Misty Mints Treasures

Misty mints are on my my all time favourite Christmas chocolate/candy.  I bought 2 boxes this past year and kept one in the fridge. Hence why i made cookies with Christmas candy in September. Wow that's almost 10 months later I just realized, but oh well. They come with a recipe inside the box that I wanted to try. They were very good, only problem is I ate them too fast, especially since they are so small. *this has been post dated.

Slightly blurry, but a look inside the finished cookie.

Till next time, thanks for reading.

Chicken & Cheese Pizza with white Sauce

I am not a pizza person, anything tomato sauce or with tomatoes I just won't eat. So I decided to make my own pizza, with a white cheese sauce and chicken (not a fan of ham or pepperoni either). I found a really easy recipe for a crust, that you only need to let sit for 5 minutes. No waiting for it to rise. And then I added a white cheese sauce that's actually for pasta but very good on pizza. Finally, I added pieces of cooked chicken, green onions, shredded cheese(mozzarella or cheddar, or both), and parmesan.

Recipe for pizza crust: (modified from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:
1 package dry active yeast (1 1/4 tsp)
1 tsp white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 F/45C)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsbp olive oil
2 tsp italian seasoning

DIRECTIONS:
1-Preheat oven to 450 F. In a medium bowl dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2-Stir in flour, oil, and italian seasoning. Let rest for 5 minutes.
3-Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to lightly greased pizza Pan.
4- Add sauce and desired toppings. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Recipe for White Cheese Sauce:  (don't remember where I got this from)

INGREDIENTS:
8 ounce package of cream cheese, cubed
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup milk
1 dash ground nutmeg
1 dash pepper
2 tsp italian seasoning
3 cloves of garlic, minced

DIRECTIONS:
On Medium heat, mix cream cheese, milk and permesan. Stirring occasionally, until sauce is smooth.
Stir in nutmeg, pepper, italian seasoning, and garlic. Remove from heat, and let sit for a couple minutes. Spread on pizza crust. This will cover 2 pizzas.

Till next time, thanks for reading!

Fudge Rounds

I found this recipe on Confession's of a Cookbook Queen's blog, and just knew I had to make these. I'm so glad I did 'cause they are awesome. So awesome that I've made them 3 times now. (as of Jan '12)

 Right when you take the cookies out of the oven they look slightly poofy but they settle down once they start to cool. I found making them slightly small and flattening them before baking made it easier when putting the cookies together.

 I found the frosting recipe made a lot of frosting. I used the whole recipe and used it for 2 x the cookie recipe. If you were to put twice as much frosting on each cookies to use it up, the frosting would just squish out the sides.

And here is the recipe. From Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

INGREDIENTS

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 

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.

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


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.

Pink Water Marble & Morning Glories

First off some pictures of the white and blue morning glories.

This is the third water marble I've done. This time I did it on my 8 year old sister.

I used Joe in White as a base colour. For the marble I used Joe in White, Joe in Jet, and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Fuchsia Power. (at least I think that's the pink I used)

Every nail turned out quite differently, but it was difficult getting her to dip her finger in the right way.

Till Next Time, Thanks for Reading! =)

Rocky Road Brownies

I dont have much to say in this post except that these brownies are super delicious, sweet, and very fudgy.

Recipe: Rocky Road Brownies

(from Better Home & Gardens ultimate cookies & bars-"Chunky Path Brownies")

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup water

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

3 cups mini marshmallows

1 1/2 tsp vanilla 

Instructions:

1-Preheat oven to 350˚. Line a 15x10x1 inch (i used a 9x13x2 pan and it worked just fine) pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Grease foil;set aside. 

2-In a large mixing bowl stir together flour sugar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

3-In a medium saucepan combine butter, water, and cocoa powder. Bring Mixture just to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. 

4-Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture. Beat together until combined. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute more (batter will be thin). Pour Batter into prepared pan. Bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

My helper who accidentally added WAY more vanilla than was necessary. 

5-While brownies bake make chocolate topper.

Chocolate Topper:

In a medium saucepan heat and stir 2 cups semisweet chocolate pieces, 1/2 cup whipping cream, and 1/4 cup butter over medium-low heat until smooth.

6- Sprinkle marshmallows over hot brownies. Top with chocolate topper. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Use the foil to lift the brownies from the pan. Cut into bars.

One suggestion I have is to make sure you grease the foil all the way up the side, because the marshmallow sticks a lot.

Till next time, Thanks for reading! =)

Purple Water Marble

This is the 2nd water marble I've done, and considering I did it on someone else's nails other than my own, I think it turned out quite well. I also quite like the combination of purples, considering purple is my favourite colour.

First hand done, and still taped.

All the tape...'cause I thought it looked neat.

Both hands before cleanup and after tape removal.

One hand, the pic of the other hand was too blurry.

Slightly blurry, but I like how the thumbs turned out the best.

I used Nicole by OPI Base Coast and Nicole by OPI Top Coat. i used a white polish as a base for the water marble. And for the purples: 'Faded Violet' - joe, 'Jet' - joe, 'Di-Vine is Divine' - Nicole by OPI.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I found an awesome ice cream recipe over at Bake at 350, for Dark Chocolate Peanut butter ice cream, and just had to make it myself. First ice-cream I've made containing eggs, which was interesting.

Ingredients:

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate 

1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa powder ( i just used regular cocoa)

1 & 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

 Melt the unsweetened chocolate, in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Gradually add the cocoa; the mixture may clump up in the whisk...that's ok.  Slowly pour in the milk, whisking with the chocolate mixture until combined and smooth.  Remove from heat and let cool several minutes.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.  Add the sugar, a little at a time, whisking constantly.  Once all the sugar has been added, whisk 1 minute more.

Add the cream and vanilla; whisk to combine.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture and stir.  Cover and refrigerate a few hours or overnight. 

Before transferring to an ice cream maker, remove 1 cup of the mixture into a separate bowl and whisk in the peanut butter until smooth.

Add this back into the main mixture and stir. Process in an ice cream maker.  Once the freezing cycle finishes, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze a few hours to firm up.

The finished product. Super rich and super tasty =)

Till Next Time, Thanks for Reading

Some Favourite Pictures from Red Deer & Calgary

Near the end of July I took 5 days off, and went with my family to Red Deer and Calgary. We visited my Gramma and Aunty and also went to Westerner Days and to the Calgary Zoo. These are some of my favourite photos I took from the trip. (Click to enlarge photos)

Fire at Rotary park

Roasting hotdogs/marshmallows

Cross the bridge, and down the path

Looking out

Horse & Buggy (my fav pic from the parade)

The Table is Set

Swirls in the back of a seat

Embossed Bone Chart

Collared Peccary

Cuddling Spider Monkeys (I believe thats what kind they are)

On looking Cotton-Top Tamaran 

Graceful Stork

Pastel Flowers

Monarch Butterfly Meal

Butterfly

So 15/300 some photos isn't too bad. I usually have a hard time picking my favourite ones.

Banana Split Brownies

Recipe: Banana Split Brownies

 (from Better Homes and Gardens- Ultimate Cookies & Bars 2010)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup mashed bananas (2 -3 medium)

2 eggs

 1 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Grease a 13x9 baking pan; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter till smooth. Add sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in bananas and eggs. Stir in flour, and cocoa powder. Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Spread cooled bars with Strawberry-Cream Cheese Frosting. Cut into bars.

Strawberry-Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a medium mixing bowl beat 4 ounce of cream cheese with 1/2 cup thawed, frozen strawberries, cut up, and drained. Beat in 2 1/2 - 3 cups of icing sugar to make a frosting of spreading consistency. The frosting will stiffen when refrigerated but not as much as I thought it would. I didn't addd the full amount of icing sugar, so next time I will make sure I add enough. My frosting was pretty runny, but still very tasty.

Thanks for Reading! =]

Morning Glory & Rain Drops

Just wanted to share these photos, because I was amazed at how the focus actually turned out, and I love the water droplets on the flower =].

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies & a Pink Bow

I made oatmeal raisin cookies for my bf Nic, and a pink bow for my lil sister Breanna's Hello Kitty stuffy.  I only ate a couple of the cookies because I couldn't get over the raisins. Minus the raisins they are super tasty especially with the slight cinnamon flavour. I'm not a fan of raisins baked in stuff though. I only like them plain, or dipped in chocolate.

If you want the recipe for the cookies, just let me know.

I was going to sew the strip of fabric together and use it to tie around the middle of the bow, but that failed. So I opted for a flowery piece of ribbon, and sewing it on the back.

Till next time, thanks for reading =]