Carrot Cake Cheesecake

Long time no post. Sorry guys! Being at school with no kitchen really takes a toll on being able to post my recipes. But big news! We just got an apartment...with a kitchen! Here's what it looks like...



I can't wait to cook in it! But anyway, Paula Deen was having a recipe contest using Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Which got me thinking...what could I make up with cream cheese? Here's what I came up with. Carrot Cake Cheesecake. I took some of Paula Deen's tricks and applied them to my recipe. The bottom crust is a carrot cake mix and the cheesecake part is made with carrot baby food. Sneaky sneaky ;)

Ingredients
-3 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese
-1 tablespoon cinnamon
-1 jar carrot baby food
-1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar
-3 eggs
-1/4 cup heavy cream
-1 tablespoon vanilla

Carrot Filling
-2 grated carrots
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-2 tablespoons melted butter

Crust
-1 box carrot cake mix
-1 stick butter
-1 egg

Directions
1) Mix the crust ingredients and press into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan
2) With a mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth
3) Beat in the rest of the ingredients (make sure you add the eggs one at a time)
4) In a small bowl, mix together the carrot filling (carrots, brown sugar, and butter) until completely incorporated
5) Now you have a choice. You can either mix this into the cheesecake batter OR you can pour half the batter into the pan and then pour the carrot mixture in the middle of the cheesecake and add the rest of the batter on top.
6) Pour all the batter into the pan
7) Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes until the top is golden brown and it's not completely jiggly
8) When the cake is done, slide a knife around the outside edge to loosen it from the pan (prevents cracking)
9) Put the cake back in the oven but turn the oven off. Leave the cheesecake in the oven with the oven off for an hour. (also prevents cracking by not shocking the cake with the temperature difference)

Brown Sugar Chewy Bread

I didn't die!!! I am so very sorry it's been so long since I updated my blog. I have been crazy busy! I got to spend this past weekend with some of the greatest people on the planet...my camp friends! I went back to VJGC to work for the weekend. It was wonderful and the kids were awesome! But anyway, I am back at school and realizing just how ready I really am for spring break! I haven't been able to cook much (no kitchen) but today while eating at the Rot (for those of you who don't go to Liberty, that is our "cafeteria"), I got to eat these delicious blondies for dessert! They reminded me a lot of a recipe that my mom used to make a lot when I was growing up. Chewy Bread. It's a lot like a blondie but better.

Ingredients
1 box light brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 stick butter (softened)
3 eggs
2 c. coarsely chopped pecans
2 c. self-rising flour

Directions
1) Mix the first four ingredients in a large bowl.
2) Add pecans.
3) Stir in flour a little at a time until a thick dough forms.
4) Press into a 9x12 pan.
5) Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
6) Cool, cut into squares.

Boss Bacon Burgers

Boss Bacon Burgers
Sooo...I was babysitting last Saturday night for my cousin, Corinne. After putting sweet little Joss to bed, I started doing some homework and turned on the Food Network for some background noise. What began as something to keep me company while I did my nursing math, soon became my main focus (as my usual with the Food Network). They were having a marathon on BURGERS!!! Having been on a diet for some time now, I hadn't had one in SO long. So, the next day I was craving burgers like CRAZYYY!!! I had to fix that. I forced my mom to go to the store with me after church to get the stuff. Here's what we made.




Ingredients
-2 lbs ground beef
-1/4 cup BBQ sauce
-1 tablespoon brown sugar
-1 tablespoon italian seasoning
-Dale's marinade
-1 and 1/2 yellow onion
-2 can mushrooms
-4 slices of bacon for INSIDE the burger
-8 hamburger buns
-more brown sugar
-however many slices of bacon you want on TOP of your burger
-other burger staples (lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup, etc.)

Directions
1) Sautee 1/2 an onion, 1 can of mushrooms, and 4 raw slices of bacon (all chopped into small pieces)
2) In a large bowl, incorporate the sauteed mixture with your hands.
3) Add in 1 tblsp brown sugar, italian seasoning, and BBQ sauce and mix well (feel free to add any more seasonings you want to at this point like salt, pepper, etc)
4) Form the hamburger into 8 equal patties. Marinate the patties in equal parts Dale's marinade and BBQ sauce (holy moley people)
5) Cook the hamburger patties in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat (we didn't wash the pan after cooking the bacon so it could cook in all that yummy bacon-ness...mmm). Once they've cooked you can place your preferred cheese over each patty, cover the pan and let it melt
6) After the hamburger is done, remove the burgers and sautee 1 whole onion (sliced) with 1 can of mushrooms (use the same pan...mmm) until the onions have turned golden-brown

***OK, this next part may sound weird but DO IT!!! it MAKES these burgers, I SWEAR!!!

7) Butter each of the hamburger buns (both top and bottom buns)
8) Top each of them with brown sugar and spread evenly
9) Broil the buns until the sugar on top has caramelized
10) Then, you're ready to build your burger--bun, burger, cheese, grilled onions/mushrooms/lettuce/tomato/mayo/ketchup/etc.!
11) Eat it...but try not to eat it too fast (although you'll be tempted to because it is so good)...enjoy it! :)

Peanut Butter Layer Cake

Here are some cakes that I did for the bake sale last week. They were already accounted for before the bake sale even started so I really didn't sell these AT the bake sale. It's a peanut butter layer cake with a crunchy peanut butter cream cheese icing. I figured that icing the same cake the same way twice would be boring so I mixed it up. So yeah, same cake, same frosting, different way of decorating.



To frost/decorate the reese's cake....
1) Frost the top of the bottom layer and put the other cake on top
2) Frost a thin layer of frosting on the entire cake to help seal in the crumbs
3) Apply a thicker, more decorative layer of frosting to the entire cake
4) This cake is roughly frosted for texture
5) Crush Reese's cups and scoop and press them onto the side of the cake

To frost/decorate the line-ey cake
1) Follow the first 3 steps of the other cake's directions
2) While applying the decorative layer, dip your offset spatula (or whatever you are using to frost the cake) in milk (i'm sure water would work fine too)
**This creates the "smooth look" of the frosting
3) Once you've frosted the whole cake smoothly, melt chocolate bark and scoop into a ziploc bag
4) Snip the very very teeny tiny end of the bag off
5) Gently start squeezing the bag over the cake going side to side
6) Every once in a while, stop, turn the cake, and begin squeezing the bag again (to get lines going in different directions




Ingredients
-2 cups AP flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 cup creamy peanut butter
-1 stick butter or margarine (softened)
-1 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup packed brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-3/4 cup milk
-peanut butter cream cheese frosting
*1 stick butter or margarine (softened)
*1 cup crunchy peanut butter
*1 package (3 oz) cream cheese(softened)
*1 tsp vanilla
*2 cups powdered sugar
*3 tbls milk

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 (9 in) baking rounds.
2) In a medium bowl, stir together flour and baking powder
3) In a large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat peanut butter, butter and both sugars for 3 minutes or until creamy.
4) Add eggs one at a time, beating well after eah addition. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low.
5) Add flour mixture alternatedly with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
6) Turn batter into prepared pans and spread evenly. Bake 20-30 minutes or until toothpick into the center comes out clean.
7) Cool cake completely in pan on wire rack.

Frosting Directions
1) In a lagre bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat softened butter, peanut butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until smooth ad fluffy.
2) Add powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons milk. Beat until blended. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes or until fluffy; adding remaining milk as needed for desired consistency.


*****Some things I will do differently next time
1) Double the recipe and make 4 layers...the cake was kind of short
2) Frost the cake as SOON as it is cool (the cake dries out really fast so you need to seal in the moisture asap)...it was hard to frost it when it needed to be because of all the other baking I was doing at the time.

Honey Bourbon Brown Sugar Pound Cake

Well guys, it's official. I have successfully made my FIRST pound cake. I was really super nervous because I know that it is really easy to mess up. I found this recipe out of a huge Good Housekeeping cookbook that I ordered online (I needed books to keep me from spending hours online looking at recipes...it was getting slightly ridiculous). This pound cake sounded really good and it involved cooking with (GASP) alcohol! (which was intriguing). I gave my dad the grocery list which included a trip to the ABC store (he said he hoped that someone from church saw him so that he could tell them that he was buying whiskey for his underage daughter) haha. It turned out splendidly...dare I say perfect. :) At the bake sale, one man bought a piece from me. I was really nervous because apparently he is a pound cake EXPERT. He came back to the bake sale to ask me how I made it because he actually thought it was GOOD! Yay! Victory!

Honey Bourbon Brown Sugar Pound Cake
Ingredients
-3 cups All-Purpose flour
-3/4 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-3/4 cup milk
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-4 tablespoons honey bourbon
-1 and 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened ***do not use margarine
-5 large eggs

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour tube pan
2) In a medium bowl, stirl together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
3) In another bowl, mix milk, vanilla, and bourbon.
4) In a large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat brown sugar, sugar, and butter
5) Increase speed to high and beat until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a timem beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low, add flour mixture alternately with milk mixture beginning and ending with flour mixture, scraping bowl occasionally with rubber spatula.
6) Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour 20 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched with finger and toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.
7) Cool in pan 10 minutes. Loosen cake from side and center of pan. Remove from pan, place on wire rack over waxed paper.



***There is an optional glaze that is brushed over the cake when the cake is still warm. I didn't use it because the cake was too darn good already :) but here is how you make it.

Ingredients
-2 tablespoons orange juice
-1/3 cup sugar
-2 tablespoons bourbon

Directions
1) In a small bowl, combine orange juice, sugar, and bourbon.
2) Brush mixture all over warm cake.
3) Cool completely.

Goodies Making Their Appearance at Friday's Bake Sale

Just to tempt you to come out and support the American Heart Association on Friday, I thought I'd give you a menu of some things that I will definitely be making. If you know for sure that you are going to come out and you want to go ahead and place an "order" so you know for sure it will be there, let me know and I will have it for you!

Cake Balls


Chocolate/Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies


Brownies (possibly mint, peanut butter, or crunch bar)


Lemon Bars (Paula Deen)


Fudge


Hidden Mint Cookies (Paula Deen)


Gorilla Bread (Paula Deen)


Peanut Butter Cake


Carrot Cake (Paula Deen)


Brown Sugar Bourbon Pound Cake


Chocolate Cavity Maker Cake


Hershey Bar Cake


Gooey Butter Cake (Paula Deen)


Banana Nut Bread


So, if you like what you see here, come out on Friday morning and get some yummy treats at Randolph Hospital...again, if you want to "order" something in advance, comment, facebook message, write on my wall, call, or email me! :) I'll give you a reminder on Friday to come and pick it up!

BaKe SaLe!!!

Hello loyal followers!!! I just wanted to let you know that I will be participating in a bake sale to benefit the American Heart Association this Friday! So if you are in the Asheboro/Randolph County, NC area and you want to help a great cause AND you have always wondered what my cooking ACTUALLY tastes like...stop by Randolph Hospital on Friday morning!

Thanks guys!
Jennifer

Superbowl Stuffed Brownie Cupcakes

This weekend, I fell off the "eating healthy" wagon. Well, when I say "fell off", I really mean "thrown off and got trampled by a herd of pregnant bison. And this is part of the reason. For the superbowl, I (with the help of my friends, Allison and Jen) made stuffed brownie cupcakes. What were they stuffed with? Reese's, Twix, York Peppermint Patties, and COOKIE DOUGH! Yum Yum Yum!

Ingredients
-To make this simple, I just used a box mix for Fudge Brownies and made it per the direcgtions for the "fudge-like" texture (I like fudge)
-Mini Reese's
-Mini Twix
-York Peppermint Patties
-Roll of chocolate chip cookie dough

Chocolate Ganache Icing
-1 bar of your favorite chocolate
-1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions
1) Mix up the brownie batter
2) Fill the cupcake tins up 1/3 of the way
3) Place your desired filling on top of the batter
4) Fill the cupcake tins up another 1/3 (batter should now be 2/3 of the way up the side)
5) Continue until you run out of batter
6) Bake at 350 for about 13 minutes (check on them, oven times vary)
7) Frost with ganache and use extra candy to sprinkle over the top of the cupcakes (to remember what's inside)

Directions for Ganache
***I am a college student and did not "scald" the cream like you are supposed to
1) Crush the chocolate into a bowl
2) Stick the cream in the microwave for 1 minute
3) Pour hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for a few minutes
4) Whisk the cream and chocolate together until there are no "pieces" of chocolate left and it is smooth

Microwave Baked Apples

This recipe stems from lack of a kitchen and a lack of ingredients. But what I did have was apples and a microwave...and that's pretty much all you need for this recipe. It was a perfect little afternoon "dessert" snack. My roommate said it tasted like apple pie filling. Enjoy!

Ingredients
-1 medium baking apple
-1 tbsp brown sugar
-2 tsp butter
-Cinnamon
-nuts, raisins, etc. (optional)

Directions
1) Wash and core apple
2) Pare a thin section of skin from top of apple
3) Fill center of apple with brown sugar and top with butter
4) Sprinkle with cinnamon
5) Cook uncovered in microwave 2 to 2 1/2 minutes at high or until almost tender
6) Let stand 5 minutes before serving


**Cook 2 apples 3 to 3 1/2 minutes at high. Cook 3 apples 4 to 4 1/2 minutes at high. Cook 4 apples 5 to 5 1/2 minutes at high.

Cranberry Orange Muffins

So, I wanted to blog about the best thing I ate today. First, I must start by saying that it took a lot to even get where we were going today. We had another blizzard and were stuck here all day in the dorm yesterday. It stunk. Hard. So today, we were determined to dig ourselves out of this hole and go somewhere. It took a LONG time to try to get Allison's car dug out, give up, and finally get my car to budge. It took a lot of elbow grease, time, girl-power, determination, and...(we might have had a little help from a nice man who pushed me out). But out we were! Finally free. We needed some sustenance after all that. La Carreta (our favorite Mexican restaurant) wasn't open...sad day so we went to Panera. Overwhelmed with the choices for pastries in this place, I asked the girl behind the counter what I her favorite was. I went with her suggestion (cranberry orange muffin) and didn't expect too much from it...I mean...it's a muffin. But Holy Moses!!! It was INCREDIBLE! I even went back up to the counter to tell the girl that she was my friend. :) Here's a clone recipe of the Panera Bread Cranberry Orange Muffin.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cranberries
1 egg
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon grated orange rind


Directions
1) Combine dry ingredients
2) Stir in cranberries
3) Beat egg, orange juice, oil and orange rind
4) Add to dry ingredients all at once
5) Stir just to moisten
6) Spoon into greased muffin cups (fill 3/4 full)
7) Spring tops lightly with a bit of sugar
8) Bake 400F 15-20 mins til lightly browned and firm to the touch

Bananas Foster French Toast

Mmmmm! I wish I could wake up tomorrow morning and smell this cooking! Maybe some of you lucky people with a kitchen can...while I sit in my dorm eating yogurt for breakfast :/

Ingredients
-4 large eggs
-1 cup heavy cream
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-8 tablespoons butter, divided
-8 large croissants, halved
-1/2 cup dark corn syrup
-1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
-1 cup maple syrup
-1 cup chopped pecans
-6 ripe bananas, halved crosswise and lengthwise
-1 teaspoon rum extract

Directions
1) In a shallow dish, whisk together eggs, cream, and cinnamon. In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Dip 4 croissant halves in egg mixture to coat both sides. Using a fork, remove croissants from egg mixture, letting excess mixture drip off. Place croissant halves in hot skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes per side or until lightly browned. Repeat procedure with remaining butter and croissant halves. Set aside and keep warm.

2) In a large skillet, combine corn syrup, brown sugar, maple syrup and pecans. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add banana halves and rum extract. Coat with the syrup mixture, and simmer 1 minute. Spoon over French toast. Serve immediately.

Snowman Milkshakes

I thought these were an adorable idea to either spruce up your homemade snow cream OR...if you're in the same boat that my sister is in today (a snowday with no snow) you can make your own milkshakes :) This recipe has one for a santa milkshake soooo...if you're really missing Christmas, I guess you could make that too.


Milkshake:
-2 cups vanilla ice cream
-1 cup milk
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-Raspberries or strawberries for Santa
-Whipped Cream

Whipped Cream:
-1 cup heavy cream
-3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-Red food coloring for Santa

Santa's belt or Snowman's buttons:
4 tablespoons chocolate chips

Directions
1) For the belt or buttons: Melt the chocolate either in a double-boiler or in the microwave. With a toothpick or paintbrush, paint a ghost face on the inside of a clear glass. Put the glass in the freezer while you make the milkshake and whipped cream.

2) For the milkshake: In a blender, combine ice cream, milk and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth.

3) For the whipped cream: Whip cream until almost stiff. Add sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat until cream holds peaks. Put into a piping bag.

4) Take the glass out of the freezer. Fill with the milkshake. Top with the whipped cream. Serve with a spoon and a straw.

Snow Shovels

Here we go again guys...it's another snowy day here in Lynchburg. No school...anywhere. That means there are lots of mamas trying to rack their brains to figure out how to keep their cabin-fevered whipper snappers from tearing the house apart. I ran into my anatomy professor yesterday and he told me it's been a ROUGH week trying to keep his kids occupied while stuck at home. So, I thought I'd do my part today and give you some super cute recipe ideas that would help fill the time on a snowy day such as today. First one...snow shovels.

Ingredients
-1 pkg. (16.5 oz.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar Dough
-12 pretzel rods, broken in half
-1 cup (6 oz.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Premier White Morsels, divided
-2 teaspoons vegetable shortening
-1/3 cup mini marshmallows
-White decorator sprinkles or sugars, sweetened flakes coconut (optional)

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease three baking sheets.

2) Break dough along pre-scored lines. Place 8 squares of cookie dough about 3 inches apart onto each prepared baking sheet. Insert broken end of pretzel rod into each square of cookie dough; flatten dough slightly to form a rectangle. Flatten each square slightly with fingers to form a rectangle, about 1 1/2-inches long by 1 1/4-inches wide. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

3) Bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately pat sides of each shovel with edge of knife to form straight sides. Cool on baking sheets for two minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

4) Line cooled baking sheets with wax paper.

5) Microwave 2/3 cup morsels and shortening in small, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 45 seconds; STIR. Morsels may retain some of their original shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10- to 15-second intervals, stirring just until morsels are melted.

6) Dip bottom 1-inch edge of each cookie shovel in melted morsels; scraping bottom of shovel along edge of bowl to remove excess. Place on prepared baking sheets. Immediately sprinkle dipped end of each shovel with remaining 1/3 cup morsels, mini marshmallows and sprinkles. Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until set. Store shovels between layers of wax paper in covered containers at room temperature.

NOTES:
• 1 3/4 cups NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Tub Dough can be substituted for the bar dough. Roll dough into 24, 1 1/4-inch balls.
TIP:
• Refrigerating dough shovels before baking helps to prevent cookies from spreading and retain their shape during baking.

Apple Cobbler

Cobbler-a deep-dish fruit pie with a rich biscuit crust, usually only on top. I love cobbler. Apple, Peach, Cherry...it's all good. This is my mom's recipe for the easiest cobbler ever. And man, is it good. This recipe is specifically for apple cobbler but feel free to use whatever fruit you want. Just as long as there is a syrup-ey liquid to go with the fruit, it will work just fine.

Ingredients
-1 cup self-rising flour
-1 cup sugar
-1 cup milk
-about 2 cups cooked apples--or your favorite fruit(pie filling...we use the apples that we have canned from our apple trees)

Directions
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2) Spread your fruit evenly in the bottom of a buttered 13 X 9 in baking dish
3) In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and milk
4) Pour the mixture over the fruit
5) Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown

White Trash

This is another favorite snack mix recipe...the super bowl is THIS weekend people!!! I first heard of "white trash" at my Anatomy & Physiology professor's house when his wife made it for us! It was awesome! Here's how you make it...

Ingredients
-1 package (10 ounces) mini pretzels
-5 cups Cheerios
-5 cups Corn Chex
-2 cups salted peanuts
-1 pound M&M's
-2 packages (12 ounces each) vanilla chips
-3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions
1) In a large bowl, combine first five ingredients; set aside
2) In a microwave-safe bowl, heat chips and oil on medium-high for 2 minutes, stirring once
3) Microwave on high for 10 seconds; stir until smooth
4) Pour over cereal mixture and mix well
5) Spread onto three waxed paper-lined baking sheets
6) Cool; break apart
7) Store in an airtight container

Puppy Chow

No, I'm not talking about the stuff your dog eats...in fact, this might not be such a good idea for dogs at all (chocolate). I'm sure most of you have had this before and would agree with me on how good it is. But anyway, puppy chow is a WONDERFULLY delicious snack food that would be perfect for a Super Bowl party. And did I mention it's delicious?

Ingredients
-9 cup Chex
-1 cup chocolate chips
-1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer the extra crunchy kind)
-1/4 cup butter
-1/4 teaspoon vanilla
-1 1/2 cup powdered sugar



Directions
1) Put cereal in large bowl
2) Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter
3) Remove from heat and stir in vanilla
4) Pour over Chex cereal, put into a large plastic bag with powdered sugar and shake well to coat
5) Spread mixture evenly on wax paper and allow to cool

Hershey Bar Cake

This recipe actually comes from the lady who does my hair...Kristene. She loves making this cake and I'm glad she does...and I'm glad she gives out the recipe :) It's a layered chocolate cake that uses 3 bars of Hershey's chocolate. Yummy!

Ingredients
-One box of milk chocolate cake mix (any chocolate box mix will do)
-1 small box of instant vanilla pudding
-3 eggs
-1 cup self rising flour
-1 cup of oil
-1 and 1/2 cups milk

Hershey bar Frosting
-8 ounce tub of cream cheese (room temperature)
-1 cup of 10x powdered sugar
-12 ounce container of cool whip
-1/2 cup of pecans (optional)
-3 Hershey bars or mini hershey kisses

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 325
2) Prepare 2 round cake pans with non stick spray then,
pour batter into pans and bake on 325 degrees for about 25 minutes
3) Let cool

Frosting Directions
1) Mix frosting
2) Break up or shave one of the chocolate bars in the frosting in to little pieces
3) Frost cake and place hershey squares on top of cake sticking out for an awesome cake
4) Keep in refrigerator
5) Even better the following day

Crunch Bar Brownies

Today...it's all about the chocolate :) Why? Because I am really craving it...and it's delicious. Something else thing that my mom used to always make was Crunch Bar brownies. She'd make them for sleepovers, youth group parties, or just for Julie and I to have after school. I don't think we've ever had left overs of these. DELISH!!!...we'll go the easy route and just use a boxed mix.

Ingredients
-Fudge Brownie Mix
-ingredients pertaining thereto
-1 jar marshmallow cream
-1 cup creamy peanut butter
-2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
-3 cups Rice Krispies cereal


Directions
1) Bake the brownies per the box directions
2) Cool
3) Spread the marshmallow cream all over the top of the brownies
4) In a small saucepan, melt peanut butter and chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly.
5) Remove from the heat; stir in the cereal.
6) Spread over marshmallow layer.
7) Chill before cutting.

Grasshopper Pie

Due to the overwhelming amount of winter weather we've seen here recently, I decided to fill you guys in on one of my FAVORITE frozen desserts...besides Coldstone's birthday cake remix...but that's beside the point. I'm talking about Grasshopper Pie. MMMMMM! I am in LOVE with anything mint/chocolate and this has the best of both worlds. And obviously, it doesn't hurt that it is so easy to make!

Ingredients
-1 Oreo pie shell
-1/2 gallon mint chocolate chip ice cream (softened)
-crushed oreos (the mint kind is good)
-1 (8 oz) tub whipped cream
-Magic Shell chocolate sauce

Directions
1) Once the ice cream has softened, spoon it into the 9 in Oreo Pie shell and spread flat
2) Top with whipped cream and drizzle with magic shell
3) Put pie in the freezer until the ice cream hardens...usually about 30-45 minutes
4) Garnish with crushed oreos

Dump Cake

Following my last post for Pineapple Upside Down Biscuits, I decided to share my mom's recipe for Cherry-Pineapple Dump Cake. For those of you who have had this stuff, you know it's addicting. I LOVE this stuff. The best part is...there's a reason it's called "dump cake"...you just dump it all together :)

Ingredients
-1 can (16 oz.) crushed pineapple
-1 can (20 oz.) cherry pie filling
-1 pkg. yellow cake mix
-1/2 - 2/3 c. chopped nuts
-1/2 c. butter

Directions
1) Grease 9x13 pan
2) Dump in pineapple with juice, spreading evenly
3) Pour cherry pie filling over pineapple, spreading evenly
4) Add dry cake mix evenly over fruit
5) Add nuts
6) Drizzle melted butter over top
7) Do not mix
8) Bake 350 degrees for 1 hour