Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake

Tonight we celebrated my daughter's boyfriend, Austin's birthday.

Austin loves peanut butter... even more so when it's wrapped in chocolate!

His birthday cake was a no brainer!!

He loves the other ice cream cakes that I make:

Mint Brownie Ice Cream Cake

Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Cake

Ice Cream Sandwich Cake

Austin got a Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake.

The bottom is a peanut butter cookie.  The next layer is hot fudge.

Top it with Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Ice cream, 

More hot fudge and mini peanut butter cups!!

Happy Birthday, Austin!!

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake

1 package of ready to mix peanut butter cookie mix

(I used Betty Crocker)

Or you can use your own recipe

1 jar of hot fudge ice cream topping

1 container of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice cream

1 package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Minis

Line the bottom of a spring form pan with parchment paper,  

Mix cookie dough according to package instructions.

Press into the bottom of the pan, bake according to package directions.

Top with half of the hot fudge (warm in the microwave)

Scoop softened ice cream over the top.

Drizzle with remaining hot fudge and top with peanut butter cups.

Freeze for 24 hours.

Remove from pan and let sit for 15 minutes before cutting.

Coffee Buttercream Frosting

The other night my daughter, Josie and I were watching Cupcake Wars on TV.

She looked at me and said, I really want to bake cupcakes... I did too...something about that show makes me feel cupcake creative!!

So at 8 PM, we brought the mixer out and made chocolate cupcakes, using a box mix.

But we decided to try making coffee buttercream.  

I threw things together and it was AWESOME.

Do you like coffee ice cream?

This frosting tastes just like it!!

Coffee Buttercream

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

4 cups of powdered sugar

1/4 cup hot water

1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee

While your cupcakes are cooling, stir the instant coffee into hot water to dissolve.

Set aside.

Cream butter in mixer, slowly add powdered sugar and coffee, cream together.

Pipe on cupcakes.

Sprinkle with chocolate jimmies if desired.

Creamy Baked Chicken Pasta with Bacon

Don't cha just hate when you can't decide what to make for dinner??

Well, Spring can't decide if it's coming or going here in Nebraska, and it's COLD.

We have gone from 70's and sun, to severe thunderstorms, to hail...and blizzards.

The saying "If you don't like the weather in Nebraska, wait 5 minutes and it'll change" 

is SO TRUE!!

Needless to say, I have been sticking pretty close to home the last couple of days.

I didn't want to go anywhere to pick anything up, I just wanted to make something with what I had.

I told the kids I should name this "everything but the kitchen sink pasta."

Actually, some of my kids favorite meals are ones I make up.

This will be one of them.

hot out of the oven

Creamy Chicken Pasta with Bacon

4-6 chicken breasts

1 pound pasta, cooked

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup garden vegetable cream cheese

2/3 cup real bacon pieces

4-6 slices of provolone cheese

1/2 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 cups water

olive oil

paprika

sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.

Cook your pasta.  I used penne but that is what I had on hand.  You can use what you choose.

In a large skillet pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and place chicken breasts, sprinkled with a little salt and paprika in to brown.  It took mine about 15 minutes.

Remove chicken, set aside.  

To dripping in the pan, add onion, garlic and bacon to the drippings, over medium heat saute until onions become fragrant and translucent.  About 5 minutes.

Add cream cheese, soup and water and stir until combined.

Place cooked pasta in the bottom of your baking dish,

Place chicken over the top of the pasta.

Place a slice of cheese over every piece of chicken, and pour sauce over the top.

Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

Orange Glazed Carrots

These are a great side dish for special meals, or for just any time.

They are super easy, and taste fantastic.

I found the recipe on allrecipes.com  a long time ago, and made them again recently.

They last time I made them, I used fresh clementine juice instead of orange juice, they were AMAZING!!

Orange Glazed Carrots

1 pound baby carrots

1/4 cup orange juice (or clementine)

3 Tablespoons of brown sugar

2 Tablespoons of butter

pinch of salt

Place carrots in a shallow pan and cover with water. Boil until desired tenderness, drain and return to pan.

Pour orange juice, sugar, salt and butter over the top, simmer until sugar and butter are melted.

Sugar Cookie Bars with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Easter from my family to yours!!

Everybody loves a sugar cookie right?

Well I took this recipe that has been made time and time again, and changed it up once I spotted those White Chocolate M & M's on the shelf!!

I am just going to post the links for you to both recipes found here on my blog.

Just make the cookie bars according to recipe. (I used the vanilla version)

Top them with White Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting and M&Ms!!

The kids (and grownups) will love them!!

Happy Easter!!

Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Drunken Gummies

Yee-Haw!!

When my friend, Candi, from The Devilish Dish posted these a while back, it couldn't have 

been at a better time.

You see, we had just been invited to my nephew's 21st birthday party.

I make him oatmeal raisin cookies for his birthday every year, but I wanted to bring a little something along to ring in his new ID!

I just figured I would do jell-o shots, until I saw these!!

Drunken Gummies!!

There really isn't a recipe per say,  and they are quite easy to make...

but the guests gobbled them up!!

I tried to do Swedish Fish and Worms first.

( Dan loves to fish)

But the Swedish fish didn't work like they gummies...at all.

They were basically like if you turned that "DOTS" candy into a glue.

Tasted good...but good luck getting it off of your teeth anytime soon!

So, I dug the worms out and added them to a new dish with bears, and started over.

(oooo the worms had a double "marinade" no wonder they were my favorite! )

Drunken Gummies

Take what ever gummy your little heart desires, and place them in the bottom of a container that seals tight.

Pour vodka over them until they are just covered.

Put the lid on top and give them a little swirl.

Put them in the fridge for 24 hours.

Give them a little flip and swirl whenever you think about it, keeping them evenly coated.

That's it!! 

Beware, they will sneak up on you!!

Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread

I am on the Food Committee at Church.

(I know, you're surprised, right?)

We belong to St. Patrick's Parish, so every year St. Patrick's Day is a big deal.

They host a dinner at church, and this year they were looking for people to make Irish Soda bread.

I am not much of a bread baker, but I figured I would give it a whirl.

Turns out, I'm either better at it than I thought, or this recipe was just top notch.

(probably the latter...)

 cooling fresh from the oven

When I wasn't sure which recipe to use, I went to Pinterest to see variations of this traditional bread.

I found the recipe that I used at Green Eggs & Spam

I liked that it had a little bit of sugar to add to the sweetness of it, plus raisins.  

I LOVE Raisins!!

Irish Soda Bread

3 cups sifted cake flour

3 Tablespoons of sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup raisins

1 1/3 cup of **buttermilk

(**I didn't have buttermilk so I made my own using the combination of 1 Tablespoon white vinegar to 1 cup of milk, use after it sits for 5 minutes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9 inch cake pan with parchment paper.

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.  

Add raisins and buttermilk, and combine. Dough is STICKY.

Turn onto a floured board and knead about 10 times. Don't over knead.

Place dough in lined pan, and score an "X" with a knife in the top.

Bake 60-65 minutes.

Cool and slice.

Eat bread in 1-2 days.  

Bread WILL NOT KEEP.