My new toy and a recipe

You may, or may not, have heard, but I kind of had a birthday last week.  {Shhhh…we don’t talk about age around these parts…} But gifts…we do talk about.  And that pretty little cobalt blue thing staring at you, well, that was one of my gifts.  I love it for so many reasons. 

It comes with the hope of being able to make some beautifully tasty desserts.  And it’s shiny. And pretty.  And blue. And I love it.

And I decided it had to be used, regardless of my kitchen skills.  So as I was reading Bon Appetit Hon the other day, I realized that she had shared the perfect recipe for my first mixer attempt. The recipe originated from 3 Baking Sheets to the Wind as it is one of her fondest food memories. Without going into deep detail, click over to both websites for great recipes and great fun. So oh yeah, the recipe looked pretty fool proof and it required minimal ingredients.  That alone was reason enough to make these little beauties.

So I did. And they were delicious.  Light, buttery, and rolled in confectioner’s sugar. Win-Win-Win.

If you’re up for giving your stand mixer a test run, take my advice and make these.

Oh and by the way, they’re called Russian Tea Cakes.

1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon almond extract
6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
Combine the flour and 6 tablespoons of powdered sugar in a medium bowl and whisk until combined.
In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and almond extract until smooth.  Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until fully combined.

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place them about 1 inch apart on the prepared sheets.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Allow the cookies to cool completely before rolling them in the 1/3 cup powdered sugar.

Thanks to Wendi and Ali for making my first Kitchen Aid Mixer experience an incredible one!

WTW – Dipsticks, Snack of the Month

Not sure if I’ve mentioned, but I love getting emails from you guys. Love, love, love it. And what I really love is when you send me white trash recipes. It makes my heart all a-flutter. You know why? Because all I have to do is sit back and pretty much do absolutely nothing.

Kidding, kidding.
The other day Becki D. of Becki Bakes sent me her second White Trash Recipe recommendation.  The first one was the ever so tasty black ‘n blue pancakes. And this one, is more of a snack.  And she’s aptly named this snack, Dipsticks.

I discovered the perfect snack this afternoon while ransacking my pantry.
Anyhow, this most perfect WTW gem goes like this:
-Grab your jumbo-sized barrel of Pretzel Rods from Sam’s Club (because who doesn’t need a year’s supply of pretzel rods?)
-Grab your obligatory Foodie Approved jar of Nutella
-Dip pretzel and repeat as many times as needed to ward off the Crazies.
Not only does this recipe require 0 utensils or preparation of any sort, if you close your eyes you can almost pretend you’re chowing down Ferrero Rocher Fine Hazelnut Chocolates instead of pretzel sticks.

Sweet, salty, simple.

You’re welcome, ladies!

YAWYEOR note: These are awesome. I kid you not. I only had the honey wheat pretzel rods on hand, but went for it anyway and oh my goodness I thought I’d died and gone to chocolatey salty heaven.

Thanks Becki D. for introducing this treat to my world. From now on I will always have pretzel rods and Nutella stocked in my pantry.

*If you have a WTW recipe you’d love to share, email me at kmslat@yahoo.com. And just be prepared for me to include your entire email in the upcoming blog post*
Cheers!

White Trash Wednesday – Oreo Truffles

Sometimes, no matter how white trashy, a recipe just sounds tasty. And this one, well, it sounds tasty. I admit it. I’m secure enough in my Alabama heritage to admit that I don’t exactly have a refined palate.

So when a recipe is called ”Oreo Truffle”, you can bet your sweet hiney I’m gonna be a fan.

 

You’ll need:
1 Package crushed Oreo’s
8 oz cream cheese, softened
Chocolate (of any variety: milke chocolate, semi-sweet, white…)
Powdered Sugar

To make:
1. Mix crushed Oreo’s and cream cheese until blended
2. Refrigerate mixture for 2-3 hours
3. Meawhile, melt chocolate over low heat in a saucepan, stirring frequently
4. Shape into balls and quickly dip into the melted chocolate
5. Dip into sugar, top it off with crushed Oreo’s, drizzle with chocolate.
6. Freeze for 10-15 minutes until chocolate has set.

Enjoy.

Recipe adapted from Suzie’s Recipe Box.

Halloween Bars

Halloween is getting close and I’m doing all I can to get in the spirit. The 85 degree temperature isn’t helping much, so I’m forced to buy cheap decorations and treats to get me in the seasonal mood.

That’s okay because I really do love the cheap decorations and the throngs of candy bars sitting in a big plastic bowl on my kitchen counter. And sometimes I just enjoy baking those Halloween treats. So that’s exactly what I did. I found a recent Betty Crocker mini magazine and scooped a recipe straight from it. This one was for Halloween Goody Bars, but I’ll just call them Halloween Bars. Even if they were super good.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup quick cook oats
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans
1, 14oz., can sweetened condense milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup Reese’s Pieces (or if you have the patience, orange and brown M&M’s)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13×9 in. pan with cooking spray
In a large bowl mix oats, flour, sugar, salt, and 1 cup butter with a spoon. Stir in pecans. Remove 1 cup, set aside to use later as the topping.
Press remaining mixture into pan.
In a saucepan, cook condensed milk, chocolate chips, and 2 tbsp butter over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolate chips are melted and the mixture has turned into a smooth and creamy goodness.
Spread chocolate mix over crust.
Sprinkle with candies and reserved oat mixture, pressing oat mix into chocolate mixture.
Bake 23-25 minutes or until set.*
Cool completely- around 2+ hours. Cut into bars.

*Mine took over 35 minutes to cook completely, then again my oven is almost as old as I am.)

Ps. these bad boys are rich.  Enjoy with a giant glass of cold milk.
Pps. I have about 10 sitting downstairs. Feel free to stop by and take them away from me. Like I need a chocolate covered buttery oat and sugar bar. Yeap, just like I need a hole in my head.

Lazy recipe

I don’t know about you, but I’m always wishing for more hours in the day.  You get up, go to work, spend far too much time on a commute, get home, attempt to unwind, walk the dogs, cook dinner, goof around on the computer, go to bed.

Either I’ve got too much on my plate or I’m completely inept at time management. So most nights all I want to do is snap my fingers and have dinner magically appear on the table.  Unfortunately, I’ve yet to conjure up that fairy.  So I make my fallback dish.

Pasta.

In some form or another, we eat a lot of pasta in my house. It’s cheap. It’s easy. And it’s incredibly hard to screw up.

This may also be the reason why I gain weight.  Ah, at least I’m happy.

So for this one, you need 5 ingredients:
farfalle (bow tie) pasta
pesto
chicken
olive oil
sundried tomatoes
(salt and pepper)

directions:
heat oil over medium heat.
dice chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook in oil until browned.
meanwhile, boil pasta until al dente. drain.
once chicken is cooked through, add pasta, sundried tomatoes, and pesto.
toss together to coat well.

Optional extras:
crushed red pepper
minced garlic

And now you can go have that glass of wine you want while you unwind instead of wasting anymore time slaving over a hot stove.

White Trash Puff Balls

With the help of a little search engine called Google, I have found yet another tasty white trash treat.
And this time, I actually made it.

That’s right. Hell froze over because I gutsied up and made a White Trash recipe.

What’s scarier…I actually enjoyed this one. No, really. I ate two of them. Two puff balls.
(Insert jokes here.)

Puff Balls
Ingredients:
1 -8oz package sliced pepperoni
1- 8oz container cream cheese, softened
1- 10 package refrigerated Crescent Rolls

To make:
Dice pepperoni into smaller pieces.
Add pepperoni pieces to cream cheese, stirring until blended together well.
Roll out crescent rolls into triangles.
Slice each crescent roll into three smaller triangles.
Add a spoonful of cream cheese/pepperoni mixture to center of each triangle.
Pinch up each point of triangle around the filling.
Place dough balls onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes (following crescent roll directions).

{Print it out here.}

Welcome to the white trash club.
Oh yeah, have a seat and enjoy.

{Smashing} Pumpkin(s) Bread

The title of this blog post was originally going to be “It’s beginning to feel a lot like Fall”, but I was missing just one whole syllable so I opted for the more obvious title…”smashing pumpkins bread”.

It worked.
Okay, maybe not. But I like linking foods and songs/artists together. Makes me appear cheesily clever.
Or not.

So I spent the weekend visiting a sweet, sweet friend up in Nashville. And the weather was nothing short of perfect, thus the reason for the original post title. Highs ranging between the mid 70s- low 80s. In other words, I was in heaven. I was able to sit on her back patio and enjoy a slight crisp breeze without having to worry about whether or not my deodorant was strong enough.
(Don’t judge me. You know it happens.)

We spent the weekend taking walks with her incredibly awesome dog, Lady.
We ate at a little place called Germantown Cafe.
We wandered around the Parthenon.
Yes, the Parthenon.

And hung out with the arts and crafts kids down at TACA.

But the highlight of the weekend came in the form of Pumpkin Bread.
It screams fall, doesn’t it?
It’s baking, it’s pumpkin. It’s awesome.

And it should be known that I’ve already scarfed down two pieces today. It’s only 1020am.
It’s gonna be a good day.

 

Pumpkin Bread
{printable recipe}
2 cups (all purpose) flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
1/4 cup water

Sift dry ingredients together. Mix remaining ingredients and add all at once to flour mixture. Beat well until mixture is smooth. Pour into greased, floured loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Sugar cookies and icing.

I started this week with full intentions of eating healthy. Alright fine, healthier. That never really happened though. I drank more water. I even used my elliptical machine a couple of times. But that whole eating healthier part eluded me.

So let’s just forget about that whole trying to be healthy nonsense and focus on cookies.
Sugar cookies.
With icing.

Because let’s be honest, no one really wants to talk about working out.
Or eating healthy crap like kale and spinach.
No offense, but ugh. I mean it’s fairly obvious that the whole elastic waistband club is undeniably in my future, but at least I’ll be happy eating sugar cookies with icing.

And in case you wanted to make these little treats for your friends or family (or let’s be honest, for yourself), please do. Just remember to have a pair of pants with a drawstring or some elastic ready for future comfort.

Cracked Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup butter
3 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract (clear)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tspcream of tartar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Cream together sugar and butter.
Beat in egg yolks and vanilla.
Add flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Stir.
Form dough into walnut size balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Don’t flatten.
Bake 10 to 11 minutes, until tops are cracked.

And if you want to go all out, top them with a little icing.
Sugar Cookie Icing.
Ingredients
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp milk
2 tsp light corn syrup
1/4 tsp almond extract
food coloring (of your choice)

Directions
In a small bowl stir together confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
Paint cookies with a brush.

Enjoy.
And if I haven’t said it lately, thanks for continuing to read this here little blog.
And for making me want to make bad things to eat.
I owe you all for my gradual weight gain.
Love ya, mean it!

White Trash Wednesday Poll

A couple of people have made mention (ahem, you know who you are) that I don’t always make the recipes I post on White Trash Wednesday. Well, the obvious reason is that most of them are gross. Funny, but gross. The other reason is that there just aren’t enough stinking hours in the day. So I’ve gotten a bit lazy. Well, since I’m admitting to my laziness, I’m going to take it a step further and make you decide which White Trash Recipe I should make next.

And remember, I plan on doing this again….so be gentle.

White Trash Wednesday! Bacon Pimiento Cheese

My afternoon with Chef Natalie was full of learning, photos, and food, both healthy and white trashy. In addition to the mango-pineapple smoothies, Natalie stepped it up a notch by making bacon pimiento cheese. I’m not sure if you’re aware, and I know Chef Natalie had no clue, but pimiento cheese is nothing short of heaven for me.

For real.

Growing up I thought it was the food of the devil. I mean, the name itself…pimiento…was utterly repulsive. Little did I know it was nothing more than sharp cheddar, pimientos, and mayo. Now that I’m older and wiser, I know the truth.

But Natalie took it one step further. Instead of making the conventional version, she added bacon. And for this, she is officially my new best friend. And although technically pimiento cheese is a tad bit white trash, this recipe is nothing short of a mouthwatering treat.

Bacon Pimiento Cheese
roasted peppers
cholula hot sauce
sharp cheddar, shredded
mayo
bacon
diced chives
salt and pepper to taste

Mix peppers, cholula, cheddar, mayo, salt and pepper well.
Top with crumbled bacon bits and chives.

Serve on garlic bread.

And if I were you, I wouldn’t reserve this recipe solely for your white trash enjoyment, I’d make it for your next tailgating adventure too.

Just sayin’.