Homemade Tootsie Rolls

I look through my cookbooks all the time when I am in search of something to try. The weird part about it is that I believe that I am pretty thorough in my browsing, but yet every time I read them I find new recipes that I do not remember seeing before.  hmmm.... maybe I have magic cookbooks? that HAS to be the case! I found this recipe yesterday in a cookbook I have read numerous times and was thrilled that I had all the ingredients on hand. As for the "tootsie roll" claim, I do taste some tootsie in them but a more appropriate name would be "chocolate fudgy bites."  But since this is what they were called originally, I will keep they name.  They really are good and super easy though.

   

Tootsie Rolls

5 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons cocoa

3/4 cup powdered milk

1/2 cup karo syrup

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Melt the butter and the cocoa together over low heat.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

3. Spread onto a small pan or plate, mixture will be thick. I spread mine to about a half an inch thickness, it all depends how you want to do it. 

4. Put in fridge or freezer until firm.

5. Cut into small pieces and wrap with wax paper if desired.

Valentine Heart Wreath

I love to eat the little conversation heart around this time a year, they are one of my favorites. I decided they were too cute not to make something out of.  so I wrapped a wooden wreath frame I got at Michael's with tissue streamer and started sticking the hearts on with hot glue.

I got most of the way around, then I stopped and attached a ribbon to hang it from.

Then I just glued hearts over the ribbon and added a couple of tissue roses and I was done!

Funky Photo Frame

I love to go shopping at Michael's just to look around and the other day I was walking around and came across these fun wood frames and had to get one! I had no idea what I could do with it but knew that I needed one (They were $6.99 I think, but if you decide to get one make sure you bring a coupon.  If you download their app, it will be on your phone).  I brought it home and looked at it for a day or two and decided that it needed to be a photo frame and this is what I came up with.

This is the plain wood shape, They had square frames and smaller sizes as well.

I painted the frame this blue that I love!

Then I took ribbon and tied it to the big frame and hot glued a smaller picture frame onto the ribbon ( I tried to only glue on the frame itself so I could change the picture if I wanted).

I glued the end of the ribbon to the big frame also.

                                  You could just be done here. I just thought that my frame needed a little more.

         SO I took strips of vinyl and put stripes on the picture frame and am happy with how it turned out!                                   

  

Monster Cookies

I was really wanting to try out a new cookie recipe the other night after baby bed time and was reading though some of my cookbooks for inspiration.  I came across this recipe for Monster cookies in an old elementary school cookbook that I got at a thrift store. The fact that it looked like I had all the ingredients on hand made it look like the perfect candidate for that nights cookie!  The thing I failed to realize was the amount of ingredients and how big a batch this recipe makes until I had already put ingredients in the bowl.  Unless you need to make a lot of cookies, I recommend making a half batch of these. I really like these cookies, but with peanut butter, chocolate and oatmeal is it possible to go wrong?

Monster Cookies

6 eggs

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 tablespoons light karo syrup

4 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup margarine

3 1/2 cups peanut butter

9 cups oatmeal (I only had 8 so I added 1 cup flour)

1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate candies ( I did 1/2 cup each)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix ingredients in a big bowl in the order listed.
3. Spoon cookie dough on lightly grease cookie sheet by the rounded teaspoonful.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Let them cool.
6. enjoy!

Makes about 12 dozen! I had to refrigerate most of my dough and bake them the next day and they turned out fine.

Lazy Enchiladas

Being a full-time student, mother, and working can create a busy schedule.  Sometimes when I get home at night the last thing I want to do is create a huge meal, so one of my favorite easy meals to throw together is lazy enchiladas (the only thing that really makes me call them enchiladas is the sauce). They are a cheesy and gooey comfort food that tastes so good when you have had a rough day.
so here it goes...

first you put frozen burritos in a baking dish ( I use beef and bean chimichangas)
 Just put as many as you need, four usually works best for us

                                                Cover in enchilada sauce

Cover in cheese and bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees, make sure it is heated through.

top with sour cream and that is all there is to it! I usually serve with a salad for a complete meal.

Bread Machine Bread Sticks

I love to make my family homemade meals. It is so nice to prepare a meal and have made almost everything yourself. Being a huge bread fan, I wanted to be able to make my own for our meals.  I have really struggled when it came to making breads and rolls from scratch. For a long time I would be so excited to try a new roll recipe and they would come out like rocks. Since making rocks was not my goal I would get pretty discouraged, then this year I discovered an ally.  My bread machine.  I am still not an expert baker by any means but now I can at least make rolls and they turn out pretty good.  So today I decided to try and make bread sticks using my bread machine.

I got the recipe I used from

http://www.breadmachinediva.com/2010/05/bread-sticks-from-the-bread-machine/

I  put the ingredients in my bread machine in this order:


1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 Cup of water- I always use warm water (not too hot, not too cold)

1 Egg that is lightly beaten
1/4 cup butter- I did not have actual butter so I used country crock.  If you do use butter I would make sure it was soft.
4 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tbs instant dry milk
3 1/4 cups flour

                                        
                                            ( I just put my ingredients in and didn't mix)


 Now you put your bread machine on the dough cycle and wait

                              (This is what mine looked like when it was finished)


Roll out your dough on a floured surface and I divided it into 16 pieces.  

(I divided my dough into 2 pieces and then divided those halves until I had 16 pieces, this is only half of them)






Shape the rolls into bread stick shapes and put them on greased pans, you will probably need two.

                               
                        Cover them and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes




I then put a little olive oil and garlic salt on their tops and put them in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown on top

They were yummy! Put with a pasta dish and a salad and you have a complete meal!

Mustache Drinking Glasses

I have been seeing "mustache" products all over Pinterest and they make me smile every time! So after seeing the way cute mugs in this pin...

Source: gisselserrano.tumblr.com via Laura on Pinterest

and wanting to do some glass etching with the cream I got at Michael's...

( Make sure you use a coupon when you go! Try downloading their app if you need a coupon)

I decided my kitchen needed some new glasses!


Items needed for this project:

 drinking glasses to etch
 etching cream
 vinyl
 cutting mat
 pencil
x-acto knife
mustache printable found below


So to start this project I first printed off some mustaches, I found the ones I printed off from this pin...

Source: tiffanykelley.com via Laura on Pinterest

then I cut out and put the mustaches on a piece of vinyl that I put on a cutting mat for easy cutting

 now to take a blunt pencil and traced all of the mustaches so that there is an indent left in the vinyl

And use and x-acto to carefully cut them out

After I got all of my mustaches cut out, I cut around each of them and placed them where I wanted on the glasses. Try to make sure that you get the vinyl as smooth as you can, especially around the outline of the mustache.

Then it is time to add the etching cream...

Wait 60 seconds and  rinse the cream off and you have new mustache drinking glasses...

I think this one is my favorite!