Foodie Friday- Nutella Cheesecake Bars

Yes, I'm still on a Nutella kick.THESE...all I can say is OMG, YUM!

INGREDIENTS

2 cups oreo crumbs
1/2 stick unsalted butter; melted
16 oz cream cheese; room temp
2 Eggs; room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream; + 1 tablespoon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup nutella; (or another hazelnut spread)

PREPARATION

1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter an 8×8 baking dish and line with parchment paper, making sure that the parchment is well pressed in the corners. Set aside.

2.In a food processor, pulse Oreos until they become crumbs. Add in melted butter and pulse until moistened. Press Oreo mixture evenly into the bottom of your baking dish. Bake crust until set, about 12 minutes. Set aside to cool.

3.Clean out the food processor. Add cream cheese, eggs, sugar, ¼ cup heavy cream, and vanilla. Pulse until smooth. Put 2/3 of the cream cheese mixture in a bowl and set aside.

4.Add Nutella and 1 tablespoon of heavy cream to the remaining 1/3 cream cheese mixture in the processor. Pulse until smooth.

5.To assemble, spread the plain cheesecake mixture over the cooled Oreo crust, being careful of the crust. Then pour the Nutella cheesecake layer on top of the plain cheesecake layer and spread evenly. Bake on the center rack of the oven for about 35 minutes, or until the center jiggles slightly. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a cooling rack. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

6.When ready to serve, lift the bars out of the pan by lifting up the parchment paper (it should release easily). Cut into 16 squares and serve.



Eat and die happy!

I Don't *ALWAYS* Gripe...

So, the rest of my double shift passed somewhat peacefully. After about 3 a.m it was downright quiet and I actually read a book!

Saturday was a waste after I got home. Shady cat and I spent the day snoozing & snoring- don't let her fool you, that little beast snores too!- and got nothing done.

Sunday, I woke up earlier than normal (side effect of sleeping nearly 24 hours) so I fooled around playing Candy Crush & Cookie Jam on my tablet for a while. I finally summoned the energy to get up and get dressed, and went to get food and do some shopping. I'd been wanting to try some of the new sandwiches from Jason's Deli, so that was one of the first stops. I was in line behind a couple that should be in a sitcom. He ordered in about 10 seconds. SHE took nearly 10 minutes customizing her sandwich order into something altogether different. The very bored & annoyed order taker finally looked at her and said "Why didn't you just order the turkey & swiss to begin with?" *facepalm*

My turn to order. "Um," I began. "I need to make one little substitution on my order too." The order taker gave me the side-eye. "I just want swiss cheese instead of cheddar on the new Carolina Club." I didn't really want the lettuce or tomato either, but I figured I could just pick those off and spare someone else a headache. He began to snicker and admitted that he preferred swiss cheese on his sandwiches too. So far, so good.

Oh, that sandwich was good! Pecan roasted pork loin slices, bacon, honey mustard (a little on the sweet side, but wasn't going to quibble), swiss, the veggies, on telera bread. I picked off the tomato, but decided to give the lettuce a shot. My moan of pleasure upon biting into it was audible...which got me the side-eye from the girl 2 tables over. Her date/boyfriend winked at me, which cheesed her off even more. I didn't care. That was one of the best sandwiches I've had in a long time!

I'm getting ready to start stitching some of the Ink Circles Mandalas that I've collected, and they require a boatload of black floss for the outlines. Sullivan's black floss is better than DMC, and the only place I know to get it from is Hancock's. Yes THAT store. Good news: they were having a sale! Bad news: The associates still move at the speed of a dead turtle. WTF news: The 2 items I bought (20 skeins of black floss and a pretty piece of fabric that will be used as backing for something) were among the 5 items in the store NOT on sale. I still managed to maintain my decent mood and got out of there with my booty.

Next stop was supposed to be Wal-Mart, but there wasn't a parking spot to be found. I've been getting better about parking and hiking up to places, but since we'd had more snow/rain/ice fall, I didn't trust my balance or the spotty scraping job the store did, I decided to skip that and try them later. So off to the bookstore! Had a wonderful time there and spent far too much money before jetting off to Trader Joe's & Whole Foods.

Trader Joe's was it's usual overcrowded mess, but I had my list, knew exactly what aisles I needed and where I needed to be on them, so I got done pretty quickly. Until I encountered the old geezer who wanted to flirt. His horrified grandson heard him say that he needed a sweet young thing to cook him dinner and came rushing over to babble apologies and drag him away. I sent the coot into hysterics by cooing sweetly "It looks like you've already got one!"

Whole Foods was almost as bad as Trader Joe's. I was in line at the meat case behind a woman who wanted to know if the meat guy had a personal relationship with the pig her sausage came from, if it had a happy life, etc. He finally shed her and got to me. Since he's known me for years, he felt comfortable enough to tell me that the only pig he'd ever had a personal relationship with was his ex-wife and he wouldn't sell THAT to anybody. I had to laugh.

Oh, I also made it to Joann's for the rest of my floss needs. And a pillow form to fill the British themed pillowcase I'd gotten on Amazon. And some frames for prints I'd collected.

As you may have guessed, I spent an ungodly amount of money that day. But I had a good time, and was all useful stuff, so I'm not beating myself up about it!

Damn Fools.

I swear, one of these days I'm going to learn not to work double shifts! Anyway, here's the highlight of my night so far:

Division beat officers had to serve mental inquest warrant on an elderly Bosnian lady who barely speaks English. When they got her to the hospital, the staff discovered a grocery bag in her purse that was stuffed with money…which they refused to be responsible for. Instead of taking back to her home or giving it to her social worker, they brought it here for safekeeping.

Mentally ill or not, that woman needed a whack upside the head. So did her damn social worker. I counted 86,740 frikking dollars in that bag! The officer who brought it down kept apologizing- her beat partner was too chickenshit to come down with it and pawned it off on her. She had NO idea it was that much.

That was 7:30-8:00. Around midnight, the jackass who sent it down called and wanted to know if he could come get it out and take it back to the social worker & husband who were worried about where it was. I called that fool every damned thing I could think of and may have invented a few new words.

I don't love my job anymore, but I *DO* need the flipping insurance...

Foodie Friday- Nutella Brownies

Why all these Nutella recipes? Have you TASTED Nutella?!? Mmmmmmm. Besides, I had to buy a big jar, so might as well use it up. The things I do for my (are you still out there?) readers. LOL

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
2 Eggs
1 cup Nutella
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter; melted, cooled slightly

PREPARATION

1.With the rack in the middle position, preheat oven to 325 degrees. LIne the bottom of a 20 cm (8 inch) square cake pan with parchment paper, letting the paper extend over two opposite sides. Butter the two other sides.

2.In a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Set aside.

3.In another bowl, beat the eggs, Nutella, brown sugar and vanilla extract with an electric mixture until smooth, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture, alternating with the melted butter.

4.Scrape the batter into the cake pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with a few crumbs attached (not completely clean), 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 2 hours. Unmould and cut into squares.

5.Serve warm or at room temperature.

Originally found here.

Snow Day? Not For Us!

So, Louisville finally got a big snowfall. It's still falling. Just about everything in town is closed today...except us. I realized that despite having backed my car into the driveway and only leaving about a 2 foot strip to be shoveled, I wasn't going to be able to dig my way out. Called work and this is where the fun began. Psycho Sunshine demanded the day off yesterday when she saw the snow forecast. I said fine, but either someone was coming to get me & drive me back home at the end of my shift, or thy could put me down as AWOL and force someone in, but I wasn't trying to drive. Even if I *had* been able to dig myself out, the road wasn't cleared, and I wasn't chancing sliding off into the steep ditches on either side of my street.

The short version of the story is that my Sgt. wound up coming to get me. NONE of the roads (including the interstates) have been cleared. Instead of staying in/at home as suggested, a lot of people are out joyriding and making the roads worse. And getting stuck. And wrecking. In fact, there have been so many pointless wrecks that the department issued the edict that officers were no longer responding to non-injury accidents. We had to try 3 different routes before poor Jeff could get me here.

So, here I am at work. The heater is trying and failing to keep up with the cold. I suspected that would happen, so I'm here in a thermal undershirt, sweatshirt, fuzzy sweatpants (screw the dress code), and 2 pairs of socks. The snow was up to my calves, so even my hiking boots didn't help. They're sitting on the floor drying out, along with the third pair of socks I had on. I'm wearing PPE booties over my other socks so that I don't pick up anything gross from our nasty floors.

And- I SWEAR I am NOT making this up- I've already had 2 calls about people wanting to pick guns up, 1 asking abut drugs, and one officer with found bullets. *headdesk*

Did I mention that the snow is still falling?

More Reasons That I Loathe Valentine's Day

Things that were said to me by the chuckleheads that I happened to be dating at the time V-day rolled around:


1. "Ahhh, flowers a waste of money, but we had these leftover from a promotion at work, so I grabbed you a couple. They were just going to go in the garbage anyway." Schmucknuts strikes again.


2. "Flowers are a waste of money. They just die." Then, after I said he could have just picked some out of the yard and I'd have been happy, "Those don't count- you'd know I didn't pay for them." Dipshit from High School

3. "I didn't get you any candy because you don't really need it." Schmucknuts again

4. "I didn't know what kind of candy you'd like. Besides, I didn't think we did the touchy feely crap." Beast. (you'd think at some point during the 10 or so years we were together he MIGHT have learned what candy I eat)

5. "How would it look if I was seen buying some dumb pink girlie card in a store?" Beast again, concerned about his tough guy image

6. "Oh, I don't want to celebrate Valentine's Day with you because my old girlfriend and I considered it our anniversary." The Lump, about 2 weeks before we broke up.

7. "Uh, you think we're dating? I thought we were just sleeping together." The jerk I lost my virginity to in college



So, you see, even when I *HAD* someone, I couldn't win. And I've pretty much lost all hope.

Mug of Comfort Exchange!

Well, I threw caution to the wind and signed up to participate in another exchange. This looks like a lot of fun and I hope everyone plays nicely, unlike others I have been a part of!

Foodie Friday- A Chocolatey Treat

Happy Day Before Let's Make Single People Feel Like Crap Day. I plan to indulge in a few (dozen) of these tomorrow.

Found here.

No-Bake Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Bon Bons

Makes about 1 dozen

6 whole graham crackers

1/2 cup smooth almond butter

1/2 cup butter (8 tablespoons)

2cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Seal graham crackers in a large ziplock bag and then just completely destroy them with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. Or a rolling pin or a mallet or your own two golden fists of fury, whatever you want, just beat the bejesus out of those crackers until you are left with a sack of graham cracker powder, which you may then pour into a large bowl.

In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the almond butter and butter together until smooth; this should take no more than 1 minute of microwave time, in two 30-second intervals, mixing in between. Stir until blended, and then pour into the bowl with the graham cracker crumbs.

Add powdered sugar to the bowl and mix it all together until combined into a dough. It will take some time to get all of the powdered sugar incorporated. Patience is a virtue. Roll dough into small, 1-inch balls and spread out on a baking sheet. You may want to line this with parchment paper to make the next step easier, but at this juncture that is not required. Stick into the fridge or freezer to harden.

Melt dark chocolate chips (in a double boiler or in the microwave) and stir until smooth and perfect. Dunk each ball into the melted chocolate, and then return to the lined baking sheet. We like to do halfway in chocolate, but all the way would be, of course, totally allowed, because there is not such thing as too much chocolate. For the cleanest experience, dip balls by stabbing them with a long skewer and then placing them, skewer and all, back on the baking sheet. Keep it the fridge or freezer until ready to serve.

Here We Are Again

So my weekend started out well- I got to sleep in and was thinking about taking a nap when it occurred to me that I hadn't looked at my phone. I usually turn the ringer off on weekends. Lo and behold, 5 frantic text messages from Mom.

Dad is in the hospital AGAIN. He woke her up about 2 hours after I'd left Saturday morning saying that he was having trouble breathing.
One trip to the ER later and a transfer to the main hospital downtown, we were told he was having congestive heart failure.

Mom is still having vision problems, so she has to leave him before it gets dark, and can't get back down to the hospital before sunrise. Dad, of course, is having fits because that means he has to be by himself and doesn't think her vision problems are that bad. Guess who got to the spend the weekend up all night in a chair at his bedside?

It's not like I had anything better to do. I don't have a life anymore. I did get some reading done. Hit a new level on Candy Crush. And slept like a rock once I got to go home and crawl into bed. And it did seem to make Dad feel better to have me sitting there, even if he slept most of the time.

Today we've been told that he seems to have a recurrence of his COPD, some congestive failure (but his heart is functioning fine), and a UTI with possible kidney stones forming. Yay. They're treating him with all kinds of diuretics, BP meds, and other meds. Not sure how long he's going to be in this time, but at least we know he's not in danger at the moment!

Foodie Friday- Nutella Cookies

Yesterday was apparently Nutella Day. Don't know how I missed that one. In honor it, however belatedly, is this recipe:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Nutella
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup All purpose flour
1 whole egg

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Blend all ingedients together well. Form into 1 inch balls. Place on a cookie sheet. Press down firmly with the bottom of a glass. Bake 7-8 minutes or until set. Cool.


Going to have to make these this weekend.