BBQ Dinner #1

For the entire weekend the kitchen had been taken over by the jam making and various other fruit adventures, so we ate cooked our suppers on the BBQ. This is one of the meals that we did that weekend:

1. Home made venison sausage - my parents make this every year, and it is great - maybe this year I will actually remember to do a post about it.
2. Grilled Corn on the cob - recipe below
3. Vegetable grill - we picked the zucchini out of the garden that day and couldn't wait to eat it, recipe below.
4. Dessert was smores, mmmm mmmm good - how to below.

Grilled Corn:
!. Peel down the corn husks but do not remove. Remove the silk and soak the corn and husks in cold water for at least 15 minutes.
2. Remove the corn from the water and brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and pull the husks back over. Tie the husks closed with a stray piece of husk.
3. Place on a heated grill and grill for about 15 minutes, turning every 3-4 minutes.


Vegetable Grill:
1. wash and chop the vegetables in large chunks. (We used small to med. Zucchini, green pepper, red pepper, yellow pepper and asparagus - which was my favorite).
2. Toss the vegetables with olive oil to coat, and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Put on a BBQ vegetable grill and place on the heated BBQ, cooking until the veggies are crisp tender. Don't forget to stir the vegetables occasionally during cooking.



Smores on the Grill:
1. Create a smore by stacking graham cracker, milk chocolate, a large marshmallow, and topping it with another graham cracker.
2. Wrap teh smore with tinfoil tightly so it all holds together.
3. Place the smores on the BBQ over low heat. Leave until the squish down when you press lightly on the top. Don't leave them on too long, or on high heat as you don't want to burn the chocolate. They should take no longer than 2 minutes.
4. Unwrap and enjoy!


This dinner was delicious and amazingly I ended up with no leftovers!

Chocolate Chip Blondie

My husband is a huge brownie fan, and try as I might to convert him to cookies or cupcakes he is still stuck on brownies. He loves marshmallow brownies - I don't get it, they are good, but I don't get the love affair he has with them. When browsing around on allrecipes.com one day I came across a recipe for Disappearing Marshmallow Brownies. I thought it would be interesting to try a new marshmallow brownie recipe for O.

Anyways, I would not call these brownies, in my mind a brownie is chocolate and a nice rich brown. These however are a butterscotch flavour and a golden color - and while they are very tasty and I can't bring myself to call them a brownie, so I will henceforth refer to this yummy square as a chocolate chip blondie.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup butterscotch chips
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

How to:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper (or grease it).
2. Using a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butterscotch chips and butter together in the microwave, stirring occasionally until chips are smooth. (The recipe said it should be smooth, but I didn't get all my butter to work in, and was left with a layer of butter on the top. It didn't seem to hurt anything though, so don't worry about it too much). Set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the melted butterscotch chips, then the flour, baking powder, and salt until smooth.
4. Stir in the marshmallows and chocolate chips last. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking pan.
5.Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in preheated oven. Cool, and cut into squares.

Reviews:
I took 1/2 of these to my friends cabin when we visited on the weekend and they didn't last long! Everyone loved them, and couldn't seem to get enough. The second half went with my husband to work - weeks later I came by and people were still telling me that they were amazing. I don't know if these will replace the marshmallow brownies my husband so loves, but they might give them a run for their money.

"Mississippi Mud" bars

So I am a major chocoholic and every once in a while I have to give in and bake myself some brownies or something equally full of chocolate. Yesterday as I was killing time at work I came across a recipe for "Mississippi mud bars" on allrecipe.com that had some good reviews, so I thought i would give it a try. After making a couple of changes based on some of the reviews, this is what I came up with:

Ingredients:
1 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup coco powder
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 pkg mini marshmallows

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a saucepan over medium low heat, melt the butter or margarine. Then remove from heat.
3. Mix in the coco powder until smooth. Add the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. Once the sugar is mixed in add the flour.
4. Fold in the mini marshmallows.
5. Pour into a 9X13 pan (I line mine with parchment paper rather than greasing and it works extremely well).
6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the brownies pull away from the pan.

The original recipe also had a recipe for a frosting to go on top, but I didn't bother with it. I tend to like my brownies best without a frosting, and these did not disappoint.

Reviews:
Hubby: He loved these brownies and ate almost half a pan when he discovered them!

The Baker: While these aren't what I normally think of when I think Mississippi mud bars (I usually think marshmallows on top), I thought that these were delicious and they satisfied my chocolate craving.

Other: The girls at work also loved these, and the guys were so disappointed that they missed out on getting some that I had to promise to bring more in.