Last Minute Thanksgiving Dessert Recipe

This recipe is super easy and SUPER DUPER yummy. A coworker brought these in a few weeks ago and I immediately scooped up her recipe so THANK YOU Gina for helping me discover my new favorite dessert.

INGREDIENTS

1 box (19.5 oz) fudge brownie mix

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 roll (16.5 oz)  refrigerated chocolate chip cookies

 

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark pan). Spray 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. Make brownie mix as directed on box using oil, water and eggs. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake 25 minutes.  

 

2. Meanwhile, in 2-quart saucepan, heat butter, milk, granulated sugar, brown sugar, pecans and vanilla to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; set aside until brownies are baked.  

 

 

3. Immediately pour praline mixture evenly over partially baked brownies. Cut cookie dough crosswise into 4 equal pieces; cut each piece into 4 slices. Carefully place slices in 3 rows of 5 slices each, using last slice to fill in spaces. (Spaces between cookie dough pieces will spread during baking to cover top.) 

 

4. Bake 23 to 28 minutes longer or until cookie topping is deep golden brown. If serving as bars, cool 2 hours; cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. If serving with ice cream as dessert, cool 20 to 30 minutes; cut into 4 rows by 3 rows.

 

 

Menu Monday 06-14-10

This week I am totally cheating b/c last week we failed miserably at following our menu. This is the same menu as last week. Let's try again shall we?

Menu Monday

Part of my master plan for getting more organized and being a better grownup and what not is to stop eating so much crap. Hubby and I eat a lot of takeout, fast food, and restaurant meals. This is not only messing up our waistlines but also our wallets! I have been trying (unsuccesfully) to have a menu every week of what we will be eating for dinner. Not only does this help save us money but it also saves precious time since we don't spend half the day asking eachother different variations of "What's for dinner?" and we don't have to spend time hemming and hawing over what we'll order and from where we'll order it.

In order to get myself back on track I decided to make a commitment to you my readers to ensure that I post a menu every week. This will be a good start and hopefully we'll actually stick to the menus I plan, although if we don't for the first few weeks, at least we'll have tried by having one right? So, without further ado... here is the first weekly edition of....

CLICK ON MENU FOR LARGER VERSION

You will notice that there are still some take out days on the menu. I am being realistic. Sunday is blank because my niece and nephew will be at my parents' house this weekend and I am hoping to get over there and visit with everyone and maybe even score a free meal stay for dinner.

Lady Hill's Cheater Chicken Pot Pie

This Recipe makes 8 mini pot pies. I'd say 2 pot pies makes an okay serving my husband will eat 4 in a sitting (probably more if I let him) 

Ingredients:

• 1 can cream of chicken soup
  
  
  
  
  
• 2 or 3 boneless chicken breasts
  
  
  
  
  
• 1 package of Pillsbury Grands Buttermilk Biscuits
  
  
  
• Your choice of vegetable. (I used corn)
  
  
  

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (or whatever your package of biscuits tells you to do)
2. Lightly grease the cupcake pan (I always use my misto sprayer thingy)
3. Press each biscuit into one of cupcake spots. Form a little basket.
4. Bake chicken breasts at 350 degrees until fully cooked
5. Combine soup and your choice of vegetable (I used corn) in a pot and bring to a boil.
   
   
6. Cut cooked chicken into bite sized pieces.
   
   
7. Spoon soup/veggie mix and a few pieces of chicken into each biscuit basket.
8. Bake for the time on the biscuit package. I find that 12-15 minutes is perfect. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   It's not the prettiest dinner, but it is a YUMMY dinner. It is however, high in sodium due to the soup and I don't suggest eating this as a staple part of your diet/menu.
   
   

Quick Stop

I don't have much time but I'm waiting for the meat to brown for tonight's dinner and figured I'd pop on real quick.

That's right... I'm cooking again!

I'm trying out a new recipe and I'm pretty excited about it.

Lord Hill won't be home till later so I'm doing a test run on myself. If it sucks, I'll make something different for him when he comes home.

What am I making? It's a surprise but I'll give you  a hint...

Fruity Pebble Treats

On Sunday a friend hosted a recipe swap/makeup party. I tend to dread these things b/c I don't really cook or make things so I'm never comfortable with what I choose to bring and never bother bringing a recipe.

Well, this time was different. It was a brunch. I jokingly said I was going to just bring a box of cereal and some milk. Then, I remembered that while Lord Hill and I were away for anniversary we ate a Chinese buffet that had these delicious little treats. I went looking for a recipe and didn't find one that quite worked the way I wanted to.

THIS one over on Laura Rebecca's Kitchen would have been great if I had a bowl that would work in my microwave.

So instead I played around in my kitchen late Saturday night and this is what I came up with. They were a hit and there were no leftovers at the end of the party. 

½ Stick of Butter (you can also use margarine as a substitute)
10.5 oz bag of mini marshmallows
6 cups of fruity pebbles
wax paper
9x9 pan
Non stick spray

Line your pan with wax paper so that all the sides are protected. Lightly spraying the paper with non stick spray will help as well.

-In a large pot melt the stick of butter on medium heat.
-Mix in mini marshmallows slowly making sure to coat in butter.
-Stir the mixture continuously (grease your spatula/spoon before hand)
-Once all the marshmallows are melted and are in a liquidy state slowly start to mix in the fruity pebbles.
-Once all of the cereal is evenly coated spoon into the pan.
Spread it out evenly. Place a sheet of wax paper on top so that you can press the cereal into all of the corners and evenly throughout the pan.

Let Cool. Cut into squares. You can also roll into balls or shape by hand once the mix has started to cool but has not hardened. 

Sausage and Peppers

As you may or may not know I am domestically challenged. This is the reason for this blog after all...
Well the area I suffer the most is in the kitchen. I cannot cook. Or rather, I DO NOT cook, b/c as it turns out I can cook pretty darn well when I put my mind to it.

Lord Hill has been asking me to make one of my signature dishes for a little over a week so this Saturday I finally got around to it. It's Sausage and Peppers and I thought I'd share my recipe with some step by step photos.

Be sure to let me know if you give it a try!

INGREDIENTS:

• 7 Sweet Italian sausage links
• 3 Green Peppers
• 1 or 2 large Spanish onions
• extra virgin olive oil in a misto sprayer... you can use PAM or another cooking spray or just plain olive oil if you choose.
• Salt

1.  Spray pan with olive oil. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
3. Slice peppers and onions into thin strips and place in pan. Mix well and sprinkle a dash of salt.
   
   
   
   
4. Bake at 350 degrees.
5. Brown Sausages in a pan.
   
   
   
   
6. After sausages are browned take out the peppers and onions and mix well. Place back in oven and continuing baking until peppers and onions start to soften.
7. Chop up sausages into bite size pieces and continue to quickly brown all sides of pieces.
   
   
   
   
8. Add sausage to pepper and onions. Mix well. Add another dash of salt and lightly spray with olive oil.
9. Bake for 20 minute or until peppers and onions are the texture you desire.
   
   
   
   
10. Serve over white rice.

Where does the time go??

I sat down to write all about the fabulous meal I cooked for dinner complete with recipe and photos only to totally get distracted and sidetracked while editing the layout a bit more.

Oh well it looks like the fabulous step by step description of my fabulous saturday night will have to wait till after the brunch/makeup party I'm attending tomorrow.

In the meantime, did any of you catch the Mets/Cardinals game tonight?!?
Crazy game dude, crazy game.


Since I have nothing interesting to say right now why don't you go check out my other blog (yes, I'm a bit of a blog whore) and have yourself a chuckle.
http://itsnotatuber.blogspot.com

It's menu planning time!

I am trying to come up with some new ideas for meals. Last night we had boneless porkchops and rice and it was delicious and something we have never made.
I'm so picky when it comes to food and I never have any luck with recipes I find online.

Cindy over at The Girl To Ask just posted this great cookbook idea. You can make a "real" cookbook with all of your favorite recipes. I want to send it to my friends and family so that they can make one for me! It'd be great to collect family recipes from relatives and make copies for newlyweds and what not.

In the meantime, why don't you share your favorite recipe with me and then head over to The Girl To Ask and check out a great new blog!

This is what happens when you watch the food network all weekend...

Mix up the cookie dough!

Eat a little cookie dough

Add "Clean Oven Door" to my weekly chore list!

Let the cookies cool.

Hide cookies in secret container so the hubby can't find them!

I might not be the most domesticated lady in the land, but I can make an awesome batch of Peanut Butter Cookies.

What's YOUR favorite cookie recipe?

Entertaining Company

This weekend I had a good friend come over for dinner and games.
I thought this was as good a time as any to start practicing my entertaining skills if I want to actually act like a Lady one day.
The apartment was nice and clean, my sink was super shiny, the games were arranged, all that was left was food.
I do not cook. At least, not often enough and never for anyone other than Lord Hill.

My friend is a vegatarian pescatarian and I wanted to make sure everything was safe for her to eat so I headed of to Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's deserve an entry of it's own but now is not the time nor the place to get into why I love that store and am frightened of it at the same time.
This entry is simply to show you what I decided to offer as appetizers before we ordered take out for dinner. Now, I know what you're thinking... a LADY would never have her guests eat take out but we're talking baby steps here. One small step for man and all that jazz... cut me some slack.

Okay... side tracked sorry... so here is what I got and served to my friend and to my hubby. These are not pictures from that night, I stole them off the interwebs. I didn't think ahead and take pics that night. I do however need to take photos of my adorable little rooster platters I served everything on.

Here we go...
SUSHI.
Now, I know what you're thinking but I have heard some great things about the Sushi platters from trader joe's. I do not have any experience with sushi since I won't eat sea food but I know both Hubby and Friend enjoy it and I thought it would be a cute/nice gesture.
It was received quite well especially since I served it with fancy chopsticks (not the kind you throw out) and asian serving bowls. The reviews however were not so great. The fish itself I was told was good, the rice however was not. Oh well, you live you learn.
HUMMUS.
Blech. Again, something I don't eat but was told would go over well. It seemed to do just fine.
I served it with fresh pita, baby carrots, and garlic/herb baked pita chips. The pita chips were DELICIOUS.


CHEESE & CRACKERS.
YUM. *note to self- leave port wine cheese out at room temperature before serving otherwise it will not spread* Port wine cheese and water crackers. Yummy.

SPARKLING PINK LEMONADE.
soooooooooo good. Definitely my favorite thing of the evening.


What are YOUR must haves when entertaining company?
What are your favorite things to have when you ARE the company?

Life is Good

So, I'm waiting for a friend to come and get me so we can go shop for sneakers and head to the gym. At 9:00pm. LOL fun fun.

Tonight I made a delicious steak dinner with corn and mac and cheese as the sides. There is not a drop of food left so I guess that's good. I only made enough for 2 people so we didn't over indulge and that's great. I measured out all of our portions and everything. Unfortunately the mac&cheese has like 8million calories a serving. Hence going to the gym at 9:00pm

I started a household budget spread sheet yesterday. I think it's really going to help a lot. We have money, it's not that we're broke, but I'd like to start saving for a house or something so I'd like to keep track of where the money is going.

My sink is still shiny and I've been doing the 27 Fling Boogie. This whole process seems to be working. baby steps. I'll probably do a crisis cleaning this weekend.

Tango has been a great little dog lately. He's so funny. I like it when he is good for a few weeks at a time. When he's bad he's awful.
I actually caught him and Bella on the bed together the other day and they were not fighting and they knew the other one was next to them. It was quite a pleasant surprise.

Well, I'm off. I haven't mastered the whole "bed by 10" thing that the process suggests and I doubt I ever will. I need to let go of my perfectionist attitude though and just go with the flow and do what I can.