Doggy Ice Cream

Holy Poop!

It's been scorching hot here over the past couple of weeks, so staying cool has been almost impossible. What's that? The best thing to do on a hot day is get ice cream? I agree! But what if you're covered in fur and sweat through your feet? Still, the answer is ice cream!

Last week on our way home from an adventure, Boyfriend and I stopped off at a local pet food store to get some 'doggy ice crem'. Oz and Holly loved it, but it was pretty expensive stuff. Since I'm  super cheap  a creative person, I decided to make my own ice cream for the puppies.

Here's what you need:

 

Mash the banana into smithereens and then mix in the yogurt and peanut butter. It's important to use plain yogurt because you don't want any added sugars or aspartame. For similar reasons use natural peanut butter. If you want to play with flavours, add strawberries, blueberries or raspberries instead of peanut butter! Now put your mush into a clean ice cube tray and freeze until ready to serve!



Once it's frozen, serve a cube or two (based on the dogs size) and wait to become their favorite person!



Always remember that it's just as hard (if not harder) for your pets to stay cool on hot days, so make sure that there's lots of shade and fresh, clean water available to them. Never leave your pet in a car, even with the windows rolled down. It's an oven in there!

If you like this recipe, you might like this!

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies For Dogs

I was really in the mood to bake the other day, but didn't want to eat a million cookies, so I decided to make some cookies for the lovelies in my life - my dogs!

Here's what you'll need:



Mix everything together and spoon the desired cookie sized amounts out on a baking tray. Bake at 350 degrees until the bottom of the cookies become golden brown (you'll notice the browning along the base of the cookie).

Let them cool and then this will happen:



Just incase you were wondering, these cookies are great for kitty cats too, just break them into smaller treats and be sure not to over feed!

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I found this recipe on i am baker, I started to drool right away. They had to get in my tummy.

I made a few small changes (because I didn't have any butter and also because I was too impatient to refrigerate the dough), but they turned out great!

Here's what you'll need:

Mix your dry ingredients and butter together in one bowl, and your wet ingredients together in another. The butter mix should be fluffy-ish. Then you really should mix the two together slowly, but I dumped the wet into the dry caveman style.

Now plunk down spoonfuls of dough onto your cookie sheet and bake in the over at 350 degrees. My cookies only had to be in for five minutes before they were done, but the amount of time will vary based on how big/thick you make your cookies.

If you don't already have a Silpat, I really recommend them! They're great! I used to be a serial cookie burner, but since I've been using the Silpat I haven't burned a thing AND it cuts down on cleaning. *I'm not sponsored by Silpat, and I get nothing for saying this, I'm just really happy with mine!*



These cookies stay soft in the middle but have just the right amount of crunch on the outside. They didn't even last 24 hours in my house *burrrp*.

If you give this recipe a try, be sure to let me know!

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

Fruit Snack Attack!

I DID IT!

After several failed attemps I finally made some delicious fruit snacks! Sorry guys, as much as I wanted them to be, these snacks aren't vegetarian. I couldn't get the agar agar to set properly, so I finally broke down and used gelatin instead. The result is still a healthier alternative to most store bought fruit snackies!

Here's what you'll need:



Put your fruit and juices in a pot and heat it on medium. If you're using fresh fruit, be sure to slice it into pieces before putting it in the pot!



Once the fruit is all soft and squishy, transfer it into a blender and add your honey. If you don't like honey you can always use sugar or other sweeteners. How much of the sweetener you add really depends on how sweet you want your fruit snacks. Once it's all blended together, take a taste (careful, it's hot!) and see if it's sweet enough for you.



Let your mix cool for about 5-7 minutes and then toss in the gelatin. Now blend until there aren't any lumps!

Once you're lump free, pour your mix into a pan that is as deep as you would like your fruit snacks to be in size. Mine were a little too big for my liking; I'll be making them smaller next time.

Put your pan into the fridge for about an hour for it to cool before you slice up your snacks! If I'd had a cute little cookie cutter, I would have done what Taralynn did and made gummi bears.



The end result is a spongy snack that pleased both of my taste testers (thanks Boyfriend and Tammy!). I kept mine in the fridge, but you don't have to. You could definitely take them to work or school with you, and I think the cookie cutter process of this snack would be a great thing to do with kids.

If you try this out let me know. I'd love to see your flavour concoctions!

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

A Failed Experiment

Yesterday I tried to make fruit snacks.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought that it would be the best thing ever (which it totally would have been if I hadn't messed it up), so I couldn't wait to try it. This isn't the first time I've tried to make fruit snacks, but I was convinced that if I tried again, the result would be delicious gummy bears to put in my belly. Apparently I was wrong because Boyfriend described my creation as 'foul'.

*sigh*

I think my problem might be that I refuse to use gelatin, so I've been trying to make the gummies with agar agar instead. By all accounts agar agar is suposed to work the same as gelatin, and it doesn't contain any animal by product, so it's definitely Nichole approved. I must be doing something terribly wrong, but I can't figure out what it is. If anyone out there in internet land has a suggestion, please let me know.



I hope everyone else has better luck with this recipe, because it looks amazing! I might try it with gelatin, just to see if I can finally master the creation of fruit snacks.

It's hump day! (bahaha, hump)

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

Cream Cheese Brownies

My post the other day had me craving brownies like crazy, so I finally gave in to the temptation and made a batch of cream cheese icing covered brownies. Yup, I went there. What's the point in eating junk food if you're not going to go all out, right?

I started out with Alicia's recipe and changed it up a little bit.

Here's what you need:



Mix the melted butter and honey together in a bowl. Add the cocoa and mix until you have a smooth goop. Now mix in the flour (I used whole wheat), eggs and vanilla. Plop the goo into a glass oven safe pan on 350 degrees for about twenty minutes (or until you can poke a tooth pick in the middle and have it come out clean).



Just mix all of the icing ingredients together and poof! Delicious icing!

Try to resist icing the brownies until after they have cooled.

Now get ready...



And eat!







They didn't last long in my house...

Hugs ans poops,

Nichole

A Little Valentines Day Preparation

I'm not really the most romantic person in the world, but I do love Valentines Day! I love love, and I love being able to get heart shaped things and heart patterned clothing. Also, who can argue with all of the chocolate!?

While I was parusing the interwebs I found a couple of things that I just had to share with you guys.

The first is from Alicia at The Baker Upstairs. These look like the yummiest brownies ever.



I can't wait to try them!

Then I found this drink from Daydreamer Desserts.



It involves a little bit of preparation, but it looks totally worth it! I might try to make a non-alcoholic version.

Please let me know if you try out these recipes, and be sure to say hello to the lovely ladies behind the recipes!

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

Caramel Steamed Milk

One of my favorite treats is a caramel creme from Starbucks. It's a great little pick-me-up on a cold day, but dropping by a coffee shop every time I need to beat a chill would get pretty expensive, so I learned how to make my own.



Here's what you'll need:



Warm your milk up to a comfortable drinking temperature (or a little hotter, but not boiling). To do this, you can use a microwave or heat it over the stove top. When your milk is nice and warm, add your caramel syrup (to your taste) and stir. I add lots of caramel because it's delicious and I pay my own dental bills.

If you want to, you can froth the milk at the top using a frother (that's what I do). You can also add some whipped cream to the top and a little bit of caramel drizzle.

It's a simple drink, but that's what I like about it. One bit of advice though: don't make your warm beverage, take a buttload of pictures of it, and expect the drink to be warm when you're done. It won't be. You'll be drinking cold caramel milk with frothies on top.



If you want to be super fancy, you can make your own caramel syrup/sauce using this recipe. Just don't cook it for as long. You can then keep the sauce in the fridge until the next time you want some.

Oh! And if you want a snack with your nice warm drink, whip up a batch of these. They are super quick to make and they are delicious.

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

Mom's Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

What you need:



Beat together mararine and brown sugar until they look like kind of fluffy, then blend in the eggs and beat the heck out of this mix. Add the baking soda and whole wheat flour now, and do some more beating (this recipe is quite violent).

You should now have a bowl of mustard looking glop. Add the rolled oats, chocolate chips and any extras, and mix them together well.

Plop them on a baking sheet and cook for about 10-12 minutes.

Ta dah! Delicious cookies :)

Disclaimer: In my house we add flaxseed to the mix. It makes the cookies a little crunchier, but it also turns the cookies into a deadly weapon against constipation. The more you know...

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

Get Ready For Cavities!

I haven't stopped baking in three days. My hands are turning into spatulas and my nose can actually tell exactly when something in the oven is ready to come out. I am the snack master!

Today's adventure into the art of things that are terrible for my teeth, was all about toffee. I was suprised at how easy it was to make. I found this recipe on Pinterest and went from there.

You'll need:

2 1/4 cups of icing sugar - 1/2 cup of milk - 1/4 cup of corn syrup - 1 vanilla bean - 3/4 cup salted butter

I altered the recipe just a little bit by using a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead of a bean, and I added lemon juice into the mix (don't worry, you won't taste the lemon-y goodness, it just takes a bit of the eye crossing sweetness out of the toffee). The lemon was added until I liked the taste of the mix, there's no measurement exactly, but if I had to guess, I'd say three burly man squeezes of the fake lemon that the juice is bottled in.

Put the icing sugar, corn syrup, milk and vanilla into a pot. Stir these ingredients together over a high temperature with a wooden spoon (I used a silicon spoon because a fury helper ate my wooden one). Once it starts to boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for about five minutes. If you used a vanilla bean, this is when you take it out of the mix.

After the five minutes are up, start to gradually add the butter (I have no patience, so mine went in as a giant blob). Now stir until your arm feels floppy. If you have a candy thermometer, you'll stop stirring and remove the pot from heat when it reaches 110 degrees celsius. If you don't have a candy thermometer (like me) you'll have to go old school and use a glass of cold water. For toffee, when you pour a bit of the delicious goo into the water, it will come out firm, but soft and malleable.

Butter a sheet of parchment paper and put it in a pan (mine was glass), then pour the mix in. The parchment paper will keep your toffee from sticking to the pan, and also make cleanup MUCH less of a hair pulling experience.

The recipe says to let it cool for two hours before cutting, but I'd recommend going through it with a pizza cutter a few times over that two hour span.

Now eat it all!

No, don't actually do that, you'll be sick. I wrapped my toffees in parchment paper because I'm going to gift them to others.

Enjoy!



Hugs and poops,

Nichole

The Night of the Franken-Cake

It's December, not October, but I've created monsters.

I wanted so badly to share a different recipe with you guys today, but it just wouldn't turn out! I tried three different time before I decided that I was driving myself crazy. To make up for this parade-pooping malfunction, I decided to share my favorite icing recipe... but apparently the theme of sanity testing is going to continue all through December. I don't know what it is about me making cupcakes that always invites gremlins (first story here), but here's another cupcake comedy hour for you, on behalf of me.

I decided to quickly whip up a batch of cupcakes using store bought mix (to save time, since I just wanted to share the icing recipe, and also because I had it in my cupboard.). Of course the mix was slightly expired, but I didn't care, I wanted cupcakes and I wanted them right now. As I was about to pour the mix into the cups, I discovered that Monsieur Cat has decided to eat two of my silicone baking cups. Fantabulous! Like any good baking soldier, I pushed onwards and thought "whatever, I'll just spread out the extra batter amongst the ten remaining cups"... here's what happens when you do that:



Whatever... the icing will cover the bulbous tops of my Franken-cakes, right? Moving along!



Now, to make the icing!

You need:

- 1/4 cup of softened cream cheese - 1/4 cup of softened butter - 1/2 tsp vanilla - 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar

Blend the SOFTENED cream cheese and butter together with a blender until it's all mushed together. DON'T try and skip the softening step... I flung a chunk of butter across my kitchen with the blender, learn from my impatience, kids. Add your vanilla, and slowly mix in your icing sugar. I just kept adding icing sugar until it tasted so sweet that the mishaps of the day just melted away into tooth cavities. You need to add it slowly though, or it will poof up in your face like a delicious bomb explosion. I did this. Your eyes can't taste the sugar, it's a waste.

When all mixed together you get a delicious icing for your hideous cupcakes! This icing is soooo good (if you like cream cheese)! My favorite pairing is this icing on top of chocolate cupcakes.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and if you end up with ugly cupcakes, don't fret, mine still tasted delicious!

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

Cookie Clouds

Yesterday was a super fantastic and lovely day. I got to see a friend from work who I've been missing quite a bit, and more friends came over for dinner. It was the kind of day that deserved a dessert salute, so it got one!

This dessert is one that my cousin taught me how to make when I was a teenager; it's one of my favorites. It's really simple, quick, and light (great for after large meals).

Here's what you need:



- Chocolate chip cookies (home made or store bought) - Milk - Crispy Crunch Bar(s) - Cool Whip



I chose to make small, individual desserts in single serve glass tumblers. You can also do one big cookie cloud and cut it into pieces for serving.

To make the 'crust', place the chocolate chip cookie in the glass. The number of cookies you use depends on how thick you want your crust to be. I chose one full cookie and then added crumbs and bits until I got what I wanted.



Next, pour the milk over the cookies. The amount you use will again vary based on the thickness of your crust, but you want just enough milk for the cookie to absorb it completely. You end up with delicious cookie mush (see above).



Cool Whip time! Spread a layer of Cool Whip over your crust.





Smoosh up your chocolate bar into pieces and sprinkle the bits over the top of your dessert!



Done! Now pop your cookie clouds in the freezer for a couple of hours and they'll be ready to serve!

I serve mine with a little bit of caramel sauce drizzled over the top.



Enjoy!

Hugs and poops,

Nichole

Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins

Wha'chu Need:

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 bananas)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup milk

3/4 cup chocolate chips (I use less!)

- See more at: http://www.simplyfrugal.ca/2010/09/my-favourite-banana-chocolate-chip-muffins/#sthash.2kv0Xsni.dpuf

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 bananas)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup milk

3/4 cup chocolate chips (I use less!)

- See more at: http://www.simplyfrugal.ca/2010/09/my-favourite-banana-chocolate-chip-muffins/#sthash.2kv0Xsni.dpuf

- 1 1/2 Cups of Flour - 2/3 Cups of Sugar - 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt (I skip the salt because I use salted butter) - 2 Mashed bananas- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla - 1/2 Cup Melted Butter - 1/4 Cup of Milk - Buttload (or less) of Chocolate Chips



Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl and the wet in another.
Once everything is all mushed together, add your chocolate chips. I put in a lot because I'm awesome.



Distribute the goo into your muffin tray. This will make twelve large-ish muffins, but you could also spread it out to make a bunch of little ones.



Shove them in the oven at 350 degrees for about twenty munites. My oven may be the gateway to Hell because it's insanely hot, so it doesn't take that long. When the tops are a golden brown-y color, you know they're done. If you have an oven like mine that seems to get hotter than it should, you can put a layer of tin foil over the top of your muffins to keep them from burning on the top while they're still cooking in the middle (thanks mom!).



Ta-dah!
(recipe found here)

Hugs and poops,

Nichole