Mmmmm snookerdoodles

So last week I decided that I needed to make these amazing CARMELITA SNICKERDOODLES. I know in the title I called it a snookerdoodle. Not the point. The best part of this was the three sticks of butter. Because BUTTER IS LYFE. 
Basically you make a crumble and put half in the pan and bake it. 

BAKED! 

Then you put down a bag of white chocolate chips and drizzle caramel sauce over the top and then top with the rest of the crumble.





More baking! Woot! 

And voilá! Mmmmmmm delicious bars. 

Highly recommend these bars. They are amazing and everyone will gobble them up. Mmmmmmmmmm 

Greek Fest...At Home

Soooooo. This past weekend, we decided that we should MAKE OUR OWN GREEK FOOD. Ok, fine, I decided that I should make it. So. Made a greek roasted chicken and potatoes. I've made this one probably twenty times, however never with a frozen chicken....

 Sooooo it took about....4 hours total (maybe 3.5) for the chicken to roast. Totes worth it. Did not take after photos.

 Meanwhile, I also cooked my second frozen chicken in my instant pot.
Basically, it took about.....45 minutes cooked on high pressure. I don't even think I took a picture of IT FINISHED. That's ok, I just shredded that one and put it in the freezer for use at a later date.

Now. For the Piece de resistance! I made SAGANAKI! 

 I used this recipe. I sent Jerms to the store for Kasseri cheese. It wasn't even that expensive.

 This pictures decided they should be out of order so OK. I made a breading, and then fried them in Olive oil. I will describe each out of order picture. You're welcome.

 Oh look, this was at the end, last piece of fried cheese.

 Lemon juice to squeeze over the flaming cheese!

 Cheese I attempted to slice with a knife. Shockingly this is how it came out. HA.

 a shot of bourbon I poured over the cheese in the serving dish

Kiki set it on fire! WOOOHOOOO

 Flaming Cheese! OPAAAA!!!!!!

Kiki and I thought it came out good. Jerms didn't love the flavor of the cheese. Kiki and I also realized we should have let the cheese flame a little more since it was super bourbony. Good though. Would DEFINITELY MAKE AGAIN. MMMMMMMMM

Greek Fest!!

Last week Jerms and I finally got a chance to try Aurora’s Greek Fest. It’s at St. Anthanasios Church on Aurora’s east side (I think) and it is DELICIOUS. Now I am mad for all of the years we didn’t go. So. The church puts this Fest on yearly, and they have a pretty good menu and I believe everything is cooked by the church family. Everything we had was just perfectly cooked and seasoned and Worth IT. Let’s get to the food pictures, shall we? 

Reasonably priced.

I had a gyro. Mmmm. The Greek salad was good (MY FAVE!) and the rice was wonderfully creamy and flavorful. A+ on all of it. 

Jerms had the gyro and souvlaki. Also: DELICIOUS. Well seasoned. Tender. Goodness. 

Greek potatoes. Lemony. Buttery. Enough said. 

Ahhh the star of the show! SAGANAKI! However you do not get to watch them light it on fire. Doesn’t matter. Still good. JERMS HAD NEVER HAD THIS BEFORE. Mmmm. Apparently he missed going to Omega in the 90’s. 

The whole bounty. 

Obvs we got a dessert tray so we could try everything 

This beer is really smooth. Made me want to buy it. 

These twisty cookies were very lemony. 

These cookies (I have names of them somewhere) were SO GOOD. Omg. 

Now I am ruined forever (JK NICKYS I STILL LOVE YOU) and yummmmmmmmmm. Thank you for reading only about me eating all the Greek things. 

 

Let’s have a Monday Pretzel Bread

It’s Monday. I wanted pretzel bread. So I made some. How Sweets Eats provided the recipe.  This is mostly going to be pictures. 

Only bad thing is I forgot to salt it after I put the egg wash on. 

Don’t worry. I salted it at the end. 


I ate it. Fin. 

LIONS AND TIGERS AND PEARS OH MY

Sorry for the pun but it’s what my fingers typed so it’s staying. 

So Jerms’ coworker gave him some delicious Asian Pears and I decided I must make something with them. So I did. 

I used this Asian Pear Maple Crisp recipe I found on Pinterest. I took lots of pictures. 
Why yes, there IS a LEGO haunted house going up RIGHT NEXT TO MY COOKING. Standard flour, brown sugar, cinnamon for the filling. 

Then I knocked my measuring spoons mason jar on the floor. Ooops. 

Ok moving on. So this recipe called for using country crock. Personally, I think not. Obvs I used real butter. 

Ready to go in oven!



Nom nom nom. I think if I made it different I would add maybe either nutmeg or cloves to the mix. Mmm. Oh yeah, the recipe called for chopped pecans but I did not have those on hand.

That being said, Jerms loved it. The kids? Who knows. None for them. Ha! 

Crock Pot Chops

We are trying a new thing here...the kids are now choosing recipes from various cookbooks for us to try to see if that increases the amount of home cooked foods the kids eat. 
Tonight’s dinner courtesy of the Christmas Slow cooker cookbook. 

Pretty easy. Not horribly unhealthy and the kids could help make it. 

Now we bought these small boneless chops that I probably could have doubled. I also forgot to take pictures of it, other than this and at the end. Also, it’s me so when my in-laws we’re here my FIL suggested adding mushrooms. Done. 

Currently speaking 4/5 of us liked it, only one kid wasn’t here to try it. Would definitely make again but would use either double the skinny chops or some big meaty ones. 

Neither the Dijon nor the thyme overpowered it either. All in all. A success. 
Gotta say: not that pretty but definitely tasty. 

Burgoo Fest

Today we tootled on over to Utica, Illinois for the annual Burgoo Festival. What is Burgoo you say? 

It’s a beef stew that is cooked all night by “burgoomeisters” and has all kinds of veggies in it. Think potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, peas, okra (?), onions, hominy and I can’t remember what else. Before we tried it we asked lots of people if they thought it was good and we got lots of answers ranging from “skip it” to “needed more salt” and “absolutely”. Some people are grossed out that it cooks all night in the rain....

Not us. We were ADVENTURING.

These are the cookers. 

This guy asked if we liked cats and said they don’t have a cat problem anymore *wink*. 







Jerms is skeptical though he actually really enjoyed it. As did I. I may even make it. 

Other fun we ate included fair food such as corn dogs and nachos as well as what was called a Chimney Cake Sundae. Basically, the dough is rolled and put into a rotisserie and then filled with ice cream and toppings. I mean, YES. 








It was super messy to eat but YUM. We felt like we had made the right choice. 

This event has over 350 vendors and I ended up getting a dress and we got some giant amount of bath bombs, as well as some jewelry. The town is adorable and kind of in a valley. We saw the blacksmith. Jerms got his face painted. If one was inclined you could get drinks and walk with them since basically everything was closed down to cars. It’s seriously a HUGE event and we just happened to luck out that it was also happening this weekend as we drove home. Perfect! We did all the fall things these last two weekends and it was so fun! 

Downside: no interior bathrooms at ANY of the events (unless you go to a gas station or fast food). Loved seeing small-town Illinois as I never have before. (Ok, well I did go to Burgoo Fest once when I was a kid but all I remember is that it rained a lot and we got soaked and I didn’t like beef stew.)