Chellisms

Recipe Wednesday, Sweet and Sour Shrimp Puffs

This Wednesdays recipe served as lunch for Tim and I, which we just finished eating.

The original recipe is from the May 2008 edition of the Pillsbury Bake Off recipe booklet.

Sweet and Sour Shrimp Puffs

3 tablespoons cream cheese

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

1 8oz can Pillsbury refrigerated butter flake crescent rolls

16 uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined, thawed

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

1/3 cup apricot preserves

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line jelly roll pan with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.

In a small bowl mix together softened cream cheese, soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Set aside for later.

Separate crescent roll dough into 8 triangles. Cut each triangle in half lengthwise to make 16 triangles. Spread cream cheese mixture onto each triangle. Pat shrimp dry and place on short side of triangle, roll up to opposite point. Gently press the top of each roll into the  sesame seeds and place seeds up, point down on cooking sheet.

Bake 16 to 21 minutes, until golden brown.

In small bowl, microwave apricot preserves about 20 seconds or until melted. Spread 1 teaspoon over each roll to glaze. Cool 5 minutes. Serve warm.

While the puffs were good I would stick with the booklets suggestion of serving them as an appetizer and not a meal. After 4 I was done. I like shrimp but the part where I had to clean them kinda skeeved me out and I gagged everytime I thought about it. Lame, I know.

Next time I am so using frozen shrimp. Oh, and I asked for a pound of shrimp from my butcher and wound up with 21 if that helps with the purchasing process.   

It knows me!

How wrong is that?

I am sure to those of you who have ever met me in person this comes as no surprise. I have to say it didn't shock me at all, it did make me laugh and Tim almost pissed himself laughing at me.

Score!

We had half-heartedly looked for Wii Fit while we were out at Target yesterday but of course they were sold out. My mom ran to Fred Meyer this morning and checked the electronics department while she was there, just in case, ya know cause she is an awesome mom and all that. Needless to say they had it, they got a shipment of 10 this morning and less than an hour later when my mom checked they had 2.

Yay for my mom and her timing skillz!

Am off to try it out. Or rather to laugh at Tim while he tries it out.

Recipe Wednesday, Supremes

I like to cook, no secret there. I tend to be addicted to cooking blogs and love finding great recipes. This is one that Ashley and I came across last month and I have now made it a couple of times. The original recipe can be found at Sensible Suppers and Desserts.

Supremes

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup softened butter

1 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee crystals

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

3 cups oats, quick cooking

2 cups chopped almonds, divided

1 14oz. can of condensed milk

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13x2 baking pan.

Stir flour, baking soda and salt together then set aside.

Cream butter with coffee crystals, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in dry ingredients then the oats. Mix in 1 cup of almonds. Remove 2 cups of the dough and set aside. Spread the remaining dough in the pan.

Warm condensed milk, chocolate chips, salt and butter over low heat until all ingredients are melted. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over dough in pan. Put reserved dough over filling. Sprinkle remaining nuts on top. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool before cutting.

I have a note or two to add in on this one. First off the recipe is perfect as is on the Sensible Suppers and Desserts site, I only made a couple of changes to suit my tastes. I upped the coffee crystals from the 1 teaspoon the original recipe calls for to the 1 1/2 that I have above, I love the coffee flavor in these bars and wanted more. I also switched out the pecans for almonds, pecans make my tongue itch. Also, I can't say that I would ever make this recipe without my Kitchen-Aid mixer handy, once you start adding in that 3rd cup of oats the dough gets tough to mix.

Oh, and I said Recipe Wednesdays in the title. I have a whole slew of recipes that I am dying to try, stay tuned.   

Sunny Day Fun

We headed out to a birthday party at the local Family Fun Center this weekend. It was sunny and hot and the perfect day to enjoy some bumper boats outdoors.

The girls had a fun time and I think the birthday boy had a great day.

Bailey picking on someone twice her size.

 

Taylor and the birthday boy go head to head.

All of the kids were soaked when they emerged but since it hit over 90 it really didn't matter. Tim and I kind of wish we had hopped on with them. 

The Gray Car that Could

About 6 weeks ago Tim and I bought a new car. Nothing special, just a 2008 Chevy Aveo that gets about 35 mpg.

Tim drives 26 miles one to Redmond everyday and since we aren't planning to move closer anytime soon we needed to find something more economical than the Jeep. The Jeep gets roughly 18-20 mpg, the Aveo payment and gas usage work out to be cheaper than filling the Jeep up every 5 days, add in the insurance and it is only slightly more expensive than the Jeep's gas usage alone.

We tend to take the new car everywhere. Better gas mileage and all that, plus the girls think it is fun. Well, Tim and I took it out on Friday morning to run some errands. We ran to Lowe's, the mall and stopped for a crappy lunch at Applebee's. After that Tim dropped me off at home so I could run get my hair cut off (more on that later) and ran do to an errand for me and pick up something from the game shop in the same parking lot.

When I came in that afternoon I had the unfortunate luck of finding this:

Oh yeah, this is the rear driver bumper of the Aveo. It isn't actually dented, that is a reflection. But the paint is completely gone and we are now sporting some additional white paint. As you can see the light needs a little correction as well.

Tim hadn't even noticed it. I freaked out and am still pretty darn pissed off. There was no note, no nothing.

How is it that we can have a SUV for 6 years and never get hit, then we buy a subcompact and it gets hit on the same day the first payment is due?

Asshole drivers.

Getting Caught Up

Slowly but surely I will get back up to speed. Well, hopefully I get back faster than before. Let's face it, I have been slacking for a few months and need to get over my funk.

I hand jammed 3 months of posts this afternoon and was able to get March through May copied over. All of the photos from March until now should show up, prior to March all of the photos will be dead. Those have to be reloaded by hand as well. That's a lot of pictures.

Oh, some good news though. I think I found my more updated back-up of the old TypePad site. It's on the hard drive out of my dead laptop. The bad news is that it is on the hard drive out of my dead laptop and the even worse news is that Tim is working very long hours and has been promising to try to get stuff off of it for me since the laptop poofed.

Lappy died 3/31, I think I am screwed and hand jamming is faster.

Edited to add: Just in case you have e-mailed me in the last 3 days or so and haven't gotten a response don't worry it isn't you, it's everyone. I haven't checked it. Rather, I checked it. Saw the number unread and promptly closed the window. Eh, maybe tomorrow.

Switcheroo!

Yeah, I know. Back and forth. Bear with me, things will settle down shortly.

Also, all of the posts between January and now are missing. Vox offers no export feature and evidently when I tried to quit TypePad before (they are one highly addictive set of folks) I did a straight export or just deleted the saved export and well...

I shall be copying and pasting later.

Duff!

You kind of had to be here to get the joke. I received a new nickname a few weeks ago and as hard as I tried to shake it, it stuck.

I think this means it is here to stay.

Edit: to those of you who e-mailed to ask No, I am not up the duff or in the pudding club and have no announcements to make.

Birthday Wishes from Bailey

Bailey: How old are you again?

Me: 29.

B: So, next year when I go to 1st grade and you are dead who is going to work in my classroom and pack me Cheez-Its?

M: Thanks for the vote of confidence on my life span.

B: Can you go to Costco this week and get extra Cheez-Its just in case?

M: (deep sigh) Sure.

It sure seems like everything in the child's life revolves around Cheez-Its. At her wedding, instead of blowing bubbles or throwing rice I plan on tossing Cheez-Its.