Easiest Cookie Cake Ever

This is the easiest cookie cake and my new go-to for celebrating birthdays!

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Buy two packets of the break-and-bake cookies. I used to buy name brand, but have found store brand is just as good.  Put both packets in a 9"x13" and bake in the oven at the suggested temperature for about an hour. Time may vary depending on your oven and the brand dough you buy, so I usually start checking it around 30 minutes to make sure I don't burn it. 

Optional: after the dough has melted a bit (anywhere between 10-30 minutes), I like to use a spatula to smooth out whatever creases there are.

Let it cool for an hour or so (I usually wait overnight) before you start decorating the top.

I use Betty Crocker Easy Flow Icing to decorate. I love the different nozzles and I'm slowly getting the hang of different ways I can decorate with it. This comes in a bunch of different colors and so easy to use.

Enjoy!

Best Salsa Ever

I always get compliments on my salsa, so I finally wrote down the directions for my coworker and thought I'd share here as well. I've found it's best if made ahead of time for everything to marinate overnight, but I still think it's delicious right after preparing. I'd love to hear from you if you try it out.

Ingredients:
+ 3 peppers (I use one yellow, one orange, and one red)
+ one can of black beans
+ one red onion
+ 1 T of lemon juice
+ 1/4 T of salt
+ 1/4 T of pepper
+ 1 T of Cajun
+ 1 jar of picante sauce (I get Kroger brand or Pace)

1. Chop up peppers and onions
2. Add a can of black beans. I mostly drain the can, but don't rinse them off.
3. Sprinkle on seasoning and lemon juice. mix everything together.
4. Add the picante salsa
5. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Pie

This recipe made 4 pies... it seems easier to make in larger quantities, so I just do that.

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+ Pie crust (we like the graham cracker crusts)

+ 4 large sweet potatoes about 1 lb each

+ 1 and 1/2 cups of butter softened

+ 3 eggs

+ 2 and 1/2 cups of brown sugar

+ 1 cup of milk (we use this almond milk)

+ 1 Tablespoon of all spice

+ 1 Tablespoon of nutmeg

+ 2.5 Tablespoons of cinnamon

+ dash of salt

+ 2 Tablespoons of vanilla

1. Boil sweet potatoes (takes about 50 minutes)

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

3. Peel skin off potatoes (they should just slide right off... used a hot glove to squeeze it off)

4. Put all of the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl

5. Mix until semi-consistent texture

6. Put pie filling in crust

7. Bake for 45 minutes

8. Best if chilled before eating... and of course top with whipped cream

Cucumber Bacon Bites

+ cucumbers (I use 2 english cucumbers for a get together)
+ a pack of bacon
+ 8 oz of cream cheese (one brick)

+ 8 oz of sour cream

+ 1/2 Tablespoon of celery salt

+ 1/2 Tablespoon of minced onions
+ 1/2 Tablespoon of dillweed
+ plastic bag

1. Mix cream cheese, sour cream, celery salt, minced onions, and dillweed and let sit in fridge

2. Cook bacon and let cool

3. Cut cucumbers in 1/2 inch slices

3. Using a spoon, scoop a little bit of the cucumber out for the 'dip' to sit in

4. Put the dip mixture in a plastic bag to pipe into mini cucumber bowls

5. Break up bacon slices and place on the cucumber bites
6. Enjoy!

These are pretty much my go-to appetizer, so easy and delicious! I've also made this with grape tomatoes and that was a huge hit.  Let me know if you make these and what you think.

Pretzel Caramel Pecan Treats

This recipe is super easy, tastes great, and I've already received tons of compliments on them.  I thought of these chocolate caramel and pecan turtle cluster recipe while making the super popular pretzel/hug/m&m treats, so I got a little creative and came up with these pretzel caramel pecan treats.  As we know, I'm super good at food photos (not), so don't judge a recipe by the photos.

+Pretzels

+Bag 'o' caramel candy

+Pecan halves

+1-2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips

+1/4-1/2 a stick of butter

1. preheat oven to 300 degrees

2. half the caramel candies 

3. lay out pretzels on a foiled cookie sheet (do not use wax paper, the caramel sticks)

4. place a caramel half on each pretzel

5. put cookie sheet in oven for approximately 6 minutes

6. remove cookie sheet and place a pecan half on each pretzel/caramel combo and push it in

7. melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and butter in microwave (about 2-3 minutes stirring every 30 seconds)

8. drizzle chocolate on pretzel/caramel/pecan combo

9. place in refrigerator for an hours or so

10.  take treats out of fridge and let them get to room temperature before enjoying.  Don't eat them straight from the fridge!  That will make you think you've made a terrible mistake and want to scrap the whole project.

I'd love to hear from you if you make these pretzel caramel pecan treats... or if you have a better name for them.  If you're looking for more quick and easy treats to make for the holidays, check out this family favorite recipe for Pistachio Bark.

Christmas Traditions : Potato Sausage

My family is pretty big on traditions around Christmas time.  We already had this years sock party about two weeks ago (we exchange socks in a white elephant fashion) and we had our Potato Sausage making party on Saturday.  My grandpa used to make the potato sausage for the family every Christmas and we took over probably 10-15 years ago.  We headed over to my aunt and uncle's house and spent the morning making potato sausage.

1. Cuddle with baby - This is my Godmother (aka the potato sausage boss)

2. cut up a bunch of potatoes and onions (blurriest picture ever)

3. grind all of the potatoes and onions

4. mix in meat + spices (it is not the most appetizing looking food)

6. stuff sausages... don't forget to poke holes so they don't burst

7. Relax while sausages are boiling (this is where we usually have lunch... Skyline!)

8. Go home and take lots of naps

Pistachio Bark

12 squares (12 oz) of semi-sweet chocolate

1 cup of pistachio nuts, shelled and toasted

1. microwave chocolate on high for 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute

2. stir in pistachio nuts

3. spread out mixture onto wax paper lined baking sheet

4. refrigerate for 1 hour

5. break into bite-size pieces

I am obsessed with pistachio bark!  I always look forward to when my aunt makes this during the holidays.  It is so easy and it literally takes 5 minutes of prep plus an hour of waiting.

Chicken Spinach Pasta Dish

continuing with my really good food pictures...

I had spinach, pasta, and chicken and just googled the three and adapted the below recipe from this recipe.  Here's what I did:

1 lb of pasta
approx 6 tablespoons of Olive Oil
6-7 cloves of garlic (I like garlicy foods)
1/2 tablespoon of red pepper flakes (or two packets from a pizza place)
2 chicken breasts cut up
12 oz. of spinach (I used frozen and just thawed and drained it a little)
Parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta normally
2. Put the olive oil in a bowl.  add garlic and red pepper flakes.
3. Heat olive oil mixture in microwave for 1 minute (to absorb flavor)
4. Put 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in pan to cook the chicken... cook chicken
5. Add spinach to the chicken pan until spinach is heated up. (2-3 minutes)
6. Put spinach/chicken in bowl with pasta.  toss in rest of the olive oil mixture.
7. Top with desired amount of Parmesan cheese

Enjoy!

Egg-Free Peanut Butter Chocoloate ChipCookies

I was craving cookies bad and was out of eggs.  These are probably the best peanut butter cookies that I've ever made... and the dough is really good.  Recipe adapted from here: Egg-Free Peanut Butter Cookies.

My food pictures never look good, but I swear they were delicious!

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy)
1/2 cup butter or margerine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
I added 1/2 bag of chocolate chips

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. mix peanut butter, brown and granulated sugar, vanilla, and butter until well blended
3. add rest of ingredients and mix
4. form dough balls, place on cookie sheet, and do that criss-cross thing on the top with a fork
5. Enjoy!

Mint Oreo Truffles

I learned how to make these from my friend Lindsey a few years ago.  I've seen a couple things on Pinterest for Mint Truffles, but I didn't really read into those recipes much.  It seemed easier to just substitute in mint cookies instead of using food coloring, mint flavoring, etc.  These are for some family events so I made the recipe x 3.  Normal recipe can make 2-3 dozen.

Needed:

1 box of mint oreos (off brand works!)

1 bar of cream cheese

1 package of candy coating (vanilla)

Crush all of the cookies (save one or two to crush on top of the truffle if desired)

 

Add the cream cheese and mix it all together (should be creamy).

Roll little balls of the mixture, place on wax paper, and put in fridge or freezer to cool.

 

Melt the candy coating and roll some of the chilled oreo balls in the coating.

 

Sprinkle some of the leftover cookies on top and pop it back in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Lemon Bars

Lemon Bars are one of my favorite desserts and I found this recipe on Pinterest that only calls for two ingredients... Angel Food cake mix and a can of lemon pie filling.

 Mix the two ingredients together and bake @ 350 in a 9x13 for 20 minutes.
[sprinkle on powdered sugar]

The recipe calls for a can, but this was the only pie filling I could find on such short notice.  There was a little too much pie filling so the final product was a little more pie than cake.  It was still delicious and I will definitely need to try the actual recipe soon... or just repeat this.