Cappucino Frosted Brownies

We borrowed this great recipe from the blog, Lets Eat. To see pics of the kids baking up these goodies for a cooking camp session, click here.

Brownies:

• 4 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

~~Melt chocolate squares and butter in microwave at high for 1 minute 30 seconds. Stir until combined. Next, stir in sugar. Add in eggs, 1 at a time, stirring until blended after each addition. Gradually stir in flour, vanilla and chocolate chips. Pour batter into a lightly greased aluminum foil lined 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely and frost.

Cappucino Buttercream Frosting

• 1 (1.16 oz.) package instant mocha cappucino mix (International Foods is what we used, and we could only find a 8 oz. tin of it and had to just "guesstimate" and scoop out what we felt like was a little over 1 oz. worth.)
• 1/4 cup warm milk
• 1 cup butter, softened (we actually only used 1/2 cup or 1 stick)
• 1 (16 oz.) box powdered sugar

~~Dissolve mix into warm milk. Beat butter and mixture, with an electric mixer, until well blended. Gradually add in powdered sugar. YUM-O!

****Just remember to pace yourselves with these, I suggest small bite size pieces....and start at breakfast. What? There's coffee in them, that's breakfast-y. :)

Million Dollar Pasta Salad

• 1 box bowtie pasta, cooked and cooled
• 1 small can sliced black olives
• 1 can artichokes, chopped
• 1 pkg. sundried tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 3 scallions, chopped
• grated parmesan

Dressing:

• 4 oz. olive oil
• 2 oz. red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1 tsp. garlic
• pepper

Mix pasta, vegetables and cheese together in a large bowl. Now, in a separate bowl, combine all the ingredients listed for the dressing. Mix thoroughly. Pour over the pasta mixture in the large bowl. I usually make mine the day before and put it in a gallon size ziploc bag so that I can mix it up good throughout the day and right before serving easily. Garnish with grated parmesan cheese on top!

Cornbread Salad--the best around!

• 2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix
• 4 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped (if I have yellow or orange, I add a bit of those in as well)
• 1 red onion, chopped or you can also use about 5 scallions -- both work great, whatever you have on hand, go with it!
• 4 heaping Tbsp. WICKLES pickle relish
• 9 slices crisp bacon, crumbled
• 1 1/2 cup mayonaise
• 1/4 cup WICKLES pickle juice (from the WICKLES pickles, not the relish)
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. cider vinegar

~~Bake cornbread as directed on box. Two boxes will make 12 big corn muffins, and I use about 9 of those for the recipe, and feed the other 3 to my kids!!! You can do as you wish....or bring those 3 over to my kids, when you have extra! :)

Mix tomatoes, peppers, onion and pickle relish together. Add crumbled bacon to vegetables. Mix mayonaise, pickle juice, sugar and vinegar until well blended. Layer 1/2 cornbread crumbled, then 1/2 vegetable mixture, and then 1/2 dressing. Repeat with a second layer of each. Chill overnight!

I always save a handful of cornbread crumbs and a spoonful of veggies to garnish the top before serving. It just looks better to me than a bland layer of dressing on top!

***And no, you don't have to use WICKLES pickles, I'm just telling you they are the best and make it taste oh.so.divine. But any sweet pickle relish will work. ENJOY!

• Hop on over to our family blog too, and see more photos and stories from our cooking camp sessions as well as updates on Broken Leg Boy's summer adventures!!

Salted Caramel Strawberries

As printed in Southern Living magazine, April 2009:

• 20 large fresh strawberries
• 40 caramels
• 3 Tbsp. whipping cream
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped mixed nuts
• wax paper

Pat strawberries completely dry with paper towels. (Caramel mixture will not stick to wet strawberries). Microwave caramels, 3 Tsp. whipping cream and 1/4 tsp. salt in a 1 qt. microwave safe bowl at MEDIUM (50% power) for 3 1/2 minutes or until smooth, stirring at 1 minute intervals. Dip each strawberry halfway into caramel mixture. Roll in nuts, and place on lightly greased wax paper. Let stand 15 minutes. Serve immediately, or cover and chill up to 8 hours.

***Instead of using mixed nuts, we used a can of almond nut toppings we keep on hand for ice cream sundaes. Worked great, tasted terrific!