Sometimes you make food for yourself and then your cat eats it.

Let me revise that.  Sometimes you make food for yourself and then someone elses cat eats it.

I used to think I was an animal person.  I begged for a dog when I was younger, which my 13 year-old-self received and appreciated.  And I always imagined that Eric and I would have a pet someday. I think we even talked about this potential pre-marriage, if memory serves.

But now all I remember is a discussion we had a couple years ago about who would someday be responsible for feeding and caring for our future pet.  I assumed that since we both wanted the pet, we would both chip in, but Eric apparently had other ideas. (In his defense, he is terribly allergic to both cats and dogs.)

We finally came to the conclusion that since we were already bickering about our nonexistent pet, maybe we had better just hurry up and have some kids already.  We know we’ll take care of them.  Plus, they will probably beg for a puppy one day, and then we will be able to make them do the dirty work.

I’m not heartless, really.  I like pets.  Eric’s parents have cats, and I love it when they come snuggle next to me and start purring even before I move my hand to pet them.

But I lay down the law when it comes to my food.  Do you see this perfect little egg-bacon cup?  Envision a cat licking the top of it.  No thanks.  Obviously that is why there are no shots of bites being taken.  Good thing I made a double batch.

These little egg guys are probably the best idea ever.  I’ve seen them all over the internet and finally tried them. Now I know why they are everywhere.  It’s because they are delish.  I was wary when they first came out of the oven because the bacon didn’t look crispy enough to my liking, but it was actually perfect.  These are great because the egg stays warm even if you don’t get to eat it right away.  Like if you are too busy taking pictures of it. Also known as forfeiting your breakfast to the cat.

Bacon and Egg Toast Cups

Source: The Girl Who Ate Everything, who adapted it from Annie’s Eats

6 slices of bacon, uncooked
6 slices of bread
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400° F. Spray large muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a frying pan, cook bacon about 3-5 minutes, until partially cooked but not completely crispy. (Or bake in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes, placing the strips on a wire rack set in a baking sheet.) Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Cut out circles (about 3 1/2 inches) in each piece of bread using a cookie cutter or a drinking glass turned upside down.

Press the bread rounds into the greased muffin wells. Curl a piece of bacon around the periphery of each piece of bread, positioning it between the bread and the muffin tin to help keep it in position. This can be a little tricky until you get the hang of it. (I actually put the bacon in first then shoved the bread down in there.) Sprinkle a small amount of shredded cheese in the center of each piece of bread. Crack one egg over each piece of bread being careful not to break the yolks. You may not want to use all of the egg white. If you do you may need to adjust the cooking time to a little longer.

Once all the bread pieces have been topped with eggs, bake until eggs are cooked through to your liking (about 15 minutes is good) and bacon is crispy. Run a knife around the edge of each muffin well and pop the egg cups out. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

Eric and I spent the holidays with his family this year.  This means 3 things.  Games. Games. And more games.

Seriously.  I have never met a family who plays games like Eric’s family.  It is intense.  (My family doesn’t really do games.  We are usually too busy talking.)  So when I went to visit Eric’s family for the first time, I was kind of intimidated.

This was before Eric and I were engaged, and we were seriously thinking about getting married.  Staying with someones family for a weekend is one thing, but staying with them for a weekend knowing that one day soon you might be sealed to them for eternity is another thing.

Charades.  Mario Cart. Bowling. Every board game known to man.  And nertz.

Never heard of nertz?  Neither had I.  Imagine a giant table covered with thousands of cards.  Your goal is to get rid of all your cards by placing them on matching suits.  This may sound simple to the uninitiated, but that is only because you don’t know yet that some of them are on fire.  And some of the cards disappear when you get too close. And someone is hammering you repeatedly in the brain.

This is what playing nertz feels like to me.  I am horrible at it.  I have been playing it long enough that I have fun with it now, but I am still usually in the negatives while everyone else has like over 200 points. I decided to remedy this situation over the summer when we last visited.

That’s right people.  I cheated.  I cheated mercilessly.  I was not even close to reporting my points accurately.  It. Was. Awesome.

I know what you are doing.  You are silently crossing me off your list of potential people to ever play games with. (Everyone has a list like this right?) I know you won’t believe me when I say that I don’t cheat at any game except nertz.  That’s okay.  Maybe we should have a baking party instead. Then we can just eat cheesecake and forgo the hammer in the brain.

Don’t you just want to eat this right now? At Eric’s work party they used cranberries as part of the centerpieces, and were going to throw them all away at the end of the night.  I just couldn’t let those cranberries meet such a dismal end.  Even though Eric’s coworkers probably think I am part vulture now.

This cheesecake is from Cooking Light, so it’s not super heavy.  Next time I make this I will probably use a regular graham cracker crust, although I do think the chocolate one looks pretty.

Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake

Source: slightly adapted from Cooking Light

6 ounces chocolate graham crackers
4 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons cranberry raspberry juice
1 cup sugar
2  1/2 (20 ounces total) packages block-style 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (I couldn’t find plain so I used honey flavored.  I don’t think it matters.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 375°. Wrap outside and bottom of a 9-inch springform pan tightly with a double layer of heavy-duty foil.

Place crackers in a food processor; process until finely ground. Combine with butter. Press mixture into bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of prepared pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 8 minutes; cool on a rack.

Reduce oven temperature to 325°.

Place cranberries, sugar, and juice in a saucepan; boil. Cook 8 minutes or until cranberries pop and mixture is syrupy. Cool 20 minutes. Place mixture in a food processor; process 1 minute or until smooth.  Add a couple tablespoons of water if the mixture seems too thick for swirling on top of the cheesecake.

Combine 1 cup sugar and cheeses in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Beat in yogurt, vanilla, and salt. Add whole eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Place 2 egg whites in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Fold beaten egg whites into cream cheese mixture. Pour filling over crust. Spoon cranberry mixture over filling; swirl together using the tip of a knife. Place springform pan in a baking pan with a couple inches of hot water in it. (If you don’t have a big enough pan you can put a pan of water on a different tray in the oven, and place the cheesecake directly on another oven tray.) Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until center of cheesecake barely moves when pan is touched. (I had to leave mine a little longer than this so keep an eye on it.)

Turn oven off. Cool cheesecake in closed oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven. Run a knife around outside edge. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and chill 8 hours.

I recently taught a class of several teenage boys how to make trifle.  Through the course of the evening, they tried to convince me to replace the candy canes with Andes mints, the cocoa with dark chocolate, and the cream with eggnog; all this while yelling about how trifle is a rifle with a T and tying each other up with yarn. (To see if they could get out, of course.)  Sometimes you just forget how weird teenage boys are.  It was awesome.

My brother Nathan was there too, and he had fun telling them stories about our childhood while we were all whipping cream (not eggnog, I won that battle) and crushing candy canes.  I think their favorite one was the infamous microwave story.

Nate is my older brother and I pretty much did whatever he did for the first half of my life.  (This is why I never even tried mustard until I had reached a very ripe age, only to discover that I loved it).  I trusted him implicitly.

One time (when I was very young) I overheard my dad, who is an electrical engineer, mention something about microwaves at work. I asked Nate about it later and he told me that Dad made microwaves there.  If you tell a kid your dad makes microwaves, do you really think they are going to assume you mean the electromagnetic wave and not the appliance in their kitchen?  I am not an idiot.

Although you may not believe the above statement when I tell you that years later, my parents decided to upgrade their microwave.  Great! I said. Can I put spoons in this one? I assumed that the reason I couldn’t put silverware in our microwave was because it was the one Dad had brought home from work years before.  Our microwave looked older than the microwaves at my friends’ houses, and I assumed that this new and improved version would be able to handle some metal.  I had never complained about our spoon-free microwave because, hey, my dad made it, how cool is that?

My dad is probably one of the smartest men on the planet.  I have no idea why none of this intelligence was passed on.  At least I’m smart enough to make rifle with a T.

This is my favorite Christmas dessert and it is rapidly becoming a family tradition for us. It’s super rich.

Candy Cane Brownie Trifle

Source: Better Homes and Gardens; the brownie recipe is from Allrecipes.com

For the Brownies:

1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour an 9×13 pan.

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Remove from heat, cool for a while, and then stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix dry ingredients into the butter mixture, stirring just until moistened.  Spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.

Remove brownies from the oven and cool completely (if you are in a hurry stick them in the freezer).  Cut brownies into bite-size chunks and set aside.

For the trifle:

6 ounces chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cup half and half or cream
3/4 sugar
3 tablespoons light-colored corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup crushed candy canes (about 12 candy canes)

In a small saucepan combine chocolate chip and 3 tablespoons of butter.  Cook and stir over low heat until melted.  Stir in 1 1/4 cups half and half or cream, 3/4 cup sugar, and corn syrup.  Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat.  Boil gently, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes or until sauce is reduced to about 2 1/3 cups.  Remove from heat.  Let cool.  Stir in 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract.  Cool to room temperature; mixture thickens as it cools. (Freezer also helps here).

For whipped cream, in a chilled mixing bowl combine cream, powdered sugar, and peppermint extract.  Beat with the chilled beaters of an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form.

In 16 dessert cups, alternately layer brownie chunks, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and crushed candy canes, ending with whipped cream and candy canes.  Serve immediately.

If you want to do this all in one trifle bowl, place 1/3 of the brownie chunks in a 3-quart glass bowl.  Drizzle with 1/4 of the chocolate sauce.  Sprinkle with 1/4 of the candy canes.  Top with 1/3 of the whipped cream.  Repeat layers twice more.  Drizzle with remaining chocolate sauce; sprinkle with remaining candy canes.  Serve immediately.