Butterfinger Blondies

Mmmm....I love crispety, crunchety, peanut-buttery, and chocolatety butterfingers and I adore blondies! So, when I saw this Butterfinger Blondie recipe in Paula Deen's Best Desserts Magazine, I knew I definitely hadto try them out!

And I am glad that I did! These blondies turned out really yummy and were nice and chewy and moist on the inside with a bit of a crunch from the butterfinger pieces and they had a slighty crunchy top. This is a regular blonde brownie recipe but with a little bit of extra fun from the butterfingers! There are so many different things you can add to blondies and I think that butterfingers are perfect for them! So, if you like butterfingers and blondies you should definitely give these a try! 

Butterfinger Blondies  (Paula Deen)

-3/4 cup butter, melted

-2 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

-3 large eggs

-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

-2 teaspoons baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-5 (2.1 ounce) butterfingers

-1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used a mixture of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips)

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13x9 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine melted butter and brown sugar, stirring until combined. Add eggs, stirring until mixture is smooth.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, stirring until combined. Stir in chopped butterfingers and chocolate chips and vanilla. Spoon batter into prepared pan, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until bars are set in center.

Chocolate Malt Brownies

Brownies are one of my most favorite desserts to eat, especially when they have frosting on top. I love a fudgey, chocolatey, chewy, and dense brownie, not the cakey kind. I got this chocolate malt brownie recipe, which has malt powder and chopped malted milk balls in it, from a Paula Deen Best Desserts Special Collector's Issue Magazine. I absolutely love and adore Paula, I wish she was my third grandma. I love all of her amazing desserts and enjoy all of her recipes; no matter how much butter is in them! I have a subscription to her magazine and always pick up the special collector's issues whenever I see a new one! I am hoping to make it out to Savannah Georgia this summer and go to her restaraunt and hopefully meet her....that would be soooo exciting!

These brownies turned out just the way I like my brownies and were super delicious and the frosting was also soooo good (just beware because the frosting is very rich and sweet-but I like it that way so it was perfect for me). These brownies had a great texture and were super fudgey, super chewy, and very dense. I think that the chopped whoppers in the batter gave them a little extra chew that was just so yummy because the whoppers melted into the brownie. The malt flavor in these brownies was very subtle, but, you could definitely tell that it was there. I don't think that I can rave about these brownie anymore! So, have I convinced you enough to get in the kitchen and bake up a batch of these brownies?! ENJOY!

Chocolate Malt Brownies (Paula Deen)

-3/4 cup butter

-6 (1-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I didn't have unsweetened chocolate so I used ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips and it worked perfectly)
-1 cup sugar

-1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

-1/2 cup malted milk powder

-3 large eggs

-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

-1 cup chopped malted milk balls

-Creamy Chocolate Frosting

(recipe follows)
Garnish: chopped malted milk balls

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 13x9-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a small saucepan, combine butter and chocolate. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, beat sugars, malted milk powder, and eggs at medium speed with a mixer until fluffy.

In a small bowl, combine flour and salt. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating until combined. Add melted butter mixture, beating until combined, being careful not to over beat (the batter will be a pretty light color, I was worried at first that I did something wrong, but, they turned out great.)

Stir in malted milk balls. Spoon batter into prepared pan, and bake 23 to 27 minutes or until brownies are set in center (my brownies took about 37 minutes to bake, so just make sure to check on them.) Let cool completely. Spread Creamy Chocolate Frosting over cooled brownies. Garnish with chopped malted milk balls, if desired.

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

-6 tablespoons butter

-3 (1-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I used bittersweet chocolate chips)

-3 cups powdered sugar

-1/3 cup whole milk (I used skim milk)

In a medium saucepan, combine butter and chocolate. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from heat, and whisk in sugar until combined. Gradually whisk in milk until frosting reached a spreadable consistency.

Satisfying Salmon

This is a wonderful salmon recipe that I got from my Grandma Sarah who I absolutely love cooking and baking with. She is the one who got me into enjoying baking and cooking. This salmon is very flavorful, light, and luscious and so easy to make. The sauce is very creamy and divine, yet it isn't heavy or rich at all. My family really enjoyed it as well, they all said that it tasted really, really good! So, I definitely reccomend this; get in the kitchen and start cooking and I am sure that you will be very satisfied! Salmon with a Lemon Mayo Sauce:
Ingredients:
-4 salmon fillets
-1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used Hellman's cholesterol free mayo with 1/2 the fat and calories and it worked out great)
-1 Tablespoon lemon juice (next time I will also use some of the lemon zest, just to give it a little bit more of a lemon flavor)
-1/4 cup butter, softened
-1 teaspoon minced garlic
-1 small onion, very thinly sliced
-salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Season the salmon with desired amount of salt and pepper. In a small or medium bowl mix together the mayo, lemon juice, butter, and minced garlic, and spread over the salmon. Sprinkle with thinly sliced onions. Bake for 25-30 minutes.


Mmmmm....so creamy and divine! Enjoy!

Key Lime Cupcakes

Don't you just love how cute cupcakes are? I think that cupcakes are simply adorable; they are just perfect little cuties that you can do so many things with and have them at so many different occasions; elaborate, elegant, or simple ones!

These cuties are Key Lime Cupcakes that I got out of a Paula Deen magazine. The recipe is actually for a cake but I chose to do them as cupcakes. These turned out to be really good and I have made them for a few occasions including my sister's wedding, a baptism party, and my dad's birthday because key lime pie is his favorite! These are moist and are more of a dense cupcake with a nice tart kick from the key lime juice and zest. My dad said they tasted just like key lime pie, but in cupcake form!

I used a simple buttercream recipe for the frosting that I use on a lot of cakes; it is really delicious, creamy, smooth, and very sweet. I added key lime juice to the frosting to also give it a nice tang! I think these cupcakes are perfect for the spring and summer season! I definitely reccomend giving these a try, especially, if you know someone who is a key lime pie lover.

Key Lime Cupcakes: (Paula Deen as adapted by me)

-3/4 cup butter, softened

-1 3/4 cups sugar

-2 tablespoons Key lime zest (I used regular lime zest because I couldn't find key limes)

-3 large eggs

-1/4 fresh Key lime juice (I used Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice from a bottle)

-3 cups cake flour

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 24 cupcake liners in muffin tins.

2. In a large bowl beat butter, sugar, and lime zest at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in juice until combined.

3. In a medium bowl, combine cake flour and baking soda; sift. Gradually add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

4. Pour evenly into prepared cupcake tins (I filled each of mine with a 1/4 cup of batter and got 26 cupcakes) and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely; then frost with your favorite frosting. The recipe below is the one I used.

Butter Cream Frosting (from all recipes)

Frosting Ingredients:

-1/2 cup margarine

-1/2 cup shortening

-1/8 teaspoon salt

-1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

-5 cups confectioner's sugar

-1/4 cup key lime juice (recipe calls for milk, so, use whichever you prefer)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream margarine and shortening until light and fluffy. Add salt, vanilla, confectioners' sugar and key lime juice or milk. Beat well.

Homemade Pizza

This is a smoked provolone pizza with caramelized onions: I got the idea to make this pizza after going to a restaurant called Quartino in Chicago and eating a pizza called pugliese, which had smoked provolone and onions on it. It was soooo delicious at Quartino that I thought I would try to make one myself. I have to say that mine turned out to be very yummy as well! But, just to warn you, smoked provolone cheese has a very strong flavor, so if you don't like strong cheeses, I would suggest using regular provolone or a mix of the two. The carmelized onions gave it a slighty sweet flavor and I just used crushed tomatoes for the sauce. This pizza was very simple, delicious, and you could taste all of the yummy flavors together. (Recipe Following)

Pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms and ham.

Pizza is one of my most favorite foods to eat and so simple to make by yourself...but don't get me wrong, I still do love ordering take-out pizza once in a while! I always like trying out different recipes for dough and I found this one in a Food Network Magazine (it also has 50 different pizza topping recipes!) I really liked this dough a lot, I got a slightly crispy crust where you could hear a little crunch, but, the inside was nice and soft and not doughy at all (I think it worked out so well because I used a pizza stone and a little cornmeal on the bottome of the crust.) It was a simple dough to make and work with and the best part of making it was the smell of the yeast! Who doesn't love the smell of yeast?! I made two different types of pizza; a regular one and a more sophisticated one!

Pizza Dough:

Whisk 3 3/4 cups flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Make a well and add 1 1/3 cups warm water, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 packet of yeast. When foamy, mix in 3 tablespoons olive oil; knead until smooth, 5 minutes. Brush with olive oil, cover in a bowl and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour and 30 minutes (I let mine rise for only and hour and it was perfect.) Divide into two 1-pound balls.

How to make a pizza:

Step 1: Place pizza stone or an inverted baking sheet on the lowest oven rack and preheat to 500 degrees.

Step 2: Stretch 1 pound dough on a floured pizza peel, large wooden cutting board or parchment paper. (I used a wooden cutting board and cornmeal instead of flour. I found it was easiest to stretch out the dough on the cutting board, transfer to the hot stone and then put the toppings on.)

Step 3: Top as desired, then slide the pizza onto the stone or baking sheet (I found it was easiest to stretch out dough on your surface, transfer to the hot stone and then put the toppings on & I used cornmeal instead of flour.) Bake until golden about 15 minutes.

Smoked Provolone and Carmelized Onion Pizza:

-1/2 cup crushed tomatoes

-8 ounces smoked provolone cheese

-one medium onion, caramelized

-olive oil, for drizzling

-dried oregano

Directions:

Drizzle pizza dough with a little olive oil and sprinkle with oregano. Top with desired about of tomatoes, cheese, and caramelized onions. Bake as stated above.

For the onions:

Place 2 tablespoons of butter and thinly sliced onions in a pan over low heat and season with pepper. Caramelizing the onions takes about 30 minutes. Be sure to stir the onions and keep a close eye on them until they are golden brown.

Movie Muchers

What are your favorite snacks to munch on while watching a movie? My top two favorite candies to munch on while watching movies are: 1. Milk duds! (What is better than caramel and chocolate?!)

2. Wild Berry Skittles

Some of my other faves are chocolate covered peanuts, reesee's pieces, and junior mints!

My all time favorite movie is The Notebook, I absolutely love, love, love that movie! And the last two movies that I have seen at the movie theater were Dear John and The Last Song and I highly reccomend them both if you enjoy love stories and romance. All 3 of those movies were based on novels by Nicholas Sparks and I read all of the books as well, isn't that funny? Well I don't know...maybe not! Maybe I just really enjoy love stories!

I decided to talk about my favorite movies and movie munchies because this recipe is called movie munchers, so I decided to fill you in on a few things about me! How lucky you must feel!(Just kidding!) Movie munchers are just a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, but, you omit the chocolate chips and add chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate covered raisins, and M&M's and they get baked in muffin tins. You can really add any of your favorite movie munchies you want! Just have fun with it, which is what baking is all about....I think that is why I love it so much!

These movie munchers were very yummy; gooey on the inside (I always underbake my cookies and brownies because I like a slightly underdone and gooey center) and slighly crunchy on the outside. These were fun and a little different from a classic chocolate chip cookie or blonde brownie because of their shape and size, they were like cute cookie cupcakes.

So, you should definitely whip up a batch of these yummy movie munchers, curl up on the couch and watch a movie with some of your other favorite munchies!
MOviE mUnCheRs: (Food Network Magazine)

Beat 2 sticks butter, 3/4 cup dark brown sugar and 3/4 cup granulated sugar until fluffy; beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla and 2 eggs. Whisk 2 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt, then stir into the butter mixture. Stir in 1 cup chocolate covered peanuts, 1/2 cup chocolate covered raisins and 1/2 cup M&M's. Press scoops of dough into standard muffin cups (I used about 1/4 cup of dough for each one.) Bake 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Mmmmmm.....this cinnamon swirl banana bread was really really delicious! I found this recipe here Kim's blog Lovin' From the Oven at http://www.lovintheoven.com/ and Kim said that it was the most amazing banana bread and she always has yummy recipes, so, I knew that I had to try it out and boy am I glad that I did. It was so flavorful and moist and the cinnamon and sugar swirl in the middle looked so pretty and was very tasty. The top was slightly crunchy which I loved since the inside was so soft and moist. It kind of took me back to when I was younger and my dad would make me cinnamon and sugar toast for breakfast basically everyday because it was my favorite! This is a very simple and quick recipe to put together and everyone really loved it. I definitely reccomend giving it a try!

For the bread:

-3 over-ripe bananas, smashed up

-1/3 cup melted butter

-3/4 cup sugar

-1 egg, beaten

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-dash of salt

-1 1/2 cups flour

For the swirl:

-1/3 cup sugar

-1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a loaf pan. (I used a 9x5.)

2. Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together. Sprinkle baking soda and salt around on top of banana mixture. Gently stir in flour. Be careful not to over-mix.

3. In a small dish, mix together the swirl ingredients.

4. Add 1/2 of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture all over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter, and then sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon-sugar on top.

5. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Taco Pasta Salad

I found this recipe in a Paula Deen Special Collector's Issue Magazine and I thought that it looked and sounded really yummy. It turned out pretty good, it was really quick and easy to put together and it is one of those dishes that you can add anything you want to it; next time I am going to add some avacado and chicken. I felt like it needed a little bit more seasoning or spice, but overall, it was good and everyone enjoyed it!
Taco Pasta Salad: (Paula Deen Magazine)

-2 cups mini bow tie pasta (or any kinda of small pasta), cooked and cooled to room temperature

-1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed

-1 cup frozen corn, thawed

-1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (I just used sharp cheddar)

-1 cup sour cream

-1/2 cup prepared salsa

-2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

-2 teaspoons taco seasoning mix

In a large bowl, combine pasta, black beans, corn, cheese, sour cream, salsa, cilantro, and taco seasoning. Serve immediately, or chill salad until ready to serve.

Key Lime Pie

Happy belated Easter, I hope everyone had a great holiday! It was also my Mom's birthday on Easter and she wanted a Key Lime Pie for her birthday dessert. Everyone enjoyed it and it was very simple to make.

Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Pie (this recipe is on the back of Nellie & Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice)

For the crust:

-1 1/2 cups ghram cracker crumbs
-1/4 cup butter or margarine
-1/4 cup sugar

Mix the 3 ingredients together and press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch pie pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
or
use one 9 inch ghram cracker pie shell

For the filling:

-one 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
-3 egg yolks (whites not used)
-1/2 cup-Nellie and Joe's Key West Lime Juice

Mix milk, egg yolks, and key lime juice together. Pour filling into pie shell and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Allow to stand 10 minutes before refrigerating. Just before serving, top with freshly whipped cream and garnish with lime slices if desired.

Fresh Whipped Cream:

-1 cup heavy whipping cream
-2 tablespoons sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat heavy whipping cream in a cold glass or metal bowl until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla. Continue to beat until cream holds stiff peaks.