Happy Be-Lated St. Patrick's Day!

I seem to be running behind this year on my holidays! So, just like Valentine's day, St. Patrick's Day is also late for us this year. I hope by Easter, I can get things together! Today, we are eating our traditional St. Patty's Day meal of Corned Beef. For dessert, I made these tasty brownies! I used a brownie recipe I got from my friend Meghan and a frosting recipe I got from here.



Brownies from Meghan-
3/4 c butter
2 c sugar
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 c chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in large bowl in microwave. Then add all other ingredients, except for chocolate chips. Mix until smooth. Then stir in 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Pour into a greaed 9x13 pan. Sprikle remainin chocolate chips on top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.


Mint Frosting-
2 c powdered sugar
4 T butter, softened
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 to 2 T milk
green food coloring


Combine all ingredients until smooth. Spread on top of cooled brownies.



Another thing we always eat with our Corned Beef is my father-in-laws mustard sauce. This sauce is great with any meat dish! My husband loves it! And he hates pickles and mustard but, he loves this sauce!


Lin's Mustard Sauce-
Add 1/3 c pickle juice to 2 T mustard. Add 1 heaping cup of mayo. Add more juice if need for desired constistancy.


Enjoy!
~Sarah T.

4 Layer Delight

My husband actually got this recipe while he was on his mission in Canada. The title on the recipe card is Sex in a Pan. Then it has this side note- Please rename the title of this dessert when feeding it to the missionaries! Or any other time it may be inappropriate. My husband said that when it was fed to him on his mission, they called it "dessert in a pan". But, he knew that wasn't the real name and made them tell him what it was. He said he then pretended to be shocked and offended when they told him what it was called and that they would feed it to the Elders! My mom used to make this when I was younger and we always called it "4 Layer Delight". So, since I am actually feeding this to the Elders tonight, we will call it 4 Layer Delight!







Crust:

4 c graham cracker crumbs

3/4 c brown sugar

3/4 c melted butter

nuts optional

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then cool completely





2nd layer:

8oz cream cheese, softened

2/3 c powdered sugar

1/2 pf a 32oz tub of Cool Whip

Mix togetehr and spread over crust





3rd layer:

1 large box of chocolate pudding

Mix together only using half of the milk called for in the directions on the box.



4th layer:

Rest of the Cool Whip



Chill before serving. You can also top with chopped almonds and/or chocolate flakes before serving.





~Sarah T.

No Fuss Cinnamon Rolls

I really like cinnamon rolls but the task of making the dough just always seems so daunting! So, I tried and experiment! I got a loaf of Rhodes Dough and let it thaw. Then, I rolled it out until it was about 1/4 inch thick. I spread butter on the dough and then sprinkeld it with a combination of brown sugar and cinnamon. Rolled the dough up and cut it evenly with floss in to 9 rolls. I put them on a cookie sheet (something I will change next time) and placed them in the oven while it was warming to help them to rise a bit. I baked them for about 7 minutes (you have to watch them so they don't brown to much). When they were done, I poured a simple butter cream frosting over the top. They turned out great!! My family loved them, even my picky eater ate 2! I will for sure be doing this again soon!

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting from Sarah R.

1/2 c to 1 cup butter, softened

4 c powdered sugar

1/3 c whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients until smooth and creamy.

* For the cinnamon rolls, I halfed this recipe and made it a little more runny so it was easy to pour over the rolls.

~Sarah T.

"She got the way to move me, CHERRY...CHERRY baby!"

The other day while I was in my backyard, I noticed that my neighbor had a cherry tree. I secretly hoped that he would bring us some and... HE DID!! He is such a sweet German man! He brought us a HUGE bucket full if cherries! After spending all day eating them yesterday, we still had a ton left. I knew I wanted to do something with them before they went bad.


My husband and I spend a while pitting them this morning. We were very creative and used a chop stick to push the pit out. I think after that experince, I need to invest in a cherry pitter.


So, this is what I did with them- I made some pie filling and froze the others. I found a recipe on line here
We took the chance that they are sweet cherries. So I followed the directions for sweet cherries. The filling turned out great and it was very easy! The cherries that I froze, I tossed with a little lemon juice and placed them in one layer on a cookie sheet.

All I have to say is, I am loving all these fresh berries in Germany! It's awesome!
~Sarah T.


p.s.- the title of this post is for my mom. She loves Neil Diamond!

Cake Batter Cookies

My friend, Stephanie, brought these cookies over for a BBQ a couple of weeks ago. I just had to get the recipe from here! These cookies are easy, moist and soft!



1/4 cup butter

8 oz block cream cheese

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla



Mix these ing. together then slowly add:



1 box cake mix, any flavor. Add mix slowly.



Place in fridge for 1 hour. Then bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 mintues. One piece of advice from Stephanie- don't eat them warm! She said they are pretty gross warm! So don't do it!! Enjoy!

~Sarah T.

Strawberry Pretzel Jello Salad

I am finally getting around to posting some more recipes from the Birthday Bash!! This recipe I got from Sarah R. So she gets the credit for it! It's really good and has replaced all other jello salads in our jello salad arsenal! It has a really great combo of sweet and salty. We really love it, if you haven't been able to tell already!

Crust:
2 c. crushed pretzels
3/4 c melted butter
3 tsp sugar

Mix pretzels, sugar and melted butter. Press into a 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool completely.

Filling:
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 c sugar
1 medium sized Cool-Whip

Mix together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in Cool-Whip. Spread onto cooled pretzel crust.

Topping:
1 6oz box of strawberry jello
2 10oz boxes of sliced frozen strawberries
2 c boiling water

Dissolve jello in boiling water. Add stawberries, the boiling water will thaw them. Pour over cream cheese mixture.

Refrigerate for 2 hours and enjoy!!

~Sarah T.

Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies

I found this recipe on the back of the Reese's Peanut Butter Chip bag. They are very easy to make, that's part of the reason I like them! Not to metion how good they are! You can make these as cookies or bars. Here's what you need:

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tea baking soda

1/2 tea salt

1 1/4 cups (2 and 1/2 stick) butter softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tea vanilla

1 2/3 cup (10 oz package) Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Heat of to 350

Sitr together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Slowly add flour mixture until well combined. Add peanut butter chips. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes.

~Sarah T.

Anything but the Kitchen Sink! Cookies

I got this recipe from a family friend. I love it because it is so flexible and they are really yummy!

Basic recipe:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
Cream these together. Then add:
2 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla
Beat until fluffy. Sift together and add:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Now you can add any combination of add ins. Here are some examples:
2 cups chocolate chips and 1 cup toffee chips
or
1 cup oatmeal, 2cups Honey Bunches of oats cereal, and 1 cup chocolate chips
or
2 cups oatmeal, 2 cups raisins
or
1 cup coconut and 1 cup Rice Krispies
Anything but the kitchen sink!! I made them this morning with oatmeal, Honey Bunches of Oats and peanut butter chips! Yum!

~Sarah T.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

My husband loves Strawberry Rhubarb pie! I got this recipe form my friend, Danna. My husband loved it and I make it for him every year when it’s Rhubarb season.

2 cups strawberries
2 cups rhubarb
Both cut into ½ inch pieces
1 frozen pie crust (by all means, use homemade if you can make one! That is something I have yet to master!)
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ cup flour
1 TBSP corn starch
¼ tsp salt
1 egg, beaten

Cut up strawberries and rhubarb. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, flour, starch, and salt. Beat egg and add it to fruit, stir. Then add dry ingredients and combine. Pour into pie crust.

Crumble top:
¾ cup flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
¾ stick of butter, softened

Combine with pastry mixer and sprinkle over top of pie. Bake pie in a 350˚ oven for 45 minutes.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!
~Sarah T.

Right now, we are living in Germany while my husband serves in the military. Everyone always talks about Germany and chocolate. Who doesn’t love chocolate? I really love chocolate, maybe even too much. This chocolate has to be my favorite chocolate! Not only does it taste amazing, it is cheap! There are all kinds of flavors of Milka chocolate. They have some with strawberry filling, yogurt filling, marzipan, dark, hazelnut, caramel, just to name a few. But I think the 2 strangest filling would have to be watermelon (which is very similar to Pop Rocks) and the Fire filling (it has a spicy, hot taste. It sounds really weird but it really wasn’t too bad!) But, I am a purest and most often buy just the plain milk chocolate. If you are ever in Germany, try some of this Milka chocolate! It is delicious!!

~Sarah T.