Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Well we have another snow day in the good ol' state of Arkansas! I could definitely get used to this! These cookie ice cream sandwiches were our Super Bowl desserts last night and I could really go for one right about now.

I had been wanting to make these for a while and finally found an excuse to do it.  I used Southern Living's All-Time Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (it's their all-time favorite for a reason).  As I was getting all of the ingredients out to make the dough, I noticed that I didn't have enough chocolate morsels (and this would not do!).  So I practically tore apart the pantry looking for something else I could use.  Luckily I found a bag of regular M&M's.  Adding these to the cookies might have been the best idea I have had in a long time.  Not only do they add some color to the cookies, but they also add that delicious chocolate flavor!  And if you didn't catch that, I added both the chocolate morsels AND the M&M's, a little over a cup of each.

After the cookies cooled, I used a large soup spoon to scoop out the ice cream and place it on the bottom cookie.  I thought using a spoon would work better than an actual ice cream scoop because it would scoop the ice cream out flatter, rather than in a ball like the scoop would (make sense? probably not).

I carefully placed the top cookie on and flattened out the ice cream so it covered the whole cookie.  These are not meant to be made in advance and are best served immediately!

Not Your Grandma's Baked Apples

You've had baked apples before, right?  You know, the soggy texture?  Well I guarantee that these are unlike anything you've had before!  After they are baked, the apples have a nice, crisp texture when you bite into them, but it's not like you're eating a regular apple.

As I have mentioned on previous occasions, Ben likes to make up his own recipes, and I'm fine with that because he is a great cook that can throw anything together and make it taste good (something I cannot do).  These baked apples were made sans recipe. (that's "without" for all of you non-Frenchies!) 

Ingredients
4 Honey Crisp apples
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup craisins
1/3 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon cinnamon 
4 small pads of butter
maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375 degree. Core the apples (see below picture).  Score the apples around the middle.  Mix brown sugar, craisins, walnuts, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Scoop into apples.  Make sure to pack the mixture down in the apple so you can get as much in there as possible.  Pour a little maple syrup on each apple and add a small pad of butter to the top of each. Bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on how soft you want the apples.  The apples will lose a little color when they are baked, so don't be alarmed!

You can serve these whole in a bowl and even add a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you like!  They taste just like an apple pie!

Oranges in a Fancier Light

This is one of Ben's many recipes that he has ever-so-kindly prepared for me recently.  It's a simple, modern way to serve oranges as a dessert, appetizer, or fancy snack.

Cut an orange in half and go around the edges with a pairing knife. Neatly scoop out the orange with a spoon and separate the pieces by hand.  Place back in the orange half.  In a separate bowl, mix 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey and 1 1/2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar.  Drizzle mixture over the orange pieces and serve!

Lemon and Rosemary Salmon, Asparagus, and Scallops

If you have a little extra time on a week night and are up for cooking or want to impress your friends with a delicious salmon dish on the weekend, you must try this one!

The salmon recipe is from Southern Living and it will not disappoint.

Ingredients:
4 (6 oz.) salmon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind (smells so good)
3 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon dried or fresh rosemary (having your own plant comes in handy)
cooking spray

Sprinkle salt (I used sea salt) and pepper evenly over the salmon fillets. Place fillets, lemon rind, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, rosemary, and 1 tablespoon oil in a gallon sized bag. Turn to coat and let chill for 30 minutes. Remove fillets from marinade and discard extra marinade. Place fillets skin side down on a greased broiling pan.  Broil fish 5 1/2 inches from heat for 10-12 minutes.  Whisk together remaining 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 tablespoon oil.  Drizzle over salmon before serving.

Also served with this meal was brown rice, asparagus, and scallops.

The asparagus was prepared easily.  Put the asparagus in a skillet on medium heat.  Sprinkle sea salt, pepper, and add 2 pads of butter.  Let this cook, turning the asparagus occasionally.  I let the asparagus cook for about 10 minutes.  For the last 3 minutes, I covered the skillet with a lid to steam the asparagus just a little bit.  Right before I served the asparagus, I sprinkled a little shredded Parmesan cheese on top!

When cooking the brown rice, I used half water and half chicken broth, to give it a little more flavor.  If you want to be adventurous, use only chicken broth, no water!

Baked Scallops
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 pounds bay scallops, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pour melted butter into a 2 quart oval casserole dish, Distribute butter and scallops evenly inside the dish. Combine the bread crumbs, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, parsley, minced garlic and Parmesan cheese.   Sprinkle mixture over the scallops.  Bake in oven until scallops are firm, about 20 minutes. recipe.

Sugar Cookie Bars

I made some Razorback sugar cookies last weekend and had some leftover dough that I needed to use, so I decided that this ice/snow day we're getting in Arkansas would be the perfect opportunity to make some cookies.  I didn't want to go to all of the trouble of flouring the counter, rolling out the dough, cutting cookies, etc.  I wanted something easy and different.  So off to Google I went to find something to do with sugar cookie dough.  After a couple of minutes of searching, I came across My Baking Addiction.  She had made sugar cookies bars that looked too cute!  I knew I had found exactly what I was looking for.

With my cookie dough in one hand and a diet coke in the other I set off to try my hand at sugar cookie bars.

Cookie Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla
3 teaspoons almond
2 eggs
3 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk

Cream shortening, butter, sugar, almond, and vanilla.  Add eggs, beat well. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder.  Stir into creamed mixture along with milk. Chill overnight.  Grease 2 13x9 casserole dishes and evenly spread dough out.  Bake on 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  Let cool on a wire rack and cut into desired shapes (I chose triangles).

Buttercream Icing Ingredients:
1 lbs powdered sugar (10x sifted)
1 tablespoon Wilton Meringue Powder
1 dash salt
1 cup white crisco
1 teaspoon Wilton no-color butter flavor
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
3-4 tablespoons water

Cream shortening, add butter flavor and vanilla and mix well. Add Meringue powder, sugar, and salt and gradually add water.

I transferred the icing to a bag and used a Wilton #12 tip to make the icing design.  Even though Valentine's Day (and Ben's birthday!) is over two weeks away, I still went with a Valentine's color scheme!

I'm thinking about bringing that snow back to my blog, since it's coming down pretty hard here!

Notecards for a Good Cause!

I'm always looking for an excuse to buy cute notecards and I think handwritten notes are the best to send and receive (hint hint to all of my friends out there).  Thanks to my friends Tracy and Kerry, who introduced me to Design-her Gals, I have been able to design my very own personalized notecards.  This website is awesome (just look over to the right at my new addition on the blog side bar, isn't she cute!). 

Not only can you order notecards, notepads, return mailing labels, and invitations, but Design-her Gals also has a foundation called Gal to Gal which supports women with Stage IV breast cancer. 

I ordered my notecards last week and I cannot wait to get them in the mail!  They are very similar to the above picture (I had to include a cookie sheet, because I spend a lot of time with one!).

If you are in need of some cute, very personalized cards (or many other things) click on over to Design-her Gals and you will not be disappointed!

Snickers Pie!

Last night, I finally made the snickers pie (much to Ben's delight)!  And as Monograms and Manicures pointed out recently, National Pie Day was January 23 (so I think two days late is not that bad!).

See all of the yummy layers?

This pie is soooo good.  I had just a tiny nibble for breakfast (because I did not do a proper taste test last night).  It really makes a difference (in a good way) if you leave it in over night to chill.  The filling becomes even more to die for!

Ingredients
1 graham cracker pie crust (I used a pre-made because I was in a time crunch)
3 snickers bars
1 1/2 (8 oz) cream cheese packages
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
2 eggs
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
2 tablespoons whipped cream
1/4 cup coarsely chopped, lightly salted peanuts

Preheat oven to 325. Cut snickers bars into 1/4 inch pieces and arrange in the bottom of the pie crust (see picture below).  Beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed until well-blended.  Add peanut butter and sour cream and beat at low speed.  Add eggs one at a time and beat just until the yellow disappears each time.  Spoon mixture into the pie crust and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove and let cool on a wire rack for an hour.  Cover and chill for 2 hours.  Microwave semisweet morsels and whipped cream for 45 seconds, stirring every 15 seconds. Drizzle chocolate over the top of the pie and sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

Layer of sliced snickers bars in the bottom of the pie!

This pie takes patients (almost 4 hours of it!).  After you blend the peanut butter mixture, you're going to want to eat it with a spoon, and the only thing that stopped me from doing that was the fact that there were raw eggs in there (yuck).  Otherwise it could have been bad.  The layer of snickers in the bottom of the pie really adds that extra something to the pie and I'm willing to bet that it would taste just as good if it were in the bottom of cheesecakes, too!

This recipe is adapted from here.