TGIF before a long weekend!

I sure have been looking forward to the bonus weekend day that comes with Memorial Day.  The McHusband and I don’t have many big plans, just some of our own honey-do’s, dinner and hanging out downtown on Saturday for Vanessa’s birthday, which is today (Happy Birthday, Vanessa!), and a fair amount of R and R wherever we can squeeze it in.

Actually I do have some baking to do.  I’m going to try a new sweet-and-savory combo so keep your fingers crossed that it’s successful.  I’ll be back next week to tell you how it turned out.

This weekend would be the perfect time to try these Strawberry Riesling Slushies, don’t you think?  Anyone want to come over and help me drink them?

Look at the weather for the long weekend.  Pretty fantastic, huh?

I’m going to take advantage of the low humidity and comfortable temperature on Saturday to go for a nice long run.  The best part is that I don’t have to get up early to get it in before the heat settles over us.  Win-win!

Guess what tomorrow is?  Maxie’s second birthday.  Happy Birthday, Maxie!

Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Back (in the future)

I’ve been reading up on some of the new shows planned for the fall.  I’m excited for this one that brings Michael J. Fox back to TV and doesn’t tiptoe around his Parkinson’s.

Anyone else interested in this show?

More from Pennsylvania

Remember how we went to Pennsylvania last month?  We did more than teach pre-K kids to play pool in a bar.

We also celebrated a birthday…or four.  If you can’t read the cake, it says Happy Birthday Abby Shannon Stephanie.  Abby is my cousin’s daughter, and I think you know who the other two are.

Everyone sang “Happy Birthday.”  Here’s my dad explaining how it’s all of our birthdays.

And in the next two, we’d just finished and we’re laughing because my dad went from “Happy Birthday dear Abby and Shannon” straight to the next line of “Happy Birthday to you.”  Except it came out “Ha-hanie” in an attempted save once he realized he’d forgotten one of the birthday girls.  You know, just his oldest daughter, no biggie.

Then the McHusband cut the cake.  It was an ICE CREAM CAKE, yum!

Owen was too busy playing with the big boys (sons of my cousin; does that make them second cousins or first cousins once removed?) to have any cake.  Good, more for me.

A couple other people pics real quick.

Bri and Maxie.

And the McHusband and me.

My dad with his four brothers and one son-in-law in the mix.  From left to right: my dad, Uncle Ralph, Uncle John, Nate, Uncle Burn, and Uncle Rick.

I love how all the guys on the couch are sitting the same way.

The ladies hanging out at the kitchen table.

The next day we finally celebrated the REAL birthday girl, my grandma, with a birthday party.  More on that soon!

Happy Hump Day!

{Recipe Recap} Strawberry Pie Sour Cream Bars

Did you know that today is Strawberries and Cream Day?  No?  Jeez, how could that possibly not make your radar?  Well, here’s a list of American Food Holidays for future reference so you aren’t caught unaware again.  You’re welcome.

I made the original recipe last week for my HOA meeting.  The McHusband and some of my coworkers thought they were pretty terrific.

I had the rest of the can of pie filling in my fridge so I made them again on Saturday, but I used all of the crust on the bottom and added a cinnamon streusel on top.

I loved how easy these were to throw together.  I always like when recipes call for melted rather than softened butter, and I only used one mixing bowl: I made the crust, pressed it into my pan, then used that same mixing bowl to make the filling.

I also used a teaspoon of almond extract instead of vanilla in the crust.  SUCH a good idea.  If you do want to make these, go with the almond instead of the vanilla – it adds so much to the bars.

You could use pretty much any pie filling you want in these bars.  I want to try them with apple.  And peach.  And cherry.

The McHusband keeps saying they’d be good heated up with ice cream on them.  I agree, but I’d rather forgo the ice cream and have a good-sized portion of these for breakfast.

Don’t wait until National Strawberries and Cream Day next year to make these.  Other than the pie filling, you probably have everything you need to make them.

Are you having company for the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend?  Make these bars for your guests for breakfast on Saturday, then top the leftovers (if there are any) with ice cream that night.

{Recipe adapted from here}

{Recipe Recap} Salted Chocolate Fudge Cookies

We definitely need some chocolate today.

Chocolate stuffed with chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt.

I made these as a second treat for Shawn’s birthday.  That’s not exactly true.  I mean, it is, but what I really mean is I used Shawn’s birthday as an excuse to make some cookies that I really wanted to try.  And it just so happens that Shawn’s a big fan of a strong not-overly-sweet chocolate flavor, which is what I expected from these cookies, so it was the perfect opportunity to bake up a treat that I had been eyeing.

I read through the recipe several times to see if I’d overlooked where it said to add the egg, but it turns out there’s no egg in these.  Excellent (eggs-cellent?) for eating uncooked cookie dough people with egg allergies.

These cookies were a perfect texture.  Slightly crisp on the outside and they gave way to a chewy interior, and then there were the melty semisweet bits for an extra boost of chocolaty goodness.  And don’t even get me started on the sprinkling of sea salt – that MADE these cookies.

Like I told you in the Snickers Brownies post, I took Shawn’s birthday treats to our dinner at Chili’s.  I shared a couple with our waiter as well as a waitress who asked for one after having a bite of the first cookie I gave our waiter.  Pretty bold of her, huh?  That should tell you just how good they were.

One note: I used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder, which provided the base of the not-so-sweet chocolate flavor.  If you use regular unsweetened cocoa powder, they’ll probably be a little less bold.

Hope your weeks are off to a great start!

{Recipe here}

A substitute

I’m going to let the internet do the blogging today.  It’s going to be a busy week so other than one cookie recipe that I’m hoping to post, it might be slow in McMania.

Here’s a list for my generation just in case you weren’t feeling your age.  This list’ll take care of that for you.

We’re expecting mid- to upper-80’s and lots of sunshine today so I’m excited to have Subway Wednesday outside this afternoon.

Happy Hump Day!

{Recipe Recap} Snickers Brownies

A while back, Shawn was eating some treat I’d made and he made his birthday request: something inspired by or stuffed with or at the very least topped with Snickers.  I saw a cake that I was planning to make, but I decided that wasn’t quite right.  Knowing I was going to take this dessert to Chili’s to share, I needed something easily portable and shareable.  Sounds like a batch of bars to me!

I cobbled these together from three different recipes, four if you count the instructions on the back of the box of brownie mix.

The nougat came from Jessica’s homemade Snickers bars.  It’s sorta like a really soft version of my peanut butter fudge but less peanut-buttery and with nuts.

Topping the nougat is a homemade salted caramel.  I used this before in a tart, and I knew it would work perfectly as a layer of these bars.

I could’ve gone with a simple milk chocolate ganache on top, which the McHusband would have preferred, but since this treat was for Shawn, I had to use dark chocolate.  I remembered a caramel chocolate ganache from some cupcakes I made at New Year’s and knew that’s what I needed to use to top off these delicious bars.

These were FAB.U.LOUS, if I do say so myself.  I know I can’t take credit for coming up with the recipes for all the parts, but I think I did pretty good putting them all together the way I did.  And I wasn’t the only one.  The birthday boy was very happy, too, as evidenced by his text the next day when he was eating his leftovers.

None of the parts were difficult to make, but assembly took a little while just because stuff had to cool in between.  I probably wouldn’t opt to make these during the week.  However, having tasted these things, I can vouch for the fact that it’d be worth giving up a whole evening to make them.

{Nougat}

{Caramel}

{Ganache}