Frozen chocolate chip cookie dough balls dipped in chocolate

Yeah. You read the title right. Sheer genius from Joy the baker. Check it out.

http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2010/06/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-balls/#more-2980

Butterfinger Bars

Butterfinger Bars

4 C. oatmeal
1/2 C. sugar
1 C. brown sugar
1 C. butter or margerine

Mix and press into a 9x13 pan. Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Melt 2 C. of chocolate chips and 1-1/2 C. peanut butter in the microwave for aproximately 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Spread of top of cooked cookie. Cool and cut into bars.

Recipes for St. Patrick's Day

Irish Soda Bread
Here is the link to the recipe that I posted (link) for the menu for the week for Irish Soda bread
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/irish_soda_bread/

Irish Soda Bread Muffins
Also, a recipe I found a link for from Simply Recipes to The Recipe Girl for Irish Soda bread muffins. It looks intriguing.
http://therecipegirl.blogspot.com/2008/03/irish-soda-bread-muffins.html

Corned Beef and Cabbage
This recipe, for corned beef and cabbage is on Simply Recipes. She tells you how to bake corned beef with a yummy sweet, hot, mustard on it or to simply boil it.
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/corned_beef_and_cabbage/

Easy Corned Beef and Cabbage (and bacon)
And this one I've made before. It is yummy, I think. Although it has salty ingredients in it so I don't make it as much as I would like to. It uses canned corned beef. I like canned corned beef. I saw Paula Deen make this on her show a couple of years ago so I tried it and like it so much that I made it again.
http://pauladeen.com/index.php/recipes/view2/easy_corned_beef_and_cabbage/

Baked Potato Bar
Baked potatoes with an assortment of toppings: shredded cheddar, bacon crumbles, sliced green onion, sour cream, ham dices, gravy, seasoned ground beef, salsa, chili, steamed broccoli, cheese sauce, ranch dressing.

Potato Soup
See recipes on the left side.

Colcannon
Tyler Florence made this on his "The Ultimate" show. Looks yummy and authentic. Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish. Potatoes, cabbage, bacon, butter....
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tylers-ultimate/colcannon-recipe/index.html

Blarney Stone Bars
This recipe for a sweet treat, Blarney Stone Bars looks good, from Taste of Home magazine.
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Blarney-Stone-Bars

Homemade Oreos

See on my blog list, "My Chocolate Garden". Click onto that and then click onto the cookies subject line. The homemade oreos recipe is about third down. I made them last weekend and didn't have the Devil's food cake mixes so used 2 milk chocolate cake mixes instead. Cake mixes are on sale this weekend at Safeway for .69 each.

Update on 28 August 2010---the blog that I got this recipe from is no longer public. Luckily I had written down the recipe.

Homemade Oreos

from the blog My Chocolate Garden

COOKIES:

2 Boxes Devil's Food or Chocolate cake mix

4 eggs, use large or extra large works best (note: the Devil's food cake mix tends to be more dry than the chocolate does)

1 C. oil

Combine thoroughly. Roll into 1 inch balls. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 340 degrees F for 8 minutes. Do not over cook. The cookies will not look done. Allow them to cool on a wired rack.

FILLING:

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 C. butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla

4 1/2 C. powdered sugar

Caramel Drizzled Brownie hearts

I saw this recipe in a Betty Crocker ad in the coupon inserts last year. I didn't caramel drizzle but opted to frost with homemade chocolate buttercream instead. Lots of ideas and the caramel drizzled heart recipe at www.BakeLifeSweeter.com

Caramel Drizzled Brownie Hearts
Betty Crocker

1 box (1 lb. 6.5 oz) Betty Crocker Original supreme brownie mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on brownie mix box
1 bag (14 oz.) caramels, unwrapped
3 tablespoons whipping cream
1/2 C. chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line bottom and sides of 13x9 inch pan with foil. I used parchment paper. Grease bottom only of foil with shortening or cooking spray. Make brownie mix as directed on box, using pouch of chocolate syrup, water, oil and eggs. Bake as directed for 13x9 inch pan. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Using foil to lift, remove brownie from pan. Remove foil. With deep 3 inch hear shaped cookie cutter, cut 12 brownies.

In medium microwavable bow., microwave caramels and whipping cream uncovered on High 1-3 minutes, stirring every minute, until caramels are melted.

Arrange brownie on serving plate. Drizzle caramel mixture over brownies. Sprinkle with pecans.

Like I said, I just frost them per normal. They turn out cute as well.

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats
from Margie M.

1 cup white sugar
1 cup light Karo corn syrup
1 cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal

Topping:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

Instructions:
Spray a large bowl and a 9x13 pan with not-stick cooking spray.

Measure out the Rice Krispies into that large bowl.

Put sugar and Karo into a saucepan and cook on your stovetop over medium heat just until it comes to a rolling boil. Remove from heat immediately and stir in the peanut butter until melted and smooth. (The longer it boils the harder/tougher the treats).

Fold peanut butter mixture into the Rice Krispies until evenly incorporated. Then pour into the 9x13 pan. Gently push it to fill the pan and lightly even the top so it is level with the back of your mixing spoon. Do not pack tightly.

Melt the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips together. I put them into my 2-cup siz Pyrex measuring cup and microwave them on defrost until melted. Stir until well blended. Spread on the cooled peanut butter treats. Let the 'frosting' set up before cutting and serving. This can take a long time. I put the pan into my freezer for 5 minutes or so until the chocolate sets. Cut, serve and enjoy!

Cake Mix Cookies

If anyone is still with me this week, and not running around like a turkey with her head cut off...... I went to Albertson's last evening to get the Betty Crocker frosting and cake mixes on sale. If you buy five at a time, the cake mixes are .69. That is the lowest that I've seen cake mixes for awhile. Unfortunatley the rewards only work one per transaction. So today I will be back to Albertson's, and then tomorrow I will be back, and then the day after that.....maybe. Below is a recipe for Cake Mix Cookies. .69 and you can make cookies for your family. There is also a really good recipe on the "Chocolate Garden" blog on my sidebar for big and soft homemade oreo cookies with a buttercream and cream cheese frosting blobbed in the middle of two of those bad boys. See the cookie section of that blog. You'll need two chocolate cake mixes for that recipe.

Cake Mix Cookies
Recipe from Carrie B. off of the couponsense message board

1 (18.25 oz.) package yellow cake mix
1/3 C. vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 C. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in the oil and eggs until well blended. Mix in chocolate chips. Drop y teaspoonfuls onto the prepare cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from pan to cool on wire racks.

Carrie suggests different flavored cakes mixes, ie., chocolate cake mix with white chocolate chips, carrot cake cake mix with white chocolate chips. Or you could put cream cheese frosting on the carrot cake cookies. Lemon cake mix cookies with a lemon glaze, chocolate cake mix cookies with chocolate frosting, cherry chip cake mix cookies....possibilities to suit every taste and are endless.

Night Owl Cookies

See http://www.brightideas.com/bright_idea.aspx?ID=128



Cute idea for Halloween

Sour Cream sugar cookies

These are great cut out and decorated into Halloween shapes, Christmas cookies and Valentine's cookies.

Teresa's Treasures
from my friend Teresa

1 C. butter
1 C. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cream above ingredients together

3 C. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paking powder
1/2 C. sour cream or sour milk (I don't use as much sour milk when I use it)

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and alternate mixing the dry into the creamed mixture with the sour cream or sour milk until all combined. It is a sticky, soft dough and refrigerating will firm it up. If using sour milk, use sparingly. drizzling in until dough is soft and slightly sticky but not too wet.

Chill for an hour at least.

Roll out to 1/2" thickness. I always make mine thinner than Teresa did but still a little thicker than a traditional crisp sugar cookie. These will turn out like the Lofthouse brand cookies, so use your own judgement how thick to make them.

Bake at 375 for 8 mintes. You don't want them brown on top, just a slight gold color possibly on the bottoms. Cool and ice or decorate with butter cream frosting. If these are left in tupperware overnight, they become so soft and luscious.


NOTE:Put a glug (a couple of teaspoons or a tablespoon) of vinegar into a 1/4 to a 1/2 C. of milk to sour it.

Buttercream frosting
from the box of a cake mix, from way back when

4 C. powdered sugar
1 stick softened butter or margerine
1 tsp. or 1 cap full of vanilla
dash of salt
milk to desired consistency. Use water if you don't have milk

Cream butter, add half of the sugar and a little milk and the salt and vanilla and cream. Add the rest of the sugar and some milk, a little at a time and blend until creamy. Add milk slightly until desired consistency is reached. If you are using a decorator bag, it will need to be thicker than if just speading.

Pumpkin Cookies

Nothing smells like fall to me like these pumpkin cookies do when they are baking.

Blanche's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. shortening, or butter, or margerine
1 egg
1 C. pumpkin
2 1/2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 C. nuts(you have my permission to omit if you want)
1/2 C. chocolate chips (My family would be unhappy if I only put in 1/2 C.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes
You may want to lightly, lightly grease the baking pans before scooping the dough onto them.

Some thoughts on stockpiling

Yeah, when I woke up this morning, I didn't know that my thoughts would turn to this. But...trying to make cookies promised for today and knowing that I didn't have a car to go get ingredients needed that I thought I had when I started out...well, you know how it goes. I decided on Chocolate chip cookies and ended up with about a 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar more than I needed left in the whole house. That is if the recipe yields 6 dozen, and I think that it will, if I don't get all consumed in this post and burn a pan. And I can make more brown sugar, I have plenty of white sugar and molasses....but I don't want to have to. Then the chocolate chip situation. In my head I feel that I am always buying chocolate chips and when I need to use them there is always just one bag and a partial bag left. Maybe I am forgetting where I am stashing them? But that would mean that I was old and forgetful and we all know that I'm not. I need to get some lima bean or cauliflower bags to store them in when I put them in the freezer. Then they might be safe from teenage boys craving chocolate. Remember that one line in the movie "17 Again" where Zack Efron(as a 17 yr. old boy) is talking to his friend while consuming all kinds of "stuff" layed out on the kitchen counter and the friend says, "Dude, what are you eating?" and Zack Efron says, "I don't even know, all I know is that I'm HUNGRY ALL of THE TIME"? That line has come to mean so much to me. So, I had one full bag of chocolate chips and a partial bag of mini chips and then a full bag of white chocolate chips. So enough to make something out of but kind of more rustic a look than I wanted. So I found some snack bags of M&Ms and some Hersheys nuggets in the fridge. So I chopped up some nuggets and put those with the milk chocolate chips that I had in the cookie dough. And if I need to make more dough I can use the M&Ms. But I think that I'm in good shape now. But all this got me thinking about stockpiling. Last November when sugar and baking goods were low, low, low priced I stocked up and I may have bought some more brown sugar and powdered sugar around Easter time and Passover when baking goods were cheap again. I am now just this week running out of powdered sugar, cocoa and brown sugar. And the chocolate chips would have held out if I didn't have chocoholics living here with me. I still have lots of flour and white sugar left but will rotate that with the new stuff I plan to get when the sales come. So get ready for the holiday baking season sales and frenzy that will hit the stores in a couple of months and plan to stock up for the whole year. Save some $ for it now if you need to. And start clipping coupons for flour and sugar now because you will get so much bang for your buck if you do, even if just in the baking area of food alone. And use up that Halloween candy you'll be getting soon enough, make cookies out of the chocolate kinds. For great stockpiling secrets, tips and motivation, see my side bar for Mindy's blog, the $50 stockpile. Her ideas are terrific. And I'm not just saying this because she wrote about me yesterday. Okay, well, had better go clean up the cookie mess in the kitchen and see if the sharpie pen stain came out of the white tee shirt that I treated with hairspray. And in case you were wondering...I came out 4 1/2 cookies more than I needed. YES! That means that I can consume some of the M&Ms in their pure form after I get things under control.

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Glenda Nielsen

1 lb. real butter
1 1/2 C. white sugar
2 C. brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
6 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
6 C. or 2 bags chocolate chips
2 C. chopped nuts

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.