So far this week has been really hectic! I am surprised I found the time...and energy to write a blog. After four months of unemployment, I FINALLY have a job! YAY! Of course, now instead of sleeping until I want, playing on Farmville, reading cooking blogs, playing with my dogs...I have to get up and travel to work. ;-) Not that I am complaining at all! It is just hindering with my lazy time...which has been turned into blogging about various recipes I try out. I hope once I get back on track with my work schedule, I will find time to hopefully blog daily. Or atleast every other day. :-D

While I wasn't working, I went through bouts of depression, feeling worthless, ect. All those fun feelings that build up when you aren't working for months. When my family wasn't home during the day it was hard, but I had my "boys" to get me through it. My "boys" have gotten me through so much! By my boys I am referring to my three dogs. Gir, my bastard...errr I mean bassett hound (I've had him since he was 6 weeks old, he is now 6); Lennix, my boxer/pit mix; and Morpheous a boxer. They are my fur-kids ♥. The hubbs and I do not have actual kids...yet.

Two weeks ago, I got together with my mom and we made some homemade doggie treats. My boys LOVE them! Her dog, Brutis and Gir (he loves visiting grandma, she spoils him rotten! Has since he was a pup!), were the taste testers. ;-) This recipe is quick, very simple and your dogs will love them! Even my cats love these treats!

• 2 boxes Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
• 1lb beef liver
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 2-3 tablespoons of water

1. Peel, chop garlic cloves into smaller pieces.
2. Put liver, garlic and water into blender until well blended. 
3. In a seperate bowl, mix corn muffin and liver blend until well mixed.
4. Pour mixture into a 9x13 well sprayed pan (or use tin foil for less clean up)
5. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
6. Allow time to cool and cut into squares (I've found a pizza cutter is the easiest method)
7. Feed to your favorite "furkid" ;-)

Store in a tupperware container - keep refridgrated.

Doesn't it sound divine? Oh and trust me is! Almost as perfect as chocolate and peanut butter.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch is my favorite cereal, so it only makes sense I would love these cookies. I found this recipe while doing some back reading at Picky Palate. If you have not checked out Jenny's blog, you should. Her recipes are absolutely amazing, unique and rather simple. I currently have a bunch bookmarked to try out soon.

Now, back to this sensational cookie. This cookie has already climbed its way up to my (and the hubbs) top five favorite cookies. It is quite sweet, chewy and crispy all at the same time. Next time I make these, (oh and there will be many next times!) I may reduce the amount of white chocolate chips...maybe. And add a teaspoon or two of cinnamon. Even with out the little tweeks, they are perfect.

Surprising, they have lasted longer then two days. Hehe. But I think that is because of the amount and size of them. ;-)

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs 
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal, slightly crushed up
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 bag white chocolate chips 

 

1.  Preheat over to 352 degrees.
2. Cream together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Slowly beat in the eggs and vanilla until well blended.
4. In a large bowl combine the flour, cereal, baking powder and salt.
5. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with the white chips until just combined.
6.  Drop tablespoon balls on to greased cookie sheet 1 1/2 inches apart.
7. Bake 9-12 minutes or until the edges just start to turn golden brown.

Yields: 36(+) cookies

Well, in reality...I hope they do!

My pops is a truck driver, during one of his shipments there was a damaged box of product. The box was a little crushed. Well due to that "damage" they gave him the contents...7 CASES of Butterfingers and 3 cases of Nerd's Ropes. Each case has 36 bars...times 7 boxes...that's 252 Butterfingers!!!! *falls over* Talk about a sugar rush!

So I decided to look up some recipes for Butterfingers. Of course I can make cookies...and I probably will. (Most likely after we finish my last batch of cookies I made - there are currently a ton of sweets in the house. I can only keep temptation at bay for so long! ;-) ) But I wanted to find something different.

Well I found my way over to Recipe Girl and found exactly what I was looking for! Butterfinger Blondies! They are unbelievably chewy, gooey and rich! Boy are they rich! Make sure you have a glass of milk handy when you tackle these bad boys.

The recipe calls for four full size bar, but I added five. Why not? Isn't like I have a shortage of Butterfingers, heh. Next time I made these, I am going to add a cup and a half of crushed Butterfingers to the batter. Also I think I will throw in a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I think they would nicely compliment the sweetness of Butterfingers.

Now to find something to do with all those Nerds Ropes...hmmmmm. ;-)

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)
• 2 1/4 cups brown sugar
•  3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 regular sized Butterfinger bars, crushed

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 13×9-inch baking pan. 
2.   In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3.  In a medium bowl, with electric mixer at medium speed, combine butter and brown sugar.
4. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth.
5. Stir in flour mixture and 1 cup of crushed Butterfingers.
6. Spread in prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining crushed Butterfingers over top of batter.
7. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until the bars are a bit firm to the touch. Cool completely before cutting into bars.
8. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk. YUM!

  

There is nothing more that I love than peanut butter! Okay...well, maybe that isn't 100% true, but it is pretty close!  I do LOVE me some peanut butter. Especially peanut butter treats. :-D I decided to make some of these amazing peanut butter cookies, mostly since I had a boat load of peanut butter! Thank you buy-one-get-one free sale! And it is something simple enough to warm up to my inlaws kitchen with. (I am still learning where everything is! I am still not accustomed to my cooking supplies being put away in storage, but I make do with what I have on hand here.)

And who doesn't love a good peanut butter cookie?! I knew my MIL would love them. I was looking to dress up the cookies a little bit, I wanted to skip the normal matching of chocolate (even though that is pure heaven!). Not having any chocolate also played a big factor in this decision as well. Heh. I went more peanut butter! YUM! I found a recipe for peanut butter frosting here.

I think the "frosting" came out a little too thick to be slathered on top of the cookies. So I decided on making sandwiches cookies, since the frosting seemed more like a filling to me (I wonder if I added more milk if that would have solved the problem? Idea for the next time). And am I glad I did! I definitely am going to use this frosting recipe again, I think it would taste amazing in the middle of a chocolaty cupcake.

Needless to say, these were a HUGE hit and lasted a whooping TWO days! ;-)

• 1 cup brown sugar - firmly packed
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 1/4 cups flour

1. Preheat over to 350° and grease cookie sheets.
2. Cream both sugars, peanut butter and butter together.
3. Add eggs and vanilla to the mixture.
4. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients.
5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the mixture.
6. Roll into tablespoon size balls (optional: roll balls in sugar - I skipped this step since I was sandwiching my cookies) and drop on to the cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 11-13 minutes.

Yields: 48 cookies

Well I am finally getting back to the daily grind of things, life sure has been a bumpy ride the past couple of months. But they say whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger...or go completely insane. I know its one of the two! ;-)

The hubby and I have found ourselves staying with his parents until we get things situated. Which I don't mind, they are great people! I feel very fortunate to have in-laws I get along with, I know some of you are not as lucky.

There is only one obstacle I am discovering...my MIL is a VERY picky eater! Now I know where the hubbs gets it from! At times it can be a tad frustrating...MIL doesn't like peas, carrots, celery, sweet potatoes, likes cooked broccoli but not raw, likes raw cauliflower but not cooked and that is just a few items from the veggie corner of the food pyramid! What is worse is she isn't willing to try anything if it contains anything she doesn't like or is off the norm. I think that is the most frusterating part of it since it is easy to mask the taste of certain foods while you are cooking and others have a change of flavor during cooking. >.<

I am picky about certain things, but I am willing to try them. Currently I am a point in my life where I am not even sure if I really dont like certain foods anymore since it has been SO long since I had them. Yet I am still scared to make something containing those items because if I dont like it, there is a high chance no one else will either. And I HATE wasting food!

So now I have the challenge of getting creative with a slightly limited variety of foods. In a way I am looking forward to being more creative with your everyday average foods. However I can't get too creative since that runs the risk of her not trying it either. Hmmm, this is going to be interesting.

Now of course I could just continue to make the same foods, the same way and she will be completely happy but what fun is that?! There are too many flavors out there to stick to same ones all the time!

Anyone else have picky eaters in their lives?

Ah, the birthing of my first blog. Well, let me rephrase that - the birthing of my first foodie blog. (I have another blog, a much more personal one posted else where.)

I was inspired to start a food blog after spending weeks reading through other food blogs searching for new recipes to try out. I felt it could become a useful tool to expand my knowledge and experiences in the kitchen. I feel I am a fairly decent cook, but there is still so much more I want to learn, recipes to try and techniques to perfect.

It wasn't until recently that I discovered how much I LOVE cooking! It took living somewhere were I did not have much access to the kitchen and being subdued to mediocre (at their best!) meals. I was going crazy not being able to cook! I couldn't prepare my husband and I's favorite meals, I couldn't make my sweet treats on the weekends, I couldn't even bake my Christmas cookies this year! Then it dawned on me just how much I enjoy cooking and how therapeutic it is! Besides a girl can only eat so much Shake-N-Bake pork chops, boxed mac & cheese and burnt corn (how anyone burns corn is truly beyond me!) in a week and I think I have consumed enough for a life time! ;-)

I am looking forward to becoming an active member in the foodie communities, learning new tips and tricks, trying out new amazing recipes and chatting with fellow foodies. :-)