Ice Cream Cake?

I'm not sure exactly what to call this dessert or where the recipe originated. My friend made it for us after we had our second child and we LOVE it!!! It's heavenly! 

*1 box of ice cream sandwiches (12 sandwiches)

*1 lg tub cool whip

*1 bag oreo cookies (or you can use Crushed up heath bars, butterfingers...) Pound the oreos, or candy bars, with a meat pounder in a plastic bag. 

1. Mix 3/4 of the crushed up cookies or candy in with the cool whip. 

2. Layer the pan with a layer of ice cream sandwiches tightly.  You may have to cut some in half to make it fit.

3. Then put a layer of the whipped cream mixture. 

4. Repeat these steps again an sprinkle remaining crumbles on top to finish it off. (or in my picture, I topped with whole oreos and I only crushed up 3/4 of the oreos and mixed all crushed with cool whip. 

5. Then put in freezer for at least a half hour to an hour to form up the whipped cream again.

Cut into squares and ENJOY!!

Put down your first layer of sandwiches, top with layer of the cool whip/cookie mixture

Here is the mixture of the cool whip and crushed oreos mixed together well

Fully cover sandwich layer with half of the coolwhip mixture

add your second layer of sandwiches... packed in tightly

Add the rest of your coolwhip/cookie mixture

Top with your crushed cookies (candies) or as I did, I topped with whole oreos!

DeLISH!

Fudgy Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars- By Pillsbury

My friend Lindsay and I take turns hosting dinner a few times a month. Who ever is hosting makes the meal and the other one brings a dessert.  She made these the other day and I LOVED them! I ended up making them to serve at a Christmas party too and they were a hit. They aren't too hard to make (take it from me... I am NOT a baker!!) She got the recipe from Pillsbury.

Ingredients:
1/2 C butter, melted
2 C graham cracker crumbs (32 squares)
1 8 oz. bag toffee bits
1 roll refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
1 12oz. bag chocolate chips
1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 T butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Grease 13x9 baking dish and heat oven to 350.

Have the roll of cookie dough sitting out for around 10 minutes to soften up.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the 1/2 cup of melted butter, 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs and 3/4 cup of toffee bits. Pour mixture into the greased pan and press evenly until mixture covers bottom of pan. Refrigerate for around 15 minutes.

In a 2 qt saucepan, heat the milk, chocolate chips and the tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Stir frequently until the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Spread the mixture over the graham cracker crumb mixture.

In another medium mixing bowl, break up the cookie dough and stir in the remaining 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs until blended. Crumble the mixture evenly over the chocolate layer and then sprinkle the remaining 3/4 cup toffee bits on top.

Bake for about 25-35 minutes or until it's golden brown. Cool completely before cutting, probably around 2 or more hours.

After mixing melted butter, grahams and toffee chips, pat down in baking pan. Make sure to put in fridge for about 15 mins to harden 

While above is in fridge, melt chocolate chips, butter and condensed milk in a sauce pan over medium heat... stirring till smooth

Take cookie dough (that is room temp) and mix with remaining graham crumbs

spread melted chocolate mixture on top of crust 

crumble the cookie dough/graham crumbs mixture over top of chocolate

Top by sprinkling remaining toffee chips over the top

Bake till golden and let cool (about 2 hours in fridge)

cut into squares and serve. YUM

Great for breakfast as well with coffee:)

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Chip Oatmeal Cookies

My husband loves homemade cookies. I am NOT a baker! He has tried many recipes and finally came up with one on his own using a a few different recipes as a guideline. We love these and we hope you will too!!

Ingredients:
*1 cup all-purpose flour
*1/2 tsp baking powder
*1/2 tsp baking soda
*1/4 tsp salt
*1 1/4 cup rolled oats (old-fashioned oats)
*8 T unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temp
*1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
*1/2 cup granulated sugar
*1 large egg
*1/4 cup maple syrup (we added a tad more than 1/4 cup)
*1/2 tsp vanilla extract
*1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
*1/2 cup peanut butter chips

1) Set 2 racks in middle and upper thirds of oven and preheat to 350. Line cookie sheet with non-stick parchment paper.

2) In medium bowl, stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and oats together with a whisk.

3) In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together for half a minute until blended. Beat in egg until smooth and barely fluffy. With mixer running on medium high, drizzle in maple syrup and vanilla until mixed well.

4) Turn mixer down to lowest setting and gradually add flour-oat mixture. Blend just to combine. Then fold (stir) in the chocolate and peanut butter chips.

5) Place ping pong size balls of dough onto the lined cookie sheet at 3 inch intervals.

6) With moistened fingers, flatten and round out cookies a little. Bake for 9 minutes (turn pan once for even baking). Cookies are done when lightly brown on top. They will still be very gooey until they sit a bit to cool. Set cookie sheet on rack to cool.

ENJOY!

Banana's Foster

This recipe is really the whole reason I thought of this blog. I was on vacation a year ago and I really wanted to make my Banana's Foster dessert for everyone. It's a favorite of my mine (and my husbands) and I make it a lot when we have dinner parties. Anyway, I was on vacation and I could not for the life of me remember the recipe to this. I thought to myself... wouldn't it be nice if I had all my favorite recipe's on-line where I could access them anywhere I wanted?! So that's what I did. I started by putting my recipes on this site just for myself. When friends or family would call me for a recipe of mine, i started just giving them this site instead of reading off to them how to make it. It was much easier. Now I share with all of you and I hope you are enjoying some of them!!

If you ever have a dinner party and are in charge of a dessert, this is a great recipe. It's quick and easy and tastes amazing! You make it right before you serve so it's not a recipe to bring with you to someone else's house.

Serves 4-6 

*4 medium bananas- peeled and hut in half lengthwise. Then cut each half into two pieces

*1/4 cup butter

*1 cup packed brown sugar

*1/4 cup creme de banane (banana liqueur)

*1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

*1/4 cup dark rum

*2-3 cups vanilla ice cream

1) Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. (Careful not to burn the butter). Stir in brown sugar, banana liqueur and cinnamon. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes. 

2) Add bananas and cook for 4 minutes or until tender. (I usually flip my bananas half way through).

3) Remove from heat and add Rum. Ignite rum (top of pan) with a long match or lighter that has a long handle. I dim the lights for this to put on a show:) haha.  Stir banana's lightly till flame dies down.

4) Put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a dessert bowl (or goblet). Spoon banana's and sauce over ice cream and serve immediately. 

I haven't taken pictures of this yet, but since it was the recipe that started this blog I wanted to add it!! Hope you enjoy!!

Peanut Butter S'mores on the Grill.

Ok, so i don't have any pictures of these right now. I was almost done with mine before I even thought about it. But I wanted to share this amazing idea so you can enjoy these as much as we do. So simple, so good!

Place tinfoil on grill and heat up grill to a medium/high heat. Once grill is warmed, place bottom cracker with chocolate and marshmallow on top on the tin foil. Close grill. While these are on the grill, take your top half of the cracker and spread peanut butter on it (we use Jiffy Creamy). Once done, check on the s'mores. If marshmallow looks gooey- they are done. Slap on the top cracker with the peanut butter and enjoy!

Fourth of July Fruit Kabobs

I make these every year for the 4th of July. They are so festive and fun! Sometimes I add red grapes, sometimes I drizzle them with white chocolate... you can get creative!
What are some of your favorite Holiday recipes??

*Wooden Skewers
*Assortment of goodies (Strawberries, Blueberries, Marshmallows (I cut the big ones in half, but i've used small ones before too, brownie bites, red grapes... Whatever you think would be good as long as you have some red, white and blue on them!)

S'more's Brownies

I made these the other day and they were a HUGE hit! Actually I made 2 batches since the first one I burnt to a crisp!!! (Tip: when they are done... Don't put them under broil to toast marshmallows more and then walk away and forget about them for 5+ minutes... your house will be full of smoke and the smoke alarms will wake your kids up from their naps!)

*Brownie Mix (and any ingredients that the brownie mix calls for)
*2 cups mini marshmallows
*8 1.5oz Chocolate Bars, chopped into about 1/2 inch squares
*6 Graham Crackers broken into 1 inch pieces

*Prepare Brownie Mix. Pour into greased 9x13 baking pan and cook at 350 for 15 minutes.
*While Brownies are cooking, toss the marshmallows, chocolate chunks, and Graham crackers pieces in a large bowl.
*Sprinkle the S'mores mixture over brownies evenly
*Continue to cook for another 15 minutes. Marshmallows should be slightly golden.