Christmas Cookie winning recipes

I've spent the last 5 days making Christmas cookies for my neighbors and my son's school class and I found several recipes that are just delicious so I thought I would share. 

Easy Gingerbread Man

1 (3.5) oz package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix

1/2 c. butter (one stick)

1/2 c packed brown sugar
1 egg

1 1/2 c. all purpose Flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp. Cinnamon

In medium bowl, cream together the dry butterscotch pudding mix, butter and brown sugar until smooth, stir in egg.  Combine flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon; stir into pudding mixture cover and chill dough until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease baking sheets.  On a floured board, roll dough out to about 1/8 in. thickness, and cut into man shapes using a cookie cutter.  Place two inches apart of cookie sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes in preheated oven until golden at edges and cool on wire racks. 

Note: (I used a small cookies cutter from the 101 cookies cutters pack sold at walmart and craft stores and I got about 50-60)

Soft sugar cookies

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

5 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

5 cups flour (may need a lot more - I added extra to get the dough to cut easier)

Cream sugar and butter.  Add vanilla, eggs and milk (will look runny).  Add baking powder and salt.  Add flour, working in gradually.  Roll of floured board  and cut shapes.  Dip cookies cutters in flour and flour table/board thoroughly.  Bake 350 for 10 minutes.  Makes 4 dozen.

**Note:  This recipe is a little different than other recipes and I have to admit I was skeptical but I followed the directions and they were great soft sugar cookies.  I had a hard time at first because the dough was super stick but I added flour until I got it where I wanted it and floured my cookie cutters and table well. 

I hope you try these recipes and enjoy them as much as we did.  Yummm

Noteworthy Recipe: Make Ahead Muffins

I found a recipe today that I'm so excited to try!  I've been really trying to find healthier alternatives to my "fast foods" that I eat during the day.  Usually I grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast, and then have leftovers (or junky snack food...) the rest of the day because I haven't figured out how to cook and hold a crying baby simultaneously.

Then, as I was browsing trying to find ideas to make a carseat carrier cover, I found this on a blog called Make it Do that had this great recipe for bran muffins.  You can make the batter ahead and keep it in the fridge for a month!  Then every couple days make a fresh batch.  Mmm.  So as soon as I acquire a box of All Bran and some buttermilk, I'll be enjoying these.  (If you follow the link below, they have step by step instructions with pictures.)

Busy Day Bran Muffins

• 2 c. boiling water
• 5 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. shortening
• 2 c. sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 qt. buttermilk
• 5 c. flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 c. All Bran
• 2 c. Bran Flakes
• 2 c. chopped dates (optional)
• 1 c. chopped pecans (optional)

Add baking soda to boiling water and let cool.  Cream shortening and sugar.  Add eggs.  Stir in buttermilk.  Stir in flour that has been sifted with salt.  Add water/baking soda mixture.

In a large bowl, stir together All Bran, Bran Flakes, dates and pecans.  Pour buttermilk mixture over and stir lightly.  

Cover tightly and refrigerate for a minimum of 12 hours.   Be sure not to stir again.  Batter keeps in the refrigerator for approximately 4 weeks.

To bake:  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Drop by spoonfuls into a greased muffin tin.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Makes 5 ½ dozen.
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Don't they seems so yummy and healthy.  I'm thinking I might throw some frozen berries in a batch too...
If you make these before I do, add a comment and let me know how they go!

What recipes do you have that you love to keep on hand for quick meals?
Ooh, or/also, what healthy snacks do you like to keep around the house.  My go-to right now is carrot sticks and I'm looking for some more options.


Thanks!
With love,

Themed Parties—Alice in Wonderland

Last week Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland premiered, so my friend Marie thought it would be fun to theme her birthday party after the movie. She asked to have the party at my place and though I didn't get to help much, the theme worked out pretty well!! Soooo, in case you have a party looming in the near future, consider a Wonderland theme!

The main feature was labeling all of the food and drink with signs that read "Eat Me" and "Drink Me."





The drinks were little water bottles with assorted food coloring dropped in. Yes, the drinks were randomly placed throughout the apartment, and these were in the bathroom.

The main decorations were about four decks of cards worth hanging from the ceiling and on the walls.

It helps if you have awesome people who dress up: Alice and the Queen of Hearts. (We also had the Mad Hatter.)




I also got to make cake balls again—and they were a huge success. Everyone was talking about them and I had to tell several people the secret of how to make them—considering this was only my second time preparing them, I've found a lot of little tricks that work.

I know I posted this before, but I'll just add some quick tips because I can't find the post.

Most recipes are pretty simple. Just use any cake mix and any can of frosting. Cook the cake, then scoop it in a bowl, and stir in frosting.

Scoop the mixture into balls and lay on a waxed cookie sheet.

Here is where I RECOMMEND to FREEZE the balls. I personally left them in the fridge overnight and for most of the next day, but they warm up quickly and are much easier to work with when solid. I'd stick a bunch in the freezer while I was chocolate-dipping others.

Last time I had a hard time covering the balls in chocolate. This time I melted the chocolate (both melting and chocolate chips) on the stove on low and that kept the chocolate from hardening and/or burning. If the balls are solidly frozen, I'd suggest rolling them in the chocolate with a toothpick. Otherwise, go ahead and stick them in the pan and cover them and pull out with a spoon.

For more Alice in Wonderland party ideas see this site, http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/mad-tea-party-ideas.html, or this site. http://www.ehow.com/how_2067026_throw-alice-wonderland-costume-party.html

Cafe Rio deliciousness

Anyone who knows me knows I am in LOVE with Cafe Rio. While my obsession has become less severe in the past year, I still get excited when I have a chance to partake of the food. If you haven't had the pleasure of enjoying this tasty treat, make it a priority to visit one of their locations in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, or California.

While I do have access to the restaurant, my friend and I had decided to start cooking together every so often, and decided to start by trying out some Cafe Rio recipes. And let me say, it was AMAZING!

We made the famous sweet pork, rice, beans, and cilantro/ranch salad dressing. And we finished everything off with an AMAZING tres leche.

Cafe Rio Pork

Recipe

2 pounds pork
3 cans Coke (NOT diet)
1/4 c. brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 c. water
1 can sliced green chilies
3/4 can enchilada sauce
1 c. brown sugar

Put the pork in a ziploc bag to marinade. Add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 c. of brown sugar. Marinade for a few hours or overnight.

Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for about 3-4 hours (or until it shreds easily, but don't let it get TOO dry) or on low for 8 hours. Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork.

In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar (about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste..). If it looks too thick, add more Coke little by little.

Put shredded pork and sauce in crockpot and cook on low for 2 hours.

Cilantro/Ranch Dressing

This is where things really got interesting for us. You see, we are both young, single professionals and don't exactly have complete kitchens. So, we did not have a blender for completing this recipe. So we made due with my trusty Magic Bullet. We mixed everything together in a bowl first and then divided the recipe into THREE cups to mix separately. Yes, we were determined to complete the recipe even though we didn't have the right equipment.

Recipe
1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix (the store was out when we shopped, so we got Buttermilk, which worked fine for us)
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. buttermilk
2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lime

Mix all ingredients together in the blender.

Chopping up the tomatillos

The mixture before we added the cilantro and before we separated it into the Magic Bullet cups

The lovely separated and ready to mix dressing—Magic Bullet style

Cafe Rio Rice

Recipe
1 c. uncooked rice (traditionally it's white, but we used brown rice)
1 tsp. butter or margarine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 can (15 oz) chicken broth
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp. sugar
3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 tsp. lime, chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix in as you fluff the rice.

Cafe Rio Beans

Recipe
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/3 c. tomato juice (we couldn't find juice so just used sauce, so our beans were a bit thicker than normal, but still delicious!)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

In a nonstick skillet, cook garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium heat until you can smell it. Add beans, tomato juice, and salt. Continually stir until heated through. Just before serving stir in the cilantro.

For our tortillas, we put a little butter in the pan and toasted them and melted cheese on them. We used green leaf lettuce and each tore up pieces for our own salad. I also had a big bag of tortilla chips, so we crumbled those to top our salads with a crunchy touch.


And now...DESSERT!!

Tres Leche Cake

This is actually where we ran in to a few problems. Haha! We'd been cooking for a while already, and silly us, we kinda assumed we could make dessert last and let it cook and such while we finished up dinner and ate.

NOT THE CASE!!!

We really should have read the directions better before hand (really, read on :P), but the first think I noticed is that the cake needs to cool for about 4 hours. At least. We just decided to go ahead and we'd eat the dessert a bit later that evening.

The next problem came when the first part of the recipe asked for 6 egg whites. We didn't know we needed the yokes later, and kinda threw them away. Yes, we were wasteful, I'm sorry. But two steps later, we realized the mistake. Luckily I had enough eggs so we took the yokes from 6 MORE...but this time saved the whites because, yes, I eat egg whites regularly.

We were a little impatient and put the cake in the freezer to cool faster...we just left it in a little too long so it wasn't DELICIOUS until it thawed a little and the milk mixture started goozing. Yum!! I unfortunately did not get a picture of this amazing delight.

Recipe
6 large eggs, separated
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream topping:
1 14-ounce can evaporated milk
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour a 9 by 13-inch baking dish and set aside. (I used a smaller rectangle pan & a muffin tin, b/c I wanted individual cakes for presentation)
In the bowl of a mixer, beat the egg whites on low speed until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually with the mixer running and peak to stiff peaks. Add the egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after the addition of each.

Sift together the flour and baking powder and add to the egg mixture, alternating with the milk. (Do this quickly so the batter does not lose volume.) Add the vanilla. Bake until golden, 25 minutes.

To make the cream topping: In a blender, combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream and blend on high speed.

Remove the cake from the oven and while still warm, pour the cream mixture over it. Let sit and cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Fun and Easy, Fancy French Dinner

Hey all, it's Jules. Hope you're enjoying Martin Luther King, Jr. day.

This weekend my boyfriend and I decided to cook a fancy dinner and invite some people over. I had a French "Look and Cook" book that his mom had given me for Christmas, and my handy "Cooking Light" magazines. We browsed through them and went shopping for the ingredients. It was pretty easy for how good it was!

I'll show you some pictures of the process, and I found the recipes online if you'd like to make it yourself!

First course was Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Butternut Squash

I used chicken breasts instead of roast chicken, so I didn't have to cook it as long as the recipe said. It was really easy, just make a combo of salt, pepper, garlic and sage and rub it on them before putting on the broiler and in the oven. I'm going to use a similar rub anytime I make chicken, the spices were perfect and would go with anything.

For a side we made Creamy Potatoes (from my French Look and Cook Cookbook, I'll post the recipe later). They were soooo good! Would be great for thanksgiving for Sunday Dinner. The potatoes were creamy and slightly sweet as they had some nutmeg in them.

And then to finish it off we got a nice and fluffy loaf of french bread. Nate cut it down the middle and put in some melted butter, fresh garlic, italian seasoning - rubbing it all over the side. Then we put it in on broil for a few minutes.

The final products!!

The next day....

While looking through the cookbooks we saw some yummy breakfast ideas, so the next morning we made this Jalapeno, Sausage, Jack and Egg Breakfast Braid. It was so easy - and it was perfect for a sunday morning. Just enough spice, and the bread was just pre-made pizza dough. You could probably make all varieties of this.

Pic from Cooking Light.com

A little bit of chocolate

OK, here's the deal. I love making Christmas treats for my friends and neighbors as presents and just to show that I care. It's a fun excuse to get a few different ingredients and get a little more involved in the kitchen. (Well, for me at least.)

The hard thing about living in a student area, or where everyone leaves to go to their home homes, is that I have to really be on top of my game to get things done in time. That time is coming, so I stopped at the grocery store today to pick up my supplies for treats, including the Mint Thins Ritz mentioned Monday. (Funny that her nickname is Ritz and the recipe calls for Ritz crackers??)

I get home...and my roommate has made a disastrous mess in the kitchen...and she's not one to clean it up for a few days at least. And I HATE cooking in a messy kitchen; I simply can't do it. So after putting off cooking when I got home, and then finishing some to-do list stuff, going to the gym, and visiting a friend leaving tonight, I return home ready to prepare. Not that I expected any differently, but the kitchen is still a disaster. Normally (it happens quite often) I clean it up, but it was beyond what I had time to do tonight. (How is that possibly in just one evening?!?) I even cleared off one section of our counter space before I realized that my extensive Christmas cooking projects would take more room, make more of a mess, and would take too much time to both clean the kitchen and complete. Which is why today I am only sharing my plans and some idea links.

I'm still really excited about these treats so I'll post pictures later. Promise.

Ok I think the theme for this post will be things dipped in chocolate. It just seems Christmasy doesn't it?

Mint Thins: I didn't get the Mint extract the recipe calls for, but did get some peppermint candy canes and spearment drops. I'll crush this to get the minty taste, plus a cool looking outside.

Chocolate Candy Canes: (She has some good pictures) The idea is to be able to use these in hot chocolate to add extra chocolate taste, plus a little mint. I'm couldn't find peppermint sticks so I have canes, and am not quite sure how to wrap them or make them look cute to give out.

Chocolate Cinnamon Bears: Do these need any more explanation?

Last year I used pretzel sticks and made a caramel sauce that they were dipped in. I did a few with chocolate too, but didn't have actual melting chocolate and burned my melted chips. Which is why I LOVE this tip (not so much the cookies) from this video tutorial for making Rudolf's Christmas Cookies.





See 1:35
Pour almost boiling water into a bowl.
Put the chocolate chips in a zip-lock bag and place in the water.
Wait about 5 minutes while the chips melt.
Cut off a corner of the bag and drizzle away.

How easy is that!

some quick healthly options

Hey everyone, it's KK! I decided to stray from my normal topics and today share one of my favorite recipes. I'm not much of a cook—I don't have much time to do so and since it's just me, it's not usually worth the time to go all out. Every once in a while I'll treat myself to a day in the kitchen and make some recipes I've wanted to try.

Because I like things quick, easy and healthy, I fell in love with Hungry Girl a couple years ago. She doesn't have real cooking qualifications, but, as she advertises, is a normal person who wants to eat healthy while still enjoying EATING! Yes, we all love it...Well at least I do. So she takes popular recipes and makes healthy alternatives. She's becoming more and more popular and I'm excited for her because it makes some of the products she talks about more available. I have both cookbooks now and have been introduced to some awesome food and products through this site.

I had tried this recipe from Hungry Girl for chicken breaded in Fiber One crumbs and baked (it's really really good) a while ago, but thought it needed a sort of dipping sauce or something. HG talks a lot about the Laughing Cow cheese wedges and in one of the HG daily emails I stumbled upon a cheese sauce that I wanted to try. Sooo after thinking about it for like, oh I don't know, two weeks, I finally got all of the stuff to give it a try.

I did the chicken first, since I had done that before and knew the routine. And while that baked I put together the sauce. I cut the recipe in half because I didn't think I'd use much. After finishing, I (don't laugh) used the lid of an empty peanut jar to be my sauce dish and still had a bit left over. I was steaming my regular side of broccoli (seriously I'm kinda obsessed these days) and thought, "Hey! I wonder how it would work for a cheese broccoli recipe." So I combined the rest of the sauce with my broccoli and sprinkled some remaining Fiber One crumbs on top. (I think this idea could work well for a baked broccoli casserole.)

The result:

Mmmm...yummy huh :P. It was actually really good for dipping the chicken strips. For the broccoli, however, I think I'm so used to just having it plain steamed that the sauce seemed a little much. The sauce is kinda just off on what I wanted it to taste like, so that might require some tweaking...although I'm not sure how.

Sugar cookie fun

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! (This is Ritz today taking Jules' spot and making up my Friday post, by the way.) We were at my sister-in-law's house for the weekend and got to help them pull out all their decorations. This weekend definitely gets me excited to get everything ready for Christmas. So fun.

Before we left I made some sugar cookies for my VT's and brought the rest with me. It's always a fun activity, especially around Chrstimas. Then when I showed up, my sister-in-law had The Great American Cookie Cookbook propped open to the page below, and I thought it would be such a fun activity and also great for decorating.

Figured I'd share with you so you could all give it a shot. If you make it, let me know how it turns out!

Star Cookie Christmas Tree

• COOKIE DOUGH
• 2-3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon Spice Islands® Ground Ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon Spice Islands® Ground Saigon Cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup Karo® Light Corn Syrup
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
• One 10-inch wooden dowel or chopstick (about 1/4-inch diameter)
• One 3 or 4-inch styrofoam ball for base

• ICING
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 3 tablespoons Karo® Light Corn Syrup
• 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 1 teaspoon Spice Islands® Pure Vanilla Extract
• Green food color
• 1 container (3 1/4 ounces) green crystal sugar
• Yellow crystal sugar
• Miniature colored candies or red cinnamon candies

1* FOR COOKIE DOUGH: In large bowl stir flour, ginger, cinnamon and salt. In 1-quart saucepan combine corn syrup, brown sugar and 6 tablespoons butter; stir over medium heat until butter melts. Stir into flour mixture until well blended. On waxed paper

2*Preheat oven to 350°F. On foil-lined baking sheets roll each dough half scant 1/4-inch thick.

3*With a set of graduated star-shaped or round cookie cutters (or with a knife), cut dough into 10 graduated stars. Using the smallest cutter, cut 9 more cookies to use as spacers. Remove dough trimmings and reroll. Arrange stars on ungreased cookie sheet.

4*Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. While cookies are warm, use dowel to make a center hole in each cookie. Cool completely on wire racks.

5*FOR ICING: In small bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat butter, corn syrup, confectioners’ sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Tint with green food color.

6*FOR BASE: Cut 1-inch-thick center slice from syrofoam ball. Insert wooden dowel upright in center of slice.

7* TO ASSEMBLE TREE: Starting with largest cookie, spread stars with frosting and sprinkle with green sugar. Slide star down dowel; top with one unfrosted spacer cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies stacking on dowel in descending size.

8*Sandwich two small stars together; spread with reserved white icing and sprinkle with yellow sugar. Place on edge to form top star. Decorate as desired with candies.

Makes one centerpiece
Prep Time: 2.5 hours
Bake Time: 10 minutes, plus cooling

Another fun cookie recipe for Christmas:

Creating in the Kitchen-- Delicious Dinners (& Dessert!)

I confess, I have an addiction to recipe blogs. I think it started because I never collected my favorite recipes that my mom made, so I had to keep looking for new things to make for dinner online. Now I've acquired a bunch of my favorites, but I still love finding and trying new recipes to add to my collection. Now that I've found so many tasty things out there, I hate re-making something that I've made already. I want to try all of them!

Here's a few that I've made in the last little while that I love. I had to include both pizzas because they were both so good!
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Garlic-Ranch Chicken Pizza

(recipe from Favorite Family Recipes)

1 large pizza dough, uncooked (fresh, frozen, or whatever you like best)
3/4 c. ranch dressing (*see recipe below or the homemade ranch dressing recipe)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 c. Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 c. bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 c. chicken, cooked and cut into strips (**I like to rub the chicken with olive oil and generously sprinkle with Montreal Chicken Seasoning on both sides. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.)
2-3 tomatoes, sliced

Mix ranch dressing and crushed garlic together then spread evenly on the pizza dough. Sprinkle a little cheese over the ranch dressing then add chicken and bacon. Sprinkle more of the cheese over that, add the tomatoes, then add the remaining cheese. Put in the oven at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes (or until crust is a nice golden-brown). Top with parsley flakes to make it look fancy and serve!

*Ranch Dressing:

1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix (not BUTTERMILK)
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. buttermilk

Whisk ranch mix and mayo together, slowly add buttermilk. When well blended, cover and refrigerate.

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The Best Spinach Alfredo Pizza Ever

(from RecipeZaar)

• 2/3-1 cup classico alfredo sauce
• 25 leaves spinach
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
• pizza dough (enough for one 12-inch pizza)

1. Roll out the fresh pizza dough into a 12 inch circle, and place onto your stone or sheet.
2. Spread the alfredo sauce around and out to the edges and then lay the spinach on top of that, making sure not to overlap pieces of spinach.
3. Then sprinkle cheeses on top and bake at 475 for 10-13 minutes, or whatever you normally bake your pizza pie at.
   
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Cheesy Baked Mexi-Rigatoni

(recipe by picky-palate.com)

1 lb dry Rigatoni pasta or any other pasta of choice
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 Anaheim green chili’s finely chopped
1 lb lean ground beef
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon Lawry’s garlic salt
1 can cheddar cheese soup
½ Cup milk or half and half
1 Cup sour cream
2 15 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
Heaping ½ Cup fresh chopped cilantro leaves (add more if you love cilantro)
2 Cups Mexican blend shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook pasta according to package directions, making sure it’s not overcooked. Drain and set aside.

2. Place olive oil into a large skillet or pan over medium heat. Saute onions and chilies until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in beef, salt, pepper and garlic salt; cook and crumble until browned. Stir in soup, milk, sour cream and tomatoes. Stir until well combined. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cilantro and cooked pasta.

3. Pour mixture into a large 9 x 13 inch baking dish or individual size baking dishes of choice, see my link above. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 20-25 minutes.

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And, since I made it last night, I figured I'd include a favorite that we used to make a lot in my college apartments. Everyone need to try this recipe at least once in their life!

Better Than *Anything* Cake

1 box Devils Food cake
1 jar caramel topping
1 jar sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz tub of whipped topping
1 toffee bar (like Skor or Heath), crumbled or chopped - or a few Fun Size from Halloween





Bake the cake as directed on the box in a 9 x 13 pan. When cooled, use a knife to cut and "drill" holes all over the cake. The more the better! And make sure you get around the edges. It will something look like this: (I made this in two separate pans so I could bring 1/2 of it somewhere and keep me from eating it all...)
Pour the sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping over the holes in the cake, making sure to get in all the holes. We used to use the entire can/jar, but I usually can't make myself put it all in anymore. Put a lot of it on it though :)
Now cover it with the tub of whipped topping and sprinkle with your toffee bars. (If your cake isn't cooled complete the topping melts easily, so be patient before applying!)
And it's complete!

Mmmm. (I recommend waiting a little while before eating it because it's always much better the next day.) Just don't let yourself eat it out of the pan, because you will want to eat the whole thing.
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My challenge to you: Browse some new recipes and try something new this week!

Some of my favorite places are:

Favorite Family Recipes
My Kitchen Cafe
Picky Palate
The Sisters Cafe
Allrecipes.com

Enjoy!

Striped Delight - my attempt on a great recipe

I made this recipe this weekend for my boy's bday, his mom has made it for him every year since he was four. I had it a couple times before and it was soooo good. Mine didn't turn out as well, probably because after I bought all the ingredients I noticed that there were no measuring cups in the kitchen. So I swung it and hoped my years working in a bakery in college would still allow me to guess, haha. It turned out well, but I needed to add more milk in the pudding part (I fixed it by adding some pudding paks). Yes, I'm the sister that totally tries and fails :).

Well here's the recipe - hopefuly you can make it better than me! It's a great summer treat, but with the black and white layers, add some candy corn on top and it's great for halloween. Post pics if you make it and say how you made it great for the fall season.


AFTER! Yummy

STRIPED DELIGHT

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs 1/4 c. sugar 1/3 c. melted butter 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened 1/4 c. sugar 2 tbsp. milk 1 (8 oz.) tub Cool Whip, thawed 2 (4 serving size) pkgs. chocolate flavor instant pudding and pie filling 3 1/2 c. cold milk Combine graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, and melted butter. Press firmly into bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan. Beat with mixer, cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, and 2 tablespoons milk until smooth. Fold in half the Cool Whip. Spread over crust.Using 3 1/2 cups cold milk, prepare instant pudding as directed on package. Pour over cream cheese layer. Chill several hours. Spread remaining Cool Whip over pudding. Garnish with grated chocolate (optional).