Salted Caramel Blondies

   First things first, sorry I did not have a new recipe for you guys last week. I have just been so dang busy! Also, it is difficult to bake in 100 degree heat, especially because the oven makes it even hotter! Well, today was a bit windy so I decided to do some baking, but then the heat picked up so I spent as little time in the kitchen as possible. Nonetheless, I still have a great recipe to share with you guys today!

Gummy Bear Thumbprint Cookies

   Valentines day is coming up! And how better to celebrate than the making of cute little cookies to share with friends and family? And the perfect part? They are sweet and fruity, unlike the subtle tangy-ness of my nerds cupcakes I made last week. The actual heart shape idea came from a Beautiful Mess, and the recipe itself came from The Baking Robot. The only (visible) difference between the two recipes is that a Beautiful Mess made half of the original recipe and created hearts instead of the original thumbprint shapes in the dough.

Nerds Cupcakes

   So do you guys know about those SUUPER huge nerds boxes? Well, my dad got one down in Vegas thinking it would be full of just the candy....and bummed that it was all individual boxes. So these nerds have ending up in the candies bowl but nobody has eaten them! And what a better way to eat nerds than in a cupcake? 

   

    

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

   So I have definitely made this recipe before, and everyone I know loved it! It combines our basic chocolate chip cookie with any kind of oreo, based upon your preference  Every time I go to school with these they all sell out, no matter what the price is. They are super sweet too, I definitely know I can't eat more than two of these, still gooey, right out of the oven. Ugh I want to make them again just thinking about it! And you can use any type of oreos as well, I just use the Double-Stuf Oreos so people get the most bang out of their buck.

   Other than trying to bake for school on a daily basis, school is going fine. I got my progress report and got great grades, which I am totally happy about! Also, we get Friday (10.25) off as a holiday! This weekend I have a Halloween Party at a friends house, and then just helping clean up around my own for the ritual weekend cleaning. Soo much fun!! Not. And I won't get to bake for three days either, because I rarely bake for home since my family doesn't eat what I make. Oh well, I know everyone at school will!

   Back to the baking. I found this recipe after my friends would not stop bugging me about it! So I searched and I searched for a recipe that would suit my needs, then I stumbled upon a website called Tablespoon, and found this recipe there. Now, the recipe on the site says that this makes 2 dozen cookies, but it all depends on how much dough you encase the oreo in. I make mine a little thicker around the oreo, but thats only because I use Double-Stuf Oreos.

Mini Apple Cobbler

   Ahh, the apple season is underway, with Halloween soon to follow! And then Christmas, which is when the baking happens most! Well, unless you are at my house, there is a huge baking project every time we have people come over! This time is was for a cross-country spaghetti feed for my Brother and his team, and Laurie had the cooking to do while I baked. I was in the kitchen four hours after school on Wednesday, without stop. Here are pictures of what I made:

Here we have some Lemon Poppy seed muffins with Cream Cheese frosting, and Caramel Apple cookies with Caramel Apple frosting. Both of these mixes and frostings can be found at your local Walmart (yes, I know, store-mixes. I just didn't have to or the supplies to create everything from scratch).

Easy Sugar Cookies, the Old Fashioned Way

   Back to school yet again! This week I came with Sugar Cookies, which actually sold pretty quickly! They do also look like little snowballs, hence the nickname. This picture here was the first time I made these, right around the holiday season. And the nice thing about these cookies is that you can top them with any type of candies, I just used sugar on these. Peppermint would be good for the holidays, and I will have another recipe for that! But that is waay in the future, and right now we are in the present. And the present tastes good with these cookies!!
   I found this recipe in the old Betty Crocker cookbook one day, and decided to try it. And oh my goodness how simple, yet delicious they were! I just had to share them with the family, which scarfed them down in one sitting. It makes about 2 dozen cookies, which goes fast when you are in a family of 8; the three dogs included! I just can't get over how simple they are as well, something that can definitely be made quickly, for a sweet craving or a last minute bake sale.

Alright, so mixing everything up to the butter should make the dough look crumbly like this. It doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to make sure the butter is well incorporated.

Then you will mix in the egg,vanilla, and milk. Mix well! This will make the batter look more dough-y, while giving off that wonderful sugar cookie smell that makes you want to eat just the batter! But don't worry, the cookies will taste even better!

And since this is an older recipe, of course you have the choice on whether or not to roll the dough and make shapes. If not, just refrigerate it for 15 minutes, then roll into little balls by hand! Too bad I don't have any cookie-cutter shapes, or I would totally make them! Not really sure how that would work out either, I have definitely never made cookies into any shape other than a circle. That's basic, and I like basic.

Yay for baking time! Just remember that whatever shape your cookies are before baking, they will be that same shape (just fluffier) after you pull them out of the oven. I like to sprinkle a little sugar on top, mostly for texture but also for presentation! Then just stick the pan in the oven and viola you have yourself some wonderful little snowball sugar cookies!!!

Recipe:

3 cups Flour

1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 cup Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Butter

1 Egg, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons Vanilla

3 tablespoons Milk

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease a baking sheet.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

3. Cut up butter into chunks and drop into flour mixture. Mix until crumbly.

4. With a fork, stir in the egg, vanilla, and milk until well incorporated.

     ***If you aren't rolling the dough, chill for 15 minutes, then skip to step 6

5. On a flour-ed surface roll out your dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes.

6. Place dough on prepared baking sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes, or until the edges have a light brown color. Cool and enjoy!

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below!

Apple Crisp

Alright, peach season is over...time to bring on the apples! Every year my family and I go up to apple hill to get apples to can them! And boy is homemade applesauce yummy! The whole process is fun too!!
   But this isn't what I made this fine summer night! We actually had some store-bought apples that nobody ate, so Laurie cooked them. Then she asked me to pull out our old Betty Crocker Cookbook (picture edition, 1956) to see if there was a crunchy recipe we could put the apples under/over. Well, just my luck, I found this wonderful apple crisp recipe!

And let me tell you, it is absolutely amazing! Very easy too!! Now, Laurie had already cooked the apples with some cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg, but if you would rather not cook them you can just place them in the baking dish. That is what you should do in the original recipe, which I will place down below. But, if you wanted to flavor your apples, just cook them in a pot with some sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg!

Here are the apples, all nicely cooked! But, if you don't have a lot time or would rather un-flavor the apples, just cut them up and put them in the baking dish. Make sure you peel and core the apples, as well as cut them up. Both slices and cubed apples work fine, it is purely based on preference.

Then, you will make the topping! Just mix the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter into a medium sized bowl until crumbly. This is where the crispy top comes from! It is very simple, and almost a fail-proof recipe. I mean, someone out there might find a way to mess it up, and I would congratulate them. Just kidding, I'm not that mean!

Then you will want to crumble the mixture onto the top of your apples. It doesn't have to be perfect! And, seriously, before and after you bake it the topping will look the same!! The only way you can tell that it is done is if the topping is more of a golden brown color, and is crispy and hard-ish. I mean, if it was completely hard it might just be burnt and burnt doesn't taste so good!

But, stick this in the oven and let it cook for a while. And when I mean a while, I mean you can watch your favorite tv show, clean the kitchen, or even make a dinner! It will take a while for this to bake to perfection! And oh my goodness does this make the house smell amazing! This is definitely one of those desserts you wouldn't mind smelling forever!

Then, viola, it is done! This dessert is best served warm, and a little side of ice cream won't hurt either! If it isn't eaten right away, you can put some saran wrap over it and store it on the counter, it doesn't need to be refrigerated  But, if storing, don't do it for more than a couple of days, because then the topping will get soggy and a little gross. EW!

Recipe:

4 Apples; peeled, cored, and sliced

2/3-3/4 c Brown Sugar

1/2 c All Purpose Flour

1/2 c Rolled Oats (Quaker Oats are fine)

3/4 tsp Cinnamon

3/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/3 c Butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ and grease an 8" pan (either square or round works).

2. Place the sliced apples in the baking dish, set aside for now.

3. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients until it has a nice crumbly texture to it. Crumble over the apples.

4. Place dish in oven and bake 30-35 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown with a crispy texture. Serve warm for best results.

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Fresh Peach Crisp

   And peach season continues! My family finally wanted something different from the Peach Cobbler I keep making, so I decided to try another recipe. Dessert, of course! This recipe has a crispier top, and can be made with no oats of any kind. It's amazing how flour and sugar can make a crispy topping! Now, this is also the part where I tell you where I got the recipe from, but I have had it for so long that I lost the original source. Bummer! You know, it actually might have come out of one of my old Betty Crocker cook books, man those are reliable! Anyways, I used up the remaining peaches (finally!) to make this recipe, and my family is definitely happy for the change! Well, it is the same taste, but a little variations are all they need to keep happy!

Well, I only had 3 1/2 peaches left, and I put them to good use! You are going to want to skin them and slice them into thin pieces (like shown). Then you will place them in a 9.5in round pan, and make sure they evenly coat the bottom. Mix in the water and lemon juice to coat the peaches. That mixture will help the peaches from tasting too sweet, and to help retain from changing colors as well.
   Then you will want to mix together the flour, sugar, and butter until you have a nice crumbly mixture. You will then crumble this mixture over your peaches. The crumblier the dough is, the crisp-er your Crisp will be!

See, cover those peaches up! I didn't use any more flour than in the given recipe, so my mixture isn't all that crumbly. And it does not appear to coat the peaches very well, but it will spread when baking.
   So, pop that sucker in the oven, an let it sit for a long time! During this time you can go watch TV or paint your nails or something, this will need the time to form itself into the lovely dessert it is.

   BAM! Amazing! You can smell those sweet peaches throughout the entire house! And oh how good it tastes!! Make sure that your crisp has a nice, golden-brown topping that can definitely be distinguishable from a cobbler topping. If not, pop it back in the oven for another 5 minutes!
   Then go ahead and eat your crisp! It tastes best warm, and you can even serve it with some vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm ice cream! Enjoy your Crisp!!

Recipe:

4-5 Peaches, peeled
1/4 cup Water
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/2 cup White Sugar
1/2 cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Flour

1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Slice your peaches thinly, or dice them if you prefer them that way. Place them in an un-greased 9.5 inch round cake pan. Add in the water and lemon juice, and mix it until the peaches are coated evenly.
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and butter until crumbly mixture is formed. Crumble over peaches.
3. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until the crumble is crisp and has a golden-brown color to it. Serve warm for best results.


Peach season is almost over, get ready for apple season coming up soon!


Try this recipe? Tell me how it went below in the comments!

Easy Caramel Apples

   So, every once in a while Laurie will find a recipe on the internet that she wouldd like me to make. And, knowing that I love to try new things, I do it! laurie tends to see recipes that are trending on the internet, recipes I  see but give no thought to. I mean, Pinterest has a whole page dedicated to  this recipe, yet it is hard to actually find written directions on how to make caramel apple slices! And if you have yet to see this recipe, this is basically what it is, no directions or links at all:

   Yeah, annoying right? Almost as annoying as this keyboard(which lags, then makes my words run together. Which means I have to spend extra time going back and making sure everything looks okay). Anyways, the picture above shows that you hollow out your apples, melt down some caramel sauce, and pour it in your apples. What it doesn't say is: how long to melt the caramel, when to put it in the apples, and the fact that you have to refrigerate them first to set the melted caramel. I mean, how could you get all that from one picture? You can't.
 So, once again I created my own little recipe, one that does make sense! And it is only two steps! Too easy, right? They literally take 10 minutes to take(mostly coring the apples) and 20 minutes to set. And they taste sooooo good! I mean, if my dad is eating them they must be good(he never eats what I bake, so it makes me excited when he does)! And I only used two apples since there are three of us, but it is definitely enough!

First, carve your apples! You can use any type of apple you want, but I just used these green ones since that is what traditional caramel apples are made with! But, any kind will do. You can carve out as much or as little as you would like, it all depends on how you like your apple to caramel ratio.
   You can either eat the apples "innards" or get rid of them. At my house, the chickens get them! They eat a lot of apples in the fall too, when canning season comes along! Heck, even my dogs love apples and apple skins!!

   Next, you are going to want to fill your apples with caramel. I just used this caramel that I had leftover from a catering gig I had at the beginning of summer. I only had 1/2 the jar left, which barely filled my two apples. I would say that a full jar would probably give you 3-4 apples.
   Then you would just refrigerate the apples for 20 minutes. cut them into individual slices, and enjoy!

Recipe:

2 apples, cored but not peeled

8 oz Caramel sauce, any

1. Cut your apples in half and scoop out the middle. This can be done with a spoon.

2. Pour caramel into apple halves. Refrigerate for 20min-1hr or until caramel has set.

3. Slice and enjoy!

Try this recipe? tell me how it went below in the comments!

New Addition To The Family!

   Hi there! This post isn't about anything that I have baked, but a little bit more into my personal life  For anyone that doesn't know me personally, my family LOVES their animals! We have dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, and even chickens in this family, and every single one of them is considered part of it. Before yesterday we had only three dogs: A smart dog, an old dog, and a dumb dog. They are amazing, and I can see why they are considered mans best friend! Our dogs go everywhere with us, they are just like little kids! The smart dog is even called the golden child, if you can believe it!
   Then a friend of my stepmother said that she had to give up her dog. The friend lives in a condo and there have been a few barking complaints about her dog, hence the reason why she had to give it up. Now, we have had this dog before and know all about her, so my stepmother, Laurie, said that we could take the dog! The dogs name is Lilly, and she is just the sweetest little thing!

   Lilly is a Jack Russel Terrier with soo much energy! She is a little skittish around unknown people, and she does like to bark if shes left in the room by herself. But you will have a hard time finding a dog as sweet as this one! She is also the new "girlfriend" of my smart dog, Spritze, as well as a playmate for him. All is well back here at home! And Lilly fits in as if she never left.

   Lilly definitely brightens the home, and all those that know her. At night she even likes to curl up by your head! It is a cute gesture  but it definitely gets annoying to have a little ball of fur radiating heat while trying to sleep in 80-90* weather.

   Lilly's favorite thing (other than being loved) is water! We have a pond with a working waterfall/wading area, and she will play with that all day long! She loves the flowing water, and tries to eat the bubbles in the waterfall. It is the cutest thing! She comes out of the pond soaked from the legs to under the belly- even her chin! She also likes to watch all the little goldfish in the pond, while I stand by waiting to see her fall in!


Pond in the winter time, it does freeze over when it is cold enough.

   Yes....she is already learning the bad habits of the Spencer dogs! And dad's not even home to do it! Lilly is already a master begger/sitter, along with KD(the old dog), and Spritze(the smart dog). She is also great at jumping on top of tables(when possible) so we have to watch out, or our food will be gone! And don't even ask about the human food.... she will eat anything!

   Lilly is also good with all the other animals roaming around the house, which is always nice to have! She likes to go give the chickens fresh water with me, and she doesn't even chase them! She also just walks right by the cats, not even acknowledging them! I guess you could say that because they are bigger than her (maine coon cats), but it is good that she doesn't chase them. It's good that she gets along with everyone!

   Well, Lilly, it is nice to have you back in the family. You are guaranteed to get spoiled (and fat), as well as receive all the love we can give. Welcome to the Spencer family!