Bake 52 Week 17: Baklava

This week we made Baklava!  It was a bit time consuming and challenging, but so worth it!  It tastes amazing!  I ended up needing more butter than the recipe called for.  I also took it out of the oven 20 minutes early.  It was looking done to me.  The baklava had only been out of the oven for two hours when the picture was taken, and you can see in the second photo that it is a little runny.  Hopefully it will set up better after sitting for 8 more hours, like it's supposed to.  The Baklava was definitely a hit!  Here's the link to the recipe.

xoxo

j

Bake 52 Week 16: Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Ok, don't get excited,  because I did NOT make the pie.  This can count as one of my missed weeks (we get three right?!?).  Sorry to let everyone down.  I had intentions to make it, I even hunted everywhere for Rhubarb.  My last resort was Trader Joe's (love that place, but it's expensive).  The worker helping me finally told me that Rhubarb isn't in season yet, but it should be soon.   So I bought strawberries, but It turns out that I didn't have enough strawberries to fill the pie.   That's when I decided to cut my loses.  And just to make my excuse even lamer, I should admit the biggest reason.   After reading the different comments on FB, I was so intimidated to make this pie that I let it get the best of me. If anyone wants to see the recipe to the pie that I did not make, here it is.

However, I did make a different treat today for a friend's birthday.  I found it on Pinterest yesterday.  It seemed like everyone was pinning it. Here is the pin.

Source: Uploaded by user via Jesse on Pinterest

It looks yummy huh!?!  It's store bought cookie dough on the bottom, a Reese's peanut butter cup, and then box brownie mix on the top.  I was super excited to make it.  How can you go wrong with those ingredients? Unfortunately, you can go wrong with them.  Don't be deceived like I was.  It's not that great.  First off, it didn't cook up right.  The brownie mix was gooey on the inside, and hard on the outside.  Second, it didn't come out of the pan in one piece (no wonder why the person who posted it didn't have any after pictures!)  Third, I think less is more.  All of the components should have made a tasty treat, but I think they are better separately.  They didn't mesh well for me.  Anyways, just thought I would save you the trouble, in case you wanted to make this.  But there is always a chance that you will have better luck than I did!

I have actually been finding a lot of recipes on Pinterest, only to be disappointed.  I don't think that Pinterest is the best place to find recipes.  It's just deceiving because the same things get pinned over and over again, so I trust them.  Well, enough of my silly thoughts.

Looking forward to Baklava next week!

xoxo

j

Bake 52 Week 15: Chocolate Blackout Cake

Chocolate Blackout Cake is just a chocolate cake with pudding as the frosting, and then more cake crumbles on top.  I had never seen or heard of a Chocolate Blackout Cake before I saw this one in the cookbook.  It's a lot o' chocolate, and it's good!  The recipe called for Coffee, but I just substituted that for water and it turned out normal.  The chocolate pudding was a homemade recipe from the cookbook.  I loved it.  I would make that one again for sure.  As for the rest of the cake, I'm not sure that I would make it again.  It was just a bit more work than I like.  It really did take about 6 hours from start to finish. It's also not a photogenic cake!  I could not get a good shot of it.  Here is the link to the recipe!  http://cookinwithsnort.weebly.com/2/post/2012/04/my-host-week-chocolate-blackout-cake.html

I've always wanted to use that thing!  I don't think that it's technically meant for halving a cake, but it worked!

 xoxo

j

Springtime Dirt Cakes

Every time Spring rolls around I get the urge to make dirt cups (or cakes, whatever you like).  Probably because I love any excuse I can find to eat Oreo's.  

I got this recipe from cooks.com.  I had to revise the directions quite a bit, because it was not self explanatory.  It left a lot up to the imagination.  I found that this recipe is better than most that I've had, because it's not as rich (though it's still plenty rich!).

Dirt Cups/Cakes

2 (20 oz.) pkgs. Oreo cookies

1/2 stick butter

1 (8 oz.) cream cheese

1 c. powdered sugar

3 1/2 c. milk

2 sm. French vanilla instant pudding boxes

1 (12 oz.) Cool Whip

Cream the butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together. In another bowl, mix pudding together with the milk.  Add the Cool Whip to pudding mixture. Then blend in with the cream cheese mixture.

Crumble the Oreo's in a blender or food processor, and leave the cream in the Oreo's. Add some of the Oreo's into the pudding mixture.  Then start the layering.  You can do this however you like.  I started with a layer of Oreo's, then the pudding mixture, then more Oreo, topped with gummy worms.  Here's a good tip.  Pipe in the pudding mixture.  It is so much easier, and way less messy.  If you only want to make a few cups, halve this recipe.

xoxo

j

Bake 52 Week 14: Tres Leches

I adore Tres Leches.  I am obsessed with the one at Cafe Rio.  I really miss that place.  One of my new favorite meals is re-making the Cafe Rio pork salads. A few weeks ago I made Cafe Rio salads, and this Tres Leches recipe to go along with it.  It is so good!  I would only change one thing.  I was not keen on the cinnamon that was in the cake.  I will omit that next time.  This week Amanda hosted, and here's the link to the recipe:  http://girlplusfood.blogspot.com/2012/04/bake-52-tres-leches-cake.html

I will most definitely be making this recipe again.

xoxo

j

Homemade Easter Decoration

I am not a super crafty person, though I wish I was.  So, I feel like I should show off the one thing that I have made.  Since I don't have a crafting blog, this post gets to go on my food blog.  Sorry foodies, It's craft time!  

My friend, Annie, found the cutest Easter decoration on Pinterest.  The only problem was that there were no directions on how to make it!  Just a really cute picture of a finished product.  So we figured out how to make it on our own (when I say we, I mean Annie).  

Here is what we made:

Here is what you need to make it (please excuse my crafting terminology. I don't know what most of this stuff is called in the crafting world):

Ingredients (hehe):

Small pots

Foam balls (whatever size you want, but we did smaller ones.  I think they were 2 1/2 to 3 inches)

pink paint

white paint

paint brush

wooden sticks, probably 12 inches tall

the green foam stuff to put the stick in

pastel colored jelly beans (one bag will cover two balls)

a small piece of ribbon

And here are the directions on how to make them:

1.  Paint the sticks white.  Paint the balls pink.

2.  Put the green foam into the pots.

3.  Put the sticks into the foam  (that is my friend with the brains behind the project).

 

4. Paint the pots.

 

5.  Put the balls on the sticks.

6. Now take the ball off of the stick, so that it's easier to handle. Glue the jelly beans to the ball with a hot glue gun.

 

Vuala!

Now that I've written out the directions, it seems pretty self explanatory.  Maybe that is why there were no directions on the original picture that we found.  Well anyhow, It's hard for me to see something and then just make it happen without some guidance.  Hope this helps someone who thinks like me (and if so, you have my sympathy).

Happy Easter!

xoxo

j