Tag Archives: red velvet

thursday things – a quesalupa, red velvet oreos, and my hollywood hubby

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feb morning sky

Happy Thursday and congratulations to Nicole who won the Peanut Butter Lover’s giveaway! There are two containers of PB2 en route to her home in Michigan as I type this. I hope that she shares what she makes with us!

Last week, my current home hosted the Super Bowl and the Phoenix Open and Phoenix gave all of our tourists a big, fat middle finger by being (relatively) cold, rainy, and foggy… for the whole week. Now we are back to normal, which is WAY TOO HOT for me already… clearly I live in the wrong state.

weather feb 15

For those of you who are buried in snow, quit your whining and do something awesome with it. Like the best snowman ever or this giant Star Wars equivalent of Mt. Rushmore, out of snow.

According to Epicurious, “Gluten Free” is the most annoying dietary consideration, 42% of their readers are cooking 7 days a week, and a disturbing 15% of people are eating food IN THE BATHROOM.

diet restrictions

I assume that 15% of people are supporters of Senator Tillis, who has recently been advocating for restaurant employee’s rights to not wash their hands. Jon Stewart summed up pretty much everything there was to say on the matter.

I found out that my Hollywood Hubby (Timothy Olyphant) makes his wife cappuccino with latte art I immediately shared with Mr. Eats how lucky she was. Although, Mr. Olyphant discourages instagraming my dinner pictures, so maybe we aren’t soul mates after all.

While Tim Olymphant is eating fried chicken, Beyonce wants us all to go vegan with her vegan delivery service. It involves a 22-day vegan challenge and honestly, if I can do a whole 30, I’m sure I can kick the crap out of 22 days of veganism. But am I going to pay for it to be delivered to my door? Probably not.

quesalupa

What I would pay for, sadly, is the new QUESALUPA at Taco Bell! It’s a cheese-stuffed chalupa shell and, unfortunately, it is only available back in my hometown of Toledo, Ohio. Which is super unfair. Once I factor in the $400 plane ticket, it becomes an awfully expensive chalupa.

Starbucks is going to start slinging coconut milk nationwide starting Feb 17th, so get your mugs ready!

And of course, Oreos released their new red velvet flavor on Feb 2nd and I picked up a package to be your guinea pig. I will preface this by saying that I was actually not that excited for red velvet oreos. Much like actual red velvet cake, I feel like I could just eat the chocolate version and save myself the food coloring…

But I was put in my place by some of my closest friends so I felt obliged to pick up a pack and give them a try.

red velvet oreos

The verdict? They are good, but they don’t taste THAT different from a regular Oreo… but they definitely didn’t taste like a regular Oreo.

The chocolate isn’t as dark as the regular Oreo cookie, so the chocolate flavor is definitely muted, which meant it was a winner for Mr. Eats who is not a huge fan of Oreo’s regular cookie. While the filling was creamier and less grainy than the standard Oreo filling, it didn’t have a strong cream cheese “tang” to it.

Granted I’ve only eaten one cookie so far, but I’m sure I’ll “test” more later tonight. You know, for science. If you have tried them, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!

Now, time to await Oreo’s next creation: THE S’MOREO. That’s one Ill definitely have to try.

I’ll just watch this owl on a loop while I wait…

owl bath

red velvet cookies

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DSC_7660

Today’s cookies are easy cookies.

Because it’s Sunday.

And because I’m baking cookie swap cookies today.

But I can’t post those yet.

And because BF couldn’t shut up about how good these were.

So today’s cookies had to be easy enough that I could make them and not interfere with my other baking.  But still good enough that BF couldn’t keep himself out of the kitchen.

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Inspired by Shannon’s beautiful 1-2-3 cookies.  She was embarrassed by how easy these were, but really, when you’re making a bajillion cookies for people, sometimes you need one really easy cookie.

I know I do, at least.

To make these more festive, you could color your topping green, or put Christmas-themed sprinkles on them.  Or you could make cute little Christmas Cookie Pops (similar to Shannon’s “caramel apples”… but maybe call them “ornaments’ or “holly berries” or something Christmas-y instead).

Oh, and did I mention that we made a cream-cheese-stuffed version?  I didn’t have the patience to freeze my cream cheese so it ended up kinda weaving itself through the cookie, which was actually rather delightful.

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Red Velvet Cookies

[ Printable Recipe ]

  • 1 box red velvet cake mix
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • Vanilla candy coating (optional)

If you want to add cream cheese filling

  • 4 ounces cream cheese
  • 1 tablespoon butter, softened
  • 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • tiny pinch salt (super tiny, MAYBE 1/8 teaspoon)

1.  In a large bowl mix cake mix, eggs, and vegetable oil with an electric mixer until smooth.  (It gave my mixer quite a workout).  Oh, and wear your apron unless you always wanted that shirt to have pink polka-dots anyway.

2.  Dump into dough-mound onto plastic wrap.  Wrap and chill 2 hours.

Once chilled, scoop into 1-inch balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheet.*

*Alternatively, you could scoop immediately and then cover with plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes to an hour. 

3.  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F degrees for 8 – 10 minutes until baked through.   Let cool on baking sheet.

4.  Drizzle with melted candy coating in a haphazard manner.  Add decorative sprinkles before the coating dries, if desired.

If you want to add the cream cheese… 

1.  Whip cream cheese, vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar until blended.  Cover and freeze until firm, about two hours.

Once frozen, scoop into 1/2 teaspoon-sized balls.

When ready to form your cookies…

1.  Working in batches (so some can stay chilled in the fridge), flatten one of your cookie-dough balls until it is about 2-inches in diameter.

2.  Place cream cheese ball in the middle and pinch dough closed around it.  Roll until smooth and return to refrigerator for 15 minutes.

3.  Bake at 350F degrees for 11 – 13 minutes until done.

You may also like these Pumpkin Dessert Squares which cheat with yellow cake mix 🙂

pumpkin dessert (or breakfast) squares

red velvet rice krispy treats

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red velvet krispy

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I know I did! BF and I opened our gifts first thing in the morning, then his family came over for Christmas brunch so we could exchange our gifts and spend time together.

The one benefit to opening gifts at our house – a ton of gifts under the tree!

The downfall? Most of them aren’t for us…

They came, they ate, they conquered… their presents at least. ^_^

BF got me some really great cookbooks and a light box, which will (hopefully) improve the quality of my photos. (Remember my last post where I was complaining about trying to photograph in poor light??) Isn’t he just the greatest?

( Yes, these rice krispy treats were photographed in that very box ) Don’t they look gorgeous?! I think the light box will improve the pictures a bit, until I save up enough for a better lens, at least. 🙂

Oh, yes, the recipe. That’s what you’re here for right? Delicious red velvet rice krispy treats?? Well, I made these for Christmas and then realized they would be even better for Halloween. These blood-red treats are a twist on the “birthday cake” rice krispy treats, just replacing the cake mix in those with red velvet cake mix, and the standard rice krispies with chocolate (since cocoa cake is the base of red velvet cake).

Just like the birthday cake rice krispies, you can use however much cake mix you like depending on how strong you want the cake flavor to be.

I finished mine with a drizzle of vanilla candy coating, but I’m sure white chocolate or even icing would do in a pinch.

Red Velvet Rice Krispy Treats

[ Printable Recipe ]

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 (10.5 ounce) bag mini marshmallows
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup red velvet cake mix (you can decrease to 1/4 for milder flavor, or increase to 3/4 for more cake flavor)
  • 6 cups Cocoa Rice Krispies cereal
  • Vanilla candy coating or white chocolate chips

1. Line a 9×13-inch pan with parchment paper and coat well with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add marshmallows, cake mix, and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Fold in the cereal until well coated.

3. Transfer sticky cereal mixture to the prepared pan, pressing down until the top is level.

4. Once cooled, drizzle with melted candy coating or chocolate top. Once set, cut into bars and serve.