Three C Stuffies

Okay, first off I have to say you guys sure know how to make a girl feel loved. I though that some might notice I'd stopped posting, but I never thought I would receive such a warm welcome coming back and posting to my blog. Honestly, it's been a really nice surprise being that I felt a little sheepish coming back after so long of not posting. But I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has given me such a warm welcome back.

This week should be fun and hectic. Me and a couple other girls are headed to California Friday, with our little girls for a kind of "No Boys Aloud" getaway on the beach. So I'll be packing and catching up on things before then. I've also been playing with an idea for a recipe. Chocolate Chunk Amaretto Dessert Rolls. Hopefully I'll be creating and posting that recipe before I go. Depending on how the "creating" part goes that is :).

A couple of hints for this recipe before I go. You can get caramel extract at either Walmart, or from time to time I've seen it at Bashas'. I've never seen it anywhere else, but it really gives the cookie dough just that little bit extra caramel flavor so don't just go without. Also, yes I know there is not salt in the dough recipe. I don't know if it's the nuts that does it, but if you add salt to the dough, it makes the cookies just a little too salty so that's why I left it out. Other then that, Enjoy!!

Printable Recipe

Caramel Cookie Dough

1 cup of butter, 2 sticks

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon caramel extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Chocolate, Caramel, Coconut & Walnut Stuffing

2 tablespoons flour

3/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1/3 cup roughly chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons ice cream topping caramel

1 tablespoon melted butter

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, separated

In a large mixing bowl add butter and sugars. 

Cream together on medium speed.

Add eggs, vanilla, and caramel extract.

Mix together well.

In a sperate bowl mix together dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix together on low speed.

Take dough and place in refrigerator while preparing cookie stuffing.

Start preparing cookie stuffing by combining flour, coconut, caramel, walnuts and butter in a medium bowl.

After all this time, I have to admit, I'm still addicted to pouring pictures.

I substituted plain caramel for this butterscotch caramel. I love the flavor, but either will do.

Using a fork stir all ingredients together.

Add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and fold in to coconut mixture. Remove dough from fridge and heat oven to 350 degrees.

Take a small ball of dough, a little bit smaller then a golfball, and shape into a bowl. Place coconut stuffing in the center and massage dough over the top of stuffing.

Once center is completely covered by dough, roll cookie between hands to round cookie and place on cookie sheet about 1/2 inch apart.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes until cookies have flattened out some and the bottom edges touching the cookie sheet start to brown slightly. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes.

Place 1/4 cup chocolate chips into a glass bowl and heat in microwave for 30 second intervals until chocolate is smooth with no unmelted chunks. Stir in between intervals. Pipe or drizzle chocolate over tops of cookies.

Printable Recipe

Extreme BLT

Hey Guys, Just thought I'd quickly shoot one more recipe your way before Father's Day tomorrow. My man is in love with all things spicy, so the thought hit me to put a little spin on one of our all time favorite sandwiches. I resisted the urge to throw some jalapenos on there, being that it's kind of a breakfast sandwich, and I felt that might have been a little too much. But the pepper jack cheese and spicy ranch does give a really yummy kick to this traditional favorite.

Let me know what you think!! Enjoy your Saturday and Happy Father's Day!!

Printable Recipe

Extreme BLT
serving size: 1 large sandwich

2 pieces of Sheepherder Bread or bread of your choice
Mayo
Spicy Ranch Dressing
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 an avocado, sliced
3 or 4 leafs of iceberg lettuce
2 slices of pepper jack cheese
6 pieces of bacon
ground black pepper

Prepare and slice tomatoes, avocado, lettuce, and pepper jack cheese. Set aside.

Coat 1 side of each slice of bread with first a thin layer of mayo, and then a little bit thicker layer of spicy ranch.

Here is about what you want to aim for. Thicker then the mayo, but just enough to give your sandwich some pop. Probably about 1 tablespoon of mayo to 2 or 3 tablespoons of spicy ranch per slice. Set aside.

Begin to brown bacon over medium to medium high heat, seasoning each side with ground black pepper. Flip as needed.

As bacon is cooking, start assembling sandwich by first layering lettuce over the bottom slice of bread. Then topping with sliced avocado. Set aside.

Place cooked bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels. Pat off access grease then immediately place onto avocado slices and top with pepper jack cheese.

Top cheese with tomato slices and add final slice of bread. Serve immediately while bacon is still hot.

Printable Recipe

Recipe from RecipeSnobs.com.

Father's Day Lineup!!

Hey Guys!! So obviously it's been a while since I've posted. I feel like I should give some kind of explanation, but to keep it short, life happened. The main contributor was that we took my oldest gluten free. If you don't know what that means, it means that we took wheat and most other grains out of his diet. Yeah. Huge adjustment. Had me just shy of a complete nerves breakdown. So to save my sanity I cut out pretty much anything that was not a complete necessity. My son is still gluten free, but we've learned how to live with the changes and now I'm ready to pick things up somewhat where I left off.

Although there will be some changes. For instance, you'll be seeing an assortment of gluten free and regular recipes from now on. I know there is a lot of you that aren't gluten free, but please don't be afraid to give these recipes a try. You can also easily modify most recipes too by just subbing for regular or gluten free flour to fit your lifestyle, so I hope this doesn't detract any of you from trying a recipe.

To catch you all up on what we have been up to since I last posted, other then adjusting to eating gluten free, we moved at the end of February to our new home. I love it here. We have an acre all to ourselves, and I've already gotten 3 goats and 5 chickens.

Isn't she so cute!! I intend on having a full fledged farm before long, but I'm still warming my hubby up to the idea :) But soon I'd like to get some horses, maybe a milking cow, and a miniature pig to go with my nigerian dwarf goats.

After moving in, my husband decided to take our plan to "eventually update", into full on demo!! I agree, that the house needed it, as you can see from the before pictures above, but we had just moved in and gotten settled. It was a lot to take on all at once, but surprisingly it all only took 3 1/2 weeks, and was so worth the inconvenience of living in a construction zone. 

 

  

Here is everything after. I am still in the process of putting my kitchen together. Since everything from my kitchen was in totes in the garage. We'll just say that it all needs a good cleaning before it's put in it's proper place. Which is taking twice as long as it normally would being that when you remodel and tear down walls and chip up tile, things get really, really dusty. So while I have a notebook full of ideas, cooking and baking has yet to occur in this kitchen. Shouldn't be to much longer though :)

In the meantime I wanted to list some of my old favorite recipes that would be perfect for Father's Day!! Enjoy!! And new recipes will be coming soon!!

Breakfast In Bed Idea's!!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Bacon Potato and Cheddar Frittata

Ultimate Sticky Buns

Stuffed French Toast

Desserts for Dad!!

Snickers Brownies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Chocolate Rolo Cookies

S'mores Monkey Bread

Oreo and Peanut Butter Brownie Cakes

Peanut Buttercup Cheesecake

I realized after picking all these desserts that my current chocolate addiction is showing ;) Have an awesome weekend!!

Giveaway Winner!! and A Complete Wreck of a Kitchen

First, lets get to the giveaway winner!! I like to do things the old fashion way, but can I just say, Man this was a lot of writing! But now for the big moment!! And the winner is!!

Congratulations Katie Eckelmann from Chicago!! So excited for you :) and I hope you get as much use out of your new Dutch Oven as I do!!

I'm afraid I don't have a recipe to post today because until today my kitchen has been a construction zone. We have been renovating/remodeling and decided to do crown molding. Well between my kitchen, family room, and master bedroom it's been nothing but work around here for the past week and, as a result,  hasn't given me much of a chance to squeeze into my kitchen and cook/bake. Here is the molding inside of my bedroom before getting painted.

And here is what my kitchen and family room looked like yesterday. I felt like I was contaminated with some disease and in an isolation bubble. Just best to get my already stir crazy kids out of the house at this point :/ But now you see why not a whole lot of baking has been going on.

And the finished molding!! Ok, so I still have some cleaning to do, and I still have to paint past my kitchen, but you get the general idea. So today, I'm getting back to some well needed time in the kitchen. I'm thinking bread today. Maybe banana. Been craving that something fierce :) Have an awesome day and I'll see you soon with some yummy recipes!!

Sopapilla Cheesecake & Some Big Changes!!

Do you guys ever get to where you feel like everything in your life needs a little change? Maybe it's just me. Perhaps, since I'm inching closer to the big 3.0., I'm going through a mid-midlife crisis. But I've been feeling like everything needs a good updating!!

First, I started on my house. The before color was just coming in on me. So lighter and brighter we go, not to mention, a whole lot less country then before.

So, I'm not done yet. Still need to get some valances, pictures, and a few little space fillers, but it's a good start!!

Here is the inspiration behind my remodel. I still have yet to find an old door that I love, but that will be an addition to.

So far though, I'm loving how it's turning out. A little masculine, a little feminine, a touch of shabby chic, and completely my style :)

Recipe Snobs

More changes to come. You might be noticing my new watermarks on my photography. Yes, we are changing the name of my blog. Finally!! Been wanting to do this F.O.R.E.V.E.R!! But I'm horrible with the techie computer side of things, so haven't been able to. But we are going to be migrating from "Food Snots" to "Recipe Snobs" this week. I know there was a lot of you that have expressed attachment to the old name, and me as well, will be a little sad to see it go. But I feel we were able to keep the same feel and humor with the new name, so I'm hopeful that everyone will stay with me despite the change. I have already started moving stuff, but the one thing that wont transfer to a new name is the Facebook Page for my blog. You'll have to go and like this page separately (click here to do so). In a way, I feel like I'm starting from square one all over again, which is a bit discouraging, and worrisome thinking that there may be a lot of people that don't make the change with me. But I just need to keep looking at the positives, and in the long run, I'm hoping this will be a necessary change that will benefit my blog later.

Just one last thing that I want to sharing from my world here in The Valley of the Sun, aka Phoenix Arizona. We have been having an amazing monsoon season!!

I love love love monsoon season. We actually get to experience weather!! Don't get me wrong. I love the three hundred and sixty odd day of sun we get a year, but it's nice for a change sometimes :) I took these pictures right before a big thunder storm hit and before I had to save my camera from the dust and retreat indoors to watch with fascinations. Brings to mind one of my most favorite saying, "God must be a painter."

Oh and I almost forgot!! The giveaway is open till Friday! Click here to Enter!!

Printable Recipe

Sopapilla Cheesecake

     2 cans crescent seamless dough sheet
     2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
     1 cup + 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
     1 teaspoon vanilla extract
     1/4 cup butter, melted
     Cinnamon, as per taste

Unroll and spread 1 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and remaining sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Let cool on cooling rack for 10 minutes. Serve warm. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Printable Recipe

Recipe altered from myellowumbrella.blogspot.com. Pallet idea from www.homedit.com. Vintage door shelving from bulbtoblossom.com