Don't Call My Name, Alé-fredo...

Creamy, cheesy, garlicky?  Yes, please!

I had a dream about this the other night.

No, really!  It came to me in a dream, I had to make it in real-life. 

I often play around with cream sauces and pasta, but this one was a concrete recipe in my head when I woke up hungry.

It must be because I've been considering making a video for the Real Women of Philadelphia competition. (God help us all..) I also won a brand new Kraft/Philly Real Women apron from Sweetopia. 

It's like, a sign. 

A potential $20,000 sign.

Too bad I hate being in front of the camera.  I'm perfectly comfortable being behind it. 

Alas, since I probably won't have the cojones to make a moving pictorial of myself, I'll share my recipe here, with you.   

*Warning:  This isn't really a heart healthy/low-cal sauce.  At all.  That might be what makes it soooooo good though.

Chicken Alfredo Farfalle

(Printable Recipe)

1/4 C Butter

1 Tub Philadelphia Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese

1 1/2 C Heavy Cream

2 C Grated Parmesan Cheese (The not-in-a shaker kind.  Reserve a little for garnish.)

1 C Shredded Mozarella Cheese

1 Clove Minced Garlic (I grate mine with a rasp since I don't have a press and tiny fingers like to reach up on my counters to grab knives sight unseen..)

2 cooked, chopped, boneless skinless chicken breasts

Chopped Green Onion (For garnish and extra flavor.)

Box of Farfalle Pasta

Cook pasta according to directions.  While it's boiling, prepare your cream sauce.

In a heavy saucepan on medium heat, melt butter. Add garlic and cook about 30 seconds. 

Add cream cheese and stir until melted and creamy.  Stir in whipping cream until all ingredients are blended and smooth.

Dump (classy term, right?) all of the cheese in and stir to coat.  Sauce will thicken as it cooks and all of the cheese melts, you can now cook over medium-low heat until it's done.   

When the sauce has thickened, toss in the chopped chicken just until heated through. 

Top cooked pasta with a generous serving of sauce, top with green onion and cheese, and slather on gut enjoy!

WW: Happy 1st Birthday

Hiatus and Happy Easter...

I know Easter is over but there's still time to get a batch of these suckers out of your system since I  knoooow you got some this past weekend.

We got back yesterday from a wonderful, too-short weekend with my parents, grandparents, and great-grandfather.  Obviously the Easter Bunny found us and the boys had an amazing time. 

I had Mini-Eggs for breakfast. 

Don't judge.

I made this cupcake last month as an "Easter Cupcake" trial and what better time than five days ago to post it?  Ha!

As per usual, I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe for the cupcake batter. 

About 30 minutes before baking, or overnight, freeze your unwrapped Creme Eggs.  I used the minis so I wouldn't be in a Creme Egg Coma.  (It's a real thing, swear!)  You'll also want to make sure the liner filling and baking happen rather quickly as you don't want your egg to melt. 

Fill your liners with batter, about 2/3 full, drop in a creme egg. 

Bake as per directions.

While my cupcakes were baking, I made my frosting.  I chose a cream cheese frosting since I thought I'd already be borderline flatlined from the creme egg cupcake, buttercream might be too much. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pkg. Cream Cheese  (I use Philly)

1 Cup Butter

4-6 Cups Icing Sugar (Depending on how stiff you want it to be)

Yellow Food Coloring (I used Golden Yellow Wilton)

1 T Vanilla (I used Clear Wilton Vanilla)

Beat cream cheese and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Add vanilla, beat again. 

Add icing sugar and mix until you've reached your desired consistency. 

Remove half the icing and put yellow food coloring in the mixer bowl with the rest of the icing. 

Beat it until blended.

To achieve the dual colored swirl, carefully fill your piping bag with half the yellow and half the white.  (It's easiest to spoon it in while on its side..) 

Pipe your swirl and top with another creme egg. 

With any luck, your eggs stayed intact on the inside.  A thicker batter might be more ideal for this particular concoction, but mine fared pretty well!

Don't make these again until next Easter.  Your friends will hate love you!

Blog Award and STILL Linking...

I got this fantastic award from Trish over at Sweetology and I couldn't be more proud and honored!  It's my very first as a food blogger and it truly means a lot.  Go check out her blog, there are tons of goodies over there, plus, she's pretty rad!

As part of the award, I'm required to tell you 7 things about myself. 

Well......

1) I am the mother of two HILARIOUS boys, Gabe's 2 & 1/2 and Ollie is going to be 1 next week.  They are two of the funniest people I have EVER met!

2) I can bust out every single word to Baby Got Back (Dance Party included).  My kids think I'm AWESOME!!

3) My parents are probably my biggest fans.  Thanks Guys!

4) I will celebrate my 3rd wedding anniversary next month to a wonderful Air Force man. 

5) I will be 31 in August and still need to snuggle with my (2.0 Version) childhood hippo.  I get a little twang of panic when my boys want to cuddle with him.  His name is Herman.

6) I've never been outside of Canada except for "State Drive-throughs" while on vacations as a youngster.  I have the itch to travel.

7) I wear flip-flops year round.  It's unhealthy.  Or so my Mom says..

~I, in turn, would like to share this award with some of my favorite bloggers!

Cookies and Cups is amazing.   She's funny, makes ridiculously delicious treats, and doesn't give two hoots about the calorie count!

Kristan from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen is hilarious.  Not only has she posted a picture of herself playing Twister with her son and pointed out her sweets laden "baby", she is an absolute riot.  Her goodies are gorgeous, her stories are funny, you'll have a blast over there!

Adryon from Adryon's Kitchen drops the F Bomb.  I dig that.  Her food always looks impeccable and I love her story.   Go check her out and you'll be hooked!

Farrah from Farrah's Kitchen was one of the first wonderful people to comment on my new blog.  Since then, I've had the pleasure of back and forth commenting and her dishes always looks fantastic!

Manni from iBake Cakes does some crazy fondant work and is a fellow Canadian.  Her treats always look impressive and so beautifully crafted.  She's got plenty of helpful tips and you won't leave disappointed!

Amanda from i am baker has the biggest heart!  Her cakes and treats are so beautifully crafted, it's inspiring.  I dare you to go look at some of her stuff and not want to re-create it. 

Buns In My Oven bakes with Nutella, which has practically been a food group since I was but a wee one.  Her recipes are amazing, everything looks delicious, and she's just all around awesome!

Haniela's blog never ceases to amaze me.  More often than not I am sitting here with a dropped jaw.  Delectable treats, beautiful photography, and stunning results will have you going back daily. 

Thanks to all of these ladies for keeping me on my toes and continually inspiring me, thank you to Trish for nominating me, and thank you to you, if you're reading. 

Trifecta...

The Holy Trinity...

 Armed with only a severe sweet craving, some cookie dough, brand new cupcake liners from my mama, and willing participants, I set to work. 

 As usual, I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe, filled my liners appropriately, and stuffed half with chocolate chip cookie dough as per a previous post, 6 with peanut butter cookie dough, and left 6 plain.

Once cooled, I frosted the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes with the cookie dough frosting from the same post, topped the peanut butter cookie cupcakes with the same frosting, only adding peanut butter to the icing and drizzling with peanut butter.

I then topped the plain chocolate with my whipped cream cheese frosting and leftover sponge toffee shards. 

A mixed dozen went to a lady I'd made a deal with on kijiji; offering her a dozen cupcakes of her choice for a dozen mason jars, in which I plan on making cupcakes and brownies.  Six went to my lovely neighbors, who are more than happy to be my guinea pigs, and six stayed here.  Our 6 are gone, lovingly devoured by my husband and babies. 

Cupcakes don't last long around these parts, guess I'm doing something right.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
1 pkg. Cream Cheese
1 C Butter
1 t. Clear Vanilla
4-5 C Icing sugar

~Whip butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. 
Add vanilla, beat again.
Add icing sugar, whipping until incorporated and at your preferred consistency.  (I like to pipe mine.)

Letting Go and Linkables...

While I work at creating printable links for all of my recipes, I thought I'd share a picture of this sexy beast. 

It was a special order for a co-worker of my husband and, I'm not gonna lie, it was hard to let go of.  I reeeeeeeeally wanted to keep it and eat the whole thing.  With a fork.  No plates, knives or napkins required. 

A moist, 4 layer, spiced carrot cake, topped with a whipped vanilla cream cheese frosting.  It was topped with roasted, sugared walnuts.  (I could have done without the nuts, but wouldn't have complained while it was getting in mah belleh.)

Enjoy.  With your eyes.  That's all I'm doing too. 

Wordless Wednesday

Peanut Butter Butter Tarts and Beautiful Boys...

Always in the mood for peanut butter, and frequently thinking about my mother's butter tarts, I decided to blend the two. 

Mine will never come close to Mom's, but I made these my own.  Rich and sweet, they bring back memories of my childhood.  Even now, at 30, I still ask her to make them when we're going to be together.  There's just something about baked goods from your mother that can't compare to anything else.  I'm convinced there's a little extra love baked in when she's making something for me.  I hope my boys feel the same about me and my baking when they grow up. 

The smell of sugar and warm chocolate, baking cakes or brownies, chocolate chip cookies and butter tarts.  I hope that in 30 years, when they're sitting in their homes, they smell something sweet and think of me; about the love that went into everything I made. 

Pâte Brisée (Short Crust Pastry)
Recipe Adapted Courtesy of Joy of Baking
(Printable Recipe)

1 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 Tablespoon White Sugar

1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/8 to 1/4 Cup Ice water

~The recipe on Joy of Baking called for the use of a food processor.  I have one but it just wouldn't work for me.  Go figure, two babies, why should anything be easy?  If you prefer the processor method, see the attached link. 

In a bowl, mix flour, salt, and sugar.  Cut in (I used a pastry cutter but you could use two butter knives) the chilled butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal, or small peas. 

Pour 1/8 cup of the ice water into your mixture and blend with your hands until the dough holds together when pinched between your fingers.  (You may need to add a little more water; I used almost the whole 1/4 Cup.)

 Gather the dough into a ball and then wrap in plastic wrap and flatten into a disk.  Put it in the fridge for at least an hour to chill the butter and relax the gluten in the flour. 

After your hour is up, place your dough on a lightly floured surface (I placed mine between two sheets of wax paper; less mess...  I'm all about less mess!) and roll it out until it's about 1/4" thick.  Cut it into 12 4" rounds.  (Make them big enough to fill your muffin tin cup; this allows maximum fillage!) 

Once you've filled your muffin cups, cover and put back in the fridge for half an hour or so while you make your filling. 

Peanut Butter Filling

1/3 C Butter (I used Salted, just personal preference)

1 C Light Brown Sugar

2 Large Eggs

1 t Vanilla

1/4 C light cream (half & half)

1/3-1/2 C Peanut Butter

*Optional additions of raisins or nuts

With an electric or hand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar.   Beat in your eggs, one at a time and then add your vanilla. 

Stir in the cream and peanut butter until mixture is smooth. 

*If you're using nuts or raisins, place a spoonful of them in the bottom of each shell.

Fill your unbaked shells with filling and then place in a 375° oven for 15-20 minutes or until shells have nicely browned and filling has set. 

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Share. 

If you dare.

Sass and Sponge Toffee..

Sometimes it just hits me.  Tonight, it was while I was cleaning up after supper; vaccuuming, picking up the tornado of toys, doing dishes, wiping yogurt and ketchup off of the dinner table and high chair.  I'm a mom.  Of two boys.  2 and 1. 

It hit me like a smack in the face.  I'm the boss of two little people.  They look to me for guidance (maybe I should stop eating dry Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or at the very least, share it.) and reassurance.  I host a wicked dance party.  I am a teacher, a jungle gym, a housekeeper, a bo-bo kisser, a potty trainer, a restaurateur, a hugger, a kisser, a pony, a locator of lost items, and a cuddle partner.  I am a jack of all trades.  I am a mother. 

After a particularly hellish day full of sass and tears, I remind myself of that.  Of how lucky I am.  Of how great they are.  That I AM teaching them (note to self: easy on the f-bomb), I AM doing an alright job. 

Enjoy these non-hellish chocolate covered sponge toffees.  Super easy to make, it won't even cut into your dance party time. 

Promise.

Sponge Toffee (Also called Angel Food Candy)
Recipe adapted from:  Allrecipes.com
(Printable Recipe)
1 Cup White Sugar
1 Cup Dark Corn Syrup
1 T White Vinegar

1 T Baking Soda

1/2 t Vanilla

3-4 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Butter a 9 x 13 in. baking dish. 

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, corn syrup, and vinegar.  Cook, stirring until all sugar is dissolved. 

Heat without stirring until the mixture reaches 300° on a candy thermometer.  If you don't have one, remove from heat when a small bit of syrup dropped into cold water forms hard, brittle threads. 

Remove from heat and stir in baking soda.  Mixture will expand and become light and airy. 

Explosion of delicious!

Pour into buttered pan but don't spread it, it probably won't fill the dish.

Yes, YES!

Allow it to cool completely before breaking into pieces. 

Yummy without chocolate too!

Melt your chocolate chips in the microwave or over a double boiler and dip your sponge toffee pieces in the chocolate.

Place on wax paper to set.  (I refrigerate to set quickly and then store in covered containers.)

Boys and Bacon...

Chicken Crescent Roll Pinwheels and Garlic Spaghetti

No matter how many times I open one, or how old I get, the *POP* of the Pillsbury can gets me every single time.  I always think I'm ready, but I'm not.  It doesn't matter if I dig the tip of the spoon in slowly, which, let's face it, only prolongs the agony, or if I jab it in fast.  The explosion of dough makes me jump. 

I've been on a "let's incorporate crescent rolls or biscuits or wiener wraps into every other meal" kick lately.  Mostly because they were on sale at the grocery store, but also because it's so friggin' easy and delicious and EVERYONE will eat it. 

I had a little helper in the kitchen for this particular concoction.  Always eager to help, Gabe pulled his little foot stool into the kitchen and got the party started.  Daddy had taken Oliver out on the town, so it was just the two of us. 

Before we did anything, we prepped our bacon.  Bacon tastes good with everything, doesn't it?  I think it's a scientific fact.  I bake our bacon.  It saves my stove top from needing to be scrubbed and it just tastes better.  (In my opinion.) 

My Bacon Boy.. 

While we waited for the bacon to bake, I poached two chicken breasts which would be shredded.  I also rolled out the dough and spread it with a delicious layer of cream cheese. 

It was time to chop the bacon but G had other plans...

Full slices would be better Mom...

The chicken was ready so we started to shred it.  Of course, my man helped!

Happy Helper!

To our dough, we also added green onion and cheese.  Everything needs cheese.  Cheese and bacon. 

And Cinnamon Toast Crunch. 

And Pepsi. 

Back to the meal..

Tell me this isn't a big ol' pile of delicious...

Once we piled our dough with everything we wanted, I rolled it up and put it in the fridge for a few minutes to firm it back up.  I then cut it into about 1/2" rounds and placed them on a baking sheet and into a 350° oven for about 13 minutes. 

My delicate placement method...Keep in mind, I had 2 year old help.

I paired our delicious meal with a side of garlic spaghetti and everybody ate happily.   I have no doubt that this wouldn't have tasted nearly as good had I not had my gorgeous helper in the kitchen. 

xo Gabe (and Mommy..)

Ruffles and Nuggets..

After our delicious multi-course meal and cheapo dessert from last night, I knew I'd get my ruffle cake done today.

After some cursing at my lack of a) a cake stand with domed top, b) a proper leveling tool, and c) a serious lack of eyeballing cake layering skills (due to being poked, prodded, and pulled on by two little people) I got the beauty layered and crumb coated. 

I cheated a little with this cake, I used a boxed French Vanilla cake mix and my own tried and true chocolate cake recipe. 

Tonight for supper we had a regal sampling of chicken nuggets, french fries, meatballs and gravy, and capped it off with my five layer ruffle cake. 

Not bad for my first time!

For the frosting, I tweaked (by eye) my standard buttercream.  Again, I'll attempt to list it out..

I needed a lot to fill layers, crumb coat, and ruffle so I doubled my usual cupcake amount. 

Buttercream

1 Lb Butter
2 T Vanilla
6-8 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2-2/3 C Heavy Whipping Cream
(Food Coloring if desired, I used Wilton Gel in Teal)

Whip butter until almost white, add vanilla. 
Add half the powdered sugar, whip well.
Add whipping cream until incorporated. 
Add more powdered sugar until you've reached your desired consistency. 
Add color.

Frost!  (I ruffled, but clearly preference is key. )

Enjoy, we're all in a sugar coma!

Lasagna and Layers...

Clearly I've kicked myself in the butt and started posting more...

Notsomuch..

This is my most recent attempt to relax for a minute, put my feet up, and blog.  I have a hard time sitting still, even when I have the actual opportunity. 

Tonight, I shall.

I made a nice hearty meal for supper last night as we had company and a "play date" with G's little friend.  You know, the one who cried the entire first time she visited?  She was good the second and third time, but yesterday was a complete meltdown situation.  She really needs to toughen up and learn to accept that G thinks he's Wolverine and he's gonna swipe the air around you.  Maybe your arm if you get too close. 

Ranch Buttermilk Biscuits, Yum!

Three layers of cheesy, meaty, cheesy, saucy goodness... Did I mention cheesy?

I had planned on making a layered ruffle cake to cap off the salad, lasagna, and rolls I'd prepared and I got the cakes baked; they just wouldn't be cooled in time for splitting.   I had been admiring this cake over at i am baker and knew I wanted to try it  (Minus all the beautiful things going on on the inside, I'm not ready for that yet..)  I believe it originally came from Martha (Really, what doesn't..) and it's been adapted, changed, tweaked, and finally made ones own. 

Instead, I whipped up an easy butterscotch, peanut butter marshmallow square. 



I usually eyeball it, but here's the rundown.  (More or less..)

PB and Butterscotch Squares
(Printable Recipe)

1 Bag Butterscotch Chips
3/4 C Smooth Peanut Butter

1 T Butter

4-5 C Mini Marshmallows

Grease a 9 x 13 dish with butter. 

In a microwave safe bowl, melt peanut butter, butter, and chips for 1 minute intervals until it all melts together and is smooth.

Dump marshmallows in bowl and toss until coated. 

Pour everything into greased pan, press down, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Cut into squares.

Devour!

I'll post my ruffles in a few!