Rugelach Pinwheels

So, I've had my fair share of baking disasters. But, usually, it's because I did something wrong. Like, halved part of the recipe and not the other part of the recipe or made alterations to the recipe.

But, this recipe... this recipe is just one of those recipes that I just couldn't get right.

It all started with my parents christmas party (which is this weekend), I offered to make all the sweets for the party. Along with brownies and hidden kisses cookies, I felt like we needed a fruity, festive cookie. This decision has haunted me for weeks.

I tried Lemon Thumbprints, I tried Razmatazz Bars, and finally I decided that this rugelach pinwheels recipe with cherry preserves and dried cherries would be perfect.

And they would have been.... had they turned out.

I found the recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. Don't they look so pretty on her site? Perfectly rounded, perfectly filled, perfectly photographed....



Wanna see how mine turned out?

This was the best looking batch. Seriously. I tried about 5 batches of these cookies. I tried them thin, I tried them thick and they always came out spread way all over the pan and looking like a mess. I still have one log and one batch of the dough still chilling in my fridge. I dont know what to do with it. I attempted to make two batches of these, because of all the chilling time, etc, I didn't want to run out of time to make them. Oh, and I had one batch completely stick to my greased non-stick pan and had to dispose of them down the garbage disposal... so, there's that, too.

Now, they taste REALLY good. But seriously... if you saw these sitting out on a platter at a party... you'd run far, far, far away.

So, I bagged them up all in a ziploc and I thought they'd make a good ice cream topping.

So, this christmas party will be without a fruity, festive cookie and after all these bad cookies I've made... i'm done with fruity and festive. Well, at least till next Christmas.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The specific goals of a tailgate party are to:


Socialize. Three people does in fact constitute a tailgate party, in case you were wondering. (two, definitely not, but three is acceptable).

Discuss the possible outcomes of the game. i.e. compare and contrast team players from each position. (Actually, we didn’t do this… we tried to come up with new catch phrases and ways to use them).

Drink. (Even if you are lame and only drink one beer, it counts dude, it totally counts).

People Watch. This includes making fun of the following types of people: those who listen to REM at a tailgate (buzz kill) and fans of the visiting team.

Eat yourself into a coma.

Sunday, April and Greg and I went to the Titans v. Chargers game. All our games are noon starts, so the tailgating must start early. Very early considering you didn’t get to bed until 3:30 (I’m too old for that crap, dude).

We had some good grub… including cheese dip, breakfast casserole and about 6 different bags of chips.

And I also decided to make some new chocolate chip cookies. These are a recipe from Cooks Illustrated that I snagged from Recipezaar. They were pretty good. Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Drinking my one beer... Officially a tailgate.

German Chocolate Pie

This is April at her wedding reception... notice the look of quiet calm in Greg's eyes as he thinks... oh wow, I just married this girl and she's yelling out "wooo cheap trick."

April is my oldest friend. We met way back in 3rd grade in Mrs. Pomeroy’s class. She and I were pretty good friends off and on throughout elementary school and then I don’t think we really had any classes together from middle school until about Junior year of high school. Our Junior year, we had a few classes together and that's when the friendship really took off...

Let me just tell you the kind of relationship we have… in high school English, we would sit beside each other and everyday, I’d look at her at some point and I’d say… “April, I feel like I might have a fever… do I feel hot to you?” and she’d put her hand on my forehead and reply with whatever EVERYONE wants to hear in response to that question (and which incidentally, our moms never replied back to us)… “Wow, you do feel hot, I think you do have a fever!” And she’d say to me… “I’m not feeling too well either… how do I feel to you?” And I’d put my hand on her forehead and immediately say… “Oh yeah, you’ve definitely got a fever.” And then we’d crack up. It’s silly, but it kind of tells you something about our friendship. We trust each other and we always know what to say to make the other feel good.

I have so many great April stories, I couldn’t even begin to go through all of them… from going to see the midnight showing of the Exorcist (re-released) with winter scarves on (it was like 60 degrees outside), to making up ridiculous drinking games to sporting events… “ok, everytime they show Lou Holtz: Amy drinks and everytime they show Philip Fulmer: April drinks!” to riding around West End with finger puppets. Oh and the drinking…. Ohhhhhh the drinking we’ve done together.

And now, as adults we are closer than we were even in high school. She is my running partner (check out our running blog! 26point2ers), one of my very best friends and just a really good person. She’s someone that everyone likes. I mean, seriously, I’ve never met someone that knew her that didn’t like her.

Her birthday was November 17, but I didnt get to celebrate it with her until this past weekend. Finding a dessert to make her was a pretty easy decision. She, like me, basically likes anything and everything sweet and chocolatey. But, I knew that German Chocolate Cake was one of her absolute favorites. Now, it’s not easy to travel 200 miles with a big ole cake and with her husband not liking coconut, it wasn’t really practical to leave her with a whole cake to herself, but my mom had this recipe clipped from a magazine from forever ago for a German Chocolate Pie, so I decided to make it!

Honestly, I was less than thrilled. I envisioned a more fudge-y like pie and it turned into a more pudding-y type of pie. Which sucks, because with a great friend like April, you want it to be perfect… but I’m pretty sure she forgives me…. She’s cool like that.

April, lover of german chocolate, coconut, and pink ponies.

Happy Birthday, Ape!!!

Mint Chocolate Chip Pie

Remember when I first moved into my condo and there was a week there that I didn’t have a refrigerator? Yeah, I know, I’ve been trying to block it out, too. Well, one of those nights my best friends Steph and Justyn came over and brought me dinner from PF Changs (is there anything better than their steamed shrimp dumplings, mmmmmm).

Well, I wanted to repay them for their kindness (remember they also bought me Betty the kitchenaid mixer and mixing bowls, too!!) so I decided to invite them over for dinner last Thursday night. The menu was basic (I mean, no need to get crazy on a Thursday night, right?), but I wanted to make a dessert, too.

So, I found this pie recipe.

It’s very simple to make and apparently pretty forgiving, since the grocery store was out of regular vanilla pudding and I had to use French vanilla. One note though, it makes enough filling for 2 pies. I mean, seriously. You can easily cut this recipe in half to make one pie. I had a ton of filling left over.

I ended up putting the leftovers in the freezer and am anxious to try it frozen. I think it will be more like an ice cream pie. But, it’s very good. The only changes I made was that I used an oreo cookie pre-made crust, the French vanilla pudding, and I also added andes mints on top.

Whopper Cookies

Whoppers are that candy bar that I only eat at halloween. I would never buy a package of whoppers, but at halloween I always loved eating the little funsize packages. The truth is, I love malt. Like, I really love it. Malted milk, malted milkshakes, etc... It's all great for me. The thing about the whopper that keeps me from buying a whole package is... it's a little too hard for me and sometimes you get that super stale one that makes you feel like you are eating an acorn. Yeah, there's that.

So, since I love malt... i've had this recipe printed out for awhile now. It's originally from Dorie Greenspan and I've seen it made on a couple of my favorite blogs (cookie madness and foodbeam) And I've had whoppers since halloween... but I hadn't been able to find the malted milk powder at my grocery store. I knew that Harris Teeter would have it, but the last time I went to harris teeter, I had a flustering encounter and totally forgot to pick up the malt powder. So, I made a special trip the other week, because I was craving chocolate-y, malt-y goodness.

Turns out... these cookies aren't that great. They could be more chocolate-y and more malt-y.

I was really disappointed with this recipe.. especially after all the build up. But, oh well... there are plenty more recipes to be made!

Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

The half recipe that ruined a whole recipe

So, the raspberry bars didn’t turn out as great as I expected… so, I was still searching for that festive fruit cookie. I did some searching and found a recipe from Emeril for lemon and raspberry thumbprint cookies. Fruity and festive. Jackpot.

Well, the thing is… they aren’t that great. I mean, they’re good. But they’re not like… wow, whats the recipe? (That’s my gauge on whether something is good or not.. if I know people will be asking for the recipe, then its good). Luckily, I only made a half batch. Now, immediately after making this half batch. I intended to make a full batch of Hidden Kisses cookies, little powdered sugar cookies with Hershey kisses inside. But, I ended up halving some of the ingredients (like the flour) and using the whole amount of other ingredients (like the butter). And I didn’t realize that this was the problem until the 3rd sheet was in the oven. Yuck they were so greasy and spread out.. such a waste. Such a disappointment… Maybe bad baking experiences come in 3s and I got them all out of my system in 2 days?

Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

RazMaTazz Bars

Sometimes… things just don’t go the way you hoped they would.

This weekend, I tried to get a head start on baking for my parents big Christmas party.

80+ people = lots of preparation.

Preliminarily, my mom and I decided to make Wanda's Rich & Dark Brownies , Hidden Kisses (a paula deen cookie recipe that I’ve made before), and we wanted a fruit cookie, so we first decided to try Raspberry Bars (also called RazMaTazz Bars).

So, Friday afternoon, after helping my mom to put up the main Christmas tree in the house, I decided to give the RazMaTazz Bars a try.

They came together fairly easily… raspberry jam and white chocolate, how can you go wrong, right??

Well… you can overcook them.

And it’s not that I wasn’t watching them, because I was! I was checking them like every 5 minutes, but I didn’t really know how they were supposed to look on top. And so, they were way overcooked. Not burned. But dry and overcooked. Also, I felt like they weren’t sufficiently raspberry enough. I doubled the recipe and made them in a 13x 9 pan.

They were okay, but I’m not sure that they would wow me, even if they weren’t overcooked. But, I think I’ve decided to give them another try. Because, they would look really festive and a bar cookie is so much easier to make for a party.

More cooking failures from this weekend to come…

RazMaTazz Bars Recipe