What's Cooking - Pinterest Bacon Egg Cups

Awhile back I had pinned a recipe for bacon egg cups thinking it would be the perfect little thing to put together if we were to have some people over the house for breakfast. However, since we live pretty much away from everyone we know, the opportunity to make said bacon cups didn't occur until last weekend when my parents and sister came into town for a visit.

My sister is obsessed with B&B's. I mean, OBSESSED with them. She stays at them all the time whenever she goes up to Maine, so whenever she comes to visit, it's become something of a joke that I try to make her stay akin to staying in one. The first night she was here, I made my special home fries planning on waking up at the crack of dawn to make the bacon egg cups and have this amazing little breakfast spread all out for her when she awoke. I was going to be the best little host ever, she would be amazed by the breakfast, and they all would marvel about the little meal I had just put together.  That. did. not. happen. I slept in the next morning, BUT the next day I was determined to wake up early and wow them with my breakfast skills.  So without further adieu, I bring you- bacon egg cups!

To start- and I can't stress this enough- this is probably one of the easiest recipes I have ever done that tasted absolutely amazing, and looked like so much more work went into it.

Things you need:

Eggs
Bacon
Milk ( not included in the recipe, but I added it to the eggs)
Cheese (I had to use Parmesan cheese)
Salt
Pepper
Muffin Tin

All the ingredients

 Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Next, whisk together the eggs and milk. Then add in the Parmesan cheese or whatever cheese you are using for the recipe, if you are using any at all. Add the salt and pepper and whatever spices you like to spruce up your eggs. This recipe can really be made into anything that you want. Feel free to add veggies like peppers or onions.

All mixed together

 Then, take the bacon strips and wrap them around the muffin cups. Be sure to use some nonstick spray before using the bacon.

BACON!!!!!

 After you have placed the bacon in each of the cups, I put a couple potatoes at the bottom of each cup.

Home fries from previous day. 

 Pour the egg mixture into each cup to about the halfway point.

ready for some oven heat 

 Bake in the oven for thirty to thirty five minutes, until the tops of the egg cups are golden and aren't moving about.

oh my goodness.......

Remove the egg cups from the muffin tin, and serve warm. I used one of my favorite trays to serve up this delicious meal.

So there you have it- bacon egg cups. Easy and delicious! My sister absolutely loved them, as did my husband, and it was amazing to sit outside in our three seasons room and eat them in the morning. It really made for a perfect start for our day.

B&B's ain't got nothin' on me.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Oh Pinterest. You may just be the death of me. I see all your amazing things and think oh I could make that, and that and that, and oh wouldn't that just be so easy to whip up.

But I am no Martha Stewart so my zest for trying new baking projects sometimes never quite takes off the ground as much as  I would like. We are having a bake sale at work for the March of Dimes this week, and thought I could easily make three or four items. So I started looking for projects, and made the mistake of having my husband help who was consistent in saying no to many baked goods. His reasoning?

That he would be getting the leftovers or have to taste test stuff, so he wanted it to be something he would like.

Right.

So my first baked sale item was for this recipe which  I had pinned that said it was only a two ingredient pumpkin mix. Some of the recipes that I found with this whole two ingredient craze said to use just pumpkin and yellow cake, which I know isn't gross, but sounded gross. So I went with the spice cake and pumpkin option  since those two just seem to go together like fall and cider. Also- my husband is a big spice cake fan. Then since I couldn't seem to keep it simple (my husband seems to think I always have to be adding something to a recipe) I decided to add chocolate chips. That sounds good, right?

So here goes. Warning- this recipe is beyond easy, and yet I'm not quite sure it came out okay, the recipe said it will be super moist, but it looks REALLY moist. It could be the overuse of chocolate chips making it gooey.

Let's get started. Here are the ingredients- spice cake, canned pumpkin, chocolate chips, and you will need water. Preheat the oven to 350F.

First, take the spice mix and throw it into a bowl.

Next, add the pumpkin.

Pumpkin. It smells good, but always looks kinda gross. 

Third, add 2/3 cup water. I know, this is hard, right? Last, add some chocolate chips, I think I did a little more than half a cup, probably should have been exactly half cup or a quarter cup. Like I said, this thing is looking gooey.  Mix it all up using a whisk.

Am I allowed to say that looks disgusting. oh come on, you were all thinking it. 

We are mixing fools. 

Then find some muffin cups. I used these very cute black and white damask ones that my husband bought me for our first anniversary (paper).

fabulous. 

Scoop the mixture into the muffin tin, and then place into the oven. Cook for twenty five minutes.

Let's bake these babies. 

And that's it. You are done. I am going to have the husband try these in the morning, I'm not so sure about them yet, they smell really great, but look really soft. We shall see...fingers crossed......

Time for some gooey muffins. 

Tomorrow I will be making two more things for the bake sale. What they will be at this point is very much up in there air, I just know one will definitely be cake batter cookies.

UPDATE:  My husband woke me up this morning to say that the muffins are absolutely amazing. He loves them! We have a winner!

Missing Houston Peach Pie

Spring has officially begun around here. Or so they say, but today it snowed, again. Dear warm weather- feel feel to arrive anytime now.....

We've been packing up a storm around here, moving out to our new very Mad Men inspired house that we will be renting for the next year. In the process of moving, and cleaning out things, my husband oh so sweetly reminded me that the tens of thousands of magazines I have been collecting for the last year, will not be making the move. So I sat down and started going through all of them, and came across a copy of Southern Living magazine about peaches. I had picked this copy up on one of my many trips home from Houston, and had planned to make peach cobbler for my dad. Well, that never happened, and the magazine has just been sitting in my guest bedroom for over a year. Seeing the magazine, however, made me miss Houston, and started thinking of all the little things I miss about living there. One of them being eating peach cobbler from Rudy's BBQ. If you ever find yourself in Houston, make sure you go there, you won't be disappointed.

I did throw the magazine out (I'm trying not to be a future candidate for Hoarders), and did I decide to make peach cobbler? No, of course not, my line of reasoning never makes sense, instead I decided to make peach pie. So last week, I ventured to the store, came home all ready to make peach pie, but never quite got around to it. This moving thing has just thrown everything off.

Tonight I couldn't sleep and found this recipe.

Here are the ingredients I used (yes, I used canned peaches on this one, feel free to judge me). Also feel free to be jealous of my very fabulous and very yellow Pyrex bowl.

I'm cheating on the pie crust too.....

After heating the oven to 425 degrees F, mix the flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl.

Pyrex bowl I found caked in dirt in my Bachi's garage. 

Then combine with the cans of peaches (I used two large cans, but probably could have used another half of can). Mix until well blended.

Looks like caramel 

Next, unroll the pie crust (yes, I used ready made pie crust) and pour the peach mixture into your pie plate. My adorable pie plate was a shower gift from my aunt.

fingers crossed that this comes out perfect.

Put dots of butter over the mixture.

Not much to say about that...

Then cover with pie crust  and dust with sugar, the recipe says 2 tbsp but after pouring that on there it just seemed like quite a bit of sugar, feel free to add  a bit of cinnamon for flavor.

It looks like it is swimming in sugar....

Be sure to cover the edges with foil so they wont burn - and then pop in the oven for 30 mins.

Find something to do for thirty minutes (I watched Community), take the pie out of the oven and remove the foil. Place back in the oven for another ten minutes.

And now, Peach Pie Heaven. Yum. Here's hoping our volunteer movers enjoy this on Saturday for the big move.

I cannot promise that this will make it to Saturday....

Up next week- details about the new place, reviews on Sample Society's March 2013 box,  and my Mimi's apple pie.

Chocolate Eclair Squares

         March 14th is Pi Day, and trust me, I'm going to be making a pie. My husband has requested an apple pie, he was having none of the peach pie that I had bought the supplies for the other day. So that will be on the agenda tomorrow night, along with our tradition of watching Pushing Daisies (the pie maker!). I know we really should be packing, we are getting the keys to the new place on Friday, but my motivation is just not there, and in the battle of packing vs. watching Lee Pace, the obvious answer is watching Lee Pace. 

         I decided to finally make something for work and thought Chocolate Eclair Squares would be the perfect thing. It is my favorite dessert to make in the summer, because it is so easy to make, cheap, and most people love it. Maybe by making it, we can erase all this snow that decided to come our way after a few wonderful warm days. I thought we were in the clear for spring, apparently I was wrong. 

         I found the recipe here a few years ago. You can do variations on it, for example, one year I made it chocolate peanut butter eclair pie, that was a big hit with my uncle, who is a total peanut butter fiend. My best suggestion for the recipe is that the longer it sits, the better it tastes, similar to tiramisu, letting it all absorb in together. The recipe recommends four and a half hours of refrigerator time, I would say overnight tastes better, and most times I try to make it two days in advance. 

So let's begin- first the ingredients 

The recipe calls for vanilla instant pudding, tonight I went with French Vanilla

Next you add two cups of milk to the two packages of instant pudding, and mix until there is thicker consistency- basically until it looks like the yellow part of the cadbury egg creme.

Stir in the 8 oz. of cool whip and mix until well blended 

You can use pretty much whatever you want for the pan, sometimes I use a pie plate, tonight I decided to use my white casserole dish from Crate and Barrel that was one of our shower gifts. I love this dish because the side reminds me of frosting. I think it might have actually been called a frosting casserole or something to that effect.....

nice and pretty

Next, take the nilla wafers and cover the bottom of the dish.....

Then you cover the layer of wafers with the pudding and cool whip mix.

Try not to eat too much of the filling as you go...

Add another layer of nilla wafers......

It's all coming together....

And another layer of the filling and cover with a last layer of wafers. Refrigerate overnight. 

Ready for the refrigerator 

A few hours before you are going to serve the squares, melt the semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave or using a double boiler. Pour over the wafers and refrigerate. Refrigerate again- the chocolate will harden. 

oooh chocolate.....

Sometimes I have extra when I make this, so  my husband will be getting a mini one. He'll be excited when he opens the refrigerator tomorrow and sees this for his lunch. He was jealous that my work was getting the squares. 

He's spoiled. 

That's it- you're done! Enjoy!