I'm baccckkkkk

I have a procrastination problem which feeds my anxiety issues which leads to complete productivity shut downs. There has to be some sort of pill for that. So my blog has suffered greatly. I had so much I wanted to write, but no idea where to start. Well, today's the day. Time to dust this thing off.

Late in pregnancy I decided that I wanted to blog again. This time it would be about everything! Some cooking, some motherhood, and some crafts. Well, now I'm a mom and who has time for crafts? Not me. But we do have to eat, so I am still cooking. So let's catch-up for a second, and then I'll get this blog rolling.

What's new since I baked fun-fetti truffles two and a half years ago? Was that how long ago my last post was? I forget. So much is new! I was vegetarian for about a year and now I'm at the polar opposite end of the spectrum eating like a caveman on the Paleo diet. Hey, whatever works. I still feel badly for the piggies, but I'm eating them. Sorry piggies. I also had a baby! But you knew that already. Elliot. Oh Elliot. He is the light of my life. You know that song "You are my sunshine". I know that song was written about a child. Because only a child can make you happy when skies are gray. He's perfect. I could go on and on about how he amazes me on a daily basis, and I will. That's what a blog is for, right?

So, that's my plan. Write about Elliot, being a mom and cooking. Maybe some more stuff in between because this time I'm not limiting my topics. I'll start with catching up on the last 7 months with Elliot and throw in some recipes here and there. I hope you'll stay and enjoy my little blog. 

love love. 

Nicole

Funfetti Cake Dough Truffles

Over the holidays, I stayed super busy in my kitchen. I made lots of new recipes and am excited to share them. This recipe was first to receive the "I NEED this recipe NOW" comment. If you're like me, the best part of baking is getting to lick the bowl. Raw eggs, I know I know. I don't care. I've licked every bowl and spatula I could since I was a kid, and I'm still here. I think I'll continue to take my chances. This recipe provides the same great taste without the risk of raw eggs. Hope you enjoy!

Funfetti Cake Batter Truffles
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1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups yellow cake mix ( I might experiment with other cake flavors soon)
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
3-4 Tbs milk
2+ Tbs sprinkles
16oz candy coating chocolate melts

Cream the butter and sugar using an electric mixer. Add vanilla, cake mix, flour, salt and mix throughly (I used the paddle attachment on my KitchenAid for this, and then switched to the dough attachment). Add milk slowly until you have a dough consistency. Remove from the mixer and add knead in your sprinkles. Make sure to really hold onto that bottle of sprinkles because they will make an absolute mess if you the opened bottle. Just trust me on that one. Roll the dough into one inch balls and place on a parchment or wax paper lined cookie sheet. Chill the balls in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm.

Meanwhile, melt your candy coating in the microwave in 30 second intervals. I purchased mine at a store called Cake Art. I'm sure you can find them in Michael's or Hobby Lobby as well. I went with a white chocolate and milk chocolate. I preferred the milk chocolate version. Once the chocolates are completely melted, dip truffles and put them back on the cookie sheet. Quickly top with a few extra sprinkles and you're good to go! These sweat a little if you put them back in the fridge, so you'll want to serve them or keep them in a cool, dry place.

*"Dip truffles" is not as easy as it sounds. I tried a few methods: fork, stabbing with a bamboo skewer, fingers, spoon.....none of which worked very well. I ended up using a chop sticks method with two skewers and got the best result. I also boiled a little bit of water in a pot and placed my bowl of chocolate on top (double boiler) to keep the chocolate melted.

Feel free to comment if you have any questions!

Butterscotch Monkey Bread

As mentioned in my last post, this was the second treat I made while at Lake Burton. This didn't turn out as expected, but I liked this version better. Traditionally, Monkey Bread is in the shape of a tube pan. You typically use uncooked biscuits which end up sticking to one another and filling out the tube pan. I used frozen dinner rolls, so the expanding and sticking together didn't happen. Instead of having a cake shape of bread that had to be torn apart to eat, we had a bowl of yummy sticky rolls. I honestly think it was easier to serve this way, so I'll be doing it again. This would be great to enjoy with the family during the Macy's parade tomorrow or maybe on Christmas morning. I hope you enjoy it!

Butterscotch Monkey Bread
2 trays of Sister Schubert frozen dinner rolls
1 box (3 3/4 oz) butterscotch pudding mix (not instant)
1/2 c butter
3/4 c brown sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c chopped pecans
Crisco (to grease your tube pan)

The night before you want to serve these, arrange the dinner rolls in a greased tube or bundt pan. Sprinkle the dry pudding mix on top. Over low heat, cook the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans until bubbly. Evenly pour the mixture over the rolls. Cover with aluminum foil or saran wrap. Allow to sit on the counter overnight. The  next morning, uncover and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Dump the rolls into a bowl and serve!

Girls Weekend at Lake Burton with Sour Cream Apple Streusel Pie and Butterscotch Monkey Bread

A few weekends ago, I got the chance to go to a friend’s lake house for the weekend. We only packed our pajamas, pups, gossip magazines, great movies and wine. Could it get any better? We got to kayak around the lake some, let our pups explore the great outdoors, and simply relax. It was really a great weekend. Here’s a shot from their deck and the one picture I could grab of Etta while she was investigating.

I wanted to bake a few treats to show my appreciation. Instead of lugging around the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and such, I packed all of my ingredients pre-measured in plastic baggies. It made the process much easier. Both of these would make great treats for Thanksgiving or Christmas. They’re not difficult, and they really impress!

Sour Cream Apple Streusel Pie
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Filling:
2 T. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg lightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. sour cream
4 c. thinly sliced apples (I used a combination of Honeycrisp and Granny Smith)

Streusel Topping:
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 c. butter, softened
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, combine filling ingredients. Add the sliced apples last, and toss gently to coat. Poke holes in the bottom of your unbaked, thawed pie crust with a fork. Then layer the apple mixture into your crust. Slightly mound them in the middle. Feel free to egg wash your crust at this point to make sure it's perfectly golden brown. Bake this at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

While this is in the oven, combine topping ingredients Cut in the butter until you have coarse crumbles. Use a  pastry blender for this process. Remove the pie from the oven after 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 degrees, and evenly top with crumble mixture. At this point, I covered my crust edge only with tin foil because it was already really brown. Continue baking for an additional 30-40 minutes at the reduced temperature until apples are still firm but tender. This can be served warm or at room temperature. It would be great with a scoop of ice cream :) Enjoy!

I'll share the recipe for the Butterscotch Monkey Bread in my next post. Feel free to comment if you have any questions about the pie.

Homemade Cheese Crackers

Don't waste your time with the garbage in the red box anymore. These are an excellent all natural replacement! The red pepper flakes give them a great bite, but not too much heat. This recipe doesn't make very many crackers, so I'd suggest doubling it if you intend to serve these at a party. They will stay fresh for a couple days when stored in an air tight container in the fridge.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese
4 Tbs (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
3/4 cup flour, plus more for dusting as needed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tbs milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Put all of the ingredients other than the milk in a food processor. Pulse for 5 seconds at a time until the dough is in coarse crumbs.

Add the milk and process until the dough gathers in a ball. Roll the dough out on a floured board with a rolling pin that has also been floured. Roll dough to about 1/8 inch thick.

Cut the dough into 1 inch squares using a sharp knife. Use the end of a wooden skewer to press a hole into the center of each cracker. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Keep an eye on these to make sure you pull them out as the edges just start to brown. Pull them out and let cool completely.

Single Serving Cake

This could either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you are. The ability to make a single serving cake does prevent you from eating too much of an entire cake, but it could also mean dessert every night. Your choice :)

This can also be adapted to please anyone and everyone. Hubs loves a good yellow cake with no frosting, which is perfect because I love double frosting! Tonight I made him plain yellow, but I threw some chocolate chips in mine. You could add fruit, frosting, a different flavor cake mix, powdered sugar, caramel sauce.... you get my drift?

Here's all you need per cake:
1/2 cup cake mix
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vegetable oil
Any additional toppings, frostings, fruit, etc.

Mix all of your ingredients into a microwavable bowl and pop it in the microwave for 90 seconds. Only cook one cake at a time. Let it sit for a minute or two afterwards. You might need to microwave it for an additional 10-15 seconds depending on what you included. The addition of chocolate chips caused my cake to need 10 more seconds.

Let it cool for a minute and then dig in!

Oh, what is that?? IT'S A FOOD PHOTO THAT ISN'T EMBARRASSING!! YAY FOR A NEW CAMERA!!

Etched Glass House Warming Gift

My good friend, Amanda, moved into the most stunning townhouse ever. No really. Ever. She’s fun, trendy, fashionable, and an out-going person. We both share a love for wine and pasta, so my idea for a house warming gift was pretty easy to come up with. I had never used a glass etching product, but I saw the idea here. This project would be an absolute breeze for anyone who owns a Cricut machine, which I don’t. Because of this lack in crafty machinery, I opted to make my own template with an exacto knife and contact paper. You can also buy pre-made templates used for these type projects, but I’m too picky and they’re kind of a rip-off. When you etch glass, it’s forever. It won’t wash off, fade, or allow for corrections of woopsies. It will also eat your skin off, so please be careful. I won’t say use gloves and safety goggles while doing this project, because I didn’t, but you should really be careful. This project is NOT for the munchkins.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Something you want to etch - I picked up this awesomely huge and beautiful hurricane thing from Marshalls. It was a great deal, and it’s very sturdy. I dropped it during this process, and it didn’t break. It was also very, very thick and could probably withstand being dropped, but I wouldn’t know about that. 
• Contact Paper/Vinyl and your printed design or pre-made template
• Tiny and very sharp exacto knife
• Etching product – I used Armour Etch from Michaels. It’s sold in small bottles, but I was told they carry larger bottles in the back. Didn’t want to ask why. 
• Small foam paint brush

Let’s get to work!
• Print out your design onto a sheet of paper. I decided on a block font that I blew up to a size appropriate for my hurricane. I’d recommend a block font to you as well. Cutting through the contact paper is not easy, so a script font would be a nightmare to deal with.
• Cut a piece of contact paper from the roll that is a good bit larger than your letter template. You’ll only be creating a negative space to be filled with the etching product, so you want to give yourself a plenty of room to apply the product. Like this:

• Tape your letter to your contact paper so that you can trace around it with your exacto knife. The process is a pain, especially with letters that have multiple pieces, like the inside of the “B”. Because I’m so type A, I ended up cutting the inside pieces of the “B” separately so that they would match exactly. Once your letter is cut, remove the inside of the letter. You will be left with a template like the one above.
• Remove the back to the contact paper and place your stencil on the item you’ll etch. Make sure that the edges that will come in contact with the etching product are sealed well (no air bubbles, debris underneath, etc). Those can lead to the woopsies I mentioned before. A credit card can come in handy when applying vinyl or contact paper.
• Spread the etching product onto your template in the desired areas with the foam brush. Like this:

• It’s a pretty thick product, but it can still run a little. You’ll want to prop your item on either side if you’re using a round object like this. Make sure to really put this stuff on thick and as evenly as possible.
• Now, this next part will depend on what you’re etching. This was super thick, probably 1/4 of an inch or so. The etching product says to leave it on for 45 seconds and then rinse with water. I did that, and nothing happened. AT ALL. So I upped the next round to 15 minutes. It worked slightly, but it definitely wasn’t pronounced enough. So then I left it on for 45 minutes. I was GOING to win this battle. That finally worked. So it stayed on about an hour total. If you’re using a thin wine glass, it won’t take that long. If you’re using Pyrex, it will take around the same time.
• Be gentle when washing off the product. If you decide more etching paste time is needed, you’ll want to make sure that the integrity of your stencil edges is maintained. If you do decide to go another round, make sure to dry the surface really well and push your edges back down.
• Then, ta-dahh! The oatmeal has nothing to do with this project other than to give you perspective as to how big this container was.
  

• I then filled the hurricane with lots of goodies from Trader Joes. I found the dish cloths at Marshalls as well and just wrapped the wine bottle up in them. I tied it off with some twine stuff, and that’s all she wrote!
Feel free to post any questions you have about the project.