try a new recipe once a month

I made the Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe and thought they turned out really nicely. Some people said they were too chocolatly but that didn’t stop them from eating them all either. The recipe calls for instant coffee granules which I think was the culprit in the “too much chocolate” front. But for my second batch I used Vanilla that I got in St. Maartin, and I think that made a big (positive)difference in the taste.

I also made some Cookies from the Dr. Pepper web site—They are very similar to wedding cookies and were pretty good too. Even though I made way too many and had to end up throwing most of them out. I wish you could rent kids to eat your food. That way I could cook and bake all the time and not have to worry about who is going to eat my lovely creations.

On a recent fishing trip, a friend made this cornbread and I thought it was absolutely scrumptious! I’m going to make it this weekend and serve it with Chili :)

Preheat oven to 375
add a little oil to the bottom of a cast iron skillet and stick that in the oven while preheating.

1 1/2 C. Self-Rising Corn Meal (We used Buttermilk)
1/3 C. Oil
2 eggs
1 can cream style corn
1/2 C. chopped onions
1/2 C. shredded/crumbled chedder cheese
1/2 to 1 C. diced Jalapeno peppers (To your own taste)(Fresh or Jarred)
1 tsp Salt

Mix everything up in a bowl, pour into the preheated skillet, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

I made “twix” bars. Shortbread cookies topped with caramel and dipped in chocolate. Yum.

I also made mint chocolate meringues—which were tasty as well—only problem is that I decided to crank up the oven temp to speed up the cooking/drying process and succeeded in browning the bottoms of most of the meringues. They’re no longer a lovely mint green color—oh well.

Shrimp Stir Fry—Mi Novio got a shrimp stir fry recipe from Men’s Health—it is quite good. Onions, Garlic, Bell Peppers, Mushrooms, Carrots, Shrimp, Soy and Hot Sauce makes a tasty meal. It taste even better because I finally got to use the wok my sister gave me for christmas ages ago. (ok, maybe 2 years ago)

Cake mix cookies—Got the recipe from Allrecipes.com. Used Chocolate cake mix and peanut butter/chocolate swirled chips. The “cookie dough” looks a little oily, but the cookies turn out very nicely.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries/ Pretzels.—I helped make chocolate covered strawberries for a baby shower. Then drizzled the leftover chocolate onto some pretzel rods. Oink Oink.

I signed up on www.allrecipes.com last week and have since made 5 new dishes! This is pretty good, because we get stuck in such a dinner rut! If this helps me find some more go-to dishes.. then its well worth it—I get tired of making the same ol’ stuff all the time…