Nutella Nirvana

So we stood there facing each other, nothing but a jar of Nutella separating me and my dear friend. We had both just devoured two enormous chicken fajita roll ups. She asked “so do you think we have enough room for dessert?” Honestly, it was a valid question. You should have seen the size of those fajitas (Goliath would have been full). We both looked at the Nutella for a few seconds. We smiled at each other, and opened the lid.

My  friend whipped out her ipad faster than I could blink, and before I knew it we were making the most delicious Nutella cake. The Novice House Wife is just plain incredible. I owe my foodie bliss to her. She posted a recipe entitled “The Most Dangerous Chocolate Cake Just For One”. I should have known from the title that it was going to be great. A recipe for one, with just a couple ingredients  and cooks in 3 minutes. Life, my friends, is so unexpectedly pleasant.

*Disclaimer: I am not much of a chocolate person. I don’t detest chocolate but I don’t dream in chocolate either.

This recipe may have changed my mind about chocolate. It was so moist and soft and delicious. My brilliant Nutella loving friend  sliced up strawberries and “twinkled” it on top of this mighty cup of happiness. Let me just tell you….some things are just meant for each other, like strawberries and Nutella.

Cinco De Mayo Cookies

Photo Credit: She Knows

I saw these adorable sugar cookie pinata cookies and I knew I had to share them with you. I think the cutest part is that M&M’s spill out of the middle.

(EEP EEP EEP).

Go here for directions

Celebrate good times come on!

One thing you should know about me is that I love birthdays.

A few of my favorite things in order of importance..

1. Riding my bike on a beautiful day 

2. Birthdays 

3. Eating incredible food 

4. The smell of new books 

5. Bread baking

So you will understand my excitement when my mom asked me to make something cute for her birthday. I was more than thrilled. She gave me the general idea of what she wanted and then as all good moms do let me start on it. It took me a week to kinda wrap my mind around what I wanted to make but then it came to me.

This book may be the best book that I have ever bought. I refer to for every special event that I want to bake something for. Everyone thinks I am so creative and talented and then I feel so ….awesome. Most of the things in this book are easy to make (for the most part) and they look really cute.

I decided to try to spend as little as possible while making these cake pops so I made the cake and the frosting from scratch. The recipe for both are in the book. I went to the store and bought the melting chocolates and the ice cream cones. I only needed a few M&M’s but I couldn’t just buy a small bag. “Go big or go home!”

The lady who was ringing up my supplies smiled and said “either you are making something yummy, or you are having a bad day and need a pick me up.” That was funny. I reassured her that it was for a birthday.

I thought this was going to be an hour project but it turned out to be 3-4 hours. It was well worth it. My mom thought they were the coolest which was enough of a reward for me.

 

The girl who couldn’t stop cleaning..

Something happens in the spring. I don’t know if it is nature’s natural course or if it is just me. Every year when the temperatures start to heat up I feel the instinctive urge to tidy up my nest. Sounds silly huh? I feel silly, but it is still true. On date nights, I beg my hubby to take me to Lowes to walk down the paint aisles.  I find myself sneaking into the garage after dinner to dust off my garden pots and I can already envision my new garden (victory garden #3).  Seeing the sun on a daily basis makes me clean…weird.

Mr. Snail on the other hand knows that I can and will work from dusk till dawn so he enforces the mandatory “relax time”. At first, I would begrudgingly put my feet up on the recliner and “try” to relax. I would humph an pumph and work myself into a tizzy. That’s when Mr. Snail took things to the next level. We went out to date night and he took me to Barnes and Nobles. We walked around for an hour. I didn’t realize he was gone. I was too busy smelling the new books (I really love the smell of new books). He came back and said he was tired and wanted to go home. No worries, I was on cloud nine having smelled about 100 books in span of an hour.

That all changed when we got home and he pulled out a bag with something in it. He beckoned me to the recliner and asked me to please sit down and relax (pout starting to form) that’s when he handed me some magazines.

Mr. Snail is a genius I tell you. I was as happy as a lizard laying in the sun! I think I sat there and looked at those magazines for two hours. By the way these are great magazines if you are into photography. They give great tips on shooting in the light and the articles are short and sweet.

As all good things must come to an end so must this one. The next day, I told him I was relaxing (thinking he wouldn’t be home for another hour) and he caught me read handed baking granola bars!

>shock face<

Caught red handed I was but as all girls know you turn on that adorable “how can you resist me smile” and hand him a freshly made granola bar and that day is saved.If you are interested in the granola bar recipe I used click here.

Best Lemon Bar Recipe

Hey friends,

Do you want the recipe for the best lemon bars I have ever baked?

Really?

Are you sure?

Once you eat these lemon bars I am sure no other lemon bar will compare. (Well…then again I’m not sure everyone is different.

Alright here is the link to the yummiest lemon bars you ever tasted.

Have a great Monday

Quick Post: The Almond Recipe

Hey Everyone,

I know a few of you were asking about the recipe for the almond recipe. You can find the recipe on My Baking Addiction Blog. Weren’t they yummy? I will warn you that on your baking sheets use parchment paper like it says in the recipe. Don’t be like me and think that because you have non-stick pans you can snub parchment paper. The first batch were an epic fail because they stuck to the pan and it was a mess. My advice follow the recipe.

Love!

 

Chocolate Pudding stole my heart

I have been buying Hersey’s Cocoa for a really long time. To be honest, it’s cheap and I don’t really care for chocolate. I almost got my woman card snatched away by saying I don’t care for chocolate or shopping but I have to be real right?

Well, I changed my tune when I was feeling courageous one day and “splurged” on the good chocolate. Wow! Totally worth every single penny invested. I think this entire can lasted a full 3 days at our house. I made brownies and pudding. The brownies were a little too chocolately for me but the pudding was knock your socks off good.  My hubby exclaimed “so this is what real pudding is supposed to taste like?”

Needless to say, it was an eye-opening experience for both of us and one we were glad to experience.

Just Bundt Out!

I made my first bundt cake and it was amazing. The whole time I was making it I couldn’t help but think about the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I was busting up! “No its a budt!”

I think I truly stunned myself when it came to this cake. I pulled it out of the oven and I swear I heard it say “Hello my name is Mr. Bundt!” I have to say that making a bundt has got to be one of my favorite past times as of yesterday (subject to change). The recipe didn’t call for powdered sugar but the edges looked like Christmas trees to me and I wanted them to have snow (I blame my over active imagination for this silliness). So I grabbed my sifter and a little “pinch” of powdered sugar and sang “Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow” as I dusted my cake.

Before you ask yes I do laugh at myself a lot but sometimes it feels so good to be silly and just not care. I do it all the time. You only live once right?

I hope those that ate it enjoyed it as much as I did!

 

Have a great day friends.

Best Cookbook I’ve bought

I do a lot of cooking so for a cookbook to truly impress me it has to be easy enough to follow the directions, have ingredients that I can find at the local grocery store, and yield some incredible food.

This book does just that. Funny that I should find it in the strangest of places, a yard sale. I got this awesome book from a yard sale for a dollar. I didn’t touch it for a full six months, thinking that if someone was selling it I would probably only get one good recipe out of it.

Boy was I wrong.

I made some of the most awesome cookies ever…seriously..ever

  These English Muffins were decadent!

Who says a dollar can’t go the mile? I guess I should give you the name of the book huh? Can’t keep all the foodie secret to myself.
Food and Wine
Best of the Best: The best recipes from the 25 best cookbooks of the year Vol. 7

 

How to Boil an Egg and other wonders of the world

Hey Everyone,
I have heard through several birdies that some of you think I am some great cook. Well, thanks for the compliment but you are a little off base. You see, I didn’t start cooking until a few years ago, and then the only reason for that change was an act of survival. You see my BFF, my hubby, didn’t know how to cook much other than a can of soup and I was even worse than that with my infamous peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So you see we were in love and on the verge of starvation! Something needed to be done.

That is when Rachel Ray entered my life. I was at the grocery store one day and happen to stumble across a Rachel Ray magazine. Curiously, I flipped through the pages and thought that the recipes looked good enough and it didn’t seem like such a hard endeavor. I dropped my frozen pizza on the floor and practically ran to the produce aisle. Not really, but it makes for a good story.

Through the years, I have really challenged myself to cook smarter, faster and tastier. What people usually see are the meals that make it out of the oven and into my mouth. What you don’t often see are the pictures of me with a plateful of flat, crusty, cookies. Sad but true.

All this to say, that cooking takes practice and time. I still suck at cooking, just ask my little brother. The moral of the story don’t give up just cause you have on epic fail. Just throw it in the trash, shake your fist and shred the recipe. Lesson #1: It is never your fault. It’s always the recipe.

I finally after 6 years of cooking learned to boil an egg! Silly huh? What is even funnier is that I went through a whole dozen eggs before I got the hang of it. But once, I sought out some advice, thank you Google, I was on the road to success.

Thanks to Ian Garten I have mastered the art of boiling an egg. I seriously went on an egg boiling frenzy. You know what they always say….when life gives you eggs make potato salad!

I was pretty darn happy with this recipe for potato salad from the Pioneer Woman. I even got fancy and cut up some hard-boiled eggs to put on top.

I just thought these two recipes were worth sharing just in case you needed a little help boiling an egg. Have a delightful weekend.