Alright, y’all. Brace yourselves. I am about to share with you the most fudgy, delicious, amazing frosting recipe that you will ever eat in your life. (I know I promised to share this recipe a few days ago, but life has been crazy this week. I apologize.)

My mama used to make this and spread it on brownies. I’m not a fan of frosted brownies (the frosting does something funky to the texture of the brownie, in my opinion), but I had no problem scraping the frosting off with my teeth and tossing the brownie in the trash.

I can remember my mom making this, standing at the stove and counting to 60, making sure that the milk and sugar boiled for exactly 60 seconds. I’m not sure what would happen if it boiled for 61 seconds, or heaven forbid, 62 seconds. My mama took the 60 second rule very seriously. So do I, and so should you. Don’t mess with perfection

I also remember that my parents always let my brother and me lick the bowl when they made brownies or cakes, but when it came to this frosting, it was a family event. The kids had to share with the parents.

Have I convinced you to try this yet?

Put it on brownies if you’re a frosted brownie kinda gal (or guy) or use it to frost doughnuts like I did. It’s a bit thin for piping, but it hardens up very quickly into a fudge like texture. In fact, I plan on experimenting with this soon to see if I can turn it into fudge. I imagine it would be divine.

If you’re really desperate for a little chocolate, but don’t feel like baking, go ahead and make a 1/4 batch of this and eat it with a spoon. It’ll make you happy. Trust me. I know.

Chocolate Frosting
Recipe from my mama

• 1 cup white sugar
• 6 tbsp butter
• 6 tbsp milk
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semi-sweet)

Add sugar, butter, and milk to a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Boil for exactly 60 seconds and remove from heat. Stir in chocolate chips and continue stirring until the chocolate has melted. Use frosting immediately as it will harden quickly. Makes about 2 cups and will frost a 9×13 pan of brownies.

I have three important things to tell you today. Earth-shattering things, really. Are you ready for your world to change?

1. My husband does not like cake. We have to make him brownies or cheesecake for his birthday each year.
2. I force him to try foods that he doesn’t like all the time, not because I am a jerk, but because I love him and I have high hopes that one day he will wake up with normal taste buds like a normal person and he will eat normal food.
3. I forced him to try these Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and he took one bite, pushed me out of his way, grabbed two more cupcakes, and gobbled the three of them down quite happily.

True story. Except for the part where he pushed me. He would never do such a thing, not even for these cupcakes. He’s a keeper and so are these chocolatey peanut buttery cupcakes.

Click here to read the recipe and hear a bit about a campaign that Electrolux is doing with Kelly Ripa to help fund research for Ovarian Cancer.

It’s Valentine’s Day so I’m pretty sure that means that I should be alternating between napping and eating chocolate all day, right? Isn’t that what true love is about?

My kids aren’t allowing me to nap, but they can’t stop me from eating chocolate. I decided that today called for good old chocolate chip cookies, but not just any chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are special. They have a secret ingredient that makes them fat and fluffy and delicious and beautiful.

The secret ingredient is just a small box of instant vanilla pudding powder. Crazy, I know, but it does amazing things to cookies.

The only problem with making these for your Valentine is you won’t be able to sneak in any kisses. You’ll be too busy shoveling cookies in your mouth.

Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from allrecipes.com

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3.4 oz. package vanilla instant pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur’s white whole wheat)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and slowly mix that into the butter mixture until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (I use a cookie dough scoop) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes.

My first scone was bought from the grocery store bakery. It was pumpkin. It was also hard and crumbly and really dry. I don’t think I finished it.

My second scone was a chocolate chip scone that I made myself. It was soft, buttery, and delicious. I ate three.

Yes, it’s true. Scones are new to me, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know a good scone when I taste one. Anything this fluffy and delicious is good food. It’s a fact.

I don’t know about you, but I generally avoid recipes that require me to spread flour on my counter tops. It’s just so messy and I always get icked out thinking that my counters aren’t really clean enough to be smooshing food around on them, no matter how much I wipe them down. Having said that, the minute I saw that this recipe called for 2 cups of heavy cream I completely forgot about the fact that I’d have to make a big floury mess. Heavy cream will make me do crazy things.

This dough comes together pretty easily. Dump everything into a bowl, give it a stir to make sure all the flour is moist, and then dump it out onto a floured countertop. Knead it for a few minutes and then seperate it into three balls of dough.

The dough balls easily smoosh out into circles that you can then cut with a pizza cutter. Brush the tops of the scones with melted butter and sprinkle with a bit of sugar before baking.

These scones were just delicious. They were nice and moist and all that heavy cream really gave them a great texture and flavor. These weren’t too sweet at all and I think they’d go perfect with a nice hot cup of coffee or tea or a big ol’ glass of icy cold milk.

Chocolate Chip Scones
Adapted from Hershey’s

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease two cookie sheets.

Oh, y’all. I have a big confession to make. You see, I am…I’m…well…I’m the world’s biggest dork. No, really, I am. I pretend I’m just a girl with a blog who knows how to cook, when in reality, I’m just a big dork. You see, a year or so ago I discovered the beauty of wax paper. I believe I first saw it used for lining cake pans. And, you know, it works perfectly for lining cake pans. It’s also perfect for brownies or basically anything where the wax paper is covered completely by the food. You know what wax paper is not good for? Baking cookies.

I have been baking cookies on wax paper (and recommending that you do so, too!) for the last year and I’m only now realizing that you aren’t supposed to do that. The exposed wax paper smokes! Some even say that it leaves a waxy taste on your food, but I’ve never had a problem with that. However, I was thisclose to buying a new oven over the summer because it was smoking so bad when I used it! Well, surprise! The wax paper was what was smoking! Not the oven itself! Let’s just say, my husband is so happy that I ultimately decided to upgrade my camera instead of my (perfectly fine) oven. (And, yes, I did choose a camera over an oven even though I totally thought something was wrong with my oven. Priorities! I have them!)

So, there you have it. I am a complete dork who doesn’t even know how to use an oven. Also, stop using wax paper to bake your cookies.

In honor of my lack of oven skills, I thought I’d share a no bake dessert with you today. I promise, nothing will smoke. Unless you burn your marshmallows, but you can’t blame me for that if you do!

I honestly don’t even have the words to describe these little snack mix bars. They are just beyond delicious. In fact, I have been trying to watch what I eat and I’ve been doing good! I’ve just been shipping all my goodies off to work with my husband, but these little guys? No way. They are staying here with mama.

These little treats have the sweet salty thing going on. The snack mix is made up of rice chex cereal, pretzel sticks, and lots of m&ms. I used a mixture of plain, peanut, and peanut butter m&ms, because I’m wild and crazy, but you can use whatever type of m&ms you like best. I also stirred in a few chocolate chips, just for fun.

The goo that holds these bars together is made of marshmallows, butter, and peanut butter. Could there be a tastier combination of ingredients? I think not.

I would like to note that I didn’t press my mixture together firmly enough in the pan, so the bars fell apart a bit. Next time I will get out a piece of (un-bakeable) wax paper and lay it over the tops of the bars and really press it all together.

Please, if you take anything away from this blog, let it be these two things: 1.  Don’t bake wax paper unless it is completely covered by food, and  2. These snack bars are so delicious they will destroy your desire to diet, so proceed with caution.

Snack Mix Bars
Adapted from Inn Cuisine

• 3 cups pretzel sticks, snapped in half
• 2 1/3 cups chex cereal (I used rice, you can use what you like best)
• 2 cups m&ms (use whichever you like best, I did a mixture of plain, peanut, and peanut butter)
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips (any kind)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

In a large bowl, combine pretzels, cereal, m&ms, and chocolate chips. Set aside.

In a large sauce pan, melt together the butter and peanut butter over low heat. Stir in the marshmallows and continue to cook over low heat until the marshmallows are melted.Pour over the snack mix and toss to coat.

Press mixture into a 9×13 pan lined with wax or parchment paper. Firmly press mixture together to ensure that the bars stick together when they have cooled. Refrigerate until the mixture is completely cool and firm. Cut into bars and serve.