Connie's Hashbrown Casserole!

My mouth waters at the words "Hashbrown Casserole".  My family has long been in charge of the family breakfast at various holiday gatherings.  I think in part due to this casserole recipe of my mother's.  I have eaten this casserole in the morning, as dinner, while drunk, while hungover, while starving, and as an absolute rule, always, ALWAYS have a second helping. 

Enjoy!

You will need:

• 2lb bag of frozen hashbrowns (I use a 1kg bag of McCain's frozen hashbrowns)
• 1 cup diced onion
• 8oz cheddar cheese (I substitute marble quite frequently, depending on what I have on hand)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup melted butter (I don't really measure it, I just cut a big hunk off the bar of butter and toss it in a bowl)
• 1 tub of cour cream

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and thaw hashbrowns in a large bowl for 30 minutes.

2.  Melt butter in the microwave for one minute, and pour it on top.

3.  Add cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, cheese, and onion and mix it alll together.  Cheesy carbohydrate-y goodness.  

4.  Pour it in a 9 x 13 pan or dish.

5. Bake at 350 for one hour or until the edges and corners are brown and the cheese on top is just a wee bit crispy.  NOM NOM NOM. 

as you can see I dug in before I could even take a picture.

Apple Turnovers!

So I made my first ever attempt at "making up" my own recipe.  While I am sure there are various recipes that are very similar, I really just used what I had and hoped it worked!

If you saw my previous post, you'll have seen that I had a ridiculous amount of apples and oranges on my table.  In my fridge, I had 4 tubes of Pillsbury crescent rolls. Don't judge, there was a sale.  I threw in a little of this and that, and it all started to come together.

Verdict: SUCCESS! Although I would make some adjustments along the way that i'll tell you allll about!

Also: there was no alcohol consumed in the making of these.....shocking, I know.


LAZY APPLE TURNOVERS
(I'm not calling you lazy or anything - I just think that they're so easy that even the laziest lady in the kitchen can make em!)
Makes: 16 (this recipe could easily be halved)


Ingredients:

• 7 small apples 
• 4 tubes of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
• 4 tbsp all purpose flour
• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter (I used 1/2 a stick-ish)

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, peel apples, then cut up into 1/2 inch bitties. 

2.  Add in sugars, flour and cinnamon.  Mix with a spoon gently for a few minutes until combined.  It should look like sugary deliciousness.  

 

3.  Open the crescent roll packages and spread 2 tubes worth of triangles out on prepared cookie sheets.  These will be your "bottoms", and the other two packages will be your "tops".   Spoon about 2 tbsp of the apple deliciousness into each triangle.  

4.  Get yo' stick of buttah and cut 1/4 inch cubes and place them on top of the apple deliciousness.  

5. Place the "tops" on.  I found stretching out the triangles helped before laying them on.  Pinch all the way around the close all that deliciousness inside.  

This is the point where I thought this was gonna be a huge failure.  They're not gonna be pretty....

6.  Put them in the oven, and set the timer for 12-14 minutes.  They should be browning on the tops and in the corners when they're done.  

7.  Let them cool for 5 minutes, then dig in! 

Smores Bars!!

Well well well, it's been a while hasn't it? Thought you'd gotten rid of me? HA! You won't get rid of me that easy.....

I've been busy putting in time at that thing they call a job, and now I have 6 glorious days off to bother you with my latest and greatest successes and fails in the kitchen.  That, and drink wine.

Currently, I am enjoying the aroma of chocolate and marshmallowy goodness while enjoying a beer and my sleeping pups.  I have been asked for the recipe for my Smores Bars quite a few times since their debut.  I brought the pan with me to work with the intention of bringing some home to Ryan at the end of the day.

Not so much.

The pan was devoured and I spent nearly an hour of the afternoon visiting each of our units at the hospital delivering mid afternoon chocolatey treats.  I'm sure my patients were ok.  I think.

I had a little trouble when I went to make these again.  I couldn't find my terrible, shallow, mixing bowls anywhere.  Since they are the only ones I own, finding them was my first step to starting the recipe.  As I made my way around my apartment, I found them one by one....

My project this afternoon. I found it really hard to get the apples and oranges interspersed evenly.  

One of these things doesn't belong here.

Or here:

So, naturally, this happened.

SMORES BARS
adapted from: Lovin the oven


You will need:

• One large bottle of dark Rum for consumption while waiting for the butter to soften
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s) (or three regular sized Hersey's bars)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8x8 pan and set aside.  Get yo' butta out of the fridge, set it out to soften for a while.  Make yourself an adult beverage and enjoy.  Take a nap.  Arrange fruit for your table.  (I did all three today - yay me!)  Do whatever you want, but don't attempt to cream the sugars with the butter until it's SOFT.


2.  In a large mixing bowl, cream sugars and butter until it is fluffy sugary goodness.

3. Add egg and vanilla. 

4.  In a smaller mixing bowl whisk flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt.  

5.  Add to buttery fluffy goodness, mixing at low speed until combined.  

6.  Press half of the dough into the bottom of the pan.  

7.  Lay delicious Hersey's chocolate bars on top of the bottom layer.  

8.  Spread Fluff evenly overtop of chocolate layer.  Resist the urge to touch it.  I made that mistake and ended up with sticky whiteness everywhere.  Seriously, fluff fascinates me.   So sticky, yet so smooth.  

Seriously, how can you not want to touch it?

9.  Once you have stopped playing with the Fluff, spread the leftover dough overtop.  Best way to do it is flatten sections with your hands, and lay them on.  

10.  Throw it all in the oven, set yo' timer for 30-35 minutes, have another adult beverage and enjoy!

I dove in before they cooled.  Therefore they look like hot messes.  Don't judge them.  

To Dyson or not to Dyson.....

Ryan and I have suffered our first setback in our domestic life together....our beloved vacuum cleaner bit the dust a couple of weeks ago (quite literally.....I actually think it died of dirt-overload).

We have hummed and hawed about buying a new one, which is a must.  I mentioned our two wonderful dogs in previous posts, but in this post they will be referred to as the dirt tracking, shedding, smelly messes that they truly are.

My boyfriend's mom Debbi, (will be hereon referred to as my mother in law....in all the happy wonderful ways) lent us her Dyson she recently purchased.

A Dyson.

Like a real one.  Like the one I never thought I would ever lay my hands on....it's coming.  To my house. To deal with the dirt tracking, shedding, smelly messes.

In anticipation of her arrival (yes, she is a she, and she is beautiful too), I wondered if she would live up to all my expectations.  I wondered if I would build her up to be more than she was capable of being?  I wondered if I would love her far more than she was capable of loving me back?  And so I decided to go into this with an open mind, and really ask the question:

Is a $500.00 vacuum really worth it?

I carried it in with nervous anticipation, mostly that one of the dirt tracking, shedding, smelly messes would attack it and injure her.  Ryan was secretly as excited as I was because she had barely warmed a spot on our floor before he'd plugged her in and was "testing" a spot near the door.

A 3x3 ft square near the door looked like the brand new carpet it had been when we moved in, and the square turned into an impromptu entire-apartment clean.

Meet my housekeeper, Ryan.

Ok ok, so he's not the housekeeper, but he started picking up more of the house work when I was working 65 hour work weeks......and it kinda stuck now that I'm down to 50.

But he's so good at it.  And he's cute.  And only complains SOMETIMES.

Look how gross our dirt tracking, shedding, smelly messes have made our apartment.  Thats only the living room and the hallway.

The verdict: Worth it.  I watched as my carpets were transformed in front of my eyes. They looked like they'd been steam cleaned before even steam cleaning them.  I can't wait to see what they look like after we do.  Our dogs may never walk on our carpet again.

The dirt tracking, shedding, smelly messes didn't even know what to do without the floor of hair they'd created.  

The professions of love began, and the saving has begun.  Oh Dyson, you will be mine someday.

Until then, I will continue to borrow my mother in law's whenever she is willing to give her up.

Either that or just get married so I can register for one.

Marriage is looking more and more attractive.

Is that terrible?

The Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies!

So here it is, my first recipe blog! Forgive me I do not own a fancy camera, and I am in no way, shape or form a photographer.

Ryan had been asking me for several months to make him chocolate chip cookies.  I found this recipe through Pinterest several months ago but didn't have cornstarch to add.  I will admit I've never been asked for cornstarch in any of my recipes, but I am self admittedly a beginner baker.  These turned out wonderful!!  Soft, chewy, chocolatey goodness.  There is one in my mouth as I type.  De-lish!

The original recipe calls for use of a stand mixer, buuuut since I do not own one, I mixed it by hand.  I have my own tips and tricks for mixing by hand, which I will tell you all about below, but I not-so-secretly am wishing for a KitchenAid Stand mixer of my very own one day.  Honestly, I kinda wanna get married only so I can register for one.  Is that so terrible?

Ingredients:

adapted from: Apple a Day Blog

• one large bottle of alcohol of choice (optional only if you own a stand mixer.  If you are hand mixing, this is a MUST have)
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I used semi sweet and they turned out great)

Preheat that oven of yours to 350 degrees.  Measure out yo butta and leave it out to soften.

Next is to measure out all the other ingredients because after step number 3 you won't be sober enough to do it later.  

Next step is vital to those gals and guys who are mixing without a mixer.  Pour yo'self a big old glass of wine, or other alcohol of your choosing.  Leave that butter to soften for a few hours, or until you remember it/stumble across it a few hours later.  My rule of thumb is if I can still remember it's there, I haven't drank enough wine, and it's probably not soft enough.

  

So, now that you've drank enough to make hand mixing tolerable, and make yourself feel better about not having a stand mixer, go ahead and add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and cream together into the buttah....or for those of you who are still sober AND have a mixer, go ahead and use the paddle attachment and cream sugars in with butter until you see fluffy buttery goodness.  

Add an egg and your vanilla, and mix together.

Now is when you'll be glad you drank all that wine.  Slowly add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt to the mixture and mix until just combined.  When your arms get tired, see step # 3, and stop for fluid breaks.  Lots of them.  

Add in chocolate chips, mix, and drop tablespoon sized balls onto prepared cookie sheet.  I didn't use a cookie scoop, but I could see how it would come in handy.  I used two teaspoons and did it the old fashioned way my mom did.  I flattened the tops a bit, as some of the reviews had suggested this, as they don't flatten very much.  

Pop into the oven for 8-10 minutes and viola!! You just made the best cookies ever! You are the best baker like EVER.  Ok that may be the wine talking, but you just outdid yourself girlfriend!!  

Now, finish that bottle of wine and enjoy! xoxo

Spring has Sprung!

Woke up (far too late, guilty pleasure on my days off!), opened the blinds.....and was blasted with a warm breeze through the window!

Seriously, how could we be any luckier? Barely a winter, and an early spring (or summer? - there were lots of shorts/tees/flip flops out there....thats right I said FLIP FLOPS!). Sooo I shook Ryan awake (post night shift) and announced we were off to the dog park!

Gathering the pups just to get out the door is an absolute chore in itself...hence why Ryan does 75% of the dog walking in our house.  Seriously, these dogs are mental.  Jax is all over anyone who even walks near the front door, and Joey is no where to be found, terrified he will be separated from his mommy for even a few moments.

SO.  Out the door we go, piled into the Aztek, our vehicle of choice when there is a chance they will be at all muddy (do you honestly think they're going on the backseat of my still-new-to-me Accord? HA!).

We arrive to see the park full of dogs, which is a blessing and a curse...Jax seems to get a little TOO excited when there are too many dogs, and Joey gets a little beat up trying to keep up with all of them, we usually prefer a crowd of 8-10 dogs or so.....

However, both Jax and Joey were very well behaved, enjoying chasing all of the dogs through the woods!  Jax was the only dog to feel the need to go swimming.....

Joey was his usual self and spent most of the time chasing his brother and eating sticks.....

However the prize for the biggest stick of the day undoubtedly goes to Jax!

Now we are home, and I am looking forward to a fairly quiet evening, hopefully I will be left alone long enough to bake the chocolate chip cookies Ryan has been asking for for 2 months!  xoxo

Oh...Jax and Joey wanted to help me with my blogging! So much for leaving me alone! :)