Cake Batter Cookies

Lately Matt's been hinting, and strongly I might add, that I haven't made cookies in a while. I figured since I already spent the entire day cooking (baked spaghetti, beef stew and my Dad's secret butter chicken.. yum) I might as well make something else. I looked on pinterest to find something new and stumbled upon the happiest looking cookies I've ever seen. Matt wasn't a huge supporter after I told him the ingredients but whatever... I wanted to make something different. After a fresh-out-of-the-oven sample, Matt quickly changed his mind and ate a few more 'samples'.

They are super easy to make, although the batter has to chill so it takes a little longer than the average recipe.  Any kid would LOVE these cookies.. as would most adults. They are moist, colorful and delicious!

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup yellow cake mix (white would work too)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 butter, room temp
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg, room temp
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chip
1/2 cup sprinkles

Here's how you do it...

First cream together the butter and sugars. Next, add the vanilla and egg until the ingredients are creamy. While your mixer is busy working, sift together the flour, cake mix, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Stir in the sprinkles and chippits and then throw it in the fridge for a few hours (I threw it in the freezer for an hour to hurry things up). Initially I thought this was unnecessary but I did it anyway. I'm definitely glad I did!! So.. DO IT!!!

Preheat the oven to 350F when the dough is finished cooling. Scoop ovals of dough and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet (make sure they stand tall). Try to keep the dough as cool as possible before putting them in the oven. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are very slightly browned (they should still look soft). Once out, let the cookies cool for a few minutes until moving them to a wire rack.

I made some giant cookies and some smaller ones using a scoop. Both sizes turned out great, although the smaller ones looked a little cuter :) Don't they just look ADORABLE!!

On a completely random side note, this is a view from our front door... Welcome to Fernie!

Someone's Been a Tad Bit Busy... Oops!

I realized today that it has been over a month since I lasted posted a recipe. Although I have been cooking and baking the whole time, you'd never know :P Here is a quick run down of some things I've made... a few recipes are secret so I can't share :( Sorry!

PIES, PIES and more PIES!
So I've had a little obsession with pies lately... Here's a few photos of the different kinds I've been experimenting with. Old faithful apple pie is on the left, cranberry-apple is in the center (my favorite!), blueberry-cherry is on the right (needed more cherries :P). As you can see, I was also in a leaves and berries stage so all the crusts are very similarly decorated.

Pumpkin Cheese Cake with a Gingersnap Crust
I wanted to make something more festive so I chose pumpkin. Instead of using regular graham crackers, I thought gingersnaps might be nice. I was searching for a recipe online and noticed that a decent amount of pumpkin cheesecakes had chocolate crusts so I figured I'd throw a few chocolate chips on top of a portion of the crust to see how the flavour combo would be. I ended up bringing half of the cheese cake to work and everyone loved it (especially the bits of chocolate in a few pieces).

Crust Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup crushed gingersnaps
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- Dash of cinnamon
- Dash of ginger

I mixed all the ingredients together and pressed it onto the bottom of a pie plate (any baking dish works, provided you don't care what it looks like!). I should have added a bit more cinnamon and ginger, couldn't really taste it. Bake the crust at 350 for 10 minutes and then take out of the oven and cool. I added a few chocolate chips on part of the crust just to experiment.

Cheese Cake Ingredients:
- 3 bricks cream cheese
- 1 15oz can pumpkin puree
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 tsp vanilla

I made a BIG mistake and used cold cream cheese.... You need to beat the cream cheese and sugar until it is smooth. Mine never become smooth so it had little baby cream cheese balls in it :S Once it's as creamy as you think it can get, add the pumpkin, eggs, sour cream and spices and then add flour and vanilla. Mix well.

Next, just pour the mixture onto the crust and spread it out evenly. Bake at 350F for 1 hour and then remove and let it cool.

Nice and Easy!!

 

Phyllo Baskets with a Lemon Cream Cheese and Fruit Filling!

Matt and I recently had some friends over for a games night. I went appie crazy and made little steak/asiago/pesto bites, spanakopita and these random desserts with all the left overs. I had left over cream cheese and some phyllo from the spanakopita so I decided to make little baskets and fill them with something containing cream cheese. I have seen mini pastry baskets on pinterest and figured I'd give it a try. I searched through the fridge and found a lemon.. cream cheese flavour done!! It needed something else so I took a looked for fruit... we have frozen fruit for smoothies for I picked out some raspberries and opened a jar of sour cherries I had kickin around. I think they turned out pretty awesome!

Phyllo Baskets

Simply brush a layer of phyllo dough with melted butter and put another one on top. Repeat until you have enough layers! I did 6 layers because that was what was left but I think 4-5 would have been better. Cut them into squares with a knife and then squash them into mini muffin tins. I used part of our apple corer to press them in but your fingers would also work just fine. I can't remember exactly but I think I just baked them at 350F until golder. WARNING: they are small pieces so it doesn't take much time... I recommend sitting in front of the oven and watching! haha

I mixed about half a brick of cream cheese with the zest and juice of one lemon and some icing sugar. All of this was eyeballed so I can't give you details... Just add little bits until it tastes good! Matt insisted that there wasn't enough to fill all the baskets so he ran out and got some heavy cream. I folded in some whipped cream and it ended up adding a nice touch (although there was lots of leftovers haha). I just used a piping bag to pour the filling in the baskets, super fast and clean that way! 

For the fruit... I threw the cherries and raspberries in different small pots. I added a little lemon juice, a bit of sugar and then cooked them on low. Once they started to break down I added a little cornstarch to thicken them up. After cooling down the fruit, I topped the cream cheese with one of the two topping and then stored them in the fridge. Both tasted super yummy!

So there's a few things I've made lately... I promise I'll try and remember to write new posts! Christmas baking is about to start :D

Butternut Squash Soup

Because my poor husband is sick, I let him choose any soup he wanted. His choice?? Butternut squash soup.... blah :S I'm not a fan of squash but I figured what the heck, he is sick and it's what he wants. Luckily I bought the last squash in the store, guess it was meant to be! I'm not a fan of the final product but I wasn't expecting to be... hopefully Matt will love it when he gets home from work!!

Ingredients

- 1 butternut squash

- 2 small apples

- 2 tbsp butter

- 2 small onions, finely chopped

- 2 tsp curry powder

- 3 3/4 cup vegetable stock (or 900ml)

- 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

- 2/3 cup apple juice

- Salt, pepper and cayenne to taste

First I peeled the squash. I have never made squash before so I was surprised to see a clear liquid bubble up from the flesh. I thought it was just water but my hands quickly got covered and then the stuff wouldn't come off! I've washed my hands 4 times and they still feel weird :P Make sure you scrape out the seeds before you cut the squash up into pieces. The recipe called for 1 baking apple but I just peeled and chopped two gala apples. 

Next, melt the butter and throw in the onions... cooking until tender (about 5 minutes). Then add the curry powder, stirring constantly for about 2 minutes. Then add the vegetable stock, squash, apples and basil to the onions. It said to simmer for 20 minutes but I had to wait almost 40 until the squash was soft. Instead of blending the soup I just mashed it with a potatoe masher.... I think I mentioned before that Matt is a pro-chunky soup so I didn't want it too smooth. Then I added the apple juice and played around with the spices. Hopefully Matt will get his squash fix because he has an entire pot to fill this craving :P 

Prawn Creole

So I was flipping through 'The Soup Bible' and came across a recipe for prawn creole. We have a rather bare fridge at the moment so I was struggling to find a recipe that matched the ingredients we had kicking around. I thought that we had everything on the list but once I started, I found out we were missing a few things :P Here's my random recipe....

Ingredients

- 1.5 cups raw prawns, with shells 

- 2 cups water

- Drizzle olive oil

- 1.5 cups finely chopped onions (I used a mix of red and white)

- 3/4 cup finely chopped celery

- 3/4 cup finely chopped yellow pepper (it called for a green pepper...)

- 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley/basil (I used a combo)

- 1 garlic cloves, minced

- 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

- 1/2 red wine (I was out of white... but it turned out great using red!)

- 1 cup chopped, peeled tomatoes (canned is fine!)

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 bay leaf

- 1 tsp sugar

- Boiled rice to serve with it

This recipe had crazy time limits for every stage but I tried to follow as closely as I could/wanted too :P First I removed the prawn shells and boiled them in 2 cups of water for 20ish minutes. Then I poured it through a sieve, saving only 1.5 cups of stock. 

Next I heated the oil and sauteed the onions on low for 8 minutes. I added the celery, peppers and garlic... gave it a good stir and let it cook for 5 minutes. Then I mixed in the fresh herbs, Worcestershire and cayenne. After another 5 minutes I raised the heat to medium, added the wine, and simmered for 4 minutes. Next I added the tomatoes, salt, sugar and bay leaf and then let it simmer for 30 minutes. Start the rice early enough that it is done when the soup should be... every rice maker is different so I can't help with this :S

I blended the soup in the magic bullet for a few seconds, just until it had smaller chunks... this is hard to describe. I find pureed soup depends more on personal taste... Matt doesn't like it very smooth so I leave it more chunky. I would just stop and check a few times until you like the consistency. Then I threw it back in the pot with the prawns and let it boil for 5 minutes. Once the prawns are cooked, just pour the soup over a bowl of rice!!

Matt has the beginning of a cold so he LOVED the hot and spicy with a sore throat combo... I loved it too. It had great flavour and a nice after bite. For the non-prawn eaters out there... cough cough Michelle cough... I would definitely try this with chicken instead! 

  

A Crazy Hilarious Thanksgiving

I have to say that Matt and I have some AMAZING friends!!! This weekend Bryn and the newly married Brandon and Emma drove up for a visit. We had a great weekend full of frisbee golf, girl shopping/boy hiking, cooking, drinking, laughing, hot tubing, bear hunting and bike rides. Needless to say... it ended too quickly :(

Matt, Bryn, Me, Emma and Brandon playing frisbee golf <3

Emma and I had the urge to decorate some cupcakes which worked well since the boys had an urge to eat them. Here's a quick pic of the final product...

Emma and I started thanksgiving dinner while the boys were out spelunking. We had quite an ambitious plan... rotisserie turkey, sausage and rice stuffing, yam gnocchi with browned maple basil butter, beans and brussel sprouts with bacon and onions, the works mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies. Since I don't want to bore you I'm only going to write out the recipes for a few things. So here we go....

After brining the turkey for 24 hours, the boys got it ready for the barby. As boys generally do, they figured out a way to add bacon to it. After some complex tying and pinning, they got it covered in bacon. Although it looked a little worse for wear when it came off the BBQ, it tasted amazing! Super moist!!! It was also hilarious watching the boys eat like caveman :P

The bacon turkey monster :S

Italian Sausage Stuffing 
- 1.5 pounds hot Italian sausages
- 1/2 stick butter
- Several cloves minced garlic
- 1.5 cup chopped celery
- 1.5 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1.5 cup long grain raw white rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 8oz can tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 red or white wine
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/4 cup pine nuts or chopped almonds

First remove the sausage casing. In a large frying pan, cook the sausage and break it into small pieces while mixing. When the sausage is almost done, melt the butter with garlic in a large dutch oven. Add the vegetables and cook until they are almost tender. Add the sausage, seasoning, rice, water and tomato sauce. Cover and cook for 20-25 minutes until the rice is tender. During this time, soak the cranberries in wine. We made this super early so after 25 minutes, I added the cranberries/wine and nuts and then left it on the counter until closer to dinner. Since the turkey was on the BBQ we couldn't put the stuffing inside. Instead we baked the stuffing at 350 for 25 minutes (stirring occasionally). I LOVE this stuffing, so yummy and different.

Yam Gnocchi with Browned Maple Basil Butter
Gnocchi
- 2 pounds yams or sweet potatoes
- 2/3 cup cottage cheese (we had to add extra flour because it was so moist.. drained ricotta might have been better)
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 1/4 flour, plus some for work surface

Maple Cinnamon Basil Brown Butter
- 1/2 cup butter
- 13 or more fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper

Emma, Brandon and Bryn took charge of this one so I have no idea if they took a detour from the recipe. This is the one we had planned out, having made a few alterations from the original recipe. I baked the yams with some orange rind for over an hour at 425F. We did this early just to get it out of the way.
Emma and I made the butter before hand as well. We melted the butter, added the basil, and boiled until the butter stopped frothing. Then remove from heat and stir in the cinnamon, syrup, salt and pepper. Everything else I'm just guessing... Mash the yams, making sure there is at least 2 cups. Then add the cheese, salt, cinnamon, and pepper. Mix well! Add the flour gradually until a soft dough forms. Lightly flour a work surface with flour. Divide the dough into several balls, then roll out into rope. Cut into pieces and transfer formed gnocchi onto a baking sheet. Ours turned out to be about 1"x1" but we all felt they were a little large. I think next time I would make them 0.5"x0.5".

Add the gnocchi one at a time to a pot of boiling salted water. Cook for 5-6 minutes, or until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain the gnocchi with a slotted spoon. At first we put them in a bowl but Emma noticed water was draining to the bottom and making the gnocchi soggy. Emma thought to put them in the oven on a pan, which worked great! Once all the gnocchi were cooked and in a bowl, we re-heated the butter and poured it over top. They were different but super tasty, Emma was addicted :) haha

The 'Works' Mashed Potatoes
- 5 medium golden potatoes, skins on
- Sour cream
- Chopped cooked bacon, 5 slices
- 1/3 cup chopped red onions
- Fresh chopped parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste

At the last minute we decided to add mashed potatoes to our dinner. Emma boiled the potatoes until tender, then Matt mashed them. I cooked diced bacon, drained the fat and cooked the onion until they were brown. I stirred everything together until Bryn approved of the our final product.

For dessert Emma and I made a Halloween inspired mud pie. It was soooooooo delicious and scary haha So much fun to make!

Halloween Mud Pie!! 

This was one of the best thanksgivings I can remember. Everyone doing their thing in the kitchen, helping out and doing dishes. 

Brandon and Bryn doing dishes!!

Our big family dinner was so much fun. Not only because of our culinary creations and sangria but because we have the best friends ever!!! Love you!!

The spread...

The Family!

Caramel Filled Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog lately... I've been working like crazy and getting over a cold :( I've had several requests for this recipe since I posted a photo. I kind of made it up as I went so forgive my lack of details. I only have a few minutes before I have to jet off to work again but here's the skinny...

Ingredients

- 1 cup butter, softened

- 1 cup sugar

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla 

- 3 cups flour

- 3/4 cup quick oats

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp cinnamon *It could use a little more

- 1/2 tsp nutmeg

- Caramels (I made caramel apples the day before and made little caramel squares out of the left over candy)

- 1 green apple, diced into small pieces. *Dried apple might work better... can't promise though

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray cookie sheets with pam. In a small bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. With an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually add flour mixture and oats until combined. Stir in apple pieces. 

To form cookies, make a ball of dough and then flatten it in your palm. Put a caramel in the center and fold dough around it. Roll back into a ball and place on cookie sheet. They spread out a bit so make sure you space them apart. Bake 11-14 minutes... I found that at 11-12 they were still soft. Remove from baking sheet immediately and cool on a wire rack (otherwise any caramel that spills out with harden and the cookies may break when you remove them). 

YUM!

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Dip and Dipping Things

Sorry it's taken a while for me to post this recipe... I've been a tad drama filled and preoccupied lately :S Last week I found another recipe for green beans. I know.. I've been buying them A LOT but they are sooo cheap! Matt is getting sick of them so I think I'll have to lay off for a while.. sad :(. I decided to try charred green beans with a cajun dipping sauce! It is DELICIOUS!! It reminded me of french fries but they are obviously waaayyyy healthier. Here's the skinny.. 

Cajun Dipping Sauce (warning: this is not exact)

- 3 heaping soup spoons of mayo

- 1 tsp strong dijon mustard (maybe more depending on taste)

- 3 tsp cajun spice mix (from the previous blog entry!)

- Salt and Pepper

- Cayenne to taste (I did about 1/2 tsp)

Just mix everything in a bowl and you're done! I would taste it and tweak it to your own taste buds. I tend to lean on the spicier side for Matthew :P The green beans were easy.. I just put them on the bbq and tried to rotate the until they were cooked and a little crispy. A few committed suicide and fell into the bbq so I might try using the bbq wok next time. Seriously... they were soooooooooooooo yummmmyyyyy with the dipping sauce. 

We had left over sauce so I decided to try making yams fries. I've made them a few times now and it works out every time. Definitely a winning combination. I even tried making turnip fries last night and they were awesome! 

Yam/Turnip Fries

- 1 medium yam/large turnip

- Olive oil

- Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 450f. Whatever you do, don't wash the yam! They must be dry. Simply cut off the ends and any bad bits. If using turnips then peel away! Slice them into fries and put them in a sealed plastic container. Pour about 1-2 tbsp of olive on top with some salt and fresh cracked pepper. Put the lid on the container and shake away. The fries should be evenly coated with S&P and a little oil (not dripping with it!). Spread them out on a backing sheet, making sure the fries aren't touching one another. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip and bake an additional 10 minutes. And then you're done! I like then a little crispy so you may want to reduce the time by a few minutes. 

Hope you enjoy them!