fine with me because I have loved what I end up creating.
Since neither Michelle or I are opposed to devil's food cake mix, we didn't even attempt Martha's cake recipe and went the quicker route with a box mix. For the rest of the recipe, Michelle was in charge of the caramel part and I was responsible for the frosting. The only part of Martha's whole Salted Caramel 6 Layer Cake recipe (the original pin) we ended up making correctly - or so we think - was the frosting. And let me tell you, it is so insanely yummy. I will be using it for something else in the future, no doubt.
Darker Chocolate Frosting
Martha Stewart
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder (Dutch-process recommended)
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp water, warm
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar
generous pinch coarse salt
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped, melted and cooled
Whisk cocoa powder in water until dissolved. In a separate bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar and salt on medium until pale and fluffy. Slowly beat in melted chocolate and cocoa mixture until combined. This next part is important. Let stand for 30 minutes before using. It will not look very frosting like at this point and you must be patient to let it set. However, do not stick it in the refrigerator because it will solidify into the state of your original chocolate.
I learned this by putting leftover frosting in the fridge. Nope. Don't do it if you want to eat some more later. You do that too, right? Eat frosting plain, by itself? Whew. I knew we could be friends.
At this point, Michelle was making the caramel and well, it didn't exactly get as thick as it looked in the picture and we figured it should have been by the time that had passed. Probably something to do with the temperature and needing a candy thermometer and whatnot. Just a little beyond us at midnight on girls' night, trying to assemble this cake, despite Michelle's awesome skills in caramel making. So here's what we did.
Yup, just poured our thinner caramel between each layer. Oh yeah. We also cut our layers down to 3 instead of 6. We ate some of the others because we were getting antsy to assemble and isn't that part of girls night? Eating layers of cake, prior to assembly? Well, it was for us.
The three cake layers pretty much became one and the frosting was just delightful to work with. It has really great consistency and spreads so easily. Plus, it looks so good just as is, in its rich, dark state.
As I said, we were up past midnight making this and at one point I said, let's drizzle caramel on top and sprinkle a little salt. I said it, but definitely forgot to do it. So, just pretend the photos have a little caramel drizzle, sprinkled with sea salt.
So, that is the story of how we arrived at the Salted Caramel Soaked Chocolate Cake. Very much like those "poke" cakes I've seen on pinterest, but I haven't tried making one of those. This however, I will make on purpose again. It is quite decadent. We even had it for breakfast the next morning because, well, that's how we roll.
This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.
 |
| Photo Credit: Michelle Waters |
If you didn't click the pin, I'll just tell you, it was a recipe from Martha Stewart. For whatever reason, Martha and I don't mesh well. I seem to find her recipes a little too elaborate and my attempt never turns out like her pictures, which actually is fine with me because I have loved what I end up creating.
 |
| Photo Credit: Michelle Waters |
Since neither Michelle or I are opposed to devil's food cake mix, we didn't even attempt Martha's cake recipe and went the quicker route with a box mix. For the rest of the recipe, Michelle was in charge of the caramel part and I was responsible for the frosting. The only part of Martha's whole Salted Caramel 6 Layer Cake recipe (the original pin) we ended up making correctly - or so we think - was the frosting. And let me tell you, it is so insanely yummy. I will be using it for something else in the future, no doubt.
Darker Chocolate Frosting
Martha Stewart
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder (Dutch-process recommended)
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp water, warm
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar
generous pinch coarse salt
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped, melted and cooled
Whisk cocoa powder in water until dissolved. In a separate bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar and salt on medium until pale and fluffy. Slowly beat in melted chocolate and cocoa mixture until combined. This next part is important. Let stand for 30 minutes before using. It will not look very frosting like at this point and you must be patient to let it set. However, do not stick it in the refrigerator because it will solidify into the state of your original chocolate.
I learned this by putting leftover frosting in the fridge. Nope. Don't do it if you want to eat some more later. You do that too, right? Eat frosting plain, by itself? Whew. I knew we could be friends.
 |
| Photo Credit: Michelle Waters |
At this point, Michelle was making the caramel and well, it didn't exactly get as thick as it looked in the picture and we figured it should have been by the time that had passed. Probably something to do with the temperature and needing a candy thermometer and whatnot. Just a little beyond us at midnight on girls' night, trying to assemble this cake, despite Michelle's awesome skills in caramel making. So here's what we did.
Yup, just poured our thinner caramel between each layer. Oh yeah. We also cut our layers down to 3 instead of 6. We ate some of the others because we were getting antsy to assemble and isn't that part of girls night? Eating layers of cake, prior to assembly? Well, it was for us.
The three cake layers pretty much became one and the frosting was just delightful to work with. It has really great consistency and spreads so easily. Plus, it looks so good just as is, in its rich, dark state.
 |
| Photo Credit: Michelle Waters |
As I said, we were up past midnight making this and at one point I said, let's drizzle caramel on top and sprinkle a little salt. I said it, but definitely forgot to do it. So, just pretend the photos have a little caramel drizzle, sprinkled with sea salt.
 |
| Photo Credit: Michelle Waters |
So, that is the story of how we arrived at the Salted Caramel Soaked Chocolate Cake. Very much like those "poke" cakes I've seen on pinterest, but I haven't tried making one of those. This however, I will make on purpose again. It is quite decadent. We even had it for breakfast the next morning because, well, that's how we roll.
This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
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