Banana Bread Cake Pops w/Walnuts & Icing

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day! Well typical me, on Feb 13th I got home from work (my husband was gone on the overnight shift) and I realized, hey tomorrow is V-Day and I have nothing. Pretty typical for me, and him. So, since I didn't really cook last weekend I thought I'd make him something yummy out of whatever was left in my house, which was not much. Again, we had bananas and since he loves them, I decided to do something with those. Cleaning out a closet last week I found a cake pop maker I got 2 years ago (apparently I wanted to try this cooking thing before but failed). Except I did use it once and my cakepops looked and tasted like little turds, not something edible by any means (one of my dogs might argue that). So I thought I'd give it another go and make something banana-ish. I actually got this recipe idea from a multiple places but didn't use any specific recipe, I combined ingrediants. I'm pretty proud!

Banana Bread Cake Pops

Makes about 40 balls!

1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 bananas mashed up

In a bowl mix flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg together. Mix eggs, extract, veggie oil in a separate bowl, and slowly add in solid ingredients until all mixed together with mixer. Then add bananas in, and again keep going until all mixed together. I used a cake pop maker and filled the bottom of each dwelling almost to the top with batter.
I saw the cake pop maker said 4-5 minutes per batch, and it took around 4.5 minutes total. This time, they didn't come out like turds. That was a plus :).

Icing with Walnuts  (and Jimmies on some!) 

I took this basic recipe from food.com titled "Basic Vanilla Frosting"

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons milk (I had 1% and that was fine)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients on medium speed until smooth. I have not mastered icing cake pops so I only spread it on the top half, then dunked the pops in either jimmies or walnuts.

I really went Martha Stewart on this one and even put them in cups with tissue paper to appear like a bouquet. Fancy, huh?

They came out edible, very edible! My husband actually likes them better refrigerated with the icing cold.  I like this baking thing, the cooking, not so much!

Lazy Nor'EastAH Saturday :)

After getting 2+ feet of snow in the past 24 hours, I have NOT ventured out to the grocery store! I decided we should keep these Disney names going for storms (this one was called Nemo...?), so the next one should be Bambi... 
My husband and I spent a good two hours outside this morning shoveling off the deck, borrowing the neighbors snowblower (thank yoouu!), and playing with our dogs in the snow :). 
We have some fantastic neighbors who brought their dog over too, so we had a mini dog park going. Once we came in I decided to make some homemade peppermint hot chocolate with a recipe given to us by a family member. Unfortunately I don't know the measurements of the chocolate & white chocolate chips, as well as the peppermint candy because it was given to us in a cute jar already measured out. However I found something similar online using these numbers:

Peppermint Hot Chocolate
Mix 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 1/3 cup smashed peppermints and 1 can of condensed milk in a medium saucepan, on medium heat for 10-12 minutes. Stir frequently and once hot, serve with some mini marshmallows on the top :)

We literally did nothing the rest of the afternoon except nap and eat whatever was laying around our house. I was craving rice krispy treats and got an all around request from my neighbors and husband to "do something peanut buttery with them." So I did, and they came out good! I didn't take a picture because next time I will double the frosting recipe (already doubled below) since it only covered half the rice krispy's, LAME! That was slightly irritating but this should be correct below.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats, with Peanut Butter Frosting:

Idea from Tasty Trials webpage, however I added some things and changed measurements, but still want to give them the main credit!

6 cups crisp rice cereal

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

10 ounces marshmallows (1 bag)

Topping:

2/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2.5 tablespoons butter

Mini peanut butter cups to smash up and sprinkle on the top :) 

Use a 13x9 pan (I used glass).

In a large pot, melt the butter and then add in peanut butter, melting until smooth. Add marshmallows and stir constantly until they are completely melted! Mmmmm!

Add cereal and chocolate chips, and immediately stir them until covered with marshmallowy goodness. When completely coated, pour the whole mix into the pan. Make sure to spread evenly and press down to get the treats slightly packed.

When cool, start prepping the topping. Melt butter and peanut butter in a pan like above, then slowly start to add in the confectioners sugar on low-med heat. Once all melted and mixed, I spread it across the cooled krispy treats and sprinkled some PB cup's mashed up on top. Cut into squares and done!

Luckily we have a chipotle right down the road (literally 5 minutes away), so that is where our dinner is coming from! No dinner recipe tonight, sorry! I'll be stuffing my face with a nice burrito.

Birthday boy gets some homemade cupcakes!

After a sick day Saturday and a big family dinner Sunday, I totally had a by-weekend for cooking (I'm not complaining....). However, I did get myself off the bench Sunday morning to make my birthday boy husband some cupcakes. Although I didn't do any meal cooking this weekend it wasn't a total wash, I got to try "real" baking. I say "real" because my husband tells people I can bake but I can use boxed cake mix and a can of frosting (fancy huh?). I wanted to cop-out and do this, but I decided to be brave and go with something totally from scratch. I also got to use this frosting thingy I had bought, which looks like the giant syringes I use when I work as a nurse. Trust me, when I'm a nurse holding a syringe this size you want to cover any body orifice and run the other way, but this one's a keeper!
My husband absolutely loves peanut butter, as well as bananas. After a lot of recipe searching I finally found some combination of these two that fit the items I had in my cabinets (I wasn't up for a Sunday morning of screaming kids and pissy moms at the grocery store). I decided on a banana chocolate chip cupcake, with peanut butter cream cheese frosting. I'm not a big fan of either, but I will say the combo actually worked... Annnnnd these were not hard to make, slightly time consuming due to my "special" cooking issues, but that's always expected. Baking is definitely my first choice, however I don't think cakes, cupcakes, and cookies are going to fly for our weekend meals. And yes, I realized AFTER making the frosting (with cream cheese in it), that these can't just sit out on the counter for a few days, because I will give everyone food poisoning from bad dairy. Good last minute catch huh?

Banana chocolate chip cupcakes

Taken directly from Baked Perfection pinterest post. Makes total of 12 cupcakes.

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar 
1/4 cup milk (whatever type you have at home, *I used 1% and it was fine)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips (this is A LOT of chips, if your not into too much chocolate I'd use 1/2 cup)

Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until combined.  Add the milk and vanilla.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until thoroughly combined.  Slowly beat in the flour mixture, until just combined.  Slowly add in the bananas.  Once all is combined, stir in the chocolate chips by hand.  Divide batter evenly among 12 cupcake cups.  Bake in preheated oven until tops are golden, approximately 17-20 minutes (mine took 20!).  Remove to wire rack and cool completely before frosting. *And really, I had to let the tops get golden, when they started browning I took them out but the middle was not cooked, it was mushy banana grossness and they went back in. The final product was great though!

Peanut butter cream cheese frosting:

Got these ingredients from the Chocolate Peanut Butter Factory pinterest post. Makes enough for a cake, or about 12-14 cupcakes (the recipe said 18 cupcakes, but since I did the soft serve looking frosting there was no way it made it to this many!)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Reese's)
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 & 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

*Bag of Reese's mini PB Cups to put on the top of the cupcake is optional, I did it! :)

Cream the peanut butter and cream cheese in a bowl with a mixer, scraping sides until frosting is light and fluffy (not stiff and thick!). Gradually add in the sugar until all mixed, then mix in vanilla.

*I didn't know what "cream" meant, I'm still not entirely sure, but after a PB cream cheese nightmarish glue-like ball on my hand mixers, I realized using the cool looking squiggly attachments on my mixer would probably work better. It did (and this made it fluffy!), so if you have those they were fantastic :)

I kept the frosting in the fridge until an hour before we ate the cupcakes (I cooked Sunday and we ate them Monday). I had to let if soften up a little and then stuffed it in the creepy syringe froster and it worked great! For banana and peanut butter lovers, I'd definitely recommend these! Until next weekend...

Cooking on a weeknight.... Woah woah woah!

Now let's not all get too excited here, it's a weeknight so therefore I should not be in the kitchen. Well, I don't think I should ever be but that's irrelevant ;). 

Even Jager (my doberman/rottie pup) was nervous to see me turn on the stove. Look at that face...

 

Buffalo chicken dip was of the only things I could cook prior to this blog, and now it's become one of our favorite party items. We've made it for a few house/work parties and the bowl/crockpot is always empty at the end of the night. I have a work function tomorrow and was asked to make it (funny how they think I can cook at work, HA), so here is my favorite way to make this dip, with a little kick. 

Buffalo Chicken Dip: Ba-Gok!

-2 (10oz) cans of chunk chicken

-2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese

-1/2 cup ranch dressing

-1/2 cup blue cheese dressing 

-1/2 cup Franks Red Hot Sauce (We get buffalo flavor, you can even do 3/4 cup if you want it spicier). I'm a spicy wimp so I can't put that sh*t on everything...

-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (or blue cheese if you dare to be different)

-Whatever you want to dip: Tortilla chips, celery, carrots... (We like the scoops tortilla chips)

Put your cream cheese out ahead of time so it can soften! Start by heating the chicken and the franks sauce in a skillet on medium until it's hot, then slowly start to add one of the packages of cream cheese (I cut it up softened into about 6 piece and drop them in). Keep stirring and you can even turn up the heat a little to help it melt. Then I add the ranch and blue cheese dressing, and the rest of the cream cheese (same way, softened in chunks). Keep on stirring until those cream cheese chunks melt, then I add a cup of cheddar cheese and also stir until that's melted. If you are just serving it in a bowl, put in the rest of the shredded cheddar in and keep on stirring until ready to serve. I like to throw mine in a crock pot on low (or warming setting) and toss the rest of the cheddar cheese on top a little before the party starts.

YUM,  I would like to say this was easy and there were no issues... hooray! :)

Rootbeer pulled pork sunday!

Success!

Today I made crock pot pulled pork with a rootbeer base, and it was definitely yummy. I got an all around thumbs up from friends at the dinner table, so that made my morning spazout worth it... However, let's turn back to about 10AM and review my garlic issues.

I would like to personally thank the produce guy who told me buying garlic and mincing it myself is "wicked easy, so don't pay more for garlic already minced." Again, I need to learn so I'm thinking, hey "wicked easy" I can totally do. I literally almost tossed the garlic across my kitchen.
Things started off great, I put my can of root beer in the crock pot, measured all my spices (adding a little extra of some and less of others), cut my onion (the wrong way, which my husband so "sweetly" pointed out), added brown sugar, and put my pork in. I wasn't sure what "4 garlic cloves minced" really meant, so I had to google it. Yup! Even watched a video on mincing garlic. However I couldn't get the stupid film off the garlic to even start mincing it, so I used my lifeline and phoned a friend (my Mom, who by the way has her own catering business....Yup, you don't even need to say it...). My mom didn't answer, so I had no other option but to wake up my sleeping husband (who had just fallen asleep after working a night shift). I "accidentally" put the baby gate down which blocks our puppy from the upstairs bedrooms. And look at that, our puppy (8 months old and 65lbs) took a superman leap onto the bed and landed on my husband. Darn. "Awww sorry, well, since your awake, how do I...."
His answer to my garlic question was simply, "Why don't you just use the jar of minced garlic in the fridge."
UGH. What the ____!

After my garlic tantrum everything was fine (it was literally a tantrum), but again this is why I do not enjoy cooking. One stupid ingredient blows the whole process, which is why today it was tough to be a Moosh.

Today's Recipe (pulled from a few Pinterest recipes I found but mainly "The Tasty Fork" site/pin):

• 1 12 oz can rootbeer (I used A&W)
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 2 heaping tbsps brown sugar (I love the taste so I added a touch more)
• 1 tbsp some type of grill seasoning (used a McCormick maple rub I had in my pantry)
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 garlic cloves minced *UGHH!
• 1 onion sliced (Originally all recipes said to not actually serve them with the pulled pork, but I did and it was a nice touch!)
• 3 lb boneless pork roast

Served on/with:

• BBQ sauce if you want to add some on your bun (We used sweet baby rays brown sugar BBQ)
• Sweet bulkie rolls
• Cheddar cheese (our favorite is Hoffmans cheddar)

Toss all ingredients into a crockpot (minus the BBQ sauce, bulkie rolls, and cheddar cheese... obviously, but not so obvious to me!) and cooked on low for 5-6 hours.Take out the pork and pull it (I recommend bear claws!), then put it back in the crock pot (with all juice/sauce) for another 20-30 minutes and it should be ready to go. 

We served the pork on a toasted sweet bulkie roll with brown sugar BBQ sauce & a slice of melted cheddar cheese. Mmmmm.
My husband made amazing smoked gouda, cheddar, and spicy keilbasa mac and cheese, which I definitely recommend as well. All I did was help pour the cheese into the pan, so I can't take credit for that.

Lessons learned today:

-If I can buy it to save some aggrivation (minced garlic), I'm doing it from now on.
-No more trusting the produce guy... Jerk.
-The rootbeer definitely made the pork fall apart. We have these awesome "bear claw" thingys to pull the pork, which was very helpful. I recommend buying these!

-After my garlic fit my husband decided to make the side dish, so I'm still not doing side dishes for a bit.

Intro and my first "meal" :)

Welcome. I hope this is at least entertaining?

Well, here goes nothing! To give you an idea of why I decided to start this blog, let me just describe the "norm" in my household (consisting of my husband and I, our two dogs, and my old granny cat). The deal around our house has been that I am the "cleaner," and my husband is the "cooker." Not typical I know, but he knew the mess he was getting himself into the day I attempted to make dinner and dumped the couscous spice pack into the hamburger helper. Yes, these are two boxed items and somehow I managed to screw it up. Not to mention the million other times I've gone to make something and cannot understand the simple cookbook jargon, or burnt the food into an unidentifiable object. I'm embarrassed to say just how terrible my cooking skills are, but hey, I might as well just put it all out there if I'm trying to show some progress.
After 5 years together and 2 years of marriage, my husband has announced he is getting "tired" of cooking. Ut oh. Well I'm not "tired" of cleaning, but I guess that's my cue to suck it up and get in the kitchen. He is a fireman and also cooks/plans meals at the firehouse, so OK I guess doing all the cooking can get a bit tiring.  I accept the "challenge" to learn, but I'm willing to bet his GI tract will feel differently after trying a few of my "meals."

I've managed to make some small things over the years, I even did a crock pot buffalo chicken dip for a work party recently (for me, this is HUGE even though the recipe is brainless). So every now and then I can bust out something edible, but it's not too often.

To start this transition of "cooking," I'm taking over the weekend cooking and my husband will still cook on weekdays. I despise grocery shopping, but took it upon myself to look up a few recipes and head to the grocery store. Again, another big step as he typically grocery shops (because I come home with 50 snacks and nothing for dinner). Well, an hour and 20 minutes later and circling the grocery store about 4 times, I left there minus a few items I simply just couldn't find. I had to ask multiple employees where items were, and when I got "You're kidding right?" from the produce guy, I knew it was time to end this outing and head home with whatever the heck was in my cart.

DAY 1: Turkey burger mishaps.

Today I started with black bean turkey burgers! We are trying to eat healthier and my husband and I like turkey burgers, so I decided to play it safe and chose something we like. Yikes. In the end they were edible, but my kitchen was filled with smoke and two of them were, uuumm, crispy? I found a few recipes on pinterest and used various ideas, using ground turkey, an egg, black beans, chopped onion (almost lost a finger there), black pepper, and chili powder.
*A.D.D. comment: Can I just say how disgusting it is to touch raw meat. I've always hated touching ground beef, chicken, etc. Gloves are definitely in favor next time... Gross.
Anyway, the freakin' burgers were supposed to take 10 minutes to cook, 18 minutes later I realized I made them way too fat and I don't like cooking on our new stainless steal pans (hence the smokey kitchen and a few burnt burgers). Let's be honest, I probably would have burnt them on any pan.

After cursing in the kitchen for about 25 minutes, lunch was served and was edible (I think). I served these on a toasted bulkie roll (chipotle mayo and some garnishes) with some pita chips on the side. Don't get too excited, you didn't think I could make a side dish did you? So, this completes my first Saturday attempt at making something edible.
Overall, day 1 = a win, and I didn't even set off a smoke detecter, which makes me think I should probably go check those...

Tomorrow is crockpot pulled pork using root beer and some other spices. Yes, I realize crockpot may scream "easy" to some people, but again let's look at my cooking history here. I already bought the wrong type of pork to put into the crockpot, so my husband will be picking up the correct cut of meet on his way home from work in the AM. Whoops! Hey, it's all a learning experience right?

Today I Learned: 

-I need to coat my stainless steal pans a bit more before cooking. That poor brillo pad...
-When my kitchen appears on fire, it helps to open windows and make a cross breeze through the house (shout out to my fireman husband on that one).
-I can make something edible and create my own recipes (...well kinda, thanks to those who posted on pinterest and I stole your ingredient ideas, ha).
-I made my burgers way too chubby and need to slim them down a bit for next time.
-Food network is going to be my new favorite channel.
-Side dishes can wait for now...