Snickerdoodle Bars

I have been dying to get back into baking lately, a task that is not easy to do with a baby. I've been able to find a few quick recipes lately to make, but I need to save my bigger baking projects for when Dan can be home so someone can focus on Peyton. I was able to make these in about 15 minutes, with Peyton being awake, so that is quite the accomplishment. I thought she had fallen asleep for a nap but about a minute into making these, she was wide awake. Luckily she's mellow and enjoys letting me bake...I hope....

These are quick, easy, and don't require any fancy ingredients, except maybe the cream of tartar. I always have some, but almost never use it. I use it so rarely, that the bottle I had, expired 3 years ago. So I had to buy a whole new bottle and cream of tartar is not cheap! I was amazed that it was 5.99 for the tiny little container or 7.99 for a larger one. The price of spices and things is insane these days. This recipe whips up in minutes, bakes pretty quickly, and then you just have to wait for them to cool.

They came out perfectly moist, soft, and chewy. It's like the perfect snickerdoodle cookie, but even better. I would reduce the cinnamon-sugar topping. The original recipe stated that it sinks into the batter during cooking, so having more is better, but I had a lot of spaces where it was just piled on, so when I cut them up and tilted them, a whole bunch just poured off. I would try maybe half the amount. You can always add more if you find that's not enough, but when I ate a square I was practically inhaling the topping. Maybe try pressing it into the batter a bit before baking. Either way, these are ridiculously good!

Snickerdoodle Bars
from Averie Cooks

1/2 cup butter melted, and slightly cooled
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. salt (optional) (I didn't use any)

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8x8 baking dish with foil and grease.
2. Whisk the butter, egg, sugars and vanilla together until well combined.
3. Add the flour and cream of tartar (and salt if using), and stir to mix until just combined.
4. Spread into the baking dish and smooth the top of the batter.
5. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the batter.
6. Bake for 24 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool, cut and eat!

Bacon & Corn Chowder

The most repeated recipe from this blog is my Shrimp & Corn Chowder. Getting Dan to eat any kind of soup doesn't happen often, but this one is requested by him quite frequently. I always change that recipe up just a little each time I make it, and I always try to make it thicker. I love a nice hearty corn chowder, and while that one is stocked with veggies and shrimp and topped with bacon, it's ever quite the "chowder" consistency I want.

So, I decided to try a whole new recipe. I found this one, that looked simple. It's much less time consuming than my go-to recipe. There's no peeling or hard boiling of potatoes, less time sautéing veggies, and a much shorter ingredient list. I changed it up a little bit to make it to my liking. It has a saltier taste due to the bacon being cooked right in the chowder, and I sautéed my onions in bacon grease. I used a mix of sweet yellow and white corn. When I make this again, I would use cream instead of half and half, and maybe play around with the types of cheese to add. I think using cream would help thicken it without using as much potato flakes as I did, and I probably wouldn't sauté my onion in the bacon grease, I would just sauté them in the butter. I also would use the bacon as a topping, not have it cook in the chowder. I like corn chowder on the sweeter side, and this was saltier from the bacon. Upon standing, this thickened up quite a bit, so I'm sure I could have used even less potato flakes than I had and it would have been great. Overall, this is a great recipe that I would use again, perhaps instead of my other recipe, but I would add in the shrimp. It's one to play around with until it's just right.

The recipe below is how I made it last night. Play around with it to make it your own. Dan added shredded rotisserie chicken to his. The only reason I didn't add shrimp was because we ate shrimp the night before for dinner.

Bacon & Corn Chowder
adapted from Twelve O Eight

6-8 slices of bacon, chopped
1 small onion, diced
2 tbsp. butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. black pepper
4 tbsp. flour
4 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup half & half
1 to 1.5 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (to your liking).
4 cans whole kernel corn, drained
pinch of nutmeg
1/4 to 1/2 cup dried potato flakes

1. In a stockpot over medium-high heat, cook bacon until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and let drain on a plate lined with paper towels. Drain all but 1 tbsp. of bacon grease and return to heat.
2. Add the butter to the grease and add the onions. Sauté until clear and then add the garlic, pepper, and flour and cook, stirring, until flour is absorbed.
3. Add the chicken stock and stir, bringing it to a slow boil.
4. Add the bacon, corn, half & half, cheese, and nutmeg and again bring to a slow boil stirring occasionally. Lower heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes.
5. If you want it thicker, add the potato flakes, a few spoonfuls at a time, and mix in. You may want to wait a few minutes in between as it does continue to thicken up.

Peanut Butter Nutella Rolls

I love dessert recipes that are cheap, quick, and easy. Cheap is for the obvious reason of not spending tons of money on something, but quick and easy is for being able to whip something up in those moments where you need some sort of sweets, but aren't going to bake a cake or full batch of cupcakes. I have a ton of pictures of this process. That being said, they're all in terrible lighting so I apologize. I'd like to start with my workspace.

The workspace is a little crammed due to the counter space next to the sink and oven being taken over by the bottle-drying station, and the rest of my counter being taken over by gnomes.

Yes, gnomes.

There's a long back story as to why Dan collects gnomes, starting with some high school pranks. I won't get into it, but since then people give him gnomes as joke gifts and now we have about 15 or so in our mudroom and on the lawn. As he cleaned out the mudroom today we washed the dust and cobwebs (ughhhhh) off of some of them and they were left to dry on the counter. That's just a small section of what we have.

Anyways, back to these rolls. When I went shopping today I did need to grab some Nutella. It's not something we often have in the house. As I was grabbing it, I almost bought this instead.

Umm...since when has this been in existence??? You could make these rolls with this. Or with their chocolate cheesecake spread. Or peanut butter and jelly. Or cheesecake filling and fruit. Or...

The possibilities are endless!

My cream cheese icing was thicker than I would have liked and I used vanilla bean paste, so it's a darker color as well. It still tastes good, but it wasn't that gooey, melty icing I wanted. I thought it would melt when I swirled t on the rolls fresh out of the oven, but it stayed pretty thick. Either way, these are delicious. It's a nice balance of sweet and buttery from the biscuit dough. Next time, I will try a different fun flavor and probably make a standard icing/glaze of powdered sugar and milk.

Peanut Butter Nutella Rolls
adapted from Inspired by Charm

1 can biscuit dough (like Pillsbury)
Peanut butter
Nutella
Flour and powdered sugar for sprinkling
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease 8 muffin tin cups.
2. Lightly flour and sugar your work surface. Roll out your biscuits until they are about double in size.
3. Spread a spoonful of peanut butter and a spoonful of Nutella on the dough. Roll up and cut into thirds.
4. Place the 3 pieces cut side up, into a muffin cup. Repeat with each biscuit.
5. Bake for 15 minutes.
6. While baking, mix together the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread over rolls fresh out of the oven.

Now for the sub-par photos.

 

 



French Onion Pork Chops

It's been a while since we have had a home-cooked meal in this house. Between busy schedules and baby duty, it can be hard to get time in the kitchen. Luckily today Dan didn't have hockey, so he was able to sort of help with the baby (I say sort of because he cleaned out entire garage, mud room, and storage room in the basement). Luckily, Peyton was pretty chill all night so I could dinner and dessert. Yes...there is dessert...

Pork chops are something I thoroughly enjoy when they are cooked right. I cook them right about 70% of the time. The other 30% is when they come out a little tough and dry. Pork chops are also a very affordable meat option for dinner. I can't get over how expensive chicken has become, and steak is reserved for special occasions in this house. This recipe was incredibly easy to make, since all I needed was the pork chops. I already had the onion soup mix, bread crumbs, and eggs. The original recipe calls for Ritz cracker crumbs, but rather than buying a box of crackers that will never get eaten, I chose to use some Italian bread crumbs with it. Easy and delicious. I served them with some mashed potatoes and cheesy broccoli. When I say served, I mean made myself a plate. Dan has yet to eat dinner even though it was ready 2 hours ago...the man never stops...

These were cooked pretty well, not as juicy as I would have liked. The onion soup gives a great flavor and the coating doesn't get too soggy when it's cooked like some other breading recipes do.

French Onion Pork Chops
adapted from Food.com

4 boneless pork chops
1 packet onion soup mix
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp. butter melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a baking dish.
2. Combine the onion mix and breadcrumbs in a shallow dish. Place the beaten eggs in another shallow dish.
3. Dip the pork chops in the egg, coating both sides, then dredge through the crumb mix, coating both sides. Place in the baking dish. Repeat with remaining pork chops.
4. Drizzle with melted butter and bake for 45-50 minutes.