Sundae Cups

Melty ice cream, gooey fudge, and a warm cookie all in a nice little cup. What could be better? These cookie sundae cups are perfectly sized and easy to make. The hardest part is waiting for the cookie to cool off before adding the ice cream and fudge.

These sundae cups can be made with any type of cookie dough, ice cream, and topping combination. It would be best to use a cookie dough that doesn't melt while baking. Some good cookie types are sugar, ginger bread, molasses, and even oatmeal. I made the sundae cups with chocolate chip cookie dough and used a recipe scaled to half a batch.

Warning: Making these for your boyfriend after making him the dinner of his choosing may result in him telling everyone that you are trying to kill him. The reality is that he has no will power and will over eat.

(Chocolate chip) Cookie Sundae Cups

1 stick butter
6 T granulated sugar
6 T brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1 t vanilla (optional)
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 1/3 C flour
1 C chocolate chips

Cream together the butter and sugars until blended. If the butter is cold, you can either soften it in a microwave at a very low power level or leave it cold and cut it into small pieces. The cold butter will mix better when cut into small pieces, but you may have to mush some pieces between your fingers if they don't mix in.

Add the egg and the vanilla. Mix until blended. Mix in the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. If the dough seems too sticky, feel free to add more flour.

Add the chocolate chips and mix them in.

Clean as many oven safe cups as you need. Once baked, the cookie will be stuck in the cup until removed piece by piece with a spoon. If you need to remove the cookie, you can try coating the inside of the cup with shortening.

Line the inside of the cups with a thin layer of cookie dough. Place the lined cups on a baking sheet and form the remaining cookie dough into balls.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. The baking time will vary, so check on them every few minutes near the end of baking. Remove from oven and let cool. The cups will remain hot for a while, so be careful!

The cookie dough completely filled the cups that I used. After cooling for about 5 minutes, I used a spoon and lightly pressed the cookie to the side of the cup. If you have patience, the cookie will do this on its own as it cools.

Add ice cream and hot fudge. Enjoy!

Notes: I used the 1-cup glass prep bowls from Pampered Chef to make the sundae cups. These are oven safe to 350 degrees.

Cheesy Potatoes

Cheesy Potatoes: potato chunks covered by a creamy cheese sauce and baked until bubbly. This is another common food that was found at most family get-togethers. I can't honestly say that I've tried the potatoes before now; if I eat a potato, I prefer it be raw. I'm just a picky eater. These potatoes are cheesy, gooey, and delicious. Most people love these potatoes and often ask for the recipe (if they don't already have it!). The cheesy potatoes are a great addition to a cook-out or a wonderful side dish for meatloaf. They are simple to make and easy to serve.

This makes a large amount of food, so unless you are planning to feed many people, you should use two casserole dishes (8in x 8in or similar size). One dish will be enough for 4 people, maybe more if you have another side dish. The extra dish of cheesy potatoes can be frozen once they are securely covered with freezer paper. Just be sure to write the contents and date made on it!

Cheesy Potatoes (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
3 cans Cream of Potato Soup
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
32 oz Frozen "Home Fries" Potatoes
8 T butter (1 stick)
8 oz cheddar cheese (shredded)

Coat the inside of the casserole dishes with a a thin covering of olive oil (or cooking spray).

Place the cubed potatoes in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together the cream of potato soup and the cream of chicken soup until well blended. Add the soup mixture to the potatoes and mix until well the soup evenly covers the potatoes.

Add half of the cheese to the potato mixture (approximately 1 cup of cheese). Mix until well blended.

Divide the potato mixture between the two casserole dishes.

Evenly cut the butter into thin slices. Evenly distribute the butter slices on top of the potato mixture in the casserole dishes.

Cover the potato mixture with the remaining cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350 for one hour. Allow the cheesy potatoes to cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Nutrition Facts: I'll figure these out when I decide on a decent size per serving!

When making the cheesy potatoes for this post, I only had 2 cans of cream of potato soup. The store didn't have any more and I didn't feel like driving around to find one can of soup. I substituted the missing can of cream of potato soup with a can of cream of chicken soup.
The frozen potatoes can easily be replaced with cubed potatoes if you want to take the time to cube them!
The cheddar cheese can be either mild or sharp, depending on your personal preference.

Doggie Cookies: Carrot & Garlic (Beta Test)

After I created the first recipe for doggie cookies (the peanut butter and banana kind), I researched dog safe foods and created several more recipes. I never got around to testing any of them. I did run through the entire process in my mind for each recipe, which I suppose I can call the alpha testing phase. Yesterday I did a beta test for one of the recipes and... I found out that things don't go so well if you fail to follow directions. Yes, I failed to follow the directions that I created. At some point in the future, this post will be rewritten to include more/better photos and the recipe will possibly be modified (or just updated to include a method to use baby food).

The recipe that I created works fine. It made cookies that my dogs love. Unfortunately, I added far too much water at one point which caused me to add lots and lots of flour and oatmeal. The result was more of a doggie cracker than a doggie cookie. So, if you ever want to make doggie crackers instead of doggie cookies, just do what I did: double the amount of water needed then mix in a flour and oatmeal mixture until you get a dough instead of a sticky blob.

This recipe is for a carrot and garlic flavored dog cookie. Raw carrots are a healthy snack for dogs; vets even recommend them. Lucky doesn't know what to do with a raw carrot if you give him one. He will bite it in half and then leave it in the middle of the floor. Fortunately, he loves these cookies so he can still get some of the health benefits of carrots! For some extra flavor I added garlic which, in moderation, is also good for dogs.

Carrot & Garlic Doggie Cookies
1 C baby carrots
1/2 C Oatmeal
1C flour
1 clove garlic (minced) or 1/4 t garlic powder
2 C Water

Place the water in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. While the water is heating up, shred approximately 5 baby carrots to make 1/4 cup of carrot shavings. Set the carrot shavings aside. Place remaining carrots into boiling water and boil for 20 minutes or until soft.

Once the carrots are fully cooked, pour the water into a glass measuring cup and place the carrots in a food processor. Mash the carrots. If you don't have a food processor, this can be done with a fork. Add the garlic to the mashed carrots and mix well.

(At this point I gave up on taking pictures! As you can see, my carrots didn't even mash very well.)

Mix the oatmeal and flour into the mashed carrots. This will create a crumbly mixture. Mix in the carrot shavings until combined. Add the warm carrot water by the tablespoon, mixing well between each addition. If you do this mixing by hand, you will be less likely to add too much water. Add water to the mixture until it reaches a dough-like consistency.

On a well floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Repeat until all the dough is used.

Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely before serving to any doggies.


Notes: You can also steam the carrots (this will allow them to retain more nutrients). Alternatively, you can use baby food instead of going through the mashing process. Just be sure to include the carrot shavings.

Oatmeal Cookies

I don't remember ever eating oatmeal cookies as a kid. The name made them sound like an awful idea to me; I could never understand why someone would want to ruin cookies with oatmeal. It wasn't until a few years ago when someone requested I make oatmeal cookies that I realized oatmeal cookies are amazing. The oatmeal seems to melt right into the cookie and doesn't give it some weird texture like I always imagined it would. The cinnamon flavor of the cookie is my favorite part.

The only recipe that I've ever used to make oatmeal cookies is the one that comes on the lid of the Quaker Oats canister. I changed it slightly to suit my tastes better as I like cookies that don't look like a semi-melted mess (which is how it always turned out when I followed the recipe exactly). The original recipe calls for raisins, but I tend to put chocolate chips in instead. Neither are needed and the cookie tastes great with nothing added. You can replace the chocolate chips with nuts, craisins, or anything that would combine well with cinnamon and oatmeal.

Oatmeal Cookies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 C unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 C flour
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
3 C Quaker Oats
1 C raisins (or whatever else you want to add in)

Cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat the mixture until just combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Add the oatmeal and stir until well combined.

Add in any raisins or chocolate chips and stir until they seem evenly distributed. I do this part by hand (literally, the mixture is too thick for me to use a wooden spoon and I don't want to over beat the dough).

Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls and place them evenly spaced apart on a cookie sheet. The cookies won't spread very much, but place them at least an inch apart just in case!  Bake the cookies at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes.

Let cool on cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely and place the cookies in a tight sealing storage container.

This recipe makes 4 dozen soft oatmeal cookies.

Approximate nutrition facts per cookie (plain): 76 calories, 4.25g fat, 8g carbs, 1g protein, 59mg sodium

Adding raisins adds 10 calories and 3 carbs per cookie. Adding chocolate chips adds 24 calories, 1.3g fat, and 3 carbs per cookie.

Easy Easy No Baking

Once a week my grandmother would go to the salon to get her hair done. Almost weekly she would come home with a new recipe to try. This led me to believe that most salons just are a place for older ladies to get together and exchange recipes. I'm sure they talk about family and such things, but the recipe exchange is probably the highlight of that social event. Some of the recipes were amazing and some were not good enough to have a second time. The recipe for Easy Easy No Baking (also known as Special K Bars and Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars) is one of the amazing recipes that she acquired during her time at the salon.

As the name states, this recipe is easy to make and requires no baking. The most difficult part of the recipe is the frosting, which is melted chocolate chips. The bars taste wonderful and I haven't met a person yet who hasn't enjoyed them.

Easy Easy No Baking (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
3 C Special K cereal
3/4 C Plain or Crunchy Peanut Butter
1 t Vanilla
1/2 C Granulated Sugar
1/2 C White Syrup (such as Karo Syrup)

You will need a stove, a small sauce pan, a large mixing bowl, a glass pan (I used a 8x11 pan), and a spoon. I also recommend having a sink full of hot soapy water. Once you are finished with a bowl or pan, place it in the sink and let it soak. This will save you time when washing dishes since some of the ingredients harden.

Pour the cereal into the mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the cereal and place the peanut butter in the center. Set this aside.

Mix the sugar and white syrup in the small sauce pan. Heat over medium heat until it just reaches a boil; the sugar mixture will remain cloudy and start to quickly bubble. Once boiling, remove from heat, add the vanilla, and stir a few times. Adding the vanilla will cause the sugar mixture to bubble rapidly (sorry, no picture! I needed to use 2 hands at that point). Pour the sugar mixture over the peanut butter in the mixing bowl. Mix the sugar mixture, peanut butter, and cereal together until well blended. Place the cereal mixture into the glass pan.

You can either press the mixture down right away or let it chill a few minutes before pressing it down. Place the pan in the refrigerator. Use this time to wash the dishes you've accumulated (you need to use the small sauce pan in the next step).

Frosting:
1/2 C chocolate chips
1 C butterscotch chips

Place the chips in a small sauce pan. Heat the chips over LOW HEAT. You must use one of the lowest heat settings or your frosting mixture will most likely burn. The melting process can take up to 10 minutes, so be patient. At first, stir the mixture occasionally. Once the chips start to melt it will be kind of gross looking and a bit difficult to stir. After a few minutes the mixture will become creamier. At this point, you must start mixing constantly or the chocolate mixture will burn to the bottom of the pan. Once the melted chocolate mixture is smooth, remove it from the heat.

Take the cereal mixture out of the refrigerator and frost it with the chocolate mixture. Return the finished creation to the refrigerator until well chilled. This should take an hour or so, depending on the temperature of your refrigerator. You can also place it in the freezer if you are in a hurry.

Once the entire creation is chilled, cut it into bars using a warm sharp knife. Place the bars in a tightly sealing container and keep refrigerated until you are ready to serve them.

Approximate Nutrition Information (for each bar when batch is cut into 20 bars): 183 calories, 10 g fat, 3 protein, 23.5 g carbs, 92 mg sodium