MoNsTeR CoOkIeS

I love cookies and anyone that knows me knows I LOVE LOVE LOVE Monster Cookies, in my opinion, Monster Cookies are the best cookies in all of cookie land! I was looking all over for a Monster Cookie recipe and I came across this one and tried it out and loved it! I found this recipe from "Cooking with K"

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon corn syrup
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup (4 ounces, or 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1½ cups chunky peanut butter
4½ cups rolled oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup chocolate chips ( I only added a few of these)
¾ cup Reese’s Pieces ( I used Reese's Peanut Butter Chips instead)
¾ cup M&M’s ( I used much more than this)

**I also added a ton of butterscotch chips as well. It was a fantastic touch!

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the eggs, both sugars, vanilla extract, corn syrup, baking soda and salt. Then stir in the melted butter and peanut butter, followed by the oats and flour. Lastly, stir in the chocolate chips, Reese’s pieces and M&M’s. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes. 

3. Drop the dough by ¼ cupfuls onto baking sheets. Use your fingers to flatten the dough slightly. Baking for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are a light golden brown. Cool on a rack and then store in an airtight container at room temperature. ** I baked mine for about 7-8 minutes so they were nice and gooey! 

Beef Stroganoff

This post is more about my process than a recipe.  You can find beef stroganoff recipes all over the internet, and there are several different ways to prepare it.  This is the method I use, and I'm pretty happy with it!

 First, our ingredients!  You can use any sort of noodles, rice or potatoes that you want, but we've recently become hooked on these frozen egg noodles

 I start by pouring the stock into my crock pot and turning it on to warm up.

Out comes my handy cast iron skillet.  Melt some butter.

Throw in your onions, mushrooms, and garlic.  Saute!  For best results, use high heat and stir frequently.  I usually add some salt and pepper in this step.

 When the veggies are sufficiently cooked, I put half in the crock pot and half in a bowl which goes in the fridge for now.

Return to the now gently used skillet.

 Melt some more butter.

 Throw in your stew meat, plus some more salt and pepper.

Sprinkle on some flour.

You're not trying to get the meat completely cooked, just mostly browned on all sides.  Again, high heat and frequent stirring.

 Put the browned meat in the crock pot.

Look at the mess you've made of your skillet!  Isn't it beautiful?

Turn on the heat and pour in some wine!  I call the next step "simmer and scrape."

You'll wind up with something a lot like this.

Add it to the crock pot, cover, and let cook.  I usually add some parsley at this point.  I start my crock pot on high until it boils, then turn it down to low.

This is what it looks like after a few hours.  It's basically done, the meat is nice and tender.  This is a good point to do a preliminary testing and make flavoring adjustments as needed.  I added a splash more wine.

Once you're almost ready to eat, make your noodles according to package directions.

Add the rest of the veggies.

 And the sour cream.

Mix it all together and do final seasoning adjustments.

Serve over the noodles and enjoy!

Jalapeno Pillows

So my boyfriend LOVES spicy stuff.  I found another recipe from Pillsbury called Jalapeno Pillows.  Made those as part of lunch today and he loved them.  I'll give the recipe as they do, then tell you how he would change them. 

Ingredients

• • 12 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (6 oz)
  • 1/2 cup diced fresh jalapeño chiles (or to taste)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Garlic powder to taste
  • 1 can (16.3 oz) Pillsbury® Grands!® Flaky Layers refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
  • 1 egg
  • Water

  Steps

  • Step 1 Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, stir together cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, chiles, salt, pepper and garlic powder until well combined. Set aside.
  • Step 2 Separate dough into 8 biscuits. With rolling pin, roll out each biscuit into about 1/8-inch-thick round. Spoon about 1 tablespoon cheese filling onto center of each. Bring up dough around filling; pinch to seal tightly. Place seam side down on ungreased cookie sheet.
  • Step 3 To make egg wash, beat egg with splash of water. Brush tops of stuffed biscuits with some of the egg wash. Sprinkle tops with additional salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.  Add a small slice of jalapeño for garnish if you’d like.
  • Step 4  Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown and firm. Serve warm. 

   
  Now here's how we would change it.  When he diced the Jalapeno's he gutted them, then washed them off, then diced them.  But then they lost most of their hotness.  So he would next time just gut them and dice them leaving some of the seeds on the inside.  In addition he said it needed some bacon.  Also we put a piece of Jalapeno on top like it indicated and it didn't come out so well.  Under that piece it didn't cook at all.   So we would leave that off.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the process for this one.  We were making 3 different things at once.  But the link to the website with the recipe is here: Jalapeno Pillows

Apple Pie Twists

So I found on Pillsbury's website a recipe for Apple Pie Twists.  It looked easy so I figured I'd try it.  It called for using Pillsbury's bread sticks, some apple pie filling, and some seasoning.  They came out really good though some adjusting was required.  It called for chopping up the apple pie filling into a rough dice.  Then laying out the bread sticks, and putting the apple pie filling on 6 of them.  I couldn't quite figure out how to do that as the bread sticks were skinnier than I had planned for.  But my wonderful co-cook (my boyfriend) came up with the idea of using a shot glass to smash them out, making it possible.  Then you top it with another bread stick (which he also smashed thin) and twist them.  Next brush on an egg wash, then sprinkle with seasoning.  It called for cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little salt.  We decided after trying it this way that the salt was too much.  Next time I think I'll just use cinnamon, nutmeg and a little sugar.  After that you bake them at 350 degrees for approx. 20 minutes.  Mine took 20 min to look done.  After that let them cool a bit (They will be molten hot inside).  Then enjoy!

Ingredients laid out

My assistant helping while I took pictures!

Finished product!

This is the website I got it from: Spiced Apple Bread sticks! Oh Bite It