Brownie Covered Oreos

Yup, that's right. Brownie. Oreo. yum-o
I found this recipe here and her pictures are waay better than mine, so go take a peek!
Start with a brownie mix-homemade or boxed. Mix it up then dunk the Oreos. I would suggest tapping a bit of the excess off, but making sure there's still some on the bottom. (I found that the ones I tapped too much off of were a little bit crunchy) I followed her advice and they came out perfectly. I think the key is to run around the edges with a knife right out of the oven. They come out looking like this, but after you do the knife thing they look more like a cookie.

Lion House Rolls

♫Oh the weather outside is frightful...♫ Actually it really isn't all that frightful, but bad enough for be to make some soup and yummy rolls! Lion House Rolls is my favorite yeast recipe to make-they turn out so pretty and tasty every time. I recently watched this video to try and perfect their method of making them so lovely. I'm a ways off perfect, but closer than I once was.
I love this dough!

Before 2nd rise:

After rise, ready for the oven:

Yummmy! Don't forget to brush with butter when they're hot!

Candy Cake

OK-so this cake was super easy! I totally copied the idea from the internet (I just googled candy cake and a few like this one came up). I just made a yellow cake, frosted it with chocolate frosting and put on the Kit-Kats and M & M's. I made it for the YW auction-I hope someone bids on it! :)

Caramel Apples!

For some reason this year we didn't get around to carving pumpkins-actually there is a reason, a good one really-the flu. Oh yeah, last week was fun. Anyway, so I didn't feel like a bad mom, we did caramel apples instead. I love these little caramel bits! They melted quick, went on the apples beautifully and tasted soo good!
Gavin's creation:

Banana Streusel Muffins

Yum, overripe bananas-gross.
I needed to do something with them soon, so I tried this recipe for our family recipe swap this month. I think they turned out pretty good, if anything, they could actually have a little more banana flavor. Here is where I got the recipe-you can check out other people's reviews here too if you want.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
STREUSEL:
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter or margarine

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. In a small bowl, beat eggs, sour cream, butter and bananas; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full.
For streusel, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; cut in butter. Sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies & Father's Day Kisses

Janet gave me this recipe (which I believe she got here) and it is so yummy! A little time comsuming, but worth it. I've been trying to take better pictures, hopefully these ones are OK. Here's the recipe too:

Title: Cinnabun Cookies

Description:Cinnamon rolls cookies-easy

Ingredients:

1 pouch (1lb 1.5 oz) Sugar cookie mix

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions:Heat oven to 375*In a large bowl mix cookie mix, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Stir in butter and egg until soft dough forms*On a piece of wax paper shape 1 tbsp cinnamon in a line about 5 inches long. Using floured fingers shape 1 tbsp dough into a rope about 5 inches long. Press one side of dough into the cinnamon.*On greased cookie sheet coil dough rope tightly. Cinnamon side facing center, into a cinnamon roll shape. Press end of rope to seal. repeat with remaining dough. Place cookies 2 inches apart*Bake 7-10 minutes. cool 1 min then remove from cookies sheet.

In a small bowl mix glaze ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over cookies

Number Of Servings:2 dozen

Also, we are thinking about having the YW make these Krispy treat "Kisses" for their dad's for Father's Day:

Super easy! Except, one kiss takes a whole batch of the krispy treats! I used Cocoa Pebbles this time, but I think if we do decide to do this, I will just buy the big bags of cereal.

I found these funnels for 92 cents at Walmart in the auto dept. I ran them through the dishwasher, and they worked perfectly.

German Chocolate Bars

I tried this recipe the other day. I think they turned out pretty good. The only thing I would change would be not to put them in the refrigerator-it made them too hard. Here's some terrible pictures of my work. (I really need to learn how to take better photos)

Not like riding a bike...

Apparently you can forget how to frost/ice a cake. As proven here:













What a mess!
I took a Wilton cake decorating class a long time ago and obviously I didn't retain much. Oh well, at least Gavin guessed that the orange blobs on top were supposed to be carrots! And, the "G" in the middle was for him. He was watching me and he thought that would be a good idea. I will say though that the cream cheese icing I made tastes so yummy!














If you are into pretty cakes (cupcakes actually) and new ideas, check out this blog! I love those flowers she did with the candy!

Cookie Swap

Andes Peppermint Crunch Chunkies

Gavin and I tried a new cookie recipe this afternoon and they are super good! So good, I can't stop eating them! Here's the recipe:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup sweetened coconut
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans (I left these out)
1 1/2 cups Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter brown sugar and sugar until fluffy (about 3 minutes). Beat in egg and vanilla. On low speed, add baking soda, salt and flour. Mix completely. Stir in oats, coconut, pecans and Andes Peppermint chips.
Measure out 2 Tbs for large or 1 Tbs for small cookies. Place round balls on greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Press lightly. Sprinkle some of the remaining chips on top of each cookie. Bake for 20 min for large cookies or 12-15 min. for small cookies. DO not over bake. They get crunchy on the outside but remain soft on the inside. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool. Yield approx. 30-3" or 60 1 1/2" cookies.

Sherri's Yummy Hot Cocoa

I got this recipe from my friend Sherri and it is so good! I put together these jars for the people I visit teach for Christmas. They're not decorated too fancy, I needed them done by tomorrow :)



Hot Cocoa mix

16 oz Nestle Quik Instant Chocolate Mix
16 oz Cremora (as in the powdered creamer you add to coffee- I used Coffeemate)
16 oz confectioners sugar
25.6 box powdered milk (Carnation)

Mix altogether in large bowl. Separate into 9 pint jars. Hand these out at the holidays with a note that says "Add 3-4 tablespoons hot cocoa mix to 8 oz boiling water. Enjoy!


Thanks Sherri!