Friday, February 24, 2012

take 5.

matt wanted a fun cookie.
so, i made this little guy:

take 5 cookies (ish).
matt calls them bailey cookies. they look like our dog.
you don't have to call them that... but i wouldn't hate it if you did.


basically, it's a peanut butter cookie with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and pretzels... topped with caramel and white chocolate drizzle... and a pretzel on top!


easy to make:
-start with your favorite peanut butter cookie recipe--i use this one.
-add all the chips and crushed pretzels.
-caramel drizzle: unwrap 10 ounces of caramels and 1 tbsp of heavy whipping cream--put it all in a bowl and microwave until melted--drizzle on top (it hardens so you can stack the cookies).


make them. incredible joy.

Monday, February 20, 2012

fun valentine's day idea...

a gift that's a lesson.
that's the way to go... with a letter to each student inside, of course.


counting the letters on each heart and making a graph to show that.


so fun!

lazy food.

easy things that taste good.
unbeatable.

salsa shrimp tacos:
-1/4 cup lime juice
-a splash of tequila (non-alcoholic or regular)
-a splash of olive oil
-1-2 cloves garlic
-a bunch of chopped cilantro
-1/2 can of rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles
-1 tbsp butter
-a splash of italian dressing

saute garlic in olive oil.
add shrimp, lime juice, italian dressing, tequila.
let simmer for a few minutes
add butter to thicken sauce a little
add rotel.
let simmer for a few more minutes.
add cilantro at the end.
we were out of tortillas, but ideally, you would pile this into a taco shell and devour!

 
pizza roll ups.

basically, pizza dough with stuff on it (we used tomato sauce and pesto mixed, cheeses, pepperoni), roll it up, bake that trash!
 yummmm.
so there you go.

the name of last week: surprises.

surprise #1:
valentine's notes left in the bathroom.

surprise #2:
matt, in scrubs, surprised me at school with flowers...
and toms flats! (hey-yo. these are incredible!)

surprise #3:
an attack of things to help matt study when he came home from work.
(on account of his life not being ideal right now... crazy studying.)

surprise #4:
 stole matt's car while he was on call at the hospital.
took it to best buy.
got a CD player put in (he didn't even have a working tape player).

made a card while i was waiting.
 and left a card from me, matt's parents, and my parents for him to stumble upon when he got off call. 
(i even managed to find the same parking spot to leave the car at!)


we love surprises.


Monday, February 13, 2012

100th day.

i have an obsession with the 100th day of school.
i can't get enough.

100 toothpicks and 100 marshmallows--make a creation.
100 pieces of candy--pick up an equal amount for everyone and eat a piece every 100th minute.
read 100th day of school leveled readers.
bring in 100 pieces of a snack and let every student choose groups of 10 of each item.
read 100th day of school books.
hats.
glasses.
100 fruit loops making necklaces.
100 seconds to unroll a roll of toilet paper.
100 seconds to take all the kleenex's out of a box with one hand.
math patterns that end with 100.
measuring to 100.
counting to 100.
100th day writings--making books.

seriously.
i've got a problem.
check this out:





now that's a great day!

mini lasagna cupcakes... heaven in a muffin tin.

holy yum.
i got the idea from pinterest--apparently everyone's making these.
(on a side note, pinterest has provided me the opportunity to never again be creative... it's a bittersweet situation for me.)

but, i don't like most things in lasagna. so i made it my own!


steps to make the ricotta-all-gross-things-free lasagna cupcakes.


1. pam that sucker.
2. one wonton wrapper/1/2 of an egg roll wrapper.
3. scoop of homemade meat sauce.
4. scoop of chopped spinach.
5. sprinkle of dried basil.
6. pinch of mozzarella.
7. sprinkle of parm.
8. another wonton wrappe/1/2 of an egg roll wrapper.
9. pinch of mozzarella.
10. scoop of homemade meat sauce.
11. sprinkle of parm.
12. sprinkle of dried basil.
13. spray a little pam on the tops to keep them from burning.


BAKE THOSE BABIES.
at about 350 for 10 minutes or so.


i'm not kidding.
these are incredible.


make them.



Sunday, February 5, 2012

my version of super bowl.

here's my version of the super bowl:

(first as a disclaimer: we didn't go anywhere fun on account of the tons of work we both have... lame? yes. the list below makes me no less lame.)

1. watch puppy bowl. (seriously, SO funny.)
2. watch commercials. wait for hunger games.
watch it here!
3. make fun food. 
southwestern egg rolls.

i followed a recipe from here with a few alterations...
-no onion (we aren't onion fans)
-slightly less cheese... for my stomach's well being.
-no foil on baking sheets--just sprayed with a little pam.
-i cilantro-ed the trash out of them. we love us some cilantro.
-used egg roll wrappers and jam packed them (because we ate them as a meal), so the recipe will only make about 15 egg rolls.

mexiranch dipping sauce.
1 part ranch to about 4 parts salsa. as easy as that. and SO, so good.

4. craft a teeny bit. for a nephew's first birthday!


not too exciting, but being that i don't understand football, i consider this a win.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

other things.

these are not new ideas.
but they were delicious.
have you noticed we're obsessed with food?
and with our new camera, we take pictures of everything...
so, don't hate.

barbeque chicken pizza. with pineapple and cilantro.
always was our favorite and then we forgot about it.
we have now remembered. 


i'm obsessed with making breakfast now. today's was french toast and caramelized apples.
not complicated, but crazy yummy.



cookie battle.

matt loves him some cookies.
so, i finally had some free time and was happy to oblige.
i found a fun one on pinterest, so i decided to make it...




looks good, right?
tasted like crap.
really.

they were supposed to be "mint meltaways" and were narsty... i even added chocolate chips and a dark mint chocolate drizzle.


but, i didn't throw them away, and the next day, they were delicious! just don't expect a moist cookie, they're more like shortbread or something.


here's the recipe (my adapted version of the one i found on pinterest--the original recipe is here):


oven at 375 degrees--they burn easily, fyi.


1 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 teaspoons peppermint extract (it seems like a lot, but it worked for me)
a bit of green food coloring, until you get desired color.
2 1/4 cups of flour
dash of salt
6-8 ounces chocolate chips


cream butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, peppermint, and food coloring and then mix in flour and salt... it's pretty crumbly for a while, it took me a while to get it to mix.  then, add the chocolate chips in and mix until just combined.


they were SUPER firm (that's a gross word, i know) when putting on the baking sheet, so make sure to pat them down quite a bit--they don't spread at all.  otherwise they'll be raw in the middle.  gag.  cook for about 8 minutes.


then, once made, use dark mint chocolate wilton candy melts and drizzle on the top. you won't regret it.


so, because those were gross, i made these as well (using my mom's standby chocolate chip cookie recipe):



and added pretzel! i was nervous how the texture would be, so i didn't really commit to the pretzel. they bake well, so next time i'll be going for it (i was thinking they could get soggy? crazy?).


cookie battle.
turns out they were both good.
and now we have an overwhelming amount of cookies.
eh, we'll just get a little flubber to finish out the winter.