Magic Cookie Bars

Magic Cookie Bars

• 1 stick of butter
• 1 1/2 cups of crushed graham cracker
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 can swetened condensed milk

Directions:

1. Preheat to 350.
2. Melt the stick of butter in a 13x9 pan, making sure it's evenly distributed.
3. Add the graham crackers, making a traditional crust.
4. Add the following ingredients in a layer on top of the crust; walnuts, chocolate chips, coconut.
5. drizzle the condensed milk on top.
6. bake for 20-30 minutes.

Overall: These might have been my favorite cookies of the night. They were made by alli's roommate and when we walked into the apartment, these were in to oven baking. They are so good =) I asked for the recipe so I could try and replicate. Super awesome.

Christmas Cookies!

Let me explain:




Hope that was good enough... ONTO COOKIES



Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 (14oz) can condensed milk
• 6 tablespoons crushed peppermint candies
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or peppermint)
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips, over a double boiler or carefully in the microwave.
3. Combine the melted chocolate chips with 1 can condensed milk. Mix thoroughly.
4. Add the egg, vanilla, melted butter, and about half the crushed peppermint. Stir to combine.
5. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa.
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
7. Once combined, add the remining chocolate chips.
8. Cook for 7-10 minutes. Remove and sprinkle some peppermint on each cookie. Finish cooking for about 2 minutes.


Overall: So since the semester is almost over, the regular girls night crew, plus some new awesome faces, decided to go out with a bang. Cookie style. These cookie's were found by Alli. These were awesome. Love! Be warned, they are very very chocolaty, so make sure you have a cup of milk handy with each cookie.

Turkey day

Happy Turkey day to everyone celebrating.

This is Halloween

So my eyeballs were a hit last night. They were gone within 15 minutes of me being there and they weren't even on the main display table!

Scary Eyeballs-
1 box doughnut holes
2 bags white chocolate
1 bag lifesaver gummies
1 bag mini m&ms

Directions
1. Melt chocolate over a double boiler, add about 1 tbsp of whole milk and mix together. It should be a bit runnier than normal melted chocolate.
2. Remove from heat. Dip doughnut holes in white chocolate
3. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Once all doughnuts dipped, refrigerate for about 30 minutes...
4. Take them out, assemble eyes as shown...

OVERALL:

Oh boy the fiasco of dealing with melted chocolate. I ruined 2 batches of white chocolate because I didn't know I was suppose to add milk for dipping. Once I added the milk we had, which was NOT whole milk and was a bit runnier than I would have liked. See how the chocolate looks more like a glaze? But anyways, That worked well and my roommate mentioned we could also use Oil instead of work. So thinking that I might as well see which one is better, we do the oil for the last batch... and it turns out horrible. It did not coat as evenly as the chocolate with the milk did. But everyone liked them... For added effect I got raspberry jelly doughnut holes. Yeah it's not accurate but it's awesome!

Vitamins

It's interesting being a science major. After semester of calculating velocities and memorizing mechanisms in organic chemistry, I've stumbled across a class that actually has some practical applications... you know if you aren't going to graduate school for physics or chemistry... which I'm not.

Biochemistry. Yes it sounds intimidating, but I assure you there are hidden interesting nuggets to be found. After our second exam memorizing tons of pathways (can I get a Kreb's Cycle Woot Woot!) our professor lectured on something I found to be extremely interesting.

Vitamins!

Yes, remember those things that your mother made you take every morning? Maybe that was just mine... But here are some that I though would be applicable to the college student... or anyone for that matter:

Vitamin B1 (the one I found most important...)

According to our professor, almost 60% of the population has a vitamin B1 deficiency. Vitamin B1 (or Thiamine) is critical in energy pathways of the body. Mild cases of vitamin B1 deficiency present as fatigue and depression. Ringing any bells among college students? Not even kidding, I've been taking a regular old multivitamin and I've been less tired since I've started taking them... Thank you biochemistry! Here's some more tidbits you might like to know!

For the record, Most daily vitamin pills contain a Vitamin B complex, which contains a whole slew of vitamin B's for your body's pleasure. See:

B vitamins are found in all whole, unprocessed foods. Processing, as with sugar and white flour, tends to significantly reduce B vitamin content. B vitamins are particularly concentrated in meat, and other good sources are potatoes, bananas, lentils, chile peppers, tempeh, beans, liver oil, liver, turkey, tuna, nutritional yeast, brewer's yeast, and molasses.

300-calorie dinners

Almond-Crusted Pork with Honey-Mustard Dipping Sauce (recipe follows)—Sliced almonds add a delectable, almost-like-fried-chicken crunch to the breading for these tender pieces of pork. We slice the pork thinly to keep the cooking time quick. The resulting pork “fingers” are great dipped in this surprisingly simple, delicious honey, soy and mustard sauce.

Catfish & Potato Hash—Hash isn’t just for corned beef. It’s also great made with catfish—or other flaky white fish. Any ham adds flavor to the hash, but we think a higher-quality smoked ham will give you the biggest flavor-bang for your buck. Serve with a poached egg on top and a green salad.

Sweet Potato-Peanut Bisque—This satisfying vegetarian sweet potato soup is inspired by the flavors of West African peanut soup. We like the added zip of hot green chiles, but they can sometimes be very spicy. It’s best to take a small bite first and add them to taste. Try chopped peanuts and scallions for a different garnish. Serve with a mixed green salad with vinaigrette.

Lemon Chicken Stir-Fry—Spiked with lots of zesty lemon, this delectable chicken stir-fry has a colorful mix of snow peas, carrots and scallions. But feel free to substitute other thinly sliced vegetables, such as bell peppers or zucchini. Serve with: Rice noodles or brown rice.

Almond-Crusted Pork with Honey-Mustard Dipping Sauce

1 cup coarse dry breadcrumbs, preferably whole-wheat (see Note)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 large egg white, beaten
1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices

Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Set a wire rack on a baking sheet and coat it with cooking spray.
2. Place breadcrumbs, almonds, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a food processor; pulse until the almonds are coarsely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a shallow dish.
3. Place egg white in another shallow dish. Dip both sides of each pork slice in egg white, then evenly coat with the almond mixture. (Discard any remaining egg white and almond mixture.) Place the pork on the prepared rack and coat on both sides with cooking spray.
4. Bake the pork until golden brown and no longer pink in the center, 16 to 18 minutes.
5. Meanwhile/, whisk honey, soy sauce and mustard in a small bowl. Serve the pork with the honey-mustard sauce.

Makes 4 servings.

Per serving: 299 calories; 7 g fat (1 g sat, 4 g mono); 74 mg cholesterol; 30 g carbohydrate; 29 g protein; 3 g fiber; 561 mg sodium; 562 mg potassium. Nutrition bonus: Potassium & Zinc (16% daily value).

Note: We like Ian’s brand of coarse dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs, labeled “Panko breadcrumbs.” Find them in the natural-foods section of large supermarkets. To make your own breadcrumbs, trim crusts from firm sandwich bread. Tear the bread into pieces and process in a food processor until coarse crumbs form. Spread the breadcrumbs on a baking sheet and bake at 250°F until dry and crispy, about 15 minutes. One slice of bread makes about 1/3 cup dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs.

- from yahoo (Carolyn Malcoun)

Tapa: Crema de Cabrales (sorta...)

• ¼ pound blue cheese (the Spanish variety is cabrales, but gorgonzola or roquefort may be used)
• 2 teaspoons raisins
• 1 Tablespoon white grape juice or cider
• 1 Tablespoon cream
• 2 Tablespoons apple, finely chopped (about half a peeled apple)
• 2 Tablespoons walnuts, finely chopped
• ⅛ teaspoon dried thyme

Procedure

1. Remove blue cheese from refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature (let it sit on the counter for an hour or more).
2. Soak the raisins in the fruit juice for 20 minutes.
3. Using a spoon, remove the raisins from the juice and set aside.
4. When the cheese has reached room temperature, place it in a small mixing bowl.
5. Add the cream and fruit juice.
6. Using a fork or wooden spoon, combine ingredients until smooth.
7. Stir in raisins, apple, walnuts, and thyme.
8. Serve with crackers.

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Found this on the internet while searching for spanish foods. Okay, so the ONLY thing I did differently was use goat cheese instead of bleu cheese, mainly because a few of my friends don't like bleu cheese. But this came out wonderfully! It's a little rich with the goat cheese, but well worth every bite.