Peanut Butter Cheese Cake Brownies.

I admit, I have a problem. You see I'm sort of in love with Sweetened Condensed Milk. So I constantly search recipes to avoid just eating it straight from the can. Yes, I am that gross, don't judge me.

I also have a huge problem with chocolate and peanut butter together. I admit alone I'm not too huge on either, but put them together and it could be dangerous to put a child between me and them.

So when I found this recipe on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/pin/339370637/ I knew what I had to do. By knew what I had to do I mean that first I pinned it and clicked on it a few times a day reminding myself that I had all the things I needed to make it. Then I posted it to facebook, if I'm going to suffer, everyone there will too. Maybe if I'm lucky someone local will make them first and then I don't have to eat 75% of the pan of brownies myself. This plan didn't work, so today I broke down and made them.



First off the recipe calls to use your favorite fudgey brownie mix, personally I don't keep mixes. I'm not against them it's just that I have no will power. I've tried to keep them in the house for birthday cake emergencies but they never last longer then a week before that little voice in my head yells "MAKE ME A CAKE, BITCH!" So I found a fudgey brownie recipe and got to work. Start by setting your oven for 350*f

1/2c butter
2oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2c sugar
2 eggs
1/3c flour
pinch of salt

Melt butter and chocolate together, I did it in the microwave in 30sec increments. Stir together until smooth.

Stir in Sugar and eggs

Stir in flour and salt.

If you were just making brownies you would stop here and bake for 40 minutes. But we're not so we're just going to pour them in the greased pan and set then aside.



Well now we get to the fun part. I call it fun because I made the mistake of buying the cheapest hand mixer I could find and it's lowest speed is "fear for your hands while you awkwardly try to angle the flying batter away from the coffee maker"

So now we have our hand mixers ready, we're going to beat an 8oz brick of cream cheese until it's looks like this:



Add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and 1/2c creamy peanut butter to the cream cheese and beat into submission, I mean until smooth. Then add one bag of Peanut Butter chips [the original recipe called for Reese's Pieces].



Spoon evenly over brownie batter:



Bake for 40mins until it looks like this


Mix a bag of milk chocolate chips with 3 tbsp of heavy cream [I used half and half] and microwave on high for 1min, stir until smooth and spread over the top.



Cover and chill, then eat until it takes heavy machinery and Richard Simmons to get you out of your house.

Better late then never.

So those appetizer recipes, it's about time I posted them.



Cream Cheese Stuffed Baguette.

I cut about a foot off of a baguette, I cut then end off of it and used a bread knife to hollow it out like this:


I ended up with this:


I set that aside. While I was carving up the bread I was also frying some bacon, 4 strips were for this, when the bacon was crisp I set it to drain and sauteed a small onion with some balsamic vinegar until translucent.

In a bowl I used a fork to soften an 8oz brick of cream cheese, I added 1tsp seasoning salt, 1tsp garlic, 1tsp basil, and 1tsp paprika then the onions and the bacon [now chopped]. I mixed it all together and using a butter knife I filled the baguette with the cream cheese.

The end result:


Then I did the puff pastry packages.

You can really fill these with whatever you like I did three different ones. While I was cooking everything else I also had half an acorn squash in the microwave steaming [flesh down 1/4c water 10-15min]. I pulled it out, scooped out the flesh and mixed it with 1tsp butter, salt&pepper to taste, a pinch of basil and 1/4c white Cheddar.

I rolled out the pastry to about 1mm thickness and cut into about 20 squares. I put the squash together first putting about 1tbsp of filling per sq.



The others were done similarly. The second packages were portobello mushrooms [which I'd sauteed in balsamic and lime cordial after the onions], smoked muscles [2-3 per package], and onions [1/2tsp per package].

Smoked oysters, bacon [about 1/4 slice per package], and parmesan.



Bake 400*f 15-20 min Until they look like this:



Tada! They were even enjoyed by my picky eaters:




Of course, my husband got home 2 hours later unexpectedly, so I made him bacon and eggs.

Reborn as a food blog?

I'm sorry Blog, I neglected you. I created this blog to help me get through my husbands tour, however I managed without it. The thing about having a soldier overseas is there's only much I can share with the public, especially when that public is the internet. But he's been home safe and sound for a few months and is now back to work. I thought today was the day to dust you off.

Sometimes my husband gets sent on short overnight jobs that don't involve leaving the city, we're a training base and he's in communications so by sometimes I mean, a lot. Tonight is one of those nights. I tend to take advantage of those nights, I get extra cleaning done, maybe I let one or both kids stay up late. And I cook food my husband won't eat.

He now he was gone 3 nights last week and I got most of my normal cravings out in that time. Hamburger mess [1lb ground beef and a can of vegetable soup with an onion and some mushrooms, serve it with beets and boiled potatoes nomnomnom] and Saurkrout and Sausages. So when he said he'd be gone today I thought "shit what craving can i take care of?" It's only one night so stinky fish was not in order, not enough time to get the fish smell out... So it's an appetizer picnic night.

I had to pick up a few groceries the other day so I took a look in the cupboard/fridge to see what I need to use, there wasn't much that needed to go. I did have half a package of puff pastry, two packages of cream cheese, half a bag of shredded cheese and half a pepper squash though. So this is what I decided to do. I'm going to do puff pastry packages in three flavors, Squash/cheese/caramelized onions, Smoked Mussels/balsamic portobello mushrooms/parmesan, and smoked oysters/bacon. Nom right? Also I'm going to hollow out about 12" of baguette and fill it with Cream cheese, bacon, cheddar, caramelized onions, and herbs/garlic. The other half? Bruschetta.

I'm sort of inventing on this one folks so as I make it I will keep track of my ingredients, take photos and will post an update tomorrow with recipes and photos.