Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Brownies

One of my favorite pastimes is searching for recipes and Pinterest has only made that the search more fun and successful!! This recipe is from Pinterest and I made it for a dinner party we were hosting. They were a complete hit although, I'll warn you that these brownies are REALLY rich.  I froze the leftovers and they came in handy throughout the next month as we went to various parties/gatherings. They still tasted delicious right out of the freezer or just warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I adapted the recipe by increasing the caramel and cookie layer(as a disclaimer this recipe for cookies is NOT the cookie base I use for making chocolate chip cookies) as well as added more chocolate chips since I used a larger pan. I also used half n' half instead of the heavy cream.


ingredients:

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
10 ounces caramel candy squares, unwrapped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Sea salt, for sprinkling over caramel and bars

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 11x7 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the melted butter and sugars together until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. In a large microwave safe bowl, combine the caramels and heavy cream. Microwave caramels on High until caramels are melted, stirring every 20 seconds. This will take about 2 minutes, depending on your microwave.

5. Divide the cookie dough in half. Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula. Pour hot caramel over the cookie dough. Sprinkle caramel with sea salt. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough over the caramel and spread dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle the bars with additional sea salt.

6.Bake cookie bars for 30 minutes or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool bars on a wire rack to room temperature. Cut bars into squares and serve.

Chicken Salad

Ruel and I've been looking for ways to save $ on food and although, this is probably a no-brainer for many I've been trying to be creative with leftovers that are in our fridge. We made some yummy chicken the other night that had a Caribbean theme. Ruel injected the chicken with a marinade we bought from the grocery store and then we added some Tony's seasoning to the outside of the chicken and baked it. We had a few chicken breasts left as well as some sauce from a previous meal. I knew I wanted to combine the two for a chicken salad but wasn't sure how it would turn out. I made it for lunch today and it turned out really good!!

_ 2 chicken breasts-you can be creative cooking these with whatever flavoring you like.

_ 1/2 cup of "White BBQ Sauce". I substituted Greek yogurt for the mayo, used Dijon mustard instead of spicy brown mustard, and omitted the horseradish.

_ Handful of black olives

_ 1/4 of a  red onion

_ 4-6 ounces of capers

_ 1 tablespoon of mayo or Greek yogurt

_ Salt and pepper

Dice the chicken and put in a bowl. Slice olives and red onion very thinly and then chop in little pieces. Add olives, red onion, and capers to the bowl with chicken.  I eyeballed all of these ingredients as I was working with leftovers. You could also use feta cheese and a variety of other veggies to make it your own. Depending on how many veggies you decide to use you may need to add more sauce and or mayo or Greek yogurt.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

One of the things that Ruel and I love to do together is try new restaurants(great reason to save $ on food at home). =) We went to Zinc last weekend for the first time and loved it!  I had an amazing piece of halibut that was served over a mustard consomme that was delicious. Ruel enjoyed a rib-eye steak served over a squash puree. We should have asked our server to take a picture of us but instead we tried ourselves(thus the blurry image). Nonetheless we were able to capture our date! The picture of us with the red sign is at the Real Marriage conference in Lynchburg, VA. We were really encouraged and provoked. I would highly recommend listening to the whole series on Mark Driscoll's website. It is targeted towards marrieds and singles.

Ricotta Pancakes from Sunny Point Cafe

Ruel and I went to Asheville, NC for our honeymoon and one of the things we enjoyed doing while there was visiting restaurants. We've enjoyed cooking together from the beginning of our relationship and both share a love for good food. We visited a great breakfast place in Asheville called Sunny Point Cafe and bought their cookbook as a memento.

I made these pancakes a few mornings ago and they were incredibly simple to make and really good!! They are light and fluffy in texture and cook really quickly.

 

Ricotta Pancakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

6 tablespoons(2/3 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups milk

1 large egg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of nutmeg

canola oil for brushing on the griddle

1. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar into a large mixing bowl.

2. Whisk together butter, ricotta, milk, egg, vanilla, and nutmeg in a medium bowl.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the ricotta mixture. Stir together with a wooden spoon until just combined. Batter should look lumpy. Do not over mix.

4. Place a griddle or large saute pan over medium-high heat. Lightly coat the griddle or pan with canola oil and once hot, ladle 1/4 cup batter onto griddle for each cake. Once bubbles appear, gently turn the cakes and cook on the other side until lightly browned. Serve hot off the griddle with warm maple syrup and fresh fruit.

Makes approximately 18 cakes, serving 5-6 people.

***You can easily make the batter and then refrigerate the rest and use other mornings.