Quick and easy brownies.

Ever in a hurry and craving something chocolaty? Well, I do on occasion. On such occasions, I may have made these quick and easy brownies. These brownies always hit the spot. The great things about brownies are that they are chocolaty, gooey, and most usually everybody loves them. In my family, they never last more than a day. The other day I made these to go with some homemade chocolate ice cream that I made. 

To make these brownies you will need:

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup walnut halves (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 x 13 pan.
2. Melt butter. Then mix all ingredients in the order given.
3. Pour into greased 9 x 13 baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.

Optional: sprinkle a little powder sugar on top for an extra touch.

** I sometimes use a sheet cake pan, instead of a  9 x 13, though you must adjust the time.

As always enjoy.

Peace, love, bake on.

                                   Andrea

 I found the original recipes here, but I made a few changes to make it my own.

Hairs ideas for PROM-- Part II

Hey everyone! So I promised another post devoted to Prom hairstyles, and I intend to follow through. I have  just been so busy. Among fighting sickness, getting lines memorized, and getting songs down and memorized, I almost forgot about it. To say the least I keep busy, usually. 

So if your prom isn't already here or isn't around the corner, it will be soon. It comes faster than you think. Time really flies by. 

So I have a friend that asked me to help her find a hairstyle for prom for her hair. She has short brown gorgeous hair. She has a strapless gown, so she wants her to be down. And so I had a mission, and on my mission I found that a lot of hair style were similar, especially when  they were hairstyles that were down loose instead of up in an up-do or something. But I learned after realizing that it all depends on the technique in which you style and prep your hair.

So I wanted to give some ideas and pictures to show you some different ideas for short curly hairstyles.

This hair style is super cute and fun. To do this hairstyle, you could either use a 1/2 curling iron or 3/4 inch curling iron. Depends on how short you hair. I can't guarantee the same results, but it should be the type of curl. Here is a good hair tutorial for this type of hairstyle. Looking on YouTube for tutorial is a good source to help you curl your hair.  This would be great if you want something care free and bouncy. 

This hairstyle is very vintage but screams classy! Personally, if I had short hair this is how I would always wear my hair. I feel like it is a timeless hair style. I found a couple great tutorials that I have to share with you because they each go at it with a different technique but they are each so pretty. Here is the first one, my favorite, I think. Another one you find HERE, is also really good. And the last two that I also love are HERE and HERE. I am sure there are even more great ones that are on YouTube, but these are the ones that stood out to me the most. 

There are two other prom hairstyles I found but couldn't find good pictures to depict them. So I am just going to direct you to tutorials. The first is curling you hair with a flat iron. It would give you a unique curl, and you can find a good YouTube tutorial here. It even shows you how to add volume. BONUS! Last but certainly now least, I found this super chic hairstyle tutorial that I just have to share, and you can find it right here. I love it.

All these hairstyles would be great for prom, you just have to dress them up, add volume and a flower or a different accessory. You could even try to incorporate braids. I love braids. And they always look cute. For example you could curl your hair and then do a water fall braid. Just in case you don't know what or how to do a waterfall braid, so here is one that'll teach the basics.  

Those are some ideas, and now just run with it. Be creative. Thanks!

                                                                   Andrea 

Cinnamon roll pancakes

I love pancakes, and I love cinnamon rolls. So why not combine them? Duh. So that is what I did. I had found a recipe for one on Pinterest and was linked to this website. It was very detailed and had great instructions, though I made a few twinks to it when I made this scrumptious breakfast food. 

My family, especially my little brothers, loved these pancakes. They really loved it with the attached cream cheese  glaze/syrup that goes on top of these wonderful pancakes. 

When I made these the first time, I used a pancake mix I had on hand and mixed it up like I normally do. 

Ingredients:

Cinnamon Filling:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, just melted (not boiling)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Cream Cheese Filling:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

2-ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pancakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil

Directions:

Prepare the cinnamon filling: In a medium bowl, stir together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a quart-sized heavy zip baggie and set it aside (see *Tips below).

Prepare the glaze: In a small pan, heat the butter over low heat until melted. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cream cheese until it is almost smooth. Sift the powdered sugar into the pan, stir and add in vanilla extract. Set the pan aside while you make the pancakes.

Prepare the pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in the milk, egg and oil, just until the batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

Cook the pancakes: Heat a large, nonstick skillet over medium-heat and spray with nonstick spray. Use an ice cream scoop (or 1/3 cup measuring cup) to add the batter to the pan. Use the bottom of the scoop or cup to spread the batter into a circle (about 4-inches in diameter). Reduce the heat to medium low. Snip the corner of your baggie of cinnamon filling and squeeze the filling into the open corner. When your pancake begins to form bubbles, add the filling. Starting at the center of the pancake, squeeze the filling on top of the pancake batter in a swirl (just as you see in a regular cinnamon roll). Cook the pancake 2 to 3 minutes, or until the bubbles begin popping on top of the pancake and it's golden brown on the bottom. Slide a thin, wide metal spatula underneath the pancake and gently but quickly flip it over. Cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until the other side is golden as well. When you flip the pancake onto a plate, you will see that the cinnamon filling has created a crater-swirl of cinnamon. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, and repeat with the remaining pancake batter and cinnamon filling. Re-warm the glaze briefly, if needed. Serve pancakes topped with a drizzle of glaze.

Tips:

*Quick and easy tip: Use a boxed pancake mix as the base for this recipe.
*Tips for the cinnamon filling: Before swirling, open up the baggie again and give it a good stir to re-incorporate any butter that may have separated from the sugar. You want the mixture to thicken a bit- it's best when it's similar to the squeezing texture of a tube of toothpaste, which will happen if you leave it at room temperature for several minutes. Don't try to use the filling for the pancake swirl unless it has thickened as it will be too runny to make a solid swirl.

*Keep the heat low or your pancakes might cook up too quickly. Don't flip them until you see those bubbles starting to pop on top. Flip them with a wide spatula so you can grasp the whole thing without batter and filling dripping all over the place!

***I found this directly from this wonderful website called Recipe Girl. She has a wonderful site, check it out. 

Thanks and enjoy!

Peace, love, bake on.

                                           Andrea 

                                

Cream cheese frosting

Who all loves cream cheese? I love cream cheese. Though my dad doesn't like it in desserts such as cheese cake, he does like it in dinner foods, such as dips, like Chicken Buffalo Dip. And he does not like cream cheese frosting, he hates it. But I love it. One of the many differences between my dad and I. 

For Easter this year, I made many desserts including a carrot cake and with carrot cake, you must have cream cheese frosting. So I decided to share my cream cheese frosting with you. It is super easy and yummy! So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces cream cheese(1/2 cup)
• 4 ounces butter, softened (1/2 cup)
• 2 cups powder sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Directions:

• Using mixer beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Mix in powder sugar until smooth. Add vanilla extract. Beat until smooth. Enjoy!

It's that easy. This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled. I do quite often. If you want it to be thicker add a half cup or more of the powder sugar to make it thicker. 

Thanks and enjoy!

                      Happy Easter! 

                            Andrea 

Blueberry Cobbler

Everyone loves blueberries, right? Well this dessert will sure be hit with anyone who does. It's so good and guess what? Really easy to make as well. (YES!) 

My dad for a while had been wanting me to make blueberry cobbler, and so I found and used my favorite cobbler recipe. 
The great thing about this recipe is that you don't have to use blueberries. You can use any fruit. It's very versatile. This recipe double nicely. Also, I should note that, I use this cobbler recipe as the base for all my cobbler. So, if I make peach cobbler is just sub in peaches for the blueberries. 
I could eat this whole thing by myself. There's not just eat one serving. It's so scrumptious. Words or pictures really can't describe it loveliness. It's even better served warm with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream. Consider yourself warned. 

Blueberry Cobbler

adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients: 

• 6 tbs. butter
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup self-rising flour (or 1 cup flour, 1 1/3 tsp. baking powder, & 1/3 tsp. salt)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (21 oz.) can blueberry pie filling or other fruit(You don't have to use pie filling)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt butter and pour into a 2 or 2.5 quart casserole or baking pan. Mix sugar, flour, and milk together.
3. Pour mixture into pan over butter, but do NOT mix. Pour blueberry pie filling over mixture, but do NOT mix. 
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. 
5. Serve warm with ice cream, if you desire to do so. 

*When I made this I wanted to get it baked in 45 minutes, so I preheated the oven 375 degrees instead of 350 degrees. At 375 degrees I baked it for 45 minutes. I would still recommend to cook at 350 for 1 hour if you have the time. 

** My 2 and 2.5 quart casserole/ baking dishes were being used or dirty, so I used a 9x13 pan, which was 3 quarts instead of 2 or 2.5 quarts, but it baked nicely and looked good, too.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Good luck, as always! 

Peace, Love, Bake on.

                                                          Andrea  

Hair Ideas for PROM.

So, I am going with this series posts themed around Prom which is coming up. And while I was looking for hair ideas for some of the girl's hair I will be doing for Prom, I thought that I should help you find and give tip for your hair for Prom. 

On this trek through the internet, I found so many wonderful sites that were full of advice and different unique hairstyles. Some of them were better then others. 

The first site I found was full of so many different articles about different styles and hairstyles for different lengths of hair. It is called Latest- Hairstyles. It had details for each style about how a person could do that hairstyle. And it pretty cool. You should definitely check it out. 

The next site was from About.com. It was very detailed. And it had all the hairstyle prom trends for 2013. With every type of hairstyle there were examples and details about what you would need to do the hairstyle and what type of hair is best for it. 

The other site that I loved was at Seventeen. This article had all the hair trends for Prom in 2013. It explained with each hairstyle how to do the style. Definitely take a look.

I will have a more detailed post to come for hair trends, styles, and tips to come up. Until check out these websites because they are pretty great. 

I also wanted to tell you to also check out Pinterest because they are some really good hair boards on Pinterest. 

Until next time, have fun and good luck!

                                      Andrea 

Copycat Ragu Tomato Sauce

Lately, I have been playing around with marinara sauces. A lot of marinara sauces are a crushed tomato base. These sauces are usually pretty thick but sometimes can be slightly watery or runny but the flavor is amazing. But if you are used the canned sauces from the  store such as Ragu or Prego. Ragu, for example, seems to me to be a tomato sauce or paste based. My family liked the texture and thickness of the Ragu sauces and I couldn't get that with my favorite marinara sauces for some reason. And so now I sometimes make this copycat Ragu sauce with some minor adjustments. 

So after a long internet search, I found this recipe for which I made some minor adjustments. 

The recipe I found was addressed "Copycat Ragu Tomato Sauce"

The Ingredients you will need:

• 29 oz. Tomato sauce 
• 14.5 canned Italian diced tomatoes or can of crushed tomatoes
• 4 oz. sliced mushrooms (optional)
• 5 tsp. granulated sugar
• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 1 tbs. grated Parmesan and Romano cheese each.
• 1 tsp. dried basil 
• 1/2 dried parsley
• 3 garlic cloves chopped finely. (or 1 1/2 tsp. of minced garlic)
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup onion finely chopped (optional)

Directions:

In a sauce combine all the ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes (simmer on a very low flame otherwise you will scorch your pot. Simmer uncovered  or partially covered to help it reach the desired thickness. When stirring use a wooden spoon rather than an aluminum or metal spoon.). After it is finished cooking, serve as desired. 

* I added ground hamburger to the sauce. Or you can even add meatballs. Get creative. 

 Have fun and get creative. Good luck!

Andrea