Tips and Tricks: Better Box Cake

It's no secret that I love to bake. However, making something from scratch can be time consuming and expensive, and between classes and precious naps, who has the time? 

"Not I," said The Great Dawn.

"So, you want me to just make something.... from a box?"

"SURE!"

I'm not here to make master chefs of you, just make you seem like one. So here it is:
My number one super secret to making any box cake or brownie mix is- Vanilla.

It doesn't seem like much, but one tablespoon of some of that stuff and your cake will be so moist and fluffy, your friends will wonder if you hired their grandmothers to make this baked awesomeness. 

The great thing about box cakes is that they don't take forever to make, and you can get as creative as you want!

Here's some more ideas you may want to try:

• Adding chocolate chips
• Swirling food coloring in light colored batter
• Pecans or walnuts (I haven't had much luck with almonds)
• M&M's
• Cadbury eggs
• Cereal (Fruity Pebbles or Cookie Crisp would be awesome in brownies)

If you're decorating your cake or brownies with sprinkles, it'd be really neat to add some into the batter.
  
If you're making cupcakes, You can place a fun sized candy bar, like a resee's, in the pan or a ball of cookie dough.
  

If you've tried anything crazy and awesome, comment! Let me know how it turned out and I might add it to this or a later post!

Croissant Chocolate Goodness

My friend Jessica gave me this idea. We tried it after one of our stir-fry nights and it was totally awesome. I don't know how many others are as obsessed with Nutella as I am, but if you aren't, you are about to be my friends. 

This recipe doesn't really require any measuring. Just do what feels right in your soul.

What you need:

• Nutella
• 1 can of croissants
• a couple handfuls of pecans (walnuts would also work)

Preheat oven as specified on croissant package. Refer to package for cooking times as well.

Open up your can of croissants and lay them out on your cookie sheet/baking pan. 

Spread some of that nutella goodness on them and sprinkle with pecans. 

Roll up your croissants. Add more nuts if you want and pop them in the oven until golden brown. 

Tell me that doesn't look amazing... I dare you.

Let cool and enjoy!

Peter's Favorite: Shrimp Pasta

No matter what I make, after almost two and a half years, Peter still says this is his favorite meal that I have ever made.


This is a pretty easy recipe, and you can tailor it to your liking. Get creative! That's when you'll start to surprise yourself. Don't forget to read through first, just to make sure you have everything you need. 


Pics to come later!!!


What You'll Need:

• 1 lb- Pasta of your choice (I like penne or manicotti)
• 1 jar- Bertolli's Four Cheese Rosa Sauce (my favorite!)
• Parmesan Cheese
• 1 lb- shrimp, shelled and deviened, already cooked
• Butter
• A bit of salt and pepper to taste

This is totally optional, but if you've ordered pizza recently, more specifically, Papa John's, then I would get some of their special seasoning to put in the sauce. That stuff is all kinds of good. Two packets can make a big difference.

First, start boiling some water. A drop or two of oil should keep your noodles from sticking together, if you're worried about that sort of thing. Go ahead and throw your salt and pepper in there too. 

While you're waiting for the water to boil, you can make sure the tails are off of your shrimp. I always forget to thaw mine out ahead of time. If this is you, just put them in your colander and run it under some water until they aren't sticking together anymore. 

By now, your water should be boiling, at which point you should stir in your pasta. If it's not, no worries! Go ahead and put your sauce in your small pot. Turn the heat on low and don't forget to stir it every once in awhile. If you opted for the seasoning packets, empty one of the packets into the sauce along with some parmesan cheese. Most people like to top their pasta with this, but I love cheese, so into the sauce it goes! After your pasta has been cooking for about 5-6 minutes, you can turn the heat for the sauce up to about halfway between medium and high.

Once all your shrimp are tail free, put about a spoon full of butter in a frying pan along with the other packet of seasoning, and turn the heat on high. Once it starts to melt throw some shrimp in there about a handful at a time. When they start looking a tiny bit brown on the side, into the sauce!

Once your pasta noodles are al dente (after 7-10 min of boiling) go ahead and drain them. Do not rinse! After draining the water, dump it back in the pot and mix in the sauce. 

There you go! 

A dish like this goes great with some garlic texas toast and peas. 

Feedback, comments, let me know how I'm doing! How did this turn out for you?

Things you should always have on hand

Once school starts back, I'm going to commit to cooking at least once or twice a week to save up my meal plan and also to have something to write about. I'll post my grocery list for the week if you want to follow along. I like to get things in larger sizes because the unit price is usually cheaper which means I'll be making things that have the same ingredients so they don't go to waste. Hopefully that makes sense...

That being said, there are a few things you should always have at your disposal, because you'll probably be using them a lot. 

• sugar
• butter (I prefer margarine)
• flour
• vanilla extract, or the cheap stuff (I haven't noticed a difference in the two)
• your favorite cereal(Peter likes Fruity Pebbles)
• vegetable oil
• a colander 
• mixing bowls
• a cake pan
• cookie sheet/baking pan
• at least two pots (one larger, one smaller)
• at least two frying pans (same as pots)
• cooking utensils (spatula, stirring spoons, a whisk if you're into to that sort of thing, etc.)
• microwave (most dorms have these available)
• POT HOLDERS
• a kitchen!

I only say this because it's amazing how you never realize that you don't have something until you really need it. My freshman year I was trying to mix cake batter in one of my pots because I didn't have any bowls. To make it worse, we were using folded paper towels as pot holders. I don't recommend it.

New Blog!

Hey everyone!


This first post is to sort of just tell you what this is all about and possibly explain some stuff.


This is a blog where you can find all sorts of recipes for most occasions that are college-budget friendly.  For those of you who like to run through your meal plans really quickly, want to impress somebody special, or just hate that cafeteria food, I have a feeling you're going to like this blog, provided I keep it updated. :|


I don't have a working camera at the moment, and I'm just getting started on this blog, so for the next few weeks you'll have to be patient and use your imagination of what things should look like until I can come back later and post pictures. I'm going to post a few recipes to get this thing started, and it probably isn't going to magically get popular over night. So if you're one of the lucky stumblers or pinners to find this early on, welcome! Keep this for later when we really get cooking!


Happy Blogging/Pinning/Stumbling!


~The Great Dawn