The Triple Threat

So I follow this blog and it is called "Bake at 350". This blog is AMAZING!!! Bridget (amazing blog goddess) shares techniques, recipes and beautiful pictures. So any who... Bridget is now doing something called...

What it entails is every month she gives a theme and we can join in and do the theme, post them on our blog and link back to her. Well this month's theme is pie.

So I set off on a mission. A mission for pie. I'm not a huge fan of pie I must admit but who am I to shun it?! Wouldn't that be rude! So I decided if I was going to partake in this adventure, I was going to do something fun.

My first thought: whoopie pies! And by the way, did you know I found whoopie pies, whoopy pies and whoopee pies. Yes it's true. I was fascinated that whoopie came in three different versions! Okay folks, leave it alone as I know most of my friends have a snicker on their face right now. Geez. Simmer down! Again I rolled off onto the side path in my brain so forgive me.

I decided to go with "Whoopie Pies" and found a Maple Walnut Whoopie Pie with Maple filling. How did it turn out? Well let's just say you aren't about to see the recipe below. What a HUGE disappointment!

Okay I'm getting to the real recipe!

I scoured the internet and my cookbooks looking for something different and I stumbled across the blog (another favorite) called Cake Spy. Well she posted a recipe called the Triple Threat. It looked like it could cause a sugar coma and teeth to fall out all in one bite! I was totally in! So please enjoy the recipe...


The Triple Threat
1 Pie crust
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
1 Cake mix
Frosting

Take the pie crust and roll it out in your pan like so...

Then take your cookie dough, you can buy the package mix, the type in the tube or be Martha and make it from scratch.

Then as this is sitting, and you're trying not to eat the extra cookie dough, make a cake mix according to the directions. I have to admit folks, this was a boxed cake mix as it was hotter then heck and the thought of a scratch cake was not at the top of my list!

Take the cake mix after it is made and pour it over the pie crust & cookie dough.

Take this hot mess at 350 degrees on your middle rack. This truly is just a guide as I encourage people if you don't know your oven really well, then watch it carefully.

After it is done baking, take it out, let it cool then frost it. This is how mine turned out:

Let me just say this this tastes so good but please have a glass of milk on hand as it is very sweet.

I think a great combination for this recipe would be a gingersnap crust, sugar cookie dough, a spice cake and top it with a cinnamon buttercream.

Try it and let me know what you think! Also, if you try any other versions, please let me know!

Recipe Search

So I set out this weekend to find a new recipe to share with everyone. I pulled out all of my cookbooks, scoured the internet and found nothing exciting. It's hard to decide when you aren't hungry and then it is impossible to decide when you are beyond hungry. Sigh... I had to amuse myself until I got hungry and could find something decent. It didn't find anything until Sunday.

On Sunday early morning my husband G.I. Joe headed off to a lovely base in... ready for this?! Alaska! Oh my! Poor G.I. Joe! However will he cope with this? I often tell him to enjoy his vacation when he's off of these adventures but I know he's working hard. I went online to look at the base website and there are all of these beautiful pictures of jets and the men and women working and let's not forget Gov. Sarah Palin! Anyways let me roll around to the recipe.

After I ventured off onto some cooking websites I found it on the Kraft Foods site: Spaghetti Bake. I know, I know. Boring! But the kids were all for it and since G.I. Joe was gone I don't touch the grill so we were limited.

I'm going to share the recipe with you all and let me tell you that this is easy but oh so good! I'm a fan of boiling pasta and putting butter and parmesan cheese on it for a quick me and this fell right into that area of comfort to me. Should we eat stuff like this? Of course not but for those healthy people, DEAL!

Here you go folks, a little bit of heaven!


SPAGHETTI BAKE

8 oz. Spaghetti, uncooked
1/2 pound of italian sausage or ground beef (remove the casing from the sausage)
1 (14 oz. ) jar of Spaghetti Sauce
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups of Mozzarella Cheese, divided
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375. Spray 8 inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

• Cook the spaghetti
• Meanwhile, brown the sausage or burger then drain
• Stir the sauce into the sausage/burger. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Drain the spaghetti and place in a large bowl

Now... I doubled this portion of the recipe as my kids are cheese freaks. So if you want, go for it. If not, that's okay too!

• Add the egg, 1 cup of the mozzarella and the parmesan cheese to the spaghetti and toss to coat
• Place the mixture in the baking dish
• Top the mixture with your sauce and meat
• Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella over the top

Bake for 15 minutes or until heated thoroughly. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting to serve.

Here is a picture of my easy and yummy dinner!

I have to tell you that the kids enjoyed the leftovers which is a rare thing.

Let me know what you think and enjoy!

New Path

Hi All!

So I decided what I want to do is feature a new daring recipe once a week. Now please remember I will do my best at the once a week!

After the busy months I have taken a "Cake Vacation". I'm pooped! 2 or 3 cakes a weekend can do you in and I'm learning how to say no, which can be a useful word. Learn it my over-achieving friends!

So I will do a recipe, not necessarily baking, and post the pictures and the recipe for all to enjoy. If you would like to see something, please let me know as I'm up for a challenge!

Off to plan my first recipe!

Holy Cow!

I have been so horrible about hoping on here and blogging! Sorry to all of you. Such a huge following! HA HA!

So let's see... The kids have been keeping me busy with illnesses and I have been working on a website for the business which I just got disgusted with one day and went to a brand new site and started all over. I'm almost done that and I'm much happier with it. I am now waiting for my domain to be released by the other company. Damn places!

Oh geez... and golf season has arrived! I have already gone twice in less than a week and I am feeling like a pro! I think I found my groove already! My golfing gals are going to be getting a lot more emails from me mid-day begging for someone to join me and my pink clubs for a wild time. Yes... pink clubs.

I get so much crap for them but I do I care? No not really and it gives Tonya, Tink & Cyndy some amusement. And that's what I'm there for right? Well at least I think that's the reason!

So let's see. I'm also taking part in the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life. It's a 24 hour event where we walk around a track and of course we raise money for it. My sister and I have been on a fundraising mission to be at the top. We're a little competitive I guess you could say!

And food... I've been working on making items and taking 'professional' looking pictures for the website. Here are a couple:

I did the chocolate apples and those were AMAZING!!! So yummy really! Then the next two pictures are cake balls.

Cake balls are just cake mixed in with frosting and then dipped in chocolate. It sounds so easy but really it is time consuming, especially items like the chicks.

I started reading about cake balls on a bunch of different blogs and since they seemed to be so popular I tried them. Let me just say that I am HOOKED!! Especially with making them into little animals or cupcakes. You have to check out Bakerella's blog and you will see what I mean. She is beyond talented and I love looking at her blog.

I found the chicks on there and tried them. LOVE THEM! So cute! I am working on bunnies and sheep next. I will post pics on those soon. I just finished 124 chicks, 50 rabbits with 50 more to go and then I will do some sheep. I'm not sure how many but not the amount I am doing right now on the chicks and bunnies.

If any of you are looking to do your own thing you have to check out Bakerella, Bake at 350, CakeJournal to find a real wide variety check out Cake Central. These blogs and websites have been such a huge source of inspiration to me.

Right now I am trying to come up with some other ideas for cake balls. I want to do some flowers but not sure how to do it. I'm thinking the cake ball will be the center and then find a candy like Necco Wafers or something along those lines for the petals.

But if any of you have ideas for cake balls, shoot me a note on here and I will create them and send them to you. Of course I will have to post the pictures for all to see.

So now I'm off my friends to finish up the bunnies and then dinner with the Harlows!

Take care!

I'm Back!!!!

Holy Cow! It's been too long since I've been on here.

Let's see... January was a busy month with experimenting with cookies. Check them out:

Then I did a couple of cakes for Nik's Mom and Dad (Their birthdays are on the same day):

Mary Lou likes to drink wine so I did a nice yellow cake with vanilla pudding in between the layers and chocolate ganache all over. It was heavenly!

Larry likes Monty Python so I took a stab at it. Underneath is a lovely homemade carrot cake that he absolutely loved! He raved about it and boy do I feel like a proud peacock!

Then after those cakes at the end of January I went running into February!

It was Tyler's birthday and it happen to fall on the 100th day of school - which is a pretty big deal now. I never got to celebrate it! Anyways... I made 100 cookies to share with his class.

Then it was Tyler's birthday cake for the weekend. Nik twisted his arm into having Bolt (from Disney) even though she claims she didn't. Let's just say the jury is still out on that one!

So here is my first stab at doing a cake with MMF. Oh yes! The glorious MMF! People were very happy with it so I was quite satisfied.

I am still learning the technique for stacking and have to work on my edges but I think I've got that down after this one!

And here's Tyler enjoying his cake!

Boy what a lot of fun!

So now I just finished another cake tonight that I have to download all of the pictures for. So stay tuned for that and I promise I won't be a stranger if you won't!

Cookie Time

So today Noelle was home sick so I thought I would try and pop out some cookies.

I decided to use a new sugar cookie recipe which does nothing for me. My old recipe has a base of confectioner's sugar and the new one is flour. The reason I tried this is they claim the cookie would not spread. LIE!! They also seemed to cook odd meaning the left side would brown and the right side wouldn't. Nothing new with my stove so I have no clue on this one. I'm so going back to my ol' stand by!

I also decided instead of using my normal royal icing I would use my new friend MMF to 'frost' them.

Here are my efforts for today:

I truly enjoyed making these but since they are my first attempt I am totally not satisfied with how they look. I like the idea of using the MMF instead of doing the outline and then flowing the color on the inside.

I know... Two cookies in an entire day? Please! I made a bunch more cookies but haven't iced them yet. I also tinted a crap load of MMF.

By the way gang, the MMF tastes wonderful! Yummy! I give it a thumbs up and currently I'm looking for some flavorings so I can change the taste a little.

So I hope you enjoy and Tonya, I thought of you while I made the martini!

Let me know what you think!

Messy Mallow Fondant

So here is the update...

I got straight to business last night to make my MMF. It was a crazy mess! It smelled incredible but an all out mess.

I had confectioner's sugar all over my counter from mixing everything and then the instructions tell you to generously grease your hands with Crisco and begin to knead the MMF. They aren't joking when they say to generously grease up your hands! I had it stuck on every inch of my hands within moments. Thank goodness Tim was there to help me add the rest of the confectioner's sugar and then he greased the counter so I could pull it out of the bowl and knead it more.
I've never met such a kneady recipe in my life! This is why I don't make bread. Hello!?!

So here it is looking all pretty:

I know it doesn't look like much but I felt like I built a small house after all of that!

So the all important question is "How does it taste?" You know what... I haven't gotten around to that part yet. I decided I'm going to use it on some sugar cookies and go from there. That way I can hand out the cookies and have people give me their feedback.

So just as a side note: I did swear during this process but it sounded like "WTF" & "FUB". Oh I can't forget my favorite "FTLOC".

There's something to chew on my friends!