Easter Eggs

I made these delicious chocolate peanut butter eggs this week. They were super easy. I'd probably cut back on the powdered sugar next time (they were a bit too sweet for me), but the rest of my family thought they were perfect.

Banana Cream Pie

Not the most healthy pie.... but it sure is good!

Banana(s)

2 - 3.5 oz boxes instant vanilla pudding mix

2 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup cool whip

Pastry shell

Bake pastry shell as directed and let cool. Pour milk into a large bowl and add pudding mix. Stir until combined. Fold in 1/2 cup of cool whip. 

Slice banana and arrange on cooled pie shell. (I like a thin layer of banana, but it's whatever you like). Pour the mix over the bananas and let it chill for at least 3 hours. When ready to serve, garnish with cool whip. 

Molten Lava Cakes

My friend made these for me a few times. I finally made it for myself and it was much easier than I expected. This recipe is the same as my friend's so you can just check it out there. Pioneer Woman also made them and you can find her pictorial recipe here.

Also, I like mine with vanilla ice cream, but whipped cream is still really good!

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

These cookies are very soft, especially if you store them in a sealed container; they get softer after a day. I actually found it in a box of my stuff that my mom had stored for me.

2 1/2 c flour 1 tsp baking soda
1 cup margarine 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 brown sugar 1 pkg (4 oz) chocolate or vanilla instant pudding
1 tsp vanilla 1 pkg (12 oz) chocolate chips
2 eggs

Preheat oven 375. Mix flour and baking soda. In separate bowl combine butter, sugars, pudding mix and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in egss. Gradually mix flour mixture in. Stir in chips {we actually only used like 1/2 bag}. (Batter will be stiff). Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake 8-10.

Orange Burst Cookies (and Chocolate chip cookies)

Cidne asked for our favorite cookie recipe. I love these!! (Especially in winter when oranges are cheap.)

Also, this is my very favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's straight off the toll-house chocolate chip bag. Always use semi-sweet chocolate chips. If you take the cookies out when they still look undone in the middle, they will finish cooking (mostly) as they cool and still be soft. Love the soft, chewy cookies! (We also never add the nuts. we don't love nuts in our desserts.)

Cookies, anyone?

I've searched high and low for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. I prefer my cookies to be really soft and chewy. I was so happy when I came across this one because it was exactly what I wanted!

This is the basis of my recipe, though for whatever reason, I thought one stick of butter was a equal to a cup of butter. I don't know what made me think that because I did know that it was really just half a cup at some point in my life. I think. Well, recently someone corrected my error and that totally shifted my cooking world. I had to rack my brain to figure out if I made my cookies with 1 stick or 2 sticks of butter. I'm pretty sure I only used one stick because I always wondered why my cookie dough was particularly dry and crumbly so I would add a extra egg to moisten it up a bit. Then as I was looking over the original recipe (found in the link), I realized that I always added more flour! I guess I wrote that wrong...whoops. SO long story short, for the original recipe go here (those cookies are good too), but my altered and equally good (if not better!) cookie recipe is below.

Ingredients

2-1/2 cups All-purpose flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 package Instant Vanilla pudding mix

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 package of chocolate chips (if you're going to make chocolate chip cookies, you gotta have lots of chips!)

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

1. Stir baking soda, flour, and salt. Set aside.

2. Combine butter, sugars, and pudding mix and beat until fluffy.

3. Add vanilla extract and eggs and beat until smooth.

4. Add dry ingredients and mix well.

5. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

6. Bake at 375* for 8 minutes. (**Very important note: if you want super chewy cookies, you must take them out of the oven as soon as they start to brown. Even if they look mushy and not cooked in the middle, that's ok. That's what makes them chewy! Also, if they don't flatten on their own, I'll smash them down a bit with a spatula after I take them out of the oven.)

What's your favorite cookie?? Post your favorite cookie recipe!

Brownies!

My recipe box is completely full and so I was trying to clean out unused recipes and discovered I have 8 brownies recipes (not to mention I have a brownie cookbook). I set out to bake them all and decide which ones to keep. Dumb idea because I only cook one at a time, so its really difficult to compare. And to be honest, I don't know if there are really any brownies that I don't like.

Here are a few of the recipes I have managed to try and they are all different, but I have liked them all so far.

4 oz unsweetened chocolate (12 TBSP cocoa [approx 1 C] and 4 TBSP butter)
1 1/2 sticks margarine (separate from that substituted for the chocolate)
2 C sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 C all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash salt
1 C chopped walnuts (opt)

Melt chocolate and butter on low heat. Preheat oven 350. Add sugar to pot. Blend in eggs and vanilla removed from heat. Add flour, soda, salt and nuts. Grease 13x9. Bake 30-35 min.

Rocky Road Brownies
Melt 1/2 c margarine and 1 sq unsweetened chocolate
Remove from heat and add
1 c sugar, 1 c flour, 1/2 chopped nuts, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 eggs

Pour into greased 13x9 pan and set aside.
In a small bowl mix:
6 oz cream cheese
1/2 c sugar
2 TBSP flour
1 egg
1tsp vanilla
1/4 c margarine
Pour over chocolate mixture and spread.
(opt. sprinkle 1/4 c chopped nuts and 6 oz choc chips over top)
Bake at 350 for 25-30 min.
A few minutes before it is done, remove from oven and spread 2 c mini marshmellows on top. Put back in oven for 2 min. (don't overcook mellows or let them melt too much)

Meanwhile mix 3 c powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and milk to thin frosting. Spread on brownies when fresh out of oven. Store in fridge.

Angel Food Cake Dessert

Below is a recipe from a friend who made this at a relief society activity. I'm making this for mother's day because it's so delicious and refreshing. (Plus, strawberries are on sale.) I'm doing my angel food cake from scratch.

1 Angel food cake

1 carton of vanilla ice cream

1 container of cool whip

1 container frozen, sweetened, sliced strawberries (size of container depends on how much you like strawberries!)

Cut the angel food cake in half. Take one half and cut into thumb-length rectangles and lay these out on the bottom of a 13x9 pan as the bottom of the cake, but leave some space between them. Take the other half of the cake bar and tear it into bite size pieces and set aside.If the ice cream has been sitting out this whole time it should be soft enough to scoop and gently mash onto the bottom cake layer. Try to get it into the gaps so when it freezes again it locks them all together. Once the ice cream layer is down, then take the remaining cake shreds and stick them all over the top, pressing them down in the ice cream. Then spread the whipped cream all over the top.** Set the whole pan in the freezer for a few hours to refreeze. Then just thaw the strawberries out when you're ready for cake!

** Also, the original recipe didn't have any whipped cream, I added it because it's delicious, but you can leave it out if it's too much of a sugar overload. Same with the sweetened strawberries, you can always use fresh or unsweetened :)

There it is! It's quick to make and there's not much clean up. Also, a 13x9 pan of this stuff is a TON of cake, but it sure is good!

Lemon Poppyseed Bread

This recipe is phenomenal! I originally got it from allrecipes.com (my favorite place to look for recipes because they're tested and rated!) but added my own changes. I label this as a dessert, because even though it's often eaten at breakfast, let's not fool ourselves- it's LOADED with sugar. Probably why it's so CRAZY delicious. My friend came over today and we made it together. I also made it for Avery's morning birthday party.

Cold Strawberry Pie

I love to cook, but baking is a semi-new territory for me. I recently decided that I will bake more this year. Of course, I went to Mike for inspiration. He told me that he craved Cold Strawberry Pie. He only had it once, years ago, and really wanted me to make it. I asked him what it was like (I never had strawberry pie before and there are lots of different ways to make it) but all he remembered was "it was good." So I searched high and low and came across this one. I tried it last week and it was delicious! I altered the recipe (added less sugar and gelatin) because that's what I do with recipes. I gotta make it my own!


Ingredients:
1 (9-inch) pie crust, baked
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
Dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon strawberry gelatin
2-3 pints  fresh strawberries, sliced in halves and quarters

Instructions:
Bake pie crust and let cool. Set aside.

Combine sugar, cornstarch, water and salt and bring to a boil. Boil on medium heat for 1 minute. Remove from heat and mix in gelatin and vanilla. Let glaze cool to room temperature.

Gently fold sliced strawberries into glaze and pour into baked pie shell. Chill in refrigerator for 4 hours or until set. Serve with whipped cream, if desired. (I highly suggest the whipped cream though.)

Makes 6-8 servings.