Tag Archives: wee eats

oreo dirt

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dirt main

Dirt is the quintessential Halloween treat. I remember I first enjoyed it at my grandma’s Halloween party. I don’t know how old I was, but I was young enough to be at my grandma’s… for a Halloween party. So, I was pretty young, I guess. I don’t remember the specifics of grandma’s dirt recipe, but I know that every recipe I saw after that had cream cheese. Since I spent the majority of my life (up until the last few months, actually) hating cream cheese, I had to create my own equally (or more-so) delicious version.

So, I don’t know if this is officially “dirt”, but it’s a creamy chocolate dessert, covered with oreos, that you can stick worms and other fun stuff in to make it look like a graveyard (if you’re going Halloween-y). Otherwise, you can opt out of the extra decoration and just enjoy yourself some creamy, chocolatey, oreo goodness.

Oh, and you don’t have to do individual servings. If you’re going “halloweeny” sometimes it’s better to do one big cake pan and turn it into a graveyard (I’ll post a picture of that version later). 🙂

Dirt

[ Printable Recipe ]

  • 1 large package instant chocolate pudding
  • 1 container whipped topping
  • 1/2 package (or more…) Oreos, crushed
  • gummi worms, or other decorations (if desired)

1. Make pudding according to package directions.

2. Spread pudding on bottom layer of dish, reserving about 1/4 – 1/3 of the mixture in a separate bowl.

3. Mix half of the whipped topping and half of the crushed oreos with the reserved chocolate pudding. Spread on top of pudding layer.

4. Cover with remaining whipped topping and a generous sprinkling of Oreos. Go on, dump ’em on there…

5. Decorate with gummi worms, gummi bears, “grave stones” (aka cookies); if desired. Chill a couple hours in the fridge before serving.

* To make “grave stones”, dip elf cookie, graham cracker, anything that general shape, into melted white chocolate or white candy couveture ( if you have some black food coloring, you can turn it gray ). let dry, and using a food-safe marker or icing write “RIP”

* To make “ghosts” dip nutter butter (or anything that shape) into white candy couveture, draw or pipe on the little black eyes and mouth.

* You could also use rolled fondant instead of couveture if desired. It all depends on how fancy you want to get. If you’re not that into it, just do gummi worms, or even just cute halloween-y cupcake toppers – it’s the easy way out 🙂

chicken parmesan

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chicken parm 1

Chicken parmesan gets a bad rep for a number of reasons. Your usual chicken parmesan will arrive either soggy, drowning in sauce and cheese or dry and deep-fried – thrown on top of some pasta. This chicken parmesan is neither soggy, nor dry, and especially not fried. This chicken parmesan allows you to achieve a crispy chicken that is still tender, and has no melty cheese or sauce on top (except that last shaving a parmesan you see on top of mine – melted ever so slightly by the heat of the still-warm chicken).

Most breaded items are dredged in flour, then egg, then breading. I got the idea of dipping them in garlic butter from a recipe I saw over at simply recipes. It was rather ingenius, if I do say so myself. If you prefer the old-fashioned way, go ahead, but you’ll save a dish if you do it this way.

It’s baked, not fried, which means that you have time to clean up your mess, set the table, sit back and relax – whatever you like for the time that the chicken is in the oven. Using thin-sliced chicken helps it to cook faster, and if you’re a breading freak (like yours truly) make sure you use panko to get them extra crispy, and cut them into “nuggets” to get a higher breading-to-chicken ratio. The nuggets also make it a little more ‘kid-friendly’ – just serve them with the tomato sauce to dip in on the side. 🙂

Chicken Parmesan

[ Printable Recipe ]

  • 1 lb thin-sliced* chicken breast (cutting into nuggets is optional)
  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1/2 cup freshly-grated parmigianno-reggiano (or a mix of parm & pecorino)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning
  • a few grinds of the pepper mill

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Melt butter in small bowl. Add garlic and stir to combine.

2. In a separate bowl (I actually like to use a paper plate, so I can just throw it away when I’m done), mix together bread crumbs, cheese, and seasonings.

3. Dip chicken in melted butter, then bread crumbs, being sure to press it into the bread crumbs for maximum adhesion.

4. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet and cook at 450F for 15 – 20 minutes until cooked through. If you have to brown it more, turn it up to broil at the end, but be sure to keep a close eye on it! You can flip them half-way through, if you like, for more even browning, but you will end up sacrificing some of the delicious breading.

*If you don’t want to buy thin-sliced (it does cost more), you can slice your own and/or pound it thin

strawberry bread

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strawberry bread 2943Summer is almost over, and if you’re looking for a way to use up the last of your strawberries – here you go. This bread will not change your life, but it will serve as a tasty breakfast (or second breakfast, or possibly dessert). The cream cheese in this bread makes it more dense while the milk makes it more tender. The batter is thick and hearty (I imagine it has to be to hold all those strawberries in place). Notice that pound-cake-like crack down the center?

The texture of the resulting loaf is almost like a pound cake, but with a more tender crumb. Like if a pound cake and a quickbread had a baby, and then they stuffed that baby with strawberries – this would be it. I imagine it’s equally as delicious with other berries as well, or maybe even just a little zest and juice from a lemon. Maybe a drizzle of icing? Don’t worry, it’s good for you, it has strawberries in it. 🙂

Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Printable Recipe

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 eggs, room temp
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk (or I just used milk, because that’s what we had in the fridge)
  • 1 1/2 cups strawberries, chopped
  1. Place chopped strawberries in a collander lined with paper towel to dry. Prepare a standard loaf pan with baking spray or parchment. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Beat butter, sugar, and cream cheese until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, then vanilla.
  3. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend flour mixture with butter mixture just until blended. Add milk and stir just til combined. (Don’t overmix). Gently mix in strawberries.
  4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes at 350F

[ Adapted from food.com ]

mocha brownie cupcake

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mocha cupcake

It’s a cupcake, no, a brownie, no, a cupcake… It’s chocolate. And coffee. It’s “mocha”. Gail sent me this recipe for our baking date this weekend. It’s straight from the Hershey’s website where they call it a “European Mocha Fudge Cake”. As I was reading the recipe I decided that it looked suspiciously similar to a brownie recipe.

To save time, and, more importantly, to use these super cute cupcake wrappers, we baked them into cupcakes. Once baked, our suspicions were confirmed – little brownie cupcakes, browniecakes, cup-brownies. Cup-brownies? That should be right… Call them whatever you want, I will call them delicious. And Gail will back me up 110%.

The real star here is the frosting. The mocha “frosting” is really just a coffee-flavored whipped cream topping. It’s amazingly light and sweet, like a sweet caffe latte. Once you pair the coffee topping with the dark chocolate brownie, delicious mocha love is born. Yes, ladies and gentleman, when chocolate and coffee fall in love and get married, that is where mocha comes from. (Be sure to tell all your children). I’m pretty sure Gail and I could have polished off that whole bowl of frosting alone, but we restrained ourselves… We deserve a frickin’ medal.

I was so good, I used the leftover frosting for a second dessert, I can’t wait to try it when I get home! If it’s good, maybe you’ll get to know what it was… [insert suspenseful music]

Mocha Brownie Cupcakes

Printable Recipe

  • 1-1/4 cups (2-1/2 sticks) butter
  • 3/4 cup Cocoa
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup finely chopped pecans (nope, we left these out)
  • COFFEE WHIPPED TOPPING (recipe below)
  1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two 12-cup cupcake pans with the prettiest liners you can find.
  2. Melt butter in small saucepan. Remove from heat and add cocoa; cool slightly.
  3. Beat eggs in large bowl until foamy. Add salt and vanilla, then gradually pour in sugar, beating well. Add cooled chocolate mixture and blend thoroughly.
  4. Fold in flour. Stir in pecans. (if using)
  5. Pour mixture into prepared pans.
  6. Bake  about 18 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to finish cooling.
  7. Once cooled, frost with coffee topping. Refrigerate 1 hour or longer before serving. Store covered in refrigerator.

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COFFEE WHIPPED TOPPING

  • 1-1/2 cups cold whipping cream
  • 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee
  1. Whip cream with instant coffee until frothy, add brown sugar and continue to whip until stiff peaks form.

[Adapted from Hershey’s]

mini oreo cheesecakes

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oreo cheesecake mini

When I was young, I hated the cream filling inside Oreos. I would scrape it out and give it to my sister, who in turn would give me her cream-less cookies. We made quite a team, conveniently hating what the other liked. It came in handy with food, because we could give each other the parts we didn’t like (for example, I would eat her entire chicken pot pie crust while she would eat just the filling), not so handy in the case of choosing what music to listen to, what tv shows to watch, or anything else really. But food, that was the one arena where we seemed to have a symbiotic relationship; despite that we spent the rest of our time trying to kill each other. We’re much nicer now, I think so at least… (Right, sissy?)

Having recently gotten over my hatred of all things dairy, cheesecake is one item I am just now starting to appreciate. I still don’t like for it to be too “cheesecake-y”, but I figured my love of oreos would balance it out. Another thing I’ve gotten over – my hatred of Oreo’s cream filling. I wish I still hated all these things, since none of them are really benefitting me at all. Don’t you wish you conveniently hated things like cream cheese, butter, ice cream, and oreo filling? That’d be great, right? Too bad I outgrew those, I guess. 🙂 On the up-side, it means I get to make things like this: cute, little bite-size oreo cheesecakes. Aren’t they so cute?

Boyfriend, just like big sis, hates on Oreo cookies. He doesn’t like their texture, apparently it’s “too grainy”. These cheesecakes tackle both of our dislikes and tricks us into eating all these wonderful calories we don’t really need. The Oreos make the cheesecake taste like oreo cookies and cream (so it’s not “too cheesecake-y”) and the cheesecake softens the Oreos so that they aren’t “too grainy”. Everyone wins! (Except our waistlines….) I actually halved AND lightened this recipe, because A – I have no need to have 30 mini cheesecakes laying around and B – it’s so easy to halve (and lighten)!

Print
mini oreo cheesecakes

Yield: 30

Ingredients

  • 42 Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped (even "reduced fat" work!)
  • 2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature (I used 1/3 fat)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup sour cream (Use light and think of all the calories you've saved while you stuff your face with mini cheesecakes)
  • "A pinch" of salt

Instructions

  1. 1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners & place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each.
  2. 2. Beat cream cheese with mixer until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, beat until combined, then add vanilla.
  3. 3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
  4. 4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake about 22 minutes, or until filling is set. Outsides should be stiff, it's ok if the centers jiggle a little when you tap the pan. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate uncovered (or they will get condensation on top) at least 4 hours.
https://wee-eats.com/2011/08/16/mini-oreo-cheesecake/

[ Adapted from Martha Stewart ]