S'more Bars

I always view s'mores as a nostalgic summer treat.  There's just something so cool about melting marshmallows over a fire and smooshing them in graham crackers and chocolate.  What's not so cool, is the mess.  Everytime I ate them, I think I ended up with it more on my face/hair/hands than in my tummy. 

Low and behold, I found a recipe for s'more bars from Lovin in the Oven.

S'more Bars from Lovin in the Oven

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (do not use melted marshmallows!)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt.  Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.

Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough, breaking them if necessary in order to fit.  Spread over the chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff.  Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned.  Cool completely before cutting into bars.




Stay classy,
Heidi

Pineapple Lemonade Punch

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start to summer and with the temperatures lately, it definitely feels like summer. 

I wanted to make a nice little drink for the holiday and I came across one through Pinterest.  This drink came from Froggy and the Mouse. 

One cup of lemonade mix (I used Countrytime).  Two cups of water.  A 46 ounce can of chilled pineapple juice.  Two cans of chilled Sprite.  Mix all of it together.

The BF and I thought the pineapple was a little too sweet, but we added some Bacardi rum and it drowned out some of the sweet.  It was actually a little hard to taste the rum...which could be a bad thing.  I had 2 glasses of this stuff and I had a bit of a buzz.  It's a nice adult ending to a hot day :)

I also got my Warby Parkers a couple of days ago, and I'm in love with them.  I find them to be really flattering on my face and they were so much cheaper that going to LensCrafters.  I lurve them...

Stay classy,
Heidi

Cheesy Chicken Empanadas

Continuing onto the Mexican finger food fix I've been in lately, I made these awesome empanadas, courtesy of Kraft Foods. 

It was a little involved so I didn't think of taking "during" pictures.

I happened to have shredded chicken from a rotesserie chicken, so this recipe worked out for me.  The sweet from the pie dough made a nice match with the savory chicken and cheese and spicy chili powder.

Cheesy Chicken Empanadas
from Kraft Recipes

2 c shredded cooked chicken
1 c shredded cheese
1/3 c chipotle flavored mayonaisse
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1 pkg of ready-to-use refridgerated pie crusts (get a pkg with 2 crusts)
1 tsp chili powder (I actually used more)

Heat the oven to 375F.

Combine the chicken, cheese, mayonaisse and cilantro.  Then whisk the egg and water together.

Unroll the pir crusts on a lightly floured surface.  Flatten each crust to about 12 inches using a rolling pin.  With a biscuit cutter (I actually used a jar lid), cut out about 4 inch circles in the dough.  You'll have to reflatten the dough at some point.  Place the circles on a lined baking sheet.  Spoon some of the chicken mixture into the center of each circle.  Brush the edge of the circle with the egg wash.  Fold the filled circles in half, pressing them slightly to release any excess air and seal the edges with a fork.  Brush the tops with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle them with chili powder.

Bake for 15 minutes or until they're golden brown.

And this is the Kraft version.  Looks much better.

Stay classy,
Heidi 

Butternut Squash and Chorizo Quesadilas

I love a good Mexican meal.  I also love finger food.  And that brings me to quesadillas.  There's just something about a crisp tortilla filled with meat and cheese.  It makes me all warm inside...

Lauren's Latest had this amazing idea.  Butternut squash and mexican pork.  What!?  Before, I've never ventured away from chicken and/or beef quesadillas and I'm ridiculously happy I did.  It wasn't until recently that I've even started using chorizo.  Let me tell you, it is AMAZING.  I don't care what body part of the pig it is, because it is delicious.

This recipe has a good blend of spicy from the meat and sweet from the squash.  On this particular recipe run, I think my squash-to-meat ratio was a little off (but still lick-your-plate good), so I'm going to try less squash next time.

Quick recipe:
Roast cut up butternut squash pieces.  Cook chorizo.  Add sliced onions and black beans.  Add spices.  Mix in the roasted squash.  Butter a pan and top a tortilla with cheese and this stuff.  Add cheese and top with another tortilla.  Make your quesadilla!

Longer recipe:
Butternut Squash and Chorizo Quesadillas
(adapted from Lauren's Latest)

1 small butternut squash, peeled & diced into small cubes (about 2 cups)
olive oil
salt & pepper
12 oz. package pork chorizo
1 small onion, sliced
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
cumin (I eyeballed it)
shredded cheddar cheese (I like my quesadillas really gooey and unhealthy, so it's up to you for how much you want to use)medium size tortillas
butter
sour cream, guacamole, salsa

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss butternut squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake 15-20 minutes or until softened.

Unwrap the chorizo and break apart in a hot skillet. Cook chorizo until the texture starts to resemble ground beef (I had to cut my chorizo into small pieces so mine never resembled ground beef).  Remove the chorizo to a paper towel lined bowl and set aside. If there’s a lot of extra grease from the chorizo, wipe out the pan.

Saute onions in a pan with olive oil. Once the onions start to soften, stir in garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Stir in the cooked chorizo, roasted squash, beans and cumin. Set aside.
To assemble quesadillas, preheat large skillet over medium heat. Melt butter and place a tortilla into the pan. Top with cheese, filling, and more cheese. Top with another tortilla. Flip once the tortilla has browned. Brown the other side of the quesadilla and remove from the heat. Stand 3 minutes and slice into wedges. Serve with sour cream, salsa and guacamole.



Stay classy,
Heidi

Embarrasing Story Time

Oh boy.  It's been over 10 days since my last post.  I do remember saying that I was gonna try to post at least once a week.  There weren't extenuating circumstances for my lack of blog enthusiasm.  I was just plain lazy and didn't get to it.

As a punishment, I'm gonna share an embarrassing story!

In college, during the first week of classes, I walked into the wrong class.  I didn't know this until I walked in (late by the way) and sat down into an empty seat.  I looked around and didn't recognize anyone.  "Huh," I thought.  In my head, I was thinking that since this was the second or third class, everyone must've dropped in and new students enrolled.  Then the professor walked in and that's when it hit me I was in the wrong class.  To save my pride, I pretended I was supposed to be there.  The roster was called (which I obviously was not on) and the professor asked me who I was.  I said I just registered and must've missed making the roster.  He believed it.  The syllabus was handed out and I sat through the class, all the while, I was missing my actual class taking place across the hall.  Both classes even let out at the same time, and the people I recognized in my real class saw me come out of my accidental class.  My friend asked why I was there and I just never answered her.  Now what made the whole thing embarrassing was the fact that I was not a freshman, but a fourth year student that was pretty familiar with the campus, and the class I went to was a freshman class.



Stay classy my friends,
Heidi

One Cat Feeds All...

Our cat is one of the strangest cats I know of.  He loves boxes and it's hilarious to see his big hips and fat belly squeeze into a 12 can soda box.  Recently, we got a taco party pack from Taco Bell, and he fell in love with the box.  After a couple of days, Monkey usually tears up the box, but he's kept his little taco condo for awhile.

 

A couple of days later, I found this guy passed out in it.

Our dog gets jealous of the cat all the time.  We were giving all of our attention to him, so we wanted to see what Gypsy would do if we put her in the box...

And I got my new TOMS!  So excited.  They're already broken in and now my Sanuks are getting a little heartbroken I'm not wearing them as much.

Stay classy my friends,

Heidi