Chocolate Cherry Cookies

I have mixed feelings about these cookies.

Pros:  They are unique. They have a delicious frosting.  They are chocolatey and rich.
Cons:  They are somewhat crumbly.  The maraschino cherry will shrivel up if you don't serve these fresh.  MUST EAT WARM OUT OF OVEN.  That will solve both problems.

And with that, here are the COOKIES!
Please keep in mind that I am NOT a photographer, that would be a whole other challenge in and of itself.  Also, I should have, but didn't try to make the cookies look cute on a plate.  What you see, is what you get right after you pull the cookies out of the oven and stick cherries on half of them. And a few might have been sampled. :)

Chocolate Cherry Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and stir until smooth. Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls about the size of a walnut (larger if desired). Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press center of each ball with thumb.
3. Drain cherries and reserve juice. Place a cherry in indentation of each cookie ball.
4. In a saucepan, heat condensed milk and chocolate chips until chips are melted. Stir in 4 teaspoons of cherry juice. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of mixture over each cherry and spread to cover cherry.  (I usually do this, but did not this time.) 
5. Bake 8-10 minutes.

Funeral Potatoes

I stole this DELICIOUS RECIPE from the site that MANY of you recommended to me.  Our Best Bites.  I'm so glad I found out about it.  I even ordered their cookbook for an Easter present for myself.  I'm still waiting for it in the mail though, along with all the other books I ordered for my family for Easter, thinking I had plenty of time.  None of them came.  Sad!  Jared's Easter basket was beyond pathetic.  It had one Snicker's Egg in it.  That is the problem with online shopping sometimes.  You never know when your stuff is going to arrive.  But anyways!!!  Today, I bring you FUNERAL POTATOES/CHEESY POTATO CASSEROLE.

I made these for Easter dinner.

The whole pan was licked clean.

They are a MUST TRY.  Five stars.

Funeral Potatoes
Adapted from Our Best Bites
(I changed the amount of sour cream called for and added milk so it wasn't too dry without all the sour cream.  Below I will list the recipe according to how I made it.)

Funeral Potatoes
Recipe by Our Best Bites (and church kitchens around America)

1 small-medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1  Tbsp. butter
1 28-oz. bag shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
1 c. sour cream
1 10-oz. can cream of chicken (or cream of mushroom) soup
2 1/4 c. shredded mild cheddar cheese
3/4 tsp. salt

A dash of black pepper

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant.  Remove from heat.  Add the thawed hash browns, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, cheese, salt, and pepper and combine well. 

Spread the mixture into a 9×13″ (or similar) dish and bake for 50 minutes or until the casserole is hot in the center and the cheese is bubbly throughout. 

Stuffed Spinach Shells

I have really managed to get behind on this Cooking Challenge. Not on the actual cooking itself, but on posting pictures and recipes.  Well, I am taking advantage of the fact that it is raining cats and dogs today (for the 4th day in a row) and we are spending the day INSIDE catching up on cleaning and projects.  So, I am setting my blog to autopost (love that feature) and so you will get lots of yummy recipes and other posts all week!  Hopefully we will be playing outside in the sunshine before too long!

Anyways, here is the first recipe I actually did for my cooking challenge.  Stuffed Spinach Shells.  I followed the recipe pretty exact and didn't screw anything up, but I decided I just don't have the taste for lots of spinach.  And that's what these suckers were all about.  So, if you LOVE spinach, you will love these.  Of course, my husband gave them 5 stars, but if it's not burned, I usually get that from him.  I give them 3 stars.  Next time I do stuffed shells, I'm buying ricotta and ditching (or limiting) the spinach.

Here's the recipe from my fun and somewhat dorky cookbook.

The Essential Mormon Cookbook:

Green Jell-O, Funeral Potatoes, and Other Secret Combinations

by Julie Badger Jensen

I got it for my wedding.

Stuffed Spinach Shells

16 jumbo pasta shells
1 10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 c low-fat cottage cheese
1 c grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 c grated onion
2 c pasta sauce (I used Ragu Garden Chunky or something like that)
1/4 c grated Parmesan Cheese

Prepare pasta according to package directions.  While pasta is cooking, cook spinach according to package directions.  Drain spinach thoroughly in colander by pressing out extra liquid with a large spoon.  Cool.

In a medium bowl combine spinach with cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, and onion.  When pasta is cooked, drain.  Rinse with cold water and drain again.  Prehead oven to 375.  Spoon cheese mixture into shells.  Place shells in lightly oiled 9x13 dish.  Pour Pasta Sauce over shells. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Cover with foil.  Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until hot.  Makes about 4 servings.

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

I have so much that I want to blog about. 

 The race Jared and I did last weekend in Kansas City. 

Jared's b-day last week.

My cooking challenge from last week.

My cooking challenge that I am doing this week (on the menu:  funeral potatoes, some kind of yummy green salad, and cherry chocolate cookies).

The last few days of my picture blogging challenge.

My kids.

Life and its busy-ness.

So, I'll take it one thing at a time.

Tonight, I bring you THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER MADE.

Seriously.  This was so good.  We ate BBQ Pulled Pork sandwiches all week long.  It was delicious and super easy!

Here's what you do:

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

-3 lb boneless pork shoulder

-garlic powder

-onion powder

-12 oz bbq sauce

Cook in crockpot on low for 8-10 hours.  Drain juices.  Shred meat.  Mix in bbq sauce.  Serve on your favorite rolls.

Dinner is served!  Easy!  Delicious!  My husband loves me!

And just in case you were missing my kidlets, here is a little pic.  We are getting ready for Easter around here!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Friends!  I am LOVING this cooking challenge.  And so is my family.  Like big time.  I've already made my 3 things for this week and it was kind of fun.  Tonight I will give you the recipe for PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE. 

I know I made it and I shouldn't be bragging, but guys, this is the best P.U.D cake I have ever eaten!  Seriously, I chose a recipe that had lots of butter.  Isn't that a surefire way to make people like your cooking?  Restaurants do it!

Behold!

And here is the cake in its full glory.  I love all our faces in this one too.  And how Jared looks like he is turning 60 instead of 28. Ha ha!

Here is the recipe, adapted from Cooks.com.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2/3 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar

Place the butter and brown sugar in a frying pan and melt until it boils or bubbles. A cast iron pan works well because it's heavy and will be less likely to scorch.

1 can pineapple slices
maraschino cherries (enough to fill centers of pineapples)

Place pineapples in the butter and sugar mixture. Put cherries in the center of the pineapple. Cut the slices of pineapple into halves and line the sides of the frying pan with them (standing up on edge). Prepare a box of yellow cake mix following the directions on the box to mix the batter (do not bake in a separate pan; follow instructions below).
Pour the batter over the pineapple and cherries.
Bake at 350°F degrees. When the cake is done, loosen the edges with a butter knife. Remove from heat and allow to sit five minutes, then turn it upside down on a serving dish.
 
Notes:  *This recipe did not include how long to bake it.  I put it in for 35 minutes, then checked it.  I think it went for about 40 minutes.
*Also, I don't understand what the recipe is talking about when it says it put the pineapples and cherries in a frying pan.  I didn't do that.  I put them in a 9x13 pan and then poured the butter/brown sugar over them and then the cake batter.
*I needed 2 more pineapple slices to make the cake look perfect.  I just sampled that little square before serving.

Cooking Challenge

Alright, I have been inspired by several of you.  I got so many cooking tips and ideas and motivation from a lot of you, through this blog, in person, via email, etc!  I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying (yes, even praying) and I have come up with my own cooking challenge.  I wanted to let you in on it so I could be held accountable to all of you!

Here's my challenge:
3 new recipes per week.
for the next 4 weeks.
= 12 new recipes that I will make and post the recipe and a picture of how it turned out.

Easy enough concept.  But holy cow, I am nervous about this one.  Nervous and also excited.  My family won't even know what hit them.

Coming up this week:  pulled pork sandwiches, lentejas, and pineapple upside down cake!  Yummy yummy!

I'm hoping after 4 weeks, I will have a newfound love for cooking and that it will get easier and I'll know reliable places to get new recipes and that this will continue.  I have to start somewhere though.  So, thank you for helping to motivate me!