Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding

Love this recipe-- from Shelly Brown!

Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding

from Paula Deen


Ingredients:

1 12-ounce container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 cups milk
1 5-ounce box instant French vanilla pudding
6-8 bananas, sliced
2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13x9x2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Shelly leaves out bananas because they turn brown and slimy.... Hilary can't imagine it without the bananas... ♥

No Bake Peanut Butter Pie

 





Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar 1 cup peanut butter 1 cup milk

1 (16 ounce) package frozen whipped topping, thawed 2 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crusts

Directions:

1.	Beat together cream cheese and confectioners' sugar. Mix in peanut butter and milk. Beat until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.
2.	Spoon into two 9 inch graham cracker pie shells; cover, and freeze until firm.

Hilary's Notes: I used a chocolate oreo crust (in same section as the graham crusts). I also chopped up reese's peanut butter cups and drizzled chocolate syrup on top. It would be heavenly to mix the chopped up reese's in the peanut butter part! I think this tastes like ice cream. Also... (I'm long winded tonight!), I was looking for a picture to post and turns out THE PIONEER WOMAN makes this pie too - here is a link to hers: Another Pie

Lemon Drop Cookies

I found this small recipe website with yummy recipes. This had such glowing praise, I had to try them. It made around 90 cookies! We made plates of cookies and passed them out for FHE... they kept coming and coming!!! I bought my lemon drops in bulk at Winco and 48 lemon drops = six ounces. You can find anything out on the internet. I ♥ the internet!

Hilary

 

From Website:

These cookies have pretty much made me famous. OK, so not famous. I mean, it isn't even my recipe. But, they are by far the cookie that have gotten the most reaction from others. People simply love them. In college I discovered Lemon Drop cookies from a place called Cookies By Design, they were my obsession. My roomates served them at my bridal shower. I tried for years and years to find a recipe close but never did. Several years ago my mom bought a cookbook ("5 star recipes from well-known Latter Day Saints") and this recipe was in it. I have to make a plan to give these away before I even make them. I could honestly eat them all day and all night long.

Lemon Drop Cookies

2 c. sugar

1 1/2 cup butter flavored shortening

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. lemon extract

4 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Finely chopped zest of one lemon

1 (6-oz) package lemon drops (sometimes these are tricky to find, I usually keep two or three bags in my pantry)

2 c. powdered sugar

juice of two lemons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In mixing bowl, cream sugar, shortening, and eggs; add flavorings. Stir in dry ingredients, lemon zest, and crushed lemon drops (I crush them in my blender). Roll into balls, flatten slightly, and bake on parchment lined (if you don't use parchment, cookies will stick to pan) baking sheet for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool slightly on pan for a couple of minutes. Make a glaze by mixing powdered sugar with lemon juice. Brush glaze over cookie tops. Let cookies cool completely.

makes 4 to 5 dozen cookies.

"THE" Punch

I make AMAZING punch. There, I said it.
I’m the Punch Master. Queen of Punch. Snoop Punch. David Punchuleta. I bet you didn’t know this about me, but I seriously rock the punch bowl like no other.
I invented one very special recipe that I’m about to share with you. And I have to tell you—you’re really lucky because all you have to do is read the recipe, buy the stuff, put it together, and serve it at a party and have everyone tell you that it is the best punch in the universe.
Whereas I had to create, puzzle, reflect, and ponder the recipe in the first place in my special Punch Laboratory. I had to contact chemists from ivy league universities to perfect the chemical makeup of this recipe. I had to search the globe for the exact ingredients. I had to throw out hundreds of thousands of batches of lesser punches on my quest to attain the ideal ice-to-punch ratio.
But now that I’ve arrived at Punch Perfectdom, it’s hard for me to contain it and keep it to myself. I feel that I owe it to the world to share. You all have been so nice to me lately, and I feel so intoxicated with goodwill, that I am ready to freely give you this recipe for the betterment of mankind. If the war suddenly ends, I will know that The Punch has done its job.
OK, are you ready?

The Punch
Ingredients:
1 can frozen pina colada concentrate, thawed (Bacardi makes a good one)
1 can frozen orange pineapple juice concentrate, thawed
4 liters of diet lemon-lime soda (That’s two 2-Liters for the mathematically challenged.)
1 bag of pebble ice (You can buy it at Sonic Drive-In or at most grocery stores in the deli or meat departments.)
1 bag of frozen raspberries

And now for the directions:
*Pour the thawed concentrates into your punchbowl and stir.
*Use one of the empty cans and fill it with water four times and add it to the mixture. Stir.
*Add your diet soda to the mixture. (You can use regular sugar-filled soda if you want, but I think it gets too sweet and you will also feel guilty when you fill your glass for the sixteenth time. Which you WILL.)
*Next, add about half your bag of pebble ice.

(NOTE: Please do not insult The Punch by using crappy ice cubes from your freezer. The Punch will hate you forever.) (ANOTHER NOTE: Please do not screw up the order and add the ice before the soda. You will get an ugly foam at the top of your punch bowl.) (ONE MORE NOTE: I’m sorry if it seems like I’m micro-managing this recipe. It’s just that I have already suffered bad punch experiences so that you won’t have to. I micro-manage because I care.) Let’s see….where were we? Oh, yes. We’re ready for the crowning ingredient…
*Add your frozen raspberries to the top.

Voila! You have just created the Mona Lisa of Punch!
Your punch should be a lovely dark yellow at the bottom of your punch bowl, light lemony yellow in middle, almost white on the top, and then bright magenta on the very, very top! So pretty!
And then, when you start serving the punch with a ladle, it all mixes together and becomes this dreamy pink color.
And then, when you lift the punch bowl to your lips when it is almost gone to swallow the last few drops of punch, it is an even darker pink because the raspberries have really mixed in.
And then, when you pass out on the floor because you tipped the punch bowl too far and lost your balance, falling backward to the floor with the punch bowl hitting you square in the jaw—you will see lots of lovely yellow stars and magenta raspberries floating above your head.
Go now. Make Punch.

(Hilary here... I'm not this funny - this is straight how I copied it! And, p.s. I thawed my frozen raspberries and liked it way more than having frozen raspberry ice cubes.)

Strawberry Cream Puff Cake

I made this tonight from Mel's Kitchen Cafe blog... it was so good. Mine wasn't quite this pretty - I couldn't get my whipping cream part to get as thick and stiff... but still yum! I used lemon zest instead of orange and really loved it.

From Mel's Kitchen Cafe:

"The base of the cake, baked in a springform pan is exactly, exactly like a cream puff shell: tender and light. It holds up perfectly for the silky center made of whipped cream cheese and cream and infused with orange zest. Topped with strawberries, this was a masterpiece – and a pretty easy one at that. The presentation is stunning and the taste and flavors are out of this world.

All I can say is, You Really Must Make This.



Strawberry Cream Puff Cake


Cream Puff Base:
5 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
2/3 cup flour
3 eggs

Cream Cheese Mixture:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2/3 cup powdered sugar

For the cream puff layer, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bring the butter, water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the flour all at once and stir quickly until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and stir the mixture until smooth. Let cool for 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until the mixture is shiny with a satiny sheen. Don’t overbeat. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan (or in a pinch, you could use a 9-inch circle cake pan). Using an offset spatula, spread the mixture on the bottom and one inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and prick pastry with a toothpick 10-12 times. Return to the oven and bake 5-10 minutes more until golden brown but not overbaked (you can insert a toothpick into the center and if it comes out with sticky dough, it still needs longer in the oven). Cool completely.
For the cream cheese mixture, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar (if you want to ensure there are no lumps, sift the powdered sugar into the cream cheese) and beat with the cream cheese until mixture is smooth and light. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread onto the cooled cream puff shell.
Top with fresh sliced strawberries (I mixed 2 cups of strawberries with 1 teaspoon sugar and let them hang out in the fridge while I was prepping the cake) or you can use a 16-ounce bag of frozen strawberries that have been thawed. Mix the thawed strawberries and juice with 1-2 teaspoons sugar and bring to a simmer in a saucepan. Cook until slightly thickened. Cool completely and use as topping for the cake.