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Grand Cayman & No Bake Cookies and Cream Bars

Grand Cayman & No Bake Cookies and Cream Bars
Grand Cayman & No Bake Cookies and Cream Bars Yesterday we arrived on the third leg of our June trip. After traveling from Miami to Key West to Cape Cod, we are now enjoying eight days of laying on the beach, scuba diving and great food in Grand Cayman. I love this place! Three years ago Andrew and I were married in the Cayman Islands on Seven Mile Beach. With twenty-three good friends and family we celebrated for a full week filled with scuba diving, great food, and fun! I walked down the aisle to the sound of a steel drum band. The wedding ceremony was incredible and we couldn’t have asked for a better setting. After the reception we had cocktails and dinner at the beachside restaurant Hemingways. Last night we celebrated our third wedding anniversary at the Grand Old House, a 103 year old plantation house right on the water’s edge over looking the Caribbean Sea. Now onto a wonderful and super quick recipe for a crowd pleasing dessert. No Bake Cookies and Cream Bars Ingredients:

Cake & Ice Cream Sandwiches When we made our yummy Cake Mix Waffles, I knew they'd be perfect for ice cream sandwiches. We got the great taste combination of cake and ice cream, but because we made our "cake" in the waffle iron, we didn't have add any more heat to our summer day by turning on the oven. They were so easy, I really don't even need to give directions, but here they are: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Salted Caramels Homemade Salted Caramels I’m finding it hard to believe that it’s already February. Where the heck did the first one-twelfth of 2012 go? This past month has been a whirlwind of working, cooking, dining out and re-discovering free time after the last nine months of writing the book. I’ve also had much more time to get back into the kitchen and dream up culinary creations spanning everything from slow-cooker classics to an accidental homerun with my new favorite sandwich cookie. Salted Caramels Yield: About 40 candiesPrep Time: 10 minCook Time: 20 min Ingredients:1 cup heavy cream 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed 1 teaspoon large flake sea salt (Recommended: Maldon) 1½ cups sugar ¼ cup light corn syrup ¼ cup waterDirections:Line an 8-inch square baking pan with lightly oiled parchment paper.

Gooseberry Patch cookbook giveaway with Best-Ever Cookies Cookbook Review & Recipes These are the Best Ever Cookies on Pinterest! Make these Soft Brown Sugar Cookies and they will become a family favorite recipe in no time! It is an easy recipe, too! (One of the top pins on Pinterest!) Here we go again! Let's make this clear right up front, this cookbook isn't just about cookies! Hot Vanilla Nightcap 1 c. low-fat milk 1 t. vanilla extract 1 t. sugar, 1/4 t. cinnamon, divided Garnish: whipped topping Directions: Pour milk into a microwave-safe mug; stir in sugar, vanilla and 1/8 t. cinnamon. Soft Brown Sugar Cookies-these will MELT in your mouth! Ingredients: 2/3 c. butter, softened 1-1/2 c. brown sugar, packed 2 eggs 1 t. vanilla extract 2-1/2 c. all-purpose flour 1/2 t. baking powder 1 t. baking soda 1/2 t. salt 1 c. sour cream Directions: Blend together butter and brown sugar. Browned Butter Frosting 1/4 c. butter 1-1/2 c. powdered sugar 2 T. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat until it turns golden.

Ice cream sandwich recipes The cookies The first thing you’ll need to do is decide which cookies to bake. We chose to make four different kinds of cookies: traditional chocolate chip, chewy brownie chunk, peanut butter and oatmeal chocolate chip. Bake your cookies, allow them to cool and then place them in the freezer so that they’ll be firm when it's time to squish the ice cream between them. The ice cream To make the sandwiches with homemade ice cream: Line a baking dish (or other flat dish with 1 1/2-inch sides) with plastic wrap.Make your favorite ice cream flavor in your ice cream maker or with the plastic bag method.Pour the ice cream into the bottom of your prepared pan and spread to evenly fill the pan (1/2 to 1-1/4-inch thick).Press another sheet of plastic wrap on the surface of the ice cream.Chill until very firm (ideally 24 hours or more). If you’d prefer to use store-bought ice cream The assembly The combinations More recipes Basic chocolate soufflé Toffee crunch blondies Sugar-free sweet treat recipes

Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce When I was a kid, we briefly resided with my great grandmother, Lottie. She was a magnificent woman and an incredible cook. I was quite young – about 5 or so, but I have some pretty vivid memories of the time we spent in her home. I remember sitting at her dining room table and coloring for hours with the crayons she kept in an old coffee can, and an old fashioned rotary phone that sat on her perfectly organized desk. She had a drawer devoted to her beloved baking tools, and even went so far as to purchase a set of miniature tools just for me. On summer evenings, we’d all load up into the car and head to the Old English Parlour, owned by the Lorain Creamery – a local dairy that still offered home milk delivery well into the 1980s! I was always a caramel sundae kind of girl, but I also remember snagging bites of my dad’s Tin Roof Sundaes that were slathered in the most incredible hot fudge sauce. Now I’m thinking I need to tackle the whole homemade pierogi thing next!

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Saturday, May 14, 2011 Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies For the upcoming bake sale, I also made these soft chocolate chip cookies decorated with some swirl chips. However, I was making these soft chocolate chip cookies even before I started this blog and it’s still my favorite recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies. This is the first bake sale I’ve ever baked for and I was really surprised how long it took me to bake everything. Recipe: Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients 4 3/4 cups flour2 teaspoons baking soda2 cups butter, softened1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar1/2 cup white sugar2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix4 eggs2 teaspoons vanilla extract4 cups semisweet chocolate chips Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slightly adapted from this recipe found on All Recipes.

How to Make Peanut Butter S'Mores Turnovers Peanut Butter- S’Mores Turnovers I’m not much of a camper. My husband often takes my son on camping trips, and I happily stay behind and thank the gods for our bug-free house, cozy bed and well-stocked kitchen. I always send them off in comfort… marinate a little meat for them to throw on the grill, pack up some convenience foods and bake a few goodies too. When they return from their camping weekends, I hear mostly about the evenings sitting around the campfire. Story telling, snuggling in blankets, singing songs and roasting marshmallows for S’Mores seem to be recurring favorites. Here’s the How To: Thaw out a box of Puff Pastry, and cut along the fold lines to make 6 large rectangles. Layer 1/4 of a whole graham cracker, a piece of milk chocolate bar and a spoonful of peanut butter on one side of the Puff Pastry. Wet the edges with water (dip your finger in water and gently touch along the edge), fold over the filling ingredients and press edges together.

Shortbread Cookies This is the basis—a Part One, if you will—of so many delectable dessert recipes, some of which we’ll discuss in the next post. Crisp and flavorful, these shortbread-style cookies, while totally delicious in and of themselves, shouldn’t just be eaten alone. They’re meant to be a conduit, a liaison between cream and fruit…or with ice cream…or in any number of other shortbread-type applications. Note that these aren’t sugar cookies. They have an entirely different texture and flavor. Make ‘em and you’ll see what I mean. Add 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons softened butter and 1 cup sugar to a bowl. Beat this together until fluffy. Grab 2 cups flour… And a scant 1 cup (a little less than 1 cup) of corn starch… And sift them together into the bowl. Use a pastry cutter to incorporate flour mixture into butter/sugar mixture. If it seems overly dry and crumbly, you can cut in 1 more tablespoon salted butter if necessary. Refrigerate dough for 20 minutes. Grab your baking mat. Lightly flour the surface…

My FAVORITE Chocolate Chip Cookie I have experimented with countless recipes searching for that perfect chocolate chip cookie. The characteristics of the perfect cookie are a very personal matter, and here are my preferences: texture: chewy w. medium thickness --- everyone has their preference, and this is mine! chocolate to cookie ratio: 50/50 --- I really enjoy having a lot of chocolate in every bite chips vs. chunks: chunks --- I like sizeable pieces of chocolate in my cookie. type of chocolate: bittersweet --- I like using Valrhona 61% extra bitter nuts or other add-ins: NONE!! With the above criteria in mind, this recipe is the closest I've come to experiencing CCC perfection. - Don't substitute the pastry and bread flours w. - Hand chopped chocolate chunks, NOT premade chips - I will purchase a hunk of the best bittersweet chocolate that I can afford and hand cut them into chunks. - Chill the cookie dough at least 24 hours (I let my dough sit anywhere from 2-3 days) before baking.

Chocolate Frosting Shots! If you received an email from Pinterest saying I didn’t want recipes pinned, this is NOT true! I’m so sorry for this and have no idea why they would send out such a message! As is obvious from the fact I have a Chocolate Covered Pinterest Board, I love and appreciate when people pin my recipes. Please accept my apologies and by all means keep pinning whatever you want… I’m honored when people pin my recipes! -Katie Tequila? What’s that? Healthy Frosting Shots? Maybe you’ve heard of the popular bakery, Sprinkles? Yesterday, I made my own chocolate frosting shots: Thick Chocolate Frosting… You can try this on my delicious Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes or even the Black Bean Brownies. Or skip the cupcake, like I did, and simply serve yourself a big glass of unadulterated chocolate bliss. (or chocolate mousse!) Healthy frosting recipe: Open your coconut milk, and if it’s not already super-thick, leave the can (or transfer to a bowl) uncovered in the fridge overnight.

Cinco de Mayo piñata cookies Video how-to: Pinata Cookies Ingredients: 1 cup sugar1 cup powdered sugar1 cup butter1 cup vegetable oil2 eggs1 teaspoon cream of tartar1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon almond extract1 teaspoon baking soda5 cups flour1 tablespoon vanillaMini M&M candies1/2 cup powdered sugar (frosting)2 teaspoons milk (frosting) Directions to make piñata sugar cookies: Cream sugars with butter. Split dough into five, even-sized balls and one smaller ball (this will be the black one). Use a container the same approximate width of your donkey/burro piñata cookie cutter, and line it with plastic food wrap. Cover the layered dough and freeze for four hours or overnight. Remove the dough from the container and unwrap from the plastic. Immediately after you take them out of the oven, use your burro piñata cookie cutter to cut the cookie shapes. Create the hidden pocket For the middle cookies in each set, cut off the ears and legs, and cut out the center where the M&Ms will go. Assembling the piñata cookies

Fake Betty Crocker Cookie Mixes Ever have one of those "Ah-ha!" moments? I happened to me yesterday when I was lamenting the price of those very convenient Betty Crocker Cookie Mixes. I remember when they used to only cost $1.00 each in Walmart and now they're $2.50 each! Who says there's no inflation? Anyway, I usually just tell myself that I can make cookies from scratch anytime with the plentiful ingredients of my pantry, but then it came to me...Why can't I make cookie pre-mixes and keep them in ziplock bags for use at my convenience? So, I've come up with recipes for four of my family's favorite Betty Crocker Cookie Mixes. Fake Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookies: 1 Cup Flour 1/4 Cup White Sugar 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon Salt 3/4 Cup Chocolate Chips Mix together and store in a quart size ziplock bag. Fake Betty Crocker Sugar Cookies: 1 1/2 Cups Flour 3/4 Cup White Sugar 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon Salt Fake Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cookies:

Cookie Dough for Preggies! I was craving cookie dough today. Not really cookies, but just the cookie dough. Of course, I knew that I wasn't supposed to eat dough with raw eggs in it, so I lucked out when I found this recipe for cookie dough for ice cream. It didn't have all the extra ingredients that are important when you're going to cook the dough, stuff like baking soda. And it was eggless, and super simple to make. I made a few adjustments based on the reviews (and doubled it in the process), and am pretty pleased with the results. Eggless Cookie Dough 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup butter, softened 1/4 tsp. vanilla 1/4 cup milk 1 cup flour Pinch salt 1/2 cup chocolate chips In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar and butter until smooth. It's a bit wet right at first, chilling helps it to harden and get a better texture.

Simple and Delicious Peppermint Meringues | Shine Food Photo by Romulo Yanes Recipe by Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez, Bon Appétit For step-by-step photos that show how to pipe these swirled meringues, see How to Pipe Meringues. Ingredients 3 large egg whites, room temperature 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt 1/3 cup sugar 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract 12 drops red food coloring Read More: Bon Appétit's Favorite Winter Appetizers Preparation Preheat overn to 200°. Read More: 31 Delicious Holiday Cookies Dot coloring over surface of meringue; do not stir (the coloring will form swirls when piped). More from Bon Appétit: Bon Appétit's Guide to Fast, Easy Meals 10 Snacks You Thought Were Healthy But Really Aren't Tasty Holiday Detox Recipes 25 Ways to Use Sriracha

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