Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches with Strawberries

“Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches with Strawberries” is just a whimsical, fun summer dessert. The little members of the family can help stir up the brownie batter and everyone will enjoy eating the dessert. The recipe combines a delicious chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and strawberries for the filling. The dessert is frozen and then cut into bars. Who can resist these brownie ice cream sandwiches? And surprise, the strawberries are the star of this recipe. This dessert needs plenty of freezing time (at least 4 hours), so allow adequate time to make the dessert. Let’s get started.

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Easy Cook: Best Ever Homemade Pizza

It is “Super Bowl Sunday.” And this one-in-a year football game calls for pizza. I have always enjoyed making homemade pizza and this recipe may be my favorite pizza creations. It is incredibly easy to make and our taste testers decided that it tastes better than any “pizza in a box.” The flavors and ingredients are balanced — you can taste the toppings and not just the pizza crust. Best of all, you can customize the ingredients to each person’s preferences. The recipe is quick–taking about 5 minutes to make the pizza and 10 minutes to bake. Compare that to the time to get a pizza delivered from a pizza restaurant on “Super Bowl Sunday.” To make this “efficient” pizza, I used several convenience products. “Simple” was my objective. Here’s my “way too much” pepperoni pizza.

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Teen Chef: Let’s Bake Mardi Gras King Cake Broiches

It’s Mardi Gras season in Louisiana and today we’re making King Cakes. This year I have teenager, Jessi, to help me make these sweet, rich and delicious yeast breads known as King Cakes. King cakes fill the grocery stores and hundreds are sold in New Orleans during the Mardi Gras season. It is fairly easy to make a king cake yourself at home using this recipe. The key is using a heavy-duty mixer to do the kneading.

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Grandma Ida Belle’s Oatmeal Bars

Oatmeal Bars is a favorite recipe from my grandmother, Ida Belle Blough Snavely. As children, we’d visit every summer on her Iowa farm. Grandma Ida loved to have her grandchildren help make this recipe. And the soft, chewy oatmeal-texture bars kind of grow on you.  We had a cousin reunion recently, I thought it would be a good time to share the recipe.

Oatmeal Bars and Frozen Spiced Plum Yogurt - 1 - IMG_6296_1

 

The oatmeal bars really shine when served with fruit or ice cream. Here they are served with spicy plum  frozen yogurt. The two make a great pairing for a hot summer day.

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Kids Can Cook: Blueberry Bran Flake Muffins

Grandson holding Blueberry Bran Flake Muffin - 2 - IMG_5480_1When my five-year-old grandson came from Texas to visit and asked if he could help make the muffins, of course I was delighted. Another cook in the family!. Muffins are kid friendly; you just need a couple of bowls and a spatula. I had blueberries from our garden; supplemented with some from the store and was making blueberry muffins with bran flakes added in. Blueberry Bran Flake Muffins - IMG_5476_1

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