April 4, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies

Be still my heart. Girdle my belly. Cinch in my thighs.

‘Cause I am about to share a cookie recipe that has become my new favorite.

And I cannot stop making them.

And I cannot stop eating them.

This is a humble cookie. It is simple. I find I like cookies with those two descriptions the best.

Most cookies are best the very first day you make them. These cookies stay soft and yummy for at least two and a half days (this is the longest length of time they have ever lasted in our house).

When I was eight, my grandmother gifted me a cookbook called, “For Good Measure: A Cookbook For Children” (I highly recommend this cookbook for children. Heck, I still use it myself). In it, was a peanut butter cookie recipe. I have never made or had a peanut butter cookie as good as the peanut butter cookies made from that recipe. I have been making those peanut butter cookies for twenty eight years. Sometimes I change it around by adding new ingredients. This recipe is adapted from that one. Because that recipe is so simple, this makes these cookies a cinch to put together.

Here is a little poem my thighs threw together for you, in honor of these cookies:

The faster to make.
The easier to bake.
My mouth will wake.
And my thighs shall quake.
For goodness sake.
This poem shall take.
The cake.

For being the worst…

The cookies take first.

On to the recipe!:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup of Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)
2 Tbsp. Milk
1 stick of softened salted butter (8 Tbsp.)
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Caviar from 1 vanilla bean (if you do not have this, you can increase your total vanilla extract to 1 1/2 tsp.)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup organic brown sugar (it makes a difference)
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

This recipe makes twenty four cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If you have a convection oven, preheat oven to 325 convect bake.

Pour the 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a separate bowl and set aside while you work on the following.

In a bowl with a hand mixer or in your bowl on your stand mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light. Stop mixer and add in your vanilla and vanilla bean caviar. Mix.

Now add peanut butter and Nutella and mix together until completely incorporated.

Add the milk and egg and mix until light and fluffy.

Turn mixer to low and add in salt and baking soda. Mix until incorporated.

Add flour and mix.

Turn off mixer. Now take a small ball of cookie dough and roll it on your hands. Drop the ball into the bowl of granulated sugar and gently roll it around.

Place the ball of dough on a baking sheet. Repeat this step until your baking sheet is filled with cookie dough balls evenly spaced apart.

With a fork, make two flat indentations onto each cookie.

With a spoon, scoop up some of the granulated sugar and pour a little sugar over marks left from the fork.

Place baking sheet into the oven and bake for 10-11 minutes until edges are just a little brown. Do not cook longer. You do not want these overcooked.

Transfer baked cookies to a cooling rack.

Repeat with remaining dough. Turn oven off. Enjoy!

I think these cookies are better completely cooled down. There is just somethin’ that happens to the Nutella and peanut butter when they blend together at that time.

Now I’m off to make these guys.
My thighs…
They sighs.

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home.

March 4, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Pistachio Pudding Pie

This green pie is perfect for Saint Patrick’s Day. Or any other day without a saint in it. And you just want to have a creamy green pie.

As you are wont to do.

But here is where I lose you. I don’t really like nuts. I will eat peanuts. Plain. Salted. By themselves. But I do not want or like them in any of my food. I do not like the unexpected crunch and/or texture. Well, besides a Snickers bar. But Snickers is a perfection above all mundane rules.

If you are a child, like myself, keep reading for a sweet dessert using easy ingredients…

I love pistachio ice cream. And gelato. Or at least I thought I did, except my heart would sob whenever I tried a new brand of pistachio ice cream. I would lift the lid. And see… Beige?! No. No. No. I want the artificial green stuff, please. You can keep your organic, all na-tur-aaaal. Give me dye. Give me sugar.

Give me fake.

I discovered Jello’s Pistachio Instant Pudding the other day ( um, Wha..?!). Upon immediately dumping four boxes into my cart, I stood in the aisle-of-all-that-makes-life-worth-living, contemplating how many more I needed to hoard for my new collection. What if they stop making this? I just discovered it. What if because I hadn’t been purchasing it, they think nobody wants it? How could I go on? But my husband interrupted my panic by asking, “Don’t you think that’s enough?”

“Oh. For tonight? Yea, that should be plenty.” I rushed home and read the back of the package.

“Pistachio Pudding Pie.”

Let me repeat.

“Pistachio Pudding Pie.”

The most perfect three words I had ever read.

I read the list of ingredients as quickly as I could. And, miracle of miracles, I had them all.

Ingredients:

3.4 oz. package Jello Pistachio Instant Pudding
premade graham cracker crust
1 and 3/4 cup whole milk
8 oz. tub of cool whip (or similar nondairy whipped cream)

First, I strained all of the disgusting bits from the pudding. AKA nuts.

I did this three times, because I wanted my pudding as smooth as possible.

I made the pudding according to the directions on the package. Essentially it is as easy as beating the milk and pudding mix for two minutes.

I slopped it into a pre-made graham cracker pie shell.

I put it in the refrigerator and patiently waited three hours for it to set.

Huh? What? Who are we kidding? Remember, we have all ready tested my patience for food before during my chocolate pie experience. It allows for thirteen minutes. At thirteen minutes I frantically grabbed a spoon from the drawer. And I skimmed the side of the pie with it. And my thighs wept. No, wait, that sounds gross. And my soul sang. And my thighs secretly rippled with excitement. Or they just rippled, ’cause that is their way…maybe pie is an ~~excellent~~ not such a good idea afterall.

Then I topped it with cool whip, covered it and reluctantly placed it back into the refrigerator.

I made this again a few weeks ago and doubled the amount of pistaccio pudding. I could do this, because I finally had hoarded enough pudding to the point I felt safe using some. I did this slowly over time, when my husband wasn’t with me and have packed the boxes into our pantry hidden from any pantry raiders that might come (or my husband who might commit me). In fact, I am rich in the stuff. So, I was all, two packages? Make it rain. Only instead of making it rain green paper, I let green powder rain into a bowl. I am frivolous like that. But I really liked the doubled recipe. If you are feeling super fancy when you make this, I would double the pudding packages. If you do this, you need to increase your milk to 2 and 3/4 cups. And follow the recipe above.

Have you made this? Do you like artificial green pistachio products or the real pistachio products? There’s no judgement here. I’m just sayin’ if you want some boxes, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a girl who can get you some. I heard that some crazy lady is buying them all, so they might be running out.

But that’s just a rumor.

I’m sure.

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home.

February 25, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Spaghetti Carbonara

Spaghetti Carbonara is one of those deceptively easy looking recipes. And it is easy. Except, I will say you need to have a bit of cooking experience to be able to execute it well. If not made correctly, it will quickly turn into a scrambled egg pasta.

The whole dish only takes about ten minutes to put together after the noodles have been boiled, drained and set aside. But the last two minutes makes you hustle.

I use Rachael Ray’s Spaghetti Carbonara recipe. I have tried many and I feel hers is the best. I tweaked it very slightly. I changed the amount of spice and garlic, because that is what my family preferred. And I use good ol’ bacon instead of pancetta.

I wanted to write the recipe down and add some tips because I have learned some things that will make this recipe go more smoothly:

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 pound package of spaghetti noodles
4 slices of chopped bacon
1 minced clove of garlic (or 1 tsp. from a jar or one handy little pocket from the frozen packet available at Trader Joe’s)
1/2 cup white wine (whatever you are drinking. The recipe calls for dry, but I have used a Riesling and it is equally as good)
3 large egg yolks
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8-1/4 tsp. ground black pepper (start with 1/8 and see if it is enough)
1 cup reserved cooking water from the pasta

First things first. Freeze your four slices of bacon for twenty minutes. This will make it much easier to cut.

This part is purely optional: with the remaining bacon, I cook it in my oven with my oven bacon recipe while I prepare the Spaghetti Carbonara. My kids love to munch on the extra bacon with their pasta.

Boil a large pot of water. Add two Tablespoons of salt to the water once it is boiling. Add spaghetti noodles to the boiling water and cook according to directions on the package.

Separate egg yolks while spaghetti is boiling. This part is my favorite. It is so fun. Just crack your egg. Break it in half, keeping the whole egg in one half. Now pour the egg yolk into the other half of the shell. Keep doing this until the white has completely fallen out. Add the yolks to a small bowl and gently beat. Set aside.

Before draining the spaghetti, carefully reserve 1 cup of the boiling water.

Drain spaghetti. Set aside.

Chop bacon. Add to a large skillet and cook until crispy but not burnt. Usually this takes five to six minutes.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook an additional minute. Add wine. Let simmer in the pan for two minutes. Scrape up bits of bacon pieces. Turn off heat.

This is where you are gonna turn into a super hero. Are you ready? Well, it doesn’t matter because you are all ready at this part. There is no turning back. Go ahead and flip that apron into a cape.

No! Don’t really do that! We’re working with bacon here! Keep that apron on and just imagine it is a cape. You are free to implement your fantasy after this dish is on the table. And won’t that be fun?!

The next steps need to be done in order and pretty quickly.

Slowly add 1/2 cup of the hot cooking liquid you reserved from the spaghetti noodles to the egg yolks while you are continuously whisking them. Keep whisking until all of the 1/2 cup is added. You do not want scrambled eggs! Add your water slowly.

Now add your spaghetti noodles to the wine and bacon mixture.

Immediately add your egg yolks to the spaghetti noodle mixture and toss and toss and toss. Right before your eyes the spaghetti mixture will start to come together and turn creamy. If it is looking too dry and not easy to toss, slowly add more of your reserved cooking water to it while you toss.

Add salt, pepper, and cheese. Toss some more.

Serve promptly! If you did this properly, you will now have an incredible creamy white pasta with bits of bacon in it. Your family will swoon at your feet. If you did this incorrectly, you will have chunks of eggs and be thankful that you made some extra bacon. Just don’t tell anyone you weren’t trying to make breakfast for dinner!

Enjoy! This is one of my very favorite things to make. My husband requested it for his birthday dinner this year.

Do you love Spaghetti Carbonara? Have you made it yet?

Well, what are you waiting for? That cape ain’t gonna turn itself! ; )

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home.

February 22, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Pioneer Woman’s Best Chocolate Cake

A few months ago, I finally made a cake I had been wanting to make for forever. It was the Pioneer Woman’s Best Chocolate Cake. I have to agree with her. It really was the best chocolate cake I have ever had.

My whole family helped me make the first one. It was a fun family creation. It had enough steps where every one had a task. But it was still very easy.

I actually bought a commercial sheet pan from Amazon just to make this cake. When you think about how much a sheet cake costs at the store, this $12 was actually an incredibly decent price. The cake fits perfectly in this pan.

My husband requested this chocolate cake for his birthday cake two weeks ago. I decided to add something to the recipe. Sigh. I had read the comment section on her website. It seemed like a lot of people had this cake recipe in their family, except their family added cinnamon. We love cinnamon in our household. I figured it was a safe bet to try.

So, I added 1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon to the cake batter. That is it! 1/4 of a teaspoon! And it ruined the cake. It overwhelmed the cake. It was not good. At all. So, please just follow her recipe. Do not add the cinnamon or you will be crying on the inside as you throw away an entire sheet cake five days after you made it when nobody in your family will eat it. The first cake? Completely gone in four days.

I cannot wait to make this cake again! Sans cinnamon. It is amazing.

Have you made this cake? Have you ever added a seemingly innocent ingredient to a recipe only to have it completely fail?

Gnome Lover

Stumbling through life while still having fun

easy

Pistachio Pudding Pie

Spaghetti Carbonara

Pioneer Woman’s Best Chocolate Cake