Coconut Cream Pie

I used a recipe for banana cream pie as the basis of this recipe. You can either use a regular pie crust or a graham cracker pie crust.

1 - 9" baked pie crust

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1 2/3 c water

14 oz sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks- beaten (save the egg whites for meringue or other use)

2 Tbsp buter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 c coconut

Topping:

Meringue or Cool Whip

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat dissolve cornstarch in water, make sure it is well dissolved. Whisk in condensed milk and egg yolks. Continue to cook, while whisking, until thickened and bubbly. This can take about 15 minutes, make sure you whisk continually to prevent burning. After thick and bubbly, remove from heat and mix in butter and vanilla. Set aside to cool slightly.

While the mixutre is cooling, if desired, toast the coconut.

Mix 1 cup of the coconut into the mixture and pour into the pie crust. Smooth over and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of coconut on top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours until set or overnight.

When ready to serve, top with one container Cool Whip or Meringue.

Chocolate Caramel Cake

I made this cake twice in the past week because I had so many of the ingredients left over. I found the recipe while searching the net for a cake that was both chocolate and caramel. The recipe can be found here.

Just a few notes, you will want to be careful making the caramel sauce, you can burn it easily. However, I didn't drizzle it on either cake and the second time I made the cake I just used 3 Tbsp of dulche de leche (with a little salt) in the butter cream instead of 1 Tbsp and 2Tbsp of the caramel sauce. I also found that the whipped ganache makes enough for two cakes, cut it in half.

It is easier to figure out what you need when it is all combined as I have down below (I have factored in half the whipped ganache suggestion):

-1 devils food cake mix

-2 3/4 c heavy cream

- 1 1/2 c sugar

- 1 lb chocolate chips

- 3 sticks butter

- 1Tbsp Dulche de Leche

- 1 c powdered sugar

- salt

- vanilla

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a coworkers birthday last month. The original recipe is on JoyofBaking.com I made them into mini cupcakes instead of regular size and they turned out great! I believe I ended up with about 36 mini cupcakes, and the icing recipe was a little short. This may be my go to chocolate cake recipe for the time being.

My take on Mississippi Caviar

During a potluck at work a coworker brought in Mississippi Caviar it was okay but it really wasn't my style. Since I like to change things to fit my taste I changed it up, alot. Most of the ingredients you probably already have on hand, if not they are cheap.

1 can of sweet corn, drained and rinsed

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 avocado, diced

1 small red onion, minced

1-2 jalepeno peppers, minced

1 can of diced tomatoes with green chiles OR 2-3 roma tomatoes and a small can or green chiles

1/3-1/2 cup of Zesty Italian dressing

hot sauce, to taste.

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and refrigerate. As the mixture sits it will bring out the flavors and depending on the amount of peppers and hot sauce added, it will slowly start to taste hotter.

Serve with tortilla chips, crackers, or over a grilled chicken salad.

Baked Chicken Wings

Chicken wings

½ c melted butter
¼ c hot sauce
3 TBSP vinegar
1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
½ tsp Paprika (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix butter and hot sauce together.
Dip wings in mixture place single layer on pan (use a pan that has an edge like a jelly roll pan of you will have a mess)
Sprinkle dry seasoning over wings, flip and sprinkle both sides if you want
It says bake for 20-30mins. (I like mine baked rather well done-ish so I allow about an hour.)

*I flip the wings at some point. I also take the pan out about ¾ of the way through and dump off all the extra grease/butter, it helps then get a lil crunchier faster than if you don’t.

Baby Back Ribs

It's the middle of winter but that doesn't mean that you can't make ribs, and on the grill at that (well partially). This recipe has mixed reviews from myself. The ribs turned out great, as in the tenderness, etc. The sauce, ehh. It has bourbon in it and I don't drink Bourbon. I also like more zest to my ribs, and sometimes gooey sauce. I'm pretty sure this would work even if you used a different sauce, or dry rub. But if you like bourbon, or dont mind the taste of alcohol in your food, give it a shot.

This is adapted from the food network


Ingredients
1-2 racks baby back ribs (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1 recipe Bourbon Barbecue Sauce, recipe follows

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (Make the sauce while preheating)

Cut the racks of ribs in half crosswise. Rub the ribs, paying special attention to the meaty side, with 1/2 cup of the sauce. (A pastry brush works great for this) Lay the rib pieces meat side down in an 11 by 13-inch baking dish. The pieces will overlap slightly.

Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake until the meat begins to pull away from the ends of the bones and the ribs are just tender, about 1 hour (I cooked mine for two hours). You can bake the ribs up to a day before and keep them refrigerated. Bring refrigerated ribs to room temperature about 1 hour before you grill them.

Preheat an outdoor grill to medium-high heat (my gas grill was at about 450 degrees). Grill the ribs, brushing them with about half the remaining sauce, until they're crispy and heated through, about 10 minutes. Move the ribs around as they grill, the sugar in barbecue sauce makes it easy for them to burn. Let the ribs rest for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting them into 1 or 2-bone pieces. Put out the rest of the sauce for dipping or brush it over the ribs. (If you are going to put out the extra sauce, you need to make sure it was kept separate from the basting sauce the whole time. You do not want to serve the sauce that touched uncooked pork.)

Bourbon Barbeque Sauce:

1/2 cup steak sauce

1/2 cup bourbon or good dark beer

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon regular or grainy Dijon mustard

2 pinches red pepper flakes

Kosher salt

Stir all ingredients together in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Yield: about 1 1/2 cups

Peanut Butter Blossoms / Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

This recipe can be used for both Peanut Butter Blossoms or mini Peanut Butter Cup Cookies. If you are using it for peanut butter blossoms you will need hershey kisses and for PB Cup cookies mini reese cups. The recipe yields about 40-50 cookies.

1 stick butter at room temp
1/2 c Peanut Butter
1/2c white sugar plus additional sugar for coating if making PB blossoms
1/2 c light brown sugar
1 egg
2 TBSP milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 c Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
40-50 hersehy kisses or reese peanut butter cups

Cream butter and peanut butter. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. After butter and PB are creamed add sugars and cream again. Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three parts. After everything is incorporated cover and chill atleast one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls.* If making PB blossoms next roll in sugar and place on baking sheet, if making PB cup cookies do not roll in sugar and place in mini quiche pans. Bake for 10-12 minutes until just starting to turn brown.

While the cookies are baking unwrap candy. Immediately after removing cookies from oven, place one candy in the center of each cookie. (Candy center will be soft for a while even after the cookie part is cool.)

*Using only a cookie scoop will not have the dough compact enough, a scoop can be used to regulate size but each ball still needs to be rolled into a ball.