S'mores Brownies.

I'll be the first to admit that I like my brownies undisturbed by any other ingredients.  No peanut butter chips, no extra chocolate frosting, no marshmallows - nothing.  Just give me a nice and big gooey brownie and I'm good to go.

Basically this recipe goes against all my brownie morals but it was sooo good.  And easy.  Which automatically makes it better.

Ingredients:
1 box of Betty Crocker dark chocolate brownie mix
eggs and oil as stated on box
big marshmallows, or mini marshmallows if you so desire
graham cracker crumbs

Directions:
1.  Preheat your oven as instructed on the box.
2.  Mix brownie mix together with eggs and oil.  Grease your pan and even the brownie batter out in the pan.
3.  Take your jumbo marshmallows and cut in half, place as many as you'd like across the top of the batter.
4.  Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs across the top of the mix.
5.  Bake as instructed or until a toothpick comes out clean.

They should look a little something like this.  The marshmallows get all gooey and toasted and the graham cracker crumbs get nice and crunchy.  And of course the brownies are amazing!

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I've been looking for a recipe like this for quite awhile, and now that summer is here I really needed to find one.  I did, and it totally doesn't disappoint.  It's the perfect balance of strawberry and lemon, and a really best when they're fresh out of the refrigerator.  I made them for a picnic a week ago and they flew off the table.  I topped them with little bendy straws.  So cute!

Cupcake Recipe only via Cupboard to Cupboard
Ingredients:
1 package white cake mix
1 3 oz. package strawberry jello
1 cup mashed strawberries ( 1 1/2 cup whole = 1 cup mashed)
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 eggs

In large bowl, stir together cake mix and jello mix.  Make a well in the center and pour in mashed strawberries, oil, buttermilk and eggs.  Beat on low speed until blended.  Scrape sides of the blow, beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.  Pour batter into prepared cupcake pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack until completely cooled.

Makes 24 cupcakes. *This recipe actually yielded 30 cupcakes for me, so maybe I didn't fill them enough?


Lemon Icing recipe:
1 teaspoon fresh lemon rind, grated
3 tablespoons butter, room temp
3 cups confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon water
dash of salt*
yellow food coloring (if desired)

Add lemon rind to butter, cream well.  Add part of sugar gradually, blending well after each addition. 
Combine lemon juice and water; add to creamed mixture alternately with the remaining amount of confectioners sugar until it reaches the right consistency to spread.  Add in yellow food coloring to the frosting.

Beat after each addition until smooth.

Add salt. * I didn't add salt, didn't find a need for it.

Frost baked goods.


Enjoy these, seriously!

Weekend

This weekend I baked some S'mores cupcakes.  They're pretty much the most amazing thing ever and I can't wait to make them again for my birthday.

And then I baked some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for a church gathering.

And for dinner last night I made chicken burritos with my own Mexican rice.

So basically all I did was cook, eat and sleep over the weekend.  But that's okay with me.

These Brownies Aren't Child's Play

Om nom nom....that's the noise that you're going to make when you bite into one of these Chocolate Crunch Brownies.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
6 Tablespoons baking cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark but use your favorite)
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow creme
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 cups Rice Krispie cereal

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13x9 pan.
2. In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar, add eggs.  Stir in the next four ingredients (baking cocoa, flour, vanilla extract and salt).  Spread the mixture into your greased baking pan.  
3. Bake for 25-30 minutes - until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.  Cool.
4. Once the brownies have cooled down (I waited about 15 minutes) spread the marshmallow creme over the brownies.  This takes some patience and is probably the most tedious step.  At least it was for me.  Haha
5. Melt your chocolate chips and peanut butter over low heat and stirring constantly.  Note:  This step smells really good.  I wanted to dip my face in my little sauce pan because it smelled like a warmed up peanut butter cup.
6. Once your chocolate/peanut butter mixture is nice and smooth, remove from the heat and add the cereal.  Spread out the mixture until you have a nice even layer over the marshmallow.
7. Place the brownies in the fridge until you're ready to cut and serve them and enjoy.

If you're not a fan of Rice Krispies or you're just looking for something a little sweeter, try this with Golden Grams.  I bet that it would be slammin'.

Oh yeah, here's a picture...because you probably want to see what they look like finished.

 Special thanks to the Hub's Mom for sharing and letting me make this recipe for a family Christmas party this weekend!

Saturday Night's Dinner

Today we ventured back to the local farmer's market for the first time since June.  We like that we can support local vendors, and typically find most of the items to be fresher and cheaper.  Since we have a few rolls in the freezer, we purchased some yummy ground beef and planned on grilling up some burgers tonight.  We also picked up some Asian pears that I can't wait to try, some spinach and other veggies and fruit for the week ahead.

Then the Hubs saw the fresh bread stand.  The bread these people make and sell is out of this world.  Like seriously, whoa.  It's that good.  We picked up a huge Focaccia roll that was covered with tomato slices and cheese.  Let's just say dinner plans changed drastically.


The Hubs gets points for suggesting this one.  I cooked up some of the hamburger meat that we purchased, sliced the Focaccia bread down the middle and sliced little pouches in to stuff the meat into.  Then I thew them in the oven for about 10 mintues and wha-bam!  We had ourselves a yumm-tastic dinner that didn't take longer than 20 minutes and was less than $10 to make.

Here are some pics of what I did...In order, because Picassa collages knew exactly how I wanted to order my photos tonight.

Full list of ingredients:

• 1 loaf fresh focaccia bread
• 3/4 lb. ground beef
• pinch of salt
• pepper
• Italian Seasoning

Seriously, it's that easy.