Chocolate Confetti

I have seen these squares at just about every baby and wedding shower or tea i have been to. Call them Rockey Road squares, Confetti squares, or just plain Marshmallow squares, they are deliciously sweet and a staple at afternoon parties. I have never made them before, but my sister requested them for her shower this Sunday, and I found a recipe for them in the book my Mom gave me for Christmas, so off we go! 

Chocolate Confetti Squares.


1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips.
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter.
1/4 cup butter or hard margarine.
9 oz (250g) of mini coloured marshmallows. 


Heat first three ingredients in large heavy saucepan on lowest heat, stirring often, until almost melted. Removw from heat; stir until smooth. Let stand about 15 minutes, until lukewarm.
Add marshmallows. Stir until coated. Press firmly into 9 x 9" foil lined pan. Chill until firm. Cuts into 36 squares.

These are very sweet, and just slightly peanut buttery. They will surely disappear fast Sunday.

I discovered that, since i used a 9 x 13 pan, there seemed to be not enough chocolate to marshmallows; they clumped together but there was a lot of gaps with no chocolate. I used such a big pan because i want to be able to cut it so there is enough for 40 people. So, i made another batch of the chocolate and just poured it over top, shaking the pan to get it into the spaces. 

Yum, melted chocolaty goodness.  I underestimated the amount of space the marshmallows would take up in the pot, and therefore I had to transfer the whole mix into the working bowl of my mixer while stirring in order to get the last bit in. 

I also want to share with you some of the pictures I took last night. This week, i work 3 until 11PM. Yesterday afternoon at about 2, it started snowing, it came down quickly and became messy. By 5, the city bus commission decided to pull some routes, and all buses had stopped by nine; usually they go until midnight. I went out on my lunch and break, and on my walk home, and took these pictures. 

Germain Street -- 6:30 PM.

Bench by City Market (out of the wind) -- 6:30 PM.

Clock Tower at Market Square -- 6:45 PM.

Tree on King Square -- 11PM.

Gates to Loyalist Burial Grounds -- 11PM.

Elliott Row sidewalk -- 11:15 PM.

My car the next day -- January 13th, 2011 about 11 AM.

Thankfully, i only had to clear and move it. It is a rented parking spot and the snowplough is coming :-) 

Stay Toasty! 

Peanut Butter Fudge

A couple weeks ago, i had a meeting with my sister and her fiancés mom and aunt about the wedding shower, which is this coming weekend. Little sister started telling me which of my recipes I had made over Christmas that she wanted me to share with her friends. One, of course, was my fudge. It is famous in our circles. Also she wanted me to make the 'peanut butter fudge' that i had took home on Christmas Eve. She had not gotten around to trying it, and therefore had not known it was in fact Brown Sugar Fudge .  Once i corrected her, my sister asked  me to make it instead (as she is sweet and did not want me to go out of my way to find a new recipe). (or maybe she didn't want her friends to be guinea pigs for my new recipes).

My sisters both have always been peanut butter fiends, more so my younger sister. She will put it on everything, from eggs to toast. Me, i'm not crazy about it. I will eat peanut butter on my toast as a protein serving, but that is about it. But because it is her wedding, and she loves peanut butter, i set out on a mission to find a peanut butter fudge recipe. And i found one on the Eagle Brand website, Triple peanut fudge. I copied the recipe to a notepad on my computer, and saved it to my desk top and went out and got all the ingredients that i did not have on hand. This morning, i opened the notepad to squiggle the recipe down...and realized the recipe takes 12 squares of white chocolate; which i did not have and are not cheap! Oops. So another internet search. and i found a recipe for Peanut butter swirl Fudge on All Recipes. I kicked myself for not paying attention to a recipe (again) and i went with the swirls, with a slight adaption. This is my adapted recipe.

Peanut Butter Fudge.


2 + 1/4 cups peanut butter chips.
1 can (14oz) condensed milk.
1Tbsp butter or margarine.
1Tbsp peanut butter.
1 tsp vanilla extract.
1/4 cup chopped peanuts.

Melt chips, butter, peanut butter, condensed milk and vanilla together in a thick bottomed pot, stirring constantly until smooth. Add peanuts, blend well. Pour into lined 9" dish. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm.

The original recipe said to use 2 cups PB and 1/4 cup chocolate chips. Mix 1 cup of the milk with the PB and the remaining with the chocolate, then layer them into pan and swirl them together. There were a lot of bad comments about the chocolate part not setting, so i skipped it. Also, it did not call for any real peanut butter, just butter. There were a couple comments that it did not taste like real peanut butter, so i decided to substitute half of the butter for its peanut counterpart.  I only ended up having exactly 2 cups of peanut butter chips, so i added a few white wafers that i had leftover from Christmas (unfortunately i did not have enough to make the first recipe). 

Into the pot it all went, it melted together nicely, although it took longer than the chocolate fudge usually does. It looks nice in the pan, and i tried a bit after i scraped the pot. I added the peanuts because i had them from the recipe i was originally planning on making, and i wasn't going to waste them. 

Tomorrow, i am going to make some Chocolate Fudge  for this weekend, and sometime this week I have to make some Cherry Winks as well, something i got my family addicted to at Christmas. On Saturday, I will make a cake and a new recipe for squares, and one more treat that my sister loves. I will not be able to post that one here until Monday. My little sister was my first follower here, and i want her to be surprised by the special treat i am making for her shower. I can't wait for Sunday! 

Spoon Rolls & Pot Roast

I have always wanted to try making bread. My Mom made bread often when we were children. With five bellies to fill, it is cheaper than buying it and it is much more delicious!! I bought a package of yeast about a month before Christmas, but i have yet to get up the courage to actually use it. Finally, last week i found this recipe for Spoon Rolls on a blog i follow: Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. They looked so easy, i couldn't wait to try the recipe!! I was making a pot roast yesterday, so i decided it was high time i tried making rolls to go with it. A perfect pair!


Spoon Rolls

1 Tbsp yeast

1/4 cup warm water

3 Tbsp sugar

5 Tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup cold water

1 egg, slightly beaten

4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a small bowl.

In another bowl, add butter, milk, salt and sugar; microwave 2 + minutes or until the butter melts and the milk boils. 

Cool the milk mixture by adding the cold water.Let sit 5 - 10 minutes to cool further, then add egg.

Pour flour into large bowl; add yeast and milk mixtures. Stir until well blended.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk, about 1 hour. Punch down the dough and spoon into greased muffin tins (18).

Cover and let rise for 45 minutes. Bake at 400 F for 15-20 minutes.  Brush tops with butter or oil while hot to keep them soft.

I only had to bake them for about 12 minutes. On a whim, i checked them early and found them looking like the above picture, so i yanked them. They are absolutely delicious!! The perfect dinner roll. 

One of my favorite parts of making bread is the smell of the yeast. When i was a kid, i would watch the yeast as it activated and expanded in the bowl. I used the measuring cup to let it do its thing, to save a dish. I had to use the cup to measure the water anyway. It's a bit blurry, but here is a picture of the yeast after it has activated.

I also used a larger measuring cup to microwave the milk and butter for the same reason. Why bother using a bowl when the cup will do. I started to mix everything by hand in my mixing bowl, but then got lazy and dumped it into the mixer. This was the first time out for the dough hook and it worked great!

By this time, i was starting to doubt my baking abilities...was this going to do what it was supposed to do and rise? I covered it and checked it after 15 minutes and it still looked the same. After 30, no visible change. I stopped torturing myself and found something to do for the next 30 minutes.

And it rose as it was supposed to! Finally, i pulled the dough apart and put it in the pans. My favorite rolls that Mom had made when i was a kid were the ones with 3 bumps; she made these in her muffin tins. The rest she usually made in square cake pans, side by side rolls to tear apart. I think the ones with the 3 bumps were my favorite just because they looked fancy, and therefore felt a little more special. I decided yesterday to make some of these in my muffin top pan. After 45 minutes, they were ready for the oven!

Meanwhile, I made dinner. Or rather, my crock pot did. I had gotten a roast Thursday night on sale, a fair sized chunk for 10 dollars. I threw it in the crock pot at about 12:30 with 2 chopped potatoes, a chopped sweet potato, a couple of carrots and a bit of onion. Over this, i threw a cup of water mixed with a pre-packaged slow cooker pot roast mix. At about 4, i turned it down to low and at about 6 i checked it and it was done!

I covered it with tinfoil and let it sit while i prepared everything else. The veggies were floating, so the first thing i did was drain off the liquid; I left them in the crock pot on warm. As for the liquid, i used a mini strainer and poured it through 3 times, then put it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. The refrigerator caused some of the grease to congeal, so i was able to strain it one more time to remove some more (i did this because i had no cheesecloth). Onto the stove it went, and i added about 2 Tbsp of flour that had been mixed with about 1/4 cup of flour. I stirred it and let it bubble.

The gravy was not thickening, so i ended up adding some more flour/water to it. It turned out yummy! As for the veggies, i served them up beside the meat with some frozen peas on the side. 

There were plenty of veggies left, so that will be tonight's dinner. The leftovers of the roast and gravy i threw in the freezer for next weekend. I will warm them up in the crock pot while I am at my sister's wedding shower, so when i get home all i will have to do is make some mashed potatoes and more frozen peas and i will have another dinner. I found the mix i used was a bit salty, so next time i will probably dilute it a bit more. Other than that, i think my first bread and pot roast experience went over very well! I am also going to try the spoon roll recipe again, but the next time i might try to make a loaf of bread out of it. 

Party Ham Casserole

I mentioned yesterday that my favorite grocery store has an awesome sale this week, oodles of buy one get one stuff. One of the things i got was ham slices. These are the type that you fry up for breakfast with your eggs and home fries. I decided to use my first package for a recipe instead, and spent most of the day Friday at work searching online for recipes. I found this one at Cook.com. There were no pictures, it is basically a search engine cooking website that people can post their recipes. This one is supposed to serve 6, but i found it best suited to 4.

Party Ham Casserole.


4 oz noodles, cooked.
1 can (10 oz) cream of mushroom soup.
1/2 cup milk.
1 tsp freeze dried onion.
2 Tbsp mustard.
1 cup sour cream.
2 cups ham, chopped.
1/4 cup bread crumbs.
1 + 1/2 Tbsp butter, melted.
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan.

In large saucepan, combine milk and soup; stirring until smooth. Add onion, mustard and sour cream. Stir to blend.
In prepared 1 + 1/2quart casserole, layer half of noodles, ham and sauce. Repeat.
Toss bread crumbs with butter, sprinkle over casserole. Top with cheese.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

I don't have a food scale, so i just cooked up 2 cups of broad egg noodles. I also did not read the recipe well, i was rushing again, and so i just mixed the grated Parmesan in with the bread crumbs and butter. Above is the casserole going into the oven. After taking this picture, i took that bag of cheese laying to the left of it and gave it a little sprinkle. 

This is a two quart casserole; i did stop long enough to check that. Also, i didn't bother 'preparing' it. I just threw everything in. It didn't stick. I served it with a store bought tin of bake your own croissants. 

In all honestly, i had serious doubts about this recipe. It has many elements that i am not wild about (mustard, cream of mushroom soup, egg noodles and sour cream). The sauce looked disgusting after it was mixed. Oh, even though it said to mix it in a saucepan, it did not say to heat it, so i didn't bother. 

Doubting i would like it, i took the first bite and was surprised. The recipe smelled good when it was baking, and it tasted amazing! It also looks very light, but it was quite filling with the croissants. My beau and I both agreed that this recipe will have to be made again. 

Coming up next: Sunday Dinner: my first attempt at homemade pot roast and rolls! 

Cinnamon Chip Crumbles.

My Mom gave me a cookbook for Christmas full of square recipes. It is a new printing (according to the front cover) but the book was originally published the year I was born, and has sold over 1 million copies. Ya can't go wrong with this one, obviously it must have a few good recipes :-)

So the first recipe i decided to make from my new book is called Chip Squares. Simple, quick, and perfect for tonight's dessert! I modified it a bit by using cinnamon chips instead of chocolate chips. I have been looking for a recipe to use them in for a long time. The picture of this recipe looked like they had mini chips in them, all i have on hand are large...except for the cinnamon ones. Time to start baking!!

Chip Crumbles

2 cups all purpose flour.
1 cup brown sugar, packed.
1 cup butter or hard margarine, softened.
1 tsp. vanilla extract.
1 cup finely chopped walnuts.
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips.

Mix first 4 ingredients in large bowl until crumbly.
Add walnuts and chocolate chips. Stir. Press firmly into 9 x 9 inch pan. Bake in 350 F oven for about 25 minutes or until browned.
Cool slightly; cut while still warm into 36 squares.

As i am typing this, i am eating a slice. It is kind of like shortbread, It might pair well with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream, but alone it is great! Very cinnamon-y due to the chips i used. I used my mixer to blend the first ingredients. I was a bit worried as it was quite dry. 

But once i got it into the pan and started pressing it in, it packed together nicely. Oh, i also did not bother adding the walnuts. I don't have any on hand and after the day i had out, i am not going anywhere near another store for a week...if ever.

My favorite grocery store is having a great buy one get one sale this week. I saw the flyer and knew i had to take advantage. I was smart and went yesterday morning at 10 am. The only competition i had were a few moms and seniors. Then this morning, i discovered i had forgotten a couple things i need for making sweets for my sister's wedding shower. Out i went. To say that the store was busy is the understatement of the century!! Thankfully the store is attached to a mall so there is plenty of parking, but I had to park very far away, which normally i don't mind; walking to the store i almost got run over a few times from people looking left and turning right.  I barely got into the door, and i almost had to push my way to the back to get the one thing i needed. I finally got it and was lucky to cash out quick and get out of there. But i still had to go to three other stores, all were busy, they were at two other malls nearby and traffic was horrendous. I don't really mind busy stores, i can live with it. What really gets to me is the traffic. It grates my nerves that people just sit blocking lanes, or cut others off, or if they are going at a snail's pace. I am not the best driver myself, but there are a lot of people out there who should not be on the roads! I would rather park my car and walk from store to store, so long as it is not to cold, rather than contend with traffic trying to get into the 3 different malls that are packed close together. Any-who...that's my rant. 

While I was out, i found these little treasures...Hershey kisses are divine by themselves, but now they have stuffed them with cherries!!!! My favorite! I scooped these up at the Bulk Barn. 

The one on the left is a cookies and cream; white chocolate with chocolate cookie bits. The middle is the decadent cherry kiss. And the one to the right is the original. Yumm, these were worth almost getting run over!

Bulls Eye Beef Stew

Yesterday afternoon, i felt like making a pot roast. I then found that they are on sale this week at my favorite grocery store! Yay! But...i have no money until tomorrow, and the sale ends tonight...boo. Either way, i decided it was time to put my new crock-pot to the test. I knew i had some beef stew bits in the freezer, so i decided to have beef stew instead of pot roast (for now) so onto the Kraft site i went and found a really nice stew recipe called Swiss steak. Looks yummy! And so i wrote it down and was set. Then i got home and found out i do not have half of the ingredients (after the meat is half thawed, gotta use it now!). So quickly i rushed back to Kraft and i found this recipe; Bulls Eye Beef Stew. Check out the professional picture!

1 cup 25%-less-sodium beef broth

1/2 cup Bull's-Eye Guinness Draught Beer Blend Barbecue Sauce
1 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1 lb. (450 g) stewing beef, cut into 1-1/4-inch cubes
1 lb. (450 g) red potatoes (about 4), quartered
4 large carrots (1 lb./450 g), cut into 1-inch-thick slices
1 large onion, cut into chunks
3 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. water
 
Mix broth, barbecue sauce and oregano in slow cooker. Add all remaining ingredients except flour and water; toss to coat. Cover with lid. Cook on LOW 8 to 9 hours (or on HIGH 4 to 5 hours).
Transfer meat and vegetables to serving bowl with slotted spoon; cover to keep warm.

Mix flour and water until well blended. Stir into juices in slow cooker; cover. Cook on HIGH 15 min. or until slightly thickened. Spoon over meat and vegetables.

I am low on groceries, and it was 10 PM, so i skipped the oregano and the onion and went with a sweet potato, regular potatoes and a carrot, and at the end, some frozen peas. I also didn't bother with removing the meat and veggies to add the flour water, I just added it into everything. And i used a store brand beer BBQ sauce, not the Bulls Eye, since that is what i had on hand.

My new crock pot is pretty neat; I can turn it on and program it to cook a certain number of hours and then it will turn itself off and go into warm mode, so the food does not over cook. I turned it on at about 11:30 last night and it cooked while i slept. It also has a cover that his a gasket, so it does not rattle (something i find my smaller one does when the steam gets stuck in between the cover and the pot) and it has little hooks on the cover to seal it tight for transportation). The below picture i took at about 7 this morning. I left it on warm and went back to bed. When i got up, i mixed the flour and water and set it for another half hour, which is the above picture. The only thing i do not like about it is that it emits a very loud beep when it sets and when it turns off. I think it actually woke me up this morning.

This is a delicious recipe, and i cooked up some rice to go beside it to make it stretch further. It is a sweet and delicious stew. It cost next to nothing to make, the beef cubes were about 3 dollars, and the veggies i am sure add up to less than that. If i had more time, i would have made tea biscuits to go with it. This one is going into the remake file! 

As for the roast, i found a 30 dollar check i had forgotten to cash, so tonight after work i am off to the grocery store to get my roast for the weekend!!

Cheddar Bacon rice ... stuff.

Last night i got home form work at about 9:30 determined that i was going to make something this morning for work dinner tonight. I am tired of the frozen meals, and they never really fill me. I am also very low on groceries since i have not been out since before Christmas (I have done it in years past, and decided to never again go to a store the 2 weeks leading up to and from Christmas), but i knew i had some chicken in the freezer...so what to do with it? I want to try my new crock pot, but it is huge and i had no plans for company today. Either way, i went searching through my drawer with pre-packaged sides looking for something to go with the chicken. The conversation to myself went something like this:
"hmm, chicken...this rice looks good, but not bacon cheddar, why did i buy that? Some side-kicks, to much really...gravy...Ohhh, tootsie rolls, i forgot about those...(while chewing tootsie roll) what's this? A recipe...hmmm" so i ended up taking out the cheddar bacon rice (a flavour i am not wild about) and a package of hamburger, to make a recipe i found on the back of this package:

Cheddar and bacon beef skillet


1 pkg Uncle Ben's Fast & Fancy cheddar & bacon flavour rice.
1/2 Lb ground beef.
1/2 cup ketchup.
2 cups water.
1 Tbsp butter or margarine.

Brown beef in large skillet; drain. Add rice, spice package, water and ketchup. Stir; bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer for 15 to 17 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in butter and serve.

It tastes good, but i have to tell you, this stuff reeks while cooking. I don't know if it is the combination of the vinegar in the ketchup and the bacon-cheddar, but it stank! 

I did not add the butter or margarine, even draining the burger, this stuff looked really greasy after getting everything in. 

This was after everything went in, and it was just starting to boil. I covered it and went for my 10 minute workout. I just started using a new video Saturday, so this week i am only doing the ten minute warm up / cool down to ease myself into it.

This constitutes as a cover in my house. I haven't any pans with covers, so usually i dig out my trusty pizza pan when something needs a lid. I usually do not make home made pizza, so it is about the only use the lonely pan sees. 

It tastes good, it was certainly easy and quick to make, so if it fills me up for the evening, aside from the smell while cooking, this might just go into the re-make file, the next time these rice packets are on sale. They are not cheap!!  

Oh, it only called for a half pound of burger, my package was about 3/4 Lb so the rest i added some Parmesan and Mrs Dash and I am going to make a burger for lunch, yummy!!