Moving on, now that we're firmly entrenched in spring, I thought it would be a good time to write about spring cleaning. Don't worry, I won't regale you with stories of buying various cleaners (Lysol wipes suck) and Swiffer wipes (the dry ones rule, though I hate the smell of the wet ones), or put up pictures of my brand new dustpan (it's blue and oh so pretty!). Besides, this is a food-ish blog. So, since I think it's time I go through my recipe binder and start chucking things, I'll regale you with that story.
I actually have a couple of recipe binders. One is filled with recipes I've made and consider successful, and the other is filled with recipes that I have yet to try. Last night I threw a party, and pulled out a "new" recipe (in the sense that I hadn't made it before). It was Jell-O Dirt Cups (or, as I was calling them, Worm Food ... it was a bit of a theme party (and, if you felt bad about not being invited, then maybe now you feel less bad, eh?)). They pretty much looked like this (from the Kraft website ... I was too busy to take my own pictures):
The ingredients are instant chocolate pudding, milk (to turn the powder into pudding), Oreos, Cool Whip and gummy worms. This is NOT the kind of food I make for myself anymore, so the recipe went into the garbage, instead of into the Binder of Success. My friends seemed to like it, so there's the recipe for anyone who wants to make it at home. (My version was slightly different: (a) there was no vanilla pudding; (b) all of the Cool Whip was mixed in with the chocolate pudding; (c) the layers were cookie crumbs, Cool Whip/pudding mixture, more cookie crumbs, and gummy worms; and (d) I didn't try to pretend that the colorful strings of gelatin were "fruit snacks.")Also not making the cut are Moonbeam Cookies, which even I'm sad to see go. If you make these and take them to work, your coworkers will like you more. I can vouch for this from personal experience. I hope none of my colleagues read this blog, otherwise my office will become a chilly place indeed. (I didn't bother with the drizzle of "candy coating" (I'm assuming they can't call it "white chocolate" for legal reasons) because the first time I tried microwaving it, it scorched and there was smoke pouring out of my microwave.)
Next: Incredible Peach Cobbler. Tasty. I think that my good friends, KC and BJ, will "forget" to send me future invitations for this transgression. It was a big hit the one time I made it, which happened to be for a pot luck party at their place. C'est la vie. By the way, that white stuff on top is straight up sugar.
Pillsbury took a beating on the last two, so the next one offers a reprieve: Bisquick's Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake. I made it so long ago, I don't remember much about it. It's going into the garbage because it's made with "baking mix." This might be totally arbitrary on my part, but I'm keeping the recipes with flour and sugar, salt, baking soda and/or powder, etc. No baking mix. It still looks good, though, don't it:
And, finally, how good is this Black-Bottom Banana Cream Pie? Well, a few years ago I made this for someone's birthday. I bought the wrong kind of pudding (I didn't get the instant kind), and when it wouldn't set, I blamed my friend and her Lactaid milk (sorry, miss B!). I even went so far as to email Kraft to see if Lactaid jacks up instant pudding. Needless to say, the answer was that I was an illiterate jerk. Anyway, I proceeded to assemble per the recipe, and just tossed the whole thing in the freezer (never actually cooking the pudding). AND PEOPLE STILL ATE IT.
Well, tossing out 5 recipes isn't much, but it's a start :) And, if you make any of these, let me know how they turn out for you. Happy baking! Or refrigerating.
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