Creamer!

Ok, so I know this blog is supposed to be about cooking and baking, but I have to sneak this post in :). I drink coffee every morning, so I've tried nearly every single flavor of creamer available in the grocery store. Well... I think I've finally found my Holy Grail creamer! It's one of the special "World Cafe" Coffee Mate flavors called "Belgian Style Chocolate Toffee". Yum! It's so creamy and has a nice chocolate flavor that's not too overwhelming. It's almost like I'm drinking coffee flavored hot chocolate :). I absolutely love it! Here's a picture so that you can see what I'm talking about:



The downside is that the only place I've seen it (so far) is at Target. I haven't looked at WalMart or Publix, so it could be there, but I don't know for sure... and it's NOT at Kroger.

As a side note, my second favorite flavor is probably hazelnut... or just plain 'ol creamer with a bit of sugar :).

Ginger's Prize!

Here's Ginger, my friend who won my blog contest (and Sal, a kid from church, behind her) :). I made her a chocolate cream pie! This one's special, though. Even though I said I was going to make a homemade treat (and I don't consider pudding pie in a store-bought shell "homemade"), I did add my own twist to it.

Here's what I did:

I used a large chocolate pudding box (mix) and added 2 cups of cold milk. The box says 2.5 cups, but I don't do that :D. After beating the mix and milk together with a whisk for about 2 minutes (it's pretty thick by then), you fold in half of a small container of Cool Whip. Slowly stir this together until the color is uniform. It will be a medium brown. Then, I just added a dash of cinnamon to give it a different taste. I did lick the spoon after scooping it into the pie shell and it was so good! It almost tasted like Jason's famous birthday torte :). Anyway, pour the concoction into the chocolate graham shell and add a little dollop of cool whip on top. Chill for a few hours, just to make sure it's set.

That's it! So easy... and great for the summer, because it's chocolaty yet cool :). Let me know if you try it... it's muy bueno!

Ginger, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I gave you such an unhealthy dessert, but I really couldn't help it. It was the fastest and easiest thing I could make :).

CONTEST WINNER!!!

The winner of my blog contest/giveaway is GINGER!!! I used www.random.org to generate a completely random number out of the entries, so it was completely unbiased! Congrats, Ginger! I'll deliver your treat to you next weekend :). I'll post pictures of the treat so that you can dream of how it tastes :D.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I loved reading your comments! I was cracking up :)... and getting hungry! You made me want to bake all weekend just so I could eat all of your favorite desserts :). If you had fun with it (I did!), I just might do another giveaway in the future.

Have a great rest of your Memorial Day and congrats again to Ginger! :)

Contest/Giveaway!

Since I have been slacking on this blog majorly, I've decided to do something to re-kickstart it! I know that not many people read this blog, but that's ok! I'm doing a contest/giveaway and will send a loyal reader a homemade treat :). Here's what you need to do to enter the contest:

1) post a comment telling me your favorite dessert :)
2) include your email address somewhere in the comment so that I can email you for your mailing address if you're the winner :).

That's it! Feel free to leave as many comments as you want. The contest will end on May 24th at midnight, EST. Any comments posted after that time will not count, sorry! :P I'll do a random drawing on Memorial Day, May 25th and will announce the winner and what treat they'll be getting... and pictures of the treat! :)

Good luck and comment away!
~Lex

Technical Difficulties!

Hey everyone, I hope you're having a great April! I sincerely apologize for slacking so much on this blog. I've taken tons of pictures of everything I bake, but our desktop computer has come down with some kind of virus or something and is being a royal pain in the behind. Jason's going to try to get my pictures off of the computer tonight, but it will probably still take a long time to get them transferred over to our new laptop.

However, there is hope! This weekend I'm going to be baking 2 batches of cookies (kinds are yet to be decided) and some spinach/artichoke dip! I promise I'll take pictures and I'll try my hardest to post pictures and recipes this weekend :).

Brit, I know you'd LOVE the dip, so I'll make a special effort to post it just for you ;).

Have a great weekend!

Torte!

Ok, so I've been meaning to post these for a long time, but haven't gotten a chance. Also, our internet at home is super slow, so it makes it hard to upload the pictures... but anyway, here are a few for your enjoyment:

Jason's infamous birthday torte... once again:

Here are two of the cookie layers, fresh out of the oven :). They are buttery and cinnamony :). This is where all the sweetness of the dessert comes from.


Here are a bunch of cookies that are waiting to be baked. I had to cut out wax paper circles, then use the bottom of a round cake pan to spread the cookie "dough" onto the wax paper. I bake 2 circles at a time on a cookie sheet.


I mixed 4 (I think) cups of whipping cream with some cocoa powder to make this. It looks absolutely delicious, but it's quite deceiving. It isn't sweet at all and if you accidentally lick it off your finger, it's pretty gross. Like I said, though, the sweetness comes from the cookie, which is why it has to refrigerate overnight.


Here is the first layer/s of our torte construction! I put a tiny dab of the whipped cream mix on the dish before putting the first cookie layer down... that way, the cookie doesn't slide off the plate!


The finished product, ready to go into the fridge. I stacked this one about 28 layers high and topped it off with shavings of semisweet chocolate. After sitting in the fridge all night, it loses about 1 inch of its height, but that just means all the layers were getting cozy :).


It's a lot of work, but very worth it! I can't wait until next February :D.

P.S. - I don't have the recipe, because it's in my mother-in-law's cookbook. I'll try to get it from her again, though... I should probably have my own copy anyway... since I'm the one who gets to make it now ;).

I'll be back again soon! :D

Update

Brit, I will update soon, I promise! Stay tuned... I'll be posting some pics (and hopefully recipes) tonight! :)