Homemade Ice Cream Without a Machine!

This ice cream is SO good and SO creamy! Youd never believe it was made without a machine! You must try it. And you can make it any flavor youd like!!

Start with 2 cups of heavy cream and 1 can of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
Whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks…
Add flavors, toppings, and mix-ins of your choice to the sweetened condensed milk…
Then fold in the whipped cream, and Freeze for about 6 hours.

Oreo Cake Pops or Bon Bons

This picture is ghetto but THESE ARE SOOO GOOD! You must try them!

Ingredients
1 pkg double stuff oreos
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
White chocolate
Sucker sticks (optional)

Directions
Blend oreos in food processor or blender
Mix oreos and softened cream cheese in kitchen aid with paddle attachment.
Refrigerate until they are easier to work with.
Roll into balls and dip in melted chocolate.
DEVOUR! Seriously, I could eat the whole batch!

Note* If you want to make them suckers, dip the stick about a half inch into the melted chocolate before sticking it into the ball. Let it harden, then dip the rest of the ball in chocolate

Pina Colada Fruit Salad

This is so simple and super yummy! We all loved it!
I found this in one of my old cooking magazines.

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups green grapes
• 1-1/2 cups seedless red grapes
• 1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1-1/2 cups halved fresh strawberries
• 1 can (8 ounces) pineapple chunks, drained (I used the big can, 16 oz I think?)
  
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 can (10 ounces) frozen non-alcoholic pina colada mix, thawed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup pineapple-orange juice
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/8 teaspoon coconut extract

Directions

• In a serving bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk the pina colada mix, sugar, juice and extracts until sugar is dissolved. Pour over fruit; toss to coat. Chill until serving. Yield: 9 servings.

~I didn't measure out the fruit, I just did a bunch of grapes, probably close to 2 cups of each and a bunch of strawberries. I omitted the blueberries and instead put in a big can of drained mandarin oranges. If you are going to eat it all at once, sliced bananas would go nicely too. Also all I could find was pineapple-orange-banana juice so I substituted that. It was so so so good! This can be tweaked very easily to your likes and what you have on hand. It makes a ton of "sauce", I could have easily halved it. And its pretty sweet, I think next time I'll cut the sugar amount in half or omit it all together. Definitely a new favorite! Could easily be served as a desert over angel food cake or even frozen yogurt - the sauce is that good!

Pudding Pops

Okay, since having Wakely I haven't really cooked much. We have limited items in the pantry and fridge since Kyle has been doing the shopping haha. So here my small contribution to the recipe blog for the time being. These look so good. And even though its ZERO degrees here, I still want to make some. I have even been eating otter pops the last few days... haha.

And im even too lazy to copy all the pictures and put them on so you'll just have to use the link :) I can be lazy, I just had a baby! LOL

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/07/kids-week-frozen-pudding-pops.html

Easy Chocolate Cake

I admit, I am a cake mix snob. Didn't grow up with 'em, still don't use 'em. I think they taste weird. So when a birthday or some occasion rolls around that calls for a cake, this is the one recipe I always use. So simple and easy, turns out perfect every time- it makes me wonder why people even use a cake mix??

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1 1/4 cups water
1 1/4 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Grease bottom and sides of pan with shortening. Lightly flour.
*Jan's trick I learned from her - get a huge wad of saran wrap, grab a glob of shortening and smear it all over the pan. Keeps your hands clean!

Beat all ingredients in mixer on low for 30 seconds, scraping the sides constantly. (Let's be honest, its not that easy to do, but that's what the recipe says.)

Beat on high for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pans.

Baking times:
9x13 - 40 to 45 mins
round pans - 30-35 mins
Done when toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes on wire rack, remove cakes from pans to wire rack (I don't when I do a 9x13), cool for an hour. Frost!

I don't like to use dark non-stick pans when I bake, they mess everything up, so I stick with the shiny silver pans for my cakes.

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

I haven't tried this, but I am totally going to make it during Christmas time! I had to post it so I didn't loose the recipe. Sounds so good to me - I love cheese balls to begin with, but add powdered sugar, chocolate chips and pretzels... Too good to resist, I'm a sucker for sweets.

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball (courtesy of Framed Cooks)
Yield: 8-12 servingsPrep time: 15 minutes
Refrigerate: 2 hours

1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
¾ cup miniature chocolate morsels
¾ cup finely chopped pecans (or other nut if desired) , divided
Graham crackers, butter cookies or pretzels

1. In a bowl, combine cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, butter, brown sugar and vanilla, beating with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips and ½ cup of pecans. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. (I was in a hurry and found 1 hour in the freezer was just as good.)
2. Once chilled, shape mixture into a ball and roll in remaining ¼ cup pecans. Refrigerate until ready to serve.3. Serve with graham crackers, butter cookies or pretzels.

Raspberry & Cream Puff Pastry Doughnuts

I made these the other day... Yum they were SOO good, and so so easy! I got them from justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com Although I just used regular raspberry pie filling and didn't have bavarian cream, they were still good. But I bet they are even better with the cream! Yum.

RASPBERRY & CREAM PUFF PASTRY DOUGHNUTS
1 Egg
1 tablespoon water
1 package (17.3 ounces) Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets, thawed
Raspberry jam or Pie filling like Raspberry, Blueberry, Strawberry, etc.
Bavarian Cream
(I used Raspberry filling and Bavarian Cream from the Prepared Pantry)
Turbinado Sugar
ICING:
1 cup Confectioners Sugar
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 tsp. Vanilla.
Now add:
*Enough Milk to make it the consistency of glaze that you like.
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork. Unfold 1 pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Using a round cutter, cut the pastry sheet into 9 (3 inch) circles. Repeat with the remaining pastry sheet. (Don’t waste the scraps – re-roll them and cut into as many circles as possible)
Place half of the pastry circles onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Spoon about 1 tsp. each of the berry or jam filling and also the Bavarian Cream. If you are not using the cream, add 2 tsp. of the berry filling instead. Brush the edges of the pastry circles with the egg wash. Place the remaining pastry circles over the filling. Press the edges firmly to seal. (I crimped my edges with a fork) Using a sharp knife or a pair of kitchen shears, cut a small slit in the top of each filled pastry.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastries are golden brown on the top and the bottoms. Let the pastries cool slightly and drizzle confectioners sugar glaze over the top, or simply shake confectioners sugar over the tops.
*You could be creative and add just about anything to the inside of these pastry filled doughnuts!

Creme Brulee Cheesecake Bars

Yum! These were at my cousins reception and they were delicious! I definitely want to make some now that I have the recipe!

Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars from Betty Crocker

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix

1 box (4-serving size) French vanilla instant pudding and pie filling

Mix 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs plus 3 egg yolks

2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup toffee bits, finely crushed

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, pudding mix, brown sugar, melted butter, 1 teaspoon of the vanilla and 1 whole egg until soft dough forms. Press dough in bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of pan.

2. In small bowl, beat cream cheese, sour cream and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add remaining whole egg, 3 egg yolks and remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla; beat until smooth. Spread over crust in pan.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until set in center. Immediately sprinkle top with crushed toffee bits. Cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate about 3 hours or until chilled. For bars, cut into 9 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in refrigerator. Makes 36 bars

Easy "Ice Cream"

From "Our Best Bites" (Click for better for instructions)

Ingredients:
Frozen Bananas

Pulse in food processor until resembles crumbs.

Lemon Buttermilk Cookies

From 2peas (I used her picture too). I love her recipes. They always seem so light and fresh. Yum!

These cookies were super good. They were so moist and had just the right hint of lemon, I will be making them again! Perfect for spring :)

For the cookies:
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flourZest of two lemons (I added extra, I love lemon)¼ tsp. baking soda¼ tsp. salt6 Tbsp. (3 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature¾ cup granulated sugar1 large egg½ tsp. vanilla extract1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk
For the glaze:¾ cup confectioners sugar, sifted1 ½ Tbsp. well-shaken buttermilk¼ tsp. vanilla extract
Lemon zest (I added this)

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, zest, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter briefly, until creamy. Add the sugar, and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the egg, and beat well to mix. Add the vanilla, and beat briefly again. Mix in the flour mixture and the buttermilk in batches at low speed, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
Drop the dough by level tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 ½ inches between each cookie. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for about 11 minutes per batch. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 1 minute; then transfer them to a wire rack.

For the glaze:

Whisk together the sifted confectioners sugar, buttermilk, and vanilla. I also added in lemon zest. Brush or spoon the glaze onto the warm cookies. Allow cookies to sit on the rack until the glaze is set.

Mom's Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

This is the BEST Lemon Poppy Seed Cake. It is SOO moist because of the pudding and the cinnamon and sugar crust on the outside is delicious!

But I MUST warn you - This is very addicting!! My Mom made it once and I think I had 5 pieces.... Be ware!

Mom's Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Ingredients
1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 sm Package of Instant Vanilla Pudding
4 eggs
1/2 C. Oil
1 C. Water

Mix 10 min in Bosch or Kitchen Aid on Level 1 speed
Add 3 T Poppy Seeds
After spraying bundt pan with pam, sprinkle a heavy amount of cinnamon and sugar to coat the pan pretty thick.
Pour 1/2 mixture into bundt pan, sprinkle more cinn and sugar, then pour in remaining batter
Bake at 375 for 40 min
Remove immediately to a wire rack after baking.

ENJOY ! :)

Key Lime Pie

Ingredients

Filling

4 egg yolks

4 tsp lime zest

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup freshley squeezed lime juice

Pie Crust

9 grahm crackers

2 Tb sugar

4 Tb melted butter

Directions

Put egg yolks and lime zest in a non reactive bowl and whisk until green (about 2 min).

Slowly add sweetened condensed milk. Then lime juice.

Set aside and let thicken at room temperature for 30 min.

Mean while pulse grahm crackers in food processor (or blender) until smooth, add sugar and pulse again. Slowly add melted butter while food processor is on and mix until the consistency of wet sand.

Form into a pie pan and bake at 325 for 8-10 min.

Let the crust cool completely before adding filling.

Once the filling is added, Bake for 15-17 min at 325.

Let cool for AT LEAST 3 hours before serving. Top with Whip Cream.

Cookie Sundaes

I didn't take a picture, oh well! They are yummy though, trust me! I made these a few nights ago when we had friends over. So easy to throw together on short notice!

1 tube of chocolate chip cookie dough (or if you have time, make some!)
Ice cream
Ice cream toppings, optional

Fill ramekins half way with cookie dough. Bake at 350 for 12-14 mins, just until the tops are starting to brown. Let cool 5 mins. Place a big scoop of ice cream on top and any other toppings you want! Yummy!

Then I just baked the rest of the cookie dough for the kids. Super easy, super fast!

Chess Cake

I got this recipe from a co-worker. I tasted a bite this morning and knew I would probably loose the paper with the recipe on it so, I'm putting it on here to prevent myself from loosing the recipe :)

Ingredients*
3 Eggs
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 Yellow cake mix
4 cups Powdered sugar
1/2 c butter softened

*Directions
Preheat oven to 350
Grease a 9x13 in cake pan
In a large bowl mix together cake mix, butter and 1 egg
Pat batter into greased 9x13 in pan
In a medium mixing bowl mix together cream cheese, 2 eggs, and sugar
Pour the cream cheese mixture over the cake mix batter
Bake for 35 min or until golden brown
Let cool and cut into bars
Enjoy!

She said they also freeze really well! Cut them up and put in storage bags or tupperware and freeze and then you can take out a little at a time when you want them! YUM!

Bon Bons

*Ingredients
1 boxed cake mix of any flavor
1 can of coordinating frosting
Dipping chocolate

*Directions
*Prepare cake mix according to directions (baking included).
*Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes and then crumble into a large bowl.
*Pour in the frosting and mix until all the cake is moist (I put the frosting in the microwave for a few seconds so it would pour and mix more evenly). Cool in the fridge for 10-20 minutes.
*Form the mixture into balls of desired size and put on wax paper. Freeze for about an hour.
* Melt desired chocolate and dip balls into it. (It took us a while to find a method that worked but we left the ball on the wax paper and would pour about a tablespoon of chocolate over top of the ball and spread it around with our spoon. It was a lot less messy!!)

Some of the flavor combinations we did:
Lemon Cake with Lemon Frosting dipped in White chocolate (YUMM! This was a favorite)
Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting dipped in Milk Chocolate or melted Mint chips.

We did't do this but thought it would be yummy to dip the chocolate cake balls in those reeces chips.... Yum! The combinations are endless!!

WORD TO THE WISE: we tried to dye our white chocolate red with my water based food coloring... NOT a good idea! You must use the paste form of food coloring or the chocolate will sieze up.

Candy Corn Cookie Bark

Mmmmm this was Soo good! I got it from Your Home Based Mom I made a batch and ate the whole thing myself! Not kidding. Kyle had a tiny bowl full and I devoured the rest. Thank you very much. I am going to make another batch and give it to my visiting teach-ees in celophane or a cute halloween cup (seen below from home based mom).

But for myself, I got a cute cookie jar, tied some halloween ribbon around it and put my Halloween Cookie Bark in, and well, thats my haloween decor haha. But really - You should try this! Be ware - Its addicting!!

Candy Corn Cookie Bark

14 whole Oreos, broken up. I used the Halloween ones with the orange filling but regular will work fine

1 1/2 C pretzels, broken into pieces. I used the small stick pretzels

1 lb. white chocolate, almond bark or melts found in the bulk food section, or white chocolate chips

1 C candy corn

brown and orange colored sprinkles

Cover a large cookie sheet with wax paper. Spread broken cookes, pretzels and about 3/4 C of the candy corn onto the waxed paper. Place white chocolate in a container and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds until melted and smooth. White chocolate melts faster and burns easier than chocolate.

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookie mixture, spreading with spatula if needed to coat evenly. Sprinkle remaining candy corn and colored sprinkles over the chocolate while it is still wet. Do not let it harden. Place

cookie tray into refrigerator until set and firm. Remove and gently break bark into small pieces. Store in air tight container.

MMM Yum!

Simple Fudge

Now that it has *SNOWED* I guess the only good thing about it is cozy food, and Christmas candy :) So I will try to keep my spirits up, even though it's Freezing outside, by posting a yummy fudge recipe I found on Kelsey Nixon's food blog (Yes the Kelsey Nixon who was on The Next Food Network Challenge, and Yes I found her blog! haha). I love this girl, she was even on a commercial for food storage after conference haha.
I have yet to try this fudge... but it looks Yummy! AND I bet you could substitute the milk chocolate chips for WHITE chocolate, or any other kind of "chip" would be good too. Although I like white chocolate best!
As Kelsey Says , it's "a basic fudge recipe that could act as a blank canvas making it perfect to customize to your liking. Robby would like nuts while I think I would enjoy just a hint of orange zest or crushed peppermint. Stick this one in the holiday file folks."

Servings: 32 bite size servings

INGREDIENTS
1 lb. quality chocolate, chopped
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp. salt

DIRECTIONS
Line bottom of an 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper or wax paperHeat all ingredients in a metal bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.Pour into baking pan and chill, uncovered, until firm, about 3-4 hours. Run a knife around edges of pan and invert fudge onto a work surface. Remove parchment and cut fudge into bite size pieces. Serve chilled.

Sounds easy enough for me! :) YAY!

Raspberry Dream Dessert

This is SO easy and SO refreshing! You'll Love it!

Mix:
1 pkg crushed Grahm Crackers (must use Honey Maid brand or it wont be as good)
1 cube melted Butter
1/4 c Sugar
Sprinkle on the bottom of a 9x13 in pan and reserve 1/4 c to sprinkle on top

Mix:
1/2 Gallon of Vanilla Ice Cream softened
2/3 can of Raspberry Lemonade Concentrate (i have added the whole can, its still good!)
Spread on top of Grahm Cracker crust and then sprinkle the remaining 1/4 c on top.

Cover and freeze until solid. Then Enjoy!

I havent tried it but you could use any time of concentrated drink like plain lemonade, orange juice (it would taste like an orange creamy!), limeade... the possibilities are endless!

Pina Colada Cake

INGREDIENTS
1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (10 ounce) can pina colada mix
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (3.5 ounce) package flaked coconut



DIRECTIONS
Bake cake as directed on box for a 9 x 13 inch cake.
As soon as it comes out of the oven, punch holes all over the top of the cake with a meat fork. Mix condensed milk and Pina Colada mix together and pour over cake.
Chill overnight.
Before serving, frost with whipped dessert topping (Cool Whip ™ ) and sprinkle with coconut.

* So I stole this picture and recipe off of Allrecipes.com. I think it sounds yummy! I'm going to make it for my b-day and I think I will use toasted coconut. And probably homemade whipcream, it just tastes better than coolwhip!