Sinfully Rich Brownies

So, I've had million of great comments about my buttercream frosted brownies, so I thought it was high time to post the recipe!  Here ya go!


Sinfully Rich Brownies
2 sticks butter, melted & slightly cooled
1 3/4C sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 large eggs
1C flour
1C cocoa powder
1C chopped walnuts (optional - i did not use)

Heat oven to 350.  Grease an 8x8 or 9x9 pan (crisco works best)

Beat sugar, vanilla and eggs on med/high speed for 5 minutes - a stand mixer helps here.  They should be pale and very fluffy.  With the mixer running, drizzle in the butter.  Turn mixer to low, and add cocoa (carefully so you don't get a face-full!)  Then, add flour and mix just until moistened.  Use a spoon to stir in nuts, then pour into pan.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until edges pull away from sides of pan (center can be a tad gooey).  Be careful not to overbake.  Cool completely before cutting. (not even kidding, don't cut them warm!)

Wedding Cake Buttercream
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
3-5 C powdered sugar
mini chocolate chips, optional

Mix together all ingredients except sugar.  Add sugar 1C at a time until your desired consistency/taste.  Spread over totally cooled brownies - you should only need about 1/2 the frosting.  Sprinkle top with mini chocolate chips, if desired.

For better presentation, i always cut my brownies before icing them.  Then they pop out perfectly, but the top still looks great when it's time to serve.

Hope you all love them!!

Sausage and Smoked Turkey Casserole

This is a favorite childhood recipe that I recently had my Dad send me.  It is best made with leftover smoked turkey, but thanksgiving leftovers would probably do just fine.  Maybe add a dash of liquid smoke to make up for it.


Sausage and Smoked Turkey Casserole
(originally called "Turkey Jambalaya", although it bears no resemblance to any type of jambalaya - no tomatoes!!)

2 lbs Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage (or regular for less heat)
2 large onions, chopped
2 6oz pkgs. Long Grain & Wild Rice Mix (Like Uncle Ben's)
1 lb. fresh sliced mushrooms
2T butter
4C chopped, cooked, smoked turey (about 1.5 lbs)
2 2.5oz cans sliced black olives
2 8oz cans artichoke hearts, sliced (optional, but tasty!)
sliced green onions for garnish

Heat oven to 350

Brown sausage and onions until sausage is fully cooked.  Drain.  Add wild rice along with seasoning packets.  Add package-reccomended amount of water for 2 boxes.  Turn to a low simmer and cover, cooking until water is absorbed.

Meanwhile in a skillet, sautee mushrooms in butter.  Drain any extra liquid.  When rice is cooked add mushrooms and all remaining ingredients (except green onions)  Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with spray oil, spread casserole in dish and garnish with sliced green onions. (I cant remember how full the casserole is - you may need a 10x15 dish, or a few smaller ones...)

Bake for 30 minutes or until crispy on top and heated through.  Serve with Tabasco for those who are more heat tolerant!!

Cheesecake, cheesecake, glorious cheesecake!!

Super quick post - sorry I have not posted in ages!  I had these cheesecakes the other night, and had to get the recipes!!  I have never made a wonderful cheesecake, but these 2 recipes will now be my standard.  They were both wonderful, but the plain vanilla one was my favorite - hands down!  Enjoy!


Philadelphia Vanilla Mousse Cheesecake

40 Nilla wafers, crushed (about 1.5C)
3T melted butter
 4 pkg. (oz each) cream cheese, divided
1C sugar, divided
1T + 1t vanilla, divided
3 eggs
1 8oz. tub cool whip, thawed
fresh raspberries

Heat oven to 325.  Mix wafer crumbs and melted butter.  press onto the bottom only of a 9" springform pan.

Beat 3 pkgs. cream cheese, 3/4C sugar and 1T vanilla until well blended.  Add 1 egg at a time, blending after each one, until just blended.  Pour over crust

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until center is almost set.  Run a thin knife around rim to loosen cake.  Col completely in pan.

Beat remaining block of cream cheese, 1/4C sugar, and 1t vanilla.  Whisk in cool whip.  Spread over cooled cheesecake.  Chill 4 hours or until firm.  Decorate top with fresh raspberries.  (the raspberries really made the cake amazing - don't leave them out!!)

Serves 16



Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

38 Nabisco Ginger Snaps, crushed
1/4C pecans, finely chopped
1/4C butter, melted
4 (8oz) pkgs. cream cheese
1C sugar
1 can pumpkin (not pie mix)
1T pumpkin pie spice
1t vanilla
4 eggs
cool whip/whipped cream and nutmeg to serve


Heat oven to 325.  Mix crumbs, pecans and butter.  Press on bottom and 1" up the sides of a 9" springform pan.

Beat cream cheese and sugar.  Add pumpkin, spice and vanilla.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition until just blended.  Pout over crust.

Bake for 1:20 to 1:30 minutes or until center is almost set.  Run a thin knife around rim to loosen cake.  Cool in pan, then refrigerate 4 hours or until cold and set.  Serve each slice with a dollop of whipped cream and a dusting of nutmeg.

Serves 16

Toddler yogurt and cereal bars

I got most of this recipe from wholesomebabyfoods.com, but I have altered it quite a bit to make it even better for tiny tummies! There is dairy, fruit and whole grains, and protein from the egg, yogurt and cereal! A great and filling snack for any baby who can chew well. Enjoy and let me know if you think of any other great changes!

Toddler Yogurt And Ceral Bars

I use whole milk yogurt, but you can use low/no fat for older kids or adults!!

Cereal mixture:
2C Kashi Strawberry Fields Cereal (or plain corn flakes)
3/4 C whole wheat flour
1/4C packed brown sugar
2-3T ground flax seed
1/2t cinnamon
1/2C butter

Yogurt Filling:
1C plain whole milk yogurt
1 overripe banana (like for banana bread)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2T white flour (use white so it will thicken properly)
1T packed brown sugar
1t vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for the cereal mix. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. You'll be crushing the cereal at the same time. Grease a 9x9 pan and press 1/2 the mixture into the bottom.
3. In a small bowl, mix together all the yogurt filling ingredients. Pour over the cereal crust. Sprinkle the remaining cereal over the yogurt, and press very lightly.
4. Bake 30 minutes or until brown and set. Cool in the pan and cut into 16 squares or bars when completely cool.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Matt doesn't like my cookies  He never has.  Sure, they're tasty and he eats them, but he once asked me why I spent all the time and effort making chocolate chip cookies, when the Pilsbury blue-tube ones were better.  Yeah.  That didn't go over very well.

So I tried several different recipes, and none of them fit the bill.  He wanted crispy outside, chewy inside - but without having to undercook them.  Perfectly golden.  I never found it.

So, last year we had a friend over for a BBQ, and she brought cookies for the dessert.  Matt took one bite and said, "Carrie, get this recipe.  This is a perfect cookie!!"  I was thrilled!  This cookie was the same golden on the top as it was on the bottom.  The entire outside - even the middle - had a crispy, snappy crunch, and the entire inside, all the way to the edges, was soft and chewy, but fully coked and not gooey.  Now, I would finally find out the secret ingredient, or the secret combination of liquids to dry, or whatever it was!!

I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to ingredients.  I don't really like using "fake" stuff, like instant milk powder, splenda... even white flour.  Now that I'm on a fairly strict diet, I've had to make a few concessions, but very rarely.  So it turns out that this cookie recipe was really normal!!  Nearly all the ingredients & amounts were about the average for any chocolate chip cookie, with one exception.  It used Crisco.

I was crushed.  What about all those bad fats?  What about my real sweet cream butter?  Surely Crisco can't be better than butter!?!  I made this recipe for the first time today, and they were the same crisp, chewy perfect cookie that we remembered.  So sad.

It turns out that butter and crisco have different solid & liquid content.  Crisco is 100% vegetable oil, while butter has milk liquids in it.  The butter adds additional non-oil liquid, which softens the dough as it bakes, and prevents the crispy crust from forming - as well as keeping the center more liquidy until it's too late and all the extra liquid evaporates leaving the center dry.

So here I present my friend's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe - complete with Butter flavored Crisco, in all it's cookie perfecting glory.  I have not tried this, but I'd be really interested in seeing side by side results between crisco & butter.  Maybe someone could try making half a batch with each, cook a few of each kind on the same cookie sheet, and see how they bake/set/cool.  And taste, of course.

These cookies are really tasty, in addition to having a perfect texture.  You'll notice a touch of cinnamon, and a tiny bit of cloves.  You can't taste them!  They add such a small background flavor, that when you take a bite you say, "Mmmmm... what is that? I can't quite put my finger on it..."  I don't think that these would be offensive even to a non-clove-lover. 

Enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Whitney - Mercer Island, WA

1 C butter flavored crisco

3/4C packed brown sugar

3/4C white sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 C all purpose white flour (I used 1C white, 1/2C WW and they were great)

1/4t cloves

1/2t cinnamon

1t vanilla extract

1t baking soda

1t salt

2C rolled oats (Old fashioned, not instant)

2C semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2C walnuts (I left these out of my batch, but Whitney's were super yummy)

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Cream together the crisco and sugars.  Add in everything except the flour, oats chocolate and nuts.  Cream well.
3. Use a spoon to stir in the flour, then add the rest of the ingredients.
4. I used a baking stone (no oil needed) or prepare a baking sheet by spraying quickly with EVOO spray, or laying a piece of parchment paper (I think the paper would give better results).
5. I made my cookies really big.  I used a soup spoon mounded up and left about 2" between cookies.  I'd say each one was around 2T or a little more.  Whitney made smaller ones so Abby could be allowed to eat 1 or 2 without getting too much sugar.  Wasn't that sweet??
6. I baked my large cookies for 16 minutes, and each sheet turned out the same - whether on a cold or warm stone.  Whitney's recipe says 12 minutes, for regular walnut sized balls.  
7. When I took the cookies out, they were evenly golden, and the center was still very soft to the touch.  
8. Let the cookies cool about 3 minutes on the rack.  They shoudl be nice and solid adn not stick to the sheet at all adn transfer easily to a wire rack to cool.

I got about 25 large cookies, probably 3 dozen or so smaller ones.