Pinterest Recipe Review - Oreo Crispies

Great news you guys....my chair fabric came in! Woot, woot! Here's the problem. Now I need to deal with the legs. Those puppies have seen better days they are a little dinged up and could use a little something extra if you know what I mean.  Here's a reminder of the chair and winning fabric.
Not the best picture but you get the gist.

Problem is I am not in the mood to stain those suckers. It's a lot of work - and Joel can attest to this after his three hour sanding he endured and did the lions share of with my side table (pre-blog days, worry not I'm not holding out on you). Now if that ain't love I don't know what is. At any rate I don't want to go through those hoops plus the wood on the chair is fairly minimal.

Anyway, after stalking some of my favorite diy blogs I have found a non-stain solution. Painting! Yes. This requires minimal sanding and is a little quicker. Sold!

In the meantime, I'm working on a ladder-style shelf unit this weekend and should have details soon. Stay tuned friends. :)

Ok on to the pinterest review. Like many people I drooled over this fun little pinterest treat.

pinterest link

Umm yeah, that's what I'm talking about. How amazing does this look? This thing was all over pinterst for weeks. People were pinning and re-pinning this guy. I decided to give it a whirl for a treat for my muppets (aka for a staff meeting).

It was easy as...pie well as rice crispy treats.

A stick of butter, and you know this is going to be good. How many of you resolved to lose weight this January? Don't they say most people abandon their resolutions after two weeks? Well just hang in there. This is why I resolved to A. make my bed every day because turning 30 this year means I need to get it together in this area. B. I actually can't remember if I had a second new year's resolution - okay moving on. 

Yes and yes.

Remember you were going to work out? This stuff starts to feel like cement - you're strength training!

Okay so the verdict. This was like a a hard rock that took some serious effort for my muppets to free and toss down their little mouths. They are smart and are willing to work hard for their treats so they prevailed! To be fair, this consistency issue could have been my fault and not the fault of the recipe. Upon reflection the food processed oreos felt really dense and I didn't really try to fluff them up. That may have helped so why don't you get them a whirl and let me know. :) 

Gingerbread Loaf with Frosting

I'm home sick for day number two but you know I just couldn't stay away from blogging. Plus I've been stuck on the couch all day mostly watching Law & Order SVU and bopping around pinterest.com. I believe this is medically recommended to get over a bad cold.

Anyway, I was a little baking machine for the lead-up to Christmas and I have a success and a fun baking-fail to share. Listen, they aren't all winners people. Good friends were coming in for a visit and suggested a little baking project while they spent the night and you know me I was game.

This was the suggested project.

Cucidati Cookies

So the scene is set. Friends arrive. We chat until the we-hours of the morning while the dough sits in the fridge ready to go. Anyway, we were too tired to bake them and I decided to just finish them off another day. Here are the results.

I am sad to say these aren't even the worst batch. I forgot to snap a picture of those hot messes. As rough as they looked I will say they turned out quiet tasty with their fig-date-walnut-marmalade centers. Check out the link above to check out a successful batch. Then make them and share some with me. :)

Since I am not easily deterred, oh and I'm nuts, I thought it might be fun to make mini loafs of quick breads for friends and family. I set out to find a delicious holiday breads, two per family. Why oh why do I do this to myself. Let's just say like many other projects I take on this one took a bit longer than I initially anticipated however I must say the results were worth the efforts.

One of the breads I stumbled upon was marketed as a "Copy-cat" of Starbucks Gingerbread loaf. I have never had SBs gingerbread but I can tell you this turned out fabulous. Plus SB's never fails so if someone went through the trouble of figuring out a recipe then I was game to try it out.  The recipe called for applesauce instead of eggs but there is frosting so I'm pretty sure the benefit is canceled out.

This bread is so good. I know my friends and family loved the bread and I also believe they enjoyed it's mini-loaf size.

Gingerbread Loaf with Frosting
Adapted from FreeStarbucksRecipies.com
Yields 3 mini loafs

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 1/4 teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon orange extract, optional

1 cup applesauce

1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray loaf pan or pans with nonstick cooking spray. I used three mini pans. Cream the butter, sugar, and orange extract. Add in flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, baking soda,  and salt and mix until just combined. Stir in applesauce. Distribute the mixture between the three mini- baking pans.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until a wooden tooth pick comes out clean. 

In the meantime, in a separate bowl cream the cream cheese. When the cheese is fluffy add in vanilla and orange extracts. Mix confectioner's sugar until light and fluffy. 

* A note on the frosting. This makes a lot of frosting and I actually doubled the loaf recipe and made 6 loafs and one frosting serving. Each loaf still had ample frosting per loaf. 

Enjoy!

Roasted Eggplant Dip

I need to share a quick and zippy recipe for New Years Eve or anytime you want to serve something delicious. If you guessed this is a Martha recipe you'd be wrong but close, Barefoot Contessa. The first time I had this I thought I would die and quickly became obsessed with eggplants but that's another story. Anyway the moral is this is universally loved and adored so make it today and serve it to your friends to show them how much you love and adore them.

Start with these bad boys.

Oh and be sure to add some garlic which I did at the last minute. Oops.

Roast 'em up.

Until they look like this.

Zip 'em through the food processor with two heaping tablespoons of tomato paste.

I told you this was easy. I enjoy it with a whole wheat pita that is soft not in chip form. A girlfriend of mine has tossed this with warm pasta and I imagine that is unbelievably good. 

Roasted Eggplant Dip

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa 

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded
• 1 red onion, peeled
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Meanwhile, chop eggplants, peppers, onion, and garlic. Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper in a 9 x 13 pan. Roast for 45 minutes stirring once. 

Cool for 10-15 minutes then pulse in food processor with tomato paste until desired chunkiness.

Serve with chips or pitas. 

Enjoy!