Don't Mess With Texas

I am back. I am sorry it has been so long since I last blogged. I had such high intentions of having a blog a week for the summer...that didnt happen. I have been sick for what feels like the whole summer. School starts Monday and I have not done half of the fun things I wanted to or baked nearly all the things I want to.



Texas Brownies are by far my favorite brownies. My mom made these for me growing up. They are a fluffy brownies with a light yummy frosting. My work is throwing yet again another amazing potluck and I always volunteer to be the one who makes the sweets. I figured peopel were getting a bit sick of cupcakes so I decided to make  Brownies....Who doesn't love brownies especially ones with frosting. The only things they would make these brownies better would be to add a little ice cream.

I am always a bit scared when making my moms recipes for the first time. I get nervous that they wont taste as good as when she makes them... Lucky for everyone at work. These turned out just like when my mom makes them.

Ingredients 

Brownies

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup strong brewed coffee (water if you don't like coffee)
1/4 cup dark, unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla

Frosting

1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp. dark cocoa
1/4 cup milk
3 1/2 cups powedered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Preparation

Step 1:
In a large bowl bix together flour and sugar
Step 2:
In saucepan, combine butter, coffee, and cocoa. Stir & heat to boiling
Step 3:
Pour boiling mixtureover the flour and sugar in the bowl. Add the buttermile, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla.
Step 4:
Mix well
Step 5:
Pour into a 17 1/2 by 11 inch jelly pan
Step 6:
Bake @ 400 for 20 minutes
Step 7:
While brownies bake, prepare the frosting. In a saucepan, combine butter, cocoa and milk. Heat to boil.
Step 8:
Mix in the powedered sugar and vanilla until frosting is smooth.
Step 9: 
Pour warm frosting over brownies as soon as you take them out of the oven
Step 10:
ENJOY!!!

I hope that you enjoy these Big Texas Brownies as much as I do. I promise I will be better about blogging more than once every other month!

Just what the Doctor didn't order

Disclaimer: Sorry I have been slacking and not posting blogs as fast as I would like to!

For those of you who I talk to a lot you are aware of my missing/raspy voice.  For those of you who I don't see or talk to all that often you got off lucky and didn't have to hear my voice that sounded like a Bad cell phone reception. So when I finally couldn't handle being sick any longer i caved and went to the doctors. I am the kind of person who holds out as long as possible. So I told you all that to get to this point...The doctor told me I had a sever case of laryngitis and suggested I rest as much as possible and take my medication, but I don't really rest well...So instead I made 48 cupcakes. 

Paige (the ultimate baking partner) and I decided on a cookies and cream and chocolate peanut-butter cupcakes. BOTH SO AMAZING!!

The Chocolate Peanut-butter cupcake is from "Taseofhome Cupcakes for every season" and The cookies and cream one is from the most amazing cupcake book I just got "The big book of cupcakes". It has so many recipes and I can not wait to bake my way though it. 

Peanut-butter chocolate cupcakes.

Batter:

I took the easy way since I was sick and just used a box of chocolate cake mix. However if you are feeling crazy and have a chocolate cake recipe from scratch use it.

Filling:

1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese

1/4 cup creamy peanut-butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon milk

Frosting:

1/3 cup butter softened

2 cups powdered sugar

6 tablespoons baking cocoa

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

-(add some peanut-butter to frosting if you love peanut-butter as much as I do)

Instructions:

1) In a small bowl mix all of the filling ingredients together and set aside.

2) In a large bowl mix the ingredients together for the cake mix

3) Fill cupcake pan with liners. Fill liners halfway with cake mix and then drop a tablespoon of peanut-butter mixture in the middle. 

4) Bake @ 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Cool and remove to a wire racks. 

5) In a large bowl combine frosting ingredients until smooth. Frost and store in the refrigerator.

ENJOY

Cookies 'n cream 

Batter: Again I used a box of chocolate cake mix.

Filling & Frosting:  

Fluffy white frosting

1 small jar of marshmallow cream

Garnish:

10 Oreos- coarsely crushed 

Instructions

1) Make a bake and cool cupcakes

2) With end of round handle a wooden spoon, make a deep 3/4 inch-wide indentation in center of top of each cupcake, not quite to bottom.

3) In medium bowl mix together frosting and marshmallow cream. Spoon into small resealable food storage bag. Seal bag cut a tip off the corner of bag. Insert tip of bag into each cupcake and squeeze a bag to fill.

4) Frost cupcakes with remaining frosting. Garnish with oreos. 

I hope you enjoy these cupcakes. I am going to make an effort to start doing more dinner ideas instead of just cupcakes. 

I have recently made red velvet cupcakes and key-lime cupcakes. If you are interested in one of these recipes please let me know.

Dinner for Dad

What better excuse to go all out and cook than Fathers Day! I decided that I would have my Father over and make him a yummy meal to say Thank You for all you have for me over the years. I put together some of my Dads favorite flavors and made a killer meal out of it. My mom was putting together some recipes the other day and she sent me them before sending them out to the family and one really caught my eye. "Sticky Chicken" yumm-o!! My step mom made an amazing salad (i don't have the recipe for it yet but i will put it up when i do) it had toasted ramen noodles in it which sounds a tad odd but it was actually pretty delightful. Then to top it off i did what I do best I baked 'Rocky Road Brownies" and topped them off with a scoop of ice cream.This was a meal fit for an amazing Father!

Sticky Chicken

-Chicken ( I did 3 HUGE chicken breast and cut it into strips)

-1/2 jar of apricot preserves

- 1 bottle Russian Dressing (Found by the salad dressings)

- 1 packet of onion soup

Directions:

-Marinate chicken for 24 hours.

-Preheat oven for 350 degrees and cook for 1 hour

ENJOY!!

Really Rocky Road Brownies

-8 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate

- 1 1/2 cups butter

- 6 eggs

- 3 cups sugar

- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 tablespoon vanilla

- 1 cup chopped walnuts

Topping:

- 2cups miniature marshmallows

- 1 square unsweetened chocolate (melted0

Directions:

- In the microwave, melt chocolate and butter (set aside)

- Beat eggs for about 2 minutes

- Gradually add sugar; beat until thick

- Stir in chocolate mixture and vanilla.

- Fold in flour and nuts

-Pour into greased and flour pan

- Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes

- Sprinkle brownies with marshmallows

- Broil until marshmallows become golden brown

- Drizzle with melted chocolate

I love you Dad!!

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

-Guest Blog By Steph-

-

Hi everyone! Living amongst all the strawberry fields in Southern California means that we have access to delicious strawberries. Having a flat of super sweet and aromatic berries in my kitchen spurred me on to find some yummy recipes. I found this recipe on the blog Sweet Pea's Kitchen. She makes some truly amazing things and I highly suggest you check her out, although I think that Miss Katie's recipes are also delectable! These strawberry shortcake cookies weren't too difficult to make and were delicious! I brought the few extras into work and everyone loved them. Enjoy! Steph

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

Ingredients:

12 oz Strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4 in pieces (2 cups)

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1/2 c. plus 2 Tbs sugar

2 c. all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. lemon zest

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

6 Tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2/3 c. heavy cream

Coarse Sugar, for sprinkling over the cookies

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 Tbs of the sugar; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon zest and remaining sugar. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips until moist and fragrant.

4. Add the dry ingredients into the into the sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Using a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the four mixture until you have coarse crumbs. Add the cream to the bowl and stir until the dough starts to come together, then gently fold in the strawberry mixture.

5. Use a small cookie scoop (about 1/2 Tbs) to drop dough onto the prepared baking sheet, evenly spaced apart. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. bake for about 10-15 min, or until the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the pans to wire racks to cool.

-Baked the weekend away-

Last weekend while i was home visiting my mom I took some time to make a chocolate mess out of her kitchen. The first recipe that I made was Chocolate Merlot Cupcakes...These cupcakes are by far the best cupcakes that I have ever made, but then again why wouldnt they be. They pair my two favorite flavors Chocolate and Wine. I took a great merlot cupcake recipe and then had some fun with it and made it my own. The second treats i made were S'more Cake Balls, I made these for a BBQ my mom was having at work. I figured that Smore's are the signature treat of summer so why not make these for the BBQ.

Chocolate Merlot Cupcakes

Ingredients

2 cups flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup DARK brown sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup cooled, strong coffee

1/2 cup Merlot

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegtable oil

*You can make buttermilk on your own instead of getting a huge thing of it and letting it go to waste. For every 1/2 cup of milk add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and you have buttermilk!

Directions

Preheat over to 375 degrees

-In a lagre bowl mix (Flour, cocoa powerder, sugars, baking soda, baking poweder & salt)

-In a medium bowl wish together (eggs, coffee, wine, buttermilk and oil)

-Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Fill cupcake liners half full and bake.

-Bake 20-25 minutes

Once the cupcakes had cooled i decided to cup out the center of the cakes and make a merlot filling to add the extra wine flavoring. This filling does not have a recipe since i just made it up as i went. I used cream cheese, wine and some powder sugar.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix Together Frost & Enjoy!!

The day that i made these i went and got a pedi cure so I took some cupcaks back to the salon i went to as a thank you for making my feet look AMAZING!!!

S'more Cake Balls

Ingredients

1 box devil's food cake mix

1 box (3.4 ounces) instant chocolate pudding mix

4 eggs

1 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup marshmallow creme (I used a whole small container)

1 cup coarsely crushed graham crackers

1 bag (14 ounces) Light Cocoa Candy Melts

1/2 cup finely crushed graham crackers

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degree.

Spray one 13 x 9 x 2 in. sheet pan

-In large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil; MIX

-Bake 35-40 minutes for sheet pan, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

-In large bowl, use hands to crumble cake until no large chunks remain. Add marshmallow creme and coarsely crushed graham crackers; mix with large spoon until well combined.

-Form mixture into cake balls. Chill in refrigerator at least 2 hours.

-Melt Candy Melts according to package directions. Put cake ball on a spoon dip into the chcolate roll it around to ensure it is fully covered and then place on a cook sheet. Once on the cookie sheet sprinkle with graham crackers.

These cake balls were great. Not as good as the french toast ones but still good. I was sad that the marshmellow flavor was not more prominent. I think next time i make them I am going to hide a mini marshmellow in the center of them to make the marshmellow flavor stand out more.

I hope you all enjoy these funny chocolate treats!! Happy Summer!

Verdict Is In

The verdict is in. DRUM ROLL PLEASE… Cupcakes win. I was sadly hoping that pies would win so that I would have a challenge and have to make something that I have never made before. However, I do love making cupcakes so I am not sad that I have to make them! I have picked a fun new flavor to share with everyone. I am pairing two of my favorite things CUPCAKES & WINE! The flavor will be a chocolate merlot cupcake with a merlot butter cream frosting or a cream cheese frosting still have not decided which one will be best. Fell free to leave me a comment and tell me which one you would like to see on top of these cupcakes. I am very excited for these yummy little treats.

Announcement: People from Pocatello I will be making these while I am home this weekend so please shoot over and get yourself a cupcake.

Even though pies lost I am giving myself the personal challenge to make one from scratch. My mom and aunt were saying that they had a favorite pie growing up that I believe my grandma or great grandma used to make and I am going to give that a go… WISH ME LUCK! If you have anything that will make this pie baking experience easier for me please let me in on the secrets.

Thank you for all that votes…. Look out for another poll soon. I love hearing what my readers like.

Votes Needed

Hello Friends-

For those of you who have not noticed I have placed a poll on the right side of the page. Whichever one wins will be what I make next. So please vote so I can see what my readers are into and then I can share a fun recipe for the winning treat!

Much Love to all my amazing readers

Keep Calm and Cupcake on!