mint is marvelous

it's been a while since i did a food-related post, huh?  with the heat we've been sweating through this summer i haven't really been inspired to do a whole lot of cooking or baking.  i just saw our electric bill for the month of august and damn near threw up.  eek.

but when i stumbled across this recipe for triple layer fudgy mint oreo brownies (say that three times fast), it lit a fire under my ass to get into the kitchen and make them, pronto.  chocolate mint is one of my all-time favorite flavor combos, and since the rest of the house loves it too i figured it was worth a shot.

here's the basic ingredients - yes, i used a mix.  i was feeling lazy.  sue me.

the recipe actually calls for cool mint oreos, but because my rinkydink local grocery store didn't have them, i picked up the only other option they carried.  i figured it still had an oreo cookie and mint flavored creme in it, so it's all good.

what really sold me on this concoction to begin with was the addition of a minty-flavored marshmallow creme layer.  if there's anything i love more than chocolate mint, it's marshmallow.  yum.

the brownie batter gets mixed up as directed on the package with the addition of some crumbled oreos and then topped with a bit of that minty mix.  a little swirl with a butter knife, and into the oven it goes.

after the brownies are baked and cooled completely, you take some buttercream frosting (either homemade or the kind you get next to the cake mixes - i opted for the former), stir it into the rest of the marshmallow, and spread it on top.

the final touch:  more crumbled minty oreos on top.  trying to smash those chocolate-covered cookies was kind of a pain in the ass, but it was fun licking my fingers when it was done.

so, the verdict?  well, everyone loved them.  the teen thought the brownie needed to be a little thicker, and i probably overbaked it by a minute or two.  but it was nice and chewy, with just the right amount of mint flavor, plus a little crunch from the cookies.  really good.

if you like chocolate mint even half as much as i do, i highly recommend trying this one out.  yeah, it's kind of a pain in the ass with the multiple steps and waiting to cool and all that jazz, but worth it.  way.

grubbin' like texans

one word:  BBQ. 

that pretty much sums up our eating experience for an entire week in texas.  heh.  and our first crack at it was at a place not far from the ILs' home:  rudy's.  it's a gas station, restaurant, and general store all rolled into one.  the hub was...shall we say? - less than excited.

inside, the ILs explained that it wasn't like restaurants we typically frequent.  here, you choose your meat(s) and order them by the pound, and add whatever sides you want.

the girls had fun choosing OG bottled sodas from the giant cooler, while i explored the chip options.

the bean made herself comfy at one of the picnic-style tables.

the grub came in a plastic crate with an entire loaf of bread.  sheesh.

oh, and despite the fact that rudy's is a chain, i gotta say - best creamed corn EVER.

i broke out of my box and tried a soda flavor i'd never heard of.  it was good - kind of like a strawberry cream soda.

the next day MIL took us to a mall, where we got to sample a cupcakery she'd been holding off on trying till we got there.  the deceptively bland-looking cheesecake flavor was really good.  well, okay - the chocolate was, too.

that night's meal was at nearby babe's chicken - fried chicken and a lot of it.  but really tasty.  i do love me some fried chicken.

during a visit to sam's club (i'll explain later), my mouth watered at the sight of these.  too bad it was a super duper ginormous bag - i'd have liked to try them.  i never did find a smaller bag anywhere else.  probably for the best, anyway.

i definitely got my fill of bbq'd brisket over the course of a week.  i love me some brisket, but damn - i ate a hell of a lot of it.  prairie house was the site of yet another texas bbq dinner.

 the bean got a kick out of the decor outside.

our last stop for bbq was at hard 8.  i was amused at the "first-timers guide."

uh...brisket, anyone?

the bean was confused at the "plates" - what looked like a piece of butcher paper atop a tray.

good gracious.  and when i got home, i discovered that i'd picked up a souvenir from all that eating - five extra pounds.  not even kidding.  FIVE POUNDS!

damn you, texas bbq. 

more kitchen cleaning-out

thanks to the magic of pinterest, i found yet another delicious way to get rid of stuff in the fridge that's taking up space.  this time:  sopapilla cheesecake!

i might have made this for breakfast.  well, correction:  the bean made this for breakfast.  if i blame a toddler, she won't get in trouble.  heh.  but i swear, she did - with a little help. 

first, mix cream cheese with some sugar and vanilla.

pop open a can of crescent roll dough, spread half of it out, and smear that glorious cream cheese mixture on top.

layer the other half of the dough on top of that and brush with softened butter.

turn around and give the camera a big, cheesy super duper fake grin.

sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of that.

get someone responsible (or, in this case, simply grown up) to put it in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes, and then ask said someone to slice it up and serve.  voila:

yes, the bean served us cheesecake for breakfast.  that's my girl.

sugar coma

so even as i bellyache about that stupid scale and what a liar it is, i've been busting out some amazingly delicious junk from my kitchen.  heh.

if you're on pinterest, you've most likely run into this at least once - cinnamon roll pancakes with warm cream cheese glaze.  except that i was super lazy and didn't make the pancake part from scratch.  i don't think it mattered, because hot damn, these were delish.

going back to my friend jessica of the how sweet it is blog, i got a bug up my butt to try her triple layer cookies & cream crunch bars.  i timed this well, though - i made them on a day that we invited my cousin seven to have dinner with us.  these are homemade brownies with whole oreos sunk into the batter:

and then topped with more crushed oreos and chocolate chips:

because my sweet tooth was raging (and i've been looking for a good excuse to use them), i tossed these on top too:

the last layer is supposed to be melted chocolate and peanut butter mixed together and smushed on top to glue the crumbs and chips to the baked brownie.  but i was feeling saucy and used nutella instead.  after a couple of hours in the fridge, this is what we had:

i gave half the pan to seven to take home to brother seven before i even tried them.  and it's a damn good thing i did.  these are SO. EFFING. GOOD.  i would've eaten the whole pan, completely cancelling out the workouts i've done (and will do for the next gazillion years).

by the way, dinner was fantastic too.  i did a roast beef with mushroom gravy, some rice pilaf, and a spinach salad with more mushrooms and bacon bits.  total win.

oh, and the last thing wasn't for me - my friend kirkette hit me up to do some cake balls for her hubby on father's day.  she asked me to do a dozen in chocolate and another dozen in any other flavor, but to use some star wars-inspired colors for the coating.  after a little thought, i settled on white with blue drizzle - i love me some r2d2.  heh.

i was happy to hear later that they went over well.  i always like to know that other people actually find the stuff i make as yummy as i think they are.  ha!

oh - and one more father's day order i did for a friend:

i was so worried about these, but they turned out okay and they loved them.

yup.  team fatass for life.

pinning for team fatass

so i've been horribly addicted to pinterest now for a couple of weeks.  dang it.  if you haven't been sucked in yet, it's basically a virtual pinboard that you can use to "pin" things you find on the internet so that you can go back to it whenever you want to.  it's the greatest time suck that ever was, and when i'm bored or have nothing better to do, i'm perusing the posts for all sorts of stuff.  folks pin fun things ranging from food items to home projects to inspirational words to fabulously nostalgic items that i'd forgotten all about. 

anyway, i've pinned a bunch of wonderfully fattening things to my "food" board, including something i'd seen ages and ages ago on picky palate's blog.  what do you get when you mix up a batch of this:

throw in a package of these:

and do this:

oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies.  it's a freaking cookie INSIDE of another cookie, people.  and once i was reminded of this fantastic idea, i had to try it for myself.

since the recipe yields 2 dozen cookies, i did what i often do and halved it.  and when i flattened those gobs of dough around the oreo and sealed the edges, i ended up with these things that were damn near the size of tennis balls:

by the way, i was pretty impressed that cutting the recipe in half yielded exactly a dozen consistently ginormous cookies.  recipes don't usually produce the number they promise.  see how big they were?

after spending a little quality time in the oven, they spread a little but were still huge and made the house smell amazing.

i didn't tell the hub what the secret was about these, and the joke was on me when he announced that he'd decided to quit sugar in an effort to drop some poundage for the summer.  crap.  but seriously, how do you resist this??

mmmmm.  they really are so ridiculously good.  the oreo softened up a little in that dough, and the flavors just go so well together.  anyway, since i'm apparently the only one who's indulging in these at the moment (the teen is at her dad's this week, and the bean - well, what she doesn't know can't hurt her), i put most of them in the freezer.

how the hell am i going to survive with the hub's self-imposed sugar ban?  bah!  does he not know who i am??