Makes 16 Brownies
Brownies:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup flour
Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 heaping tablespoon cocoa
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325. Mix sugar, butter and eggs with a fork thoroughly. Add flour and cocoa and mix well. Spread in greased 8x8 square baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes until set. Let cool before icing.
Frosting: Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until boiling. Remove from heat and beat until it starts to thicken, then spread over cooled brownies.
This is a simple chocolate brownie recipe that tastes delicious with the fudgy icing on top. If you like nuts in your brownies, you can mix in 1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans are the best!) to the batter before baking and/or you can put a single nut half on top of each brownie after frosting.
Makes About 10 Servings
1 loaf of French bread or 2 Baguettes, 1-2 days old and starting to harden
2 cans evaporated milk
1/4 cup half & half
1/2 cup brewed coffee
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
6 large eggs
1 - 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325. Slice and cube the bread--this may require some elbow grease if it's hardened already. (Be prepared for lots of crumbs! I usually do mine over the sink or put a big kitchen towel under the cutting board.) Spray a 13x9 glass baking dish and spread the bread in it evenly. In a large bowl, whisk together the evaporated milk, half & half, and coffee (try to resist drinking this). In a medium sized bowl, mix the sugars together with the cocoa. Slowly stir this into the milk mixture in the large bowl. In another bowl (medium sized or so), beat the eggs then add the vanilla, almond and cinnamon and stir. Pour egg mixture into the large bowl with the milk mixture and stir until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour evenly over the bread cubes in the baking dish and let stand, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes, or until the bread has absorbed most of the liquid. Bake for 1 hour until set and a knife inserted into the center of the pudding comes out clean (except for melted chocolate chips). Serve warm or cold.
This dessert is really simple to make and tastes delicious! I like to serve ours warm with some fresh whipped cream on top. Yummy! It's good cold too though or with ice cream or even hot fudge on top. And by the way, you can use REALLY old (non-moldy of course...lol) bread with this too. I have made it with some poor forgotten loaves of bread that were rock hard and about 2 weeks old and it tasted just as good as with 2 day old baguettes!
Makes 1 Loaf
1 whole head of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons parsley
Kosher Salt
1 loaf fresh Italian bread, split horizontally
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425. Cut the top off the head of garlic (about half an inch, like if you were cutting the ends off an onion) place on a square of foil. Drizzle olive oil over the top of it and wrap the foil around it to form a sealed packet. Bake for 30 minutes then remove and allow to cool. Hold garlic upside down over mixing bowl and squeeze until all the cloves have all dropped into the bowl. Add the softened butter and parsley and mix on low until well blended. Spread onto both sides of the Italian bread and sprinkle generously with kosher salt. Place buttered sides up on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil 5-6 inches from the heating element for 2-3 minutes until butter is melted and bread is toasty. Slice and serve.
My all-time favorite garlic bread recipe! Delicious and easy. It may sound complicated and/or time consuming, but it really isn't that much more effort than dealing with those frozen things and the taste is a million times better! Mmmm, now I want garlic bread.
Makes 8 Servings
2 Packages Frozen Gorton's Shrimp Scampi
1 (16oz) package of angel hair pasta
1/2-1 cup of pasta water
1/2 cup cream or half & half
1/2 - 1 cup Parmesan
Directions:
Boil pasta as directed. While waiting for water to boil, heat a skillet on medium heat. After adding spaghetti to water, dump contents of shrimp packages in skillet and saute until shrimp is opaque and cooked through. When pasta is done, turn heat off and move pan but do not drain. Using spaghetti servers, transfer pasta to skillet with shrimp and toss to combine. Add 1/2 cup pasta water, cream and parmesan and mix well. Add more water as needed. Taste and if it needs more seasoning, add garlic powder and Italian seasonings. Serve with additional grated parmesan.
Total cheater "recipe" here...this is one of my quick and easy go-to meals when I am pressed for time. It can't even really be called a recipe, but I figured I'd share it in case you guys are like me and never thought of doing this but need something fast and yummy like this. Since the shrimp is frozen raw, it tastes fresh and when they are BOGO at your store, combine that sale with a coupon and you're spending less than a dollar per serving, not to mention saving yourself a boatload of time! If you go order Shrimp Pasta at a restaurant you're paying $12+ per plate...you pay less than they for an entire dish full with this "recipe"! Quick. Easy. Cheap. Delicious. Does it get much better than that? If you want it to be creamy, you can always use 1/2 cup cream and 1/2 cup of the pasta water, as well as 1/2 cup or so of Parmesan. That's always yummy too.
P.S. I've also used Gorton's Grilled Shrimp Scampi too and it is delicious! Only problem is the tails, so you have to remove while cooking or while eating, but if that doesn't bother you, I recommend that product too. I've tried other brands, but they're not as good as Gorton's!
I'm thinking since I mostly post these on Tuesdays I should just start titling my post "Menu Tuesday" LOL. My Mondays have been just too busy to post!
Oh well! Here's my dinner menu for this week:
MONDAY
EASIEST Shrimp Pasta EVER!!
TUESDAY
Beans & Cornbread
WEDNESDAY
Chicken Salad Focaccia
Chips
Carrot Sticks w/ Ranch
THURSDAY
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Garlic Bread
FRIDAY
Rehearsal Dinner
SATURDAY
My sister's wedding!
SUNDAY
Lawry's Lemon Pepper Drumsticks
Steamed Broccoli
Broccoli Cheese Rice
8 Servings
1 package white cake mix
3 tablespoons flour
1 3oz package raspberry jello
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 cup oil
1 10oz package frozen raspberries, thawed but NOT drained.
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 lb. powdered sugar
Directions:
Combine cake mix, flour and dry gelatin and mix well. Add water, oil, eggs and half of the bag of raspberries with juice and beat well. Pour into 3 8" pans and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Let cool and remove from pans. Mix the butter, powdered sugar and other half bag of raspberries until well blended. Spread over cooled bottom layer, then place second layer and repeat. Then place the third layer on top and spread icing all around top and sides until all the frosting is used up and cake is fully covered. (Can do a crumb layer of icing...ice thinly sides and top of all three assembled layers...refrigerate for 20-30 minutes...then ice with the remaining frosting.)
THE BEST RASPBERRY CAKE EVER, HANDS DOWN!!!!! Ok, had to get that out. This really is amazing and delicious and flavorful and addicting. If you don't want three layers you can always put in a rectangular pan, but I like the layers and I could eat the whole cake if I let myself. It's THAT good. Trust me! And this coming from a chocolate girl! Do yourself a favor and try it. It's perfect for Valentine's Day because of it's bright pink color. Make it for your sweetie or just make it for yourself. Either way...just MAKE it!
Makes 30 Meatballs
1.5 lbs ground beef
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan
2 tablespoons parsley
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup raisins (use up to a cup, depending on how many you like in your meatballs)
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Directions:
Mix everything together with your HANDS in a large bowl only until everything is incorporated and well-mixed--do not over-mix or you'll have tough meatballs. The mixture should feel gritty and mushy. Roll into 1.5" balls and saute in preheated olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet until lightly browned on the outside, about 3-4 minutes. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet about half an inch to an inch apart in uniform lines. You can immediately cover with foil and bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 8 hours and then cover with foil and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
Quick and easy meatball recipe that my kids love. The raisins give it the perfect sweetness and it's soo good. My kids request "homemade meatballs with raisins" all the time and there are never any leftovers. These are great in spaghetti or any other kind of pasta and they make delicious meatball subs too. Of course you can omit the raisins if you like, but you really should try it with the raisins at least once! Even if you don't like raisins, I bet you'd like them in these meatballs. Very delicious and very Italian. YUM.
