I know I'm not the first...

And I hope I'm not the last to make these beauties. Brookies some people call them. They are a combination of brownies and cookies. This recipes actually comes from the back of a bag of cookie dough believe it or not. I made this on my snow day this week, and they were enjoyed by people at work, Adam and I and Adam's classmates!

What you will need: ( though I am sure you can use all homemade products, I think I'll try this next time!)

One box of brownie mix, the kind with the chocolate pouch in it. ( I used dark chocolate mix)
One "pouch" of cookie mix.

You will mix the brownies as directed on the back of the box.



Then you prepare the cookie dough as directed on the pouch, then drop the cookie dough into the brownie dough. Slightly press down.



Bake at 350 for 35-40 min, until you get a clean tooth pick. Let them cool completely, probably about an hour.


The recipe on the bag of cookie dough says ice then with chocolate icing, but I did what Bakerella did and made a chocolate ganache.

To make the ganach you will need:

12 OZ chocolate chips
3/4 cup heavy cream ( hey no one said these were GOOD for you, just GOOD)
6 Tbsp butter

In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage.
Pour over the chocolate morsels.
Let stand about 20 seconds and stir until smooth.
Pour over brownies and let set before cutting.

This is the final product, and I recommend sharing, because they are just to good not to. And people will think that you are amazing!!! Worked for me!;)
ENJOY!!!!

BBQ chicken Pizza

We decided that we LOVE to make our pizza crust, it's really easy, though a little time consuming. I use the recipe out of the Joy of Cooking Cookbook, if you don't have one, I recommend that you get one. It's the BEST cookbook we have. There is ANYTHING you would want to know about anything in there.

Pizza Crust:
from the Joy of Cooking..

Combine in a large bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer and let stand until the yeast is dissolved, about 5 min.

1/13 cups warm water ( 105-115F)
1 Package active dry yeast
Add
3 1/2- 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon salt


Mix by hand or on low speed for about 1 min. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or with the dough hook on low to medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly coated with olive oil and turn it once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean cloth and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1.5 hours.

Once we did this, we punched it down and divided it in two and froze one half, and used the other for a BBQ chicken pizza.

We used left of roasted chicken cut up in small chunks, mixed it with desired amount of sauce. Put a little bit of sauce on the crust, then chicken then top with cheddar cheese and bake at 475 for about 10 min.

Cheddar Beer Bread

I pulled this from my blog. It was posted in October, it is delicious, unfortunately I don't have a picture of it to share. It's easy and GOOD though!


Cheddar Beer Bread
3 Cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Grated
1/2 Cup Onion, Chopped
3 Garlic Cloves
12 Oz Beer ( I used Bud Light)

Pre heat oven to 350 Degrees

Combine all ingredients ( except beer) until well combined

Add Beer a quarter at a time, until all ingredients are Incorporated

Spoon into a greased 4x8 loaf pan and smooth down with a fork

Bake for 1 hour

Trust me, you won't be disappointed!

Super Subs!

Meat Ball subs that is. We had this for dinner one night, along side a salad, they were very good, and my first time making meatballs without a recipe. This is how I did it.



1 lb ground beef
1 egg
A couple hand fulls of breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons of Italian Seasoning


Preheat oven 325 degrees

Mix everything together, and then roll into balls. Pre heat a skillet for browning.

Place rolled balls into hot skillet to sear. Once done browning, transfer pan into oven to finish cooking, while preparing tomato sauce.

You by no means need to make your own tomato sauce, but for some reason, Adam and I always seem to make it instead of buy it!

1 can of Tomato sauce
1 Can Diced tomatoes
Basil ( we have the kind in the tube, use fresh if you've got it!)
Red wine, whatever kind you like.
Italian Seasoning


Mix everything in sauce pan and add wine to the consistency you like, and your done. It's as easy as that!!

Pull meatballs out of oven and toss in sauce, then serve them up on some nice sliced Italian bread. Top with some shredded parm!

Blood Oranges

Try them if you haven't. I didn't do anything special with these, other than EAT it. It was yummy though, it's kinda hard to explain what they taste like, but I highly recommend them, as a change in your fruit routine. They look a little strange, but I'll tell you, they are worth trying! I know many people make blood orange margaritas, maybe I should try that!!!

Super late, Super Bowl

Since I knew that I was wanting to create a food blog I took pictures of the snacks we made for super bowl. One of our Christmas presents was a deep fryer, and well we've used it! We decided some fried food sounded good. We adapted this recipe from Big Daddy's House on Food Network.



Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Balls:

Roasted Chicken pulled off the bone ( he used a rotiserary chicken, we roasted our own)
1/4 Cup Franks Buffalo Sauce ( I eyeballed it, to the consistancy I liked)
About 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Flour for breading
Panko Bread Crumbs
2 eggs

Dipping Sauce:
I made white dip, you know, the packet of ranch dressing mix that you mix with sour cream. It was yummy!

Have oil heated to 350 degrees F.

Pick the meat from the chicken and discard the skin. Place the chicken in a large bowl and add the hot sauce, pepper, cheese, and scallions, and toss to combine. Roll the chicken into 2-ounce balls, about the size of a golf ball.

Place the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in 3 separate bowls. Roll each ball in the flour, then the egg and then the bread crumbs. Set aside.

When the oil is hot fry the chicken balls in batches. Cook for about 2 minutes per batch. Remove the chicken to paper towel lined plate to drain the excess oil.

To make the sauce, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve the chicken alongside the dipping sauce.



Baby Blooming Onion:
We got the idea of this off Food Network of course, from Down Home with the Neely's.
It sounds much harder than it actually is. Try it, I promise you won't be disapointed!

1 Vidalia onion, skin removed ( We used just a white onion and it was yummy)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
Peanut oil, for frying

Directions:

Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together the egg and the milk in a medium sized bowl.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, peppers, oregano, thyme, and cumin.

Slice 1/2-an inch off the top of the onion and the bottom of the onion. Slice the onion in half, about 3/4-of the way down without slicing all the way through. Slice into quarters, then into 1/8s. Repeat this until you have cut the onion into 14 sections. Spread the "petals" of the onion apart and dip the onion in the milk mixture. Then coat it liberally with the dry ingredients. Separate the "petals" and sprinkle the dry coating between them.

Place the battered onion in the hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove to a paper towel lined sheet tray and season with salt and pepper.

Welcome, Welcome!

I finally did it. It only took a snow day! I wanted to start a food blog, becuase Adam and I have a passion for cooking and baking, so I thought that I would share our meals with those who were interested! I am a firm beleiver that everyone should spend some good quality time with their significant other, and this is how we do it. We cook almost every meal together, and would prefer to make dinner than go out!! So I will try to keep up to date on this, though it's hard because I forget to take pictures of some ( most) things!! But I'll try!!!