Red Velvet Cake Batter Dip with Strawberries

Props to my Aunt Janie for finding this recipe for me (originally from Something Swanky). What can I say? She's known me since I was born and somethings just don't change. :-)

Aside About Cade: My family loves desserts. At Thanksgiving and Christmas We devote an entire table to them. Growing up, Mom always made a different dessert each week and our house always smelled delicious. Let's face it, some of Sister and my worst fights were over who got to lick the cake batter bowl. Woe unto Thee that washes the bowl before We get our spatulas out! (And Woe unto anyone else with a spatula aimed at Our bowl!)

Well Sister, AJ went and done it. We don't have to wait for the bowl scraps anymore. Just dip it and eat it!

The Concept: Red velvet cake batter dip. Seems pretty self-explanatory.

The Ingredients: (adapted according to the WIdTOTs below)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. red velvet cake mix
1 c. powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp. milk
Strawberries for dipping

The Process:
1. Cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla.
2. Beat in the red velvet cake mix 1 cup at a time, alternating with 1 tbsp of milk if You're having trouble incorporating the cake mix (I did).
3. Beat in the powdered sugar.
4. Spoon some of the dip on a strawberry and enjoy!

WIdTOTs:

• Original recipe needs vanilla - The vanilla really helped sweeten and deepen the existing flavors when I added some to dip.
• Less powdered sugar - The original recipe calls for 2-3 cups, but after the first cup, the only thing the extra sugar did in this recipe was make the dip look slimey. The first cup did give the batter a slightly sweeter taste and really brought the mixture together; so I kept the first cup.
  
• The Kicker - The dip is actually better with strawberries than cookies - I made a batch of the sugar cookies suggested, but trust Me: try the dip on a strawberry. It's heavenly!

The Finished Product:
I was disappointed that the dip didn't pair better with cookies. BUT, the dip was amazing with strawberries.

Come on! It's cake batter as a dip!! How could that not be heavenly?

Enjoy!

-Cade

Bacon-Chocolate Chip-Peanut Butter Cookies

How was My first post not about cookies? How was it not about bacon?

Ahhh bacon. :-) Mmmmm.

Ahhh cookies. :-) Mmmmm.

So is it "Ahhh bacon cookies. :-) Mmmmm." or "Ahh!! Bacon cookies. >:O Bleeeaahhh."?

Let's find out.

This recipe is from Food Network Magazine. (I warned you!) It's available here.

The Concept:

Cookies are good. I eat cookies. Bacon is good. I eat bacon. Bacon and cookies are good. I eat bacon and cookies. "Lightbulb" yet?

The Ingredients:

Bacon (Duh!), Chocolate chips, and the makings of peanut butter cookie dough.

WIdTOTs:

1. Leave out the chili powder - Let's face it. Bacon's salty and savory, so what's the chili powder supposed to do? That's rhetorical. You can't taste it anyway.
   
2. Mush the chocolate chips into the peanut butter dough BEFORE you ball it out - This is not as easy as it sounds. There's a reason You don't see chocolate-chip peanut butter cookies at your local chippery. Peanut butter cookie dough is not meant to hold chocolate chips. But in this recipe, You're putting the bacon on top and there's just not room for the chips too. You'll make it work. I have faith in You. :-*
3. Cut the bacon BEFORE you cook it - It's much easier to get a consistent chunk and it looks better on your cookie. (Better looking food tastes better.)
4. The Kicker: Don't tell your SigO that You put bacon on their cookie - ...unless of course you were particularly mischievous the last time you said "Close your eyes, sweetheart. Trust me."

The Finished Product:

Sweet. Salty. Satisfying. While I won't put this up there with nacho-cheese-chocolate-chips, it's definitely on par for a savory sweet kick to your taste buds. I'll definitely be making these again. Come on. You know You're thinking it. "Sure. Why not?"

Bacon cookies for breakfast? Yes, please!

-Cade