How to Make Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate

My all-time favorite candy is peanut butter cups.  Actually any chocolate mixed with any peanut butter I love.  I don't really love chocolate unless it has peanut butter on it.  In fact, anytime there is chocolate in the house, beware, because I will be dipping it into the peanut butter.  With all that said, it's amazing that it took me this long to try my hand at making my own peanut butter filled chocolate.  I always assumed it must be somewhat difficult.  I was so wrong.  It's incredibly easy and even more incredibly delicious.

Here's what you will need:

-Bag(s) of chocolate wafers (you can buy these in any craft store)

- candy mold

-peanut butter

First melt the chocolate in a microwave safe container according to the package direction.  To create these peanut butter filled treats, start by spooning a small amount of chocolate into your mold.  You could use a squeeze bottle to reduce any drips.  Then using a clean paint brush or a tiny spoon (I used an espresso spoon), "paint" the chocolate onto the sides of the mold.  You only want enough chocolate to form a coating around the entire outside of the mold.  Then place in the refrigerator for three minutes.
  

After the three minutes, take the mold out of the refrigerator and add your peanut butter (or any other filling you can come up with).  Then pour additional melted chocolate into the mold until it is full.  Shake the mold gently to get rid of any air bubbles and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.  

That's it!  So simple, yet so delicious.  

Be sure to stop back tomorrow to see what my plans are for the chocolate owls.  

-Judy

Easiest Apple Pie Recipe Ever!!

Fall is definitely in the air now.  The temperatures have dropped and the leaves are starting to change colors.  It's apple picking season.  It's the time of year that begs for some baking to be done.

I was in the grocery store last week and saw tons and tons of apples to choose from.  It put me in the mood to bake a pie.  So, as an after-school snack last week I whipped up an apple pie.  

It's so easy and takes no time at all.

Recipe for a 9 inch apple pie:

2 Pie Crusts - I like to use the Pillsbury in the refrigerator section

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

6 apples sliced thinly

2 tablespoons butter or margarine (optional)

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  Take one pie crust and place in bottom of pie pan.

Stir together sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt; mix with apples.  

After it's all mixed spoon it into the pie pan you have your pie crust in.  Dot with butter.  Cover with the top crust and cut slits into it.  Seal and flute.  Cover the edge with a 2-3 inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning (it's an important step).  Bake 40-50 minutes or until curst in brown and the juice begins to bubble through the slits in the crust.

It's that easy.  

This pie was eaten and gone by the next morning...yep that's how good it is.

Hope you will try it.

-Judy

Aunt Raquel's Homemade Microwave Brownies

My husband's Aunt Raquel is an incredible baker.  

So, when she sends me a recipe to try, I know it must be good.

Recently she sent me a recipe for homemade microwave brownies.  I have never made brownies from scratch.  I am more of an out of the box kind of baker.  Aunt Raquel is the real deal kind of baker.  She got the recipe originally from the newspaper years ago.  

 Here's all you need to whip up your own homemade brownies:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine

2 (1-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Prep time - less than ten minutes 

Bake time - four minutes

 Place margarine and chocolate in a 2 quart glass batter bowl.  Microwave on high 1 1/2 minutes or until chocolate is melted.  

 Using a wooden spoon, beat sugar into chocolate mixture.  Add eggs to mixture; beat well.

 Stir in flour and baking powder until well combined.  Stir in vanilla and nuts.

 Lightly grease an 8 inch square baking dish.  Pour bater into dish and spread it to a uniform thickness.  

 Microwave 4-7 minutes on high, depending on your microwave.  It is better to undercook brownies so that they will be tender and moist.  If you cook them too long you risk them being hard.

 It only took 4 minutes in my microwave.  The first time we tried the recipe we cooked them for 6 minutes in the microwave and created the consistency of a giant hockey puck.  We had to throw that batch away.  Less is more here for sure!!

Four minutes to create perfect brownies.

We garnished the top with extra chocolate chips because you really can never have too much chocolate.

If you don't have a microwave or prefer to use an oven, the batter can also be baked for 20-25 minutes in a conventional oven preheated to 350 degrees.

Yummy!

Hope you will try these.

-Judy

Rigatoni with Vodka Sauce

Looking for a quick and easy meal that's sure to please the whole family?  One of my favorites is rigatoni with vodka sauce.  The best part is you probably have all of the ingredients you need in your kitchen already.  

Recipe for Vodka Sauce:

olive oil

1/2 onion chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

1/4 cup pancetta or prosciutto minced (I buy it already minced in the deli aisle)

1/4 cup vodka

1 cup heavy cream

1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce

1. In a pot (I use my Le Creuset 3 quart for all my sauces) drizzle some olive oil and saute the pancetta/prosciutto, onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, stirring now and then.

2.  Add the vodka to the pan and wait for the alcohol to burn off.  Then add the heavy cream and let simmer for approximately 5 minutes, stirring now and then. 

3.  Add one jar of tomato sauce and let simmer for another five minutes or so.  That's it!

4.  In the meantime, have a pot of boiling water and cook your pasta until it is al dente.

It's such a simple meal that tastes like it was a ton of work.  It's definitely a crowd pleaser.  

Hope you give it a try. 

Have a great weekend!

-Judy

Hungarian Letcho Recipe - Guest Post

Hi everybody, I am Ivett, writing from Hungary, Europe. I started blogging over at mackosagok.wordpress.com a year ago, right after the birth of my son. I usually write about my diet, my daily life and some DIY issues. As my blog is Hungarian, here I am writing a special post just for you. Today I would like to share with you a typical summer recipe, if you like vegetables, you will love it! It is a kind of Ratatouille, here in Hungary it is mostly done from tomato and green pepper. But, before cooking, let me just share some photos from my family album. Europe has so many interesting spaces, maybe you have already imagined visiting the Eiffel tower in Paris; those beautiful, small, white houses in Greece or Buckingham Palace in London. Guess what, these are the places I ALSO would like to visit, because I have not seen them yet :) But I am pretty sure, that USA has several beautiful and gorgeous places we have never ever heard about here in Europe. So let me show you some of my favorite pics about places which you may not heard about yet. If you will ever have the possibility to visit Hungary, I am sure, you would visit Budapest, or other well-known bigger cities, but I would ask you not to be afraid visiting countryside, because you can find really nice places there as well. Like Tata and its Castle next to the Old Lake. Though Lake Balaton is one of Hungary's foremost tourist destinations, I cannot say else that it is a must see, as the largest lake in Central Europe. It is not just beautiful, but is a great bathing possibility as  well. In Germany, one of my favorite area is Munich and Bavaria: As summertime the weather is nice in Hungary, but cannot be forecasted during springtime, usually we choose to spend our family vacation in Croatia, the region of Sibenik and Split. Gorgeous!

Okay, I don't know about you, but I already started dreaming about my Croatian vacation this year :) But let's see, why we are here, the recipe: LecsÛ (Letcho), just the way I do :)

 What you will need for 4 person: - 1 big onion - some oil or any kind of fat - 4 teaspoon of sweet paprika powder (as I am not sure you use this spice, I use something like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012690UC ) - 1.3 lb. of tomato - 1.3 lb. sweet pepper - 1 small sized zucchini (at early age, or if itis mature you should remove its seeds) - 1.5-2 cups water - 5 eggs -optional - salt and black pepper It is just as simple as it looks like on the pictures below. Slice the vegetables into bigger pieces, slice the onion into small pieces (you can prepare it with a grater too). You will need the onion first, but the smell of it can wait... :)

When you are ready, preheat the oil, and first put the onion in it, salt it a little and braise it until it becomes a little glassy. Than take it off from the heat, and add the paprika powder. This you should never do when the pan is heated, as the paprika can become bitter. When the oil-onion-paprika mix is stirred, add the sliced paprika and zucchini and put it back to the fire. At this point add some water. You don't want the vegetables to swim in it, maybe you should start with 1 cup. After a few minutes of braising add the tomatoes too.

Add salt and black pepper according to your taste, and braise it until the vegetables become just as cooked as you like it (sometimes stir it). I know somebody like when the vegetable is not overcooked, and it is still crunchy a little bit. I did it a little overcooked, and it is fine for me :) (I think I cooked it for 30 minutes) What you now have is a basic LecsÛ. At this point you have several choices. You can eat it with fresh bread, but this is the stage when you can cool it down, and put in the freezer. It is a great choice if you have just too many tomatoes at the end of the summer. Later it will be a great dinner after a long day at work. I also put a part of it to the freezer, but for lunch I decided to finish the dish with some eggs. For the whole serving you will need 5 eggs, stirred. You only have to pour the eggs to the dish still on fire, and continuously stir it, until the egg-mixture is cooked too.

If you are not a big egg lover, you can simply eat the basic LecsÛ with rice. LecsÛ is typically something you will adore or hate, but if you have time, give it a chance :) The number of varieties are endless, you can add some sausage to it in the beginning, but you can change zucchini to eggplant or just leave it. Quick, cheap and delicious! Hope you will enjoy it! If you have any question, please don't hesitate to contact me at orosz.ivett.gm@gmail dot com, or just leave a comment if you tried the recipe ;) Ivett :) (Fingers crossed that my measurement conversions are correct ;) )

Thank you Ivett for guest posting.

DON'T FORGET TO STOP BACK TONIGHT AT 8PM EST 

FOR MY SIZZLE INTO SUMMER PARTY

Hope to see you then!

-Judy

Potato Soup with Chicken, Bacon and Cheese

I love a soup that can be a meal.  

Here's a recipe for potato soup with chicken, bacon and cheese that's sure to please the entire family.

Ingredients:
- 6 slices bacon-chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped carrots
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 4 cups low salt, chicken broth
- 4 cups cubed potatoes
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup cooked chicken breast, diced
- salt to taste

I have modified this recipe from an Allrecipes version.

- Cook bacon (I like to cook bacon in a microwave...very little mess that way)
- Add olive oil to saucepan and add vegetables and cook until soft (do not brown onion)
- Stir in chicken broth and potatoes and pepper and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-15 minutes.
- Stir in chicken and cheese, heating just until cheese is melted.  Then add bacon.  Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

-Judy

Sharing with Savvy Southern Style

Easy Mexican Lasagna

My daughter has braces, and she is up to the rubber band phase.  However, the rubber bands were added last month and they actually pulled her front teeth apart.  Yesterday at her orthodontist appointment they added a semi-permanent rubber band across her four front teeth to pull the teeth back together while the other rubber bands work on her overbite.  All of this rubber band action is causing my daughter quite a bit of pain right now, making it difficult for her to chew.  So last night I created a dinner than would require little effort on her part to eat.

I put this easy mexican lasagna together with things I already had in the house.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 can peeled tomatoes

cilantro

onion powder

taco sauce

three flour tortillas

sour cream 

guacamole

grated cheddar cheese

Brown ground beef in a skillet and add half of tomatoes and cilantro and onion powder to taste.

Add some of the tomato juice at the bottom of the can of tomatoes to the bottom of the pan you will make the lasagna in.  Then add one flour tortilla.  I ripped off the edges and added it to the far sides of the pan and added a meat layer and sprinkled it with a 1/3 of the cheese.  I then continued the layers and topped it off with the remaining cheese and tomatoes and baked it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

I let it sit for five or ten minutes before cutting into it to serve it.  

I added guacamole and sour cream on top of each serving.

My family loved it and my daughter was able to eat it - making it a winner in our house.

Hope you will give it a try.

Remember that awesome fabric from HGTV...

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Have a great weekend!

-Judy