Rocky Road Brownies

   My son brought home a sheet of paper that told me he had volunteered to bring a dessert in for the last day of school.  I knew, without even asking him, that he wanted brownies. 

  He decided he wanted me to try a new brownie recipe, instead of the usual Mint-filled Brownies (from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes) that I make for his birthday every year.  We looked at a couple recipes on the internet and as soon as he saw this one for Rocky Road Brownies, we didn't have to look any further.

The brownie batter comes together quickly and the chocolate chips, marshmallows and nuts are layered on top after they have almost completely baked through.   I made them the night before and the melted chocolate chips hardened into a nice, almost solid chocolate layer that could've passed for a frosting of some sort.  My self control was in high gear the night I made these and I didn't try even a nibble.  My family each tried a small bite and declared them delicious.  My son said they disappeared at school before he could even take one! 

 Here is the recipe for Rocky Road Brownies from Martha Stewart

Sweet Potato-Peanut Bisque

My sister came to visit for a quick weekend trip and I told her to find some recipes that use sweet potatoes, because I had a couple of extra large ones that really needed to be dealt with. She emailed me the recipe for this soup and I thought it sounded pretty interesting. When she was here, we decided to make this for lunch on a rainy day.

This soup is pretty easy to make, but as I was throwing it together, I was getting a little worried about the final product. V8, green chiles, sweet potatoes and peanut butter?? I was a tad bit hesitant to try it, but once I did, I realized that it was fabulous. It was spicy, creamy, and had great flavor from the sweet potatoes. As I was eating this, I realized that I no longer despise sweet potatoes. In fact, I can honestly now say that I like them. Thank you Sweet Potato-Peanut Bisque!

Here is the recipe for Sweet Potato-Peanut Bisque
I added chopped peanuts as a garnish

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

This recipe was on the cover on the most recent issue of Cooking Light. Quick breads and muffins are always an easy option when you want to bake something and I wanted to take a treat to my friend, so this recipe seemed perfect.
I had some ripe bananas and I had seen Lori's in-depth review of the bread on her blog, Culinary Covers, so this went onto the calendar as a "definite make".

I made the full recipe but decided to do mini-loaves and muffins, since those are so much easier to share. Plus, I wanted us to be able to try this recipe as well. From the full recipe, I got 8 mini-loaves and 9 muffins. I left the chopped peanuts out of the batter, but sprinkled them on top of some of the loaves and muffins.

This bread was fabulous. I have made almost all of Cooking Light's varieties of banana bread and this was another great one. I didn't think that the peanut butter flavor was extremely noticeable in the bread, but the glaze and chopped nuts on top, really made it seem peanut butter-y.

I would definitely make this again. The person who I shared it with really loved it too.

Recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Bread
* I omitted the chopped peanuts from the batter and sprinkled them on top instead, before baking
* I used skim milk in the icing and added more milk to make it the right consistency. I also added a little bit more powdered sugar.

Vietnamese Salad

The other night when I made this delicious Vietnamese Soup, I decided that I wanted to make it a soup and salad night. I googled vietnamese salad and chose from the different links that came up. I have never looked at Goop before, but this salad sounded perfect because it included lots of the same flavors as the soup.

I had purchased a bunch of baby bok choy at the farmers market the weekend before I made this salad. The combination of the bok choy and napa cabbage made for a really great texture in this salad.
The flavors were unbelieveably delicious. So tasty. My whole family loved this salad.

Vietnamese Salad from Goop

This healthy, quick salad has great crunch and lots of refreshing flavors. It’s wonderful on its own and also takes well to simply prepared proteins; grilled fish, shrimp, chicken or tofu are great.

SERVES: 4
TIME: 15 minutes

• 4 large bok choy leaves, rough bottoms discarded, stems cut into ¼" bias and leaves shredded (I just sliced these very thinly)
  
• 4 big leaves Napa cabbage, shredded (I just sliced these very thinly)
  
• 1 bunch watercress (discard thick stems), roughly chopped
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• the leaves from about 8 stems each basil, mint, cilantro, roughly chopped
• ½ small cucumber, thinly sliced on the bias
• 1 red Thai chili (or more…or less), thinly sliced (I used less - omitting it from the kids)
  
• ½ cup roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped
• Vietnamese Dressing (see recipe below)
• grilled fish, shrimp, tuna, chicken, or tofu for serving (optional)

Toss the bok choy, cabbage, watercress, carrot, herbs, cucumber, chili and ¼ cup of the peanuts together with enough dressing to coat. Serve sprinkled with the remaining peanuts and whatever protein you like.

Vietnamese Dressing

A perfect balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet, this dressing is like a flavor knockout—also a great dip for summer rolls.

SERVES: about 4
TIME: 5 minutes

• ¼ cup fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• ¼ cup fish sauce
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon hot pepper sesame oil (I used plain sesame oil)
  
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar (I used honey)
  
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 2 tablespoons finely diced red onion or shallot

Mix everything together.

TWD- Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

This week's Tuesday's with Dorie pick- Peanut Butter Crisscrosses, was chosen by Jasmine. You can find the recipe on her blog- Jasmine Cuisine.

I made a half batch of these last week while my kids were getting ready for bed. They were really easy to throw together and there is no chilling time for the dough, so as soon as it is mixed up, they are ready to go on the cookie sheet. I reduced the amount of chopped peanuts and added in some mini chocolate chips, at the request of my kids.

These were good. Just the right amount of chewiness in the center, yet a crunchy edge. I thought much better the next day as opposed to warm, but that is just my opinion. I got 30 cookies from a half batch of dough and will definitely make these again.

Check out everyone else's results by heading over to TWD!

-Homemade Granola Bars

At the end of last school year, my son was always begging me to buy granola bars. All the other kids got granola bars packed in their lunches, some even got chocolate covered granola bars filled with caramel, pb, and chocolate chips.

Well, I am that mother who doesn't buy prepackaged things. I decided that if he wanted granola bars, I would make them.

I was able to taste The Barefoot Contessa's granola bars earlier this year, when Leslie
sent them to me as part of Secret Baker. I knew they were really good, so I decided to use that recipe with the dried fruit and nuts that I happened to have on hand.

These were perfect- chewy, sweet, crunchy and delicious. My son was happy and that made me happy.

Recipe for Homemade Granola Bars from the Barefoot Contessa

*I used dried blueberries, golden raisins, and peanuts instead of dates, apricots and cranberries

*I also added milk chocolate chips, but they melted into the hot granola mixture- (duh!), so these kinda turned out to be chocolate coated granola bars!

Spiced Eggplant-Lentil Salad with Mango

This salad is perfect.
Spicy & Sweet.
Healthy & Delicious.
Crunchy & Salty.

Plus, it has many of my favorite things. Eggplant. Lentils. Mango. Romaine. Salad. Nuts.
Salsa.

I saw it in a recent copy of Eating Well and knew I had to make it.

A couple of weeks ago my church collected food for a local food bank.
We walked up and down our street and met all of our neighbors, who willing donated cans of food for the food bank.
After the collecting and transporting of the food to the food bank the next day, we had a picnic for all those who had helped.

I brought this salad to share.
I wasn't sure if anyone else would be as excited about it as I was, but it got rave reviews. Lots of people really liked it. I loved it.
I was sad that there weren't any leftovers for me to take home. I guess I will just have to make it again.

This recipe is gluten and dairy free.
Recipe for Spiced Eggplant-Lentil Salad with Mango
* I reduced the amount of oil in the dressing to 1 1/2 Tbls
* I used Herdez salsa- the only jarred salsa I like

TWD- Chockablock Cookies

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Chockablock Cookies, was chosen by Mary over at Popsicles and Sandy Feet.
You can find the recipe on her blog.

Honestly, I was going to skip this recipe. Cookies aren't my favorite thing to make and there wasn't a picture of these to entice me. They sounded fine enough, with tons of mix-ins, but I just didn't know. Plus, they call for shortening, which is a no-no for me. Meaning, I don't ever have shortening on hand because I don't buy it. I wasn't about to go and buy shortening just for a cookie.

Then I decided- why not? Playgroup was the next day, so I could just take them as a treat for the kids.
I mixed these up and let the dough sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes, while I put my kids to bed.
I made 1/2 of the recipe and got 25 cookies.
I used golden raisins, peanuts, coconut and chocolate chunks as my mix-ins.
I let them cool, plated and wrapped them for the next day and went to bed.

I was curious about the molasses flavor and I tried one out of pure curiousity.
Plus I figured that since my cookies were somewhat small and I had only used 6 Tbls of butter for 1/2 the recipe, that each cookie only had 1/4 Tbls of butter, which makes it sound perfectly okay to consume a cookie. Don't you love how much thought goes into whether or not I can try a cookie? HA!

I thought that the molasses flavor was almost non-existent, except when a bite w/out a chocolate chunk was taken. Then it was faintly in the cookie.

These turned out to be pretty good. Someone at playgroup thought they tasted like trail mix cookies.
Some kids just ate them. Some picked out the raisins. Some picked out the nuts. My picky son ate them with no complaints and no removal of ingredients, which surprised me.
So, overall I thought these were a success. Not something I would have picked to try without the help of other TWD'ers, but something that I will make again.

Go see what everyone else thought about these loaded cookies by checking out the TWD Blogroll!

TWD-Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

This weeks TWD recipe, Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars, was chosen by Lillian who blogs at Confectiona's Realm. You can find the recipe on her blog.

These bars are like a really thick oatmeal cookie batter, with a chocolate-y layer on top and then more of the cookie batter scattered on top of the chocolate. I made the recipe as is. I kept the peanuts in both the cookie batter and the chocolate layer, the raisins in the chocolate layer, and the cinnamon in the cookie batter. These are just some of the things that other people were talking about leaving out or subbing with something else.

Luckily, I had a lunch that I was scheduled to bring cookies to, and these were all given away.

We did sample one tiny slice, because after these are chilled in the fridge, it is possible to slice off 1/16th-inch slices, and it was a sugary, chocolately, peanutty, cookie delight.
Tasted good and I am pretty sure almost anyone would be a fan of these.

Check out the TWD Blogroll to see what everyone else did with these bars. Did they leave the raisins out? Swap out the nuts with something else? Go and see!

Peanut Chicken Soba Salad

Whenever I need a quick salad or side dish, I go to myrecipes.com. I just type in a keyword and I always find a recipe that I want to make.
The recipes are rated, like many other sites, so I can go and read what people thought about a certain recipe before I make it.

I chose this salad because I needed to take something to a get together that could be served cold and still taste good.
I also chose it because I didn't have a lot of time to prepare and wanted something that I already had all the ingredients for that I could throw together. The fact that most people had given it 5 stars on the ratings helped give me the extra little push to go ahead and make it.

The method for cooking the chicken could also be used for the Chicken Nachos that I posted yesterday.
I left out the red onion and used sesame oil instead of peanut oil.
I also used whole wheat angel hair pasta because I didn't have any soba noodles on hand.

I ate this at the get together and really enjoyed it. The bowl was clean when the whole thing was over so I suppose that means everyone else liked it too!


Recipe for Peanut Chicken Soba Salad


One Year Ago-Slow Cooker Vegetable Casserole

Gingerbread Bars and Chocolate Chip & Peanut Blondies

Here are 2 more of the desserts I made a couple of weeks ago. I chose both of these recipes because they were bar cookies which mixed up quickly and could be easily transported.
Both of these recipes came from the same issue of Bon Appetit as the Lemon Cheesecake Squares from yesterday.
One of the fun little extras they included with this set of bar cookie recipes was a page called "Fun Cuts for Bar Cookies" which showed other ways to cut and serve these cookies, rather than the same old squares.
Both of these bars were extremely popular and the recipes were requested by the people who tried them.
I made the gingerbread bars in a 10x13-inch jelly roll pan simply because that is all I had that was clean at the time. They were really good. Because I cut them into rounds, there were scraps leftover that my kids and I were able to sample.
These were somewhere inbetween a cookie and cake, so they had great texture and flavor.
Definitely will make this again.
My mom also made these and in one of the batches she accidentally left out the molasses and she said they still tasted good, so there you have it!
I didn't get to try these Blondies, but the woman sitting next to me at the event they were served at said they were delicious.
The recipe called for golden brown sugar and I used dark because I had some of it hanging out in the pantry. I was a little worried that they would brown too quickly, but they turned out fine.
Both of these were definite crowd pleasers!

Recipe for Gingerbread Bars

Recipe for Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies


One Year Ago-Pear Dutch Baby and Sourdough Stuffing with Sausage and Pears

Rocky Road Ice Cream

There always seems to be an overabundance of one part of the egg in my fridge or freezer.
I either have a bunch of yolks that are hanging out or I have tons of whites that I am not sure what to do with. At the moment I have 14 egg whites in my fridge, some of which I recently took out of the freezer- angel food cake is in my near future, but more about that later.
I don't really know for sure how I decided to make this Rocky Road Ice Cream, but I wanted to try David Lebovitz's chocolate ice cream and some how when I saw the option at the bottom of the page to mix in some mini marshmallows and roasted peanuts or almonds, it just sounded like a fun option.
Rocky Road just makes me feel like a kid.
I had the egg yolks ready, so I mixed up the custard.
This ice cream uses both cocoa powder and melted chocolate to give it a very rich chocolate flavor. I opted to use semi-sweet chocolate, because I didn't want the chocolate flavor to be too dark.

I knew this was going to taste better than store bought ice cream, but I wasn't prepared for how delicious this was. The chocolate flavor was amazing and the bites that had the slighty salty peanuts or the fluffy marshmallows were even better.

My kids went crazy over this one. They couldn't wait to try it and certainly didn't want to wait until it had firmed up in the freezer.

Definite winner here.

Rocky Road Ice Cream

from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Yield: About 1 quart

Prep Time: 25 minutes | Chill Time: 8 hours | Churn Time: 15 minutes

2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
5 egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup roasted peanuts

1. Warm 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Then stir in the remaining 1 cup cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

2. Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

3. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (and reaches 170 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer). Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.) Once the ice cream has finished churning, fold in the marshmallows and peanuts.

One Year Ago- Afghan Cooking-Chabli Kebab with Sallata and Baghlan Rice

Kung Pao Veggies

Usually, I plan weekly menus and don't really have to think about what I am going to fix for dinner. But, once in awhile it gets close to dinner time and I think to myself- What am I going to make?
That is what happened last week. I had cooked spaghetti noodles in the fridge and tons of vegetables. I remember seeing this recipe for Kung Pao Chicken over at Barbara Bakes and I figured I could make it quickly. I printed off the recipe, chopped my veggies and warmed up the noodles. Dinner was ready in a flash!
I used zucchini, carrots, sugar snap peas, and a yellow onion. I left out the chicken because I didn't have any ready. I just stir-fried the veggies in the sesame oil and then added the sauce after a couple of minutes. I served it over the noodles and topped it off with some cashews.
This was a quick and easy recipe and it was really simple to adapt it with what I had on hand in my fridge. I included the recipe that Barbara used, but just keep in mind that it is really easy to adapt.
My family loved it!

Kung Pao Chicken seen over at Barbara Bakes, who adapted from For the Love of Cooking

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced into bite sized chunks

2 tbsp. cornstarch

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 tsp sugar

6 green onions, chopped

3 large garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup roasted peanuts

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1 1/2 cup pea pods, steamed until tender

Combine chicken and cornstarch in a Ziploc bag and toss until evenly coated. Combine the vinegar, soy sauce and sugar in a bowl and set aside for later.

Heat a large skillet or wok with sesame oil over medium high heat. Once the pan is smoking hot add the chicken and stir fry for 5-6 minutes or until no longer pink inside. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

Add the garlic, ginger, red pepper and green onions (leaving a few for garnishing) to the pan and stir fry for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the soy sauce, vinegar and sugar mixture to the pan along with the cooked chicken, peanuts, carrots, and pea pods.

Cook for a few minutes until sauce thickens up a bit and carrots are tender. Serve over rice or noodles and top with remaining green onions.

Up Next-Root Beer Bundt Cake

Vegetable-Stuffed Rice-Paper Rolls with Curry Peanut Dipping Sauce and Steel-Cut Oats with Pomegranate Molasses + Almonds

It is kind of embarrassing to admit this, but I actually tore this recipe out of a magazine about 4 years ago. I made it last week. I just kept coming back to it and finally rolled these little guys up. Glad I did, too.
I have used rice paper sheets before-in these Spring Rolls and these Rolls. So, I already had those in the pantry. Everything else was ready to go.
This dipping sauce was divine. The best I have tasted. It is almost identical to the sauce they use at my favorite Thai restaurant, except this one uses chunky peanut butter. We used the leftover dipping sauce as a salad dressing the next day. It worked wonderfully. I loved these spring rolls. I shared some with a neighbor the next day and she loved them too. It doesn't get better then veggies and peanut sauce. They would have been great with some chicken or shrimp rolled up alongside the veggies.

I also saw a great way to serve steel-cut oats in Super Natural Cooking. The author of that cookbook said that drizzling pomegranate molasses on top of the oatmeal and sprinkling it with walnuts was one of her fave breakfasts. So I got out my molasse and drizzled away. It melted deliciously on top and I threw on some sliced almonds just cuz that is what I had in the pantry. Yum.

Vegetable-Stuffed Rice-Paper Rolls with Curry Peanut Sauce
Peanut Sauce:
1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 Tbls each freshly squeezed lime juice and fish sauce
1 tsp each red curry paste, sugar, and grated fresh gingerroot
1 Tbls minced fresh cilantro
Garden Rolls:
6 rice-paper sheets
2 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce
2 large carrots, peeled and julenned (I used matchstick carrots)
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and julienned
1/2 cup bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
1 red pepper, julienned
3 scallions, julienned
1/4 cup whole basil leaves
1/4 cup each whole fresh cilantro and mint leaves

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine first eight ingredients and cook, stirring, until well blended. Stir in minced cilantro, remove from heat, and set aside.
Fill a wide, flat bowl with warm water and soak one sheet of rice paper for 30 seconds, until pliable. Remove paper, blot it on a clean towel, and lay flat.
Lay 1/3 cup lettuce in the middle; top with one-sixth of the remaining ingredients. Fold front third over the mound and pull filling toward you a bit to compact into a tight roll. Roll over once, then fold the sides over the middle and continue rolling away from you until secure. Place seam down on a paper plate lined with waxed paper, sprayed with cooking spray.
Repeat with remaining rolls. Slice in roll in half on the bias and serve with peanut sauce.

Up Next- CEiMB- Garden Risotto

Vegetarian Pad Thai

I saw that Clara made this on I heart food 4 thought (she used shrimp) and since I have been wanting to make Pad Thai at home and also because it had tofu in it (Love tofu)- I decided to give it a go. Quick, easy, totally delicious. It was wonderful. Even the non-tofu lovers really liked this dish. The flavors were delicate and it was really simple to make. Perfect for a weeknight!

Vegetarian Pad Thai from Cooking Light

2/3 cup chili sauce (such as Heinz)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger

1 teaspoon chopped seeded serrano chile

1/2 pound wide rice stick noodles (bánh pho)

4 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided

1 (12.3-ounce) package extrafirm tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

2 large egg whites

1 large egg

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups fresh bean sprouts

3/4 cup diagonally cut green onions

1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro, divided

1/3 cup coarsely chopped dry-roasted peanuts

6 lime wedges

Combine first 6 ingredients; set aside.
Cook noodles in boiling water 5 minutes or until done. Drain and rinse with cold water; drain well.
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add tofu; cook 7 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove from pan.
Combine egg whites and egg, stirring well with a whisk.
Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic, and sauté for 10 seconds. Add egg mixture, and cook for 30 seconds or until soft-scrambled, stirring constantly. Stir in chili sauce mixture and noodles; cook for 2 minutes. Stir in tofu, bean sprouts, onions, and 1/4 cup cilantro, and cook 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup cilantro and peanuts evenly over each serving of noodle mixture. Serve with lime wedges.

Coming Tomorrow: A Triple Threat of Treats- Chocolate Key-Lime Cupcake Pies, Gale Gand's Butterballs and Mini Phyllo Tarts, 3 Ways.

Tuesdays with Dorie- Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake

tammy of wee treats by tammy chose this weeks Tuesday's with Dorie recipe. So go to her blog because you are going to want to make this huge homemade candy bar at home. Yes, that is what it tasted like, not any candy bar in particular but the caramel, and the peanuts, and the chocolate, well it was candy bar-ish. Mine kind of looks like peanuts swimming in caramel sauce because I just kept spooning more and more of the caramel on top. When I cut it, the caramel went everywhere! Sort of messy, but no one seemed to mind. Luckily, my brother was visiting and we were having a family dinner, so the whole thing went down in one sitting, with everyone getting only one serving. I think this is the first time that Dorie's serving suggestion has actually worked out. Usually her serving sizes are way too big, but this time it was perfect. We served it with a little Cool Whip and everyone enjoyed it. Now I just have to find something to do with the leftover caramel- that shouldn't be too difficult.

Go see what every one else did this week by checking out the Tuesday's with Dorie blogroll

Oh, and don't forget to come back tomorrow to see my debut pie for You Want Pies with That?, I am not going to say that my pie is going to win, but let me just tell you that it is going to be hard to beat- That thing was delicious!