Kitchen Sink Cookies

 This is going to be one simple post, because I am doing so much this week and the next few don't look to be any simpler. This is a good thing, lots of great things happening, just need to learn how to deal and it will be better before I know it.

 Anyway these are the cookies I made with Pork Chops little friends.  He had these two little sisters over for a play date and we made cookies.  I just made basic chocolate chip cookie dough and they got to put in whatever they wanted.

So here they are, I used this recipe.  And I put out a whole bunch of stuff, they just focused on eating all the rolos and using the heart sprinkles.  Technically this is a kitchen sink cookie, but they just put in those two things.

 One of them asked if my mixer was a kitchen aid and when I told her yes, she told me "that's a good brand. She is 9 I think.  And the younger one ate more cookie dough than she baked, she kept licking her finger and rolling her cookies so hers are the ones up top, all puffy because the dough was worked too much.  She handed me the bowl with some dough still in it, and said I could eat it.  Keep in mind her hand was in her mouth as much as in the dough, so I said thanks and scooped the rest out onto her tray.

It was fun and a nice way to get them into something they may not know about.  Pork chop sulked on the sofa because he wanted to crack the first egg and I said guests first.  I cannot win.

Not too bad, and they went home with the girls, so no need to eat them all and feel badly.

Oreo Cheesecake Pudding Pie

Looking at it like this, you cannot even tell how badly I messed up.

Oh boy, this is going to be a doosey.  I so love to read other blogs, and find inspiration in them.  I always see things others make and pin it away and think, I will never make that.  Then I usually don't  because I always screw things up.  Until I saw this pie at Lil Luna.  I was all, I can make that.



And then I tried.

And this is why I should never make things from other blogs. I know they are never going to be as good.  But still I try, and fail, then eat all the evidence.

So if you check out the original post on Lil Luna you will see this amazing pie, that you will think looks so easy and yummy.  Which it is, if you are good at following simple directions, that is.

So I will show you what I did, and tell you how I made it differently.  Not on purpose of course.  Just so you know. Then you will want to make the original, and maybe mine if you like second best pie.  Who knows; you might right?

This is all I had to buy, I had the rest of the stuff at home.  Notice my cool laptop, I just had to include that, it makes me look like I know how to blog. Because no one would ever know someone with a laptop did not have any clue how to work computers right? Oh and side note, Hubby says the cupcake thing on my laptop is embarrassing, so he pretends it's not there.  I like it personally

Firstly, I was having a play date, not with the kid who must have a baking craft.  Oh no, this was going to be one where I could sit and chat with my friend while the boys ran around and tore the house apart.  It was going to be awesome!  So I thought,  I should make desert and impress my friend.  Now my friend is amazing, she acts impressed with everything I make, which is great.  I know it is all a front, but that is why I love her. Also I made home made pizza, Hubby made the pizza dough for me and I did the rest.

This is the cream cheese filling before I added the cool whip.  It tasted really good, but the cool whip made it even better.

 Let me know if you want to have Hubby make a post about how he makes Pizza.  It is so good, and he makes it really thin for me so I can eat lots and not get sick on the doughy crust.  But you can also make it thicker and it is still amazing.  Okay back to pie.


So I went to my local store to buy all the stuff to make this pie.  And this is where it all fell apart.  My store of course did not have Oreo pie crusts, what they did have was either graham cracker crust, which just seemed wrong.  Or they had this butter crust. I thought great, butter crust it is, because there is no way I was going to make a crust from scratch.  That was until I started checking the expiry date.  I dug and dug, and I think after 6 crusts with a date of "best before May 2011" I was getting upset.  I found one with a good date, put the expired ones in my cart also and kept shopping.

I only added about 1/3 of the tub of cool whip, but it seemed like a lot.

I needed white chocolate pudding, and if you guessed that they did not have that either, you get a prize.  So I opted for Oreo pudding, I mean it is supposed to be an Oreo pie, so that is what I went with. The other stuff I got, I turned in the out dated pie crusts and headed out.  And just so you know, the store people were really upset about the outdated crust and rushed to pull the rest off the shelf. Stuff happens, you know?  I am a stickler for dates, so I always check.  Not a big deal.

So the next night, the night of the play date, I set to work.

And when they say to fold things in your batter, you are supposed to lightly mix the stuff in with a sort of weird movement.  Not like me, where I stir it all crazy like.  Just so you know.

Oreo Cheesecake Pudding Pie
Adapted from Lil Luna found Here

-pie crust of your choice ( I used the butter crust, I loved it)
-1 row double stuffed Oreo cookies cut up*
-1 8oz block cream cheese
-1/2 cup butter
-3 squares semi sweet baking chocolate melted
-1 large tub of cool whip**
-1 cup icing sugar
-1 box Oreo pudding mix***
-1 1/2 cups milk****

This is the only non expired crust I could find, and I think it was either called butter or short bread.  You can use anything, as long as it is not expired.

*I tried crushing the Oreos once before, but because they are double stuffed they just sort of smooshed so I cut them
**I have no idea if the large tub is bigger here or what, but there was a lot, but I like lots of whipped topping so it worked out great for me
***You can use any flavor I think, well, not pistachio, lemon or butterscotch, that would be wrong I think.
****I actually used 2 cups, but my pudding was way too thin, so use 1 1/2 cups if you actually read recipes, which I obviously don't do, d'oh!

Now if you are not a wimp like me, you would have filled this all the way up.  I thought I would save the left over filling to eat with apples, or just with a spoon, but it got hard and gross when not in a pie, so it ended up in the garbage.

I decided to make my cheesecake filling chocolate to counter the fact that my crust was vanilla.  I just added 3 squares of melted semi sweet bakers chocolate to the cheese mix.  It worked great, but either I screwed up or I was just wimpy, but it would have fully filled my pie crust.  I used about 3/4 of it.  I should have used it all, because it tasted amazing.  So next time, I will use it all, and just not be able to cover the pie with the lid.

See that cool cutting board, it is the most colourful thing in my kitchen.  Other than the wall o' sprinkles that is.

Then for the pudding layer I was supposed to use only 1 1/2 cups milk, but I didn't read that fully until it was too late.  I should have paid attention because my pudding was a bit too runny.  I still used it and it tasted great, but it didn't hold together too well.  Oh well, live and learn right?

I learned the hard way to never try to smash double stuff Oreo's, they just end up smooshing together, so cut them,.trust me.

Then I put on a bunch of cool whip, and my chopped up Oreos.  I used double stuffed since that is what I had.  Then I put it all in the fridge hoping it would set up.  It did , sort of.  I mean it was amazing, I would have eaten the whole thing.  The pudding was soft, so the top sort of slid off a bit, but people I could eat this every day!

  And I am so lucky to have such a great friend, because I sent it all home with her, except for a small piece.  I had to see if it tasted as good the next day.

This is my watery Oreo pudding layer, at least we get to cover it with cool whip to hide it.

And just in case you were wondering, it tasted just as great the next day.

So notes for next time.  I will use all the cheesecake filling, no wimpy thin layer for me.  Let that pie spill over the crust.  Read the whole darn recipe and use only 1 1/2 cups of milk for the pudding layer, making it thicker so it won't spill out of the crust.

I put on as much Cool whip as I dared, I still had some left over.  I may have eaten it with a spoon the next day, just to get the container out of my fridge.  

And maybe try making this in cups with just Oreo crumbs or crushed Oreos for the bottom and that way you can eat just a little and not feel so bad.  Or heck just make the pie and eat until you are sick.  I mean you don't even have to crack an egg, so you know it's going to be healthier than if you did right? No? Well, whatever you have to tell yourself, just make it, and try Lil Lunas way too, because I bet hers is even better.

It looked so nice, then I tried to put the lid on it and realized it was one huge pie.  Ha, I said huge pie!

I cut a piece and did the happy dance when it was not a total flop.

And this is the picture where you can actually see the layers.  People that know what they are doing can cut a piece and make it look nice.  I never said I know what I am doing, just so you know.

Cupcakes, and a Give Away!!!! Winner announced for last give away too.

Will you be mine? ( I know, how dorky can you get.)

 Firstly I want to announce the winner of the My Little Cupcake mold set winner.  I am so excited that so many of you entered.  I really hope the winner enjoys these little molds and makes something super cute with them:)

  There were a total of  61comments, but only 50 qualified, and I used Random.org to conduct the draw.

   So the winner is  #19, which is Kluckingbear. Please contact me with your mailing address, I will also try to contact you.  You have 48 hours to contact me or  I will have to choose another winner.  Thanks all for commenting, I hope you stick around to comment on this giveaway also!

   So now on to my super amazing cupcake post, and cupcake giveaway!

 I know that almost everyone loves cupcakes, I mean what's not to love? They are cakes that you don't have to share, that in my books is huge!  So for this I wanted to make something from a box mix, but none of the recipes I looked at were doing it for me, not sure why.  So I went on line and found a recipe for red velvet cupcakes.  I wanted red because I figure valentines day is coming up, and that would be perfect.

   I also had a play date with Pork chop and his little friend, so that meant I had someone to send some home with and to have decorate them.  It was a win win situation.

I think I like sprinkles the most, then Pork chop, then Hubby.  They know how they rate in my life.

  Also I wanted to give away a super cute cupcake that you can wear.  I shared these last year on my gift idea post.  I love the ones I have, so much so that after the holidays, I used up the last of my fun money and got myself two more.  I love working with Peggy at The Glass Chef.  So after I share my yummy cupcakes, I will share my fun give away!

  I have a fondness for cupcakes for a few reasons, let me list them, because I know you need to know how my mind works.

My List for why Cupcakes Rule!

-they are cute
-they are easy to make and frost
-they are way easier to serve than a cake, this is a huge factor
-you can have different flavors and try them all
-if you drop it, you still have more, drop a cake and well you are eating floor cake, gross!
-you can decorate your cupcakes with cute liners, picks and sprinkles

  Well you get the idea, they are just awesome! So here is the cupcake that I tried out today.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
from All recipes.com
makes about 20

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup butter milk *
1 oz red food colouring **
1 TSP vanilla
1 1/2 TSP baking soda
1 TBPS white vinegar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 TSP salt

*I never buy butter milk, so I just make my own.  Put 1 TBSP of white vinegar in a measuring cup, fill up to the 1 cup with milk, stir and let sit for 5 minutes, and there you go.
**1 OZ equals 2 TBSPs

See how it looks curdled, it still all worked out though.

Set oven to 350
-beat butter and sugar until fluffy, add all the wet ingredients and mix well ( at this point it looked like my butter had curdled and I was worried, but after mixing it all together it still looked the same, but baked up fine. I think it was the vinegar.)
-add dry ingredients and mix until just combined
-spoon into cupcake liners and bake for about 14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

These are Pork chops, you can tell by the one he tried to drown in sprinkles.  We ended up sending them to day care for his PD day.

  I just made my basic butter cream* for this and tinted it pink.  I made extra so I could try to make butter cream truffles, which I will share later on, so good!

*1/2 cup each of butter and shortening, beat together and add icing sugar and milk until it is as thick as you want and you have the amount you want

These are his friends, which I sent home with him.  He is so slow, he puts on  one sprinkle at a time almost, it is so cute. And both boys kept asking for icing eyeballs, I said no, eyeballs are not for pink cupcakes.  I am the mom and I make the rules!

And here is one of mine.  The icing heart on top was bought at the baking warehouse, so cute.

 But for a more traditional icing, but with a kick, you know booze, try the one I posted about Here.  It is good, trust me. You cannot go wrong with Irish cream, am I right?!


  Now on to the give away!!!

   I wanted to give one reader the chance to win a cupcake charm.  I looked at all of them and could not decide on which one to give away. So I asked Peggy if she would be willing to work with my winner to make them a charm any way they like, and she said "of course I will!"  You gotta love Peggy.

  So firstly I want to show you the two new ones I got, I have 4 now and I am cut off. I could have one in every colour.

  The first one I ordered was to remind me of Hubby, even though he has a bad rap here, he isn't that bad really. I sort of like him. Hubby may not like to eat the things I bake, but he does have one thing he loves that is sweet.  And that is mint chocolate chip ice cream.  That is the first thing I remember about him, anything mint chocolate.  My little Pork Chop shares his love and could eat mint Areo bars all day long.  So I asked for a chocolate cupcake with minty green icing and chocolate sprinkles.  I think Peggy nailed it!



I will call it the Hubby cupcake, and sorry about the bad pictures, you cannot win them all you know.


  Then I asked for a Tiffany blue cupcake, with dark brown accents.  I have to say, the reason I wanted this colour is that at my new job they have these Tiffany eye glass frames that I am in love with.  I don't know why, I think the colours speak to me. They say crazy things, like buy a new cupcake charm and eat more cupcakes.  It's scary really.  So Peggy made me my little Tiffany cupcake, and it was perfect.

See how she made the cherry on top a colour that works with the cupcake?  That is why Peggy is an artist, and I am not.  I  just like to eat things, so I am a food eating artist, not the same thing really.

These are just a few ideas for you all.

 So whatever your imagination can think up, you can share it with Peggy and I bet it will be even better than you think.  So start thinking people, because the winner of this contest is going to get their choice of one custom cupcake charm.  All you have to do to win is one of the following. Please make sure you read the rules, as only qualifying entries will be counted.


  Leave a comment and let me know what sort of cupcake charm you would like.  ( You can totally change your mind if you win, it's not written in stone.)

  You can earn extra entries by doing the following, just do it and come back and leave me a comment to let me know.

-visit Peggy's site and let me know
-share my blog with someone and let me know, I love new readers
-become a follower, I love following other blogs, so would love it if you follow mine, just let me know you did, and if you are already a follower let me know
-follow my face book page, but you have to leave the comment here to have it count, and if you already follow my page let me know

The Rules:*****make sure you answer the skill testing question in each entry*****


-Each entry must have the answer to this skill testing question 14-4=?  So any entry without that will not be counted
-winner is responsible for any duty charged when the item is delivered
-the contest is open to all USA, Canadian (except Quebec, sorry) and Internationale readers
-the prize is for one custom cupcake charm, no chain or substitutions
-the winner will be picked by Random.org from all qualifying entries, as some entries will not qualify and I may even comment, I will number entries starting with the first and work my way to the end to calculate the number of entries in total
-entries will be accepted until 12 noon (Toronto time) Wednesday February 1, 2012 ( happy birthday Hubby!) as comments are moderated as long as they hit my mail box before the dead line they will still qualify
-the winner will be announced and they have 48 hours to contact me or I choose another winner, please add a way for me to contact you in your comment if you can or make sure to check back, if you are a follower you will see when new posts go up

  And I think that is it.  So please enter as many ways as you can and I cannot wait to see what cupcake the winner ends up picking!  I will be posting a picture of it on a future post, because I am nosy like that and want to see it.

*prize supplied by me, I am not being paid or compensated in any way.  I just love these pendants and Peggy was so wonderful to agree and work with me!*

My first real post, but posted second. Are you confused yet?

  So as you may know from reading my last post, I wanted this to be my first post, but Hubby was doing something with his IPhone and the computer and I was all like,

"What the hell?"

and he was all

"I phone update, must do it now!"

and I was all like

"sigh"

  I have an I phone, ask Hubby it was his idea, I didn't want one, I was fine with my old phone.  But now I am addicted to Plants VS Zombies and I like to check my email and my face book and take pictures.  So I like it, but not enough to let Hubby think he was right.  Because if we go down that road, who knows what could happen.  So Anyway Hubby wrong, me right and all is right with the world again.

  So here is my first, but second post.

  I took an extra long weekend from work and had such plans for it, and I got maybe 1/4 of it done, so that sort of sucks, but not really.  I got to spend time with the hubby and kid so it all worked out.

  My son is now getting into play dates where he goes or has someone over and the parents don't stay.  I really like it, he loves to have someone over, I have a reason to tidy up and it gives me a reason to bake something to have fun and decorate with the kids.

  So this week my son had his little friend over to our house.  So I decided after the cupcake decorating of last time (where they focused on putting as many royal icing eye balls on a single cupcake that they could) that I would do something different.  So I settled on cake balls.  I love cake balls, they are easy and so yummy! And I think anyone who is anyone knows that cake balls are the new cupcake.  No really they are, or at least that is the dream.

  A little back story about the ball as it were.  I read about them on a site I go to a lot, Two Peas in A bucket.  (remember I am new to this so have no idea how to link just yet, so just google anything I list, thanks)  They were talking about this blogger named Bakerella, and how she made these cute little cupcake shaped cake pops on a stick. And as I usually do with most things I ignore it for a while and hope that I will not get into it, because once I do, bam!  I am addicted.  So as you can see I gave in and tried them.  Love at first bite, my friends at work loved them, I loved them, my son liked them and the hubby never even gave them a second look.  Sigh, he never eats my baking, he is an apple pie only sort of guy.  Oh well more for me.  Anyway after stalking Bakerellas blog for a while I decided to make some more and they became my new favorite.  Okay end of story.

  So back to this past weekend.  I made a 9x13 chocolate cake, cooled it then crumbled it into my kitchen aid mixer and mixed it with half a can of frosting.  Now for reference I use boxed mix usually, it is faster, easier and cheaper for me.  And really the taste is so good!  I then used a cookie scoop to make the balls.  Then I put them in the fridge while I did the dishes then took them out and rolled them smooth.  I put them back into the fridge and got my chocolate ready.  Now I use candy coating, Merkins is the brand name.  I get a huge 50 pound box and it is so good.  I used white melts and used Americolor candy colouring to make it a sort of green. I also find that my white candy melts are lumpy, I use the 30 second microwave method, and then I add paraffin crystals to thin it out.  This makes the coating thin and not as lumpy. 

  Here are the balls scooped out the left is after I have rolled them, the right just scooped out.

  These are white Merkin candy coating chips.  I use a glass bowl and microwave it on regular for 30 seconds at a time, then take out and stir.  I find the bowl holds the heat well so you don't have to re melt them.

  This is my container of paraffin crystals, they are like shavings and you mix them into your melted chocolate to thin it out.  I do it about 1/4 cup at a time, then stir until I get them melted and the chocolate how I like it.  On the right is the bottle of candy colouring.  You need to use an oil based food colouring as water or gel colours will cause the chocolate to seize up.

   I made these the lazy way by just putting a stick into the top of the pop and dipping then setting them on a sheet of wax paper to dry. If you want to go the non lazy way you can dip them then put the stick in Styrofoam or what ever,  for the boys my lazy way is better:)  If I am dipping these things there is always a fan in my dining room as I like the chocolate to set without putting them in the fridge.  I find when I use the fridge the chocolate cracks more .  Anyway, so I dipped them and let them set.

  Then I got this idea to dip some marshmallows in chocolate to decorate too.

   I have been drooling over these huge marshmallows at the store the whole summer.  Every time I saw them the hubby would say, no you don't need them, you don't even eat them.  He has a point, but what he does not know is that I would have died if I did not get to use them.  So I snuck them into the shopping cart last time, he totally saw and sighed, but you know what, I was happy:)  Anyway I decided that to have a purpose to buying them, because that will make hubby see that I am not just wasting money and sugar, they would be perfect for my kids hockey team.  See that right there, that is how I justify my shopping habits, it's for the team!!!  Anyway so I did what I do with cake balls, put in a lollipop stick and dipped them in milk chocolate then sprinkled them with tiny little leave sprinkles.  ( again I had to have them, and this is totally how I justify that)  They were huge!  I did a few plain for the kids to decorate at the play date, but whatever, they looked cute. So for those I just bagged them up and put a ribbon on them and there you go:)

  These are huge, they are like the size of my kids hand!
                                      
  I just dipped them sprinkled while the chocolate was still wet.
                                     
                                     

  I use lollipop bags and cheap curling ribbon.
                                          

  So the play date begins, and I make diner and the boys tell me all this crazy stuff and what not.  Like when you want a baby to eat you have to punch them to get them to open their mouths.  ( keep in mind these kids think anything with hitting and punching is hilarious)  But once I told them hitting is wrong and you are never to hit a baby or anyone ever, they sort of did not think it was so funny any more.  So then it was on to zombie talk and what not.  Yeah I was lost.  I should of had a girl.  Anyway....

  So I set each of them up with some cake pops, royal icing eyeballs, edible markers ( which had the poor kid who was over to play really concerned that I was letting him use markers on food) and some melted chocolate and a paint brush.  Now my kid he knew what to do, he set to work,but his cute friend just started painting, I showed him him how to sick on eye balls and colour, but he just wanted to paint.  So here is his creations.

                                          


  Now since I was working with boys I had to adjust my creative process, and boy do I regret that one.  I was making these super cute little aliens, then bam!  I put butt cheeks on one, and the boys laughed like crazy.  And therefore there aliens all had to have butt cheeks.  I am a bad parent, and I know it:( 

  Here are mine all cute and lined up.  I love the sad one on the right there, I think he is mad because he has such little arms.

                                       
 And here is the ill fated butt cheek.



                                       
  And here are my kids.  Sigh he likes the colours.
                                        
  Anyway it turned out great, the boys had a blast, and my son was so happy that he had enough to bring to daycare to share.  I hope I can be one of those people that relaxes when play dates happen.  I am going to set myself up for failure if all kids expect to do something like this every time. But it is so fun.

  I also made a bunch of cookies this weekend so I will get to posting that too.  Please feel fee to comment, I have no idea is anyone is reading this at all, but I love to think so.

  Oh and an added note since I wrote this and before I posted it my son asked me what I was making for the next play date.  Sigh, I set myself up for this one.