show those ritz sandwich crackers who's boss!

This isn't my recipe, I saw these on a food blog when I was stumble-upon-ing. I changed the recipe a bit to make it a little healthier and more to my liking. Kudos to "Two Tiny Kitchens" for inventing this perfection.

What You Need: yields approx 36 sandwiches

mini pretzels

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1.5 T softened or melted butter

1 cup milk chocolate chips (or dark chocolate if you prefer that)

2 t vegetable or canola oil

Mix together the peanut butter and the butter so that the peanut butter takes on a smooth, shiny consistency

Mix in the sugars until the peanut butter is easy to mold with hands without too much sticking.

roll into teaspoon size balls

sandwich each ball in between two pretzels

stick them in the freezer or fridge for 30 minutes until the sandwiches firm up

meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips and vegetable oil in the microwave at 15 second intervals for 45 second, stirring every 15 seconds until smooth and velvety

Dip 1/4, 1/2 or the entire pretzel into the melted chocolate. Work quickly because chocolate hardens as it cools! 

Place the dipped sandwiches onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and refrigerate to set, about 30-60 minutes. Keep refrigerated until you're ready to eat!

the healthiest dessert you will ever see on this blog.

i said the healthiest..i didn't say it was healthy.

Berry Rutabaga Crumble

here's why it's "healthy":

5 cups of frozen or fresh berries 

2 cups of frozen or fresh rutabaga

1 cup of old fashioned oats (quick cooking is also fine)

here's why it's a delicious tasting dessert:

1 cup of flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 stick of butter, diced. (you want to keep the butter in the fridge until you need it so its super cold)

1/4 of a cup of white sugar, (you can sub in stevia if you'd like but i don't mess with the fake stuff)

1/2 T cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup of water (dont skip this, this is what creates that jelly like binding that you find in crumbles/cobblers)

1 pinch of salt

Okay here's how you do it. It's REALLY easy.

heat the oven to 350. 

if you are using frozen fruit defrost it in the microwave. RESERVE THE JUICE/WATER that will be at the bottom of the bowl in which you defrost.

add the fruit to a 9 x 11, or 8 x 8 (whatever) baking pan

add 1/4 cup of sugar. sometimes, i don't even add sugar if the fruit is especially sweet. I will tell you that most cobbler recipes use more than 1 cup of sugar but I love fruit in it's natural form and I don't see the need to waste sugar intake on something that is already so delicious. 

now, if you used frozen fruit, measure out 1/4 cup of the reserved juice/water (it's usually red/purple in color) if you don't have enough for 1/4 of a cup just add water until you do. if you are using fresh fruit, just measure out 1/4 cup of water. Now, dissolve 1/2 T of cornstarch into this liquid.

Pour this into the sugar and fruit. You will immediately see the color change and the fruit jelly-ness starting to set in.

Set aside while you make the topping.

Combine the flour, brown sugar, salt, and oats in a mixing bowl. 

Dice up a stick of butter. Into pieces about this size.

Add the butter to the dry ingredients and using your hand (or a paddle attachment on an electric mixer if you are fancier than I am) and blend together until all of the dry ingredients are moistened and little crumbles/balls have formed. You can also use wooden spoon to do this. Warning: for those of you who, like me, do not have fancy kitchen gadgets-your about to get a nice arm work out. but hey, at least you'll burn off some calories before you eat this.

Once the topping is fully moistened and has formed little balls and crumbles, sprinkle the topping over the fruit. 

Pop into the oven and bake for 40-60 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the fruit is starting to bubble out.  

Serve hot with some cold vanilla ice cream or some home made whipped cream. 

(I made whipped cream in a blender to eat with this: put 1 cup heavy cream, sprinkle of sugar, dash of vanilla extract into a blender, let it whirl for a few seconds and you're good to go!..I know, some of my cooking methods are semi-degenerative but just go with it) The whip cream should peak when put on a spoon:

Don't judge my interpretation of "dollop"....

I love this recipe because you hit so many taste profiles. hot fruit with cold whipped cream. Crunchy topping with smooth filling. YUM!

half baked..

Ben and Jerry's clusterfluff ice cream in between 2 pretzel potato chip chocolate chip cookies. 

Just follow any normal chocolate chip cookie recipe and add a teaspoon of instant coffee powder to the dry ingredients, substitute 1/4 of your white sugar for brown sugar, and fold in pieces of pretzel and potato chips at the same time that you fold in the chocolate chips. Then, the secret of all good, chewy cookies...put in the freezer until almost frozen. Do not thaw, transfer directly to a cookie sheet and into the oven. That's how you get that melty center and crisp outer edge. 

Hollaback.

pumpkin spice ice cream

Two different people yesterday mentioned sweet potato ice cream to me, so I decided that it was fate that I should make some. Since Halloween is just around the corner, I figured I'd adapt it and make pumpkin ice cream instead!

By the way, for those of you who do not have an ice cream maker, if you google "food processor ice cream" you will find instructions on how to make ice cream with a standard processor!!

So, here's whatcha neeed:
2 c heavy cream
1 c whole milk
1.5 cans of pure pumpkin puree
mini marshmallows
a dash of vanilla extract
1/8 cup granulated sugar
and to taste:
cinnamon (1-2 T)
brown sugar (approx 1/4 a cup)
ground nutmeg (approx 1 t)
ground ginger (approx 1/2 t)
ground cloves approx (1/8 t)

Mix the pumpkin, spices, and vanilla extract in a bowl until it's to your liking. Whisk in the milk. Incorporate the heavy cream. Pour into the ice cream maker!

While the ice cream is churning lay a sheet of parchment on a cookie sheet and spread the marshmallows about 1 inch apart, broil until browned on top. Remove and let cool.

Once the ice cream is finished churning, mix half of the marshmallows into the ice cream. Transfer the ice cream to a container and freeze until firmed. Garnish with remaining marshmallows and a ginger snap or ginger bread cookie!

ice cream!

okay so the first thing that you absolutely need for this is an ice cream maker. They are awesome. Mine is an old cuisine art model from about 8 years ago. They run about $30-60 dollars at target, wal mart, bed bath and beyond etc. Its so worth it.
-follow the instructions on your model for how long to freeze the freezer bowl and how to operate the machine.

so once you have your ice cream make you also will absolutely need,
2 cups of cream
1 cup of whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar

sorry that Josh is in the background, I needed company in the kitchen today.

After these fundamental ingredients, I tend to put in whatever I can find in my house or at my neighbors house. Today its vanilla extract (1 tspn), 1 T cocoa powder, nutella, and peanut m&m's.

make sure all your ingredients are well chilled so you don't get ice cream soup!

whisk together the milk and sugar until all the sugar is disolved. Add the vanilla extract and cocoa powder and whisk more.
it should look like chocolate milk.

then whisk in the cream just enough to incorporate it, not too much or you'll make whipped cream.

Turn the machine on and pour this mixture through the ingredient spout on the ice cream maker. Let cycle for 20 mins. Then add spoonfulls of nutella and handfuls of m&m's. Then try it directly out of the freezer bowl-this part is very important.
Pour into a container and freeze for an hour or until completely firm! Enjoy!!