Safe and Sound

Florida, Florida, Florida how I love your sunny, sandy beaches. Your gentle loving dolphins that scared me out of the ocean because I thought it was a shark. Your amazing launch of the Atlantis Space Shuttle that I will never forget, whose burning gold tail was like a culmination of forth of July sparklers. Your humid air that kept me from ever having a good hair day. Your symphonic crashing waves which brought peace and relaxation to my soul. Your picture book sunsets that melted my heart and swept me away. Your thrilling roller coasters that flipped, swirled, thrusted and dived my body, giving me the worst headache and sore throat (from all the screaming) ever! Your bright, blazing sun which turned me from bland to tan!! Your beautiful blue, pelican studded water that will always have a special place in my heart! Til next year Florida when we meet again!!

But I must say---It's good to be home!! Isn't it funny how when one is on vacation they start to get homesick and can't wait to come home, but once at home they think to themselves why was I ever wishing to come back home? Well that's is what I'm experiencing right now...vacation limbo :0( I guess we always want what we can't have...but hey that's life and besides I've got a lot of baking to catch up on. While on my trip I came up with some interesting recipe ideas that I can't wait to try so I'm excited to get back in the kitchen. Oh how I've missed my mixer, oven and cake pans!! But no more, cuz I'm back and things are about to get crazy in that little kitchen of mine. While lying on the beach I couldn't get my mind to stop racing about everything I wanted to make when I got home, and I'm afraid I feel a serious Bake-off coming on! So stay tuned for some seriously intense baking!!!

Sunny Beaches

Well it's that time of year again...VACATION!! I'm off to Cocoa Beach for 2 weeks, but am sad to leave my blogging world behind. I don't know what I'll do without my baking or blogging :0( Wait what am I saying? The beach for 2 weeks or blogging? Hmmm, as much as I love blogging you can't pass up a trip to the beach. So I'll see ya'll in 2 weeks and get ready to see the most amazing tan ever!!!! Hey, hey don't be jealous, someone has to do it :>P Rock on blog world!! Miss you

Pick me! Pick me! I wanna be the Brownie Babe!!

This challenge was made for me since I am totally obsessed with brownies! They are after all my favorite food group! Seeing as how I love brownies sooo much, it's obvious that I've had a few too many brownies in my day, but that being said this has to be one of my all time favorite brownies! I give to you the amazing Fluffernutter Brownie (With a little help from Cooking Light)!! Since I love this brownie so much (and it is made up of Elvis' favorite ingredients) I decide to write a new rendition of Elvis' Heartbreak Hotel:

Heartbreak Hotel

Well since my brownie found me
She became a good friend of mine
We hang out at the end of a long hard day
With a glass of wine

You make me happy brownie
I get so happy,
So happy that I could die

And although I'm sometimes crazy,
You still brighten up my blues
With marshmallow creme and peanut butter,
I could kiss you!

You make me happy brownie
I get so happy,
So happy that I could die

But now my tears are flowin'
And I'm down on my luck
Cuz I just ate the last piece of my
Brownie Baby

I'm now so lonely baby,
I'm so lonely
So lonely that I could cry

Hey now if you devour your brownie
And you got a tale to tell.
Just take a walk down Lonely Street
to Heartbreak Hotel!!


The moral of the story here kids is that when you create such a moist, rich, gooey, chewy marshmallow creme and peanut butter brownie it will not last for long. So savor every scrumptious bite of this outrageously satisfying brownie, cuz it may be a while till this Brownie Babe comes knockin' on your door!

Fluffernutter Brownie Recipe

Ingredients
3/4 cup low-fat sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter or stick margarine, melted and cooled
1/4 cup fat-free milk
1 package devil's food cake mix
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow creme (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup peanut butter morsels

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine 1/4 cup condensed milk, butter, and next 3 ingredients (butter through egg white) in a bowl (batter will be very stiff). Coat bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Press two-thirds of batter into prepared pan using floured hands; pat evenly (layer will be thin).
Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Combine 1/2 cup condensed milk and marshmallow creme in a bowl; stir in morsels. Spread marshmallow mixture evenly over brownie layer. Carefully drop remaining batter by spoonfuls over marshmallow mixture. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.



http://onceuponatart.blogspot.com/2007/04/browniebabe-of-month.html

TGRWT #2 - Banana and Parsley

This was one of the coolest, but weirdest challenges I have seen. Tara over at Should You Eat That? came up with a monthly challenge of pairing unusual ingredients together in any type of dish that we like. So when she announced that the ingredients were bananas and parsley I kind of scratched my head for a minute. My first thought was to do something on the sweet side, but then I started to think about it, and I decided that my family would be more willing to try something that was more on the savory dinner side, seeing as how I might be able to mask the banana a little bit. So here is my masterpiece --- Banana, Parsley Aioli drizzled over roasted baby potatoes!!! And OH MY GOD was this good, this was once of the best sauces/dishes I've ever made. I thought ketchup and roasted potatoes were good, but nope...this is the new Ketchup. It took a little trial and error for me to get the flavors right, but my family was so amazed when I told them. They said that the sauce was the best part of the whole dinner. And the great thing about (now that I know what to put in it) is that it's so simply to make. The sauce was a little tangy but very creamy, with a slight garlic bite to it. Without knowing there was banana in it you would definitely be able to sense a tiny sweetness to the sauce, but as soon as I told my family about the banana they were like "Oh so that's what it is, I knew I was tasting something different". I made sure not to tell them what was in it until after they ate it because I wanted to get their honest opinion about it, and I was surprised to hear rave reviews. My mom even said this was the best part of the whole Lemon Grilled Chicken with Bell Peppers, Snap Pea Salad and Roasted Baby Potato Dinner. So thanks Tara for giving me the idea to create something I will be proud to make again and again. For the base of the recipe I used a basic Aioli recipe which I found from the Williams Sonoma website and added half a banana, a handful of chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon zest and Dijon mustard. (Sorry that I don't have a recipe to post, but I didn't really write it down, I just kept adding and tasting!!) But this will definitely be a new staple in my cooking arsenal. And how fun was it to look at these ingredients and try to find a way to make them work! I can't wait for the next challenge, so Tara bring it on!!

Foodie Blogroll

Our wonderfully fantastic Leftover Queen has created a great blog roll for all you foodies out there!! This blogroll is our connection to tons of other blogs who are blogging about the thing we love most...FOOD!! I invite you all to scroll down my sidebar to the Foodie Blogroll and check out our fellow bloggers and see what their latest creations, thoughts, struggles, joys and satisfactions are with food!! Thanks Jenn!!