A Disasterpiece

This is a short post because I don't like writing about disasters when I can't pull them off graciously or casually act like I meant to do it. Sometimes you can get away with it, like how if I burn the edge of a batch of brownies I'll just cut all the edges off, throw them away, and make really tiny brownie bites and nobody has any idea that I stood in front of the stove saying the f word repeatedly. That's not gracious.

I Don't Know How I Made it Through High School Or Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

For those of you who might not be avid readers of my high school transcripts, I have always been pretty poor at math. In fact, in my sophomore (?) year of high school school I repeated geometry. I can't remember if I had failed miserably the year before, or if it was just close enough to failing to warrant giving it another shot, but there was something about that class that just made my brain shut down. So I took it again.

I don't want to say I'm more of a creative type because I know people a lot more creative than me. I'm easy with ideas, I can picture what the thing should look like, but when it comes to engineering it I'm basically useless. To support a bunch of half marathon runners a few weeks ago I had an idea for a sign that had a back part that would spin around to reveal 8 different names - keeping me from having to make 8 different signs. In my head, the sign would spin around a gold fastener which I figured would be easy to find (they weren't), and it would be no big deal to sit down and measure it all out to make sure each name fit in the space I provided. This would be my greatest running achievement.

Day 7: Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

Day 7 -- we've more than half way through the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies! Hang in there, the back nine of this countdown is all good recipes all the time. It's like the Lifetime Channel. 24 hours a day of Golden Girls. Perfection.

These cookies look like they're made of candy cane clouds.
I should write Hallmark cards.

Today's recipe is for Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies. Candy canes are popular around Christmas time, sure. Every year I try to make a cookie that involves candy canes. Last year I tasked my spouse with chopping all the candy down to a dust like substance so that I could dip my chocolate covered sugar cookies in the candy canes. By the way, I promised in the beginning that I would never share spouse stories, but I'm breaking that promise when I tell you now that he came back into the kitchen with HUGE chunks of broken candy canes. Like a every candy cane was just in 8 pieces. You can't attach a chunk of candy canes to a cookie like that. Come on now.

Leftover Halloween Cookies Part 2: Lost in New York

Ahh, it’s almost that time again. Turkey, turkey sandwiches, apple pie, stuffing... Halloween candy. The anticipated follow-up to the leftover Halloween candy blog is here, and it’s intense so get ready.

I mean, it’s no turkey sandwich, but it’ll do.

Last night I finally had the opportunity to make these bad boys. They are an excellent alternative to throwing your leftover candy away and/or peddling it to people in your office who live in high rise buildings or out in areas where no one dares to walk from door to door.

I threw around some language in my last post, I think I called them “bars” once, “cookies” a few times. These baked goods are definitely bars, and they won’t yield a lot of return. HOWEVER, they are delicious and the EIGHT people you get to share them with will love you forever. Trust me, I’m beloved by some just because I know my way around a spatula. I’m not proud of it, but whatever.

Below are some shots from my before and after. For the candy I used chopped up leftover plain Hershey bars tossed with pecans. There’s also chocolate chunks and other pecans in the cookie dough. If I had the chance I’d definitely use snickers, kitkats, whatever I could get my hands on because these bars are awesome. The recipe, posted again below, warns you that you’ll just get 12 very large bars and they weren’t kidding. I actually only came away with 8.

For the inside of the cookies, the finer the the chocolate the better.
For the TOPS, keep the pieces big! 

Be sure to space the cookies far apart, because they'll spread. 

The final products up close and personal.

And because you’re all such beautiful people and you left comments on the last blog, I’m giving away Yeah, I’d Bake That Magnets! They look great on refrigerators, filing cabinets, cars…and they’re free! Seriously, I’ve been thinking about it and I just can’t think of a better present for your loved one than a Yeah, I’d Bake That Magnet. Don’t wuss out and get them a bathrobe like last year Brad, step your game up! [I apologize to all Brads whose wives love bathrobes]

If you too want a magnet, leave a comment on this blog and I’ll hook you up!



Source: Best Ways to Use Halloween Candy 79
Author: Lela Davidson
Link: http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/Best-Ways-to-Use-Leftover-Halloween-Candy

Topical: Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies

If you're anything like us, you now have a mountain of Halloween candy on your dining room table that may or may not cause your friend Ben to catch diabetes. Every year on Halloween our block of row homes gets assaulted with little pirates, Michael Jacksons and regular teenagers who dressed up and went trick-or-treating as regular teenagers. But for some reason, this year we over prepared (I think it was the freak snow storm and the stock piling mentality) and now we have a table full of candy that's got to go. I mean, it's got to go.

So today when I was supposed to be writing lesson plans I was scouring the internet for ways to use these leftovers. I came away from the search with two ideas: 1. I'm not sure I want to use too many collaborative writing assignments in my classroom and 2. The following Pampered Chef recipe is an amazing way to pile up all that candy, throw it in a bowl and eat it all at once so you don't have to bother with the wrappers. Obviously, my thoughts on collaborative writing do not apply here.

The website I got the recipe from says you'll make a killing if you sell these at some kind of bake sale, so if you're looking for some extra cash you're welcome:

Coffee House Cookies
Link: http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/Best-Ways-to-Use-Leftover-Halloween-Candy

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans, divided
2 bars (1.5-2 ounces each, or the equivalent of mini bars) of your leftover chocolate goods*

*I haven't made this recipe yet, but I would think adding more to the recipe can't do a lot of harm. Just don't load up on too much caramel or rice products.

*This recipe makes 2 batches of 6 big cookies


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, baking soda and salt and mix well. In another bowl or mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

2. Stir 2/3 cup of the nuts and 2/3 cup of the chocolate chucks into dough. Cut candy bards into small pieces and set aside for later.

3. Scoop 1/4 cup of dough onto cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Leave plenty of space (about 3 inches) because cookies will spread as they bake. Press nuts and candy into cookies.

4. Bake 14-16 minutes or until cookies are almost set. Don't over bake. (Like you would on purpose?) Centers should be slightly soft. Cool on baking sheet for 7 minutes before putting on a cooling rack.



I'm going to be making these some time this week, so check back for pictures! And leave a comment below if you have any other ways to get rid of halloween candy!

This is our friend Ben. He loves candy corn.

Source: Best Ways to Use Halloween Candy 78
Author: Lela Davidson
Link: http://leladavidson.hubpages.com/hub/Best-Ways-to-Use-Leftover-Halloween-Candy

Snickers Cupcakes!

Second post. Less pressure. This weekend was our friend Christine's birthday, and I promised I would come bearing cupcakes. I went with snickers, raspberry & peanut butter. The snickers cupcakes are heart attack inducing but ridiculously good. I found the recipe on a site called Annie's Eats - she collected the ingredients from:

[[Cupcakes from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes, caramel sauce from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz, frosting adapted from My Baking Addiction]]

She does a better job of laying out the pictures and the ingredients than I ever could, so it's best to go there for the recipe. It's pretty easy to follow, just pretty time consuming. The carmel sauce alone will slow you down, but it's incredibly worth it. If you can measure success by high fives, than I think this was a good recipe to make again.

 I made the cupcakes and stuffed them with snickers at night.

I waited to ice them til the next day to make sure they still looked fancy for the party.

I was pretty happy with the final results:

I'll post the recipes for the peanut butter and the raspberry cupcakes another day. I actually ended up making a blackberry version of the cupcakes too, I'd say it was pretty successful baking venture. Definitely try these if you can. And make a dentist appointment too while you're at it.