CHOCOLATE

We seldom serve chocolate pudding here in Neverland; my ungrateful kids prefer the stuff that tastes like its box over the real cooked deal. But the following recipe is enjoyed by the whole family (and is easy enough for a kid to make). The only downside is the use of chocolate chips makes it a little expensive to serve  often.

Rich Chocolate Pudding

Taste of Home 2001; serves 6

• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter
• Whipped topping & mini chocolate chips, optional

Place chocolate chips and powdered sugar in a blender; cover and process until the chips are coarsely chopped. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring milk and butter to a boil. Add to blender; cover and process until chips are melted and mixture is smooth.

Pour into 6 individual serving dishes; refrigerate. Garnish with whipped topping and mini chips if desired.

So much for that Mother of the Year award

A recent conversation (that will make more sense if you’ve read Harry Potter), on a day when Boy Genius was dragging his heels:

BG: But why do I have to dry the dishes?

Me: Alright then, why do I have to fix dinner?

BG: Because you’re the mom.

Me: Well, then, you have to help because you’re a kid, a part of this family.

BG: But you get special privileges!

Me: Oh, like what?

BG: You get to eat chocolate and stuff!

Me: Ah, but that is because sometimes you kids act like dementors!

C is for cookie

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how much I love cookies.. .both eating and baking them. ;) I like how I can choose almost any cookie recipe and make it using the same basic formula Mom taught me as a girl: cream the butter and sugar, beat in the egg and vanilla, gradually add the dry ingredients, and fold in any goodies. Voila–cookie dough! Which is good enough to eat as-is, and I do, although I like it better when it’s baked and still warm from the oven.

Last weekend I was contemplating what to do with a bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips (other than eat them right out of the bag). The recipe on the back sounded promising, but I decided to check their website for more ideas. Something oat-y sounded good, so I decided to make Clementine’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yum! I don’t know who Clementine is, but I definitely recommend trying her recipe if you like oats and chocolate.

Traditions steeped in. . .chocolate

Twirly girl bakes her first solo batch of cookies. . .doesn’t she look like a (chocolate) chip off the old block?

Two years ago I made “Olympic” brownies for the opening ceremonies. . .so of course the children insisted we needed brownies last night! The oldest lost boy baked this batch, though I added the m&m’s while they were all downstairs watching pre-ceremony hoopla. Just so you know~this works better on frosted brownies, but we didn’t have time yesterday. Instead I put the candies on hot brownies and then put them back in the (turned off) oven for a couple minutes to “melt” into place.

So there’s no chocolate here, but at least it’s food. Is not this the CUTEST noodle non-eater you have ever seen? Baby boy had a wonderful time playing with cooked noodles even though he didn’t like them in his mouth. I just love the serious face and the toes hooked on the underside of the tray.

C is for Cookie. . .

I love cookies. A lot. Maybe even too much, if we’re talking about cookies with chocolate chips. I like to bake cookies, but then I eat them. All of them.

I’ve tried hiding them in the freezer, but then I feel compelled to eat one (or three) every time I go in the laundry room. You could consider it motivation to do laundry, but the truth of the matter is I eat all the cookies.

A year or two ago it occured to me that while I like to nibble cookie dough when I bake, I would probably leave frozen cookie dough alone. So far this has held true. Now when I mix up cookie dough I freeze most of it in little ready-to-bake balls like this:

Aren’t they cute? My mom gave me the little OXO scoop a few years ago and it’s the fastest way I know to make drop cookies! Once the balls are frozen, I move them from the baking sheet to a bag or other container. Then, when the cookie monster simply must be fed, I can bake as many or as few as I need:

I don’t usually thaw the dough balls, other than the amount of time it takes for my oven to preheat. So they might need to bake a little longer than fresh dough. . .I’ve never figured out exactly how much longer, I just bake them until they look good.

I’ve done this with all sorts of drop cookie recipes, but below is the yummy recipe shown in my pictures. It’s marked as coming from Taste of Home, year unknown~I’m pretty sure I remember making these 2 or 3 kitchens ago, so it must have been published in the late 1990s.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 cup oats (I use old fashioned because that’s what I buy. . .in 50# bags!)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (try the Ghiradelli chips just once & you’ll never go back to Nestle with its artificial vanilla)

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars; beat in peanut butter, eggs, and vanilla. Combine flour, oats, soda, and salt; stir into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets. (For freezing, I line a rimmed pan with waxed paper) Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute before removing to rack.

 Enjoy!

Sioux City Mamapalooza

This weekend several LCMS homeschooling mommies flew the coop & had a wonderful time visiting, eating chocolate, and relaxing. Though no one had met everyone else before Friday, by the end of the weekend we were all ready to plan another weekend!

L-R: Suzanne (our hostess), Kim, Kristi, Angie, Charity, Melody, Sheila. . .Front: Kathleen & Adam, Rhonda

Jamie had to leave us on Satuday, so missed our Sunday morning photo session (thanks to Suzanne’s husband who not only put up with our weekend silliness, but also patiently took pictures with everyone’s camera).

I took my favorite recipe for Frosted Brownies, clipped from Taste of Home in 2003. . .now you can make them too. Yummy!

Brownies: 

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 3/4 cups flour

6 tablespoons baking cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons baking cocoa

3 cups powdered sugar

Colored sprinkles, optional

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well.

Spread into a greased 9×13″ baking pan. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center tests clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For frosting, in a mixing bowl, beat the butter, milk, and vanilla; add cocoa. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Spread over cooled brownies. Decorate with sprinkles if desired.

You know you’re a chocoholic when. . .

. . .you find yourself scraping the last bits of brownie out of the pan just because it’s chocolate.

. . .and then a couple minutes after you give up, your daughter wanders into the kitchen and starts scraping the pan some more!

While the cat’s away. . .

the mice will play! When I went to the grocery this Monday, they had a cart full of marshmallow creme right inside the front door. Larry doesn’t care for marshmallow, but he’s out of town. So I brought a jar home and promptly made a pan of Aunt Janet’s Chocolate Crunch Brownies, which the kids and I have been enjoying all week (there’s even one sitting on my desk as I write). Yummmy. . .if you want to enjoy their gooey sweetness too, here’s the recipe.

Chocolate Crunch Brownies

1 cup softened butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
6 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow creme
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 cups crispy rice cereal

Cream together butter and sugar; add eggs. Stir in cocoa powder, flour, vanilla, and salt. Spread in a greased 9×13 pan. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Cool.
Spread marshmallow creme over cooled brownies. In a saucepan, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in cereal. Spread over marshmallow layer. Chill before cutting; store in refrigerator.

This is probably my favorite-ever marshmallow recipe, except for s’mores of course! But whenever I see a jar of marshmallow creme I can't help thinking of former First Lady Barbara Bush. According to her autobiography, as a child she once got in trouble for buying the fluff and eating it straight out of the jar on her way home from the store.