2012 in review... sorta

Too many yummy things made...

But we wish a fond farewell and RIP to the beloved twinkie... the latest lemon filled version featured prominently in a lovely lemon berry trifle this summer.

More blogging in 2013... I promise.

Uh oh... it's been far too long...

So I will appease the bloggie gods with this recipe and hopefully add the picture later...

Crockpot Spaghetti

1 jar spaghetti sauce
spaghetti noodles - a good generous handful, broken
Meatballs

Put 1/2 the sauce in the bottom of your crockpot instert. Then add the broken - UNCOOKED - spaghetti and the meatballs. Pour remaining sauce over the top and add water to your jar - 1/2 full ... swish to get all the saucy goodness and pour in. place lid on crockpot and plug in. Cook on low for 5 - 8 hours. serve with parmesean cheese, green salad with italian dressing, crusty french bread or garlic breadsticks and spumoni ice cream for dessert.

say it together now.... ON THE MENU!

Hunger Games Movie food recap...

District 11 bread - a crescent moon shaped bread, studded with seeds. Interpreted as crescent rolls, rolled up with honey butter and with an egg wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Mini Cinna-mon rolls for our favorite designer - recipe and discription is previous on the blog.

Reaping day cupcakes - May the odds be ever in YOUR favor... mini snickers, milky way and 3 musketeers candy bars, baked in a chocolate cupcake, frosted with cream cheese frosting and varied sprinkles.

Girl on fire cupcakes... celebrate the tribute from District 12 with these chocolate cupcakes featuring mini oreos baked inside, a cookies and creme frosting, dusted liberally with coal dust... oreo dust and decorated with fire... orange/yellow striped frosting.

Also available was: cinnamon roasted almonds, mixed dried berries, beef jerkey, Peeta Chips and hummus.  a good time was had by all at the midnight show.

I'd do it all again and it's totally on my menu!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars... or 3 weeks of bake sale ... i must be crazy...

So... I actually haven't minded the constant baking that happens around here lately. I may or may not be down with it next year. LOL The beauty of this year is though that I haven't really had to buy much to work with. I have managed to deplete my stocks of mixes and baking things but that's a good thing as I need to get more anyway.

Of course, with a bit more thought and planning, any month long fundraising project could stand to have a bake sale every other week.  But I will admit to secretly calling this a tasting menu for future projects. You know, that dream one of having my own bakery/cafe with premises? Yeah, that one that won't happen for quite some time.

It has lead to continued thoughts of starting some sort of in your home party catering business ... themed dinner or birthday parties... a party for friends or for a game day... you know, the sort where we get together and plan a menu and you pay me a set amount for a certain menu and I get the groceries and come to your home to cook all day so that you don't have to... but making it so your home smells really really good when it's time to entertain and for a certain amount of money, I may even agree to clean up as well as serve if you want. Of course, if you have a dishwasher, even better ... and you get to keep the leftovers.

But I'm pretty sure that these bars would play a lovely feature role of any dessert menu, maybe served warm with some ice cream on top. So here they are...

PB & J Bars

1 pkg Peanut Butter Cookie mix
1 Egg
1 stick of butter - melted
Jam or Jelly - your choice.

Heat oven to the temperature listed on cookie package. Spray 9x9 pan with cooking spray.

**IMPORTANT**   You MUST disregard whatever it says about what is needed on your package of mix.  ONLY use the 1 egg and the stick of butter. okay? okay.

Mix the cookie dough mix, egg and melted butter together until smooth. Place 3/4 of it into the pan and pat down into even layer. this will be fairly thick and that's fine. Bake for 5-8 minutes until mostly set.

Pull pan out and spread jam or jelly on top. I used about a 1/2 cup of homemade raspberry jam and then dotted the top of that with teaspons of store bought seedless blackberry jam. Why? Well, the homemade jam is rather thin and wasn't quite enough to give a nice coating of jam to my liking. The effect was really nice... a bit of a mixed berry sort of thing.   Put the rest of the cookie dough on top - dropping it in drips and drabs to create a mixed looking top and so that you can see the jam through it.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, checking it every few minutes or so after 10 minutes to see how dark it is getting. You may need to bake a bit longer as you want the top to be golden brown and the jam underneath bubbling.

Cool. Cut into squares or rectangles when cooled. Again, could skip complete cooling and serve warm with ice cream.

mm mm gooooood....

totally and completely on the menu.

Happy Hunger Games.... Hungry?

Well.... it's been out for a bit and I still haven't made it back to watch the movie again at a 'non Midnight' show. But I will be there soon. It's become a bit of a fascination ... some may say obsession but I'm trying to get things done that don't involve these characters. LOL

In the mean time... enjoy some lovely Cinna-mon rolls in honor of our favorite District 12 stylist.

How to make them:

1 tube crescent rolls or seamless crescent sheets

butter - melted

cinnamon... ground

brown sugar, preferably dark.

cream cheese frosting

Heat oven to the temperature specified on the dough tube.

butter mini muffin tins with the melted butter.

unroll the dough and spread liberally with melted butter. sprinkle with ground cinnamon and cover with heavy helping of brown sugar. roll up and slice into 12 rolls. Place in the mini muffin tins and

bake for 8-12 minutes until golden brown. let cool for 5-10 minutes - brush with more melted butter while warm. After removing from tins, drizzle or spread with the frosting.

enjoy while waiting in line for the movie... erm... for breakfast warmed up with lots of crispy bacon.

so totally on the menu...! 

recipe 3 - late due to weather... LOL

SuperBowl Guacamole

modified to serve one... 2 servings but one... LOL

1 avocado, halved and pitted
1/2 tbsp lime juice
1 quarter red onion, chopped.

smash avocado with lime juice, add salt and pepper. stir in red onion. serve with chips or on top of nachos or taco salad.

YUMMY!

NOTE: do not wait until the superbowl to eat this, it's incredible and you should have it at least once a month...

ON THE MENU!!!!

Recipe #2 - Stay in Bed Mimosas

The recipe calls for champange or prosecco but I don't drink so substituted sparkling water. ... just so you know.

it also calls for 'melting' sorbet in a saucepan over medium heat until slightly melted. I skipped that too. LOL

so I guess this drink, lovely as it is, should be called inspired by the recipe in the book.

seeing as I made it for one... as well.

Mimosa... I thought that was orange juice required ... guess not so this is more like a sorbet sparkling water float... LOL

2 -3 small scoops mango sorbet (bought small serving size container for $1.29 at safeway. just enough for 2 drinks as wanted...)

sparkling water (arrowhead lime flavored... $1 at safeway... fyi...)

let sorbet melt a bit in your glass before adding water. bonus points if the water has slushed overnight in the fridge...

stir to blend and enjoy.

not bad.

don't really need to make it again... I'm having a better time drinking berry pomegranite mio drink enhancer squirted into that slushy sparkling water now anyway... will probably just eat the last bit of sorbet! LOL

could be on the menu again... perhaps as raspberry sorbet with a splash of lemonade and lemon essence water...