Pantry Raid: Snack Time

Ok folks, another snackage that I came up with. The pictures aren't so hot, but you get the idea. The kids came home today from school: "We're hungggry and there's no snacks." Not proper English, but you get the point as did I. I've committed to paying off any new charges on the credit cards every month so that there aren't any carry over balances, which means no grocery shopping until the next statement cycle comes up. This translates into the Pantry Principle: I'm going to use up as much of the stuff in my pantry/fridge/freezer as I can before going shopping again. This is good, because some of this stuff hasn't seen the light of day since I bought it, or it's been lingering in limbo - half used/half eaten and just hanging out in the aforementioned locations.

Here's what I came up with today: using the tortilla concept that Chocolatechic came up with earlier in the school year, I broke out the tortillas that have taken up permanent residence in the fridge. Check! One package used up. Then I thought about Nutella. (I always think about Nutella, but today I decided to actually use it instead of eating it with a spoon on the sly.) What else do I have hanging around here? Nestle chocolate chips - monster Sam's club size bag - check. Cream cheese - check. And this other weird thing: about a third of a roll of sugar cookie dough. Don't ask where the other 2/3 went. So that was in the freezer (it's harder to eat when it's frozen) and I thought that it might be good chunked up and rolled into the tortilla. Check! Another thing used up. So, I stick the cookie dough in the microwave to defrost. Guess what happens to cookie dough when you forget to check on it? It melts and gets spreadable like peanut butter. Woo Hoo! A happy accident for once.

Use any combination of the following and spread on the tortillas and roll up:

Nutella
Chocolate chips
Melted sugar cookie dough
Cream cheese (they weren't really crazy about the one that had this in it, but your mileage may vary - YMMV)

Aside from the cream cheese ones (and the Messy One gladly ate those) they were a big hit all the way around and everyone loved them So, the kids are snacked, I didn't spend any money and my fridge and freezer are a little cleared out. It's a good day.

Melted sugar cookie dough is spreadable

The finished product.

Chocolate Chip Crescent Roll Snackage

Easy peasy and big impact. They LOVE these and it takes about 15 minutes from the time you pop the can to pulling them out of the oven.

Chocolate Chip Crescent Roll Snackage
1 Can cresent rolls
chocolate chips

Unroll the cresent roll dough and place a small (or medium :D) amount of chocolate chips on the wide end.
Roll up the crescents like normal with the pointy end last
Bake according to package directions.

Serve and enjoy lavish praise.

I may stick mini marshmallows in with the chips next time.....

Marbled Chocolate Orange Sour Cream Pound Cake (and thanks!)

This sad, sad little slice is the one that almost got away. I almost forgot to take a picture of this test sample it before applying it directly to my hips. (Hello, it IS called pound cake for a reason.)

"Obligation baking" forced me into the kitchen last night to whip up something for a school event this morning that I promised I'd send something in for last week; last week before I became congested nasal ditsy zombie girl. (My illness is/was a sinus infection, by the way. I got some super duper antibiotics today - more on that later - and I’m hoping they work fast. Thanks for all your well wishes! They really helped brighten my soggy spirits!)

Back to drool. This is my go-to recipe when I need something easy, fast and fabulous. I almost always have all the ingredients on hand and I can add in different flavors or mix-ins so that it has a different spin every time.

Last night I decided to do orange. I’ve never made one this way, but I do love those chocolate orange slammer thingies that come out at Christmas; you know it looks like an orange made out of chocolate, where you whomp it on the table and all the sections of “orange” come falling out into individual slices of deliciousness? Mmmm. (Just for you, right now I googled “orange whack chocolate foil” and lo and behold: these are Terry’s Chocolate Oranges. Look for them on your grocer’s shelves soon. The Dark Chocolate ROCKS!)

But I digress. But just so you know, in my book, Orange + Chocolate = YUM.

Excavating Digging in the back of the fridge for the sour cream part of the program, I passed a huge vat carton of Fat-Free Vanilla Yogurt that a friend had given me and was yet unopened. After going to a lecture the other night by She/He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Until-I-Write-The-Post, I was inspired to swap out half the sour cream with the yogurt. This is not unusual, as I usually do most of my recipes using the guinea pig method: I deliver the results to the unsuspecting victims and wait for feedback that way. So far, so good.

As for this cake? I loved it. LOVED. IT. I am so making this one again, as there were no leftovers to gorge myself on since I sent it off to school. Of course, as you saw in the pitiful photo, I did officially have to test it, just in case, and of course I did it for You. You, so I could faithfully report my findings and so You could see the photos. I don't mind. You're worth it.

The ironic part of the official testing part all goes back to being sick. I got sick right at the time that I had my regular physical scheduled for, which was today. The Good: one co-pay (yes!), The Bad: you know how you're not supposed to eat or drink anything before a physical? Like how they call and give you the drill (say it with me now): "Nothing to eat or drink after midnight the day of your appointment except for dry toast and black coffee" and I'm thinking who the hell eats dry toast and black coffee on a good day? Um, remember how I said I was whipping this decadence up last night? (You know where I'm going with this, don't you?) Picture me as a rabid wolverine: snarfing down my test sample(s) at 11:55 pm, chugging milk straight out of the jug to go along with it, crumbs flying everywhere - I think I even got it in my hair. I didn't care. Man it was sooooo good. And oh yeah, the yogurt thing? Couldn't tell the difference at all. I took samples from everywhere, just to be sure, just for You.

As for the physical (thanks for asking), well.... hmm. I've done the weight/scale thing two different ways in the past: 1) I tell the nurse that I am wearing 10 pound shoes (each), or 2) I do it like we did it at Weight Watchers: you've waited in line for 20 minutes and finally it's your turn to be weighed, electronically, to the ounce. You step up to the counter, (hello, how are you, fine) give them your papers, casually approach the scale, and since you don't want to hold up the rest of the line, BAM! you whip into a frenzy, frantically stripping down to almost naked in the middle of the place, taking off your shoes, socks, belt, jewelry, watch, earrings, sunglasses, ballcap, hair clip, while at the same time emptying your pockets of keys, phone, tissues, gum and Splenda packets, dumping them all on the floor in a heap, making sure you went potty right before it was your turn to jump on the scale and drop most of your dignity (hold my place in line, 'kay? I'll be right back), exhaling deeply while sucking in your gut at the same time, and holding it all in place before stepping up on the platform, praying they'd get the measurement before you passed out from not breathing. I had on 10 pound shoes today. It was too damn cold to go thru all that work, when I know I well deserved whatever the evil thing had to say.

After all that, in case you are inspired to try this creation, here's the recipe. I don’t know where I got my original one from, but I did find its maternal grandparents on the Nestlé’s site. Enjoy.

Marbled Chocolate Orange Sour Cream Pound Cake
Adapted from Nestlé’s recipe found here

Ingredients:

1 cup (6 oz.) Nestlé Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels (I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao chips)
1 pkg. (18.25 oz.) yellow cake mix
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream (I used ½ cup sour cream and ½ cup fat-free vanilla yogurt)
1 cup water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. orange extract (or insert other extract flavor here. It’s good without any extras too.)
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions:
Position rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 375° F. Spray 10 inch/12 cup Bundt or tube pan with cooking spray or Baker’s Joy spray.

Microwave morsels in medium, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 30 seconds; Stir to blend. Morsels may retain some of their original shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10 to 15-second intervals, stirring just until morsels are melted. Set aside.

Combine cake mix, eggs, sour cream, vegetable oil, water, granulated sugar and extract (if using) in a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer, beat on low speed until moistened. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes.

Spoon 2 cups of batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate. Use the mixer and completely mix the batter with the chocolate to make chocolate batter. You now have two bowls of batter: one chocolate and one yellow. Spoon batters into prepared pan, alternating/layering them, beginning and ending with yellow batter. I usually get just one layer of chocolate sandwiched in between the 2 yellow, but sometime I can slip in a small chocolate one as well.

Bake for 55 minutes or until wooden toothpick (I use a bamboo skewer) inserted in cake comes out with only a few crumbs sticking to it. (Very “clean” toothpicks sometimes equal an over-dry or over done cake.) Cool completely in pan. (Yes, completely). Unmold onto either cutting board or serving platter. This cake needs to be refrigerated overnight in order to create beautiful, clean slices. If you have a good quality electric knife that works great! Slice and serve as desired: chilled, room temperature or warmed slightly in microwave. Optional: dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Variations:
You could add peppermint extract, lemon extract (and/or use a lemon cake mix), you could do chocolate cake mix with chocolaty swirl (I’d bump up the quantity of chips for this one), pecans; the list is endless.

Daddy Makes Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Sunday is “Daddy Makes Breakfast” day. Daddy makes “real” breakfast: bacon, toast or English muffins slathered with butter, eggs, French toast or like today, pancakes. A few weeks ago when I bought blueberries, it was blueberry pancakes. Today it’s Chocolate Chip Pancakes. (YES! I AM going to use up these chips this century! Now don’t get me wrong, these chips are adorable, but they have almost no chocolate taste whatsoever.)

I have a big mason jar filled with Alton Brown’s “Instant Pancake Mix” or sometimes DH just uses Bisquick. Hey, I say, as long as you’re making breakfast honey, you can do what-eh-va you want, as long as you clean it up. I generally don’t eat starch for breakfast, so the boys and Daddy chow down on his masterpieces.

The secret to add-ins for pancakes like chips and blueberries is to dole out the batter first and then put the extra ingredients on the uncooked “second side”. When you flip the flapjacks, the add-ins will get incorporated beautifully with no running or clumping. For blueberry pancakes, they’ll stay pancake color and not turn that funny blue-gray color.

You can freeze any leftovers by layering them with waxed paper and then keeping them in a zip top bag. For reheating, I just throw ‘em in the toaster. :)

TWD: Granola Grabbers rewind

I’m doing a rewind as I don’t have THAT much chocolate (or cash!) in the house at the moment to make the $$ Chocolate Chunkers, page 70, that the rest of the TWDers are making this week.

For your consideration: Granola Grabbers from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 82, featured back on August 19, 2008 on Tuesdays with Dorie.

I’m generally not really crazy about raisins in cookies, therefore I swapped out just a sprinkling of chocolate chips for the raisins in this recipe. I also only made a half batch since I am a little cookied out as of late and can easily dispose of 2 ½ dozen in places other than my thighs or butt.

Surprisingly, these came together pretty easily as I was wondering while reading the recipe – what holds these things together? (there’s almost no flour.) Yup, butter and sugar. And an egg.Yes I did it again. Stupid stupid stupid.

I scooped out 2 trays and popped them in the oven. To the remaining dough I added some cinnamon to change it up a little. Both ways are good. Like the other TWD cookies I’ve made thus far, these are not so wonderful straight out of the oven. They need to rest a little and are best warm or cool. I was expecting a holy moly granola-y wheat germy flavor, but that’s not the case. They taste like regular cookies and are pretty good at the right temperature. I liked these but they aren’t anything that I absolutely NEED to make ever again, unless it’s to use up the monster jar of wheat germ I bought to make this recipe. Any thoughts on what to do with that???

Thanks to Michelle of Bad Girl Baking for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with these Granola Grabbers OR this week’s selection, Chocolate Chunkers, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making either one of these recipes for yourself, you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

TWD: A Whopper of a Cookie

For your consideration: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 85, featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorrie.

These were interesting cookies. I had several “Aha!” moments while making them

1. Aha! Ovaltine original is not the same as malted milk powder – it has “sugar” listed as the first of many ingredients. Nestle/Carnation’s Malted Milk has “wheat flour and malted barley extracts” as the first ingredient(s).

2. Aha! My countertops are not level.

3. Cool... Mt. Malted Milk.

4. Aha! I adore my sideswipe paddle more and more every time I use it.

5. must. use. up. these. stupid. chips. (no, I just can’t just throw them away, that would be wasteful.)

6. dough! (DOH!) or is it batter?

7. yee ha! scooper’s back in the saddle again.

8. I’m ready for my close-up now, Mr. DeMille.

9. A Whopper of a Whopper Cookie boomerang. Aha! Shoulda used wax paper in between for storing.

Despite the big hunk o’ cookie later, these were good. I did peel the pretty ones off the top and share them with school. Remember – they love treats!

Thanks to Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with these whopper drops, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making the Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops for yourself, you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters (say that 3 times fast)

For your consideration: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 73, featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorrie.

Hmm. Oatmeal. Cookies. Like oatmeal. Like cookies. No like oatmeal cookies. (Won't touch or even think about oatmeal raisin cookies). Gotta take one for the team though, so off we go. I have my fingers crossed that maybe my tastebuds have changed or maybe this is one great cookie that will turn the beat around.

Mise en place

Gotta love the sideswipe blade!

Alrighty then. All is beaten, combined and blended. Raw batter is pretty good. Things are looking up. I decided to let the batter sit and (wooooh) meld/become one with the universe per the optional instruction from Dorrie and as I had read about recently regarding one of the “secrets” of the NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies. I let the batter sit for almost 24 hours. Off came the plastic wrap, in went my scooper and crrrrrunch went the scooper. The dough was so solid and so concrete-like that it caused the little gears on my scoop go out of line and the blade thingy to stay poked out. I hope DH can fix it. (footnote: DH came thru and got it popped back in. Thanks, honey).

I forged ahead. Using the remains of the scoop, I doled out the dough, rolling and pressing as prescribed. I am not having very benevolent feelings toward these cookies so far.

After the bake cycle, out they came. They looked pretty good, but man these suckers don't spead at all. In fact they looked exactly the same as when I put them in. Taste-test when they came out of the oven: (drum roll please) .... eh. Dry, somewhat crumbly, overwhelming oatmeal taste. Others felt the cinnamon or the peanut butter; all I tasted was oatmeal slivers. Sorry, I'm just not an oatmeal cookie fan. I did have somewhere to take these to though as I personally wouldn't be eating my weight in these. The next day there was a function at school – they love treats at school – and I brought them in, even though I hate to bring in stuff I don't like because I'm afraid everyone will think they suck too. They were a huge hit! (Really??) I had to double check for myself, and surprisingly, they tasted much better the day after. Although these definitely haven’t converted me, I might make them again (without resting the dough just to see if that was it) for a bake sale or other event that demanded an oatmealy submission.

Thanks to Stefany of Proceed with Caution for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with these chipsters, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making the Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters for yourself, you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.