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Archive for August, 2011

Caramel Pecan Brownies

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , , , on August 6, 2011| 23 Comments »

I love chocolate as many of you who read this blog should be able to tell, but I also love caramel and pecans, too.  Well, guess what?  This brownie recipe combines all of those into one ooey-gooey piece of heaven.  I found this in the Fall 2010 edition of Kraft Food and Family magazine, but it got pushed back in my recipe drawer and I had not made it. 

Let me tell you, it was worth the wait!  If you have a chocolate lover in your household, please make these for them.  You will be their new favorite person!

I did make a couple of little changes to the original, one because I had to and one because I wanted to.  I was almost out of white sugar (oops), so I had to substitute light brown sugar for most of the white.  I don’t think it made any difference at all.  I also chopped my pecans instead of using the whole pecan halves.  I think you get more crunch and flavor that way.  I am listing the original recipe below.

4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate

3/4 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

1 pkg. (14 oz.) caramels

1/3 cup whipping cream

2 cups pecans, divided

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 13×9” baking pan with aluminum foil and allow the ends of the foil to hang over the pan.  Spray the foil with non-stick spray.  Microwave the chocolate and butter on high for 2 minutes or until butter is melted.  Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

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Add sugar and eggs.  Mix well.  Stir in flour until well blended.  Spread half of the batter in the pan and bake for 25 minutes.

About 20 minutes into the baking process, microwave the caramels and whipping cream on high for 2 minutes or until caramels begin to melt.  Stir until completely melted.  (I had to put mine back in the microwave for about another minute to get the caramels melted.)  Stir in 1 cup of nuts.

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Spread the caramel mixture over the brownie layer and cover with the remaining brownie batter.  Some caramel will show through.  Sprinkle with remaining nuts and bake for 30 more minutes.  Let cool completely and cut into small pieces.  A little bit of this brownie goes a long way!

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Please join me over at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage for this recipe and many yummy others!  She even spotlighted little old me for my BBQ ribs last week.  Thanks, Miz Helen!

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Scharffen Berger.

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Thoughtful Thursday

Posted in Entertainment, Fun, My Thoughts, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2011|

I hope you have enjoyed the last few week’s worth of Thoughtful Thursday posts which detailed C & my 10th anniversary vacation to Virginia Beach.  This post highlights the neat little restaurants we visited while on the road.  I had done quite a bit of research on local Virginia Beach restaurants because I wanted us to get a local taste of the place.  Thanks to sites like Tripadvisor, Urbanspoon, Google, and Yahoo travel, I found several local hot spots to try.

On Tuesday of our trip, which was our official anniversary, we ate at two local restaurants which had gotten really good reviews.  These eateries are in side-by-side houses and are owned by the same people.  One serves breakfast and lunch while the other serves dinner and late night eats.

We ate at Doc Taylor’s for lunch and it was so good!!  Here is the exterior…

This is the only advertising that you will see so you have to know where they are. 

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I think the interior probably looks a lot like it did when someone lived there.  The ambience was great!

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C ordered the Philly cheesesteak with fries and I got the OBX shredded BBQ sandwich with fries and the absolutely best Cole slaw I have ever had!  If you are ever in the Virginia Beach area, go to Doc Taylor’s!  It was awesome!

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For our anniversary dinner that night, we went to Doc Taylor’s sister restaurant, Tautog’s.  This was a Tuesday evening and the place was packed.  We had to wait about 45 minutes to get a table.  We were seated in the screened-in porch back to back with many other diners.  The food here was good but a little too pricey for what you get.  I think they should at least throw in a salad or bread to go with the main entrée.  C had their Steak au Poivre with roasted potatoes and I had the Wesley’s World Famous crab cakes with roasted potatoes.  Good, but expensive.

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The next day we headed into Norfolk for some sightseeing and to go to a little drive-in/diner called Doumar’s that I had heard about on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives from the Food Network.  This place was famous for their homemade ice cream cones, so we absolutely had to try them.  This was a neat little joint that was full of locals there for lunch.  I think that is always a good sign!

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C had a cheeseburger with fries and I had their shredded BBQ sandwich with slaw and fries.  The food was great and the best was yet to come.  C & I both ordered a chocolate ice cream cone and it was soooo good!!!!

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Here I am trying not to lose a bite.

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After a full day of touring, we made it back to our hotel room to decide where to eat supper.  I wanted something quick and close because I wanted to head to the beach before sunset.  We found a little pizza place just a block or two from our hotel called The Pi-zzeria (as in Pi, or 3.14).  Kind of cute, isn’t it?  The brick oven gave this pizza a great thin crispy crust and the cheese and homemade sauce were good, too.

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On our way home through Virginia, we stopped in Staunton to pick up some supplies and decided to eat there.  C has a neat app on his smartphone called Where.  You can pick what you are looking for, such as a restaurant, gas station, hotel or store and it will search from your current location.  One of the eateries listed was Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  I had read about this place but there aren’t any close to where we live so we decided to check it out.

You order at their front counter and then take a seat to wait for your number to be called.  They have peanuts in the shell you can snack on while you wait, but don’t eat too many because you get huge portions.  I ordered a regular burger and fries and I got a double patty hamburger with enough fries for 3 servings.  If I ever get to eat there again, I will definitely order the “little burger”.  The food was really good though!

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This is ONE serving of fries!!  Oh my!

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As we headed home through West Virginia on Friday morning, we had a late breakfast at Tudor’s Biscuit World.  I had gotten a tip about this restaurant from someone I had met through work and was eager to try it.  I think I was expecting something like Cracker Barrel so I was a little disappointed.  The Tudor’s we stopped at was in a truck stop/mini mart kind of store, but it was busy.  The prices were extremely reasonable and the biscuits were huge, but I have had better.  It was ok, but not great.

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I hope everyone has enjoyed these glimpses into our first trip to the ocean and all of the sites and tastes along the way!

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Highlight

Posted in Cooking, tagged , on August 3, 2011|

Guess what?  I was chosen over at At Home With Haley to be the savory recipe that she can’t wait to try!  Isn’t that awesome?  Go here to check it out!

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Meal Plan Monday

Posted in Menu Planning, tagged on August 1, 2011|

Good Monday morning to all of you!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to a great week!  We are still fighting hot weather here in the Land of the Bluegrass and it looks like there is at least one more week of it.  We were blessed to receive a little rain on Saturday and the plants just soaked it up.  My second generation of cucumber plants are actually doing pretty well since I have tried to be diligent about watering, so hopefully we will have fresh cucumbers well into fall if everything goes well.

The green peppers have LOVED this weather!  There are only 3 plants in my raised bed but they have produced like crazy and are still hanging full.  I have frozen almost a gallon of diced pepper to use this winter and we have also enjoyed a lot of carrots, too.  There is just something so fulfilling to me to be able to go out in my backyard and come back with a bowlful of fresh food to feed my family.  It just tastes better!  If you have a little plot of ground or even room for a few pots, I highly recommend growing a few fresh things.  You will be amazed at the flavor.

I stuck to last week’s menu pretty well except for the dessert.  It is just too hot to bake and I received an awesome birthday present from my in-laws…a countertop ice cream maker with a dairy-free recipe book since I am extremely lactose intolerant. I will have more details with several recipes in just a few days so please check back.

Cheesy Steak Sandwiches & oven fries

Taco Ring (2 nights)

Grilled Hamburgers & oven fries

Pizza Night

Honey Pork Chops (new) with roasted potatoes

Southern Plate’s Yellow Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting (new-I know I have teased you with this one before, but I hope to actually get it made this time.)

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