Where There's a Will...

... there's a way.

Lacey Bagley - Guthrie, OK

Today I was craving chocolate and the only thing in our cupboards was baking cocoa. I ferociously searched the web and found an incredible peanut butter and chocolate cookie recipe.


It's pretty easy but a little more involved. You start with the easy stuff: butter, sugar, and peanut butter. Cream it all together and add in the vanilla and egg. For the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Just a basic cookie recipe.

My dough was so dry that I added 2 T of water - that made it way easier to work with.

Here's that dough:


It was still fairly crumbly, which made me change up a later step.

Now for the extra twist of delight! Take 3/4 c of peanut butter and 3/4 c powdered sugar and mix it together. The original recipe said to roll it into little balls and set aside. I found cubes to be way more entertaining!

Here is the peanut butter/ powdered sugar mixture.


You take the cookie dough into balls and place it on the cookie sheet. Flatten the balls, put a ball (or cube) in each center, and roll up the cookie edges so the peanut butter mix is covered completely.


The dough was so crumbly that instead I flattened the dough in my hand, placed the peanut butter ball in the middle, and worked the edges up (in my hand still). Then I put the cookie onto the sheet. They keep that same shape when cooking, so you can place them fairly close together.

375 degrees for 7-9 minutes and done!

I grabbed a cup of milk and a cookie, looked out the window at the winter wonderland, and smiled.

Happy eating!

-LB

Recipe:

Cookie Dough:
1/2 c softened butter
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/4 c peanut butter
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c baking cocoa
1/2 t baking soda
2 T water - if needed

Peanut butter center:
3/4 c peanut butter
3/4 c powdered sugar

OKC Eats: The Shack

The Shack - Seafood & Oyster Bar

Nate, Matt, and I went out to lunch at The Shack. It's a hole in the wall about four blocks away from work - if you weren't looking for it, you'd miss it. 

For our appetizers we got a plate of fried alligator chunks. The taste was a mix between mussels and chicken - it was good. 

Nate got the boudain. It's like a pork/ rice sausage. It was packed full of good cajun flavor. 

Matt got a plate of oysters covered with shrimp and cheese. The oysters were grilled. The dish didn't smell very good but it tasted amazing!

For my entrée I got a classic shrimp and crawfish poboy. In the picture below you can see how much I liked it - loved it! The sandwich was stuffed so much that the meat was falling out the sides.

Overall assessment: the portions were perfect! There was plenty to go around and they got it out to you pretty quickly. I can't say the same about the drink refills - but I do drink a lot.

But don't just take my word for it - check it out for yourself here.

Dining In for Date Night

Lacey Bagley - Guthrie, OK 

Dining out can be a little expensive, especially if you want a meal that'll make you feel fancy and special after a week of chaos. So! Instead of spending oodles of money, why not make this fancy and meal for you and your sweetheart this week.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Chicken Parmesan!

First off, I've made this meal a couple times and this recipe was my absolute favorite so far. Super flavorful!

Here we go:

Pound the chicken breasts until they are thin, however thin you want. Do they make special kitchen rulers? If they did, I'd tell you how thin they were. So... just pound it until your anger from the chaotic week goes away :)

Then, you're going to bread the chicken:

In one bowl: whisked eggs - I also added a shot of heavy cream to the eggs. Does this help with breading or flavor? No idea. I just had some in the fridge and thought it could be neat. AND - it was.

In the second bowl: bread crumbs and any seasonings of your choice.

Before you start the breading process, put 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in a frying pan and turn it on medium heat. And - get your tongs ready for a party.

Now: dip the chicken breast in the eggs mixture, then coat it in the bread crumbs, and then set it in the oil.

Brown the chicken on each side. This means like 2-4 minutes per side in the oil. Tong party! The goal isn't to cook the chicken through, so have the oil hot enough to just brown it.

After the chicken is browned, place it on a tin foil covered baking sheet. "And clean-up's a snap!"

Layer the following on top of your browned chicken breast: a dollop of your favorite tomato sauce, cheese (I used parmigiano reggiano and mozzarella), and italian seasoning. Don't wimp out on how much italian seasoning you use. Let the chicken know it's going to taste great! Remember: fancy and special - all the way around.

Then bake it - 400 degrees for 15ish minutes. 

Haha, 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked all the way through. 

Oh man - so delicious! And I promise you will definitely feel fancy and special without having spent any obnoxious amounts of money.

Happy date night y'all and definitely happy eating!

Candy Bar Cookies

Personally my two favorite things to do on Sunday afternoons are taking naps

and baking. Especially baking cookies. I found an awesome recipe awhile ago and fell in love with it. The original is a Twix cookie cookie and oh man are they good. Today however we wanted to make them but didn't have any Twix. We did however have a king sized Symphony bar. You know the one with toffee and almonds. Yeah you see where I'm going :) So here's what you need.

Ingredients:

2 cups and 2 Tbs. Flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar (I like dark brown sugar for cookies)

12 Tbs. butter

1 egg and 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 giant yes giant sized Symphony candy bar

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
-In a small bowl stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set bowl aside for later
-Melt butter and mix with sugar and brown sugar

-Mix in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla

-Add flour mixture in portions till all is mixed in

-Cut the candy bar into chocolate chip sized pieces

-Mix candy into cookie dough

Use your favorite scoop and load up your cookie sheets. I STRONGLY suggest that you line the cookie sheets with parchment paper. Doing so avoids all chance of sticking and makes for not having to wash the sheets. 

-Bake cookies for 15-18mins. 

Watch the bottoms to see if they are slightly brown. If they are take them out. 

 -And POOF! You have amazing candy bar cookies!!!

So there you have it. May you have a relaxing and joyful Sunday. 

This recipe has been hubby tested and hubby approved!

~KayLynn

Cursed Meatballs

Lacey Bagley - Guthrie, OK

Meatballs should be easy to make, but I can never get it right! Maybe it's just me. Here's what I did this time:

I started by sautéing the onions, nothing fancy; a dash of garlic powder went into the pan too, just to kick the flavor up a little. Then I mixed together: beef, eggs, bread crumbs, milk, salt & pepper, and more garlic powder. I added the onions to the mix, rolled it all up into a package of a little meatball, and baked it at 400 degrees for 12 mins. They weren't cooked through, so I put them in for another 5 minutes. Still pink! What was wrong... nothing. I'm cursed.

On top of being slightly pink in the middle (which isn't a crime), they were not super flavorful and the texture was more like meatloaf. So folks - I'm desperate! What are your go-to meatball recipes?? It can't be just that I can't make them... right?

Help!