Here are the finished Chocolate Raisin Muffins. Delicious!!

Here’s what your going to need. Well, this and apple sauce, I forgot to put it in the picture …

Start with creaming the butter and the sugar together. I use this aftermarket beater blade that scrapes the sides of the bowl as it spins, no scraping necessary! Such a time saver!

Next, grab a bowl and crack some eggs into it.

Add the eggs to the creamed sugar and mix well.

Measure the flour into a separate bowl.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients into the bowl containing the flour.

Then, whisk the dry ingredients together, making sure they are well mixed.

Now, slowly add the dry ingredients into the mix.

Now, for the “secret” ingredient, apple sauce!  Alternate between 1 cup of dry ingredients and 1/2 cup of apple sauce. Otherwise, the mixture will get really thick and you might break your nice KitchenAid Mixer.

Here’s the finished batter!

Next, add 1 cup raisins. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can really add anything to the base mixture and it’ll taste great!

Like a 12oz bag of chocolate chips!

Line a muffin pan with baking cups for easy cleanup.

And then fill them with the batter. Fill to about 3/4ths of the cup.

Bake at 350F for about 20-25 minutes until done. I stick a toothpick into a couple of the muffins and if it comes out clean, they’re ready to come out of the oven. I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as I do!

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Raisin Chocolate Muffins

Author: AcatcalledBailey

Serves: 28

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  35 mins

Ingredients

• 1 Stick Butter
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 4 Cups Flour
• 3 tsp. Cinnamon
• 2 tsp. Ground Cloves
• 2 tsp. Allspice
• 2 tsp. Baking Soda
• 2 Cups Apple Sauce
• 1 Cup Raisins
• 12 Oz. Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

Instructions

1. Mix butter and sugar until creamy
2. Add in eggs and beat for 1-2 minutes
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and spices, whisk together to combine
4. Measure out 2 cups of apple sauce
5. Alternate 1 cup of flour with ½ cup of apple sauce and mix into the batter
6. Once all apple sauce and dry ingredients have been mixed, fold in extras like raisins and chocolate chips by hand
7. Fill baking cups ¾ full with batter and bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees

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Here’s the finished Manhattan!

The key to this recipe is using a decent bourbon as well as good bitters. For this cocktail I used Angostura bitters as well as Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters. The combination of these ingredients really takes the cocktail over the edge!

Here’s a mid bitter’s action shot!

Shake it up, pour it in, and add a cherry!  Enjoy!

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Manhattan

Author: AcatcalledBailey

Serves: 1

Prep time:  5 mins

Total time:  5 mins

Ingredients

• 1.5 Oz Knob Creek Bourbon
• 1.5 Oz. Sweet Vermouth
• Several Dashes Angostura
• Several Dashes Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters
• Cherry

Instructions

1. Mix all the liquids in a shaker with ice
2. Shake
3. Pour into a glass
4. Garnish with a cherry

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Here it is!  Isn’t it beautiful?  Guests will be shocked that you were able to concoct this in your kitchen!

Here are the ingredients.  It actually takes a lot but its worth it!

This recipe starts out with graham cracker crumbs.  This is a commercial product, you don’t have to buy and crush your own :)  Place them in a shallow container that is large enough to fit the head of your martini glasses.

Next, grab your martini glass and apply honey to the rim.  Basically squeeze some onto your finger and run it around the edge.  Its kind of hard to see in this picture but its on there!

Now, flip the martini glass over into the graham cracker crumbs and move it around until they’ve coated the rim.

Here’s the coated rim!

This is the magical drizzle tool which will really put your cocktails on the next level.

Use the drizzle tool to make a pattern with the chocolate sauce.  I normally either do a spiral like this one or a spider web pattern depending on the mood.

Next, throw the liquid ingredients into a shaker and get mixing!

Carefully pour it out into the martini glass.

For the final touch, use a knife to flake some chocolate onto the top of the cocktail.

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Chocolate Martini

Author: AcatcalledBailey

Serves: 1

Prep time:  5 mins

Total time:  5 mins

Ingredients

• Cocktail:
• 1.5 Oz. Godiva Chocolate Liquor
• 1.5 Oz. Creme de Cacao
• 0.5 Oz. Vanilla Vodka
• 2.5 Oz. Heavy Cream
• Garnishes:
• Chocolate sauce
• Chocolate flakes
• Honey
• Graham Cracker Crumbs

Instructions

1. Start by lining the rim of a martini glass with honey
2. Dip the martini rim in graham cracker crumbs
3. Drizzle the martini glass with chocolate syrup
4. Add the liquid ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake
5. Pour into the martini glass
6. Flake some chocolate onto the top of the cocktail

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Oh man, my mouth is salivating just looking that them!  Its the perfect combo of chocolate, coconut and gooeyness.

This is all you’re going to need.  And of course you don’t need such a giant bag of chocolate chips but I was shopping at BJ’s so I wanted to save some money with the giant pack.

Like I said earlier, this recipes doesn’t even require a mixer!  Just grab a giant bowl and pour the whole bag of graham cracker crumbs into it.

Add the coconut and chocolate chips in as well and mix together.

Now for the fun part, pour the sweetened condensed milk into the bowl.

After some mixing, the batter should look like this.  I would use a wooden spoon as the mixture can get pretty gooey.

Pat the mixture down into a greased 9×13″ pan.  I would just use your hands to pat it down.

And here are the bars right out of the oven!  Cook them until the slides just start to brown, about 25 minutes.

You can slice them however you want.  If I am giving them away or taking them to an event, I normally cut them up pretty small like this.  If you’re just eating them yourself, feel free to cut them to whatever size you desire!

That’s it!  My husband and I both took them to work and they were devoured in minutes!

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Magic Surprise Bars

Author: AcatcalledBailey

Serves: 32

Prep time:  5 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  30 mins

Ingredients

• 1 Box Graham Cracker Crumbs (13.5 Oz)
• 1 Bag Chocolate Chips (12 Oz.)
• 1 Bag Sweetened Coconut (7 Oz.)
• 2 Cans Sweetened Condensed Milk

Instructions

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Add in the sweetened condensed milk and stir to combine
3. Spread into a greased 9×13″ baking pan
4. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees
5. Slice and serve!

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Here’s the finished result!  They turned out really well. My husband took them to work and the reports were awesome!

Like I said, three simple ingredients!

Start by putting all the Oreos in a plastic bag.

Then smash them with a rolling pin!

Put the crushed cookies into your mixer.

Throw the bar of cream cheese into the mixer bowl as well.

Blend up the mixture in your mixer.

Here’s the finished filling.  It doesn’t look like much, but its delicious!

Take a walnut sized amount of truffle filling and roll it into a ball.  Repeat for the remaining 29 balls.  When the balls are done, put them in the refrigerator.

Next, melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler. Unfortunately, I don’t have a double boiler so I just use a metal mixing bowl over a slightly smaller pot.

Here’s the melted chocolate!  I also added some vanilla for flavoring and shortening to thin it out a little bit.

Now for the fun part!  Drop the balls in the chocolate and mix around with your fork.  Then extract, tap on the edge, then scrap the spare chocolate, and place on some parchment paper.

Place the coated balls on some parchment paper on a baking sheet. If I were to do it again, I would pick up a truffle tool to make it a little easier. However it wasn’t too bad to just scrap the truffle off of the first fork with a second fork.

Bailey really wanted a truffle.  Unfortunately, chocolate is poisonous to cats …

Mmmm!  Here’s the dipped chocolate truffles!

Here’s the Chocolate Oreo Truffles after they’ve been refrigerated!

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Chocolate Oreo Truffles

Author: AcatcalledBailey

Serves: 30

Prep time:  15 mins

Total time:  15 mins

Ingredients

• 1 Bag Oreos
• 1 12 Oz. Bar Cream Cheese
• 1 12 Oz. Bag Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
• ¼ tsp. Vanilla (Optional)
• 1 Tbsp Shortening (Optional)

Instructions

1. Crush one bag of Oreos by placing it in a zip lock bag and hitting them with a rolling pin
2. Add the crushed Oreos into a mixing bowl and add the cream cheese
3. Mix the Oreos until they have totally combined
4. Grab a walnut sized portion of truffle center and roll into a ball
5. Repeat for all the dough, this was 30 balls for my mixture
6. After the balls are rolled, refrigerate until ready for coating
7. Setup a double boiler and melt the chocolate
8. Optionally, add the vanilla and shortening, this will serve to thin the mixture and make it easier to coat the balls
9. Dip the balls into the chocolate,use a fork or a truffle tool to remove the ball
10. When removing, tap the fork on the side of the bowl to even the chocolate ball and then scrap the bottom of the fork on the bowl
11. Using a second fork, push the truffle off the first fork onto some parchment paper
12. Once all the truffles are done, refrigerate

Notes

You can vary the taste of the filling by using other types of Oreos, try mint! Also, you can coat them with coconut, crushed nuts, or cocoa powder!

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Here’s Bailey snacking on some Roses my husband brought home.  Luckily Roses are on the list of non poisonous  flowers.  Chew on Bailey!

Here are a couple of common, Non-Toxic plants:

• African daisy
• African violet
• Alyssum
• Bachelors buttons
• Celosia
• Common Snapdragon
• Easter Daisy
• Orchids
• Peruvian lily, Brazilian lily
• Rose

Common, Toxic plants:

• Amaryllis
• Autumn Crocus
• Azaleas and Rhododendrons
• Castor Bean
• Chrysanthemum
• Cyclamen
• English Ivy
• Kalanchoe
• Lilies
• Marijuana
• Oleander
• Peace Lily
• Pothos
• Sago Palm
• Spanish thyme
• Tulip and Narcissus bulbs
• Yew

If you do receive flowers that are toxic to your pet, consider bringing them into to work to lighten up your office, your coworkers will be jealous

For a full list, visit: ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants

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Don’t they look delicious?!

The recipe starts by just combining the wet ingredients into your stand mixer and letting it rip. A funny story, our original mixer was one of those 1970′s green one’s with the glass bowl. One day we were out garage saling when my husband came upon the above stand mixer. We asked the lady how much it was and she said $7! We couldn’t believe our luck, normally they retail for $300-400! One of the great addition’s we’ve added to it has been the attached beater blade. It scrapes the sides as it mixes so its pretty effortless to mix recipes like this. I used to insist on mixing it by hand, but when you start adding the dry ingredients, it gets super thick and nearly impossible to mix!

Next, mix the dry ingredients.  Make sure they are mixed together well prior to adding them to the mixer.

After a quick spin, the dough is done, its that easy!

Create cookie balls about the size of a walnut.

And then repeat for the entire batch.  For me, this made 36 cookies and I spread it over two batches.  You want to place the cookie balls about 2″ apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes (it usually takes the full 12 minutes for me) at 375F.

I snuck a peek mid bake and snapped this pic.

Mmmm, don’t they look delicious? 

Next, place the cookies on a drying rack and dust them with powdered sugar. I use a powdered sugar shaker, which makes it easier to evenly coat the cookies. This is technically optional but I wouldn’t skip it. To me, it’s what really brings the flavor of the cookies together!

Bailey watched the process from the window.  I’m not sure if he really approves of powdered sugar, but he likes blocking the light for the photos

And we’re all done!  I saved some for us and packed the rest up for my mom to take back home with her.  Dad reported that they were a nice surprise and very delicious

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Sugar and Spice Cookies!

Author: AcatcalledBailey

Serves: 36

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  12 mins

Total time:  22 mins

Ingredients

• ¾ Cup Soft Shortening
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1 Egg
• ¼ Cup Molasses
• 2 Cups Flour
• 2 tsp. Baking Soda
• ¼ tsp. Cinnamon
• ¾ tsp. Ground Cloves
• ¾ tsp Ground Ginger

Instructions

1. Mix together the shortening, sugar and molasses until combined
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate container and mix together
3. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixer and combine
4. Make into 36 walnut sized balls, this might take multiple sheets
5. Place cookie balls on parchment paper on a sheet pan
6. Bake @ 375F for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and crackly
7. After the cookies are finished but still warm, dust with powdered sugar

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