Molten Chocolate Bread Pudding.

I adapted this recipe from the Purple Chocolate Home.  Check out the link where you can find two divine looking sauces to pour over the bread pudding for an even more decadent dessert.

10-12 cups French bread, dried out and chopped into 1 inch pieces.  (I used 1/2 of a round French country loaf from Costco.)
1 quart heavy cream
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup orange juice

additional 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup chocolate chips

1.  Cut up bread and place in large bowl.
2.  In a separate bowl whisk together cream, sugars, egg, vanilla, and cinnamon.
3.  In a microwave safe bowl stir together chocolate chips and orange juice.  Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth (I melted for a total of 1 minute 30 seconds.
4.  Stir melted chocolate into the cream and sugar mixture. 
5. Pour over bread and toss.  Allow to sit for 30 minutes.
6.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray grease a 9x13 pan.
7.  Pour bread into pan and sprinkle additional brown sugar and chocolate chips on top.
8.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Pudding will be gooey.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Another way to dress up this dessert would be to serve with a berry syrup and/or fresh raspberries.

Valentine's Day 14

Spread the love with those you love and find a way to serve someone else today. Visit a nursing home, make some blankets, shovel snow, donate items to a local charity. there are a million different ways to help someone else today.

Valentine's Day 13

It's the weekend...go on a date.

Need some different date ideas? check out this article at Make and Takes.

Valentine's Day 12

Heart attack!!

Remember doing that in jr high and high school. well do it of your kids, significant other, neighbor, friend, etc. It's a fun and super easy way to make someone smile. Just a bunch of paper hearts and maybe some candy or a gift taped all over someone's room or door.

Valentine's Day 11

Remember the old school valentines boxes you made in elementary? They were always creative and fun. Well as a family make some for the month of February to leave love notes, treats, etc in for each other. A fun creative art activity and a way to spread some good feelings around. I remember one year I even made mine out of legos. the sky's the limit!

Valentine's Day 10

Giant kisses

Make rice krispie treats and form in plastic wrap into the size of a giant kiss. Tap on cute paper tag with message. Wrap in aluminum foil. A cute, easy, and tasty surprise.

Valentine's Day 9

It's monday night which means it's family day in the Mormon culture. Emilie the brilliant creator of emilie handmade has another wonderful and resourceful site of FHE (family home evening) ideas. Her lesson for this week is about love in the home and she includes a delightful recipe for conversation heart fudge.

Check it out here.

Valentine's Day 8

Since it's Sunday I would just like to encourage people to read in the scriptures about Love. There are plenty of good ones to go around but my favorites are in 1 John. I love all of 1 John but chapters 3-4 are especially about love.

Valentine's Day 7

Do a secret act of service for a friend or even a stranger....do an extra chore, give someone else the right of way, etc. just have fun with it!

Valentine's Day 6

Make a fun craft from Family Fun.

They have a lot of easy, creative, and relativly cheap ideas.

Another fun idea is homemade heart crayons as found at Emilie Homemade.

Valentine's Day 5

To go with all of those movies, you should make some tasty and fun popcorn...
2 poppers of popped popcorn (1/2 cup unpopped) OR 3 bags plain unbuttered microwave popcorn
1 1/2 sticks margarine or butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup karo syrup
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 big bag peanut M&Ms (valentines edition)

Boil butter, sugar, and corn syrup for 4 minutes. In a large bowl mix popped popcorn and marshmallows together. Pour sugar mixture over popcorn. Stir thoroughly and add M&Ms. You can add food coloring to the sugar mixture for added flair.

Valentine's Day 4

Brownie Hearts

Another easy treat from Martha. Make your brownies and then using a heart cookie cutter, cut them into small hearts. You can use these to top cupcakes like the chocolate filigree hearts, or throw a couple in a bowl of ice cream, or it's just a fun lunch box surprise.

Valentine's Day 3

Some fun ideas for Valentine's movies for families:

Aladdin
the Little Mermaid
Princess Diaries
The Parent trap
Lady and the Tramp
Hairspray

Some fun ideas for Valentine's movies for couples:

Pillow Talk
Sleepless in Seattle
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Much Ado about Nothing
10 things I hate about you
Top 10 Valentine's Movies for the Lovestruck

Or if you are feeling S.A.D. (single awareness day) instead...

Top 10 Valentine's Movies for the Lovelorn

Valentine's Day 2

A fun way to make a "heartfelt" breakfast...

Make toad-in-a-hole (toast with a hole in the middle for an egg to cook) but instead of making the hole round, make it heartshaped with a heart cookie cutter.

Butter a skillet, cut heart into bread, lay bread on skillet and crack egg into heart-shaped hole. Cook until egg cooked and bread toasted.

Valentine's Day 1

For the 14 days til Valentine's Day I am going to do 14 posts of fun ideas...

This first idea is from Martha Stewart's Feb. Living. My roommates and I thought they were too cute not to try and make ourselves.

Chocolate Filigree hearts for cupcake toppers. It really is super easy, just melt some chocolate, put it into a decorators bag or a ziplock bag with a tiny hole cut in the corner. Trace a heart cookie cutter on some parchment and then outline the heart with chocolate filling it with swirls and designs. Freeze for 15 minutes to set then top cupcakes.

Here are pictures of mine:

Dinner for 2

I was speculating on what a good Valentine's Dinner would be and I decided that you really can't beat homemade Italian... So here is a menu for a good and fairly easy meal.

Stuffed Shells
Elise's Parmesan Bread sticks
Salad
Italian Love Cake

Stuffed Shells

1 box uncooked lg shells or manicotti
1 jar spaghetti sauce
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese
5oz frozen spinach, thawed
1 pinch fennel
2 garlic cloves, diced
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
salt
1 lb Italian sausage or 1 lb ground beef

In a large sauce pan, pan fry the diced garlic in a splash of olive oil until browned. Mix in the ground beef and Italian sausage, cook thoroughly. (optional: remove sausage skin and blend into ground beef). Add spaghetti sauce, oregano and basil. Simmer. In a large pot, bring water to a boil and cook shells according to package directions. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, mozzarella, and spinach. Salt to taste. When shells are cooked, drain hot water and run cold water on cooked shells to stop the cooking process. Spread a light layer of sauce on the bottom of a large deep baking dish. Using a narrow spoon, spoon cheese mixture in to shells and place into the baking dish. Cover with remaining sauce and sprinkle Parmesan on top. Bake in oven covered with foil at 400 F for 40 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Elise's Parmesan Bread sticks

My roommate Elise introduced to us these amazing bread sticks in 2004.

1 packet or 1 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
3 cups flour
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt

Mix water and yeast together until dissolved. Add sugar. Salt Add flour 1 cup at a time mixing with a fork until dough has formed. Knead until well mixed and allow to rise 20 minutes. While rising melt 1 stick butter on a cookie sheet while pre-heating oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough and cut into strips with a pizza cutter. Place strips on buttery pan allowing butter to run over each bread stick. Sprinkle with Parmesan or cinnamon-sugar mix. Bake for 20 minutes until brown.

Italian Love Cake

this recipe was introduced to me by my CNA instructor in 2002.

1 package chocolate cake mix
2 pints part-skim ricotta cheese
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup milk
1 container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1. Prepare cake mix as directed on box. Pour batter into 9 x 13 greased baking dish. Set aside.
2. Combine ricotta cheese, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Blend well. Spread mixture evenly over the top of the cake batter.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 75 minutes if using a glass baking dish, 90 minutes if using a metal pan.
4. Blend pudding mix and milk until thickened. Blend in whipped topping. Spread over cooled cake.

mmm typing this up makes me hungry and want to watch Under the Tuscan Sun!

Valentines Day

Valentines day is just around the corner. Those of you who know me, know I frequently complain about valentines day, February, etc.

Well it is a dirty filthy lie. I really do like Valentines day. I love decorating for it, coming up with new treats and ideas, and giving gifts. Sometimes it just isn't fun to be on the single end of it, that's all. Over at Crafting Chicks they have posted a lot of cute gift ideas.

A Feathered Nest is offering a lot of fun decorating ideas, including crayon hearts. I made these years ago when Martha had them as an idea in an issue of Martha Stewart Living. I loved crayons as a kid, and I love them now. Plus kids get a kick out of them, and who doesn't have a bunch of broken crayons laying around??

Another fun idea is chocolate dipped pretzels. First of all they are just good. Second, these ones look like little heart snacks. For the how to go to Make and Takes.

Naughty...or nice?

So for a friends bridal shower I created a Naughty or Nice? present...

At Borders I found a naughty or nice coupon book. one coupon will be nice (i.e. Good for one long walk on the beach) and another would be a "naughty" version. I created a naughty box and a nice box.

I filled the nice box with movies and popcorn, my cookbook and some cute heart shaped oven mitts, etc...activities a couple could use and do together. I filled the naughty box with some lip shaped candy, a lip shaped pack of cards, lingerie, and various other items ;)

It was a hit, and I think it is a fun idea for valentines day, bridal showers, anniversaries, etc...