Lovin' From the Oven

Knockoff S’mores & Winner!

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First things first, I picked a comment to win and this came up:
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Congratulations to comment number 55 by Anny! Please email me at kim@lovintheoven.com so I can forward your information about the prize.
I’m the kind of gal that while browsing tastespotting or foodgawker, I always initially click on the photos with star shaped sprinkles, light pastel colors, and cakes shaped into cute characters. The pretty desserts are what catches my eye.

After making this, I realized that the pretty things aren’t always the tastiest. These knockoff s’mores are certainly not the easiest on the eyes, but it’s darn good for the stomach. I was craving s’mores at home but didn’t have any graham crackers or hershey bars, so I had to elaborate with what I had on hand. Sometimes throwing everything you have into a pot does wonders (not to mention it only took three minutes)! And okay… I always swear I don’t do knockoffs when it comes to purses/designers, but I’ll let it slide for dessert. 🙂
I never measure my ingredients when making rice crispy treats, so why do anything different with these? I didn’t. Feel free to play with the marshmallow/cereal/chocolate ratio until you get what you like. In fact, I’ll give a guideline for you to play with!
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 cup miniature marshmallows
  • 2 cups golden graham cereal
  • a handful of miniature chocolate chips
  1. Melt the butter and marshmallows in a pot over the stove over low/medium heat.
  2. When the butter and marshmallows are completely melted, turn off the stove and remove from heat.
  3. Stir in the golden grahams until well covered. (Make sure to mix AWAY from the heat, as the golden grahams will loose their crunch when it’s too hot)
  4. Dump the mixture onto a piece of wax paper or tin foil and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Enjoy straight from the wrapper!
This totally reminds me of college food. ::sigh::, how I miss those days!

Chocolate Pudding Cake & a Giveaway

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I adore gloomy days like today, especially when I don’t have to work! It means sleeping in for the morning, laying in bed for however long I want, having a casual lunch with the DB, listening to Maroon 5’s new CD on repeat while baking, blogging, and watching a Top Chef marathon on Bravo. Life is good.
To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post with a way for me to contact you! You have a week from today ’til enter. The deadline is 11:59 PM Pacific Time, Sunday, September 26th. The winner will be chosen through random.org. Good luck! (details in comment section below)
This recipe is from allrecipes and might be one of the greatest things I’ve ever made. I was initially intrigued by the method of preparing the dish, but followed the directions to a T and was glad I did. The cake was moist, the pudding was thick, and they both blended perfectly together. I couldn’t wait until the cake cooled from the oven and ate it instantly. No regrets here! It tasted just as good as if it was cooled– just a bit runnier. Let the cake sit for a bit after the oven so the pudding has a chance to thicken. Oh, serving with ice cream doesn’t hurt, either. 🙂
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups hot water
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In an 8×8 inch square pan, stir together the flour, white sugar, 1/4 cup of cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add milk and oil, mix well. Sprinkle brown sugar, remaining cocoa and chocolate chips over the mixture. Add the vanilla to the hot water, then pour the water over the top.
  3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the surface appears dry. Serve warm with a spoon or at room temperature.

Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

by 12 Comments

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I have been growing out my hair for a solid two years now. I’ve never had long hair in my life. By long, I mean past my shoulders. Even when I was little, I always sported the bowl cut, thanks to my fashionista parents. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:


Yup, that’d be me in the middle with my two sisters by my side. Now that I’m old enough to make my own decisions, I caught on quickly to see that the bowl cut wasn’t coming back anytime soon (not that it ever was in) and that I needed a new hair-do… pronto. Let me tell you, growing out your hair is not an easy task.
I tried a couple years earlier growing out my hair, but gave into the sudden urge of chopping it all off… not to mention dying it blonde:

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It’s been a long way since then, and now I finally have it at a decent length:

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Now, I want to get a loose wave/spiral perm. Nothing too crazy, just to get some waves now that my hair is long enough. Problem is, my hairstylist doesn’t do perms! She’s AMAZING with everything else, though. So the question is: who do I go to? This is what I’m going for without having to curl it everyday:

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Does anyone have any suggestions for a hairstylist to go to that can do a loose spiral perm in the LA area? Or anywhere by LA is fine, too. I don’t mind driving. A little change is good!
Which leads me to these cookies; I’ve baked many chocolate chip cookies, but this one’s changed just a bit. A little change to spice things up. The addition of salty pretzels is actually quite brilliant and I don’t know why I didn’t do it before. My boyfriend didn’t care much for them, saying that the other chocolate chip cookies are better, but I’ll leave that up for you to decide.
I used pretzels from this GIANT bucket from Costco. Everything in our house is from Costco, but that’s another story.

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Recipe is from Sugar Cooking and makes approximately 24 cookies. Check out the dough!

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Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. of salt
  • 1/4 tsp. of baking soda
  • 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup of tightly packed light brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup broken up pretzel pieces

Directions:

  1. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  2. Beat the butter and sugars together until well blended. On low speed, slowly add the beaten egg and vanilla extract until combined.
  3. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture until the batter comes together. Stir in the chocolate chips, and pretzels. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350F. Form the dough into balls and place on baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.

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