Salted Nut Roll Bars

I realize I've been remiss in my blogging lately.  It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about (I actually have boatloads), but with hubby's recent surgery, Bubba's summer activities, and trying to transfer my blog files and photos to a new "cloud" server, it's just been C-R-A-Z-Y!

All excuses aside, I found this recipe online after seeing a similar one in a cookbook at Sam's Club.  Salted Nut Roll Bars.  I may be in the minority, but I've never actually consumed Salted Nut Roll candy bars before.  Perhaps it's because of the name.  Couldn't it sound a little more appetizing?  Or creative, at least?  But the photo in the cookbook looked really yummy, and when I saw the ingredients list in the recipe, well, I obviously had no idea what I was missing.  How can you go wrong with peanut butter chips, yellow cake, and marshmallows?  So now I wonder where these been all my life!

Salted Nut Roll Bars
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1 box yellow cake mix
1 egg
3/4 cup melted butter, divided
3 cups miniature marshmallows
1 - 10-oz. bag peanut butter chips
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups peanuts
2 cups crispy rice cereal

Mix the cake mix, egg, and 1/4 cup of the butter together. Press the crumbly batter into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. Evenly distribute the marshmallows over the top of the hot crust. Return to the oven for 3-5 minutes, until the marshmallows are puffy. Meanwhile, melt the peanut butter chips, corn syrup, and remaining 1/2 cup of butter. Stir until smooth. Add the vanilla and blend in thoroughly. Add the peanuts and rice cereal and mix well. Pour the cereal mixture over the marshmallows and distribute as evenly as possible. Allow to cool thoroughly (or refrigerate) before cutting into 24 bars. Store in a sealed container.

Calories:  295 per bar (not light!!)

How We Celebrated...Part II

And now, what you've all been waiting on the edge of your seats for.  The conclusion of How We Celebrated...

Of course our celebration of Hubby's birthday included food.  Isn't that the highlight?

Hubby asked if I wouldn't mind whipping up a batch of cupcakes for him to take to work on his birthday.  Me, bake?  Twist my arm.  He selected my chocolate sour cream recipe with Madagascar Bourbon vanilla buttercream frosting.  I added the cupcake picks (from Hobby Lobby) myself, which were very basic.  I might try making some myself next time.

For his actual birthday cake, Hubby wanted his mom's recipe for "Crazy Cake."  It's basically an uber-moist, egg-less chocolate cake, similar to red velvet but without the food coloring.  The method for making it is a bit bizarre, but it is really, really good.  Unfortunately, we sort of ruined it by using a store-bought sugar-free vanilla frosting.  It really calls for a vanilla cream cheese frosting, so I'll try that instead next time.

At our house, the birthday person gets to choose the food that he or she wants for dinner.  I grew up with this tradition, which for me started by selecting lasagna and later turned to pizza.  And since these days I cook pretty much every night, the tradition has evolved into choosing a birthday restaurant.  Hubby chose a local pizza joint, Crust.

Crust is downtown and housed in an old wagon factory.  They serve a free appetizer known as pizza bites -- bits of fried pizza dough topped with cheese and dipped marinara sauce.  Bubba adores them, but I try not to fill up on the bites because I want to save as much room as I can for the main attraction, the pizza.  Crust also serves pastas and sandwiches, but we have only ever ordered the pizza.  I'm not generally a fan of thin crust pizza, but Crust's simple cheese pizza with extra cheese is just so yummy.  The cheese blend they use is amazing, perfectly salty, and there is lots and lots of it.  No other toppings required.  Hubby made a good choice!

I was so thrilled when the pizza arrived, I forgot to snap a picture.  Guess we'll have to go there again soon so I can get a good one...

How We Celebrated...Part 1

Yes, it's been a few weeks since I blogged.  Although I have had lots to blog about, I wasn't feeling particularly inspired.  Then I had the brilliant idea to feature all the projects I was working on for Hubby's birthday this month, so I had to wait until that came and passed (since we sort of celebrated here and there all week).  And since we finally finished our birthday fun last night, I'm finally ready to write about what went on.  And I'm going to milk it, too, by featuring one item per blog.  Here goes...

1.  Birthday Wreath
Back in January, my friend Jacki blogged about a goal she had for the year - to have a new wreath on her front door each month.  And while I don't think I necessarily want a wreath all the time (after all, variety is the spice of life) I do like how welcoming a decorative hanging on the front door seems.  So I thought I'd try to meet Jacki's challenge.

Since I already had a Valentine door hanging as well as an Easter wreath in my collection, I thought it would be nice to have something to "Welcome Spring" to put up between the two occasions.  I found a cute design on Pinterest, so I followed the directions from the "Capture the Details" blog, and viola!  I was pretty happy with the result:

Following that success, I was ready for another challenge.  The next event:  Hubby's May birthday.  I found another wreath design online that I liked using un-inflated balloons and set out to recreate it.  I have to say, the birthday wreath was quite a bit more work (and quite a bit more costly, too).  The styrafoam wreath is wrapped in ribbon (which you can't even see, even though the ribbon was about $5) and there are almost 250 balloons on it, not to mention the "Happy Birthday" sticker and hat.  The little things added up quickly (although I suppose I could have made those items myself if I was super creative).   But since this wreath will be used three times each year, it's multipurpose (at least that's how I'm justifying it).  I really like how it looks:

Isn't it colorful?  I do think I'll add a few curly ribbons to it before we pull it out again for Bubba's birthday in July, and maybe stick a little gift ornament on it as well.

I was considering a patriotic wreath for the early summer to commemorate Memorial Day and Independence Day, but I think I might be a little burned out on crafts -- wreaths in particular -- for now.  So I found this at Kohl's for 60% off.

I think it will do...at least for now.

A Good Excuse

I'm not sure where the idea came from, but I've wanted to try making homemade tortillas for a while.  So when Cinco de Mayo rolled around yesterday, it seemed like as good a time as any to go for it.  And I am so glad I did!  Despite the fact that I can't roll dough into any semblance of a circle to save my life, the tortillas were by far the coolest thing I've made in a while and they weren't difficult either.  We used them for tacos, and the flavor was so much better than store-bought tortillas.  The calories were quite a bit less, too.  I can't wait to try using fresh tortillas in enchiladas.  Yum.

Homemade Flour Tortillas
Adapted from Allrecipes.com
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2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting and rolling
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon plain shortening
3/4 cups water

Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl.  Combine the shortening in with your fingers until the flour is crumbly.  Add the water, a little at a time because you might not need it all, and mix until the dough comes together.  Place on a floured surface and knead a few minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic, but not sticky.  Allow to rest for 15 minutes.  Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.  Preheat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Use a well-floured rolling pin and roll each dough piece into a thin, round tortilla.  Place the dough into the hot, dry (do not use cooking spray) skillet and cook until bubbly and golden; flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side.  Repeat until each piece is cooked, adjusting the temperature of the skillet as necessary.  Serve immediately or allow to cool and store in a sealed container.  Serves 12.

I Scream, You Scream

In case you were wondering, I have a sweet tooth.  Maybe a few of them.  And one of my favorite sweet treats has got to be ice cream.

Several years ago we bought a Cuisinart ice cream maker as an anniversary gift to ourselves.  At that time, I did all kinds of research, finding recipes for flavors I thought we would enjoy.  Most of the recipes included egg yolks, but because I've never been comfortable (or good at) tempering eggs, we generally used pasteurized egg whites.  This yielded results that were okay, but the ice cream was never as creamy as one can get from Edy's (known as Dreyer's out west) Slow Churned (my personal grocery store favorite).

But then I discovered Jeni Britton Bauer's Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, which details recipes from ice creams made at her artisan-style creameries based in Columbus, Ohio.  The great thing about Bauer's recipes is that she doesn't use eggs.  She relies on cornstarch and corn syrup to thicken her concoctions instead.  Needless to say, I had to try this method.

My first outing with this new method was a Madagascar Vanilla version of Bauer's Ugandan Vanilla Bean.  I'm generally not a huge fan of vanilla ice cream, but I figured it was a good place to start, especially since I already had some vanilla beans left from my homemade vanilla project (a post on that is upcoming).  The result?  The BEST vanilla ice cream I have EVER tasted.  Thick, creamy, rich, fabulous.  So I moved on to The Milkiest Chocolate in the World, before trying The Buckeye State (peanut butter and honey ice cream) and Gooey Butter Cake.  Each one of them was phenomenal.  Jeni Britton Bauer is my new hero!

One thing I really liked about Bauer's book was the ice cream base recipe she included.  It was very basic, and allows the ice cream creator to add flavors to his or her taste.  As she did not have a recipe for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor, I decided that I would try that as my next attempt at an "original" flavor creation (the first was Birthday Cake -- yellow cake flavored ice cream with chocolate frosting mixed in -- a huge hit with my favorite 8-year old).  I tracked down a recipe for egg-free cookie dough (because what good is egg-free ice cream if there are eggs in the dough?) and I was good to go.  The result, of course, was amazing.  And now you can make some, too.  

Warning:  While this ice cream is lux, it is definitely not light!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home and Allrecipes.com
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Ingredients:
Cookie Dough
2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Ice Cream
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions:
In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter until smooth.  Add vanilla, milk, salt, and baking soda, combining well, and then mix in the flour.  Add the mini chocolate chips and mix thoroughly.

Place the dough into a Ziploc bag or other freezable container and freeze overnight.  Follow the manufacturer's instructions and place the freezer bowl for the ice cream maker into the freezer to ensure it is completely frozen for mixing later.

Mix 2 tablespoons of the milk for the ice cream with the cornstarch in a small bowl, creating a slurry.  Set aside.

Whisk together the cream cheese and salt in a medium size spouted bowl or measuring cup (a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup works well).  Set aside.

Combine the remaining milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla in a 4-quart saucepan.  Bring to a rolling boil over medium high heat, stirring as necessary to keep from scorching, and boil for 4 minutes.

Reduce heat slightly and stir if necessary to keep the mixture from boiling over.  Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry.

Return the mixture to a boil over medium high heat and cook about 1 minute, stirring until slightly thickened.  Remove from the heat and gradually whisk the milk mixture into the cream cheese mixture, stirring until smooth.  Then pour the liquid into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag.

 
Submerge the sealed bag in a large bowl filled with ice and water and allow to cool, about 30 minutes.  Add more ice as necessary.

After the mixture has cooled completed, clip one of the corners of the bag and drain the creamy blend into the frozen canister of an ice cream maker.  Allow to process until thickened, about 25 minutes.

While the ice cream spins, remove the cookie dough from the freezer and break into bite size chunks.

The ice cream and the cookie dough will alternate layers in a 1 1/2 quart freezable storage container, so place the first layer of cookie dough in the container at this time.  Pour the finished ice cream into the canister in layers with the dough, ensuring the layers are evenly spaced throughout.  Do not fill the container too full, as the ice cream will expand as it hardens.  Press a sheet of parchment paper directly against the ice cream and seal with an airtight lid.  Freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

Makes about 1 quart

Calories: 229 calories per 2 oz. serving

Serves about 13

I also found Scoop by Ellen Brown, which includes many egg-free ice creams, along with traditional recipes that include egg yolks.  I'm definitely going to try making the Amaretto Peach ice cream and the Mango Mimosa Sorbet.

On another note, the cookie dough in this recipe is super yummy.  Some reviewers on Allrecipes said they mixed some up and kept it in the freezer just for snacking.  Not something I would recommend personally, but it's a thought!