Why it pays to keep your floors clean

Someday, you will find yourself staring (and drooling) over a bowl of made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookie dough. You will try to control yourself, but to no avail. You just won't be able to resist that delicious combination of butter, flour, sugar, eggs, and chocolate. You dive right in and get yourself a nice, big spoonful.

YUM. But because holding a camera in one hand and a spoon in the other is apparently way beyond your physical abilities, you will accidentally drop that beautiful blob of dough on the floor.

A horrific scene.

Lucky for you, those floors of yours have just been cleaned. So you can take your spoon, scoop it right back up, and shove it in your mouth. Right where it belongs.

This, my friends, is why it's important to keep your floors clean. You never know what you might want to eat off of them.

(Here's the recipe I use, if you're curious!)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Crisco butter flavored shortening

1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375º. Combine shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Perogies

Growing up, I always loved when my mom made this perogie stir-fry. I thought perogies were the best. I loved them so much that when a stray cat appeared in our garage one day, I named it Perogie. He didn't stick around for long, but my love of perogies is still alive and kicking.

I wanted a quick and easy dinner to make last night and this was just perfect. It's pretty simple - slice up some of your favorite veggies (I used green peppers, onions, carrots, broccoli, and a few pressed garlic cloves) and saute them in olive oil. While those are cooking, open a box of frozen perogies and saute them in another pan until they are lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes. Heat up some sausage (I used Bob Evan's fully cooked links) and toss everything together.

Now here's the secret ingredient...

Penzeys Greek seasoning. Almost all the herbs and spices I use are from Penzeys. They carry every herb and spice under the sun, plus all sorts of yummy mixes like this one. Greek seasoning is a mix of salt, Turkish oregano, garlic, lemon, black pepper, and marjoram. A few final shakes of this on the perogies and you're done! Easy and delicious.

For all the choco-holics out there...

Today is my husband's 22nd birthday! I had time before work this morning to make him his favorite chocolate cake... and when I say his favorite chocolate cake, I really mean MY favorite chocolate cake. :) But he likes it too. It is hands down, the best chocolate cake I've ever had.

Ingredients:
7 eggs, separated
1/2 cup baking cocoa
3/4 cup boiling water
1-3/4 cups cake flour
1-3/4 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

In a bowl, combine cocoa and water until smooth; cool for 20 minutes. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. (Tip: the recipe calls for cake flour but if you want to use all purpose flour, subtract 3 tablespoons and 1-1/2 teaspoons.) Add the oil, egg yolks, vanilla, and cocoa mixture. Beat until well blended.

In another large bowl and with clean beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff peaks form. It should look something like this.

Gradually and gently fold into chocolate mixture.

Pour batter into an ungreased 10-in. tube pan. Bake on lowest rack at 325° for 60-65 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched. Immediately invert pan; cool completely.

And now for the best part- the icing! I love lots of icing, so I doubled what the original recipe recommended. This way, it covers the entire cake and leaves a little left over so I can lick the bowl. :)

Icing:
2/3 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons hot water

Melt butter in a saucepan. (Or the microwave.) Remove from the heat; stir in the powdered sugar, chocolate, vanilla and water. Drizzle over cake.

Last but not least, PIG OUT.

You could add chopped nuts on top if you'd like, but it's awesome just like this.

Happy Birthday, Jesse!

What a cutie pie. :)