Simple Girl

Happy Pie Day!  (Or Pi Day, if you're into math.)  You know, that magic number....  3.14.16. Usually I'm not much of a pie person.  I'd rather eat cake. Or cookies. Or brownies.  But in honor of Pi(e) Day, and to celebrate southern cuisine, I thought I'd make a Peanut Butter Pie. This recipe is a vegan recipe, which means that it doesn't contain the usual dairy or eggs.  It's not that I have anything against meat (or dairy or eggs), it's just that after being told that I have an allergy/sensitivity to dairy and eggs (WAAAHH!!), I thought that incorporating a few vegan recipes into my existence would allow me to enjoy some of the things that I love in a new and more healthful way. In this recipe, tofu takes the place of cream cheese and whipped coconut milk takes the place of whipped cream.  But don't worry.  It has absolutely no tofu-ey taste at all.  Really.  I promise.  And since you just added tofu to the pie, i...

These Rice Krispie Trees were the favorite of everything we made this year.  We made them even simpler by taking the shortcut of buying the GIANT pre made Rice Krispie Bars at Target. We made these with both the high school girls and the little girls. We served them at the high school kids party, the homeless shelter, and, tonight, for Christmas Eve. Cut a giant Rice Krispy bar into three inch strips. Cut each strip into triangles, making sure to eat the end scraps.  (We cut 35 trees out of each sheet.) Insert a stick into the bottom of each tree. Dip one side of the tree into melted chocolate wafers. Drizzle accent colors on top. So Easy!  So cute!  So delicious! Wishing you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Dark Chocolate Coconut Bars.  Or, technically, Dark Chocolate Mounds Bar Bars. But that seemed a bit redundant. I was inspired to make these while eating a Grilled Salmon over Mixed Greens salad, simultaneously staring into the pastry case at our local favorite bakery, A Taste of Scandinavia .  Sometimes I try to be good, but I just can't. Inside the pastry case were hand-sized "Candy Bar" cookies with dark chocolate and coconut. I decided I could make these at home. I started with one entire bag of Miniature Mounds bars….. I chopped them into eighths, still leaving them chunky. Into my favorite cookie dough batter,  I mixed one bag of chocolate chunks and one cup of shredded coconut. I carefully folded in the Mounds Bars pieces, so as not to smush* them.  *(Hmm…. according to autocorrect, smush is not a word!) I baked the bars in a 1/2 sheet pan, which is the equivalent of two 9" x 13" cake pans which worked out perfectl...

Our dog had a birthday recently so, of course, we had a party. We invited the grandparents. We wrapped presents. We sang "Happy Birthday!" We ate birthday treats. The humans ate bone-shaped sugar cookies with ice cream. The dog ate homemade Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dog Treats. I just love it when I get to use my cookie cutters. This recipe is completely foolproof and, although completely humanly edible, is made canine friendly by omitting the salt and sugar. (i.e. you can impress your kids by eating a dog biscuit, just don't expect it to taste like a yummy peanut butter cookie!) Your dog, however, will think it is quite tasty.  Let me demonstrate. He sees it. He smells it. He manages to get the entire treat in his mouth without biting off the hand that feeds it.  We have an understanding of trust like that. Happy Birthday, Kujo! Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dog Treats 1 cup smooth peanut butter 1 cup nonfat milk 1 egg 2 cups whole whe...

It's Fat Tuesday and a Southern tradition that we carried north is the King Cake. You can read more about the history of the King Cake  HERE . A King Cake is basically a cinnamon coffee cake.  Some cakes (the good ones) are filled with a cream cheese filling. The others, in my humble opinion, tend to run a little boring and dry. As my time this weekend was pressed, and the bakery selection of King Cakes around these parts is limited, I decided to take a few shortcuts and make my own. Here's my Fake Out! Start the King Cake with some pre-packaged Cinnabon rolls. Carefully unfold two packages onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  It might seem a little messy, but just go with it.  Frosting covers a multitude of sins. Next, spread a delicious cream cheese filling onto the dough. (See recipe below.) The cream cheese filling is what makes the cake worth eating. Trust me on this one. Starting from the long ends, roll up the dough into a long tube and b...

This was the one cookie that my teenage daughter wanted to make this year and I thought they were adorable.  Mini Chocolate Reindeer Cookies!  Due to the way life has been going this year, we took advantage of every available shortcut. Did you know you can get chocolate cookie dough in sheets?  Cookie dough in sheets is one of my great friends in life.  Rolled out cookies at our house ranks right up there with homemade pie crust. It's best left to others. These turn out exactly like you cut them. No excess puffing or spreading! I always keep candy google eyes in my pantry. You never know when they will come in handy! Wishing you a Blessed Christmas!

Winter arrived with a vengeance.  One day I was happily raking leaves, enjoying the simple pleasures of autumn and the next day I woke up to this:   An icy, freezing, slippery blizzard. I was not prepared. I need new tires. I need a new car. My mums are buried under a fluffy white blanket. My pumpkins are frozen to the steps. I drove the kids to school watching cars slip through intersections. A long commute becomes longer. Amazon Prime becomes my friend. This is the post I started exactly one month ago today. Winter came and it stayed. Eventually I was able to scrape the pumpkins off of the sidewalk and shimmy my pots inside long enough for them to thaw.  We got the Christmas tree up and, while I haven't started the Christmas cards yet, preparations are underway. Even during the Christmas season, I still love the warmth of pumpkin spice.  This easy recipe for Pumpkin Spice Pancakes is perfect for every day or for a crowd. While I would never use pump...

The new neighbors just moved in. As I learned in my time spent in The South, the best way to meet new neighbors is to bring them food.  Food gives you a reason to drop by unannounced.  Food prevents that awkward moment of silence when the new neighbors are not sure whether or not to invite you in. I mean, you can't blame them. They don't know you and haven't had time to assess if you hold the potential to be their new best friend or if you will become to them the mysterious Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird, dominating their imagination of the unknown.   These Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bars were the brainchild of my oldest daughter, Anna.  She made them for the new neighbors as a gesture of friendship and a reason to find out if they have any kids her age. Here's a pictures those beauties. A double stuffed Oreo encased in chocolate chip cookie dough. Have you ever seen anything so divine? On Friday the girls brought them ove...

When your 10-year old daughter tells you she wants to make her own birthday cake, here's what you do.  You let her. Your little mini-me might just prove to you that the apple does not fall far from the tree!  And, really, if you can't have death-by-chcolate on your birthday, when can you? Start with your favorite chocolate cake recipe and pour the batter in two 8-inch rounds. Lined with parchment, of course. Use more parchment to line your cake pedestal in an attempt to keep it clean.  Spread frosting on the first layer. Top with the second layer and finish the outside of the cake with more chocolate frosting. Next comes to the fun part.  Break apart 10 KitKat bars and line them up like a little fence around the cake. Make sure all the lettering goes in the same direction. If you suffer from OCD, that is. OK, one more fun part.  Pour in an entire large bag of M&M's.  This fills in the top and looks very cheery a...

My baby boy turned 17 yesterday. Sigh. Just saying that out loud feels like an out of body experience. Seventeen? That's practically grown up! His sisters are already lamenting the inevitability that one day he will leave them and go off to college. They find themselves in the unending conundrum of wanting their big brother to stay at home forever and wanting to place dibs on his room. The way I see it, they are likely to lose both those battles. Fortunately, my boy still has a little more time at home.  Today he left, not for a lifetime, but for a  week-long missions trip. To Florida. Now, if the suffering is not in the destination, it might be in the transportation. A 27-hour bus ride to be exact. It just so happens that Florida is a lot further away from Minnesota than it is from Atlanta. I know. I'm good at geography like that. Since his birthday was yesterday, I decided it might be nice to send a little birthday treat for the 48 people making the trek - somet...