Sweets

December 14, 2016

How to Host a Holiday Cookie Party and Red Velvet Oreos

laura.smoak@gmail.com Life, Prep Ahead, Sweets 5 Comments

I can’t believe we’re less than two weeks away from Christmas – how did that happen?? Today is sort of a two-part post: we’re talking about hosting a cookie party and being holiday ready with a stunner of a cake plate display (including the best ever red velvet oreos).

First off, I went a little crazy this year and decided it would be a good idea to invite Anna Ruth’s entire play school class (plus siblings) over for a cookie party. I roped in my friends Kristy and Ginny to help me, and we lived to tell about it. We had 18 kids in our living room with icing and sprinkles, and my hardwoods somehow managed to survive (praise hands!).

You guys, this party was a hit. We had easy snacks and cookies for decorating – we even had a bounce house for playing outside. I just pre-made the cookies, and we had sprinkles and icing set out down the length of the kid’s tables.

I know I’m going on and on about it, but I was just so surprised by how easy this party (and clean-up) was to pull-off. If you ever find yourself in this boat, just make it easy on yourself and plan on covering the floor with painters paper, use disposable tablecloths and all disposable containers for the icing and sprinkles. We literally just dumped everything in the trash and had minimal vacuuming afterwards.

As mentioned, we just had easy party food: cheese and crackers, berries, veggies and hummus, bagel bites and my Christmas treat cake stand display. Let’s talk about having a Christmas treat cake stand display for a minute. This has become one of my favorite things to do for the holidays.

Generally speaking we don’t have a lot of sweets in our house. We’re not anti-sweets, we just don’t usually go for them. However, during the holidays I feel like they are a must. A week or so after Thanksgiving I’ll make my Christmas treats for my yearly display, and they’ll last through Christmas.

The truth of it is that we don’t even really eat the treats that much, but the whole point of it is to be guest ready with little to no warning. Something about having a knock-out sweets display just makes me feel a little more in control and like maybe I actually CAN EVEN during an otherwise hectic time of year. It says to your drop-in visitors, “it’s no intrusion – I’m ready for you – have a treat.” Plus it just looks pretty sitting on your kitchen counter.

I usually change it up a bit, but this year I went with five of my favorites: red velvet oreos (recipe below), homemade peanut butter patties, Oreo truffles, rice krispie treats and chocolate chip peanut butter cups. It seems like a lot, and I generally only do four things, but with the bigger party this year I decided to go for all five. My mom came over after work one night, and we knocked out all of these in around two hours.

You may remember the chocolate chip peanut butter cups, and you can find the Oreo truffles recipe here (but I dip mine in white chocolate). For the peanut butter patties, simply spread a little bit of peanut butter between two butter crackers, freeze for 10-15 minutes and then dip in melted milk chocolate. You can either make traditional rice krispie treats, or you can be like me and buy the giant rice krispie treat from Target that they sell during the holidays. This thing is so great because they’re so good, and ready to just cut and go.

The recipe for the red velvet oreos comes from one of my life long besties, Danielle. She’s been making these for as long as I can remember, and she generally does them with devil’s food cake mix. Since it’s Christmas, though, I went with red velvet to make them festive. No matter what the occasion, these cake-based cookies are perfect.

Red Velvet Oreos

Ingredients:

1 box red velvet cake mix
1 stick unsalted butter – melted
1 egg – slightly beaten
1 tub cream cheese frosting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine the first three ingredients until well mixed.
Form into 1-inch balls* and gently flatten onto the cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let sit on the cookie sheet for one minute before removing to cool completely.
Once completely cooled, use the frosting to create cookies.
Enjoy!

* I generally make them a little larger, but this is how she gave me the recipe.

November 30, 2016

Aunt Peggy’s Cranberry Apple Casserole

laura.smoak@gmail.com Breakfast, Prep Ahead, Sides, Sweets 4 Comments

With Thanksgiving behind us, the Christmas season is in full swing in our house. Today I’m starting a four-part Christmas series, and I hope you’ll join us as we work our way through some of my favorite recipes for this time of year. Up first is my Great Aunt Peggy’s Cranberry Apple Casserole.

First, let me introduce you to my Aunt Peggy. Aunt Peggy was my mom’s aunt (grandmother’s sister), and she lived in small-town North Carolina about 45 minutes from our house. When my grandmother passed away my freshman year of high school, Peggy became like a surrogate grandmother. The bond wasn’t quite the same because there’s just no replacing Mima, but having her made the loss more bearable. We didn’t see her as much as my grandmother, but we always made a special trip to visit with her on Christmas Eve. Peggy also passed away about five years ago, and I miss those trips and visits.

Fast forward to today. I was reading through an old church cookbook Peggy gave to my mom years ago, and came across this recipe. I remember the first Christmas Eve I went to her house when she was making it. I was in high school, and she had the apple/cranberry/sugar mixture in the casserole dish and was finishing up with the topping. We (my mom, sister and I) immediately got her recipe and made it for several years after. For no real reason we just stopped making it, I guess because we would have other recipes to try out. Once I came back across her recipe, I knew I wanted to bring it to the blog to share with all of you.

You know the church cookbooks I’m talking about. The ladies of the church submit their recipes and it’s all compiled into a little bound book. The recipes involve lots of margarine, canned soup, sugar and any other processed food you know isn’t good for you, but it’s grandma’s recipe so OF COURSE I’M EATING IT. You may not know this about me (though I’m sure it won’t be a surprise), but I love reading cookbooks for fun. Like cover to cover. I’ve never actually read through a church cookbook like this, so when I saw it out on my mom’s counter I decided to check it out. Mainly because I wanted a laugh at how absurd some old recipes can be.

Back to the cranberry apple casserole. Guys, I have to admit. It’s a stretch to call this a casserole. I would categorize it under a crisp or somewhere else in the dessert category, but Peggy called it a casserole, so that makes it a side dish mmmmkay? The reality here, though, is that this is perfect as dessert with whipped cream or ice cream on top, but it also makes for a really really good breakfast…not that I’ve done that, but – ya know – I’m just thinking it could…okay, fiiine, I make this with hopes that I have leftovers for days, so I can have this for breakfast. Apples, cranberries and oatmeal make it a 100% justifiable morning meal.

This cranberry apple casserole is perfect for your Christmas table. In my not-so-surprising fashion, I’m going to list the reasons why:

I mean LOOK AT HER. She’s gorgeous, and that red is perfect for the season.
This can be made a day in advance and just reheated before serving.
It can be served hot or room temp. If you have a bunch of dishes to make for the big day, do this first. Once it’s done you can just leave it until mealtime.
It’s reallllllly good with vanilla ice cream on top.
^^that is worth mentioning again.
The leftovers last for days.

There you have it. I hope you’ll add this into your Christmas menu along with any other recipes that make you nostalgic for the past. Here is Peggy’s recipe as written. If you want to double the topping, I won’t be mad about it.

Cranberry Apple Casserole

Ingredients:

2 large (or 3-4 small/medium) sweet apples* – unpeeled and chopped
1 bag fresh cranberries
1 ¼ c sugar
1 stick butter – melted
½ c chopped pecans
½ c brown sugar (light or dark is fine)
¾ c quick-cooking oatmeal
1/3 c flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Mix the chopped apples, cranberries and sugar and pour into a 9×13 baking dish.
Combine the melted butter, chopped pecans, brown sugar, oatmeal and flour, and spread evenly over the cranberry apple mixture.
Cook uncovered in the oven for one hour, or until the apples are soft and the mixture is bubbly.
Enjoy!

*I generally use Fuji, Honeycrisp or Gala apples

October 26, 2016

“Fall” in Love with Baby Shower and Chocolate Caramel Apple Bites

laura.smoak@gmail.com Appetizer, Life, Sweets 3 Comments

Picture credit goes to Heather Blackwood and Taylor Logan (a million thanks!) because it was too late to take pictures when I decided I wanted to document this on the blog.

Last week a couple girlfriends and I hosted a shower for some of our friends that are expecting their first baby. The expectant parents both work for my organization, and they happen to live in our neighborhood, so we’ve become good friends over the last couple of years. With help from others in our organization we pulled off a shower that I think turned out pretty great. The theme was “Fall in Love with Baby Simon,” and we just had a bunch of Fall food and décor.

The shower was so fun, and I think they really liked it!

We had the shower in the dining room at work, with the beautiful woods as the backdrop. It was kind of a windy day, so there were plenty of times that we would just see a flurry of leaves falling to the ground. Imagine a Winter themed shower with it snowing outside, but with Fall leaves instead. It was truly, magically Fall.

The menu was easy, and we had help from other people:

Chili Bar
Traditional Chili
Vegetarian Chili
Corn Bread
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream
Sliced Jalapenos
Waffle Bar
Pumpkin Whipped Cream
Syrup
Chocolate Sauce
Caramel Sauce
Fresh Popped Popcorn
Pumpkin Pie Dip
Apple Slices
Graham Crackers
Chocolate Caramel Apple Bites (recipe below)
Drinks
Apple Cider
Wine
Beer

Décor was easy. My friends Sarah and Taylor had a bunch of wooden trays that we used as serving pieces, and we used lanterns and small pumpkins/gourds to round things out. I also ordered some custom onesies for baby Simon, so we made a banner out of those.

If you find yourself hosting a baby or bridal shower in the Fall, I would highly recommend this theme. It was so easy and had that effortlessly perfect feel. Now we just have to wait for baby Simon to make his intro!

Chocolate Caramel Apple Bites

Ingredients:

Large Granny Smith Apples (each apple makes 6-8 balls, so multiply by the number you need)
Melting Chocolate (I use this kind – found in the baking section of the grocery store)
Melting Caramel (I found this kind at Michael’s)
Cake pop sticks (also found at Michael’s)

Directions:

Using a melon baller, ball out 6-8 bites from each apple. Insert a cake pop stick through the skin side.
Melt the chocolate according to package directions.
Dip the apple bites in the chocolate, making sure it is completely covered, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Once you’ve dipped all of the apple bites, set in the freezer for 15-20 minutes for the chocolate to set.
Melt the caramel according to package directions.
Dip each bite into the caramel, covering the bottom half of the bite.
Return to the parchment paper, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes to set. Leave in the refrigerator until just a few minutes before serving or the bites will start to sweat.
Enjoy!

July 20, 2016

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cups

laura.smoak@gmail.com Sweets 3 Comments

Here we go again, guys. This self-proclaimed “non-baker” is coming to you with yet another sweets recipe. Guys – that’s TWO in less than a month. This whole bloger/blogee relationship is based on trust, and I admit I’m not bringing it lately when I say “trust me, I don’t bake.” However, if you have to lose trust in me then I guess this is a pretty good way to go because these two-ingredient sugar bombs from heaven are worth losing a little trust.

You heard me: two. ingredients.

Let me regain your trust here. While you can make your own chocolate chip cookie dough (and BTW you would be my hero and I would expect an invite to your house to eat chocolate chip peanut butter cups with ->homemade<- chocolate chip cookie dough), I just use the blue brand log from the store. So while – yes – I’m baking, I’m not reaaaaally getting into the nitty-gritty measuring that generally comes with baking.

Okay, can we resume our trust fall now? K, thanks.

If we were friends in college, there’s a pretty good chance you had these, and are now reminiscing about the good ol’ days in Chapel Hill, and maybe even swaying to the tune of “Carolina in My Mind” playing in your head…ehhh, just me?

While I used to make these all the time in college, I now generally just make them around Christmastime. (Forewarning, I will do a post in the November/December timeframe with my “always ready for drop-in company” Christmas treats display.)

Well, this past weekend we had a little Christmas in July party with friends, so of course I had to make my chocolate chip peanut butter cups. Y’all, my friend Sarah has an 18-month-old and a THREE WEEK OLD, and she was still able to host Christmas in July. And if you’re wondering – yes – there was a tree and gifts for the littles. #momgoals It was basically just sweets, homemade popcorn and Christmas movies, but we had a blast hanging out and celebrating Jesus’ half birthday. I would have taken more pictures than just the dessert table, but there were more important things to do. Like drink that glass of wine and watch Anna Ruth see Christmas Eve on Sesame Street for the first time.

Now, back to the chocolate chip peanut butter cups. I feel a little phony sharing these because they’re so easy. My mom even said “doesn’t everyone already know how to make them?” Thanks, mom. Maybe, but I’ve never known anyone other than my sister and me to make them, so…

There is one must-have kitchen item for these – a mini muffin pan. I used to have two pans of 24, but then I found this one at BB&B, and I had to have it.

It’s so big it’s hysterical.
You have the opportunity to make up to 48 chocolate chip peanut butter cups at once.

The cookie dough log I use generally yields about 20, so this pan is perfect if you want to double the recipe. It’s fine not to fill the whole pan, but just add about 1-2 tbsp of water to any empty compartments before baking.

Try to roll the cookie dough balls as evenly as you can for uniformity, and have the peanut butter cups ready to go when the cookies come out of the oven. These are incredibly good while still hot, but are equally enjoyable once they’ve cooled completely. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Chocolate chip cookie dough (store bought or homemade)
Peanut butter cups (enough to have one per cookie)

Directions:

Preheat oven according to your cookie dough directions (mine is for 350 degrees).
Roll the cookie dough into one-inch balls and place into the individual mini muffin tin compartments. Bake according to package directions, but start checking about a minute before the lowest cooking time (mine are generally ready around the 10.5 minute mark). Remove from the oven once golden, but not too brown as they will continue cooking slightly once out of the oven.
Immediately place one peanut butter cup into the middle of each cookie and press down so the top is even with the top of the cookie.
Remove from the pan and enjoy!

June 29, 2016

Berry Cobbler + Papa’s 88th Birthday

laura.smoak@gmail.com Life, Sweets 2 Comments

This past weekend was a very special one for our family. Andy and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary (love you, bae) and my family came together to celebrate my grandfather’s 88^th birthday. Papa: the man, the myth, the legend…

I’m sure a lot of people feel this way, but my family really is the best (I mean that for all sides, but this particular party was with my dad’s side). We love getting together and we all genuinely enjoy each other. Here’s what a typical gathering may look like…

It looks like hot dogs and hamburgers and brats and fixins and loaded potato salad.
It looks like cake and pie and cobbler and Yum Yum Ice Cream.
It looks like Cheerwine and Coca-Cola in glass bottles.
It looks like croquet and corn hole and bubbles in the backyard.
It looks like great grandbabies eating ice out of the drink tub while taking a break from chasing each other around the yard.
It looks like my favorite four-year-old helping make berry cobbler.
It looks like Anna Ruth eating all of the leftover blueberries.
It looks like Jack’s shirt coming off because he cannot eat a popsicle without juice going everywhere.
It looks like laughter and fun.

It looks like my grandfather seeing his four kids and spouses, and his eight grandkids and three spouses (and two boyfriends that I’m preeeeetty sure are here for the long haul), and his three great grandkids – and hopefully feeling immense joy for the life he and my grandmother created.

We’re all getting busier, but whenever we get together it’s as if no time has passed. We play, pray, eat and laugh, and it’s really the best.

My contribution to this particular shindig was the berry cobbler. The base of my recipe is from an old episode of the Pioneer Woman, but instead of using blackberries I use raspberries and blueberries. This cobbler is so easy I literally memorized the recipe while watching the show. I just remember her saying “a cup of, a cup of, a cup of,” and that was it. Once you have the base down, you can sub any other berries or even peaches. Since we’re so close to July 4^th, I decided to be patriotic and go for the red, white and blue look, so rasp/blue berry cobbler it is!

Cobbler is such a perfect summer dessert, and the red, white and blue makes for a fun 4^th treat! This particular cobbler is especially great if you have a little chef that likes to help in the kitchen. Abigail helped mix the batter and added the berries – she was so proud of herself. If you’ve been following for a while, you may remember how I don’t bake very often. It’s because baking is so…precise. This does require measuring, but everything is a cup, so we won’t be dirtying every measuring spoon in the house. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 stick butter
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1-2 cups berries (I use a 5 oz container of raspberries and 3/4-1 cup blueberries – just eyeball it)
¼ cup sugar (for topping)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a cast iron skillet (or 9×13 pan) with cooking spray.
Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl.
Combine the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk in the milk and then the butter.
Pour the mixture into the cast iron skillet (or baking dish), then add the berries.
Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of sugar over the top, then bake for an hour until the top is golden and bubbly.

March 16, 2016

Tea for Two Birthday Party + Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Scones

laura.smoak@gmail.com Freezer Friendly, Life, Sweets 7 Comments

This past weekend we celebrated Anna Ruth’s second birthday with a Tea for Two party. The original plan did not involve a theme, but then I saw the idea on Pinterest and knew I wanted to run with it. Being a small child’s birthday there wasn’t much emphasis on actual tea, but we made up for it with proper tea party food…mainly tea sandwiches and chocolate chip oatmeal scones, but more on the food later.

Décor was easy. We started with a few banners and garlands, and decorated the food table with white doilies and flowers in gold tea pots and cups. I found the invitations and other personalized printables on Etsy, and printed them out myself on cardstock. I’m generally not into everything being so matchy matchy, but when spread out throughout the party, it really just made it feel cohesive and not over the top. We had little children’s tables scattered in the living room for eating and coloring, and covered those with white cloth. My favorite part of the décor, however, was a window frame with painted wood letters spelling “Tea for Two.” My mother-in-law made it, and it was exactly what I had in mind. If you ever need anything crafty, call her. She loves doing it and is really good at it.

The only “activity” we had was coloring. My friend Katie from The Blissful Willow drew these pages for me, and they were perfect! We went with a tea pot, tea cup and bow tie. Check out her website – I love the custom family illustrations, but really everything she draws is beautiful.

Now onto the best part – the food! Our menu was as follows:

Sandwiches

Ham and Swiss on Puff Pastry
Chicken Salad on Croissant
Cucumber with Lemon Dill Spread

Savory

Crackers and Cheese (sharp cheddar, Colby jack, pepper jack)
Mini Quiche

Sweet

Berry Cups (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Scones
Cupcakes (vanilla, chocolate)
Birthday Cake (chocolate)

Drinks

Citrus Infused Water
Sweet Iced Tea
Sweet Tea Sangria

It seems like a lot of food, but it was just a bunch of small bite type things, and it was really easy to pull together. My favorite part, hands down, were the scones. I had never made scones before because I’m really not much of a baker. I always thought they would be really involved, but these were super easy. My friend Catherine came over two nights before the party, and we made three batches in just over an hour. The recipe below is based on an oatmeal raisin scone recipe by Nick Malgieri, but I tweaked it by adding cinnamon, vanilla and heavy cream, and swapping raisins for mini chocolate chips. (I can’t find a link to his recipe because it was from his cookbook, “How to Bake”.) Don’t get used to this. I don’t plan to do much in the way of creating recipes for baked goods. It’s too daunting to think that an extra tablespoon of an ingredient can totally throw the whole thing off. I prefer eyeballing too much for that 😉

I’ve said this about other parts of the party, but another favorite thing was the favors. I originally planned on not having favors, but then saw this cute idea on Pinterest, and I love how they turned out!

I can’t believe my baby is already a two-year-old. The time has truly gone by in the blink of an eye…and now I need to go cry. I’ll leave you with the recipe for my Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Scones, but let me know if you have questions about anything else (food or décor).

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup all purpose flour
1 ½ cup rolled oats
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
8 tbsp (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk (I use 1%)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and set rack to middle position. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt) in the bowl of a food processor and pulse at 1-second intervals until combined (make sure brown sugar isn’t in big clumps).
Cut the stick of butter in half lengthwise, then into smaller chunks (about 16 total). Add to the food processor and pulse 12 times, until the mixture resembles a fine meal.
Combine milk, heavy cream and vanilla in a small bowl. Add mixture to the food processor and pulse 3-4 times to form a soft dough.
Transfer the dough into a bowl and gently stir in the mini chocolate chips, making sure not to overwork the dough.
Generously flour your work surface, turn the dough out onto it and fold over itself 3-4 times until it is less sticky.
Divide the dough into two equal parts and press each into a disk. Using a pizza cutter, cut each disk into six wedges.
Arrange the scones on the prepared pan. Brush tops with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 15-18 minutes until just starting to brown on top.