A day to celebrate

Today is the Grand Chawhee's Birthday! (name that movie...before you click on the link)

Aka my favorite guy...aka my best friend...aka my hubs' birthday!

Since the start of his new job and the start of his classes, we don't get a lot of free time to spend together, so today was a special treat where we both had off! (Until he went to class at 6, but still)

So first, I surprised him with breakfast in bed!

My family has a running tradition of "breakfast in bed" on your birthday and always, always includes pigs-in-a-blanket.  I'm pretty sure birthdays are the only days of the year we ever have these little guys and I'm so excited to bring Ry in on the tradition!

Just Lil'Smokies wrapped in biscuits and baked.  So simple. So good.  Plus a fruit cup. All served on a cake pedestal.  I realized soon after the piggies came out of the oven that I don't have the proper "breakfast in bed" trays that my mom always used to carry the food up to our rooms.  Cake platter it is. 

Weeks ago (I like to plan), I asked Ryan what type of cake he wanted for his birthday.  Last year, he asked for a blackberry cobbler.  

This year, he said "I want the Tres Leches cake from Whole Foods but I want you to make it. :) "

Humph.  Whole Foods makes an amazing Tres Leches cake that we contemplated serving at our wedding.  This was the first time I straight up asked if I could just buy it from WF rather than risk messing it up.  Being the best husband ever, he said he knew I could do it and he wanted me to.

So, the search began.  I spent forever a few good hours looking up recipes for Tres Leches that sounded similar to Whole Foods.  The problem is, every recipe I found had a whipped cream topping, whereas WF's Tres Leches has a marshmallow fluff meringue topping.  Finally, I found two different recipes I liked the sound of.  I used the cake from one and the icing from another and created this:

Thin cinnamon-y sheet cake soaked in three milks with a fluffy meringue topping.

Ry said it tasted just like, if not better, than Whole Foods.  He's sweet and I don't believe him, but it's the thought that counts.  It does taste pretty darn close, but I swear they must mix marshmallow fluff into their meringue to make it.  Next time I'm trying it.

For those of us who don't own culinary torches, I put the cake under the broiler and rotated for a few seconds to get the perfect brown-ness. 

And I was pleased.

But more importantly, the birthday boy was happy. And that's all that matters.

You can find the Tres Leches cake recipe here.

Not Quite Marshmallow Fluff Meringue Topping

adapted from about.com

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tbsp corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla

Place egg whites in mixer and beat until stiff peaks form.  Combine sugar, water, and corn syrup and bring to boil over medium heat.  Cook for 4 minutes or until sugar mixture thickens and strings when it cools.

With mixer turned on, slowly pour sugar mixture down side of bowl into egg whites.  Beat 4-5 more minutes.  Add vanilla.  

Frost cake with topping.

Almond Butter "Mmm" Sauce

Two posts in one day? Who am I?  A girl with time on her hands.

The hubs recently started his new night classes so what else is a girl to do by herself at home besides bake donuts and look through old dinner pictures and write about them.

Tonight I have a meal for you that I made a week or so ago, but am still stockpiling the sauce because it was that good.

If you haven't ever read the blog Peas and Thank You, you should.  Her blog is hilarious and full of good recipes.  This particular recipe was an adaptation of her "Noodle Salad with Peanut Mmmm Sauce."

I used to make stir fry meals pretty frequently but for whatever reason got out of the kick.  On this particular night, I whipped out a block of tofu.  Prepared it my favorite way.  Bought my new favorite noodles.  Added stir fry vegetables and my own rendition of Peanut Almond Butter Mmmm Sauce to make this...

Mmmm.  Slightly sweet. Slightly nutty. Slightly spicy.  Very delicious.

So here's how it goes.

First, make your sauce.  The original recipe called for peanut butter but I had almond butter on hand so I just went with it.  I also doubled the recipe since I knew it wasn't like for me to use crushed spicy tomatoes and canned coconut milk in another recipe in the near future.  Plus I heard the sauce kept well.  Throw all the ingredients in your blender and blend away.  I also added more soy sauce and lots of srirachi.

For the tofu...take a block of tofu and slice it lengthwise into 3 blocks.  Wrap those blocks in a towel and place your heaviest cookbooks on top of the towel/tofu to press out the water.  After 15 minutes, cube the tofu and place into a hot pan sprayed with cooking spray. Add some salt and pepper.

Cook the tofu until it is brown on each side.  I'm kinda picky about each side being brown, so I carefully (and time-consumingly) flip over each piece of tofu with a fork.   You can also just flip it around in the pan with a spatula.

Next, open your bag of frozen Asian veggies from Costco and defrost a few cups.  Add extra frozen broccoli for good measure.

Recently, I've fallen in love with this brand of pasta.

We eat the "Sweet Potato and Buckwheat" flavor pretty frequently with regular pasta sauce.  Honestly, it doesn't really taste like sweet potato or pumpkin, but the colors are nice, I like the texture, and they're organic.

Toss the tofu in with the noodles in with the veggies in with the sauce.

And garnish with some extra cilantro.  And crushed red pepper flakes.  And more srirachi.  We like things spicy.

Mmmm.

Pretty sure the hubs heated just the sauce up yesterday and ate it with tortilla chips like it was queso.  To each his own.

Almond Butter Mmmm Sauce

adapted from MamaPea

makes enough for 2-3 batches of stir fry noodles

1 cup almond butter

1 cup canned fire-roasted tomatoes in juice

1 cup canned lite coconut milk

8 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

1 packet of stevia (or tbsp of honey)

1 large lime juiced or 2 small

1 1/2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tbsp srirachi

Blend all ingredients together until smooth.  Add more soy sauce or srirachi to taste.

Glazed Donuts

I have a thing for kitchen gadgets.  Gadgets. Appliances. Pans. Spatulas.  If it's kitchen related. I want it.

I have a whole wall in my house dedicated to displaying my Vita-mix blender, my pressure cooker, my panini press, bar tools...etc.  My kitchen counter proudly displays my pretty pink mixer (obviously), along with matching white porcelain canisters that hold my flour and sugars, and right next to that is a mason jar filled with spatulas and spoonulas of every color that Williams-Sonoma sells.

So here's the deal with kitchen pans.  I have cookie sheets of every size.  I have rectangular baking pans. Circular cake pans.  Cupcake/muffin pans.  Mini-muffin pans. Loaf pans. I have an "Every Edge Brownie" pan.  A muffin top pan. And now finally....

I have a donut pan.

Is this pan a necessity? Definitely not. (Though some may argue otherwise)

Will I use it frequently?  Doubtful.

Do I love it?  Obviously.

To be honest, these baked donut recipes have been popping up all over the blogosphere and frankly, I don't like to be left out.  

The first recipe I tried was Jenna's for her Glazed Cake Donuts.  I followed the recipe as far as ingredients go,  even went out and bought buttermilk for the occasion.  However, once the donuts were baked, I slightly varied the next steps...see below.

Buttermilk, egg, and vanilla in one bowl.  Butter, sugar, and flour in the other.  Like my new bowls?  I also have a thing for colorful bowls....and plates.

I used a ziploc bag to pipe the batter into the pan and tossed them in the oven.

The recipe says it makes six donuts, but I think mine had a little too much batter in each pan because my donuts kept the holes.

Whatever.

Since I couldn't just stop at glaze, I went ahead and did a variety of toppings.  Glazed, powdered, glazed with sprinkles, plain, glazed with pink frosting, and glazed with chocolate.  And sprinkles, of course.  Always sprinkles.

Jenna said these reminded her of the 7-11 powdered sugar cake donuts and I couldn't agree more.  They're light, they're baked, and they look fabulous with sprinkles.  I can't wait to try other flavor variations.

My only dislike about this pan is that there are only six spots.  Making it a pain to make enough donuts to feed an army a break room of NICU nurses.  C'est la vie.

It's hard to frown when someone puts something coated in sprinkles in front of you.  Unless you don't like sprinkles.  Then I'm not sure we can be friends. :)

Glazed Cake Donuts

from EatLiveRun

1 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp cold butter

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350.  In one bowl, mix together dry ingredients.  Cut up butter into small pieces and add to dry ingredients.  Using a fork or your hands, combine butter and dry ingredients until sandy mixture forms.  In another bowl, whisk the wet ingredients together.  Add to butter/flour mixture and mix until just combined.  Pour into ziploc bag, snip the end and pipe into donut pan.  Bake for 15 minutes.

I made a glaze mixture, about 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 2-3 tbsp almond milk---basically a little of this and a little of that until I thought it was the right consistency.  I made my mixture a little thicker than ELR's, then dipped the donuts in the glaze while they were still slightly warm.  This allowed some of the glaze to seep in and the rest formed a crust on the outside of the donut.  Pretty much perfection.  You can also go to her website to see how she made hers.  After you've decided on your glaze/icing, top with rainbow sprinkles. 

Choco-what?

Happy Friday, everyone!  I have no special reason to make this recipe, no special event, no requests my friends or family, this was purely a "I'm bored at work home and browsing blogs and stumbled upon this fabulous looking recipe."  You know, one of those. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love cookie dough, way better than the actual baked cookies.  So when I read the title for this recipe, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies, I said to myself "Choco-what?" (Say it like the "Milka-what" commercial).  Not only that, but the picture looked like a brownie topped with a massive amount of chocolate chip cookie dough.  Yes, please.

Chocolate chip cookie dough (sans the eggs so you can eat them without fear of Salmonella) on top of a very chewy, chocolately brownie, with a drizzle of more chocolate.  These are good. Real good. 

The only thing that would make these better....is if they were served warm and gooey.  The recipe says to keep them refrigerated until ready to serve (because of the cookie dough), but I have every right mind to microwave one of these bad boys next time.  I guess that would negate the "dough" part though.  Whatev.

Until I get a fancy-schmancy camera for my birthday/wedding anniversary/Christmas present (ahem, hubs), this is as close as my little point and shoot will go.  

Lori said they were best served and presented in cupcake wrappers and I couldn't agree more.  I like her style.

Have a great weekend!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

adapted from RecipeGirl

Brownie:

4 oz unsweetened chocolate

1 cup butter, room temp

2 cups packed light brown sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup AP flour

Cookie Dough:

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp milk

1 1/2 cup AP flour

1/2 tsp salt

 1 1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips

Drizzzzle:

1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips

1 tsp shortening

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In separate bowl, begin to melt chocolate in 30 second increments.  Careful not to burn.  Set aside to cool.  In mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add in eggs and vanilla.  Fold in flour just until mixed.  Pour in greased 9x13 pan and bake for 25-35*minutes.  Remove when toothpick comes out clean.

2.  While brownies cool, prepare cookie dough.  Beat sugars and butter in mixer.  Add vanilla and milk.  Combine flour and salt and add to sugar/butter mixture.  Fold in chocolate chips.  

3.  When brownies are cool, spread the cookie dough over the brownies and put in refrigerator (or freezer) until cold.  Slice into individual squares and place in cupcake wrappers.  

4.  Melt reserved chocolate chips and shortening.  Place in ziploc bag and snip a corner off.  Drizzle on individual brownies.  Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

*Mine took 35 minutes

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Earlier this week I said I was trying to cut back on the baking, add in some "healthful" recipes, if you will.  Well, this morning I went to my usual Friday morning boot camp workout class.  And now I hurt.  I decided I sweat enough this morning to justify copious amounts of sugar this afternoon. 

Anddddd when the husband came home for lunch and said this guy from work's girlfriend was in culinary school and always sent treats to work for the guys, I felt a challenge coming on. (Not that I'm competitive or anything)

Conversation that took place over lunch:

Hubs:  This guy I work with has a girlfriend in cooking school and she keeps sending him to work with samples for us.  

Me: What did she make?

Hubs: Some sort of piece of chocolate?

Me:  Truffles?

Hubs:  I don't know. A round, soft ball of chocolate rolled in powdered chocolate.

Me: (rolling my eyes) That's a truffle. 

Hubs: They were really, really good.

Me: (Death glare)

Hubs: I mean, not nearly as good as anything you've ever made. Obviously.  Maybe you could make something for me to take to work.

Good save, Hubs. Good save. 

Moving on...recap from every other post I've written: I love all things with cinnamon.  That's all you need to know.

So today, I'm very excited to present:

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes!!!

Yes, yes. I've finally made them and I couldn't be more thrilled.

I used Martha Stewart's Snickerdoodle Cupcake recipe with a few of my own added touches and my own cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

To start, batter was delicious. That's always a good sign.  Second, right after the cupcakes came out of the oven, I quickly dipped the tops in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.  Warning: cupcakes are very hot (obviously), be careful and don't burn your fingers, but try to do it while they're still warm so the sugar sticks.

I also tried experimenting with filling the cupcakes.  I was going for a "cinnamon swirl filling" so I mixed butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon to pipe into the cupcakes.

This turned out to be slightly disastrous for reasons I won't go into, so I filled four and called it quits.  I need to invest in some squeeze bottles for this task. 

Then topped with my absolute favorite cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Oh, delicious yum.

Did you notice my new pink cake pedestal? I love.

If you love cinnamon even the slightest bit, make these.  And now I'm off to the hubs work to take those men some cupcakes!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes (makes 2 dozen)

adapted from Martha Stewarts Cupcakes

Cake:

1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, room temp

1 3/4 cup white sugar

4 eggs, room temp

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup milk

Sugar mixture:

3 tbsp white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Cinnamon Cream cheese frosting:

1 package cream cheese, room temperature

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla

4-5 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together flours, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.

2.  Beat together sugar and butter until pale and fluffy.  Add vanilla.  Beat in eggs one at a time until combined.

3.  Slowly add in flour mixture, alternating with milk.  Mix until fully comined.

4.  Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

5.  Dip in sugar mixture on plate.

6.  Allow to cool on wire racks.

7.  For the frosting, with whisk attachment, beat together butter and cream cheese until combined. Add vanilla.  Begin adding powdered sugar one cup at a time until desired consistency.  Add cinnamon and mix until thoroughly combined.

8.  Frost and enjoy!

Leeks...it's what's for dinner!

I know the blog is called "My Pretty Pink Mixer" and the majority of my recipes spotlight her...

due to giving up my other blog (RIP Food For Fuel) that highlighted more "healthful" meal recipes and because of my ever expanding waistline from baking so much...I've decided to start blogging some "delicious and healthy meals from start to finish" on here, as well. (Name that Food Network Star quote)

Sorry, pink mixer. I still love you.

Tonight's dinner menu includes HEB's finest "Original Rotisserie Chicken" alongside a Warm Spinach and Sweet Potato Salad.

I went a little crazy at Costco the other day and ended up buying a year's worth of sweet potatoes.  My thought process for this decision...

"I like sweet potatoes. I like baked sweet potatoes.  This box of sweet potatoes is really cheap.  Much cheaper than buying them individually at HEB.  I should definitely buy this 10 lb box of sweet potatoes."

Sweet potato, anyone?

So naturally, I've been trying to find new recipes to use up my sweet potatoes, besides my standard baked sweet potato medallions, sweet potato fries, etc, and found this recipe from Everyday Paleo.

Potatoes+bacon+spinach=yes, please.

Apples and spinach are a household staple around here.  Leeks, on the other hand, are not. I've never bought a leek (other than in pre-made spinach, potato, and leek soup) so I actually had to google "how to cut up a leek."  Thank goodnesss for Google. 

I used my hand-held mandolin to slice up 3 small sweet potatoes and followed the "you-tubed" instructions on how to clean, cut, and slice a leek.  

Now the good part.  Coat your sweet potatoes in a little coconut oil (or olive oil) and bake.  While they're baking, start frying the bacon. Oh, delicious yum.

Now remember when I said "I don't have a 'splatter screen' because I don't make bacon that often." I'd like to take that comment back and invest in one now.  I hate grease on my stove...even more hate grease on me. That is all.

Fry it up. Add the leeks. Toss. And enjoy!

I kind of "halved" the recipe.  Same amount of spinach (or more), 4 slices of bacon, 1 leek, and 3 small sweet potatoes.  I made the entire dressing recipe but only used part of it---and didn't have dry basil so I used fresh.  

Even the hubs was a fan.  But what's not to like about sweet potatoes and bacon?  

Exactly.

Warm Sweet Potato and Spinach Salad

from EveryDay Paleo

3 cups peeled and diced sweet potatoes

1 tbsp coconut oil (or olive)

1 apple diced

8 strips of bacon, sliced

2 leeks, thinly sliced

6 oz fresh baby spinach

Dresssing:

1/4 c olive oil

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp spicy brown mustard

pepper to taste

dash of cayenne

1 tbsp dried basil

Toss sweet potatoes in coconut oil and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Meanwhile, fry bacon in pan.  Add sliced leeks and cook for 4-5 more minutes.  Pour bacon/leeks over spinach and toss, allowing the spinach to wilt.  Add baked sweet potatoes and chopped apple.  Pour dressing over and toss and serve. 

Triple Threat Chocolate Cookies

As we all know (or should know), I'm not a huge chocolate fan.  In this household, I like chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips...and a little cinnamon.  So you might as well just give me a snickerdoodle.  However, I'm probably one of few people like this.  I'm pretty sure most people love chocolate.  And this cookie is for them.

Way back in February when we bought our house (!!),  a family friend, who happens to be a real-estate lawyer, looked over all of our closing documents to make sure they were all legit.  Since he's a family friend and all, he did all of this work for free, however, I intended to pay him with cookies. (Obviously)

When asked what his favorite types of desserts were, his daughter said "anything with chocolate." Thus, I made this cookie but tweaked it to be more intensely chocolate-ly.

These cookies are jam-packed with cocoa, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and 60% dark chocolate chips.  Whoa. Intense.

To be honest, after trying this dough, I thought I may have turned a new leaf and started to like chocolate.  Then I ate a snickerdoodle blondie and resumed my old ways.

Sidenote: I forgot to take pictures of these cookies before dropping them off at my parents for them to deliver to said lawyer-friend.  But, I have an amazing mother who so graciously snapped a few pictures for me and my obsessive self so I could blog about them. Thanks, mom! :) 

Triple Threat Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from RecipeGirl

1 1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups AP flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 (12 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (12 oz) package 60% cocoa chips (I used Ghiradelli)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Cream butter and sugars together until smooth.  Add vanilla and eggs and beat well. 

3.  In separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix together with whisk.

4.  Slowly incorporate into butter mixture until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

5.  Eat some dough.

6.  Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool. 

Enjoy!