Sticky Buns! In every way.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a barista. I make coffee for those in need out of the goodness of my heart and a desire to spread joy throughout the world. But for those of you who know me really well, you know that there are downsides to my job. 

One of these downsides is that my job is very messy. Its cluttered, its fast paced, and just when you think you got yourself caught up, you spill a five gallon batch of coffee all over the floor and flood the place. 

For those of you who don't know me at all but have seen me, You know I have a butt that goes for miles. It has its own gravitational pull and actually does things all on its own without ever asking for my consent. It's constantly causing me problems and getting me into sticky situations. 

Today, I was walking in the back and someone had left an open jug of white chocolate on one of the shelves, barely covered with a thin piece of saran wrap. I, literally thirty seconds before I was about to clock out, walked passed this container, and felt a brush up against my bottom. I heard a splatter sound, and knew that my butt had gotten me into trouble yet again. I turned to look and the whole white chocolate can was sideways, its contents dripping thickly, all over the shelf, everything that was on the shelf, and the floor. 

So, you have to understand, that in the normal world, this makes no logical sense whatsoever, because the white chocolate was near my feet, and my bottom was much higher than that. (For now) So my only conclusion is that my bottom has magical gravitational powers. Like Harry Potter. Kinda. Anyway, to make matters worse, I had to clock off that second in order to not go over on my hours, and then sit on the floor in the back wiping up this white, mucas like substance and not even get paid for it! It was sad. To make matters even worse- as if that were possible!- I observed where I would sit in order to avoid getting the substance all over me, found a dry spot, and then sat and cleaned. But when I got up from my spot, somehow, I had white chocolate all over my pants on my butt and left thigh, which was literally making my pants stick to my skin in a crumply sort of fashion, making it look and feel like a camel had licked me. 

This story has a point. I promise. 

And here it is. 

In honor of this wonderful experience, I decided to commemorate the occasion of the discovery of my bottom's magical powers, and make a post on sticky buns. 

Get it? :P

Here it is, from Betty Crockers Christmas Cookbook. Enjoy. 

1/2	cup packed brown sugar
1/2	cup heavy whipping cream
1/4	cup chopped pecans
2	tablespoons granulated sugar
1	teaspoon ground cinnamon
1	can (11 oz) refrigerated soft breadsticks

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In ungreased 8-inch round pan, mix brown sugar and whipping cream. Sprinkle with pecans.
2. In small bowl, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon. Unroll breadstick dough, but do not separate into breadsticks. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture over dough. Roll up dough from short end; separate at perforations. Place coiled dough in pan.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute. Place heatproof serving plate upside down onto pan; turn plate and pan over. Let pan remain 1 minute so caramel can drizzle over rolls.

Harry Potter, Mild Sedatives and Almond Joy.

I am a Harry Potter fan. Unfortunately, I'm also a full time student, who usually starts her part time job at four am, I'm involved in church and still try to fit a social life in. This, does not leave a lot of room for the joy of cooking. Its very sad. Not to mention the drain all of that has on your funds. My intention for the midnight showing of Harry Potter was to make Butterbeer and Cauldron Cakes. The problem is, the only time I had to do it was two hours before I had to be at the theatre, and Cauldron cakes are time consuming. So I decided to make these amazing almond joy cupcakes instead. 

I've got to be honest... I'm glad i didn't make Cauldron Cakes. These are going on my list of faves. I brought them to the movie theatre, and shared them with my friends and other random Harry Potter fans. (I'm a naughty girl and snuck them in using Shannon's amazingly large purse) And since doubled the recipe and had extra, I brought them to work. All I heard was positives even from people who don't like coconut that much. They were very  moist and delicious. :P

In effort to experiment a bit, in honor of my dad, who really likes chocolate covered cherries, Instead of putting coconut in the center, I placed a cherry cordial in the center of a few of the cupcakes immediately after they were baked. It ends up melting and creating this lava cake effect when your eating it. Very good. 

I didn't tell the theatre I had administered a mild sedative into the cupcakes to keep all the loud talkers from ruining Harry Potter for me. 

The problem is, the cupcakes looked so good I had to try one. 

Anyway, here's the info... I got this recipe off of this blog: 

http://naturallyella.com, but I changed it up slightly. Its a bit more user friendly now. :P

•Prep Time:30 min

•Cook Time:20 min

•Ready In:50 min

         

Servings: 12 pieces

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup butter softned

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

•      1/2 cup cocoa powder

•      2 cups Milk

Filling

• 1 cup Shredded Coconut sweetened

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

• 1/2 cup Sweetend condensed milk

Ganache

• 2 cup chocolate chips

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350˚

• In a small bowl, sift dry ingredients for cupcakes and set aside.

•In a medium bowl (or a bowl of a stand mixer) combine butter and sugar, beat until light and fluffy- about 3 minutes.  Add in egg and vanilla, continue to beat until incorporated.  Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients followed by the milk.  Beat until just combined. Add remaining flour and mix until batter is combined- don't over mix.

•Divide batter into 12 cupcakes and bake for 16-18 minutes or until cupcake springs back when pressed.  Remove from pan and place on a cooling rack. 

•In another bowl, combine the powdered sugar and coconut.  Warm condensed milk and pour over coconut, stir to combine.   While cupcakes are still slightly warm, cut an "X" in the top of each cupcake, and using either a pastry bag, or your finger if your more hands on :), fill the X with about a teaspoon of coconut filling. 

Smear remaining filling on top of each cupcake that covers the entire surface. Place a few almonds of top of the filling.

•In a heat proof bowl combine chocolate and heavy cream.  Place over a pot of boiling water and continue to stir until chocolate is melted and the ganache is smooth. (Microwaves also work if you want a shortcut, but be sure to melt the chocolate only thirty seconds at a time, stirring very well in between to ensure you don't burn your chocolate) Take each cupcake and cover the coconut filling with the ganache, by either dipping the cupcake, or spooning the ganache on. 

I prefer spooning, personally. haha! (What girl doesn't)

Its not quite as messy. 

Once each cupcake has been covered once, go back and dip the cupcakes in the ganache for a second time.

•Top with toasted coconut and/or an almond for decoration, if desired.

Long Live Halloween

Yes, I know... Halloween is long gone. We have now moved from ghosts and goblins to Santa and tiny toy makers. And with all my party planning I got lost in the shuffle and forgot to post these. But... They are way to cute to not share. I quite enjoyed making them with my amazing friend Erika. They are simple... Vanilla Sandwich cookies and nutter butters covered with melted chocolate, (white chocolate, and mint chocolate). I used a small paintbrush and diluted black icing to create the faces. We made ghosts and Frankensteins. :P I took them to a halloween party with me and they were a big hit. Although they did get a little smooshed on the way there. :( I really have to find a better way for my baked goods to travel.



                          
                                        
                      
   
                      
                                This was my favorite Ghost because he looks like he belongs in a
                                                                 South Park episode. :P
                                                                  See? It's Uncanny!

   

 

                                         Well, hope you enjoyed this even though it was belated!

Peppermint Snowballs and Pumpkin Butterscotch cookies! :P

I had an opportunity to help feed and clothe the homeless this last week with some of the members of my college group at church. It was a really great experience, and I'm excited to get to know the people I helped better when we return to the bridge they live under. We brought them sweaters and scarves for this upcoming winter and baked them dinner. I was in charge of dessert! I needed to make something that was easily accessible and didn't require plates or silverware to avoid to much hassle. So I decided, given the time of year and the holidays coming up, that they needed some holiday spirit!  So I made Peppermint Snowballs and Pumpkin Butterscotch cookies. (OH MY GOSH, SO GOOD) 

That is the group that went to visit the homeless. There were a surprising amount of young kids there. I met this really cool 14 year old kid who was an enthusiast about the guitar and claimed to be so good at climbing things that he was 85 percent monkey. I told him that he should climb Tim but he decided against it. I thought one of the neatest things about all of these young kids is that they refused to eat before their "elders" did. They wanted to make sure that the older folks who lived under the bridge got their food first so that they wouldn't be left without food if there wasn't enough. Nowadays, kids who have a warm bed and loving parents rarely treat their parents with the kind of respect that these kids in rough times treated their elders with. Isn't that just amazing? So cool. Anyway- I got sidetracked. Here are the recipes. :P

Peppermint Snowballs

So here is the second completed recipe from the Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook. 

I very much like these. They are just like mexican wedding cookies accept instead of pecans they have crushed up peppermint in it to add crunch. I actually kept the pecan's in the mix and just put less of them in it, and I would highly recommend doing that for anyone who will make these- because it adds a whole new element to the cookie and allows the peppermint to not overwhelm the cookie. 

I used a Magic Bullet to Crush up the candies. I love the magic bullet. Buy one immediately if you don't already have one. I demand it. 

Here is the recipe according to Betty Crocker, but I added about 2/3 cup of crushed pecans. These are a great Christmas cookie. I rate these cookies four chocolate chips out of five! :P They have the delicious buttery taste with a kick of peppermint and a really nice candy crunch that is just quite tasty. 

1/4	cup finely crushed peppermint candies (12 candies)
1/4	cup powdered sugar
1	cup butter, softened
1/3	cup powdered sugar
1/4	cup finely crushed peppermint candies (12 candies)
1	teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4	cups all-purpose flour
1/4	teaspoon salt Heat oven to 325ºF. Mix 1/4 cup crushed candies and 1/4 cup powdered sugar; reserve. Mix butter, 1/3 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 cup crushed candies and the vanilla in medium bowl. Stir in flour and salt.  Shape dough by level measuring tablespoonfuls into balls.  Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet; roll in reserved candy mixture. Cool completely on wire rack. Roll in candy mixture again. Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies When you make these cookies, make sure that the label on the can of pumpkin says “pumpkin” rather than “pumpkin pie filling,” which has added spices. Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1½ tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda ½ tsp. salt 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 2 large eggs 1 cup sugar ½ cup vegetable or canola oil 1 cup pumpkin puree 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup butterscotch chips Directions: Preheat the oven to 325° F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; whisk to blend.  In a the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs and sugar.  Beat on medium-high speed until smooth and light in color, about 1 minute.  Blend in the oil, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract until well combined.  With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Gently fold in the butterscotch chips with a spatula. Drop mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheets (I used a medium-sized dough scoop), spacing them a few inches apart.  Bake, rotating the sheets halfway through baking, until the tops feel set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 14-16 minutes.  Allow to cool on the baking sheets 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container. This is a recipe I have loved for years. I have this great cookbook called Big Fat Cookies, by elinor klivans, and everything I have made from this book seems to turn out amazing. This one is on of my favorite fall cookies to make. The cookie so so soft and cake like, and the butterscotch and pumpkin go sooooo well together. I love it because its not too sweet but satisfies the need for a something tasty.  I would have to rate these cookies four chocolate chips out of five. I think they are worth five, but my mom thinks they are worth three, so i figure we can balance out somewhere in the middle.

Appletini's are not for Weenies

List Item number 245: Try an Appletini.


I am addicted to this show called scrubs. For those of you who know it, you would understand why this is on my list. The main Character always ordered an appletini light on the tini.
http://youtu.be/5N8QhAY7SbQ

  So, at the rehearsal dinner for Lizzy's wedding, I figured... Now is the time to take a chance and try this drink. I mean.. its free... Why not? Though my curiosity is now fulfilled, my tastebuds were not thanking me. Those drinks are not for the weak because they are very strong. I now understand why J.D always ordered it Light on the Tini. I can't really imagine anyone choosing to drink that over a long island iced tea, but to each his own, I suppose.

Our attempts at being Sexy. 

I'm not very good at sexy. But I got silly down. 

 

The first sip. I had no idea what i was getting into.

Bailey's Irish Cream and a Bucket list

As We all know, Christmas is just around the corner. I don't know about the rest of the world, but this puts me in a baking mood. On a side note, I have been completely obsessed recently with working on my bucket list, which is now up to somewhere in the range of three hundred items. You never know how long your going to live, so you got to start early on these things. :P As a matter of fact, starting this blog was an item on my list. Check! Anyway, on this list is one particular item that I am just itching to complete. Its the whole Julia & Julia cook my way through an entire cookbook thing. In honor of my favorite holiday, I've decided to cook through this:'

Isn't it just beautiful?  Doesn't it just make you want to cry? What makes it even better is, there are no ridiculous recipes like cow tongue in a soy cream sauce in it, so I won't be throwing up at any point while cooking through it. Instead,  the recipes will actually be enjoyed. Now! It would be ideal to plan on finishing this before christmas, but I'm not opposed to making christmas last as long as possible if I decide I don't want to finish it by then. Its a win win really.

So the first recipe I decided to make was these pretty little bailey's Irish cream bars. They seemed the perfect cookie to make because my amazing friend Lizzy was getting married and her bachelorette party was the next day. What better to celebrate than an alcoholic cookie? (That question was later answered when Shannon brought a smorgesborg of overly excited penis cookies) They were very simple to make, but I wasn't anticipating how strong the smell of the Irish cream would be. To anyone else, this would be an amazing smell. To me, the girl who was bought a cement mixer for her first shot that curdled in her mouth the second she took it... Well it made me sick. I hadn't really thought that one through. For those of you who don't know what a cement mixer is, its a baileys irish cream shot mixed with lime juice, which makes the baileys curdle inside your mouth. You end up swallowing chunks of unknown substance. Very gross. Back to the cookie! Once it was baking, my stomach recovered and I was able to finish these beautiful little cookies.

Here's how you make it!

3/4	cup all-purpose flour
1/2	cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4	cup powdered sugar
2	tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
3/4	cup sour cream
1/2	cup granulated sugar
1/3	cup Irish cream liqueur
1	tablespoon all-purpose flour
1	teaspoon vanilla
1	egg
1/2	cup whipping (heavy) cream
	Chocolate sprinkles, if desired Heat oven to 350ºF. In medium bowl, mix 3/4 cup flour, the butter, powdered sugar and cocoa with spoon until soft dough forms. Press in ungreased square pan, 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 inches. Bake 10 minutes. In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients except whipping cream and chocolate sprinkles with wire whisk until blended. Pour over baked layer. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until filling is set. Cool slightly; refrigerate at least 2 hours before cutting. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows.In chilled small bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Spoon whipped cream into pastry bag fitted with medium writing or star tip. Pipe dollop of cream onto each bar. Top with chocolate sprinkles. Store covered in refrigerator up to 48 hours. So what's the verdict? I rate these cookies three chocolate chips out of five. They had a very odd texture that I think catches people off guard. It was kind of similar to that jello cheesecake texture, and it had a slight cheesecake sourness to it as well from the sour cream. I like the taste of the cookie, its just that you have to mentally prepare yourself for the texture. It tastes like a baileys cheesecake with an unexpected texture. :P I might just be to harsh though, cause these guys really liked them.

This is bob. 

This is Tim. 

Tim even helped me decorate them. :P