Yummy Brownies

We had our Grand Opening at the salon Friday night. It was nice, everyone made something yummy and a bunch of clients came by to celebrate with us. I of course was asked to make the desert so I chose to make these awsome brownies. These are so easy and OMG..so good. Everyone complimented me on them and asked how I made them. Its so easy, all you do is:

Bake a box brownie mix ( family size ) in a 9x12 pan. Let cool completely ( I put in fridge til cooled ). Icing with white or vanilla icing and put back in fridge. Melt 2 cups ( one small bag ) chocolate chips and 1 cup peanut butter in sause pan. In another bowl measure out 3 cups rice krispy cereal. When the Chocolate and peanut butter is all melted and smooth, pour into bowl with rice krispys. Mix so all the cereal is covered w/ chocolate. Spread over brownies and put back in fridge to harded.

These are very sweet and look like it was harder to do then it actually is. I highly recommend them for your next party =)

This Weather is Driving me Crazy!

The weather is really driving me crazy here in NY. One minute it is 80+ degrees and the next it is in the 60s...make up your mind mother nature. I just refuse to turn on the AC in OCTOBER!

Well lucky for me that it is now raining and cold because my husband request beef stew for dinner one night. It just wouldn't be the same yummy stew eating it when it is hot outside. I also wanted to try to make the below stew recipe for another reason. Mike informed me a month or so ago that his office has a soup/stew cook off challenge thing every year around the Superbowl...I even think they have a cheesy name for it like The Super Bowl...lol.

The recipe comes from Heidi (I don't know where she got it from) and ever since she made it my Mike has been asking for it. Mind you he never tried it but just the name alone had him drooling for it.

Beef and Guinness Stew
Ingredients:
2 lb boneless beef chuck, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
1 cup Guinness or other Irish stout
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 or 2 fresh rosemary sprig

Instructions:
Pat beef dry. Stir together flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Add beef, turning to coat, then shake off excess and transfer to a plate.

Heat oil in a wide heavy pot over moderately high heat until just smoking, then brown meat in 3 batches, turning occasionally, about 5 minutes per batch, transferring to a bowl.

Add onion, garlic, and water to pot and cook, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pot and stirring frequently, until onion is softened, about 5 minutes.

Add tomato paste and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in beef with any juices accumulated in bowl, broth, beer, Worcestershire sauce, and rosemary and bring to a simmer, then cover.

Cook a few hours on a low heat. I added some veggies to it the last hour and then some potatoes the last half hour.


Notes:
You might also want to add some corn starch or flour to thicken the stew.

Review: I really liked it and would defiantly make it again. I used a very large pot because it looked like a lot of meat and I wasn't sure of the amount it would yield. Next time I would use the smaller stock pot I have as the only thing I would do different. I added carrots, peas and potatoes at the end which were all great additions. I also used 1 whole can of the beer instead of the 1 cup...since it was mid-afternoon I didn't feel like finishing the beer.

Apple Pie Yum

This past Sunday I went apple picking with Michelle and family. We all had a great time. It was fun to see her father-in-law really get into picking the apples. I think he picked the most apples out of everyone. Below is a picture of my first apple pie of the season. I tried a new crust recipe that I got from Martha Stewarts website. Recipe below. Enjoy!

Pate Brisee (French version of a classic pie or pastry crust)

Makes 1 double-crust or 2 single-crust 9- to 10-inch pies

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.


2. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.


3. Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour. Dough may be stored, frozen, up to 1 month.

My review of this recipe it that it taste great and very easy to make with the food processor. The only problem I have is rolling out the dough. I've only made my own dough a bunch of time, but I never seem to roll it out even enough or in the right shape. I guess it's a skill that comes with practice.

An Apple A Day...

Since I can remember my family has always gone apple picking each fall. We would make a day of it and just have a great time. Which is a tradition I am excited to pass on to my family. We weren't able to go last year because we were in CA and they didn't have any orchards near where we were living (we went pumpkin in Half Moon Bay).

This year is a completely different story because we are back in NY after about 6 years and very close to my favorite place to go apple picking...Lawrence Farms. This trip was also Jacob's first time going apple picking so we made a day of it. Heidi was coming over to spend the day with us and we called up my in-laws (which I also found out that my in-laws have never ever before gone apple picking)...and headed out to the orchards.


I thought to myself what would make this day perfect...Pulled Pork for dinner from the slow cooker. I heard from other neighbors that my neighbor Cathy had an awesome recipe for it...so I asked for it.

Dave's Pulled Pork Sandwiches

4-5lb Pork Shoulder/Butt Roast
Rub
3 Tbls Chili Powder
2 Tbls Onion Powder
2 Tbls Garlic Powder
2 Tbls Brown Sugar
1 Tbls Ground Mustard
1 Tbls Paprika
1 Tbls Cayenne Pepper
1 Tbls Salt
2 cans Coca Cola
1 bottle Barbeque Sauce ( I used KC Masters)
Rolls ( I used "Martin's Potato Rolls")

Combine rub ingredients and coat outside of the pork roast. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate a few hours or overnight.

Preheat dutch oven on stove on high and preheat oven to 300 degrees (or put slow cooker on high). Brown pork roast in dutch over (or in slow cooker) on all sides. Turn off stove (or turn slow cooker down to 300 degrees/low). Add enough Coca Cola so that the liquid comes up 1/2 way up the roast. Cover dutch oven and place in oven (or cover slow cooker). Braise pork roast until it's tender enough that it can be completely pulled apart by a fork - this will take several hours. Shred entire roast into small pieces using forks. Add bottle of barbeque sauce and mix together. Serve on rolls.

My Review: I AM IN LOVE...with this pulled pork recipe. Clearly the best I have ever made or had in my life. The rub adds a nice layer of spice to the meat. The rub has a little kick to it but it isn't so spicy that you can't eat a ton of it. Adding the bbq sauce to the cola sauce really makes it taste great. I will defiantly make this recipe again and I am excited that I have leftovers. This recipe is a keeper!

Candy Corn Season

Ok really I am not trying to take over Heidi's role as the candy lady but I think I am gaining on her. She was the one that actually told me about this limited edition candy from Hershey's. They are called Hershey Kisses: Candy Corn. I found a review on them at Candyaddict.com and then knew what I was looking for.


My review: When I first open the bag I got a great big smell of what seemed to me be vanilla or marshmallow. Above is a picture I found on the website of candyaddict of what the kisses look like. They really do look like candy corn but to me at first don't taste like them. I had another taste and thought about it and they do taste a little bit like candy corn but mostly like white chocolate to me. I don't think I would buy them again...just something new to try.

The Dyszler’s Chocolate Chip Muffins

So, most of you (if not all) have probably seen the below recipe from Karen and may have been lucky enough to sample them. This past weekend, we had guests for breakfast (before we headed the the Norwalk Boat Show - great show with tons of boats and I even got to step aboard a $1.3 million yacht!). I made these muffins in the morning and pulled them out of the oven piping hot. WOW! Were they good! (My guests are still talking about them!)

I decided to make mini chocolate chip muffins for our broker open house (our condo officially went on the market this past Saturday!). I mixed mini chocolate chips into the batter and sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on top (instead of the 2 layer approach). Here is what it looked like...

The thing I was really excited by was that I tried a new tactic! If you've made cupcakes or muffins before, you know it's a laborious task to scoop batter into each muffin "hole" (is there a term for this?!) and especially if you have 24+ mini muffins to make! So, I decided to put the batter in a plastic Ziploc baggie and cut a hole out of the corner. (Trust me this was not brain science and I'm sure thousands of others have done this, but...) It was the easiest way to get the batter into the pan and I was done in a quarter of the time it usually takes me! So, I was very excited by this development and hoped that it would also save you ladies some time too!

P.S. The recipe usually makes 6 LARGE muffins, this made 36-39 mini muffins. =)

Ingredients:
Batter
¼ lb. Margarine (1 Stick)
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 cups Flour
½ tsp Baking Soda

Cinnamon Mix
½ cup Sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon

Chocolate Chips 6 ounces (use regular size chips)

Instructions: Cream together margarine and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Add flour and the baking soda. Spoon half the batter into the muffin pans. Sprinkle approximately half of the cinnamon mix on the batter and add chocolate chips. Place the rest of the batter into the pans. Top with the remainder of the cinnamon mix and chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. (Only took 33 minutes in my electric oven.)

Makes 6 large muffins.

TIPS:
When sprinkling the first layer of the cinnamon mix, make sure the mix and chocolate chips do not touch the sides of the pan. This will make the muffins split in half.

Use a cake tester and poke through the center of the muffin to make sure that they are cooked thoroughly.

On the top layer, tap the chocolate chips softly into the batter. This will keep them from rolling off once the muffins rise.

I Love Cookbooks

When I packed up my apartment a year ago to start our moving around process. I noticed that I have a good amount of cookbooks. Big mistake was putting them all in one box because it was SOOO heavy. I can't really say how many I have really used but I just love having them. The more pictures the better. I visited my mother-in-law who also loves cookbooks and just got a new one (The Chocolate Bible).

Here is a list of a few of my cookbooks:

How to Cook Everything

The Best Recipes

I am Just here for the Food

How to Cook without A Book

The Joy of Cooking

Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts

I know I have more than that but they are in a box in my basement. I would really love to display them in my kitchen BUT I have a toddler who would love nothing more then to spend hours pulling them down off a bookcase if I got one. Does anyone have a suggestion on where I could put them and how to keep my son from trying to play with them?

Another New Candy...Oh So Minty

After a little drama today (my son got stung by his first bee) I went to CVS to pick up some medicine. I decided to treat myself to a little bit of candy but oh which one. Then I remembered that 3 Musketeers came out with a new candy bar...3 Musketeers Mint.

Review: I liked the taste of this candy bar. At first I thought that it would taste like a normal 3 Musketeers but with an added taste of mint but I was SOOOO wrong. It is dark chocolate on the outside and just mint on the inside. It reminded it me of a Junior Mint but not as intense as one but just as good. I would definitely buy this one again.

For a Good Cause

A friend of mine at work told me about Lean Cuisine offering insulted lunch bags for $9.95. The best part about them (besides looking so cute) is it that $5 of every purchase goes to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Check it out. I believe it's a yearly fundraiser for them. I bought the pink one with the bubbles.

Almost apple pie time!!!

As all you girls know, we've been talking apple pie's all day today. I was telling Jenn that this apple peeler from LLBean is AWSOME!! Such a great thing to have especally if you like to make apple pies. It cuts down the peeling time by so much. This peels, slices and cores all in one swift move. Very well worth getting. I use it all season long.