Recession Toffee

My friend Alexandra is living in London right now while she's in school and I know that this blog post will be right up her alley. We're in a recession, right? So, what better way to celebrate than to make "candy" out of normal things like saltine crackers? Seriously, I saw this recipe online and thought I would barf in my mouth. Then I thought about it some more and realized it might not be so bad. The salty/sweet combination is great and these could not be easier. Please enjoy!

Recession (redneck) Toffee

Ingredients:
Saltine crackers -- you'll need enough to cover your cookie sheet, like 25-30
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray and line with crackers
3. In a saucepan, combine butter and brown sugar over low heat
4. Bring mixture to a boil for 3 minutes and immediately pour over crackers
5. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes
6. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Spread chocolate chips so that they melt over the hot crackers. Then sprinkle with nuts
7. Cut and enjoy

Cookies & Cream Fudge

Jason actually made this.....it's not your traditional fudge, but if you're a fan of cookies & cream ice cream, then you will love this. It looks really pretty and it is really easy to make. I thought it was just ok...I prefer traditional chocolate fudge. This would be a nice gift for neighbors or co-workers though.

Cookies & Cream Fudge:
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 (12 ounce) package white chocolate chips
1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme
1/2 cup finely crushed Oreo cookies
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup crumbled Oreo cookies (crumble these in big pieces for the top of the fudge)

Directions:
1. Combine sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. Boil for 3 minutes then remove from heat.
4. Stir in white chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, finely crushed Oreo cookies & vanilla extract.
5. Pour into a greased pan (we lined our pan with foil).
6. Sprinkle crumbled Oreo cookies on top.
7. Refrigerate for 1 hour and cut into pieces.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies literally only take 5 minutes to assemble and only 12 minutes to bake. They are really easy and good, so you should make them tonight.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg (lightly beaten)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix sugar, egg, peanut butter, baking soda, and salt.
3. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Roll the dough into balls, about 1 inch in diameter.
5. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, or until golden brown.
6. Depending on the size of your balls, this recipe makes between 10 - 12 cookies.

Drop Cookies

Today I made some of Jason's favorite cookies....drop cookies. You've all probably had these before, but have you ever made them? There is no baking involved. You just heat everything up in a pot and drop on wax paper to cool. They are really good so if you have oats on hand (and who doesn't? kidding) then you should make these cookies this weekend.

Drop Cookies:
1/2 cup milk
3 Tablespoons cocoa
1 stick butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
3 cups oats
1 teaspoon vanilla


Directions:
1. Bring butter, cocoa, sugar, and milk to a boil, stirring constantly.
2. Boil for 3 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla.
4. With a spoon, drop cookies onto wax paper or a Silpat.
5. Let cool completely (they cool pretty quickly though).

Cookie Drama

Tonight, I wanted something chocolatey. I found this recipe for espresso chocolate cookies a few weeks back. I get out all the ingredients, start putting everything together and then I realize that the recipe says to chill the dough for at least 2 hours (or overnight). So, I got up this morning and baked these cookies while I was making my morning coffee.

So, before you get started with this, realize that some "chill time" has to happen before you can bake these cookies. If you like coffee and chocolate, then these cookies are for you. Jason ate two right off the cooling rack on his way to work and he said they were awesome. He's a sucker for anything coated in powdered sugar!


Espresso Crinkles:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 teaspoons canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened chocolate - (I just semi-sweet chocolate chips that I had...worked out fine)
1 teaspoon instant espresso granules
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg whites

Directions:
1. Place flour, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and mix.
2. In a saucepan, combine chocolate and canola oil over low heat until melted.
3. Add espresso granules to the pan and mix.
4. Let chocolate completely cool (5 minutes)
5. In another bowl, mix together egg whites, brown sugar, vanilla and corn syrup.
6. Add melted chocolate to the egg mixture and mix well.
7. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little at a time and mix until well incorporated.
8. COVER DOUGH AND CHILL FOR AT LEAST 2 HOURS!!
9. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
10. Roll dough into small, 1-inch balls and roll around in powdered sugar
11. Bake for 10 minutes.

The recipe says that it can yield 2 dozen, but somehow I only got 18 cookies out of this. Maybe my balls were too big? :)

Here is the finished product, and I must say that they look exactly like they did in the magazine. I was very impressed. I like the way these cookies crack and all that powdered sugar just makes them look homemade, don't you think?

Kyle + Jason = Two Old Ladies

Let me start off by saying that I hate Jell-O. I hate it with a passion. However, I do like a good gelatin salad every now and then. I decided to make "Pretzel Salad" tonight, although I wish this had a different name, I hate calling this a salad....it just doesn't seem right.

If you didn't grow up in the south or if you're under 80, then you might not have ever eaten this dish....let me tell you about it. Pretzel salad includes pretzels, strawberries, cream cheese, lots of sugar and butter. It all just comes together in a perfect way. Each bite is delicious!! I love the combination of salty and sweet. So does Jason, he had three helpings of this after dinner tonight.

Pretzel Salad:
2 cups coarsely crushed pretzels
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
1 small container whipped topping
1 cup sugar
2 cups boiling water
1 (6 oz) box strawberry flavored gelatin -- the big box
1 (10 oz) box frozen strawberries -- if you buy frozen whole strawberries, then slice them

Directions:
1st Layer
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Mix the pretzels, melted butter, and 3 Tablespoons sugar in a bowl
3. Place mixture into a 9x13 pan and bake for 8 minutes
4. Let cool

2nd Layer
1. Mix 1 cup sugar, whipped topping, and cream cheese
2. Spread over cooled pretzel mixture

3rd Layer
1. Mix gelatin, strawberries and boiling water in a bowl
2. Let sit for 10 minutes
3. Pour over cream cheese mixture
4. Chill thoroughly before serving

Happy Birthday Kyle

Well, today is my birthday and I'm STILL feeding Jason.....what's wrong with this picture, shouldn't he be cooking for me today? Just kidding, we're going out to dinner tonight, so all is well. I found this recipe the other day and couldn't wait to try it, so this is sort of like my birthday cake.

This recipe is for Oatmeal Cake....something I've never heard of. It's really good. You can justify all the sugar in this cake by thinking about all the oats...it totally balances out.

Oatmeal Cake:
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 stick butter
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

*** The recipe doesn't call for this, but I added the following:
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

For the Icing:
1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup evaporate milk
Powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Mix boiling water, oats, and butter & let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Add remaining ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Add oatmeal mixture to the bowl and mix well.
4. Bake in an 8 x 11 casserole dish at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
5. For icing, melt ingredients (except powdered sugar) together in saucepan and cool.
6. Add powered sugar until thick enough to pour over cake. (just eyeball it -- about 1/2 cup).
7. Poke holes in the hot cake with a toothpick and pour icing over cake while still hot!

Here's what it looks like before you stick in the oven.


Here's what we've got when it comes out of the oven.

Then you pour your icing on top and it looks like this....

Creme Brulee for Change

To celebrate the election, Jason made Creme Brulee. He used a mix which called for 1 cup of cream, 1 cup of milk, and sugar. He added vanilla and it was awesome. You can make the real thing with egg yolks and lots of time/patience, but these mixes are just as good.


Creme Brulee is Jason's all-time favorite dessert. A few years ago, I bought him a kitchen torch to burn the sugar topping on creme brulee. We had just moved to Nashville and were living in an apartment. I came in from work one day to find Jason sitting on the couch in just his underwear roasting giant marshmallows (that were on the ends of chopsticks) with the kitchen torch. It was at that moment that I realized he might never ever make creme brulee, but this gift was money well spent!

It's So Easy, It's Scary.....

Happy Halloween everyone!! I've made a great treat today that you'll be sure to love. I've said before that there are two things every kitchen must have, and now I'm adding a third item to this essential list.

1. Crock Pot
2. Cast Iron Skillet
3. Electric Ice Cream Maker - Yes, you need one!

Here is ours, but there are several other brands out there. We keep the insert in the freezer at all times, so that we can make ice cream whenever we want. The options are endless and you are really only limited by your imagination.

Here it the basic recipe for vanilla ice cream. From there, you can add whatever you want. We've tried several combinations that were tasty, including chocolate chips and rasberry jam -- it was to die for!!

Today, I used some of our Halloween candy for the flavoring. My sister Katie and I love Hershey's Special Dark, which you can only find in the Hershey's miniatures bags. I chopped up about six of those mini bars and put it in this ice cream. Trust me, it was good!!!

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream:
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 chopped up Special Dark miniature bars (you could use anything to mix in)

Directions:
1. Whisk ingredients together
2. Place ice cream maker insert into the machine and turn on
3. Pour mixture into the ice cream maker
4. Allow ice cream maker to mix 20-25 minutes total
5. After 20 minutes, add your chopped up candy bar (or other mix-in)
6. Place ice cream in freezer

*You can eat the ice cream right away and it has the consistency of a soft-serve ice cream. I always let it set in the freezer for at least an hour before serving so that it can harden just a bit. Homemade ice cream never gets as hard as store-bought ice cream, so it will still be soft. Enjoy!!

Balsamic Strawberries

When we first heard of someone putting balsamic vinegar on strawberries we made a face. Then we saw the Barefoot Contessa do it and it seemed like the best idea on earth. Seriously, if you've never seen her show on Food Network, you should try to catch a few episodes. You'll wish you were one of her gay best friends in the Hamptons. Contessa can do no wrong in our world. The strawberries are sweet, but there is a hint of spiciness that makes them really good. The next time we make these, we'll serve it with homemade ice cream or maybe creme brulee.

Balsamic Strawberries:
2 pints (4 cups) sliced fresh strawberries
2 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together and let sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Chocolate Souffle Pudding Cake

Tonight, we got take out from a local (and kinda scary) restaurant, Baily & Cato's. Well I guess the old saying is true, "Nothing goes better with Soul Food than Chocolate Souffle Pudding Cake." Ok, ok, maybe I just made that up, but if you say it enough times it sort of sounds like an old saying.

This recipe came from a cookbook that I love, Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor. Anne Byrn has several cookbooks where she takes an ordinary box cake mix, adds a few extra ingredients, and creates something magical. I don't think she's a real doctor, but I would put my life in her hands because everything I've made from her cookbook has been awesome!


Chocolate Souffle Pudding Cake:
2 cups miniatrue marshmallows
1 package Devil's Food Cake Mix (we screwed up and used plain Chocolate Cake and it was fine)
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups water
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 unsweetened cocoa powder
3 1/2 cups boiling water

1. Line a greased 9x13 pan with marshmallows
2. In your mixer, mix together cake mix, eggs, 1 1/3 cup of water for 1 minute on low speed
3. Scrape down the sides and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed
4. Pour batter over the marshmallows
5. Mix together the brown sugar and cocoa powder and sprinkle on top of the batter
6. Pour the 3 1/2 cups of boiling water over the top of the entire mixture
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes - you want the edges to be firm but the center to be jiggly
8. Let cool for 20 minutes before eating



It's sort of like an old-fashioned hot fudge sundae cake that my grandmother used to make. (Taylor, you should make this for Marley!)



I served it in mugs, and it was so good. I know what you're thinking - Two Girls, One Cup (you didn't think I could work in that reference did you?).....yes, like many of our recipes, it might not look great, but trust me, this is delicious!!