Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

I was hoping to share a nice long post about my trip to Kentucky to help my sister pack for a move.  As fate would have it, I was unable to go due to weather.  (First winter storm of the year for St. Louis had perfect timing.)  You can only imagine how bummed I was!  Even though it would have been work, I would have gotten to spend time with my sister - something that is rare these days.
Since I didn't get to go on my little girl time road trip (grrr!), I felt the need to give myself a little pick-me-up to help soothe my emotional wounds. That means I turned to food to make me feel better.
A quick search through the pantry turned up a box brownie mix, but I needed something more.  Enter Peanut Butter!  Here's a quick recipe for PB Swirl Brownies starting with said box mix.  (Did you know all the recipes I came across on the web were all scratch brownies - even Betty Crocker's!  No time for that here!)

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Ingredients:
1 Family size Brownie mix (for 9x13 baking dish)

Filling

2 T melted butter (salted)
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 t vanilla extract

Directions:


1.  Mix filling ingredients together in a bowl until smooth.  Set to the side.

2.  Mix brownies according to directions on back of box and pour into a 9x13 dish.

3.  Spoon dollops of peanut butter filling into brownie batter in a random pattern spacing it around the  dish.

4.  Drag the tip of a butter knife through the dish to swirl the PB filling through out the brownie batter.

5.  Bake brownies according to the box directions.

These brownies were SO good!  I'll let you all know that I have food weaknesses and two of them at the top are Oreos and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  If I ever end up fat, you can be sure these will be among the causes.  Until then, I'll keep making these brownies to soothe any emotional (real or fictitious) wounds that need to be soothed.

If you are reading this, Amanda, I'm still bummed.  I'll be taking a raincheck, so look for me to darken your new doorstep in the near future.  I'll bring a batch of brownies with me.  ;)

Scrabble

Nope, not the game, but the food.  Have you heard of it?  Most people haven't.  I really have no idea where it came from, but it was always made by my grandmother at Christmas time.  My mother carried on the tradition for us growing up, and now I make it every year starting right after Thanksgiving.  Looks a lot like Chex Mix, but tastes a whole lot better.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Mixed nuts (added last)
12 oz shredded wheat (we use wheat Chex)
10.5 oz Cheerios
6.5 oz Rice Chex
6.5 oz pretzel bits (we use Corn Chex here)
5.5 oz pretzel sticks

2 C Mazzola Corn Oil
2 T Worcestershire sauce

1 T garlic salt
1 T season salt

What to do:
In a large roasting pan, combine cereals and pretzels.  Sprinkle garlic salt and season salt over mixture.  Wisk corn oil and worcestershire sauce together.  Pour all over dry mixture.  Add mixed nuts last and give a good stir.  Place lid on roaster.

Set oven to 275*.  Scrabble will be in the oven for a total of 3 hours.  Remove and stir every 30 minutes and replace in oven until the 3 hours are up.

Total Randomness

On wish list:

wool felt

Latest project:

For the kids:

Most recent predicament:

Family pictures:

Mother's Day:

 From oven to freezer:

Hubby project:

Something red (almost):

Greens in the garden and on the table:

Lettuce

Spinach

Hawaiian Theme Birthday Party: The Cake

Ah, the cake.  As I was getting ready to work on this, I think I figured out that the last time I decorated a cake was about 4 years ago.  Some things that became very apparent to me: 

1. That's way too long between cakes
2.  Marshmallow fondant is VERY sticky
3.  Having 'help' isn't always helpful

I was able to muddle my way through it all and still got a huge thumbs up from the birthday girl.  First thing was to make a colorful cake on the inside.  How to do this?  Just figure out how many colors you want, divide the cake batter into that many containers, color each bowl and then put all the colors into your cake pan.  The batter is thick enough to keep from running together and will bake up just fine.

Colored cake batter and some of my 'help'

 This is a picture of the cake pre-baked.

 This is a picture of the inside after baking and leveling.

Decorating the cake really didn't take that long.  The hardest part was figuring out exactly what I wanted to do.  (Too many ideas warring in my mind.)  

Even though the fondant didn't work for me, (or rather, I wasn't able to manipulate it like I wanted) I decided to go to plan 'B'.  So, I baked a cupcake (red of course), inverted it, cut a notch out of one side and then covered it with buttercream.

 Close up.

The 'sand' was made from crushing Nilla Wafers and then sifting out the large particles.  Very simple.  I wasn't too worried about smoothing out the buttercream all over the cake.  At 2:30 AM I was past being a perfectionist.

I did have fun doing the cake and learned a lot.  I learned that I need a grass tip if I ever decide to do grass again.  I learned that I really do like decorating cakes.  I learned I need to make more icing so I have extra and not just enough.  I learned that I still detest doing the crumb coat and also icing corners (just can't seem to get those right).  I learned that I need to decorate cakes more often and play around with it more when there isn't so much pressure - maybe take another class or two (last one was 6 years ago).  Guess making more cakes will help me keep some weight on, but that probably isn't the best way to do that.  Also, Cake Central is a great resource for all your cake decorating questions and curiosities.

So.  Do any of you decorate your cakes or do you just do like I should have and purchase them?  I might find a new resource in all of you for the next time I go to decorate a cake.

Hawaiian Theme Birthday Party

We had quite the birthday bash over the weekend.  I'm sure you could see from the previous posts that I was a bit stressed trying to get it all done in time.  I didn't get much sleep Friday night, but I did get it all done in time.  (Kevin even ran in a 5K Saturday morning, and I was still able to do it!)

So, this week I'll be sharing some of the things I did for the party.

Cake

Decorations

Party Favors

I did have a lot of fun doing all these little things for the party and hanging out with some AMAZING young ladies.  I also am glad it's all over, because I'm still exhausted.  :)

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Banana Cookies, Take 1

Results:

Need more body. They spread like crazy and were quite flat when they came out of the oven.

Flavor was really good.  Kids keep asking to eat them even though they don't look so pretty.

I need to get more flour before 'Take 2' can be attempted.

Gooey Butter Cookies

I have quite simply fallen in love with these cookies since moving to the St. Louis area.  I didn't even know what they were called the first several times I had them.  Now that I have a recipe, it's just plain dangerous to even think about them.

Uber-easy to make with only a few ingredients.  But, oh, the flavor that comes from such a tiny morsel of food.

The recipe I use comes from allrecipes.com and is found here.  (Love this site!)  What I did differently in my last batch of cookies made them even better!  I decided to double the recipe and use one yellow cake mix and one lemon cake mix.  WOW!  Add some fresh strawberries and a little whipped cream and you have one YUMMY desert.

I'm never going to loose the last little bit of baby fluff with these around!

Recipe Week - Blackberry Cobbler

I've got several different projects in the works, unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to get anything  completed.  (Imagine that!)  I didn't even find anything good at any of the yard sales this weekend.  So, I thought I would pass on some 'secret' recipes this week.  (These will be recipes I either grew up with or have developed over the past several years of marriage.)

BLACKBERRY COBBLER

I can't even tell you how many times I have requested my mother make this cobbler recipe when the whole family converges on their home.  Yes, I could make it myself anytime (which I do), but there is something about a mother's cooking.

INGREDIENTS

1 pie crust

1 quart blackberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour  (1/3 cup for frozen)
dash of salt
2 T butter (optional)

WHAT TO DO

Line pie pan with pie crust.  Mix berries, sugar, flour and salt together in a bowl.  Pour into crust.  Cut up butter and place overtop the berries.  Fold edges of pie crust over the berries to bake.
Bake cobbler at 400* for 50 minutes.

Serve warm with some really good vanilla ice cream, or make sure there are leftovers for breakfast the next morning.  Yes, breakfast - it's fruit right?!

Begging For More!

Ever serve your kids spinach, carrots and sweet potatoes and have them begging you for more?  Me either, until Saturday night.  Now, my oldest is a parents dream when it comes to eating veggies.  Baby spinach salad with tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers and feta cheese is one of her favorite side dishes.  She won't touch a baked potato for anything, though - go figure!

Anyway,  the other three leave a bit to be desired in there veggie consumption.  But, Saturday was such a special night here.  A friend recommended the cookbook Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld to me over a year ago.  I've even had it on hand for that long and just put off using any of the recipies thinking it wouldn't work on my kids.  Boy, was I wrong!

Hubby and I kept stealing glances across the table as each child tried the homemade chicken nuggets smuggeling copious amounts of sweet potatoes into their little bodies.  Score one!  Dipped in buttermilk ranch made from a can of great northern beans.  Score two!  And for dessert?  Yummy chocolaty brownies filled with spinach and carrots.  HOME RUN!!!  My kids couldn't get enough of it all.

Next on the list - Another batch of brownies for home and one for Hubby's office, Blueberry muffins with flaxseed meal and yellow squash, and pink pancakes with beets and apples.  How scrumptious!

Who knew eating your vegetables could be so good?!

Fluffy Banana Cake

We don't usually have any bananas left on the counter long enough to fully ripen. The times that they are this is my favorite way to take care of those sweet, brown freckled fruits.

Fluffy Banana Cake

(set oven to 350*)

Cream:
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add:
2-3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup sour milk (2-3T lemon juice or vinegar plus milk to make 1/2 cup)

Add:
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Grease and flour a 9x13 dish. Pour in mixture. Bake at 350* for 30 to 35 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Yumm!

Apple Crisp

5 cups sliced, peeled apples
2 to 4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup regular rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

Place apples in an 8x1 1/2 inch round baking dish. Stir in sugar.

For topping, in a mixing bowl combine oats, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in butter till mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping over apples.

Bake in a 350* oven for 30-35 minutes or till fruit is tender and topping is golden. Serve warm with ice cream, if desired.

(Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, pg 125)
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For best flavor, use two or three varieties of apples. (I used gala and granny smith.) This makes the dessert have a much fuller flavor.

What better dessert to have on a cold winter day with friends?