new treat test

Recently I have had a lot of time to sit around and well, sit. It's pretty tricky to do a whole lot while you are nursing a little baby. Thankfully we have an iPad and the Hubs has an iPod so whenever I am nursing I am able to have one of those handy devices in case I am looking for something to do instead of well, just sit. So anyhow, after reading all the blogs I could, and checking my email a thousand times I got on Pinterest. And I found a recipe for homemade Twix bars. Holy moly. Pinned it. And then I decided to try these little suckers out on some friends we had coming over. So I whipped up a batch. Sadly I only got half of it done before the friends came over... some one decided he was hungry and wanted to eat. What was I to do? I just finished them the next day because I couldn't leave them half made. Now I have a big fat pan of twix bars all to myself, hubs doesn't like caramel.

Homemade Twix Bars [with my alterations]

1 cup salted butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla 

2 cups flour

2 1/2 cups caramel (I used the little vanilla caramel candies that are already in little squares)

3 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream

2 - 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips 

Crust: 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 baking pan. Combine butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add flour and mix well. Press dough into pan. Prick with a fork and bake for 30-35 minutes. After removing from oven run a knife along the edges. Let cool. 

Caramel: 

Melt caramels and cream in a saucepan. Pour over cooled crust. Let cool [stick in in the fridge for a half hour or so]

Chocolate: 

While the caramel is cooling melt the chocolate. You can melt it in the microwave in 10 second intervals stirring every 10 seconds or you can use the double boiler method [which is what I did]. Once melted, pour over caramel layer. Let cool. Then eat some yummies! 

I hope you all had a good weekend :) 

Lemon Time

One of my friends had a baby a few weeks ago and we got to visit them at the hospital for a little while. Today I am excited because I get to go and visit my lovely friend and her new baby at her house for longer than just a little bit. I am just pleased as punch that I get to visit! I was so excited in fact that I fixed a whole pot of soup and some bread to take them so Mama could have a little bit of a break and just worry about her and baby.

I asked if she would like me to bring something for dinner, I didn't want to show up at her house with some food and them to already have plenty of it. She was excited about the soup idea so I went to the grocery store and bought the goods. Growing up my mom would always fix the best potato soup with dumplings. It is seriously the best soup ever. I will share the recipe with you some time this winter, soup is after all, the perfect winter meal.

Along with the soup I baked a little loaf of bread. I was thinking about a french loaf, which always tastes amazing with pretty much any soup, but I found a new recipe in my "Taste of Home" magazine that looked wonderfully delicious. I decided I had to try it. It is a a quick bread and it turned out beautifully. Normally I like to stick with the amazing tried and true: pumpkin, blue berry, apple... But I thought I should give a new one a go just to see if held up to the others. It did. I was a little skeptical about how it would turn out because the herb is so strong, but it is Amazing. Bake some. Now. You will thank me later. K?

So, without further rambling, I share with you "Taste of Home's" Lemon Thyme Bread:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. minced fresh thyme
1 Tbsp. grated lemon peel [one whole lemon grated]
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Confectioners' sugar [aka powdered sugar, though I'm sure you all knew that. One day I will have to tell you a funny story about that...]

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar till fluffy. Beat in egg. Combine buttermilk and sour cream. Combine the flour, thyme, lemon peel, baking soda, and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk mixture, beating well after each addition. [I dumped everything in the same bowl and mixed it all together, it saved time and bowls and turned out just perfectly.]

2. Dump into a greased 8 in x 4 in. bread pan. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes. After baking let cool. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

You could always make these into muffins, that would be equally delicious. Or little loafs. I split mine into two bread pans to I could taste it before I took it over.

Anywho. I thought it was really good and turned out well. If you like baking or if you like bread, you should really try it out and let me know what you think! I think it's a keeper : )

healthy and yummy

A while back The Hubs went grocery shopping and bought a very large bag of frozen tilapia. I do not like fish. No. I don't. I never really have. Well, that's not completely true. I used to eat sardines from the tin all the time. They were my favorite thing ever. So much so that I named one of my favorite stuffed animals Sardines. I really loved me some sardines. But then I stopped liking sardines and fish in general. My taste buds changed or something. I mean, I still ate some fishy type meals just cause that's what we were having for dinner and I would rather eat something than be hungry. And what ever was fixed for dinner was what we had to eat for dinner. So I would begrudgingly eat my tuna melts or salmon patties or whatever other sea food was served for dinner. If it were my choice I wouldn't eat it.

But, back to The Hubs' purchase. He saw the fish and thought it would be a good way to get healthy. Fish is supposedly healthy for you. So we bought some marinades at the store to trick my taste buds into liking the tilapia. It tasted terrible. I ate two bites and was full... of fish, so I fixed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to enjoy. But since I hate wasting food (aka money) we were determined to figure out a way that I could fix the fish and kind of enjoy it too. After trying dozens of recipes and marinades and detesting every single one of them I found what appeared to be a little gem of a recipe. The picture looked alright so I thought I would give it a go. But there was a problem. I didn't have all of the ingredients. Naturally, I wasn't about to go and buy them. So I switched a bunch of the ingredients around so much so that I'm sure it tastes nothing like the actual recipe. But, I liked it. I actually ate my whole little fishy.

I thought I would share my recipe with you so that you could try it. You can tell me if it's terrible. I really won't mind. But I still fix it because we had a lot of fish to eat and it's the only way I will eat it. Let me know what you think of it if you try it.

Tasty Tilapia

1/2 cup peaches and juice (or pineapple - I use the little fruit cups that come individually packaged, one of those little guys is the perfect amount!)    
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons parsley
5 teaspoons canola oil
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
5 green onions, chopped (I've used chives too and it is equally delicious)
fish fillets (however many you want up to 8, I usually fix three for me and The Hubs)

Mix all of the ingredients together (minus the fish). Add the fish, coat, and marinate for about an hour (I usually can't wait that long and it sits for about 30 minutes, which is plenty of time : ) .  Then we normally put it on the grill and cook it accordingly. I'm not really sure how long, just you know, as long as it takes to cook fish. Then you enjoy it while it is nice and hot!

We normally pair the fish with some wild rice and a nice little spinach salad. It makes for a very yummy and healthy meal. If you try it let me know how it turns out/if you like it : )

Happy Wednesday!

dinner : )

Tonight for dinner I had perogies, pretzels, and pickles. 

It was delicious. 

de-lish-ish

Welp. Yesterday I rushed home from school. Surprisingly I left at 3:30ish - the earliest I think I have left school so far. Anyhow. It was great. I went to get a few things from the grocery store and I remembered everything I had written on my list even though I had forgotten my list in the car.

I had found out an hour or so earlier that the picnic we were going to actually started a whole hour earlier than we thought it did. Thus the rush. But, I was able time everything perfectly. Which is rare. In fact, I was ready to walk out the door right at 3:30 and the Hubs wasn't even home from work. I was on top of things : ) I think it surprised even myself a little bit.

Anyhow. We went to the picnic and had pretty nice time. I think I mentioned that we have some new friends from Russia. I can't remember. But if I didn't, or if you haven't been reading for long, we have some new friends from Russia. They came a day or two before I got my job. We picked them up from the airport, moved them into our guest bedroom for a few days, helped them find an apartment, took them to the store (this was the Hubs' favorite part was taking them to Walmart and Target : )

Anyhow. The picnic we went to was for International Students who are attending U of L. The Hubs and I found out we could be a part of this ministry through our church that welcomes and befriends International Students and that's how we made our new friends. So the picnic was to welcome all of the International Students to U of L. We went and had a jolly time.

And I took my treat. I wanted to eat half the pan before we got there, but I refrained. By the time I got through the line there were only five little squares left. Apparently these little guys go like hot cakes. They are delicious.

Wanna make them? It's just like Rice Crispy Treats without the Rice Crispies. Substitute Peanut Butter cereal in and add some M&Ms! Easy Peasy. 

Ok. I'm off. I just wanted to share that little tidbit : )