I'll have a cup of brownie...venti please.

Hi friends (Mom).

Good things come those who wait, right? Right. Well, I'm on month No. 9 of waiting for my good thing. Yup, Bug is just about 'cooked' and I am anxiously awaiting his arrival. While waiting I have occupied my time wisely - especially when it involves 'eating for two.'

This is my life.

The odd thing is that Bug doesn't care for chocolate. I know. I was shocked too. Nothing but lemonade, Starburst, Skittles, Gummy Bears, Jelly Beans, Taffy, Sour Patch Kids, Jolly Ranchers and LemonHeads for this kid. Oh the LemonHeads!

But not so much chocolate, cake, cookies, pie, etc. So my spark for baking some of my favorites and possible new favorites tapered off for awhile.

Well, now we're in the home stretch and luckily for me, and my ever expanding waistline, I came across this little recipe to help me get through these last two weeks. This is also super handy if you only want to dirty one mug and a tablespoon. Yup. That's it.

Now I've seen these types of recipes on Pinterest (the true founder of The Smoking Oven - like the God Fatha) but I never really put stock into it because I thought to myself, "Self. There is no way that cup-o-cake will be any good." But tonight my attitude changed -- 1. because I was bored (maternity leave is going to be tough) and 2. Mama needs some chocolate!

So here we go. Brownie for one in a cup.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp canola or other mild vegetable oil
2 Tbsp milk (recipe also recommended coffee or water if you don't have or want to use milk. I recommend milk)

I also thought about throwing in  M&Ms - either plain or peanut - but thought hey now. Let's not over do it.

Directions:

Add all the stuff in a mug. Stir. Microwave for 60-90 seconds. Eat.

That's it. No shit.

Here are some pics to really sum up the above.



Pre stir



After the 'baking'

Realized I didn't take a pic of the innerds until I was almost done. Whoops.

So there you have it. Would I make it again? Sure. If the craving called and we had all the stuff. haha

Lots of back up posts to come - Yum!
Laura



On Flour, on Sugar on Cocoa Powder and Imatation Vanilla...

Sorry I haven't been to chat the last...um, month. I've been scuba diving off the coast of Australia...and mountain climbing in the Swiss Alps. Oh. Yikes. I can't lie to you. Sorry.

Thanksgiving really kicked my ass to be honest. It was a great holiday, don't get me wrong but good Lord - turkeys, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, green bean casserole and corn bread casserole are just not up my alley.

The pumpkin pie and red velvet cake on the other hand - woot! I was to busy looking at salad, rolls, and stuffing to take pics during the process. Just use your imaginations. Here. I'll help. This is what the red velvet cake looked like...for the most part.

Impressive. I know.

Okay so now we're in the HO HO HO season and today I made 70+ reindeer cookies for a cookie exchange I'm doing with some of my favorite ladies! I loves me some cookies and in mass quantities - yay!

Well, my Grammy's sugar cookie and icing recipe, which are amazing, just had a bit to much work involved...but I ask you. What says Christmas more than sugar cookies? Nothing. So I found the next best thing. Reindeer cookies with pretzels for antlers.

Shopping list:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar (NOT tartar sauce)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (two sticks) butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Bag of pretzel twists
• 2-3 bags of M&Ms

A few things to note about the M&M situation. Reason would tell us to use red candies for the nose. Well here is what I got out of 1 package of M&Ms.

Dis-AA-point-ed! So. Three more packages later...

I then gave up even a little bit more and took the orange M&Ms and added them to the red. Close enough.

Recipe:

Mix flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.



Nope. That's not cheese. That's butter.



Get out the bowl you want all the mixing to happen in and beat butter and sugar. A note and a little friendly tip I saw on Pinterest. Oh Pinterest. If you're like me and never seem to read the directions before you start baking you realize half way into a step that you needed to do something - like thaw out butter. Soooooo I saw on Pinterest that to help thaw the icy cold butter a bit faster you can use a cheese shredder. Brilliant!

Moving on! Beat in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add in flour mix until well blended.

The dough is super dense, so be careful not to burn out the motor of your blender. Super thick.

Alright, so that whole pre-reading the directions thing will come in handy for this part too - wrap the dough in little packets (around 3-4) and stick 'em in the fridge for THREE HOURS!?!?!

I immediately said, "Eff that noise. I'm putting these bad boys in the freezer for an hour." And that's what I did.

The dough is not only dense it is crazy face sticky (< surly the 1 hour in the freezer/3 hours in the fridge wasn't the cause). Lay out a lot of flour on the counter, on the dough and on the roller.

Pre-heat the oven to 375.

I used a heart cookie cutter to make deer heads - I've seen some recipes use bell shaped cookie cutters too.

Press two pretzels on the top, add your nose and two eyes. YAY!

Bake for 7-8 mins.

They taste like chocolate sugar cookies. And pretzels and chocolate are yummy.

I'll be adding two more desserts to the blog this weekend - Fifth Annual Friends Christmas Party this Saturday.

I am exhausted. That was a lot of M&Ms and deer. Oh! And I only had 3 M&Ms left and a 75% full bag of pretzels.

Yum,

Laura

A Peice of Cake...er Pie

I have come to surface! I have been cheating on this calorie filled blog with hot glue, scissors, yarn and more hot glue. Crafting has taken over and it isn't making my butt bigger - so that's a plus.

But we all know where my alliance really lies - butter. Butter for President!!

A few weeks ago I joined three of my favorites for a dinner in and brought a Apple Crumb Pie. We got to meet new baby Josie - who is stunning and sweeter than pie. I bribe people with food so I can cuddle their babies. haha Look how beautiful she is!

Did I mention that my super awesome (non-dessert eating) Hubs got me an iPhone 4? It is so cool, I hardly know how it works but I love it and it has a great camera on it! The bad news is that I didn't have this sweet new phone/camera while making the previously mentioned pie. So - I have no photos of the pie...but here is a link to the recipe from BHG.com.

Wha-wha.

That recipe post was super lame - Josey made up for most of that but moving on!

On November 12 there is a great par-tay happening with some friends - Rock My Plymouth Party that is. Now I can't make this party because I'll be having slumber party with the Little People (baking, fort building, hide and seeking, movie watching, ice cream eating and so on) but I couldn't miss an opp to make a traditional Pumpkin Pie for the event.

I had attempted a fancy pants pumpkin pie last Christmas. Pumpkin Pie is my mom's favorite so for my first Christmas dinner hostessing experience I thought, "What better than to make this fancy pants pumpkin pie?" Well turns out it was a bit advance and more fancy than just pants...more like ruffled tuxedo fancy. Oy. It was pumpkin/carmel soup in a burnt crust.

I will not be defeated - I am smarter, wiser, and not as fancy pants. Traditional. Six ingredients and I'm not making the crust. BAM!

So here are the ingredients:

• 1 16oz can pumpkin
• 1 14oz condensed milk
• 1/2 cup milk (as I typed this...I just realized I forgot to add this. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Damn it. Strike one.)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• Pie crust (Schnucks does a nice crust)

Wow. I cannot believe I forgot the milk. Crap. I even bought milk at the store because of this. Eff.

Ummm. Okay. Moving on. Guess I haven't graduated from fancy pants.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450. Dump everything, except the dough, in a bowl and blend (gently) together.

Wow. That was tough. It would have been tougher to add the milk...but I'm not dwelling!

Roll/spread the dough across the pie pan (sending this pie in a disposable plate because I have a feeling I will never see the pan again if I send it to the party haha). I read in a blog once about stabbing the bottom of the dough with a fork a bunch helps it cook through and through. Okay. Sure. I'll buy that.

Our in pumpkin mix into crust. Using a fork make the cute little lines on the edge. You know what's even cuter than rippled edges? MILK IN A PIE. Frig.

Bake for 15 minutes. At this point, your house will smell heavenly.

Reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 35-40 minutes.

It took way longer than 40 mins. in my opinion. The article said to stick a knife in it to see when it is done.

Pie is great...tricky and fancy pants...but great. I don't know how the pumpkin pie tastes...luckily it will be consumed by very drunk adults dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians on Saturday...so they probably won't notice there wasn't any milk in the pie.

I'M OVER IT!

Yum,

Laura