Giveaway on True Blue Abbi

True Blue Abbi  is hosting a huge giveaway for Valentine's, check it out! :)

Experiment XX: Status -- Crashed and Burned

So I saw a brilliant idea on Pintrest the other day: cookie bowls. They were made by spreading cookie dough over the bottom of a muffin tin and baking it into the bowl shape. Like a genius, I assumed I would be able to do it and didn't bother looking up directions.

Anticipated outcome:

Actual outcome:

Yeah... Not exactly what I had in mind either. Oh well. I think that I will crush the scraps and put them on ice cream. I mean, can't waste them, right?

Dante

And here he is: the new pet. You all knew I would get something else after my bird went away, so here it is. This little guy's name is Dante. (after the writer of the Inferno)

Just For You

Dear Moira,

This is just for you as I know that I should post more on my blog solely for your enjoyment. :D :D
I had an awesome time yesterday (I'm still getting over the lizard scarring incident). And our hair dos were pretty amazing too. I can't wait for the play! We should become professional hair stylists.... even though it took us 23 bobbi pins. Oops. BY THE WAY: have you gotten Safe and Sound out of your head yet? If you have, it's now re-implanted due to the typed out title, so yeah. enjoy! If you can't remember the lyrics, or just try really hard not to, here are some other songs that you may consider: A Thousand Years, Jar of Hearts, Break Your Heart, Tell Me Why.... I just keepa goin'. :D But I won't.

This is to help you grasp the full scope of our awesomeness. <3


---------- Rachel ----------

Happy Valentine's!

A flower from my amazing dad. Love you Dad!!

Peanut Butter Fudge Hearts

     Here is yet another Valentine's day recipe! Last week, I put up directions for Maine Valentine's and Candy-Cookie hearts so now, here is my final recipe before Valentine's Day. After the day itself, there's no need for recipes because everyone can gorge themselves on half-price chocolate!

     This recipe is from our ancient and well-used copy of Betty Crocker's Cookbook.

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup of milk
1 cup peanut butter
2 T. light corn syrup*
2 t. vanilla
4 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

*Corn syrup isn't something we usually keep around so I used this recipe to make a substitute.

Directions:
Mix sugar, peanut butter, milk, and corn syrup in a 2-quart sauce pan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring frequently. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Cool, without stirring, till bottom of pan is lukewarm, about 45 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Stir in powdered sugar, a cup at a time, until mixture is very stiff. Press into a greased 8x8 pan (I used a 9" circle pan). Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.


In order to get the hearts, I used a cookie cutter after the fudge was set. Because the fudge was thicker than the cutter was tall, I pressed it down as far as possible and then used small tongs to pull out the cutter and shape.

Place shape on a piece of foil, or a plate, or whatever you want. Use your fingers to keep pressure on the shape and gently lift the cutter.

Mine turned out really, really well. You could really do any shape you wanted as long as it didn't have tiny pieces and edges; small projections would probably break off. I wrapped some in foil for my family for Valentine's day:

All the little pieces left over from cutting out the shapes I cut up and put in a bowl. Wonder how long that will last. ;) Enjoy and... don't get a stomach ache!

Candy Valentine's Hearts

These are super easy Valentine's hearts with a candy middle. You can do them any shape though for any occasion. Stars work well as do leaves.

Use this sugar cookie recipe and make 1 batch. Roll it out. For each cookie, cut out 1 large heart.

Remove the dough from around it and cut a smaller heart out of the middle.

I ordered a set of five heart cookie cutters from King Arthur Flour. The largest is the outside of the cookie and the smallest is the inside heart.








Transfer this frame to a baking sheet.

Now, for the candy part. Take a handful of Jolly Ranchers, unwrap them, place them in a Ziploc bag, and then put that bag into a paper bag, and crush them with a hammer. The pieces need to be very small. If you want to center to be a specific color, you'll have to separate the colors before you crush them. If you don't, it will turn out either marbled (which would be very cool) or brown (which would not be very cool).
Fill the frame with crushed candy-- but do not over fill!!

Bake however the recipe says to. When they come out of the oven, the candy should be liquid and bubbling.

Leave them on the tray for at least 10 minutes. When the candy is clear and the cookie is cool, try lifting just the edge. If the candy peels off the tray and stays with the cookie, it's cool enough to move it to a cooling rack. If you try to move it too soon, the candy will get messed up and stick to everything.

You could always frost the frames but I like them plain.
Back to the note about overfilling the frame, this is what it looks like when you overfill it:

This was not on purpose. I overfilled the first one I made. Oops.

I made these for my classmates in a few classes and I wrapped them in tin foil to keep them clean and make it look nice.

Place cookie on piece of tin foil. 

Fold top and bottom over.

Fold left side into a triangle.

Fold the triangle over the cookie. Fold the other side over and flip over.

I pressed the edges to make the heart show up but you don't have to.
Sharpies show up well on the tin foil so I used a red one.

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!