BakeAwayGirl

Salad from the top view You may have noticed that I love Southwestern American food.  I love Mexican food, but I think I like the Tex Mex better.  It has a lot of spice and flavor and cheese.  The best way to do this, in my opinion, is salads.  They taste so fresh but have so much more flavor than your every day salad. Last month, we had a potluck at work.  Potluck at my work is code for snacks and desserts, but usually no real food.  I had a recipe in my To-Do List Pinterest board, and decided it was perfect for a more substantial aspect of the potluck.  The recipe made way more salad than I anticipated, but it was no problem!  The recipe was a hit, and I even sent the bit of leftovers home with people because they loved it so much. Here's the catch.  The recipe for the dressing wasn't very good, in my opinion.  Some people really liked it, but I wouldn't do it again.  I'll include it here because some people loved it.  For me, I would simply mix salsa in with

Before I start this one, I'll preface it with a simple breakdown of this recipe:  If you don't like mint, move on, this one isn't for you.  If you care for mint at all, make these. Now, mint lovers, this is the best cookie for Christmastime.  The original recipe I found was not specifically for Christmas, but it uses Andes mints, and those scream Christmastime to me.  This tastes exactly like mint chocolate chip ice cream in cookie form.  So delicious.  Jeff even suggested we put two together around a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make ice cream sandwiches. In the original recipe, it calls for Andes mints chopped.  That was way too time consuming for my liking, so I just broke them up with my hands.  They break pretty easily, so that wasn't a problem, but it was still time consuming and uneven, so there were some that were still very large.  I vaguely remembered that Andes mints came in chocolate chip sized pieces, but I didn't see them at the store and figured

Couldn't even wait to take a picture! My favorite way to find a new recipe isn't actually Pinterest.  I prefer accidentally discovering a food I love (by eating it of course) and then asking someone for the recipe.  This past summer, at my cousin's birthday party, her roommate brought out a chocolate cake.  Me and chocolate are besties, so of course I took a piece.  After the first bite, I decided I had discovered my new favorite chocolate cake! This cake is luscious.  Decadent.  Sinful.  Devil's Food Cake, you naive child, you haven't tasted sinful yet. There is so much chocolate, but it is balanced out by enough moisture that it never becomes cloying and overdone.  It's just delicious.  Every bite is worth the calories.  I will admit I have only made it once because we had company in town and I wanted something to wow the crowd.  Simply making it for Jeff and I, or even a small party, feels too gluttonous.  After all, something made with all these ing

Who doesn't love biscuits?  The best part of most restaurants is their bread or biscuits, and let's be real, those Pillsbury biscuits are addicting.  I normally don't try to make many breads or doughs because it's such a delicate process.  Dough needs the right amount of flour and water and handling.  Too much of any one of those things turns your final product into a rock hard mistake. I had buttermilk for a different recipe and with the leftovers, I was craving biscuits.  I decided to venture into this totally unknown territory and try it myself.  I did what most women do... I asked my mom for help.  No idea why I did this.  My mom is a perfectly good cook and she likes to experiment every now and then, but she has gladly handed over the majority of cooking over to me when I lived at home as an adult.  Apparently she tried biscuits only once and hers were hard as stone. So I was on my own!  Luckily, I had played enough with pie crust dough that I knew the ridicu

Believe it or not, folks, this was not  a Pinterest find.  I know, shock and awe.  You see, while I spend many hours browsing Pinterest, Jeff reads articles and browses pictures of ridiculous people and cats.  He sends me so many links that I ignore half of them, but I was lucky I looked at this one.  It was a Buzzfeed article on the best one-bowl cakes. I had offered to make cupcakes for a friend's baby shower, and I knew she wanted chocolate, so when I stumbled on this Buzzfeed article, I made sure to pin it for later.  The original recipe only made 12 cupcakes, which is just ridiculous to me.  Who eats only 12 cupcakes?!  Silly. These were a hit at the baby shower and the few leftovers I had went quickly.  I will admit that I did not eat one.  There were fantastic cake pops at the shower as well, and I hit those hard.  So, personally, I cannot vouch for these cupcakes.  However, based on how fast they went, I will guess they are worth trying. I use the basic buttercream

Mine was a mess this time... but amazingly delicious! You'll never eat tacos the same way again!  At least we haven't.  With this cheesy, delicious pie, we no longer eat traditional tacos around here.  This is consumed (eagerly) with a knife and fork, and uses less tortillas than tacos. Now, the best thing about this recipe is it leaves a lot of room for customization.  Jeff and I have very different ideas of what goes in a taco.  I think the spicier the better, but he wouldn't enjoy that much, so we keep our taco pie very basic.  Remember that you can add whatever you'd like to yours! Taco Pie Adapted from here 1-2lb ground beef (or turkey if you're so inclined) Taco seasoning (and as much water as your seasoning packet calls for) 1/3 cup salsa 1/2 cup shredded cheese 2 large tortillas Enough cheese to cover the top (roughly 2 cups) Suggested Toppings: Shredded lettuce Jalapenos Diced onions Diced tomatoes Sour Cream Guacamole In a skille

Om nom nom these sliders were a fantastic find on Pinterest.  We were planning on having friends over for a Bears game and I immediately thought of sliders.  Luckily, I had this little beauty stashed on my Pinterest boards! See, I'm picky.  Any time the ingredients involve Velveeta, I'm out.  Done, moving on.  I realized how ridiculous it is for the woman who eats box macaroni and cheese, but I don't care.  Velveeta is gross.  Therefore, when I read recipe sliders, I usually abandon them because they incorporate some level of velveeta.  This recipe uses real cheese but still uses the oven.  The last thing I wanted to do with friends over was stand outside on the balcony and grill, so the oven was a must. As you can see in the picture, we had a plethora of condiments for the sliders.  We tried bacon, onions, ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce... it was all good, but I wasn't too wild about them.  Then, with the leftovers, we tried pickles. Magic, my friends.  One pickl

Part Two of our pumpkin delights!  As soon as pumpkin season began, I was craving pumpkin bread.  It's so spongey and full of flavor.  So of course I began browsing Pinterest, and discovered I had pinned a recipe last year and never gotten around to it.  As I was assembling my ingredients, I realized the recipe made two loaves.  I hesitated for only a moment before figuring if  some  pumpkin bread was good,  more  was better! You could easily do a cream cheese frosting or even a brown sugar glaze, but it was so delicious all on its own that we didn't make anything. I'm posting the recipe that will  only make one loaf of pumpkin bread .  It is easily doubled and makes plenty.  We made one regular sized loaf and three mini loaves to share with our doubled recipe.  I do recognize that I might be alone in my desire for that much pumpkin bread, so here is the recipe for just one.  Enjoy... and bring your extras over to my house! Pumpkin Bread Adapted from  here 1 cup ca

Sorry for the lousy instagram shot... it's all I could do with my time Mmmm it is my most favorite time of the year!  Around August, I start craving soups, stews, and things made of apples and pumpkins.  Luckily, last year I had the foresight to buy in bulk, and at the end of the holiday season, I bought canned pumpkin from Costco and it's been sitting in the back of my pantry, patiently awaiting this very event. This is a two-part post, and the first is dedicated to a favorite from last year.  While browsing Pinterest for great holiday ideas, I found a recipe for pumpkin donuts.  We had all the ingredients, but we were missing the mini-muffin pan.  Well, I take any excuse to hit up TJ Maxx!  Heck yes.  So we found the pan (as well as many other things, of course) and began baking. These have a sugary cinnamony coating that just totally makes these little bites of heaven.  The only thing is, I haven't yet perfected a technique for creating this coating.  It's m

What?  No recipe?  But this is Bakeaway Girl , not So You Think You Can Pinterest !  I know, I know. But it's been absolutely beautiful outside here for a little while, so I took a little hiatus from my kitchen and tackled a few projects that needed to be done in a backyard.  Living in a cute upper floor apartment, I don't have a backyard, but my parents do and my mom enjoys having me spend time there (even if I smell like polyurethane). You see, last summer, I decided to dive head first into the world of DIY and take this... Light wood, green paint (yuck!)  To this... Darker stain, wine-colored paint (ahhh :) ) The man at the hardware store laughed  at me when I told him what I was trying to do.  He said I should start small for my very first wood project.  As per usual, I smiled politely and ignored him and did what I wanted to do to begin with.  He might have been right, but I think our dining room looks fantastic! So this summer, I set out to refurbish a

When I'm craving something sweet and homemade, I bake one of two things:  brownies or chocolate chip cookies.  What can I say?  I like the basics.  I will eat tiramisu all day long, and if you want to bring me your fancy dessert, I'll eat that too, but my favorites will always be the classics. In my mother's house, if you ever bake a full batch of cookies, you're doing something wrong.  Lecture all you'd like about raw eggs.  I'll listen politely... as I stuff my face with raw cookie dough.  Mmmm salmonella!  My mother would rather have a spoonful of cold cookie dough than a warm chocolate chip cookie any day, so in her house, we made whatever dough she liked best.  As a result, we always made the standard recipe on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip bag. Which made flat, hard cookies. Blech. Not my picture! I tried undercooking them.  I tried melted butter, cold butter.  It didn't matter, they were always flat as a pancake and hard

You may have sensed a theme around here... we like Mexican food.  For Jeff, this is a relatively recent discovery and for me, it is a life long love affair.  Every Wednesday night of my childhood, we had chicken fajitas and it was my favorite night of the week.  So when I find a good Mexican recipe, I am automatically drawn to it. I just stumbled across this little beauty the other day and have had it on my mind ever since.  So today, after Rolled up, brushed with oil, and unbaked hitting the gym, I dragged Jeff to the store for the few ingredients we would need for it.  Mixing was easy and so was rolling, but I was nervous about baking them and having them hold their shape after.  Don't worry about that; it takes care of itself as long as you roll them tightly and place them seam-side down. As soon as we took a bite, we agreed that this will definitely feature itself in our kitchen again!  It can easily be doubled for parties, as well.  I'm uncertain about freezing th

Jeff and I were grocery shopping a while ago, and he paused longingly at a container of shortbread cookies, topped with chocolate.  Of course, this was your generic warehouse store, and the container of cookies held way more cookies than he or I should ever have in the house at one time.  I dragged my reluctant boyfriend along to stay on task, but the seed was firmly planted in my brain. Before coating in chocolate When we got home, I began my search.  Believe it or not, this recipe did not  come from Pinterest [pause for shouts of shock and awe].  You know how much I love Pinterest.  Pinterest is ideal for hours of lazy browsing through pictures of things that I will never or could never do and occasionally stumbling on something beautiful that I can and will do.  Searching for something specific, however, is not a task Pinterest serves well.  So I hit up Google and found a food network recipe. Now, these are shortbread cookies, which means the main ingredient is butter, sugar

For the Independence Day, I brought that Blueberry Buckle from the previous post, but I felt like a copout.  But it's a holiday!  I wanted something a little more... festive.  So I started searching Pinterest (of course), and I came across this picture: Well pinwheels are pretty easy!  So I gathered my ingredients and got to work.  These can be altered for whatever colors you want or whatever season.  At Christmas, I've sprinkled 1/2 tsp of cinnamon in the red dough for a bit of a bite.  You can play however you'd like. **Just be aware that these cookies need to rest in the fridge for roughly 5 hours.  You can make them in advance and just slice and bake when your guests come (or when you're hungry), but they will need at least 5 hours for cooling. Pinwheel Cookies:  4th of July Version Cutting the dough Adapted from here 1 cup of butter (2 sticks), room temperature 1-1/3 cup sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 3 cups flour 1/2 tsp baking powder Smi

This blueberry cake is addicting, and it is unfortunately easy to make.  You're not a big baker?  Well, dear, I've found a recipe that you can throw together that will make everyone think you're a whiz.  This delectable treat was first brought to my attention at a family party by a family friend.  She mentioned that she got the recipe from a morning news show, but to be honest, I wasn't really listening and so I'm vague on the details. If you recognize this recipe, feel free to tell me in the comments section.  I don't want to be accused of stealing someone's recipe. I brought this to our 4th of July party yesterday, and it was a huge hit.  No one ever believes how stupidly easy it is too... yum! Blueberry Cake I got so carried away I forgot to take a picture! So I stole this one... which is exactly how it looks 1 tall can of pineapple (I prefer crushed, but you can use any style) 3 cups of blueberries (1 pint = about 2 cups) 3/4 cup sugar 1 bo

Every year, my aunt hosts Easter at her house, and it's a giant potluck brunch.  There's always more food than any one person should eat (doesn't stop us though).  We all come equipped with tupperwear so we can take leftovers home and eat for days.  As such, I like to experiment with new things because I know it will get eaten. One year, I tried out some new cake decorating... Chocolate cake, white butter cream icing -- 2010 Another year, I did some Easter-inspired sugar cookies.  This was particularly awesome because we were going out of town and I didn't even get to eat a single cookie! This year, my aunt asked me to bring cupcakes.  Well I just haven't been much in a cake-decorating mood lately.  In fact, I don't think I've decorated a cake or cupcake since February.  I'm dissatisfied with my frosting since it doesn't taste as delicious as the professional bakers.  Silly reason, but nonetheless, I am on the quest for the perfect fros

If I have a weakness, it's Oreos.  Ok fine, I'm a sucker for Doritos too, but Oreos might be even worse.  I don't allow myself to buy a package of them because I will eat the entire thing in two, maybe three days.  No, that's not a joke, yes I recognize that's sad.  Hence, I don't allow myself to buy them! But when I saw this on Pinterest, I couldn't resist.  Can you? Taken from MyBakingAddiction.com Right, so now that we're all on the same page, I immediately went out to purchase the goods.  I didn't make the cake from her recipe, because I already have a favorite chocolate cake recipe (that will be a later post).  I stuck with my cake, and I used her Oreo buttercream recipe.  My anticipation was so great, I could hardly stand it! But I was disappointed :(  That light, fluffy, creamy frosting that we associate with Oreo deliciousness was missing, and I should have seen it coming.  That kind of frosting comes from a whipped cream frosting.

Oh heaven, these are my favorite.  Yes, this is my favorite baked good that I have discovered on Pinterest.  When I was younger, I thought scones were like a hard cookie that old English ladies ate.  How wrong I was... These feature that heavenly combination of cranberry and orange, which cannot be beat.  If that's not your cup of tea, you're living a sad, sad life.  No, just kidding (sorta).  You might be able to substitute your favorites (chocolate chips, apple cinnamon, blueberry), but I haven't tried it.  Let me know if you try and how it works! Without further ado... Cranberry Orange Scones Adapted from here 3 cups flour 1/3 cup sugar 2.5 tsps baking powder Smidge of salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 cup cold butter (1.5 sticks) 1 cup buttermilk 1 cup dried cranberries 1 tsp grated orange peel (I'm too lazy to measure this, I just grate until I'm happy) 1 tablespoon milk 2 tablespoons sugar 1/4 tsp cinnamon In your large mixing bowl (I use my

I stole this one from Budget Savy Diva Mine never turn out quite as evenly brown. Now, I always thought southwestern egg rolls sounded disgusting when I saw them on the menu at restaurants.  Come on, stop mixing cultures together, that's just weird. WRONG.  It's delicious. When I finally tried these for the first time two years ago at Rock Bottom Brewery, I was hooked.  Spicy, flavorful, and delicious.  I craved them all the time, but they're kind of a pricey appetizer because you really don't get many of them.  So when I saw this one on Pinterest, I jumped right on it.  Not to mention, because these are baked (not fried, like traditional egg rolls), there's really nothing wrong with these... honestly, folks, it's another accidental healthy recipe from yours truly. You know how much I try to avoid that.  But this was so delicious, even I couldn't stop eating them once I realized they were healthy.  Besides, it still has an avocado ranch dipping sa

Oh yes, you read that right... Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies.  It's a mouthful of a name and, I mean, just look at this picture from Pinterest... Not my picture!  Stolen from SweetestKitchen.com How do you not start drooling?  I know I did!  And I had been craving something sweet that evening, so I popped right up off the couch to make these.  The recipe is very simple, so it wasn't hard.  When they came out of the oven, they looked very similar to the picture above and I was so excited!  But then I took a bite... and it was dry and crumbly.  Not exactly my favorite baked goods flavor.  Then, after being covered overnight, the next day, these were rock hard. Not exactly my favorite Pinterest recipe.  But I like soft, chewey cookies, not crunchy ones.  If you like a crunchy cookie, this is for you!  Also, I used crunchy peanut butter because we don't ever have creamy peanut butter in the house (mostly 'cause it's gross!)  Maybe you can do some

Happy Friday!  Here's a perfect Friday night snack... or maybe for the Blackhawks game tomorrow! One thing I miss about college is the pizza place we had there.  The pizza itself left a lot  to be desired, but they had cheese sticks that were absolute heaven.  Papa Johns has a poor imitation of it, and it just made me crave the real thing more and more.  When I discovered this recipe on Pinterest, I was so excited I immediately went out for the ingredients. So far, it's been a hit at parties, just as a snack for lunch, and as an appetizer at a big family function.  I think it's my sister's favorite of the Pinterest experiments (that doesn't include chocolate, anyway).  You need some sort of pizza dough, and I would suggest the unbaked version.  I really enjoy the unbaked one from Whole Foods, but your generic Pillsbury-knock off at your local grocery store does just fine too.  You're going to bake the dough before making the cheesy bread, so you can  get the