Hello...Well I Don't Really Know What to Call These

So a couple weekends ago, I headed up to Clemson, South Carolina to visit my family for one of their home football games.  And what does football always mean?  Tailgating and lots and lots of food.  My family is a huge college football family all the way from my grandparents, aunt and uncle, cousins, and of course my family.  We have been tailgating in the same spot in front of Death Valley for as long as I can remember.  Tailgating is definitely tradition and we always tailgate in my grandparents parking spot.  Since we all come together to tailgate, we always like to pitch in and help my grandparents by bringing food and basically anything that they ask us to.

So I took this opportunity to make something yummy for the tailgate.  Since it was an early game, we were going to tailgate after so I decided on a dessert...shock I know.  I wanted to make something that wouldn't be affected by the heat or melt and I wanted to make something that I haven't made before.  I started researching on the internet as I always do and found a recipe for Hello Dolly bars from http://www.myrecipes.com/ which as you can tell is  my go to place for recipes.  I didn't follow the recipe totally though because my brothers don't like nuts and coconut so I had to mix it up a bit.  Here is the link to the original recipe...http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/hello-dolly-bars-10000001687691/  This is the recipe I actually used though...

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 tablespoon water

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup butterscotch chips

1/3 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup mini twist pretzels, broken

1 (15-ounce) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk

As you can tell, my family likes chocolate chips.  I ended up using 3 different kinds and I added the pretzels to add the salty flavor because who doesn't like something that's salty and sweet?  Chocolate covered pretzels are one of my favorite things to eat in the room so I figured why not throw them on top. First thing I did was crush the gram crackers into crumbs in order to make the base.  I basically crushed them up with my hands as best as I could and then I added them to a bowl and took a potato masher to them.  It actually worked pretty well and gave me a good workout at the same time haha.  I then added the butter and water to make the crumbs stick together in order to better form a crust.  I placed this mixture on top of wax paper placed inside a 9-inch baking pan.  I pressed the gram cracker mixture down to all the edges and tried to make it as flat as possible so that it would all bake evenly.  I then added all the different types of chips evenly across the pan because you wouldn't one side to be concentrated with one flavor of chip.  The pretzels came last and I broke those up with my hands and then sprinkled them on top.  The "icing" to the cake was the condensed milk and I drizzled that evenly over the entire pan.  It honestly didn't look very appetizing before I put it in the oven but I figure as long as it tasted good who cares?  Here's what it looked like before I baked it in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees F...

The bars were taken out after 25 minutes like I said before and were ready to go!  The next day we brought them out to the tailgate and they were in the words of my grandma, "O my goodness those are sinful!"  Needless to say they were a hit.  They were very very rich though.  All the different flavors of chips and chocolate made them very dense as well as the condensed milk.  They turned out well though and they didn't melt either.  Here's what the final product looked like...

They looked much better since the milk wasn't dumped on the top.  I still have no idea what to call them but I guess I'll think of a name sometime.  I would definitely suggest making these for a tailgate or party.  If I were making them for myself though, I would have incorporated some type of nuts and maybe peanut butter because that would just hit all my favorite things.  Maybe next time...

Well I Just Destroyed That

When I got home at 8:45 tonight, I was needless to say very very hungry.  Tuesdays are always very long days for me so I was literally about to pass out I was so hungry when I finally came back home for the night.  What to make, what to make?  Well I had bought ground turkey so I came to the decision of a turkey burger...great decision might I add.  My mom has made homemade turkey burgers at home before but I never had so I figured now would be the perfect time to try.  This wasn't an ordinary turkey burger though.  I wanted to go beyond a regular burger and make something different.  I had come across a recipe for a feta stuffed turkey burger on http://www.myrecipes.com/ so I used that as a starting point to create my own burger.  The ingredients that I ended up using were...

4-5 oz. ground turkey

3/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 red bell pepper, minced

2 oz. reduced fat feta cheese

1/2 cup fresh spinach

First thing that I did was chop the red pepper into small pieces so that it could be added to the patty without making it fall apart.  I them formed a patty out of the ground turkey and added the Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder to it.  I mixed the flavors in thoroughly so that the whole patty would have flavor.  I then added the minced red pepper to that patty.  Meanwhile, I cooked the spinach on the stove over medium high heat for about 3-4 minutes or until it was done.  I then added the cheese to the spinach.  In order to stuff the patty with the spinach and feta, I mushed the two ingredients into a little ball and then formed a patty around it with the ground turkey mixture that I had made before.  I chose to put spinach in the middle with the cheese because I thought that they would go well together and I love spinach in anything.  Here's what the patty looked like before it started cooking...

I cooked the patty on the stover over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes on each side.  The sides got a little crispy but I think it was because I used cooking spray.  The patty didn't burn and I like things a little crispy so it didn't bother me.  While the patty was cooking, I was also cooking some fresh zucchini, red onion, and spinach as a side.  Once the patty had been thoroughly cooked,  I took it off and garnished it with lettuce, tomato, red onion, ketchup, and mustard.  The much anticipated meal was finally ready.  Just a couple shots of how it turned out...

 Bun was a little big for the patty...oops haha

 Top view

 Final product

YUM

Well as you can see I would say it turned out pretty well and it was so good!  I'm going to need to come up with another word for delicious because I think y'all will get tired of me saying all my food is delicious haha.  Anyway, the burger was great!  It was a mess to eat as always but well worth the mess.  I think I ate it in, like I said, about 2 minutes because it was so good and I was so hungry.  I do have to say though it wasn't as flavorful as I thought it would be.  Although I did dump it in ketchup and mustard so that may have had something to do with it haha.  Next time, I think I'm going to add more flavoring to the patty and maybe not use the red peppers in the patty either.  I couldn't really taste them and it made the patty harder to stay in its shape.  I am proud that the patty didn't fall apart though.  I would definitely recommend making this but you could easily substitute you favorite type of cheese and spices it just depends on what you like!

Mile High Sandwich...Literally

Veggies were the star of my meal tonight because like I said before, I love me some veggies.  I had stumbled across a recipe in Cooking Light (one of my favorite magazines as y'all will find) for a veggie sandwich.  I then found the same recipe on the website http://www.myrecipes.com/ but I also found 2 more that looked really good too.  Here is the link to the original recipe that I found http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-zucchini-caprese-sandwiches-50400000114453/ but here is a list of the ingredients that I actually used...

Half of a medium zucchini sliced lengthwise

1/4 of a large eggplant cut into fourths

4 slices red onion

4 slices of red pepper

1/2 medium roma tomato

Handful of spinach

2 1/2 slices fresh mozzarella 

2 slices of multigrain bread

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Splash of extra virgin olive oil

Cooking spray

Salt and Pepper

Dash of garlic

Sorry this ingredient list was a little more catered to one person and it was honeslty me just doing what I thought would taste good.  Experimentation at its best haha.  I added all the veggies except the tomato and the spinach into a bowl and poured the vinegar, oil, garlic, salt, and pepper onto them.  I then tossed the veggies with my hand so that all of them would get the flavoring.  I then heated up a skillet to about medium-high heat and placed all the veggies in the pan to cook, which was a little difficult because there were a lot of them as you can see...

There was left over marinade in the bowl so I saved it and drizzled it onto the bread.  The veggies took about 6-8 minutes to cook.  Meanwhile, I cut the mozzarella and tomatoes and toasted the bread.  After the veggies were done cooking, I proceeded to pill them onto the bread.  I put the side with the balsamic drizzle as the base and I would not suggest doing this because it got very soggy and kind of lead to the sandwich's downfall.  I'll get to that later though haha.  I put the zucchini on first, then the eggplant, red peppers, onion, spinach, tomatoes, cheese and then I topped it with the other slice of bread.  This sandwich was HUGE.  I placed it in the microwave for about 20 seconds to melt the cheese and then it was time to finally conquer aka eat it...this was no easy task.  Here's what the final concoction looked like...

It was quite the sight to watch me eat it you can ask my roommate haha.  It literally feel apart after one bit of eating it so I had to reassemble pretty much after every bite.  It was really good though!  If you love veggies, I would definitely recommend this.  I would say use a bread that is more sturdy though because the bread was part of the reason it kept falling apart.  Next time I may add more seasoning too because it wasn't as flavorful as I expected it to be.  You could also honestly use any veggie of your liking as well but those were just my favorites.  I also had some salt and pepper Pop Chips on the side which are another favorite of mine.  Definitely met my veggie servings for the day tonight haha.

Apparently My Friends Like Oreos...

September is apparently the month for birthdays because this week it was another one of my best friends birthdays and you know what birthdays mean...desserts, desserts, and more desserts.  Since I love to make desserts though, I figured this would be another great opportunity to test my baking ability.  She asked me to make an Oreo cheesecake too but since I had already made that, I switched it up a little bit.  Originally I was going to make an Oreo layer cake that my mom and I had made before but I kinda ran out of time because being in college things tend to get a little busy so I just decided to make cupcakes instead.  Don't worry the last minute change was a great decision though.  The recipe for the cupcakes came from another cooking blog called Beantown Baker and the link to the website with the recipe is http://www.beantownbaker.com/2010/04/oreo-cupcakes-third-time-is-charm.html  The recipe calls for...

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups flour + 2 tablespoons for the Oreo chunks

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 2/3 cup sugar

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

1 package of Oreos

As you'll soon come to find out, I never follow the recipe exactly.  I like to add my own spin to all them or it's just because I don't have everything so I like to improvise haha.  For this recipe the only thing that I really changed was the fact that I used skim milk because that's what I drink and I added about a 1/3 cup of chocolate chips because I pretty much add chocolate chips to everything that I bake.  

First things first, I preheated the oven to the token 350F.  While the oven was heating up, I started to twist apart the Oreos the put in the bottom of the cupcakes.  I put the side with the cream on the bottom of the baking cups and saved the other half to use later.  Here's what they looked like in the pan before the batter...

  The whole twisting apart took a little bit to learn but I figured no one will miss a little cream right?

After I finished twisting apart the Oreos, I started to make the batter...this is where I ran into trouble.  So I didn't see the whole room temperature aspect for the stick of butter so I decided to just start beating it in the mixer after only leaving it out for about 15 minutes.  The butter was still in a huge chunk and kept getting stuck on the sides so I thought lets use a spatchula to scrap it off the sides and into the bowl...bad idea.  As I was scrapping the sides, the spatchula got too close to the beaters and well you can only guess it got caught.  RIP electric mixer :( The beaters got totally bent and screwed up so my mixer is sadly no more right now.  Thankfully one of my other roommates had a hand mixer so I carried on.  I proceeded to continue to beat the butter until I thought it was done.  I then added the milk and vanilla to the butter and well it wasn't really beating too well.  The butter got really chunky and nasty because the milk was cold.  So I then pulled the chunks of butter out of the mixture and melted it for about a minute.  I added it back to the milk mixture and it didn't really help to much.  I had no idea what to do at this point because it looked disgusting and it definitely didn't look anything like cupcake dough.  So I did the thing that I always do, I called my mom haha.  She told me to leave the mixture out for a little bit so that it would get to room temperature and then try to mix it again.  

I left the "mixture" for about 20 minutes and then came back and tried to beat it more.  It worked a little better but it still wasn't looking how I thought it should.  At this point it was either throw the "mixture" out and start over or carry on and hope it ended up well.  I decided to not give up so I started to mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) in another bowl.  I then combined the dry ingredients to the "mixture" and they actually began to mix together!  It actually started to look like batter and I was so happy!  I also added the sugar after this and beat the mixture for about 5 minutes.  The egg whites were the next thing to be added but again they were not at room temperature because I missed that part.  It also took me about 5 eggs to actually get 3 egg whites because it proved to be a little more difficult to separate them than expected.  After battling with the eggs, I added the whites to the batter and beat it for another 3 minutes.  The final ingredient to the batter was the rest of the Oreos that I had cut into fourths and tossed with the 2 tablespoons of flour.  I mixed them in by hand and added the extra crumbs to the batter as well.  This is also the point where I added the chocolate chips.  This is what the batter turned out to look like...

Yay real batter!

I then used an ice cream scoop to fill the baking cups and popped them into the oven for about 20 minutes.  When the timer went off, I took them out and checked them with a fork but they weren't done so I cooked them for another 5 minutes.  After taking them out the second time they were cooked perfectly!  I took the cooked cupcakes out of the pan and put in the remaining 5 baking cups with Oreos, added the batter, and then put them in the oven for 25 minutes.  I didn't ice the cupcakes till the next day because I didn't have time that night.  The icing recipe called for...

8 oz cream cheese at room temperature

1 stick butter at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3-4 cups of powdered sugar

This time I actually read the directions and took the cream cheese and butter out of the fridge and beat them together when they were actually at room temperature.  I beat them together for about 2 minutes and then added the vanilla extract.  The powdered sugar was then added in increments of 1 cup because if you added it all at once, my kitchen would have looked like it snowed haha.  I ended up adding around 3 1/2 cups and I also added some of the leftover Oreos to it as well.  I then iced the cupcakes but had leftover frosting for some reason.  Here was the final product...

Again if you like Oreos, I would definitely recommend this recipe.  My friends absolutely loved them and said they were one of the best things they've ever eaten.  I was really encouraged when they said that since it was kind of a struggle making them but I guess it goes to show you should never give up!

Baking at 11:00 at Night? I Say Yes!

So the other night one of my best friends who I hadn't seen in a really long time decided to come over around 11:00 and was dead set on making these cookies that she had found a recipe for.  I had no idea we were going to be baking until like 30 minutes before she came over but I figured I'm only in college once so why not?  Best decision I've made in awhile.  The cookies that we made were probably one of the best things that I've ever baked in my life and not to brag, but I've baked a lot.  The cookies that we made were chocolate chip cookies with a double-stuffed Oreo in the middle...yum.  My friend is the one who found the recipe off the blog called Becky Bakes and here is the link to the actual recipe http://www.beckybakes.net/2011/01/20/oreo-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/.  Anyone reading this needs to make these cookies...seriously you need to.  Anyway the recipe calls for...

2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspon salt

1 teaspon baking soda

10 oz bag chocolate chips

1 package of Oreos

Well once again since I'm on a college budget, we made a couple substitutions.  I didn't have a full bag of chocolate chips so we improvised.  We used both white and semi-sweet chocolate chips because that's what I had on hand.  We also used double-stuffed Oreos but I'm pretty sure you could use any kind, it just depends on what you like!  So after gathering all the ingredients, the "baking", making a mess, whatever you want to call it began.  The first thing we did was melt the butter in the microwave for about 45 sec because I didn't know we were making these cookies until about 10 minutes before she came over so it obviously wasn't softened.  Heating the butter in the microwave was quick and easy so that's what we went with.  We then poured the butter into a bowl and beat it with the sugar.  Next we added the eggs and vanilla and mixed them all together until they were well mixed.  In a different bowl, we combined all the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and baking soda) and "slowly" added them to the wet mixture.  Well in case you didn't know flour is kind of messy so at this point the kitchen was kinda covered in flour.  Baking is no clean task but it's so worth it in the end haha.

Anyway we added all the dry and wet ingredients together and kept mixing them together but the dough was looking super dense.  We proceeded to add the white and chocolate chips and honestly I couldn't tell you how much of that we used.  We just kinda eyeballed it but we did use more regular chocolate chips than white.  The dough was still looking really thick so being smart we read the recipe again.  Upon doing this, we realized that we had left out the brown sugar...oops.  Well nothing that couldn't be added so we just dumped it into the batter and beat it on in.  The dough was still looking so thick so I added some water and that helped a lot...almost too much but it was fine so no worries.  Here's what the dough looked like and this is what got me sick to my stomach that night haha.

Seriously I couldn't stop eating it.

Cooking in the oven...YUM.

Now that the dough was finally finished, we proceeded to mold the dough around all sides of one full Oreo.  Double-stuffed Oreos are pretty big cookies so you can imagine how much dough it took to cover an entire one.  These cookies were the biggest cookies I've ever seen.  Here's just a peek...

So that was the first batch that we put in the oven for about 15 minutes.  The cookies were so big that it took awhile for them to cook.  This is the part where I ate wayyyy too much cookie dough but it was so good I just couldn't stop.  We took them out of the oven and then let them cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes and then we put them on wire racks because we needed to finish cooking them since it was getting to be about midnight at this point.  We got about 5 more cookies until the dough ran out so we threw them in the oven and started the clean-up process.  The second batch took about as long to cook but while they were in the oven, we cut into one and ate it.  This is what the inside looked like with the full cookies in the background...

These cookies were well worth the wait trust me!  They tasted a little different than I expected but they were amazingggggg!  Seriously if you like chocolate chip cookies and Oreos you have to make these but fair warning, they are very rich so I would suggest only eating one at a time unless you're feeling brave.  Otherwise, a very unwanted stomach ache may follow.  But like I said well worth it and the calories so make them and enjoy!

Well That Took Way Longer Than Expected

Well tonight was my first actual experience in the kitchen from start to finish and boy was it an experience.  Until now, I never realized how much work goes into making a meal.  At home I always help my mom cook but I never really made a full on meal on my own.  Well tonight changed all that.  On the menu for dinner was…

Tilapia in Mustard Cream Sauce

Whole Wheat Pearl Couscous

Steamed Brocolli

I found the tilapia recipe on myrecipes,com, which is one of my all time favorite places to find recipes.  I had bought and frozen tilapia the week before so I wanted to make something that would be good for dinner and leftovers as well.  I also wanted a recipe that included a sauce because I had the couscous so this recipe sounded perfect.  The recipe calls for…

4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

cooking spray

3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

1 ounce portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons whipping cream

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

I only had 2 tilapia filets because I’m not feeding an army over here.  I did end up using the amounts listed to make the sauce however because I really like sauce and sometimes tiliapia can be a little boring when it comes to flavor.  So I figured you can never have too much sauce right?  I also added one roasted red pepper with the mushrooms because I had it leftover and I figured the flavors would mesh well together.  You could probably add just about any vegetable to the sauce honestly, it just depends on what you like.  Next time I want to add onions and spinach as well because you will come to find that I love me some vegetables.  The last substition/addition that I did to the recipe was the use of Italian seasoning instead of thyme.  I’m on a college budget and don’t have all the spices in the world so I just found something in our spice cabnet that resembled it and the Italian seasoning was the winner

.

So the cooking began.  First, I boiled the water for the couscous and defrosted the fish for about 4 minutes because it had not totally thawed since taking it out and putting in the fridge this morning.  Four minutes may have been a little too long because the edges of the fish started to cook but in the end it didn’t really make a difference.  Once the water was boiling, I added the couscous and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.  I don’t think I added enough water because it ended up being a little hard sadly.  The recipe on the back of the couscous called for a cup and I cannot eat a whole cup of couscous by myself.  Therefore, I fourthed the recipe and that’s where I got screwed up because the original recipe called for 1 and ¼ cups of water and I’m good at math and all but that’s kinda hard to cut into a fourth.  I guessed and did ¼ cup + 1 TBSP and it was a little short.  I ended up adding another tablespoon after about 5 minutes and it helped but next time I think I’ll just use more water.  First cooking lesson learned haha.

Enough about the couscous fiasco, I added the Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper to the tilapia and then placed them in a skillet with cooking oil over medium high heat.  I cooked them on both sides for about a minute each and then added the chicken broth.  I then brought it to a boil, covered it, turned the heat down and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, I cut up the mushrooms, red peppers, and brocolli since I had the time.   After I let the fish simmer for a little bit, I added the mushrooms and red pepper.  It said cook for a minute or until the mushrooms were done, but it was definitely longer than a minute.  I ended up taking the tilapia out of the pan because it was getting overcooked and then just let the mushrooms and peppers cook for probably about 10 minutes.  I was getting impatient so they weren’t totally done but I was hungry and tired of cooking so I went ahead to the next step.  I added the whipping cream and Dijon mustard and then stired it all together for about a minute.  This is what the sauce looked like...

Looks kinda gross but looks are very deceiving

While all this was going on, I planned to steam my fresh broccoli on the stove but since we only have 2 pans with lids, this didn’t happen.  I caved and cooked it in the microwave for times sake and so that all the other food that I had just cooked wouldn’t be stone cold.  I put it in the microwave for about 5 minutes and sadly that was too short.  They were a little crunchy but not horrible.  Now I know for next time though to cook them more.  I had put half the couscous in a bowl and then I added one tilapia filet and then proceded to pour the sauce into the bowl.  I honestly have no idea how much sauce I put on it so I would say it’s personal preference.  I then drained the broccoli and added it to the bowl and finally I was done!  It was definitely worth all the effort I have to say because it was delicious!  I’ll definitely be using the recipe again as well because it was fairly easy.  I felt very rewarded eating my meal and I for the first time I felt like a real person because I cooked a meal all by myself...cheesy I know but true haha.  Here's what the final product looked like...

One bowl of deliciousness.

Let the Baking Begin!

For my first cooking experience, I wanted to start out with a bang.  I'm obsessed with chocolate, desserts, and basically anything sweet so that's what I decided to conquer first.  It just so happened to be one of my roommates birthdays so I figured that was the perfect opportunity to test out my skills.  I asked her what her dessert of choice and she chose Oreo cheesecake.  Now cheesecake may sound intimidating to a new cook but honestly it was really quite simple.  Because I am definitely not to the point where I make my own recipes, I headed to the internet to find one.  Thankfully I found a pretty simple one because I didn't want to go too outside the box for my first time cooking.  Here is the recipe that I used...

24 Oreo cookies, divided

3 tablespoons butter, melted

3 (250 g) packages of Cream Cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

I have to admit, I'm kind of a healthy eater so I used 2 packages of 1/3 fat cream cheese but everything else I followed to the T.  First thing I did was preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  I then took about 16 Oreos, crushed them up with my hands, and put the crushed up pieces into a plastic ziplock bag.  I then used a potato masher to mash up the Oreos to crumbs because this is what you use for forming the crust. You don't have to use a potato masher to crush them, that's just the best thing I had on hand so feel to get creative haha.  Anyway, I then melted the butter in the microwave.  I combined the Oreos and butter in a bowl and then added the mixture into the bottom of a 9" springform pan.  Here's just a little shot of the mess that I made because in case you didn't know, Oreos are very messy...

After I added the butter and Oreo crumb mixture to the pan, I began to lightly mold it to the bottom of the pan.  The 16 Oreos didn't go as far as I thought they would so I crushed up another 3 or 4 Oreos with my hands and added them to the bottom of the pan.  After I finished messing with the crust, I then began to make the actual cheesecake.  I combined the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in an electric mixer and beat them until they were fully integrated.  I then added 1 egg at a time into the mixer and mixed it until it was nice and fluffy.  The remaining 8 Oreos were added to the mixture but since you can never have too many Oreos, I ended up adding around 14 total.  I stirred in the Oreos though because the mixer would have broken them all into little pieces and I wanted there to be big chunks of Oreos in the actual cheesecake.  I then added the cheesecake center to the pan and smoothed it out so that it was even.  I had left over Oreos from the pack, so I lined the outside and crushed up a few more but you can honestly use them however you want.  This is what the final product looked like before I popped it into the oven for 45 minutes...

Looks pretty good if you ask me haha

The cheesecake then baked in the oven for about 45 minutes and just like that it was done!  The ends looked a little overdone in my opinion but you couldn't taste it.  I honestly think it depends on your oven and this was the first time I've used this one so it'll take a little bit to get used to.  Since cheesecake is obviously served cold, I let it cool till it could be placed in the fridge and then I let it sit in there for about 3-4 hours.  We surprised our roommate when she came home and she absolutely loved it!  Everyone said it was really good and I had a piece myself and it was quite delicious.  Job well done for my first one I'd say.  Cleanup wasn't so pretty but the end result was well worth it.  Here's a glimpse of what it ended up looking like and I would definitely recommend this recipe for any Oreo or chocolate lovers.  Enjoy!

YUM.

A Little Taste of Me

Well I don't really know how to start this so I'll start writing just as I usually do which is very upfront and honest.  My name is Melinda and I am currently a senior in college and loving every minute of it!  I've created this blog in honor of my love for cooking and baking that I have developed over the past couple years.  This is the first time that I have ever had my own kitchen and home because I have lived in the sorority house the past 2 years so cooking and I are not very well acquainted.  That is all about to change though because by the time I finish my senior year, I hope to have mastered my culinary skills and expanded my culinary pallet...well at least a little bit.  I will say though, this is not my first time in the kitchen.  Whenever I'm home, I always I'm helping my mom in the kitchen.  She calls me he suos chef because I help her prepare and cook a lot of our meals.  This is where my interest in cooking began.  One thing that I have already learned upon living on my own is that cooking for 1 person is a lot more difficult than I expected.  You'll get to hear all about that in my future posts though.  I hope you enjoy my culinary escapades because you can ask my roommates, they are always delicious but not always pretty haha.