Chocolate peanut butter filled cookies

I was thinking a few days ago, of when I really started cooking…  I always cooked… french fry’s were my specialty from the ages of 9 till I was 12 and then I started with pancakes, muffins and burning beans… when I was first married, I had three kids in four years,  and boxed dinners I made a lot..  I would hang around the fridge section in the grocery store… there they sell cookies, brownies, biscuits, fresh pasta… (how fresh is that stuff really??)  Pretty much everything they sold there I bought… My homemade stuff didn’t taste as good as that store bought stuff…

When I started giving up the premade food, the cookies were the first to go…  My favorite was the filled ones.. The chocolate chip cookies filled with fudge… caramel , so on.. I don’t know if they sell them anymore, and now that I have found this recipe I could care less…..

But be warned… this is not a scoop and bake recipe, this is a roll this out… roll that out.. flatten, smoosh, roll and then bake.. and when everyone inhales them in less time it took to make them…

You will know it is worth making them all again.

In medium size bowl add your flour, coco , salt and baking soda

Then in mixing bowl add your sugars, ¼ cup peanut butter and butter

Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth, creamy and fluffy…. 

Add egg and vanilla

Add the dry ingredients and beat well

Dough will be stiff… 

Now for the filling,

Peanut butter, confectioner sugar. Mix well.

Filling on the left, base on the right…

With a tablespoon of dough, roll it out

Flatten and then add one teaspoon of filling in middle

Smoosh dough around filling careful not to smash the filling up to much..

All done… but ugly… so we

Roll it all again..

Do this two dozen more times…

I just dipped the bottom of a glass into some sugar and lightly pressed down… kinda sloppy, I know…  bake 8 minutes..

Grab one before the kids swoop in and leave you none.

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Recipe:

Chocolate peanut butter filled cookies

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. Dutch cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 C. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. peanut butter

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Peanut butter Filling:

3/4 c. sifted confectioners' sugar

1/2 c. peanut butter

2 Tbls. granulated sugar

How to make it

Preheat oven to 350

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat together butter, 1/2 c. granulated sugar, brown sugar and 1/4 c. peanut butter until well combined. Add egg and vanilla. Beat well. Gently mix in the flour mixture until incorporated. Form the dough into 1 inch balls and set aside.

For the filling:

Combine confectioners' sugar and 1/2 c. peanut butter in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Form into 1/2 inch balls.

Gently flatten the chocolate balls. Place peanut butter ball in center of chocolate doughand carefully fold chocolate dough aroung the peanut butter filling. Roll back into a ball.

Place balls on a greased baking sheet about 2 inches a part.

Place the 2 Tbls. granulated sugar in a shallow bowl. Using a flat - bottomed glass dipped in the sugar, lightly flatted the chocolate dough balls.

Bake cookies for 8 minutes, until the surface begins to slightly crack. Let cool for 1 minute on the sheet. Transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

Chicken Spaghetti

Erase all memory of former posts about not eating processed foods… that was the healthy part of me that got smothered by the junk eating,  processed addict part of me yesterday…

So now that I have got that out of the way let me show you how to incorporate more transfat into your diet…

Today we are making Chicken Spaghetti…. I have no clue why it is called that so don’t ask… when I think of spaghetti I think of tomato based sauce … not creamy velvetta  sauce… and I don’t even use spaghetti noodles I like linguini noodles instead…

So anyways here is the recipe…

In large pot add your chicken breasts… I don’t salt it since there is enough sodium in the rest of the stuff I dump in this dish.. you can add some green peppers if you have them or sauté them with the onions in the next step since boiled peppers is like eating dirty socks…

While your chicken breasts are busy boiling away dice a large onion and sauté until translucent… again this would be the time you could add peppers.

Add your cans of Ro-Tel tomatoes I use two cans…

Add your cream of mushroom soup.. I use three cans

Give it a good stir , turn on low and add your velvetta cheese.. stir every now and then until cheese is completely melted.

Here is a easy way to chunk up that block of processed goodness…

Slice it down the middle

Flip it over and slice once again down the middle…

Then chop into chunks like so…

With a slotted spoon remove chicken from water… then add your noodles to the boiling water and cook till this side of al dente … it will cook even more in the oven and sorry but mushy noodles are not my thing..

Dice chicken and add to sauce…

Drain noodles add them to your sauce and then add all of that into your baking pan.

Bake @ 400 for 35 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown…

This will make about two 9x13” pans of food… one to bake the other to freeze… When I was given this recipe umpteen years ago it was from a large family… and I never bothered to try and cut it down since it was nice to always have a dish I could pull out of the freezer anytime I needed it…

So what do you do when you only have 1,500 baking pans and you need 1,501?

Lay out some plastic wrap in your pan.. dish out your food in the pan

And wrap it like so… shove it in the freezer and when it is frozen just take out the wrapped food and shove it back in the freezer and then your pan is free for use again.. when you want to bake the food just unwrap and use the pan you froze it in…

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Recipe:

1 large onion

2 cans of Ro-Tel tomatoes

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

One package (2 lbs) of velvetta cheese

3 to 4 large chicken breasts

One lb of pasta of your choice… I like linguini and sometimes use fettuccini in a pinch

Directions:

In large pot add 4 quarts of water, add your chicken breasts and cook till done … about 10 minutes

With a slotted spoon remove chicken and return water to a full boil and add your pasta.. cook pasta till almost al dente, drain. Dice chicken to 1 inch cubes

In large pan heat three tablespoons of oil and your onion that you have diced and cook till translucent. Add your Ro-Tel tomatoes and cream of mushroom soup, stir and add your velvetta cheese, turn on low and cook stirring often till cheese is completely melted.

Add chicken and pasta into sauce and stir well

Spoon into well greased baking dish and bake @ 400 for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and sauce is bubbly.

Notes:

I like a more saucy dish so I add more cream of mushroom… for a even more kick get the spicy Ro-Tel .

Elephant Ears

Elephant ears…..

We had fun with that name …

The first time I remember eating them was in St. Augustine Florida….  A piece of fried dough the size of a small baby came out on a plate…

.

My three oldest larva was pretty small then and was thoroughly upset when we told them that it was real elephant ears we were eating… I am sure a few of them were crying and I am pretty sure I was laughing…. It took a few minutes to convince them we were joking and soon they were scarfing them down….

And as horrible parents we are, we would repeat the cycle the next time we would get them…

So as I was trolling for recipes a few days ago I came across “fried  dough”. Those memories of Elephant ears came flooding back and since the best Pizza Joint around is over 900 miles away, I had to make them myself… 

I wont bother sharing my first attempt since it was a flop and a waste of flour, but the second attempt was way better…. Not perfect but close enough

Milk and butter

Melted milk and butter… I got distracted and my milk got pretty hot so I set it in a pan of cold water to cool the whole shebang down…. It took about 3 minutes

Add the yeast

Give it a good stir  and let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes

This only took about 4 minutes since it is about 900 degrees outside and yeast in my house is having a party… ( the more you bake bread, the more yeast spores are living in your kitchen… creating a faster rising time and friendlier bread environment)

Add the yeast mixture and one cup of flour in mixing bowl

Add one cup at a time your flour until all mixed in..Cover and let rise until doubled

After 15 minutes of rising….

30 minutes of rise time it is doubled… ( I thought I was gonna have more time to lay around)

Divide into 8 equal pieces and roll out to ¼ thickness

In two inches of oil, fry for 60 seconds on each side…

Drain on paper towels or if your like me and too cheap to buy them, a colander

What happens when you are on the phone while you try and make these…

Dust with powder sugar or if you want savory omit the sugar….

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Recipe:

1 1/2 c. milk

1 tsp. salt

2 tablespoons dry yeast

2 tbsp. sugar

6 tbsp. butter

4 c. flour

Oil for frying

Powdered sugar, sifted

Cinnamon/sugar mix

Heat but do not boil milk, sugar, and butter until butter is melted. Cool to lukewarm. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Add salt and stir in flour 1 cup at a time, beating until smooth after reach addition.

Put into greased bowl. Cover with damp cloth, let rise until double. Dust hands with flour. Pinch off pieces of dough size of golf ball. Stretch into 6-8 inch circle. Drop into hot oil in pan large enough to fry 6-8 pieces. Fry until pieces rise, turn with tongs and fry until light brown. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with desired topping