Ravioli and Sweet Potatoes

 Ravioli and sweet potatoes might seem like an odd combination, but I will let you know that the two worked gloriously together.

I used this Real Simple recipe as a guide.

First I roasted the sweet potatoes with some olive oil, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Then I cooked up some ravioli as per regulation ravioli preparation.

While the ravioli where cooking I heated some olive oil and thyme in a little pot to infuse the flavors a bit.

Then just throw them all together and eat up!

Corn and Avocado Turnovers

I found this fairly simple recipe for corn and avocado turnovers on food52. The most difficult part of this recipe was turning the tortillas while trying to keep the filling inside, other than that this was a piece of cake to make.

First you saute up the onions, add the corn and seasoning (no I not have any epazote leaves or fresh oregano on hand).  Then mix in the avocado when those are done cooking.

Here are my turnovers frying away in the pan.

The completed pile!  All in all a tasty meal, but I must say I would make these with cheese next time to bind the tortilla together.

Hash Brown Casserole

This baby's got all your breakfast favorites all rolled into one: eggs, hash browns, bacon, and cheese. If you're really missing the toast maybe you could make it into a sandwich. The best part about it is that you put in your crock pot, go to bed, and wake up to the delicious scent of breakfast ready to eat.

I used this recipe from a Latte with Ott, A.

You layer hash brown, bacon, cheese, and seasonings (I used salt, pepper, and garlic salt)

Then you beat up a dozen eggs and pour it all over the top.

This took far less than the 8-10 hours that was suggested so you might only get 6/7 hours of sleep the night you make this if you don't want one end to get super crispy like mine did.

And since all posts must end with some bragging, this casserole was a big hit at the St Patrick's Day breakfast.

Slutty Brownies

I promised you a dessert so disgusting you'd get fat just looking at it so here it is!  These filthy dirty slutty brownies got their name from The Londoner because they are so damn easy. Get it? See what she did there?

Here's how it all goes down:

Chocolate chip cookie dough layer. 

Layer of Oreos (happy 100th birthday!)

Brownie layer

Good God just look at them! 

One consumer said "the only problem was you gave them to me on a napkin and I couldn't lick the napkin clean." So yea they are just as terribly good as they look.

Let me also just acknowledge my odd judgement to make a recipe called slutty brownies for my mother's birthday. Ohhhhh KTC made some interesting choices this weekend...

Granola Balls

I know what you are thinking, ughhhh KTC enough of these damn "healthy" posts! Trust me something truly unbelievably awful for you is coming up soon. Be patient.

I used this recipe from Food Doodles. Then of course decided not to measure anything and got angry when it wasn't working out as I wanted it to.  I would say that putting it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes was unnecessary, at least with mine.

Here is my ingredient line up.

Here's the doughy goodness.

All rolled up!

These babies were quite tasty.  Only problem: I wanted about 50 of them.

Pumpkin Muffins

I'm going to just cut to the chase here, these babies have 2 ingredients. 2! Cake mix and a can of pumpkin. Amazing isn't it? Awe inspiring isn't it? Are you perhaps shaking your head in disbelief? Trust me, it's for real.

I also mixed in some pumpkin pie spice for the hell of it.

This is what I used to make the glaze.  I was a bit disappointed in how little pomegranate flavor was present because the sugar to liquid ratio is so high.

Here they are all glazed up!  

Word around the street is you can substitute pumpkin into brownie mixes as well. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Vegetable Gratin

Ok, I promise I'm going to bake something soon, but first lets look at this gorgeous gratin I made a few weeks ago.

I used this recipe from epicurious as a guide. As I look back on the recipe now I really didn't follow it at all, but I felt I needed to give epicurious a shout out for inspiring me.

We got this super-cute sack of baby potatoes.  I was especially delighted by the purple ones (eating a purple potato has been one of my food dreams).

I used the potatoes, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts, milk, parmesan cheese, sage, and bread crumbs.

Here she is all nice a crisped up.

I must say I think this side dish would add a touch of class to any meal.  I served mine up alongside a roast chicken.

Sticky Bun Breakfast Ring

I had been promising my family that I would make Sunday morning breakfast for about a month and I finally got off my lazy ass to do it.

You can find the recipe here and you can feel free to ignore the measurements and just eyeball everything because you are too lazy to wash measuring utensils on a Sunday morning.

First you put in some butter, syrup and brown sugar in the bottom.  I made sure to spray my pan heavily since I'm still recovering from my monkeybread failure from 2010. 

Then you pop in a tube of biscuits. 

And pour the rest of your butter and syrup mixture along with some more brown sugar and pecans on top.

Ta-Da! Way more attractive than that hideous beast monkey bread I made.

Dessert Dip

I'm always wishing I made more snacky items, things that aren't as high-maintenance as a from scratch dessert. I decided to make this cookie dough dip for an Oscar viewing snack.  I will start out by saying do not be fooled by the name, this tastes absolutely nothing like cookie dough, but that does not in anyway mean it was not delicious.

Here's an action shot of me adding the butter and brown sugar to the cream cheese and powdered sugar.  I didn't put nearly as much butter as it called for, it just didn't seem necessary.

I tried to get all fancy and add a caramel swirl on the sides of the bowl, sadly it didn't come out as fancy as I imagined.

I in addition to the chocolate chips, I mixed in some pecans and drizzled more caramel over the top.

The dip was served with some chocolate graham crackers, strawberries, apples, and the surprise hit of the evening, pretzels (not photographed).

This seems like the perfect dessert for a really hot summer day when you do not want to turn the oven on. Go ahead and make this, it's too easy not to!