Pinterest Success: August 2013

Success: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Smore's Bars

In my effort this year to try at least one Pinterest find a month, I've had some successes and some definitely NOT successes.  I'm working on catching up on some of those with posts on how the recipes went and my information on what worked and what didn't work.

Yesterday, I was preparing for a girls barbecue (with the boys and kiddos) and found this delicious looking recipe. When I saw online that folks were referring to Saturday as national Smore's day, I knew this was a great fit for the get-together.

When following the pin for the recipe, I discovered Shelly and her full blog, Cookies & Cups.  ALL of her recipes look amazing, but this one still sang to me.  For the full recipe visit her blog here: COOKIES & CUPS. She pulled the recipe from a book, Peanut Butter Comfort...by Averie Sunshine.

When we all cut into the bars after the delicious barbecue - wow.  They were so good. The recipe is right though - be sure they're chilled or they are REALLY hard to deal with.  All the gooey-deliciousness makes a huge mess.

Step one is the cookie dough.  I used a tube of cookie dough.  One whole tube lined the bottom nicely.  I didn't roll it out with a rolling pin, just squished with my hands.  Step two is the Hershey bars. Figuring cutting the bars later would be tougher, I broke them all up individually rather than using them as whole bars. It looked pretty neat too. (And no, Hershey didn't pay me anything to show off their logos like this. I just thought it was neat.)

Next was the peanut butter (yum), followed by the crumbled graham crackers.  I used a little more than a 1/2 cup and made the crumbs myself.  In fact, my little one made them by squishing, smashing and pounding on a big baggie of graham crackers.  It was pretty fun to watch.

When the recipe said it was hard to spread the fluff, they were NOT kidding. I ended up just emptying the entire jar and then trying to spread it together a bit. Still tough, but it worked in the end.

Last layer is more cookie dough..I used a break and bake package for this layer and just laid it out on floured parchment paper and squished with my hands. I should have used a bit more flour though, so I ended up having to scrape it off in chunks and spread a bit more on the top, but it all worked out.

It baked up a bit and I should have used a bigger pan, but oh my it looked amazing. Couldn't wait to break into!

Please share some of your Pinterest successes and fails too.  I'm a huge fan of the site, but it certainly does force one to balance all the pieces - work, mom, wife, amazing cook, pastry chef and all the rest.

Pinterest Fail: April 2013

FAIL: Sugar Cookie Cups

Yeah, not so much.

To celebrate my Dad's birthday, among other things, I was trying to make the sugar cookie cups with plans to fill them with some pudding and then some chocolate chips and/or butterscotch chips.

I found an option on Pinterest that seemed to be a great way to make said cups.  No, just no.

The image on Pinterest was this.

A lovely block of steps to achieve the perfect sugar cookie cups.

It did not work.

I used the heating temp for the cookies based on the package, so perhaps that was my error.
I cooked them for about 8 minutes and when I opened the oven I found the following.  Not good.

I scraped, and scraped, and scraped and put all the pieces into a travel container and poured in some chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and then when I presented it to dear old Dad, added some whipped cream.

Ah well...if you know of a better way to make cookie cups, please pass it along!




This post is part of an effort in 2013 to do at least one Pinterest project a month. I'm very behind in posting - but here's my experiences so far!

Happy Birthday Oreo!

A sweet treat that often finds its way into my hands throughout childhood and now as an adult.

Now I'm a big fan of the Golden Oreos, ah-mazing! But I used to be a big double-stuff gal.  My sister is a purist, believes in the originals...don't mess with perfection and all.  Is your Oreo choice a big indicator of you as a person?  What does it mean that I've "evolved" to a Golden Oreo snob?

Either way - happy 100th birthday to the delicious treat!

Earth Mama Cometh

I did this.  I made homemade baby food for Miss Maddie. And she loved it.  I feel so empowered as a Mom that I did this.  That she is doing so well and gaining weight and eating so well.

It's nearly six months since our peanut changed our lives forever.  At the beginning of those six months, she couldn't eat enough.  So much so that she had to have a feeding tube.  In the grand scale of newborn or preemie issues, this wasn't catastrophic, but it was terribly difficult to see.  To see her with that little tube in her nose so she could get the nourishment she needed was hard. 

I definitely struggled with the preemie guilt that I've heard of on many mom blogs.  I felt incredibly guilty that I couldn't keep her longer, that I couldn't provide the warm, safe and needed environment for her to grow bigger.  For her to have the strength she needed.  For her to be larger than the 3 lb., 3 oz. perfect doll that she was.

But we are so lucky.  She is strong.  She is amazing and she is mine. The guilt will never completely go away, but I understand what we went through and know that the best decisions were made at the time. and she's here and incredible and we love her so much.

I'm not the overzealous, all organic, cloth diapers only mother, but I am incredibly proud to say that I made her food. I know we'll use some of the prepared stuff as we go forward, but I had bought a book on baby's first foods and purees and it sounded pretty easy.  And I have a food processor that doesn't get as much use as it should so... baby food.  I'm having a mini "Baby Boom" moment this evening,, but let's not get carried away just yet.  I'm certainly not moving to Vermont.  And if you don't get the reference, please rent "Baby Boom" soon. She did love the butternut squash puree too.   *sigh*

Happiness.