2011 New Recipe #18

Wendy turned 32 on September 8th. We celebrated on her bday by going out on a Duffy boat with friends. The following Sunday, we threw a dessert party for her at our house. Ali made coconut cake (Wendy's favorite), Ashley made some fancy chocolate cookies, and I made fudgy coconut squares (Wendy loves coconut). They were delicious. I didn't get any pictures of the food or the party. Oops.

Fudgy Coconut Squares

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fudgy-Coconut-Squares/Detail.aspx?prop24=etaf

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup flaked coconut

 ICING:

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 5 tablespoons evaporated milk
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour, cocoa and walnuts; add to the creamed mixture. Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Combine condensed milk and coconut; carefully spread over the hot chocolate layer. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until coconut is lightly browned. Combine icing ingredients until smooth; spread over warm bars. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before cutting.

 

2011 New Recipe #17

Recipe #17 was Crepes. I made them in July for Steph's bridal shower that we threw in Wendy's back yard. By the time I finished making them, I think I had it figured out (how much to pour on the griddle, when and how to flip them, etc). They are pretty easy. We served them with lots of topping options including Nutella, whipped topping, strawberries, bananas, and coconut. The recipe came from Wendy's sister, Amber, in Oregon.

Crepes

3/4 c flour
3 eggs
1 T sugar
1 1/4 c milk (maybe a little more to thin)
Smidgen of salt

I think we quadrupled the recipe. Per Amber's directions, we used a hand mixer (I don't know why but that's what she said). The batter should be really thin.

Here are a few pics from the shower. You can kind of see the crepes and toppings in one of them. And the cute decor in another. And I made the cookies (cowboy cookies and snicker doodles) that were wrapped in cellophane baggies and tied with a cute "thank you" tag.

2011 New Recipe #16

Recipe #16 was Blueberry Dump Cake. I had a bunch of fresh blueberries that I needed to get rid of so I searched for a good recipe. I made it in a 9 x 13 pan and it was delicious and full of butter. I remember playing games and serving/eating it. It was a Sunday so my options were limited but I think this is the recipe that I ended up using (from allrecipes.com, of course). And I didn't have 4 cups of fresh blueberries so I used some frozen ones, too. There were no complaints!

Blueberry Dump Cake

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 4 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix berries, sugar, and cinnamon in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan. Cover berries with dry cake mix. Pour butter over cake mix, do not stir.
3. Bake for 30 minutes, or until light brown. Serve warm or cold. Top with ice cream.

Recipes update (#13, #14, #15)

I haven't completely forgotten about my goal to try 30 new recipes in 2011...I just haven't been doing a very good job. I've made six new recipes since my last blog post, though. Unfortunately I'm not sure where the recipes are and I only have a few pictures (but not sure which goes with which recipe).

Recipe #13 chocolate chip cookies
Recipe #14 chocolate chip cookies
Recipe #15 chocolate chip cookies

That's right, I've made a lot of chocolate chip cookies. They are my favorite and there are so many different variations that I wanted to try! I actually did quite a bit of research about technique, etc, but I think I made them all back in May so I remember very little. Sad, I know. I did learn that you should make your cookie dough 24 hours in advance and refrigerate it. And I think I have some notes written on printed recipes that I'm too lazy to find but will hopefully be able to locate when I need them!

I tried a recipe that had coarse salt on top of the cookies, which I really liked. I gave those to Jessica for her birthday in a cute little lunchbox.

Another recipe I tried was vanilla pudding chocolate chip cookies, which I first heard about through my sister, Annie. I got the recipe from a blog:

Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 c (319 g) flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c (237 g) butter, softened
3/4 c (106 g) brown sugar
1/4 c (50 g) granulated sugar
3.4 oz (96 g) pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c (473 ml worth) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beat in the pudding mix. Scrape the bowl again and add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping the bowl after each addition eggs. Add vanilla. Add half of the pre-mixed dry ingredients to the batter and mix just to combine. Scrape down the bowl and add the remaining half, mixing until fully incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Using a tablespoon-size scoop, portion the cookies into balls. Place 2 1/2" apart on prepared baking sheets and bake 10-12 minutes, until slightly golden and set. Let cookies cool on sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool fully. 

Shattered dreams

Today I called to wish my sister a happy bday. During the conversation, she told me that she recently colored her hair. That comment wasn't unusual because my sisters and I have been coloring our hair since we were 12 years old (seriously...mom's only rule was that we didn't get any color on the rug). For some reason, I asked her why she even colors her hair. And then I got the worst news ever: SHE HAS GRAY HAIR!! For a long time, I thought redheads were exempt from ever worrying about gray hair. I learned that I was wrong but still held on to the belief that I wouldn't have to worry about gray hair for a long time. And now I find out that my own sister has gray hair at 33 years old. The horror!

Fail...and updates

Well crap...my goal to blog at least twice monthly was ruined in July when I only blogged once. And then I totally failed in August with no posts at all! But I'm no quitter so I'm baaaack!

The last few months have been packed full of fun. Here's a little summary:

JULY

• awesome 4th of July weekend full of bikes, beach, Kristin's bday tea party & horse races, Lauren's bridal shower, Aaron's bday dance party, games, & fireworks
• helped throw Steph's bridal shower
• lots of running
• glow in the dark bocce ball
• watched lots of softball games
• car repairs :(
• Greg, Michelle, & Melody visited from AZ
• Heather & Austin's wedding reception
• helped throw Steph's bachelorette party
• went to Nauvoo for my family reunion (Independence, Liberty, Far West, Adam-ondi-ahman, Hannibal, temple, shows, Pageant, Carthage, swam in the Mississippi River, FAMILY!!)
• my 31st bday! (bikes, beach, party at Mariners Park with croquet and friends)
• went to San Francisco for a half marathon (ran across the Golden Gate Bridge!)

AUGUST

• went to Seattle for Steph & Todd's wedding
• moved out of 168-A 23rd Street
• was homeless for 2 1/2 weeks
• rode an elephant at the OC Fair
• Bommer Canyon Western Roundup (my first attempt at square dancing...)
• Taylor Swift concert!
• Naco's cute family came to town & I finally got to meet them
• moved to Balboa Island!
• Enrichment bbq, Stefanie's welcome party/bbq, lots of balboa bars & hippo cookies
  
• Ashley moved here! And Mom visited!

SEPTEMBER

•  watched huge waves at the Wedge
• visited Joe in DC for Labor Day (long flight, DC sites/monuments/memorials, lots of walking, the metro, egg nog, temple, Philly, Adrienne & Colton!)
• Wendy's bday! (Duffy boat in the harbor, dessert party at our new place)
• beach bonfire
• Jenn's bday dinner at Cheesecake Factory

More to come! I know I'm lame for not posting pictures but, let's be serious, if I had to include pictures, I'd never blog!

take me home country roads

My boss was talking about a golf tournament in Oklahoma this morning. I perked up and said, “Oklahoma? I’ll go!”

His reply: “You can’t, you don’t fit in there anymore.” Sad but true?

…to which my coworker replied, “You can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl.”