Cookies and Cocoa

     Today I am enjoying my first official day off of school in about 3 months.  I just ended another trimester, so that makes 3 down, and 3 more to go.  Monday I start studying Labor and Delivery and Pediatrics, which are the two subjects I've been looking forward to since the beginning.  I'm not sure which field I want to go into, but I know it's going to be one of those two, and that excites me.  In the mean time, however, I've been catching up on a bit of housework.  Yesterday, Monkey brought home a 100 A on her big sight words test that covered all the words they've been learning since the beginning of the year, so we celebrated by turning some of her Halloween candy into yummy cookies.  So here's a recipe that is a classic:

M&M Cookies
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cups M&Ms, plus extra for topping

Preheat oven to 350.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease the baking sheets.

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a KitchenAide mixer, blend both sugars, shortening, eggs, and vanilla until mixture is well blended and fluffy.  Add flour, baking soda, and salt.  Mix until well incorporated.  Add M&Ms, and gently stir.

Gently roll dough into small balls, and press onto the prepared baking sheets.  Add a few M&Ms to the tops of each pressed dough ball.

Bake at 350 9-11 minutes, or until edges are golden and middles are set.

     Now, what goes better with cookies on a chilly November evening than a nice warm mug of hot cocoa?

World's Best Hot Cocoa
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup white sugar
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup boiling water
3 1/2 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup half-and-half

Combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan.  Blend in the boiling water.  Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring continuously.  Once it begins to boil, simmer and stir for 2 minutes.  Don't let it burn.  Stir in milk and hear until hot throughout, but don't bring mixture to another boil.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Distribute evenly among 4 mugs.  Add 1/8 cup half-and-half to each mug.  Top with mini marshmallows if desired.  Enjoy!

And for Dessert: Diabetes!

     It's no secret that my husband drives me insane.  I mean, I've given y'all several examples on this blog alone of how much he makes me question the reason I agreed to let him annoy me for the rest of my life.  But I think it's also fair to say that I would do anything for that crazy, slightly annoying husband of mine.  And apparently that's a fact he's not only discovered but has decided to exploit.  For example, today is his birthday.  A few weeks ago while I was writing up my grocery list, I asked him and Monkey to flip through my "Taste of Home: Fun Food" magazine to come up with ideas for her school lunches.  While flipping through the pages, she and J came across a rather elaborate picture of a cake decorated to look like the classic game, CandyLand.  J excitedly pointed the picture out to me and requested that I make it for him for his birthday.  I laughed, thinking he was joking, and said something witty that amounted to "no".  But then something happened.  He kept bringing up the cool CandyLand cake, and mentioning how much he liked it, and he'd throw in the fact that his birthday was coming up after all.  So what did I do?

     I made the darn cake for him!  I'll get to how to make your own in a minute, but in the mean time let me tell you what my sweet, but oh-so-chokable husband tells me as I'm buying the last bit of candy to make his dearest birthday wish complete.

Me:  "Hey baby, do you see any rock candy?"
J:  "No; you don't need that"
Me: "It's for your cake.  I wanted to include the Ice Palace, so I was going to use blue rock candy"
J:  "I don't know why you're even doing this"
Me:  "What do you mean?  This is the cake you've been asking for."
J:  "Yeah, I was just messing with you.  Then you ran with it, so I figured I'd let you."
Me: .......................................You can't strangle him in Walmart.  You can't strangle him in Walmart.  You can't strangle him in Walmart!

    Well, regardless of how he finagled me into making the cake, it's made now, so I might as well share a quick how-to with y'all.  Here's what you'll need:

Cake mix (can be any flavor; I used a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens for a White cake)
White icing
Green food coloring
Starbursts
Peppermints
Mini marshmallows
Rock candy (or Jolly Ranchers, crushed)
Lollipops
Chocolate cupcake, iced
2 mini snickers
4 ice cream cones (cut the tops off of 2 of them)
Blue cookie icing
Purple cookie icing
Black cookie icing
Multicolored sprinkles
Chocolate sprinkles
Cinnamon sprinkles
Sour Patch Kids (I used 4, one in each color as the "players")

    Bake your cake mix according to directions on back of the box for a 9x13 cake.  Let cool completely before icing.  Mix white icing and green food coloring in a medium sized bowl, use this to ice the cake.  Top cake with Starbursts, making sure to keep a pattern so no two colors are next to each other.  For "Mr. Mint"'s corner, arrange peppermints (or peppermint candy canes, if they're in season) in a cute pattern, and sprinkle cinnamon sprinkles around them.  Add an area for "Princess Lolly" by using a few crushed Jolly Ranchers to mark the spot.  Next add the lollipops or various sizes (I used 2 Dumdums, and 1 Blow Pop).  Next I added the chocolate cupcake (complete with chocolate fudge frosting and chocolate sprinkles) for "Chocolate Mountain".  I set a pair of mini Snickers next to the cupcake, one on each side, and sprinkled a few extra chocolate sprinkles around the base of the "Mountain".  Next I added a mini-marshmallow "bridge" between two of the rows of Starbursts.  Finally I erected the "CandyLand Castle" by inverting the 2 whole ice cream cones side-by-side, and then I placed one of the halved ones in front and one in the back, upside-down.  Next I added the windows and doors by using purple cookie icing.  Then I topped the castle off with blue cookie icing roofs.  I spread a rainbow of various-colored crushed Jolly Ranchers around the base of the "castle". Next I piped out the "Happy Birthday" on the Starbursts using black cookie icing.  Finally I sprinkled the entire cake with multi-colored sprinkles for good measure.

    There were two big bonuses for this cake: 1)  There really isn't a "right way" to decorate it.  If you look at the way CandyLand has changed over the years, you can really throw any type of candy on a cake and call it good.  2) Monkey was able to help, and we both enjoyed that. :-)

   
     To top it all off, J really enjoyed his Diabetes-inducing CandyLand Cake.  And I discovered that my husband turns into a Disney Princess when he makes his birthday wish before blowing out the candles.

     Anyone else see it?  Anyone?  No?  It's just me?  Fine!  Keep wishing, Babe.  Maybe one day your prince will come (but he probably won't make you awesome cakes).

Happy Fall Y'all

     You know what time of year is my absolute favorite?  Fall!  I know many of you will agree with me that there's something about Fall that just makes you feel more alive.  The air gets cooler; the leaves start changing.  People start gearing up for the holidays. We Southerners come out of our summer hibernation.  We may even get a couple of days where we can open the windows and let a breeze blow through.  Yeah, this is my favorite time of the year.  Too bad it's still hotter than Hades here in Gulfport, MS and every tree I've passed is still as green as it was in July!  That is, unless it's brown from being scorched in the sun.  Oh well, in order to compensate for the lack of Fall in the weather, I'm making up for it in my cooking with these:

Pumpkin Cheesecake Parfaits

from the September/October 2011 issue of Cooking With Paula Deen

Here's what you'll need:

3 TBS butter

1/2 (1 lb) package gingersnap cookies, coarsely crushed *I used Murray's brand*

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup plus 2 TBS sugar, divided

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Garnish with pumpkin pie spice and/or gingersnap cookies (optional)

In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Add crushed gingersnaps, and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes or until lightly toasted.  Remove from skillet immediately, and cool.  

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese at medium speed with a mixer until smooth; add pumpkin puree, 1/2 cup sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla, beating just until combined.  In parfait glasses (or mason jars) layer crushed gingersnaps and cream cheese mixture as desired, starting with gingersnaps.  Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.  

In a small bowl, beat whipping cream and remaining sugar at medium-high speed with a mixer until soft peaks form.  Dollop whipped cream over parfaits.  Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice, if desired.  Serve with gingersnap cookies.

Enjoy!

     In the spirit of Fall, I've begun working on Monkey's costume, and I'm super excited about it.  I just hope it comes out right, because I'm not following a pattern this time.  I'm nervous, but if all else fails, we'll just head over to Spirit Halloween and hope they have a Wolverine costume for a little girl.....  

I guess I can't fail.  :-/

    The imminent weather changes also mean my cooking will be getting a bit heartier.  I mean, who doesn't associate Fall and Winter with big bowls of chili or homemade stews with lots of warm bread for dipping?  Hmmm....sounds good.  And I think I've finally found the perfect bread recipe for my collection.  It's perfect for slicing to make sandwiches, or it's good to slather butter over and dunk in your favorite soup or stew.  Here it is:

Homemade Sandwich Bread

from Daily Dish Recipes

2 cups warm water

2 TBS sugar

1 TBS dry active yeast

1 tsp salt

5 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 TBS butter, softened

In a bowl, pour water and sugar.  Mix until dissolved; add yeast.  Mix until dissolved.  Let sit 10 minutes.  Add flour and salt.  Slice butter into smaller pieces, and add it to your bowl.  Knead ingredient for 10 minutes by hand, or 5 minutes with mixer.  It's done when it feels elastic, smooth and isn't sticking to anything.  Knead into a ball and place in a clean bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap that you've sprayed with cooking spray or rubbed with oil.  Set in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.  After it's risen punch it down once or twice.  Knead again 1-2 minutes, forming a ball.  Cut ball into 2 equal pieces.  Knead once piece at a time, shaping each into an oval shape.  Place each in a lightly greased loaf dish.  Put both pans in a warm spot, uncovered, to rise for another hour.  Preheat oven to 350.  Bake for 35-40 minutes; they should be nicely golden on top.  Remove from oven, and let them cool in their pans for 5 minutes.  Next turn them out onto a cooling rack, and let them cool completely before slicing.  This prevents excess crumbling.  Store at room temperature in an air-tight container for up to 4 days.  (They won't last that long.)

Enjoy!

A Little Bit of Princess Pampering

     This week I watched my Facebook newsfeed fill up with images of everyone's baby going back to school, and I realized with a sort of sadness that this is the last year I won't be posting "First Day of School" pictures of Monkey.  That's right; next year Monkey will be joining the flocks of tiny people headed off for some learning, and I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it.  So to celebrate my ability to keep her home with me for one more year, we had a Princess Day.  We started the day off with Princess Pancakes, cooked by yours truly of course.

Then Monkey picked out her favorite Princess dress, the one I sewed last year for her Rapunzel costume.  Then I did her makeup, curled her hair, and painted her nails.

Ready to get her hair did

My beautiful little princess.

She requested that I wear a dress too, and she even painted my nails in return.  Next we made princess crowns before settling in for a princess movie.  She picked Brave, which is perfect since it's the only Disney movie with a Mommy/Daughter theme.

She was tired of pictures, so she started making goofy faces at the camera.  This was the best one lol

     It was a really good day.  Then J came home, and he quickly got bored with the role of Prince Charming and grabbed the Nerf gun.  That's when my pretty little princess became my Ninja Nerf gun warrior, and I transformed back into a hard-working peasant.  But it was fun while it lasted.  And what would a Princess Day be without some yummy Princess cookies?

These rich chocolatey cookies will have you feeling like you're getting the royal treatment too.

These were so easy and delicious!

Gooey Rich Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 40 cookies
4 squares Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks (I chopped up some Baker's Semi-sweet chocolate bars)
1 cup walnuts, if desired

Melt butter and chocolate in microwave in 30 second intervals, for a total of about 2 minutes.  Be careful not to let the chocolate burn.  Stir together once completely melted, then add the sugar, and stir to combine.  Stir in eggs and vanilla.  Add flour, a little at a time.  Add in chocolate chunks and walnuts if desired.  Roll into 1 inch balls, and place on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes,  or until the edges are crisp and the middle is just set.  (It will look a little undercooked, but that'll ensure they stay nice and chewy.) Cool on a cooling rack.  Enjoy!

For Starters

This will be my first attempt at this craze of "blogging" that has been sweeping the country.  This will also be my way of avoiding the constant stream of "can I have that recipe?" comments that I get on my Facebook account every time I post a new food-related picture.

  So who am I, exactly? I'm the Juggernaut, B!tch!!!  (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)  As you can gather from my blog name, I'm a Navy Wife, and at the moment I am, in fact, bored.  That's not typical in my life, however, so it will probably bug me later to have such a misnomer.  Ah, well.  It was the best I could come up with on such short notice.

  So back to me :-D   As it says in my description I'm 22, and I have a two-year-old daughter.  I refer to her often as my "monkey", so just be aware of that so that there is no confusion later.  Monkey keeps me pretty busy.  She's two, after all, and she has her father's flair for adventure.  Unfortunately she also inherited her mother's grace (or lack thereof); so she gets scraped up on a regular bases.  She's surviving though.

  My husband....what shall we call him?  I'll try to be nice ;-)  Let's just call him "J" until I come up with something a bit more clever.  J is in the Navy, and is currently deployed.  I'm hoping to see him again soon.  In the meantime, however, I've been keeping busy with Monkey, cooking, volunteering at the local library, and reading books that I haven't made time for in years.  I'm also writing again, which is huge.

  Writing has always been a big love of mine, and although I haven't really done much other than the occasional journal entry, I would love to write a novel one day.  I must admit that my first English professor in college made a comment on one of my papers that truly went to my head.  She said that I have a charming story-telling voice.  This should not have inflated my ego at all, considering it was followed up with "that has no place in a research paper".   Oh well, I'll take what I can get.

    So, I guess I should get on with it and post a recipe.

   Recently I received my latest Paula Deen magazine (I love her, and I am a yearly subscriber to her magazine), and in it was a recipe for Whoopie Pies.  Apparently I was a deprived child because I had never even heard of a Whoopie Pie, much less tasted one, so I decided then and there that these would be placed at the top of my "must try" list.  I must say, the results were rather tasty, although a bit too sweet even for my sweet tooth.
  The recipe is as follows:

Vanilla Whoopie Pies (the cookie)
1 3/4  cups plus 2 TBS all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 TBS butter (this is Paula Deen after all, and what would it be without all that "love"?)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 TBS vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until fluffy.  Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla; beat until combined.  Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating just until dry ingredients are incorporated.
Using a 1/4 cup scoop, drop batter 3 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 12-14 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool pan on wire racks.
*If batter starta to spread when you scoop it out onto the baking sheets, chill it in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

Filling:

Caramel
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
6 TBS heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
11 TBS butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

In small saucepan, combine brown sugar, cream and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook for 1 1/2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from hear, and cool completely.
In medium bowl beat cooled brown sugar mixture and butter at med-high speed with a mixer until smooth.  Gradually add confectioners' sugar, 1/4 cup at a time; beat at medium speed until smooth.
*I actually used more confectioners' sugar, b/c mine didn't have the right consistency at first.  It should be  spreadable, but not too runny.  Just be careful not to make it too thick and dry, either.  As with most things in life, it's about finding the right balance.

Peanut Butter
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup softened butter
1tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

In medium bowl, beat peanut butter, butter,  and vanilla at medium speed with a mixer until smooth.  Gradually add confectioners' sugar, 1/4 cup at a time; beat until smooth.
*Once again, play around with the amount of sugar added.  This one actually came out too thick.  Maybe I was a bit heavy-handed with my scoops.

I served these to a group of my girlfriends who came over for a games' night on Friday, and although they all said they were tasty, no one went back for seconds.  I'm fairly certain it's due to the fact that these are pretty decadent.  I will probably make these again for the next family get together.  I have a ton of family members with sweet tooths (sweet teeth?) who would (hopefully) devour these.  I'm going to try to add a photo, too.  They remind of something you'd see in a fifties diner.