Thursday, December 9, 2010

Twisted Turtles

Y'all ready for this?

The other day,
2 days ago actually...

I stumbled across this simply (emphasis on the 'simple') AMAZING recipe for Turtles.

{I have since renamed them "Twisted Turtles'' as there are pretzel twists involved}


Clever, I know.


And the funny thing is, while surfing, I said to myself,

 'Self-- Is there sucha thing as homemade turtles with pretzels???'


And low'n behold.


There is.


I found the recipe on the blog named 'Twig and Thistle'.


Prepare to amaze......


Twisted Turtles


Shopping List: Rolos, mini-pretzels & halved pecans.


That's it.
That's all.


Preheat oven to 220 degrees F.


Arrange pretzels and Rolos, like-a-so:


Pretzel/Rolo Army:

I surrenderrrrrr!



Bake in the oven for a whopping total of Two Minutes.

Once removed from oven,

immediately press the halved pecans into the warmed Rolo.

As seen here:


Let the turtles set in the fridge for a couple minutes.

And you're done.

These are the most easy & perfect looking treats you're gonna make all Christmas,
so you'd better get on it : )


Monday, December 6, 2010

James, hoisting the angel up onto the tree.



After some tweaking and a few new ornament additions,
the tree is finally up and looking as whimsical as ever.


Handsome, I'd even dare say.


The Running Theme:

Red & gold with green, bronze and champagne accents

.... and a dash of candy cane striping here and there.



What's your theme?



Sunday, December 5, 2010

It's Rich

My Lovely Assistant, seen here:



Ava



The Recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies
courtesy Betty Crocker


{Yooou Rock Betty Crock'}



It kinda goes like-a-this:


In separate bowls,

follow the directions for each recipe.

(One bowl, brownie batter, the other chocolate chip cookie dough)


Pour brownie batter into a greased-up 8 by 12 dish.

Add spoonfuls of cookie dough to the brownie batter.

Gently pat down clumps of cookie dough into the batter.




Lick spoon clean.

Bake in a 350 degree, preheated oven for 35- 40 minutes.



And the best part of this recipe:

Whipping up the Chocolate Ganache to blanket these beauties with
courtesy Bakerella.


Chocolate Ganache


12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate morsels

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

6 Tbsp butter



In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage.

Pour over the chocolate morsels.

Let stand about 20 seconds and stir until smooth.

Pour over brownies and let set before cutting.



Unfortunately,

and then again,

fortunately,

Bakerella has supplied this last photo as I did not have my own sufficient image :(

{My new camera and I are frenemies at times-- I still have a lot to learn....}


But, I swear to you...

Mine looked just like this ; )




Letters to Santa: 2010 Edition


 Off to mail our letters!


















Don't it just warm your heart?

It does mine : )

Friday, November 26, 2010

Ready, set, BAKE!


I got my bake on this week.

And mostly achieved sweet success {literally}

Two of the three recipes, of course,
borrowed from the all-too-fabulous Bakerella.

She makes my culinary heart go pitter-patter....


  First challenge: Oreo Truffles

This one I had to try.
It has only three ingredients.
You'd be a fool not to...


Oreos
Cream Cheese
& White Chocolate Bark


'Nuff said.

If you like cheese cake, this is the recipe for you.

I myself, am not so much a fan and don't really fancy white chocolate too much either....


But it's not about me.


It's about your peeps and how your going to wow-the-pants-off-of-them with your clever truffle making abilities.



With that said....


Crush, blend, pulverize the Oreos (delicious cream filling included).

Mix in the cream cheese.

Roll into balls.

Chill balls (ha!) in the fridge or freezer for about a half hour.

Then get your white chocolate dip on.



Apparently, I made a rookie mistake and bought the wrong chocolate?!


Aaactually, what really happened was I went all fancy and bought nice expensive Bernard Callebaut chocolate

.......desiring fancy balls, of course.



But, what you really want is 'dipping' chocolate....



It "dips" better.


Duh.



The chocolate I used was a bit thick and therefor harder to get a good coat.



Where I went right,
was sprinkling the tops of my truffles with crushed candy cane.

Makes for minty-good Oreo awesomeness.



And unfortunately, I have not one photo to share with you.



Fail.


But Bakerella does, here.




Next Up:


Whoopie Pies w/ Salty Peanut Butter Filling
~H-e-a-v-e-n-l-y~


From the book, 'whoopie Pies':


As featured on Bakerella.



For the recipe and instructions, click here.


I did manage to snag a few photos of the beginning process:


Photos courtesy my 'old' camera.


.........But neglected to get photos of the final product.



Sigh.... Fail.



And lastly,

my own recipe.


'Kay, actually it's not my own recipe, per sayyyyy....


I really don't remember who I got it from,

(flashbacks of a cookie swap from, like, 9 years ago I think?!).



But, it is the best Ginger Snap recipe I've ever used.


Always, ALWAYS results in soft, ginger-cookie perfection!



Soft Ginger Snaps

1 cup sugar

1 cup margarine (I use butter)

1 cup molasses

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 Tbsp hot water

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

3 1/2 cups flour


Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, and wet in another.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and mix well.

Refrigerate dough for about an hour.

Roll Tbsp-sized balls.

Roll balls in white sugar.

Leave in ball form when baking (in other words-- don't flatten).



*Bake for 8-10 mins (7 mins was enough in my oven)
at 375 degrees C.



And, once more,

no photos.



F-A-I-L.




Stay tuned, lovely readers,

because there's alot more festive baking where that came from.


I plan to tackle even more festive holiday recipes in the next few weeks:

{Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows)
{Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies}
{Christmas Crunch}
{etc}


 And this time--
there will be pics.


Oh yes, there will be pics....







Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The 'Nice' List



My good behavior must have paid off this year,

'cause Santa paid me an early visit yesterday-- and boy, did he deliver.....





Ladies and Gentlemen--

~Meet the new love in my life~
{next to my dearest husband}


My.New.Camera. so lovingly entitled: Nikon D90!!!


'Ohhh Yeaaa-hh, S-A-S-S-SY!"


Have I mentioned how much I absolutely love and adore my husband,

xo James xo
(Jim Plumb to you)

not just because he blessed me with this electronic thing-of-beauty...

And not just because he has known an understood how badly I've desired a camera like this for sometime now....

But because he's my best friend and he knows me through and through.

Today, I am over the moon :)


Best.Present.Eva.

Ps. I have NOT forgot about the Whoopy Pies....
I'm just too obsessed with my new toy today to get to it :)