Yet Another Palate Pleaser

“As far as I’m concerned, ‘whom’ is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler.” Calvin Trillian

Hello, all! It's time for another post, or basically another recipe post!

It's {über} hot outside, and so I revived a family fav that we haven't made in a while! They're cream-wiches! I'm sure we didn't totally invent it ourselves, but I made up the name, so tell me if I need to rethink it.

It's like an ice cream sandwich, only it's coolwhip and cinnamon graham crackers! They're really easy to make, but I took pictures anyway.

I have all the ingredients out: tin foil, a tub of cool whip (thawed), and a box's worth of cinnamon graham crackers!


You just take one cracker and snap it in half like you would for a s'more.




Then put a not-so huge dollop of coolwhip on one of them, and gently press the other cracker on top to make a sandwich, cinnamon goodness on the outside, of course!

I wrap them in tin foil, no tape or whatever is necessary.

Then you just pop 'em in the freezer! If you have to eat them immediately, I'm guessing if you give it 2-3 hours they should be good to eat--freezing them makes the sandwich stay together, because thawed coolwhip just squirts out of the edges. When we make 'em, we actually freeze them overnight and enjoy them for a few days or two, or however long they last!

I hope you enjoy this quick little treat (it's actually a healthy alternative to ice cream sandwiches) and hopefully I'll think of new and fresh things to blog about in the near future!

I have precisely 3 weeks (21 days!!) until I leave for the MTC and it's gettin' me all giddy just thinking about it! :)

Dinner of a Lifetime? Ja Wohl!

So here’s a great dinner idea; I’ve shared some great recipes, but I don’t want you readers to think all I make is sweets!

This is a mix of two cultures: German and Indian.

I introduce: Schnitzel and Curry.

Isn’t that lovely? I’ll try to take it step-by-step w/ hopeful hints. Along w/ schnitzel and curry, you gotta have rice, preferably white rice because white rice + curry is an irresistible friendship. I’ll walk through the schnitzel because that’ll take the most time. And the most patience. Schnitzel technically is made w/ lots of different kinds of meats: chicken, pork, veal, you name it. For this we’ll do it w/ chicken!

Snazzy Schnitzel

Thawed, boneless chicken breast(s) {the flatter the better}

2 eggs

Cooking Oil (whatever you like to use!)

The biggest cooking pan you can get your mitts on

Breading crumbs—the brand doesn’t matter, but go for “Italian” or something tasty-sounding.

1. You’re gonna set up a sort of assembly line for the schnitzel. You’ll have your thawed chicken, eggs and breading. Wisk the eggs in a bowl. If you’re cooking for one or two people, 2 eggs will be more than plenty, but you might need a few more if you’re doing some dinner group activity. The last station is a plate with a little mound of the bread crumbs.
2. Put a couple of tablespoons of oil on the pan, swish it around. Do NOT warm it up until I say so! You’ll thank me later.
3. Take each piece of chicken at a time and submerge it in the whisked eggs. Icky but necessary.
4. Take the eggy, raw meat (haha) and cover it in the bread crumbs. I like mine to have as much breading as possible, so it’s really up to you how much you want to follow this advice. I just lay the chicken on the breading on the plate, and pat it gently so every inch gets covered. Flip it over to get the other side and repeat; I even sprinkle more on each side for extra coverage.
5. Place the breaded chicken on the pan! Set the temperature on medium when you’ve filled the pan or whatever. When I did this before, I heated the pan up before the chicken was on the pan and ended up burning the breading to a deathly crisp but the chicken wouldn’t be cooked all the way. Waste of time and money, right? When you put the chicken on THEN heat the pan, both the breading and meat will be cooked right.
6. Chicken is a BEAST to cook, so don’t throw a hissy fit right away. The best way to cook chicken is just flipping and flipping and FLIPPING. Schnitzel is going to be that traditional golden brown, but it will get dark. And DELICIOUS. You just let both sides of each piece cook and when you feel it’s done, cut each piece in half. Now raw chicken is a sickly pink color; cooked chicken is bleached-teeth white. You’ll know “cooked” when you see it. The meat will be white and firm, and the whole process will make the kitchen smell pre-tty good. And that’s pretty much it! It took me a few tries to get it just right to let other people eat safely, trust me.

Classy Curry

1. It's SO easy; you're gonna face palm yourself on why you didn't think of this sooner. Go buy a box of “Golden Curry” curry. You find it by the awesome Asian delicacies. It’s a small box, the lettering is metallic and most of the box has Japanese letterings. Be not a-feared.
2. This box will have solid blocks of ALL the seasonings you’ll need. You just need water! There’s a recipe on the back you can follow, but if the Japanese has got you hyperventilating, here it goes:
3. Bring the water to a boil in a small pot—y’know, that means you see bubble constantly coming to the surface?
4. Put every last bit of that curry goodness into the water. You can turn it down to low or simmer. It’ll dissolve and take on the consistency of gravy. Delicious, delicious gravy. Once it’s finished, keep it on low, so it’s warm but not fusing into the pan or anything. No crusties!
5. I’d suggest doing the curry once you’ve got the schnitzel cooking at the same time—curry takes little to no time to cook, so yeah, when the stove’s on for the schnitzel, get the curry starting, too.

Rice...I am, NOT an expert on rice. If you’re like me, you’re a pro at instant rice, if anything. So I think I will do the right thing and let you decide how you want to cook your own rice. I just like instant rice, because it works, and takes 5 minutes!

So there you have it—if you need veggies to complete the meal, do so. I’m no expert at veggies, isn’t rice healthy enough? If you need healthy-food advice, this…ISN’T the blog you’re looking for. If you like yummy food, keep reading for sure!

So yes, this is a great meal. The curry goes SO well w/ both the schnitzel and rice, so slather it on! Curry is even quite awesome in “leftover” format, too. This Golden Curry stuff is really good, but it’s not extremely spicy, until you’re into that thing, I think they have different spicy levels, but the normal stuff is great.

I hope you like this dish! This is something that my mom has made for us, and something I love to treat myself with as a college student. Be sure to leave questions and comments below!

P.S. I'm soo excited to eat/make some legit German schnitzel in a few months! <3

Double Thumbs Up: Cookie-stuffed Cookies

“Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce.”
~William Shakespeare {Romeo & Juliet}

So now that I'm some sort of "blogger" now, I've been looking up blogs written by friends and even by complete strangers, and most if not all had something interesting to say. I also get lots of useless emails that are 90% useful and the other 10% are actually worth looking at--and here's an instant where a 10%-type email inspired something quite...frabjous.

I definitely don't take credit for this recipe, but I definitely took the liberty of giving it a try and it turned out to be a success! I can now say that it is truly possible to bake cookies...inside of cookies. Followers, I give you the Cookie-Stuffed Cookies.

They're oreos baked inside chocolate chip cookies {although I think this could very well be a mix-and-match recipe}. Certainly helps you decide which kind of cookie you want, or you can at least eat two in the disguise of just one, hehe.

Here is the original, and the credit is due to the original genius:
http://picky-palate.com/2011/01/06/oreo-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/

and here's the recipe that I used (a faster version):
http://taste-for-adventure.tablespoon.com/2011/05/09/cookie-stuffed-cookies/

I would definitely try the second link, only because the ingredients are easier to deal with {you use cookie dough already made v. making your own dough} and seriously, it cuts out a ton of prep time.

One thing I want to add to the recipe: how to friggin put the chocolate chip cookie dough over the oreos. I had to figure it out myself {or maybe I'm not so good w/ directions} but here's a simple tip:

    When you're ready with the dough, and you have all the 1in. balls of cookie dough, just split   

    what you have. Then squeeze one of the halves between your palms so it's super flat. You then

    just lay it over the top of the oreo and tuck the edges over the sides. You do the same for the

    other half and cover the other side of the cookie. It's that simple.

I actually tried to just smear the dough all over and that was just plain stupid. Don't be a fool! You'll realize that manipulating cookie dough is ridiculous bidness.

Give 'em a try! My brothers really liked 'em... in fact they were the ones who pushed me to making them a few days ago; it was either make the cookie-stuffed cookies or they threatened to eat all the oreos. You know what I had to do!

top secret recipe?



Aww, freshman year Whitters!

shhhh....
I've been bullied into a corner for this recipe a few times, so if you happen to stumble upon this blog, write this down. This is hands down one of my favorite things to make and I think I've made a few friends because of it, too. Every little bit helps, right? This is called Danish cake, and I see what you might be thinking: is it really Danish? Nope, it's not, but I understand the confusion, because Danish food is quite delicious. <3


Danish Cake
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 pkg. french vanilla pudding mix (smallest size)
1 container of sour cream (personally, go with the 16oz)
1 tsp almond extract
4 eggs
¾ cups oil

for later: 1/2 stick of butter
                 cinnamon-sugar


Preheat the oven to 350° F and combine all the ingredients--except the cinnamon sugar and butter, that's for later. It's usually easier to mix the liquid/moist ingredients first then adding the cake and pudding mix.


Once it's mixed completely, you need to grease a bunt pan. Use the butter (softened)nd spread it all over the pan, if you wash your hands, it's easier to use your hand to make sure it's properly spread in the contours of the pan. You also need to sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar in the pan as well. Trust me, on this one!


Carefully put the cake mix in the pan and spread so it's evenly set. Don't worry if the mix only fills up the pan half way or something like that; it's going to rise and fill the whole pan!


Bake for 50-55 minutes and use a toothpick to test if it's done. If it comes out clean, mission accomplished.

You need to remove the cake from the pan--immediately. You'll need a sturdy plate. Just place the plate on top of the pan and use oven mitts and flip the entire thing. Carefully lift the pan directly up and if you spread the butter correctly before, the pan will come up and the cake will be perfectly intact.


Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, because more will equal deliciousness. You need to wait for it to cool and if you have leftovers, it needs to be covered and tinfoil usually works. It keeps it niiiice and moist!


Well, the secret's finally out. If you have fantastically radical success, be sure to credit me? Please? Stay tuned for more party-rific recipes.