BakeAwayGirl

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 t...

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 f...

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.  ...

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 mea...

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...

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 b...

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 f...

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 cre...

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 b...

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...

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 'ca...

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,...

This one should be prefaced with the statement, "Don't judge a book by its cover!"  So if you think, "No, I don't like jalapenos, or cream cheese, or crescent rolls, or life," just chill out for a second. I came across these at a party before I had fully embraced the Pinterest lifestyle.  This girl made these and accredited the recipe to Pinterest, which at the time, I didn't understand.  I thought it was just pictures, so I had no idea how she had a recipe.  Oh, the early days... ;) Anyway, I judged them because they weren't deep fried and made with cream cheese.  I don't like cream cheese.  It's... sour.  Ew.  But the temptation of jalapenos called to me, and I decided to snag one.  Oh, thank goodness I did!  It didn't have the usual taste of cream cheese, just a delicious jalapeno creaminess.  Yummmm!  For those of you who don't much care for spicy, these really aren't (much to my disappointment).  The crescent roll...

This is a recipe I discovered last summer when I needed some snacks for a friend and me.  We needed something easy that would soak up some of the bottles of wine we guzzled (we were celebrating summer, don't judge).  So while we had some great cheese and crackers, that just wasn't going to be enough for all of that. What do we go for when we're consuming plenty of alcohol?  The answer is, of course, pizza!  But we wanted it to be easy and less messy, so to Pinterest I went.  This is what I came up with. Sidenote:  You can eat these without adult beverages, I'm just saying it was the inspiration. Pizza Bites Adapted from here 1 container of your favorite unbaked pizza crust* Shredded Mozzarella cheese Pepperoni 1/8 cup olive oil 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning Parmesan (for sprinkling) Pizza sauce (for dipping) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out pizza dough and cut.  I suggest scissors for this because the pizza cutter couldn't get ...

**Disclaimer:  If you count calories, you may just want to skip this post.  You've been fairly warned! My version from Easter '12 I discovered this little gem last year, and I don't remember why, but I don't think I need a reason.  It's a cinnamon coffee cake from Pinterest.  What more do we need?  I made it for a work breakfast, and then again for Easter brunch.  When it was a hit in both places, I stored this baby away for special days.  I've started jonesing for it again, so it was lucky for me that the work breakfast fell on this week! Unfortunately, it was a busy week.  My sister's birthday was yesterday and we went out for the evening.  When we came home, the couch was so inviting, and then it was bedtime!  I woke up this morning to my alarm and groggily laid there for a moment until a little voice in my head whispered, "Hey... you never made that cake that you need to have at work by 7:00 this morning." I won't bore you ...