Cinnamon Roll Cookie Bars

I had to wait several months for a work birthday to arrive and at last this week an excuse to turn the oven on!  These cinnamon roll cookie bars are from Cookies and Cups and before we even get into photos and such, you should just go ahead and start baking these.  They are fantastic.

It starts out with cake mix which is always a plus because that means less stuff to measure! Yay!

I will note I made a minor change, I had no butter left for the frosting so I just used cream cheese and 2 cups of powered sugar.  It tasted delicious to me, but I'll let you decide how terribly unhealthy you want that frosting to be.

I stepped into the hallway during naptime to snap a quick shot of the finished product.

These were a hit and so easy to make. The heat wave is over or at the very least bearable so go turn that oven on and bake up some cinnamon roll cookie bars!

Carbo Load

Time for one of my quick weeknight pasta meals kiddies! This one for pasta with snap peas, ricotta, and lemon is from Smitten Kitchen. Don't go look at her photos because then you are going to see how terrible mine are.  This dish comes together quickly and requires just one pot, which is exactly what you want on these hot summer nights.

The ricotta was not photographed because I had actually forgotten to purchase it at the supermarket.  A kind soul offered to go get it for me while I started the cooking.

I was excited on this evening and ready to celebrate with a feast so we have a tasty side of caprese garlic bread!

The caprese garlic bread is bread, butter, garlic, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar.  So yea it's basically amazing and you need it in your belly right now.  Seriously, make it, now.

5 Layer Ice Cream Cake

This idea came from a lovely Miss Martha Stewart.  The recipe can be found here, but really there is not recipe to follow.  Just a few steps and maybe 5 to ten minutes and you'll be on your way to a dazzling dessert.

Seriously, it's crazy simple.  I bought a pound cake, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and raspberry gelato.

Step 1: Cut pound cake.  Martha cut hers into 4 slices, I cut mine into 3.  Four would probably look a little more special so you might want to go with that.

Step 2:  Put pound cake into a plastic wrap lined loaf pan.

Step 3: Spread on gelato.

Step 4: Add more pound cake and ice cream layer.

Step 5: Top with final pound cake slice, wrap up, and freeze.

Step 6: Eat beautiful cake topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce.

That's it! So easy! And really very attractive if you ask me.

Chocolate Cobbler

I just can't even begin to tell you how ridiculously intense and delicious this dessert is.  

It's a gooey mess in the end, but good god is it tasty.  

Chocolate cobbler is the kind of dessert you take slow small bites of because it's that intense.

Ok, now that I've got you excited...on with it!

The recipe can be found here at Tasty Kitchen.  I actually followed the recipe so you should probably do the same. But what if we could get some peanut butter in there somewhere......

Milk and the hot water were camera shy and didn't make it into the group photo.

My cobbler didn't seem to "set" in the middle like the recipe said it would after 40 minutes, but it's supposed to be a gooey mess so I wasn't too worried about that.

You must, I repeat you must put vanilla ice cream on top.  This is not an optional step.

Now wipe that drool off your keyboard and get baking!

Polenta Crusted Artichoke Tart

Things that I love being able to cook something in: ramekins and a tart pan.  Hooray, tart pan time!

I used this recipe from Food Wanderings that I found in my great hunt for polenta recipes on Pinterest.  Then I read the recipe a million times and said there is just no WAY I'm following these directions. I mean seriously, check it out, it's ridiculous.

So take the lazy way out and sorta measure things and don't wait the eternity she asks you to with the polenta.  It will turn out great in the end.

See, told ya.

Chicken Fried Steak

What would you want to cook up on a sweltering 90 degree day in a house without air conditioning?  You probably wouldn't cook a damn thing.  A normal person would have a nice refreshing salad, or go out to a restaurant equipped with air conditioning.

Lucky for you, I am not a normal person.  I am the kind of person that decides to make chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy on a miserably hot day.  We did have a salad also, so there was some nutrition and some cooling aspect to the meal.

I used this recipe from Alton Brown for the chicken fried steak and gravy.  Don't be intimidated by the fact that it's an Alton Brown recipe, it's really very simple and requires few ingredients.

First up is the flouring and the egging.

Then you just fry 'em up!

When the steaks are done cooking you use those lovely leftover greasy brown bits to make the gravy.

Serve it up with some mashed potatoes and a salad, voila!