Making Whoopie (Cookies)

Valentine's Day is coming up soon. I made a bunch of cards for etsy (jenboothe.etsy.com), and now I obsessively check to see if any have sold. The hubby could be getting a dozen or so cards this Valentine's Day at this rate.

We're not really much on Valentine's around here. We have a family tradition that I love, which is that the 3 of us go to IHOP. We started doing this 9 or 10 years ago, and found it to be the perfect place. First off, there's pancakes. B, it was never crowded so we could get in and out with little hassle. And third, there's bacon. Last year it was shockingly crowded. They were running some sort of special Valentine's coupon. Hopefully this year we can go back to having the place to ourselves.

I decided I wanted to make a Valentine-y treat and the word "whoopie" is just fun to say, so I settled on whoopie pies. I wanted the whoopie pies to be red, so red velvet seemed to be the logical choice. I also felt lazy, and decided to use a cake mix as the base instead of making it from scratch, but I couldn't find an acceptable whoopie pie recipe using cake mix. So, I played around with what I had on hand. The cakes didn't really get fluffy and cake-like, so now I'm calling them cookies (note: this is a good trick. If your recipe for something familiar doesn't turn out right, rename the food). If red velvet ain't your thing, ditch the red food coloring. Also, I do not like marshmallows and refuse to make a marshmallow cream center like you'd find in a traditional whoopie pie. Instead, I replaced the icky marshmallow cream center with a concoction of mascarpone cheese (super yum!), whipped cream, and confectioner's sugar. If you wanted to use cream cheese instead, I'm sure that would work, and it would provide a more red-velvet like taste. Since mine use mascarpone rather than cream cheese, I'm naming them velvetine instead of velvet.

Jenny's Red Velvetine Valentines
1 box dark chocolate cake mix
1 bottle flavorless red food coloring (this is important, because concentrated red dye can leave a nasty taste)
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 pint heavy whipping cream
8 oz mascarpone cheese
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Set the mascarpone in a bowl on the counter so it can warm to room temperature.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix together the cake mix, food coloring, eggs, and vegetable oil until a thick batter is formed.
4. Drop batter by the rounded spoonful onto a cookie sheet. Rounded balls of dough should be slightly larger than an inch in diameter.
5. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Baking time will vary depending on your oven and the size of the dough balls.
6. Remove the cookies from the oven and place on a cooling rack until completely cool.
7. While the cookies are cooling, make the creamy filling. In a large bowl, add whipping cream and confectioner's sugar. Beat the tar out of it until it is light and fluffy, just the way whipped cream should be.
8. Fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone one-third at a time and mix together until the mascarpone and whipped cream are fully blended.
9. Pair same-sized cookies together. Flip one cookie from each pair upside down and cover with a dallop of the mascarpone-whipped cream mixture. Top it with the second cookie. Continue until each set of cookies is part of a sandwich with a creamy center.

Hoping you find a little extra whoopie in your week,
Jenny

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Tray Chic

This week I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to take something that was very, very ugly and try to make it into something I could love. A trip to Hobby Lobby was in order.

I love Hobby Lobby. Besides the obvious crafting gear, it has art supplies and duct tape for the kiddo's projects (he is a duct tape aficionado) and interesting home decor items. While some of the home decor is interesting-good, there are quite a few items that are interesting-BAD. It was clearance time, so the interesting-BAD quotient was high.

Amongst the worst of the bunch, I found two trays that are absolutely hideous. On the plus side, they were only $4.76! Surely making something worthwhile out of these things would be a challenge.

Yikes! Now that is ugly. But, it was a nice, sturdy wooden tray and I knew just the place for one of them: the kiddo's bathroom.

Several months back, I decided to redo the kiddo's bathroom. After a quick trip to Tarjhay, I was all set up with the basics: shower curtain, towels, rug. I didn't see any wall art that I wanted, and had spent more on towels than I wanted, so I decided to make my own art. You can see it in the slide show.

The new look has been working nicely, but there was still a problem. Teenage boys use a lot more products than younger boys, and the products were taking over the counter top. The ugly tray is the perfect size to serve as a holding pen for teen boy grooming gear.

The final transformation is shown below. Just click on the link below the picture if you want to see how to make one yourself.

Transforming the Tray

I'm very happy with the end result. I have a functional item that matches my decor, gave me a challenge, and didn't cost much. I've got about $10-$12 total in materials tied up in the project, which I'm thinking is much less than I would have spent for another trip to Target to find a coordinating tray (is it possible to walk into Target and not spend at least $50?).

Now, what to do with the other ugly tray? Hmmmm.

Hoping you are finding ways to hide the ugly in your life,
Jenny

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Peace & Love But No Resolutions

Hope you are all having a great new year! I'm having a bit of post-vacation traumatic stress disorder, where returning from a lovely trip to visit the in-laws back into the real world of work and schedules is somewhat traumatizing and stressful. Not only did I get to visit with a lot of family I don't often see, I also got to visit with two old, dear friends and take in a Virginia winery, Potomac Point. Family, friends, wine, and gifts-- you can see where settling back into the old 9 - 5 (yeah, don't we wish?) would be, let's just call it "not as fun."

Coming back to the real world at the start of the new year has led to a few conversations about resolutions. I am not a fan of new year's resolutions. I feel like if you want to change something, you shouldn't have to wait for a special day to do it. Except for diets. Everybody knows you have to start diets on Mondays.

So, no resolutions for me, but I am trying to remind myself during this period of increased stress to be peaceful and loving. That's not always easy to do. To help me remember and focus on it, I've hung up some tags that I made for my words blocks, along with a matching wreath.

Hopefully my crafty reminders will help me find peace. If not, I brought back some wine from Virginia.

Shanti Om,
Jenny

And the haiku contest winner is....

Curlygirl is the winner of the holiday haiku contest! Thanks for submitting such delightful haikus (that rhymed!). Curlygirl, let me know what color paper you want and what initial you want for your cards.

To all others who participated, WOW! What a great bunch of poets you are! I was so inspired. And being filled with the spirit of giving (and not a little champagne), each person who submitted a haiku will also receive a thanks-for-participating prize. You cannot imagine how joy-filled I was each time I saw a new haiku had been written, so thanks to everyone who participated. I hope you had fun writing them! Much like Jell-o, there's always room for haiku.

Happy new year!
Jenny