Happenings of our lives

Jordan loves creme brulee and I just like the custard part. One day when I was driving home from work I heard an advertisement for something and it said creme brulee, so I decided to go home and make some.

I cut the recipe in half because we have small ramekins, but it was still more than enough to fill them.

Here’s the recipe:

Jordan’s favorite part of making creme brulee is torching them (honestly who doesn’t like this part?). We ate them and they were pretty tasty. We even at some that weekend when we went camping. Stay tuned for more on our camping trip.

Click on the picture above to see the gallery

Here’s a super easy fudge recipe, it’s great because, depending on how long you let it boil, you will get pourable fudge, or fudge that you can cut and eat in pieces.

I was so excited for Halloween this year. Jordan and I knew that we were spending Halloween with Whitney and Evan and we wanted to bring some food to their party. So, I started making some cookies that morning. I made some that looked like candy corn and some other ones that looked like spiders.

The candy corn ones were really easy to make. I just made some normal sugar cookie dough. I split the sugar cookies into 3 pieces. To make the orange dough I put food coloring in one and in the brown, I melted some chocolate and mixed it in. Then, I split those into two pieces and then put them into small bread pans and then let them chill for 1.5 hours. Then I sliced them into candy corn chunks. After I cooked and cooled them, I dipped the chocolate part into chocolate.

The spiders were just cake mix cookies with M&M eyes and licorice legs. They were so cute, we just wanted to eat them .

Emily made these coconut cowboy cookies after we had them at my parent’s motel.  They are really good.

Title: Cowboy cookies
Servings: 60
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Category: Dessert
Rating: 5/5 stars

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Ingredients
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2 cups brown sugar
2 cups sugar
2 t vanilla
1/2 cup milk
4 cups flour
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 cups butter
4 eggs
3 cups rolled oats
2 1/2 cups coconut
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

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Instructions
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1.   Beat together the sugars, butter or margarine and eggs.
2. Stir in vanilla and milk and mix well. Add in the flour, baking
powder and salt and mix well.
3. Stir in the oatmeal and coconut. Add in the chocolate chips and
nuts (optional) and mix well.
4. Drop by teaspoon on cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F (175
degrees C) for 8 to 10 minutes.

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Nutritional Information
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*Nutritional information reflects amount per serving.*
CALORIES 187
TOTAL FAT (g) 8
Saturated Fat (g) 5
CHOLESTEROL (mg) 30
SODIUM (mg) 124
TOTAL CARBOHYDRATE (g) 26
Dietary Fiber (g) 1
Sugars (g) 16
PROTEIN (g) 2

This fudge was fantastic.  It was really smooth and just melted in your mouth.  I made it over Christmas break.  It comes from Paula Dean on the foodnetwork website.

Ingredients
• 3 cups sugar
• 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 6 tablespoons butter, plus extra for buttering dish
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
Mix sugar and cocoa; add syrup and milk. Cook in saucepan over medium heat until a small drop forms a soft ball in cold water (234 to 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat. Add butter, pecans, and vanilla. Beat with mixer or by hand. Pour into a slightly buttered oblong glass dish and cut into squares. Work fast, as mixture thickens quickly.

One of the best brownies I’ve ever had. I made them over Christmas break.

Ingredients
• 1 cups (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 11/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 (10-ounce) package Creme de Menthe baking chips (recommended: Andes)
• Shaved Creme de Menthe thins (recommended: Andes)
• Chocolate frosting
Frosting:
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.
Using an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Gradually stir into butter mixture. Fold in mint chips. Spoon into greased pan. Bake for 35 minutes.
While brownies are baking, prepare frosting. Combine butter, cocoa, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and milk in a large mixing bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until dry ingredients are moistened. Beat at high speed until spreading consistency.
Remove pan from the oven and allow brownies to cool in pan on wire rack. Spread with chocolate frosting. Top with shaved mint thins.

This is a pretty good coconut cake. I made it over Christmas break. It comes from Paula Dean on foodnetwork’s website.

Ingredients
Basic 1-2-3-4 Cake

with coconut milk:
• 2 sticks butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups sifted self-rising flour
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Filling:
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 cup flaked, sweetened coconut
7-Minute Frosting:
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or 1 tablespoon white corn syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 to 3 cups coconut, flaked and sweetened
• Artificial holly, optional garnish
Cake:
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans.
Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and coconut milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4-inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks.
Filling:
Stir together sugar, sour cream, milk, and coconut in a bowl until well blended. Add first cake layer onto pedestal. Using the wrong end of a wooden spoon, poke holes approximately 1-inch apart until entire cake has been poked. Spread a third of filling mixture on cake layer. Top with second layer, repeat process. Top with last layer and repeat process again.
Cook’s Note: As each layer is stacked, stick them with toothpicks to prevent cake from shifting.
Frosting:
Place sugar, cream of tartar or corn syrup, salt, water, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Beat with a handheld electric mixer for 1 minute. Place pan over boiling water, being sure that boiling water does not touch the bottom of the top pan. Beat constantly on high speed with electric mixer for 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Frost the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle top and sides of cake with coconut. Garnish with artificial holly, if desired.

Makes one large cookie sheet

• 2 ½ cups light corn syrup
• 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 ½ peanut butter
• 15 cups Rice Krispies
• 1 package (11oz) of butterscotch chips
• 1 package (12 oz) of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine corn syrup and sugar and bring to a boil, remove from heat and add peanut butter. Pour over Rice Krispies and mix until the mixture has completely coated the Rice Krispies. Press into a greased cookie sheet. Allow the mixture to cool slightly. Meanwhile, combine butterscotch chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips and microwave until the mixture is smooth. Spread over Rice Krispie mixture and allow the chocolate to harden. Cut before they are too cool, or it will be very difficult to cut them.

• ½ cup butter (room temperature)
• ½ Crisco or other shortening (I used butter flavored)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt (I used about ½ teaspoon because the butter was salted)
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 12 oz of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Cut the butter in chunks and put in mixer bowl. Add the shortening and mix until blended. Add sugars and cream the butter. After creamed, add eggs and vanilla, mix until blended. In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, salt, and flour. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar blend until all the flour is mixed in. Add the chocolate chips mix in. Form the cookies into tablespoon size balls. You may want to spray the cookie sheet. Place the cookies about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Place in the middle rack of the oven and cook for 12-14 minutes. Enjoy!

Here are the pictures: