Apple Cheesecake Bars

My friend Amanda is having a Pinterest party this weekend and I chose to make this yummy dessert for my food item. Heads up this is not a healthy snack because of all the butter...

For the Crust
Ingredients
12 Graham Cracker Sheets
50 Nilla Wafer Cookies (I got the mini so I used 70) 
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
12 tablespoons butter, melted
Directions
1. Line a 9x13” pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pulse graham crackers and Nilla Wafer cookies in a food processor until they are fine crumbs. I have the smallest food processor ever so this took a little time but if you have a regular sized food processor it will take you know time at all. Place in a bowl and stir in cinnamon and melted butter. Press into prepared pan. 
3. Bake for 8 minutes, while preparing filling.

My Small Food Processor... See what I mean by this took me awhile bc of the size?



So after getting all of this done I dumped it in the bowl mixed up with my hands some since I couldn't process them all together. Then I added the cinnamon and again mixed with my hands. So much easier a lot of times when you use your hands and LESS dishes :-)



After adding the a but load of butter I mixed with the rubber spatula.



After I spread the crust I put it in the oven for 8 minutes.


For the Filling:
Ingredients
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions
1. Beat cream cheese, eggs, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla with a hand held or stand mixer. 
2. Place apples in a small bowl and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon.

After placing all the filling ingredients in the mixer bowl I let the mixer do its job. 



Side note here is the pie crust after baking for 8 minutes... 



After mixing the cheesecake part of the filling 



Apples and cinnamon... umm yeah most likely I probably could have cut the apples up a little bit more but hey they are small enough for me lol.


For the Topping:
Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup butter, softened
Directions
1. Make the topping by mixing all topping ingredients in a medium bowl with a hand mixer.

Ok so I stepped away from the mixer for a second to answer the phone... The topping got a little pastey like texture instead of crumbs... So I recommend mixing with your hands (I should really learn not to follow recipes when it comes to mixing things like this lol) 









Left: Without Apples Right: With Apples


1. Pour cream cheese mixture over hot crust. Sprinkle with apples. Sprinkle evenly with topping. Bake for 40-45 minutes (mine took 43). 



So since the topping didn't turn out the right texture I still put it on bc it taste good but then poured some oats and brown sugar on top. 



Side view ofter baking in the oven. 


Cool to room temperature and then chill for at least 3 hours before cutting.

Carpet Cleaning

Ok so I had/have these really dark spots in my carpet in the high traffic areas... They have drove me crazy since the day we moved in. We have used the carpet cleaner and they wouldn't leave. We even tried using expensive carpet cleaning solutions. I kept reading on different blogs on pinterest about using vinegar and water.

I forgot to take pictures of the first area of spots but after the magic potion worked its miracle I remembered to take pictures of the second area.


I am going to borrow a carpet cleaner and put in the carpet cleaner and do the entire carpet area after seeing this miracle!


What you will need:
1 part Vinegar
2 parts Water
Spray Bottle
Iron

Directions:
I did not have a spray bottle at this time so I just used a solo cup. After this I am going to be investing in a lot of spray bottles and trying different DIY cleaners to try and save my family money.
I just dumped a little bit on each spot and ran the iron over the spot a few times. If the spot is really dark or deep in the carpet you might have to do it a few times. In the picture below you can tell the spots I missed with the solution.

Before Picture: So you can see the spots that I needed to get rid of

Here is the after picture. You can see the spots I missed with the magic solution. 

I want to do my entire carpet area!!!! 

Buckeye Pie

So my two of our friends are having a house warming party on Saturday and I was going to make my homemade Mac & Cheese that my fiance requested.... But I forgot Amanda (our friend) was making Mac & Cheese. When I asked Adam what to make he couldn't think of anything so I asked his brother Eric and he told me to make one of my famous pies. He then came up with the idea of making a Buckeye Pie... I looked it up on Pinterest and here is the cooking adventure I had in making it....


Ingredients:
9oz Peanut Butter
1/4 tsp Vanilla
1/4 cup Butter
1 3/4 Powdered Sugar
Instant Chocolate Pudding 
Milk (whatever pudding box calls for)
Cool Whip 
Graham Cracker Pie Crust (pre-made or make your own)

I started with following the exact directions from the pudding box. It called for the big box but we had a lot left over. Next time I am going to try the small box

get the milk bowling

                        

the different stages of the pudding being made.

So we did not have enough powder sugar and I was way to lazy to run to Jungle Jim's and get more. I tasted it and so did my fiance and we both said it still tasted good. This is suppose to be crumbly not pasty. Eric said it was a little to much peanut butter but Amanda loved it. So I feel most likely the powder sugar you can really do to taste. The crusted started breaking while I spread the pb mixture so Adam had to help hold it still. 

The pudding was filled to the top. I then let the pie cool over night. The next day I put the cool whip on top (I forgot to take pictures since it was morning time lol) 

Let's just say there was none left at the end of the night!!!!

Strawberry Crumb Pie

Again yet another birthday this month. My mom LOVES pie and would rather have any kind of pie I could think of for her birthday. So I decided to make a Strawberry Pie (yuuummmyyyy).

Crust

Ok so this crust  was a little bit of an adventure do to the fact I do not own a food processor.... I have a magic bullet (not big enough to hold all the ingredients and when you leave it on for more than 10 sec at time it gets to hot)  and a blender lets just say USE UR HANDS!!!

 

All the dishes I made (minus strainer) because I tried to follow the directions in the recipe.... and this was just for the crust. I tried the magic bullet first had crossed my finger everything would fit in. Everything did fit in but did't really have enough room to mix. So then I was like will the blender work? It did work but It would have taken me probably an hour to get it all mixed up. So I decided to just use my hands and had it mixed in like 5 seconds it seemed like lol. 

Now it told me to make it into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap then put in fridge for an hr then roll it out and put it in for 20 more minutes.... Ya I said uhhhh no. I flattened it out in the pan using my hands and then plastic wrap on top and fridge. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (4oz) cold unsalted butter

3 oz cold cream cheese

1 1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

         (I did 3/4 cups all purpose and 1/2 cup wheat flour "we have been trying to use it up and we don't          like it by it's self")

pinch of salt

Directions:

1) Add butter and cream cheese to a food processor and process until smooth.

2) Add the flour and salt and process again until the dough comes together and forms a ball. (Just use your hands much faster, easier and less dishes)

3) Scrap out the dough, form it into a disk and wrap in saran wrap. Place the disk in the fridge for at least an hour. 

Pre-bake the dough

1) Preheat oven 350* put rack on middle shelf.

2) Lightly flour a flat surface and roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick and fit into a 9" springform pan having the crust go to the sides. I don't own a pan like this and like I mentioned above I did this using my hands before putting in refrigerator. Return the crust to the fridge for 20 minutes. Trim off the excess dough to level off the crust. on the inside of the pan. 

3)Line the crust with foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans (I just lined with the foil) and bake for 18-20 minutes until crust is lighly golden brown. 

4)Remove the beans and foil and let cool. 

Crumb Topping

This was super easy but I added some ingredients like cinnamon and brown sugar. I really don't know how much I added I just did a little bit and guess-ta-mated lol. 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup oatmeal

1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 cup wheat flour

(it actually called for 1/2 cup all purpose)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

Directions:

1) In a medium bowl, stir together all dry ingredients.

2) Add the melted butter and stir until combined and moistened. (I used my hands)

3) Refrigerate the topping until chilled. 

This was simple but instead of hulling the strawberries I cut the tops off and cut them in 1/2 or 1/4. 

Ingredients:

6 cups (2lbs) hulled, quartered strawberries

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp grated orange zest (I didn't do this and made it optional)

Directions:

1) Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine.

2) Add strawberry filling to the crust and sprinkle with crumb topping over the strawberries. 

3) Bake in the middle of the oven for 50-55 minutes, until filling is bubbling and crumb is golden brown. 

I will not know until tomorrow how it taste but I promise I will come back and let you know how it ranks in our household lol. 

*Sorry it took me a little longer to let you guys know how the pie went over. I was sick this past week.

The crust on the bottom was actually really good but, the crust on the sides was a little burnt. As for the pie my mom loved it and I found it to be to sweet (but I don't really have a big sweet tooth it takes me a month - two months to eat a bag of oreo's). 

Rosemary-Crusted Potatoes

One of friends was cleaning out all her cookbooks and magazines and gave me a bunch. I don't remember which one I got this out of but It is so yummy! We decided to make these for Adam's parent's surprise 29th anniversary party and some picky eaters actually liked it also.

Makes 6 servings

Total Time 1 hour (don't worry it's really easy)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs small red or golden potatoes, quartered (we decided to make them smaller after our first time making them though)

2 tbsp. minced fresh rosemary or 2 tsp. dried rosemary

1 tbsp stone-ground Dijon mustard (don't worry I don't even like mustard and I love this recipe)

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1/4 cup pank bread crumbs (we just used Kroger brand italian seasoned bread crumbs)

1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*. Coat a baking sheet with nonstick spray.

2. Partially cook potatoes in boiling salted water to cover, about 10 minutes; drain.

3. Mix rosemary, Dijon, and oil in a bowl.

4. Add potatoes; toss to coat.

5. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, salt and pepper. 

6. Place potatoes in prepared dish. Roast them 30 minutes 

7. Then stir gently.

8. Bake until potatoes are golden brown on most surfaces, 10-15 minutes more. 

Peach Pie

So every year Adam's brother Eric always asks me what type of cake for him. This year he asked me to make a peach pie since peaches are his favorite. I was nervous because I have never made a peach pie and I don't like peaches (Well I love the smell just not the texture). I combined two different pie recipes I found (if you can't tell by now I do this a lot). Eric and his dad gave it a 11 out of 10 and said it would have been high but I forgot the vanilla ice cream.... ooops.

Ingredients:
Filling:
4-5 cups of Sliced and peeled peaches
1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Topping:
1/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
4 tsp light margarine
5 tsp Brown Sugar

Crust:
I had one of my pre-made pie crust left over from Christmas time in the freezer that I use to just get rid of it.

Directions:

Filling:
1. peal and slice the peaches. Don't forget to cut the seeds off.
2. In a separate bowl mix together flour's, cinnamon, nutmeg and kosher salt. Make sure you lightly mix these together with a spoon (just enough so they aren't just piled on top of each other).
3. Pour the honey on the peaches (I put it in with the dry ingredients on accident "not thinking just dumped" but it did make it harder to mix up).
4. Pour filling into pie crust.

Topping:

1.Pour all the filling ingredients into a bowl and lightly mix them together with a spoon (just like you did in the filling). Set aside.

Put the pie (with out the topping) in the oven on 350* for about 10 minutes. Pour the topping on and then take pie out and put foil around the edges of the crust. Put the pie back in the oven for about 30 more minutes (might take up to 45).

I hope your families enjoy this as much as Eric did please feel free to let me know what y'all think of it. I love getting feed back especially positive feedback on this since I did not eat any (again I don't like peaches but I wanted to make a pie for my very soon to be brother in-law that he wanted and was crossing my fingers he would like).

Keeping The Romance ~ During Stressful Times

Ok so I am absolutely obsessed with the website called The Dating Divas. Even this particular blog is talking about stressful times I still do these during non stressful times. I feel during the stressful times its even more important to show your special someone that little reminder you still love them. One of the biggest stressful times me and my fiance have crossed so far is planning our wedding. I do wish I could have done little things like this more during this time period but, I have had a chance to do something a few times.

Last night my amazing fiance took me out on a date. We normally try to do this once a month but again due to wedding stuff we haven't been able to do date night each month which is yet another reason to do little gestures reminding each other how much we love each other. Last night we went to BW3'S and the movies to see Grown Ups 2 (by the way this movie was hilarious). Even though we didn't go anywhere fancy we still dressed up nice and treated it like we were.

Today I decided to make homemade chocolate chip cookies for Adam. First I printed a cute printout from the The Dating Divas website.

After filling in the blanks I then made his favorite cookies chocolate chip. But instead of getting the pre-made cookie dough I made them homemade. I think this gives it that extra little love into it. 

Since, Adam was out fishing with his dad and brother Josh I had to keep the cookies fresh instead of making a pretty display like I wanted to. I'm sure when he gets home I will get bunches of kisses and hugs since he isn't expecting them (lol I told them I would make him some 2 weeks ago). 

Wedding Creations

I took a look at my blog today and realized I have not written anything since January!!! Quick catch up on what's been going on I became and aunt and got engaged :-) Me and my fiance celebrated our 3 yr anniversary in April and that is when he asked me to marry him. Planning this wedding has been very interesting to say the least... I love planning events for other people and get told all the time I'm great at it but so far with planning my own wedding my favorite part is the stuff I have creating myself without any help or when me and Adam and decide on different aspects we want in the wedding (example: songs, cake topper, cake design, location) and not having 20 million people telling us what we want and us picking things ourselves.

Wedding Creations

Theme: Rustic Night Sky w/ Butterflies as an accent (butterflies stand for hope)
Colors: Ombre effect of blues and silver

Different things I have made (I will be adding them as I get them done)

Grooms Boutonniere's: So Adam wanted something different then the rest of the boys. Today I made his. I wanted to wait until I got my bouquet done first. He went to Hobby Lobby with me yesterday and he actually picked out the flowers he wanted me to use.

 

I have posted this item in my Etsy shop also. Please go check it out.

Groomsmen Boutonniere's: It was very hard to find cute blue boutonniere's as an inspiration.

I found the navy blue flower at Hobby Lobby and the pearl gems at Michael's or Hobby Lobby depending on the style you like. 

 I also got some extra leaves since I didn't care for the 2 blue leaves that were already on the flower. These were really easy to make but if ur not crafty or don't have the time I am selling them in my Etsy Shop.

Corsages: I made the corsages for the grandmas and my godmother. Again most of this stuff was from hobby lobby. Since it's for the gma's we decided to make these the pin kind of corsages so the wrist band doesn't bug them. I decided to buy the mom's corsages off of were else.... Etsy. Speaking of Etsy yes I am putting these up for sale also. We also, picked white since we don't know what color outfits they would be wearing.

Side views

Top and Bottom View

Card Box: Ok so I didn't 100% make this... The box itself I bought at Hobby Lobby. But we had to figure out a way to secure the cards in just incase heaven forbid someone tried to take them. My fiance (I love saying that!) got some cardboard and helped cut it up while I did all the decorating of course lol (although he did give me the idea...)

I'll be honest I wasn't 100% sure how I was liking it while decorating it.... I'm still working on it when I am done I will add a picture of the finished project.

 

Final product (I will try to get a better picture up after the wedding)

Center Pieces: Since we have the rustic theme going on not all the tables will have the exact same centerpieces.... Once I have all the centerpieces made I will take a picture of the different set ups we have ;-)

Front and Back View of 9 out of a bunch of Mason Jars

(I am debating of adding these to my etsy shop I have to see how much it cost me to make. If I do I will make sure I put a link on her to the listing.)

Programs: I love our program booklets but my hands got so soar after using a single whole punch on them and the game booklets. 

Cover Page 

Ceremony Page (I wanted this page to be funny and I was stuck figuring out the wording but then I got inspiration from my cousins wedding program).

Wedding Party Page

All the important people in our lives including the people who have passed away. 

Our Special Message to those important people and our guests.

The list of songs we will be dancing to at our wedding reception. 

Game Books: I wanted something for the people who didn't want to dance to do. I decided to create a game booklet. Adam's mom found these really cool pencils at TJMaxx that look like tree bark for the game books and since I made two coloring pages for the kids I bought some crayons. I also used one of the baskets I got for free from kohl's (I ordered one basket in a large and got two of each size baskets lol kohl's made a little mistake but it was a huge gain for me bc we are using a few of them for the wedding.) for the fame return location. Ok so this booklet turned out to be more of a game/activity book. 

Thank You Cards & Gifts:

Flowers: We have all the bridesmaids and honorary bridesmaids flowers done!!! WOOOHOOOO!!! They turned out super pretty and different than I originally planned but I still love them. They are rustic but I added my little touch of bling to them (always have to have bling lol). 

My bouquet is done!!!! So I have never made a cascading bouquet before but there is a first time for everything right? Adam's idea was to get extra styrofoam balls which was a good idea I messed up on the first one but luckly it was right away so I didn't have to take to much apart. After my mistake it pretty much fell in place. 

Please forgive the mess on the floor I haven't had a chance to clean up from making the flowers yet when I took the pictures. 

My mom did take pictures of me working on these but since I am a little sick today I don't look to good in them and will not be posting them lol sorry. 

*So my mom showed the girls at her work a picture of my bouquet and they all said I should make them and sell them.... I have decided after the wedding and all the holidays I will start working on this project. I'm not sure if I will be able to make blue bouquets like mine since I got some of my flowers from my cousins wife. She doesn't remember where she got them from because she has had them for about three years.

Favors: Everyone who knows me knows I love to bake (even though I haven't had a chance to bake a lot lately lol) I have decided to make homemade cookies for our favors... 

                 Our favor bags and tags 

Not only did I use Etsy to put things for other people to buy during this wedding planning process but also bought a lot of stuff from this site. Examples: thank you gifts, my necklace, my mom even ordered my bridal bag and some other things. 

Hair: I felt horrible because I went through three hair trials (luckly its a friend who did my hair and she didn't charge me for the trials) before deciding on one. I use to always be a hair up girl and I didn't notice the past few years I have started to turn into a hair down girl. So the first two where with my hair up and I liked them but the more I looked at them afterwards the more I didn't think they were me. Then after talking to Adam he told me "I like your hair down and curly best." I have decided to try a hair down and then since I am inviting my friend to our wedding after all the dances and special things like that she can help me pull it in a cute pony tail for while I dance the night away.