Different Flavors of Homemade Cheese It-style Crackers

Ingredients
-8 ounces of cheese
-1/2 stick butter
-1 Cup of AP flour
-Salt and Seasonings to taste
-2 TB(+) of cold water

Now I understand that it does not seem like a very detailed recipe, but there are a few things to know about it.  First, different cheeses have different moisture contents, so some may naturally require more water. 

Put the softened butter, cheese, and seasonings into a mixer bowl and mix them.  Add in the flour and mix to form a pebbly dough.  Start adding in the water slowly, adding just enough so that the dough begins to stick together.  You want it to just be to the point that you can press it into a dough and it sticks together.

Turn the dough out on a floured surface and roll it out very thin.  Cut it with a pizza cutter or cookie cutter of your choice and bake on a greased sheet for 15-17 minutes at 375.  If you have a convection oven, you can convect them for 12 minutes (I was using a light metal pan instead of dark nonstick this time).  When you pull them out of the oven you will want to transfer them to wire racks or wax paper to cool, you will want to sprinkle a little salt on them. 

My absolute favorite, and unanimous favorite among my family members, uses 8 ounces of mozzarella, about 1 tsp of garlic cheese topper, 1 tsp of basil, 1/2 tsp of crushed roasemary.  All of my recipes have between 1/2 and 1 tsp of salt in them.

Other tries include:
-Fiesta cheese with 1-2 TB of taco seasoning (I would err on the high side unless you just have an extremely strong mix)
-Colby jack cheese with garlic cheese topper
-White cheddar with salt and pepper

They are so simple to make and are incredibly addicting.  I love the fact that they just have a few simple ingredients and don't have all of the freaky ingredients with twelve mile long chemical names.

PLUS, this is stuff we always have around the kitchen.  The next goal is to make them with pepperjack cheese. 

But after spending hours this morning cutting them out with the worlds tiniest cookie cutter (which was obnoxiously cute by the way) those pepperjack ones will just have to wait.

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Poofing the Unruly Mane

I always say that my hair fixes great, when you play by its rules.  You sometimes have to find a few workarounds if you have hair that is a little on the soft side. My hair also does not always like to tease.  But as I said, there is always a workaround.

So, I did not do it for these shots but if you want a higher poof, you can tease it a little with a comb.  Tease under the section of hair. You can smooth it out after.

The next step for poofing the unruly mane involves twisting the section up to your scalp.  I hold it close to my scalp, press it against my head, and push it toward the front of my head.

This secures all the little unruly pieces in the twist and pushes them up as a group.

When I try to poof mine up without twisting it, it tends to separate right along my part...or fall flat in no time.

So then I hold it in place with one hand and put 3 bobby pins in to hold it and spray it with hairspray. 

I put the first two pins in an X and the third one down through the X.  I call it the Trinity of bobby pins.  Two just never works for me.

Now this clearly has a bit of a bump in it which I rarely have if I tease it first.  After I get it secured I usually use my comb again to smooth it out or lightly pull any strands that need to come up a little bit.

If you pull the rest of your hair into a bun you can take the pins back out as soon as you have your hair up, which for me avoids a lot of unneeded headaches.  And as a bonus, it makes my ponytails look a little less like I didn't want to try that morning! :)

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Decorating Idea: Easter Chick Cupcakes

So, I have to admit.  These are almost too cute to eat....almost.

My mom and I whipped these up for a bake sale that a local church is doing.  I was pretty obsessive this entire week about doing something with fun decorating, and so began these chicks. 

We used the large Wilton cupcake tip (I want to say it's a 1M), a leaf tip for orange beaks, and a writing tip to pipe eyes.

You could totally do these with googly eyes if you bought them, that would be fun as well.  I did the first one with dot eyes and the rest with "happy eyes" because they just seemed like they were having a more fun time that way. 

They are in orange cupcake liners with polka dots on them, which I highly suggest! The color matching really popped them at the end. 

The cupcakes themselves are a lemon cake.  I personally think these will go over great at the sale!

If I don't buy them myself that is!

Make sure you have a firm icing that will set so your beaks don't flop. 

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Flourless Banana Muffins

Ingredients:
-4 very ripe bananas
-2 eggs
-2/3 C milk
-3 C oats
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 TB cinnamon
-3 oz Chobani Pineapple Greek Yogurt
-half a small can of crushed pineapple with juice
-1 TB baking powder
-Optional addition of chopped pecans,  1/2 cup
-1/2 tsp ginger
-Pinch of salt
-Dash of nutmeg

Mix all of the ingredients well and put them in cupcake liners in a muffin pan.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, until the top starts to brown. I ended up sprinkling mine with cinnamon sugar, but that is completely optional.

These were SUPPOSED to taste more like hummingbird cake, but the crushed pineapple I used just did not quite have the flavor that some name brands tend to have.  I noticed it in the last recipe I used as well.  How frustrating.  Cinnamon applesauce should also be considered if you don't have yogurt on hand.

These can easily be gluten free if you buy the right oats.  But no matter what, without having the sugar in them they are a better option for breakfast than a typical muffin.  I used super ripe nearly black bananas, if you use a less flavorful one you might consider adding a little honey in. 

These raise a little, I filled the wells with about 2.5 TB of batter.  Well, really probably 3 since they were heaping scoops...

Definitely bake these in cupcake liners.  Banana works GREAT in recipes, but it can be a little bit of a pain if you don't grease your pans good enough.  Parchment paper and cupcake liners save you a lot of potential hassle.  Once the muffins cool down they are fine, if you try to get one out of the wrapper while it is still hot it will tear a bit.  Not to mention, these taste so much better when they are cooled down, so just wait.

You could use Banana CHO, the pecans or walnuts, and easily have a banana bread muffin and just 86 the darn crushed pineapple that has let me down. 

Oh well.  I love banana muffins QUITE a bit, so these will be just fine by me.

Happy crafting!  I have some much needed sleep to catch up on.

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Fantastic Crockpot Tomato Dill Soup

Ingredients:
-1 28oz can of diced tomatoes (I used Meijer Naturals)
-3 tomatoes, chopped into 1/8ths or so
-4.5 C chicken broth
-1 TB dill
-2 TB finely chopped onion
-Salt and Pepper to taste

I tossed it all in my crockpot and let it go on low for 8 hours. 

I had boiled some chicken earlier in the week with about 4 TB of butter (for around 5 or 6 chicken tenderloins) and used the leftover broth from that to make this soup.

When I got home from stats I mashed around with my potato masher (I don't have a blender or similar) and then served it with some finely shredded mozzarella and toast.  You could start with tomato juice instead of diced tomatoes if you prefer something a little less chunky.  I love a hearty chunky soup.

The TB of dill looks like a lot when you toss it in but do not be alarmed.  The onion measurement may sound odd, but I really just grab a few slices of the onion I have frozen in my freezer and break it in to little pieces.  I would imagine it comes out to a couple of tablespoons.  You can add more or less to your personal preference, I happen to be a big believer in a little onion goes a long way.  This soup is without a doubt the best soup that I have made in a really long time, if not ever.  I mean my chicken tortilla soup is pretty darn good...but this absolutely hit the spot today.  It is packed with flavor.

AND my crockpot did all the work.

AND I have ample leftovers for the next few days.  Tasty!

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Roasted DELICIOUSNESS: Potatoes, ham, tomatoes, herbs, chicken broth

Some of you might be able to use some leftover Easter ham in this type of dish! Yea right, who ever has Easter ham leftover...

Roasting dishes is what got me through my senior year of college.  If you ever need an easy meal that is pretty much foolproof, the general equation is veggies cut thin + meat + seasoning + a little water and butter = HEAVEN.  Although you have to wait for an hour.

For this particular full glass dish (approx. 13x9ish dimensions) I cut up 5 small red potatoes into cubes, plopped my container of tomatoes in various colors down in it, put a few rings of an onion chopped fine, and 3 slices of hand torn up into bits.

I seasoned mine with basil (a lot), rosemary (a little), seasoning salt (a lot, it's potatoes after all), and pepper (some).  Then I poured in 3/4 C homemade chicken broth, a TB or less of butter in small pieces (as I knew I would get some flavor from the stock, you can use water too just add more butter). 

I roasted it covered with foil at 350 for about an hour.

I used to do this a lot with chicken, usually using closer to a cup of water, and would drain off the "stock" left in the pan after roasting and use it as a base in soup.  Since mine tend to have a medley of veggies and herbs, the juices left behind are perfect to get a small pot of soup going.  I would say that in my senior year, I probably roasted something close to once a week, and always used the broth leftover in some sort of soup concoction.  You can use the broth AND leftover meats and veggies in a soup as well.  Allow me to suggest tortellini in soup.  Yum, now I am hungry again.

It is a really great option for those days when you get back to your apartment, want to just lay on the floor and try to take in the incredibly hectic day you had.  You can throw all this in a pan with very little prep needed, and even take a nap for the next hour as long as you are a responsible human and set multiple alarms and timers so that you don't forget. You can absolutely make similar dishes in crockpots, but for those days that just don't go as you planned and there isn't a crock pot of yumminess waiting for you, it isn't a bad option. 

I usually take roasting times to catch up on dishes or other loose ends as I rarely budget the time to do dishes after breakfast in the mornings.

Foolproof, minimal dishes, minimal work...highly recommended for new cooks, college kids, and anyone who has had a stressful day and just wants some comfort food.

If it was a really bad, terrible day....up the butter.  HAH!

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Taco Bowl

Ingredients:
-1 8" taco shell
-1/2 C-1C shredded chicken
-1/4 C corn
-Lettuce, tomato, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, and desired toppings

We have probably by now all see the idea of baking a taco shell in the bottom of a muffin pan.  I opted to toss mine in a cake pan as well to make it a little easier for me to grab out of the oven.  I put the tortilla shell between the cups and rubbed it with a little canola oil so that it would crisp up in the oven.  I popped it in at 350 until it was golden brown.  I really could have left mine in a few minutes longer, as you can tell it is a very light golden, but I was really hungry...

Earlier I had boiled 4 strips of chicken tenderloins with enough water to cover them, salt, and about 4 TB of butter. 

After they had boiled for about 40 minutes, I was able to shred them.  I ended up with plenty of chicken for this and for the chipotle chicken salad that I will make later this week.  I popped the excess chicken in my freezer so that I did not have to worry about it staying fresh until Thursday.

I also was left with a large container full of chicken broth, which is slated for use in a couple of recipes this week. 

With the chicken I was going to use in this, I popped it in a skillet with a very small pat of butter, 1/4 C water, and a generous sprinkle of taco seasoning.  I also tossed in the frozen corn.  Really everything is already cooked you are just going for seasoning here, so I let it cook on low until the taco bowl was done.

Then I piled on the toppings and stuffed my face.  It was delicious.  The best part about this is the tomato medley pack was on sale for 99 cents as they were starting to get a little soft (perfect for roasting in my Tuesday dinner) and the guacamole was also clearanced out for being close to the expiration date but it will survive substantially longer in my freezer.  This all made my taco bowl delicious and highly affordable.

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