08 13 10

I have been craving peanut butter and chocolate lately so I decided to make Peanut Butter Bars and I really though it would be curve my craving but alas it did not. The peanut butter filling was really way to crunchy for me. But my co workers loved it though.

Unfortunately they all think I am making them fat by bringing my "Sweet Fridays" so not I am not sure what to do. I have been baking ever Friday for almost a year now. Do I continue making my sweets? Or do I stop and say a year is enough.

3 Stars only because it did not satisfy my love for peanut butter.

AWWWW how I love Peanut Butter.

08 06 10

OK so I realized if I don't start posting my Sweet Friday delights then I will never catch up in how far behind I am in posting. So.......

This week I made Plum Cofouti. If you have never heard of that, then don't feel bad because neither had I. One of the things I like about allrecipies.com is that is gives you an option to enter just one ingredient and then it gives you every recipe with that ingredient. This week I entered in Plums and this is one of the ones that came up.

I was a little unsure when it said it was a "custard" like desert. But when I mentioned it to a room full of French people they went crazy. I guess because this is more of a European desert then American. But either way it was super easy to make, and no mater what continent you are from, easy is a good thing.

As I said I was a bit unsure. But when I tasted it then I realized it was pretty good. Not very sweet but the fruit really helps. And my co-workers said that in France they make it with cherries and raspberries instead of plums. They didn't even know what a plum was. A very funny conversation if you were there.


This whole dish was gone by the end of the day. So I had fun making a recipe I had never tried before and I think it brought my co-workers just a little but closer to home. Who can ask more then that.

4 1/2 stars.

05 07 10

This week I joined my son in California for his big 5th birthday. We had a great time visiting family, playing at the pool, and getting to try one of the best and easiest cakes I have ever tasted.

Super easy, all you do is buy a pound cake, whipped cream and strawberries. The rest is self explanatory by the picture above. My son and I both ate every bite. I hope to one day make this for the office but it's not really baking or making anything from scratch so I am bit torn. We'll see.

Happy 5th Birthday Mason

04 30 10

The one thing so far that I have tried to make a few times but never get it right is Cheesecake. I don't know why this dish so hard for me but no matter how hard I try, it never tastes good. The first time I tried making cheesecake, I didn't know you had to bake it for a long time.....anyway the cake turned out to be more like flavored sour cream then a actual cheesecake.

This time was no different. I cooked it a little to long and it was all lumpy inside. I wasn't able to take more then a couple of bites before I gave up. I want to keep trying to make this dish but alas I feel I will never be able to make a REALLY good cheese cake.

This dish gets no stars considering I wasn't even able to take it to work. But I could't go to work empty handed...so I made a batch of fudge instead. YUM.

04 23 10

I feel a bit bad that I have not updated my blog for the last few weeks. It's not that I haven't baked anything for my office, it just the mentality that "Oh, I blog next week." has gone on for a little longer then I had planned. So I will do my best to remember all that I have made in the last month in half.

Here goes:

This week I made Peanut Butter Cup Cookies. Simple peanut butter cookies with a mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in the middle. I ate more of these then I would like to admit but my mother was in town for a visit and I know how much she loves peanut butter cookies. So these were dedicated to her. My work, my family and myself fell in love with these cookies. But if you love peanut butter how could you not.

I got the receipt when I did a search of the best recipes on www.allrecipes.com and believe you me, it was worth the few extra dollars to buy the Reese's.

I know I usually strongly recommend most of my dishes, but these are worth the time to make them. I think these are work every second it takes to bake them.

5 Big Stars

04 16 10

This I actually did not use from allrecipes.com. Instead I got this idea from a book I borrowed at the Library. "Cooking with all things Trader Joe's" by Deana Gunn and Wona Miniati. Most people who know me know how much I love Trader Joe's so this cookbook has been really fun for me the last couple of days and as soon as I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it.

Since this Peach & Blueberry Cobbler recipe is in a book here is the short version:

Mix together:

1C buttermilk Pancake Mix

1/4C Butter, melted

1/2C Sugar

1/2C Milk

Put in Cooking tray and top with Peaches and Blueberries. Finish with a little Cinnamon on top and bake for 30 mins. at 375 degrees.

I am not that big of a peach fan, but in keeping with my fruit theme I thought this would be a good way to make something I wouldn't normally make. I think one of the best parts of this was the fact that is was so easy to make. Not a big clean up and it looked beautiful coming out of the oven.

Most of this was devoured at work. It really went over well and defiantly something I will make again.

4 stars

04 09 10

I went on vacation this week so I was not able to cook anything for work. So instead here are a few pictures of sugar cookies I made with my son.

We just used a store bought bag recipe but when cooking with kids I think the simpler the easier.

He called these Crabby Patties from Sponge Bob Square Pants. But in fact there were two sugar cookies with some icing and chocolate sprinkles. I think his favorite part was smearing on the icing.

04 01 10

This week I stayed with my theme of fruity sweets. These are strawberry muffins. A great recipe I again found at allrecipes.com.

The were light and fluffy and the best part was that they were super easy to make. And who doesn't like easy.

Also I went on vacation this week so this was a perfect sweet to end the week with.

4 1/2 stars on these great muffins.

03 26 10

This week I made blueberry muffins. I found this recipe and it used very little sugar, and I have received a couple of remarks about people being on diets because of all my Friday treats. So this was for them. Low in sugar but not in taste. I also added extra blueberries which rocked the muffins and it was put to a unanimous vote today, at work, that my muffins are the office favorites.

Unfortunately my first batch did not rock. I was trying to turn them around in my oven and they fell off the back side of the rack. I had to turn off the oven right away and try to get all the spilled blueberries out of the back of a 400 degree oven. As you may guess....this was not fun. And to top it off I had just finished all the dishes so I had to do everything over again. Luckily this was a really easy recipe and I was done in no time.

I chose blueberries for another reason, because the week I have been a little blue. A very close co-worker decided to quit and move back home to France. She was an Intern with our company for only 4 months but we had grown close and I am sad to see her leave. But I know she is making the best choice for her and I wish her the best of luck in the future.

This is a picture of us on the stair well where we spent many a lunch break.

4 stars for muffins and a =( for me.

03 19 10

This week I have no excuses. I was was just too tired to think about what to make, so I made a boxed brownie. Trader Joe's Brownies are like my safety net. But lucky for me they are a very yummy safety net.

3 stars, only because I think I could have done better this week.

03 12 10

This week I went a little over board to make up for my sick week, 7 days prior. I decided to go with Swiss Carrot Cake. I have made this before and this is a really good moist cake, that is not too sweet. The lemon glaze pairs really well with the carrots, especially if you are not a big fan of cream cheese icing.

I did try something new, I made muffins with the left over batter. They turned out REALLY good. They were gone before the cake was. You just have to watch them closely to make sure they don't overcook.

So here is where I over did it. I ALSO made fudge again. It was hard for me to be so close to a new recipe and have it fail so badly as it did a few weeks ago. So I couldn't help myself trying to make the peanut butter fudge again. But I am glad I did. This fudge was so good. It melted in my mouth and was a rave at work. Except for one co-worker who didn't like peanut butter. But she loved the muffins so I didn't feel bad for her.

Although I love the Swiss Carrot Cake, the PB Fudge took center stage. I think it was one of the best things I have ever made, but I am bias because I LOVE fudge.

5 stars all the way.

03 05 10

My son and I both got really sick this week so I decided it was safest not to cook anything in my kitchen that might transfer germs to my co-workers.

So instead I thought I would share about a really fun lunch I made with my son. It's a tuna fish sandwich with toasted bread and he got to choose a cookie cutter to shape it with. I had never tried this before but a friend told me about it so I thought I'd give it a chance. If you have kids I suggest trying this. He ate every bite.

02 26 10

Well this week didn't turn out very well. For two reason, first I tried a new recipe for something I have never made before, Fudge. It started out really well. Look looked good and it smelled good. And I even tried the cold water ball test. And even after all that....it never hardened. It was very sad. I even tried to freeze the chocolate hoping it would work. But alas, pudding has a thicker consistency then my fudge.

But is was my first time so I try not to be hard on myself. I am still learning to bake, and even though I enjoy it and I have been baking for a while, there is still so much I need to learn.

Here is the recipe: Peanut Butter Fudge, again from Allrecipes.com because I love that site.

Oh yeah, and the second part was that it was a snow day so I wasn't even able to go into work. But I guess in hindsight it was a good thing because my first try with this recipe only earned me 1 star. But I plan to try again in the near future and that is all that really matters.

02 19 10

This week I tried a a twist on an office favorite. They love the Banana Crunch Muffins I make, so I thought I would try a different type of banana muffin. These are Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and they turned out great. Moist but not too sweet. The only thing is that I was low on the chocolate chips and I think they would have tasted better if there was more in the batter. Either way all but two were gone by the end of the day and I made 24.

A very positive 5 stars. Yummy!

02 12 10

This is actually the same German Apple Cake recipe I made a few weeks ago except before I used a cheese grader to slice the apples and this time I just used a knife to cut them into thin stripes. I definitely like this way better. You can see the apples more, and you can taste them as well. Needless to say it was a huge success in the office. But not all of it was eaten because all the wonderful temps are gone and the other half of the office was in Las Vegas for a show.

To bad, more for me. 4 Stars.

02 05 10

This week I made the chocolate cookies again. Only because it was the last day of our temps. They have been telemarketing for us for the last 3 months and they have defiantly been rays of sunshine in the office. Well anyway, they loved the cookies so they requested I make them for their last Friday at the office. Which I did.

But this time I made half the batch with Macadamia nuts in them. They turned out great. It was not called for in the recipe but it still turned out really yummy.

Here are the pictures of the temps that left. Below is Adam and Catlin. Very good team and I hope maybe in the future a little more. They were so cute together.

And then there was Douglas. He was the one that always had a smile on his face and you just couldn't help smiling back. Here he is pretending he is holding a cookie (this is how I wanted to photograph the temps but I ran out of time at the end of the day). I hope that each one of them finds a great job in the future and I wish them the best of luck, it was truly a pleasure to work with them.

Again 5 stars because all nut 3 cookies were gone by the end of the day.

01 29 10

So it has been crazy at work lately because we have out show coming up, so I decided to take it easy and just make an old office favorite, Brownies. These are not really home made. They are from a box. Trader Joe's brand of "Triple Chocolate Truffle" mix. You can't go wrong with this. Of course I also add a little chocolate syrup to the mix, just to give that extra choco pop.

This was the tray by 11:30am, as you can see when the office knows I brought the brownies they take them in advance, just to make sure they get some, or they just really love brownies and can't get enough in the early morning hours of the day.

This pic, of course, was the end of the day. They loved it and because it was so easy to make I loved it too.

5 stars because this was gone by 12:30.

1-21-2010

Well I wish I could say that this German Apple Cake was enjoyed by all at my work but unfortunately it never got there. I made it Thursday night as I do all my sweets, but on Friday my son woke up at 5 am very sick and I ended up staying home with him.

But just because I was home I couldn't let this go untasted so I was able to enjoy that cake all by myself. I think it defiantly would have been gone by the end of the day. It was very good and the powder sugar on top was perfect. I think it would have been to much to have an overly sweet icing.

But don't get me wrong, it was sweet, but not too sweet and moist, oh so moist! I thought the apples would stay together a little better after baking but you could barely see them when you eat it. But trust me, it did not take away from the taste at all. I plan to tuck away this sweet Friday treat for another week.

I give it 4 stars. I think this recipe would have been very well received at work. On the other hand my son is feeling better now but I have to say Friday was a very hard day so it was nice to treat myself with a little indulgence.

1-15-2010

This week I made "Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies". I have never made cookies for work before but on Thursday when I asked some co-workers what they think I should make, chocolate chip cookies came up right away. I found the recipe in the October 2009 issue of Everyday Food. I love this magazine because it comes loaded with all kinds of things to make.

Here is the recipe.

When I was making the cookies I forgot to add the brown sugar before I added the chocolate chips, so I had to add it after everything had already been mixed but the small error turned out great. Because I couldn't mix very hard (as to not break the chocolate chips) there were little pockets of brown sugar goodness. I defiantly altered the way the cookies tasted but it was a very yummy alteration.

Originally I was going to make a double batch because it says it only makes 24 cookies and I have an office of 12 and there is no way that everyone will only eat two. But at last minute I learned I didn't have enough sugar for the double batch, and boy am I glad I didn't. I made 40 cookies out of one batch, not to mention one large cookie (pictured below) for a co-workers last day at the job. She was a temp and had found a permanent position. Her name was Ellen so I made her a large cookie with an E made out of chocolate chips. Anyway, the point of the story is, if you make this recipe; make only one batch.

Out of the 35 cookies (had to save some for myself) all but 3 and a quarter were eaten. I give these 4 stars only because I thought some of the cookies turned out a little crispy but my whole office said they were fantastic and cookies were suppose to be crispy. But this is defiantly a recipe I would like to try again someday.

This post is dedicated to Ellen and I wish her best of luck on her new job.

Until next week....

1-08-2010

This is the first entry of my new blog, Sweet Friday. I created this blog because every Friday at work I bring in a baked good. Something sweet for my co-workers to end their work week with. (say that three times fast...) Also because I love to bake but I don't like to eat it all, this way everyone wins. Each week I will post the things I make, some good some not so good. With that said I hope you enjoy.

This week I made two kinds of muffins, an old favorite and a new recipe. Below is a picture of Banana Crumb Muffins that the whole office loves. These are also a really easy recipe and allows me to get rid of any extra banana's I have left over. The recipe comes from allrecipes.com. I love this website because it allows me to just put in an ingredient and a bunch of recipes come up. Also I have a little recipe box that I can save if I come across something that looks yummy.

And sure enough all the 15 muffins were gone by the end of the day. A big 5 stars to this recipe.

*****

Here is a Breakfast Muffin I made out a cook book I checked out at my local Library. I did not write down the recipe before returning the book so I can't tell you how to make them but I here is a link to the book if you ever what to look for it. The book is called Muffins: Sweet and Savory Comfort Food by Cyndi Duncan. These muffins were OK but they were the consistency of doughnuts. I like the cinnamon and sugar topping but I think they would have tasted better in smaller doses which is what the book calls for, I just don't have small muffin tins.

There were three muffins left by the end of the day so these only get 3 and half stars. Maybe more if they were smaller.

****

Here is a picture of one of my co-wokers eating her breakfast muffin

Until next week.....