The weekend up North was lovely. We ate tons of food, drank tons of Wisconsin beer and took lots of naps! I made the monkey bread and spinach souffle recipes but was too groggy on both days to remember to take photos. Both turned out well but I have to make the monkey bread again because I was not pleased with some of the dough not being baked well enough and the caramel sauce overflowing or leaking from the bunt pan.

What I did remember to take a photo of, is the log cabin wedding blanket. I know another log cabin blanket, but after finishing up the other blanket I know the pattern pretty well and have enough episodes of Vampire Diaries to watch, that I think this one will fly by.

Also, I keep forgetting to show you all what my Secret Santa Lily, from Sweat Shop of Love‘s gift exchange made me. A knit yoga bag! Pretty awesome, right? The patter is call Om Nava Shivaya Yoga bag and you can find it on Ravelry.

Today I will be traveling to Northern Wisconsin to spend the weekend at a friend’s cottage, cabin, lake home… whatever you call it.   I’m looking forward to spending a long weekend surrounded by trees and people who say “boat” the same way I do.  I’m also pretty pumped to make Monkey Bread and Spinach Souffle (really, it’s an egg bake) for breakfast.  Happy weekend and I’ll have pictures and recipes for everyone on Wednesday!

In high school, Pop Tarts kept me alive. I was usually running late for class, and I would always bring one to have for breakfast during first period. Nowadays, I wouldn’t think eating them, but when I saw the recipe for them in Home Baked Comfort, “past Calley” insisted “present-day Calley” make them.

Making the pop tarts was a three-step process. One: making the dough; two: making the filling; three: cutting and assembling the pop tarts. So, the total time it took me to make these bad boys was 2 hours. I made the dough on Saturday night (about 30 minutes) and refrigerated it overnight. The next day, I did steps two and three -they weren’t very hard steps, but because you have to roll the dough out in such a precise way, it took longer than, say, rolling out dough for cookies.

I wouldn’t do anything different for the ingredients, but I have made a few edits to the steps. Click here to download a pdf of the recipe.

Dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ tsp kosher salt
10 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 large egg yolk
1/3 cup whole milk

Filling
¾ cup jam – I used raspberry
2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tsp cold water

Glaze
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tsp whole milk
2 tsp corny syrup
½ tsp pure vanilla extract

Dough:
I a food processor or with a pastry cutter, combine the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt and process until blended. Add the butter and processs until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk and milk and process until the dough just comes together. If the dough is not coming together, ad a splash of milk until it does. Dump the dough onto 2 large sheets of overlapping plastic wrap. Press the dough into a disk, wrap with the plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or overnight.

Filling
In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water. In a small saucepan, cook the jam and cornstarch mixture over medium heat -don’t walk away from the stovetop- stirring, until slightly thickened and bubbly. Remove from stovetop and let cool.

Assembly

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  On a lightly floured work surface, dived the dough in half and form each half into a rough rectangle.  Roll one rectangle until it measures about 16 by 9 inches (40 by 23 cm). Using a ruler and a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 12 small rectangles, each about 3 by 4 inches (7.5 by 10 cm). Set the rectangles on a baking sheet and refrigerate while you repeat with the other piece of dough.

Lay half of the rectangles on the lined baking sheet and lightly brush with the beaten egg.  Dollop a tablespoon of the filling on to the center of each rectangle.  Spread it out on the dough, leaving a border of ½ inch (12mm). Top with a plain dough rectangle and press the edges together with your finger tips being careful not to let the filling ooze from the sides. With a fork, crimp the edges and prick the centers – just like a pie. Put them in the refrigerator.

Position 2 oven racks evenly in the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake the tarts, rotating the pans once halfway through, until golden brown, 15-18 minutes.  Remove the tarts form the pan onto a wire rack and let them cool.

Glaze (optional)
Whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, milk, corn syrup and vanilla until smooth. Smear the glaze on the tarts. If you’d like add sprinkles. Let them sit for a bit to let the glaze set.

Truth be told, I have no plans to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. I have to be up and at a local yarn store at 7 am to hit a 40% off sale, and I think I would be too tired by 5:30 pm to keep my anti-New York Giant comments to myself. If you know me, you know the types of comments that I make, and if you don’t, I’m not putting them up because I’m too Midwestern to put them in print. So, I may not be the happiest person to watch the Superbowl with this Sunday but if I do go somewhere at least my snarky comments would be muffled by the chewing of delicious treats I brought. Like…

football oreo truffles

loaded baked potato dip

root beer cake

Wisconsin may not be sending a team to the Super Bowl this year, but they are still the home of the “30 Days, 30 Ways Mac and Cheese” recipe website. You can find things on there like these Macaroni and Cheese Balls.

If you saw my Game Day post, you know that I intended to make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies a couple of Sundays ago, but because of everything working against me I wasn’t able to. So, the other day when I left work  in a sour mood; I decided to go home, watch Moulin Rouge and make the bars. Luckily they turned out great and Ewan McGregor’s awesome voice was able to cheer me up!

If your worried about people liking this rich treat – don’t, folks around the office and in my yoga group loved the combination of flavors and texture. Since the recipe makes a 9x 13 pan of bars, I would plan to share them with friends or make them for an event. Also, I didn’t have everything that the recipe called for, so I’ve included my recipe alterations below, but I don’t think they are necessary if you have all the materials on hand.

For the Brownie:

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups light brown sugar
4 eggs
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour

For the Cookie Dough:

¾ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons half and half
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups chocolate chips

1. Prepare the Brownies: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9×13-inch pan with foil, with enough to hang over all four sides. Butter the foil. In a medium glass bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, scraping the bowl as needed. Mix in the melted chocolate until combined. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour and mix just until combined (don’t over-mix). Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 25 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

2. Prepare the Cookie Dough: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to combine the butter and both sugars. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until combined. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour just until combined. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Spread the cookie dough over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until the dough is firm, about an hour. Use a sharp knife to cut the brownies. Store the brownies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Since I have a cold, I’m not doing any baking but I have been stockpiling recipes on Pintrest. Currently, these are my top 3 recipes that I would like to make.

chocolate chip cheesecake bars from bakers royale

chocolate mayonnaise cake from bon appetit

fudge brownies with chocolate frosting

For me and the Packers, Sunday was a bit of a disaster. Now, I was able to recover but as you all probably saw, they were not. First, in the city of Chicago just because you buy antenna and hook it up properly, this does not mean you will be able to receive all the channels, like one that was broadcasting the game. So about 30 minutes before the start of the game I changed the location to my friend’s apartment, where we were all able to watch the game!

Second, I can’t make a roux when I am stressed. The recipe I finally decided to use was from the Pioneer Woman and it took me about three tries before I could make the roux without burning it. And I forgot to add the broccoli to the mac and cheese!

Third, I wasn’t able to make the cookie dough brownies but I did see a lot of Packer pride baked goods on facebook, and I think my friend A did an amazing job with these cookies! (pictured above)

On Sunday at 3:30 CST, the Packers’ will play the New York Giants, and my roommate and I will be having friends over to watch the game.  Needless to say my Packer pride and Wisconsin culinary skills go well together, but when there are big games like this, I sort of go in to overdrive.  This Sunday, I will be making:

chocolate chip cookie dough brownies

doughnut holes

macaroni and cheese, I’m not sure what recipe but it will probably be from 30 days, 30 ways with mac and cheese

fried cheese curds

queso dip

Did I miss anything?  If I did let me know and I’ll be sure to share photos and tips on Monday!

Last night I was really excited to make peanut butter cups. Mostly because they sounded good and I had all the ingredients. I mean when do you find a recipe online and happen to have all of the ingredients at home?!

Well, my excitement ran out when my powdered sugar wasn’t mixing well into the peanut butter mixture and the chocolate chips I melted turned out to look and feel more like play dough, than melted chocolate. So, I scrapped the peanut butter cup project, washed my dishes and made stove top popcorn. Below is how I make stove top popcorn.

Coat the bottom of the pot with vegetable oil, cover the bottom of the pan with popcorn kernels-make sure you only have one layer.  Cover the pot, turn the burner on high and wait for the popping noise. Make sure to turn off the heat when you hear only a few pops!

Pour the popcorn into a bowl.  Throw a tablespoon or two..or three in the pot watch it melt.

Pour the butter over the popcorn in a few increments making sure to stir in-between each pour. If you like add salt, when you add butter.

And I worked on the log cabin baby blanket. I only two more squares to go!

Normally I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but this year my I am making craft resolutions.

one. finish all in progress knitting projects or undo them

two. start and finish all knitting projects that i promised friends i would make

three. sew more challenging projects

four. improve my embroidery skills

five. make ice cream, bake bread, pretzels, macaroons & croissants