Addicted

I have an addiction to cooking and baking. I am always thinking about what I am going to make next. I look through cookbooks and cooking blogs to find my next "fix." I don't know what it is but I love to do it. The other day I was looking at the cakes on Food Network's Web site and I found one I am dying to make. It is a ice cream cookie cake. It is cookies and cream ice cream sandwiched between two layers of chocolate cake and topped off with ganache. Does that sound amazing or what? I wanted to go home and make it right away. However, I realized that I had no reason to make it and to make it for just me and Jonny seem kind of silly. So my solution to not making that cake? Make this one instead!

I made a chocolate cake mix and then added coconut. I made the cake at about 10:30 pm so I let the cake cool overnight (I like to stick it in the freezer, I think it makes it easier to frost) and then decorated it the next day. I think it turned out kind of pretty. I just used chocolate frosting then topped it off with coconut. After I made it, I realized I still had a cake for just me and Jonny. However, this one didn't seem quite as crazy because it didn't have the layer of ice cream. But it's still an entire cake! So if you are in the Provo area and want cake come see me. haha

I told you I'm addicted. I figure there are worse things to be addicted to. I guess I should be happy I enjoy cooking and baking since it is an important part of having a family. If you have any recipes send them my way! Recipes for anything, not just cake.

Happy "Birthday" Dave!

My cousin David's birthday was a few weeks ago and I wanted to make him dinner and cake but he was in California for his birthday so we celebrated on Sunday. We had a BBQ at a park. We had burgers, potato salad and cupcakes. Luckily the weather was nice, cloudy but still warm. It was lots of fun. I was lame and forgot to take pictures of all of us. I did, however, take pictures of the cupcakes. I have been wanting to make these for a few months now and Dave's birthday gave me the perfect excuse. They are Bakerella's s'mores cupcakes (recipe here). You put graham cracker cake on the bottom, then you put in half a marshmallow, then put chocolate cake on top of that. You top it off with a graham cracker and brown sugar crumble and bake. Once it is cooled you put on chocolate ganache, a marshmallow and more of the graham cracker topping. I think they turned out well. Very yummy and I just thought it was a fun idea! So here are are some pictures.

Before the ganache and marshmallows.

Most of the marshmallow melts away but some of it comes to the top. You can see it in the picture below.

And the final product. Yummy!

Jonny's S'mores

On Saturday Jonny and I were trying to decide what to do and I was talking about s'more cupcakes that I had been wanting to try and then Jonny had a great idea... S'mores brownies! So I suggested that we go ahead and make them. I'm always looking for an excuse to bake/cook. We just made it up as we went and it turned out amazing! (I can say that because Jonny did most of the baking.)

What you'll need:

1. One 13 oz. jar of Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme
2. One 2.3 oz. box of Betty Crocker Fudge Brownies brownie mix
3. 2/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
4. Two eggs
5. One 14.4 oz. box of Honey Maid Honey Graham Crackers (3 plastic packages)
6. Six tablespoons of butter
7. 1/3 Cup of Sugar

We started with a graham cracker crust. Crust Ingredients: 1/3 cup of sugar, 6 T melted butter and 1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker (about 1 1/2 of the Honey Maid Graham Crackers plastic packages.)

Mix the sugar and ground graham crackers together, then add the melted butter (it's easier to mix the dry ingredients first).

Press the mixture firmly into a 9x13 pan. You can put parchment paper on the bottom of the pan to make removal easier, but it's not necessary.

Bake the crust for 7 mins at 350.

While the crust is baking, prepare brownie batter according to the instructions on the box.

Once the crust is done pour the brownie batter over the graham cracker crust and bake it according to the time and heat instructions on the brownie box.

Now comes the hard part. Let the brownies cool slightly, then spread about 1/2 to 2/3 of the marshmallow creme over the *warm* brownies. You still want the brownies to be slightly warm so the marshmallow creme will soften and spread easier.

Then, crumble more graham crackers (another 1 1/2 plastic packages) until you have cracker pieces that are roughly the size of a penny. Then, evenly spread the cracker pieces over the entire surface until thoroughly covered (may not use all of the crumbled pieces). You may need to press the pieces into the marshmallow creme a little bit, otherwise they may not stick.

Then cut, eat, and enjoy.

Cabbage and Kielbasa

Last week one of our meals for the week was a favorite of Jonny's family: cabbage and kielbasa. It was delicious. We thought we would share the recipe. You need a box of the multicolored rotini, a large head of cabbage, a pound of polska kielbasa, butter, salt, and pepper. You start by cooking the pasta (just using the box directions.)

While the pasta is cooking cut up the cabbage. It should be "bite sized" pieces. Put this into a skillet with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Cook over medium heat. It needs to be stirred often but keep it covered when not stirring. This keeps the moisture in the cabbage. While the cabbage is cooking cut up the kielbasa. Cut off the ends of the kielbasa. To save time cut the kielbasa in half, length wise, then into half circles. They should be about half a cm thick or less.

Once the cabbage has become tender and has become slightly translucent it is time to mix all the ingredients together.

When all the ingredients are mixed together add more butter (up to 4 tablespoons, but it just depends on how much you like.) At this point you add 1/2 a teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste. DO NOT add the salt before this point. If you add the salt to the cabbage too early it will suck out the moisture. That is it. Serve and enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day!

I don't know why but I love St. Patrick's Day. I just think it is fun- dressing in green, eating corned beef and cabbage. This year I was working until 6 so I wasn't sure how I was going to make the corned beef. I found a recipe to make it in the crock pot. I was a little nervous but it worked out really well. I just realized that I totally forgot to cook the cabbage! I'm not sure that anyone else would be sad about not having cabbage but I am. At least I had potatoes and carrots that were cooked with it. Ashley made rolls that were delicious. It was a very good meal. I am happy it turned out well.

Karleigh and Kirstin in their St. Patty's Day green!

Ashley and I

Jonny cutting the corned beef.

Jonny and I relaxing after a big meal.

Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day! Now I can look forward to corned beef leftovers. Maybe I'll remember to make cabbage to go with leftovers!

My Man's Birthday!

Birthday number three... Jonny! Jonny's birthday was on Friday. I had to work in the morning but had the rest of the day off. I had decided to attempt a 14-layer cake for his birthday cake. I got the recipe from Bakerella (found here.) I was really nervous about it working and tasting good. Luckily I had Karleigh to help me. Thank you to her I wouldn't be able to do it alone. Unfortunately, Jonny had an Econ test and Stats homework to do on his birthday, but at least that kept him occupied while I baked. Basically you make a massive amount of batter (it barely fit in my biggest bowl) and then scoop it into 14 pie tins.

We baked for at a time and it is only 12 mins each so it didn't take too long.

Then you make the chocolate icing. This was the scary part for me I was worried I would scorch it or something. At one point it almost boiled over. And then you start stacking and stacking and stacking, layering icing in between. No they are not pancakes.

Now according to the recipe the picture below is what it looks like done but like Bakerella I didn't like the look so I added frosting.

Jonny took a break from school work and we went out to dinner with Kirstin. Then we came back to my place and Katie came over for presents and cake.

He got clothes from my parents and me, an N64 game from Katie and a game from Kirstin. Kirstin and I had fun wrapping her present to him. We used three different wrapping papers and went around it 3 times with each. Showing off all the paper and his present.

Then time for cake. I couldn't wait for him to cut into it! He gets his wish!

And here it is, 14-layers...

It actually worked! It tasted good too! None of us could even finish a piece though!

On Saturday we went to dinner with a bunch of his cousins. I had texted them all the week before to get them together for a birthday dinner. We went to Rumbi at The Gateway. It was so much fun! I think we were done with dinner after about 30 mins but we we hung out talking for like 3 hours.

I think overall he had a pretty good birthday. One year older and wiser!

New Recipe

Yesterday I was trying to decide what to make for dinner tonight. I decided I would try making biscuits and gravy. I found a recipe that was made with sausage and so that was what I was going to do. Then my mom told me she made pan fried chicken and gravy, a meal I have always loved. So I changed it to chicken instead. I was a little nervous to try it but it turned out pretty well.

Browning the chicken.

Cutting the biscuits without a cookie cutter. I used a can top and cut around it, kind of ghetto but it worked. I was just going to use the Grands biscuits but I decided to go all out.

The finished biscuits. The last two I just did as drop biscuits so they aren't as pretty.

The finished product. (The picture isn't great.)

The chicken turned out really well and so did the biscuits. Sadly the gravy wasn't amazing. It needed to be a little more flavorful. On the bright side I can easily remedy that for the next time. It is one that I will definitely have to try again.

I meant to post...

This post is dedicated to a few things that I meant to post and for one reason or another never got around to it. I really don't have any excuse for not updating I just haven't. So here goes...

I like my new apartment a lot but there are things that are worn out and not very pretty. The lamp shade in my room was one of those things. It was hideous! One day I just got sick of looking at it and I was feeling crafty so I transformed it into this...

Sorry it is slightly blurry but you get the idea. It matches the plastic drawers in my room that I covered to make it look cleaner.

Next, a few weeks ago I got an email from the man I interviewed with for an internship with the LDS Church offering me tickets to conference. I may not have gotten the job but I did get good seats. So Jonny, Karleigh, Kirstin and I went out for the Sunday afternoon session. It was really cool to be there, I had never been before.

This was taken from our seats.

This last one is from tonight. I had leftover pumpkin filling from making pumpkin cookies so I decided to make muffins. I just went to the internet to find a recipe and I was very happy with it so I thought I would share. I got it from this website. It is really easy and really yummy! The only problem with this recipe is it only makes 12 muffins!

I would also like to add that I'm really happy Fall is here. I love making all these pumpkin things and having the smell of spices. I like getting to get out my long-sleeved shirts and sweaters. The trees are starting to change and Halloween is coming. My only problem is this year it got really cold, really fast. It was literally 85 one day and 45 the next and it hasn't gotten above 65 since. So basically I feel like there are some in between clothes that I missed out on wearing but that's ok I guess I'll adjust.

Spinach Chicken Pasta Salad

So I am going to take Taryn's idea here and blog about a new recipe. It is super simple, tastes good and is healthy. I got the idea at a bridal shower and then changed it slightly since I didn't have the recipe. It's just spinach, pasta, chicken, apples, feta cheese and dressing. We just use the bagged spinach and bow tie pasta but anything will work. With the chicken we boil it with onions and garlic and other spices. Just cut up the apple and chicken into pieces and mix it in with the spinach and pasta then add dressing. We used a Italian Pesto dressing, it is nice because it is light but again whatever dressing you like will work. Mix it all up and then top with feta cheese.
It's really easy and fast. It is great for summer and is easy to make a lot of. It is also good as leftovers which is nice.

The Jolly Burger

Jonny and I were at Costco the other day and got a bunch of hamburger patties. Then we went to Wal-Mart and were trying to think of ways to make the burgers amazing. We got bacon, onion rings, BBQ sauce, cheese and potato bread buns. We also got the match light coals, which are amazing and completely worth the extra money. All of these ingredients came together to form the Jolly Burger (Jolly because it is Jonny and Holly combined.) They were amazing.
Jonny made two of them for himself but only made it through one. These pictures do not do them justice. They were great and I am already looking forward to making them again!