The most recent yummy dessert-CARAMEL BUTTER BARS

THIS RECIPE IS SO GOOD!


This recipe comes from another one of my favorite blogs.  I made these for my grandma, cause she is such a lovely lady.  I was not able to give her them myself, but I hear she loved them.  Again, from one of my favorite sites, Taste and Tell, who took the original recipe from the Cookbook, Sticky Chewy Messy Gooey Desserts, these Carmel Butter Bars are dee-lish-us!  The original recipe called them gooey,  but they weren't messy at all!


I made them in an aluminum pan lined with parchment, and then turned them out on to a big cutting board to slice.  Inch wide pieces were enough, as they are buttery and rich.  I believe they traveled well as my mom took them in a a plastic container in her carryon on a 3 hour flight. 


For St. Patty's day I am gonna dye the cookie batter part with green food coloring for a little fun!  I would also like to try sprinkling the caramel filling with mini chocolate chips. 

Caramel Butter Bars

Preheat oven to 325 F

Crust:
4 sticks  unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups flour
In a mixing bowl, mix together the butter and both sugars until creamy.  Add vanilla, salt until mixed together.  Add in the flour a little at a time until it forms a dough.   Set aside two-thirds of the dough, wrapped in plastic or in a zip bag, flattened and placed in the fridge to cool for about 20 minutes while you make the rest. 

Coat a 9 x 13 aluminum baking pan with a little cooking spray, cut parchment to line the pan so you can later use it to lift out the finished and slightly cooled bars.  Press the remaining one third of the dough evenly into the bottom of the pan to make a crust.  Bake in the oven at 325 degrees F, for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool while you do the rest. 

Caramel filling:
14 oz caramel candies, (about one bag of those individually wrapped kraft or generic ones). Get an assistant and make them unwrap each one. 
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 1/2-2  cups nuts of your choosing (cashews are delicious)

While the bottom crust cooks, make the caramel middle.  Put the caramels (unwrapped, we dont want to eat plastic now do we?) in a microwave safe bowl, add cream, vanilla and salt.  Microwave on high for 1 minute, remove and stir.  Continue to microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring between each until caramels are completely melted, and all the cream is incorporated and smooth. 

Sprinkle your nut of choice, liberally over the bottom crust.  Pour and spread the caramel over the nuts evenly.  Add some more nuts, or other toppings you may choose. 

Top Crust:
Take the remaining two thirds of the dough out of the fridge. You want it to have firmed up a little.  Crumble it in large pieces over the top of the caramel.  There will be a lot of it just keep crumbling until its all covered and press it down a little. 

Cook for another 30 minutes or until golden.  Let cool, and remove from pan using the parchment.  Slice in to inch square pieces.

Crock Pot Tortilla Soup with Green Chile Enchilada Sauce

Yummy!  When its winter (or what we call winter down here in So. Fla)  this is a good quick dinner.  Its also good when this Texas girl misses good, REAL TEX MEX and it isn't cold in So. Fla. at all!

The recipe says to do it in the crock pot, but I have done it stove top.  My favorite way to do it is to dump everything in the crock pot on a Sunday morning, and its ready for dinner that night, with leftovers for freezing of for the week.  I came across a similar recipe on the Fort Worth Star Telegram website a while back, but could not find the link.  I also consulted this recipe on Food.com .  Hope you enjoy! 

Crock Pot Tortilla Soup with Green Chile Enchilada Sauce

From The Fort Worth Star Telegram

Prep time: 30 minutes

1 1/2 pounds cooked shredded chicken (what I usually do is buy a rotisserie chicken at the grocery and use all the chicken off of it in the soup.  Just shred it up and dump it in.)         

1  15 oz. can diced tomatoes

1  14 oz. can Green Chile Enchilada Sauce (in the Mexican food Aisle.  Comes in a can.  Not the green salsa) 

2  7 oz. cans Diced Green Chiles

1  15 oz. can pinto beans, drained

1  medium onion, chopped

2  tbsp minced garlic (or just use the chopped jarred kind)

2  cups water

1  15 oz. can chicken broth

2  tsp each: cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper (or to taste) (I usually just sprinkle each all over the top of the crock pot, and then taste to make sure its enough for me)

1  15 oz. can corn, drained.  I like to use the "summer" variety corn.

Tortilla Chips, for garnish (optional)
Mexican Blend Cheese, for garnish (optional)
Sour Cream, for garnish (optional)
Avocado, for garnish (optional)

In crock pot, combine everything together.  Hold the garnish for, I don't know, garnish???? Cover and cook for 6-8 hours. 
To serve it up, I crush the chips up and put them in the bowl first, sprinkle them with a little cheese and then top with the hot soup.  Top it off with a dallop of sour cream and chunks of avocado or more cheese if you like. 

Jalapeno Popper Dip

For one of our many tailgates (GO CANES!)  I wanted to do something different, and one of my favorite blogs had a great recipe.  However, I wanted to tweak it a little and combined some of it with the original recipe that blog adapted.  Check out the Original on Homemade by Holman.  It gets rave reviews every time.   Not bad if you leave the bacon out on accident! 

Jalapeno Popper Dip

Adapted From Homemade by Holman

Preheat Oven to 350.

Dip

2               8 oz packages any brand cream cheese, room temperature (I use 1/3 less fat)

½ c.          mayonnaise (can be substituted with sour cream, or mixture of the two)

½ c.          diced jarred jalapenos (more may be added depending on how hot

                 you want it, I have never measured)

1               4 oz can diced green chiles  (sometimes I use the larger can)

4               slices of bacon cooked and crumbled  (or use those pre cooked real bacon pieces in the salad
                 dressing aisle.)

Juice of half a lime

2 tbsp       fresh finely chopped cilantro, I actually just snip mine right off the stalks into the bowl.

1 tbsp       chopped garlic (or sprinkle the top of your mixing bowl a couple of times with garlic power; I have also been known to use jarred chopped garlic)

1 c            shredded Mexican cheese blend

a little      Cumin

Mix cream cheese, mayo (or sour cream) together with mixer.  Add in jalapenos, green chiles, bacon, lime juice, cilantro, garlic, cheese and mix well. Make sure there are no large chunks of bacon or jalapenos.  This is where I taste to be sure its spicy enough.  Add more chopped jalapenos to your desired spicy level!  Spread in 8X8 baking dish lightly coated with Pam or non-stick cooking spray of your choice.  

Topping

1 cup        Panko Bread crumbs (not regular bread crumbs)

½ c.          shredded Mexican cheese blend

½ c.          grated parmesan

½ stick       melted butter

Igain, I do not usually measure this stuff other than the butter.  Melt butter and let cool a little while you measure and mix the other topping ingredients.  Once bread crumbs and cheeses are mixed, pour butter over the top and mix well.  Spread over top of dip mixture.

Bake in 375 degree oven for 30 minutes or until the dip has started to bubble a little and the topping is starting to brown.

Serve with Tortilla chips or veggies.  Really good with very thinly sliced cucumber slices.   Works great in aluminum baking dishes to toss after the tailgate or to leave leftovers with friends.  IF, and I mean IF, you have any leftovers, I have stuffed the filling part of the tip in a chicken breast and baked it or served it over chicken breasts with a salad. 

I finally caught the bug.

For years my parents sang the song that included my name and ended with the title of this blog.  So maybe the love of cooking was something I have had since I was little....so that leads me to this blog.  My little attempt to put my name on the label of that which I cook/bake, or at least keep a record of it for me. 

After several years of purusing the cooking/baking blogs of others, as well as various other sources of on-line recipes, etc., I decided it was finally time to keep a record of my own stuff for others as well as myself.  This is especially true for those recipes I may have found elsewhere and made edits to.  Where possible, I will direct you to the source of the original recipe.  As soon as I figure out how to link to other sites, I may do that too.  Don't expect any regularity to posts, as that is not my intent at this point, but rather trying to keep a log of my cooking and baking adventures. 

Thanks for reading!