Category Archives: cooking

PB&J Pie Pockets

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Tuesday!

So, last night (aka, when I’m writing this), I had one of the most amazing experiences. (That might be a slight exaggeration. But anywho.) It was certainly one of the most amazing experiences of the evening, though. So that works.

Now, “what is this experience?” you might be asking. Well, I’ll tell you.

I baked “PB & J Pie Pockets”. (My own term.)

I was experimenting a bit with pie-crust baking. As you may recall, I did a bit of that last winter. But it’s been a while, so I wasn’t sure if I remembered how. And I don’t have the recipe that I used then. And I’m in a different place. So I wanted to see if I could make a pie-crust.

I ended up using this all butter recipe. The “All Butter” thing was a bit new to me, actually. I’d previously used a Crisco recipe. And I was hand-mixing stuffs instead of using a blender like suggested. So I was already a little unsure about the recipe.

And then the dough ended up not going to the “crumble” stage of mixing- it went to a very smooth consistency very quickly. So I got really worried, and thought I’d over-mixed the dough. Which is bad. I’d heard that over-mixed dough tastes (and feels) a lot like cardboard.

Nonetheless, I decided to press on. So I let it chill, then rolled it out, and cut out 8 circles with a cup.

I put a tad of peanut butter & jelly into four of the circles, and pressed another circle of pie dough on top to cover it up and try to keep the delightful stickiness from squishing out while being cooked. I put them in the oven for about 12-15 minutes (I don’t remember) at 375.

When they came out, they were visibly flaky. (Which is the sign of a good crust.) They also sounded flaky when I took them off of the lined cookie sheet.

Letting them cool was a bit difficult, since I really wanted to try one. Fortunately there were some towels to put away and an email or three to write.

By the time I was done with those tasks, the pies were cooled. And I tried one, and it was fantastic. (If I do say so myself.) The crust was light and flaky, and so tasty. The peanut-butter and strawberry jelly also made the pie pockets quite excellent.

So long story short, it was a very good evening.

Make ANY sandwich better with this One Quick Trick! You won’t believe it!

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Fluffy McGiggles’s Disclaimer: The Webmaster’s use of “click-bait” for her post title does not amuse me.

The Webmaster’s response to Fluffy McGiggles’s Disclaimer: I don’t care.


Hello, Fluffsters!

Can you believe it’s once again Wednesday? Wow, time sure does fly, doesn’t it?

Anywho.

Recently, I’ve been having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.

And I discovered a way to make them even better. And this trick works on other sandwiches, too. Instead of plain wheat or white bread, use lightly toasted sourdough bread. It’s, like, one of the best things ever.

One of the other best things ever is using the lightly toasted sourdough for a chicken-and-avacado sandwich. Those are also amazingness in a lunch sized container.

I hope you find these tips useful! Enjoy the rest of your week!

I made dinner and it didn’t epically fail!

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Tuesday!

So, last night, I made dinner for like the first time! And it turned out well!

…Even if it didn’t turn out all at the same time.

…What do you mean by that?

Oh. That does call for a bit more explanation, doesn’t it.

Yes, Webmaster, it does.

Ok. Well, at about 3:00, I decided that I wanted to cook dinner tonight, instead of having my family do it like normal. This was inspired, in part, by my having been looking at recipes for chicken and bread and other yummy stuffs. So, I found a recipe, found a bread recipe I wanted to try, checked the ingredients, and started making dinner!

What I didn’t realize was that the bread needed three hours to rise… And I didn’t get to the part where it needed to rise until about 3:30. And that didn’t include time it takes to knead dough, or do other necessary things to it… Or baking time. So, we did not have that bread with dinner. Fortunately, from my perspective, my mother was able to go to the store and get some crescent rolls we were able to have with.

So I made pasta-

–Oh goody. So impressive.

No. As in, I made pasta. Flower, water, oil, egg, mix it in a machine, and extrude spaghetti (in this case.)

And I also made Chicken Scampi.

…Did you magically create a chicken somehow, or is it like what it sou

No, that one’s exactly the way it sounds. Or reads.

I can never tell exactly how to describe it…

Anywho. So, my mother bought bread, and cooked green beans. And it turned out really well!

And then, about two-and-a-half-hours later, the dinner rolls I was making came out of the oven, and they also turned out pretty well!

So, overall, it was a success. I need to work on my timing, but everything turned out well, so I’m happy.

Anywho, have a good day!

Inexpensive Summer Refreshers

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Hello, Fluffsters!

Happy Wednesday!

A couple of days ago, I tried an experiment. Yesterday, I tried the results of the experiment. And I am now going to share it with you.

Now, you might be wondering what the experiment was. And I’m going to tell you! It was…

Inexpensive Refreshing Summer Snacks: Coffee Ice Pops

Doesn’t that sound good? They’re fairly easy, too, if you have a k-cup machine and the tupperware popsicle makers.

As I said, I decided to experiment, and so I made six: 3 of two types.

The first type was plain iced coffee with milk. I made a 4-oz k-cup, and put in 2ozs of milk. (the popsicle makers hold 2 ozs each.)

Ingredients for coffee-pops

Iced Coffee!!! And Popsicle maker.

I poured that into three of the popsicle makers.

I then made 6 ounces of Vanilla Cappuccino k-cup stuffs, and poured it into the other three makers, and put the lids on them.

Prepping the Summer Snack of Coffee Ice

They’re ready to go in the freezer!

Finally, I stuck them in the freezer, and let them sit for a while. As in, overnight. I probably didn’t need to let them sit that long, but I didn’t want one before then.

I had one of the plain iced coffee ones yesterday morning:

Coffee Popsicle

Dark roast! Yum!

The first one I tried was unsweetened, mostly. It had milk in it, which is kinda sweet, but I didn’t put anything else in. So, it was nice. It was basically like an iced-coffee ice-cube. Or a cup of coffee in ice form. Cold, and coffee-ish. Not the traditional popsicle, but still fun.

I may or may not make more of those.

The other kind, which I just tried before writing this post, were pretty fantastic.

Summer treat: vanilla cappuccino popsicle

VANILLA!!! SUGAR!!!

This one tasted far more like a traditional ice cream bar popsicle thingy. It had the consistency of an ice cube, of course, but it tasted really good. It was sweet, and vanilla-y, and basically like a vanilla cappuccino.

The frozen-ness of it, though really smoothed out the flavor. It was quite nice!

So, there you have it. For the price of two ounces of milk, a coffee k-cup, and a cappuccino k-cup, there are six popsicle summer fun snack thingamabops.

Enjoy!

One of the sparsest tutorials I’ve ever seen…

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Hi, Fluffsters! Happy Friday!

So. Friday. That means that it’s basically the WEEKEND! And that means you’ll (in theory) have TIME for stuffs!

To help you fill that time, I have searched the webs, and found an interesting looking tutorial for you to look at.

(Ok, so, actually, a friend shared this on her facebook wall and I decided it would make good fluff material. That’s kinda beside the point.)

But yeah. It’s a tutorial for “cute yummy dog sandwiches.”

And to be fair, they are cute.

However, the tutorial has me a bit baffled… So, the writer mentions the recipe for the bread. But that’s it.

There’s no mention of what to use to make the eyes. Or what, besides a hotdog of some sort, goes into the sandwich part. Or even how to tell “when the dough is ready.”

So, fluffsters, this is my challenge for you this week. What do you think the missing ingredients are? Clearly this is a fairly, um, sparse tutorial. What are the hidden elements? Do you think the eyes and nose are made from chocolate? If not, do you think it would be better if they were?

I would love to hear from you in the comments!

My Week in Bread Bowls

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Hi, Fluffsters! Happy Saturday!

The weather where I am has been a bit chilly recently. And snowy. It’s lovely.

A very snowy landscape, with more coming down.

Part of this week’s weather…

But it’s also good for making you want warmer foods.

Fortunately, I came to the realization that when the place I frequently eat serves little crusty French rolls and soup, you can MAKE YOUR OWN BREADBOWLS!

So, here’s my week in Bread Bowls!

Formation of a breadbowl from a dinner roll.

Making a bread bowl! Yay!

Cheesy soup in a bread-bowl

Yay soup in a BREADBOWL!!

 

Bread-bowl with Chili.

So this was an actual bread bowl, provided by the food service. It had chili.

Hand-carved breadbowl with colliflour cheese soup.

This was the one where I first made my own breadbowl. It was tasty!

Lentil Vegetable Soup in a bread-bowl

Breadbowl from February 20th. Some sort of tomato-based lentil soup.

PB & J in a bread-bowl.

New form: Peanut Butter and Jelly in a bread bowl! It works, right?

And then, alas, they ran out of the mini French loaves. So I needed to try to use a normal dinner roll. Which really didn’t work as well, but oh well. At least this post was saved!

soup in a crumby breadbowl

Clam Chowder in a dinner bun breadbowl thingy

So, that was fun. I highly recommend trying it sometime. There’s something really fun about “beating the system”, and having fancier (or at least tastier) food than the provider expects.

Have a great weekend!

Easter Bunny Rolls

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Hello, Fluffsters! Last night, I saw the cutest idea for an Easter meal.

Or any meal where there might be a little child.

It’s Easter Bunny themed rolls. Aren’t they adorable?

I know Easter isn’t for a while yet, but I guess this gives you time to practice!

Have a great Tuesday!

PIES!! AND CHOCOLATE!!

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Hello, Fluffsters!

Yesterday, I made a PIE! Ok, I had some help. I went to a friend’s house to get some practice making pie crust. She made the filling, but I made the crust and spread out the filling and stuff.

It was a brownie-cheesecake pie, and it turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself.

And the crust (which I basically did myself, but with a bit of supervision) was a lot better than I was expecting!

A beautiful chocolate creamcheese pie.

The entire pie. So my crust decorations need work…

And the inside also looked (and tasted!) really good. (Again, if I do say so myself…)

A slice of brownie cheesecake pie.

Slice of Brownie Pie

Anywho, happy Friday! I hope you have a great weekend!

More proof the food service is questionable

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Saturday!

I have recently gathered more proof that the food service where I am right now is a bit… odd. There’s no other way to put it. After all, who else would serve PORCUPINE BALLS?!?!

A sign advertising "Home style porcupine balls."

Up top: Porcupine Balls. They’re never made in MY home…

Seriously, who comes up with these things?

They actually didn’t taste that bad.

Porcupine balls. Or something like that.

Porcupine Balls. Not just for Breakfast!

…Wait. You actually ate some?

Yes. Believe it or not, they looked better than the other options.

That’s scary.

Huh. I should probably have included this in the Halloween series, then. Oh well.

Again, Fluffsters, I hope you have a great weekend!

I no longer need to bother…

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Hello, Fluffsters! Happy Thursday! I hope your day is treating you well.

I was thinking about coming up with a clever idea for a fluff post, but then I decided, “why bother”? For, you see, I encountered this substance at dinner last night.

Strange pizza-like substance with bananas, oatmeal, and... something.

I think there were bananas & oatmeal on this thing. But what is WITH that SAUCE?

So, I think it’s a pizza of some sort. And there were bananas on it. And oatmeal, I think. I have no idea what that sauce-like goop was, though.

That is one that I did not try. I like you, Fluffsters, I really do. But not that much. Sorry.

I hope you have a great Thursday!