Three Ingredients = Oreo Truffles

My kids started their Spring Break on Thursday. I decided that since they were off, to take them my deep-water aerobics class at the YWCA.  I am not sure who had more fun, the kids or the instructor, Tanya. The kids though all I did was just get in the pool and splash around. Ha silly kids!

 About ten minutes into the hour workout, both declared that it was hard work. Then Tanya started teasing them that eighty-year-old women were beating them down the pool.

 If you have never done, a deep-water aerobics class let me explain. We swim in a seven-foot deep pool, and use noodles, kickboards, balls to target on certain muscles. It requires core muscles to do some of the exercises. One of the instructors, Craig, loves to have us stand on kickboards. We then paddle forward and backward across the pool, before making us spin in circles.  This doesn’t sound too hard? Wait until you are standing on a few of these stacked together. Balance is the key to not falling off, and you need good core muscles to achieve this.

When class was over Tanya was talking about her friend who made this Oreo treat, I am sharing with you today. Tonya said she wasn’t sure how her friend made them...

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Chocolate Mousse…

So if your plans have fallen through or you have forgotten today is St Valentine’s, it is not too late to make something special for your sweetheart. How about superb chocolate mousse, for that someone special?

Ingredients:

6 large eggs, separated

3 3-ounce bars of Lindt extra bittersweet chocolate with vanilla, or any good quality bittersweet chocolate

5 Tablespoons cold water

Directions:

Break chocolate into small pieces and place in a heavy pan

Add water and stir constantly with a wooden spoon over very low heat until the chocolate melts

 Remove pan from heat and carefully stir egg yolks into the chocolate with spoon

Chocolate mixture should be warm, not hot, or eggs will curdle

Beat egg whites until very stiff

Carefully add egg-white mixture to chocolate, taking care to fold the eggs into the chocolate with a spoon or whisk

Pour into a large glass bowl or eight small dessert bowls.

Refrigerate for six hours before serving

Chocolate Panini…

Valentine ’s Day is tomorrow. Here is a little something sweet you can serve your loved ones.

 I made this for the kids as a snack, and they gobbled it up. Tyler sprinkled powdered sugar on top of his. This turned it from nice sweet treat to a special “finished” dessert.  

Either way you chose, just remember there are 364 other days of the year to profess your love!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

8 pieces of thinly sliced white sandwich bread

1/2 cup Nutella

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions:

 Spread butter on one side of each bread slice. Lay slices on a piece of waxed paper, butter side down. Spread 1 heaping tablespoonful of Nutella over four slices. Sprinkle chocolate over, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Cover with remaining bread, butter side up.

 Warm a griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, place panini on griddle and cook, pressing down with a spatula, until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Turn and cook on the other side until golden, about 2 minutes. Cool slightly and use a sharp cutter to form heart shapes, or cut diagonally into triangles. Repeat with remaining panini.

Paddy’s Chocolate Cobbler…

Yummy, is all I can say about this scrumptious dessert! This is so simple to make. Those who do not usually cook, this would be a great surprise for your loved one on Valentine’s Day.

When I combined all the ingredients in the dish, it reminded me of a child’s mud pie!

I changed the recipe a bit, instead of adding 1 ½ cups water, I added 1 ¼ cup of water and ¼ cup of Hershey’s chocolate syrup… I like chocolate!

I did not have any self-rising flour, so I substituted it for 1 ½ cups of all purpose flour and added a teaspoon of baking powder.

Ingredients:

2 sticks of margarine

¾ cup chopped pecans

1 ½ cup self-rising flour

2 ½ cups white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ milk

5 Tablespoons of cocoa powder

1 ½ cups water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a 9X13 pan add pecans and sticks of margarine, melt in oven

In bowl mix flour, 1 ½ cups of sugar, vanilla and milk

In separate bowl, mix 1 cup sugar and cocoa powder, set aside.

When margarine is melted, evenly pour flour mixture into the pan

Top flour mixture with cocoa mixture, DO NOT STIR

Pour water onto of the cocoa mix again, DO NOT STIR…

Place in oven and cook for 30 minutes. If contents seem too fluid let cook five minutes longer. The mixture should firm and will not totally set up until completely cool.

You can serve with vanilla ice cream or top with whipped cream.

Chocolate Covered Pears with French Vanilla Ice Cream

This recipe comes from a book group, I am apart of. I have not tried it. I do not care for pears, it sounds like it would be really good...

Chocolate Covered Pears with French Vanilla Ice Cream

Canned pear halves in heavy syrup
¼ c. dark rum
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips
French vanilla ice cream

Drain pears over a small saucepan. Reduce the liquid over medium-high heat, about 13 minutes. Add chocolate chips to hot liquid. Sit until melted, remove from heat.

Lay pear slices in pretty serving bowls. Add a scoop of ice cream. Top with a few tablespoons of sauce.

Chocolate Peppermint Smoothie

Every year we buy several packages of candy canes in every flavor and color. By the time, we take the tree the down it seems like the peppermint ones are left. This year, I tried not but the peppermint candy canes and my husband had a fit because they weren’t on the tree. Peppermint candy canes are like that one dish during the holiday meals that nobody eats but every expects on the table… sigh

I can’t throw them out, it just goes against the grain. I had a recipe from the food network a few years ago that I have (of course) played with and changed a bit. I had made hot chocolate set it down and by the time I came back to it was cold, yuck. The recipe was sitting was on the counter so I used the now cold hot chocolate in the smoothie and like the results much better.

The original recipe had you rim the glass with the crushed candy canes. Which is fine, I prefer to add the candy canes to the smoothie. If you prefer to make with the peppermint in the smoothie and on the rim of the glass make sure, you have 6 crushed candy canes.

Ingredients:

         2 cups Yoplait chocolate mousse yogurt

         1 cup ice

         1 cup chocolate milk or cold, hot chocolate

         3 candy canes, crushed

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a blender. Puree until smooth. 

To dress up you glass with crushed peppermint:

Moisten the rims of each glass and press into crushed candy cane. Drizzle chocolate syrup in each glass then pour in smoothie

Yummy, Chocolate Kahlúa Cake!

Thursday, I was taking my son to school; they were talking on the radio, about most irritating and the most pleasant sounds to people. One of the most irritating sounds is people who smack their lips when eating. This is one of my personal pet peeves.

One of the most pleasant sounds is bacon frying. I was surprised; when my son said hearing birds, chirping in the morning is the most pleasant sound for him. I have to agree with him there, waking up on a sunny day with birds chirping outside your window, is a good start to a day.

This topic of course started us on a conversation of other things like favorite smells. A favorite smell in our house, especially if it is a birthday, is chocolate Kahlúa cake.

My children do not like a traditional birthday cake with frosting. When asked what they want for their cake, they always request Kahlúa cake. Recently for my husband's birthday, he requested not only a Kahlúa cake, but also the death by chocolate brownies. Yes, I did make both for him, how could I refuse?

The death by chocolate brownies with Kahlúa whipped cream was my first post on this blog. The Kahlúa whipped cream can be made to top the Kahlúa cake. I also suggest if you can, make the Kahlúa cake one day before you serve it.

I make this cake in a Bundt pan, if you have a mini Bundt pan this recipe works well for those. You can give mini cakes as presents for coworkers or friends. When using a Bundt pan to make a cake, you have to butter and flour the pan. I would suggest you use a product like Baker's Joy pan spray. With this spray you do not have to flour and butter the pan, it does it all for you. If you do not have this type spray. Butter your Bundt pan, instead of using flour, reserve about a quarter cup of dry cake mix and use it to flour your pan. The reason to use the dry cake mix is when you remove the cake from the pan, you will not have any white residue from the flour on your cake.

Ingredients:

1 box of chocolate cake mix, I suggest Betty Crocker's pudding in the mix, chocolate fudge cake.

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 6 ounce box of chocolate pudding, I suggest Jell-O Brand

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups Kahlúa liqueur

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

6 tablespoons of Kahlúa liqueur

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F

Combine the first five ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend well.

Pour into buttered and floured 9 ½ inch Bundt pan. Bake 45 minutes

While the cake is cooking, combine 6 tablespoons of Kahlúa and 1 cup sifted powdered sugar.

 After removing cake from the oven, do not remove from pan.

Powder sugar mixture, soaking into cake

 Take a knife I suggest a slicing blade and poke holes in the cake.

Pour the Kahlúa and powdered sugar mixture over the cake. If the Kahlúa mixture is pooling on top you probably need to add more holes.

Allow cake to cool for two hours in pan before removing.

If you are, making little Bundt cakes after they are cooled, wrap them in colorful cellophane and tie with a festive ribbon to give as gifts.

Bathing in the pantry…

Have you ever considered instead of going out and buying expensive bathing and bath products getting them from your pantry?

One of my hobbies is to make soap and bath items. When making soap and bath items for personal use, most of your ingredients in are your kitchen pantry. Items such as, honey, vanilla, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, grape seed oil, olive oil, fresh lemons, oatmeal, cornstarch, sugar, salt, coco powder, seeds, cinnamon, baking soda, citric acid (sour salt) and yes even coffee just to name a few. Wow, overwhelming isn’t?

Don’t drink your coffee, wash with it…



If you love the smell of coffee, but can't stand to drink it you will love this.



I am going to show you how to make a sugar scrub, which is perfect for winter dry skin. We are going to need raw sugar, coco powder, coffee grounds, and grape seed oil.Each one of these items are actually great for your skin.

Grape seed oil is the closest oil that matches our natural body oils. This means it will absorb quickly into the skin. Coco powder will actually draw moisture to your skin. Coffee grounds help your skin get rid of radicals. Both coffee grounds and raw sugar is great for exfoliating your skin and leaving it extremely soft.  

Here are your ingredients:

½ cup raw sugar (you can use refined sugar but it doesn’t exfoliate as well)

1 Tablespoon of coco powder

2 Tablespoons of coffee grounds

¼ cup of grape seed oil

   SAFETY WARNING!! This can make your tile or tub slippery, use with caution.  



Dry ingredients



You want to mix all dry ingredients well in a shower proof container. I prefer to recycle the plastic lunchmeat containers.

Mix well




Slowly add oil

 Next, slowly add in your oil, you do not want soup, think paste.




Make sure you mix completely

 













 The sugar mixture should feel dry but look wet.Once all ingredients are blended, cover with a lid until you are ready to use.

When ready, scoop some mixture into your hand and rub on your skin. Even though you can eat this, I would not use this on the face it will be too rough. If you want your scrub to lather, feel free to add your own liquid body wash.

**Useage Tip** If you love to working in the garden, and hate wearing gloves. Mix some liquid soap with the scrub, this will remove dirt and works well if you have a "grease monkey."

SAFETY WARNING!! This can make your tile or tub slippery, use with caution.  

Death by Chocolate Brownies with Kahlua Whipped Cream

Like many families, mine is spread across the country. Several times over the years, there have been emails and phone calls asking if someone had a copy of a recipe. As a result, I decided that I needed to place all of them in a cookbook. After sending a request out to my family asking for their favorite recipes, I did get a few back without having to beg.

 The question I next faced was who should get a copy of the cookbook? Should only the ones who sent me a recipe get the book or should everyone benefit from the few who sent me recipes? I do not want hurt my sisters’ feelings if she was not able to send a recipe. I also had to consider friends who had given me recipes over the years. Do I leave them out because they are not family by law or blood but by absorption? My extended family is just as large as my family, since my husband served our country proudly for twenty years.

The debating back and forth, gave me an excuse for not starting the book. Recently my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Bill came for a weekend visit and I had forgotten to get a cake recipe my aunt, so I posted a note on her Facebook page asking for the recipe. One of my dearest friends, Cheryl, asked for the recipe without even knowing about what was in the cake!  A week later after a trying week of working on the family tree, my adopted Uncle Doug, stated I needed a hobby. I need another hobby as much as I need another hole in my head! However, I let the ideas start to fester and grow, and then decided why I should just limit myself to family or friends. So like many others, I have decided to take the plunge into the world of blogging. I thought I would start with my Death by Chocolate Brownies with Kahula Whipped Cream.

Death by Chocolate Brownies with Kahlua Whipped Cream

Brownie Ingredients:

1 box if Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate brownie mix

1 box of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownie mix

1 large box (6 oz) of Jello Brand Chocolate pudding

2 large eggs

1 cup of whole unsalted butter, melted

½ cup heavy whipping cream

¼ cup of Hershey’s chocolate syrup.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare a glass 9” X 13” baking dish by spraying  with non-stick cooking spray like Pam or grease with butter.

In mix bowl, stir brownie mixes and pudding together. Add eggs, melted butter, chocolate syrup and whipping cream until thoroughly blended.  Mixture will be thick like chocolate frosting.

Spread evenly in to pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before serving.

I serve brownies topped with Kahlua whipped cream, chocolate syrup and dusted with Hershey’s Coco powder.

Whipped Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

½ cup whipping cream

3 Tablespoons Kahlua Liqueur

2 Tablespoons white sugar.

Place all ingredients in a cold or chilled bowl; I prefer a metal mixing bowl for this. Beat with a hand mixer on high for one minute or until the mixture is stiff and fluffy.

Serve immediately, can be stored for one week in refrigerator.