Monday MUNCH Volume 5: S’mores cookies

February 6, 2012 Leave a comment

I must give all my love for this recipe to the enigma that is Pinterest.  I have sat on that site (and app) for hours probably, just liking and repinning anything that tickles my fancy.  I took notice of this one because it was EASY!

What you need:

break and bake chocolate chip cookie dough (I’m sure sugar cookies would be yummy, too)

marshmallows (the recipe called for those fancy Kraft Stackers…I could never find them, so I just cut regular ones in half lengthwise)

Hershey chocolate bars

What you do:

Bake the cookies as directed on the packaging, minus two minutes.  Take the cookies out, add the marshmallow and bake for another minute or two.  Remove from the oven and put cookies on cooling rack immediately.  After 2 minutes of cooling down, add chocolate.  Let cookies cool completely before taking a bite of deliciousness.

Now go get your MUNCH on!

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Monday MUNCH Volume 3: Bite Size Cheesecakes

January 25, 2012 1 Comment

Now, munchies, this recipe is tried and true.  No, this isn’t something I made up.  This is a recipe my mom has been making my entire life.  And boy…she can rock them.  Over the past few years, I’ve started my own mastery of this recipe.  It’s been tricky, yet even when they aren’t pretty (as evidenced below), they are a HIT!

And you wanna know the best part?  It’s so easy AND these are ingredients usually one always has on hand (what, you don’t have two blocks of cream cheese in your fridge at all times?  Yeah, uh, me neither).

Bite Size Cheesecakes!

What you need:

filling:

16 oz (2 blocks)of cream cheese

¾ cup sugar

3 eggs, separated

topping:

¾ cup sour cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

etc:

graham cracker crumbs (or crushed up Oreos if you’re feeling frisky)

butter or Crisco

mini muffin pans (or regular sized if you want something a bit larger)

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease muffin pans with butter or Crisco (stuff like Pam doesn’t cut it).  Sprinkle ¼  (½ if using larger size) teaspoon into each muffin cup and shake pan to cover bottom.

Mix softened cream cheese with sugar and egg yolks in a medium bowl.  In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff (I had to Google what this looked like…).  Slowly fold into cream cheese mixture.  Fill muffin tins ½ full with mixture.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  When they come out, they will slightly indent.

While filling is baking, mix topping ingredients in oven safe dish.  Bake for 5 minutes at 450 degrees.

Top mini-cheesecakes with filling then chill for 2-3 hours in refrigerator.  These freeze well!

Makes 48 mini-cheesecakes (24 cupcake size).

See, was that hard?  Be sure to dazzle your friends, family and co-workers…and report back!

Cupcake Size Cheesecakes!

Different size, same delicious flavor!

Now go get your MUNCH on!

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Introducing…Monday MUNCH!

January 8, 2012 Leave a comment

For awhile I’ve really wanted to start a weekly post that details my foray into experimenting with cooking and baking.  I have always liked to cook and bake, but I have always been too afraid to veer off the recipe’s path.  Since I have initiated Goodie Mondays in my office, I have really started to just go with the flow in the kitchen.  However, I cannot take all of the credit.  Sometimes I am inspired by recipes I already know, have already tried and edited, or the best website ever: Pinterest.  Don’t worry, I’ll give credit where credit is due.

Since I am creating treats weekly for my office, I thought I could at least share what I make for those goobers here.  But I don’t dream small, folks.  I’ll try to share other creations, too, and hopefully get some friends to share their culinary successes.

Tomorrow is the first Monday MUNCH.  Are you ready???

(In the meantime, perhaps you can enjoy the visual feast of my non-success from last night: macadamia encrusted chicken. I will say, the horseradish mustard sauce I made in a last-ditch attempt to make it taste better was such a happy accident.)

Image

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My first food swap!!

December 11, 2011 1 Comment

Before my busy week overtakes my life, I just HAVE to share about my first food swap experience.

I absolutely love social media. I’ll spare you the details on this (for now–perhaps another blog sometime), but I have social media to thank for introducing me to a lot of amazing people, places and things. Thanks to Twitter, I was introduced to the concept of food swaps and eventually invited to Indianapolis’ third food swap.

I was very nervous to attend something so focused on food. I mean, I love food, but I’m no Betty Crocker or Paula Deen. I’m not even like, a pseudo foodie. But lately, I’ve taken a liking to baking and decided to try this neat event out. If you’re not familiar, a food swap is exactly what it sounds like. You take a food item (starter recipes for soup, baked goods, canned jams, homemade hummus–one lady even brought her own homemade vanilla!), set it up nice and pretty, and mingle. While you’re mingling, you can sample and bid on items you’d like to swap your items with. I took 6 bags of homemade thin mints, so I was able to swap for 6 items. Of course, I bid on more than 6, so I had to really try and figure out what I was willing to give up my thin mints for.

And boy. Did I clean up. :) I came home with 2 cookie mixes (orange dreamsicle cookies anyone??), waffle mix, meringue mushrooms, homemade biscuits, a soup mix and granola! But wait, Kelly, that’s 7 items…I thought you only could swap as much stuff as you take? Ah, well. Don’t worry…I didn’t steal. The lady that made the granola had extra, so I got lucky to take an extra!

If you’ve never been to this event, you must go. Follow @indyfoodswap on Twitter for more information. And sign up quickly! Tickets go fast!!

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