Culinary Endeavors

So the last week or so, I've tried some new recipes. Okay, two new recipes. Okay, one new recipe and another one I've tried before that had never turned out quite right. :) The first one was from the Amish cookbook I got for Christmas. It was chocolate cream pudding, and there were probably five ingredients. Less ingredients is bad for me because if I mess one up, it'll have a lot worse effect than a recipe with fifteen ingredients.
Anyways, obviously one of the main ingredients in pudding is milk. And, like the newbie cook that I am, I forgot that you should always check and make sure you have all of the ingredients before you start. So I mixed my cocoa powder and corn starch together with some salt and sugar. And then I realized we had no milk.
Now, if I was anyone but me, I would have sensibly put the ingredients in a bowl or something and saved them for a later time. But, being me, I remembered that we had powdered milk packets in the pantry (leftover from some sort of craft). So of course, I mixed up the artificial milk.

Gracie found a nice little box to sit in while she hoped that I would drop something for her.

After that, I poured it into a double boiler and cooked it until there was a semi-skin on top. I started to have doubts about this "milk" right about now.

Looks perfectly innocent, doesn't it?

 After the milk was ready, I mixed it into the cocoa powder mixture.

 Then I whisked it all together, quite vigorously, and ended up with this.

Ooh, bubbly!

 So I covered it with plastic wrap, stuck it in the fridge, crossed my fingers, and hoped like nobody's business that it would turn  out. While I didn't get any pictures the next morning after it sat in the fridge all night to set up, it really doesn't make any difference, because it looked exactly the same after twelve hours in the fridge. Chocolate soup, anyone?
CULINARY ENDEAVOR #1: FAILED


Last night, I decided to try something a little more in my comfort zone: cinnamon rolls. I used my cousins' grandma's recipe to mix them up. You combine the yeast, flour, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, etc... and let it sit overnight. Then the next morning, you roll it all out and spread the delicious things on it: butter, sugar, cinnamon. Then you roll it all up and slice the giant log of doughy, cinnamony goodness. You stick all of those delectable goodies in their respective pans and let it sit for a while longer, until you can't stand to wait  any longer. Then you bake them at 350 degrees for about fifteen minutes.
I decided to make a caramel sauce to go on top.
That turned out pretty well.

YUM!! Breakfast....

I poured the caramel sauce over the top until it looked like the rolls were sitting in a giant hot tub of caramel sauce. Now, I'm done and I can go eat one!!!!!
CULINARY ENDEAVOR #2: DOMINATED!!!!!!!

Marshmallow taffy

We were at WalMart the other day and they had some French vanilla marshmallows shaped like snowmen.
Naturally, we bought them. For hot chocolate, of course.
Yeah, we were tossing them in our mouths by the handful.
Anyway, last night as I was about to pop one in my mouth, I remembered a recipe I learned about a year ago.
Two ingredients: marshmallows, and your fingers.
You take a marshmallow and start pulling and twisting it. It gets easier as you work it longer. It also gets messier.
Anyway, you keep pulling and twisting until the marshmallow is stretchy, gooey, and shiny. The shine is how you can tell if it's ready to eat!
Then you stick your very messy fingers in your mouth and get all that taffy stuff off there.
Messy, sticky, delicious. :)

Ice cream

I was squatting in front of an ice cream stand, reading the flavor list. 'Chocolate peanut butter explosion' and 'coconut cream pie' stood out to me. I thought about whether I wanted rich, chocolatey taste mixed with my favorite non-main dish food, peanut butter; or if I wanted the sweet, tropical flavor of coconut. I was just about to make up my mind when Mom shook me awake. Oh, well. It was still a pleasant dream.

Also, an easy ice cream recipe for fellow peanut butter lovers.

1 bowl of vanilla ice cream (you could probably use chocolate, too)

About 2 tablespoons (heaping)of peanut butter

Drop the peanut butter in your ice cream.

You can stir it all together, or just leave the dollops as they are.

It's really completely up to you.

Sit down with a book and enjoy!



I actually sat down in front of the TV with mine, but hey! Same difference!

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies EVA!!!!

The first batch of cookies is in the oven, and soon, the smell of chocolate chip cookies will be wafting throughout the house. Sadly, few of the cookies are ours. You better enjoy them, Geoff.
Here's the recipe! I will insert my own little notes in italics.
THE ACTUAL BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES-this is a recipe Mom made when she was a teenager. She got it from her sister's friend.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Once you get really good at making these, the time it takes for the oven to heat up will be almost exactly as long as it takes to finish mixing the dough.
1 cup of shortening
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
Combine all of the above and cream until sugar is mixed well with shortening. It's always a little bit tempting to sneak some of this mixture, but DON'T! It's GROSS.
Then, mix in:
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of baking soda
Mixture will probably be a little bit lumpy, but the lumps should be small.
Then, add:
2 cups of flour(all-purpose)
Mix until well combined. It should now be proper cookie dough consistency.
And my favorite part, stir in:
1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips If you like your cookie chocolate all sweet and no bitter, use milk chocolate.
Don't use the mixer on this. It sometimes beats up your perfect little chocolate chips, or smears chocolate around. It's better to use a spoon.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, depending on your oven. When they come out, they will be floppy and kind of soggy looking. Don't worry;  they'll firm up. Please wait for at least five minutes after they come out to dig in. I know they're delicious, but don't burn yourself! I have no clue how many this recipe makes, because the cookies usually disappear right after they come out of the oven, so I can't count them. I usually double this recipe, and it lasts us about three days.
 Enjoy, and have fun!