Tag Archives: desserts

Food

Chocolate Cream Pie in Minutes

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When I was a kid Lyons restaurant had a chocolate cream pie that my family loved! You could go in an order out a whole pie (like Marie Callendar’s or Baker’s Square before I had heard them) and my family did for all major holidays or treats. Then we discovered a Dream Pie Recipe on the Dream Whip box! Dream Whip is a powdered whipped topping. You can change it up by adding different types of extracts (like orange, peppermint, or almond) but NerdDad likes it plain. I love that I keep most of these ingredients in the pantry. It is super easy, super quick!

Ingredients:
2 packets Dream Whip (half a box)
1 tsp Vanilla
2 small boxes Instant Chocolate Pudding
1 3/4 cups Milk
Chocolate Shavings (as desired)
1 prepared crust (I use graham cracker crusts or oreo crusts, premade)
Process:
Put vanilla, Dream Whip and 1 cup of milk into a mixing bowl. Mix on high for 6 minutes or use a whisk attachment on a stand mixer for 3-4 minutes. You are looking for peaks. Then add the remaining 1 3/4 cups of milk, pudding and some of the shavings. Start blending on slow until mixed. Then beat on high for 2 minutes (scrapping down the sides as needed). You need to make sure that you see an even color. Then turn out the filling into the pie shell. Sprinkle the remaining shavings on top. Then place the pie in the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up.
That is it! I told you it was super easy!

Food

Coconut Pecan Cookies

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I was assigned to bring a dessert to the family Christmas celebration. I knew that brownies, fudge and chocolate chip cookies so I decided to aim at a non-chocolate dessert (gasp! They do exist). This recipe was pretty tasty!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter (can use margarine)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Process:
Cream butter and shortening together. Then add the sugars and baking soda. Blend until combined. (Scrap the sides of the bowl as needed) Then beat in the egg and vanilla. Then blend in the flour in stages until it is all mixed. Then mix in coconut and pecans by hand. Then place dough on cookies sheets by the teaspoon full about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Let the cookies stay on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes and then move them to cooling racks. Let them cool completely. I put them in an airtight container and they held up great!

Food

Wordless Wednesday: GingerBread Lessons

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This Christmas had been a mess of chaos, joy and lessons (go check them out here). In the chaos I didn’t have the time or stamina to make the gingerbread house. So NerdDad had the awesome idea to just hand out the pieces to the kids to decorate. So we just used canned cake icing to base coat the panels. Then I gave them each a bowl of different types of candy (1 bowl per person so they could keep the germs from sticking their fingers in the mouths;) to decorate. I picked up chocolate covered seeds, M&M’s and mint meltaways from Winco to add to the candy that came with the kit. We didn’t want to give them any of the hard candy because they would have a hard time eating it. These are just the oldest and the youngest’s creations. Then those were their panels to eat.
I have to say, I thought the kids would be very disappointed if I didn’t do a gingerbread house. I do it every year and then they spend a week eating it. They had a ball doing this! They seemed to enjoy the fact they did it more than any gingerbread house I made. Apparently I am once again putting my own pressure on me in other people’s names;). This was such a big hit even if I do a gingerbread house next year I think we will also be doing this!

Food

Easy Refrigerator Cookies

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These are super easy cookies! You can keep them in the fridge and just slice them up when you are in need of fresh cookies! You can even freeze the dough.

Ingredients:
1 cup of softened butter or margarine
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 cups of AP flour
sprinkles, nonpareils or sugar
Process:
Just blend it all together, adding the flour last. Then form logs of the dough. Roll logs in sprinkles, nonpareils or sugar. This isn’t just for decoration because you need the sweetness. Wrap logs in wax paper or parchment and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Then heat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the cookies (if the diameter is 2 inches then slice 1/8 of an inch, if thinner then cut thicker) and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until they turn golden (the bottom will turn light brown). Cool completely on a wire rack!
That is it! How much easier can it get?

Food

Easy Chocolate Pecan Pie

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I love this twist on the classic pecan pie. It is becoming a family tradition for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I totally cheat and use a deep dish frozen pie crust.

Ingredients:

4 ounces of semisweet chocolate (which is about 2/3 cup)
2 tablespoon margarine, melted
3 eggs
1/3 cup of sugar
1 cup of corn syrup (light or dark)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups pecan halves
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell,
homemade or frozen

Process:
In a double boiler melt chocolate and margarine. Let cool. Beat eggs lightly and then add the sugar, corn syrup, chocolate mixture and vanilla. Stir until blended, I use a wire whisk to mix it thoroughly. Mix in pecans. Put the pie shell on a lined baking sheet. Then pour in the filling. The pecans make sink to the bottom, don’t worry it will all even out. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes or until the knife inserted midway between the center and rim comes out clean. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Food

Chocolate Almond Popcorn

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This is something I try to always have on hand during the holidays but it is great all year. It keeps for quite a while if you keep it in an airtight container so it is great to pull out for those drop in guests or to take as a hostess gift.

Ingredients
1 cup popcorn kernels, popped
3 cups unsalted whole skin-on almonds (about 1lb), toasted
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 stick unsalted butter
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp kosher salt
(To the almonds you can put them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 250 degrees. Cook 15 minutes until you just start to smell them. Or put them in a skillet on the stove top and cook them on medium/low until you smell them. DON’T LEAVE THEM, NUTS BURN EASILY)

Process:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Put popcorn and nuts in a large bowl and set aside. Put sugar, corn syrup, butter, cocoa powder, and salt into a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a gentle simmer (about 5 minutes). Make sure to stir the mixture. Then pour the sugar mixture over the popcorn and nuts. Don’t pour it all in one spot; try to cover the popcorn and nuts. Toss until it is all coated. Put the mixture on rimmed cookie sheets. Bake, stirring every 20 minutes, until the mixture is almost dry to the touch (about 1 hour). Then cool completely on the cookie sheets. Store it in an airtight container.

Food

Halloween Haul

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Check out this year’s Halloween candy haul! This is from about an hour’s worth of Trunk or Treating at church with all 4 kids. I think we might be eating on this for months! And yes I am a little type A about the candy organization. With little kids it helps to have it separated. Now I just need to figure out some great recipes so I can cook with it!

Food

Wordless Wednesday: Blosson Cupcakes

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These are the cupcakes that I made for NerdPid’s 2nd birthday. Since we still have plenty of Castle Cake from the NerdPie’s 3 days earlier I wanted to keep it simple and just did enough for the one meal. All I did was frost the chocolate cupcakes with light purple frosting. Then I cute a big marshmallow into 4 pieces. That is just a jelly bean in the middle.

I will warn you, don’t cheap out on the marshmallows. The cheaper ones are stickier and harder to put down on the cupcakes.