Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla
3 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 oz bag chocolate chips
1 package Oreo Cookies (regular or double stuff)

Process:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In one bowl, combine the butter and sugars until well combined. I didn’t have a stand mixer handy, but it probably would have helped. Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add flour mixture your first bowl and make sure the ingredients are thoroughly combined, then stir in chocolate chips. Take a ball of cookie dough and flatten out to about 1/4″ thick, and maybe 1/4″ larger than the Oreo. Put the Oreo in the center, and fold the edges up. Add additional dough to the top. and press to seal.

3. Place cookies on to a foil lined baking sheet and bake 14-18 minutes or until they look golden on top. Give them a few minutes then transfer to a plate to cool. Enjoy! I managed to eat ONE!

Ingredients:
2 sleeves of graham crackers
1 1/2 sticks of butter (yeah, I know)
2 packages of either chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or butterscotch chips (mix it up.  I used a bag of chocolate and peanut butter mixed and a bag of butterscotch)
1 12oz can of sweetened condensed milk
about 3/4 bag of mini marshmallows

Process:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Toss your graham crackers in a large freezer bag and roll over them until crumbled into fine bits – almost to the point they are a powder.  Melt your butter in the microwave, and stir into the graham crackers until well coated.  Press the mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 9×13 pan, and toss into the oven for 5 mins.

After 5 minutes, pull crust from oven and sprinkle on your chips.  Make sure the entire crust is covered!  Drizzle your can of condensed milk over the chips, and then cover completely with mini marshmallows.  Toss everything back into the oven for about 20 minutes.  You’ll know it’s done when the marshmallows are starting to turn brown on the top.

Let this cool down a bit before you move it to the fridge, and let it solidify.  Cutting before it is completely cooled will turn it into a huge mess, so wait until it is cooled.  Cut into squares / small bars, and serve!  This dessert goes great with vanilla ice cream.

Mac & Cheese:
* 2 cups elbow macaroni
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 3 tablespoons flour
* 1 tablespoon powdered mustard
* 3 cups milk
* 1/2 tbsp onion salt
* 1/2 tbsp paprika
* 1 large egg
* 14 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
* Fresh black pepper

Topping:
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 1/2 cup bread crumbs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it’s free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion salt, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a greased 9×13 Pyrex. Top with remaining cheese.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 20 minutes. Boost oven up to 375 for another 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

Needless to say, these are delicious – but beware – they are also very very rich.

What you need:
1 package of Oreo cookies (original regular stuff is fine, but feel free to choose other flavors if you want!)
1 8oz package of cream cheese (softened)
1 bag of chocolate chips – I used a chocolate and peanut butter chip mix for mine

Let’s do this!:
Place Oreo’s into large freezer bag so they are not stacked – one layer only.  leave some room around the edge of the bag.  Seal the bag, and roll the Oreo’s with a rolling pin until they are sufficiently crushed (the smaller the better).  Dump Oreo’s into large mixing bowl.

Add 1 package of softened cream cheese and combine thoroughly.  Dig right in with your hands – it never hurts to get a little dirty.  Once the mixture is combined thorougly, make roughly 1″ round balls, and place them on a cookie sheet.  I didn’t think to count how many balls we got out of our mixture, but there were plenty!  Place in fridge for 60 minutes so the balls “set”.

After 60 minutes,  or when balls have set, melt chocolate chips.  You may want to use a microwave, or a double boiler. Since I didn’t have a double boiler, I engineered one.  Use a large pot of hot water (NOT boiling) and a large mixing bowl that fit over the top of the pot.  The water SHOULD NOT touch the bottom of the bowl, because it will cause uneven heating and possibly burn the chocolate.  Using a bowl that covers the entire pot prevents steam from rising and getting into your chocolate.

Once chocolate is melted, take your balls from the fridge and run them through the chocolate, one at a time.  I used a spoon to roll and remove the balls from the chocolate, which worked pretty well.  Place the coated truffles back on the cookie sheet and put back into the fridge until the chocolate sets.  I checked after an hour and mine were set.

Once chocolate has set, remove from cookie tray and serve!  Truffles should be kept chilled (remember, the cream cheese!)  Photo was taken using my camera phone, so it isn’t the greatest quality, but you can see the finished project.

Cook time: 8 agonizing hours of mouthwatering aroma.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 lb. beef stew chunks, cut small (bite-size) (we used thin cut steaks for brazing)
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 can chili beans
• 1 large can stewed or cooked tomatoes (we used 2 small cans)
• 1 can condensed tomato soup
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (hot)
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 packet hot chili seasoning

Preparation:
Brown the steaks, no need for seasoning.  Since we used the thin cut steaks, we got away with doing them for a couple minutes on each side in a frying pan.  Set aside for a few minutes.  Brown ground beef, add entirety of hot chili seasoning packet.  This may look very thick.  If this is the case, add a couple tablespoons of water.  You won’t need much more than that to even it out.  While beef si browning, cut steaks into strips (going along grain) and then cross cut into small pieces.  Set all meat aside.

Drain liquid out of both cans of beans and tomatoes.  Dump into crock pot.  Add can of condensed soup.  Dice up your green pepper and set aside.  At this point, you’ll want to add your spices into the crock pot.  We don’t really like measuring things exactly, so we guestimated to an extent, but fairly accurately.  That’s what makes cooking fun!  Give the beans, tomatoes, and spices a stir, then add your meat and stir again.  If your chili looks really thick, add some water.  We filled the condensed soup can and added that, but felt it was a bit too much.  Add the green pepper at this point, but only a little at a time, stirring in between.  Green pepper is a strong flavor, and adding too much can throw off the chaotic balance.  We used a large green pepper, and only about half of it went in.

Throw your crock pot on, and let it sit!  We made a cornbread to accompany the dish, which turned out fantastic.  We used a Penguin brand bagged corn bread, just add oil, milk, and egg.  Not bad for pre-packaged!

INGREDIENTS:
* 1-1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
* 1/2 cup butter, softened (one stick)
* 1 tsp. paprika
* 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
* 1 loaf crusty french bread, cut into 3/4″ slices

PREPARATION:

In a small bowl, combine butter, paprika and garlic powder and mix well. Spread this mixture between bread slices. Sprinkle cheese liberally on each slice.  Reform bread slices into a loaf shape and wrap bread in heavy duty aluminum foil, tightly sealing tops and sides.

Place bread on grill opposite coals and grill for 15-20 minutes, turning after 8 minutes, until cheese is melted and bread is heated.

For oven preparation, heat oven to 400 degrees and bake bread for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

DREW’S TIP:

Keep the bread slices in the same order as you cut and butter them.  Lay the foil before you start sprinkling the cheese.  Stacking the bread can be tricky, so you may want to have a friend help you as you stack the bread vertically, sprinkling cheese between the slices as you go.  After that, it is pretty easy to just set it down on the foil, wrap, and grill.