Holy Dutch Ovens Batman!

Elyse got a kick out of the comment I left her saying, "Holy Turnovers Batman!" I can't take full credit, however. I was inspired by a Twitter reply from Clara (the awesome genius behing iheartcuppycakes.com). Ever since then, I can't get the "Holy *insert word here* Batman" phrase out of my head!

Anyway, I totally got the deal of the CENTURY at TJ Maxx yesterday! If you're in the market for a Dutch oven (or two), you really need to get in your car and head over there right now. Even if you don't need one, this deal is too good to pass up! If they don't have them at TJ Maxx, never fear! Marshall's has them too! I bought these two Cuisinart enamel cast-iron dutch ovens for a fraction of their price! The red one is a 7 quart round Dutch oven (or covered casserole), and it was on clearance for $49! It's a $129.95 value according to cuisinart.com!
The blue one is 5.5 quart oval Dutch oven, and I stole it for $39! It's $99.95 at cuisinart.com! If you're counting, I saved $141.90!! My head is spinning with ideas to use these things. I want to make bread using the famous method mentioned in the NY Times about cooking it in a 500F Dutch oven... I wanna make soup... stew... I might even learn to braise. Oh the possibilities! If you have a favorite recipe using a Dutch oven, please suggest it! And then get to TJ Maxx FAST!
Oh I almost forgot! I also found this Chicago Metallic checkerboard cake pan set for $5.99 (just in case a certain cake wins this month's poll over at "The Cake Slice"). And they had a bunch of P.B. Loco peanut butter for $4.99! I've seen other bloggers talk about this stuff, so I had to try it. And how could anyone pass up Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavored peanut butter?
By the way, I just did a store locator search on the P.B. Loco website. Turns out they sell it at a bunch of local grocery stores near me!

Reviews: Dean Jacobs® Cupcake Mix & Red Velvet Cupcake Mix

UPDATE: Wow I got so many comments and e-mails from people thinking I'm some sort of evil cake mix lover! Dudes?! Have you no faith? I love baking from scratch, and I do prefer the flavors and textures of scratch-baked goods. In case you haven't noticed, 90% of the stuff on my blog is FROM SCRATCH! But I grew up on cake mix, so it will always have a place in my heart. I'm never gonna become a cake mix Nazi and rule cake mix out of my life! So chill and have faith that I'm not some cheapazoid floozy who's cheating on her flour and baking powder! ;D

Just a heads up, you're gonna see a LOT of reviews here over the next few weeks. I went through all the baking mixes I've acquired from TJ Maxx, Ross, and Marshall's. I noticed a few of them were creeping up on their expiration date. So I made two of them for wing night, and I'm going to make the other one soon as well. Then last week I was contacted by three separate companies about trying their products in exchange for a review on my blog. The first was POM Wonderful. Ya know, the pomegranate juice guys?? I've been a huge fan of POM for a while now (PS: POM Cherry is the BEST!), so there was no way I'd turn them down! I'm curious to try POM in some baking recipes!The second was Miss Muffet's. They package bakery mixes, and they sent me a mix for Lemon Dream Cupcakes and Caramel Pecan Cake with Maple Glaze. I'm super excited to try them! The third company to contact me was Glass Jar Goodies, and they sent a mix for White Chocolate Razzleberry Cookies (which sound super delicious!). I can't wait to test and review all of these products!

But first let's get back to the cupcake mixes from TJ Maxx. Tuesday, I made Dean Jacob's Cappuccino Cupcake Mix & Latte Frosting Mix ($5.99), as well as Red Velvet Cupcake Mix with Cream Cheese Frosting ($7.99). I couldn't find any sort of brand name on the red velvet cupcake mix. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. NOTE TO COMPANY: PUT YOUR BRAND NAME ON YOUR PRODUCT SO THAT I CAN FIND MORE IF I'M INTERESTED!

Okay, let's do things in some sort of organized manner...

In the left corner: Dean Jacobs® Cappuccino Cupcake Mix
In the right corner: "Anonymous" Red Velvet Cupcake Mix On the bag of Dean Jacob's mix...
Trying to be cute? Or just plain stupid? The mixes and their respective ingredients... BATTER!!! The best part! Ready to bake! Cooling... the boring part...

SO WHO WINS??? After careful consideration (and massive taste-testing), here are the results:

Red Velvet
Flavor =5 - The flavor of the red velvet cupcake was OUTSTANDING! It didn't have the harsh chemical aftertaste that most box mixes have. I couldn't stop licking the batter out of the bowl!
Texture =5 - The texture of the red velvet cake was similar to a homemade cake.
Frosting =5 - DELICIOUS! The frosting mix contained only confectioners' sugar and vanilla (I guess powdered vanilla??). I give the credit to the cream cheese and butter that the recipe called for!

Cappuccino
Flavor = 3 - The cappuccino cupcake definitely had a noticeable chemical taste. Like I said, I couldn't stop licking the bowl of red velvet batter, but when I would lick the cappuccino batter I was not pleased.
Texture = 5 - It was exactly like the box mix texture we all know (and some of us love), extremely soft and fluffy.
Frosting = 2 - Gross, gross, gross! And way too sweet! The dried coffee gave it a strong, bitter aftertaste.

RED VELVET IS THE CHAMP! But is it worth $7.99?? Sure, if you REALLY don't feel like getting out your flour and cocoa powder... That's up to YOU!

Sisters Gourmet Cinnamon Snickerdoodle Cookie Mix

As most of you know by now, I'm a frequent shopper on the gourmet food aisle at TJ Maxx. When I bake the stuff I buy, I like to post my reviews just so you guys know what's good, as well as what to avoid. Usually the products aren't bad. (I wouldn't say they're worth their gourmet price tag, but they typically aren't horrible.) Well, friends, I found a horrible one: Sisters Gourmet Cinnamon Snickerdoodle Cookie Mix. Save your $3.00, and go buy a bag of all-purpose flour with it! That's pretty much all you get with this mix. The ingredients that came in the cookie dough mix were flour, sugar, and baking powder. It also came with a packet of cinnamon sugar. The instructions tell you to blend the cookie dough mix with shortening and an egg. This alerted me because there is NO flavoring whatsoever in these cookies. Not butter, and certainly not vanilla. Ew! I continued on.
I rolled the little balls of flavorless cookie dough in the cinnamon sugar and baked them just until the edges were set.
The centers were still gooey, but I took them out to ensure chewy cookies. Boy was I mistaken! When they cooled, they turned into flavorless cinnamon sugar hockey pucks. Disgusting! Worst of all, they had the "Captain Crunch" effect... ya know how it cuts the roof of your mouth? Let's put it this way: I wouldn't take them if they were free.
If you have a box of this mix already sitting in your pantry, you might be able to save them by using butter instead of shortening and adding at least 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. But don't get your hopes up.

Lollipop Tree® Blondie Mix w/ Belgian Chocolate

Before Stephanie left, I want the two of us to bake one last thing together. We were originally going to make cookies, but I couldn't think of anything except the same old boring cookies like chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin. Thank goodness I have a "pantry" (AKA cardboard box full of groceries that I don't want my parents or brother getting into) in my room overflowing with various mixes from TJ Maxx and other places of the sort. We decided to make these blondies because they would be easy to pack in a container to take with us on the 4.5 hour roadtrip back to her house. They tasted really delicious, but making them was slightly confusing. The only 2 ingredients mentioned in the instructions were 9 tablespoons of butter and 1 egg. When we mixed it all together, it was as stiff as cookie dough (I thought it was strange that the alternate instructions for "Chocolate Chip Cookies" were exactly the same, except for forming the dough into balls and baking on a cookie sheet). There was no way this stuff was going to magically transform into a blondie in the oven... a giant square cookie maybe, but definitely not a blondie! We starting adding water 1 tablespoon at a time until it looked like normal brownie batter (9 tablespoons total). We also added some chopped walnuts because we're awesome like that. Then we baked it according to the directions. The final result was a deliciously moist, cake-like brownie. They tasted so good that my mind totally wandered away from the fact that I was blogging them, and I didn't even get a picture of the finished product. Just take my word for it that they looked and tasted fabulous. I totally recommend this mix if you're into spending $3.99 for an 8x8 pan of brownies!

See? You are all witnesses that there is no mention of adding liquid!Stephanie chopped some toasted walnuts. Then I cut the butter into the mix.One egg is added.Aaaannnndddd... you end up with a bowl of cookie dough!Until you add 9 tablespoons of water!

And that's where the pictures stop. But you get the point. Now go shopping!

Some say I'm the "Queen of TJ Maxx!"

And those people are CORRECT! Stephanie L. (AKA Boof) and I went to TJ Maxx and Marshall's today, and I went crazy on the food aisle... as usual. I already had most of the Lollipop Tree mixes they had. But I found Blondie Mix and Blueberry Tangerine Bread Mix. Then I found more cupcake mix! It was expensive, but I'm such a sucker for anything with the word 'cupcake' on it.

$3.99................$4.49........................$7.99...........

I'm going to make a drop-down menu for product reviews, but I can't figure out a way to make them fit. When I type "Lollipop Tree Banana Chocolate Chip Monkey Bread Mix," the menu extends all the way into the entries and the arrow disappears. If anyone knows how to set the width and wordwrap for a drop-down menu with links, that would be awesome!

Showdown: The Battle of Monkey Bread!

Last week, my cousin Stephanie and I went to TJ Maxx. She and I both love to bake (she's the one who instilled in me the desire to own a bakery one day)! We cruised the gourmet food department for lots of baking mixes... hahahaha oh just you wait until you read my next entry! Anyway, one of the things we found was Monkey Bread mix, but we couldn't decide on which flavor to buy. All of the sudden we had a stroke of genious, "You buy one, I'll buy the other. We'll bake them together and see which one is better!" So yesterday she came over and the Battle of Monkey Bread commenced!

In the yellow corner, weighing in at 1 lb. 9 oz., BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MONKEY BREAD!!
In the blue corner, weighing in at an identical 1 lb. 9 oz., CINNAMON CHIP MONKEY BREAD!!

On the left, my Banana Chocolate Chip dough.
On the right, Stephanie's Cinnamon Chip dough.Stephanie, pinching the dough off in Tbsp. size balls and rolling them in raw sugar.Pouring melted butter on top before baking.Time to get down to business! Both pans go in the oven for 30 minutes. Both pans inverted on a plate.


Then drizzled with a delicious glaze!


THE RESULTS: ........IT'S A TIE!!!

Truthfully, one winner could not be established. It was pronounced by all taste-testers that both the Banana Chocolate Chip Monkey Bread and the Cinnamon Chip Monkey Bread were outstanding competitors! If you see these at your local TJ Maxx, I encourage you to try both!

Dean Jacobs® Cupcake Mix: White Chocolate & Raspberry

The winner of Cupcake Poll #19 is... White Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Raspberry Frosting! I bought the Dean Jacobs mix at TJ Maxx a few week's ago. The cupcakes were really easy to make. This was the first time in a long time that a recipe actually yielded exactly as many cupcakes as stated. The box said "Makes 12" and I got 12. What a miracle! The cupcakes came out very nice. They are soft and yummy. But they do not taste like white chocolate. They taste like a plain white cake mix with a very faint hint of raspberry (actually more like strawberry). The frosting doesn't taste like raspberry. It has a strange fruity taste, so I added some extract to help it out. We didn't have any raspberry flavoring, so I used about 1/4 teaspoon of strawberry flavoring. Overall, I'd say they really taste like Betty Crocker cupcakes covered in store-bought strawberry frosting. Delicious... but not quite worth $5.99.

IngredientsMixing for 2 minutes...

Ready to be baked for 16 minutes...

Cooling for 20 minutes...

Tada!

Overall rating on a scale of 1-5
Moistness: 5
Tenderness: 5
Frosting: 2

PS: I'm working on an entry for tomorrow complete with a new recipe! I'll give you a hint... What's cool, creamy, and peach colored?