Filed under: Food I Make, Random Foodie Thoughts | Tags: brownies, caramel sauce, desserts, pecans, Stuffed brownies, Tastefully Simple
Recently, I volunteered to help with a fundraiser at work. My choices were to provide canned drinks, to provide sandwiches, or to make desserts for sack lunches.
I decided to make two desserts. I figured I could swing it.
What is it that they say? “No good deed goes unpunished.”
For sure.
First, I made chocolate-white chocolate-peanut butter chip cookies with walnuts. No problem. Cookies are no big deal. They turned out fine. I bagged them for the sack lunches, and they were done. One dessert down; one to go.
Then, I attempted to make brownies with a caramel cream cheese and pecan stuffing. I had no recipe since I made it up. I just figured brownies with caramel and cream cheese with pecans would be good.
Here is the part where I should have quit while I was ahead.
I took two boxes of regular size brownies and prepared one according to the directions on the box. I baked it for about ten minutes while I prepared the rest.
To make the stuffing for the brownies, I mixed one box of softened cream cheese with a jar of Tastefully Simple caramel sauce that I found in the pantry. Then, I mixed a cup of pecans and a half cup of sugar with two tablespoons of melted butter. I baked the sugared pecans for five minutes to toast the pecans and create a nice sugar glaze. When the pecans had cooled a bit, I mixed them in with the cream cheese. If I could do it over, I would beat in a half cup of sugar into the cream cheese mixture. The cream cheese just never lost its twang.
I spread the caramel cream cheese concoction on the first brownie batch. Then I covered that with the second box of prepared brownie mix.
I baked and baked and baked it at 350 for over thirty minutes. The top never got done, the bottom was who knows how done, and I was getting impatient since I wanted it to cool and cut it ahead of time.
What to do? Crank up the heat, of course.
I decided to broil the brownies for five minutes. Why? I don’t know.
I fired up the broiler and left to find another activity for my five free minutes. With about one minute left on the clock, a peculiar smell hit my nose.
I guess this has happened to everyone. That tell-tale smell of burned food that went a little too long. I jumped up and raced to the oven to find a charred clump of brownie.
I had managed to ruin what had started out okay.
The caramel cream cheese with pecans had been fine.
The brownie mix had been great.
But, I ruined the whole thing. The problem then was that I had committed to provide desserts to the sweetest lady ever who was counting on me to provide desserts for our fundraiser.
The pressure-what’s a girl to do?
Cover those burned bad boys with powdered sugar and send them on, of course.
Next time, I’ll provide the drinks.
Filed under: Food I Make | Tags: butter, butter recipes, food, food blog, recipes, Tastefully Simple
I love Tastefully Simple’s Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning. It makes wonderful garlic toast. However, I would caution you about eating it if you are friends with vampires or if you are the only person in your group eating it. It is gah-lick-e.
That being said, it was worth a try to have some in compound butter form on corn. Luckily, on the day I tried it on fresh corn, I was alone except for my kids, and no vampires (friends or otherwise) were within sight.
I liked it a lot. The garlic/spicy flavor of the butter complemented the corn well. I can see using this in dishes with corn off the cob in the future. Yum.
Filed under: Food I Make | Tags: burgers, food, fried green tomatoes, Tastefully Simple
Tonight, we tried something new. I made burgers in the usual way-one pound of beef with one and a half tablespoons of Montreal seasoning.
They came out beautifully from the grill.
But then, we changed it up by adding a fried green tomato to the top along with the usual mayo and grilled onions.
You wanna talk about good?
I sliced them thick and dredged them in flour, an egg wash, and then an equal mix of plain breadcrumbs and Panko breadcrumbs that I seasoned with Tastefully Simple’s Italian bread seasoning.
I fried them for three minutes on each side and drained them on a paper towel before placing them on top of the burgers.
Wow. I didn’t know I could even make something so good!