a note of APOLOGY

I've been a slacker : ( But starting in 2012, I'm gonna write the dickens out of this blog! If i drop the ball again...holler at me. I mean, really holler. I might even let you smack me around a bit....MIGHT, being the keyword. I hope everyone has a Happy Christmas and Awesome New Year! See you on the '1-2

Triple C with a brownie

The delinquent(my daughter) and I were having a disagreement on baked goodies for the day. She wanted cookies. I wanted brownies. so as a compromise, we went out and bought a cookie brownie....N.A.S.T.Y!) I get chills just thinking about it) Needless to say, we were an unhappy pair. So later that day, I did some thinkin' and some lookin', and found that I wasn't the only glutton wanting a brownie stuffed in a cookie! Easier than you think, and SO worth the effort! Attempt #1-The Hard Way : ( Ugly cookie. BIG taste. I did everything homemade. It took too long and my cookie went places, while my brownie did not. Attempt #2-Cheater cheater : ) Gorgeous cookie. AWESOME taste! I highly advise that you go with attempt number two. Mainly because the wait time is considerably less(who likes waiting for goodies anyway)! 

Alright, so what you wanna do(if you're cheating), is to go buy some cookie dough and ready made brownies. I purchased my goods from Safeway, and used the Nestle TollHouse break apart cookie dough(2 dozen pack). One of these packs, will give you six very large cookies. Which is a short way of saying that you'll be using four segments for one cookie) Also, preheat your oven according to the package directions!

Take two of the segments and roll into a ball-like so (repeat, so you'll have two balls of dough)




Go ahead and flatten it a little as well

mmmm chocolate

Now go ahead and cut each brownie into fourths. You'll use about a brownie and a half for your six cookies. Take a brownie fourth and flatten it a little as well

Now the fun part! Sandwich your brownie in between your flattened dough balls and pinch your dough together!

Almost THERE!

Go  through the whole process again, for however many cookies you plan to make. They should look like this when ready to go into the oven.








Pop those enticing little treats into a preheated oven for 20 minutes! You read right, 20 is the magic number. They should be a nice golden brown when done. Kind of like these : )

Nom nom nom

And there you have it! You can also pull off a stuffed cookie with various chocolate candies, but remember...it's OK to cheat with this! No one will care that it's semi home-made! They'll be to caught up in the heavenly combo. I could be nice and give you a glimpse of the inside the deliciousness....but I figure I'll leave that for you to discover! Happy eating : )

Taste of Home Cooking Show

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Taste of Home??? I love them THIS MUCH(arms spread wide)!!!!! For those of you who don't know, Taste of Home is a cooking magazine that has rockin' recipes! Great thing about this....company(?), is that all the recipes come from "real" women! Not from folks thrown into a kitchen(though all their recipes ARE kitchen tested). Also, most of the recipes are relatively inexpensive, look tough but are super easy to make! This is the second year I've gone to the cooking show, and I have to tell you, it'll forever be an annual girls night out MUST! No questions asked men! now, since this is a cooking show, it does mean that you sit there and spectate. Doesn't sound entertaining, but totally is! However, the benefit of watching the presentation, is that you get to see how truly easy these recipes are. And she always does the ones that look the toughest. There are three types of tickets: VIP-$55, Reserved-$20, and GA-$12. We got the general admission tickets, which you do get a goodie bag with. The bag will have the two Taste of Home magazines, with recipes from that evening and loads of coupons from various sponsors. Although, this years goodie bag was wimpy compared to last years. Also, during the presentation, there are loads of prizes given away! Who doesn't like winning?! I certainly do!!!! Especially since I won something this year-four mini cookbooks! YAY ME! I'm so proud of me and my luck! The grand prize is a brand new washer/dryer(even more incentive to go)! Which luck and I WILL be owning next year! A new washer and dryer would look so pretty in my basement : ) at any rate, I highly suggest that you go to a cooking show IF possible. Perfect excuse to go out with the lady(or fella) friends, lounge around, and chat it up about food!

late night dyslexia

After a long, incredibly long, day, I decided to bake a cake. A pound cake. Because I wanted strawberry shortcake and I wanted to feel the weight of it hit my belly darn it! Make me feel alive, kind of thing. I got down to business around 8 that night. Got out the recipe and the ingredients. First thing i noticed, was that it called for was" 6 egg whites at room temp." ....Odd. But i go on prepping anyway, and save the yolks for something else. I went off to wait for the egg whites to get to room temp and keep thinking how odd it is for just egg whites to go into a pound cake, "but that's what the recipe said so it must be right" 9 o'clock hits. Still waiting, thinking, and wondering how the hell that is supposed to work!!!! "Egg whites add air, I don't want air in my POUND cake!"
Oven is on and i proceed to mix the goods together. Double check the recipe and it still reads egg whites. So i decided to give my butter and sugar some extra mix time before adding my egg whites. 10 o'clock is fast approaching, the bowl of egg whites are in hand, I check the recipe again...." 6 eggs! 6 eggs at room temperature" Double, triple check....6 stinkin' eggs. So my pound cake was saved at the very last moment! And the trouble was so worth it once strawberries were on top!

I'm BACK.....

From maternity leave ; ) I managed to bust out a lot of stuff before the addition came, and i even took pictures! But I'm too lazy to retrieve my camera, so you get a picture less post. About hospital food. Yeah, random I know, but i was too pleased not to comment on it! Kadlec, has a rockin' menu. So rockin' in fact, that I am not against a random cheap lunch there. Now, I'm comparing Kadlec to KGH and Lourdes, both of which have lousy eats! WHY IS THAT!? It's like they're saying "hey, you're already depressed about being here; so this grime won't dampen your spirits anymore." I should write a letter, and be like "Yo. Actually, it does!" At any rate, back to Kadlec, and how they rock. In my stay I had a chicken quesadilla, chef salad, and lots of fruit. The fruit, even though out of season, was super yummy! Even the honeydew melon(which we all know is a hit or miss). My chef salad was big and had all the fixens! It's really tough for a salad to please me, not because it's green and leafy!, because all the best salads I've had...are in Connell-long story. Anyhoo, the quesadilla, was actually a lot to eat. The chicken used was tender and well seasoned and of course, there was lots of cheese! My other half only consumed the chicken fajitas. Which speaks for itself. he binged for three days...on fajitas. So to wrap things up, go to the Kadlec cafeteria for a quick bite for lunch. I'm sure my girls and I will be regulars there this summer

C is for Cookie

I've finally made it back on! and let me tell ya, it took awhile! So now that i'm here, i'll get down to business. Last week,  via Facebook, I saw that several of my friends were having "issues" with the All-American cookie. Chocolate chip. No one was forthcoming with details, for whatever reason. It could be because a giggle slips out or that I have an affinity for poking fun at folks. *shrug* I don't know, you tell me. But i digress! I'm gonna give you a recipe that came in a cookie book I got for christmas. BEST BOOK EVER!!!! Now, I've got to be honest, I can usually nail something in one try; but perfection alludes me with this one. I won't say how many times i've baked them, but I will say that the flavor has been AMAZING each time(I don't say that lightly, since I am the cookie monster)! 

              What you'll need:
                   1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
                      1/2 tsp baking soda
                   1 3/4(14 tb) sticks unsalted butter
                      1/2 cup granulated sugar
                      3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
                        1 tsp table salt
                        2 tsp vanilla
                        1 large egg
                        1 large egg  yolk
                   1 1/4 cup chocolate chips or chunks




*Go ahead and preheat your oven to 375. Mix your dry ingredients together in a bowl and put it off to the side.

*(tip #1-use real butter/ no substituting!) Take 10 tablespoons of your butter and melt them in a saucepan at medium/high heat. It'll take about 2 minutes. Once your butter is melted, keep it on the heat and swirl the pan(constantly), until it has a nutty aroma and is dark golden brown. This part is tricky, so I rely more on the smell. It may smell a little different to you, but  I keep getting a hazelnut smell (Could be the hormones ; )). 

* Once butter is melted, transfer butter to your stand mixer or a heatproof bowl and stir in the remaining four tablespoons of butter. Until melted

* Add your sugars and vanilla to butter. WHISK, until incorporated. Add the egg and your yolk and whisk until smooth. About 30 seconds

*(Here's the fun part) Let the mixture stand for three minutes. NO MIXING! Then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat the stand and whisk process two more times. You want your mixture to look thick, smooth, and have a shine to it. Similiar to a taffy. 

* Grab a spatula, mix in your flour, add chocolate chips and bake! 10 to 11 minutes (my oven does 12 minutes)

Goin' for the Gold

What is up! My name is Jawana, and it rhymes with "you wanna". Go ahead and laugh, it's OK. but you can't ask me where the name came from, because even I don't know. I think they just made it up on the spot. At any rate, i like to eat. Alot. We all do, I'm just too prideful to hide it. For just about every emotion, I find an excuse to go and whip something up. It gives my life balance(along with my waistline). So, you get to hear about all that good stuff! Along with dive restaurants we've checked out, and "happy helpers" that i've found useful. ENJOY!!!!