Oreo Marshmallows {a recipe}

Honest to goodness, I eat clean.  I really do.  But lets be real for a quick sec.  Clean eating doesn't make for fun posts.  Put plain chicken on grill.  Grill.  The End.  See?  Boring. Therefore, I bake and make other goodness to blog about! My fabulous in-laws (how many people can say that?) were here over Easter and my father-in-law, well lets just say he likes his nighttime snack.  Because of this we now have a plethora of snacks in this house and among them is a new bag container thing of Oreos.  Ahh, my beloved Oreos.  I make a point of NOT buying these amazing cookies for one very simple reason reason:

I have no self control when it comes to Oreos.  I. LOVE. ME. SOME. OREOS.

So in my mind the logical thing to do to get rid of them is to make something out of them.  It was about halfway through the process of recreating these Oreos that I realized I was taking a simple cookie and like quadmillioning the sugar and fat, well maybe not the fat, but the sugar fo sho, content of them and would have probably been better off just eating the darn cookies as they were...  But I digress.

OREO MARSHMALLOWS

13 Oreos, ground into coarse crumbs
7 Oreos, ground into fine crumbs
3 packets unflavored gelatin
1 cup water, divided
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract


We start with a few of these.  YUM.

As the ingredient list previewed, in a food processor crush 13 cookies into chunky crumbs and 7 cookies  into fine crumbs.  I do not have a food processor so I did the coarse crumbs by hand and started to do the fine crumbs by hand.  Many minutes later I grew a brain and threw them in the blender.  PULSE PULSE.. crumbs.  FANTASTIC.

Lightly spray a nonmetal baking pan with cooking spray.  Mine was 8x11 or something. Take half the fine crumbs and sprinkle bottom of pan with them.  Set aside.

Now take out your stand mixer and with the whisk attachment combine 3 packs of gelatin and 1/2 cup water.  Ps. the gelatin stinks.  Just a warning.

Mix until blended.  Turn mixer off and go to next step.  This will become goopy, but that is ok.

In a sauce pan combine sugar, corn syrup, salt and water.  Heat until granulated sugar dissolves.  Now stick in your candy thermometer and boil on high until it reaches 240 (soft ball stage).

A side note on candy therms.  I did not own one so I picked up this piece of crap at WallyWorld for like 2 bucks. It sort of sucked.  The clip didn't clip to my pan and it was hard to read because it got steamy.  However, while I was getting steam burn holding the darn thing in my boiling sugar and trying desperately to figure out where 240 was, I noticed the handy SOFT BALL STAGE note on it and said, "well that's fantastic!"

Back to the marshmallows.  Take your 240 boiling sugar and with your mixer containing your now goopy gelatin on low, pour in your super hot sugar.  CAREFULLY. PLEASE.  Once all poured in turn your mixer on medium and mix for 15 minutes. Once again, its pewey.  But that goes away. I recommend cleaning the pot that contained your sugar during this 15 minutes.  I am not responsible for any ruined pots because you decided to watch tv at this point and didn't clean your pot.  A TIP: use hot water to clean.

Oh.. side note numba 2.  It is probably a good idea to switch your whisk attachment to the paddle attachment before mixing the sugar and gelatin, because THIS? was a bitty to work with.

After 15 minutes turn the mixer off and go "oooooooh" at the shiny pretty fluffy marshmallow you have made. Then add the vanilla.  Mix till blended.

Add the coarse oreo crumbs.  Mix till blended.

Spoon the marshmallow mixture onto your crumbs in the pan and spread out.  Top with remaining fine crumbs.  Sit on counter UNCOVERED overnight.  Yes, UNCOVERED.

The next day (or about 10 hours later) cut into squares and eat.

Beer Brats. {a recipe}

Football is kind of a big deal around this house.  And we have found one amazing recipe for the perfect football food.  BEER BRATS.  They cook all day, making your house smell all cozy and yummy and then you throw them on the grill in perfect grillin'/football partnership.

Honey Mustard Beer Brats

Ingredients

• 10 fresh bratwurst sausages
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced into long strips
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into long strips
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced into rings and separated
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
• 2 cups honey mustard barbecue sauce
• 5 (12 fluid ounce) can beer, or as needed
• 10 hoagie rolls, split lengthwise

Directions

Place half of the bratwurst in the bottom of a 5 quart slow cooker. Arrange half of the green pepper, 
red pepper, and onion over them. 

Layer the remaining bratwurst over the top, and top with the remaining red and green bell peppers and onion. Throw in the garlic and bay leaves. In a separate bowl, mix together HALF of the honey mustard sauce, liquid smoke and beer. Use a good strong beer like Guinness.  It gives good flavor, plus Guinness has that fun little ball in it you get to jingle around. 

 Pour into the slow cooker. Add more beer if necessary to cover everything in the pot. My pot held 5 beers. Try not to play the "one for you, one for me" game.  That would be a lot of beers. 

Cover, and go watch your teams play fall ball. Cook on Low for 4 to 5 hours.

Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil grate. Remove bratwurst from the slow cooker, but leave onions and peppers inside. Place bratwurst on the grill and baste with some of the remaining honey mustard sauce. Turn occasionally until slightly charred.

Place bratwurst on rolls, and use tongs to pull out a few of the onions and peppers from the slow cooker and drape them over the sausage. The onions and peppers are very tasty so don't forget this part!

Top it all off with mustard.  MMMMMM! So good.  

Have a good week!

ps. Sorry for all the meat pictures so early in the morning.  Myself, I could eat burgers for breakfast.  But I realize its not everyones thang.  Tootles.

Fresh Strawberry Bread {a recipe}

Strawberry season is rolling in around here.  Fresh local berries for super cheap means lots of baking for this house.  This is my favorite bread, well my pumpkin bread is pretty close, but this tops it I think.  I have a hubbs with a wicked sweet tooth so I toss a bit of chocolate chips in there.  Not part of the recipe though.  I also half this recipe to make one loaf unless I am gifting, then I make the two.  And of course things can be substituted to make this healthier.. ie. wheat flour, apple sauce, egg whites.

FRESH STRAWBERRY BREAD

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh strawberries -  Overripe strawberries are very good for this.  And keep the slices big so you have good chunks of berries in your loaf. I also recommend stirring by hand, not with a mixer to keep the strawberries chunky.
3 1/8 cups all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon - this can be halved. It is very cinnamon-y but I like it like that.
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs beaten
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans - optional. walnuts are also good.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour 9x5 loaf pans.
2. Slice strawberries and place in mediums sized bowl.  Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Set aside.
3. Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in large bowl.  Mix well.  
4. Stir oil and eggs into strawberries.  Add strawberry mixture into flour mixture and stir until dry ingredients are just moistened.  Stir in pecans.  Divide batter into pans.
5. Bake for 45-50 minutes (this can take longer.  mine usually takes 1 hr 30 min) or until tester comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Key Lime Pie {a recipe}

This little beauty has been sitting in my fridge since this morning and I smiled thinking about it all day.  It is so limey and creamy and fresh.  Perfect for Spring and a great Easter treat if you are looking for such a thing.  Made with fresh key limes, the smell alone is enough to bring a smile to your face.  Super fast, super easy and super cheap to make (even if you do make your own crust... I opted out of that), I do recommend.

KEY LIME PIE

Ingredients:

1 prepared graham cracker crust

3 cups sweetened condensed milk (2 cans works perfect, don't even dirty your measuring cup)

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup key lime juice (20 key limes.  Cut lime in half and juice in a garlic press.  EASY)

1 tablespoon grated lime zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice and zest.  Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.
3. Bake in oven for 5-8 minutes, until tiny bubbles burst on the top of the pie. DO NOT BROWN!! Chill   pie thoroughly before serving.

Beach Shrimp {a recipe}

Beach Shrimp

3 lb unpeeled large raw shrimp
1 (16 oz) bottle Italian dressing
1 1/2 Tbsp. freshly ground pepper
2 garlc cloves, pressed
2 lemons, halved
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup butter, cut up

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.  Place first 4 ingredients in a baking dish, tossing to coat. 

Squeeze juice from lemons over mixture adding lemon halves to the dish.  Sprinkle with parsley and dot with butter. 

Bake for 25 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes.  Serve warm.


We are obsessed with these!  I usually serve them with ranch red potatoes.  Pour yourself a glass of white wine and expect no leftovers.

The beauty of white noise {and a recipe}

This is what napping in a crib looks like.  This never happens in this house.  This is a big deal.  After many nights last week almost ending in both Max and I crying on the floor {daddy was working nights}, I downloaded a cd of baby white noise.  I have yet to try it at night but it is doing a number on these naps!  ps. the blankets are not covering any air holes, he can breathe just fine.. ithankyou.

He is currently listening to a wash run in a washing machine.  Pure genious.  Happy mommy. 

Anyone looking for a salty snack here you go.  Hot Buttered O's.  My best friend growing up always made these and by the sound of the name alone, she probably made up the recipe while bored one day.  I was snacky and also bored so I whipped up a batch.  They taste just as I remembered.

Melt butter in pan. 

Pour in Cheerios. Stir around so all the O's are covered in yummy butter.

Throw in a pinch or two of salt and pepper.  Focusing more on the pepper works well for me.  They are really good pepper-y, but I am one that puts pepper on popcorn.   Continue to heat and stir until all the butter is absorbed and the O's are all crispy hot.

Pour in a bowl and, easy-peasey-japanesey, you have Hot Buttered O's.