Foody Friday - Indoor "Super Easy S'mores"

We finally received a good bit of snow this week!! I wouldn't call it anything serious, only a few inches, nothing like what my family in Indiana is dealing with....8 inches and counting!! But for SW Kansas a few inches and some wind was enough to cancel school for two days. It was too cold and windy to play outside...we tried! By day number two I was already worried that the boys were getting bored...EEEEK!!! Time to shake things up a bit.

 

On Pinterest I found a photo of Cast Iron S'mores but without instructions.

Time for a bit of experimenting.

 

 

Luckily I live two blocks from a grocery store! After a quick Arctic hike I had all my ingredients; s'mores stuff and butter.

 

 

First I preheated my oven to 300 degrees. You could probably go to 350 but my oven runs on the hot side. I greased my cast iron skillet, bottom and sides, really well with butter.

 

 

Pour in a package of chocolate chips.

 

Spread marshmallows evenly over the top. Then place in the heated oven. Watch carefully until marshmallows and chocolate are melted. It only took about 8 minutes in my oven. Then I put the skillet under a low broiler for 3 minutes to turn the marshmallows nice and golden.

 

The boys used the graham crackers to dip all that wonderful gooey goodness straight from the pan.

 

Yip was in 7th Heaven eating this, so much in fact he made himself sick by eating so much! Indoor s'mores...a quick little treat to break up the cabin fever!

Foody Friday - Gooey Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

I found this Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe and I don't think I'll ever make chocolate chip cookies again. I absolutely love cooking and baking that cuts down on doing dishes afterwards. And this...this cookie only dirties one skillet. Whoop! 

Gooey Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in an 8 inch cast iron skillet set over medium-low heat. Stir in sugars and vanilla and remove from heat. Let rest until pan is warm, but no longer very hot, about 5 minutes.

2. Crack an egg onto the butter and sugar mixture, and use a fork to whisk it well into the mixture. Place flour, baking soda, and salt on top, and very carefully stir into the mixture until smooth and well-mixed. Stir in chocolate chunks. Place in the oven for 15 minutes, or until starting to turn golden on the top and around the edges, but soft in the center. (I baked it for 20 minutes to get rid of some of the gooeyness.) Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Or serve warm on the end of spoon, no ice cream required! 

Foody Friday - Traditional Peanut Butter Pie

Oh. My. Goodness.

I have just gained five pounds just LOOKING at this pie. 

I'm not telling how much of this delectable pie I actually ATE! 

An embarrassing amount though.

Peanut Butter is one of my favorite foods. 

I think it deserves its own food group...right next to chocolate. 

I found this deliciously sinful pie recipe in A Foxfire Christmas. 

Are you familiar with the Foxfire Books? It's a great story of a teacher, his students and the people of the Appalachian mountains.

 Got a minute? Check it out!! 

But back to the pie.

Grandma's Traditional Pie from Emma Sue Carver

My grandmother has been making this pie every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas for as long as I can remember. She is the only one in my family or anywhere that makes it as good as she does. I got this recipe from one of her recipe cards, but I had to get her to translate if for me because she had written it down so only she could read it. So here is how she told me to make it: 

Combine 2/3 c. sugar, 2T flour, 1T cornstarch, and 1/4 t. salt in a heavy, deep saucepan. Gradually add 2 1/2 c. milk to the mixture; cook on medium heat, stirring constantly. then, beat in 3 egg yolks; add to remaining hot mixture, stirring constantly. (About 10 minutes) Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Remove from stove, and add 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter and 1/2 t. of vanilla extract. Stir until peanut butter melts. Add 1/2 c. chocolate chips. Then pour mixture into a baked store-bought or homemade pie crust, let it set out at room temperature for 30 minutes, and gently swirl the top of the pie with a knife to give it a "swirling water look." Then it is ready to eat. But don't eat it all in one sitting.

I was VERY tempted to eat it all in one sitting! It is so creamy and yummy! And I'm sure very fattening...ah, who cares! Bring on the pie!! 

Combine 2/3 c. 

Foody Friday - Homemade Nutella or Chocolate Peanut Butter

My son Yip is in love with Nutella. He'd eat it everyday if I let him.

Not Yap though. I swear, the only foods both my boys like are apples and pasta.

You'd think they'd have a bit more in common being twins and all. Nope, they are about as different as night and day.

Anyway, the last time we went grocery shopping I forgot to buy Nutella. Oh the tragedy!! Our tiny grocery store down the street doesn't carry Nutella but Yip and I thought we'd try to make our own version. I found lots of versions online that included roasting nuts and cooking on the stove top. I don't have that kind of time so we improvised. Nutella is made with hazelnuts, no luck finding those either, so we used peanuts.

Chocolate Peanut Butter

4 cups peanuts (I used raw)

1/2 c. powdered milk

1/2 c. cocoa

1/2 c. honey

1-2 T vegetable oil

Process peanuts in food processor until the oil releases and it forms a ball around the blades.

Add the powdered milk, cocoa and honey and process until mixed thoroughly. The butter will be pretty thick. Add a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil to thin it out. Makes roughly 3 cups. Store in refrigerator and stir up before using.

If you don't have powdered milk I would suggest mixing the nuts, cocoa and honey together, then leaving out the oil and adding milk slowly until the desired consistency is achieved. That's what I'm going to try next time.

Yip thought the home made version was alright for now, but he's already made sure I added Nutella to my shopping list. I, on the other hand, am addicted. I'm pretty sure I've eaten most of this batch on my own.

Foody Friday - Chocolate Cupcakes

Hey, Come here! I have somethin' to show ya. Look what I made this week!

Chocolate muffins! Soooo yummy.

Mommy likes to help me in the kitchen sometimes and I let her. I tell her what she needs to dump in the bowl and I show Mommy the right way to stir. And I let her wash the dishes too. I was easy on her today though, there was only one bowl to clean.

But the important stuff I have to do myself. I'm the quality control expert in our kitchen you know. I make sure nothing gets to the dinner table that isn't just wonderful!

Time to test....Mmmlllfffrrwww..

Oh, you really should try one of these. What? You can't come over and have muffins with me?

Ah well....how about I just share the recipe with you? Here you go.

Chocolate Muffins

2 eggs

1 c. sugar

1 c. flour

6 T cocoa powder

2 t baking powder

1 t vanilla

2/3 c. milk

2/3 c. butter

4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin tins or use muffin cups. Beat eggs with sugar, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, vanill and milk. Add melted better. Add chocolate chips. Bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean; about 30 minutes.

Foody Friday - Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

A new cookie recipe! To me heaven is full of cookies and I'll eat as many  as I want without getting fat...ha ha!

I love this recipe I found off of Two Peas and Their Pod.

I love it because you only use one mixing bowl, hence fewer dirty dishes and these are bars which means I'm not taking extra time to put individual cookies on a sheet. I didn't have peanut butter chips like the original recipe called for so I just doubled the peanut butter and it came out great.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

1 c. butter, at room temperature

1 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

2 c. flour

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

Preheat oven to 325.

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and mix until just combined.

Fold in peanut butter chips. Spread dough in a 9x13 baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray.

Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes. If bars are not done (due to using a different sized dish), bake for 5 minute increments. Let cool completely before slicing.

The Easiest Fudge Ever on Foody Friday

This is the easiest fudge ever to make. In fact, it's so easy Mountain Man used to make it himself all the time when he was a little kid.

Take a bag of chocolate chips and pour it in a microwave safe dish. Melt in the microwave. I put the bowl in for a minute, stirred them a bit, then returned it to the microwave for another 30 seconds.

When the chips are melted pour in a can of

sweetened condensed milk. 

Stir well and pour into a 9x9 dish sprayed with Pam.

Pop into the freezer for 30 minutes or so until the fudge is firm.

When fudge is firm repeat the steps with peanut butter or butterscotch chips.

This fudge is rich! But that didn't stop Yahoo and I from polishing off most of the pan.

But we saved a couple of pieces for Yip and Yap....

Good thing this is so easy....this plate of fudge would just be insulting to my boys.

Time to make some more!