Old fashioned oreo cookies

Ingredients:

2 (18 ounce) boxes of devil’s food cake mix

4 eggs, beaten well

2/3 cup oil

½ cup butter

4 ounces cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Cookies:

Mix cake, eggs and oil together

Shape into balls

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. They are done then the tops look cracked.

Filling:

Mix butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together.

When cookies are completely cooled, frost the flat side and put the cookies together.

Black Sorcery Fondue

Our Valentine's day tradition is to have a fondue dinner with our kids.  I don't feel the need to go out ON valentine's day and wait hours to eat at a restaurant that I can go to a few days later and get right in.  So, it's a stay-at-home, celebrate-with-the-family type of day for us. 

This year, I'm foregoing the entire fondue dinner because I may or may not be having a baby, but we're going to stick with dessert.  So, here is my favorite recipe - Black Sorcery Fondue!

2 T light corn syrup

1/2 C half-and-half

8 - 9 oz of semi-sweet good chocolate - like Ghiradelli

1 t vanilla

Put everything together in a double boiler and heat slowly, stirring frequently until melted and blended.

You can transfer the mixture to a true fondue pot to keep warm, but we eat it so fast, we just keep it in the double boiler.

Our favorite things to dip:

vanilla wafers

strawberries

bananas

marshmallows

pretzles

pound or angel food cake squares

     

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie

This one's an award winner!  Sure to win any ward's pie making contest!

1 refrigerated pie crust

1 container (12 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 package (6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 C cold milk

1 package (5.1 oz) vanilla or white chocolate or banana cream instant pudding

2 medium bananas

Strawberries for garnish, if desired.

1.  Heat oven  to 425 degrees.  Bake pie crust 10 - 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool completely.

2.  Place 1 1/2 C of the whipped topping and chocolate chips in a microwave safe container and microwave, uncovered, for 30 seconds.  Stir.  If there are still bits of unmelted chocolate, zap it again for another 20 - 30 seconds.  Stir until smooth.  Put 2 Tablespoons of the chocolate mixture into a small, ziplock bag and set aside.  (I usually stand it up in a small cup so that it doesn't spread all over inside the bag.)  Spread remaining chocolate mixture over the bottom and sides of the pie crust.

3.  Slice the bananas and place slices on top of the chocolate.

4.  Whisk the pudding and the milk for 1 minute or until mixture begins to thicken.  Fold in 1 1/2 C of the whipped topping.  (There should be just a bit of topping left to use as garnish).  Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

5.  When ready to serve, garnish the pie by snipping a small tip off the corner of the ziplock and squeezing the chocolate mixture over pie in a decorative design.  Pipe rosettes of whipped topping around the edge of the pie (I usually do 10 - 12).  Place sliced strawberries, pointing up, just in front of, or in the whipped topping rosettes and you can place a slice of banana too (but those can turn brown rather quickly, so unless you're serving it right away, I'd hold off on the banana slices.)

Smoreos!

So, no - I didn't come up with this idea myself (you can thank Gilmore Girls for this), but a friend of mine came up with the name for them when I tried them out while we were camping over Thanksgiving.

You will need:

Marshmallows (the big kind)
A way to roast/toast the marshmallows (i.e. fire and roasting sticks)
Oreos

Think Smores. Twist open an oreo, toast your mallow, and smoosh between the oreo cookie. They are amazing. =)

The Easiest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies - Ever!

1 Spice Cake Mix
1 Regular (small) can of pumpkin
1 Bag Chocolate Chips (I prefer milk chocolate)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix spice cake mix with can of pumpkin (don't add anything else!), add chocolate chips as desired.
Spoon on to an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out fairly clean.
Cool, eat!