Peanut Butter Fingers

I love this dessert. It's like a homemade peanut butter cup, but it has to be better for you because it has oatmeal in it. Right? My college friend Laura's mom, Dawn, who is akin to Donna Reed, made these the first time I had them when I visiting her while we were in Washington DC last April during David's JAG school trip. She made them to take to a church activity, or I could have probably eaten the entire pan by myself. Peanut butter and chocolate is one of my favorite combinations. This is a great recipe to take to a potluck or to make for a crowd.

Peanut Butter Fingers (Dawn Eves and Laura Bailey)

1/2 c butter
2/3 c peanut butter, creamy or chunky
2/3 c brown sugar
2/3 c sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 c oatmeal
2 c flour

Cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugars together. Add both eggs and mix. Then add vanilla, soda and salt. Stir in oatmeal and flour. Press this into a greased jelly roll pan and cook on 350 for 10-15 minutes dpending on how soft you want the cookie. When cooked, let cool completely. Frost with a layer of creamy peanut butter and then a layer of chocolate frosting. You can use a homemade recipe for the frosting, or use one can of chocolate frosting that is premade. Slice into bars and EAT!

Perfect Pot Roast, thanks to the Pioneer Woman.

My new next door neighbor is really great. Our kids love to play, and I marvel at how much alike we are. Both of our husbands are JAGs, both of our first cars we bought for ourselves are VW Jettas that both of our husbands now drive to and from work. We both love Americana themed things, and we even have the same picture hung in the same place in our separate homes. We have the same interests, and I see that we do many, many things the same way. One thing we share is a love for cooking and baking. She has turned me on to a cooking blog called The Pioneer Woman.

Apparently, I am the last person on earth that has a love for cooking and baking that had not heard of her blog until recently. I mean, this lady is amazing. Her husband runs a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. She helps on the ranch, homeschools four kids, makes all kinds of delicious food, takes pictures of the process, blogs about it, as well as blogging about several other things besides cooking, writes cookbooks, has blog readers out to the ranch to cook with her....I mean, how do women do this? It doesn't seem like there is anything neglected in her life, except for maybe sleep. She didn't mean to become rich or famous, but is now both, at least in the cooking blog community. How come stuff like that doesn't happen to me???

My neighbor, Amanda, has The Pioneer Woman's cookbook, and she let me borrow it last week. I sat down, read it like a novel, then went straight to Amazon to order my own copy. I mean, this lady knows what's-what when it comes to cooking. I love that her recipes are real, and that she uses real, everyday, not-hard-to-find ingredients. It's hearty, wholesome food (she does feed cowboys, after all, and they ain't gonna eat no junk!). And she uses real butter and lots of it. You get automatic bonus points with me if you use real butter. And lots of it.

One thing I have always struggled with in my world of cooking is pot roast. I love a good pot roast. It is the ultimate comfort food, and I love to serve it on Sundays. Makes the whole house smell good and the oven or crockpot does all the hard work, which is nice on Sundays when we're supposed to be enjoying a day of rest anyway.

My mom makes a fabulous pot roast. She uses this dutch oven thing that has be at least fifty years old. I never remember having a pot roast she made that didn't come out of that pot. This past summer at Lamberts Cafe when we were at the beach in Alabama, I had some pot roast that was not better, but as good as my mom's. But after many, many attempts, I have never been able to make what I feel is a really good pot roast. Edible and fill your belly, sure. But nothing great.

Until last Friday. I decided I wanted comfort food on a Friday. I had a pot roast in the refrigerator and while reading the Pioneer Woman's cookbook, I found a recipe that looked divine. I have always cooked pot roasts in my crockpot. And I just could never get it right. They were always edible, but I could never get one where I pushed back from the table and went, "That was just an awesome pot roast!" Until last Friday night, that is.

I give all the credit to the Pioneer Woman and her recipe, and none to myself. My only regreat with this recipe is that I didn't buy a bigger roast. Lesson learned. If we would have had leftovers, they would have been great on sandwiches the next day. So I will send you here to her recipe, and give credit where it is due. Thank you, Pioneer Woman, for teaching me how to make a good pot roast. I promise I will never do a pot roast in my crockpot ever again!

Click here for The Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast Recipe

I also made her mashed potato recipe out of her cookbook. I used red-skinned potatoes instead of russets and left the skin on because we like extra fiber like that. And just for kicks, I sprinkled some cheese over the top. Holy schmoly. Just typing this and uploading these pictures makes me want to run right to my kitchen and cook another meal like this one.

Click here for the Pioneer Woman's mashed potato recipe.

I get way more excited about food than anyone probably should. I know this.

Hard Rock Cafe Potato Soup

Soooo...I sort of took the summer off from sharing recipes. This has been pointed out to me by various people...I had no idea anyone at all read this blog, but now that I know I have an audience, I will have to do better! My initial goal was to post a recipe a week. Maybe that is a little unrealistic for my life, but I'm thinking maybe once every other week would be doable. But, I have a little catching up to do now, so you're going to get a two-fer tonight!

This is hands down my most favorite potato soup recipe, ever. My mom dug it up years ago off of one of those copy cat recipe websites. She would make it with bacon cheese bread and bring it to me and my roommates at college. Heaven. It's definitely worth sharing, and I know you will like it if you try it!

Hard Rock Cafe Potato Soup

8 slices bacon, fried crisp
1 c diced yellow onion
2/3 c flour
6 c chicken broth
4 c diced peeled baked potato (HUGE TIME SAVING TIP..I used three cans of diced great value brand potatoes. So much faster than baking, peeling, and dicing potatoes, and you can't tell a difference in taste at all.)
2 c heavy cream (you can use half and half to lighten it up a bit)
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley (I use about 1 T of dried parsley)
1 1/2 T garlic powder
1 1/2 T dried basil
1 1/2 T tabasco
1 1/2 T pepper (If you put the full amount of pepper and tabasco, it will be very spicy. Adjust amounts of pepper and tabasco if you are not a spicy fan or are cooking for kids who aren't spicy fans.)
1 c grated cheddar cheese
1/4 c diced green onion

Cook and chop bacon. Set aside. Cook onion in drippings over medium high heat until transparent. Add flour, stirring to prevent lumps. Cook for 3-5 minutes until mixture just begins to turn golden. Add broth gradually, stirring constantly with whisk until thickened. Reduce heat to simmer and add potatoes, cream, bacon, parsley, garlic, basil, tabasco, and black pepper. Simmer 10 minutes. DO NOT BOIL. Add cheese and green onions. Stir until cheese melts. YUMMY!

Calzones

I love Italian food. I love pizza, I love lasanga. Calzones are the most magical combination of the two. And the way I do them, they are so super easy. I have to share.

Some months back, a friend of mine shared a tip that she would buy pizza dough by the case from the snack bar counter at Sams Club. You get a box with several frozen, individually wrapped dough balls for cheap. I am forever converted to ready-made dough. While there are a lot of things I feel good and confident about in the kitchen, breadmaking is not one of them. And there is so much good frozen dough out there now, it actually tastes better than my version of homemade bread. And it's cheap, so why torture myself? If you like to make bread, I'm sure you have a favorite recipe you use, so go with that one. If you don't want to invest in an entire case or frozen dough balls from Sams or don't have the freezer space, but you're not a breadmaker, the 50 cent package of dough mix from WalMart that you mix with water isn't a bad substitute. But for this recipe, I am using the Sam's dough balls.

You can do all sorts of fun things with this dough: breadsticks, cinnamon rolls (post on those to follow!), pizza, calzones, rolls, etc. For a quick Saturday night supper, I did calzones. The base of the filling is always the same, but you can let your little imagination run wild with what to fill them with. Anything that can go on a pizza can go in a calzone. Here is the recipe:

Calzones

Dough:

Frozen dough balls, frozen bread loaves, thawed, or your favorite recipe, or 2 packets of dough mix

Filling:

1 1/2 cups Ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 t salt
1/2 lb motzerella, cut into cubes


I cut the two dough balls in halves, and it ended up making four huge calzones, which was great because all I had to do for lunch after church today was heat up the leftovers.

After cutting the dough balls into halves, I rolled each one out and placed two rolled out halves on two different stoneware cookie sheets. I spooned equal portions of the ricotta filling onto the dough, then loaded it down with ham or pepperoni. You could also add green peppers, olives, sausage, mushrooms, spinach and chicken...the possiblities are endless! But I had pepperoni and ham in the fridge, so that is what we had. I also added a few shakes of Italian seasoning as well.

Then you pull one side over making a half-moon shape and pinch it shut. I used scissors to cut some slits into the top of mine and brushed some olive oil over the top.

Then bake at 450 for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden. Serve with your favorite marinara sauce for dipping. A different spin on pizza night!

Cafe Rio Salad

There are some days people vividly remember in their lives. My mom says she remembers where she was and what she was doing the day JFK was shot. I remember watching the Challenger disaster in Kindergarten as a 5 year old. September 11, 2001 is burned to everyone's memory I would imagine, and my wedding day and the births of my three children are stand-out days as well.

There's a large part of my memory that holds food memories as well. I know. I have problems. I'm sure there is therapy available for it somewhere, but not here in Clovis, New Mexico. I have vivid memories of my fondue experience in Switzerland, my nutella crepes in Paris, my gelatto in Italy. But the first, and sadly the only time, I had a Cafe Rio Salad is a day not to be forgotten. I have Scott and Alicia Buchanan to thank for introducing me to the deliciousness that is Cafe Rio while I was visiting Utah. It was fantastic, fresh Mexican. And those who know me well, know I could eat my weight in Mexican food. And that, my friends, is a lot of Mexican. I think Cafe Rio would have to take the cake, so to speak, in fast-food Mexican. How I wish there were a franchise closer to here.

A few weeks ago, some friends at church did a Cafe Rio style dinner for a church activity. I was fortunate to partake of some leftovers, and I have been dreaming about Cafe Rio ever since. Last night I had our missionaries from church over to eat dinner, both of whom happen to be from Utah, so I thought it was the perfect time to whip up some Cafe Rio.

In a word, it was AWESOME (and easy!). I feel like I can't hold back with these recipes. I have to share them so you can experience Cafe Rio as well. Everyone should at least once in their life! Bon Appetite!

Cafe Rio Shredded Chicken

5lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed and cut into pieces
8oz zesty italian salad dressing (the cheap Great Value brand works great)
1 T cumin
1 T chili powder
3 cloves garlic, pressed

In a crockpot, combine chicken, salad dressing, spices and garlic. Stir well to combine. Set crockpot on high and let cook for four hours. Shred chicken. (I use my Pampered Chef salad choppers to quickly and easily shred the chicken right in the crockpot. I also use my Food Chopper to shred chicken, but this is kind of soupy, so I opted for the salad choppers and it worked great!)

Cafe Rio Cilantro Lime Rice

2 cups white rice, not instant
4 cups chicken broth
2 T lime juice
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 14 oz can salsa verde
1 c fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
pinch of salt

Prepare rice according to package directions, except use chicken broth instead of water. After rice is cooked, stir in remaining ingredients. Keep warm.

Cafe Rio Tomatillo Dressing
1 c buttermilk
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c mayonnaise
2-4 tomatillos, depending on size (smaller ones use four, if larger, use two)
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves
1-2 cloves garlic
1 T lime juice
1 Hidden Valley Ranch packet

Throw everything in a blender and blend until smooth. I used my new Ninja blender, which I looooovvvee.

And this how you build your Cafe Rio Salad:

1. First, put a flour tortilla down on a plate. A big plate. My friend Laura introduced me to homemade flour toritillas. It is amazing how much better they taste than store-bought tortillas. At Wal-Mart of all places, I discovered the next best thing. These are in the refrigerated section near the cream cheese.
It's an extra step to brown them on a griddle or in a skillet, but WORTH THE EXTRA STEP.

2. After the tortilla, top with some shredded cheese. Cheddar, Mexican blend, monterrey jack, whatever you like.

3. Then, scoop some of the shredded chicken over the cheese. Don't drain the marinade off the chicken. You'll want a little of that saucy goodness.

4. Top with a generous scoop of the cilantro lime rice (and for the record, I am not a big cilantro fan, but it just works in these recipes).

5. Then top with beans of some kind, pinto or black. I used black beans. And it's better if they're warmed in my opinion.

6. On top of the beans go lettuce. And load it down with lettuce.

7. Then top with the tomatillo dressing, crushed corn chips, and I like to add a little salsa as well.

Delish. Such a fun dinner for a crowd or when entertaining. Now I'm off to eat leftovers!

Holy Cow! Cookies

Okay, they're not really called Holy Cow cookies. But after eating the first one (actually after eating my *first* spoonful of batter), those were the first words that came to mind. The official name of the cookies is "Deluxe Triple Chocolate Cookies" and they came out of the Pillsbury 2011 Annual Recipe Cookbook and they were a Pillsbury Bake Off Contestant winner, so I knew they had to be good before I even made them. I mean, they have Nutella AND peanut butter in them. Probably two of my most favorite foods, in one cookie. I couldn't get to my kitchen aid fast enough after reading the recipe.

I ended up sending almost all of them to work with David. This house simply isn't big enough for me and those cookies. They passed the co-worker test and the kid test, and most importantly of all, MY test. Put this one in your cookie-keeper file. You'll come back to this one again.

1 c butter, softened
3/4 c packed brown sugar
3/4 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1/2 c Nutella
1/2 c peanut butter, creamy
1 box (5oz) instant hot cocoa mix, chocolate
2 c all-purpose flour
1 c oats, any kind
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 bag (12 oz) semi sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. On low speed, beat in hazelnut spread, peanut butter, and dry cocoa mix until well blended. Stir in flour, oats, salt and baking soda until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoons (or using your medium Pampered Chef scoop like I did) 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets. Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until edges are set. Cool 3 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

Oh, and what do you do with the spoon you used to dip the Nutella out? That is entirely up to you, but I'll give you one guess as to what I did with the remnants on this spoon...

Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits

One of the easiest, best biscuit recipes! You will not be able to eat just one!

2 c bisquick or baking mix
1/2 c cold water
3/4 c grated cheddar cheese

1/4 c butter, melted
1 t parsley flakes (I usually leave these out)
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t Italian seasoning

Mix first three ingredients and form into dough balls. Bake at 450 for 8-10 minutes. While baking, melt the butter, then mix in the spices. Brush on hot biscuits with a pastry brush. Mmmmm, mmmmm!