This weekend, is one of my favorite things all year – our annual get together with college friends and their families. We started doing this right after graduation at Geneseo and have kept it up all these years, which is pretty amazing. The group started with 7 of us, and there are now 20 of us, including spouses and kids. It is amazing how well everyone gets along. I am so fortunate to have all of them,in my life. Here is how we plan – early each spring an email goes out, asking for the best month and dates. Then we narrow it,down and pick a weekend. We alternate between Western NY and Connecticut for our destinations. Of course, eiter place gives me a great excuse to bake. This year, i wanted to bring something for the kids. One boy wanted Hershey bars, the other andes candies (somewhere in heaven, my gramma Lisi is smiling., she always had those at her house). My goddaughter Lyndsey wanted the pb bars with an oreo crust (recipe in a previous post). I learned recently my other goddaughter Sara loves mint chocolate chip ice cream, so she will have mint chocolate chip cookies stuffed with mint Oreos. I could not find mint chips, so I opted to use mini ones. You can use regular chocolate chips or even milk chocolate chips

Oh and I use m&m’s to identify the cookies because I ran out of mint Oreos., the green m&m’s indicate a mint Oreo inside, brown indicates a regular Oreo. Yes, I am well aware I am wpund waaaaaay too tight. But I have a system!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 3 eggs
• 12 drops green food color
• 3 1/4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp,baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 bag of mini chips
• 1 bag of Oreos

Directions – cream butter and sugar. Add extract and eggs. Blend in green food color (you don’t have to use this if you don’t want to). Fold in dry ingredients. Blend in chips. Chill dough 2 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take 2 tbs of dough and flatten. Wrap each around an Oreo, and seal. Stagger on cookie sheet lined with nonstick baking liners. Bake 12 to 15 min. Let cool on sheet.

Store in covered container.

Limiting the use of my oven is a wonderful thing this time of year. I have a handful of no bake recipes to choose from. These cake truffles can use any flavor cake mix you want., same goes for the chips you melt for the coating. I used a yellow cake mix and confetti chips.. They’re white chocolate chips with tiny sprinkles in them. And I topped them off with crushed Oreos.

Truffle ingredients

• 1 cup cake mix, any flavor
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter,softened
• 1 tbs vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3-5 tbs Milk

Directions – cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Blend in cake mix and flour. Add 3 tbs Milk. If it is not easy enough to roll into balls, add another tbs or two of milk. When you get the right consistency, roll into balls, using 2 tbs of dough., chill in fridge for an hour.

Coating ingredients

• 1 bag of chips

Directions. – using a microwave proof bowl, microwave in 30 second increments until you can stir smooth., cover truffles with coating. Sprinkle with crushed Oreos or chopped,candy.

Store in fridge in covered container.

This is the time of year I dip into my no bake recipes… Especially considering today it is 92 and humid. No need to turn the oven on! You have probably seen variations of this recipe before. I opted to use an dark chocolate Oreo crust as the base. You can use whatever flavor you want. I chose dark chocolate Oreos because my husband opened that bag and ate 1.. So I needed to do something with the rest.

You can also use Graham crackers, nilla wafers or those wafer cream sandwich cookies in the pb layer.

The only thing that is annoying about these bars is they are hard to cut once the chocolate sets. I cut them before the chocolate set and they were a but of a mess. ☺

Crust Ingredients

• 18 Oreos finely crushed
• 7 tbs butter, melted

Directions – combines and press evenly into bottom of 9×13 pan

Chocolate layer ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups chocolate chip
• 2 tbs vegetable oil

Directions – combine in microproof safe bowl and microwave in 30 second increments until you can stir smooth. Spread half over Oreo layer.

Peanut butter layer ingredients

• 2 cups Graham crackers or nilla wafers, finely crushed
• 2 cups peanut butter
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions – blend peanut butter and butter. Fold in powdered sugar and crushed cookies. Spread over chocolate layer. Top with remaining melted chocolate.

Store in covered container, you can keep these at room temp or in the fridge.

My husband, Rob, texted me the other day that the national,chain where he got his iced coffee had sugar cookies too. They looked good, he thought, but were probably dry. I said yes, probably. I think he was dropping a hint that he would like a sugar cookie. I felt lile Monica in a “Friends” episode..being challenged to make a better cookie than a billion dollar company. So voila, here are a dozen. He can eat one and I take the rest to work.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 11/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions – cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Stir in sour cream. Blend in dry ingredients. Scoop out 3 tbs cookie dough. Roll into balls and flatten 1/4 inch thick. Chill a couple,of hours. Preheat oven to 300. Stagger on cookie sheet, lined with baking liners. Bake 10 to 14 minutes, until lightly golden on bottom. Cool completely.

Frosting ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbs Milk
• 1 tsp,vanilla

Directions – cream butter and powdered sugar. Add milk and vanilla. You may want to add more powdered sugar to get desires level of consistency.

Store in covered container.

Today is our 16th anniversary, so I asked Rob what dessert he wanted. He said “a hostess cupcake cake.” And the most important part – the squiggle! Now, as you can see, decorating is so not my strong point, but I wanted to do my best. So I bought a wilton’s cake decorating bag set. And each piece will have a squiggle!

1 chocolate cake, baked in 8 inch rpund pans, as directed and completely cooled.

Filling ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup marshmallow fluff
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tbs heavy cream or milk

Directions – cream butter, fluff and powdered sugar. Add enough cream or milk to get the desired consistency.

Frosting ingredients

• 6 tbs butter
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 2 tbs corn syrup
• 1 tba vanilla

Directions – melt butter, chips and corn syrup in 30 second increments until you can stir smooth. Chill 15 minutes.

Squiggle ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbs Milk or cream
• 1 tsp vanilla

Squiggle directions

Blend well. Scoop into decorating bag or a zip lock bag. Cut tip of bag by 1/4 inch.

Assembly directions -Place one layer, top side down, on cake platter.

Spread filling over flat side.

Place other layer, flat side down on top of filling.

Chill 15 minutes. Frost.

Chill 15 minutes. Decorate with the super squiggle!

Store in covered container.

What sort of treat to make when it is 93 degrees and horribly humid? Anything no bake, of course! I opted for a no bake Oreo pie because I have 3 containers of them bc they were on sale. And God knows in case anyone has some sort of Oreo emergency, I have you covered! You can use whatevwe kind of crust you want. You can bake a regular pie crust and let it cool completely before filling it. I opted to use some homemade chocolate chip cookies that spread out in the humidity. I find flat cookies unacceptable to serve people, so they served another purpose.

Crust ingredients

• 3 cups cookie crumbs
• 1 stick of butter, melted.

Directions – combine and press into pie plate. Let set in fridge 30 minutes.

Filling ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened (I used fat free)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 8 oz cool whip (again, I used fat free. Ridiculous, I know)
• 1 container of Oreos, finely ground
• 2 tbs cornstarch

Directions

Blend cream cheese, powdered sugar and cool whip. Add cornstarch. Mix in Oreos. Spread over crust.

Topping ingredients

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 tbs oil

Directions – melt in 20 second increments until you can stir smooth. Spread over Oreo layer. Chill.

Store in covered container in fridge.

Happy 4th of July! What better way to celebrate than turning on your oven and baking when it’s 90 degrees and humid! Today’s treat combine a white cake mix and sugar cookie mix for the bars, and a buttercream frosting. I misplaced my sprinkles, so there are no sprinkles. And I did not put m&ms on top,bc they would be soft when I bring the treats into work. You could also mix up what cake and cookie mixes you use, like chocolate and chocolate or lemon and sugar cookie.

Ingredients

• 1 white cake mix
• 1 sugar cookie mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1 tbs vanilla

Directions – preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9×13 pan with baking spray. Combine mixes, eggs, butter and vanilla. Mixture will be thick so drop by spoonfuls onto pan and spread (you may want to spray your hands with Pam to make this easier). Bake 20 to 30 min. (Edges will be golden brown). Cool completely.

Frosting ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tbs heavy cream or milk
• 1 tbs vanilla

Directions

Combine butter and powdered sugar. Add cream and vanilla and beat well. You may want to add more powdered sugar to thicken frosting.

Store in covered container.

These are super simple, and super sinful. Brownies topped,with oreo truffles and melted chocolate. You can use any brownie recipe you want, made as directed. The truffle layer is simple – crushed oreos and melted butter. You can use whatever chocolate you want for the topping. I went w the classic Hershey kisses option! Also put some melted chocolate on the brownies and then put the truffle layer on top so the truffle layer stays put.

Ingredients

• 1 batch of brownies (made in a 9×13 pan), made as directed and completely cooled
• 1 bag of Oreos
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 bag of hershey kisses or Chocolate chips
• 1 tbs oil

Directions – crush oreos completely in food processor. Mix in melted butter., you may need to add more melted butter 1 tbs at a time.

Melt chocolate and oil in microproof safe container, in 30 second increments, until you can stir smooth. Spread chocolate on cooled brownies. Add truffle layer and pour remaining chocolate on top. Store in covered container.

Today’s recipe originates from one from Pillsbury that I discovered during Thanksgiving break during college. I always found the recipe fabulous and when I found it again online, I wanted to make them again. plus, they are a piece of cake (or is it cookie) to make. this time, the dough seemed a little dry, so instead of adding more water, I went with hot fudge.. because… why not? Hersheys hot fudge was THE BEST when I was a little girl!

I also added chocolate chips because I have two of these huuuuuge bags of Nestle chips (one of the wonders of BJs).

ingredients

• 1 brownie mix
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup oil
• 5 tbs water
• 1/4 cup hot fudge (microwaved for 10 seconds in microwave save container
• 1 cup chocolate chips.

directions

combined brownie mix, egg, flour, oil and water. Stir in hot fudge. Blend in chips. using a cookie scoop, form 1/4 cups of dough. shape into high piles (you may want to use a little extra flour for this. chill dough at least 1 hour. preheat oven to 350 degrees. scatter mounds of dough on a cookie sheet, lined with nonstick baking liners. bake 12-15 minutes. cookies will seem a little doughy, but that is ok, the bottoms will be brown. let them sit on cookie sheet for 10 minutes. cool completely.

store in covered container.

Got a request from my husband today for Chocolate Chip cookies. this is one of the 257 I have in my recipe box! (give or take a few). It is super simple, uses a cake mix, eggs, oil, water, flour and chocolate chips. I added a little extra flour because the dough was a little sticky and I prefer my cookies to come out puffy and use the flour to stiffen the dough so I can pile it high to keep it from spreading too much. I used a yellow cake mix today, but you can use any flavor you want and any chips that you want (think chocolate cake mix and peanut butter chips). These are super simple and look great!

and here’s another tip I found with my oven (shout out to Stanley, the tech who helped me realize why our new stove was not cooking and baking properly).. to preheat your oven properly, set your oven temp and hit start… then start your timer for 20 minutes. when that timer goes off, your oven will be at the right temperature. something about cycling and increasing and decreasing temperature. if you follow that, your baked goods will cook more evenly

ingredients

• 1 cake mix
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 2-4 tbs flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Combine cake mix, flour, oil and eggs. Plenty in chips. Maybe add a little more flour to make dough easier to handle. Using a cookie scoop (about 1/4 cup of dough), scoop out door and form into high piles. Let chill at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Scatter on a baking sheet lined with nonstick baking liners. Bake 10-15 minutes. There will be golden spots on top and bottom will be lightly browned. Cool completely.

Store in covered container.