Knock your socks off - Corn and Bacon Casserole

A girl should be two things, classy & fabulous!

Things that make a girl "fabulous" at 22 weeks pregnant :

1. Remembering to turn the coffee pot on every night.
2. Shaving her legs everyday.
3. Spending 45 minutes on the Elliptical Machine.
4. Making the above Corn and Bacon Casserole...and not eating it all before it made it to the Thanksgiving Feast! SCORE





Things that make a girl "classy" at 22 weeks pregnant :

1. Eating the Bacon one strip at a time and chewing with her mouth closed.
2. Letting the bacon cool down before putting it into her belly.
3. Sharing the bacon with her 3 year old.
4. Contemplating...sharing with her husband.
5. Saying excuse me after the 6th piece of bacon...and cooking more to make sure the casserole did not suffer.





INGREDIENTS
Delightfully borrowed from The Slow Roasted Italian
{Full Printable Recipe}

6 bacon strips
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
3-1/2 cups frozen whole kernel corn
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley





DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoon of drippings. Crumble bacon then set aside.

Saute onion in drippings until fairly tender. Add flour, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook and stir until bubbly.  Cook and stir 1 minute more.

Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Add the corn, parsley and half of the bacon; mix well. Pour into a medium sized baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining bacon. Bake, uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

Twix Cheesecake Pie...oh my!

Ding Ding Ding, sound the bells it's Holiday time.
Ding Ding Ding, time to run 5 miles before you keep reading.
Ding Ding Ding, time to run 7.8 miles before you keep reading.
Ding Ding Ding, time to add a treadmill to your Holiday Wish List...yeah that should cover this post.





So - I have told you I'm pregnant and well.. we all know what controls your life while in that state right...Guesses?

Creating a lovely room for the little one? nah
Preparing your existing little human for the new arrival? nah nah
Making sure you have all the proper contraptions to keep the baby entertained? triple nah





NAHHHH, none of those things, let's be honest.  The true things that keep your mind entwined in a pregnancy are...

1.  Food.
2.  Food with extra cheese.
3.  Food with extra cheese and butter.
4.  American Horror Story (LOVE IT)  Had to throw that in here.
5.  Candy leftover from Halloween - specifically chocolate bars.

There, you've been informed of how the pregnant mind works.





So basically I blame this on a co-worker, you can too should you decide to walk on the Twix Side with me...I have long had an affinity to its goodness...and how do you eat your twix?  Eating a twix is like eating an Oreo cookie (also in this recipe), everyone has their own methods.

I like to eat the cookie part off first because I'm a 33 year old lady and that's how I roll.  After the cookie is devoured I eat the caramel...then I go  back for more.  After 5 twix bars I sort of go cry in the corner and count the chins starting to form on my face.

Try it!





INGREDIENTS
Delightfully borrowed from Recipe Girl
{Full Printable Recipe}

CRUST:
20 Oreo cookies (with creme filling)
3 Tablespoons melted butter

FILLING:
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
16 coarsely chopped Twix "Fun Size" Candy Bars (2 cups total)

TOPPING (optional):
10 Oreos crushed
Strips of Parchment Paper





Directions:

Crust: Crush Oreos (either in a plastic bag or in a food processor) and mix with melted butter.






Using your fingers to press into a 9-inch pie dish; place into the freezer for about 30 minutes.






Filling: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. With an electric mixer in a large bowl, beat cream cheese with sugar and eggs until mixture is smooth. Stir in chopped Twix bars. Pour into frozen pie crust.







Bake until set, 35 to 45 minutes (mine was 40); let cool for 20-30 minutes.
Tip - Not sure your pie is set? Give it a jiggle, if there is NO wiggle in the middle your done.






Once your pie is fairly cool you can "stripe it".  Press the parchment stripes slightly into the pie.  Once stripes are placed, press crushed oreos over the exposed part of the pie.  Before you move those parchment stripes you need to tap & blow off the excess.  When done pull up the stripes very slow.

Chill in the fridge for a few hours before eating.







Don't worry about perfection, worry about your hips...actually scratch that, cut yourself some slack and enjoy this super food holiday week.

Angel Whispers - Lemon Sandwich Cookies

I knew beforehand but the fact that I wanted to wake up my husband and ask him to please fix the dang Internet for me proves how lazy I am. Our wireless router is on the 2nd floor and having to go up there three times was really hurting my couch lounging time.





On my three trips up to the wireless router I passed by our senile cat Bella, I was so angry over the manual labor I was having to do that it was really hard for me not to take it out on her....her little tail was begging to get stepped on since she was evenly spread out over one whole stair.

Don't worry, I didn't...I might have called her a few names though.





Any more things to prove the laziness going down in this house...I have a few.

1. Running the dryer on the same load of clothes for the 5th time..in 3 days..
2. Letting my child eat cheese puffs off the floor...we haven't had cheese puffs in the house for weeks.
3. Pee Sneezing...because god forbid I get off the couch to pee when I need to! But seriously as a pregnant woman my work should just give me a network jack near the potty with the amount of pee breaks I take.





TMI? Sorry! Let get to the cookies shall we.


INGREDIENTS (Cookies)
{Printable Recipe}
Delightfully borrowed from AllRecipes, slightly altered.
Makes 2 dozen

1 cup butter
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp Lemon Juice (if needed for dryer dough)

INGREDIENTS (Cookie Filling)

1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3 tbs cornstarch
1-2 cups powdered sugar





DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and confectioners' sugar until light. Stir in the lemon peel, flour and salt. Cover bowl, and chill for about 1 hour.


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).





Flatten teaspoons of dough onto cookie sheets, and bake for 5 to 8 minutes, until light brown just a weeeeee bit  on the edges. Remove from baking sheets to cool on racks.





To make the filling, combine the beaten egg, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, cornstarch and butter in the top of a double boiler over high heat. Stir until thick (10-15 min).





Remove from heat and add enough powdered sugar to form a thick movable paste. Sandwich cookies with filling.  Remember that if your filling is still super hot the cookies might slide a bit, I recommend letting the batter cool for just a bit to prevent this.

A Very Simple Coconut Cookie

OMG I am so tired. Before becoming pregnant with number 2 (19 weeks now), I had sleeping issues. I would find myself thinking about falling asleep hours before bedtime, basically psyching myself out. Insomnia was my enemy.





Every Sunday after my normal glass of vino and an hour of America's Funniest Home Video's I was already pondering the lack of sleeping that would happen that very night. Basically, I suck when it comes to falling asleep - or maybe it's the barking dogs and loud neighbors that suck...hmmmmmmmmmmmm...





Now I am some sort of expert....AT BEING TIRED. Oh how I wish I had a babysitter I could pull outta my closet at any time. Is that not the best idea ever?

Almost anything makes me tired these days.





Drinking apple juice makes me tired.
Holding up the blow dryer for more then 30 seconds makes me tired.
Figuring out what fast food I want makes me tired.
Working out makes me tired (LOL, total lie I haven't worked out in like 2 weeks)
Eating cookies makes me tired.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzz... oh wait....am I typing a post?





The only things that don't make me tired?

I'm not tired for The Real Housewives of Atlanta
I'm not tired for lasagna...yum...from my slow cooker...wowzer
I am not tired when my husband tells me to go to sleep and tells me he's doing all the laundry
I am not tired when someone sends me money
No one ever send me money!!! wahhhhhhhhhhhh





Ingredients
Delightfully borrowed from Martha
{Full Printable Recipe}

1 package (14 ounces)
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour




Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set aside 2 loosely packed cups of coconut on a plate. Place remaining coconut in a food processor along with sugar, salt, and baking powder; process until finely ground. Add butter, and process just until no lumps remain. Add egg and vanilla; process just until smooth. Add flour; pulse until a crumbly dough begins to form, scraping sides of bowl as needed (do not overmix)I totally overmixed and they were still divine.

2.  Form into golfball sized balls, and roll in reserved coconut. Coat heavily with coconut (lots of it please).

3.  Arrange balls, about 2 inches apart, on baking sheets. Bake until lightly golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 1 to 2 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now..please don't fall asleep - have a cookie please.