Christmas Ornament Cookies

So two days ago it was 70 degrees outside and we had the windows open. Today sadly it's 30 :(... Perfect time to post an easy christmas cookie recipe! Im sure there will be a few more to come but this recipe is fool proof and quick to make so its perfect if you are in a jam, and no one will know the dough is store bought. 

First you need the ingredients:

2 rolls of store bought sugar cookie dough

red and green food coloring

Thats it :) Obviously this recipe could be made with any homemade sugar cookie recipe but it's completely not necessary for these cookies.

First step is to take the dough out of the wrapper and cut it into thirds. Set one third of the dough aside as it will be the white part of the cookie.

Put the other two sections of the cookies in two different mixing bowls.. (my dough came straight out of the fridge, so I warmed it in the microwave for 30 seconds to make it soft).

Use the back of a wooden spoon to smash the dough together... this step is important so you don't get a marbled look when you add the food coloring. 

Next add about 10 drops of red food coloring to one portion of the dough. I used 5, mixed the dough, then added 5 more. You can add more or less depending on how dark you want it. 

Mix well until the dough is one solid color. 

Do the same for the Green....

Once the two doughs are mixed, place the white section in the bottom of a bread pan. only use half of the pan because the cookies will be too thin otherwise...

Then add the next color (in this case green)...

And lastly add the final color...

I used a spoon to flatten the edge to make all the layers the same shape 

Freeze for an hour... This works best if you use a layer of parchment paper but I forgot so it was harder to pull out of the pan when frozen.

When it's totally frozen, slice off the ends so you have a nice square shape...

Then slice into small slices about 1/4 inch thick...

Next take a slice and cut three triangles into it...

Line on a cookie sheet evenly but space them about a 1/2-1 inch apart because they do expand...

Bake in the over at 375 degrees for 7 minutes...

Pull out of the oven and Voila!

Though they don't look that appealing right now put them on a place and add a little christmas cheer with them, and these will be sure you impress whoever you serve. 

The longest part of this recipe is waiting the hour for the dough to freeze. Otherwise you can have these  done in an hour and a half. Easy as pie! enjoy.

Posted by EE

Salami Slammers

  

                            

Accompanied with “Night Visions” by Imagine Dragons

A brief history

The following set of ingredients has captured my attention since I was a kid, back when I used to order the #9 at my local deli: Salami, Pesto, Mozzarella on a wedge (what NYC people call subs). Recently, I’ve been imagining different ways to bring these three simple ingredients together because when the three of them merge, miracles start to happen.

A brief history

I first heard of Imagine Dragons about a month ago, but I’d never heard a single song by them prior to purchasing the album a few days ago. Is “Night Visions” a good CD? Sure. It’s fine. Is it going to change my life in a meaningful way? I doubt it. More details will follow. 

My goal

I’m going to be highlighting various aspects of the CD, and hopefully I’ll end up with as many highlights as there are steps to the recipe.

What you’ll need:

1 lb salami

Mozzarella Cheese

Crescent Rolls

Pesto

Various common kitchen items

Preheat the oven to 375

Step 1: Take about 3/4 lb of Salami and slice it up into small chunks.

Highlight 1: The first song, “Radioactive,” begins with some pleasant, folksy guitar strumming and some chanting in the background. But before it turned into a Fleet Foxes-like bore of a song, out of nowhere a foghorn starts blaring and they drop a pretty sick beat, adding an electronic dimension to the song that I wasn’t expecting at all. 

Step 2: Take about ½ of the sliced up Salami, add 2 tablespoons of Pesto, and mix together in a bowl. Notice the other ½ of the Salami behind the bowl. Each bowl will be approximately enough filling for one tube of Crescent Rolls.

Highlight 2: The second song, “Tiptoe,” starts off at a frenetic pace and never really lets up. I imagine hearing this at a concert and just seeing a wave of people jumping up and down. Really cool song.

Step 3: Cut up about ½ of the Mozzarella Cheese into little cubes. This will be all the cheese you’ll need, you can save the rest for another time.

Highlight 3: Ok. I lied. I’ve heard the third song, “It’s Time,” but I didn’t know it was them. It definitely has an anthem-like quality to it. Yelling, chanting, etc. They even break it down to a point where there’s nothing but singing and clapping! I love a good breakdown. Clearly the album was based around this song.

Step 4: Open a tube of Crescent Rolls, take out a triangle, stretch that baby out and pack in the ingredients. Approximately 1 tablespoon of Salami/Pesto and 3 cubes of cheese should be good.

Highlight 4: The whimsical fifth song, “On Top of the World” is kind of fun, but I can sense this album is starting to slip.

Step 5: This is not cosmetically perfect but it’s the basic idea. Fold the two ends of the roll in, and fold the top down over the bottom. The more dexterous your fingers, the better this will look.

Highlight 5 (and I’m kind of stretching here): The 10^th track, “Underdog.” Different sound, a lot of random noises scattered throughout the song. Kind of reminds me of playing Mario on Gameboy, which I’m gonna call a good thing.

To recap: One bowl of the Salami/Pesto mixture and ¼ lb of Mozzarella Cheese will be good enough for 8 Crescent Rolls. Toss them into your preheated oven for about 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, they should look like this. When the cheese is visibly melted and the rolls start to turn golden brown, they are done. Let them sit for 5-10 minutes before eating.

Final Count

About 1/4 – 1/3 lb of Salami, 2 tablespoons of Pesto, 1/4 lb of Mozzarella Cheese and one tube of Crescent Rolls will yield 8 Rolls. How many of these to make will depend on what you are making them for. For example, I ate 4 of these for lunch and was pretty full, but if you are making them for a party or something, 1-2 rolls per person should be enough.

Final Review

My biggest problem with the CD was tracks 6-9. They were four very, very generic tracks. I also found the lead singer’s voice pretty freaking boring. To explain this I’ll use a visual.

On the left you have a Crescent Roll stuffed with salami and mozzarella cheese. Would this taste good? I’d imagine it would. That’s “Night Visions” as it currently exists: good, but nothing special. Now let’s say you took Imagine Dragons and replaced their lead singer with someone like Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) or Dolores O’Riordan (The Cranberries). One of those two ladies would take this band’s sound to a higher level, which is what the pesto does for these Salami Slammers. Know what I’m sayin?  

  

Posted by JS

Christmas is Coming...

With christmas around the corner and our weekends filling up right and left I decided to get an early start on Christmas decorating. It's a shame that we only decorate for this holiday 1 month out of the year, so I thought all the hard work sound be admired for a bit longer. Today I turned my ordinary window into a work of art with spending little to no money doing so... Can't beat that right? 

The supplies needed for this project are limited and simple:

Ribbon... (I like the look of all different sorts and sizes, so I went with thicker/thinner pieces, sparkly ribbon, and multicolor christmas ribbon).

Ornaments... (again i like variation so i used all different sorts and sizes of ornaments).

Hooks...(I used regular christmas hanging hooks you can use fancy ones if you want).

Now I bought all the supplies at craft stores. The ribbon was all purchased at Michaels and most of it was out of their clearance bin so less than 1.00 each. Some of it was in their holiday section but all marked down 50 percent.

The ornaments are a mix, some I purchased at Hobby Lobby, and the rest I had from previous years... This is obviously the cheaper way to go but we didn't have many ornaments on hand

The first step was to remove the curtains from the window.... I left the red ones because they were christmasy but the middle white ones had to go...

Next start cutting the ribbon at different lengths and tie them onto the curtain rod. I like symmetry so I did the same ribbon on both sides and worked my way toward the middle. (sorry for the picture quality I really should have done this at night)...

Once you have all the ribbon on the curtain rod, just add the ornaments with the hooks to them...

Shortest blog ever... that's how simple it is. You can have everything asymmetrical, or you can use the same ribbon and ornaments for the window.. whatever floats your boat and whatever you have on hand... I made a space in the middle of my window for a christmas tree that will be added at a later date (as you can see they taper in the middle). It literally took me 10 minutes to do this and it completely transforms your room from boring to fabulous. 

Posted by EE

Buffalo Chicken Soup

Today was another cold sunday. With daylight savings time i found myself awake and done with my chores by 11 this morning, so I wanted to make a warm and delicious dinner to go with this dreary day. Not originally being from Buffalo I have learned to love the foods that come with the city. Buffalo wings are one of them. I know there are many versions of this soup out there, but I think this one is the easiest and most delicious versions I have ever tried so I thought I would pass it along...

The ingredients needed for this soup are:

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1/4-1/2 cup Franks red hot sauce
6 cups of Milk

As you can see I decided to use skim milk and reduced fat sour cream. It is ok to make this a healthier soup. It tastes the same and makes you feel less guilty about seconds ;)

First step it to cook the chicken. You can do this anyway you prefer. I did the oven method because it's easier. My chicken breasts were large so I used two and baked them at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

When done pull them out and cut down the center to make sure they are fully cooked through. (No pink)

Next you need to shred the chicken... Once I tried to use a cheese grater and I would not recommend this method :) The two fork way is the best and its so easy.

When everything is shredded put it in the crockpot 

Next add the cans of soup.... looks gross but trust me

Then add the sour cream...

And the Franks.... (Im told you cant use generic...I got in trouble for buying store brand once)..

Lastly add the milk...

Stir everything until it's combined and the soup is broken up...

Turn the crockpot on for a few hours, come back and enjoy!

This soup is amazing and you will get people everywhere hooked on it... The best part is it's easy to make and doesn't require many ingredients.. what are you waiting for? 

Posted by EE