Golden Snitch Peanut Butter Ball Candies.

On Thursday, Tomas and I were finally able to go see the new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows movie. I was happy to finally go see it, but I was also sad that it was the last. I loved watching those movies over the years and I especially loved reading the books. Well since I had the day off yesterday I also watched the first three movies again. I would have loved to watch the others again, but I only have the first three. I am waiting for a boxed set to come out before I buy the movies again. With all this Harry Potter I have been watching, I decided that I should make a Harry Potter themed snack. That is why I decided to make Golden Snitch Peanut Butter Ball Candies. I found the peanut butter ball recipe on various websites, which were pretty much all the same recipe. The one I ended up following in the end was from joyofbaking.com. To make the wings I decided to melt some white chocolate in a piping bag and pipe out wing shapes on to a piece of parchment paper. In the end I thought the Golden Snitches came out cute and went perfect with my Harry Potter movie marathon. I think these will be especially great for a Harry Potter themed party. Enjoy :) And if you have not gone to see the movie yet you must go.

I caught the Golden Snitch :)

Golden Snitch Peanut Butter Ball Candies

2 cups creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 - 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

About 1/4 cup White dipping chocolate

Place the peanut butter, unsalted butter, and salt in a microwaveable bowl, and heat in the microwave for about one minute or until just soft (check and stir the ingredients every 20 seconds). Stir in the vanilla extract and confectioners sugar and mix until it has the consistency of a dough (add more sugar if necessary). Roll into balls and refrigerate for about an hour. Melt some white chocolate in a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet and make some wings with the chocolate. Let harden. once the peanut butter balls are cool, stick two wings into the balls and repeat for the others. You now have yourself a Golden Snitch. :)

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Garlic Bread with Garlic Butter

This garlic bread is absolutely amazing, so amazing it was devoured in no time leaving no leftovers. Usually I make my garlic bread by spreading butter and sprinkling cheese and garlic, but now I think I will be making it this way for now on. It is made using garlic butter. Once in a while I will make this butter and all we would do is spread some on our warm dinner rolls. Well last night I decided that I should spread some on a roll of French bread sliced in half and broiled in the oven. I am glad I did because it came out amazing. Now I originally got this recipe from Allrecipes but I changed it around. Well I hope you get a chance to try this garlic bread or at least try the butter on something else.

Garlic Bread with Garlic Butter

1 cup butter, softened
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon Herb de Provence seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Spanish Hot paprika

Directions

In a small bowl, combine softened butter, minced garlic and parmesan cheese. Season with garlic salt, Italian seasoning, pepper and paprika. Mix until smooth. Spread the butter all over the French bread. Place on a baking sheet and place under broiler until the bread begins to turn a nice golden brown. Slice and enjoy. :)

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Quick Trail Mix

What a view.

I just recently took a trip to Yosemite where we hiked the trail to Clouds Rest. You can read all about our trip under My Life page. It was a very long hike, but very rewarding. Along our hike we took a lot of breaks and one of the things we ate along our hike was the trail mix I quickly put together the night before. Trail mix is something anyone can make. The best things about making it yourself is you can put all the things you like in it and keep the things you don't like out. I would have put more in it but I just used what I had on hand. In my trail mix I took some salted peanuts, a package of dried cranberries, Reese's peanut butter chips, and chocolate covered raisins and dumped them in a large Ziploc gallon bag, sealed it shut and threw it in my backpack and headed off for our hike. Well I hope you get a chance to make your own trail mix and take a beautiful hike in Yosemite.

A view of the trail mix with Half Dome in the background and the clouds passing through us.

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Chocolate Whoopie Pies

On Sunday while cutting my coupons out of the newspaper I came across a recipe for Chocolate Whoopie Pies. They looked so good I just had to try them. I followed the recipe given for the cakes, but when it came to the filling I did not have any marshmallow filling, so I used the filling recipe that my mom used when she made Whoopie Pies a while back. They came out very good. I feel they actually taste better cold, but that is just my opinion. Well if you never had a Whoopie pie I would recommend you do. :)


Chocolate Whoopie Pies

Cakes:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter softened
4 Tbsp vegetable shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

Filling:
1 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 375*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a mixer, with a paddle attachment, beat butter, shortening, and brown sugar on low speed until combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla; beat 2 more minutes. Add half the flour mixture and half of the milk to the batter, beat on low. Add the rest of the flour mixture and milk. Using a spoon drop batter 1 Tbsp at a time onto the baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes, or until cakes spring back when gently touched. Remove from oven and transfer to cooling racks. While cooling prepare the filling. Add the butter, powder sugar, vanilla, and water to a mixer. Beat until smooth. Place filling on one of the cakes and then take another cake and place it on top making a sandwich. Repeat until all cakes are filled and enjoy. :)

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Apple Cinnamon Chip Pancakes with Crumb Topping

A while back I went to have breakfast/lunch with my friend Jeni. We decided to go to one of our favorite places Batter Up. At Batter Up they serve many different types of fun pancakes, as well as other foods, but I always get the pancakes. This time I decided to try the apple cinnamon chip pancakes with a crumb topping on top. They tasted amazing, so amazing that I had to try making them for myself. So this morning I went in the kitchen and attempted to make the pancakes myself. It was a success, they came out really good and I even have some left that I will be able to enjoy for breakfast tomorrow. Well I hope you get a chance to enjoy these lovely pancakes as I have. :)

Apple Cinnamon Chip Pancakes with Crumb Topping

Crumb Topping
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter

Pancakes
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 half chopped apple
1/2 cup cinnamon chips

Crumb topping: Preheat the oven to 350*F. In a bowl combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, and butter. Using your fingers combine the ingredients, forming clumps, until all is combined. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes, check on it constantly and flip and move the crumb topping around to prevent burning.

Pancakes: In a large bowl stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl combine the egg, milk, and oil. Add all the egg mixture to to the flour mixture and mix until combined. Gently stir in the chopped apples and cinnamon chips. Heat an electric griddle or skillet. Pour a desired amount of batter on to the hot surface. Cook 1-2 minutes on each side or until pancakes turn a beautiful golden brown. Remove from heat. Sprinkle some crumb topping over the pancakes and enjoy. :)

Pancake recipe from Better Home and Garden cookbook.

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Sprinkle Obsession

I have a confession to make, I am obsessed with sprinkles. I was organizing my sprinkle and cupcake wrapper shelf in my pantry and that is when I realized that there were more sprinkles in there than I thought I had. After counting them I found out I have 29 containers of sprinkles and some of those containers are sectioned off having four or more choices in each container. So I actually have tons of choices when it comes to what sprinkles I want to use. I don't know when this obsession began, but one thing I do know is most of these came from HomeGoods, where I work. We always get in different types of sprinkles at great prices, so I just can't resist their beautiful shapes and colors. Also whenever I see a new container of sprinkles I don't have, I start thinking of a the things I can do if I had those sprinkles, so I buy them. Some may say that I have enough sprinkles, but I know that I will probably be buying some again in the near future, especially if it is a color or shape that I wont be able to resist. :)

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