Showing posts with label valentines day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label valentines day. Show all posts

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Easy Valentines Day Marshmallow Pops

 These are super easy to make, and they are tasty and they are cute.  Three really good things in a treat.  I first saw something like this when my friend Staci made them.  She showed me and I was all, "seriously, chocolate and sprinkles, why did I not think of that?"  

 Then she gave me a smug smile, and think she was all "I am Martha Stewart! Don't be hating!" Or she was just smiling, because I told her how smart she was, either way.  

 So I have not been doing much baking the last few weeks, burn out and my dad in the hospital just left me not wanting to make anything.  But I felt it was about time I send in a treat for Pork Chops hockey team.  So I suggested these and he was all "Marshmallows!!!!!!"  Do I know my boy or what?

I love sprinkles, in case you didn't know that already.  I wait all  year just to use these heart ones!
  So I would prefer to make these with home made marshmallows, but that would totally defeat the point of a simple quick treat.  And kids don't care one way or the other, as long as it is full of sugar, they will be happy.  So I grabbed a bag of large marshmallows, not the jumbo camp fire ones, those are crazy!  Maybe next time.
I just used an old take out container, it was wide enough that Pork Chop could work with it easily.
 Anyway Pork Chop actually wanted to help me so he washed his hands while I got our stuff together.  It was still January, but I figure Valentines day needed to be celebrated sooner rather than later.  So I just mixed some white sprinkles with these heart sprinkles.  And there you go, instant valentines treat!
And since we rolled the marshmallows in the sprinkles, not too many fell on the floor.
  I melted the chocolate and got Pork Chop to set up the marshmallows, he was so proud as he kept telling me he was making a pattern.  It's times like these I love him, other times, well I love him, but I want to hurt him.
Making his pattern.
 So once that was done we had to put the sticks in, and Pork Chop did almost all of them himself.
Putting the sticks in the marshmallows.  Also quick cute story from Hubby.  Pork Chop now plays on my lap top, and one morning it said something like "windows needs to close" and he was all "but the windows are closed!" And pointed at the house windows.  Man sometimes he is so innocent it kills me.
 Then I said, "I have to take a picture!"
He is too big, I may have to stop feeding him.
 And I did, and he didn't really smile so much as he looked like he was trying not to hurt me.  Whatever, I got it.  So once we got that done, we worked as a team.  I would dip the marshmallows and tap off the extra chocolate and he would roll them around in the sprinkles and set them back on the parchment paper to dry.  It seriously took us like 10 minutes, not even.
I was so thinking this didn't look like 1000 and started counting, when I got to 50 and realized there are probably more than 1000 in there, they are thinner than the ones you would buy here thought but they work fine.
  Then as they dried he went and got a drink and I got out the plastic bags and twist ties.  I really like using the twist ties, they are so much faster to work with than ribbon.  But they cost a lot at the baking store, like $30  for 1000, which really isn't much, but I can get that many ribbons cut and tied for less than $2.  I may have to rethink it, I don't know.  Anyway, I got these off of ebay, they were 1000 for under $2, free shipping too.  So they are amazing, and I hope I don't run out soon.
All ready to be wrapped.
  I love how cute they are. And Pork Chops team seems to like them too.
I had to share this picture, he is so big he just jumps on the counter to get things. I used to do that as a kid.  I tried a bit ago when I needed something up high, but I almost broke a hip, so I use a chair.  Man I am old!
I am also linking up HERE


The Mandatory Mooch
”a

Happy Hour Projects

I'm Lovin' It at TidyMom KitchenFun

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Valentines Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I guess chocolate chip cookies are not that photogenic, or I just take crappy pictures.  I choose to blame the cookie.

 Hey, so you may or may not be sick of Valentine's day themed foods, but I'm not.  I mean pink, red and chocolate just go together you know?  So I wanted to get in one last theme treat before the end of the holiday. Now I still have like 50 pounds of Valentines sprinkles ( I may be obsessed or something.) So I will be using them on a few things, that may be posted after.  So for those things, we will not call them Valentine themed, we will say they are baked with love.  Because that totally allows me to post things I made after the day right?

  I thought so.
Doesn't this just scream Valentines? Do smarties scream?  If a smartie screams in the woods, does it make a sound?  And if so, why are the smarties in the woods in the first place?  I am so confused!
  Anyway this is an easy but yummy treat, and I have posted the recipe before.  I call it the perfect chocolate chip cookie base recipe.  I should trademark that right?  Well you got it here first, so that is almost as good.

  So I used the recipe I listed before and just Valentined it up a bit.  I wanted to use M&M's but there were no bags of the just red colours here.  Or if there were I couldn't find them.  So I went with smarties, which are almost as good, I was still eating these cookies like they were going to be my last.  Wait I do that with all my cookies, so you know, never mind.
I hate that he is getting so big, he almost doesn't need his stool anymore.  And ignore the mess, I make him measure at the counter so he doesn't spill all over my dining room floor.
  So to get started I had Pork Chop all set to help me, he measured out everything, twice!  I had to make a double batch.  We had a few things to make.  I wanted jumbo cookies for his hockey team ( and they were huge!) I wanted small ones for work to share and then I wanted to try making deep dish ones for Hubby to eat with ice cream.  At this point I should let you know that he never really got one, I was a little too fast for him in that way.  But they freeze well and I did not make myself sick; much.
See that is how I do it, make the kid work and then start putting it all together.
  So after Pork Chop measured everything out, he lost interest and I was left to mix everything up. Which is fine really, but sometimes I wonder if that is how he is going to be in life. Starting then never finishing things.  I hope not, or his future spouse may kill me.

  For these I did half smarties then half chocolate chunks because I wanted the two textures in the cookie.  It worked great, just so you know.
The chocolate chunks I use are like little mini chocolate wafers, so cute.  And tasty.
  For the jumbo cookies I used my large ice cream scoop, it is like 1/2 cup I think.  I just scooped four onto a lined cookie sheet and baked them for about 11 minutes.  I really like chewy cookies so they need to be under baked a bit.  

See they are so big you can only get 4 on a tray.

And then let them set on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.  I used my smaller cookie scoop to do normal cookies and I used about 2 1/2 scoops of the dough to make my deep dish cookies.  I just used the silicon heart pan I had on hand.  Now just a word to the wise, not sure if it was the dough or the smarties but it sort of stained the mold with a white film, I have not really scrubbed it yet, but it may be the colour of the smarty, they do not bake as well as M&M's.
I just sort of mushed them in there, they were so good!  And I think they baked for about 11 minutes too.
  I put the jumbo cookies in some cookie bags I had and tied them with ribbon.  The kids were thrilled, and I felt like crap.  You know why?  When we were walking into the arena there was a bake sale set up.  I mean I had no idea, but then the team might have bought stuff if I had not brought the cookies.  So I felt bad and wanted to go say something about how horrible I am, but then they would probably think I was crazy.  Which I am, so I just gave out the cookies in the locker room and tried not to look at the kids selling stuff as we walked out.  Most of the cookies ended up being eaten as the kids left the arena, so you know, they were flaunting it, not me!

  For the little ones I packed a box for work, then froze the rest in bags of 6 to take out and eat as we liked.  And the deep dish ones, oh my word they were good.  If you freeze them you pop them in a bowl or plate and microwave for about 30 seconds and then top with ice cream.  If you don't freeze 15-20 seconds should do you.  


You can sort of see how thick this is, the center gets all gooey and chewy when you heat it up and it holds a scoop of ice cream on top just perfectly!


I am also linking up here:)


HookingupwithHoH

Somewhat Simple







I'm Lovin' It at TidyMom





Saturday, February 4, 2012

Chocolate Blog Hop -Valentines Day Cake Batter Bark

So pretty, and so easy! And ignore the blur on the left, it's my finger, or a ghostly presence if you prefer.  I prefer the ghost, it implies that I know how to take pictures.  I know, it's not a ghost, sigh.
  So after the success of last months Citrus love blog hop, I was all excited to get to this months.  You know why?   Well, the theme is chocolate, and for anyone who has been around here before, you may know that I love me some chocolate.  I tend to mix it with weird things.  Bacon anyone?  So it was fate that I had to make something.

  Now I wanted to make something new to me, and I wanted it to be cute.  I also wanted to be able to make it fast as I am slowly thinking about working out again.  I said thinking people, I will commit soon.  Or not, who knows.
My silicon pans, and I think I paid like $2 for each at a warehouse sale.  I love sales.

  So when I saw this on How Sweet it is. I knew I had to make it.  The only thing is I hate dark chocolate, unless it is baked in a brownie or something, I don't like it.  So I used regular chocolate.  And by chocolate I mean candy melts, I have two 50 pound boxes of the things, so I better use it. ( I am not kidding, I have one of white and one of chocolate, and I am almost half way through both)


I know this is a lot of stuff to get together, but you know, for you I will try to make it work.


Cake Batter Bark
 How Sweet It Is

-white and milk chocolate candy melts
-2-3 TSPs white box cake mix
-sprinkles


Now I thought this would be perfect in my head, and well okay it worked fine, but some of the sprinkles were hard to see in the finished project.  Next time I will do them upside down, so dark chocolate first, then white then sprinkles.

  I wanted to make these valentines like, you know, because I love you!  (or I love me and I wanted more chocolate, who can really say)  I used my heart silicone baking mold.  I have a large one, a fancy one and a small one.  So I used all three, because you can give a large one to a friend and eat a  few small ones by your self.

  To start melt your white candy melts, I do this in the microwave at 30 second bursts.  Then when fully melted mix in your cake batter until smooth and let it sit for a few seconds.  I still had to add paraffin crystals, no matter what I do my white chocolate never melts nice.  While it sits, take your molds and sprinkle in your sprinkles.  I used small little hearts as they are the cutest and then a few larger ones to accent them.  See I am getting all fancy on you here.

Chocolate and cake mix, and you can really taste the cake in it.  I would know, I slopped a whole bunch on my hand and licked it off before I washed it.  It was good!

To fill my zip lock bag easier I put it in a cup.  I will not use them again, either they were too cheap or I am  just picky, but they were too hard to work with, flimsy and whatever, so I will splurge and use my 10 cent disposable piping bags.

  That's it people!  Now I did not measure, as I never do, so you can sort of just go with the flow so to speak.  if you are making a pan of it, go for a few cups of each, if you are going for a mold like me, you don't need as much.

  So once you have sprinkled your pans. ( I know there is a dirty joke in there somewhere)  take a disposable piping bag or a zip lock and fill it with the chocolate cake batter mix.

I had the hardest time cutting the tip off the bag was so flimsy, looking back I really should not try new things, stick with what you know.

You don't have to be perfect, I mean I am anyway, but for this no worries, it will all work out.
  Snip off an end of the bag and carefully fill your molds just a little bit, not too much or your bark will be too thick.  Then gently shake your molds, not too much, you don't want the sprinkles to move, but enough that the chocolate settles.  Then pop them into the fridge to set. I found that if I put them in the freezer the two layers do not stick together well.  That is what I did with my plate of left overs and it was a mess when I tried to break it up.

   While they set melt your other chocolate and put it into a bag or whatever you are using.  Once the first layer has hardened pull them out of the fridge then pipe on the chocolate, shake the mold a little to settle.  Then back into the fridge and you let them fully set.
I had left overs so made some traditional bark, it fell apart so I had to eat it all myself, which really is a win for me actually.
   I made mine thin as I wanted them to be like the bark you make on a pan, but not in a pan, you know?  You don't, well neither do I really.

 When you are ready just pop them out of the mold and be amazed at the cuteness.  Do it, be amazed!
Then for gift giving, you can pack them up however you like.  I would suggest a jar or a cute little box for the small ones.

I so should have put some corny love label on them, like take one when you need a hug.  Or something.  I don't write cards, I just buy them, so I look like I have something smart to say.
  And a nice bag with a cute tag for the larger ones.  Or if you are like me, you eat and hoard most of them, then put the left overs in sandwich bags and share with your work friends.
Okay, I hate that this is the better picture of them, ghost and all.
  Hope you enjoyed my super hard chocolate love recipe, I know it was complicated and all.  But sometimes simple is best, and you know you want to make some right?  Please visit the other blogs and hosts to see what awesomeness they have all come up with.  Happy Chocolate Luv!

  Here is a list of all the other great bloggers that are hosting with me this month, please check them out!


ASTIG Vegan ~ Richgail ~  @astigvegan
Bon a croquer ~ Valerie ~ @Valouth
Easily Good Eats ~ Three Cookies
Oh Cake ~ Jessica ~ @jesshose