Rose Bakes Neopolitan Cake

This week has been a roller coaster of emotions. Brody has been overwhelmed with excitement about starting school. I have felt nervousness about him starting something new, sadness at the realization of how quickly his childhood is passing, and happiness because of his happiness. Brody is such an outgoing kid & is having a blast. Today, around a quiet, still house, I decided to bake. Earlier this week, I saw a recipe for Neopolitan cake on RoseBakes.com. It looked wonderful, but I'm such an amateur that I was a little intimidated. I had to substitute a couple things because I couldn't find the exact ingredient called for. Mainly, the strawberry pudding. Also, I didn't have enough powdered sugar so my icing ended up runny. I'm okay with that because it tastes awesome. As I sit here eating this deliciousness, with a tall glass of milk and watching reruns of the Big Bang Theory, my feelings are getting better. Cake makes everybody happy(along with Sheldon's insanity). Now, Brody will have a special treat when he gets home. Bazzinga! Thank you Rose for the great recipe!!

Calling all Harry Potter fans!!

What a wonderful week! Being off, I have cleaned, exercised, school shopped for Brody, played board games & watched movies(Harry Potter being one of them!) I always wished that I could have a glass of butter beer like the kids do. I imagine it being the best drink ever, like a buttery cream soda. For those who do not watch
Harry Potter, it doesn't contain beer. So there are recipes for butter beer, but I didn't have the correct ingredients. I refuse to put makeup on today. Plan B. Butter beer cupcakes! I had to improvise on the ingredients. It called for buttermilk, I googled a substitute. Milk & lemon juice. Who knew? Also, I had no cream soda. Lewis gave me the idea of just using one of my sodas. Probably would have turned out sweeter with the cream soda. This recipe is a lot more complex. I only did the cupcakes. It shows how to make butterscotch filling & ganache. Also, for home made icing. I had some butter cream Betty Crocker. We just stuck with cupcakes & Betty Crocker today. The next time I make these, I will try the whole thing. They are delicious. The cupcakes are more buttery than sweet & that mixed with the frosting is heavenly. I tried to get Brody to pretend to be Harry & I was Hermione as we ate, but he refused to be anything but Woody. I enjoy speaking with an English accent, so I think I will continue without him.

Terri's Birthday Dessert!

For everyone's birthday at work, we get to pick a dessert. For the 4 years and 5 months that I have worked there, I have never brought dessert. (For obvious reasons!) With my recent experience for the blog, I felt somewhat confident in volunteering for one. Ok. I had no confidence. Just thought it was time I did a dessert for the office. So Mrs. Terri picked this dessert from Pinterest. Strawberry Cream Pie. I had to buy a pie dish so I opted for Fiesta. The bright blue looks really pretty against the red strawberries! It was pretty easy once I got the whipping cream whipped. I played some appropriate music while whipping the cream("Whip It Good!")! Yeah, music always sets the mood. So the pie is stiffening in the fridge. We'll get reviews on taste tomorrow:)

S'mores Bars Baby

Okay, we are way behind on blogging! So as Brody has been quarantined for a couple of days, I let him pick a recipe. Of course, it included marshmallows. Looking through pinterest, he picked s'mores bars. Lucky for me! This didn't have anything unfamiliar to me. Pretty easy, except I wanted to eat the Hershey bar instead of putting it in the mixture. This is great with a glass of milk! We all give it an A+! I did think that I had broke the mixer. It kinda just bogged down though. Pretty sure I dumped too much stuff in at one time:) A good treat for a rough weekend!

Pump up the jam! Pump it up!

So if any of you have little ones, you have probably watched the new cartoon on Nick Jr., Mike the Knight. They love to eat jam tarts on that show. Of course, that's what Brody thought we should make next. Here is our best shot. Every recipe was in metric measurements as this is an English dish. Which also means we talked with an English accent as we made these. I encourage you to read this with an accent as well. It makes for a fun twist. Luckily, most measuring cups have the mL mark on them. I might would have been in trouble. Also, if you ever travel abroad, an electric mixer is referred to as a food processor. I feel my brain growing as we speak. They also make a tart dish. We improvised with cookie cutters and then forming them into a bowl like structure. This recipe came from allrecipes.co.uk. They are great! Very similar taste to a jellied biscuit. We like them! A little messy to make, but worth the quality time with Brody. Now, we will settle down to watch Mike the Knight with our plate of jam tarts and a spot of tea. Ta-Ta!!

Oh Snap!

One of my favorite dishes from O'Charleys is the potato soup. Potato/potatoe??? Anyway, I saw this recipe from pinterest, of course. It looked easy enough. No crazy ingredients. I didn't really pay attention to how much of each thing though. It took like 1/2 gallon of milk! It was also a good thing I googled how to put potatoes in the microwave. Apparently, the potatoes will explode if you don't stab holes in them. I left out the onions Unless an onion is fried, I hate it! Not exactly O'Charleys, but really good!

Rolo's....'nuff said!

Ok. Made a trip to the grocery store so kitchen wrecker is back on track. Rolo's are my favorite candies! Thanks to pinterest, I found a recipe for Rolo cookies. I bought three packs of candies to make cookies with, but only two made it to the kitchen. I love them soooo much! Anyway, fairly easy, except the mixer dough hooks do not play nice. These are amazing!

Easy One!

Ok, so I took an easy option this week. It's been a crazy week. Lewis has had the flu this week so not much time for extra stuff. So I made bisquick pancakes, BUT I added.....drumroll.....mayonnaise? Yeah, about 1/2 cup of mayo. The recipe already calls for 2 eggs, and I have learned that you can substitute mayo for eggs. So maybe you could just add another egg and get the same results. I don't know. Anyway, the pancakes were alot more moist and fluffy so this gets an A+ from all 3 of us. Lewis says he wants mayo in them from now on. An easy kitchen wrecker week, but successful. Although, I cannot flip a pancake worth a toot, I only had one casualty. So just a twist I found to try on a well known pancake. Hopefully, back to something new next week.

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!

Okay, I am getting way off schedule. This week was a great success! Snickers Brownies! Like I said...SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! THESE ARE AMAZING! I left out the peanuts because I do not like peanuts. It was great without them, but if you like peanuts, throw 'em in. I knew where to find everything in the grocery store this time. This was my first experience with marshmallow cream. It made me very happy! Like I was stirring clouds. Okay, that made me sound crazy, but I am in love with the stuff. This is very rich, but amazing! It was great with coffee or milk!

BROWNIE LAYER:
(1) box brownie mix & ingredients called for on the box
(1/4)c. hot fudge topping, unheated

NOUGAT LAYER:
(1/4)c. butter
(1) c. sugar
(1/4)c. evaporated milk
(2)7oz. jars marshmallow creme
(1/4)c. peanut butter
(11/2)c. salted peanuts, chopped
(1)tsp. vanilla

CARAMEL LAYER:
(1)17 oz. jar of caramel topping

CANDY BAR TOPPING:
(11/4)c. chocolate chips
(1/4)c. peanut butter

Make brownies as the box instructs for a 9x13 pan, adding the hot fudge topping to the batter. Cool completely.

Melt butter. Add sugar and milk until dissolved. Bring to a boil. Add in marshmallow creme, peanut butter, and vanilla. Remove from heat and add peanuts. Pour over cooled brownies. Allow to cool.

Heat caramel until its easy to stir. Pour caramel over the nougat layer. Let cool.

Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter together until smooth. Pour on top and put in refrigerator until chocolate is set. I kept them in the fridge until we were ready to eat!

Better late than never!

Ok, I've lost momentum. So I haven't tried a recipe since the strawberry lemonade bars were a BUST! I did whip up some muffins last week, which I managed to burn. I also melted a plastic bowl on the stove top. I wear my "kitchen wrecker" title with pride! Anyway, I wanted another lemony recipe to redeem the bitterness of the last. I went with a pink lemonade pie. It was not pretty, but had a great taste. I am absolutely amazed at whipping cream. It was liquid and then it became a wonderful, fluffy cream! Ah-mazing! The recipe called for coconut, but I loathe coconut. So I substituted for pink sprinkles. Wish it would have been prettier, but it was good!

Eeewww!

This weeks recipe came from Pinterest. It looks so pretty. It's pink and covered in powdered sugar. It's got to be good, right? SO WRONG!! Strawberry lemonade bars, sounds better than it tastes. Then again, could be just me. I can barely taste the strawberry, but it did make it the pretty pink color. Maybe this recipe could be modified with less lemon juice?? After the bars cooled, the tartness wasn't quite as strong. Still, this is a bust! It wasn't a hard recipe. It called for lemon zest, and that threw me for a loop. Thanks to some help from work, I learned that you can substitute for more lemon juice. Anyway, this was awful for us. If you've done these and they turned out better, let me know what you did. I was hoping these would be super great considering I wore a superhero cape while making them. Maybe I should put extra sugar on the top???

STRAWBERRY LEMONADE BARS
crust:
(1/4) c sugar
(1/2) c butter
(1 1/2) c all purpose flour
(1/4) tsp salt

Filling:
(1) c lemon juice
(2-3) tsp lemon zest
(1/2) c puréed strawberries
(1 1/4) c sugar
(4) large eggs
(1/4) c all-purpose flour
(1/2) tsp baking powder
(1/4) tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan. Mix crust in large bowl. Press into pan and bake for 17 minutes. While crust bakes, prepare filling. Pour filling over hot crust. Bake for 25 minutes. A light colored crust will form on top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cool and store in refrigerator.

Time for my FAVORITE!

So it's been a yucky few days. Rain, rain.....more rain. I'm not a soup person, but it's that kind of weather. What's the closest thing to soup that I enjoy? Chicken & Dumplin's! I call it soupy because it has broth! Okay, it's not like Mammaw's & it ain't Cracker Barrel's! But they turned out great! I used frozen dumplings, which is kind of cheating. I was a bit intimidated to try scratch dumplings, but next time, I will be doing it. We also cooked valentine cupcakes. But it was all out of the box & can. Thanks you Pillsbury! The only credit I can take for it, was not burning them! I didn't get to buy any new kitchen utensils this week. That kind of bummed me out because shopping for new stuff makes this a bit more fun! This C & D recipe was super easy. It came from the North Shelby Baptist Church cookbook. No pinterest this week!

ALMOST HOMEADE CHICKEN 'N DUMPLINGS:
2-large chicken breasts, cooked & deboned
1-can cream of chicken soup
1-can chicken broth
1/2-stick margarine
1-pkg. flour tortillas(I used frozen dumplings)
Salt & pepper to taste

Combine soup, broth, and at least one can of water. Bring to a slow boil. Add chicken and margarine. Drop tortillas(or dumplings) into hot mixture. Salt & pepper to taste. Slow boil for 15-20 minutes.

You low down, no good, two timing.....PASTA?!???

Alright, got a little brave this week. I attempted two recipes simultaneously. Not such a good idea. For the main course, I chose Two-Timin' Pasta, with a side of Red Lobster Biscuits. The pasta wasn't too bad, except I over boiled it onto the stove top. I burned the biscuits. Just the bottom of them though. So we could still eat the top. Lewis wasn't quite as impressed this week. The pasta was really good, and Brody even loved it. Yeah, I'll try the biscuits again another day. What was edible tasted like red lobster biscuits. Overall, not an epic fail, but still needs some work. We'll try again next week. Obviously, I cannot cook two things at once.
TWO-TIMIN' PASTA:
(1)box penne pasta
24oz marinara sauce
15oz Alfredo sauce
(2)c shredded mozzarella cheese
(1)c shredded Parmesan cheese
-cook & drain pasta
-mix sauces together in a large bowl
-add the mozzarella & combine
-toss in penne & coat with mixture
-pour in 9x13 baking dish
-cook on 350 degrees for 20-25 min
-remove & sprinkle with shredded Parmesan
-bake for another 5 min.

RED LOBSTER BISCUITS:
(1 1/2)c bisquick
(1 1/2)c shredded cheddar cheese
(1/2)c milk
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oregano
(3/4) tsp garlic salt
-preheat oven to 400 degrees
-mix bisquick,cheese & milk together to form a sticky dough
-drop lumps of dough onto cooking sheet & bake for 10 min
-melt butter & mix oregano & garlic salt
-brush biscuits with butter mixture & bake for another 5 min

Lewis Likey!

After two weeks of just mediocre responses to my dishes, today's recipe was my first big hit! Woohoo!!! This weeks recipe was one from Pinterest. The Mexican Dorito Casserole. The only thing that threw me for a loop was the shredded chicken. How do you cook shredded chicken? Yeah, well, apparently you cook it, then shred it. I needed a covered casserole dish, which I did not own. So I went with Racheal Ray this time. The dish was super cute so that made it more fun. I was disappointed in the fact that her dish did not come with recipes. The Paula Deen dish came with 4 recipes. Come on, Racheal Ray! Let's step it up! Alright, with the cake & macaroni, Lewis really just tasted it. This dish is almost gone! Once you get the chicken shredded, it was supa easy. So here it is! If I can cook this & get an A+, I have complete faith that ANYBODY can do this. Here ya go:

1-preheat oven to 350 degrees
2-mix 2 cups shredded chicken, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 can Ro-Tel, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 2 cups shredded cheese, 1/2 packet of taco seasoning
3-grease a 2qt casserole dish
4-start with layer of crushed Doritos, then layer with chicken mixture, another layer of Doritos, and the rest of the chicken mixture.
5-sprinkle with shredded cheese
6-bake for 35 minutes


Lewis hates Ro-Tel! He don't know he's eating it!!! Hahahahaha!