Hash-erole?

The beautiful thing about breakfast food is that you can eat it at any time of the day or night. My favorite mealtime is "Brinner," breakfast for dinner. And when you can take a breakfast food to the next level and really make a meal, well that's just nirvana. Seeing as I'm a carb addict, I have decided to pay tribute to my all time favorite carbohydrate, the potato, while also giving my grandmother honorary mention for this recipe. "Hash Brown Casserole."  This creamy, crunchy, cheesy dish is one for the all-time favorites list. Enjoy!

Grandma's Hash Brown Casserole 

32 oz. frozen hash browns 
2 cups sour cream 
1 cup grated cheese 
1 can cream of chicken soup 
1 stick melted butter 
1 cup crushed corn flakes OR potato chips 

Mix all together, except  1/3 of the melted butter and the corn flakes or potato chips. Spread the mixture in a 9x13 inch pyrex dish that has been sprayed with non-stick spray such as PAM. Mix the 1/3 stick of butter and the crushed corn flakes or potato chips. Spread on top of the potato mixture. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours. 

Nutellaholics Unite!

Seeing as Nutella is one of the greatest inventions ever made and should really just be it's own food group, I have decided to pay tribute to the great sandwich spread/my equivalent to peanut butter. Here we have the heavenly, the gooey, the flaky clouds of Nutella Marshmallow Pillows. Truly a stroke of genius and I must give credit to the Picky Palate blog. Much more to come from that site, I can tell you that much. 
These pockets of gold are incredibly simple to make and really only require 3 ingredients. If you don't think this looks like the greatest invention ever, you're on the wrong food blog. 
Here's my take on the pillow pockets, I altered the original recipe slightly to make many more pockets and much more party friendly. I guess I was feeling generous enough to share tonight. Not quite sure what I was thinking...

Nutella-Mallow Pastry Pockets- Makes 18 pockets

1 package puff pastry, 2 pastry sheets thawed

1 jar Nutella spread

1 bag mini marshmallows

Egg white wash: 1 egg white whisked with 1 Tablespoon water (I forgot to put this on the first batch, and it made no real difference on the second batch, so this is optional)

Powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon for dusting (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

   2. Cut each square of pastry into 9 equal size pieces.  

3. Spread some Nutella onto the center of each pastry leaving a border around edges.  

  4. Top each with about 5-6 mini marshmallows and fold over to form a little triangle.  

         5. Crimp edges firmly with a fork.  

         6. Brush with egg white wash. (optional)

         7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until pastry just turns golden.  

         8. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes, sprinkle with powdered sugar/cocoa/cinnamon

         9. EAT IT AND WEEP.

In the beginning...

So it's 2:00 in the morning and about an hour ago I stumbled onto what appeared to be a gift from the heavens. A simple, easy, and very quick recipe for Chocolate Cobbler. On any other day, it wouldve just been a great find, but today I had just come home from Chili's with the realization that in the midst of my deep conversation with my boyfriend I had forgotten about dessert entirely. God forbid. The insanely delicious chocolate molten cake had been left out of the dining experience and there was nothing I could do about it. 
Until I found the Chocolate Cobbler recipe...at 11:30 at night.
After going back and forth with my boyfriend over whether or not I should make it so late at night, I got to work. I just couldn't resist.

And now, here I am having just enjoyed the gooey, choclatey goodness that is this Chocolate Cobbler; so much so that it inspired in me the need to create a food blog.


 And so, the adventure begins...

Chocolate Cobbler

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoons salt
• 7  tablespoons cocoa powder, divided (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
• 1 ¼ cup sugar, divided
• ½ cup milk 
• ⅓ cup melted butter 
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1-½ cup hot tap water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

First stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 3 tablespoons of the cocoa, and 3/4 cup of the white sugar. Reserve the remaining cocoa and sugar.

Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Pour the mixture into an ungreased 8-inch baking dish.

In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining white sugar (1/2 cup), the brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.

Pour the hot tap water over all. Do not stir!

Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set.

Best served with a nice cold glass of milk.