Green Chili Corn Dip & No Bake Raspberry-Lemon Cheesecake

My wonderful sister, brother-in-law, and nephew came over to Drew's house to eat dinner with us a few nights ago. We were feeling adventurous so I made a couple of new things. For appetizer we made Jalapeno Corn Dip. However, my sister is pregnant and a little sensitive to spicy things so I switched out the japaenos are a half a can of diced, mild green chilies to bring down the hit a bit. I also used mild salsa. This is a really great dip that I think would go well before most any meal. The fact that is was cold was a nice element for summer as well.

Jalapeno Corn Dip


We made our Best Burger for the main course. For dessert, I gave No Bake Raspberry-Lemon Cheesecake a try. I was intrigued by the flavors as well as the fact that it is made with cream cheese. Seriously, almost anything with that stuff has to be good. This was my first time "zesting" anything and it was successful! I felt very professional using this technique haha. This is a really light dessert with just a hint of lemon. Don't be fooled by the size! This dish is quite filling.

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Okay, not the prettiest picture but trust me, this dish is really tasty and super simple to make. It does have to cook for an hour so plus prep, you do need to allow for about 1 1/2 to make it. However, once it comes together, you will agree that it is well worth it. My fiance must have said 10 times while we were eating how good it was and that if he hadn't seen me cooking, it would have sworn I ordered in.
Now, the blog where I retrieved this recipe also has instructions on making the fried rice to go with it. However, one unfamiliar dish at a time is enough for me so we chose Uncle Ben's Teriyaki 90 second rice instead and I am convinced that it was better than anything I could have put together and went great with the chicken. The best part of this dish- we already had all of the ingredients already in the house!

Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken

Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken

Man, I would happily eat chicken everyday if I had to. I love finding ways to make it new and exciting. What can I say, simple, straight forward, easy and yummy! I'm a little wary about spicy things so I didn't put as much cayenne pepper and red flakes as it said, even though it calls for very little. Don't be afraid though! Next time I will include the full amount.

As the blog where I retrieved this recipe suggested, we paired it with asparagus and this sweet maple glaze.
Asparagus with Maple Mustard Glaze

I'm not a huge vegetable girl...okay I hate most vegetables. But if you cook asparagus right, it can be really good. Adding this sweet component to it really gives it an appealing taste.
We'll definitely be doing this meal again. We just need to add some rice next time and we'll be good to go! No we didn't get to it this time, I can only handle so many components right now as we're learning!

Marinade for chicken

Dunkaroo Dip & Independence Day Cookies

Dunkaroo Dip
Dunkaroo Dip 
I made this for my fiance's birthday. He saw me pin it one day and started freaking out about it. I gave it a shot and it was sooo delcious. Be careful though, I made wayyyy to much for just the 2 of us. I got graham crackers to go with it (really just the vessel to eat as much dip as I can in one bite).


Independence Day Cookies
http://cookincowgirl.blogspot.com/2012/05/firecracker-cookies.html
My fiance's birthday also happens to be Independence day so I made another treat for the occasion! Instead of using cake batter, I used sugar cookie mix and then just mixed in some sprinkles. Simple and delish.

Marshmellow Caramel Popcorn

MmMhmm gloopy goodness. The other night Katie and I had a Bachelorette night accompanied by this delicious snack. We didn't even have to make it!! conveniently, I have an awesome brother-in-law who magically makes things like this appear. He followed the following recipe, but made twice the amount (2 bags) of  popcorn to spread out the yumminess a bit. It sure makes a lot of popcorn but somehow we took care of it all!
Recipe from Pinterest:
1/2 c. brown sugar
 1/2 c. butter
 9-10 marshmallows
 12 c. popcorn.
 Microwave brown sugar and butter for 2 minutes. Add marshmallows. Microwave until melted, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Pour over popcorn.

Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia

Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia
Made frozen tilapia very tasty. Out first go around we somehow didn't come home with the basil from the grocery and I think we compensating with a little too much cheese. The touch of lemon at the end made a big difference. Simple dinner.

Huspuppies and spinach salad make great sides!

Pimento Cheese Devlied Eggs

OK I know this sounds weird, but you have to give it a shot. As I prepared to mix the cheese into the egg mixture, I was certain I was about to make a big mistake and the eggs would be a disaster. As a Southern girl, I felt like I was about to commit a crime attempting to change up this traditional side dish so drastically. Fortunately, after I had decided to continue with this strange recipe and mixed everything together, I tasted the concussion and was immediately overjoyed with the result (seriously, I was a little too excited about it).
This is where I originally found the recipe: Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs
Instead of making up the pimento cheese, I cheated and bought the kind at the grocery that's already made up. I buy it all the time anyway. For the egg mixture, I boiled a dozen eggs, took out the yolks, mashed them up, put in salt and pepper, put in about a cup of mayonnaise, then put in a couple dollops of the pimento cheese. This measurement will probably be to taste depending on how much of the cheesy taste you want in there.
I brought these to a get together with some friends and one of the girls ate like 6 of them. Haha she probably wouldn't appreciate me sharing that but I thought it was a good representation of how good they turned out. 

Brookie Cups

I found this recipe on Pinterest (shocker!) but cannot find where it was originally pinned from. So I made up my own juvenile name for these delicious dessert by combining the names of the ingredients. It's basically brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and Reese's peanut butter cups put together for one tasty bite.

I just had to take a bite of one to give you a glimpse at all the layers inside. Here's what you do if you'd like to make this rich treat:
Preheat oven to 350; smoosh 1.5 squares of break-apart refrigerated cookie dough into the bottom of each well. Place Reese cup upside down on top of cookie dough (or an Oreo!). Top with prepared box brownie mix, filling 3/4 full. Bake for 18 minutes! HEAVEN.
http://pinterest.com/pin/153685406004238660/

Grilled Garlic and Herb Shrimp

Grilled garlic and herb shrimp


   My mother is allergic to shellfish so growing up, I had very little experience in cooking with things like shrimp. However, I love this kind of stuff and am eager to begin learning how to make them at home.
I gave this recipe to my future in-laws on Memorial Day and they graciously indulged me by trying it out! Kroger had prepackaged shrimp skewers on sale so that part was easy. Then we followed the recipe, only halving the brown sugar and the garlic. They grilled them up and they made a deilicious addition to the meal! Very easy, doing these again soon.

Double Double Burger Cake

This is actually super easy to make, it's just a little time consuming. The buns are vanilla cake, of course, right out of the box! The patties are chocolate cake, again from the box. The top bun was baked in a pyrex glass bowl to give it the rounded shape.
Everything else was made with a homemade cream cheese icing (butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, and powered sugar).
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/index.html
We made about 2 1/2 patches and divided different amounts into bowls to add food coloring to each. Then all you need is a skilled froster which in this case, was my dad.

Lots 'o' lettuce

mixing color for the "mustard"

 We put white sprinkles on top to represent sesame seeds. Unfortunately, we didn't find plain white sprinkles, so Mom separated out the white ones from the multicolored sprinkles we had! That's dedication.