Date Oatmeal-Goodness Cookie Sandwiches

Ever had one of those weeks?  You know, the ones where you feel like PMS is a permanent illness?  Because that’s just about how I felt this week.  Man.  It was bad.  Talk about mood swings, and chocolate cravings…  haha.

I did a ton of baking and cooking the last of the week, but have no pictures to prove it.  I WILL take pictures.  I WILL get the camera out.  I WILL.  I WILL.  (I’m going to keep chanting that until it happens, okay?)

Thursday was baking day, for the most part, and Friday cooking.  Jeudi consisted of raisin bran muffins, Nanny’s Cinnamon Rolls, garlic croutons, and cooked chicken.  Vendredi was stuffed potatoes (best kind ever – I vow to share this recipe with you in due time), chicken quesadillas, garden salad, and blueberry pie.  Whew.

{I just HAD to include this photo – he’s being such a goose here, and he’s just TOO cute!}

By the time Friday was over, all I wanted to do was eat and sit down, and eat, and sleep, and… eat.  So eat I did.  And do I ever feel gross today.  Totally worth it though, I must say.

And!  Kudos to Second Cup.  They have new Maple Lattes out, and they are all kinds of amazing!  I could have had about 5 today.  I remained slightly not content with one…

So in my first post on cookies, I mentioned these as one of the kinds of cookies that I really enjoy.

Date Oatmeal Cookie Sandwich

1/2 cup margarine, softened

1/2 cup lard

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Pinch salt

3 cups quick cooking oatmeal

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Cream together margarine, lard, and brown sugar.  Blend in  eggs and vanilla.  Add in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Mix in oatmeal, until combined.

Next, roll the dough out, about a 1/4 inch thick.  Cut with a circle cookie-cutter.

WARNING – Cookie cutters are dangerous!  Mine broke on me, and give me a nice little cut on my finger.  Ow.

But I kept at it.  Bake these cookies for about 10 -12 minutes.  Give or take a little.

Let the cookies cool, then they’re ready for some filling.  As you may have noticed, I didn’t stick to date filling for all of these.  My brothers are averse to dates, or so it seems.  So I did them a favour, and filled half of my sandwiches with white buttercream icing.  I’d much rather the dates, but hey, that’s preference for you.

Date Filling

2 cups chopped dates

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

1/4 cup orange juice

Cook about 10 minutes, until thickened.  Cool.  Easy peasy,

*Just a note – You will have dates leftover.  I would just use them in a second batch (you can refrigerate them for quite awhile), or eat them on your oatmeal for breakfast – they are SO good.*

30 Day Challenge

Day 3 – Your views on drugs and alcohol

Now for me, this one is pretty easy.  No, and… no!  🙂

I’m not your average 20-something year old gal.  I avoid both of these entirely, unless you count the alcohol in vanilla extract that I use in baking.

I see no point in destroying my body, or losing control to a substance.  I can also have plenty of fun – sober.  I don’t believe that we should let things control us.

“And do not get drunk on wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”  Ephesians 5:18 (ESV)

I think it would be much more constructive to pray, read the Bible, and live the life described there – to be filled with the Holy Spirit – than to be filled with spirits and not able to control myself.  I want to know what I’m doing, not forget whole evenings.  I don’t enjoy being sick either, so count me out of being hung over.  Please.

I know many people will not agree with me on this topic.  But these are my views, I’m just sharing.  Think it over.  🙂

What is your favourite kind of cookie?

Spring Cupcakes

So, the title of this should really be – How to make a disastrous mess.  Because I did.

Man, did I ever.

And of course, who should come home to catch me red-handed in messiness?  But my hubby.

‘WHAT are you DOING?  Why don’t you put a tray underneath, so that you don’t make such a mess on the counter?’

It’s a good question really.  And the only real, true answer is…  I’m stubborn.  There you have it folks, I confess; stubborn to the bone.

You see, I tried a new icing recipe.  I’m constantly using our ‘Buttercream’ Icing recipe.  I use that about 90% of the time. So I thought I’d mix things up.  I used a royal icing.  And instead of following the recipe (as usual…) I made a few changes.  Which resulted in a runny mess of icing.  If it calls for meringue powder, use it.  Just saying.  Anyhow.  This is what I used for icing.  It worked in a sense, but not at all how I had envisioned them to be.

Royal Icing

4 cups icing sugar

2 egg whites

Water

Food colouring

Blend together the egg whites and icing sugar.  Add enough water to make the icing come together.  It should be slightly runny, but not overly runny (ie – more like molasses than oil).  Divide icing into bowls, and add food colouring, as desired.

For my cupcakes, I used this chocolate cake recipe.  It made about 2 1/2 dozen regular-sized cupcakes.

I dyed the icing four different ‘springy’ colours.  Then I bagged them (be careful if your icing is runny – it’ll run right out of the bags – no squeezing required!).  To achieve the tye-dye look, I put a circle of one colour (a 1-inch circle, filled in) on top of the cupcake.  Then I squeezed 2 or 3 other colours on top, and just let it run down the cupcakes, to create the effect.

If you’re smart, you’ll listen to hubby and put a tray underneath the cupcakes BEFORE you frost them.  But if you don’t, hey, that’s cool too.   🙂

Cael thinks they’re pretty good…

30 Day Challenge 

Day 2 – Where you’d like to be in 10 years.

Okay, so it’s most definitely time for day two of the 30 Day Challenge.  This one will be a tad more difficult than the last one… but here goes!

Realize that these are dreams, and I realized that some of them may be slightly far out…

In 1o years, I’ll be in my thirties…  man, that sounds old.  I will still be happily married, my little boy will be in the double digits, and he’ll probably have 2 or  3 (or 4?) little brothers and sisters.  We’ll be living in our house (made by us), which will have an amazingly big shower, and a kitchen with lots of counter space.  I will bake for my kids, and they’ll learn to bake with Mommy too, and love doing it (and I’ll have learned patience…  hopefully).  I’ll own a business, and bake for pay.  Yes, those are the dreams.

Where will you be in 10 years?

Vegetarian Quiche

I love eggs.  And this post…  is about eggs.

Earlier this week, I had to make a meal for one of my friends that just became a new mom for the third time.  What to make, what to make?  This thought crossed my mind all day the day before.  What I decided…

I made quiche!

I used eggs from my father-in-laws chickens (which I really should have taken a picture of, because they are amazingly big, super healthy, and natural…  so good), so that made these quiches EXTRA good.

Quiche a la Bebe Marc

(Makes 2 9-inch quiches)

Pie crust for 2 pies

3 ribs of celery, chopped

1 onion

1 green pepper

8 eggs

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 cup milk

1 Tbsp flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tsp parsley

Pinch chili powder

1 Tbsp melted butter

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Line 2 9-inch pie plates with pie dough.  Sprinkle celery, onion, peppers and cheese over pie crust.

 

In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milks, flour, salt, pepper, parsley, chili powder and melted butter.

Whisk until combined.

Pour over vegetables and cheese in pie plate.

Bake quiches for 30-45 minutes (it really just depends on the oven), or until set.

I was super impressed with myself on this recipe.  I wanted a vegetarian dish, but I didn’t want it to be lacking in flavour – and it wasn’t!  It looked good, smelled good, and tasted great.

It must have been good, because my hubby ate over half of it!

*Note – you can substitute the coconut milk for regular milk or water.

Now to the 30 Day Challenge.

Day 1 – Your current relationship

Well, my current relationship has been my one and only, and will be my one and only. God willing.  I have been married to my amazing hubby for almost 2 years now.

We got married in June 2010

And while that isn’t very long, we’ve known each other our whole lives, and have been ‘together’ for 7 years now.  He is the love of my life.  Yes, we snap at each other, and get on each others’ nerves.  But more than that, we love each other, laugh together, cry together, talk, live….  And have an amazing little boy together.

We’ve been through a lot, and will go through a lot more.  I know, though, that no matte what happens, we will stick it out.  God is behind us, and will give us the strength we need to stay together and get through life together.

I love my hubby so much.  He’s quirky, a great guy, funny, and so good at so many things.

I could say so much more than that, but this my relationship in a nutshell.

Now you know.

Day one of the 30 Day Challenge.  Check.

What about you?  How’s your current relationship?  Do you enjoy eggs as much as me?

30 Day Challenge. And Easter. Wait – a cake too.

So, I came across a challenge on Tyler’s blog (which initially came from Elle’s blog).  It’s called the 30 Day Challenge (pretty self-explanatory, no?).  I’m going to attempt to do it.  I don’t promise to do all 30 days consecutively, but I will try my best to do all 30.  This way, you can get to know me better, and it’ll change things up a bit too.  Hope you enjoy.  And I’d love to hear from you – your thoughts, comments, and questions.

My next post will begin the challenge.  🙂

But for now, I’ll (finally) share my Easter with you.  And my brother’s birthday cake.

First – the cake.  I had asked my brother what kind of cake he wanted (mostly wondering what I should decorate…), but all he said was chocolate.  He wasn’t very much help.  I already knew that.  Anyhow.  I thought about it for awhile, and came up with something quite easy, but that fit.  He has been set on watching all 9 seasons of X Files with my husband.  So – the X Files logo it was.

Sides first, then the top.

Then to the logo, the edges…  The blowing of the candles.

Now to Easter.  First off, our Easter is a little bit different from a lot of people.  We grew up without the Easter bunny.  Instead, we focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

This is the reason we celebrate Easter.  Jesus has risen.  And we aren’t just saying this.  We really believe that it’s true.  Christ, our Saviour, reigns.

We also have a family dinner.  Which means lots of food.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that there is no end to food when it comes to my family.  It is central to all of our gatherings.  I love it.  Mostly because, well, truth be told, I love food.  I didn’t have a hand at much this year, as we were in the process of moving into our new house.  But feast your eyes on what I feasted on.

As you can tell, I share my passion for baking with others in my family.  I think it’s genetic.  🙂

Cael loved sitting with Papa at dessert time…  Cookies for him.

I also made a cake on Good Friday for a bunch of people that came over to decorate Easter eggs.  It was a really quick decorating job, but I thought it turned out pretty good.

My hubby got a hold of it after it had been cut into though…

Ohmy…

So – I hope that you have a great weekend.  I’ll get started on that 30 day challenge soon.  Thanks for reading.  And sorry my Easter post was so late.  Better late than never??

What’re your Easter traditions?  

Breakdown – and more DOUGH

Okay, so have you ever reached that point where you just don’t know what to do?  I have.  Many times.  And today was a perfect example.  Imagine moving into a house, but only moving half of you belongings.  The house is completely full, and very neat.  All of a sudden, the rest of your belongings arrive (with no prior notice).  You have nowhere to put them, and your neat, new house is going to be in shambles and busting at the seams.

Sigh.

This actually happened.

Except it really wasn’t all bad, just completely overwhelming at the time.  My house is coming together!  I love it.  (The top floor anyways, as the other half of my belongings – plus much of the first half – are down in the basement thrown everywhere.  I’m surprised there is room to move!)  Apparently, I am was a packrat.  I have changed, I promise!  My mother will never believe me after everything she found in my bedroom, but give me a break.  I’ve been in the same room my whole life.  Of course there is going to be a lot of junk stuff.  🙂  Right?

And these rolls make me feel better either way.

Anyhow.  That was how my afternoon went.  The rest of the day was great.  Awesome sunshine, walks, a big brunch with my family, BBQ hamburgers for supper…  Can’t complain about that.

But.  You guys can complain.  I’ve relapsed into my ‘no posting syndrome’ from a few months ago.  Thing is, I just didn’t have the umption in my gumption (as some older lady in my family would say..)  But I’m trying to overcome this awful disease.  I would have you know that I baked the first thing ever in OUR house Thursday.  It was great.  Until I remembered I had no eggs.  And the recipe called for 3.  I had already started…  *Sigh, AGAIN.  But it turned out okay.  I’ll post those soon.  (Keep your eye out for Peanut Butter Cream-wiches – super yummy, especially if you’re a sucker for peanut butter anything, like moi.)  You know.  There are too many things I really want to post, and too little time (especially when I’m not posting… haha.  I’ll get my act together, okay?)

So.  This recipe.  I hope it’s going to BLOW.  Your.  Socks.  OFF!  🙂  I thought they turned out really good anyways.  Coulda eaten the whole lot of em.  My brother Caleb even said that they were a keeper (so they must have been good…)!

A few weeks ago, I posted my grandmother’s awesome recipe for Cinnamon Rolls.  This is my twist.  They are still rolls, but less the cinnamon, and add many other yummy, wonderful ingredients.  Like tea.  And jelly.  Mmmmm…

Apple Jelly Tea Rolls

(Or Absolutely Divine Yummyness – whichever you prefer)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup margarine, softened

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk, warmed

4 tea bags (I used breakfast tea, but really any black tea will work great)

1 tsp vanilla

Salt

3 cups flour

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

Before you do anything else, but your tea bags in the warmed milk to steep.  You want to get as much flavour out of them as possible.

(Do it.  Seriously – the more tea, the more awesome.)  Then preheat your oven to 350 and get baking!  Beat together sugar and margarine.  Mix in eggs, vanilla, and salt.  Discard tea bags, and add the milk to your mixture.  Mix until combined.  Add flour and baking powder, gradually.  The dough should look something like this:

Next, roll out your dough into a rectangle.  Spread on 1 cup of apple jelly, evenly.

I used homemade apple jelly from our very own apple trees.  It is so good.  If I make some this summer, I’ll most definitely share the recipe!

Sprinkle with brown sugar, and a slight dusting of cloves.  I was so proud of my addition of the cloves.  They add a wonderful aroma, and it just goes so well!

Next, roll the dough along the long edge.  Cut into 12 rolls.  Place on a greased baking sheet, and bake for about 20 minutes.

While they are baking, you can make the glaze.  (I know, it just gets better and better all the time, eh?)

You will need to steep 3 more tea bags in a 1/2 cup of warmed evaporated milk.  After they have steep for a good while (at least 10 minutes), mix in a pinch of salt and cloves, and 3 cups of icing sugar.  Mix until smooth.  Drizzle over cooled tea rolls, generously.

*Note – You will definitely have leftover icing.  Save it.  You will want to dunk every piece into it.  Even after you’ve drowned them in drizzle…

{I may have made a slight mess…}

And you will love them.

Again, please forgive my tardiness for posting.  I’m ashamed of myself.  Disgusted really.  But, it happens.  So.  There you have it.  A post.  Long awaited by many…  I hope.  🙂

Will this picture make up for it?

Hope so.

Have a great rest-of-your-weekend!

What is your favourite kind of tea?  (I love too many kinds to make a decision… but anything vanilla, or peach… )

Finally – A Savoury Dish

Okay, so I told you I’d be awhile posting… I didn’t think I’d be quite this long.  This week has just been insane.  We’ve been at the house working, painting, putting boxes upon boxes upon boxes of stuff away, plus it was my brother’s birthday, Easter this weekend, with all the ordinary-every-week happenings as well.  So needless to say, I’m pooped.  And my brain may perhaps be is slightly (or maybe more than slightly) fried.  The house is coming together though!  We’re moving in this week, which is really good.

Anyhow.  I made these awhile ago, and I wanted to share them with you guys.  Mostly because we made them at a bible camp this summer, and the majority of the attendants had never had them before.  I was shocked!  These are amazing, easy, and a staple in my diet… 😉  Not really, but I need them at least once every two months or so.  They are just SO good.

I know, I know.  I must have turned over a leaf or something.  No baked goods today!

This is a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes!

Potato Cakes

Leftover mashed potatoes

Summer Savory

Salt

Pepper

Egg

The quantities really depend on how much leftover potatoes you have, and personal preference.  This last batch I made, we probably had about 6 cups of leftover potatoes (I KNOW, that’s a LOT, but my brother really likes potatoes, and there are 8 of us in the house, so we make a huge amount of everything).  Anyways, so 6 cups of mashed potatoes, and I put in about 2 heaping tablespoons of summer savory, a dash of salt and pepper, and one egg.

Just mush all the ingredients together.

Shape into patties.

And fry until browned.

Easy as pie!  (Or cakes…?  Potato cakes, that is!)

Please enjoy these, they are soo good.  Growing up (and still many times), we’ll have these with fish sticks and canned beans in molasses.  (One of the few times we use canned beans, as we normally bake our own beans…)  Such a good combo though.  Man.  Yum.

*Oh…  I eat them with ketchup…  is that bad?  It tastes just sooo good.  Or dip them in your beans!  Do it.  Don’t beat it till you try it!  Just thought I’d warn you…  I might be kind of weird when it comes to food combinations.*

So again, I’ll be back to you soon hopefully.  I have a few posts all lined up, I just need time to put them together!  But I’m really hoping that will happen soon!  I miss doing this when there’s such a long break!  I’ll share our Easter adventures with you soon!

How was your Easter?  

Crazy, this thing called life.

So,  I’m completely sorry that I’ve been MIA this week.  Thing is, life happens, whether we’re ready for it or not… and…  well – We bought a house!  So that’s my excuse.  (I think it’s a pretty good one, don’t you?)  We’ve spent the last few days at the lawyers office, then painting, painting, painting, garbaging, cleaning… and wrecking the place.  I arrived back at the house yesterday after taking an hour break to a wall being torn down…  Mess.  Everywhere.  But it’s good.  It’s going to make the place look much bigger and more spacious.  And most importantly, it’s going to INCREASE my kitchen space!  (ie – More baking space!!)

Anyhow.  I do have another post almost ready to go.  And I’ll be sharing that with you in the next few days.  Because, (did I mention I’m taking a university course?) I have 2 assignments and an exam to do in the next 3 days, AND my great little bro has a birthday this week too (so I’ve got to get baking that cake!!), and in the midst of all that, I’ve got to look after my hubby, little boy, and try to post something… BUT it WILL happen!  Okay?

Do you believe me?

While you’re waiting for that post/recipe.  I wanted to share this picture with you.  We went out for supper last week to Mateus Bistro, and we ordered scallops (and other great things) for appetizers.

{Photo courtesy of my wonderful hubby}

Don’t they look amazing?  They were realllly cool tasting.  Like, surprising, and very yummy to those taste buds.

Anyhow – I’ll be back to you soon!  Have a great Sunday afternoon!