Do you remember these?  I was going to make them for the Rose Bowl?

Uh huh. So I did that. And then we didn’t have anyone over, so I was forced (seriously, forced) to eat most of them myself. I know, it’s a shame. You could have had one. Or 5.

Okay, so here’s what I did:

Bought bacon and generic cinnamon buns at the discount grocery store (and no, I couldn’t get more white trash if I tried).

And here’s the pictures of my process:

(in the foreground you see lip-smackingly good crispy as all get out bacon. YUM. In the background, my FAIL buns.)

(so the lighting is bad, it’s the dumb camera again…..maybe I’ll set up a foodie photog fund for getting me a new one???? Anyway, here we are, wrapping and prepping to bake)

(here they are pre-frosting. I learned a big lesson here…..break the bacon up into pieces, otherwise when you bite into it, you get the whole piece of bacon and only a bit of roll. BOOOOOOOO!)

(and here they are in their full glory, half frosted, half naked. SO GOOD)

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd, I just gained 5 lbs looking at those pictures again. Sweet. See you at the gym, kittens.

Ready?

Oatmeal, ginger and golden raisin cookies with almonds.

I know, RIGHT?!

Seriously, just bow down now and get it over with. (just kidding. not)

I will make these this weekend when I return from Chicago.

It all started on Saturday evening, when Adam and Anthony came over to help me eat OTHER leftovers in Paul’s fridge.  I think we saw a cookie or cake commercial and someone (Anthony maybe??? or was it Adam????) said that a good oatmeal raisin cookie beats the socks off of whatever was on the screen.  I thought “you’re right!” and jumped up (no, literally, I jumped up off the couch) to start a batch.

This was my maiden voyage using the new edition of the BHG (seriously, by now you know that means Better Homes and Gardens) cookbook.  You can get that wonderful resource here, among other places.

Here’s their recipe with (of-course) my modifications:

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients
3/4  cup butter, softened  (uh, NO. I don’t think so. I used 3/4 cup non-fat, plain yogurt)
1  cup packed brown sugar
1/2  cup granulated sugar
1  tsp. baking powder
1/4  tsp. baking soda
1/2  tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)
1/4  tsp. ground cloves (optional) (didn’t have it, so I used fresh nutmeg instead. you can use this or leave it out!)
2  eggs
1  tsp. vanilla
1-3/4  cups all-purpose flour (the recipe in my book – the one I’m printing here is from their online database – said only 1.5cups flour. I added a touch more, but not a full 1.75 cups. Also I used gluten free flour, and it worked GREAT)
2  cups rolled oats

Add-ins: dried cranberries, raisins, chopped pecans

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and, if desired, cinnamon and cloves. Beat until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats.

(RIGHT. I did NOT do that. I didn’t have a mixer on hand. What I did have was a rubber spatula, a whisk and my arm. I followed their order though, which worked great. Before I added more flour, I stepped away for about 10 minutes to do something else, and when I came back, the oats had absorbed some of the liquid so I didn’t need to add as much extra flour as I thought I needed)

2. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are golden. Let stand on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Transfer to wire racks and let cool. Makes about 48 cookies.

(yeah, no. I made HUGE cookies, the size of my fist. They were probably twice the size of the recommended cookie size, but it only has yogurt in it, so who cares?!?!?! Oh yeah, they took twice as long to cook. 16 minutes, don’t peek, and they won’t brown too much. Just trust they’re done)

We went to the Olympics, had Valentine’s Day, came back from Vancouver, then Paul left for Indonesia the next day….and now I’m attempting to clean up the mayham that ensued during that whole time, plus eat and cook all the food in Paul’s condo so it doesn’t go to waste. I’m doing pretty good so far!

Thursday night I had the girls over for burrito buffet night complete with two kinds of leftover cake. (and yes, I took some crappy pictures which I’ll share in a post later.)

Last night I had ANOTHER girls’ night with Danae (we go WAY back) and of course, I took tons of pictures of our Asian bonanza. Yes. Asian. Bo-nanza!

So you’ll see those pictures coming up too, and I’ll link to the places we got everything from, fear not.

The biggest adventure was our Valentine’s Day dinner, at my new favorite Vancouver spot, The Corner Suite, which I’ll be doing a whole SERIES of posts on over the course of the next week or so, so please do come back to read that!

BUT, first, I’m going to post about what I did today: ‘Green Lake+’ run, and then the CPG cafe (you’re asking “Siiri, WTF is the CPG?!” ).  Well, to find out, you’ll have to read the next post! That’ll be posting tomorrow, so in the meantime, know that I’m here, at Paul’s condo, eating all this food with friends, and plan to take MORE pictures of those things.

Here’s what I’m attempting to cook this weekend:

Oatmeal rasin cookies (with some special extras)

Scalloped potatoe thingy (what?!) with puff pastry (or something)

Roasted broccoli (sp? gawd, I’m awful at spelling, sorry DAD, I know you’re reading totally embarassed by that) with crispy shallots

Yam fries and roasted onions (or maybe carmelized???)

Organic Beef stew (YES PLEASE)

Apple tart

Then, on Wednesday morning, before even the birds get up to get the worms, I’m going to CHICAGO BABY!!!!! To see this one:

I’m going with these ladies:

And so there will be MANY food adventures I can’t wait to share with you, write about, and figure out how to make on my own at home, without the fuss and recipe, and of course let you, my fabulous 3 readers share in the spoils of learning how to cook some wonderful food at home for yourselves too!

So, ready? Because here I go! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It always ends up being some gross, dry, crumby, cotton-mouth-dry disaster that someone always swears is “my grandmother’s grandmother’s famous recipe!” (gag)

I would rather have vanilla anything, any day of the week over chocolate. I know, boo hoo. Boring me, right?  Sorry, that’s just how I feel….

So this morning when I saw an email from those cooking freaks (and I mean that in a good way) at my favorite (you guessed it) BHG (what? you don’t know the acronym yet? It’s Better Homes and Gardens) were touting their top cake recipes, I decided to stumble on over and see what was up.

I was REALLY surprised when the third cake I saw was this incredibly dense and NOT dry looking chocolate cake:

And of course when I clicked on the picture I realized we share a love of secret ingredients. Theirs is Sour Cream, for this cake….I don’t know about the rest of the cakes, I’m too busy stabbing my screen with a fork.

So, I thought on a rainy Wednesday I’d share with you the joy of their Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Recipe:

Ingredients
2  eggs
1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour
1/3  cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1  tsp. baking powder
1/2  tsp. baking soda
1/2  tsp. salt
1/2  cup shortening
1-1/4  cups sugar
1  tsp. vanilla
3  oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1  8-oz. carton dairy sour cream
1  cup milk
1  recipe Fudgy Frosting

Directions
1. Let eggs stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.

2. In small bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In large bowl beat shortening and sugar on medium speed until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in melted chocolate and sour cream. Alternately add flour mixture and milk; beat on low after each addition just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pans.

3. Bake 25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool.

4. Prepare Fudgy Frosting. Place one layer flat side down on plate. Spread top with 1 cup frosting. Stack second layer flat side down. Spread with remaining frosting. Makes 16 servings.

5.Fudgy Frosting: In large pan over low heat melt and stir one 12-oz. pkg. semisweet chocolate pieces and 1/2 cup butter. Cool 10 minutes. Stir in 8-oz. carton sour cream. Stir in 4-1/2 cups (1 lb.) sifted powdered sugar; stir until smooth. Makes 4 cups.

I’m not going to lie and tell you it’s healthy, because it’s not. If I were making it, it probably would be healthy. But I’m not making it. I’m just eating it (or not, since no one else is making it for me. sniff sniff)

Go to the Better Homes and Gardens website for the full nutritional facts, reviews and comments by other folks, and while you’re there, check out the rest of the cake pron (that’s right, I said cake pron. You know what I mean.)

We have drawn our random winning numbers for last weeks’ Starbucks VIA Ready Brew sweepstakes, and our five lucky winners are:

Hester Serebrin
Rachel Wilsey
Kelly Casteel
Kat Mitchel
Liz Fawthrop

Congratulations, ladies!

You each have 24 hours to contact me with a mailing address (or drop off address if you’re here in Seattle).

If you didn’t win this time around, fear not! I have more tricks up my sleeves in coming weeks and months, so you’ll have other chances to hit the big time!

Just look at my post from this Monday, and follow the directions! You have till 5pm Pacific Time tonight to enter!

Good luck!

I know, right?! Must have them. NOW.

You freaking get to decide WHAT THEY SAY! How cool is that?!

Here’s the full link in case you have to have them too!

William Sonoma Message-in-a-Cookie Cutters

There’s one word that describes the level of awesomeness that is this cheesecake in your mouth: WOW.

Not to be cheesy (pun intended) but this cheesecake is my new favorite, classic, timeless recipe, and I’m going to share it with the world and make it for everyone I know.

My friend (and old co-worker) Lauren sent me this recipe and I made it for the first time for Paul’s birthday in late December, and intend on making it many more times over the years.

Here’s the recipe:

Lauren’s Mama’s Apple Praline Cheesecake

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I used only walnuts so it was Gluten-free)
1/4 cup melted butter (I used 1/2 butter, 1/2 nonfat yogurt of course)
1-1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp packed brown sugar
4 packages (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
4 cups chopped peeled apples (about 3)
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:
Heat oven to 325 degrees. 

Line 13×9 inch pan with foil.  (I used a round spring form pan, buttered it, lined with parchment and sprayed with PAM)

Mix crumbs, butter and 2 tbsp brown sugar. 

Press onto bottom of pan. 

Bake for 10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. 

Add sour cream and blend.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. 

Pour over the crust.

Mix the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, apples, pecans and cinnamon;

spoon over batter.

Bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes.  Let it cool.  Refrigerate 4 hours. 

Use foil to lift cheesecake from pan before cutting to serve.

Enjoy!

As promised, today begins another giveaway.  And what could be better on an early Monday morning than a giveaway filled with……

COFFEE!!!!!!

That’s right, this weeks giveaway is brought to you from our faithful Seattle coffee house, maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s called Starbucks.

(copyright Starbucks)

THAT’S RIGHT!!!!!  This week, 5 lucky readers will win Cocktail swag bags from Starbucks including:

2 boxes of Starbucks VIA Ready Brew
1 Chromed out Martini shaker
2 Stemless, red bottomed martini glasses
1 Set of Starbucks VIA Mix off cocktail recipes

Plus, a handwritten congratulations note from yours truly!

So here’s the deal.  Wanna enter the Sweepstakes?  It’s easy as 1,2,3!

1. Go to http://www.starbucks.com/via/occasion/recipes/ and find your favorite recipe that uses VIA as an ingredient.
2. Come back to the blog (doesn’t matter which post, as long as it’s from this week) and leave me a comment with the link to your favorite recipe and tell me what you like about it!
3. All comments left between 1/25/10 (12pm PST) and 1/29/10 (5pm PST) will be entered into a randomized electronic drawing.
4. 5 winners will be chosen this time around, and I’ll post their name next Monday.  They have 24 hours to email me after that with their contact information before I pick a new randomized winner.

If you have any questions, simply leave a comment and I’ll respond ASAP.

Good luck, and impress me with your recipe choices! I can’t wait to start giving stuff away!!!!!