PRR: Sweet Potato Fries

The Husband and I have been on a bit of a sweet potato fries kick lately. We found a frozen brand at our grocery store that we really like. They come out of the oven fairly crispy but we mostly enjoy them for their flavor. [[They have chipotle pepper on them...YUM!]]

So, seeing that there was a recipe on Pinterest for "The Best Sweet Potato Fries Ever!" I just had to make them this week's Pinterest Recipe Review. Find the original recipe here.

Soaking the fries.

Finished product.

I apologize for the lack of interesting photos, but I was really trying to crank these out because we were just really hungry...So sadly, I wasn't thinking about this post very much...

Anyway...

The breakdown:

Pros:
 - Simple recipe.
- They taste delicious.
- They really were as crispy as advertised!

Cons:
- Due to user error, there was too much cornstarch and so some of the fries developed a very hard outer shell.
- Also due to user error, they weren't very well seasoned...

So, what's my verdict?

Go ahead and give these babies a shot! The only problems with this batch arose from me being in a hurry and not fully reading the recipe. Otherwise, they were really, amazingly delicious, and they were easy. [[Which is very important in our modern, hectic world.


Have a recipe request? Did you give this recipe a try? Did you agree or disagree with my assessment? Send me an email and let me know!

[[ jspencer2303@gmail.com ]]

PRR: Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

After my last PRR [[Pinterest Recipe Review]] on Gooey Butter Cake, I decided I was going to take a break from Pinterest desserts...that is...until I came across this one.

RED VELVET CHEESECAKE BROWNIES!!

These are all words that I enjoy on their own...but when they are all smashed together into one delicious sounding phrase, I just had to give them a try!

Brownie batter.

Cheesecake swirl.

After it comes out of the oven.

Ready to eat.

So...what did I think of this treat after going through the entire process?

Pros:
- Recipe was easy to understand/follow.
- Tasted okay warm.
- Tasted even better when chilled in the refrigerator over night!

Cons:
- The amount of red dye in it. Next time I may try a natural substitute. [[For example, I've heard you can use beets?]]
- The recipe doesn't make a whole lot of bars...it's only enough to fill an 8" pan! [[And trust me...you're going to want more than that!!]]

The husband loved this recipe. Thus, I will be making them again. They were easy to make and super delicious.

If you try out this recipe, please leave a comment or send me an email. I would love to hear your thoughts on it!

PRR: Gooey Butter Cake

Let me preface this post with saying that this is not a recipe for those with weak stomachs. Anyone who cares even a little about their health should not even attempt to read this recipe because it will cause an instant heart attack.

That being said, as you can probably infer, this week's Pinterest Recipe Review is on Gooey Butter Cake. The only reason I even tried this recipe was because of my begging and pleading husband. [[The things we do for love...]]

For those of you who don't know, Gooey Butter Cake is a recipe from Paula Deen, Queen of Southern Cooking. Knowing that fact alone may make you a little queasy when you hear the name of the recipe. I mean, Ms. Paula is known for her over use of butter. So if she has a recipe called butter CAKE then one can only imagine that it is just slabs of butter pressed into a cake pan...

While that is not too far off, I'm going to do my best to give an unbiased opinion of this recipe for you all to consider...

Cake:
1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 16-ounce box powdered sugar

[[no...you are not mistaken...this does come out to a FULL CUP of butter. and yes...that is an ENTIRE POUND of powdered sugar...stick with me here...]]

{1} Combine the cake mix, egg, and melted butter. Once everything is well mixed, press into the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13 pan.
{2} In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla and butter and beat together.
{3} Add the powdered sugar and mix well. Spread over the cake mixture.
{4} Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Feel free to under-cook a little thought because this cake is supposed to be gooey.

Look at how gooey that center is....

Just before taking the plunge...

So, here is my Pros/Cons break down.

Pros: 

-There are relatively few ingredients

-It actually is pretty okay if you let it cool down a lot before actually eating it. [[It was just nasty straight out of the oven...keep in mind...melted butter+powdered sugar create the consistency of lard when warm...YUCK!]]

-It is a husband pleaser.

Cons: 

-It is 100% unhealthy. There is nothing even remotely good for you in this recipe. [[this counts for 2 "cons" points because it is just sooo unhealthy!]]

Well...[[surprisingly]] it looks like Pros won out over Cons this time in a victory of 3-2. If you don't mind eating yourself into a heart attack, I would recommend this recipe. But if, like most people nowadays, you are trying to watch that waistline, stay as far away from this cake as you can. Even breathing in the fumes from it can cause your blood sugar to rise dramatically and your hips to pack on a few extra pounds.

Personally? I will never be making this cake ever again...no matter how much my husband begs and pleads...

I would appreciate any input for a Pinteresting recipe for next week because we see what happens when I let my husband choose the recipe for the week!!

Happy Wednesday!

Chocolate Trifle

I am on a dessert kick right now...it's horrible...but I can't help it! My husband and I are both sweets people. When we first got married, I was making a new dessert at least every other night...no joke! [[Needless to say, I perfected several recipes in that first year.]]

The recipe I want to share with you right now is the Chocolate Trifle. I received this recipe from a woman at my old church at my "Kitchen Themed Wedding Shower" [[which is a fantastic idea by the way...]] I have made a few tweaks to the original recipe. Nothing too drastic, so they're easy to follow.

[[I apologize for the lack of photos. I was in a rush when making this because we were having company over and I needed to have this thing FINISHED! But I have a photo of the finished product so that will just have to suffice.]]

Ingredients:
1 Chocolate or Fudge Brownie Mix [[I have a DELICIOUS brownie recipe below for those interested! Or you can be boring and just use a box mix...]]

4 TBSP Strong coffee + 1 tsp sugar [[I don't measure the coffee, just use how much you deem appropriate. Also, I lose the sugar...IT IS NOT NECESSARY! The whole dish is sugar, for goodness' sake...but if you love sugar and want to add this extra tsp, that's your prerogative.]]

3 (3.9 oz) packages of chocolate instant pudding

1 (12 oz) tub of whipped cream

1 package of Heath Toffee Bits [[This is your chance to get creative. I loathe Heath...so I substitute whatever I fancy that day. This time it was Oreos...yum!]]


{1} Prepare brownie mix as directed.
{2} Prick top of warm brownies. Drizzle with coffee and let cool.
{3} Prepare pudding.
{4} Place 1/3 crumbled brownies in the bottom of a 3 qt. trifle dish.[[I like to just cube the brownies so that you get a huge brownie chunk in each bite!]] Top with 1/3 of the pudding, then 1/3 of the whipped cream, then 1/3 of Heath [[or whatever you are substituting.]]
{5} Repeat this 2 more times.
{6} Chill 6-8 hours before serving

 

And for the most delicious brownies on earth:

2 c flour

2 c sugar [[I use turbinado because it gives a better texture in this particular recipe. But if you don't have turbinado sugar, don't go out and buy it just for this recipe. Just use whatever kind of sugar you already have on hand.]]

3/4 c cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 c water

1 c vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

{1} Mix dry ingredients.

{2} Add wet ingredients and mix until well incorporated.

{3} Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. [[I usually only keep them in for 20 minutes though because they are a lot more gooey. Just know your oven and your preferences and take the brownies out of the oven accordingly.]]

PRR: Nutella Cookies.

As I have mentioned before, I am a huge fan of being in the kitchen. I love preparing food for loved ones and even strangers because it makes me feel closer to them. I know it's not it's own official Love Language, but I think it totally should be.

Because of this love of cooking, [[and because of seemingly everyone's love of Pinterest]] I have decided to begin a weekly review of Pinterest recipes. [[Pinterest Recipe Review or PRR for short]] The one that I've seen floating around the pin boards a lot lately that really caught my attention is Nutella Cookies. Who doesn't like Nutella? And who doesn't like cookies? This marriage should be a blissful one should it not? Well, that's what I was out to find out.

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
1 c flour
1 egg
1 c nutella

1. Mix ingredients together.
2. Form into 1" balls and place on cookie sheet.
3. Bake @ 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes [[or until dough sets]].

Simple enough right?

Well...maybe not...
So as you may or may not know...Nutella is super sticky...it was a beast to get out of the container, into the measuring cup and then into the mixing bowl. It made a huge mess in my kitchen [[which was obnoxious]]. My fingers were sticky...my counter was sticky...obnoxious. The actual mixing and baking was super simple so even the most beginner chef in the world could make these things and not mess them up.

They came out of the oven looking outstanding [[because, again, who doesn't love Nutella?]] but when we tried them, they were just okay. The normally subtle hint of hazelnut was all of a sudden the overpowering flavor [[kind of a turn off for us]].

So here is the run down:

Pros-
1. Super easy to make.
2. That's the only pro...

Cons-
1. Nutella is pretty expensive. Why would I use a whole cup of it on mediocre cookies?
2. The Nutella made an unnecessary mess in my kitchen.
3. The cookies were not that good. Strange texture. Odd flavor.

So my advice? If you are a huge fan of Nutella, just eat the stuff straight out of the jar like a normal person. And if you are bent on having Nutella flavored cookies, just make chocolate cookies and add some chopped hazelnuts to them. That would taste better and be a whole lot cheaper.

p.s. Have a Pinterest recipe that you've been dying to try but just haven't had the time yet? Send it my way and I'll try it for you!

Awww Nuts...

Yesterday I got home from the grocery store and was swiftly met with the question "Did you pick up any snacks while you were out?" "Of course!" was my defensive response but upon further investigation, I had in fact, forgotten to pick up any snack food items.  Instead of having to go back to the store [[I had already spent 2 hours running errands and rush hour was just beginning...I was NOT going back out...]] I rummaged through the cabinets sure that I would be able to find something to quell my husbands hunger until dinner.  All I could find were some end of the season dried soybeans that I had bought because the farmer selling them was really nice.  Needless to say, my husband had to "suffer" a few hours until it was dinner time, but after seeing that I still had that bag of beans, I realized that I needed to get rid of them.

I remembered back to when I had bought the beans, the farmer had given me a little slip of paper with a recipe for roasted soy nuts.  I dug it out of a bin that I hadn't touched since the move and decided to give it a go.  It seemed simple enough.

1. Soak beans for 8 hours or more.
2. Drain the beans, then spread into a single layer on baking sheet. [[use up to 2 cups of beans per baking sheet.]]
3. Bake at 350 degrees F, stirring after 15 minutes, and then after every 5 minutes until golden brown and crunchy. [[the best part about this step is that you get to taste test the entire time you're roasting!]]  The total time will vary depending on the moisture of the beans, but should take about 25 minutes. [[Mine took closer to 45 but I had been soaking them for about 24 hours...so that probably had something to do with it.]]
4. When the beans look like they're getting pretty close to finished, I sprayed them with some EVOO and sprinkled them with a little salt.  That wasn't in the recipe, but it just added a little bit of extra flavor.

And for those of you who don't have 25-45 minutes to stand over an oven, the kindly farmer included a MICROWAVE recipe!

1. Use 1 cup of beans that have been soaked for 8 hours or more. Drain them well.
2. Spread the beans into a single layer in a 9" or 10" glass pie plate.
3. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Stir, then cook 3 minutes more.
4. After that, cook for 1 minute at a time, stirring after each minute to ensure even browning.
5. When the beans are beginning to get hard and golden, you may want to cook for 30 second intervals to avoid burning them.  Total cooking time should probably take between 9-12 minutes.

So! If you find yourself with a surplus of dried soybeans, try this recipe out!  Also, if you try different spice mixtures out and find a favorite, please share it! I would love to try it!