Blueberry Streusel Muffins

I think over half of you guys said in the comments in the last giveaway that you are pregnant too! Anyone else in that weird in-between stage of pregnancy where people are wondering has she eaten too many Krispy Kremes? or is she pregnant? Pregnancy mixed with vacation eating...ah...my clothes are all getting a little tighter for sure.

We were just in Vegas for the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids charity we are involved with and I had a silver dress that I bought a couple of months ago that had Vegas written all over it. It definitely was snugger than when I first bought it but I didn't really feel like a stuffed sausage until after we had eaten a huge dinner and headed to Garth's concert.

I had been fighting a chronic cough for a while...and as I was sitting in my seat watching Garth perform, I let out a big cough and felt a riiiiippppp.

Sure enough the zipper on my dress had ripped from the top of my dress all the way down to the top of my booty.

Mortified.

I knew there was no immediate escape possible so I kept my back stuck to my seat. I tried to enjoy the concert as much as I could but I knew after the concert the wives and husbands involved in the charity were supposed to go on stage and take a picture with Garth.

My husband tried to sneak the zipper slyly up but it was completely off track and required some major tweaking if it could even be fixed at all.

Finally, after the concert while we were waiting for Garth, I borrowed a shawl from a girl behind me and snuck out of the theater into a small curtained off section right outside where my husband tried to fix my dress. My husband at one point ripped the whole zipper out but eventually Macgyvered the zipper back into my dress. I'm sure by my giggling and all the shenanigans going on people thought we were doing the naughty.

The moral of the story is I need to stop pretending I'm the same size I used to be.

I saw these muffins over at Barbara Bakes and had to make them with all of the fresh blueberries available right now. They are the perfect texture and I added a generous amount of streusel topping because that's how I roll. I like what Barbara said that homemade muffins really do not take that long as long as you have all of the ingredients out and ready to go. I made these for my family for Sunday breakfast with some help from my boys and my niece and they all went crazy for them.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Source: cupcakes from Barbara Bakes; streusel topping from allrecipes

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350º. Line muffin pan with paper muffin liners.

To prepare streusel topping mix with sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon with a fork. Sometimes I use my hands to get it fully incorporated so that it has the texture of wet sand. This makes a generous amount of streusel topping which probably could be halved but I like a lot on my muffins.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and milk. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Gently fold in blueberries.

Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle muffins with streusel topping.

Bake at 350º for 20 to 25 min, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Makes 12 jumbo muffins.

Cookies and Cream Brownies

We just returned from quite a week at Lake Powell.

Less than an hour after our flight landed in Arizona from Florida my youngest son tripped and gashed his head on my mom's kitchen chair. 5 hours and 12 stitches later, my son left the ER with a Harry Potter scar on his forehead.

After much debating we decided to head to Lake Powell anyway.

Our first night at Lake Powell my two oldest boys were up all night throwing up. Which stinks when you're at home and really stinks when your miles away from an ever so convenient washing machine.

The next night my oldest son was accidentally hit with an oar and ended up in the Lake Powell ER for 11 stitches.

At this point I knew the Lake Powell gods were clearly against me.

I didn't want to admit defeat even though I now had two kids that weren't allowed in lake water by doctors orders and we still had a full week at Lake Powell. I like to think that I'm one who can roll with the punches but by now I just felt like I was repeatedly being punched.

Then the tsunami hit. There was a rock slide near our houseboat about the size of a football field. My husband happened to be out on the boat WITH MY KIDS tubing behind him when it happened. The rock slide sent 8 foot swells out of it's path. Thank goodness everyone was all right.

BUT despite all that, we had a lot of fun with good food, friends, and family. A crazy, memorable trip. And I came home pregnant with a food baby.

Dang, I'm long winded today....

So here are a couple of reasons why my husband rocks as a DAD just this week alone:

1. He had the smarts to ride it out the waves with the kids in tow instead of following the natural instinct to pull in the kids in the 8 foot swells, possibly capsizing the boat.   
2. When my kids started gushing blood out of their heads he calmly applied pressure instead of huddling into fetal position and crying like a baby (which is what I did). 
3. He washed out the sleeping bag, towels, and clothes covered in throw up Pocahontas style in the lake without batting an eye before I could even get to it. 

On the the way home from Lake Powell we stopped at Sonic and got not ONE but TWO of their Double Stuffed Oreo Shakes. Oh man we deserved them.

These Cookies and Cream Brownies have a chocolatey dense brownies topped with a light and fluffy Oreo frosting. I've tried a lot of brownie recipes and this basic recipe is the one I love so far.

Cookies and Cream Brownies

Source: brownies adapted from My Baking Addiction; frosting adapted from How Sweet It Is

Brownies:

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate; coarsely chopped

3/4 cup butter
1 ½ cups white sugar
3 eggs; lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
8 Oreo cookies, crumbled

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 9×9 inch baking pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Microwave chocolate and butter or margarine in large bowl for 3-4 minutes or until butter is melted.

3. Whisk mixture until chocolate is melted. Stir in sugar. Add in eggs, extract and salt. Gradually add in flour and stir until just combined. Fold in crushed Oreo cookies.

4. Bake for 28-32 minutes; do not over bake. These taste completely different if they are overbaked!

5. Remove to cooling rack.

Cookies and Cream Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
5 Oreo cookies, crumbled

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy with a mixer.

2. Add the powdered sugar slowly, mixing together until combined. Add vanilla and mix until combined.

3. Add milk to desired consistency. If your frosting is too thick add more milk and if it's too thin add some more powdered sugar.

4. Crush Oreos and fold them into the frosting.

5. Frost cooled brownies. Makes enough frosting for a 9X9 pan of brownies.  Makes around 12 brownies.

An announcement and a $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway

After exporting all the entries and taking away duplicates, the winner of the $100 Visa giftcard chosen by random.org is:

 prov3130grl - "Congratulations!"

I will be contacting you with the details! Congrats!

***********This giveaway is closed***********

Maybe you've been wondering why I've been posting a little less these days...

It's because I'm pregnant! Yep. Denney baby #4 is on the way.

Which means the thought of food sometimes is hard.

And now you guys will be subject to all of my cravings...and food aversions.

And since I have superpower smelling senses I can smell someone cooking fish about two blocks away and going to the grocery store is almost unbearable because I can smell every single thing in the store.

But when something sounds good, I'm in a panic to make it, and as soon as I eat it...I never want to see it again.

Like the Bloomin' Onion Bread. Loved it. Ate way too much of it. But then I couldn't post about it for about a week.

But I'm 13 weeks now and feeling better. I still have moments but I think I'm back in the game.

Here's the baby. The baby was doing somersaults in the ultrasound and trying to suck its thumb. Everything looked good and I felt a huge sigh of relief.

My sister passed away a couple of years ago unexpectedly from a blood clot and since then I was tested and I have two blood clotting factors so I have to give myself a shot of Lovenox everyday in my stomach. A small price to pay for a baby.

I thought talking about being nauseous and needles doesn't really go along with food and recipes, so why not have a giveaway. I'm still amazed that people continue to follow me and am so grateful for all of you! But you gotta stop liking me on Facebook. I can't handle the pressure!!!! :)

So today I'm giving away a $100 VISA Gift Card because I didn't want to have to decide what you guys wanted. I figure everyone could use it for the summer for whatever they wanted.

$100 VISA GIFT CARD

To enter the contest for a $100 VISA gift card just leave a comment (and your email address if you don't mind) before noon EST on Friday June 10th!

I'll be flying all day tomorrow so the winner will be announce Friday night.

Thanks again guys!

Cobb Salad Sandwich

Just a heads up...tomorrow there will be an announcement and a giveaway so make sure to check back!

I'm already thinking about Father's Day since we are going to be at Lake Powell until the day before and I want to have a meal planned out before then for my dad and my husband. So far it will probably be breakfast burritos for breakfast, this sandwich for lunch, and most likely Cafe Rio for dinner since that's what John always requests.

Whenever I go to a restaurant I always scan the menu first for some version of a Cobb salad. The combination of bacon, avocado, and blue cheese just call to me. And since you all know I have a bad habit of picking out all of the good stuff in salads leaving only the lettuce, I thought why not make a Cobb salad into a sandwich.

I know I can handle eating one leaf of lettuce.

This Cobb Salad Sandwich has all the things you love about a Cobb salad piled onto a butter croissant.

What are you guys going to make for Father's Day?

Cobb Salad Sandwich Recipe

Sausage and Egg Breakfast Burritos

These breakfast burritos have been in my husband's family for years. I mean I literally have the paper with the recipes my mother-in-law printed for my husband as he headed off to college and on a mission with THIS recipe and of course, jelly roll pancakes on it.

These sausage and egg breakfast burritos are The Man Who Ate Everything's specialty. Why is it that men are always good at breakfast foods? I've probably only made these once or twice. But these are good and hearty...and have Man Food written all over them. Our friend Bryan was in town for the weekend so we had plenty of these in the fridge just in case he needed some "sustenance" as he likes to say.

I don't dare mess with a family recipe by using anything but Stokes green chili sauce. But sometimes we get desperate and in Florida we don't have access to Stokes. So unless I pack some Stokes home in my suitcase when we visit out West (which I absolutely have done before), we have to find another brand of green chili.

Sausage and Egg Breakfast Burritos

Source: Sheri Denney

6 Tablespoons butter

1 (32 ounce) package frozen square hash browns country-style

1 (16 ounces) pound hot Jimmy Dean pork sausage

6 eggs

1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies

1 (15 ounce) can Stokes green chili (or some other brand green chili)

6-8 slices of thick bacon, cooked until crispy (optional...we added it this time and it was tasty)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

10 large tortillas or more small ones

Melt butter in a large skillet and add hash browns in a single layer (you may need two skillets). Cook hash browns according to package directions or until browned.

While hash browns are cooking, you are going to use one pan to cook everything else, one ingredient at a time, then add it to a large pot where you will mix everything.

Brown sausage in a separate pan. When sausage is done, add it to a large pot. Scramble eggs in the skillet and add to the large pot. Add diced green chilies, green chili sauce, and bacon (optional) to the large pot. When the hash browns are done, add them to the large pot and incorporate gently. Add the cheddar cheese and  fold in gently until melted. 

Fill warm tortillas with filling and enjoy! We like to make burritos, wrap them in aluminum foil, and store them in the fridge so they can be easily warmed up for breakfast or for company. Makes around 10 large burritos.

S'mores Cookies

Yesterday was busy with swimming, BBQing, and relaxing. My Laundry Monday turned into Laundry Tuesday topped with an additional load of damp swimming towels. Being the good parents we are we counted swimming as baths for the kids and sent them to bed smelling of sunblock.

Then as I snuggled on the couch to write a post about these cookies I brought to our BBQ I just...could not...keep...my eyes...open. *Snooze*

These S'mores Cookies are a perfect hello to summer. I've seen these floating around the web and you know how much I loved these S'mores Bars so I had to give 'em a try.

These cookies have a graham cracker base with a chocolate chip cookie sprinkled with chocolate and marshmallows topping it. The crunch of the graham cracker with the gooey cookie is the perfect combination.

Place tablespoons of dough on each graham cracker square.

Here there are almost done...not quite all the way melted yet.

S'mores Cookies
Source: Ice Cream Before Dinner

11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. I used one 11x17 pan and one 9x13 pan but you can really use any sized pans you want.

Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching). I used 16 graham cracker squares on one pan and 10 squares on another. You may have to add or remove graham crackers according to how much dough you have. If you want your cookies thicker you will use more dough and less graham crackers.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight (I did one batch right away and another after chilling overnight and found there was no difference.)

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. I averaged about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per graham cracker square as seen in the picture above. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top. You can place as many pieces or as little as you want depending how much chocolate flavor you want.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool. For clean cutting make sure cookies are completely cool and cut with a sharp knife.