Speculoos Cookie Butter

We made a trip to Nashville last week, which was wonderful and a great city. Anyway, we stopped in at Trader Joe's on our way out and picked up many wonderful things including Speculoos cookie butter. Oh my, it is sooooo good. I had to share this with you, because if you ever get the chance to go to TJ's, you MUST buy a bottle of this goodness.

If you do not already know what Trader Joe's is , it is a specialty grocery store that sells everything for WAY less. 80% of the store is private labeled which I am sure helps with cost cuts. 

Oh and that goodness up there...have you ever had those cookies on a Delta airline flight?(I love those cookies.) Speculoos is the Biscoff cinnamon biscuit cookie. Biscoff took the speculoos and made it into a sugary cinnamon peanut butter consistency. (It does not have any nuts in it.) It can be eaten on anything really. Waffles, pancakes, pretzels, bread, ice cream, anything delicious. I have seen it made into a frosting and put on cake....oh man. Right now I am happy sneaking bits with a spoon.

Some other things to try at TJ. The tomato sauce, chocolate, cheese, pizza dough, curry sauces, marinated mushrooms, and soup. We just had the roasted red pepper and tomato soup for dinner. yum. 

TJ is coming to Knoxville! I hope everyone supports. I know I will.

.:Chewy Gooey Peanut Butter Bars:.

I cleaned out my pantry and found several cans of sweetened condensed milk. I had a little bit of peanut butter, some oatmeal, chocolate chips, and walnuts. Surely there is something delicious I can make out of this, right?

So, I started searching recipes with similar ingredients to get an idea of how long It needed to cook.This is what I came up with.

Stephanie's Chewy Gooey Peanut Butter Bars

1 cup of flour

1 cup of oatmeal

3/4 cups of brown sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1/2 cup cold butter

1/3 cup of chopped walnuts

1/3 chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, and egg in a medium bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or you can do what I did and took a wire whisk and used that to mash up my butter. Reserve 1 cup of crump mix and press the rest into the bottom of a baking dish. I used a small dish that was around 8x8 you can also use 9x13 for a thinner bar. 

Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Beat sweet condensed milk, peanut butter and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until well combined. Spread over partially baked crust.

Take the reserved crumbs and mix in salt, walnuts, and chocolate chips and crumble over the top.

Bake for 25-30 minuets until it is nicely brown on top and the mixture looks cooked through.( Does not have  the glossy unbaked look on top. 

Allow to cool for 10 minuets and then cut into bars. 

YUM!

Chewy on the outside, gooey in the middle.

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Say hello to my new red best friend....

I got this baby for Christmas and I didn't even ask for her. My husband is awesome and knew what I wanted but wouldn't ask for.

My heart melts every time I walk into the kitchen and see her sitting there all shinny on the counter. If you were one of those people who said "psh, I don't need some fancy kitchen aid stand mixer". I got news for yah, You have no idea what you are missing out on. Just sayin....oh and just to put it out there that I am not cool enough to be one of those people who gets paid to advertise on their blog. I am not that advanced in blogging and kitchen aid has no idea who I am.

Lets get on to these cookies...

Chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt (I often use a half teaspoon, but I like more salt in my baked goods)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Cream together butter and brown sugar until it starts to become light and fluffy. Then add an egg and whip until well combined. If you are using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment. Then add vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together  flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Switch to your paddle attachment and then slowly add the flour to the sugar. Mix only for a few seconds until well combined. Then add in oats and chocolate chips also mixing for a few seconds. 

Now, here is the hard part. To make these cookies fluffy and crisp they need to sit in the fridge for half an hour or the freezer for ten to fifteen min. I got my oven to start pre-heating and then stuck them in the freezer and went about cleaning up my mess. Trust me, they will taste better.

I made my cookies large and baked them for about 11 mins. Just until the outside was golden but the middle is still a little under-cooked looking on the top. Let cool for ten min. and then EAT!

YUM!

.:Rolled Pages Mirror:.

This weekend my goal was to start and finish a project. After a night of pinteresting I had a few Idea's of what I wanted to do. I got this idea here.

What you will need:
Hot glue gun
a few old books
small mirror
Card board
lots of time....
a good movie to watch


This will require at least a movie's worth of page rolling. It was worth it to me though because the finished project looks great on my wall.

I bought two books at goodwill. A thick 500 page book that I roughly used 150 pages from as well as a smaller paper back that was old and the pages had turned brown that I used roughly 150 pages from.

Here is an idea of the difference in size between the two. I did that so I could layer them.

I started by cutting a large doughnut out of cardboard. Actually, I cheated by buying the round cardboard pieces that you put cake on, found in the craft section at wal-mart. I cut a whole in the middle that my mirror would fit snugly into. Then I reinforced the mirror by putting a gluing strips of cardboard behind and gluing it to the doughnut. Hope that makes sense :/

Then I cut my pages out.

Then I rotated between rolling and gluing pages around the mirror. This took a few hours. Start with big rolls all the way around to give it volume and then layer with skinny and short pages.

Make sure you lay them thick and evenly or you will have to do like me and go in and add more after you are done to make it look symmetrical all the way around.


I wish I took more pictures as I was layering and gluing. However, my glue gun broke and I had to post pone the project till I used my mother-in-law's glue gun.

It worked out though because I had wonderful company and help as I finished my project. We were really good at rolling pages by the end of the project.

Starting to get to the finish line. At this point, we hung it on the wall and looked to see where we needed to add more. Then, we flipped it over and glued them in. You can see here where I took the small yellow/brown page book and layered it on the top to make the wreath two toned.

I took some pictures after the fact of things I would of liked to know while doing this project:

I understand that rolling pages might be easy. It took me awhile to get it down and I wished that I had had a step-by-step to give me an idea. So I have made one.

                                                                     

                                                                                            

                                                                                                             glue the end .

to make a tighter cone ^

oh, when I went to walmart to get some supplies....I found this goody in the baking section:

That says SNACK SIZE. Perfect for my house hold where I am the only one who eats brownies. Also, perfect for some of you single ladies who want brownies but don't want to eat a whole pan. .92$ by the way. I used a small dish...around 9x6 it suggests an 8x8. whatever...they were delicious.

happy rolling!!!!!

.:my famous beans and rice:.

How does something earn the title "famous"?

In my book I  would say...when lots of people like it and ask you for the recipe. Well, this is a super easy thing to make. It doesn't taste like your typical beans and rice, so people are always shocked when they try it. Its tangy and savory and delicious and makes great left overs and freezes well and and and and and.....

The credit for this goes to my mom. She adapted it off the back of a can of beans. I adapted it from what I

saw her make. I love it.

The amount of ingredients depends on how much you want to make. I love the leftovers and usually make enough for 10 + servings.

Start with some bacon. You can use bacon bits, a few slices, or none at all. Sometimes I use it most of the time I don't because I rarely have bacon on hand. The rest of the ingredients however I keep stocked in my pantry because this meal can be whipped up on a whim.

Some bacon

1 onion chopped

5 garlic cloves chopped

24 oz jar of pace salsa

4 cans of beans ( I mix black and pinto)

half a lime give or take

cilantro( dried or fresh)

Tabasco sauce

salt 

pepper

Rice

butter

chicken stock

water

Before you start the beans....get the rice going. I picked up some tips on how to cook delicious rice from a "Julia's Kitchen Tips" book and adapted it a little bit. Start by sauteing the rice in a little bit of butter to get some flavor in it. I usually make 2 cups of rice for my husband and I( 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of liquid) and will make more rice as we eat more left overs. 

After the rice takes on a bit of color and a nutty smell add your liquid. I use half water and half chicken stock  PLUS two extra tablespoons of water so that my rice is not dry. It will make it nice and fluffy with that little boost of water. Get it boiling with the lid on and let it boil for 7-10 mins(you will see the rice start to absorb the water but at this point there is still about an inch of water on top of the rice). Then turn the heat to low and leave it alone until your meal is finished. Do not open the lid during this point. It will let the steam out. I usually leave mine for ten to fifteen extra mins. Once you are ready to serve up the rice take off the lid and fluff your rice with a fork. YUM. 

If you want to add chicken to your meal then cook up some chicken with a little bit of salt and pepper and set it aside to add it to your beans after they get started. I like to use left overs from a rotisserie chicken.

If you are going to use bacon cook that up real quick, drain the fat leaving just a little in the frying pan  and set the bacon aside. Saute your onions in the same pan you fried your bacon in until they are fragrant and translucent. If you are not using bacon then add a little vegetable oil to a frying pan. When it smokes, throw in your onions and start sauteing.

Add your garlic and cook for 1-2 mins until you start to smell it!

drain the beans and add it to the pan mixture along with the salsa, chopped or dried cilantro, lime juice,chicken, bacon, and salt and pepper. Allow it to cook on medium bubbling nicely, for about 20 mins or more. Your mouth will start to water at this point. When it smells ready or you just can't take it any more throw in a few dashes of Tabasco sauce and dish yourself up some rice and beans.

I hope this works for you. I change it all the time adding things or NOT adding things when I am out of stuff. Really what makes this good is the tanginess that the salsa and lime bring to it as well as the earthiness of the cilantro.

Happy Cooking!

p.s. K-Dat, call me if you have any questions. Besides I would love to hear your voice.

POST UPDATE:

Made this dish the other night and added a fried egg and avacado.... DELICIOUS.