Snow Day!!

 Hot Cocoa Cookies

Thank goodness for my guys, school and Army were canceled today because of a pretty light dusting of snow. (Oh Texas. Overreact much?) So I thought cookies were in order. And *gasp* I just so happened to have everything to make these. (Because I went to the store and bought all of this last night!)

 Here are all of the ingredients in their pretty little bowls. Unbleached flour, sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, vanilla, baking soda and salt, unsalted butter, marshmallow fluff, milk chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. For the amounts, head over to howsweeteats because it is her genius, not mine! ;)

Now the recipe says to cream together the eggs, vanilla, butter, and sugar all at once. I did it like that but next time, I'd probably do the butter and sugar and then add the eggs and vanilla.

It'll look like this. At least it should. If it doesn't, go with it. It'll probably be ok anyway.

Again, the recipe says to dump in all of the dry ingredients and go to town. This time I didn't listen. That's just too much dry at once. So I mixed in the cocoa, baking soda, and salt first.

And I got this nasty mess. But it's ok. It turns out nummy.

Now we dump in the flour. This is a very, very thick dry batter. My mixer didn't like it. But it powered through. Good job, Jack. I named him Jack. Like Black Jack. See? Because he's black. And Jack just sounds like a good tough name. And if he makes me mad, I can tell him to hit the road. (But I won't because I lurrrrrv my mixer.)

 Here's the batter without the good stuff. See how thick? Ooooh I forgot a step. After you mix in the flour, mix in the marshmallow fluff.

Throw the chips and marshmallows in. I threw in a couple of extra handfuls of marshmallows because I love them.

The final batter! The recipe says to put them in the fridge for a half hour to an hour. Well pffft to that. I want cookies now! So I put them in there while I preheated the oven. That was my nod to the directions.

The directions also say to roll them into a ball. I don't like to get dirty. This is why I bought a cookie scoop. Best. thing. ever.

Bake them at 350 for 8 minutes if you're using the scoop. The directions say let them cool before moving them to a cooling rack but NO. Get them off before all that marshmallow gooeyness sets on the pan like cement. Pics aren't as great today. Chris wasn't very patient.

And yes, they taste JUST LIKE hot cocoa with marshmallows!

Chicken with Tomatoes and Garlic

Once again, I heart Pioneer Woman. This was obscenely good. And my house smells so so yummy. I wish it would smell like this FOR EV ER. Here is the heaven in a pot recipe.

The recipe calls for legs. I used thighs.

Here they are, salted and peppered and ready to go in the pot. I stripped them (poor chicken thighs) because chicken skin is nasty unless it's fried. Yes I eat the skin. Yes it's delicious. Sue me. (And yes my arteries hate me.)

Put them in the pot where you have hot butter and olive oil. I used 3 tbsp of butter instead of 1 butter and 2 olive oil. Yeah I should have followed the directions. It still worked though. Brown the chicken for a few minutes on each side and then take them out of the pot. Pour in a few glugs of white whine and deglaze the pan because that stuff is GOOD. (I'm slacking on pictures. Sorry. Pioneer Woman has lots of step by step pics though!)

By the way, this is what happens when you can't find your cork screw and your husband says, "I've got this."

Ok so your pot is deglazed. Your chicken is brown. Now pour in a big can and a little can of diced/whole/stewed/pick your poison tomatoes. Bring that to a boil. (Salt and pepper is good here too but honestly, mine didn't need any extra.)

Turn off the heat and throw in your herbs (I used rosemary and basil because that's what I could find.) and you garlic. The best best best part of this recipe is that all the herbs and garlic require ZERO chopping.

Put the chicken back in. I poked mine down about halfway. Put the lid on and stick it in the oven that you preheated (oops forgot that step) to 400 degrees. Let it simmer away in there for an hour.

Aww I know. I'm a tease. But I had to show ya'll my new toy!

Breathe deep now. Hold it in. That is the smell of perfection.

Serve it on a pretty white square plate over some kind of pasta. Rotini was the first one that caught my eye. Sprinkle it with some parsley so it looks fancy. ;) Thank you, Pioneer Woman!

Now, I'm off to eat some cupcakes.

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream and Lemon Curd

My mixer and I had a grand adventure today. (He really needs a name guys.) We made cupcakes. Little mini cute cupcakes that took me ALL. DANG. DAY. But oh my yum they are so good.

This recipe isn't online so at the end of the post, I'll copy the recipe for the cupcakes and frosting for you guys. :)

Gather all of your stuff. I always forget something for this picture. This time I forgot milk and sugar. But they went in the batter, cross my heart. By the way, those are Country Time Lemonade hard candies and they are yummy.

Cream together the butter and sugar until it looks like this.

Add the eggs one at a time and mix them in. Then the lemon extract. Beat it in.

See. Milk! It was half a cup plus 2 tablespoons but let's just call it 2/3 cup ok?

Beat it in. You should have something that looks like this now.

Pour in the flour (that you hopefully sifted) and baking powder (that you also sifted) and mix it on a lowish speed until it's all pretty like that.

Fill your little cupcake cups. The recipe says it makes 12 cupcakes. But I like these little guys and it made 36 of them. I found that one cookie scoop was juuuust about perfect. Bake at 350. The recipe says 8 minutes, turn, then 7 minutes. But for mini ones, it's more like 5 minutes, turn, another 5 minutes.

Here they are. Aren't they cute? (not yet but they're going to be!)

This part isn't in the recipe. Lemon curd. Yum. Put it in an icing bag with a little round tip. Stick the tip in the middle in the top and squeeze. Gently now, or you'll have a mess.

It should look like this if you didn't blow it up. ;) Don't eat 'em yet!! We still have to make the good stuff.

Lemon buttercream icing

Mix the butter and shortening together until it's fluffy. Like this.

Now the recipe calls for vanilla beans. Do it. It's worth it. Cut 1/4 of the bean off. Split it in half with a paring knife. See all that yumminess in there? I took a really close picture so you could see it. Scrape that out and mix it into the shortening/butter mixture. Get it all because ohhh it's good. Then put the vanilla extract and "natural lemon flavoring" in. I don't know what the heck that's supposed to be so I used lemon juice. It's natural, it's lemon flavored. It worked.

Put the powdered sugar in (that you...YES sifted!). Mix it on low to start so you don't powder yourself and then crank it up to high.

Then it'll look like this. Do you see the little specks? Not dirt, I promise. Vanilla bean! Oh yum. (Smells good too.)

Frost your cupcakes however you want and put crushed lemonade candies on the top. See how cute?!?

And there's all that yummy lemon curd in the middle. Such a pain in the butt, so worth it. Have fun!

Lemon Cupcakes

Makes 12 Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups CAKE flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 Tbsp lemon extract

1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbsp whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.
3. Sift the flour and baking powder into a medium bowl.
4. In an electric mixer, or large bowl, beat the butter and sugar, on medium speed, until light and fluffy.
5. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well blended.
6. Beat in the lemon extract, blending well.
7. Reduce speed to low, add the milk and blend well. Then add the flour mixture and beat until smooth.
8. Pour the batter into the lined cupcake pan, distributing equally.
9. Bake for 8 minutes, rotate, and bake for 7 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
10. Place on a wire rack and cool completely.

This is where you would put the lemon curd in if you want to. Also, note that the bake time is different for mini cupcakes. Now frosting!

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough for 12 cupcakes

1/4 vanilla bean, seeds only

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

2 cups confectioners sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 tsp natural lemon flavor (I used a whole tsp of lemon juice.)

1. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds using a paring knife. Discard the husk (or put it in some sugar for vanilla sugar for coffee!), and set the seeds aside.
2. In an electric mixer, or large bowl, beat the butter and shortening on medium speed until creamy.
3. Add the vanilla seeds and mix for a few seconds on medium speed.
4. In a separate bowl, sift the confectioners sugar.
5. Add the confectioners sugar to the butter mixture on low speed until it begins to incorporate.
6. Add the vanilla extract and lemon flavor (juice) and beat at medium to high speed until fully incorporated.

Now have fun decorating! Crush up some lemon drops on top. The crunch just adds something special!

Carrie Livengood's Burritos

Burrito night at the Harrison house! They were excellent!

Ingredients: 2.5 lbs ground beef, 20 flour tortillas, 1 can of refried beans, 2 big cans of enchilada sauce, 1 chopped onion, shredded lettuce (forgot to put that in the pic), sour cream for topping, and shredded cheddar cheese.
Brown the meat and the onion and drain. Simple right?

Put a spoonful or two of refried beans on a tortilla and spread it around. Top with a spoonful of the beef and some lettuce. Roll 'em up and put them in a pan like the one below. My pans hold 10 of these bad boys. I made 2 pans because hey, it's call "food for eight" right?

Pour a can of enchilada sauce over the top. (Getting complicated now.) I have two pans, I need two cans of sauce. Cover with cheddar cheese. Bake 'em at 375 for 20 minutes.

Top them with a little more lettuce and some sour cream and serve with pico and salsa. Put a pretty little sprig of cilantro on top and make your husband take a picture on the pretty plate because you're too short to do a good job.

Voila! Dinner!

By the way, this gets the Josh stamp of approval which is hard to get. Impossible. This will be in our weekly-ish rotation from now on. :)

Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ok so this isn't dinner but they sure are good! Recipe is here. I heart Pioneer Woman. :D

I decided that I would rather have new kitchen toys than wraps or carriers. (No I didn't sell them all, I value my sanity.) So I bought 3 new toys. One is not a top of the line anything but it works because my mommy has one and we played with hers at Christmas. (It's a food processor.) The second is a Lodge enameled cast iron dutch oven. It'll be here tomorrow. The third is...well, heck I'll just show you.

Hello, lover.

I'm seriously thrilled. I've wanted one of these for probably 6 or 7 years. And I got it for $100 off on Amazon because I convinced myself that black is just fine and I don't need a yellow Kitchen Aid mixer to make cookies.

Oh yes! Cookies. Sorry, I got sidetracked.

So cookies. These were very simple with my new best friend. Here is everything all ready to go. Just waiting for the UPS man to bring our friend. (He needs a name.)

First, 2 sticks of softened butter. Mmmm butter.

Cream the butter.

Add the 2 sugars and cream them with the butter. I used dark brown sugar instead of golden because I get a zero for listening and following directions. (And I'm a rebel. HA.)

Next, slightly beat in 2 eggs. (I don't know what she meant by slightly but I just mixed until they weren't obviously egg yolks and whites.) Next, vanilla. I forgot about the vanilla until I was reading the directions. Yay for directions! (The vanilla isn't in this picture but trust me, it's in the cookies.)

Then, mix in the malted milk powder. Oh my yum. It really is good.

Then the flour, salt, and baking soda.

And finally, milk chocolate chips. I usually use semi sweet but after making these, I won't anymore.

And we have batter! I used a cookie scoop to make them all pretty and round and uniform (in theory).

See how pretty they are when you use a cookie scoop? (I bet maybe 5 out of 2 dozen actually looked this good.)

And out! LOOK! Mine look like hers! (Almost.) Watch them close because they do NOT need 10 minutes. More like 7. They brown fast.

Now, the recipe made a LOT of batter. But, since I have the attention span of a Jack Russell with ADD, I only made 2 dozen. The rest of it is right here, ready to go in the freezer.

And just for fun, a stack of yum.

I learned several things while making these.

1. I need bigger cookie sheets.

2. I need tougher silicon spatulas.

3. I really should not have waited all these years to get the mixer. So incredibly worth selling wraps (and my sewing machine, shhh).

Burritos later! See ya!