Fudge for the Adventurous Bacon Lovers

I decided to make fudge. Not just any fudge. Bacon fudge with a caramel drizzle. YIKES! Since I am taking this fudge to a New Year's Party I decided to use half of it for the non-adventurous eaters...boring old fudge with walnuts. It'll still taste good.

Here's how to begin. Gather all ingredients.

Missing...Butter and Vanilla

Dump your sweet and condensed milk and a tbsp of butter into a bowl. Add your dark chocolate chips. 

Next you should melt it in your ancient microwave that only has one heat setting. On.

After melting it for a while; getting distracted by everyday occurrences add your vanilla that you forgot to put in beforehand. Bad baker..forgetting ingredients. 

Stir. Very important. Don't forget. Use something apt to stir a spatula will work best. 

Divide the fudge into two separate containers. If your poor you don't have matching bowls so you just find a near tupperware container. Add in 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts to the non-adventurous bowl you've labeled. To the adventurous bowl add the glorious bacon. Add as much as your heart desires. Let the poor-ness continue and dump the fudge into a pan with parchment paper. I obviously don't have skill in the parchment  paper tearing; but I try. Isn't that what counts??? Maybe??

Make sure you know which fudge is which. That is important. Because you will drizzle caramel on the bacon side and leave the walnut side alone. No one wants you fudge with walnuts. I'll probably eat some anyways. 

After you let it sit in the fridge. Douse the bacon side in caramel. Let it sit back in the fridge until it is time to cut. 

Bacon Fudge with Caramel Drizzle and Fudge with Walnuts.

16 oz of dark chocolate chips

1 small can of sweet and condensed milk
1 tbsp of butter
1/2 tsp of vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup of bacon bits..(the good kind)

Caramel for drizzle

    Heat the sweet and condensed milk and butter for 30 seconds. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla; melt until it turns into a cake batter consistency; stir every 30 seconds. (This will vary depending on microwave). Divide the fudge into two separate containers; in the first container add the chopped walnuts. In the second container add the bacon bits. (If 1/4 cup of bacon bits isn't enough add more!) Put it in a parchment paper layered cake pan; divided by parchment paper. (See pictures above for more sense!) Tap the pan on the counter for 1-2 minutes to get the air bubbles out. Refrigerate for one hour. Melt caramel and drizzle over the bacon side. Refrigerate for another 2 hours. Cut with a warm knife. Enjoy!

*This is my own recipe. Please give credit where credit is due.*

My Distraught Pumpkin Bread Disaster

Not all baking things turn out well. I try to make the best of the situation; but this kept me worried on a Saturday night.

The story:
I was baking pumpkin bread from a family recipe. One that I have used in the past; it's a really good one. I put it in the oven and baked it. I tested it with a toothpick and I swore that it came out clean. SWORE! So I went out for a bit and came back to this:

IT HAD SUNK!

The toothpick trick failed. It wasn't done. The middle was all gooey. I had made 2 loaves and they had both sunk. It had been over an hour so I couldn't put it back in the oven. It wouldn't cook all the way. I racked my brain what do I do..what do I do. I took the chocolate chip loaf and cut it. Uncooked bread oozed out. I was a mortified baker. How could something like this happen! I tested it. 

So...I tried to come up with solutions. Pumpkin Bread what? more than half the entire bread was ruined; how could I salvage such a lovely representation of fall?! Bread Pudding. 

I took a knife to the chocolate chip pumpkin bread and discovered the damage. In a new loaf pan I threw the salvageable chunks. Whipped up an egg, milk, and pumpkin spice coffee creamer and poured it over. Added a few pats of butter to the top, baked it and TA-DA. A scrumptious ugly treat.

I had eaten some of it before I got the camera out. Man it's ugly..but your stomach has no idea that it's ugly..it doesn't taste that way at all.

I will attempt to make more pumpkin things later on..but I feel defeated by pumpkin bread. So it'll be a while until I fully recover the scars. 

Hi..I'm addicted to Pinterest

I have been baking and cooking like crazy lately. It's because of my new lovely addiction to Pinterest. It's simply marvelous. I have over 180 pins..and counting on my "Things to Indulge" Board. I intend to make them all....eventually...when I have time.

So far; I've been lucky enough to create quite a few recipes. Note my "Been There, Done That" board only has 23 pins...but it's a work in progress. 

There is something beautiful about a picture of food. I'm not a food obsessed weirdo now; it's just that something stirs inside me and says...YOU HAVE TO MAKE THAT. You could make that look better, wouldn't that taste better with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla, and other thoughts such as those. I try my hardest but we all end up somewhere. 

I spend most of my free time on Pinterest; living vicariously through it...taking vacations, baking decadent cakes, redesigning my house, organizing my closet and shopping. If only my life were that grand. I'm sadly stuck though in a sucky reality where I'm not sure what being an adult means. I have to pay bills, rent, insurance; but where does the fun kick in. Everything costs money..but Pinterest is free! It's more acceptable now to spend all my time on Pinterest instead of Facebook. Being at the awkward age of 25 when you are 5 years from those who just entered their 20's and 5 years from those who are in their 30's. It's a limbo..living life in a constant what do I do now...do people actually see me as a grown up? Or do I just put on a front and say that I'm still trying to figure things out. 

Let's face it. Getting old sucks! There are just more things you have to do, more obligations you have to fulfill, and more things that you have to worry about. In college; all you have to worry about is if you have clean clothes, who said the coolest thing on Facebook and deal with all the changes the site made, and whether or not to study for the test or complete the homework you were supposed to do or not. 

Not to mention the decline in the social life; while everyone was in the same block plans were easily made which made procrastination so much more fun! Now..I have friends scattered across the world, 2 on different continents and many in different states. Getting together takes a bit more planning now than..Hey! want to go to Starbucks? Now you have to find the time in your busy work week; life doings and other boring adult things.

Thought there are plenty of plus sides...I do what I want, when I want, how I want...(I just have to suffer the consequences or reap in the gains). My introverted self chooses to bake and do things with the people that matter most to me.

Oh..for my fellow Pinterest addicts
Been there, Done that Board: http://pinterest.com/knee634/been-there-done-that/
Things to Indulge Board: http://pinterest.com/knee634/things-to-indulge/

Introverted Baking Fiend-Defined

After creating my first post. I thought I would describe the title of my blog a bit more.

Introverted= well.. simplistically put..My Myers-Briggs personality is an INTJ.

Baking= I was baking when I came up with the title, and it is something I love to do. The thing with baking is that it can be done by yourself or with groups.

Fiend=Dictionary.com's first listing is satan, the devil. That is NOT what I am aiming for (in fact the total opposite) but the other definitions farther down the list. Namely: A person who is excessively interesting in something aka baking, introverting, student teaching. Synonyms given are: aficionado, enthusiast, devotee, buff and supporter. Hope that clarifies a lot.

Christmas Cookie Baking

I love Christmas. Simple as that. I enjoy the decorations, the snow, the awkward family get togethers, and the joy of the reason for the season, Christ's birth. If you haven't read it, I highly encourage you to do so, Luke 2:1-40 . The story in itself echoes greatness.

One thing that I enjoy most about Christmas is baking cookies to give to others. This year I had only the chance to make 3 different types of cookies. My mom got a head start and got more done before I returned home. I made nutmeg log cookies, cake pops/cake bites, and chocolate malted cookies.

The first cookies that I created were the nutmeg logs, out of the Taste of Home December 2010 Issue.


This isn't exactly what mine turned out to look like, nor is my still life photography that good, but you get the idea. I did mine an inch long and the frosting is a little messier than that. They are quiet tasty if you get my drift.

The next cookies/cake items that I created were cake pops and cake bites courtesy of Bakerella. They turned out fairly well for my first time. I first had the cake pops where I work in the BEAR Center, now just registrar's office. One of the front ladies created them, and I knew that I had to one day re-create them for myself. I got Wilton's Candy Melts in red and green and white and chocolate cake mix, one I made the cream cheese frosting myself and the other was store bought. (what can I say, I got lazy?).

The green ones are white cake with the homemade cream cheese frosting. I also put some sprinkles on it to cover up my shotty workmanship. Since the candy melts dried quick, on some I forgot to put the sprinkles..Oops! Also my still life photography isn't that great. but you get the idea.

I also created red ones, without the sticks. The red ones are the chocolate cake with store bought frosting. I think they look just a bit better than the green ones, but make your own judgement. The sprinkles again covered up my shotty workmanship.

My sister Katie claimed that the red ones looked like ornaments. When my brother tasted them he yelled with excitement about how well they tasted. I guess it is not what they look like, but what they taste like.

My final cookies: Chocolate Malted Cookies, also courtesy of Taste of Home. The recipe said it would only make about 1 1/2 dozen cookies. I made them smaller and got about 6 dozen cookies.

They don't look like anything special, other than cookies, but I did add a bit more malted mile powder because the last few times I made them the malted milk powder didn't come through at all.

I hope to bake more cookies while I am home for break with the oven as a trusty steed. More blog updates will happen with Christmas break. My next post may be about how an introvert feels when large family get togethers occur. Yikes!