Cookie Dough Brownies

OMG! OMG!  OH! MY GOSH!!!!  Where do I even start with these?  These are one of the most delicious things that have EVER passed my lips. EVER!  No! I'm not even exaggerating one little bit.  I made these for a couple of friends of mine as a thank you. One of them called me and began singing a song he wrote about how much he loved these!  I swear!!!  You just have to bake a batch for your house.  ASAP.  You will thank me.  No prob my fellow foodies!  I send my deepest, heart felt gratitude to Farm Girl and her sister and mom for sharing these with me.  I adapted the ratio of cookie dough to brownie cuz I had to have more of the fabulous cookie dough.  The original recipe seemed to heavy on the brownie part for my personal tastes. Now gooooo start baking!!!!

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Cookie Dough Brownies: adapted from The Farm Girl  serves 24 (depending on size you cut them)

Ingredients:

Brownies:
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnuts, optional

Filling:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Glaze:
2 cups milk chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cups walnuts, optional

Instruction:

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, oil and sugar. Stir in vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, coffee and salt; gradually add to egg mixture. Stir in walnuts if desired.

Pour into a greased 9 x 13 baking pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until brownies toothpick test done. Cool completely.

For filling, in a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in milk and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Spread over brownies (works best to just press out with clean hands.); chill until firm.

For glaze, in a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate chips and shortening in 30 second intervals, stirring after each time, until smooth. Spread over filling. Immediately sprinkle with nuts, pressing down slightly. Yields 3 dozen.

Apple Braised Chicken

This is one of my daughters favorite chicken dishes. Whenever I ask her what she would like to have included in the weekly menu planning, she immediately says, "Apple Chicken!"  I love it because it's not only delicious it's relatively quick to through together and tastes like something that's taken a long time to prepare. Can you say WIN! WIN!?! Perfect for a satisfying weeknight meal. This recipe started out as a Weight Watchers recipe and while I believe I've kept it fairly low fat and healthy, it probably has too many calories to still qualify as a WW recipe.  I posted a photo of the lovely green apples that go in the recipe instead of the finished dish cuz, frankly, the colors of everything after it's cooked aren't really all together that attractive. Too much of the same tone I guess.  Please don't let that dissuade you from trying this gem though. It's really yummy and pretty darn good for you too boot!

Apple Braised Chicken: Adapted from Weight Watchers
 serves 4

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons vegetable oil-divided
4 large chicken breast-cut up into large chunks
1/4 cup flour
1 large onion
2 medium granny Smith apples, firm, cored and sliced (peeled if you prefer)
2 cups apple cider (or apple juice in a pinch)
salt and pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 Tablespoons cornstarch (or possibly more)

Cooked White or Brown Rice

Instructions:

1. Sprinkle both sides of chicken generously with salt and pepper.  In a large ziplock bag, add flour and chicken and toss to coat evenly.
2. In a large skillet, heat two teaspoons of vegetable oil over high heat. Place chicken pieces in skillet and brown on medium high heat until brown on both sides. You may need to do this in batches, depending on the size of your skillet. Don't crowd the chicken. Remove cooked chicken to a plate and set aside.
3. Add 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil to pan, reduce heat to medium, and add onion slices and cook until tender and lightly browned.
4. Stir in apples, cider, chicken broth. 1/2 teaspoon salt, ginger and chicken. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover and cook until chicken is tender and cooked through and apples are nice and soft, about 20-30 minutes.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and about 1/4 cup pan juices until smooth. Add cornstarch mixture to skillet and stir constantly for about one minute. If sauce isn't thickened to your liking, make another cornstarch and pan juice mixture and stir in. Check seasonings and add more salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve over cooked rice and enjoy!

Birthday Cake Pops-Better than Star-WHhhoooo!!!!!

Cake Pops! Wow! How can anything this simple be so absolutely, totally delicious?!? Have you tried the Birthday Cake flavor cake pops at Starbucks? Well, let me tell you, this easy to make, semi-home made version is even better! No joke. These, honestly, are some of The Best Cake Pops ever! I make them with a French Vanilla cake mix and a tub of premade frosting. The hardest part about making these is getting the candy coating melted enough to get a fairly smooth coating. Even if you don't get a smooth coating, you probably will add some cute sprinkles or something and you won't even notice the coating! I like to make my pops bigger than the ones from Starbucks. I mean why not! The first time I ever had a cake pop was from a specialty Cake Pop store in Long Beach and theirs set the bar for size. Theirs were at least double the size of the ones from Starbucks and that's how I make mine now. I can tell you it makes the whole fam pretty darn happy. I also like to serve and eat them when they are really cold, straight out of the fridge. Since these don't have cream cheese in the frosting (like red velvet cake balls- super amazing btw!), I don't think that technically they have to be refrigerated.  I just significantly prefer them this way! I hope you give these babies a try soon!

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Birthday Cake Pops

Ingredients:

1 box French Vanilla cake mix 

1 tub (16 ounces) vanilla frosting

2 bags pink candy melt 

lollipop sticks

sprinkles

foam block

Instructions:

1. Bake cake according to box directions In a 9x13 pan.  Cool completely. Cut into chunks.

2. In a large bowl add cake chunks and 3/4 of the tub of frosting.  Using a hand held mixer, on medium speed, blend until mixture is thoroughly combined. Add more frosting as desired to get the texture you like. I like mine with the whole can.

3. Using a cookie scoop (I use a medium) measure out dough and roll into a ball. 

4. Melt a small amount candy melts in the microwave according to package directions (about 1/4 cup).

5. Dip the lollipop stick into the melted candy then insert into cold cake pop. Place in the freeze a couple of hours or overnight.  

6. Melt the rest of the candy. Hold the lollipop stick and dip the cake pops in the melted candy rotating and using a spoon to help with the coating.

7. Place lollipop sticks in a foam block and allow to dry.

Seattle

Last month, hubby and I took a weekend trip up to Seattle, with our friends Craig and Kelley. We had an amazing time visiting and enjoying this incredibly beautiful city.  We ate way too much, drank some really good Washington wine, and just plain ol had a blast! I thought I'd share some of the highlights with you in case you want to try out some of the places we all liked.

We had lunch at a place across from Pike's called Matt's.  It's a great little upstairs bistro with a nice view, decent wine and great food. The daily special was a steak sandwich. Each element of this steak sandwich was perfect and it all came together deliciously. We each ordered one and we all LOVED them! 

The building Matt's is in was under construction so they had a custom sign made letting everyone know they're still serving.  LOL.  That's Craig.

 Just a short drive outside Seattle there are some great wineries.

Here we are wine tasting at St Michelles (me, Craig, and Kell ).... 

 and here's Hubby posing with the Chateau St. Michelle peacock!  What a ham!

The grounds were really lovely and the wine tasting room was pretty with very friendly people telling us about the wines.  We all really enjoyed some of the reserve wines that were served.  Being from California, with access to the plethora of wines we have, I haven't tasted many from Washington.  Thank heavens I took this trip!  I've already ordered some to be shipped! We also really liked the wines from Delille.  In fact those were my personal fav's.  Sorry but I forgot to snap pictures.

This is a place called the Purple Cafe and Wine Bar. It's got a cool urban vibe and energy and is a really fun place to grab a bite to eat and a glass of wine.  In the center of the restaurant is a 20 foot spiral stair case that is encased by 5000 bottles of wine.  There's a center floor within this tower that has a special dining table.  We had appetizers and wine here and it was an overall favorite.  Don't miss this if you're downtown.

Well, thank you Seattle for showing us a wonderful time.  I'll leave you with a few photos of the beautiful city!

Basil Margarita

Have you seen this wonderful cocktail yet?  Well, I predict it will soon sky rocket to the top of your summer favorites list! I love margaritas and this new twist on an incredible classic is a great way to enjoy them. They have a unique, complex and fabulous flavor that everyone seems to enjoy.  There are a few ways you can prepare them. I like to make them in a blender so the basil becomes pureed.  Remember when you had mojitos a while ago with chopped mint and then flashed a huge smile at your ever lovin friends cuz you were having so much fun! Remember your friends falling off their chairs in hysterical laughter cuz you had 14 lil pieces of chunky mint in your teeth!!!  Okay, so maybe that only happened to me.  Well, friends, fortunately I learned from that experience and now puree my herbs to prevent another party foul that will haunt you-me for the next ten years!  You can also julienne the basil for this margarita if you prefer.(I think we're all safe with  strips of basil)  Whatever you do just don't chop it into little pieces!

Basil Margarita serves 1

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces tequila ( oh who am I kidding? I use 2 ounces!)

2 1/2 ounces fresh limes 

1 ounce agave syrup

1 ounce water

4 large fresh basil leaves, juileened

splash triple sec

Instructions:

1. Put all ingredients into a blender ( I used my magic bullet with the pitcher attachment and double the ingredients-at least!!! ) and blend until there basil is liquefied.

2. Pour into a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously.

3. Pour into a glass filled with ice and enjoy!