12 Ice Cream Desserts for Summer

June 30, 2014 By Anne

I am working with Foodie.com to bring you this post.

Summer is upon us and what does that mean? It’s hot out there!

What’s great after being in the hot sun? Ice Cream!!

I’ve never made home made ice cream before but I already made a promise to myself that I would try it this summer. I found some wonderful ideas on Foodie.com. What dessert is your favorite?

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

12 Barbeque Recipes for Father’s Day

May 29, 2014 By Anne

This post is sponsored by Foodie.com.

Father’s Day is June 8th. It’s really not that far away. I need to start planning. But what to make and what to buy? He loves BBQ and pork, so I think I will make either pulled pork sandwiches or BBQ pork on the grill, along with BBQ corn and a nice salad.

I went ahead and looked up some recipes over at Foodie.com while I was deciding. They have an amazing selection of recipes for anything you can think of. Here are some recipes I looked at:

Next I need to look up some cheesecake for dessert!! Yumm!

Are you planning a special meal for your father or husband?

Anne

Breakfast in Bed for Mother’s Day

May 8, 2014 By Anne

I’ve never had Breakfast in Bed before. Not sure I want to eat in my bed, actually. But it would be nice to have a fabulous breakfast made just for me on Mother’s Day! Now I know my husband would be glad to make me breakfast on Sunday. He is such a sweetheart and he loves to cook and he’s good at it too!! But we are going down to visit my mother and have breakfast at her community center. They are offering a great breakfast and it’s free for mothers and only $5 for everyone else. It’s all you can eat and it’s pretty good. We’ve gone to other breakfasts there.

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Are you going to breakfast on Mother’s Day?

Anne

Cream Cheese Brownie Pie

April 9, 2014 By Anne

I was sent a nice little package of goodies to make a delicious recipe of my choice. I looked through the Pillsbury Bake-Off, 100 Winning Recipes and chose a previous winning recipe – Cream Cheese Brownie Pie.

In my package came Watkins Vanilla, Reynolds Parchment Paper and Foil, flour, baking cups and slow cook liners.

My daughter had fun rolling out the pie crust. The parchment paper came in handy.

Instead of using pie crusts I used Gluten Free Dough. It comes in a small container and you take out what you need and save the rest.

Cream Cheese Brownie Pie

Recipe Type: Dessert

Ingredients

Crust:
1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts, softened
Cream Cheese Layer:
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
Brownie Layer:
1 box Pillsbury double chocolate brownie mix
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 pecans ( I left them out)
Topping:
Reserved chocolate syrup packet form brownie mix
3 tablespoons hot fudge topping

Instructions

Heat oven to 350. Place pie crust in 9 inch glass pie plate.
In medium bowl, beat cream cheese layer ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, set aside.
Reserve chocolate syrup packet from brownie mix for topping. In larger bowl, place brownie mix, oil, 1 tablespoon water and eggs. Beat 50 strokes with spoon.
Spread 1/2 cup brownie mixture in bottom of crust-lined pie plate. Spoon and carefully spread cream cheese mixture over brownie layer. Top with small spoonfuls of remaining brownie mixture, spread evenly. Sprinkle with pecan if you add them. Cover crust edge with 2 inch wide strips of foil to prevent excessive browning , remove foil during last 15 minutes of bake time.
Bake 40-50 minutes or until center is puffed and crust golden brown.
In small bowl, mix chocolate syrup and hot fudge topping. Drizzle on top, cool 3 hours. Cover and refrigerate and remaining pie.

Anne

Southern Living – Comfort Food Made Easy

April 3, 2014 By Anne

Love to cook? Check out Southern Living’s New Cookbook – Comfort Food Made Easy. I received this new cookbook along with a jar of LouAna’s Coconut Oil. As soon as I received this I started using the coconut oil in my recipes. I made cupcakes and replaced vegetable oil with the coconut oil and no one could tell the difference. I’ve also replaced my margarine with this when I fry up my green beans.

There are so many delicious recipes that it was hard to just choose just one to make. But I knew desserts would go well with my family so I made Oatmeal Cookies, page 273. It calls for pecans and toffee bits but I used chocolate chips instead.

Very easy to make and a bit different than the oatmeal cookies I’ve made in the past (from the box).

Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe Type: Desserts

Author: Southern Living

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 4 dozen

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups uncooked regular oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
optional –
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/1/2 cups toffee bits

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter at medium speed with electric mixer 2-3 minutes or until creamy. Add sugar, beating well. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until blended.
Combine oats and next 3 ingredients; add to butter mixture, beating juts until blended. Stir in chopped pecans and toffee bits. ( I added my chocolate chips here)
Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto lightly greased baking sheets. ( I used parchment paper instead.)
Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

All the recipes in this book contain a “Make It Easy” tip. For this recipe the tip was to, “Microwave the butter for 20 to 30 seconds on medium heat to soften it.”