Zucchini Brownies

These are on my list to make again today.  And they will probably be gone before I can take a picture again. :0)

You would not know that these are made with zucchini if I didn't tell you.  They are that amazing!  My children love them, my neighbors love them, I could eat the whole pan and not feel a bit bad about it. ;0)  If you have zucchini that your neighbors want to pawn off on you of you were ding-dong ditched and left a ton of zucchini on your door-step, use it up in these and you will be begging for that zucchini that no one can get rid of. ;0)

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

I have had this recipe on my to-try list since February.  I was going to make them for my son's birthday.  Well, after getting around to making them finally, I'm glad I didn't make them for his birthday.

They will be on my make again list.  They were amazing!  I will do a few different things to them.  I will wait to put the root beer on the top until after I take the cupcakes out of the pan.  Making them that moist made it hard to get them out without them falling apart.  I will not put frosting on them.  I am a frosting person.  Love it!  But the glaze for these were so amazing that I will just put that on and call it good.

Don't worry.  I only used A&W's root beer in everything it called for.  No schnapps. :0)

Baked S'mores

The name says it all.

The picture says more.

Get the recipe here and make sure that you hide them so that you can eat them all yourself.  Only share with your really good neighbors who need a little pick-me-up.  :0)

Frozen Hot Chocolate

I believe this will be my new favorite summer treat.  It made enough for all 5 of us.  It helped that I found out that my one son doesn't like chocolate.  He's 9 and I didn't know this!?!

Check it out and try it!  So good!

Orange Creamsicle Popcorn

For the summer a friend and I are doing a movie a week with our kids.  It was my week so I made this.  Orange Creamsicle Popcorn.

It was okay.  I would have to put it on my not make again list.  But I'm always for trying new things.  I think I just wasn't really in an orange mood.  But I had everything for it so I went with it.  I'll look for something else next time.

Coconut Fruit Dip

I am a coconut fan.  LOVE IT!  So when I had some friends over, I made this.  Yum!

Cheerio Treats

 I remember these from when I was little.  I was in a peanut butter and chocolate mood a few weeks ago and These sounded amazing.  I happen to have Chocolate Cheerio's and I made up a batch to go to our friends house for the weekend. 

I nearly ate them all myself!  They were so good!  I need to buy another box of Chocolate Cheerio's so I can make more.

Skinny Oreo Cookies and Cream Milkshake

This was really good.  I wanted something chocolate the other day and thanks to Pinterest, I always have ideas that are quick and easy.  It is great that I have most of the things in my house too.  Made a nice treat for my hunny and me while the kids where at school. ;0)

Dr Pepper Cupcakes

Can I just say... These are so much better than the Mt. Dew ones.  But I am not a Mt. Dew fan and I'm a big DP drinker.  So these were right up my alley. :0)

I love when I have everything I need to make recipes.  It makes it much easier to try them.  But the frosting, I didn't have everything.  Some, I didn't even know what they were.  So I mixed and matched some of my own things and I love how they turned out.  So did everyone else in my house.

They disappeared much faster than the other cupcakes and I am making more of these this week.  I just hope they last longer than 3 days.  :0)

Got the idea from Pinterest.  Where else.  Check it out here.

Moutain Dew Cupcakes

This year instead of cookies for Santa, we decided to make these babies. :0)  Found the recipe here and I think they were a hit.  I'm not a MD fan myself but everyone else I know that is loved them.  Santa included.  I really want to try the Dr Pepper ones.  Also found on Pinterest.  :0)

Coconut and some other breads

I love this coconut bread recipe so much!  Another one from my friend Lisel, (I get all the good ones from her).  I use to just do things for her so she would make some for me but I finally asked her for the recipe because just one little mini loaf was never enough.  I'm being very kind and sharing the recipe here.

Coconut Bread:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 teaspoons coconut extract

Mix together:
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt.
Add this to the egg mixture.  Then add:
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup coconut

This will make 7 mini loafs!  Please don't try and make it fit into 6.  If tried and it does not work.  

Bake at 325* for 40-45 minutes.  

For the glaze you will need:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons butter.
Boil this for 5 min.  Remove from heat and add
1 teaspoon coconut extract
5-10 drops food coloring


Cool for 2-3 minutes and then pour over warm bread.


I do not put food coloring in mine but Lisel always does.

I also tried making a new bread recipe, Cherry Eggnog Tea Bread.  It was okay.  Here is a picture of all the breads I made.  The first is a Chocolate Quick Bread.  The eggnog bread is in front.  The coconut is in back and on the one side and the bread in the middle is my Oatmeal Cinnamon Bread.  LOVE IT! 

Cream Puffs and Peppermint Tarts

Here is an easy recipe for cream puffs.  You can buy some at Costco or you can make these and amaze yourself it was so easy.

Cream Puffs:
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Boil the water, butter and salt.  When its at a full rolling boil, add the flour all at once.  Stir with a wooden spoon until it makes a ball.  (I'll take pictures of this next time I do it.)
Add the dough to the eggs that you have already slightly beaten.  Whisk until smooth.  You can do this by hand, I have done it that way but it is so much easier to put it in your mixer and let it do it for you.
Grease a mini muffin pan.  But small, rounded teaspoons of dough in.  Bake at 375* for 25 min.  As soon as they are done, poke a hole in them with a knife and cool on a cooling rake completely.

For the filling you can do a few things.  I usually make a double batch when I cook these so I use a big tub of Cool Whip and add a small box of French Vanilla pudding. 
You can also use a small tub of Cool Whip and add 1/2 cup powder sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  You can get creative here and do all kinds of things.  I've filled them with chocolate whip and even thought of putting chicken salad in them.  You can then drizzle them with chocolate frosting.  I have a chocolate glaze recipe from my mother-in-law that I use.  They are good just how they are too. 

Here are the peppermint tarts.  Also really yummy. :0)

They are gone so fast!  Love these at the holidays or any day really.

Fudge

I love fudge.  I love making fudge.  It is an easy treat and I get so many complements from it.  My Dad had given me a chocolate heart a few Years ago and I used the last of it with these two batches of fudge I made.

I use the recipe that is on the Marshmallow Cream jar.  When I asked my Mom for her recipe and she told me she used this one I couldn't believe it.  I like mine thinner than putting it in a 9" square pan so I put it in a 9x13 pan.

For my peppermint fudge I put about 2 teaspoons of peppermint extract in when I put in the vanilla and I also crush up Starlite Candies and put them on the bottom of the pan before I pour in the fudge.  So good!  I usually use white chocolate chips when I do the peppermint fudge but I wanted to use the rest of the heart.

For my orange fudge, I use about 2 teaspoons of orange extract.  This makes it taste just like a chocolate orange.  It is so good!

I also made some carmel but it turned out really hard.  That is what is in the middle in the picture below.  When I can get it right, I'll post that recipe.

Popcorn

So last night we had a family movie night.  We had just bought popcorn holders for our kids and my husband wanted to use them.  He got in the pantry only to find I had used the last of the microwave popcorn for my caramel popcorn last week.  He was very sad.  But.. I remembered seeing this post from one of my favorite blogs I like to stalk. :0)  So cool!  We had never thought of trying to pop our own before.  I grew up with my mom using a hot air popper and I have always wanted one.  But now I don't need one.

Look what just a little bit of kernels make!  I even put cinnamon and sugar on it.  I didn't have coconut oil but I think I might have to get some.  The baby loves popcorn and loved that she had her own holder.

My other kids were not fans of the cinnamon and sugar but my husband and I were!  So yummy!  And popcorn is a healthy snack.  Depending on how much cinnamon and sugar you put on it. :0)

Lemon Herb Chicken Ring and a Cocoa Add-In

So when my friend came over to craft, we made this for lunch.  It is a Pampered Chef recipe and I love it!

You need:

2 cups coarsely chopped cooked chicken
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
3 TBS chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1/2 cup (2 oz) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
2 packages (8 oz each) refrigerated crescent rolls

Preheat oven to 375*.  Zest lemon to measure 1 tsp zest.  Add 2 TBS of the parsley, lemon zest, garlic, mozzarella cheese, mayonnaise and Italian seasoning to the chicken and bell pepper and mix. Set aside 2 TBS or Parmesan cheese and add the rest to chicken mixture. 
Unroll crescent dough; separate into 16 triangles.  Arrange triangles, slightly overlapping, in a circle on a pizza pan.  (I use the Large Round Stone from Pampered Chef.) with wide ends 4 inches from edge of pan.  (Points will extend off the edge of pan.)  Roll wide ends of dough toward center to create a 5-inch opening.
Spoon chicken mixture evenly over dough in a circle.  Bring points of triangles up over filling and tuck under dough at center to form a ring.  (Filling will show.)  Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese over ring.  Bake 28-30 min.

So good!

I had some for breakfast this morning with my new favorite breakfast drink.  I usually add milk to my cocoa to cool it down to drinkable temperature but I had some Egg Nog in the fridge and used that.  OH MY GOSH!!  Never will I drink plain Egg Nog again or Egg Nog with Sprite.  It was so good!  You really need to try it. 

The other think you can try to dress up your plain cocoa, add pumpkin pie spice.  Plain cocoa is just to over-rated and Stevens is pricy.  So just dress up the cheap stuff and you've got your own gourmet cocoa.

Cookie Day

I am so sad that I am no longer in scouts for my church calling.  Today was suppose to be Den Meeting for my Wolves but since our ward split we had canceled it.  I decided that we needed one more get together as a group. 

So I have spent the day making these cookies from Our Best Bites.  LOVE THIS SITE!!!

I also cooked up a batch of Farmhouse Sugar Cookies that is my Great Grandma Winnifred's recipe.  They are so good the you can just eat them and eat them.  With or without frosting.

I'll be posting later how cute they all turned out and how my first attempt at Royal Icing goes.  I'm so going to make up a batch of Buttercream Frosting to go with the cookies I'm hiding for me to eat with candy corn faces. :0)

Rolo Bliss

I promise that I have not been MIA.  Just a very crazy August in my house.  I haven't been home much and when I have, I haven't felt like doing more than blog surfing and tv watching.  But, school has started again and I have a lot more time on my hands with 3 of the 4 kids at school so I am in the mood to craft.  Or bake.  Baking is more like it. 

My sister-in-law made these amazing cookies for our family dinner this last week and I just had to get the recipe and make them.  I had everything in my house to make them.  Really rare for me to have rolo's in my house but I had wanted them camping.  I put one in a caramel flavored marshmellow and roasted the whole thing and then made it a smore.  Sooooo  Goooood!!!

Anyways.  On the the recipe.  You will need;

1 Devils Food cake mix.  (My sister-in-law says that it really makes a difference in having a devil's food to just a different chocolate one.  I didn't notice.  I just had a plain chocolate one.)
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
and...

That's it.  Mix together and put rolo in the middle of a small ball.  The smaller, the better.

Bake at 350* for 9 minutes.  Enjoy!

I made them with my kids for FHE and had so much fun having them help.  I used my little cookie scoop and then we flattened it out a bit to put the rolo in and then wrapped them up. 

I did spray my pans and I wish I had cooked them just a minute longer. 

I liked how hers were just slightly crunchy on the edges and soft and gooey in the middle. 

My baby trying to steal a warm cookie.  Do not blame her.

But man are they good!

Home-made Chocolate Ice Cream

We had some friends over for a BBQ tonight and we decided to try to make home-made ice cream.  I am totally not a fan of home-made ice cream.  It never tastes right and I don't like the film it leaves in my mouth.  And usually its really grainy.  When we went camping a few weeks ago, our friends made ice cream.  It was the yummiest home-made ice cream I have Ever eaten!  It tasted just like a Frosty from Wendy's!  It was that good!  So this is what we made.  I am posting Stephanie's recipe on here, (Thanks Steph!) just how she did it. 

 3 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
1 Cup 2% Milk
1 Cup sugar
1 1/2 t. vanilla
Pinch of salt
1/2 Cup Chocolate Syrup

Combine and stir until sugar is dissolved.  Freeze according to your makers instructions. 

It's that easy!


 This recipe makes enough for 6-8 servings.  We doubled it and had enough for 14 and I still have some in the freezer that is hidden in the back were only I know where it is. :0)

What an easy and fun thing to do for the summer.  We can't wait to try all the different recipes we found in book.  Our maker is my husbands Grandpa's and we were able to find out that it was made in 1976, was used twice and is in perfect condition.   What I find!

Lisel's Carmel Popcorn

I love this stuff!  I was able to talk my friend Lisel into giving me her recipe and I wanted to share it.  I hope she doesn't mind.

Lisel's Carmel Popcorn

1 stick butter or margarine
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup Karo syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
5 bags popped popcorn or if you pop your own I used 4 cups of cornals

Boil all the carmel ingredients for 3 minutes.  Pour over popcorn.

So easy and so good.  It is really easy to half.  Just use 2 1/2 bags of popcorn or 2 cups of cornals and half everything else.  Store in ziplock bags.  But I promise, it won't last long. :0)