Lovin' From the Oven

Smash Potatoes

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While doing my weekly grocery shopping today, I was stuck in a slow line. The lady at the front was trying to use a million coupons, pay with multiple cashier’s checks, and arguing with the cashier about the price of every single item that was being scanned.

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After about five minutes or so, we realized we weren’t going anywhere for a while so we got comfortable. I started to place as many of my items on the little sliver of black countertop as I could without having anything topple over.

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There was the most adorable elderly lady in front of me and she was watching me while I put my four items up. She pointed at my stack of meat and asked, “What is that?” When I told her that it was steak, she examined the rest of my cart and asked me, “Do you have a big family?”

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Immediately, I looked at my cart to see if we were looking at the same thing. When I told the little ol’ lady that it was just me and my DB, she looked shocked. I then told her that I sometimes freeze my meat when I find it on sale, so I buy more of it. That seemed to relax her a little bit. Ah, all the food in my cart wasn’t for immediate consumption by only two people (or was it?).

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I guess my five boxes of cereal, seven pounds of meat, three bags of beef jerky, four apples, gallon of milk, and fifteen pound bag of sugar looked a little much compared to the lady’s single loaf of bread, baby bok choy, and two bottles of wine.

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What can I say, food makes me happy. I love grocery shopping. I love going through every single aisle in the grocery store just to find out what I need or don’t need. I have no shame with my shopping cart. I by five boxes of cereal because I love stocking up. I’ll never pay more than $2.50 for a box of cereal, so when the one I like is on sale, I splurge a little. Nothing wrong with that.

Here’s another recipe from The Pioneer Woman. It’s a great dinner side and easy to make. I may have used potatoes bigger than I should have, so mine weren’t as easy to “smash” even though I cut them in half prior to smashing them. Stick to the small potatoes!

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Smash Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 12 whole New Potatoes (or Other Small Round Potatoes)
  • 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • Kosher Salt To Taste
  • Black Pepper To Taste
  • Rosemary (or Other Herbs Of Choice) To Taste

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in potatoes and cook them until they are fork-tender.
  3. Generously drizzle olive oil on a baking sheet. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato. With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again.
  4. Brush more olive oil on top of each potato. Sprinkle the top with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary (or chives or thyme or whatever herb you have available).
  5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
https://lovintheoven.com/smash-potatoes/

See? I told you mine weren’t pretty:
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Vanilla Pudding Candy Corn Oreo Cookies

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My DB is a HUGE fan of Reddit. I mean, he’s on that site day and night. He’ll share the links with everyone he knows according to their likes. For example, he’ll send his friend political links, another friend gets nothing but memes, and I get puppies (mostly German Shepherds).

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Are there any Redditors on here? I swear I would have never even known what that site was if it wasn’t for my DB. I do have one confession, though. Whatever I do, I just can’t get into that site. It doesn’t entertain me nearly as much as it does others. My DB will constantly show me things that he finds funny on that website and I’ll just look at him like, “Seriously? How do you think this is funny at all?” I guess to each their own.

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One day, my DB shouts at his computer while browsing Reddit, “OH MY GOSH!” and then turns around to ask me if I’ve seen this. Candy Corn Oreos. He claims that he’s on one of the few people in the world that likes candy corn.

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The next day while I was at Target, guess what I see while walking through the cookie aisle? You guessed it, candy corn oreos. I can always count on Target for the latest version of Oreos. Intrigued more than anything, I bought a bag to see how they taste.

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Not bad, but they weren’t for me. I’m a sucker for the original Oreo. My DB, on the other hand, loved them. Determined to not let him eat the entire bag, I baked them into some cookies since he has a bit more self control with my cookies than he does with cookies that come straight out of a bag.

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I decided to use a regular pudding based cookie and toss in crushed up candy corn oreos rather than regular chips. The result? An extremely soft, moist, and holiday appropriate cookie.

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These would be perfect for a Halloween party. Although the cookies don’t really taste like candy corn, they have the festive colors for the holidays. Plus, they’re so good that no one will notice what they’re supposed to taste like.

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By the way, I had to go through this post multiple times because apparently I cannot type “candy corn oreos” for the life of me. Every time I typed it, I wrote “candy cane oreos.” Hmmmmm… new idea for you, Nabisco! Is it Christmas yet? 🙂

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Recipe adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod.

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Vanilla Pudding Candy Corn Oreo Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3.4 oz. package vanilla instant pudding mix
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 12 Candy Cane Oreos, broken into pieces

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Cream together butter and sugars. Add in pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract.
  3. Slowly stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the Oreo pieces.
  4. Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until slightly golden.
https://lovintheoven.com/vanilla-pudding-candy-corn-oreo-cookies/

Banana Streusel Coffee Cake with Salted Caramel Glaze

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For work, we have random drug testings every now and then. You never know until you finish a trip and step off of the plane, where there’s someone waiting for you with a clipboard. It’s kind of like jury duty. You never know when the summons is coming and it might even take a couple of years, but you know it’s eventually coming. One day, you’ll just see it in the mail when you least expect it.

The funny thing about today is that my coworker and I were just talking about random drug tests while waiting for the passengers to deplane. Neither of us had had one yet, and since our flight got in so early, we mentioned how much it would stink if we had to stay behind and get drug tested instead of being able to go home right away. Literally five seconds later, our phone on the plane rang saying that there was a clipboard waiting for one of us. What are the chances?

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I found out that I was the one the clipboard was waiting for. The pilot told me that I better drink a lot of water for the drug test since they’ll be needing a urine sample. I’m really bad at drinking water and even suffered from dehydration once– maybe it’s because I have the bladder the size of a peanut. I hate drinking water because it makes me go to the bathroom every fifteen minutes. That’s not even an exaggeration.

I chugged two water bottles and went off to get drug tested. I had to wait twenty minutes before they took me in, and by that time, my little bladder was about ready to burst (Sorry if it’s TMI). The nurse asks me if I’ve done this test before and I answer, “Yes, I had to do it prior to starting my job,” as she pulls out a black box filled with a portable electronic machine.

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She goes on briefly mentioning how I’ll have to blow into the mouthpiece for five seconds as I stand there utterly confused. Wait, I’ve never done this test before. What am I doing? I quickly tell the nurse that I misunderstood and thought that I was doing a urine test. I also let her know that in order to prepare for the test, I downed two bottles of water. Turns out I drank all that water to do a breathalyzer test… meaning I drank all that water for nothing.

We laugh it off, she does the breathalyzer test, and then quickly shows me the way to the restroom. Luckily, the nurse was such a sweetheart so I wasn’t too embarrassed. Oh well, that’s my life.

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Are you tired of using those brown bananas for plain ol’ banana bread? Spruce it up with a salted caramel glaze! This cake is to die for. The caramel takes some time and patience, but I promise that it’s worth it. The streusel topping just puts it over the top. Use your leftover bananas to make this. Heck, buy new bananas just to make this. Recipe from Portuguese Girl Cooks.

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Banana Streusel Coffee Cake with Salted Caramel Glaze

Ingredients

    For the cake
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 4-5)
  • 1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
    • Streusel Topping
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 2oz) softened unsalted butter, cut up into small cubes
    • Salted Caramel
    Makes about 1 1/4 cups
  • 1 cup (225g) granulated sugar
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt, preferably fleur-de-sel
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

    Streusel Topping
  1. Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Add the softened butter until crumbs form.
    2. Cake
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
  3. Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs, vanilla, yogurt, and mashed bananas.
  4. Slowly add in both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until just combined.
  5. Pour the cake batter evenly in the prepared pan. Evenly sprinkle the streusel topping on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
  6. While the cake is baking in the oven, make the salted caramel (directions below).
  7. Once the cake is done baking, poke holes in it with a fork. Drizzle the salted caramel on top, using as much as you'd like.
    8. Salted Caramel
  8. Using a medium saucepan, spread the sugar in an even layer over the bottom and heat over medium low heat.
  9. Once the sugar begins to bubble and liquify, use a heatproof spatula and continue to stir until it is completely melted. When the mixture turns into a deep amber color, remove the pot from heat.
  10. Slowly pour in half of the heavy cream while continually whisking (the mixture will bubble vigorously and extremely hot, so be careful!). Once that is evenly mixed, stir in the remaining cream. Whisk in the vanilla extract and the salt.
  11. If the sauce hardens, just give the mixture a stir over low heat.
  12. The caramel can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator if needed. It can also be reheated in the microwave or over the stovetop.
https://lovintheoven.com/banana-streusel-coffee-cake-with-salted-caramel-glaze/

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