Quick bars

Life has gotten busy since my last post.  Mike and I got married (and used all those lovely blue bottles from the last post at our reception) and now have a beautiful baby girl!  I have kept cooking and want to share some of my new favorite recipes.

This last Sunday was the Super Bowl.  I don't know much about football, but I do know that was depressing for the Broncos. Either way, watching the Super Bowl means eating food.  We were invited to a party, and when I asked who was bringing dessert, the answer was no one. Being my mother's daughter, I couldn't just make 1 desert.  No, I had to offer choices.  3 of them that is!

 Here they are!  Peanut butter gems, chocolate butterscotch bars, and pecan pie bars.

 Peanut Butter gems have always been a favorite of mine.  They remind me of trips up to Nova Scotia to visit my older sister.  Her mother in law,  Debbie, made them and I absolutely loved them!

P.B. layer:
1 Cup melted butter
1 Cup peanut butter
2 Cups finely ground Graham crackers
2 Cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Chocolate layer:
1 1/2 Cups chocolate chips

Mix together p.b. layer ingredients.  Press into 9x13 pan.  Melt chocolate chips in microwave (30 second intervals) and pour over top.  Refrigerate until set.

Chocolate/butterscotch and pecan pie bars.  I love pecan pie and hoped I could make a bar. Theses are the product of my imagination, a cross between my favorite lemon bar (the crust) and my pecan pie and brown sugar cookie pie recipes.  They start out exactly the same:

Crust:
2 Cups flour
1 Cup butter
1/2 Cup sugar

The gooey layer:
6 1/2 TBS melted butter
4 eggs
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 Cups sugar
1 Cup light corn syrup

The topping:
Pecans OR chocolate chips and butterscotch chips - probably 2 Cups total for either recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Mix together crust ingredients.  Press in to bottom of 9x13 pan. Bake 20 minutes.
3. Combine ingredients for gooey layer. I like to pub it all in my Ninja!
4. Sprinkle the crust with either pecans or chips - make sure there is a single layer covering crust completely.
5. Pour gooey layer over top. Make sure all the topping has been coated. If using pecans, get will float up during the baking process.
6. Bake 20 to 25 minutes -or until just barely giggly. Turn off oven.  Leave until cooled.

When making these, I cheated a little bit. I used 2 smaller baking dishes and divided the crust in half. I then made one of each type of bar and divided the gooey layer over them. This way, I could make a greater variety of dessert quickly!

Enjoy! I know I have!

Blue Bottle Dinner

Read on for recipes for: Beer Bread, Beer Cheese Soup, Beer Pork Loin Roast, Strawberry Beer Cake AND Chocolate Peanut Butter Beer Cake.  :0)

Mike and I are getting married in December.  I have this idea in my mind that I want to use gorgeous blue bottles as vases to decorate my reception.  This means that I need lots of people to drink things that come in blue bottles and donate them to me!  Moscatos, Rieslings, Bud Light Platinum, etc...  I found an AMAZING one at Sam's Club.  It is a huge, 1.5 Liter bottle of Riesling. I have no idea what I would use it for, but I really feel that I need 2 ;-)

Thanks, yet again to Sam's Club, I found cases of 12 Bud Light Platinum's for about $10.50.  This is an awesome deal.  The problem is that I do not love to drink beer. This means that I have to cook with it instead.  So, get ready for my Blue Bottle Dinner!









Bud Light Platinum Beer Bread:

Preheat oven to 400F.  Grease/flour loaf pan 

Sift together: 
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar (or sugar substitute)
3 3/4 teaspoon
3/4 teaspoon salt

Gently stir in 1 bottle of Bud Light Platinum until just combined.  Pour in to bread pan.  

Optional: Top with a sprinkle of oatmeal or 1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup at the start of baking and 1/4 cup midway through).

Bake for 40 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack until ready to devour. 


Bud Light Platinum Beer Cheese Soup:

1/2 medium onion, finely diced
3/4 cup carrot, finely diced
4 stalks celery, finely diced
2 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup fat free powdered milk
1/4 cup nacho cheese powder (check GFS for this)
1 Tablespoon powdered chicken bouillon
2 teaspoons powdered garlic
3 cups fat free milk
1 bottle Bud Light Platinum
8 oz shredded cheese (I used equal parts mozzarella, 2% colby jack, 2% cheddar)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Sweat down vegetables in large pot on medium until very soft. Melt in butter. In another bowl, mix flour, powdered milk, cheese powder, bouillon, garlic.  Using whisk, stir dry ingredients into vegetables.  Continue to stir until flour is no longer white (a few minutes).  Whisk in milk.  Once mixture is warm again, whisk in beer.  Once the temperature is just below boiling, slowly whisk in small amounts of cheese until all is incorporated.  Keep whisking.  DO NOT LET IT BOIL!  Soup will begin to thicken.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy with some beer bread.


Bud Light Platinum Pork Loin Roast

I started my pork loin roast in a crock pot, then had to move it to a roasting pan and to the oven. I would recommend just cooking it in the oven on 300F for about 2 hours.

In pan, place:
2 lbs pork loin (thanks to Sam's Club for the HUGE pork loin at $1.99/lb)
1.5 lbs  baby pototoes, quartered
1 cup baby carrots
4 stalks celery, cut in to 2 inch segments
1/2 medium onion, cut in to rings

Over everything:
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon dry minced onion
2 bottles of Bud Light Platinum

Once meat it cooked through and vegetables are soft, removed extra juices from pan and add a slurry of cornstarch/water and 1 teaspoon of chicken bouillon along with salt and pepper to taste.  Whisk until you have a lovely gravy.


Bud Light Platinum Strawberry Cake:


This is a take on two cakes I like to make. One made with cake mix and yogurt, another made with soda pop instead of typical ingredients.

1 box of strawberry cake mix
1 bottle Bud Light Platinum
Follow instructions on cake mix to bake.

Frost with a thawed 8 oz container of cool whip (fat free works well) mixed with a 6 oz container of strawberry yogurt.  Garnish with free strawberries. 

This cake can be a bit sticky because there is no egg in it.  So, with my next cake, I tried something a little bit different.  Either way, it was delicious. :0)


Bud Light Platinum Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake: 

1 box vanilla cake mix
1/2 cup cocoa powder
- OR - 1 box chocolate cake mix, if you remember to have some in the house!
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Bud Light Platinum
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup egg beaters - OR - 3 eggs
Follow instructions on cake mix to bake.

In a small sauce pan on low heat, reduce the rest of the bottle of Bud Light Platinum (around 1/4 cup to start) to about half.  Once removed from the heat, add 1/3 cup peanut butter, 2 Tablespoons sugar (I used half brown sugar and half regular sugar - both as sugar substitutes).  Slowly mix peanut butter concoction in to a thawed, 8 oz tub of (fat free) cool whip.  

Frost bottom layer of cake. Sprinkle on approximately 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips.  Add second layer and frost. Top with chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. 

I took this cake to a family dinner tonight and it got rave reviews.  Most people had no idea it was made with beer.  Mostly since I didn't tell them. :0)  And, with all the recipes, you can use any beer you please. Bud Light Platinum comes in blue bottles, so that is why we used them!

Total Blue Bottle Count for these recipes? 6.  Only about 100 more to go!

No recipes :)

I have been a horrible blogger. Mostly because I get too lazy to post recipes. So, today I shall just post pictures and brief summaries. I think that should work well!

Chicago Style Pizza - Beezo's way. I made a french bread dough as usual, but substituted about 1/3 of the flour for cornmeal. I put it in a deep dish pie pan, then layered with delicious ingredients (olives, artichokes, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, lots of cheese, etc...) then poured sauce on top and baked for about 45 minutes on 400F. Good stuff!

Talk about deep dish pizza!

American Pie :)  Strawberry/Blueberry pie with stars and stripes on top. Just cut out some strips of pie dough and Mike cut out some lovely stars.  Baked up lovely, but I forgot to take a picture!

Hard boiled eggs.  Don't they look sad?  hehehe.  Eggs in the bottom of a pan, covered with at least an inch of cold water, brought to a boil, heat turned off, covered and let sit for 12 or so minutes.  Run under really cold water and enjoy!

Drying off after a dip in the hot tub!

Ambrosia Salad

Or as I like to call it: PINK FLUFF!

This is such yummy stuff!  Pictures just can't do it justice :)

Recently, Kate and I ate some ambrosia salad at a restaurant and I was reminded of how much I love the stuff!  It reminded me of a good ol' church potluck. So, I had to come home and make some up!  The lovely thing about the recipe is that you can throw anything in there that you would like:

In a wire mesh strainer, I strained about 3/4 cup cottage cheese, 1/3 cup maraschino cherries, 1/2 cup sliced strawberries, 1/2 can shredded pineapple, and 1/2 can of fruit salad

In a large bowl, I folded together 1/2 a container of FF sour cream, a tub of whipped cream (FF, or course), 2 -3 TBS sugar free Jello, 1/3 cup shredded coconut, and 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans.  Then, gently fold in the drained fruit and refrigerate until ready to eat! YUM!

Ready to eat! Horrible picture, but delicious food!

Happy Birthday Cupcakes!

I love Despicable Me.  The minions are so adorable. So, since there was a Birthday party for a certain 2 year old who loves the movie, I made her minion cupcakes that are circulating Pinterest.

Ingredients:
cupcakes
blue cupcake liners if you can find them
yellow frosting
blue frosting
black frosting
candy eyes (or smarties with black dots on them)
half of a twinky for each cupcake

Then, assemble: