Fudge Brownies With Caramel Swirl

Oh sweet fudge brownies with caramel swirl you are divine! I will let you in on a little secret the edge pieces are so super yummy. It has this nice little bit of chewy caramelly goodness.. Straight from heaven.

These were made for a game night over at our friends house and I think I was in a bit of trouble from there teenagers when I took the last 2 brownies home. I hadn't taken a picture yet and I felt rather guilty, I usually leave any extra for our wonderful hosts to enjoy later.. My hubby has already been hinting for me to make these again... Oh sweet dessert lusciousness... You will be made again soon..Maybe tomorrow..

Caramel Sauce

Caramel sauce..This stuff is dangerous! Beware! I made this to make fudge brownies with caramel swirl to bring over to a friends house for a game night. We had such a good time playing games and eating all sorts of tasty goodies.. This sauce is pure deliciousness over ice cream, in your morning coffee (hello caramel macchiato), scooped straight in to your mouth   and just about anything else your heart desires..

Awards!

Neshanne at Oishii Treats has blessed me with a Food Stories Award in Excellent In Story Telling! She has an amazing blog filled with tons of tasty treats! She is in the Air Force and I love reading the stories she tells and her recipes are delicious! I know I was a little behind in writing this post but non the less this means the world to me!

Baked Beans And Sausage

This is a definite comfort food dinner for me..My Granny would
make this all the time when I was a kid and it was always a favorite! This sadly isn't her recipe but my rendition of her dish!  I was reminded of this recipe when I saw Slow Cooker Country Ribs And Beans By Food Jaunts! This is a delicious recipe perfect to toss in the crock pot for  dinner later that night or to cook on the stove top for a few hours! To top it off the kids love it too or devour might be a better word! 

I also love how budget friendly this meal is at about 10.00 total to feed 5. That comes out to $2.00 a piece. 

This recipe is also how I make baked beans but I add bacon in with the onions at the beginning of the recipe and drain off the bacon fat.

Chicken And Dumplings With Swiss Chard

This is a favorite in our house! Ok I guess most of the recipes I share with you are favorites, I guess that's why I share.It's a healthier version of a comfort food classic. I leave out the cream and add swiss chard. I don't know what my kids would think if I made it any other way! I like the swiss chard because the flavor is rather mild compared to other greens and remember I have that over abundance kicking in my back yard, even if I didn't I will fill you in on my secret..There is no way I would leave the swiss chard out it just adds yumminess and makes it super filling. Soup it's what I've been making!

Rainbow Swiss Chard

I have this over abundance of swiss chard growing in my yard at the moment! The wonderful thing is my plants had survived from last year and I haven't had to replant! We love swiss chard in our house and this is a super easy way to prepare it! A few little health benefits of swiss chard from the new whole foods encyclopedia are chard is homeostatic and helps stop hemorrhage. It also supports the liver and the lungs. It is also an excellent source of chlorophyll. Eat up and enjoy!

Homemade Rocky Road Ice Cream

I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream! Who doesn't just love rocky road ice cream? It's a smash hit in our house. Our kids have a fun time helping create the ice cream, the boys had fun helping stir and add ingredients as needed. I also love that there is no question about what ingredients are in the ice cream, since it's from scratch. If were going to get real here there are very few ice creams quite as good..

Heavenly Mocha Pudding Bars With Almond Cookie Crust

Oh creamy mocha pudding bars come to Momma.. I had made this for Mother's Day along with The Key Lime Cheesecake Bars. It was such a wonderful day, my husband had worked on the yard and BBQ for me. The kids had made cute little gifts and cards. I couldn't have felt more blessed. Could there be anything better in the world then a almond cookie crust, a layer of cream cheese mixture and topped off with mocha pudding.. I must be in the mood for the summer seasons with all the bar recipes I have been thinking up. This is a fantastic recipe to bring to a party! I mean who doesn't like mocha pudding? This was devoured in our house!

An Update On L.J.

This week has been one of those crazy weeks. Monday L.J. had the day off of school to have  his echo cardiogram done in Seattle and see the pediatric cardiologist. We ended up finding out he has a small hole in his heart between his right atrium and left atrium.( This just happened to be by chance we discovered this since his heart wasn't enlarged and if he hadn't of passed out we wouldn't have gone in for the echo cardiogram.) I guess the hole isn't what the doctor believes caused the fainting and he is going to discuss with another pediatric cardiologist to get a second opinion on whether they should close the hole or not. From what the cardiologist said it is a procedure where L.J. should be able to go home that same day. We will be going back in a few weeks to have a treadmill stress test done also. The biggest concern is he may have a long QT syndrome and they will not be able to rule that out until the treadmill test. The Dr. said for now he is allowed to play and be normal.

Key Lime Cheesecake Bars With Almond Cookie Crust

Key lime pie reminds me of my sweet Granny, it was always my favorite part of dinner over the holidays. A slice of her key lime pie! Her pie was always amazing, just like everything else she made. So for Mother's day in her memory I had made key lime pie. There are so many times I wish she would have lived long enough to meet my sweet husband and the kids. Just so they could understand the love she had and her amazing skills in the kitchen! I truly thank her every day for the inspiration she gave me growing up, to do better, the great amount of love she had and a wonderful love of home cooked food! 

These key lime bars have a subtle lime flavor. My husband isn't a big lime or lemon dessert man, if we are going to be honest. But he loves limes, so I set out to create a recipe that he would enjoy. Mainly so I don't eat the whole dessert by myself in 1 1/2 days. I knew this hit the spot when he was sneaking into the pan and being caught enjoying the bars alone. Our conversation went something like this... Me, " I thought you didn't like key lime?" Colt," I don't but these are incredible." I also went with a bar over a pie because I was a bit lazy not in the mood to make a pie crust and bars are a little bit easier for pot lucks and large gatherings to serve. 

This recipe was featured at Goings On In Texas!

Quick Shrimp Tacos Recipe

My sweet husband made these last week for me and even took the photos. Why you might ask? Well, you see my darling daughter was helping rinse off the dishes after dinner and accidentally dropped a plate on my white corning ware baking dish. Oops, it's ok sweetie let Mom clean this up! You just go get ready for bed. I don't want you to cut yourself... Can you guess what happened next? No, I didn't go take a nice hot bath..Guess again.. No, I didn't curl up in bed with my cozy pajamas and read a good book.. Bingo, I sliced my right middle finger open up the side from below to above my knuckle. (Yes, I'm right handed.) This was followed by Lorna freaking out, "Mom should I call 911?" Me," no I will be ok please whatever you do don't call 911 for this!" Then I went on to spend the next 10 minutes trying to decided if I could just wrap it up real good and be on my marry way. Nope it definitely needed stitches! My father raced home from work to make sure I went! ( Colt was at work and is a bit farther away then my dad.) I'm a bit stubborn sometimes you see. I won't go into detail because this is a cooking blog about how it looked but I went in to the walk in clinic 6 minutes before they closed and had my finger scrubbed out (the most painful thing ever) and 5 stitches put in! Now, I look like I'm giving the middle to everyone from all of the bandaging, please don't judge me if you see me! So needless to say the doctor wrote a note to my husband saying no dishes for 10-14 days. I'm really not to be cleaning either and it's really difficult to cook when you can't chop! So the kids and hubby have been helping out a lot!

Ok, now on to shrimp taco's!

Cream Of Mushroom Soup From Scratch

I had told you not to long ago I have this little soup habit! Ok maybe a medium sized soup addiction..Please don't tell my husband I really don't want to quit my habit and go to soups anonymous.

I happened to have ordered more mushrooms from the farm last week not noticing I still had 1 pound of criminis still in the fridge..Oops! Dang it! I guess we will just have to have soup for dinner since I still had left over stock from making Italian Wedding Soup. Even Mas loved this soup, the kid had seconds and he's always the one who eats the least!

We Have AWinner Of The A 12" Lodge Lodgic Cast Iron Skillet!

Congratulations to Shelley Flanigan Ham who won my favorite pan! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Have a fantastic week everyone!

Because it's Tuesday.
Because I think you all are awesome.
Because you all inspire me.
Because I just celebrated 1 year of blogging.
I thought it was time for a giveaway of my favorite skillet to share with one lucky person, so you could enjoy it as much as I do.
This is a 12" Lodge Logic Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet!

To Enter:

Follow the options through rafflecopter down below.

The Rules:

Rafflecopter will randomly choose 1 lucky winner to be announced May 9th.

This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.
Good Luck!

This Giveaway is sponsored by Serena Bakes Simply From Scratch.

Yesterday Was Amazing!

Yesterday was simply amazing! L.J. decided to stand up and declare his love for the Lord and be water baptized! It's one of those moments that brings such joy to a mother's heart! He's has been wanting to be baptized for a few months but my poor boy is so shy, he at one point asked could we just have the pastors over to baptize him in the bath tub. I giggled, "L.J. that's kind of missing the point of public declaration!" Our amazing children's Pastor Fawnda had a talk with L.J. and was able to ease many of his fears and he said, "let's do it!"  This day was one of the few times I had seen my husband cry! The other times where when we got married, our beautiful babies where born, and of course when a close family member has passed.

(This picture is Pastor Fawnda, Pastor Andrew the youth Pastor, and Pastor Nik praying over Logan.)

Restaurant Style Mexican Rice

Happy Cinco De Mayo! I love this holiday! Any excuse to eat Mexican food makes for 1 happy girl! In case you missed yesterday's post make sure to check out Pink Grapefruit Lime Margaritas , Pico de Gallo ,oh and an oldie but a goodie Fajitas.

Restaurant style Mexican rice had always been one of those things no matter what recipe I tried it never turned out right. Until one day I asked my friend Marcy what the secret was and she told me.. Knorr chicken and tomato bouillon, in my grocery store it's over near the Mexican section. I added a little picture down below, just in case your a visual person like me. Also did I mention Marcy makes the best Mexican food ever? Oh, yeah..It's that good!

Pink Grapefruit Lime Margaritas With Agave

All I can say is this is a must for Cinco De Mayo! Oh my goodness..So yummy and easy too, perfect for a hot summers day! My sweet hubby made these to go with dinner the other night! Feel free to make this a virgin by omitting the tequila and triple sec. If you like a blended drink just add it to the blender!

 Now go get ready to make these for tomorrows festivities, you won't be sorry.

And while your at it you better make some of this too! Pico De Gallo

Fudgy Brownies With Peanut Butter Swirl

Oh sweet brownies with peanut butter swirl come to momma. I don't know why I hadn't made these years ago. The pan lasted less then 24 hours in our house and that's with hiding the pan! These where nice and fudgy with a wonderful chocolate flavor.

I have been thinking of this mix of brownies and peanut butter since super bowl. Amanda the youth Pastor Andrews wife had brought a creation similar to these to the super bowl party, I kept meaning to ask her for the recipe but finally decided to just concoct my own version. Did I mention we have the most amazing youth pastor? Amanda and Andrew do amazing things with the kids! They are taking 20 some kids on a Missions trip to The Dream Center in L.A.! Pretty impressive if you ask me!

OK, NOW GO MAKE THESE! For my sanity and yours!