I Saw, I Pinned, I Made, Sweet Salted Badassery!

This is what Heaven must taste like.

You know what I look for in a dessert recipe?

• Easy
• Cheap
• Delicious

I definitely got it with this. 

It's called Chocolate Toffee Bark, and it looks like this...

Unfortunately, I didn't follow this recipe, and I should have. Because the recipe I did follow was....well, it could have used accurate directions. 

The linked recipe calls for you to mix the brown sugar and the butter over medium heat for three minutes. THe one I followed, said heat, mix, and BOIL for three minutes. 

It also, unlike the link, called for a single stick of butter. It didn't make enough to coat all of them. 

Sadly, the recipe I followed also called for you to bake it at 350 for....five minutes. Yep. Only five. Which left the syrupy brown sugar mixture still wet and sticky, instead of hard and solid, like in that picture up there. 

It did say to spread the chocolate chips once they melted, and it also said to refrigerate. I froze mine for an hour. 

In the end, the result was more or less the pictured image, but with wet sticky sweetness on the bottom. 

Tony enjoyed the giant piece he snagged, and he's not a fan of sweets. Guess it was just salty enough to  balance out the sweet!

I Made....The Easiest Chili Ever!

Seriously, it really was.

Gift from my mom. ♥♥♥ She's awesome.

Mmmmm....beef.

First, I browned 2.5 lbs of ground beef. Because we REALLY like our chili.

After draining it, I dropped it into a crockpot.

Yep, that's what it is.

They were out of Palomino and Clydesdale.

Added two cans of diced tomatoes. Added two cans of Pinto beans.

Added 1 cup of water, and two McCormick Original Chili Seasoning packets.

You look funny with your head like that.

After about an hour, Tony added 1/8 cup of flour, because we wanted it a tad thicker.

Awesomesauce.

And after 90 minutes on high, it was amazing.

I added my own seasonings to mine, after. Like a generous splash of hot sauce, some medium salsa, and some sour cream, and topped it off with a handful of crushed saltines.

Speaking of Saltines.... Check out my next post for something super sweet and super easy.

I made...Something!

And it was pretty good.

Now, I am not a fan of SPAM. I like very little about it, aside from the song by Save Ferris. My dad likes it. He's made the kids eat it. But I am kind of intimidated by the fact it has a longer shelf life than paganism. But, Tony loves SPAM. And I love Tony. So.... I decided to break my own commandment of "I WILL NEVER COOK SPAM EVER" and got some of the little pink ovals.

First, I assembled my ingredients. And my rectangle pan. And then, I turned on the oven to 350 and began....

Boiled some of these while I cubed and lightly stirfried some SPAM.
Drained the noodles and dumped unceremoniously in my pan.
Reiterated for the seventh time that I knew I didn't have to make it, but I was making it anyway, and stop telling me I didn't have to if he had any interest in my cooking ever again.
Added the SPAM and a can of drained peas.

 Added a few spoonfulls of Sour cream, and a can of Cream of Soup.

Baked for 7 minutes, then stopped with a mix of crushed saltines and shredded cheddar. Baked again for another 7 minutes.

And got delicious.

Tony had two helpings, and set aside some to take to work tonight since he has to work a double tonight.

I made...Dinner!

Okay, this one is actually mine. I've been making variations of this for years, because I can never seem to do the same thing the same way every time. So here was dinner tonight, my Everchanging Broccocheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts. 

Yes. Yes, they totally tasted like awesome.

 And I baked extra broccoli, drizzled with butter and lightly kissed by salt.

First, I preheated my oven to 350, but I decided not to take a picture of that. Go ahead, you can thank me. 

So, While the oven preheated, I reached for my trusty rolling pin, arguably one of the best inventions EVER, and cringed at the thought of all those bacterians crawling all over it once I introduced it to my chicken. So, i rinsed out a plastic shopping bag, turned it inside out, and stuck my roller in, poking the handles out through the sides of the bag, and tied it closed. 

Ah, chicken. I love chicken, and I could eat it every day. This is the split boneless skinless breast I get insanely cheap at our local Bi-Lo. Most of the time, whenever we have chicken, I marinate the hell out of it in crazy weird concoctions like lemon juice, pepsi, and cayenne pepper. I didn't marinate this time. 

And this is what it looks like after culinary therapy....

Shredded cheddar, tons of fresh broccoli. Love. 

I flipped it over so the rough and ugly side of the breast
is exposed, and layered on some cheese and broccoli.
I broke up the florets. 

Then I rolled it up, seam side down, so it's all pretty like this . 

Feel free to use bisquick, or whatever. I'm out of breadcrumbs but I like
applying a thin coating of Miracle Whip (or mayo, if you're one of those people)
 and rolling in crushed ritz crackers and breadcrumbs. But since
 I was also out of Ritz, I just used these. A quick spritz with the spray,
a light dusting with the mix.  

I also had a pic here of what it looked like in the over, but upon closer inspection, the picture kind of revealed my ugly oven interior, and I was all hinky about adding it. So, it didn't make the cut. 

Now, after the light dusting with the baking mix, I popped the tray in the oven for fifteen minutes. After the 15, I took it out, loaded the empty spaces with broccoli florets, and drizzled them with a little butter, and tossed it all back in for 10 minutes. The chicken was done when I tested the thickest portion of the thickest piece, and the broccoli was so super crispy yet not too hard. And with a very light sprinkling of salt, it was pretty much a plate of hot damn. 

And even the baby let me eat most of my piece!

I hope you try this. And I hope that, if you do try, you're not one of those people who freak out because there were no actual measurements used here.

I just don't do measuring cups if I can help it. 

Good luck and enjoy!

I saw, I pinned, I made.... a complete mess :D

So, I pinned these completely awesome looking berry danishes from Kitchen Life of a Navy Wife and thought "Oh, yeah, I can totally do that!" 

Totally doing that should have included following the instructions, but... 

I started with these four things.

(powdered sugar, Cream Cheese, biscuits, and sugar)

Nevermind that the recipe i intended to follow called for crescents, or only 2 tbsp of sugar for half a block of cream cheese. Directions, you say? More like completely ignored suggestions. 

I used 1 cup of sugar. With one brick of cream cheese. It was grainy, gritty, and didn't even get all the sugar mixed. So in went another 1/2 a brick. So now, it's looking a little bett. Stiff still, but certainly more manageable. But I figured the oversweetness would...I don't know. Honestly, I was having a bad day when I made these. I was probably hoping the added sugar would elevate me to a better mood.

(Fail)

So here's what the filling looked like...

(please don't use 1 cup of sugar for this! You will be sad if you do)

I should mention I have an absolutely terrible camera. The filling is not really orange, my lights just seem to think orange is the best illumination in the world. 

So I popped open the biscuits, and flattened them, then dropped a heaping forkful onto the center, because forks are so very underused in baking. Then I folded over the sides.

I really should warn you, this is what happens if you don't make some attempt to pinch them closed. 

And because oversugaring this wasn't enough, I wanted to add some glaze. I had visions of hte gooey sweet frosting from the Toaster Strudels I so love, but.... I won't even show you the mess I made. Let's just say it wasn't pretty.

I baked them at 350 for 12 minutes or so. And honestly, they weren't terrible. I really need to make them with a lot less sugar next time, but all in all, it wasn't bad....till they cooled off. 

Lesson learned! Plus, it was pretty fun, even with the mistakes. 

Be well and be happy :D

I saw, I pinned, I made.... This!

I'm part of a secret organization of women whom I love dearly, and we've supported each other through pregnancy and beyond. We share our struggles and triumphs, cheer each other on, and poke a little fun at each other now and then. And after months of hearing about Pinterest, I joined and was instantly addicted. I have bookmarks for hundreds of projects that I swear I will do, and those images have inspired a whole list of other ideas for projects, and inspired me to create this blog.

This is my little slice of the web where I can share the things I have seen, then made, and things I've made inspired from things I've seen. Some of these will be craftiness, some of these will be attempts to appease my growing inner fashionista, and sometimes, it will be noms. Like this thing here....

To check this out for yourself, just click here.

Yeah. It slapped me silly and demanded to be made. So, I made it :D

Now, you will have to forgive me because I didn't realize until I tried to take a pic of my own version that my batteries are dead. But it really did come out almost just like this. I did, however, change a few things.

• Used 1/3 cup of melted margarine
• Used shredded cheddar, instead of slices
• Used a different brand of bacon bits, which were a little smaller
• Baked at 350 for 15 minutes, without foil.

The results were incredible, especially with ranch dressing as a dipping sauce. Makes me eager to try a spinach, tomato, and feta experiment!

Have a Happy!

A.