Just Call Me Betty Crocker

This weekend, I had the house all to myself!  The boys went down to Myrtle Beach for the weekend to play golf and drink beer.  This left me with a lot of time on my hands.  So with all of this extra time, I decided that I would spend my weekend cleaning the house, baking some goodies, and spending some time relaxing (which I am not very good at!).

I love baking, so I decided that I would bake some goodies for the boys when they come home on Sunday and to bring to my coworkers on Monday.  Below are some of the treats that I have made thus far over the weekend! Enjoy, they are delicious!!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies

My sister posted a recipe on my Facebook for Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies that she found on the averie cooks blog.  I LOVE pretzels and blondies, so I thought I would give these a try!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups mini pretzels, measured loosely and crushed slightly
• about 1/3 cup salted caramel sauce, for drizzling before baking (the best is Trader Joe's Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce)
• about 1/4 cup salted caramel sauce, for drizzling after baking

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8x8 inch pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
2. In a medium microwave safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute.
3. To the melted butter (allow it to cool slightly so you don't scramble the egg), add the egg, brown sugar, vanilla, and whisk vigorously to combine.
4. Add the flour and stir until just combined, taking care not to over-mix or the blondies will be tough. 
5. Fold in the pretzels (crush them in the palm of your hand)--I also added Chocolate Chips into mine right after adding in the pretzels!
6. Pour the batter into prepared pan, smoothing it light with a spatula.
7. Drizzle about 1/3 cup caramel sauce over the pan in a zig-zag pattern.
8. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, or until center is just set.
9. Immediately after removing pan from the oven, drizzle about 1/4 cup caramel sauce over the top in a zig-zag pattern.

Mixing in the pretzels and the chocolate chips

Right out of the oven...yum!

The finished product

Resees Eggs Blondies

I got this blondies recipe from my sister Katherine's blog, Tar Heel Taste Bud, and I have made it before, but this time I decided to substitute the chocolate chips with Resees Eggs.  Rusty's mom sent us a HUGE box full of Easter goodies and we had a lot left over, so I decided to do some baking with them!

Recipe from Shutterbean (slightly adapted from Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust)

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips** (Instead I added Resees Eggs)
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8x12x2 inch baking pan. (I used an 13x9 inch pan and lined it with parchment paper that I greased to make the bars easier to remove. I'd definitely suggest it!).
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar on high speed for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, and mix well, scraping down the bowl.
3. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Fold the walnuts and chocolate chips in with a rubber spatula.
4. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes exactly (I baked mine for 26 minutes based on the pan size and my love for underbaked cookies).Don't overbake! A toothpick may not come out clean. Cool completely in the pan and cut into bars.

Add in the Resees Eggs to the batter

Ready to go into the oven

Resees Egg Blondies

Drizzle Chocolate Chex Cereal

The last thing I decided to make was Chex with Chocolate drizzled on them.  We had some extra cereal laying around the house and some left over white/chocolate chips, so I thought it would be yummy to make some sweet snacks.  This was really simple!

All I did was melt chocolate chips and drizzle the melted chocolate over a tin foil lined pan with the Chex cereal on it.  Let them cool and dig in!

I hope that you enjoy these goodies as much as I will :)

                             

Weekend Adventures

Who doesn't love a three day weekend!? I was lucky enough to have President's Day off and let me tell you it was much needed after a fun-filled, busy weekend. I was so relieved when 3 o'clock rolled around on Friday. That is my favorite time of the week, because it means that my weekend has officially begun!

Friday was the start of our busy weekend.  I officially booked my storage unit and have most of my apartment all packed up, which is a good thing because I will be moving in with Rusty in two weeks until our house is done being built! So much to look forward to with this BIG step in our lives. That night, Rusty had a basketball game for the church team he was on.  I finally went and watched one of them for the first time and surprisingly enjoyed it, seeing as I am not a huge basketball fan. Unfortunately, Rusty's team lost--but it was still entertaining to say the least. Afterwards we enjoyed a some Mexican at Monteray's to begin our weekend full of dates :)

I was so excited on Saturday morning when I woke up.  Earlier in the week, Rusty had mentioned that he wanted to go to Asheville for the day on Saturday.  He didn't have to ask me twice! I have been wanting to go up there with Rusty and explore the city.  I wanted to go to the Biltmore Estate, but it is very expensive and we needed more than just a few hours to explore the vast grounds, the house, and the vineyards of course. Because we were leaving the dogs at home, we could only spend half of the day in Asheville.  We decided that we were going to go shopping at the discount Dillards (but that turned out to be a disappointment, way too cluttered for me to dig through!) and then go bar hopping and to some of the breweries that are in Asheville.

On our drive up there, the snow flurries started coming down.  Now, I am from the South so seeing snow is a very rare thing for me and I of course get all giddy, and act like I am a little kid again!  The strange thing about the snow was that back home in Greenville got more snow than Asheville (guess we were in the wrong place).

After our failure at the Dillards, I know Rusty was so happy to be in Downtown Asheville at Lexington Avenue Brewery aka LAB (make sure to go check out their menu!).  This place was so cool with the lighting in the brewery and around the bar.  We got there at the perfect timing and escaped the wait in the cold.  We were starving by this point and each got a delicious sandwich.  Rusty got a Fried Turkey Sandwich with cranberry sauce and bacon that looked scrumptious and I got the Local Apple and Pear Gouda Grilled Cheese, which was the bomb.com! To accompany our food, we started off with a Flight to have a sampling of all of their beers.  I have come to love craft beers and can only drink domestic beers at tailgates or other events (I know, I am such a BEER SNOB!).  After we finished up at LAB, we decided to that it would be fun to walk around downtown and bar hop and stop in some stores.  We went to a few bars that were well known in Asheville, Jack of the Wood, Tall Gary's, and Southern. I loved trying new beers, they were all so good! Before leaving Downtown to head to Highland Brewery, we had to stop at Three Dog Bakery to pick Miles and Harley up a few treats!

Flight at LAB
Cream Ale, Spiced Wheat, IPA, Rye Pale,
Brown Ale, and Porter

Delicious Apple and Peer Gouda Grilled Cheese

Soft, hot pretzels from Southern with Spicy Mustard,
Cheese, and Apple Butter!

                 

Harley and Miles enjoying their treats from
Three Dog Bakery

After exploring all of Downtown Asheville, it was FINALLY time to go to Highland Brewing Company.  This is what Rusty had been waiting for ALL day long.  Over the winter, he had gotten hooked on their Cold Mountain Ale, which is definitely one of the best seasonal beers that I have ever had. It was so crowded at the brewery with bachelorette parties, Mardi Gras parties, a band, and several tours of the brewery moving in and out.  We got a spot right away at the bar and got another Flight there to sample some of the beers that they don't sell in stores.  Unfortunately, they ran out of Cold Mountain the weekend before.  Rusty was disappointed to say the least! Other than that, we had a great time and enjoyed spending a fun-filled day in freezing Asheville.

Highland Brewing Company

our flight of beer at Highland!

The weekend was amazing and to top it all off, Rusty and I are going to get Sushi tonight for dinner! To say I am happy is an understatement! I have been craving sushi for weeks now, but we have to be home before the Bachelor at 8!

Have a great week :)