Game Day

source: unknown

I'm a fan of the Super Bowl. I like the party, food, & fun. I usually don't have a vested interest in the teams playing (unless my hubby's or dad's team is playing) so I generally look forward to sitting around and chatting with "the girls". This year's highlight for me is the half-time show. The last time I was looking forward to the half-time show was when Janet Jackson was headlining!


In honor of this year's festivities I'm hoping to try out some new game day recipes!

- Every good party needs a good dip! And this bacon double cheeseburger dip fits the bill! I plan on serving this with tortilla chips and watching it disappear.

- I'm a fan of one dish pasta's although I'm used to cooking them in a sauce of some sort like spaghetti or alfredo. This is different and looks like a crowd pleaser:

3/4 bag ziti noodles,1 lb of ground beef, 1 pkg taco seasoning, 1cup water, 1/2 pkg cream cheese, 1 1/2 cup shredded cheese -- boil pasta until just cooked, brown ground beef drain, mix taco seasoning 1 cup water w/ ground beef for 5 min, add cream cheese to beef mixture, stir until melted remove from heat, put pasta in casserole dish, mix in 1 cup cheese, top pasta/cheese with beef mixture gently mix, top w/ remaining cheese, bake at 350* uncovered for 15-20 minutes

- What's party without dessert?! And this cake comes with lots of team spirit! This looks easy enough to duplicate any time. Start with your favorite cake recips then spice it up using food coloring with coordinating team colors. The best part is - it works for any sport, any season!

- I've been to a few parties that had a specialty drink of the evening- our wedding included :) This recipe for sweet tea has a secret ingredient that I can't wait to try. I don't drink soda so this is right up my alley, however something tells me that the guys are going to be going for something a little stronger.


So now... I'm going to go put together my grocery list and here's to hoping that I can get it done!

Do you attend any Superbowl parties? Are you looking forward to Beyonce's performance or are you wishing she would disappear right about now? If you have any party recipes please share!

Strawberry cheese...cake

I like to make dessert about once a week. It gives me the opportunity to let me inner dessert diva come out AND dessert is my favorite meal of the day :) So, I present to you my take on strawberry cheese...cake.

Normally, when I bake it's not really a well thought out and put together plan. I usually decide what to make at the last minute based on whatever craving I have plus some pinspiration. That in turn often leaves me scrambling at the last minute to really pull off something presentable. I'm known for making an cake and not putting any icing on it because I didn't have the energy or ingredients to make the icing. I know, I could always use the store bought icing but call me a icing snob if you will- I don't like store bought icing and never use it.

Source: food2please.com via The Mrs. on Pinterest

This week my main force behind dessert was pinspired. For whatever reason the link from Pinterest was broken and when I googled the source the search results only led back to Pinterest. So I could only go on the notes included with the pin:

                                      "This was on Dr. Oz… very cool! Cake Mix + Fat-Free Greek Yogurt
                                      180 calories per serving – never baking with eggs and oil again!
                                      *Pinners Note: THIS WORKS!! 1c chobani vanilla yogurt + 1 Betty
                                      Crocker cake mix + 1c water"

I wasn't about to go researching to see if it was really on Dr. Oz or not so I just went with it. I figured if it came out bad it would be a lesson learned. Although I have seen a conversion table for Greek yogurt to ingredients that are less healthy. So I figured the cake would minimally bake- how it will taste would be determined.

Source: chobani.com via The Mrs. on Pinterest

So, my trusty helper and I set out on this new baking project. Since there were only 3 ingredients to the cake I didn't even pull out my stand mixer. I love that thing but sometimes I hate cleaning it. I whipped up the batter by hand which I haven't done in years and I used my 'little' cake pans so that I would be sure that it would be gone after a few slices. Popped it in the oven and let it do it's thing. When I took it out it was very light and fluffy and I could tell it was moist! I tried a few crumbs and was quite pleased with the results.

Then came my dreaded icing issue. I have a few go to icing recipes that I like but some of those take some forward thinking like room temperature butter. Well not only was my butter not room temp- it was frozen solid. I keep tons of butter in my freezer so that I know I'll have some on hand for baking. It'd be nice to give myself advanced warning as to when I'll need it so that I can let it thaw ahead of time.


Here momma use this!

I ended up using a cream cheese filling recipe as icing. Hence strawberry cheese...cake. Clever, right? Okay- you can stop laughing. After the cake cooled and it was filled, frosted, and my helper put to bed I tasted it. And... it wasn't too bad! It was in fact very moist but also very dense. I prefer light and fluffy cake but hubby- he loves dense cake so this.....

 ... was a winner. And writing this post has made several things clear to me. I'm not a good dessert planner, I really want to finish the Wilton cake decorating course, and I'm a horrible food photographer.

And my sous chef... he'll get to taste test tomorrow :)

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Weekend Wrap-Up

I really feel like these two day weekends aren’t sufficient- especially when they are jam packed with things to do.

I consider the start of the weekend on Friday as soon as you get to your car at your place of work. I use that rationale in hopes that adding those few extra hours sometimes will help to make the weekend seem longer. But alas! It usually doesn’t L

I got up on Saturday morning to bake some confectionery treats. My current project is cake pops. I’m practicing these because I have a few events coming up in which a dessert table may be involved and considering my love of baking, I’d rather do the dessert table myself than pay a baker to do it. I was able to do the batter and put the cake in the oven. After it was done I set it aside to cool. We then took the baby to see his Grandma (hubby’s mom). She hasn’t seen him since Christmas so she was very, very excited. Once we got home my parents came over and hung out for a little bit so my baby boy was on grandparent overload. That evening I was able to attempt to finish the process. Problem is something went terribly wrong. Actually the cake itself was pretty good (according to my husband and parents) it’s the decorating that gets me every time. I didn’t document my progress in pictures (on purpose) but here is the finished product:

I’m not exactly happy with the finished product. So basically, I know what went wrong (the shaping of the balls and the stupid candy melts). Essentially I need to keep practicing. My hubby took the defects to work (why must he torture me) so I’m sure they will have some sort of feedback. I’m also going to force them down my family’s throat this weekend. So more practice for me! At first I wanted to give up and just pay the baker to do it for these upcoming events but then I would be seething the whole time declaring ‘I just know I could have done this myself!’

On Sunday, we started our day at church. I had bought my handy dandy little notebook to take notes about this week’s lesson. My Sunday school class is the best- and we always have a good lesson that I usually have intentions of sharing with you all. It’s really sad but I usually can’t remember too deep into the lesson which is partly why I want to start writing it down. I can tell you that we are currently studying Galatians though. My church celebrates Black History Month… hard. We have an African American Heritage committee that puts together events for the month. Yesterday was Youth Sunday. One of the young (18 years) men gave the sermon. With so many of our young boys going to jail instead of college this was so refreshing to see. It was also dress down Sunday. My church is very big on come as you are- no church hats and suits needed. So we have dress down Sunday several times to make everyone feel comfortable. That “I don’t have anything to wear” excuse doesn’t fly with us. After church they hosted the ‘Not so Newlywed’ game. Guess who were contestants #4… Yep! Me and the hubby!!!

Let me tell you … I was so nervous about this. First, I am a little competitive. I feel like sometimes it’s my downfall too. I’m constantly having these imaginary competitions against myself- for no reason at all! Second, my hubby and I were married the least. We were competing against the Pastor and the ‘first fella’ (yup, we have a female pastor- and I love her do much!). They have been married for 53 years!!! OMG! PRESSURE! The other two couples were married 23 years and 15 years. Hubby and I have 3 years, 4 months and 3 days under our belt. And… My husband would tease me incessantly if I didn’t know the answer to a simple question about him. He often claims that he knows me better than I know him. So, once we were asked to participate. I started grilling him on things that I thought were potential questions…

‘What’s my favorite Bible verse?’

‘What’s my favorite color?’

‘What’s my favorite food?’

I went on and on with these questions for a few days. Then I sort of fizzled out. Then we had a meeting about the game. We went over rules, answered some basic questions like how long have you been married, and were assured that nothing sexual would be bought into the game. Well during this meeting they gave us an example question of ‘what’s the color of your spouse’s toothbrush?’ and oh goodness I did not know the answer. NOW… it’s a whole different ball game. How was I going to “study” questions like these?!

The game was played like the traditional Newlywed game where the wives were escorted out the room while the husband’s answered questions. Then we were bought back in. Then we swapped and did it again. After two rounds, a bonus question, and lots of pressure….

We won!!!!

And our grand prize:

This is a highly coveted cake in my church. Seriously, best.pound.cake.ever. I really wish you could taste a piece.

And I must say he got 2 of my predictions wrong (although one of those were a mere technicality) and I got all of his predictions right J so now we know who knows who better. And I will take all of my shoes, put them in the living room so he can count them- and then make him put it back!

Craving: Cheescake

I get cravings for sweets every now and then. Actually I don't think the day is complete without dessert. Any dessert will do... cakes, pies, cookies, ice cream...whatever. This is what started my love of baking. One day I needed to have some dessert and I've been trying my hand at DIY dessert ever since. But I digress...

Cheesecake is a one of a kind experience. Some people like it dense, some people like it creamy. Some people like toppings others like it plain. Personally, I like creamy, moist (as if cheesecake could be dry?), not too much crust with just the right right amount of fruit topping and lots of whipped cream cheesecake (whew!).

I had a craving for cheesecake. We know what happens when I have a craving. So I made a cheesecake. Actually I made 12 cheesecakes... hear me out.

I love to bake but I'm not that stellar at it. I mean I've never anything inedible but that doesn't mean everything I make it going to be fantastic. So when I try a new recipe I make a little bit. Just in case it's nasty there won't be a lot of it going to waste. Enter 12 cheesecakes. Okay, okay they weren't 12 WHOLE cheesecakes (a mere technicality) but rather mini cheesecakes. I got the recipe from a cupcake book my mom gave me.

I started out pretty good but nervous because this was my first time baking a cheesecake.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 lb. cream cheese room temp
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 sour cream
2 large eggs room temp
3 tbsp all-purpose flour




I don't want to post the directions because I'm sure it would be copyright infringement, but I followed them to a 'T'. I was careful to do so because I needed to get the recipe right before I could make my own variations. But somehow...

They caved. That's right it sank in the middle. After consulting Betty Google Crocker I learned that sometimes {whole} cheesecakes can crack and split. Which I guess is what kind of happened. But still there was a big void in the middle of my mini cheesecakes. Take a closer look:

Yea. Big hole. In the grand scheme of things it's not really that big of a deal because I could cover it up with decoration. I have some suspicions though. One of which may be the actual ingredients. I used frozen cream cheese. That has to do with my couponing obsession.

See... pretty. Clearly I'll have to work on cheesecake baking. But more importantly how did it taste?

Heavenly, divine, delightfully delish... okay I'm out of adjectives but you get my point. It was really good. At first I was a little skeptical because I prefer my cheesecake creamy. Don't get me wrong, it was by no means dry, but the not so creaminess didn't really hold a lot of weight because it was THAT good. The only other person to taste test this was my husband. He said it was good too. I believe him even though he says anything I bake is good. I made cheesecake poppers with the left over batter from the 12 mini cakes... he's already eaten all but 5. I am going to get in a little more practice then I plan to take this to a whole new level. There are a few events coming up in which I want to unveil my new found dessert. I already have a TON of ideas brewing in my head but you may just have to wait and see for that.

Craving: Oatmeal Raisin cookies

I think the Dessert Diva is back. But I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. About a week or so ago, I had a craving for oatmeal cookies. I never did get any but I did get around to making some this past Thursday. I've always loved to bake and I believe I've only baked once or twice since I found out I was pregnant. It's been a combination of just not feeling like it and one of my incidents. I hope to get around to doing more baking especially as the weather gets cooler out and I am not baking myself along with my delectable treats.

My first bake- alone baking experience that I can remember was a box cake. I thought it cam out really well and my family ate it so it must have been worth something. That was sometime prior to August of 2005 because I remember cutting my grandma a slice to taste because she is a cake goddess. Since then I've taken an interest not only in baking but sort of cultivating that so I can enjoy dessert anytime I'd like. I think dessert is the finishing touch to everyday and couldn't imagine life without it!

So after I woke up from my afternoon nap I got out my cookbook and got to work. I used a recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I bought that for my hubby one day because he is the head chef in our house and requested it after tasting a few recipes that a friend of his made from there. I think I may have used it more than he has as a baking reference. Part of cultivating my talent is learning how to bake from scratch. Don't get me wrong, Sometimes you need a quick and easy bake job and I am not opposed to used boxed mixes for anything- but even then I always doctor up box cake mix recipes to make them more appealing.

So here's the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350^oF

Whisk together:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon grated or ground nutmeg

Beat in a large bowl until well blended:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup sugar

1 ½ cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Stir in the flour mixture. Stir in:

1 cup raisins, chopped

3 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Shape the dough into generous 1 ½-inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Flatten the balls into ½-inch-thick rounds. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookies are lightly browned all over, 12 to 14 minutes. Let stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool.

Here were my slight variations. I didn't do many as this was first time making them so I had to see how they came out before I could know what to tweak- if anything needs tweaking at all.

- I used salted butter rather than unsalted. I think it may have cut some of the sweetness of so much sugar and definitely altered the nutrition content in some way.

- I over measured on the salt. I didn't realize I put in ¾ teaspoon instead of ½ teaspoon until after I dumped it in the bowl. So clearly these cookies will have way more salt than necessary but I don't think this affected the taste in a negative way- my official taste tester hubby said so. My mom always said to be careful when cooking (and this applies to baking as well) you can always add but you can't take away- so true!

- I held back on some of the raisins. The first batch I put on the cookie sheet didn't have raisins at all. I didn't add them until that batch was in the oven. First, I'm not a fan of raisins and second my craving was oatmeal cookies- I only considered raisins because a) it's the traditional cookie and b) it's my dad's second favorite cookie.

- I used old-fashioned oats rather than rolled oats. I'm not sure if there is a difference I don't think it altered the taste but it was my first try so who knows!

- I baked the cookies for only 10 minutes. I'm not a fan of hard cookies so they HAD to be soft so I reduced the cooking time.

I think they came out pretty well. Especially for my first attempt at cookies from scratch. We'll see how the masses likes them

Weekend Wrap-up

Just as I thought- another great weekend :)

We never made it to the beach on Saturday- it rained all.day.long.

My cousin's baby shower was absolutely lovely :) There was food, games, and partying. My cousin's girlfriend is Dominican and baby showers are celebrated a little differently. First, it was held at 8pm... I should have taken a nap that afternoon... second, it is a party of sorts- a DJ, buffet style food, etc. and lastly, she didn't open any gifts :( I love watching mama's-to-be open shower gifts. They traditionally open gifts the next day with close family and friends. I know how much controversy that would cause in American customs but it is what it is.




The cake- which was a traditional dominican dulce de leche

Then, yesterday was my brother's graduation!!!! I dedicated yesterday's post to him and the entire class of 2011. I have been waiting for this for a while. The only thing that sucked was that it started at 8 am (I don't even have to be at work that early) and it was raining. Of course neither of those stopped the party tho'. I'm not sure if commencement officials expect the graduates to pay attention or not- but I don't think they were especially considering I was texting my brother the entire time (and so were his friends and a few other family members) and there are reports of him twittering (I don't do twitter-fb is enough for me). At my college graduation they did not call our names individually but each graduates name was scrolling on the jumbo tron in the arena. Well my brother not only got his name called out loud but each graduate got a 4 second message on the jumbo tron along with a picture and he dedicated his space to us!!! Very sweet.

So after the graduation we took a million pictures in the rain and then went to lunch. Anyone who knows my brother (or anyone in family) knows that lunch was a debacle. My brother's first task as a graduate was to pick a restaurant of his choice for lunch and of course he chose a restaurant that was closed. So, we spent 15 minutes in the car, in the rain calling every restaurant in the tri-state area to see who was open and who could accommodate 11 people for lunch (his friends opted-opt and I don't blame them, so it was just family). Then my his phone died and of course he needs to receive all of his congratulatory text messages, phone calls, tweets, and fb posts- so we drove by his apartment to get his car charger (which was actually no biggie because it was 2 minutes from the arena but I had to add it in there for the dramatic effect). Then we finally arrive at lunch (a nearly 30 minute drive away) and the waiter decided that we should wait hours for bread! Okay, maybe not hours but to a hungry pregnant woman any minute is a minute too long. I mean we did call ahead and notified them we were coming- they could have had it on the table already (is that too much to ask?? okay maybe it is but that's not the point!) My brother LOVES Italian food so we ended up at the Macaroni Grill. Delicious.

After lunch we had to have celebratory cake. What's a celebration without cake?? So do you remember these from my shopping spree:

Well those delicious squares of chocolate was a part of my master plan:

My brother's graduation cupcakes! Yes, I am a dessert diva-in-training. I love to bake and I use my family as guinea pigs. I love dessert (it's the best part of any meal) and therefore I love to make dessert. Not to brag but I can make a great tasting cake/cupcake at anytime so i am honing on decorating. I have taken cake decorating classes (although I haven't finished the series yet) and that along with a little internet inspiration I was able to do this! Everybody loved them and there is none left to prove it.


To be honest I could have used a little bit of time added on to the weekend (no surprise there) even though I didn't even go to work yesterday. This Friday starts half-day Friday's at work and I am sooo excited!!! I was hoping with rising costs we would get the whole day off as many of our "competitors" do but I'll take what I can get because most companies only observe casual Fridays. I think that I may never work a full Friday for the remainder of 2011 because my maternity leave will start just as we return to full day Friday's (that is if all goes to plan and I understood our human resources person correctly). There's nothing else on my schedule for this weekend but I'm sure I'll find something to change that :)