Mississippi Mud Cake

Photo taken by Delores Bailey.

This may not look like much.  But oh my!  It’s very yummy!  The only thing that might improve it is some peanut butter spread under the marshmallows. 

First you need to make a batch of brownies.  I suggest Lady Brownies (without the cream cheese) but probably any brownie would do, especially if they are a bit thick. 

Right after pulling the brownies out of the oven, sprinkle about ½ bag of mini marshmallows (or large ones cut with scissors into about 4 pieces each).  Return to the oven for about 8-10 minutes, or until they start melting.  Remove from oven and pour the icing over them.  Swirl a bit if you desire.

Icing

1 stick butter

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 pound powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the butter, milk and cocoa in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Stir constantly until butter is melted.  Cook for another 2 minutes (stirring constantly) or until mixture thickens slightly.  Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla (a whisk works well or you can use your mixer). 

 

Avocado Pie (Grandma's recipe)

Tonight I was going through some of my grandma's recipes and found this one.  I admit that 1. I have not made this; and 2. I have no plans to ever make this.  But I felt it was interesting enough to post.  Well, interesting to me anyway.  Perhaps someone out there is interested.  Perhaps not.  So here it is, written just as my grandma wrote it.  It doesn't say to bake so I'm assuming you don't...but there are raw eggs in it.  This part doesn't bother me (we use fresh eggs around here so the salmonella dangers aren't big for us) as much as the avocado part does.  Ha!

2 whole eggs, well beaten; add
1 can Eagle condensed milk; add
1/2 cup lemon juice; add
1 cup (or little more) mashed avocado.

Smooth into graham cracker crust.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie

Photo by Delores Bailey (paid for with a piece of pie)

Photo by Delores Bailey

This combines two of my favorite desserts: strawberry pie and cheese cake.

1 baked pie shell

you can use this recipe or…

Melt 1 stick butter, add 1 cup flour, stir, and pat into bottom and up sides of pie plate.  Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until done.

Cream Cheese Layer

1 8 oz. cream cheese, softened

¾ cup powdered sugar

1 cup cool whip

Beat cream cheese, add powdered sugar.  Add cool whip and mix well.  Spread into cooled pie crust.

Strawberry Layer:

1/2  cup sugar

1/2  cup water

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons strawberry Jell-O (can use sugar free)

red food coloring, about 4 drops (optional, I don’t use)

1/2 to 3/4 pound fresh strawberries, cleaned and hulled (quartered)

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and water.  Cook on medium until clear and bubbling and remove from heat.  Add food coloring and gelatin and stir well.  Cool until slightly warm.  Stir strawberries into glaze.  Pour over cream cheese mixture.  Chill until set.  Serve with whipped cream or cool whip topping.

Flannel Board (homemade)

When it was time to do our Thanksgiving pictures for school, I wanted a way to display them for the Thanksgiving season so we could review the pictures already learned about and then add others as the month went by.  This came to mind and only took a few minutes to do. 

I keep a pizza box lid stash with my craft/sewing stuff and they come in handy for lots of projects (mostly involving paint).  So they became an easy medium for me to use. 

This project could also be covered with paper and used to create a personal work space for a child who is easily distracted (I will be implementing this soon—I think it will really help one of our girls!).   

I tried just using pieces of felt on the backs of the pictures.  It worked as long as it wasn’t handled.  However, in our busy household they kept falling off.  So, I simply used stick-on Velcro and that seemed to work a lot better.

2 pizza box lids (one cut in half)

Flannel (enough to cover lids)

Hot glue (or other preferred glue)

Stick-on Velcro pieces (the “grabby” or "rough" part, not “soft” part)

Put the pizza box lids in a line with the whole one in the middle (one half on each side).   

Using the hot glue, work from one end gluing the flannel to the lids.  Glue pieces of Velcro to the backs of the pictures.  Place on the board.  Stand the board up.  Done!

Single Pie Crust

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter

3-4 cold tablespoons water

Stir together flour and salt.  Cut shortening and butter into flour.  Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons water.  Toss together until the dough comes together.  If needed, add another tablespoon water.  Roll between two pieces of clear wrap, dusted with flour.  

To bake unfilled pie, bake at 375 for 10-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

NOTE:  I usually cut the butter and shortening into flour with my food processor, then pour into a bowl to stir the water in by hand.

Easy Creamy Chicken Pie

This is easily thrown together and a pretty big hit among my family.  You can use any crust for the top...you could even use low-fat crescent rolls (if you did this, bake it less, probably more like 20 minutes and don't add the milk).

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

2 small potatoes, peeled and diced

1 cup cooked & chopped chicken (about one large breast)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup sour cream

1/3 cup milk

Single pie crust

Boil the vegetables and potatoes in water for 10 minutes.  Drain, stir in soup, sour cream, and milk.  Pour into 7x11 greased pan.  Cover with crust.  Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until the crust is done.