Chocolate Banana Pie with Burnt Chockolate Chip Cookie Crust

I have been on a roll today. (Written a few weeks ago ) Like I said in my last blog, I dirtied as many dishes tonight as I washed when I got home...again, here is proof. Again, ugh to the dishes. Sadly, these don't even include the ones I dirtied making this dessert. For some reason I have been on a blogging mission the last 24 hours and I am on cloud 9 right now. I actually had to sit down now with a beer in hopes of calming down a bit from the cooking high, lol. No kidding.



Let's face it. We have all burnt a batch of cookies at least once. Whether you forgot to set the timer or just flat out got busy and didn't hear it, it has happened to us all. Well, the other day one of my sister's friends was making cookies for my Mom to take to a meeting and she accidentally burnt a batch and I mean they were hard as a rock, or so I hear. My mother, being the creative and resourceful one, did not want to throw a double hard as a rock cookies away so she improvised and used them in another way that was equally delicious.

So, I set off on a mission tonight to purposefully crispy-critter my chocolate chip cookies. I mean that. I put them in the oven and went and took a shower, read some recipes, and did some other stuff until I knew that they were going to be hard as a rock, lol. I really wanted to try her idea of using them as a pie crust. I didn't even make cookies the normal way since we were just given a batch of chocolate chip cookies last week by a friend...which Adam gobbled up like the cookie monster. When my mom did this she just make the crust and put chocolate pudding inside. It was a huge hit at a gathering she went to and she came back without a piece Monday. I tweaked it a little by adding bananas because I know that Adam like the combination. :) He got home right as I was putting the crust together and he grabbed pieces of it and ate it all burnt and crushed...like I said...COOKIE MONSTER!. So here you go.

Obviously Burnt :)

*Burn (either intentionally or by accident, each are equally full of love) about 12 chocolate chip cookies

*Let cookies cool and then crunch up into pieces with a rolling pin

*Add about 2 tablespoons of melted butter and mix together.

*Flatten into a pie pan and up the walls to make a crust.

*Line crust with banana slices (or don't like my Mom)

*Cover and refrigerate until pudding has set up.

*Slice and serve with cool whip (or without)

Sadly I don't have an image of a slice, trust me it was yummy!

Olive Cheese Bread and Sorrisos

For those of you who know me, you know that I HATE doing dishes. Washing dishes is my least favorite household chore to do, by far and boy did I have a LOT of them to do when I first got home from work/school tonight. There is proof for you, plus a few more on top of those.

YUCK! No fun!

However, for some reason after washing all of these I felt compelled to dirty a whole other sink full of them in the process of making a late supper tonight...and dessert. Everything I have been doing since getting home about 6:00 or so has in one way or another related to cooking. Whether it be washing dishes, looking at cook books, grocery shopping, reading cooking blogs, dirtying more dishes, or actually booking. I was a woman on a mission....a cooking mission while the Chef, Adam, was at work....Yes, he is actually a chef. I don't just call him that for fun. Believe it or not, for being a chef, he is fairly pick when it comes to food and HATES olives. However, I got him to try a bite...mostly because I pleaded and begged. I am sure that bribing him with pie (next post) and left over spaghetti also had something to do with it, lol.

My last two blog talked about The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook that I just bought. Well this will be no different, but I promise the other post to come tonight will be. :) Tonight I tried out Ree's Olive Cheese Bread from the cookbook. Yum! However, I did make a few substitutions. The recipe calls for both black and green olives and I detest green olives, so I used mushrooms instead because I do like them. I also changed the cheese to Kolby Jack and Mozzarella, mostly because I couldn't find the kind of cheese that she used on hand at Kroger. Other than that I stayed true to the recipe. I must say, I have NEVER bought real mayo because I just don't like it that much. However, I did follow that piece of the recipe as it said in the cookbook to NOT substitute, lol. This was a SIMPLE recipe to through together and I must say that it is DIVINE and so full of flavor. Way to go Ree, again! :)

Buy it! She is amazing!

Although I felt like cooking up a storm, I also went easy on recipes tonight. Spaghetti is so good and so easy that it seemed like the obvious and perfect choice to go with Ree's bread tonight. My spaghetti is always the same, but amazing. I only use whole wheat pasta because it is healthier and I prefer the taste as well. I also always have a huge glass of skim milk with pasta, or two. As for sauce, I will never make my own. This isn't because I doubt my sauce making ability, but because I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Uncle's pasta sauce. It is so amazing. He actually sells it in stores, and here is where the family plug comes in. I am not kidding when I say since I first tried his sauce years ago, I have never used any other sauce. It is great for lasagna, meatloaf, spaghetti, chicken Parmesan and so much more. It's based out of Firth, Nebraska and is called Sorrisos. They have many different flavors, but I opted for Tomato Basil tonight. Try it, you will love it! You can check the sauce out at the website or on the Sorrisos Facebook page. It is amazing and a perfect match to the Olive Bread.

YUM! I love Sorrisos!

Okay, okay. I will stop babbling on and on and get to the recipe, lol. Here you go!

Olive Cheese Bread (by Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients:

1 pound (I used a little less) Monteray Jack Cheese, shredded
1/2 cup mayonnaise (the real kind)
1 stick butter, softened
2 green onions, finely chopped
14.5 oz can Black Olives, finely chopped (drain first)
6 oz can Green Olives (I used mushrooms), finely chopped (drain)
1 loaf French bread.

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350.

*Cut bread in half and then in pieces

*Mix all other ingredients together and spread an even layer (I used a lot) on each piece of French bread.

*Bake 10ish minutes at 350.

***Enjoy! YUM YUM YUM!***

It's pretty and tastes fabulous!

The Pioneer Woman Cooks! *Penne alla Betsy*

So I must say that I am SO LOVING The Pioneer Woman Cooks! cookbook. I have been reading bits of Ree's cookbook over the last two or three days. I was a little apprehensive about buying it online without having ever looked at it, but I decided to go for it. It turned out to be a GREAT idea. I love her cookbook for many reasons. It is full of pictures of her ranch and kids that she has taken over the years and chalked full of good stories that go along side each recipe. Her recipes are simple, fun, and seem like they will all be super tasty. I am through most of the breakfast section and cannot wait to sit down and read more of the cookbook tonight when I finally get to go home at 7:30, ugh. It is literally so good that you can sit down and read it like a normal book or novel. I suggest that EVERYONE goes out and buys it. However, if you don't want to buy yet another cookbook, head over to her website Pioneer Woman Cooks! for great recipes, stories, and pictures. She is a God-sent. Her website and cookbook can be used by anyone and everyone since she goes through every small step with pictures and her own experiences. I cannot wait to start actually cooking from the book and her website.


This recipe, although originally from Pioneer Woman, I found at What's Gaby Cooking . I made this with the previously posted cornbread that I found on Two Peas and Their Pod. I will say that while this recipe was amazing and very flavorful, I would suggest cutting it in half. This was back when I lived by myself, before the days of Adam and I ended up taking a huge bowl down to my friends Debjani and Kuntal since they live right below me and it had shrimp in it. I think that this recipe would also work great with chicken. I did make it more flavorful (not that it needs it) by adding my own Slow Roasted Tomatoes to the mixture. I don't have a recipe for my slow roasted tomatoes up, but next time I make them (which will hopefully be soon, since I am out) I will try and remember to post my recipe. This, like all of Ree's recipes was simple to make. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

Penne Alla Betsy

Ingredients:

• 1 lb penne
• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and de-veined
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 14.5 oz tomato sauce
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 6 basil leaves (or dried basil)
  
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta until al dente
2. In a skilled over medium heat, add 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp oil. Cook the shrimp until they are pink. Remove the shrimp, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
3. Next, chopped the onion and the garlic. In the skillet add the remaining butter and oil as well as the garlic and the onion. Saute for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the wine and allow it to evaporate
5. Add the tomato sauce and reduce the heat to low. Then add the creamy and stir. Add the parsley too!

6. Add the shrimp, taste for seasoning and adjust if needed, add the pasta and serve garnished with basil!

**And PW's Cornbread!**

Skillet Cornbread

I am on a role with posting old recipes. Although I should be going over my presentation that I have to give in about 3 hours, I have decided to take a mid-day break from all of of hustle and bustle of grad school, which I am sure would be frowned up on by many, lol. I found this recipe on Two Peas and Their Pod. However, it originally came from Pioneer Woman Cooks! Ree just recently (within a few months) came out with her first cookbook and has an amazing blog full of easy to make, flavorful recipes. She seems like such a joyful woman and I have high hopes of getting to meet her one day on a book tour. I have spend hours on her Blog recently and she always has fun stories, beautiful pictures, and tasty recipes galore on there.

I made this skillet cornbread in a normal cake pan and put it in the oven because at the time I did not have a cast iron skillet. However, Adam is huge on cast iron skillets and just recently purchased one for us. So I am sure that the next time I make this it will be the "Ree way" of making it. This was my first attempt with cornbread and it went fairly well. No big surprises, or catastrophic events, to speak of. I also made another one of Ree's recipes to go with her cornbread which I will be posting in a few minutes hopefully. That post will also talk about her new cookbook. It was helpful because they both call for buttermilk :)

Skillet Cornbread

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. shortening

*Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

*In a bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt and baking powder & whisk together.

*Measure buttermilk and milk in a measuring cup. Stir in the egg with a fork. Add baking soda and stir.

*Pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until combined.

*Melt 1/4 cup shortening in the microwave.

*Slowly add melted shortening to the batter, stirring until combined.

*In an iron skillet over high heat, melt the remaining 2 Tbsp. shortening. Pour the batter into the hot skillet and spread to even out the surface. Cook on the stovetop for about a minute, then bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. (I did this in a normal cake pan)

This is the picture of my cornbread with the other Pioneer Woman recipe that I made to go with it. They were a GREAT combination!

Buttermilk Cake with Fresh Rasberries

Wow, it has been forever since I have posted a new recipe. Don't worry, it isn't that I have been on a cooking hiatus for months and months. Just more so that graduate school has been so busy that I never find time to sit down and post a new recipe. The last thing that I think about when I actually do have time to just sit down is doing exactly that...sitting and watching a movie or spending time with Adam.

I have made this cake twice now, both times with raspberries. The second time I used frozen because that is all that I could find within a 30 mile radius of my tiny home town over Christmas break. It is much better with fresh fruit, just take my word on that part. I originally found this recipe here, on Two Peas and Their Pod. Maria has so many excellent recipes that I will probably never get around to trying all of them for myself. You can make this cake with pretty much any fresh fruit that you want. Enjoy!

Buttermilk Cake with Fresh Raspberries:

-1 cup all-purpose flour

-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon baking soda

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened

-2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided

-1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

-1 large egg

-1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk

-1 1/4 cups fresh fruit (raspberries)

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

-Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

-Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla.

-Add egg and beat well.

-At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk

-Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top.

-Cover with fresh fruit and then sprinkle the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt over the fruit.

-Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

-Cool in pan and serve with Cool-Whip