From the category archives:
Desserts
White Sweetheart Fudge
3 cups sugar
3/4 cups margarine
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 package White Vanilla Chips
1 (7 oz) jar Marshmallow Cream
1 tsp. Vanilla
Combine the sugar, margarine, and milk in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Boil for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly to avoid sticking and scorching.
Remove from heat and immediately stir in the vanilla chips. Stir until melted. Add the marshmallow cream, nuts, and vanilla (And just try to keep your fingers out of it!) - beat until well blended.
Pour into a greased 13×9x2 inch pan. Cool to room temperature and cut into squares.
Yield: 5 pounds
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A Paula Deen Chocolate Cake that’ll Melt Your Eyes
Okay, how delicous does Chocolate Cake look?!!
The Paula Deen 32-oz. Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake is waiting for you - all chocalatey, gooey, nutty, and delicious! Cooking.com ships this glorious cake frozen, so all you have to do is meet it at the door and invite it in for dinner!
From the Website:
Paula’s Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake is made with only the finest and the freshest ingredients using Paula’s “signature” recipe. This dense chocolate cake, with soft walnuts and crusty topping, is richly enhanced with gooey chocolate filling.
Shipped to arrive during the business week–orders placed on Fridays and the weekend are not shipped until the following business day.
This cake and a little vanilla ice cream (extra points if it’s homemade) could spell out a ridiculously delicious way to end a meal. Oh, heck, it could spell out a ridiculously good reason to just skip the meal and pig out on cake!
I am so there.
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Food Network.com’s Amazing Memorial Day Recipes Section
Food Tv.com (a.k.a. Food Network.com) has a delicious section filled with the most amazing Memorial Day recipes you could hope for. But don’t take my foodaholic word for it, see for yourself. Be warned, though, if you’re on a tight grocery budget (Aren’t we all these days?), you’ll be extremely tempted to throw the budget out the door. I honestly want to make about 20 different recipes right now!
My printer’s trying to catch its breath and my own budget’s scratching its head, wondering if it ever really had a chance. To answer its question, “No. Not really.”
Some of the recipes you’ll want to seek out first:
Corn, Avocado, and Tomato Salad
Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Mushroom Vinaigrette
Mini Chipotle Burgers with Fire-Roasted Garlic Ketchup (!!!!!)
Mini Chipotle Burgers with Fire-Roasted Garlic Ketchup. I just had to fixate on it a little longer.
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Oh! Nuts and Oh! Candy and Oh! My!
Ohhh man! Have I got a website to tell you about? Well, actually it’s not so much the website that has me purring Ohhhh man as much as it is what the website can hook you up with.
How do Pecan Caramel Chocolate Clusters sound to you? How about Roasted Cashews? Or Toffee Pecan Cinnamon Buns. I hate to brag, but I have a Pecan Caramel Chocolate Cluster in my mouth right now and I’m not even lying. Mmmmm, if this candy were any better I’d….. Never mind, it couldn’t be any better.
You’d think that the rich, delicious caramel or the always perfect pecans would steal the show with this candy, wouldn’t you. That’s what I thought, too, until I took the first (of many!) bite. The chocolate is some of the most amazing chocolate I’ve ever tasted in my life. I have no unearthly idea why it’s so spectacular, but I’ve never tasted any better. It is just unbelievably delicious - it tastes exactly like chocolate was meant to taste.
I just went back to scour the website for more chocolate goodness and it didn’t take me long to find EXACTLY what I’m ordering next: Chocolate Covered Pretzels! Click the link to see all of the glorious varieties. I also was amazed to see that my newfound heroes have Gourmet Coffee Beans as well. Into the shopping cart, caffeine!
If I can get my mind off of Chocolate for one minute (notice I said mind and not mouth), I want to also tell you about their roasted cashews. They’re amazingly delicious fat little bits of Heaven. They’re perfect right out of the bag, but if you need a chocolate fix…stat!…. they’re danged amazing dunked in melted milk chocolate. Just melt the choclate in a crock pot on low, then carefully dip each fat little cashew in the chocolate bath (I’m so jealous..). Place them on waxed paper and allow them to “set.”
So good you won’t believe it.
Last but not least, I’ve also tried the Toffee Pecan Cinnamon Buns candy. These little devils are unlike anything you’ve ever had, this I promise you. Personally, I love mine alongside a great cup of coffee - the flavors just go together in such a way that my head gets all swimmy. The cinnamon flavor on the candy compliments the coffee and the coffee returns the favor…or should I say, flavor. Halfway into the experience, you’d swear you were enjoying a Toffee Pecan Candy with a cup of gourmet cinnamon-flavored coffee.
You HAVE to check this website all the way out and jump in with both hands and mouth open. Do like I’m doing, trying a few things out at a time. I WILL make my way through everything connected to chocolate, nuts, and coffee. Sure, it’ll take me a while because they have so many varieties, but I don’t mind - really, I don’t.
Did I tell you how unbelievably amazing this chocolate is? I did? Oh, okay, then I’ll just take my candy and head to the deck….
*** If you want the best chocolate imaginable, or roasted cashews that’ll take your breath away, and/or candy that that’ll make you happy to be alive, check out Oh! Nuts.com - talk about delicious Mother’s Day gifts! You might want to go ahead and get “Dad’s” too while you’re there, Father’s Day isn’t that far off.
Also, be sure to keep this website in mind when other holidays and special days roll around: Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Graduation, Weddings, Showers, Fourth of July picnics, my birthday… I’m just sayin’…first day of school, last day of school, big games, small games - oh! nuts, you get the idea.
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PHILADELPHIA 3 STEP Cappuiccino Cheesecake
2 pkg (8 oz each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 TBS milk
2 TBS MAXWELL HOUSE Instant Coffee
1 ready-to-use chocolate crumb crust
Mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy and well blended. Add the 2 eggs and mix well.
Microwave milk on high for 15 seconds. If you don’t have a microwave, of course, you can simply heat it on the stovetop in the tiniest pan imaginable! Stir instant coffee into milk until dissolved. Stir into batter and pour into crust.
Bake at 350 degrees fro 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. (You’ll barely make the 3 hours before diving in, so you’d better go with that one.)
This delicious, yet simple, recipe is from a little recipe booklet that I got YEARS ago in a Dollar General Store for, like, $3. It’s a “PHILADELPHIA” Cream Cheese Cookbook called, “A Little Taste of Heaven: Appetizers, Cheesecakes, and More.” It was put out in 2003, so it might be a little tricky to find (think e-bay!), but if you can get your hands on it, it’s pure gold. Cream cheese is one of my favorite things to bake with; like buttermilk, it just makes everything better.
You’ll love this recipe! Coffee combined with chocolate AND cream cheese?!?! I could eat this every day for the rest of my life.
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More From the Barefoot Contessa’s Pantry
Product Description: Nobody remembers what they had for dinner, but everyone remembers what they had for dessert. Here are some favorite Barefoot Contessa desserts - made really easy! This Barefoot Contessa brownie mix is rich, dark and chewy…these brownies are incredible! And this box mix makes them easy to bake. Great to have on hand to make a fabulous dessert for guests or when you are craving a sweet treat. Set Includes: Outrageous Brownie Mix: “I tested this recipe so many times I am positive it is the best brownie recipe you will find.” - Ina Garten (20.8-oz.) Peanut Butter Swirl Brownie Mix: Chocolatey brownies with peanut butter swirled into them…nothing can beat that! Easy to make, these brownies will rival any baker’s recipe! (27.2-oz.)
Product Description: This intensely flavored, rich pound cake is wonderful served with Lemon Curd or Raspberry Sauce. Served with a cup of freshly brewed tea it makes the perfect afternoon snack. Set includes two 22.4-oz. Lemon Pound Cake boxes. (Look how deliciously beautiful they look!)
Product Description: A traditional crisp cookie dabbed with our finest preserve. Serve with a piping hot cup of tea or a glass of milk. Kids love helping to make these delicious cookies. Included in the box is an 8.9-oz. jar of Barefoot Contessa Raspberry Preserves.
Product Description: The best of two classics, peanut butter and jelly in a dessert bar that is easy to make and simply delicious. Rich peanut butter and sweet jam are swirled together to create the perfect after school snack. Along with top-selling cookbook author and Food Network star Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, Stonewall Kitchen has developed this line of specialty foods. With this collection of Ina’s favorites, you can make her delicious recipes in minutes. How easy is that?
Product Description: Forget everything about those rubbery marshmallows from the grocery store. These are melt-in-your-mouth delicious, light and fluffy. Easy to make, you’ll love them in cocoa or as a quick vanilla flavored snack. Along with top-selling cookbook author and Food Network star Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, Stonewall Kitchen has developed this line of specialty foods. With this collection of Ina’s favorites, you can make her delicious recipes in minutes. How easy is that?
Product Description: With these products on hand, great meals are minutes away. One of Ina’s most requested recipes is her Favorite BBQ Sauce. The Mango Chutney is perfect served with grilled fish or chicken. Try the Balsamic Onions on a fresh green salad or use them to top a grilled sirloin for incredible taste. The festive band around the gift is laser die-cut poinsettas with a coordinating gift card. Gift Set Includes: Mango Chutney Ina’s Favorite BBQ Sauce Balsamic Onions. (!!!!!!!!!)
When you click through for any of the above products, you’ll be able to find even MORE. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got shopping on my mind….
…..shopping and those Lemon Pound Cakes.
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Pala Deen Recipes in the New Quick and Simple Magazine
Paula Deen’s beautiful smiling face and sparkling blue eyes caught my attention at the checkout a coulpe of days ago - so into the grocery cart she went. It was the April 1, 2008 issue of one of my favorite magazines, Good Housekeeping’s quick and simple.
Her beautiful face is also inside the magazine (in an adorable picture with her husband, Michael Groover), along with a really great article/interview. As if that weren’t enough to make any Paula Deen fan want the magazine (hey, the cover alone was enough for this one), there are three SWEET Paula Deen recipes inside that’ll make you flip. The first one, as well as the first one I’m going to make, is “Southwest Georgia Pound Cake.” I love pound cakes to distraction. My favorite recipe calls for sour cream, but this one sounds pretty amazing in its own right - it calls for heavy cream along with the cast of regulars: Butter, sugar, vanilla extract, etc.
Another of the Paula Deen recipes they feature is “Tassie Cups with Lemon Curd Filling,” and you have to see the picture. They’re gorgeous! They’ll make beautiful little desserts for spring and summer.
Last, but not least - it features chocolate, so how could it be least?! - Paula Deen’s recipe for “Dummy Fudge.” With just 5 ingredients, it’s one of the most uncomplicated fudge recipes imaginable. Plus, it’s from Paula Deen, so you know it’s going to be extraordinary!
As if the magazine knew I wouldn’t stop until I’d tried each and every one of these recipes, the magazine has a great section on burning calories while you clean your house. It tells how many each chore burns along with how long you have to keep on keeping on. Fascinating (and important!) stuff.
Finally, the issue has an article called “Health by Numbers.” I lost track of the things I read that I didn’t know. While an issue is on the newstands, I don’t like giving anything away - because I want them to be able to sell as many as possible, especially when they feature Paula Deen…so they’ll see that she sells well and feature her again and again! But I thought this little gem was too important and timely to NOT pass along. According to this article (which sites its source as Mayo Clinic) - it takes 15 seconds of hand washing in order to kill sickness-causing germs. A perfect way to time yourself, the magazine points out, is to sing Happy Birthday in your head. It’d be an awesome trick to teach your children, as well. So many just throw their hands under the running water for 2 seconds and run off, wiping their hands on their clothes!
But if they were to make a game of it…a healthy game, at that….maybe they’d stick around and actually get ALL 10 fingers clean!
It’s a great issue, front to back - just look for the smile.
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Strawberry French Pie
1 cup sugar
2-1/2 TBS corn starch
1-1/2 cups water
1 small box strawberry Jell-O
2 cups strawberries (fresh)
Cook the first three ingredients until thickened. Add gelatin and allow to cool. Add strawberries and set aside.
FILLING:
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 carton (8 oz.) Cool Whip
1/2 cup sugar
Mix sugar and cream cheese. Add Cool Whip. Make a “bird’s nest” in the pie shell with the filling (be sure to reach the edges), then add the strawberry mixture and chill.
Delicious!
Nothing says “Welcome Spring!” or gives a nod to Summer quite like fruit pies. And, if you’re anything like me, after a flu-ridden, long cold winter - you’re like BRING IT ON!
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Mega Icing Post
You’ve officially bought your last plactic container of icing, right?! Right??? Maybe?
I’ll settle for maybe.
The recipes below could wipe out the entire “prepared frosting” industry. They’re just about as easy to pull off as opening a lid. But the taste, that’s where the real incentive lies. You simply can’t buy icing as good as the kind you can make.
I think it’s a law or something.
Decorator Icing
2 boxes (0r small bags) powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup water
1-1/3 cups shortening
1 tsp vanilla
Cream the shortening with sifted sugar. Add the water and vainlla and blend well. Add food color, if desired.
Whatever you don’t use actually freezes very nicely. Make a note, if the Icing recipe calls for “shortening,” it’s going to be just this side of Heaven. If you’re icing sugar cookies (which kicks them up to a whole new level of YUM), using an icing recipe that calls for shortening is the only way to go.
Caramel Icing
1 cup buttermilk (whoot whoot!)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 Tbs. vanilla
Combine all of the above and cook to a soft ball stage (238 degrees). Beat until creamy and dreamy after it’s cooled.
If the icing is too thick to spread on your cake, you can thin the icing with a little cream. That or toss the cake out the door and glob the thick caramel icing on top of vanilla ice cream, toss on some chopped pecans and have yourself a merry little moment.
Chocolate Icing
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter
1 small can evaporated milk
7 Tbs cocoa
Combine all of the ingredients in a pan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool, then spread over a two layer cake (or cupckaes, or a large rectangular cake or bundt…)
Another Delicious Icing that Calls for Shortening
1/2 cup shortening
1 lb confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1/4 cup water
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Place the shortening into a large mixing bowl and blend briefly. Sift in the powdered sugar. Mix. While mixing, gradually add the water and flavoring. Introduce them slowly - not all at once. I’m sure Alton Brown could explain the specifics more scientifically (and I wish he would, I’m curious) - but suffice to say, adding it all at once makes a saggy, baggy, nasty little icing that you wouldn’t want to serve to anyone.
No, not even her.
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Building a Better Cookie
If you do much Christmas cookie baking - make that if you do ANY cookie baking at all - the next thing you’ll want to grab at the store is Reynolds Parchment Paper.
If you’re like me, you spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Whether it’s baking, cooking, or cleaning - your kitchen is your number one hangout! The cooking and baking part are always enjoyable and are even my favorite hobbies. The cleaning? Not so much! What would you say if I told you I’ve come across something that makes the enjoyable aspects of kitchen life more fruitful and the cleanups much, much easier? Well, thank you, I love you too.
I bake a lot of cookies - whether it’s around Christmastime or not. How many cookies do I bake each year. Well, let’s put it this way: Cookie Monster keeps trying to steal me away from my husband. He calls day and night, e-mails, sends letters, just happens to be at the store when I am…
I had never before used parchment paper in any of my baking, even though I’d seen it done again and again on my favorite tv channel, Food TV. It was just never something I even considered.
This year, when I saw Reynolds Parchment Paper sheets in the grocery store, I decided to give parchment paper a try. I mean, I’ve used so much Reynolds aluminum foil and plastic wrap that I should own part of the company by now. It’s a name I’ve welcomed into my kitchen every since I had a kitchen to welcome it into, so if Reynolds thought something was special enough to make - I deemed it special enough to buy.
The first thing I made with the Parchment Sheets were Pecan Sandies. These are one of my favorite cookies, ever. I make them all year long and they never last more than 2 days. Suffice to say, all 5 of us love them!
The only problem with Sandies is that sometimes, when you’re making several batches, the bottoms of the cookies get a little harder than the rest of the cookie. Hate that!
Honestly, with the Reynolds Parchment Paper, the cookies had the same perfect texture - from the top to the bottom.
I also used a sheet under some mozarella bread I made for lunch. I lined the cookie sheet with the paper, then lined up my slices of Italian Bread. I made a spread of softened butter, chopped chives, and chopped garlic. After I spread the butter onto the slices, I topped each off with shredded mozarella. I baked it at 350 degrees until the cheese melted. This bread is delicious served with spaghetti, salads, or soup. As you can imagine, clean up is usually incredibly messy - with remnants of cheese and garlic left on the pan. But with the Reynolds Parchment paper, clean up was a snap - or, rather, a pull, crumple, and toss. As in, pull the paper off the pan, crumple it, and toss it in the trash. Easy Beasy!
Where have these parchment paper sheets been all my culinary life?
I’ve also found that they’re ideal for rolling out cookie dough. I put one under the dough, which my counter top appreciates, and one on top. Then I roll the dough out between the sheets. No more nasty rolling pin to wash!
They’re also perfect for using in the microwave. I’ve used them under food to make cleaning the plate easier and I’ve used them on top of the food to cut down on the spits and splatters that happen during the nuking.
I can’t wait to take them for a test drive with manicotti, barbecued chicken, lasagna, spinach-artichoke dip, etc. I also just realized how much they’ll come in handy when I’m making fudge!
I actually have an appointment with Chocolate Walnut Fudge and Peanut Butter fudge this week. Looks like I’d better grab some more Reynolds Parchment Paper Sheets>
Oh! I forgot one - When baking homemade bread, the parchment sheets are perfect for covering the dough as it rises. You can then cut the sheet down to the size you need and line the bread pan with it. Once again, the clean up is a snap. When there are so many things going on (especially around the Holidays), who wants to be in the kitchen on clean up duty all the time?!
Now that I think about it, I’m going to grab two packages instead of just one.
Click HERE for more tips and tricks for using Reynolds Parchment Paper Sheets, as well as information on hosting Cookie Exchange Parties! - Sounds like delicious fun.
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