Chocolate Caramel Chex

My mom has made this recipe SO many times and everytime I obsess over it. I can't get enough of it. In fact, she's visiting this week and we'll probably make more.  The recipe below is the basic recipe, and the one I used for the party. But mom has changed it up in many different ways. She adds m&m's allowing the colors to change for any season, candy corn for fall, and so much more. The recipe calls for chocolate chex but it's really hard to find so I used regular corn chex. Mom said she uses the honey chex sometimes too.

Ingredients

• 8 cups Chocolate Chex® cereal
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup vanilla baking chips or milk chocolate chips

Directions

1. Into large microwavable bowl, measure cereal; set aside. Line cookie sheet with waxed paper.
2. In 2-cup microwavable measuring cup, microwave brown sugar, butter and corn syrup uncovered on High 1 to 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute, until melted and smooth. Stir in baking soda until dissolved. Pour over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Microwave on High 3 minutes, stirring every minute. Spread on cookie sheet. Cool 10 minutes. Break into bite-size pieces.
3. In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered on High about 1 minute 30 seconds or until chips can be stirred smooth (bowl will be hot). Drizzle over snack. Refrigerate until set. Store in tightly covered container.

Cookie Dough Truffles

As you may have noticed, Annie's Eats, is one of my favorite blogs. I had been eying her Cookie Dough Truffles for months now. My friend's baby shower was the perfect excuse to give them a try. They were so good. Everyone loved them.

The recipe called for semi sweet chocolate for dipping. I realized part way through that I had one box of semi sweet and one box of unsweetened. I mixed them and was worried how it would taste. I wondered if it was too rich. Matt thought it was great and tasted like the dough was dipped in dark chocolate. I didn't get any complaints from other guests either. I still will try to do just semi sweet next time though.

Image from Annie's Eats

Ingredients

• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
• 2¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
• 1½ lb. semisweet (or bittersweet) chocolate, coarsely chopped
• Mini chocolate chips (for garnish)

Directions

1. Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up enough to form balls.
2. Shape the chilled cookie dough mixture into 1-1½ inch balls.  Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.  Cover loosely, transfer the pan to the freezer and chill for 1-2 hours.
3. When ready to dip the truffles, melt the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water.  Dip each chilled truffle, one at a time, coating in chocolate and shaking gently to remove the excess.  (If at any point during dipping, the cookie dough balls become too soft, return to the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.)  Transfer to a wax-paper lined surface.  If using mini chocolate chips for garnish, sprinkle on top quickly after dipping each truffle before the chocolate sets.  Once all the truffles have been dipped, store them in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Chocolate Cupcakes

I hosted a baby shower for a really good friend this weekend. She said she wanted chocolate cupcakes. I searched all over the internet for THE perfect from scratch chocolate cake recipe. I finally decided to try the Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Cake. She made a sheet cake but I still did cupcakes. AMAZING!

The cake was perfect. It was easy, moist, soft, chocolatey, perfection. I won't be using a box cake mix anymore!  The icing was meant to be poured onto a sheet cake, but I still decided to give it a try. The flavor was great but it is probably better for sheet cake than it was cupcakes. I used cupcake wrappers and there was just enough lip of wrapper for each cupcake to hold the icing in place. So I took a spoon and poured a small amount of icing onto each cupcake. The mom-to-be said it was perfect, just sweet enough without being too much. I will definitely be making this again.

No pictures yet, by the way. I was too busy so I just hoped someone else got pictures. :)

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 2 cups Flour
• 2 cups Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 2 sticks Butter
• 1 cup Boiling Water
• ½ cups Buttermilk
• 2 whole Beaten Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

For Frosting:

• 1-¾ stick Butter
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 6 Tablespoons Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
2. In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
3. Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.
4. In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into cupcake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.
5. While cupcakes are baking, make the icing. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together and pour over warm cake.

Raspberry Lemonade Punch

I almost forgot to post the punch recipe I made for my friend's baby shower. I wanted more than just lemonade but something simple without too many ingredients. I found this recipe from Martha Stewart. This punch was so good, one of the best punches I've had. One thing I'll note, though, is that when you add the lemonade to the ginger ale, be careful because it foams. I found if you put the lemonade powder in first and then add the ginger ale slowly you can control the fizz a little more. The recipe calls for 4 cups of ice cubes but I couldn't fit them into my pitcher and with the frozen raspberries it didn't really need the ice.

Ingredients

• 8 cups (2 quarts) Ginger Ale
• 3/4 cup lemonade mix
• 4 cups (16 oz) frozen raspberries

Directions

1. In a large pitcher or punch bowl mix the ginger ale and lemonade mix. Before serving, stir in the raspberries and ice.

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Yet another recipe I found from Annie's Eats. I don't like peppers so never liked stuffed peppers. But I love zucchini so when I saw Annie's recipe I knew I had to give it a try. The meal wasn't a quick meal, but it was really good.



Ingredients

• 1 zucchini, about 12 inches long (or 2 6-inch)
• 2 tbsp. olive oil, divided
• ½ cup onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup mushrooms, chopped
• 1 lb. turkey sausage or ground turkey
• 2 tbsp. dry white wine
• 2-3 tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 3 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
• 1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
• ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. pepper

Directions

1. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving a shell about ¼-inch thick. Reserve about half of the insides.
2. In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the onion and garlic until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and reserved zucchini insides to the skillet and sauté another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. Heat the remaining tablespoon of the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Crumble in the sausage or ground turkey and cook until lightly browned on all sides, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cooked onion and mushroom mixture. Add the wine to the pan along with the tomatoes, basil and rosemary. Cook for 1 more minute. Drain of any excess fat, remove from heat and set aside to cool.
4. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Once the turkey mixture has cooled a bit, mix in the Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper. Fill the zucchini shells with the mixture. Fill a baking dish with ¼-inch of water. Place the filled zucchini shells in the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the zucchini from the pan and serve immediately.

Baked Vidalia Onion Dip

Several years ago, Matt and I went with my parents to a dinner party. The hostess made a vidalia onion dip that we all devoured. Last week, my mom needed an appetizer to take to a party and I suggested the dip. Ever since, I'd been craving it. She found several recipes, but we agreed that this one looked the best. It did not disappoint. Everyone loved the dip. I'm glad I used water chestnuts because I liked the crunch. I served this with butter crackers. My mom said the people at her party used sweet potato chips and loved it.

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 3 large vidalia onions, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded swiss cheese
• 2 cups mayonnaise
• 1 (8-ounce) can sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 garlic clove, minced, or more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add chopped Vidalia onions, and saute about 10 minutes or until tender.
3. In a large bowl, stir together shredded Swiss cheese, mayonnaise, water chestnuts, white wine, garlic and Tabasco sauce; stir in onion, blending well.
4. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 2-quart baking dish.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, and let stand 10 minutes.

Applejack Quesadilla

I found this blog called Healthy Girl Cooking. I actually really liked some of the recipes, but she hasn't posted in a long time. I decided to try her Applejack Quesadilla. It was good except I forgot to pick up spinach at the grocery store. I think it would have been a good addition. It was easy, healthy and good.

Ingredients (serves two)

• 2 whole wheat tortillas
• 1/2 onion, sliced as thin as possible
• 1 granny smith apple, coursely chopped
• 6-oz. bag of spinach
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella or monteray jack
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 4 tsp sugar 
• optional: diced chicken, light sour cream, and maybe a little guacamole? mmm!

Directions

1. Caramelize your onions. This is usually done with tons of butter and sugar, but Katie suggested using olive oil, and I found it worked well (and we all know olive oil is better for your heart.) Throw onions, oil and sugar into a pan and stir ‘em up. The caramelization process takes at least 10 minutes and requires pretty frequent stirring, but you can leave ‘em long enough to chop up your apple and wash your spinach.
2. When the onions have started to become translucent and the first sticky brown edges that characterize caramelization are beginning to form, throw your apples into the pan “just long enough to get them acquainted; they’re not movin’ in or nothin!” (says Katie.)
3. Set the apple-onion mixture aside and let the spinach have a turn. When it’s wilted, add it to the apple and onion mixture.
4. Lay your quesadilla in the pan, sprinkle one half with cheese, add the veggie mix and fold the top over. Fry each side to your preferred melty crispness. Keep the music playing and sing away your troubles with your mouth full of quesadilla goodness!