Baseball Cookie Cake

Every year I make a birthday cookie cake for my boys.  I guess it started with me because that is my favorite type of cake to have on my birthday.  I just made what I like but when I ask them what kind of cake they want me to make they always tell me a cookie cake.  I will never argue with that.  There is just something about chocolate cookies with icing on them that is so delicious.

Whenever I make a cookie cake, I try to personalize it for them.  It used to be that I just wrote and decorated in their favorite colors.  Last year, I tried to go all in and make it look like a soccer ball.  Let’s just say it wasn’t as successful as I wanted.  In May, my 5-year-old had a birthday and he wanted a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle on his cake.  I don’t mind sharing that picture because, if I do say so myself, I think it turned out pretty darn good.

This year my 10 year old wanted me to decorate with some sort of sports.  After my attempt at the soccer ball last year I decided to go a bit easier.  Ah, a baseball; all white with just a little red icing involved. I could do that.

When it came time to bake, I realized I didn’t have any chocolate chips.  I’m not sure how that happened because I always have ingredients for chocolate chip cookies but, of course, not ON my son's birthday.  Ugh.   

Since I didn't have any chocolate chips, I used the next best thing I had:  Nestle Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels left over from Christmas.  I used the left over cookie dough to make Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies which were delicious.  For the cookie cake, though, I had to go one step further and put icing on it.  I had a grand plan to make a mint flavored icing but it was way too much mint so for the recipe, I just stuck with just regular vanilla buttercream.

Baseball Cookie Cake

Printable Version

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2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 2/3 cups (10-oz pkg) Nestle Toll House Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels (You can also substitute a 10-oz pkg of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips, depending on your preference)

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ F.

2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.  3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

5. Slowly beat the flour mixture in to the wet ingredients.

6. Once everything is beaten, fold the chocolate chips into the mixture with a spatula.

To make the cookie cake, place about ⅔ to ¾ of the cookie dough mixture on an ungreased pizza pan or round cookie sheet.  The pan I used was a 12-in pizza pan.  If you have a larger pan, you may want to use a bit more of the dough.

Spread the dough flat at about ½ inch thickness.  Leave a little room around the edges of the pan, around ½ to 1 inch room.  The dough will flatten and spread out.  If you don’t leave room, the dough will go over the edges of the pan.  I've learned from experience.

Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 15 minutes on the middle rack.

You may find that the dough still goes over the edges a bit.  It’s okay.  You can always cut this off and frost over it, if need be.  Also, the edges for me always get a little crispier so you can cut the crisp off as well.

Let your cookie cake cool entirely before frosting so it doesn't melt right off.

When your cookie has cooled, it's time to frost it.  I love this recipe for vanilla buttercream because not only is it versatile (you can can out vanilla extract for other flavors), but it's not too sweet.

Vanilla Buttermilk Frosting

4 ½ cups powdered sugar

½ cup stick butter, softened

1 ½ tsp vanilla

2-3 Tbsp milk

In a medium bowl, mix the sugar and butter then stir in the vanilla and add milk until it's smooth and at the consistency you are looking for.

Once your frosting is ready, put a small amount aside, about ½ - ¾ cup, to use for the red baseball stitches, unless you want to use a prepackaged red icing in a tube for convenience, like the Wilton 10 oz cookie icing (shown on the left).Then, using a knife or spreader, spread the frosting over the top of the cookie cake.  I prefer to make the layer thin because it becomes way too sweet with a thick layer of frosting. 

Put some frosting in a bag with a tip to cover the edges of the cake.  The tip I use is the same one I use for my cupcakes, Wilton 1M Star, but you can use whatever size you want, depending on the look you want. 

After the edges are done, you can make the baseball design.  If you are making your icing, I recommend using a gel like the jar shown on the right, which is Wilton brand icing gel.  

If you use food coloring, you’ll have to use an awful lot to make it red and it will make your icing super watery.  Even in this instance of making a small amount of icing, I had to use about ½ the jar of red gel.  It’s easy to make, though.  Just scoop some gel out and mix it into the white icing.  Keep adding gel until you get the shade you want.

Next, put your red icing in a small bag.  I know Martha Stewart says you can use a Ziplock bag for this but I tell you every time I do it my bag busts!  I’m done with that.  I still use disposable bags but I use the ones specifically for icing, like the Wilton Disposable 12” bags which are pretty cheap and actually hold up to my icing decorating. 

Draw your long lines with the red icing.

Then add the marks along the lines, as shown in the picture.  The left side lines are pointing down so when you go to do the next side, you would make them pointing up.

 Finally you can add your Happy Birthday wishes!  I regretted not using a different color for the “Happy Birthday” text.  If I was using pre-made icing, I would probably buy a different color and do that.  Since I made the icing, I used red since I had quite a bit left! 

After it's frosted and decorated it's ready to enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

My second-born has a birthday today.  I always make cookie cakes for my kids on their birthday. Today, however, when it came time to bake his cookie cake, I realized I didn’t have any chocolate chips.  I’m not sure how that happened because I always have ingredients for chocolate chip cookies but not today.  Ugh. 

What I did have in my cupboards were Nestle Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels that I bought on clearance after Christmas because they’re apparently only sold during winter months, appropriately.  These have morsels of dark chocolate mixed with mint flavored morsels.  We all like mint chocolate chip ice cream so I figured, why not?  This year he gets a Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake with buttercream frosting.  Sounds delish!  I'll be posting about that later.

Today I'm sharing the cookies I made with the leftover cookie dough from the cookie cake.  These are actually the recipe for Nestle Tollhouse Cookies on the package.  I just substituted the Nestle Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels. I'm not really being creative here but they are sooooo minty, chocolatey good!

If you have a hard time finding dark chocolate and mint morsels, they are still around on Amazon here. Also, Andes makes some mini-Andes mints that are super good too called Andes Creme de Menthe Chocolate Mint Baking Chips.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Printable Version

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2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 2/3 cups (10-oz pkg) Nestle Toll House Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ F. 
2.  In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Slowly beat the flour mixture in to the wet ingredients.  Once everything is beaten, fold the chocolate chips into the mixture with a spatula. 
3. Use a tablespoon to drop onto an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake at 350˚ F for 11-13 minutes, until edges turn golden brown.
5. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes.  Then you can move them to cooling racks to finish cooling.
6. Serve with a little milk to make a wonderful dessert!

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Spicy Crockpot Goulash

Goulash is something I never grew up with but my husband always enjoyed when his mom made it with cornbread and pinto beans on the side.  Goulash is

historically Hungarian and is actually one of national dishes of Hungary.  I'm fairly certain that my recipe for goulash does not remotely resemble Hungarian goulash so we'll call it American goulash.

Goulash is like a chunky stew.  One of the great things about goulash is that it's one of those dishes that doesn't necessarily need to follow a recipe as long as you have basics of meat, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and pasta.  Once you have those ingredients, you can change and add different spices, throw some different veggies in there, like corn or beans, and change it up the way your family likes.  It can be a pretty cheap way to feed a large group.

I haven't found the recipe my mother-in-law uses so I've adapted my recipe from a recipe titled Bobby's Goulash in Paula Deen's cookbook, Paula Deen Celebrates.  The main changes I made were making this a crockpot recipe and using less meat and ground chicken .

I've also spiced it up by using Ro-Tel, which I use all the time in place of diced tomatoes.  If you don't like it spicy, there is a mild version of Ro-Tel and if that's too much, just use diced tomatoes.  If you are in an area that doesn't stock Ro-Tel you are missing out!  If you're curious, you CAN purchase it online here.

Remember, goulash is a recipe that can be different every time you make it.  If you want to use ground turkey, go for it or add some different seasonings.  Make it the way you want.  Also, onions are never added to my recipes for my husband's sake but you can always saute 2 chopped yellow onions when you brown your meat.

Spicy Crockpot Goulash

Printable Version

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1 lb lean ground beef

1 lb ground chicken

2 large yellow onions, chopped (optional)

2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce

2 10-ounce cans Ro-Tel diced tomatoes and green chilies (undrained)

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 Tbsp Italian seasoning

3 bay leaves

3 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp House Seasoning

1 Tbsp seasoned salt

2 cups elbow macaroni (uncooked)

1.  In a large pot, brown ground beef and ground chicken over medium-high heat until cooked through.  Break up the meat while cooking.  Drain off any excess grease.  Add the garlic to the pot and saute for 2 minutes.  If you want to use onions, add the chopped onions here and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.

2. Move the meat to the crockpot.  Add 2 cups water, tomato sauce, Ro-Tel, garlic, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, soy sauce, House seasoning, and seasoned salt to the crockpot.  Stir well and add lid to crockpot.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

3.  Add the macaroni to the pot 30 minutes prior to serving and continue to cook on low.  Do not cook it longer than 30 minutes or your pasta will turn to mush.

You can also cook the pasta separately and just add it right before serving.  This will ensure you cooked it well enough and won't get mushy sitting there.  I prefer to cook it in the crockpot to give it the full flavor of the goulash but do what's easiest.

You might notice that my pictures show penne pasta.  I was out of elbow macaroni so I made a substitution.  It worked well. 

4.  Remove the bay leaves before serving.  Dish up and serve with cornbread.

Serves 6.

Paula Deen's House Seasoning

Paula Deen has a seasoning that she uses throughout her recipes in her book Paula Deen Celebrates.  The first time I made it because her recipe for Goulash called for it.  Once I made it, though, I had such a big batch of it, I ended up using it in everything.  Honestly, it made everything better.

The first time I used this in my scrambled eggs instead of just salt, my kids actually ate the eggs and said they liked them.  My kids are the pickiest eaters ever so I consider that a major success.  I use this seasoning whenever a recipe calls for salt and pepper.  It adds a little extra.

This is SO simple you'll wonder why there's a recipe for it but it is nice have on hand to season up everything from meats to soup to vegetables.  These three ingredients are all that's required; salt, pepper, garlic powder.  I use a Good Seasons Salad Dressing cruet that I bought with some Italian dressing seasoning.  You can use an old seasonings shaker, though.  When my black pepper becomes empty, I think I'll switch to that.

My recipe only makes 1/2 of what Paula Deen's recipe calls for.  The first time, I made the whole batch but my cruet doesn't hold it all.

Paula Deen's House Seasoning

Printable Version
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1/2 cup table salt
2 Tbsp pepper
2 Tbsp garlic powder

All all ingredients and mix together.  You can mix in a bowl and then add to your container or just add everything to an air-tight container, make sure the lid is on tight, and shake it up.

I use a funnel to make sure I don't make a huge mess when pouring it.

Make sure your lid is on super tight and shake it up.  I doesn't look like it makes much but a little definitely goes a long way.

Now I'm off to post the recipe for Crockpot Goulash that uses this seasoning.  It's delicious!

Seriously Easy All-Canned Salsa

My husband is a HUGE fan of salsa.  I make this at least once a week, sometimes two or three times.  I'm not exaggerating either.  I really should buy stock in the company that makes Ro-Tel.  The best thing about it is you can change up the degree of spice to your salsa.  Not only can you buy different "temperatures" of Ro-Tel but you can add as much or as little crushed red pepper as you like.  It really changes up the recipe.


This recipe was adapted from the very first recipe in the Salsa Lovers Cookbook, All-Canned Salsa. I think that's a pretty appealing name and it doesn't hurt that the first recipe is such a good one.

Seriously Easy Salsa

Printable Version
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2 cans Ro-Tel, (10 oz) drained
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper
1 Tbsp dried cilantro
1 tsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves if you use fresh)
1 tsp red wine vinegar

1.  Add all ingredients, except tomato sauce, to a bowl and blend.

I use a hand operated "processor" a lot like the Progressive International Manual Food Chopper and Salsa Maker shown to the right because I like it a bit chunky but not too chunky. 

If you don't want to purchase a food processor just for your salsa because your husband doesn't demand salsa daily, you can also use a food processor.  Pulse it to leave chunks or blend it to remove all of the chunks.

2. After you've used the food processor, add the tomato sauce and blend again.

Quick as can be, it is ready!

You can eat it immediately or let it sit in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavors meld together.  I prefer it that way but sometimes my husband just can't wait!

This salsa can be frozen.  I'm honestly not sure how long it lasts in the refrigerator because it disappears within 2 days however because most or all of the ingredients are canned it would be good up to a week.

Enjoy!

Caramelized Green Beans AKA Best Green Beans Ever

So there's these girls that have this blog called Our Best Bites.  That blog turned into a cookbook.  I. Love. This. Cookbook.  It's called Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen. I'm pretty sure there isn't a recipe on their blog or their cookbook I've tried that I have not liked.  They're awesome...and so are these green beans that I got from their cookbook.  A bit of sugar, a lot of garlic, and a handful of bacon; three of my favorite ingredients.  How could these not be good?


I barely put my own twist on these from the original recipe and it's mainly because my husband can't stand onions so I never cook with them.  If you like onions in your food, check out the original post by Our Best Bites.  I am a little lazier than Our Best Bites as I use jarred minced garlic and pre-ground pepper, too - but it's what I always have on hand so I use what I have.  Plus, I canNOT stand the smell of garlic on my hands.  Maybe it takes practice to press the garlic without touching it but I haven't been able to do it yet.

Caramelized Green Beans

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1 lb. frozen cut green beans
1/2 lb. bacon
4 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
Ground pepper

1.  Begin by frying up your bacon and boiling your water for the green beans.  The recipe calls for 1/2 lb of chopped bacon.  To save a little time, I chop the bacon when it's raw.  It seems to cook quicker and doesn't require turning; just some stirring.  

2.  Mix the 2 Tbsp. sugar, 2 Tbsp. soy sauce, and 1/2 tsp. of Kosher salt together in a separate bowl.  You won't add this yet but you can prepare it while the bacon is cooking and water is boiling.  Also make sure you have your garlic handy as you will be using it soon.

3.   Once the bacon is ready (we I like it crisp!), remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon onto a plate with a paper towel to absorb the grease.

4.  When the water is boiling you're going to add the green beans for just about 3 minutes not to the point of cooking but just to basically thaw them and brighten the color a bit.  Then drain the beans.

5.  In the meantime, take some of the bacon grease (about 2 Tbsp.) and some olive oil (about 1 Tbsp.) and heat it on medium for about 2 minutes in the pan you cooked the bacon in.  Discard the rest of the bacon grease (or save it like I do).  Once the oil/grease is heated add the minced garlic for 1 minute.  Continue stirring so the garlic does not burn.

6.  Add the drained beans to the pan with the garlic and oil for about 2 minutes and continue stirring.

7.  Stir the sauce you pre-made and add it to beans.  Continue stirring as you cook so the sauce coats the beans and begins to create the carmelization.  You will continue cooking for about 2 more minutes.

8.  Add the bacon and about a 1/4-1/2 tsp of pepper (again the recipe calls for fresh ground pepper which is probably best but I go with what I have).  Keep stirring the mixture for about 2-3 more minutes until your beans get that caramelized look.

9.  Transfer the beans to a separate container and allow them to sit so the glaze will thicken and stick more to the beans.  Often I take these to a pot luck and put it in the crockpot to stay warmed up and the glaze takes to the beans beautifully.

Since this is my first attempt at writing up a recipe, please let me know if there's something I missed...or just not quite right.  Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!  Thanks Our Best Bites!