Two Tone Brownies

This recipe originally comes from Taste of home cookbook, but my dear friend Kristi makes these and they are to die for. Soft moist brownies topped with a cookie dough frosting. What could be better? They are amazing and I know you will just love them.

Brownie Layer:
1 12-ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup (2 cubes) butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter and chocolate chips. Stir constantly and remove from heat when chips are fully melted. In the same pot, blend in the sugar. Then add eggs, blending fully one at a time. Add flour and salt and beat until air bubbles form in the batter. Pour into a greased 9 X 13-inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn heat down to 325 degrees and bake for 10 more minutes.

Cool completely and then top with the cookie dough layer.

Cookie Dough Layer:
1/2 cup (1 cube) butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown Sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a small bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in milk and vanilla. Gradually add flour and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls over cooled brownies; carefully spread over top (this can be tricky but I found the best way is to slightly wet my hands and pat the dough down gently so it doesn’t pull up the brownies). Cut into squares. Store in the refrigerator.

Raspberry Banana Bread

My raspberries are on and we have been making freezer jam, freezing raspberries and trying a new banana bread recipe. This is not your mother's banana bread, but it is YUUUMMMY! I found this little gem in my ward cookbook. Very moist and delicious. The white chocolate chips and raspberries take it to another level.


Liquid Ingredients:

2 eggs
2 c. mashed bananas
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. applesauce


Dry Ingredients:

1 3/4 c. flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg


Additional Ingredients
1 c. white chocolate chips
1 c. fresh or frozen raspberries
(if frozen, do not thaw before baking)

Directions:
In a large bowl, whisk all dry ingredients together. In smaller bowl stir all liquid ingredients together until well combined and eggs are beaten up. Slowly pour liquid bowl into dry bowl and stir together. Fold in white chips and raspberries. Pour into greased bread pan and bake at 325 for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Simple Éclair Cake

My fabulous sister in law made this for us for Mother's Day this year and it was yummy! I called her for the recipe over the weekend and made it for our little Pioneer Day BBQ on Sunday, it got rave reviews. The best part is how simple it is to make, you can whip it up in under 10 minutes, enjoy!


Ingredients

2 (3.5 oz) pkg vanilla instant pudding

1 (8 oz) container cool whip

3 cups milk

16 oz graham crackers

1 container prepared chocolate frosting.

Directions

Prepare pudding with 3 cups milk then fold in cool whip. In 9x13 layer graham crackers, pudding mixture, graham crackers, pudding mixture, ending with crackers on top. Top with chocolate frosting (this goes a lot easier if you microwave the frosting for just 20-30 seconds to get it nice and soft and pourable). Spread the frosting to cover all crackers. Allow to chill in the fridge at least 4 hours to soften crackers.

Lemon Water

My Aunt Lou always makes this when we have large family parties at her house, it's kind of like a mild gatorade, but not nearly as sweet. It's great for large parties and it's especially nice for summer BBQ's. You could put any fruit in it, I've seen her use Oranges as well in the winter time. It's light and mild in flavor and pretty easy to mix together quickly once you get the citric acid. I get mine at GNC.

2 tablespoons citric acid (you can find this at most natural food stores and some pharmacies)
5 quarts water
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons pure lemon extract
3 sliced lemons
3 sliced limes
Crushed ice

In a large pitcher or punch bowl, stir water, sugar, citric acid, and lemon extract together. Add sliced fruit and ice.

Limeade Slush

My mom always made this for big gatherings when we wanted cold drinks to serve. But recently I had learned that adding some chopped up strawberries or whole raspberries makes this a completely different drink, without much more effort and it looks amazing in glasses.

11 C. water
1 can Limeade
3 C. Sugar

Boil Sugar and water on stove in large stock pot until sugar dissolves, then add limeade. Pour into a 1 gallon Ice Cream container and freeze until solid. To use, thaw slightly and using a knife or metal spatula, break slush up and pour into Punch Bowl, and then pour 2 2 liters of sprite or 7-up over top of slush and serve.

Grilled Potatoes & Onions

This recipe comes from Our Best Bites, which is a blog I have come to love. I recently got their cook book and can I just say Yummy! If you don't have it yet, you should get it!! I have made tons of their grilling recipes and have loved everyone of them that I have tried. This one is my favorite as a side dish though. It is so simple and yet so yummy. I like to cook mine over a little bit warmer heat so that they get a little crispy, I love crispy potatoes!

Ingredients:
1 potato per person
1/2 small onion per person
1 Tbsp. butter per person, cut into small pieces
1/4 tsp. salt per person
Freshly-ground black pepper
Smoked paprika

(You can either make small individual packets, i.e. one potato and some onion, or you can make one big packet with all the potatoes and all the onions)
Tear aluminum foil into desired length pieces depending on your preference of size. Preheat your grill. Slice Potatoes into 1/8"-1/4" thick slices, if you like thicker potatoes you will just have to adjust cooking times so that your taters get done. Next slice the onions into 1/8" thick slices. Place Potatoes on foil, top with salt & pepper then paprika, don't skimp on the paprika, it's not a strong spice so you will need a generous amount. Then place butter on top of potatoes and top with onions. Then roll the aluminum foil up so that you create a sealed packet/envelope to keep the steam inside while the potatoes cook. Then cook over low heat on a grill for 15 minutes on each side.