Island Treasure Cookies

So in my usual state of never wanting to do homework, I decided that I wanted to make some cookies. Since my step-mom is going down to Florida tomorrow for my great-aunt's 100th birthday, I figured I could make a little care package to send along with her to bring to all the family. Well, as I was looking up cookies, I had all sorts of elaborate concoctions in my head, but after looking through my baking drawer, I saw that I had some opened bags of coconut, walnuts, and chocolate chips that were in dire need of a use. So after much reflection (not really - 5 minutes tops) I settled with these yummy island treasure ones. I know realize that for a Florida vacation, these fit the description splendidly. Instead of pecans I used chopped walnut and I'm pretty sure I used way more than just 1 cup of coconut because I just dumped everything that was still in the package - I'd say about a cup and a half. As usual, my father said they were too sweet, but as he just said "Everything is too sweet for me." My step-mom quite enjoyed them though and I'm hoping that they will be a hit down in Florida with the whole posse. Treasure Island Cookies As adapted from allrecipes.com Ingredients: • 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 7/8 cup butter, softened • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar • 1/3 cup white sugar • 1 egg • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract • 1 cup milk chocolate chips • 1 cup flaked coconut • 1 cup chopped walnuts Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. 3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the egg then stir in the vanilla. 4. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients. 5. Mix in the chocolate chips, coconut and pecans. 6. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place the cookies 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. 7. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Dirt & Worm Cupcakes

This past weekend was my little step-nephews 6th birthday party. Last year, I made his different colored cupcakes to go with his pirate themed birthday, but this year, after looking through my cupcake book, he decided on dirt and worm cupcakes. I love gummy worms, so I was quite excited to be able to make them - mostly so that I would be able to eat the extra worms. When I turned on the oven Saturday night, I had an almost near catastrophe when it started smoking. I thought that the cleaning lady had done something to it, but instead of using convection oven I just used regular bake - crisis diverted. The cupcakes turned out great. It seemed like most of the kids enjoyed them, even though I threw away about ten half eaten ones. This probably had more to do with the fact that the kids had already eaten a snack and then pizza and juice then to do with not actually liking the cupcakes. The recipe was really easy to follow, although I did modify the icing a wee bit. I put in a whole stick of butter, because with all the powdered sugar, it was not creaming at all. I also simply added milk as I saw fit until it fit the consistency I was looking for. It didn't have a dark, rich, chocolate look to - lack of chocolate I guess - but it still tasted delicious. Chocolate cupcakes

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ Dutch-Processed cocoa
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt bowl – set aside

3. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time. Add the flour in four additions alternating with the milk. Begin and end with the flour addition. Continue to beat on low-medium speed after each addition.

4. Divide batter among cupcake wells (I got about 21, and some were even over flowing a little bit)

5. Bake for 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted shows a few moist crumbs

6. Cool pans on racks for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from tin.

Fudge Frosting

• 1 stick butter at room temperature
• 4 cups confectioneres sugar – I used about 5 in the end
• 1/3 cup milk – just added as I needed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

1. In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating until light. Be sure to scrape down side of bowl after each addition. Beat on high until smooth. Add vanilla and chocolate until well combined.

For the Cupcakes:

• Gummy Worms
• Cookie Crumbs (I used chocolate animal crackers)

1. Frost cupcakes with icing and then roll or sprinkle on the cookies crumbs. Arrange gummy worms all over.

Cookies, Cookies, and more Cookies

But over the past 3 weekends, I baked just about 618 cookies. Now you may ask why would I do such a thing? Well, the answer is actually quite simple. One of my teachers help plan a big mountain race each year and they need cookies to give to all the racers. The woman who has baked the cookies the past few years was unable to do it this year, so knowing my love for baking, Ms. Jones asked me to do it. It was quite a production, but very fun. I was able to try tons of new recipes that I have never been able to try before. I had some help one day from my friends Michael, Bryan, and Marissa. Marissa made some wonderful mint cookies, but I'm not quite sure what happened with Michael and Bryan because there simple chocolate chip cookies basically died. All in all, it was a lot a lot of baking, but lots and lots of fun!

Enchiladas

For weeks I have wanted to make these enchiladas that I saw online. I was going to make them last week, but instead I made those crepes. Well, since it was just me and my dad for dinner last night - Wendee is in South Africa - I decided to make them because we both love Mexican food. They were really not that hard to make, although I have gobs of leftover filling. I used more spinach, corn and beans than the recipe called for because I didn't use cans, which would most likely explain the excess leftovers. I made fresh beans and used frozen corn that I had in the freezer. I grated my own cheese - not entirely sure what kind it was - but it wall all very good. I would recommend putting a little but of sauce on the bottom of the pan. Since there was none, the bottom of the tortillas were a little dry. But the tops were cheesy and the sauce, which was just flour, tomato paste and oil, was delicious. All in all, they were very good. My dad liked them and I'm sure that even though Wendee doesn't really like beans she would have loved them too. Before they went in the oven. Right out of the oven topped with some scallions and cilantro. Yum!

Chocolate-Peppermint Snaps

Today is knitting Monday, so I decided to bake some goodies to bring in yesterday. Usually I make something every week, but lately I haven't more. More out of laziness then anything else. Martha Stewart is just about one of my favorite sites ever. The bright colors draw me in and all the pictures are just so glamorous. I don't actually think I have ever made a cookie from her site, even with all my snooping, but when I saw chocolate peppermint cookies, which reminded me of Girl Scout Thin Mints - my biggest weakness - I knew I had to make them. They turned out quite well, a little crispy, which made my dad enjoy them - he loves crispy cookies. I didn't take the time to put the white chocolate on top of them because that just seemed incredibly tedious. The recipe said it would make close to 6-dozen. How in the heck they ever got that number is beyond me given that I rolled the dough as thin as humanely possible and I still got only about 42. Putting them back and forth into the freezer almost ended up in a few near disasters - a bottom freezer was not created to hold large cookie sheets - but in the end they all turned out great. They puff up so much. I was shocked! It amazing what big, relative to how small the cutouts, come out of the oven when you are all done. 12 minutes was perfect - very crispy. Just the right amount of mint, and next time I will have to put the white chocolate coating over them.

Jaclyn's Birthday Cake

Last night I was at my friends Jaclyn's birthday party. It was an 70's and 80's theme party, so everyone was dressed up in the most ridiculous outfits. I was wearing silver leggings, a purple shiny shirt and the highest heeled shoes I have ever worn in my life. I really thought that my ankles were going to break. But it was so fun. Amazing food, fun music, and all my good friends to hang out with. Anyway, the cake she had was just so good that I had to write about it. Sadly I didn't get a picture of the cake itself, but it was a two tier cake, with orange and blue circles all over and her initials in fondant sticking up from the top. I had a long top with her mom about it. She said she has been trying out different cakes for her younger daughters bat-mitzvah which is coming up later this year. Let me say that if I had vote, it would absolutley be for this bakery. I'm not even entirely sure what kind of cake it was. I think it was a white amaretto cake with a chocolate mousse and white butter-cream frosting. What I loved about it was that it was a light fluffy cake with light icing instead of a thick pound cake with fondant that I always don't find to appetizing. I only had about two bites because I have been trying to be good about not eating too much sugar, but I had Bryan, my official taste tester eat about two pieces and he said it was amazing. The cake Bryan testing it out. Bryan and Michael is there ridiculous tight basketball getup.

Crepes

So I try to make dinner for my family about every other week or so. I had wanted to make enchiladas this past Friday night, but since it was my step-mom's last dinner before she left for South Africa, my dad said we should make something that she likes given that she doesn't really like beans. We decided on crepes. Ever since I went to France last summer, I have wanted to make crepes. The MOST AMAZING crepe I have ever had was a 3 Euro crepe I got in front of the Pompidou in Paris. It was a simple crepe with nutella, but it was absolutely scrumptious. It was warm, and gooey, and just a little bit of heaven. This is where I got my piece of heaven! Well, the crepes that we made for dinner weren't the same slice of heaven, but they were still quite good. The batter only ended up making about 9 crepes, which was fewer then I had expected, but having already filled up on cheese and crackers, the two I ate was plenty. Batter: 1 cup flour pinch salt 1 1/4 cups milk 2 eggs 2 tbls. canola oil 1. Combine flour, salt and milk. Beat until smooth. 2. Beat in eggs and stir in the oil. 3. Refrigerate for one hour. 4. On small non-stick skillet, over medium heat, (mine was actually pretty big which is why I probably got fewer) add 1/2 tsp. butter. 5. Ladle about 1 tbls. ( I just eyeballed it) of batter and swirl around to form a thin layer on the bottom of the pan. 6. When the top is no longer liquid - which will happen very quickly - flip over and cook for another 15 seconds or so. 7. And voila! You have a crepe. Now the fillings we used for the main course ones were just a mixture of leftover rices and vegetables, so you can really do just about anything you want. For the dessert, I made a mixture of about 1 cup of ricotta, cottage cheese, and 1/2 a cup of sour cream with sugar and cinnamon to taste. My dad then added raspberries and but a dollop of whip cream on the top. They were delicious. You can do anything you want with them which makes crepes so fun and versatile to make and eat. Wendee eating her crepe.

Michelle's cookie

So as I am sitting here bored as heck at work, my bestest friend Michelle decided to pay me a visit. As she walked in, she had a coy smile on her face. All of a sudden she pulled out a giant cookie for me and what's even more amazing was that she made it. Michelle is always asking me to bake things and she even bought me a cupcake book for Chanukah. Well, I've been trying to be good and not eat sweets but I just had to try it. IT WAS SO GOOD! It was an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and it was so good. YAY MICHELLE!!!!!

Chanukah Cake!!!

So I recently took the level 1 cake decorating class at AC Moore. I'd been dying to take this class for ages, but it always seemed to land on a day when I couldn't do it, or my dad simply said I had too much homework. But now that I'm in college, homework has taken a backburner ;) Anyway, this class worked out and after 4 weeks this was my culminating cake. The last class landed in the middle of Chanukah, so I decided to make a themed cake. The cake was just the basic chocolate cake off the back of the Hershey's can, which I must say is just delicious, and buttercream that I made but didn't work very well. It was so thick, but thankfully I brought along a can of store bought fluffy white in case of an emergency like that. So although not all the icing was homemade, it still turned out beautifully. Even my step-sister, who is allergic to gluten, had to try some and she said it was delicious. I'm hopefully going to go back soon and take the level 2 class, but until then, I'll just have to keep honing my basic skills that I have learned so far. MY CAKE!!! Some of the yummy latka's I made for my Chanukah feast! First night

Chocolate Pinwheels

So on Monday we are having a cookie exchange in my knitting club. This has just about been about the highlight of my month - cookies and knitting all wrapped up together in one lunch hour. I decided to make chocolate pinwheels, because they always look so incredibly complicated and my dad really likes them. They turned out to be quite easy to make, although my chocolate dough and vanilla dough weren't exactly the same size when rolled out so I had to do some clever rolling and cutting to get everything lined up together. My dad liked them so much, that HE TOOK THEM ALL TO SCHOOL! Leaving my with none for my cookie exchange. Thankfully we had some premade dough in the fridge, so sadly I had to bring those to the exchange - no where near as good as the pinwheels. My step-mom loved them and said I am going to have to make some for her co-workers.