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 know it seems a bit crazy to be sharing an ice cream recipe in the middle of February, but yesterday it was 45 degrees outside! I was so hot and sweaty that I put on my swimsuit and went out back to sunbathe by the big pile of rapidly melting snow! Then I died of hypothermia. True story.

Honestly, though, I had planned on holding on to this recipe until it warmed up outside for real, but I just haven’t had the time to get in the kitchen lately. I’ve been busy with contractors making a mess of my house and staring at the pictures of my brand new nephew.  What’s that? You wanna stare too?

He’s even sweeter than this ice cream recipe I’m about to share with you.

Before I share though, I would like to take a moment to assure you that my children do not, in fact, sit around and eat sugar by the spoonful all day long. I know it seems as though all I do is bake goodies filled with sugar (and butter and, sometimes, bacon), but I’m actually pretty strict about my kids’ diet. They get one of each treat that I make and then the rest gets shipped off to work with my husband. Every now and then I’ll keep something around long enough for them to get two or three pieces, but that’s pretty rare. I figure they get enough sugar in the breakfast cereal they eat every morning, so I honestly try to limit sugar for the rest of the day.

You can imagine their surprise when I offered up ice cream for a snack, both because it meant something more complicated than me handing them a banana (the usual snack of choice) and because it was ice cream! At ten in the morning!

What they didn’t know was that their snack was still just a banana. My version of “ice cream” was just a frozen banana pureed in a blender. They were so excited that I felt a little bad for them and sprinkled some chocolate chips on top. They gobbled it up.

I’ve since made banana ice cream with a big spoonful of peanut butter mixed in. It gives it great flavor and the kids get a little protein. You could also stir in a bit of honey if you were feeling particularly nice, or better yet, drizzle in some chocolate syrup.

Banana “Ice Cream”

• One banana, with brown streaks, but not so far gone that it’s just mush
• optional: chocolate chips, peanut butter, honey, chocolate syrup, nutella, or anything else you’d like to mix in

A brown-ish banana will work best for this, because it will be softer. Peel and slice the banana into chunks and place them in a bag or bowl in the freezer until completely frozen. Put the chunks of frozen banana in a food processor or blender and process until creamy. Mix in any other goodies you’d like and serve immediately!

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.

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.