Peach Bellini Iced Tea

I wanted to have a nice refreshing beverage for the lovely ladies in my book club... I was trying to think of my fave bevies.. and I love, love, LOVE Joey's peach bellini's.. so I decided to do up an iced tea with the same idea.

Turned out pretty good.. you might want to add a bit of sugar into yours (I didn't) to sweeten it up a bit, but it's really tasty even without.

6 cups of iced tea (I just used the Nestea instant powder - but you can use real tea if you'd prefer)
4 cups peach juice
1 peach

In a large pitcher, mix up your iced tea, add the peach juice and stir together.

Cut up the peach into about 6 slices and add into the pitcher along with ice.

And there you have a nice refreshing summer beverage!

Enjoy!

Cookie Dough Truffles

Who doesn't love ooey gooey cookie dough?! I love it in ice cream, I love licking the spoon when I make cookies.. and I love, love, love these cookie dough truffles!

Nice soft cookie dough covered in milk chocolate.. to.die.for. I promise. I got this recipe off of the "Recipe Girl" blog.

The pictures didn't turn out great, but don't worry - I'll be making these again soon and I'll be sure to update the photo then.

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2 cups (approx.) of milk chocolate dipping wafers or bark (melted)

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar, mix well and then add the vanilla. Beat in the flour one cup at a time until it's incorporated and you no longer see chunks of brown sugar (if you see any, just squish them with your finger). Beat in the sweetened condensed milk and mix until well combined, stir in the chocolate chips.

Refridgerate the dough until firm (about an hour - maybe more if you want it to be really firm which makes it easier for dipping). Once the dough is hardened up a bit and is ready to go, line a cookie sheet with wax paper, and roll the dough into 1 inch balls (you can make them a bit bigger if you want to - I do! But they are pretty rich and sweet, so for most people a little ball is good). Drop them onto the cookie sheet and pop them in the fridge again until you're ready to dip them.

Melt the chocolate wafers/bark in a microwave safe bowl for 40 seconds at a time stirring in between until completely smooth and melted.

Use a spoon and roll the balls around in the chocolate until well coated, scoop out with the spoon, shake off the extra chocolate as well as you can and then drop back onto the cookie sheet to firm up.

Refridgerate until ready to serve.

Enjoy!!!

Cookie Dough - Peanut Butter - Candy Squares

This square is Ahh-ma-ziiing!! Honestly.. it's one of the best treats you'll ever have! My friend Michelle made these at a few get togethers and I gorged myself on them at every one of them.. so I had to get the recipe from her.

Make these..and trust me, you won't regret it!! From the cookie dough crust, to the peanut buttery icing middle, chocolate ganache on top to the little m&m's... these are great from top to bottom!!

1 roll of Pillsbury refridgerated chocolate chip cookie dough
3/4 cup butter or margarine (softened)
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 cup salted peanuts
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup miniature m&m's baking bits

Heat oven to 350 F.

In an ungreased 13 x 9 inch pan, break up the cookie dough with floured fingers, and press it into the pan evenly to form the crust. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool completely.

In a medium bowl, beat 1/2 cup of the butter, the peanut butter, powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Stir in the peanuts and spread the mixture over the cooled crust.

In a saucepan, melt the chocolate chips and remaining 1/4 cup of butter over low heat, stirring frequently until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, stir the whipping cream into the chocolate chip mixture until well blended.

Pour the chocolate mixture overtop of the peanut butter mixture in pan and smooth out with the back of a large spoon. Immediately sprinkle with the m&m's baking bits, distributing the baking bits equally.

Refridgerate for about an hour. Then cut into squares and serve.

Enjoy!!

Chocolate Oreo Cake

The same weekend I made the strawberry trifle for our BBQ, I had to whip up another quick dessert for my hubby because he's allergic to raw berries (well, I didn't HAVE to, but I wanted to.. I'm a good wife like that! Haha).

So I just did a quick chocolate cake (the same one I used for my cheeky monkey cupcakes) and then I added a nice creamy oreo icing.

I just did a one layer cake since I didn't need a huge, honkin' cake that I'd be left to be tempted by! But the recipe below is for a 2 layer cake.

Cake
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 pkg instant chocolate pudding
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (coated in flour to keep them from "sinking")

Icing
4 cups icing sugar
1 1/3 cups butter
25 oreo cookies (crushed) + a couple crushed cookies for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 F - Grease your cake pans and coat with icing sugar (or flour.. I prefer icing sugar).

In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, eggs and vanilla. Once it has been mixed well, pour into your pans, dividing equally amongst the two, and pop them into the oven.

Bake the cakes for about 25 - 30 mins, or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Make your icing by combining the icing sugar and butter and beating until smooth. Add in your crushed oreos and mix well by hand.

Once you're cakes have cooled, remove them from their pans. Lay the first layer upside down on your cake platter, and ice the top of it. Place the second layer on top of that icing, then ice the top of the second layer and garnish with a couple of crushed oreos.

Enjoy!!

Strawberry Vanilla Trifle

I was trying to think of a nice refreshing summer dessert (for another BBQ) and I thought a nice strawberry trifle would be good, so I worked off of my recipe for the death by chocolate trifle and came up with this!!

It was nice and light and absolutely delish!!

I did a glaze for the Strawberries by using a product called "Glaze for fresh strawberries" by MPK foods, I'll put a picture of it at the bottom of the post so you can see what it looks like. I found it at Sobeys, so I imagine it's probably available at most grocery stores.

1 box of white cake mix (or your favorite homemade recipe)

2 pkgs of vanilla pudding

4 cups of milk (for pudding)

4 - 5 cups fresh strawberries (sliced) +2 whole strawberries for garnish

1 pkg fresh strawberry glaze

1 extra large tub of cool whip

Bake your cake as per the pkg directions and let cool once it's out of the oven. Take your cool whip out of the freezer and let it thaw so it's easy to spread.

While you're cake is cooling, slice your strawberries and prepare your glaze. Once the glaze is made, add your strawberries and mix well, making sure to coat all the strawberries.

Prepare your vanilla pudding as per the pkg directions and put aside for it to set.

Once the cake is cooled, crumble some of it into an extra large bowl to make your first layer. Top with a layer of vanilla pudding, glazed strawberries and cool whip. Continue layering until you've filled your bowl (make sure the top and final layer is cool whip). Add your strawberries for garnish and let it chill in the fridge for about a half hour to an hour before serving.

Enjoy!!

This is the pkg of glaze I used.

Creamy Lemon Squares

We went over to our friends house for a BBQ a couple weeks ago and I volunteered to bring dessert. Because it was a beautiful summer day I wanted to do something refreshing and "fresh" and what is more refreshing than lemon (lemonade anyone?!).

I had noticed a lemon dessert recipe in my What's Cooking magazine from Kraft that I had made a mental note to try, called creamy layered squares, so I dug it out and gave it a whirl! These turned out great, I had 3 helpings after our bugers!!

It's best to refridgerate this dessert for a day so it can stiffen up before serving it.

1 1/2 cups graham crumbs
1/2 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter (melted)
2 pkg. brick cream cheese (softened)
3 cups cold milk
2 pkg. (4 serving size) Jell-O lemon instant pudding
3 cups thawed low fat cool whip

Mix the graham crumbs, a 1/4 cup of the sugar and the melted butter until well blended. Press it into the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan.

Beat the cream cheese, remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup of the milk until well blended. Spread it over the graham crust.

Beat the pudding mixes and remaining milk for 3 minutes. Pour over the cream cheese layer in the pan. Let it stand for 5 minutes or until thickened, then cover with cool whip topping.

Refridgerate for at least 4 hourse (Although I think it's better to let it sit overnight). Or alternatively you can freeze it for 1 hour before cutting it so the squares are a little "cleaner" looking and layers look more defined.

Enjoy!!