Pink Stuff

 Pink Stuff

If you need an easy, delicious dessert, this is it.  This is Denton’s absolute favorite if he wants something sweet and it is extremely fast and easy to put together.

Pink stuff

Pink Stuff

Prep Time 5 minutes
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 1 (3 ounce) Cherry Jello
  • 1 (24 ounce) Cottage cheese
  • 1 (8 ounce) Whipped topping, (Cool Whip)
  • 1 (15.25 ounce) Fruit Cocktail, drained
  • 1 (16 ounce) Maraschino cherries, drained and cut in half

Instructions
 

  • Put everything in a large bowl and mix well.
  • Chill for at least an hour.

Here’s how I make it:

This recipe was passed down to me from Denton’s Mama.  My version, as per usual, is slightly different.  You can substitute name brand versions of everything if that is how you roll, I just can’t tell the difference in Jello brand jello and the Walmart version. 😉

pink stuff

If I were making this for just myself, I would leave out the fruit cocktail entirely.  I LOVE maraschino cherries and the more the better.  Denton would prefer that I use only 8 ounces of those and more fruit cocktail.  But we all have to compromise sometimes.

However you choose to make it, the base recipe is a delicious end result. Let me know how you like it if you decide to try it! 

You can find my other recipes here.

Easy & Delicious Banana Nut Bread

If you are going to take the time to bake a banana bread, you should definitely make this one.  It’s amazing.  Side note:  I HATE banana’s.  Unless they are baked into this banana nut bread, and then they are fabulous.

Here’s how I do it.

Spray your bread pan generously.

Dry ingredients go into one bowl….

Mix them together.

Wet ingredients go directly into your mixer bowl….

Add your banana’s now – these are okay…

These are better!

Not for eating, but for banana bread, oh yeah.

Mix it all together….

Put your mixer on low speed and start adding the dry ingredients.  Make sure your mixer is on LOW – otherwise, it will be all over your kitchen.

Mix it all together.

Now, its time to add in your pecans, yum.

You can use any kind of nut, I just had a multitude of pecans this day.

I mix these in by hand because I want the pieces to stay relatively intact.

Pour into your prepared bread pan, and bake at 350* for about an hour.  It actually takes mine 1 hour and 10 minutes in my new oven, so you’ll need to watch it near the end.

Once you can insert a toothpick or a piece of spaghetti and it comes out clean, cool it on a rack for at least ten minutes in the pan…. 

Turn it out onto the rack to cool completely.  If you can wait….

        

With or without butter, it’s superb!  Here’s the handy dandy printable:

Easy & Delicious Banana Nut Bread

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 16

Ingredients
  

  • Dry Ingredients:
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Wet Ingredients:
  • 2 Egg whites
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 TBSP canola oil
  • 1 cup buttermilk I make mine with 1 cup whole milk and 1 tsp lemon juice!
  • 4 very very ripe banana's (the more ripe they are the sweeter they are!)
  • 1 cup of nuts I used pecans here, you can use any nut you prefer

Instructions
 

  • Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a bread pan, generously.
  • Mix your dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
  • Mix your wet ingredients and add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
  • I mix the nuts in by hand so that they stay mostly intact. (Personal choice!)
  • Pour into your greased bread pan and bake for about 1 hour. My oven usually takes about 1 hour and ten minutes. Watch the bread! It's done when you insert a toothpick or piece of spaghetti and it comes out clean.
  • Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto the rack until cool. If you can wait that long! Slather with butter and enjoy!

Easy Salted Brownie Bites

Please don’t run away when you see that this recipe is based on a box mix.  It’s really good, I promise!

I always keep brownie mix in my cabinets for an easy, quick dessert.  Everyone at my house loves them, so I know I won’t eat the entire pan myself, which is a plus.  And these will be ready in under 25 minutes – start to finish!

My favorite – hands down – brownie mix is the Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate brownie mix.  But you can use anything for this recipe, because the secret addition is what knocks them out of the park.  The secret ingredient is salt, in case you missed it in the title.  😀   But we’ll get to that.  Now, let’s make brownies!

Today I used Betty Crockers’s brownie mix, since that was what I had on hand.

And my pink Himalayan Coarse salt.  I love this stuff.

Preheat your oven to the appropriate temperature.  Make your brownies with the directions on the box.  See!  How easy is this?

Beat your eggs, oil and water together….

Add your dry mix…..

Mix until just combined.

Spray your pan VERY well.  We do NOT want these yummy bites to stick.

I always use my scoop to put the brownie mixture into the pans.   Ready to bake!

Just pulled from the oven and piping hot.  Now is the time to sprinkle a tiny amount of the pink Himalayan coarse salt on them.

A tiny, tiny amount is so good and makes the chocolate so much more intense.

This is so simple, but it’s also very, very delicious!  Enjoy!!

Here you’ll find other awesome sites where I’ve been graciously invited to share my recipes:  Weekend Potluck, Southern Bite, Anna Nuttall, Crafts a la Mode, The Answer is Chocolate, The Country Cook, The Cottage Market, Simply Sweet Home, Tatortots and Jello, Chic on a Shoestring, Easy Peasy Pleasy, Our Mini Family, Strawberry Butterscotch, Pam’s Party and Practical Tips, Finding Silver Pennies, The Lazy Gastronome, My Soulful Home, Life and Linda, Denise Designed,  The Boondocks Blog, I Should Be Mopping the Floor, Keeping It Simple, The Organized DreamFlour Me With Love, Create With Joy, Mostly Blogging, A Pinch of Joy, Dwellings, Sew Can Do, Lou Lou Girls, Make Ahead Meals For Busy Moms, Mrs AOK a Work in Progress, Skip to My Lou, Meet Our Life, Worthing Court, Recipes and Ramblings, Yesterday on TuesdayMy Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, The Sway, Our World Tuesday, Our Home Away From Home, Lori’s Culinary Creations and Celebrate and Decorate

Here’s the handy dandy printable.

Easy Salted Brownie Bites

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 48 Brownie Bites

Ingredients
  

  • 1 box of brownie mix your choice!
  • Ingredients to make brownies eggs, water, oil, etc.
  • Pink Himilayan coarse salt

Instructions
 

  • Mix and bake the brownie mix.
  • While they are still piping hot, sprinkle a tiny amount of the coarse salt onto the brownie bites,
  • Enjoy!!

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Fast and Easy Doughnuts

Fast and easy doughnuts

How cold is it at your house today?  It’s an unbelievable 5* this morning at my house.  The perfect morning to make doughnuts.  You’ll be so, so glad you did!

The first thing to remember about this recipe is to use cheap canned biscuits.

Pop them out of the can – try not have a heart attack waiting for the pop – and cut them into four pieces.

Deep fry them in hot oil until they are golden brown and drain on paper towels.

While they are frying, pour about 1/2 cup of sugar in to a gallon sized ziplock baggie and add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Close it up and shake it until it’s combined.

After you drain the doughnuts, while they are still warm, drop them into the sugar/cinnamon mixture and shake until they are covered.  Fast and Easy Doughnuts

Then try not to eat them all before your family figures out what you’ve created!

One thing to note about these doughnuts is that they are absolutely divine – when they are warm and just made.  But, they do not keep well.  So, just keep in mind that you’ll have to eat them all when you make them.  It won’t be hard, I promise.

Here’s the handy dandy printable recipe.

Fast and Easy Doughnuts

Ingredients
  

  • Canned biscuits the cheap kind is best!!
  • Hot oil for deep frying
  • Sugar
  • Cinnamon

Instructions
 

  • Cut each canned biscuit into quarters.
  • Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown.
  • Drain on paper towels.
  • Mix sugar and cinnamon in a gallon sized ziplock baggie.
  • Put warm fried doughnuts into the baggie and shake.
  • Hide in your kitchen and eat the doughnuts until your family discovers what you've made! Enjoy!

Christmas Candy :AKA: Old Fashioned Icebox Fruitcake

This is a recipe that’s from Denton’s family.  Denton’s Mama makes it every Christmas that they get to spend with us.  She got my Daddy hooked on the stuff when she made it for him one year.  So this year when we had Christmas at Thanksgiving, lol, I made him and my Mama a giant batch to last them through the winter.  Maybe.

I LOVE this stuff.  I hesitated to even put the word FRUITCAKE in the title of this post because – 1. I HATE fruitcake.  I’m sorry if you love it!  B.  This has nothing, NOTHING to do with traditional fruitcake in my opinion.  Sorry for all of the shouting in this paragraph.  I feel VERY STRONGLY about fruitcake, obviously.

Let’s get on with the recipe and you’ll see what I mean.

Gather your ingredients.  You need:

A whole box of vanilla wafers.  My MIL always, ALWAYS uses the Nilla brand.  Now, you know me, unless it’s on sale and I have a coupon for this specific brand…..I used the brand from Aldi.  Shhh, don’t tell Denton’s Mama. 

Candied Cherries…..

Yum!

Candied Pineapple.

Double yum.

I absolutely could not find any candied pineapple this year until we got home and I found ONE.  So in the recipe for my parents, I substituted the tropical dreams Pineapple from Sun*Maid.  My parents still loved it, but if you can find the candied pineapple use it.

Raisins.  Denton’s Mama always uses golden raisins, but I had these, so……. and chopped pecans, which I somehow didn’t a photo of.

Nectar of the universe……it goes with everything, right?

Crush your vanilla wafers.  You can make them very, very fine or leave chunks of cookies.  Both ways are excellent!  Then, start adding the other ingredients.  Chop the pineapple pretty fine……

The raisins too……

Chop the candied cherries fine and add them.  Pour in the sweetened condensed milk and pecans…..

Stir, stir and stir.

Press into buttered dishes.

Try not to just scoop it out and eat it by the spoonful at this point!  Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours, then cut into bite size pieces.  This stuff is heaven.  But, it’s very, very rich, so you’ll definitely want to cut it into 1 X 1 pieces.  And then try not to eat forty of them.  Good luck with that!

Here’s the handy dandy printable.

Christmas Candy :AKA: Old Fashioned Icebox Fruitcake

Ingredients
  

  • 1 box of vanilla wafers
  • 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 8 ounce container of candied cherries
  • 1 8 ounce container of candied pineapple
  • 4 ounces of raisins
  • 1 cup of finely chopped pecans

Instructions
 

  • Crush the vanilla wafers until fine.
  • Chop the cherries, pineapples, raisins and pecans until fine.
  • Add all the ingredients together and stir until very well combined.
  • Scoop into a very well buttered dish and refrigerate until set (at least a couple of hours).
  • Cut into 1 X 1 pieces and enjoy!
  • Note: This stuff freezes fantastically!!!

 

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Easy Homemade Almond Joys

This year Olivia has fallen in love with Almond Joys.  Knowing her Mama, she casually asked a few nights ago if I could make them, homemade.  Of course we can!

Here is what you will need:

Start out with sweetened coconut flakes.

Add a can of sweetened condensed milk.  (Ignore the chocolate chips for now)

Powdered sugar.

Mix it all together and add a splash of vanilla.

Next, melt your choice of chocolate. 

I went with semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time.  Take them out every 30 seconds and stir.  It will literally only take about 1 minute to a minute and a half to melt.  If you don’t do this, you run the risk of burning your chocolate.  Bad news, dude.

While your chocolate is melting, butter your dish after putting parchment paper in it.  I used aluminum foil in my dish and I won’t do this next time.  Parchment paper, yes.  Aluminum foil, no.

Pour your yummy mixture into your dish…..

Dot every available surface with almonds.  There are never enough almonds in my Almond Joys!

Pour on your melted chocolate and spread thin.  Put them into the fridge for at least an hour and then devour.

Here’s the handy dandy recipe!

Easy Homemade Almond Joys

Ingredients
  

  • 14 ounces of sweetened coconut flakes
  • 14 ounces of sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 1/4 cups of powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup of almonds
  • 14 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips or any other chocolate of your choice!

Instructions
 

  • Mix together: coconut, condensed milk, powdered sugar and vanilla.
  • Pour into buttered dish.
  • Push almonds into the mixture. We covered ours completely!
  • Melt chocolate and pour over everything and spread until thin and even.
  • Cool in the fridge for at least an hour.
  • Devour and enjoy!