fRecipe fRiday! (It's back...for now.)

It's been a while since I've tried to bake something new...and it's been even longer since I've done my recipe blog. 

Lately I've been fascinated by crepes.  They seem to be everywhere (in reality, I just know of one family who has opened a creperie.)  Either way, I decided to make my own crepes.

I found a pretty easy recipe online.  I thought crepe-making was going to be really difficult, but if you aren't set on perfection or high-quality crepes, it really isn't too hard.

So here's what you need:
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups of milk
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of butter (melted)
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons white sugar

First you'll want to whisk all of that in a largeish bowl until it's not very lumpy.

Then heat up a medium/large skillet on medium heat and grease it with some butter.  Not too much like this, though:

Because then your crepe won't even touch the bottom because all that butter is going to melt right to the bottom.  The after-math of that:

Thank you, Caleb, for drowning that skillet.

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the skillet once it's heated and try to tilt the pan so that the batter spreads out evenly.  I discovered tonight that my oven is tilted.  Here are some of the best artsy crepes, as designed by the stove:

Lovely.

Cook the crepes over medium heat for about 1 minute on each side or until light brown, then flip.  Treat them like pancakes, especially since this recipe makes them pancake consistency.

Most likely you'll want to add something else to make the crepes taste better.  My choice was strawberries and bananas!

Fill them with what you want!

Add powdered sugar, of course.

And there you have it.  Pretty tasty!

fRecipe fRiday!

It's been a busy week before finals. I've been turning in papers, taking tests, and sleeping way too much to compensate for all the sleep my labs caused me to miss over the semester. But I've been able to:

Go on a "date" with mah Kelsy,

Help put up a Christmas tree,

And bake...

CAKE MIX COOKIES!!!

Alright, so as most of my friends from back home know, this is one of the most easy desserts to make, ever.

Here's what you start out with: (Yes, I am watching Pokemon in the background.)

I used white cake mix, but you can use absolutely any cake mix you want--red velvet, spice, carrot, yellow, or chocolate! Start by dumping the cake mix into a mixing bowl, along with 2 eggs and half a cup of vegetable oil.

Yes. It is that easy. I added some cinnamon in honor of Christmas. Now just roll the dough into balls like you would any other cookie dough, and pop them in the oven for 10-15 minutes (or until they are light light light brown) on 350.

I ended up icing these cookies with regular vanilla icing, and they tasted just like sugar cookies.

Also...shame on Caleb. I CAUGHT YOU!

fRecipe fRiday!

I found a recipe on Pinterest that intrigued me.

SAFE TO EAT COOKIE DOUGH

And knowing how much my roommate likes cookie dough...I made it. Right now it is sitting in the fridge chilling, but I already feel fat from "sampling" (some people would use the word devouring) it as I made it.

First step: In a medium bowl, mix 1/2 a cup of softened butter and 3/4 cup brown sugar.

Next, dump in a cup of flour.

Add 1/2 a teaspoon of salt (do NOT over salt this like I accidentally did) and 1 tablespoon or a tad less of vanilla and stir that together.

Mix in as many chocolate chips as you so desire.

Tada. It's beautiful. Add a tablespoon of water and stir it in. My dough wasn't at the perfect consistency, so I added a dash of flour and about a handful of sugar to thicken it up/make it sweeter (did I mention to not over salt this?)

fRecipe fRiday!

Sometimes, when I get sad, I eat food. But I don't cook or bake it myself.

It was a sad existence there for a while.

But I'm back. I made shortbread! And no joke...this is a fantastic idea for if you are snowed in and only have the basics of baking.

All you need are 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 cup butter (cut into smaller chunks though.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, get a mixing bowl, and mix the flour and sugar together (you get best results with a whisk.)

Add the butter into the mixture. Use your fingers or a processor or whatever you want to blend it. When it is mixed enough, dump it into a cake pan and press it out to fill the whole bottom of the pan.

Stick it in the oven and bake it for about 30 minutes. Once you take it out and it cools for a few minutes, sprinkle as much sugar as you want on top. Be sure to cut it up before it cools all the way too.

(I got a little adventurous and added powdered sugar or one slice and white chocolate chips on some others. I really liked the powdered sugar one.)

Here's a little picture from a few weeks back--Caleb got the chance to preach at a church near where we live. My brother and sister-in-law came along as well! We all wore blue...completely on accident.

fRecipe fRiday...but on a fSaturday

Surprise! I put off doing my blog until the last minute yesterday and then realized that it was already 12:30 am! So I thought I might as well just go to sleep and do it the next day.

This week, I needed a quick supper. Like, done in 5 minutes. So, I made

eggs in a mug!

First ingredient--one large mug. Spray it down with cooking spray and crack two eggs into it. Beat it with a fork until it looks like this:

Pop it in the microwave for 45 seconds, and when it's done, take it out and stir it. Put it back in the microwave and microwave it in 30 second intervals until it is set and looks like you won't get a disease from it.

When you feel like the eggs are done, sprinkle some cheese, salt, pepper, and whatever else you want on the eggs. You can even stir it around a little more to mix it all up.

That was easy, huh?

fRecipe fRiday!

Growing up, the world's greatest dessert was the same for all of my family (or at least for my dad and me.) Every time there was a potluck at church, I'd slap some on my dad's plate and I'd grab a massive bowl for myself full of

BANANA PUDDING!

I was really nervous to make this, seeing as something this wonderful has to be an insane endeavor. And I was positive that I couldn't pull it off.

So go ahead and get out a fairly large mixing bowl and dump one 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 1/2 cups of water into it, then mix. Pour one box of vanilla instant pudding mix in as well and beat. Once it is well blended, put it in the fridge for about 5 minutes.

After you take it out, you are going to "fold in" 1 pint (2 cups) of heavy whipping cream. Supposedly you want to mixture to retain its thickness, but when the cream and the mixture wasn't folding like I wanted to, I just stirred it until it was mixed well.
Use a large glass dish/bowl/container and pour in one-ish cup. Put some vanilla wafers and banana slices on top. Pour another cup or so of pudding on top, and add some more wafers and slices. Do that one more time, using the rest of the pudding. Now you can create your masterpiece with wafers and slices. I did not get fancy.
Put the pudding in the fridge for a while (how long is up to you) and eagerly wait to eat some of the oncoming deliciousness. If you are concerned about the bananas going bad in the fridge, dip them in lemon juice before putting them on the pudding. I was not concerned with this because 1) I forgot to do that part...and 2) I will devour that pudding long before it thinks about going bad.

fRecipe fRiday!

This week I watched the movie Julie and Julia, while wearing pearls. For the movie, I thought it was only fitting that I bake something...with lots of butter. This week's choice was...

CINNAMON ROLL CAKE!!!

This really was not hard to make, except for when I broke my 1 cup measuring spoon. Not to mention it was super duper delicious. I highly recommend a glass of milk with this one.

First you are going to take 3 cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1 cup of sugar, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 and 1/2 cup of milk, 2 eggs, and 2 teaspoons vanilla, and mix it all up in a big bowl. Once mixed, melt 1/2 a cup of butter and gradually stir it into the mixture. Pour all of that into a greased 9x13 pan and begin to make the topping.

To make the topping, you'll mix 1 cup of butter, 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 Tablespoons of flour, and 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon. Once well-mixed, pour as evenly as possible on top of the batter in the pan. Swirl it around using a knife, spoon, or other random utensil. Put the pan in the oven on 350 for between 30-35 minutes. The amount of done-ness is really up to you.

From this...

To this...

Onto this...

When the cake is almost done baking, you get to make the best part...the glaze. The recipe I used made so much glaze that I absolutely had to just eat the rest of it so it wouldn't go to waste. Stir 2 cups powdered sugar, 5 Tablespoons of milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla together. Take a taste and admire your handiwork. Take another taste. Now stop taking tastes so you don't eat it all before you put it on your cake!

Take out the cake when it is done, and after a few minutes, while it is still warm, drizzle all of that beautiful glaze on top of the cake.

Ohhh it's glorious...

fRecipe fRiday!

Last night the lovely ladies of the RFC got dolled up and had a progressive dinner. I (plus my dear roommate) and two other girls live in the same apartment complex, so for each portion of dinner, we skipped to each person's apartment and ate. I was in charge of the dessert.

Before I tell you how to make what I made...let me show you what the other ladies made.

Fruit Salsa and cinnamon tortillas...oh it was so good.

Loads and loads of pasta.

Now onto dessert...

SUGAR COOKIE TRUFFLES!

First, I need to explain that I had a terrible experience with this one. I overheated the blender...had to mix everything by hand...the list goes on. But they turned out better than expected for all of the hardship! I'm sure that if they were made perfectly they would be, well, perfect.

Start by making sugar cookies, just like normal. You can use just a bagged mix from the store of around 16-17 oz. Bake them until they are crispy, then let them cool for a while.

Once the cookies are cool, use a food processor to chop them up into fine crumbs. This is the point where I started having to switch to hand mode. However, once the cookies are quite fine, add 3 tablespoons of cream cheese into the processor until the mixture begins to stick together.

Now you can roll 1 inch balls of your mixture and set them on/in something. I used aluminum foil. Pop them in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes.

Here's the semi-fun part. Once you take the balls out of the freezer, get out a bowl and melt one cup of white chocolate chips and one tablespoon of shortening in the microwave 30 seconds at a time (It should only take 2 sets of these.) After each time, stir the mixture until smooth.

Dip each ball into the white chocolate and place back on aluminum foil. Before the chocolate hardens, sprinkle on some colored sprinkles to make them look pretty! (You didn't think you'd get out of here without sprinkling something, did you?)

TADA! I could only eat one in a sitting because they are soooo rich.

fRecipe fRiday! (Even if it is a day late!)

Yesterday my boyfriend had an interview, for which he had to get really dressed up. So we decided to have a ritzy night in, where I would also get dressed up, and we'd make good food. His specialty is Parmesan chicken...and it is always delicious. I tried making...

MINI MONKEYBREAD!!!

Not only was it really good, but you didn't have to mix a single thing. Just keep dropping stuff in a muffin tin!

First, scoop half a teaspoon of butter into each section of the muffin tin.

Add around a half a teaspoon of sugar.

Sprinkle some cinnamon on top. (If you can't tell, I LOVE sprinkling cinnamon on things.)

I had some leftover biscuit dough from Wal-Mart (any biscuit dough, whether homemade or store-bought, will do) that I rolled into little balls. Three of those little balls went into one section.

Then...just do it all over again, except without the dough!

Bake on 350 degrees for around 10 minutes, but watch for the biscuits turning brown. Once they get a lovely golden brown color, take them out.

They were wonderful! It was like eating cinnamon rolls, but maybe less healthy!

I wanted to show off my socks and heels. I think it could be a new trend.

fRecipe fRiday!

I have decided to (try) to start working on new recipes every week, and then blogging about them. Today, I shall let you in on my concoction of last night, what I like to call

EPIC CRESCENT ROLLS

First, you gotta have crescent rolls.

And then...spread on some peanut butter.Sprinkle on the mini chocolate chips!!!Continue sprinkling, except this time with cinnamon.Roll them up.Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until tan.Then...EAT THEM!
Yes, I know this recipe is waaaay too easy to sound cool, but it was delicious.