Baking Monday - Nutter Butter Bark

For this week's baking project, I was checking out a recipe for pecan caramel bark which sounded awesome, but was more complicated than I had time for. I followed the suggestion of "Other Recipes You Might Like ..." to this very easy, a little cheaty, yummy, very bad for you treat.



I had a little trouble with the recipe, because pb chips melted alone were very sticky and didn't spread very easily. Consequently, they didn't look great, so I used the ol' drizzle with chocolate trick to pretty them up. It might work better to mix the cookies right in with the melted pb chips and then drizzle with chocolate. Peanut buttery yummy. 

Sneak Preview

Guess what I stayed up waaay too late making last night?



Looking forward to Monday! Hope it doesn't snow.

Baking Monday - Corn Muffins

I've tried many corn muffin recipes, but had yet to find one we really liked. I've also been looking for things to make with corn meal, because a couple of weeks ago, I needed a tiny bit for a recipe and the grocery store around the corner only had gigantic bags. So, last time we had chili, I searched again for a new recipe to try. I found this one via Tracey's Culinary Adventures (fantastic recipes and even better photography!)



Well. Dora declared them the best ones she's ever had and has asked to make them again about once a day since we ran out. I opted to omit the corn kernels, because, blech, and nutmeg. I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I did the ol' milk plus lemon juice substitution (thanks, red & white cookbook!) and they turned out just fine. This one is definitely a keeper!

Refreshed

We had cucumbers for dinner, and Clark immediately set two aside. "I want to put these on my eyes when I go to sleep!" I do not know where he got the idea, but was SO insistent on wearing cucumbers on his eyes at bedtime. When I asked him why, he said, "So I will be refreshed!"



"And," he said, "If I get hungry in the middle of the night, I'll just ARRMPF! and eat them all up."

Baking Monday - Super Sugar Cookie Roundup!

It's been sugar cookie central around here the last three weeks! Here are some highlights ...



Wedding shower cookies - dresses, cakes, gifts, and hearts.



Signature tiger cookies with a new twist - pastels! I love how these colors turned out.



Tray for the birthday girl - an assortment of birthday items, "girly" cookies, and the cutie tigers.



I also included some personalized extras for the birthday girl.



I had an order coming up the next week for tie-dye t-shirts and socks for a tie-dye birthday party. I made some practice cookies to see how they would work.



And these are the final result! I love how they turned out! Very time consuming, but big impact.



More wedding cookies! These were for a rehearsal dinner. I'm a big fan of the monochrome colors. These were delivered on Thursday morning and ...



... thirty minutes later, I got another order for wedding cookies. Happily, I was able to use the same shapes, just changed the flowers to the bride's color - coral - and updated the hearts from pink to purple, I think they look very nice with the coral flowers. Boo for bad photography - these went on a tray at 7:30 this morning, so dim kitchen light was the best I could do.

I love making these, but they are not my favorite cookie to eat. So, in between all the sugar cookie craziness, I had to make a batch of pb chocolate chip cookies just for me.

Baking Monday - Mint Oreo Cupcakes

I've had this recipe in the hopper for awhile. It's been delayed a few weeks for various reasons, so I was excited to finally make them today!



I used Bakerella's Oreo cupcake recipe, but decided they'd be way more fun with MINT.



... and an Oreo baked into each cupcake! Mmmmm.



The cookies all floated to the top and stayed there!

The only alteration to this recipe (besides using mint Oreos) is adding a tsp of peppermint extract along with the vanilla in the frosting recipe. The original recipe says makes 12 with some batter left over, but I got 24 cupcakes with batter left over (very happy that I opted not to double it!) One package of cookies is the perfect amount for two dozen cupcakes with six cookies remaining to be crushed up and added to the frosting. I also added a drop of food color to make it green.



Definitely a special occasion cupcake! Calorie-wise ... well, they're off the chart. Just skip lunch that day.

Note from a Delinquent Tooth Fairy

Dear Theo,

Hello there! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get to your tooth. I was on vacation with some of my fairy friends. We go to fairy camp every year in the summer. We go swimming, play tennis, waterski, and make fairy s’mores (which are just like regular s’mores, but with sprinkles.)

We also went hiking and, guess what? I tripped over a branch, fell, and broke my little fairy wings. So, I’ve been travelling on foot and it takes me a LONG time to get around! I had an extra challenge when I got to your room, because there were so many obstacles in my way! I had to stop and battle Ninjagos, climb over Tinkertoys and watch out for rolling Bakugan. Then, I spent three days lost inside a pair of pirate underpants! But I finally found my way to your toothy hiding spot and left a little extra goodie for you. (You might want to use it to hire a cleaning service!)

Anyhow, thanks for the tooth, and I look forward to seeing you next time. I think my wings should be healed by Halloween. (By the way, guess what I’m dressing up as this year? The Easter Bunny!)

Your friend,
The Tooth Fairy