Cooking with Amy: Christmas Cookie Edition

Each December, Everyday Mom and I have a baking day. We make fudge, Russian tea cakes, 7 layer cookies, spritz, and sometimes I make gingerbread men.

This year there weren't many weekends in December before Christmas and everyone is trying to eat less cookies. So Everyday Mom made fudge and we forwent all the rest. Instead I made Saltine toffee and pretzel, Hershey kiss buttons to bring to work.

First up, the Saltine toffee which I first made with T. It is super delicious and with just four ingredients, it is super easy to make. You melt a stick of butter and a cup of brown sugar and stir until it boils.

Line up your Saltines in an OCD like fashion.

Pour the butter/sugar mixture over the top and pop it into the oven for just 5 minutes.

Dump a bag of chocolate chips on top and wait until they get all shiny. 

Spread the chocolate chips out and sprinkle some Saltine dust on top.

Chill and break into pieces. Then nom away.

Share with others if you are so inclined.

Cooking with Amy: Applesauce

Everyday Dad picked up a peck? a bushel? LOTS of apples from the great state of Maine and I thought I'd make a little applesauce.

In true Amy fashion, I Googled recipes and got overwhelmed that they were all different. So I did what any good cook would do, I just threw a bunch of stuff in the pot without measuring anything and hoped for the best.

Prep time 10 minutes. HA! They obviously have not met me. It took at least 25 minutes to peel and cut up the apples. At first, I cut the apple into slices then peeled each individual slice. I quickly realized that it wasn't the most efficient way to skin apples.

Everyday Dad then schooled me on the proper way to skin an apple.

He skinned the entire apple in two strips!

FYI: This is how I skin apples. #Fail.

After all the peeling and chopping, I filled up a sauce pan...

Threw in some water, cinnamon, and brown sugar and set it to simmer.

As the apples got all smushy, I wondered what this food mill thing all the recipes talked about was. Turns out, Everyday Mom owned one. I had to wash it well as it was full of dust.

I dumped the lumpy applesauce in and cranked and cranked and cranked and NOTHING WAS HAPPENING!

Turns out I was spinning it the wrong way. Oops!

The applesauce was delicious and I felt good about it being homemade but my god it took a long time to make. Definitely something to make in large quantities!

  

Cooking with Amy: Ranch Chicken Strips

Often I pin super yummy looking things without actually making them. As the year winds down and it grows colder, I am more inclined to use my oven than I was over the summer.

My first attempt was Ranch Chicken Strips. You crush cornflakes and mix them with some Parmesan cheese and a packet of ranch dressing mix. They were supposed to look like this:

Surprise, surprise...mine look like this:

Several things went wrong:

1. I forgot to coat them in the milk/egg mixture before covering them in the cornflake mixture. So I dumped them out of the cornflake mixture into the milk/egg mixture then back into the cornflake mixture.

2. I didn't grease the tin foil before baking so one side looks yummy and the other side in naked because the crust stuck to the tin foil. Woops.

3. I was planning on flipping them halfway through but I got distracted by Hocus Pocus.

They don't look like much but they taste delicious. So I'm gonna toss some spaghetti and zucchini in the sauce that I impulse bought at Target and nom away.

Cooking with Amy: Pretzel, Hershey Kiss, M&M Things

Because of the impending hurricane, I am cooking everything I own in case I lose power for like 3 weeks. (I love how everyone runs to the grocery store before a big storm not realizing if they are without power for several days all their food will A) spoil and B) have to be eaten uncooked.)

First up, were these pretzel, Hershey Kiss, M&M things that don't have a proper name.

I had seen them floating around Pintrest but when K brought them to her own goodbye party, I was hooked. I figured pretzels and chocolate might as well be hurricane staples so I whipped some up today.

What it is about grid shaped pretzels that make them so much more delicious than regular heart shaped ones?

Make sure to keep your mouth full of M&M's so you don't eat any of the Hershey Kisses because you will run out of them before the pretzels or M&M's.

Line them all up like tiny witch's hats and pop them into a preheated oven (somewhere between 150-300 degrees. I went for 250 degrees.) After just 3ish minutes they come out all shiny and soft.

Based on the holiday or season in which you are baking, choose the correct color palate of M&Ms. Carefully press them into the melted Hershey Kiss until the M&M looks all snuggly. Cool and nom.

  

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Have you ever watched a kid eat an apple for an entire hour? That's what I spent my morning doing.

Today Johnny Appleseed celebrated his 238th birthday! For whatever reason, this is a holiday at my school. The principal/superintendent dresses up as Johnny Appleseed (complete with a metal pot on his head), reads a book about Johnny Appleseed, and hands out apples to every kid in school.

The kids were so jazzed about who had the biggest apple or the shiniest apple. A select few then proceeded to take an hour to eat their apples. They licked it and nibbled it until their arms, hands, and table tops were sticky with apple juice. Fun times in third grade.

Conveniently, our leveled reader that accompanied Mulan was about Johnny Appleseed. So the kidlets got to hear two Johnny Appleseed stories today.

And because today was a holiday of apples...I totally dressed the part!

Cooking With Amy: Bridal Shower Edition

The day after the bachelorette shenanigans, we threw a bridal shower for S. I was in charge of invites and party favors. I created the invite using Picasa (because I'm too poor and impatient for Photoshop) and printed them up as photos. I mounted them to some party pink paper and mailed them on their way.

For the party favor, I wanted to make mason jar cupcakes because they are all the rage on Pintrest. I got some fancy quilted mason jars and washed them up all clean.

I used some of the wedding pinwheel paper to make the lids extra cute. 

Next, I affixed a LOVE IS SWEET label...

I baked regular sized, lemon cupcakes and made lots of vanilla buttercream frosting. After the cupcakes cooled, I cut them in half horizontally so I could fit 1.5 cupcakes in each mason jar. Then I layered like a pro. Cupcake half, frosting, cupcake half, frosting, etc. 

Next, I sprinkled the candy heart sprinkles.

Screwed on the fancy, flower lids...

And at long last, I attached a spoon to the jar with a ribbon. They were a bit hit!

 At the shower, we ate lots of food, and cuddled sleepy babies.

Played the Newlywed Game where S admitted her dream vacation would be to Harry Potter World. 

And the happy couple opened date night presents. Good times were had by all!

Back to the Catching Up

I got to play Maid of Honor this summer for the BFF and it was so much fun!

A couple weekends before the wedding some bachelorette shenanigans took place. As we are more mature ladies (i.e. not 23 year olds) and I was the only non mother/mother-to-be the shenanigans were quite tame.

We dressed up fancy...

And started with S's and my FIRST PEDICURE EVER! And let me tell you, it was wonderful!

S and E surprised the bride-to-be. S brought the champagne and E brought the zebra mumu!

 After we all had our nails did, we headed to dinner at The Melting Pot which was super fancy. Figuring out how to order was the most complicated thing ever but it was WELL worth it.

The drinks were also super fancy but MUCH easier to order.

We started with a Boston Lager cheese fondue course which was gooey enough to clog arteries and stop hearts but delicious enough to risk it. We moved on the the main course where you actually cook the meat and veggies in the broth. There were so many rules...don't let this touch, cook that for this long.

The plates were an OCD person's dream!

S worked her fondue fork like a pro!

 Last and most delicious was the chocolate fondue dessert course. We dipped strawberries and bananas and brownies and pound cake and rice krispie treats in pure, melted chocolate. It was heaven.

BFFL's!

   
 

Cooking with Amy: Sunflower Cupcake Edition

Last weekend I had a compulsion to bake. So I jetted to the store to buy the ingredients for sunflower cupcakes...but then...instead of baking, I just ate the oreos.

Fast forward to five days later and I once again headed to the store to buy the ingredients for sunflower cupcakes (a.k.a oreos).

First, I whipped up a batch of from-the-box chocolate cupcakes. And I (think) I've learned my lesson about using bowls that are too small for the task. I invested in some bigger Kitchen Aid bowls so I can mix until my heart is content.

My whole apartment smelled like cupcake! It was glorious.

After they cool, you cut a cone shape out of the top of each cupcake. Thus, you are left with a bowl of cupcake middles. What to do with them?

Put a dab of icing in the hole then shove an Oreo into the depths of the cupcake.

Then you whip up some green icing and make some leaves. Don't worry if they are messy/ugly because you are going to cover them with yellow.

Finally, make a whole lot of yellow leaves. They look best in layers but no need to worry if they are neat or if others could make them look better. People will still be impressed with your baking skills because they are so cute and cheery!

Then nom them until you feel sick. P.S. they are super messy to eat because when you take a bite they pretty much collapse because you cut the middle out of the cupcake. It's best to just try to shove as much of the cupcake in your mouth as possible.