Quick Cookies

The only cake mix cookies I've ever made before this one are the Rolo Cookies. There are so many possibilities! I bet this recipe would be good with a chocolate cake mix too.

In A Hurry Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup butter

1 cup peanut butter

1 (18.25 oz) pkg. yellow cake mix

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream together the eggs, water, butter and peanut butter. Add the cake mix and blend well. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool on pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

*I added some chopped pecans to the last pan to go in the oven which made them even better.

Garbage To Gorgeous!

Okay, I just finished the headboard/footboard project - the one I got out of the garbage on the side of the road.

Here is the before, fresh from the trash.


And here is the after.




Yummy, huh? I really LOVE the black. I've made several of these and have never painted one black before. I'm very happy with the result. I may just have to find a place in my house instead of giving this one away.

Here are a few more.

As If They're Not Fattening Enough

Saw these in the latest issue of Food Network Magazine.

Deep-Fried Snickers On A Stick


4 large Snickers bars (we used the fun-size bars)
2 cups pancake mix, plus ingredients to make them
oil for frying

Unwrap and push each candy bar onto a skewer or popsicle stick. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight (we froze our fun-size ones for about an hour). Make the pancake batter while you heat the oil to 330°. Dip the Snickers into the batter, turning it with the skewer to coat. Carefully place the Snickers into the hot oil and fry, turning as needed, until crisp, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Remove with tongs and drain on paper towels. Serve warm.

We also made these:

Chocolate-Strawberry Waffle Ball On A Stick


12 large strawberries, hulled
6 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
oil for frying
2 cups pancake/waffle mix, plus ingredients to make them
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Thread each strawberry onto a skewer. Place on a baking sheet and freeze for about 30 minutes. Melt the chocolate in the microwave. Dip the strawberries into the chocolate, turning to coat well. Freeze for another 15 minutes. Make the batter while you heat the oil. Dip the strawberries into the batter, turning to coat well. Fry in the hot oil 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Let drain on a paper towel for 5 to 10 minutes to let the chocolate re-harden. Dust with sugar.

How to get your children to eat WHOLE WHEAT

This is a "TRIED AND TRUE" easy whole wheat pancake recipe that my kids love. I recently made it for 3 of my nieces and they all loved it. Two of them kept on saying how much they LOVED them and the other one loved the pancakes until I told her they were whole wheat. She then turned to me and said...."Um, I didn't like them." That was after she ate them! Ha,Ha,Ha! So I guess the trick is don't tell them they are whole wheat. Some of you might be saying, "How is this a chocolate recipe?" Well the secret ingredient is Hershey's dark chocolate chips. :)

My husband asked for his to be served up this way!

SO here is the recipe......you need a box of Hodgson Mills Insta Bake (You can find it in the health food isle at PUBLIX) and then follow the pancake recipe on the back of the box.

These are the ingredients you will need....make sure you set your skillet between 250 and 300.....then pour the measured amounts all into the bowl.....mix together.......then add your desired amount of chocolate chips. (if you don't care for chocolate chips in your pancakes my children like it the same without chocolate chips.)

Then cook them up.....mmmmmm...mmmmmm..mm!

Beautiful!!!

Usually at this point I butter them up and then remove them from the skillet.

This is how I usually enjoy mine, but you can have some fun and present them..........

...........this way!

BON APETIT!

THESE ARE SO GOOD!

That's all I really need to say. Just trust me.

White Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp orange zest
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and orange zest. Stir the flour, baking soda and salt together and mix into the creamed mixture. Stir in the white chocolate chips and pecans. Drop by tablespoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 2 minutes on pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes about 3 dozen.

I don't know what these are called...

I got this recipe off of allrecipes.com. I love how the recipes have a rating system and a place to leave comments about how it really tastes. It cracks me up how some people change like 9 out of the 10 ingredients and then rate it 5 stars.

We'll just call these...

Candy Pretzels
Mini square or round pretzels (I believe Snyder's calls them snaps. They're square, though I read in some places you can find round ones.)
Hershey Kisses
M&M's
Rolo's
Pecan halves

There are many variations to this little treat. We tried two. Place as many pretzels as you can fit onto a cookie sheet. Top each one with a Hershey Kiss. Place them in a 350° oven for about 2 minutes. You really have to watch them. Once the kisses are shiny, they are usually ready. Remove them from the oven and gently push the kiss down with a single M&M. Let them cool and then chill. This doesn't take long at all and kids are good helpers.
We also made them with a Rolo candy in place of the kiss and topped those with pecan halves. They were both good but I am partial to the Rolo ones. Yum!
I read about using Hugs or caramel Kisses. These would be a super easy and cute addition to your Christmas goodies plate for your neighbors this year if you use red and green M&M's. Or pink and red for Valentines Day...

(I put ours in the freezer to speed up the chilling process so they look a little frosty in the picture.)

Extreme Makeover - Barbie Edition

On a whim, my youngest daughter and I decided to surprise my oldest daughter and update the Barbie house.

With some scrapbook paper, glue and imagination we went to work.
We wall-papered and made chair rails and wall-hangings.


Check out the chenille shag carpet.

The upstairs guest room needs furniture and the bathtub is AWOL (it's probably in the real bathtub) so that's why the top floor is kinda bare.

Chocolate Beauty

We made a Chocolate Facial Mask for a chocolate-themed girls night a while back. I don't have any pictures of it but it was fun and finger-lickin' good. :) We gave a sample of the mask to everyone to take home and try. It truly makes your skin baby soft. We also made Chocolate Lip Gloss to give away to everyone. We put the chocolate mask samples in a plastic baggie so all they had to do was snip off the end and squeeze it out. You can buy lip gloss containers in various shapes and sizes on the internet, just google it and compare prices.

Chocolate Facial Mask
1/3 cup cocoa
3 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 cup honey
3 tsp oatmeal powder

To get oatmeal powder, just pulverize it in the blender. Mix all ingredients together and smooth onto face. Relax for 10 minutes, then wash off with warm water.

Chocolate Lip Gloss
2 tsp Vaseline
1/8 tsp honey
5 chocolate chips (milk chocolate for light color, semisweet for dark color
1/8 tsp shortening

Mix all ingredients in a microwaveable container. Microwave, uncovered on high power for 20 seconds. Stir. Repeat until chips are fully melted. Pour into a small jar and freeze 15 minutes or until solid. Then apply it to your lips. Makes about 1 Tbsp of gloss.
*I remember adding a little beeswax (craft stores) to the mixture to firm it more.

Kids In The Kitchen

So, our cool friends from Utah are here and of course,
as usual we have been eating too much.
Yesterday we made a delicious treat from a
cute little cookbook they brought.


Here's the one we tried. Unlike some recipes from kids cookbooks I've tried, these were actually really good! Like better than a Fat Boy good. (Although I don't really like the taste of sprinkles so I could have lived without those.)

Ice Cream Sandwiches
1 chocolate cake mix, with pudding in the mix
2 eggs
1/4 cup warm water
3 Tbsp melted butter
2 cups vanilla ice cream, softened
Colored sugars and/or sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line 13x9 inch pan with foil; spray with cooking spray. Beat cake mix, eggs, water and butter in large bowl with electric mixer at low speed until blended. Press dough into prepared pan; prick surface evenly with fork. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.
2. Cut cookie in half; remove half from pan. Spread ice cream over cookie in pan. Top with second half; wrap with foil. Freeze 4 hours. Cut into squares; dip into sugars.
Makes 8 sandwiches.

Blondes Are Better

An old family recipe that has been around since before our parents got married 50 years ago. We ate it this past weekend with homemade ice-cream....made with heavy cream this time....so it was totally fat free. ☺

Blonde Brownies
2 sticks butter
1 box (1 lb) light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
2 3/4 cups self-rising flour
1 (12 oz) bag chocolate chips
(I like to use a half bag of semi-sweet and a half bag of milk chocolate)

You can do this all by hand without messing up a mixer. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and mix in brown sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, then flour. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes.

Aloha!

Our church had a luau this past weekend and using some of Jill's brilliant ideas, we had some cool decorations.
Here are a couple of simple things we did.

I think this is originally a Martha Stewart idea. We took regular white Christmas lights and put a silk hibiscus flower over each light on the strand. The flowers were actually petals from lei's purchased from Walmart. They worked perfectly because they already had holes in the center of them just big enough to stretch over the light bulb. Otherwise we would have had to punch holes in the centers of about 600 flowers.


You could use this idea for many different themes. Weddings,
birthdays, etc. They look so pretty all lit up.
I forgot to take pictures of them hanging up at the luau
so here they are on my driveway. ☺


Jill has access to bamboo growing on some property she owns. We chain-sawed some down and then used a miter saw to cut them into varying heights and then tied hemp cord around each one and used them as centerpieces.
They turned out really cute.


I didn't know this until I saw it but each line or ridge on a bamboo pole is like a built-in shelf on the inside.
This made it easy to fill with white sand and a tea light.
I forgot to take pictures of these by themselves at the luau too, but you can sort of see it here. The tea lights were pushed down into the sand more on most of the centerpieces.


Plenty of summer left for a luau! ☺

Decadent

Cream Cheese Cherry Brownies
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup chopped maraschino cherries
1 tsp maraschino cherry juice
1 egg
1 box fudge brownie mix
water, oil and eggs to make the brownies

Heat oven to 350°. Grease bottom of 8 or 9 inch square pan. Beat cream cheese, sugar, cherries, cherry juice and 1 egg. Set aside.
Make brownie batter according to directions on box. Spread half of batter in pan. Spread cream cheese mixture over batter. Spoon remaining batter on top; spread gently to cover the best you can.
Bake about 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting. Store covered in fridge.
*I added a little more of the chopped cherries and it still had a pretty subtle cherry taste so if you want more cherry and less chocolate taste, then I would double the chopped cherries. This would also be good with a chocolate frosting with maybe some cherry juice mixed in.
I'm kind of tired of typing the word "cherry" now. It's starting to look weird.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cake

Let's just pretend I didn't change the post date and really did post this on Monday. :)

Chocolate Oatmeal Cake
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Topping:
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp butter, melted
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
6 Tbsp half and half
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, combine the oats and boiling water. Let stand for 15 minutes or until cooled. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Add the oat mixture, mix well. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture.
Transfer to a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Combine the topping ingredients; spoon over top of warm cake; broil about 4 inches from heat for 3-4 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Garbage Digger

Look what I found in someone's trash.


It's not what it is. It's what it will become.

Stay tuned.

I Scream

It's getting pretty hot around these parts so yesterday we cooled off a little with some homemade ice cream. This is the easiest, yummiest recipe around. We had it with chocolate cupcakes for a cute little 2-year-old's birthday. ☺

Vanilla Ice Cream
4 cups half and half
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp vanilla

Mix it all together and pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions. Crush about a half package of Oreo's (or fruit, or your favorite mix-in) and stir it in when the ice cream is done. Makes about 12 small servings.

Happy summer!

Cutie Pies

I love this Pie In A Jar idea I've been seeing lately. You just get some 4 oz canning jars (Walmart), press some pie crust into the jar, along the bottom and up the sides most of the way. Add some pie filling and then use the band from the lid to cut a circle to press and pinch onto the top. I think it's necessary to cut open the top a little for breathing room. But these can be frozen and then popped into the oven straight from the freezer. Remember to take the entire lid off, put them on a cookie sheet and bake them at 350° for about 15 minutes or until you see through the jar that the crust is starting to brown.




Then, of course I had to try it my own way and made some using my all time favorite pie recipe. Here is the original recipe:

Cookie Crust Lemon Pie

1 pkg (20 oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 Tbsp butter
yellow food coloring, optional
additional sugar

Cut the package of cookie dough in half. Put one half in the freezer to keep firm while you prepare the filling. Press other half into bottom and up sides of pie pan. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and eggs. Mix well. Over medium heat, add the lemon juice and boiling water, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until it boils and thickens, then cook 1 minute longer. Remove from heat. Add the butter and stir until melted. Add food coloring if desired (I usually don't. Au natural is good for me). Pour into the crust. Cut remaining cookie dough into 16 rounds. Place rounds over top of pie filling. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with sugar. Cool completely, then chill in fridge completely for a few hours before serving.

To adapt it for the jars I just smooshed the cookie dough into the jar just like the pie crust, filled it with the lemon filling and then cut a thin slice of the dough to lay on top.





I think I put too much of the filling or cookie dough or both because this is what happened in the oven.


I should have taken into account how much cookie dough expands. There's always next time. It sure didn't affect the taste though. Yum!!

Now you can have a piece of pie anytime or a tasty little gift for someone!