Fried Oreos. Yes, fried

We forgot to take a picture of the finished product, so I had to go back in my picture archive, and stole these from our trips to the Apple Festival, where I was introduced to these incredible heart stopping American creation. And oh my goodness, these are amazing, especially if you love Oreos...and fried food.

Fried Oreos

Ingredients
1 cup buttermilk pancake mix
3/4 cup ice water
1 quart vegetable oil
1 sleeve of Oreo cookies (14 each)
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1. Freeze cookies for 3 hours. ( this is purely optional, but just know if you don't you run the risk of melting the filling when fried-which doesn't taste bad, just loses some of the effect)
2. In a medium bowl, stir water into buttermilk pancake mix with a whisk until thoroughly combined. Batter should be consistency of pancake mix, if not, add more water or mix accordingly. Refridgerate for at least an hour (this helps to keep a cake like texture to the cookies, if the batter is too thing, it wont be AS yummy)
3. In a 3-quart saucepot or deep fryer, heat oil to 350 degrees F (medium heat on stove top).
4. While oil is heating, set up a sheet pan with paper towels for draining.
5. With metal tongs, dip each cookie one at a time into batter, making a coat completely around the cookie.
6. Place coated cookie carefully into hot oil. Repeat for each cookie. Fry on both sides, turning over once until golden brown.
7. Remove fried cookie from hot oil with metal tongs and drain on paper towels.
Note: The cookies inside should be soft throughout, if they are cold and hard reduce oil temperature.
8. Dust with confectioners sugar.
9. Let cool slightly (about 2 minutes) before serving

Peanut Butter Trifle

Peanut Butter Trifle

We LOVED this trifle. So yummy, especially if you like the peanut butter and chocolate combination. We have yet to try the original recipe, I didn't truly follow it. There is a link for it at the bottom. Maybe we will save the "original" for another day...

Ingredients:

• 21 ounce package brownie mix
• 10 ounce bag of peanut butter chips
• 5 ounce package vanilla instant pudding mix
• 3 oz pkg Chocolate instant pudding mix
  
• 5 cups milk
• 1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Whipped Cream or Cool Whip
  
• 24 regular sized (about 2 inches in diameter) peanut butter cups, divided

Preparation:

Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Add peanut butter chips. Bake for length of time required by package. Cool completely.

Cut brownies into 3/4 inch pieces, using sharp knife.

Coarsely chop 20 peanut butter cups; saving 4 for garnish.

Combine vanilla pudding mix and 3 cups of milk in large bowl. Beat at low speed for 2 minutes or until thickened. Add peanut butter and vanilla; beat until smooth. Set aside.

Combine chocolate pudding mix and 2 cups of milk into bowl. Beat at low speed for 2 min or until thickened. Set aside.

Layer Brownies, pudding, cool whip, and candy (first layer with peanut butter pudding, second with chocolate, then third with peanut butter). You will end up with 3 layers, ending with candy on top of cool whip.

Refrigerate

This is not the original recipe. Go here for the original.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

I have always been on the lookout for a good Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, so when I got the baking itch today (and knowing how much the husband loves his cookies), I tried Google again, and found this, seriously an easy super good cookie!!!

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
found on allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended (be sure not to over mix). Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.
   
4. Refrigerate for 1 hr (this helps the cookies not to flatten)
   
5. Drop cookie dough heaping tbsp sized at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for 12 to 13 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

A Christmas Book (in Janurary,,,whoops)

Snowmen at Christmas
By: Caralyn Buehner
Illustrated by: Mark Buehner

This is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE Christmas book (yes, we are going back in time and are going to bring back the Christmas feeling for a bit). This book (to me) just has the BEST illustrations, the coloring and the feeling it brings just looks like Christmas to me. The last page showing Christmas morning, is the Christmas morning I picture in my mind. At my house, as a child, we always woke up before the sun came up because we wanted to open presents in the dark so we could have the glow of the Christmas tree (once it got light it was fun to see that the shirt you thought was black was actually red or purple :) ). The story is just as cute. There is also another book by the same people called Snowmen at Night (another great book). Check them out! I love them!

My new FAVORITE Cornbread Recipe

Golden Sweet Cornbread

(I took this picture like a week after I made it, but boy was it yummy!) I am a HUGE Cornbread fan. I love to have a hot bowl of Soup or Chili with warm soft moist Cornbread covered with Honey...yummmmyyy!!! Here it the recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

A quick cookie (and a family favorite)

Reese's Cake Mix Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 package Devil's Food Cake mix
  
• 2 eggs
• 8 regular sized Reese's Cups
  
• A little more than 1/2 cup oil (I usually just overflow the 1/2 cup a little)
  

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients (except for peanut butter cups) together, then add Reese's, break into dough. Place tbsp sized balls onto cookie sheet, bake for 7 min.

That's it! Easy peasy! And oh so yummy!