Cooking Thursday: Homemade Twix Bars

 

Hello lovely Friends☀️💛

Thank you so much for all of the lovely comments of support and prayers for my Mom. It will be a long haul, but she is remaining positive and doing all the right things to take care of herself. She has been feeling less sore, thankfully, and I think it will just take a little healing everyday to get her back on track. And the extra prayers sure help too! So again, thank you so very much. 🙏🏻

The weekend is right around the corner - yay! My Dad and step Mom are back from AZ for the summer. So we are looking forward to spending some time with them this weekend. 

I'm guessing you are a lot like me in that summer feels too short and we're always trying to pack in all the fun activities, time with family, outdoor fun etc. And a lot of the fun and gatherings involves food...especially yummy treats! So today I thought I'd share one of our family favorite treat bars that I'm not sure I've shared before? 

They are bars that are twix-like because they have a caramel in the middle of crunchy salty crackers (that act like the cookie in a twix) and are then covered in chocolate. No matter what you want to call them, what's not to like, right? 😋 I made them recently when Aaron and Jill were up per Annie's request that weekend. It's a recipe I found a long time ago at the site jamiecooksitup.net

They have always been a hit when I've brought them for potlucks and my kids request them almost yearly at some point. 

They involve lining club crackers in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Making an easy homemade caramel on the stove and pouring it over the crackers. Then adding another layer of crackers on top. Chilling for a brief time. 

And then melting chocolate chips in the microwave and spreading all over the top like frosting. Chill a little more and then cut into bars. 

HOMEMADE TWIX BARS

48 club crackers

1 c. crushed graham crackers (I buy already crushed in the box)

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/3 c. white sugar

1/3 c. milk

1/2 c. butter

3 c. chocolate chips (milk, semi sweet or combo of chips you like)

Directions: Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Lay 24 crackers over the bottom of the pan. In a saucepan on the stove pour in the graham cracker crumbs. Add the brown and white sugar, milk, and butter. Melt all over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes stirring constantly (don't let it burn). Then carefully pour the melted caramel over the crackers. Grab another 24 crackers and gently place over the top of the caramel and bottom crackers...pushing into it a little. Put the pan in the fridge and chill for about 30 minutes to set the caramel. Then melt the chocolate chips in a big bowl - stirring and checking every 30 seconds until melted and smooth when you stir. Pour over the top of the cracker caramel mixture and spread out with offset spatula. Place back in the fridge and chill for another 20 to 30 minutes and take out to cut into bars (don't leave in the fridge too long or the caramel will get hard). I store them out on the counter in a covered pan....well at least for the short time they last! Lol

If you try I hope you enjoy! 

Wishing you a great weekend. 

xoxo

Cooking Thursday: Spring Rhubarb

 

Hello dear Friends!

It's looking to be a lovely sunny day here in the northwoods. Maybe even get into warmer temps (high 50's low 60's) Spring finally feels like she's slowly showing up. Yay! 🌸☀️

For one moment I need to be a proud Mom and share that our Annie and her college hockey team got a leadership award. She and the current president and captain of her team went up to accept it. Annie is assistant captain and will be president of the team organization next year. She goes to University of South FL (go Bulls!💚) and I'm so proud of the amazing young woman she is becoming. 

Okay, thanks so much for that time out to gush. :) 

Now on to what I wanted to share today, which is.... rhubarb! I always associate rhubarb with the Spring/early Summer. Are you a rhubarb person? I've always loved that it adds a little bitter punch with the sweetness you add to dishes. 

Of course cooking with rhubarb means adding sweetness and I'm not sure if other sweeteners could be used and it would still work the same...but feel free to experiment with that if you want to lower the sugar (try honey, maple syrup, swerve sugars etc)

I had come across this recipe in my recipe box that my Aunt and I came up with quite a few years ago. We called it "Rhubarb Crunch". To be honest it's been so many years since we made it that I don't remember it that well, other than that I thought it was yummy. Here is how we wrote the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

3/4 c. sugar

1 egg

3/4 c. and 3 T. flour (divided)

2&1/2 c. rhubarb (cut up)

1 c. brown sugar

4 T. butter (cold and cubed)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350*

Wash and cut up rhubarb and put into a large bowl. Mix together 3/4 c. sugar, 1 egg and 3 T. flour. Pour over the rhubarb and mix well. Pour into a greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan or pie plate. In another bowl mix brown sugar, flour, and butter with a pastry blender or your hands - to make a crumb like topping. Sprinkle over rhubarb mixture. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. 

The notes we made said that it's like a crisp but rich so we liked it as topping for ice cream. I don't have a photo - but I hope to make a version of this when I have my rhubarb ready to harvest down the road. So stay tuned if I do make this and I will share a photo then. 

I thought I would share again the rhubarb strawberry sauce recipe I shared in the past (that is so delish) and you can find it if you click here. I also recommend Ina Garten's strawberry rhubarb crisp recipe which you can find if you click here.

So what are your thoughts on rhubarb Friends? Yes or no to it? And if yes, do you have a favorite recipe?

xoxo

Cooking Thursday on a Friday: Mississippi Mud Brownies

 

Hey there Friends!

It has felt like summer here in the northwoods. It hit 80* yesterday! I didn't get to post this because I was running errands and spending the day with my Mom. It sure was a gorgeous day to be out and about.☀️ It's supposed to be sunny and mild today too, but not as hot as yesterday. Summer is definitely not getting the memo it's Fall. 

Today I thought I'd share the recipe for these wonderful brownies! I had made them to bring to the lake last weekend, but since we weren't able to go I gave part of the pan away to family and friends. Matt had never had them before and he thought they were insanely good. He said I need to bring them another time for his folks. Lol My Mom used to make a version of these long ago and I searched around until I found a recipe that was like what she made. I found this recipe at mommyskitchen.net

They're called Mississippi Mud brownies and they consist of a bottom layer of brownie, topped with a layer of marshmallow,  and then topped with a homemade boiled fudgy frosting. They definitely fit the bill if you need a chocolate fix! 😋

Here's the recipe:

They're wonderful for a crowd as a little bit goes a long way. You can make homemade brownies for the bottom layer, but I just used a favorite mix. Then take out them out when the brownies are done. Cover with a layer of mini marshmallows and put back in the oven a few minutes until the marshmallows are nice and puffed and even starting to get golden. Then take out and let cool a bit and make the frosting, pour over the marshmallows and let it all set. I put mine in the fridge for 1/2 hour to set. They were delish!

Enjoy! xoxo

Cooking Thursday: Peach Cobbler

Howdy Friends! 

Happy Friday Eve to you. The air is clearer today and it's going to be HOT for my neck of the northwoods. I'm not complaining. I'm so grateful for less smoky air and I love the summer vibes yet. ☀️

This past weekend when we visited Matt's folks at the lake, we had the living room "picnic" and movie watching I mentioned in an earlier post. And the dessert we had that night was a peach cobbler I had made and served with french vanilla ice cream. I didn't get an after pic - just enjoyed the moment. It was yummy and summery with the fresh peaches that are still so good right now! I followed a recipe I use for apple crisp.  

I share about this recipe here.  It was an amazing time because I had a recipe published in this Mary Engelbreit cookbook. A true bucket list item crossed off for me:

So when I make cobbler I basically follow the same guidelines. I do usually sprinkle a little cinnamon/sugar mixture over the cobbler when it comes out of the oven. And for something like peaches - that are sweeter than apple, I added a little less sugar. I think I cut it by about 1/4 c. total. But other than that....this is the recipe I use. 

Do you like peaches? I know some people that don't. 

I ADORE them...and just about anything I can make with them. If you want another wonderful summer treat - make a big pitcher of peach iced tea. But cut up and freeze some peach slices ahead of time. Then use them as the ice cubes for your drink. So good as it melts and adds more flavor. 

Or make a peach and berry sangria. Fill a pitcher with a white wine you like (I love moscato or a prosecco). Add some peach schnapps, or peach vodka to it. Then add sprite or a peach mineral water if you like for some bubbly. Throw in peach slices and berries of choice (I often do peaches and blueberries). Let it sit in the fridge a bit to chill, and then be sure to serve drinks with chunks of the fruit in the glass. So good and so summer! 

But back to this recipe: here it is a little easier to see...

Instead of apples, just substitute peaches, or other fruit of choice. 

Yay for these late days of summer and all their goodness! 

Enjoy :) 

xoxo

Cooking Thursday: Cherry Oreo Icebox Cake

 

Hello Beautiful Besties!

How is Thursday treating you so far? Wonderfully I hope 💗

We checked on the robin babies yesterday and they had "flown the coop" so to speak. :) It's been fun watching their little journey from nest building, to sweet blue eggs, to little hatchlings, to watching a chick hop around in the driveway with mom or dad still close by seeming to guide them. 

And it's been Bubba's favorite show watching mom and dad flying back in forth to the nest by our door. He has often been perched in the kitchen window for hours! Lol 

In other news, our little garden box and pots have been thriving. Last night I grabbed a few strawberries for us to nibble, as well as one of our fennel bulbs and some fresh herbs. I put some broccoli, red potatoes, fennel, and onion on a sheet pan with some olive oil and seasonings - as well as the fresh herbs from the garden and some fennel fronds. I roasted it all about 35 minutes at 425* then took it out of the oven and sprinkled on some fresh chives from the garden, a drizzle of balsamic and a sprinkle of parm. What a yummy side dish to go with our chicken! 

**Also, earlier this week I made us some Italian grinder sliders that were phenomenal! Matt said he thinks they are his new favorite sandwich ever. I will share those next time. 😉

But today I wanted to share a dessert I made when Matt's folks were here visiting. It's a quick and easy icebox cake with a favorite flavor combo of cherries and chocolate. The chocolate coming from oreo cookies and the cherry from easy cherry pie filling. It was a tasty creamy, fluffy, chocolatey-cherry, cold summer dessert. 😋

This dessert is made by mixing cream cheese with a little sugar and almond extract & some cherry pie filling, and then folding in cool whip. Doing layers of this cherry "fluff" with layers of oreos that have been dunked in milk first. Then ending with the last of the cool whip as a sort of frosting. Then put it in the fridge to get nice and chilled...at least 6 hours. When I served the pieces I put a little more cherry pie filling on top and some oreo cookie crumbs...or a whole cookie on top. This "cake" was a hit! And it's so easy and perfect for summer. This recipe can be found on my pinterest board "sweet treats" which you can find by clicking here. But I'll also post the recipe below.

look at those yummy layers :) 

it was very yummy!! Enjoy! 

xoxo

Cooking Thursday: Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

 

Hello my Peeps!

For those in the states are you getting excited to celebrate the holiday weekend soon? I can't believe it's almost the 4th of July already!  

My Hubby just got back from a meeting with a car dealer group in a city close to ours. Matt is a consultant for a very large automotive group that's a national fortune 500 company. He mainly works from home (other than a meeting away here and there) and it's lucrative and provides a lot of freedoms. He works as a performance manager and consultant and is loving what he does. But at his meeting it sounded like the owners were practically begging him to come be a GM for them. They were throwing lots of good things at him and it sure made his day and made him feel great! 😊 He works hard and I'm so very proud of him. But he loves what he does right now, as well as the many freedoms & perks it allows for both of us. So I think he's staying put.

But it's sure nice to know that others see in my sweet Hubby what I see too. A genuine, smart, hard working, very good Dude. :)❤️❤️❤️

Sorry for the sidetrack and thanks for letting me gush about the love of my life. But now on to this recipe that I thought might be something perfect as an Independence Day dessert. 🇺🇸

My rhubarb was planted late last year and I wanted to give it a full season to be established. So I only harvested a little bit of it, so it could get its roots nice and set. So I only grabbed a couple of small stalks to make this sauce. I love the sweet & sour nature of rhubarb in desserts. Do you? 

We had it over vanilla bean ice cream (so that right there is the red & white colors) now just imagine throwing some blueberries on top for the blue. You'd have a very patriotic dessert. ❤️💙

However, we had some crushed graham cracker over ours - sort of like deconstructed strawberry rhubarb pie. 😉 It was AMAZING!

Here's how I made it:

2 stalks rhubarb, chopped

1 c. of chopped strawberries

3 TBSP sugar

a splash of lemon juice...maybe 1-2 tsp (or you could do orange juice or just water)

a tsp of cinnamon and small splash of vanilla

Cook all the above in a saucepan over medium low heat until the fruit gets soft and forms a sauce, stirring regularly. About 10-12 minutes. Spoon over ice cream or yogurt and enjoy! Keep any leftovers in the fridge.

Don't you just love the fruits of summer? 🍓😋

If you're looking for another summer holiday dessert idea I'd definitely recommend the summer berry poke cake I plan to make for this weekend that you can find by clicking here. It's also so delish and patriotic looking. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend ahead, and for those that celebrate have a very fun and safe 4th! 

xoxo

Pickle Pizza and a Quick Strawberry Dessert

I had been eyeing up some different pickled pizza recipes for a while now. My daughter & I both love pickle flavored things. So I kind of took what I remembered from different recipes and decided to make one up with what I had around here. It turned out pretty great and Matt loved it too! I think it was just as yummy cold the next day. You can find lots of specific recipes online or pinterest. But the basis to most of them is alfredo sauce, mozzarella, pickle slices and dill. 

I just used an easy store-bought pizza crust. I brushed the crust with a little olive oil and chopped garlic and pre-baked it per the tube's instructions.

Look at those yummy pickles and all that dill! Mmmm

I then took the pre-baked crust out and put on some alfredo sauce. I topped the sauce with some dill weed spice and dill pickle chips. Then topped it all with shredded mozzarella cheese. Topped with a bit more pickle chips and little sprinkle more of dill and shredded cheese. I baked it the time it said for the crust to be done. 

By the way, I adore these pickle chips we get from Costco. They're so fresh and the brine is filled with fresh dill. They're a very fresh crunchy and cucumbery kind of pickle, if that makes sense? I think the jar of them smells like a garden. So yummy! 

We topped our slices with some parmesan cheese. Such a yummy dinner with a little side salad. 

I also made a simple dessert with just store bought dessert cake cups that I topped with berries and whipped topping. I forgot to get pics of final results. But the strawberries turned out so delish! Just slice strawberries in a bowl. Sprinkle sugar all over the top. Add a little pinch of salt. A little drizzle of vanilla and I also did some almond extract. Stir it together and let it macerate on the counter for an hour or 2. I added some lemon balm from my garden too - but even if you just end at the drizzle of vanilla these turn out great!

 I also added some of the store strawberry gel once it was all macerated together well, and then chilled it in the fridge until dessert time. Such a fresh summery dessert. 

Enjoy!

xoxo

 

Ina's Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

 

Hello beautiful Blogland Besties!

Happy Friday Eve - the weekend is almost here. ☀️ 

I hope whatever you'll be doing, that your weekend is filled with sun and fun. 

We recently picked up a rhubarb plant when we got more flowers for planting in my pots. We haven't put it in the ground yet...still trying to figure out where we want it to be. But we got it because we talked about how much we love strawberry rhubarb goodies for summer. And it brought back a memory for me of making Ina Garten's strawberry rhubarb crisp recipe for my Dad's birthday a few years ago. 

This was pre-Matt. Lol But the kiddos and I stayed at a cabin that my Dad and step Mom had rented from a family member of hers. My brother and Jill came to spend some of the weekend with us too. We went on a pontoon ride with my step Mom's relatives, played yard games, ate yummy food and had a great time together. I wanted to bring a dessert to donate to the cause - and I had found rhubarb in the grocery stores. So I looked up a recipe and this Ina one popped up. I gave it a try and it was SO good!! I didn't take a pic of it that weekend obviously. But I forgot all about it until now. I thought I'd share it because I remember thinking it was the best crisp I ever had. Of course we had it warm with ice cream. 

😋

Here is our cute little rhubarb plant ready to get put somewhere in our yard. 

I looked up the recipe and here it is. You can also find it on her Barefoot Contessa website here.

• 
  4 cups fresh rhubarb, 1-inch diced (4 to 5 stalks)
• 4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved, if large
• 1¼ cups granulated sugar, divided
• 1½ teaspoons grated orange zest
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (see note for gluten-free)
• ½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup quick-cooking (not instant) oatmeal, such as McCann’s (see note for gluten-free)
• 12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
• Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

For the fruit, toss the rhubarb, strawberries, ¾ cup granulated sugar, and the orange zest together in a large bowl. In a measuring cup, dissolve the cornstarch in the orange juice and then mix it into the fruit. Pour the mixture into an 8 × 11-inch baking dish and place it on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

For the topping, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, the remaining ½ cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, salt, and oatmeal. With the mixer on low speed, add the butter and mix until the dry ingredients are moist and the mixture is in crumbles. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit, covering it completely, and bake for 1 hour, until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream.

Note: To make this recipe gluten-free, substitute 1 cup Cup4Cup all-purpose gluten-free flour for the 1 cup all-purpose flour and use gluten-free oatmeal, such as Bob's Red Mill, for the quick-cooking oatmeal.

If you like strawberry rhubarb anything, I strongly urge you to make this recipe! I plan to make it very soon this summer. 

Enjoy!

xoxo