Baking vs. Assembling

True confession time. Sometimes I actually bake. Like, actually get a bunch of separate ingredients and whip up something fantastic. But more often, my majority of the time in the kitchen involves less baking and more assembling.

My most raved about baked good? Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies. A package of Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix with a Dove dark chocolate square on top. Secret's out. Of course, sometimes I make a criss-cross on top with a fork to make them look homemade. And people love them. When I show up at work with a plate of them I hear, “Well, look who it is! Betty Crocker!” and I smile and think to myself “No, literally. It’s Betty Crocker.”

Once I made Oatmeal Raisin Butter Cream Sandwiches. Two oatmeal raisin cookies from the Publix bakery with Betty Crocker Butter Cream icing in between. Again, they were loved.

I’ve discovered that assembly can sometimes be just as valuable as baking.

Especially in a time crunch.

And who has time at breakfast? Not me. That’s why I don’t bake breakfast, I assemble it. My latest choice? A whole wheat pita pocket with sunflower butter and pink lady apple slices.

Delicious. Of course, I often swap out English muffins for pita pockets or peanut butter/almond butter for sunflower butter. That’s the best part of assembly. Use what you have! And you have to try this. I’m hooked.

Orange Greek Yogurt Creamsicles

Orange Greek Yogurt Creamsicles

I’ve told you about my obsession with popsicles. I don’t like desserts, but recently discovered that I can make my own popsicles with no sugar. Plus, they taste way better!

What You Need:

1 container of plain Greek yogurt (6 ounces)

5 oranges, juiced (approx. 16 ounces)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon agave nectar

Popsicle mold and sticks

Yields: 10 popsicles

How To:

Juice 4-5 oranges to yield about 16 ounces. I have a citrus juicer. If I didn’t, I’d probably just use Simply Orange juice.

Whip 1 container of plain greek yogurt with the orange and lemon juice until thoroughly mixed and smooth.

Add one tablespoon of agave nectar. This isn’t necessary, but I use it to cut the tartness of the yogurt. You can substitute with honey.

Pour into popsicle mold. (Mine makes ten popsicles.)

Freeze about 4-5 hours until frozen solid.

I know this is so simple, but I’m obsessed. I even eat two at a time… sometimes. But with only about 30 calories each, it’s justifiable.

Popsicles in February

Sweet little snowflakes are currently falling outside my window. I’m wearing fleece pajamas and cuddled up on the couch under a warm blanket. And what am I eating? A popsicle.

I don’t know what has gotten into me, but lately I have been obsessed with popsicle recipes. I ordered a mold from amazon and have been blending fruits and juices together like it’s my job. Because of my weird "I don't eat sweets" quirk, I have a hard time finding things to eat that feel fun. Know what I mean? But ever since I started making my own popsicles with just fresh fruit and pure juices I can have something fun and know that they are good for me, too!

Lemon Berry Popsicles

• 2 cups of strawberries, blueberries, or blackberries (I picked my own at a farm this summer and froze them. If you use frozen berries, partially thaw them before blending.)

• 2 lemons, juiced

Toss the berries and lemon juice into a blender and puree. If it isn’t blending easily, add more lemon juice or a splash of pure orange juice. The Lemon / Strawberry combo is my favorite. The Lemon /Blackberry combo was a little bitter, so I added a tablespoon of agave nectar (pictured above) to cut the bitterness. They are all great!

Freeze in a popsicle mold. (Before I got my popsicle molds I would either drink these as a smoothie or freeze these in small bowls and eat them like Italian Ice cups.)

Perfect!

Strawberry Lemon Pop

Avocado Pear Popsicles

I eat baby food. Well, not exactly. But sort of. My coworker has a toddler that comes into the office sometimes and I – on many occasions – will grab a handful of these puffs. They are legitimately tasty!

And one of my favorite popsicle recipes from Pinterest is an Avocado Pear Popsicle recipe... for teething toddlers. There are no teething toddlers in sight here, but who doesn’t love avocados? And pears! See the original recipe here.

• 2 Bartlett Pears, ripe
• 2 Haas Avocados, ripe

Peel the pears. 

Slice them up and blanche them in warm water for about 5 minutes to soften them up a bit. They will be difficult to blend otherwise. 

Peel and pit the avocados. 

Toss the avocados and blanched pears into a blender. Puree.

If it isn't blending easily, add some of the leftover "pear water" from blanching.

These were made before I had the popsicle molds. I poured the mixture into a Rubbermaid container, put popsicle sticks in, and put them in the freezer. When they were almost frozen solid, I went ahead and sliced them with a knife so that I could break them apart later.

 Freeze and enjoy!

They are creamy and delicious. 

Baby food is not just for babies. And I hereby declare that popsicles are not just for summer! I mean, how great is it to be able to eat a popsicle outside without worrying if it will melt!

Ice Cream Cupcakes

There is something in a southern woman’s heart that longs to feed the people that she loves. It’s like how my Granny was always in the kitchen whipping up a fresh, hot batch of gravy while we were all eating Thanksgiving dinner. Or how my Grandma hardly sat down at the breakfast table because she was always getting up to check on the biscuits in the oven. Or how I don’t like sweets at all but I love making treats for other people – just because it makes them smile.

So we had another birthday at work. And you know what that means. Another office treat! Someone mentioned wanting to get an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. But that’s just not my style. Why buy it when I could make it? I was doubted.

“Oh no, Emily... Just buy it. I mean, have you ever even made an ice cream cake?”

“No, but I can figure it out. Surely it can’t be that hard. I’ll do it. Just trust me.”

(Hesitant stares.)

So I got to thinking. I had some leftover toppings from the caramel apples I had recently made. I had peanuts, Oreos, caramel, chocolate, and sprinkles. Really, all I would need was the ice cream and cool whip. Perfect.

Ignore the M&Ms. I thought I would sprinkle some on top, but ended up using sprinkles instead.

I read a few tutorials and got a few ideas, but I hate following recipes, so I made up my own recipe. And then I realized that ice cream cake could be hard to serve, so why not make ice cream cupcakes? I have never seen ice cream cupcakes, but why not?

So I did it. And here’s how.

Ice Cream Cupcakes – Cookies and Cream Supreme

Makes 2 dozen ice cream cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 Carton of Blue Bell Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

1 Bottle of Smuckers Hot Fudge Syrup

1 Bag of Kraft Caramels, melted according to directions

1 Container of Cool Whip

Mini Oreos (A whole bag if you choose the oreo crust)

1/4 Cup Melted Butter

Crushed Peanuts (either ½ cup for toppings or 2 cups if you choose the peanut crust)

A Handful of Sprinkles

24 Cupcake Liners

Directions:

While you are preparing your cupcakes, make sure to leave your cool whip and ice cream sitting out on your counter to thaw.

Begin by setting out 2 cupcake pans and lining them with cupcake liners. Also make room in your freezer for the pans!

In a medium bowl, mix together a crust. I was predominantly using the leftover ingredients from the caramel apples. I didn't have enough of either ingredient to make them all the same so I ended up doing half of them with an oreo crust and half with a peanut crust. I’ll give you the crust recipe as if you were making all 24 of them the same. (I got better reviews from the oreo crust.)

Option 1: Mix one bag of crushed oreos with about 1/4 cup of melted butter. You will just need it to be moist enough to sort of stick together, but not too mushy. You might need to add more butter to get it moist enough.

OR

Option 2: Melt half of the bag of caramel according to instructions and mix with about 1½ cups of finely chopped peanuts.

Press a spoonful of the crust into the bottom of each cupcake liner.

 Oreo Crust

Peanut Crust. Oh yeah, I poured hot fudge over it for good measure.

When the ice cream was melted enough to pour into the cupcake liners, I filled the liners almost to the top leaving about ¼ inch to add syrups. One carton of ice cream will be enough for all 24 cupcakes. 

My idea was to refreeze the ice cream at this point and then add a layer of hot fudge and a layer of caramel on top. I put a few squeezes of hot fudge (I just melted it in the bottle according to the instructions) and a few big drops of melted caramel (from the other half of the bag) into each cupcake. But the ice cream was taking a while to freeze and the hot fudge was, well, hot. The fudge and caramel sank down into the ice cream so it kind of turned into hot fudge and caramel ribbons instead. Not the plan, but it ended up being totally fine! Then I liberally sprinkled peanuts onto the top of each one. (I apparently began drawing inspiration from Nutty Buddys somewhere along the way.)

 The Cupcakes

At this point, I froze the cupcakes until they were solid. And don’t try to remove them from the cupcake pan until they are completely frozen! Trust me, I tried it and made a big cookies-and-cream soupy mess with one of them. Be patient!

Once they were frozen solid, I swirled a spoonful of thawed cool whip onto the top of each one. This makes them look so much prettier! I added a few sprinkles for a little birthday flair. Then I stuck them back in the freezer over night. These obviously need to stay in the freezer until they are served, but I did remove them from the cupcake pan and put them in a different freezer friendly container for a better presentation.

 The Finished Product: An Ice Cream Cupcake

My coworkers were absolutely in love with these ice cream cupcakes. I got lots of rave reviews, including one semi-awkward fake marriage proposal! And it happened to be from one of my original doubters. I’m obsessed with creating variations of these ice cream cupcakes now. And it’s a good thing, because I have daily requests for more!

Caramel Apples and Pretzels Supreme

My boss calls me Betty Crocker. It’s true. And I’m not even that great of a baker, but I am obsessed with birthdays. And every birthday deserves a celebration. So I am totally that girl in the office who keeps a birthday calendar and makes a special treat for every single colleague on his/her special day. I feel like our birthdays are all bunched up together, so we have had lots of treats lately! Inspired by the crisper air, cute boots, and a tree by my condo that is just beginning to turn into a bold shade of red, I decided it was time for caramel apples. Now, I have never made caramel apples before, and if you remember, I also don’t eat sweets. This can prove challenging because I love to make sweet treats! So how do I do it? I actually cook based off of the smell of foods and hope it works out! Weird, I know. Fortunately, you can’t really go wrong with ingredients like caramel, oreos, peanuts, and sprinkles. I found a tutorial on pinterest for caramel apple slices which are easier to eat, but I decided that it was going to be too confusing because I didn’t know if the apples would brown. So I just did whole apples and we sliced them at work with the apple slicer so that everyone could try all of the different kinds. I just don’t have it in me to follow a recipe. I always just look at a bunch of ideas and then make it up. Kind of like the skirt that I made recently. It’s always good to have a back up plan or two. Or five.

Caramel Apples Supreme

Ingredients:

12 green granny smith apples

Popsicle sticks

2 bags of kraft caramel pieces (Mine were the wrapped candy squares, but the small round pieces in the baking section melt easier)

1 tbsp. vanilla

1/2 bag of mini oreos

1/2 bag of mini M&Ms

1/2 container of sprinkles

1/2 bag of Ghirardhelli dark chocolate chips

1/2 bag of Ghirardhelli white chocolate chips

1 cup peanuts (chopped finely)

Baking soda (optional)

I decked out my apples with random ingredients that are totally optional and can be substituted for whatever you have on hand. I also didn’t measure anything. These are just guesses. This is what I like to call Caramel Apples with No Rules. Use what you want – I’ll just show you how and give you some ideas!

To start, you need to prep the apples. If your apples are waxed (which mine were) you will need to scrub them with a textured towel under hot water. I washed mine with baking soda to help remove the wax. They will still be a little shiny, but if they have a lot of wax the caramel will slip right off! Be sure to remove the stems.

To insert the stick, take a sharp, skinny knife and make a slit about ½ way into the top of the apple to make it easier to insert. The stick should be far enough in to support the weight of the apple when you dip and twirl it around!

Go ahead and line a cookie sheet or two with waxed paper.  And make room on a shelf in your fridge! You will need to do this quickly later, so go ahead and get it out of the way now.

Get all of your toppings ready (except for the chocolate). I had separate bowls for each – crushed oreos, chopped peanuts, mini M&Ms (regular sized are too heavy), and sprinkles.

Follow the instructions on the Kraft package to melt both bags of caramel. You can make your own, but I’m not that ambitious. Just add a tablespoon or so of vanilla to add a little homemade touch. (I used ½ tbsp. per bag of caramel.) Good enough!

Using one apple at a time, completely submerse it in the bowl of melted caramel.  You will probably need to use a spoon for this as well to make sure the caramel gets on the top. Twirl it around a few times and hold it upside down for a little while. Then place it on the waxed paper to cool. Remember that gravity always wins, so the caramel will naturally want to pool at the bottom of the apple while it is cooling. Because the caramel is so sticky, the only way to keep it from doing this is to keep picking them up and turning them upside down while they cool.  However, I didn’t just make caramel apples, I made caramel apples supreme. I think that the toppings help the caramel to harden and look prettier. So, right after you dip your apple, roll it around in a bowl of toppings. I rolled most of them in only one topping, but I did a few half-and-half (half oreos and half peanuts, etc).The apples are much less sticky now that they are covered in toppings, so now it is easier to keep pushing the caramel and toppings back up onto the apples. If you can, stick them in the fridge as you finish each one and just keep reaching in and pushing the toppings up. Because you will have mashed a lot of the toppings at this point from handling the apples so often, they make not look quite as pretty as when they started. To dress them back up, I waited until the apples were almost entirely finished cooling and then gave them one last roll in the toppings to give them a fresh look again.

A couple of hours later when the apples had been chilling in the fridge, I melted about half of a bag of both dark and white chocolate. I wasn’t too concerned with it looking perfect, so I just drizzled it on with a spoon. The chocolate hardens almost instantly and really dresses them up!

By the way, at this point a lot of my sticks were either smudged with caramel or smeared with chocolate, so I pulled them out and put a new one in. Just stick it in a little bit farther than the last one so that it will stay.

Keep your apples in the fridge or the caramel will start to melt and everything will start to slide down again! When you are ready to serve, stick each apple on a muffin cup to keep them from sticking to your serving tray. Like I mentioned in the beginning, you can actually slice the apples with an apple slicer. Just put the center of the slicer over the stick. The apples will brown though, so be ready to eat them or spray them with lemon juice (which may affect the flavor of the apples – I didn’t try it).

And voila. You have a tray full of Fall Flavor Goodness!

Pretzels Supreme

Because I had some leftover caramel that was already melted, I grabbed a bag of pretzel rods and made Pretzels Supreme as well. I dipped each pretzel in caramel and then topped them with peanuts or oreos and dipped a few in the dark chocolate that I had leftover. I let them cool on waxed paper in the fridge along with the apples. 

I also went ahead and melted the other half of the white chocolate in a bowl and used up the rest of my pretzels. It was inspired by my White Christmas Mix - just with none of the other White Christmas goodness. I can't spoil my coworkers that much.

I must say that the pretzels, although much easier to make, were loved just as much as the apples. People fall for the whole sweet/salty thing. 

And people will fall for you if you show up at the office on a Friday with Caramel Apples Supreme and Pretzels Supreme!

White Christmas

If you are like me, you have already been to approximately 57 Christmas parties, each one with more desserts than actual food. And you know me. I don't like sweets. I love baking (just not eating it), so I usually take my standard Fresh Fruit Salad to a party because I am... well... boring.  But, if you are looking for a great dessert to make for a party, I have the perfect recipe.  When we were younger, my mom used to make a special Christmas Mix for us that I always called "That White Chocolate Christmas Mix Stuff". Well, I recently made two batches of the mix, one for work and one for a party. It was a big hit - after I renamed it "White Christmas". 

White Christmas Mix

White Christmas Mix
Ingredients:
1/2 box Rice Chex
1/4 box Cheerios
1/4 bag Pretzel Sticks
2 handfuls of Pecan halves
1 Tray Vanilla Candy Coating 
1/2 bag red and green Christmas M&Ms


Directions:
Honestly, I don't measure my ingredients because you can mix just as much stuff as you want, but I mixed the approximate amounts of cereal, pretzels, and pecans listed above in a large mixing bowl. (You may want to start with less and add in more at the end to make sure that you have enough of the candy coating to cover it all.) In the microwave, melt one package of vanilla candy coating. (I bought the Kroger brand which comes in a microwaveable tray in little squares like bark in the baking aisle). Pour the candy coating over your mixture and stir to completely coat. Add in more cereal or pretzels if necessary. Spread the mixture out on wax paper to let it dry (about 20 minutes). Break it apart in small chunks and toss it in a bowl with red and green M&Ms. (Don't put the M&Ms in the mixture until the mixture is dry - it's prettier with the M&Ms uncoated.) Salty. Sweet. Addictive. Voila. 


White Christmas is one of those things that people love so much that they will kind of get mad at you for making it because they can't stop eating it. But then they'll ask you to make it every year. The best kind of party treat.

Holiday Day

Church Christmas Brunch

I always put up my Christmas tree after Thanksgiving dinner. I start Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. In my world, ham comes after turkey, garland comes after feathers, and Rudolph comes after pilgrims. But this year I broke my rule. Big time. On Saturday morning I went to a Christmas brunch at church. We had a mug exchange…

 My Stocking Mug Just Waiting for Some Hot Tea

And they also had booths set up from various charities that were selling handmade items to raise money. I bought a cute necklace made by a Burmese refugee through a charity called Eternal Threads.

Friendsgiving

Just as I was feeling guilty for celebrating Christmas, I hopped on over to a new tradition: Friendsgiving. This year a group of friends (about 30 of us) got together to celebrate Friend Thanksgiving. I smiled every time someone walked through the front door. Each person came in saying something like “Hey guys! I made my mom’s apple pie.” or “I made my grandma’s macaroni and cheese.” or  “I used my great aunt’s green bean recipe.” It occurred to me that this was pretty much the first time that any of us had contributed to a Thanksgiving meal. Our table was a conglomerate of about 30 different family traditions. Nothing original or new. All delicious hand-me-downs.  And even though no one thought to bring napkins, tap water was poured into paper cups from a local pizza place, and the buffet line started right past the five gallon bucket which held our still-thawing frozen turkey, we had a great time starting our own new tradition. And some day, thirty years from now when we are the ones making Thanksgiving for our family with cloth napkins, crystal-ware, cooked turkeys, and nieces that call us late at night for our Famous Whatever-It-Is recipe, I feel like I’ll look back on our first Friendsgiving and smile, thankful for all of the Thanksgivings of practice and traditions that have happened between the two.

So what did I take? Two things. Macaroni and Cheese. I must admit: I have never made good macaroni and cheese. I can never get it creamy. I am also terrible with mashed potatoes, but that is another story. So I made some macaroni from an online recipe (I had called my mom for hers, but it seemed too complicated). I didn’t have everything that the recipe called for, so I made some of it up. Classic Emily Move. It turned out fine. But the second thing was much better: Green Bean Bundles. Correction: Mom’s Famous Green Bean Bundles.

Mom’s Famous Green Bean Bundles

Ingredients:

3 cans Del Monte WHOLE Green Beans

1 package Oscar Meyer Center Cut Bacon

1/2 cup brown sugar

Wooden toothpicks

I know, I know. That sounds like a lot. It is. That is enough for a party. I am too scared to try to divide the recipe. I’m just sure I’ll mess it up. So I will tell you how to make Green Bean Bundles For A Bunch.

Here’s the part that is most commonly messed up. SAVE THE GREEN BEAN JUICE FROM THE CAN. I kept telling myself this over and over to do this, but you would be surprised how natural it is to drain a can in the sink. So while I was thinking about it, I put a towel in my sink. Then later when I went to pour the juice down the drain, I questioned the towel in the sink and then remembered to save my juice. It is literally the only thing that stopped me from messing it up.

Save Your Juice!

Anyways, drain your green bean juice into a measuring cup. You will end up needing 2 cups.

Cut each bacon strip in half (so that you will have about 3 inch strips).

Grab about 4-6 beans. Lay them on one end of a piece of bacon. Roll it up. Put a toothpick to hold the bacon in place. Put the bundle into a greased, glass dish.

Once you have finished rolling up your bundles (basically when you run out of bacon), mix your 2 cups of green bean juice with the 1/2 cup of brown sugar. The original recipe calls for 1/2 a cup, but mom  usually puts in a little less than that because that much really just isn’t necessary. Pour the mixture over the bundles.

Bake uncovered for one hour at 375.

The Final Dish

They were actually delicious! (I mean, they are always good when mom makes them, but I was just certain that I would mess them up somehow.) I came home with an empty plate, which is the sign of a good party dish.

(Merry Christmas.) Happy Thanksgiving!