Taco Pasta Bake and Eclair Cake

First up is the Taco Pasta Bake. I have absolutely no recollection of what the exact ingredients were. It didn't have enough seasoning for me, and the taco bake that I always make anyway tastes way better.
This one used penne noodles and a lot less cheese...so that was probably the problem.

Crunch up some tortilla chips on top. I just use my taco bake as a dip to use with tortilla chips. Cause especially when you reheat it, the tortilla chips get kinda soggy.

Final result: would not recommend it.

This next one on the other hand, I definitely would recommend and have given out the recipe to many people so far. It is seriously the best thing I have ever eaten and it's sooo easy!! Fist layer an 8x8 pan with graham crackers...

Then whip up a small box of French vanilla instant pudding...so tasty!!

Let it sit for a few minutes, then add a tub of whipped topping. After I was done making the whole recipe I pretty much licked this bowl clean. The best cream/filling ever!

Add half of the cream on top of the graham crackers, then add another layer of graham cracker, another layer of cream, and one last layer of graham crackers. All of my crackers kept breaking, so the second batch I made of this 2 weeks later was a lot more attractive.

Then melt 1 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate and 1 Tbsp. of butter, add 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 tsp. of vanilla and a little bit of milk.

Pour that on top and your done! Refrigerate it over night to get the graham crackers soft and easy to cut through. Seriously make it now, you will not regret it.

The graham crackers get easier to layer the more you make it. So hopefully it will look better than this first slice. But it won't matter anyway because it is so delicious.

Bake Sale

Here are two of the desserts that I made for our bake sale for NAMI last month. The third recipe was cookies and cream cupcakes, which I have already shown on here.
First up was Chocolate Swirl Blondies. Making the chocolate part...
Pour that into the pan...

Next make the blondie part...

Pour on top and make swirls with a toothpick...

I would suggest making both parts and then alternating pouring, because as you can see, they didn't really swirl together very well.

Caught a slice shot as I was bagging them up for sale. I didn't really like the blondie part, but they sold really well and everyone said they were good.

Next up, Lollipop Swirl Cookies. First you make some dough...

Take half of it and dye it a color of your choice...

Refrigerate them for an hour then roll both sections out on wax paper. (Which was impossible to do since the paper kept scooting all over the counter, I don't know what you are supposed to do to stop that.) I had to roll out the white part on the counter, which made it stick a little.

Slap both sections together and roll up like a log. No that is not a white turd...

Cut into slices and stick a lollipop stick in them.

Bake, and here's what you get.

Then I arranged them in my orange bucket to sell.

I bought some chocolate eggs to fill up the gaps in between the cookies, but there weren't any gaps. I didn't think they would fill up the bucket that well.

Here you can see the eggs I tried to squish in between. These were also good despite them not having any frosting.

My Deluge of Fabulous Neighbors

Over the last 2 years I've had quite an array of interesting (psycho) neighbors. The first noticeable problem were the elephants that lived upstairs for my first year and a half. My friends nicknamed them "The elephants" after visiting my apartment 10 minutes into their vacation. There was a guy and a girl that lived there, both in their early 20s. They constantly stomped when they walked and it sounded like they enjoyed throwing hand weights across the room. Every once in a while a Mustang with dealer plates would come over and there would be very loud sex noises on those nights. So I figured the car dealer guy was the girls boyfriend, but oh wait! There were also sex noises when it was just her and her roommate. So obviously she was sleeping with 2 different guys but they both knew about each other. Then there were the fights between the 2 roommates with lots of screaming, crying and throwing things. Oh and they had a cat (which isn't allowed) that would run back and forth across the room, sometimes while they were having sex. Early last fall I noticed that the girl wasn't around anymore, so they must have broken up and she moved out. So it was quiet for about 2 months, until the guy that lived up there (Lance) went out of town for a couple of months and let some friends stay there. They had parties literally every night until I was forced to call the cops on them when I heard very loud slamming noises and glass breaking. I talked to my landlord the next day and it turns out that there were holes in the walls the size of bowling balls and the broken glass was a huge mirror that hangs on the bathroom wall. The landlord had to take Lance to court to get his friends out of there and they proceeded to clean out the apartment over the span of a month. Now I'm not sure who lives there, because some people were moving in last month but I haven't seen them since. At least it's quiet, but who moves all of their stuff in and then takes off??? Next up, the apartment next door. The neighbors there have always been quiet, but I did have this problem last summer.... That would be a ton of junk piled up next to my back door. And a lawn chair covered in bird crap.

This lovely mess led to a ton of flies getting in my back door every time I had to do laundry. I don't even remember what it took to get them to clean up, but they moved out soon after anyway.

Then new people moved in in December. They are also fairly quiet, although most nights for awhile it sounded like they were body slamming each other. Which led to the entire building shaking over and over again around 9 PM. They too started piling up their trash. This is a picture of 6 bags of trash!! I figured I needed to nip this in the bud before the summer flies came so I left a lovely little note.

After I posted this note, 2 more bags were added to the heap. So the landlord had to tell them to clean up, and it has stayed clean ever since.

I'm sure I'm forgetting countless other stories, but I am certain there will be more to come. Like last week when one of my drunken neighbors backed their car into the gas meters. When I came home Ameren was there hooking up new pipes and waiting to relight my pilot lights. At least for now it's quiet and stink free, but we'll see what new vagrant will move in next.

Peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes and skillet lasagna

Another try at bake it in a cake. Used a box of devils food cake mix with mini Reese's peanut butter cups. Peanut butter and chocolate buttercream...amazing.

Finished product.

Inside shot. The peanut butter cups were a little heavy and most of them sunk to the bottom, so I'd push them in from an already filled cup next time.

Next up, skillet lasagna. I had to go buy a deep skillet to make this one. You cook the meat then start layering some sauce and ricotta.

Then add some no boil noodles.

Cover and simmer.

Keep layering and add lots of cheese! It was really good and tasted just like it was made in the oven.