Layered Mud Pie

Ingredients:
4 oz, baker's semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg pie crust (store bought or make your own)
1/2 cup pecans (or nut of choice)
2 cups milk
2 pkg chocolate pudding mix, 3 oz boxes
1 tub cool whip (8 oz tub)

Instructions:

1. Melt the chocolate in microwave.  Make sure to stir it every 30 seconds or so, so that it doesn't scorch.  When melted, mix the chocolate and condensed milk in a bowl.
2. Put your pie crust into a pie plate.  Then, pour chocolate mixture into your prepared crust and sprinkle with nuts.
3. Beat milk and pudding mix, spoon 1 1/2 cups of the mixture over the nut layer; mix half of the tub of cool whip with remaining pudding and spread onto pie.
4. Top with remaining cool whip and refrigerate 3 hours.

Notes:

• I love sweetened condensed milk.  I could eat it with a spoon.  Oh wait, I do.
• Instructions don't say to, but your pie crust should be baked, not raw.
• 1% milk was used.  Slightly healthy.
• I had a bunch of hodge podge pudding mixes in the little 1.5 oz packages, so I used 4 of them. Oh, and they were all the fat free (or is it sugar free) kinds.
• I got lots of raves about this pie.

Holiday Breakfast Casserole

A while back for our Tuesday Night Dinner group we decided to do "Breakfast for Dinner".  My favorite!  So I made a breakfast casserole.  You know, one of those that you make the night before and let set in the fridge?  The recipe was found on a Sunday morning paper insert, that I then altered a little.

Ingredients:
12 oz. breakfast sausage (bulk or links)*
6 English muffins, cut into 1" cubes**
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup red pepper, chopped
12 eggs
2 cups milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup bacon bits

Instructions:

1. Cook sausage according to package directions.  Cool slightly.  If links, cut into 1/4" slices.
2. In a greased 9x13" baking dish, layer half the English muffin cubes and half the cooked sausage.  Repeat layers.  Drizzle with butter and top with cheese, onion, and red pepper.
3. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, salt and pepper.  Pour over casserole.  Sprinkle with bacon.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.
4. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.  Uncover and bake at 350F for 45-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let stand 5 minutes.  Makes 12 servings.

Alterations:

• *I'm cheap frugal and bought bulk sausage instead of links.
• **I'm cheap frugal and bought white bread instead of English muffins.
• For one of the casseroles (I made 2), after the sausage was cooked I added some sliced mushrooms and sauteed them a little.

Brownies (homemade from scratch!)

When I make brownies, I pull out the box.  Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, etc. I don't discriminate.  But then in February I was tasked with making brownies for an event.  Brownies from an old church cookbook.  They didn't have box mixes back then.  So I had to make it from scratch.  And I did.  They were good too.  Not that I doubted myself.

Ingredients:
1/4 lb butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup nuts

Instructions: (exactly as they were written out...)
(Very good to double recipe).  Mix together and pour into a greased pan.  Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.  FROSTING:  Melt chocolate chips (as many as desired) and coat on top for frosting.

Notes:

• I didn't do the frosting.  Frosting brownies never works for me.  You know the paper thin flaky top that forms when the brownies are cooled?  Yea, frosting pulls that stuff up.
• I probably doubled the recipe.  Honestly I can't remember.
• Nuts - they don't belong in brownies.  But since the recipe called for them I put them in.  Pecans I think.  I don't know.  Whatever my mom had in her freezer since I didn't have any.

Lemon Crunch Bars

I was asked by my bible study leader if I could make 2 desserts for an event that happened at church a couple weekends ago.  Being that 1) I love to bake, and 2) had a reason to bake that didn't cause me to keep the desserts at home, I said yes, of course.

Here's a recipe for Lemon Crunch Bars.  I was a bit skeptical at first, but I forged ahead.  Let's just say...this dessert didn't last long in the sea of other desserts.  It.was.gone!  And that's a good thing.

Lemon Crunch Bars
Combine:
2 1/2 c flaked coconut
1 1/2 c soda crackers, rolled finely
2/3 c sugar
1 c flour
1 c soft margarine*
Mix well and place 1/2 of this mixture in a 9x13" pan and pat down firmly.
Combine:
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbs cornstarch
Stir in 2 2/3 cup milk.  Cook until thick, stirring constantly.
Mix:
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c lemon juice**
Stir a little of the hot mixture into egg mixture (to temper it).  Then add all to hot mixture.  Cook and stir a few minutes longer.
Add:
2 tbs margarine*
1/2 tsp vanilla
Pour this mixture over crust in pan.  Top with remaining half of crumbs and pat down lightly.  Bake at 375F for 20 minutes or until light brown.  Chill and cut into bars.  Store in the refrigerator.

Alternatives
*I'm anti margarine.  I used butter.  Hello!  I live in a HUGE dairy community!  Butter is my friend and I always have a back-up box in the freezer.
**My parent's have a lemon tree full of lemons, so I used freshly squeezed juice instead of the stuff you buy at the store in the green container.

Butter Beer

Have you ever watched Harry Potter, and while the gang is off at the ... place where they go during breaks ... wondered, "Hummm, I wonder what that butter beer stuff tastes like?"

Well, I'm here to let you know it's yummy.  I'll tell you the ingredients that I used, but the proportions are up to you depending how strong or weak you'd like it.

Cream Soda
Butterscotch Schnapps
Butterscotch (ice cream) topping

For sweeter, use more topping.  For more of an adult kick, use more schnapps.

Some recipes online called for melted butter.  I'll admit, I scaled it back and tried it.  And, well, I didn't like it, but it did foam better with butter.  I'd stick to the sugar and not the fat stuff though.