Food for the Soul: Butterfinger Bars!

Sorry for being MIA last week - I've been having trouble getting my photos off my camera.  Need to get that looked at!

It's baby mania over here right now. A good friend and a cousin had babies back to back, 16 hours apart, at the same hospital last week.  So this week I'm delivering dinners and trying to soak up as much itty, bitty baby goodness as I can before {blink} they become 8 month old cutie patootie goodness.

Well, melt my heart.

I always labor (no pun intended) over what meal to take a new mom to be, but this time I picked my Smoked Cheese Pasta Bake - a healthy favorite in our regular dinner rotation.  However, I looked to Pinterest for a not so healthy dessert. I decided to try not one, but two new recipes. One for each momma.

First, I found these Pioneer Woman Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares via The Girl Who Ate Everything (no, not me, the blog by that name, silly). They were so tasty, there weren't any left to take pictures of.

Sidenote, if you look at my food Pinboards you will find an inordinate amount of lemon dessert recipes.

Second, I made the Butterfinger Blondies show above (found via Pinterest from Six Sisters Stuff).

Both desserts were amazing.  I ended up throwing out the last row of blondies because I literally couldn't stop going to the kitchen to snag little bites.

I modified the Butterfinger Blondie recipe a tiny bit:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
16 Fun Size Butterfinger Bars, broken into bits (I put them in a ziplock bag and gave them a good whack with my rolling pin)

1. Preheat your oven to 350°
2. In a mixing bowl, cream your softened butter and sugars together. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until well blended.
3. In another bowl, combine your flour, salt and baking soda. Whisk to combine.
4. Working with your mixer on low, start adding small amounts of your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients. Mix until just incorporated.
5. With a wooden spoon or spatula, stir in the Butterfingers.
6. Spread in a well greased 13" x 9" baking pan and back for about 25 minutes until the center is just set. Do not over bake! Part of what makes these so killer is their barely baked, gooey texture.

7. Cool completely.

Buttercream Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 or 3 cups powdered sugar

1 or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3-5 tablespoons of half and half
4 Fun Size Butterfinger Bars, broken per instructions above

Whip your butter with an electric mixer until it starts to get lighter in color. Add powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments and continue to whip with your mixer. When your sugar is completely incorporated, add vanilla and half and half to get the consistency you want.

When the bars are cool, you can spread your frosting on top, and sprinkle the Butterfingers over.

Living Room Facelift

One project I like to go back to from time to time is decorating my home. We are going to be moving in the next couple of months, so I'm not slapping paint on any walls at the moment, but I can work on little projects that can move with us. Like these pillows.

One side is that white minky fabric you can buy to make baby blankets. I just wanted something with an unexpected texture, and I didn't want pattern overload in here. The other side is Opal Gold from Joel Dewberry's Heirloom collection.

Big G thinks I made these pillows for him. He takes one to bed with him at night... I'll let him think that for a while!

Tips for Prepping Fabrics | Sewing School

This is the first in a new series I'm starting - Sewing School! My goal is have a tab on this site of sewing tutorials that even the most novice seamstress could use to teach herself to sew. (And yes, I did just use seamstress, not the more modern term "sewist" that I've seen around. Let's own it, ladies. And if you are a dude that likes to sew, just forgive me and roll with it!)

If you are making something that you think will get washed at some point (any clothing or blankets, but even soft toys - you know they are going to get slobbered on), you should pre-wash your fabric before you start your project.  This will naturally shrink up the the fabric. If you waited until after you put your project together, you might get some funky shrinkage... and all that time will have been wasted!

This information applies to cotton wovens and knits:

1. This is a really novel idea to me, but it's probably old news to you...  serging the raw edges of your fabric will keep it from unraveling in the wash. Preserve as much of that pretty new fabric as you can!
2. I wash mine in cold water, with a tiny bit of detergent. Consider using dye and scent free detergents, especially if you are giving the item away. Many people have skin sensitivities!
3. After I've dried it in my dryer, I iron it. It's a lot easier to cut out pattern pieces, not to mention more accurate!

I've done a fair amount of home dec sewing as well. Many of these fabrics say dry clean only.  I don't anticipate washing many of these items and so I don't worry about prepping the fabric... but if you are a stickler for this, follow the label!