Christmas Fatness Post #1

I thought I'd share with you an AMAZING cookie recipe. If you haven't done any holiday baking yet, need to do some, or just want some yummy cookie you definitely need to make these!

I was going to just bake some plain 'ol gingerbread cookies, but while I was browsing for the ultimate recipe, I found this and just had to try it out. Enjoy!

Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies
Via allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup light molasses <--(I used dark)
1 (11 ounce) package Butterscotch Flavored Morsels

Directions:

• PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F.
• COMBINE flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt in small bowl.
• BEAT butter, sugar, egg and molasses in large mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in flour mixture until well blended. Stir in morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
• BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Fall Flavors

I don't think I have posted a recipe in a very, very long time. Now I'm ot chef, but I love food and both Chris and I love cooking! We usually start off with a recipe, but change most of it to suit what we have on hand. Here are a couple of EASY and yummy fall dishes that we cooked up this weekend:

Parmesan-Roasted Butternut Squash

via Epicurious

Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

3/4 cup heavy cream
3 sage leaves
2/3 cup finely grated parmigiano-reggiano

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.

Toss squash with cream, sage, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a 2-quart shallow baking dish. Bake, covered, 30 minutes.

Stir in half of cheese and sprinkle remainder on top. Roast, uncovered, until squash is tender and beginning to brown, about 20 minutes. Let stand about 5 minutes before serving (cream will thicken).

My notes: I've never cooked with butternut squash, but I picked a big one up for $1.50. It was really tough to cut into! Make sure you are prepared to put some muscle into that :) With the size of my squash, I ended up using a 13x9-inch pan, but followed these very instructions and it was SO delicious!!!

Yummilicious Pot Roast - Crock Pot Style!
(Yep, named that myself! Hah. Adapted from a lil' crock-pot book we have)

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. vegetable oil

1/2 chopped onion (I prefer red)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2-1/2 lbs. boneless chuck roast
1- 14.5 oz. can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp. chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
1 tsp. salt

Directions:
Heat 1 tbsp. oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add onions and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened. Set aside.

Heat remaining oil in same skillet. Add chuck roast and brown on all sides, about 5-7 minutes. Place roast in your crock-pot.

Combine tomatoes with juice, broth, chocolate, chipotle peppers and salt. Puree mixture in blender until smooth. Pour puree over roast in slow cooker.

Cover; cook on LOW for 7-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.

My notes: You can also use a pork roast for this recipe (we just had the beef on hand). The meat was a bit spicy, so add less if you prefer to..or even more if you can handle that! The chocolate/chipotle combination is is sooo tasty! This is definitely a yummy recipe.

A big fat FAIL

The other night I was watching something on TV (cannot remember for the life of me what it was), but it gave me a sudden urge to make granola bars. So I spent a little while trying to find an awesome recipe online. I eventually used this recipe, but adapted it to what I had on hand. I basically ended up using oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, pecans, banana chips, dried cranberries, vanilla, and honey for Round #1 of Granola-Making Shenanigans.

That's just the background to this little lovely story (but you shoul definitely try to make your own granola bars, sooo yummy!).

I'm not sure if other people do this, but when I've baked something or have some type of food that needs to be sitting out on the counter, when we leave we stick said item in the microwave or oven so that the dog doesn't decide to get on the counter and eat it. Ok so the dog doesn't really just eat whatever is on the counter, she rips it to shreds, all over the house. Yesterday it was a bag of brown sugar. All. Over. The. Couch.

Anyways! I came home from a lovely shopping trip at Ross with a friend (where I may or may not have bought the cutest measuring cups and spoons EVER), and I said "Wow, it smells like cookies...I thought you were cooking dinner?"

Chris: "Uhh yeah...the granola bars were in the oven when I turned it on to preheat"

So basically, he cooked my granola bars, which were wrapped in CELLOPHANE. Oh yeah, and he also added that he thought I took them out, when HE was the one that put them in there.

Boys...

A Cookie Worth An Entire Blog Post

I just made these peanut butter cookies and they were like, the most amazing thing ever...no joke. In fact, there is still a batch cooking as I'm typing this...that's how good they are. I told Chris that I am going to make them every day. I hope you make them too :)


Sorrrry, I can't find my camera battery charger so I have no pictures of mine :(


Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter at room temperature (smooth is what we used, but I am pretty sure they use chunky at the bakery)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chocolate chips

For sprinkling: 1 tablespoon sugar, regular or superfine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, the baking soda, the baking powder, and the salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Place sprinkling sugar — the remaining tablespoon — on a plate. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into the sugar, then onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion. Using a fork, lightly indent with a crisss-cross pattern (I used the back of a small offset spatula to keep it smooth on top), but do not overly flatten cookies. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies may appear to be underdone, but they are not.

Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

***I didn't use the chocolate or peanut butter chips with mine and they were perfect :)

On Painting, Furminating, Baking & Microwaving

I'm punishing myself for not finishing and posting pictures of my bathroom semi-makeover. So here you go (most unflattering video ever, but oh wells!)


Bathrooooom from Alyssa Kapral on Vimeo.



On the next note, we recently purchased a FURminator on Ebay; I totally pwned Petco's $50 price tag, by over half. Awesome. Our dog as been in omigosh shed-mod for the past 3 weeks or so, and her regular brush was not cutting it. After watching a few videos on Youtube, we decided it was a must have. Vacuuming the carpet and couch every day is way fun. You know your dog sheds too much when your lint screen in the dryer is HALF DOG HAIR (not even kind of kidding).

This is our rug (on drugs), probably from just a few dog-shedding filled days.

This would be a pile of Husky hair, after just a couple minutes of brushing. Repeat for about 10 more hours and you may or may not be done :)

I have been sucking lately at baking, for reals. I saw this recipe last week, and knew I had to make it...red velvet cake is my favorite. It was SUPER simple, since you can use a box of cake mix ($1 at Target!). They were AMAZING. If you make this I suggest you watch out how much of the cream cheese filling you add, because it's pretty sweet/rich.

Oh...umm...I had to show off the font I made of my handwriting, hah!

Nom nom.

We also bought a new microwave this weekend for Valentine's Day. By "we" I mean Chris, and by "Valentine's Day", I mean it just happened to be Valentines Day when he ordered it ;) It's being delivered tomorrow from Home Depot! w00t for free delivery! I also thought microwaves were going to be like, $100..but apparently the over the range ones are way more expensive. Darn.

I probably should have split this into 4 separate posts...oops!!!