S'mores on a stick

My coworker was telling me how her friend made these and she was making them for the fourth of July. I thought it was a cute idea and couldn't wait to make them. Our friend invited us over for a BBQ for the fourth and I decided to make them with a twist. In my family, our s'mores consist of Graham crackers, marshmallow, and a Reese peanut butter cup, so I had to bring peanut butter into the mix.

S'mores on a Stick with a twist of peanut butter or mint
1 bag of large marshmallows
1 bag of chocolate chips
1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
1 pack of graham crackers
1 cup peanut butter chips (or Andes mint chips)
1pkg. Lollipop sticks

Directions:
Put the marshmallows on a stick to start. Then, crush the Graham crackers. I put mine in our mini food processor to make it easier and faster. Then, I put the crushed Graham crackers in two different bowls. I put the peanut butter chips into the food processor and finely chopped them. I did the same with the Andes mint chips. I added the chopped peanut butter chips into one of the Graham crackers bowl and the Ande mint chips into the other. I them used a double boiler to melt the chocolate chips with the vegetable oil (to help thin the chocolate out) and dipped the marshmallows in the chocolate until covered, then rolled them into one of the Graham cracker crumbs. Let harden and cool before serving.

Beets, Chicken Sausage, with Beet Greens

We had a delicious lunch today! We went to the Golden Valley Farmer's Market and picked up some fresh beets. Yum! We made a yummy beet chicken dish. Healthy, tasty, and light! We even cooked the greens from the beets, they were actually pretty tasty, earthy, but good and good for you.
We sauted the beet greens in a pan with a little olive oil, garlic, and onions until wilted. While the greens were cooking, we baked the sliced beets in the oven for about 30 minutes. We cooked the chicken sausage (stuffed with artichoke, mozzarella cheese, and basil) and cut it up. Tossed it all together and YUM!

Sparkling Cranberry Punch

We made this punch for the baptism and it was REALLY good! It didn't seem as sugary as normal punch, even though I am sure it had plenty of sugar in it. It would even be good with a little alcohol added to it. :) Even the adults were drinking this, not just the kids. Once again, I forgot to take a picture of the punch in the cute punch stand that my mom let me borrow. Next time! :)

SPARKLING CRANBERRY PUNCH 

Read more about it at www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,183,157163-248193,00.html
Content Copyright © 2011 Cooks.com - All rights reserved.

2 qt. cranberry juice cocktail (cran-apple, cran-raspberry, whichever)
1 (12 oz.) frozen orange juice, thawed
1 (12 oz.) frozen pink lemonade, thawed
1 qt. ginger ale or sparkling water

Mix the first 3 ingredients in a bowl; stir in ginger ale or sparkling water when ready to serve. Pour over ice.

Makes 25 servings.

Baptism Egg Bake

Isabelle's baptism went really well and the food turned out perfectly! My coworker gave me her recipe for an egg bake, which was great, but I of course, wanted to try to add my own personal touch on it and added some more spices, it was very tasty! There is only one piece left and I made a large pan, so I'll see if I remember to take a picture and add it to this post before I eat it!

Julie's Egg Bake with Tiffany's Twist

~serves 8-10

Ingredients:

    -8 slices of bread, diced

    -1 pound Jimmy Dean sausage, brown and broken up

    -2 cups shredded cheddar cheese ( I used sharp cheddar)

    -1 small can slice mushrooms, drained (I diced them up)

    -1 dozen eggs

    *-1 can cream of mushroom soup

    *-1 cup milk

    *-1 tsp. yellow mustard

Spices I added:

1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder

(you could use garlic salt and skip the kosher salt and garlic powder if you'd like too, it tastes just as good)

Beat eggs until foamy, add soup mixture (*) and mushrooms.  Layer bread, sausage and cheese in 9x13 pan. Pour egg mixture over. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake @350 for 45 minutes. Let stand for 10 min.

Mint Oreo Ice Cream

Amazing homemade ice cream!! The picture looks terrible, but the taste is to die for. Isabelle and I made this for daddy for Father's Day. His favorite blizzard at DQ is mint oreo, so we tried to recreate it for him. I think we have to go get more ingredients today, so I think he enjoyed it! :)

 

Mint Oreo Ice Cream

From food.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup coarsely chopped Oreo cookies
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream or 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons peppermint extract

Directions

1. Place cookies in a bowl, cover and refrigerate.
2. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes; whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 more minute.
3. Pour in the cream and milk and whisk to blend.
4. Add the peppermint extract and blend again.
5. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions.
6. While the ice cream is somewhat loose but on it's way to being frozen, add the chopped cookies and continue freezing until the ice cream is ready.
7. At this point, I transfer the ice cream to a plastic container and put it in the freezer to harden (ripen) completely.

Peanut Butter Cup and Fudge Swirl Ice Cream

This was tasty, but OH SO SWEET! I have a major sweet tooth and still thought this was maybe a little too sweet and rich for my liking. We'll be trying a new recipe for homemade ice cream soon, Mint Oreo, stay tuned!

peanut butter cup and fudge swirl ice cream

Makes about 1.5 quarts

1 ¼ cups whole milk

1 ¼ cups heavy cream
1.5 cups creamy peanut butter, jif works great
3/4 cup sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla
jar of your favorite hot fudge, I love whole foods dark chocolate sauce

as many chopped peanut butter cups as you can handle, we used 10 double cup packages

In a saucepan simmer milk, cream, peanut butter, and 3/4 cup sugar over moderate heat, stirring, until smooth, about 1 minute. Stir in vanilla and cool mixture to room temperature. Freeze mixture in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

As soon as ice cream is finished in machine and at soft serve stage stir in peanut butter cups then fudge.we used a whole small jar. Just dump a bunch onto top of ice cream and then slowly stir in. if you stir too much it won’t swirl. If ice cream gets too soft to do this, just freeze for a while before you stir it in.

Freeze ice cream, covered with plastic wrap, until hard.

French Toast Strata

I have been slacking on my blogging duties, for good reason though, our little girl finally arrived! I have been cooking, but just haven't found the time to post and take pictures along the way. I'll post a few recipes this week, but they might not all have pictures, as we ate them before I could get a picture! I have been testing out recipes for Isabelle's baptism and found this delicious recipe for French Toast, yum! It was a hit and I will for surely be making it for her baptism next weekend!

 

French Toast Strata with Berry Sauce
1 1/2 Loaves French Bread
18 eggs
1 cup Milk (eyeball it)
1 cup Maple Syrup
A splash of Vanilla
A dash of Cinnamon or nutmeg. Whatever suits you.
1 pkg Cream Cheese
Fresh and/or thawed Frozen Berries of your choice

Mix together eggs, milk, syrup, vanilla & spices

Cut the French bread into medium sized cubes, use 1/2 of them to layer the bottom of a large casserole dish**. Slice the cream cheese into cubes and arrange on top of the layer of bread. Use the remaining bread to form another layer on top of the cream cheese. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes until they are thoroughly covered. Use the back of a wooden spoon (or just go ahead and use your hands!) to gently press the bread down into the pan and egg mixture until it is all covered and gooey.

Cover and let it sit for a couple of hours, or even better, overnight.

Sprinkle your berries with a little sugar. If they are fresh, smash them up just a bit to release some juices. Cover and refrigerate until you are ready to serve the strata.

Bake the strata at 350 for 45 minutes. Check center for doneness. It should be firm, like French Toast. Not runny.