Dark Chocolate Heath Bar Pie

I made this dark chocolate Heath Bar pie for my mom for Mother's Day - it was so good.  It's very easy to make and tastes delicious! I got the recipe for the graham cracker crust from Betty Crocker's Cookbook and I followed the instructions on the pudding package to make the pie.

Ingredients

• Graham Cracker Crust
• 12 full chocolate graham cracker sheets, crumbled
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• Pie Filling
• 2 packages Hershey's Special Dark chocolate pudding
• 3 cups cold milk
• 1 package of miniature Heath bars
• Whipped Cream
• 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Makes 1 10-inch pie.

To make the graham cracker crust, mix the crumbs, sugar, and butter.

Press the mixture firmly and evenly against the bottom and sides of the pie pan. Bake at 350º for 15 minutes.

To make the pie filling, add 2 packages of the pudding mix to 3 cups cold milk. Beat with an electric mixer at low speed for 1 minute. Pour immediately into the baked crumb crust.

Chop miniature Heath bars into small pieces (I think I used about 25 of the candies).

Top the pie with the chopped candies and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

When you're ready to serve the pie, make the whipped cream by beating the heavy whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form (about 1 minute).

Top the pie with whipped cream and serve!

Scorpion Cocktail Recipe

Today I'm sharing the recipe for a Scorpion.  This recipe is from Trader Vic's Tiki Party! - this book has tons of tropical drink recipes from Trader Vic's and food recipes too.  I definitely recommend it.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz silver rum
• 1 oz brandy
• 1 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 2 oz orange juice
• 1/2 oz orgeat
• 1 cup crushed ice 

Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously.

Serve in a tiki mug or your glass of choice.

Boiled Shrimp and Red Sauce

One of my favorite meals is boiled shrimp and red sauce. We almost aways have it on New Year's Eve, and often for other occasions as well. Today I'm sharing our recipe - the red sauce recipe was created by my grandpa and it is a lot tastier than your normal cocktail sauce.  I like the red sauce so much that I usually wind up eating the leftovers with Ritz crackers.

Ingredients

• peeled and deveined shrimp
• 1 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning 
• paprika
• Rick's Red Sauce
• 16 oz Heinz ketchup (I prefer using Simply Heinz - no corn syrup!)
• juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp. A.1. steak sauce
• 1 tbsp. Heinz 57 sauce
• 4-5 splashes Tabasco

Bring water to a boil and add Old Bay seasoning. Add peeled and deveined shrimp.  Bring water back to a boil and boil for about 5 minutes. Add a sprinkle of paprika to the water. Drain the shrimp and rinse with cold water. Dunk in ice or put in the refrigerator to chill.

To make the red sauce, stir the ketchup, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, A.1. steak sauce, Heinz 57 sauce, and tabasco together.  Refrigerate.

Serve the shrimp with a side of red sauce and enjoy!

This is a really easy meal to make and great for parties, since you can make as much as you need.  

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I made peanut butter cupcakes back in April, but I just realized I never posted the recipe for these. They are really tasty.

I used the peanut butter cake recipe from Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book and the buttercream icing recipe from The Wilton School's Decorating Cakes.

Ingredients:

• Cupcakes
• 2 1/8 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/6 cup butter
• 1/6 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• Frosting
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 2 tbsp. milk
• food coloring

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Add the butter, shortening, peanut butter, and milk and beat for 2 minutes.

Add the 2 eggs and beat for 2 minutes.

Place cupcake liners in a muffin tin and pour the batter into them until each liner is about half full.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now you cupcakes are done and it's time to get to work on the frosting!

Cream the butter and shortening in a mixer.  Add the vanilla.

Gradually add the confectioner's sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well on medium speed.  Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl when needed. The icing should appear dry. Add the milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add in food coloring if you want to.

Then you get to frost the cupcakes - for these I just put on some frosting and sprinkles.

My mom got fancy with a few of them and made tons of little flowers.

These were really yummy and disappeared very quick!