Congo Bars

I am now the official cook of the girls varsity soccer team. I made congo bars this week, which are basically like blondies but 20x more delicious. Since there's always a struggle to figure out what to do with leftovers whenever I bake something, I decided to send these lovelies to my sisters soccer game with her.

I wanted to make something like brownies, but not brownies, so when I saw this recipe on Culinary Couture I jumped on it. Anything with chocolate in it I love, I am a big big BIG chocolate girl, there is seriously nothing better.

The entire soccer team loved them so much that I now have requests to make something for the next game! Which makes things a lot easier for me because I don't have to feel bad when I have to throw out the leftovers!

The fabulous thing about this recipe is congo bars are not as bready as blondies so they are chewy, delicious, and chocolatey! Did I mention that I absolutely love chocolate? I highly recommend you make these.

Ingredients:

recipe barely adapted from Culinary Couture

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 lb. light brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips

Directions:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.

Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.

Add vanilla and mix.

Add flour and mix until combined.

Stir in chips.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake!

Moo Shu Pork Wraps

I'm switching it up on you today and blogging about dinner instead of dessert. This dinner is no ordinary dinner on top of being delicious and amazingly amazing in every way, it is also low in calories(!) AND I invented a vegetarian version as well!

This is one of my favorite savory recipes, I originally found it while I was over my friends house cooking dinner and I fell in L.O.V.E. So I decided to make it for my family this sunday and they all loved it just as much as I did.

The problem was my mom is a vegetarian so I had to find a way to work around that. Now I applaud myself for being so clever and substituting the pork for sliced mushrooms. My momma was one happy camper! So if you like chinese food but don't like all the greasy fried everything that it entails, give this recipe a try! It's mighty delicious!

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce, plus more for serving
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 3/4-pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into thin strips
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• 1 14-ounce bag coleslaw mix
• 12 Bibb lettuce leaves

Whisk the hoisin sauce, vinegar, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the pork and marinate 10 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat. Remove the pork from the marinade using tongs (reserve the marinade) and stir-fry until browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer the pork to a plate. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons water to the skillet, then pour the pan juices over the pork on the plate.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the skillet; when hot, add the mushrooms and stir-fry until slightly golden, about 2 minutes. Add the coleslaw mix and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the pork, the reserved marinade; stir-fry 2 more minutes. Season with salt. Serve the stir-fry in the lettuce leaves wrap them like a tortilla and enjoy! (if you are making the vegetarian version, just put both kinds of mushrooms in the pan stir fry for 4-5 minutes then follow the rest of the instructions as is.)

recipe adapted here.

Slutty Brownies!

This recipe seems to be popping up everywhere I look! I originally saw it on pinterest, and then a couple weeks later it was on every food blog I looked at! Now there seems to be 5 thousand different names for this amazingly delicious dessert, but to me they are and will always be, slutty brownies!

These gooeylicious brownies are built with a chocolate chip cookie layer, a layer of oreos, and topped off with a brownie layer. My friend Stefan was over my house, we were having a going away party because he's leaving for Switzerland for 3 months.

We really wanted to bake something but being the indecisive people that we are, we could not decide what and spent an hour trying to find something. And then we saw it, we laid eyes upon the slutty brownies and knew, this was it the dessert we were born to make (I told you I like drama).

But in all seriousness these things are addictive. You cannot, and I repeat canNOT, just eat one. No matter how hard you try. They are just too delicious. Coincidentally I think one of the names for these brownies is crack brownies, which I now understand.

So I urge you, surrender to the slutty brownies and be happy. Stefan and I undercooked ours a little and let me tell you something they were amazing! The brownie was all gooey! And when you eat them straight out of the oven so there  nice and warm with a topping of vanilla ice cream! Ooh I think I'll go eat one right now! And Stefan I'm gonna miss you buddy :)

Ingredients: 

Recipe adapted from Kevin and Amanda

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12 ounces) milk chocolate chips
1 pkg Double Stuffed Oreos
1 Family Size (9×13) Brownie mix (We made the brownie layer from scratch with this recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter and both sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well to thoroughly combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt, then slowly incorporate into the mixer until the flour is just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread the cookie dough in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish that’s been lined with wax paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Top with a layer of Oreos. Mix together brownie mix. Pour the brownie batter over the cookie dough and Oreos. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for an additional 15-25 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting — brownies may still be gooey in the middle when still warm, but will set up perfectly once cooled.

Devil's Food Cake

They call it devil's food cake for a reason. And that reason is this cake will tempt you. You'll try to fight it, you'll tell yourself "Daphne you've already had a slice, you're done. Walk away." and then you'll think "It's got milk in it, and milk has calcium in it right? So its technically healthy for you, so its ok!" 

You will happily reach for that second piece knowing that you're building strong muscles, and then before you know it, half the cake is gone! So you see this cake is bad, it is a bad cake...but oh so good at the same time!

I thought Labor Day was the perfect time to make something for my family, we would have a nice dinner, spend some quality time together, it was going to be a great day! Little did I know that it would thunder storm and rain buckets all day long. Which is bad enough in itself, but then both my mom and my sister got sick! Like really sick.

So I made this cake as a pick me up, to turn my icky day around. It was the smartest idea I ever had, because all though my sister and my mom couldn't enjoy it, my dad and I sure had a great time devouring this delicious cake. That was only made better with a little side of vanilla ice cream!

 Ingredients:

 2 cups all-purpose flour

 1 teaspoon salt

 1 teaspoon baking powder

 2 teaspoons baking soda

 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

 2 cups sugar

 1 cup vegetable oil

 1 cup hot coffee

 1 cup milk

 2 large eggs

 1 teaspoon vanilla 

For Icing:

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add oil, coffee and milk and mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat 2 more minutes. Expect batter to be thin.

Pour into a 9" x 13" greased and floured pan or 2- 9" round pans. Bake 9 x 13 pan for about 45 minutes or 9" pans for about 30 minutes. Cool in pans for about 15 minutes and then cool completely on racks.

While cake is cooling:

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.