Strawberries!

Since winter apparently decided to bypass Boise this year I've decided it's time to move on & start playing in the dirt, that always makes me happy.

I bought 6 dozen strawberry plants from a lady here in town who's thinning out her parent's strawberry patch. They're a mix of June & everbearing.
I am so excited to plant these babies! Mmmmm...

You know what that means this summer:

You know you wanna...

So, you like peanut butter huh? Brownies too? I see...

I e-mailed this frosting recipe to some friends a few weeks back. I dared them to try it & not absolutely LOVE it. I got it from one of the chefs at my work, yum!

PB Frosting:
1/2 cup PB
1/2 cup butter
2 T milk
3 cups powdered sugar
-cream, whip until light & fluffy
-smear all over your favorite brownies (best with the thicker kind)

Oh yeah.....

One of my favorite things to do to relax is to bake.
Lucky for me my kids also love to make cookies with me, of course, I am more than happy to oblige any time they feel the need.

Happy Father's Day! (with food)

Rick had to work Saturday night, which means he slept until we got home from church.
Then we all headed over to his parent's house for the 1st annual Father's Day BBQ rib "throw-down". Us ladies provided the side-dishes & had the daunting task of judging the ribs. Mmmmm.... yummy.

Since we weren't able to do Father's Day breakfast properly I made french toast this morning & tried out a new ooey-gooey pecan caramel cinnamon roll recipe in honor of Rick today.
We love you honey, thanks for being such an awesome Dad.

Check out the results:

click here for the recipe (awesome site)

Santa & rocky road candy

We're (finally) getting into the full-swing of Christmas around here.

Our Ward had its Christmas dinner the other night & guess who showed up?
SANTA!!!!!

And then last night Sandi & Jacqui & I got together to make some Christmas candy... yum!

He told Santa he wants a bike for Christmas.... score! I think we might be ok on that one.

This is the first year we've gotten a picture of Olivia with Santa that she wasn't screaming.
I kind of miss those days....

(This was last year, hee hee hee)

Rocky Road candy

I vary the amounts & pretty much go by how big of a batch I want & how full of stuff I want it to be

~Melt in a heavy pan: semi-sweet chocolate chips (1.5 cups) very low heat & very slow, keep stirring until just melted, then turn off heatvery low heat & very slow, keep stirring until just melted, then turn off heat

~Add: chopped walnuts & mini marshmallows (or big ones cut in half for bigger marshmallow pockets) the amount varies on how lumpy you want it to be... maybe 1/2 C nuts & 2 C marshmallows... totally guessing, could be more, you don't want too much drippy chocolate left over

~drop in spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet & let cool

First pie, first snow, final harvest

So Fall is finally here, yippie!!!

(and in Idaho, Fall also means snow)
I LOVE this time of year.... so much.
I made the first apple pie of the season last weekend for Conference.

Today we woke up to our first snow (Rick was out hunting in it) which also meant a rescue mission to harvest anything & everything left in my garden (ready or not)... it'll just have to finish ripening up inside. Now I get to make lots of salsa with all these tomatoes... bummer.

Oh yeah, and one more milestone today: the first pumpkin bread of the season too.What a yummy time of year!

Mexican Chocolate Cake

Holy yummy Batman!

Thanks for bearing with me & the ode to weddings on my blog lately...I'm sure there'll still be more to come but here's something different:

So, I made this for a church Easter dinner tonight

(we had enchiladas & a Mexican dessert contest... cause nothing says Easter like Mexican food, eh?)

Anyhow, I got this recipie from a site off my friend Janelle's blog:

allrecipies.com (gotta try it).

Soooo good! I did the basic cake & then added caramel & toasted coconut on the top.

INGREDIENTS
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
· 2 cups white sugar
· 1 teaspoon baking soda
· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
· 1/2 cup margarine, softened
· 1/2 cup vegetable oil
· 1 cup water
· 1/2 cup sour milk
· 2 eggs
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 11 x 15 inch pan.
2.In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and cinnamon. Add the margarine, oil, water, sour milk (sour cream), eggs and vanilla, mix until smooth. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3.Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

4. Drench the top w/ caramel ice cream topping. In the broiler brown 1/2 Cup coconut, sprinkle on top & drizzle caramel or butterscotch.
5. Serve still warm 'ish.

Best-ever Brownies

I usually am not a fan of homemade brownies but, oh-my-goodness, these are literally the best I've ever had.

They are just as easy as box brownies & are to die for when they're still all warm from the oven with some vanilla ice cream & chocolate syrup.

You can all thank my dear friend & fellow chocaholic, Janelle, for the recipie.

2 cubes butter or margarine, super-soft
4 eggs
2 C sugar
2 tsp vanilla
*mix well & then add:
1 1/2 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 C cocoa powder
1 C nuts, optional
*Pour into 9x13 pan. Bake @ 350' x 20-25 minutes.

Pumpkin bread & pie crust

Ok, so I'll admit that at first I felt extremely guilty about posting these 2 recipies on my blog. But, then I decided that they are so good that they should be shared & bring happiness to the people I love.
My mom would want it to be no other way.
These are Pat Russell specialties, some of her best: pumpkin bread & her awesome pie crust.
Trust me, give the pumpkin bread a try & it will become a tradition for Thanksgiving & Christmas...many people have been converted.
As far as the pie crust goes, its from one of the orignial Betty Crocker cookbooks, in fact...you can't even find it in the recent ones anymore (I checked). It's a little different than your typical pie dough: its an oil pastry. This means its a little salty & has some extra flavor, perfect for those really sweet pies. Yummm.
So, I dedicate this post to my wonderful mom who taught me how to cook & how to bring joy to others with food. Please enjoy.
I love you mom.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Pat's Pumpkin Bread

4 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 C sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
4 1/2 tsp cinnamon
*Mix in large bowl, create a well in center.
Add:
1 1/2 C oil
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 large can pumpkin
*Mix well.
Stir in 2 C (or 1 bag) chocolate chips
*pour in to greased & floured bread pans. Makes 9 mini-loaves or 3 large.
**Bake @ 350' x 1 hour (40-50 min. for mini loaf) or until toothpick comes out clean.

(great warm or cool, also freezes well if wrapped in foil)

Best-ever pie crust (for a 2-crust pie)

2 3/4 C flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
just under 1 C oil
1/3 C water
*Mix flour & salt. Make well in center, add oil & cut until looks like meal. Cut in water 1-2 Tbs. at a time (begin when dough is just starting to come together like meal). Gather dough togther, immediately roll out for pie pan.
**Bake @ 425' x 10-13 min for one crust pie/ baked shell or according to directions for filling.
(Because this is an oil pastry it the dough is not as soft as when using Crisco...trust me, it tastes so much better & is the perfect flaky pie-crust if not over-handled.)

Just like mama used to make

Holy cow, nothing says "Fall's here" like homemade apple pie. This is one of those weekends that I was able to feel like a mommy & not just a student.

Mmm, now you can't say that doesn't look good...thanks for the lessons Mom.

If you love chocolate & you love PB...

Ok, so this is my newest cookie recipie...yum!!!

My lovely friend, Jacqui, makes these & I finally got the recipie.

**you-have-to-try-them**

Choco-kissed Cookies:

1/2 C butter

1/2 C PB

3/4 C brown sugar

3/4 C sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

*Cream together first 6 ingredients

2 C flour

1/2 C cocoa powder

30 Hershey's "Hugs"

*Mix in flour & cocoa. Refrigerate dough for at least 15 min.

Roll into balls & roll balls in sugar.

Bake @ 375' x 10 min.

Top w/ "Hugs" & cool (or not, yum).

(if you don't want the Hugs to get all melty-gooey...put them in freezer 1st)