Tuesday, February 21, 2012

"Sedimentary Rock" Cookie Bars

I first discovered this fabulous recipe while doing an internship with a 4th grade class.  The students were studying different types of rocks including igneous, metamorphic, and of course sedimentary rocks.  According to http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow1/oct98/create/sediment.htm "For thousands, even millions of years, little pieces of our earth have been eroded--broken down and worn away
by wind and water. These little bits of our earth are washed downstream where they settle to the bottom of the rivers, lakes, and oceans. Layer after layer of eroded earth is deposited on top of each. These layers are pressed down more and more through time, until the bottom layers slowly turn into rocks.  There's your little science lesson for this post! These cookie bars are layered and pressed down like sedimentary rocks, so it was a fun way to teach kids about the rocks.
Now for the delicious part!

Sedimentary Rock Cookie Bars Recipe

Ingredients
Cooking spray or other nonstick product
1/2 cup melted butter
2-3 cups vanilla wafer cookies (use as much as desired)
1 can (14oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup broken pecan pieces
(If you really have a sweet tooth, you can use 1 cup each chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and pecans.  I prefer only the 1/2 cup each.)












Directions
1. Spray the bottom of 13x9 pan with cooking spray to avoid sticking (I always forget this step!)
2. Melt butter and pour into bottom of 13x9 pan
3. Crush vanilla wafers with rolling pin (it's okay to have a few small pieces)











4. Sprinkle broken vanilla wafers evenly on top of butter.
5. Pour can of sweetened condensed milk over cookies
6. Sprinkle chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and nuts over condensed milk (add or delete amount as desired- I believe the original recipe calls for 1 cup of each, but it was way too much for me)
7. Gently press down the layers











8. Bake on 350°F for approximately 25-30 minutes (I usually only do 25 and they're great)
9. ENJOY!!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Oreo Brownies

This is a little bit late, but I just had to post about these amazing brownies! I wanted to make my husband something special for our first married Valentine's Day. He loves cookies & cream ice cream, and oreo pie, and brownies, so I got the bright idea to search on pinterest for "oreo brownies" but I didn't find anything that really interested me. I am not the best cook/baker in the world and I like things simple, really simple! So I googled it instead and found the most amazing, super simple recipe for Oreo Fudge Brownies. I didn't think about taking a "before" picture until most of the ingredients were already in the bowl.


So this is after mixing the brownie mix, eggs, oil & ice cream together. The fudge sauce came with the brownie mix, and while the recipe called for a 1/4 C. of hot fudge sauce, you can see it was not quite that much, but it still turned out great!





Looks good enough to eat right now doesn't it? I resisted the urge, because it has raw eggs in it. :-p


Pour in 1/2 the mix, layer with brownies, pour the rest of the mix over. Doesn't get much easier than that! But let me tell you, it is hard to take a picture and pour thick brownie batter at the same time!


Just follow the brownie mix directions for baking it.





I even made a cute little flag to stick in the top. The clip art came straight from Microsoft Word, I just copied & pasted it twice, spaced it so I could fold the paper over, printed it out, taped it to a toothpick & stuck it in the brownies.





You can see the oreos in the middle, yum! Word to the wise, if you use a disposable brownie tin like I did, don't cut the brownies while it is on the eye of the stove. The knife will go right through the pan and then you have to cut them all up & put them in a tupperware instead of being able to leave them in the pan. Just sayin'! And the best part was that hubby loved them!



Cookies ‘N Cream Oreo Fudge Brownies
1 box Brownie Mix (I used the kind that comes with fudge)
eggs & oil (as called for by the brownie mix)
1 heaping half cup (6 oz) Cookies & Cream ice cream (softened)
1/4 Cup hot fudge topping (chilled or room temp) (I omitted b/c my brownie mix came with it)

Preheat oven & spray an 8×8 baking dish generously with cooking spray. Combine brownie mix, eggs, and oil as directed on the back of the box, but do not add the water. Add ice cream and hot fudge to the brownie batter and stir to combine. Pour half of the brownie batter into the baking dish, layer with Oreos, then top with remaining batter. Bake for 40-50 minutes or as directed on the back of the box.


For the original recipe & blog that it came from: Cookies 'N Cream Oreo Fudge Brownies

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Welcome

Well, after a few weeks on pinterest, and after seeing several interesting blogs, I started trying to convince my sister that we should start a blog too. She complained that she didn't do anything crafty or make any interesting recipes so she really would have nothing to contribute, but then a couple days ago she posted on facebook about making sedimentary rock cookie bars, so I called her out on it. She finally agreed and here we are today! :) Hopefully we will be able to bring you some fun & easy recipes & crafts that you will enjoy as much as we do! ~Natalie
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