Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Guess who came by to pay me a visit again? No, not my cousin, not my editor, not my mailman....and no not even the tooth fairy (I'm pretty sure I've already lost all my baby teeth anyway.)  The unwanted visitor was...Writer's Block. Why!?!?!?! Does Writer's Block have a crush on me or something? Because I certainly do not like it. I know you must think I'm crazy for talking about Writer's Block like it's a person, but that's what happens when it comes to visit you. I'm not opening the door next time... no way!!!

The real thing.

The Ingredients

Happy Birthday to my 2 days of experiencing writer's block. 
Here are 2 candles in your honor...!!
By the way, they're upside down. =/

This was my favorite part of the recipe!
I'm really good at cutting stuff, especially the modern "cut and paste" way. ;)

Writers block, writers block go away! Bug me on another day.
I want to type and share my mind, so go away and stay awaaaay!

Have you gotten the unintentional theme of today's post?
Yes, its chocolate and writer's block.

Trust me, there's chocolate in there....it's just shy.

(sigh) I finally got through this post and writing a comment on almost every picture. It took me awhile but I did it. I went through some bumps and difficulties (literally my head is all bumped up from me banging it on the table trying to find some motivation!)

I also made some changes to this recipe...for better or for worse. Unfortunately it turned out a little worse, buuuut that was just my silly adaptation. The original cookie recipe tastes much better, so here is the real recipe...for the better.

GB2- God Bless, Go Bake!!!

Black and White Crinkle Cookies

I have a block....no, it's not a wooden toy block that lucky little kids get to play with. I have writer's block. After blogging for about 3 months my creativity on food ideas is running out of gas. But when you do have writer's block you write about having writer's block which solves your problem for not being able to write anything.
I read that piece of advice from a book. Books are very useful, not kindles...books.

No ingredient picture this time, just some chocolate.
I'm not really missing the ingredient picture anyway.

Throw in some powdered sugar and I think it's time for a metaphor.
Chocolate is an army of gumdrops marching on your tongue.

Ok, that really wan't a good metaphor, but that's what you get when you search for ideas on Wikipedia. (sigh)

This is not a hands-on-experiment.  It's more of a spoons-on-experiment....
if such a thing exists.

A spoons-on-experiment!
And yes there is such a thing according to Grackipedia,
my version of Wikipedia.

Ingredients
4 Tbsp. butter (half a stick)
2 squares (1oz. each) unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
dash salt
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Bowl of powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Melt 4 Tbsp. butter and 2 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate together over low heat; stir in 1 cup of sugar; cool.

2. Sift 1 cup flour, measure, then sift again with 1 tsp. baking powder and a dash of salt into cooled chocolate mixture; add 2 eggs and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until well mixed.

3. Drop dough, 1/2 tsp. at a time, into powdered sugar; roll to cover all sides. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes in hot oven (400 degrees). Remove from pan; cool on wire rack.

This is an old-fashion original cookie recipe that I found while going through my Grandmother's things. It came from a newspaper dated April 1954 which took me awhile to figure out due to all the stains and spots on the old newspaper clipping.


(hint) Take a day (or 2 or 3 or 4...) to sort through all of your stuff, because when your family has to go through it, (aka me) it takes a reaaallly loooong time.  Just a helpful hint!

Buuuut leave some nifty stuff behind so your family can enjoy it.

GB2- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!

 

Banana Boat

Did you guys know that I'm half jungle-kid, at least that's the way I view it.  You see I was born in the Philippines and lived there for 8 wonderful years. I didn't actually live in the real jungle-jungle, but it was very tropical and different.


I got the wonderful privilege of eating with my hands sometimes, and living in shorts and t-shirts year round. This is a recipe you can eat shamelessly with your hands. I mean your hands have to do something, why not eat with them? =)

The Ingredients

Can I make a boat??? Of course! But mine is consumable!

Chocolate, my friends, is what makes the world go round, metaphorically. =)

You know, in the Dead Sea this could probably float.

I challenge you to make this face with your computer.  It's an original. =)

Yuuuuum! I wasn't sure if you're supposed to put aluminium foil around the thing, so I just stuck it in a banana peel, and it turned out pretty good.

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
A desirable amount of chunky and/ or creamy peanut butter
A desirable amount of mini or regular marshmallows
A desirable amount of chocolate chips
Anything else you want to get rid of like butterscotch chips, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, nuts. etc

Directions:
1. Cut the banana in half lengthwise,(make sure to keep the banana peel!) then with a knife spread peanut butter. Drop on your marshmallows and chocolate, etc.
2. Carefully put the banana in the peel, then wrap in aluminium foil and cook in toaster, grill, hot coals, or oven.
3. Enjoy! (And eat like Tarzan would.)


This is a very healthy recipe, in my opinion even healthier than the vegetable pizza. We have a...
banana = fruit
peanut butter = protein
marshmallow = sugar
chocolate = caffeine.
It's not a perfectly balanced meal, but hardly anyone is perfect.

Well, while I have the chance I'd like to say thank you to CJ for nominating me for "The Lovely Blog" and "Excellence in Story Telling" award. Although I probably won't answer all the questions, I just wanted to say thank you for the lovely nominations.

GB2- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!

Red Lobster Biscuits

Do you know that if you say, "green beans" slowly it sounds like gullible. Well, did you say it???  If you did, it just proves my point that a lot of people out there are gullible. =) You see green beans in no way sounds like gullible...nope, not at all. But unfortunately, I'm very gullible especially when it comes to copycat recipes, like a Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake Recipe or a Red Lobster Biscuit Recipe. =)

The Ingredients

Whoa, look carefully at this picture. It looks like a one-eyed pirate with a big nose.

This qualifies for a cheese ball, right?

And these are the mini cheese balls, pop size if you know what I mean.

(hint) When you're brushing stuff on your food
make sure you use a pastry brush... not a paint brush, or a hair brush,
a pastry brush, just a little hint. =)

Although there's no sugar in this recipe, it's still a dessert because it tastes marvelous!

Whenever I go to Red Lobster I always wonder how on earth they make those delicious biscuits. Now that I have the "not-so-secret" recipe and know how much work it takes to make them, I think I'll enjoy them a little bit more. I usually appreciate things more when I realize how much work goes into making them.

Oh, I should probably include the recipe.  I can't forget about that!

(The green bean/ gullible joke is definitely my favorite. I've shared it with soooo many people, so I just had to share it on my blog.)

GB2- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!




Snickerdoodle Surprise

Could someone please tell me what "snickerdoodle" means? Or who came up with the word?  Because it's a very catchy name. Does it mean a Snickers bar and a doodle? Or what about a snick and then a er with a doodle. Is that what it means???  No, it means a warm delicious cinnamon cookie and in this recipe, it comes with a cream cheese surprise inside!

The Ingredients

See the difference between the two bowls.

Never underestimate the power of eggs in a recipe.  It can turn your
dough into a lovely ball of fluff.

Come Luke Skywalker to the darkside...I have cream cheese.

And this is the surprise part of it.

Now wrap the surprise in the sugar, so it looks nice and pretty.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Make the cream cheese filling by mixing the cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp vanilla. I used the electric hand mixer for this.
2. Cover the cream cheese mixture and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add about HALF of the flour, the 1 cup sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
4. Beat till thoroughly combined. Beat in remaining flour. Cover and chill 1 hour.
5. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Combine the 2 Tbsp. sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 degrees oven for 10-11 minutes or till edges are golden. Cool cookies on a wire wrack. ( Makes 36-48 cookies)

Since we didn't actually find out what the meaning of snickerdoodle was, let's just call it a warm little sugary cookie, and in this case, with a dash of cream cheese inside. The cream cheese was definitely a new thing for me, especially wrapping the dough around it.  That took some practice. You know, come to think of it I can hardly wrap presents either, which is why we have those lovely gift bags to make use of!

This is Gracerdoodle signing off...
Why weren't my parents this creative when naming me? =/

(My editor/mother just added these last 2 lines.)
(facepalm)
And now my "punny" Dad just said, "Maybe Snickerdoodle stands for
a doodler with a sense of humor."
(double facepalm)

GB2- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!

Cake Pops

No, I didn't make these. =(

It seems like the world likes pops. There are lollipops, cake pops, ice cream pops, corn pops, push-pops, ring pops, and Otter Pops. Why are there sooooooo many pops? Since it seems that everyone likes pops so much, I decided to make them. And now I can see why everyone is in love with pops.

The Ingredients

I did this the non-messy way with these borrowed pans, but there is a way to do it without them.

The reject corner. =(

The semi-successful corner.

I went to Starbucks the other day and realized these things cost $1.50 EACH for one bite of cake!!!
I made around 50 and they cost $6.00.

And no, I didn't make these either.

I know that  I was rather lazy with this recipe, and only quickly frosted them because I was in a rush, but there are millions of great ideas on how to frost and decorate these things, like the Angry Bird picture above. Although I must admit that I have no idea how to play Angry Birds, buuuuuut the little birds are sort of cute, so I try every once in awhile, just to see the little birds go flying into space.

 Anyway, go ahead and make the Angry Bird pops or any other idea that comes into your mind.  Cake pop decorating is limited only by your imagination. 

GB2- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!

No-Bake Pink Lemonade Bars



The Oasis Gang trying out the pink lemonade bars while visiting
my Dad after his surgery.  They're smiling!  It must be good...
or maybe they haven't taken their first bite yet...hmmmm...

Summer, I'm sweating over the thought of it. Crazy, right? Well, like everything in this world summer has its pros and cons. Summer's pros are swimming, ice cream, no school, indulging, and lots of free time! But....sadly there are some cons, like hot weather, too much free time, heatstroke, flies, and no more baking....with an oven. But that is why we celebrate our "no-bake" recipes like this one.

The Ingredients

I'm sorry crackers, you're off to the pound.

The secret ingredient is always sugar, always.

No, it's not yogurt, it's good stuff... that doesn't exactly have a name.
Good stuff is a good enough name, right?

Shhh, don't tell anyone that this is just lemonade and I dyed it pink.
You're supposed to use pink lemonade concentrate, but our store didn't have any. =(

Who says three is a crowd?
They look very nice.

This is a perfect last minute recipe for Mother's Day (hint hint), because most mothers like pink, right?

Just click on this recipe to find the instructions.  It only took me about 10 minutes to make and I had plenty of extra pink stuff, so I put it into a little custard cup and made a mini one. I make it a priority to waste as little food as possible.

 

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful

Moms out there!!! 

We took my Mom out for lunch and I had the most amazing shrimp bisque!!! 

Maybe I'll try to make it some time.  And if I do, I'll be sure to blog about it! =)

GB2- God Bless, Go BAKE!!!