Nutty Chocolate Fudge

1, 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup walnut halves

2 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp coarse sea salt

In a heavy bottomed saucepan on low heat or over a double boiler add the milk and chocolate chips.  Let them sit, untouched for 5 minutes (Chocolate has a tendency to seize so, be patient). Then stir slightly once a minute until all the chocolate is melted.  Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and walnut halves, ( I like to leave them halves whole, instead of chopping them, because when you cut the fudge it is really beautiful to see the slices of walnut).  Pour into a greased 8x8 inch pan and sprinkle with the sea salt.  Cool in the fridge for 30 minutes, cut into 1 inch squares and enjoy.

Fall Semester Reading

This semester I didn't have much time for reading books other than my microbiology textbook, but I did get a few fun books read over breaks, long weekends, and those moments when I needed an escape from reality.

• Bossypants by Tina Fey: A humorous autobiography filled with Tina's unique comedy from the very beginning. Example: "[I have] straight Greek eyebrows. They start at the hairline at my temple and, left unchecked, will grow straight across my face and onto yours."  She talks candidly about the scar on her face, her relationship with her dad, how her husband hates flying, parenting struggles, and the inside of the SNL set.  While reading this book I burst our laughing many times, looking around to make sure no one was around to give me the stink eye for interrupting the silence.  There were also times where I had to read a sentence or paragraph a couple times before I got the point that she was trying to make a joke, her comedy did not always translate to the written word, but all in all it was a funny, lighthearted book.

• The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living with a Grande Passion by Leonard Sweet: This book discusses the success of Starbucks and how their philosophies can be applied to churches.  He goes through every dimension of Starbucks and translates it to how it would work in churches.  He focuses EPIC, 4 elements imperative for a good church: Experiential, Participatory, Image-Rich, and Connective.  There are many good points brought up in this book, some even inspiring, but the Starbucks analogy to the church got pretty old pretty fast.  The book was also littered with quotes and short stories about coffee in boxes on most of the pages that interrupted the flow of the book.  This book is worth a glance through, but not one I would recommend reading cover to cover.

• Bed and Board: Plain Talk About Marriage  by Robert Farrar Capon:  This book was published in 1965 by and Episcopalian Priest.  I read it because Tyler Blanski used it as one of his references in Mud and Poetry, one book I read this summer.  In this book Robert talks about the institution of marriage, the problems and joys of it and how to do better.  He uses some beautiful language especially when talking about the family, how each family is its own community and has its own liturgy.  There are some wonderful gems to be found ind this book like: "My wife is not my destiny, and she cannot stand being treated as if she were."  He talks a lot about grace and how we all need to slow down and pay attention to the beauty of life.  There are some times when he lost me, I think this mostly because I read it in 2011 and it was written in the early 1960's, so there is some cultural context I don't understand.  Other than that I really enjoyed the book and thought Robert shared a lot of wisdom.

Mock Tagalongs

Everyone has their favorite Girl Scout Cookie.  Mine has always been Tagalongs.  There is something about chocolate and peanut butter that is just magical.  But there are two things bad about Tagalongs: they are over $3 a box and you can only buy them once a year.  You also have to know a Girl Scout, which can be problem for college students.

Last week I was talking to a friend about our favorite holiday cookie recipes.  She mentioned how her mom always spread peanut butter on crackers and dipped them in chocolate.  In my mind that translated to "Tagalongs."  So of course I had to make them!

Mock Tagalongs

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 sleeves Ritz crackers (~35 crackers each)
1, 24 oz. pkg. chocolate almond bark

Break up the almond bark and place in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave on high for 2 minutes, stir and microwave at 1 minute intervals until smooth.  Place parchment or wax paper on a table and line with half the crackers.  Spread each cracker evenly with a heaping teaspoon of peanut butter.  Place the remaining half of crackers on top.  Using 2 forks put each cracker sandwich, one at a time, into the almond bark and cover with almond bark, shake gently to remove excess almond bark.  Return to parchment paper, cool and store in an air tight container

This is an awesome holiday serving tray my roommate owns.

This would be a great tray for serving Santa cookies.
 I'm sure he'd love some Tagalongs.

Sprinkles only improve them, right?

My roommates and I have been in a baking frenzy for the last week. 
We've made a total of  6 batches of cookies so far.

Cinnamon Spice Chex Mix

 Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch.  The oven miraculously held the ham, scalloped corn, stuffing, AND the green bean casserole.  My mom broke out the china and silver.  We even put a tablecloth on the table, it was fancy...well as fancy as we get.  It was so good to spend time with my parents, brother, grandparents, aunt, and cousins; to have the day free to just be together. 

I made the ham, stuffing, scalloped corn, whipped potatoes, butternut squash, triple berry pie, cranberry salsa and cinnamon spice chex mix.  Everything was good; the dressing might have had a little too much rosemary, the pie didn't hold together as well as I had hoped, and the cranberry salsa was only a hit with my brother, but all in all it was a wonderful meal. 

Cinnamon Spice Chex Mix (adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chex-Pumpkin-Pie-Crunch/Detail.aspx?src=rotd)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs. pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbs. vanilla
3 cups wheat chex
3 cups corn chex
2 cups oatmeal squares
2 cups cinnamon or honey nut cheerios
1 cup peanuts


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line an half sheet pan with foil and coat with cooking spray.  Microwave the butter until melted and stir in the sugar, spice and vanilla.  In a large bowl combine cereals, peanuts, and butter mixture.  Spread onto the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. Cool and store in an air tight container.

French Onion Home Fries

Today my brother got home for Thanksgiving break from University of Oklahoma.  It is so good to have him home for the week.  Tonight we made one of his favorite meals.  My dad grilled steak and I made these home fries and sweet corn we saved from this summer.

French Onion Home Fries

5 medium baking potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
1/4 cup olive oil
1 packet of french onion soup mix (If you don't have this just follow this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/copycat-liptons-onion-soup-mix-24952)
1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning

Preheat oven to 400.  Line a half sheet pan with foil and grease with cooking spray.  Mix all ingredients and pour onto prepared pan, and shake the pan until all the potatoes are in one layer.  Bake for 45-50 minutes, stirring halfway through, until lightly golden brown.

Mint Inception Cookies: a cookie within a cookie

My roommates have made Inception cookies a few times.  They are these massive, but beautiful chocolate chip cookies with an oreo on the inside.  These cookies are fabulously delicious, not to mention funny.  Have you seen Inception?  Well it is about dreams going on inside other dreams.  So a cookie inside a cookie is hilarious, right?  Either way these cookies are good.

I am currently obsessed with Cool Mint Oreos, so I wanted to rework the original inception cookie recipe to make it minty.  I exchanged the chocolate chips for Andes Mint Pieces.  You can buy the mints and chop them yourself or just get the bag of prechopped chunks. I also decided to use only a fourth of an oreo in each cookie because they bake faster and turn out the size of a normal cookie.

From the outside they look like your average chocolate chip cookies.

I should be studying Food Chemistry, but look how beautiful those cookies are!!

Mint Inception Cookies: a cookie within a cookie

Based on a recipe by Picky Palate: http://picky-palate.com/2011/01/06/oreo-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 ½ cups of flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup Andes mint pieces

8 cool mint oreos

Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  Add flour and soda, mix on low until combined (dough will be thicker than normal cookie dough).  Mix in Andes mint pieces.  Cut oreos into quarters.  Take a rounded tablespoon of dough and break it in half.  Put an oreo quarter between the dough and form dough around the cookie.  Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes on 350 °F.  Yield: 32 cookies

Oatmeal Everything Cookies

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup unsweetened applesauce

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. Vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups old fashioned oats

1 tsp. baking powder

4 cups goodies like baking chips, nuts, dried fruit

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using a stand or hand mixer beat butter, applesauce, and sugars on medium high for 3 minutes or until fluffy. Reduce speed to medium low and add eggs and vanilla, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. Add the flour, oats, and baking powder, mix until combined. Stir in the goodies. Scoop by level tablespoon onto greased cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and let sit for 1 minute before moving to a cooling rack. Enjoy.

If 4 cups of goodies is seems like too much goodness for one batch of cookies you can substitute more oatmeal or some rice crispies for part of the goodies. J Otherwise just use whatever is in your cupboards. This is a great recipe for emptying out all the partially used bags of goodies sitting in your cupboards that wouldn't be enough for a normal recipe. I did 1/3 cup peanut butter chips, 1/3 cup pecans, 2/3 cup toffee bits, 2/3 cup coconut, 1 cup dried sweetened cranberries, and 1 cup chocolate chips.

This is the AWESOME vanilla a friend gave me. It is a full quart of vanilla. Good times.

My sugar and flour canisters are cute, but not very wide.  My 1/2 cup measure only fits halfway into the jar.  This is ridiculous.

4 cups of goodies: peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, dried sweetened cranberries, pecans, toffee bits, and coconut

The dough.  Yum.

Pretty little cookies.