Drunken Bears

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So my 30th bday party is coming up and of course we are having a party to celebrate this momentous occasion. What to make, what to make?? Now of course there will be dips, appetizers, etc...but then I saw this!!! Drunken Gummi Bears!!

Drunken Bears  

Drunken Bears are super easy to make. All you need are two ingredients: Vodka and Gummy Bears!! Simply put the gummies Tupperware, cover them in vodka and leave them in the fridge for a day or so. 

Now I also used life saver gummies as well. For some reason they did not absorb the alcohol like the bears did. They were pretty strong! They did get a big slimy but were still good. I think next time I would use flavored vodka, might be a bit better!

*Please note this recipe includes alcohol and is intended only for adults over the age of 21. Please don't eat these and drive, operate heavy machinery or text. But if you are gonna do anything do the drunken txting, those are always funny to read the next day!

Cookoreo's

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Good Morning my lovelies, and how are all of you on this Saturday morning? Here it's cold, but there is that pretty snow falling, you know with the big fluffy flakes. Looks nice now, but will be all slushy and grey and dirty in about a hour!

So why not on Saturday morning bake some cookoreo's? What are they you ask? Its a freaking chocolate chip cookie with a freaking oreo inside!!!

insert music of angels singing.....aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.......

So my 1st issue, I need to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. So let's hope I did, according to the website for these cookies it was voted the best cookie by the New York Times. (for a direct link Cookie Recipe)

Now you would think, okay I just need to go pick up some oreo's right? Well since these are already full of butter, etc, I decided to at least give these cookies a little help nutrionally. So I picked up some of those WhoNu Cookies that are supposed to be a little better for you. Now do they taste good? Well we will see and even if they aren't as good as normal Oreo's, who cares you have 2 chocolate chip cookies encasing it!!


So let's begin....

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake
flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated
sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds chocolate chips

Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt
into a bowl and set aside. (I used a whisk to mix together)

Using a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream
butter and sugars until light and fluffy – about 5 minutes. Add eggs. Stir in vanilla. Reduce to low speed and add dry ingredients slowly,
mixing until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for
24-36 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350.

Now normally I HATE when recipes say I have wait to make my cookies!! But I started these at around 10pm Thursday night so figured okay this one time I will see if  waiting is worth all the hype or if I just continue to ignore that part of the recipe. We shall see.

So first thing I noticed right off the bat...let the cookie dough sit out for awhile 1st. Since its been in the fridge they are too hard and weren't malleable enough to form around the oreo. The oreo broke instead.

So maybe its the WhoNu's but they break apart quite easily which is a pain the @ss when trying to put cookie dough on top of it. So the 1st two cookies I tried when the dough was still too hard turned out like this. Note to self, less is more.

So cookie tray #2 didn't turn out so well either. I left the dough out for about 30 min so it was softer and added a little to each side of the oreo. Yeah this is how these one's turned out. Not the greatest either.

So currenly batch 3 is in the oven. I have made some normal cookies, and those look good and actually taste very good! Not sure if its the cake flour I used (which is something new to me) or leaving them in the fridge for 36 hours. These are the regular ol' normal chocolate chip cookies.

Batch 3 sucked too. BUT I think I got it!! With of course only 2 cookies left. I sorta cupped the dough around the oreo. The main problem is that the WhoNu's break apart WAY too easily, so I suggest sticking with oreo's. They will hold together much better. Its hard to get the dough around the cookie when the top of the cookie easily slips off.  It also helps when the dough is super soft. Gets stuck all over your hands, but oh well. So here is the before picture.

Well...I was wrong, for some reason I cannot get these to turn out like this!!!! grrrrr

Instead they turned out like this.

So this is going to be one of those work in progress sorta recipes. Let me know if you have more luck! Now as for taste? They taste great, just don't look at that pretty.

Buckeye Beer Engine

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Last night was Date Night, so after trying to figure out where to go for about a hour we decided on an old time favorite- Buckeye Beer Engine. Now this is no normal burger, its a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato and bacon, an all beef patty in the middle, then....another grilled cheese sandwich with tomato and bacon. It is properly named The Fatty Melt! It sounds horrible; horrible as in horrible for your waistline, your heart, etc. But this sandwich is glorious!!! By far one of the best things I have ever tasted!I have tried numerous items on the menu, now they are all good, but The Fatty Melt takes the cake!  The AWESOME Menu for you to peruse.

Now my husband, Michael, and I both got this fabulous meal, but here is a pic of how massive this sandwich is! I also highly recommend the Fried Pickles! I don't eat pickles normally, but these I will eat. They are soooooo good!

Pinterest

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So I forgot in my last flog to add what Pinterest was about....my mind is going. So here you go, if you are not part of this awesome website then please e-mail and and give me your e-mail and I will invite you! It's amazingly addictive!

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people

Yogurt Covered Fruit

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I was left to my own devices today and figured why not make something?! I find cooking somewhat soothing (that is IF it comes out right, if it comes out wrong heaven help who is around me..more on that when it happens) So if you are not familiar with the website Pinterest then your life is about to get so much better! I get many many idea's for cooking from there. At the bottom of this flog (new word I made up for food blog) I will explain Pinterest!

So back to the main event! Frozen Fruit in Yogurt....super super simple!! Figured I would start off easy. So what do you need?
Yogurt-any kind, any flavor, regular, greek etc. For my recipe I used Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt in Vanilla and Fage plain Greet Yogurt.


Fruit-now you can technically use whatever you want, but I used raspberries. I was planning on using sliced strawberries but will explain why in a moment. Any fruit will do, I used frozen fruit because its January in Cleveland and fresh fruit is super expensive and just not as good this time of year.

Ice cube tray- now you can use whatever you want to freeze them, but my issue was how to not make a gooey yogurty mess with the fruit. I needed to be contained somehow so it could freeze.

Now I was going to use strawberries, but they were too big for the ice cube tray so I will need to figure out some other way or cut them in half.
I placed parchment paper in between the two trays I made and threw them in the freezer. I would give them a few hours then you can take them out of the trays and tranfer to a bag. I used a knife to help pry them out. Now they aren't the prettiest thing to eat, but who cares?! This is a healthy snack!!



A Little About Me

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A brief intro about me! When I was younger, I was a horrible cook. And by horrible I literally mean horrible. I once mixed up the oil and water amounts on a basic box of brownies. I just never followed directions and everything I made tasted like crap. My sister, Ashley was the cook! She is the baker!! You want a cake that looks awesome with homemade frosting and cake-go to her. You want an easy recipe for chicken piccata, well go to me! (although I am sure she kicks butt at that too)

I can spend hours upon hours looking up recipes and figuring what is actually feasible to make and what isn't. I won't go buy an ingredient that I will only use once and will probably cost me $10. I won't go and buy lobster for recipe either. I am a normal girl with a budget for food. I do like those new healthy food stores like Whole Foods or Earth Fare, but honestly I am a Giant Eagle girl. (for those that don't have that its like a Kroger, Circle K, etc)

Now are these recipes straight from my head? Nope. I find them online at various different websites or cookbooks. I modify and use what I have on hand and some things turn out great and some just suck. Hey it happens.

I want your feedback, if you make something and it tastes great, tell me! If you feel that it needed a little something, tell me! Better yet tell me what you think it needs!! If you absolutely hate something, then tell me that too! You don't know, it won't hurt my feelings!

I am from Cleveland, Ohio, so from time to time I may give my opinion on a new restaurant or what not. If you don't live here, never plan to visit, then just skip it! My husband and I love to try new places so think of us as the guinea pigs. Let us know some good places too!

Hope you enjoy!!

Greek Yogurt Cheesecake

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What did that title say?! Greek yogurt cheesecake! Yes, yes I did! And I of course in my usual Alissa fashion, did it in my own way! The same way you can!! So here we go....

What you need...
pie crust-now you CAN make one yourself, but why do that when you can soooo easily just buy one?! If you want to make one, then your just gonna have to google pie crust and then come back here cause this girl buys them!!
2 cups Greek Yogurt-flavor of your choice-I chose blueberry. But with the wide variety of greek yogurt flavors you could make it whatever you want! They have key lime, strawberry, blackberry, etc etc blah blah.
2/3 cup sugar

pinch of salt

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 T cornstarch

fruit of your choice (optional) I used blueberries, but you could literally use whatever.

So let's get this yogurtcake party started!!!

Preheat oven to 350F

In a blender or food processor, combine the eggs, sugar, yogurt and vanilla. Blend until smooth then add cornstarch and pinch of salt and blend again. Pour filling into crust, and bake for 35 minutes. I then added blueberries by gently dropping them in, totally optional.

When the cheesecake is done, it will still be jiggly in the center but will have a “done” look to it. The edges of the cake will start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Make sure you don’t overbake. Which is easier said then done, I have no idea how to really tell if its done.

Then let cool in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

So how was it??? Well my husband and I last night, fork in hand, tried it and....it was amazing!!! I cannot believe how light it was! Now honestly is it as good as let's say The Cheesecake Factory? Well of course not, its probably 1000 calories less than that! But I do have to say it was amazingly good! I may next time not even bother with the crust, because I just dove into it with my fork and didn't even bother with the crust. The nice thing was that I didn't feel awful after eating some it. Normally you eat a piece of cheesecake and then like most women feel like OMG I can't believe I just ate that whole thing and now I have to eat vegetables only for the next 5 days!!!!
I recommend this one!!! Its very very very good!!!