Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I have a confession. I have an unhealthy addiction to all things Oreo. I'm pretty sure that if I had purchased stock in Nabisco while I was a teenager I would be a millionaire now. I've eaten bags and bags of the chocolatey goodness; with milk and just straight out of the bag. I've added them to ice cream, pies and banana bread. Homemade versions are snarfed up as fast as I can put the filling in them. So, as I was pondering what treat to make and I realized that I had not only a bag of regular Oreos (I swear they are diet) but a bag of Double Stuff and a bag of Mini Oreos in my treat cupboard as well it was fairly obvious that they needed to be used. Sure I could just eat them but yum, there has to be another use for them right?

As usual I was in a time crunch (work is really cramping my style) so I started with a boxed Devil's Food Cake mix and jazzed it up a bit. The really yum part is the frosting. You just can't go wrong with cream cheese anything. You could also do a straight up vanilla buttercream and that would be good too. The addition of whipping cream in place of the milk ups the richness factor in either version. Real butter and good vanilla and you are in business. These were pretty quick to finish and quick to disappear. I shared with the neighbors so that I didn't OD on them. Cause you know, I would NEVER do anything like that!!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
21 cupcakes


Cupcakes
1 Devil's Food Cake mix
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. oil (you could also use melted butter)
3/4 c. sour cream
3 eggs

Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese
1 lb powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 T. butter
6 Oreos smashed into bits

1. Prepare cupcake batter and divide into 21 cups. Bake 18-22 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.
2. Cream cream cheese and butter together. Add milk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Blend well adding sugar until spreading consistency. I like to make it a little bit stiffer if I'm piping it than if I'm just spreading it with a knife.
3. Mix cookie crumbs into frosting and frost cupcakes. EASY!!

Recipe shared with:
Sweet Indulgences Sunday    Sweets for a Saturday  Melt in Your Mouth Monday  Church Supper Sunday Tasty Tuesdays   Whisking Wednesdays  Foodie Wednesday  Cast Party Wednesday    Made it on Monday  Totally Tasty Tuesdays   These Chicks Cooked  2 Maids a Baking 

Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake

It's been a crazy couple of weeks at the Jiggle household and quite frankly cooking has fallen to the bottom of the priority ladder. Mr. Jiggle is off working overseas for a month, school started for the younger Jiggles and Jiggle herself had to give up the cushy, working from home in her jammies gig and go back to the office every day. That's really cutting into the meal/treat planning, like a lot. Anyway...

Today I had to take dinner to a neighbor and was cruising The Sisters Cafe, as that is one of the very few websites that I can access at work stupid big brother anyway, and this casserole appealed on 2 levels. First it was easy to put together and all the ingredients were already happily residing in my panty and second it was touted as a good freezer meal. I used to be all kinds of organized and regularly did freezer meals for those days that my life was crazy or that I needed to run a dinner somewhere unexpectedly. I've kind of fallen off that wagon with WalMart moving in down the road and really need to get back on it. The planning wagon and the weight loss wagon have both left me laying in the road wondering what exactly happened. Maybe someday I will find the will power to flag them both down and haul myself back up on there. Maybe.

I doubled what was listed and easily got 2 9x9 dishes and a very full 9x13 dish. This is an extremely generous recipe. I froze a small one, took the other small one to the neighbors and baked the bigger one for dinner and lunches. Other than the doubling of the recipe I followed it faithfully. I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow!!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake
thesisterscafe.com
servings 10-12

2 generous cups cooked chicken; diced
3/4 lb deli ham; sliced in strips
1 can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
1 cup Swiss cheese; shredded
2 cups Cheddar cheese; shredded and divided
2 boxes chicken flavor stuffing mix; prepared

1. Prepare baking dish with non stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Spread chicken in bottom of dish. Sprinkle with pepper (I just used Johnny's seasoning when I cooked the chicken so I skipped the pepper).
3. Layer ham, Swiss cheese, and 1/2 of the Cheddar cheese over the chicken.
4. In a small bowl mix soup and milk until blended. Pour over everything.
5. Spread prepared stuffing over the top and sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of cheese over the top.
6. Bake covered for 40-45 min; remove cover and bake an additional 10-15 min.

Linked to:
Tasty Tuesday   Whisking Wednesday  Sweet Indulgences Sunday   
Foodie Wednesday Cast Party Wednesday  Made it on Monday    
Totally Tasty Tuesdays  These Chicks Cooked  2 Maids a Baking   
Melt in Your Mouth Monday  Turning the Table Thursday 

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin

Still waiting on my camera to come home so this is just a quick, easy kind of dinner. I always have these grand plans when I wander through the meat department that rarely happen like I see them in my imagination when it is actually time to fix dinner. I bought a pork tenderloin last week and was going to do this great new thing with blackberries and jalenpenos but someone ate the blackberries and my jalenpeno was sketchy when I pulled it out of the fridge so I was forced to consider plan B...I didn't really have a plan B. Great. So, I stood in front of the fridge perusing all the contents and there was a little dribble of teriyaki sauce but not enough to actually do anything. Surely I can concoct something similar that will keep me away from Wal-Mart. I'm a smart, capable, innovative (sort of) kind of cook. Right?

I put this all in the crock pot and walked away but I think the sauce would be good cooked on the stove until it's thick and used as a grilling sauce as well. It turned out pretty well for an experiment. Randy was firmly in the do it again camp so I'm sure we will see it again in the not too distant future.

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin

2 lb pork tenderloin
1/4 c. low sodium soy sauce
1 c. water
1 1/2 tsp grated ginger root
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 c. + 2 T. brown sugar
2 T. honey
2 1/2 T. cornstarch mixed in 1/4 c. water

Spray crock pot with non stick spray. Place pork in crock pot; salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all sauce ingredients together and pour over pork. Cover and cook on high 4 hours or low 8 hours.

Remove meat from crock pot and pour sauce into small saucepan. Bring sauce to a boil. Cook down until it reaches desired thickness (3-4 minutes). Shred pork. Mix it all together and serve it over rice.

Post linked to:
Melt in Your Mouth Monday;  Your Recipe My Kitchen; 

P-P-Potato Salad

I'm back! I survived a week's worth of girls camp without any lasting ill effects! I am sunburned and stiff from all the hiking but it was totally worth it. Now I just need to figure out how to get myself invited again next year!

It was my mom's birthday this week and we had a family birthday dinner in her honor. My assignment was salad but because I was gone all week the normal choices like pasta salad, fruit salad and spinach salad were already snapped up by my sister and sisters in law. That left me deciding on what to bring that didn't duplicate anyone else and would still be eaten. Bri suggested potato salad so that's what we decided to do. She actually did most of the work while I directed her like the good little sous chef she is. It turned out yum, no real surprise as this is a family recipe that my mom has made for years. There are so many versions of potato salad that I had to reign myself in from trying out something new and different...I got a 50 potato salad recipes insert in my Food Network magazine this month that is just begging to be tried but today it was the old standby.

Everyone has a different twist on this salad. The way we like it uses green onions and pickle juice rather than actual pickles. No one in my family will eat dill pickles except for me so this way we get to have the flavor from the pickles without the little green chunks. I prefer the green onions over yellow or white onions simply because they are milder but you could certainly use whatever you have on hand.

My camera is still in the shop...I'm beginning to think I may never see it again...so the picture was taken with B's point and shoot. It's better than nothing right?

Potato Salad

10-12 med red potatoes, halved and cooked
3/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic salt
4 T. white wine vinegar
1 1/2 c. Miracle Whip (I used light but will remember to do regular next time so it's gluten free) Sorry Dave!!
1/4 c. dill pickle juice
1/4 c. milk or cream
2 tsp mustard (either prepared or dijon work)
4-5 green onions chopped
5 hard boiled eggs, chopped or smashed
salt and pepper to taste
paprika

Peel and cube potatoes while still warm. Season with onion powder, salt, garlic salt and vinegar and set aside. Let rest for 30 minutes.

Mix Miracle Whip, pickle juice, milk and mustard together until smooth. Stir chopped green onions into dressing and mix well. Add half the eggs to the potato mixture. Toss with dressing until well coated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Turn into serving bowl. Top salad with remaining eggs and a sprinkle of Paprika. Chill well before serving.

Linked to:
Melt in Your Mouth Mondays Totally Tasty Tuesdays Tasty Tuesday  Tasty Tuesdays 
Foodie Wednesday  Cast Party Wednesday  Made it on Monday  These Chicks Cooked