Monday, March 30, 2009

Cupcake Bites

This is Cuppy, isn't she the cutest little thing you've ever seen?!
This is Cuppy's family, notice her good looking husband and beautiful children! She's a lucky gal!
...and this is Cuppy's extended family! Ahh... they are taking over the world!!
Cuppy comes from a long line of Cupcake Bites from Bakerella! Check out Martha Stewart's Cupcake Bites for a video on how to make them.

Ingredients
1 box of cake mix, your choice of flavor (I used Devil’s Food).
1 container of ready-made icing (I used Vanilla)
Almond Bark/Chocolate (I used white almond bark and chocolate almond bark)
M&Ms and Sprinkles for decoration
Waxed paper

Directions
You begin by baking the cake in a 9 x 13 pan according to directions. Let it cool for several hours or overnight. Then you crumble the cake in a large bowl. I used my electric mixer to crumble up the cake.
Then you dump in the tub of icing and stir the mixture together. Slowly but surely, the icing will totally incorporate into the cake and the mixture will be totally uniform in color.
Grab pinches of the mixture and roll them into balls, my dough was really sticky at first so I put it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before rolling it into balls. My balls were a heaping scoop from my 1/8 measuring cup that I rolled around in my hands. Then you place the cake balls into the fridge for a couple of hours OR into the freezer for a little while. You want them to be nice and firm. Not frozen solid, but not mushy.
To make cupcake pops, you need miniature flower shaped cutter. (Well, you don’t have to have it. You could probably sculpt the balls into the shape you need. But this way’s faster and more foolproof.) My cutter comes from a Wilton Flower Shaped Fondant Cutter set I purchased at JoAnn's. Grab a cake ball and roll it in your hands to form a slight oval shape.
Insert the cake ball into the cutter so that part of it sticks out the other side.
Holding the cutter flat against your palm gently push the cake that's sticking up down so it forms a hill around the cutter.
Then use your fingers to push the cake out from the bottom then pull it out of the cutter, it has a cupcake shape! Cute.
Once all your balls are cupcake shaped put the tray in the freezer for another 10-15 minutes so they can harden up again (it's difficult to dip them in chocolate if they are sticky).
Now, while your mini cupcakes are in the freezer, you need to melt your chocolate. Chocolate or Almond Bark from the baking aisle at the supermarket works great! Just cut your bark into pieces and pop it into a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each 30-second increment. When the chocolate is melted, hold the formed cupcake ball in your hand and dip the base into the chocolate. Immediately turn it upside down to allow it to slightly drip downward. Place it face down on a sheet of waxed paper.
When the chocolate is set dip it into a different color of melting chocolate (I used white and pink chocolate). Dip it just up to the level of the chocolate base; try not to go beyond that. Immediately turn it over to allow the white to drip slightly. If there are large gaps that don’t fill in, you can use a toothpick to pull the white down just a tad. Finally, just pop an M & M on top, and sprinkle with cute, colorful sprinkles.
These were fun to make and so cute to look at! Oh yeah, they were delicious too!
It makes you sad to eat them, bye bye Cuppy!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Easy Chili

Their predicting a couple inches of snow today so we needed some chili! Have you ever looked at chili recipes before? Good grief, I couldn't find one that was less that 10 ingredients. It's crazy! So I made this basic chili recipe, it isn't spicy man chili but we liked it. It was wonderful with our sweet cornbread! I am bummed that it's snowing over the weekend, I am a teacher so I wish I could have gotten a snow day out of it!

Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons Lawry's seasoning salt
4 (14.5 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans with liquid

Directions
Combine the ground beef, onion, and garlic in large stockpot. Cook and stir over medium heat until beef is brown and drain. Stir in chili powder, seasoning salt, tomatoes, and tomato sauce; break up tomatoes while stirring. Heat to boiling, reduce heat to simmer medium-low, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Stir in beans and simmer for another 20 minutes.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Sweet Cornbread

The school I used to work at made the best cornbread, it was sweet and satisfying! So, before I left I got the recipe from the lunch lady, she said it was yellow cake mix combined with the cornbread mix. The first time I made it I only used 1 box of cornbread mix and it was too cake like so this time I used 2 cornbread mixes and it was perfect! I served it with dinner but we snacked on the cornbread all evening long!

Ingredients
1 yellow cake mix (with the oil, eggs, and water needed to prepare it)
2 Jiffy cornbread mixes (with the oil, eggs, and water needed to prepare it)

Directions
Prepare the yellow cake and cornbread mixes together (in the same bowl) according to the directions on the boxes. There's a lot of batter so you will want to bake it in two dishes. I baked mine in a 9x13 and a 8x8 baking dish and it worked great! You will want to spray the baking dishes with a cooking spray or the cornbread will stick when you try to serve it.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

100th Blog Post!!

This is my 100th blog post, woot woot! This is what my blog looked like in the beginning, before Justin redesigned it for me last year!

When my boys were little I was so busy going to college, starting my teaching career, and then going to college again for my masters; dinner would be something from the frozen or canned aisles at the supermarket. I've posted off and on since 2007, and what started as a fun hobby and a way to motivate myself to cook more... has become so much more! I have grown to love cooking and it has become a part of me! We used to go out to restaurants regularly, but I couldn't even tell you the last time we went to a restaurant; it's been months! What we have now is so special to me I couldn't imagine missing it to go out to a restaurant. We eat dinner at our kitchen table almost every night as a family and sometimes neighborhood kids come in to join us as well. We have a revolving door at our house as the boy's friends come and go but I know they enjoy the food because they are often asking for baggies to take some home, it makes me smile. I try out 2-3 new recipes a week so the boys always run into the kitchen to see what I am making, help stir, and lick spoons. Dinner is exciting because we are trying a new recipe or enjoying one of our favorites, we're all smiles as we giggle and tell stories. So after 3 years and 100 blog posts I thought I would share each of our favorite dinners...

Justin- Mexican Corn Chicken Chowder
I made this soup for the first time last fall and Justin fell in love. He loves when I make it on Sunday and he eats it all week long. My mother-in-law tried to make it once and substituted some of the ingredients but it wasn't as good (sorry Trish), so you must follow the ingredients exactly for it to turn out correctly. Justin will actually giggle as he warms up a bowl in the microwave, crumble tortilla chip on the top, and take his first bite... with a smile spread across his face ear to ear.

Carrie- Grandma's Chicken and Noodles
This has been my favorite dinner since I was a kid, I would request it every birthday. My grandma would make this every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, so when we eat it for dinner it feels like a treat! Thick, homemade noodles in a chicken gravy that's poured over a dollop of mashed potatoes... Mmm yum yum!

Andrew- Chinese Chicken and Rice
This is Andrew's favorite! He will do chores and back flips for me if he knows this dinner is coming up! Andrew is a picky eater and is very skeptical of trying new things so I remember when I made this the first time he was surprised and thrilled how much he enjoyed it. He loves the spicy flavor I add to the Chinese brown sauce. He would be a happy camper if I made this dinner every night!

Abbott- Baked Chicken, Creamy Mashed Potatoes, and Gravy
I haven't posted "baked chicken" because it is too simple (chicken breasts sprinkled with salt and pepper, covered in foil, and cooked in the oven). I call this "salt and pepper chicken" but Abbott has always called it "white chicken". It's so cute because anytime I say "we're having chicken for dinner" he will excitedly ask "White chicken?"! This is Abbott's absolute favorite chicken and favorite potatoes, and he eats massive amounts! Normally Abbott picks at his dinner only eating a couple bites so when I say massive I mean 2 chicken breasts and 3 cups of creamy mashed potatoes smothered in chicken gravy... then he will come back for dessert potatoes later in the evening! Abbott is only 7, I don't know where he puts it!

I am still amazed that anyone would want to read my blog! Thank you to everyone who has stopped by over the years to say hello, offer me recipes, and give me feedback! If you click the visitor locations map located on the right column of my blog you can see the countries my visitors live in. I only added the visitors map a couple months ago but since December 2008, I've had 3,426 visitors from 66 different countries! It is humbling and flattering all at the same time! Thank you for joining me on this cooking adventure, I can't wait to get started on my next 100 posts ! :-D

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Chad's Steak


I've tried making steak before but it always turns out tough and chewy, I had no idea how to grill it correctly so I invited Chad over to teach us! Chad is my brother-in-law/ builder/ carnivore... if anyone knows how to cook a steak it's Chad! My goodness we weren't disappointed, he made some awesome steaks! I am so glad he taught us how to do it because when we grill we get it really hot and our meat cooks fast but Chad showed us how to cook the steaks slowly so they are tender and juicy... Mmm, they were fantastic! Thanks Chad!!!

Ingredients
KC Strip Steak (Chad said New York Strip or T-Bone would also work)
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
BBQ Spice Rub (Chad used Stubb's)
Jack Daniels wood smoking chips (soaked in water for at least 10 minutes)
Optional- Heinz 57 Steak Sauce

Directions
Shake Lawry's and BBQ seasonings on both sides of the steak. Chad used our Weber charcoal grill, stacking approximately 35 pieces of charcoal on one side. He lets the fire burn for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the coals turn about halfway white; so the grill was hot on one side and cool on the other. Place the meat on the coolest part of the grill (so they can slowly cook).
We were cooking so many steaks Chad couldn't fit them all on the cool side so he kept some on the hot side and rotated them (cool side to hot side) every 5 minutes. Chad never slid the steaks across the grill; he gently picked them up with tongs.














When the steaks were cooked rare, Chad took the grill rack off and sprinkled the wood smoking chips on top of the charcoal. He then replaced the grill rack and let the steaks cook until they were medium-well (which is what we requested). All in all he cooked our steaks for probably 30 minutes total.











Right before he plated the steaks he poured the steak sauce over half of them... the steaks were cooked so perfectly though they really didn't need any sauce!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Marshmallow Fruit Dip

I got an email from an old friend who found my blog. She gave me some great tips to sneak fruits/veggies into my family's meals (which you will soon notice me doing) ... is it really that obvious that my family doesn't eat many fruits or vegetables? I LOVE all fruits and vegetables but my husband HATES most fruits and vegetables, so it makes it difficult. It was easy to get everyone to eat fruit with this delicious dip though! My goodness, this is the best fruit dip I've ever had! It was sticky so it clung to the fruit (I hate when you have to chase the fruit dip around your plate trying to scoop it onto your strawberry). It was so easy to make and so easy to gobble up, I could have eaten the whole bowl myself!

Ingredients
8 oz marshmallow cream
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions
Soften cream cheese to about room temperature. Mix the cream cheese, marshmallow fluff, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. That's it... now try not to eat it all by yourself ;-)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Ganache Covered Peanut Butter Frosting

... the name is a work in progress, anyone have any better name ideas? I wanted to name this "Justin's Favorite Peanut Butter Frosting with Carrie's Favorite Ganache" but that seemed a bit long! One of my husband's co-workers said to him "your wife is trying to kill you", because by now you should realize that I make my hubby chocolate peanut butter treats almost every week. However, this peanut butter frosting is the best yet! Justin didn't like the cream cheese in Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer Cake and I didn't like the shortening in the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupakes (I don't like cooking with shortening or corn syrup... it makes me feel like a bad mom/wife)! This frosting was fluffy and yum-diddly-umptious! There was a little extra left over and Justin wouldn't let me throw it away, he wanted to save it to eat on a chocolate bar later (he's going to paddle me for sharing that)! I've used this ganache before and it's always perfect! When melted you can easily dip and pour but it stiffens up after an hour and has a nice glossy look!

Peanut Butter Frosting Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 1/2 cups confectioners/powered sugar
Ganache Ingredients
1 (12 ounce) bag chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk

Peanut Butter Frosting Directions
In a large mixing bowl mix together the butter, peanut butter, and powered sugar. When it's mixed well it's ready to pipe onto a chocolate cake or cupcakes. This made enough for me to frost 16 cupcakes.
Ganache Directions
In a tall cup or bowl (I use a 2-cup measuring cup) add the milk and chocolate chips. Microwave in 30 second intervals stirring after each cycle until it's melted. Mine is usually melted and ready to go after 3 cycles (1 minute 30 seconds).

Monday, March 16, 2009

Chinese Chicken

I can't believe it has taken me so long to post this recipe; this creation inspired my cooking blog! Three years ago we were spending at least $30-$40 a week on Chinese take-out which is ridiculous! I did some research online and discovered a Chinese cooking technique used in stir-frying called velveting chicken. It produces perfect Chinese chicken (just like take-out)! The brown sauce took a couple tries but I finally nailed it! Honestly though, the brown sauce is something you will have to taste and adjust to your liking. We like ours to be spicy to replicate the "Chicken with Garlic Sauce" we used to order from Chinese take-out... notice I said "used to order". We no longer buy chinese take-out, it's awesome!

Ingredients
3-5 Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts
1 egg white
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Brown Sauce Ingredients
1 cup beef broth
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Optional- 1 teaspoon Huy Fong Hot Chili Garlic Sauce (this spicy sauce adds the heat).
I had a hard time finding it in groccery stores so here is a picture ;-)






Directions
I start with the brown sauce since it can sit and wait while I'm working on the chicken. So in a sauce pan whisk together all the brown sauce ingredients; beef broth, soy sauce, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, sugar, ginger, garlic, and the chili garlic sauce if you want it spicy. Once the sauce is whisked together and the cornstarch is mixed in turn on stove to medium heat. Stir the sauce occasionally as it cooks so the cornstarch doesn't separate. Once the sauce starts to simmer you will notice the color will change from a cloudy tan to a dark brown. It's ready! Turn the heat off and let the sauce rest, it will thicken even more as it sits.

Now let's focus on the chicken! Slice your chicken breasts into thin strips.

In a bowl or a plastic bag toss the egg white with the chicken then mix in the 3 table spoons of cornstarch. You can use more cornstarch if needed.

Put the chicken into a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes blanching it. As the water starts to boil again the water will get really foamy, that is normal.

With a slotted spoon or colander pull the chicken out of the boiling water. This is velveting chicken! Kinda cool, huh!

I don't have a fancy schmancy wok, just a large skillet. I use the same large skillet to blanch the chicken and to stir-fry the chicken. So once I pull the chicken out of the boiling water I dump the water out of the skillet and return it to the stove. Whichever you use, a skillet or a wok... it's time to stir-fry! On high heat put your chicken into the skillet and pour on the brown sauce! Stir the mixture and cook until it's hot and bubbly!

Serve over white rice for an authentic Chinese take-out experience!
享用 (Chinese for enjoy! )

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Green Chile and Rice Casserole

The boys and I are off all next week for spring break, yay!! I have been emailing myself so many recipes to make over spring break that my gmail started putting them into a junk folder. No joke! Gmail thought I was getting spammed I was sending myself so many emails, lol! We eat rice all the time as a dinner side dish, probably more than we eat potatoes. In fact, the 3 kitchen appliances I use most often are my Presto Salad Shooter, KitchenAid Mixer, and Black and Decker Rice Cooker. We love plain white rice but it gets boring night after night so this Green Chile Rice is a great way to spice it up (don't worry it isn't spicy just flavorful). It would also make a great potluck side dish!

Ingredients
16 ounces (1 pound) white or brown rice
1 1/2 cup sour cream
2 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Cook the rice according to the directions on the package (I cooked mine in my rice cooker of course). In a large mixing bowl combine the sour cream, green chiles, cheese, and salt; stir in the cooked rice. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish and pour in the rice mixture. Cover with foil and cook at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I took cupcakes to work today to celebrate Dawn’s Birthday, woohoo happy 47th DT! I work very closely with Dawn and Mary… close enough that we’ve lost that “professional relationship” and we’ve become family. I get so comfortable that I often find myself saying something work related in my relaxing verbiage like “Dude, you should totally reformat that computer!” Dawn will look at me like… seriously Carrie, do you need to go catch some waves? Grow up and get to work! ...I can’t help it though, I am a child of the 90’s, I grew up on Bill and Ted and 3 Ninjas. When I put on my teacher big girl pants in the morning I make a conscious effort to suppress the “dudes” and “totally”! Ok, before I get started on my desire to wear Hypercolor again lets get to the frosting…

Swiss Meringue Buttercream is my favorite type of frosting! The difference between meringue buttercreams (there are several - Italian, Swiss, French - every European country thinks they know best, apparently,) and regular "American style" buttercream (what we think of as a more "crunchy" frosting) is this… American buttercream is just butter (sometimes a little cream cheese) and TONS of powdered sugar mixed together. The result is that intense, super sweet, sometimes a little gritty, frosting. I make a great one. Mmmm! Swiss Meringue Buttercream is made by dissolving a relatively small amount of granulated sugar into egg whites, whipping it into a meringue and then adding the butter. They're smoother, creamier and less over the top sweet. They also stand up better in heat, which is awesome for taking cakes/cupcakes to events. I don’t think the Swiss Meringue Buttercream is very good plain, the real magic happens when you add an additional flavor like lemon or chocolate (like I used in my birthday cake and chocolate torte)!

Base Ingredients
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Additional Flavor Ingredients
Lemon
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Chocolate
1/4 cup Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder

I will add more flavor add-ins as I try them but I don’t want to list anything I haven’t tried for fear of ruining someone’s delicious dessert :( that would make me feel so guilty!

Directions
Place the sugar and egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer or another large heatproof bowl. Fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk/mix constantly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat.
Using an electric mixer, beat the mixture on medium speed until it has cooled, about 5 minutes. Add the butter, flavoring add-in, and vanilla (you may want to add the butter one stick at a time beating until smooth and adding another). Once all of the butter has been added, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 10-15 minutes. During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate--just keep beating and it will come together again. The buttercream will be smooth and velvety. You will know it’s done when it stiffens up. You will notice the mixer beaters going through the icing and the icing will stay in the stiff peaks and not fall. I think the frosting tastes best when it's cold so I keep my cake/cupcakes in the fridge, it will keep for 3-5 days in the fridge as well! You will stand and mix for a long time, so put on your comfy shoes and just keep mixing it, it will eventually stiffen up and… dude, you will have a totally delicious frosting!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Easy Clam Chowder

At work we were talking about Lent recipes, during Lent you abstain from eating meat on Fridays. Jen shared this easy chowder recipe, she is a great teacher (and the cutest gal I've ever seen)! Since seafood and eggs aren't considered meats this would be a great recipe to make on Friday! Jen substituted frozen scallops instead of the clams but I chose to stick to the recipe. I will warn you... the canned clams will stink up your house! The clams raised such a stink that no one would try the soup but me, lol! I thought it was delicious though! Sure it wasn't as good as the fancy clam chowder that you would get in New England but it's worlds better than the canned versions (or the version I had at Ihop, just say no)! The leftovers were delicious as well!

Ingredients
2 cans clams, undrained
1 pound small cooked shrimp (I used frozen but you can use canned, or substitute fish)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of potato soup
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons minced or dried onion
1 cup half & half
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup celery
1 teaspoon creole seasoning (I used cajun because I couldn't find creole)
8 ounces frozen corn (I omitted)

Directions
Spray crockpot with cooking spray. Combine all ingredients except shrimp, mix well. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours, or high 3-4 hours. Add shrimp and cook an additional 15 minutes or so, to heat through.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

I don't know what happened to the picture, maybe I had too many lights on but I promise the pork chops didn't come out looking as pink and gray as it looks in the picture. I found this recipe on Picky Palate and thought it looked interesting. I am so glad I tried it, it was terrific! The flavors went together perfectly when you had some mashed potatoes, pork chop, and gravy on your fork! I am adding this to our staple dinner’s rotation! The gravy that's left in the crock pot is a bit thin but very flavorful. You could thicken it with cornstarch if you want but we didn't. This was such a wonderful relaxing weekend; I wish it wasn't over :-(

Ingredients
6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1 packet dry Ranch Dressing Seasoning
10 ounce can Cream of Chicken Soup
4 lbs peeled, cubed potatoes
5 tablespoons real butter
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
6 cloves roasted garlic (click for directions how to roast garlic)
1/2-1 cup milk
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

Directions
Place pork chops, ranch seasoning and soup into a medium sized crock pot over high heat for 4 hours or low heat for 6 hours.
Place potatoes into a large pot of cold water. Place onto stovetop over high heat and bring to a boil. Once water is boiling, cook for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender. Drain and transfer to the work bowl of a stand or electric mixer. Mix on low until potatoes are mashed then add butter, parmesan, garlic, milk, salt and pepper. Season to taste if needed. For thinner mashed potatoes add more milk, slowly until your desired consitency.
Scoop mashed potatoes onto serving plates and top with pork chops and soup gravy from crock pot. Enjoy!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Abbott’s Ice Cream Sandwiches

Abbott’s been bringing home cookbooks from his school library the last couple weeks. He has really gotten into my blog and wants to help pick out recipes to make… usually the recipes consist of various condiments he sees in the fridge, yikes! So when he asked to make these ice cream sandwiches from the Betty Crocker Kid’s Cookbook I was thrilled (something edible, hooray)!

Ingredients
Sugar cookies
Ice cream
Sprinkles

Directions
Put a scoop of ice cream between two sugar cookies and roll the edges of the ice cream sandwich in sprinkles.

Immediately feed ice cream sandwiches to your children who lick the sprinkles off and ask to roll it in sprinkles again… or wrap in plastic wrap to store in the freezer (only to be removed by your children 5 minutes later).

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Brown Sugar Chicken

I hate spring colds and since I’ve been a teacher I have gotten one every year, bluh! I am going on two weeks with this cold and it has really kicked my booty; sinus infection, ear infections, strep throat… I am literally falling apart and have a pile of kleenexes beside me to prove it! I love making crock-pot dinners when I am sick because they are so simple and usually don’t involve me touching/infecting my family’s food. I was thrilled when I saw this recipe on A Year Of Crockpotting Blog, it only took a couple minutes to throw together and was very flavorful!

Ingredients
12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, or 6 boneless, skinless breast halves
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup lemon-lime soda
2/3 cup white vinegar
3 cloves smashed and chopped garlic
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions
Use a 5-6 quart crockpot for this recipe. Plop the chicken into your crockpot. Cover with the brown sugar, pepper, chopped garlic, and soy sauce. Add the vinegar, and pour in the soda. It will bubble! Cover and cook on low for 6-9 hours, or on high for 4-5. The chicken is done when it is cooked through and has reached desired consistency. The longer you cook it, the more tender it will be. Serve over a bowl of white rice with a ladle full of the broth.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Marshmallow Graham Dessert

This recipe is from the Taste of Home Cookbook and I couldn’t wait to make it! It was right down my alley because unlike my husband I am not a fan of rich chocolaty desserts (blasphemy to him, I know). I love light desserts with fruit flavors, yum yum! This dessert was very good and the filling was like a foam, it was so fluffy! I was a little worried at first because the filling was very thin but after being in the refrigerator overnight it set-up beautifully. The boys didn’t like the pineapple so I think next time I might try frozen, sweetened strawberries instead!

Ingredients
1 package (16 ounces) marshmallows
2 cups milk
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple
2 cups whipping cream, whipped
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions
In a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, melt marshmallows and milk. Remove from the heat. Cool in the freezer or fridge for 5-19 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in extract. Fold in pineapple and whipped cream. Combine cracker crumbs and butter. Press 1-1/2 cups into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. pan. Spread with the pineapple mixture. Sprinkle with the remaining crumb mixture. Refrigerate for 4-5 hours before serving.