pinterest reviews

I love being home during the day so much!
One of the bonuses of not being at school all day is that I get to actually make things that I pin on Pinterest.  So here are some of the things I've made lately:

Oatmeal Cream Pies:
I seriously love those cheap little cookies that you can buy in the store.  But then again, I have a weakness for oatmeal cookies, especially if I don't have to pick out any raisins or chocolate chips.  So I made these:

 The cookie dough was phenomenal!  Too bad I don't photgraph them as well as the original pinner does.  But they were good.  It was nice to get to use my double boiler to make the filling (since I feel guilty having kitchen products take up space if they don't get used often), and the filling was very similar to the Little Debbie cookies, but I think I'd prefer something with butter and/or cream cheese in the middle if I'm going to be making them.  I'll try that next time.

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. honey
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
In a double boiler, add egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar and heat over simmering water. Whisking frequently, heat until egg whites become very frothy and sugar is dissolved (approx. 160 degrees). Carefully add egg mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for several minutes until egg mixture will hold stiff peaks and is light in texture. Carefully fold in vanilla until incorporated. Add frosting to cookie and then top with another cookie. Enjoy!

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, honey and vanilla and beat until incorporated.

In a separate medium sized bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix just until incorporated. Stir in oats until evenly distributed. Transfer dough to a large mixing bowl (this is so you can use stand mixer bowl for the frosting) and chill in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Remove dough from refrigerator and drop by tablespoons onto baking sheet (or even a bit smaller for smaller cookies). Bake for 8 to 10 minutes just until the edges start to brown. Cookies will seem moist in the middle but they will set up. Cool on baking sheet until set and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once cool, on the underside of one cookie spread the marshmallow frosting and top with another cookie. Store in an airtight container.

Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
In a double boiler, add egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar and heat over simmering water. Whisking frequently, heat until egg whites become very frothy and sugar is dissolved (approx. 160 degrees). Carefully add egg mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for several minutes until egg mixture will hold stiff peaks and is light in texture. Carefully fold in vanilla until incorporated. Add frosting to cookie and then top with another cookie. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles:
Anyone else craving fall?  It may be pregnant Kristin talking, but I'm anxious for cooler weather and all things pumpkin.  Oh, and having this baby.  That'll be nice too.  But I was craving that today.  So I busted out the pumpkin, even if it is still August, it's only supposed to be 95º today, so I'm going with fall.

 These cookies weren't my favorite.  Probably because they are very cake-like in texture.  The recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsp. of baking powder.  I think next time I'd try doing just 1 tsp. baking soda to help the cookies be more chewy rather than cakey.  But there were still pumpkin, cinnamon cookies, which is always a winning combination.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles:

3 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the coating:

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of allspice

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk together to blend. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars on medium speed until well combined. Next, still on medium speed, beat in pumpkin. Then, add the egg and vanilla extract. Lastly, add in the dry ingredients. Beat until combined, but do not over mix. Cover the dough, and refrigerate for one hour, until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and spices for the sugar coating. Scoop dough (approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons) and roll into a ball. Roll the dough ball in the sugar mixture, and place on the lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Take a drinking glass with a flat bottom and moisten with water. Dip the glass in the sugar mixture, and use it to flatten the dough balls. Re-sugar the glass as needed.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Remove when the centers of the cookies have set. Let cool on the baking pan for approximately 5 minutes, and then transfer to wire cooling racks to cool completely.

Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken:

This should just be called sweet and sour chicken.  That's basically what it is... without any added vegetables.  This I didn't get a picture, so I'm using the one from Pinterest.  

Some thoughts on the recipe.  The 1/4 c Sierra Mist is point less.  I panicked when I got to that part of the recipe until I remembered we were at Costco just before, and Drake got a Sierra Mist there, so I made him give me the rest of his cup so I could add the 1/4 cup.  It added nothing.  Next time, I'll just skip it, because I'm sure I won't have any pop on hand.

Also, this needs some serious veggies!  I should have steamed some broccoli, zucchini, cabbage, bell peppers, and carrots to put with the chicken and rice, but I choose to make balsamic glazed carrots to go with dinner.  But the sauce is so strong, and the chicken is so saucy, that I could have easily incorporated some non-flavored vegetables in with the chicken.  

Oh, and we ate it over brown rice, and the kids usually don't love brown rice, but the chicken sauce was so tangy, they didn't even notice.  

Shredded Sweet and Sour Chicken:

• 5 chicken breasts
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup Sierra Mist lemon lime soda  (like I said, feel free to leave this out as I think it was pointless - there's plenty of sugar and acid in this already!)
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce  (I used Liquid Aminos)
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons corn starch

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients in crock pot (except chicken) and whisk together until mixed thoroughly and all corn starch lumps are gone.
2. Add chicken breasts to sauce in crock pot
3. Cook on Medium for 4-6 hours or high for 4 hours.
4. Shred Chicken
5. Let shredded chicken sit in sauce over "warm" setting or low for about 20 minutes
6. Serve with rice