Pizza's On

This week in baking is a good one... Buffalo Chicken Pizza.

I gave up fast food for Lent. You may or may not know the kind of soft-spot I have for fast food, I love it all and although I know it is terrible I just love the wonderful cheesiness of it. But since I am not eating it for 40 days I decided to whip something up with some "fast-food" flavors but it is homemade and about 1,000,000 times healthier. This is a spicy one (beware Jessica T... you will hate this) but it is super easy to make.

 I purchased pre-made dough from Walmart, (I love their pre-made dough, worth picking up) and rolled it out on a pizza pan and sprinkled half a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning on the rolled out dough.

Once the dough is ready I spread some buffalo sauce in the middle of the dough and spread it all over what will become the yummy crust.

To add the toppings, I precooked some chicken with buffalo seasoning mix and chopped up the chicken into bite-sized pieces. I spread mozzarella cheese, the precooked chicken, green peppers, and red onions on top, I sprinkled the other half of the ranch seasoning on top of the whole pizza and I popped the whole thing in the oven for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

I like to top my pizza with a little bit of ranch dressing and the whole dinner is super yummy.

Last week I forgot to use the NOW BAKE THIS pictures so this week... so here it is coming at ya...

Connie Boss is AMAZING

I have blogged about my time at Camp Overlook a couple of times, but this one is special. I started attending camp as a child so young I have no idea how old I was. But I kept coming back, and when I turned 15 I was finally old enough to work a full summer... I kept coming back I worked at camp every summer until the summer after I graduated college (I turned 22 the next month). During my years there I met so many people that changed my life while working there I can't list them all in one blog, (We will have to save that for another day)

Connie and Patrick with their kids in 2003

But one of my favorites is Connie Boss. There are lots of things that are awesome about Connie, she is a good friend and has been for many years. Connie spent 1 summer at camp and we all had a blast enjoying her company. Patrick got the opportunity to spend a week with her and they had one of their best weeks of the summer. Connie and I spent hours talking and enjoying each other's company.

Connie surprised us all when she said that she was going to be able to FLY to the USA to join us for our wedding in 2005 and she brought me the mot beautiful album that I still look at often.  Patrick and I have friends all over the world but Connie Boss is one of my favorite people on the planet even if she is all the way in Switzerland.

But the real reason for this specific blog post is Patrick and I just received a unbelievable package from Connie for the holidays.. (it really takes a long time to get things around the globe so it showed up late, but who cares, she is amazing)... and I wanted to send a big blog thank you across the globe to Connie.

Connie we love you so much and one day I know we will get over to your neck of the woods to visit (and maybe we can swing through Denmark and Germany on the way to visit some other European loves too)

Break-Out-The-Defib-Cake

I need to first explain that while it appears my blog is turning into a "food blog" I will be addressing that and posting about other "non food related things" quite soon.... on with the post

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

My dear husband, after a bit of barginning has agreed to buy me a pricey ticket to see PAULA DEAN this fall for my birthday and I for one could not be more excited!!!!!

So in honor of Mrs D I whipped up one of her recipes for my hubby that I saw on Food Network this weekend.... PEANUT-BUTTER VOLCANO CAKE

 Step 1 was get everything prepped.... preheated oven to 350 and chop up several cups of peanut butter cups... (are you excited yet?).. then I greased a pan and lined the bottom with roasted peanuts.

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 Next up mixed plain white cake mix with 3 cups milk and blended until it was thick and add the peanut butter cups... pour the whole beautiful concoction over the peanuts.

 In another bowl mix 1 stick of butter with 1 package of cream cheese and half a cup of peanut butter and half a cup of confectioners sugar. and spead dollops of the cream cheese mix around the top of the cake batter.... THIS IS NOT HEALTHY AT ALL!!!!!! Then you pop the whole thing in the oven for 50 minutes

 While it was baking I had to lick the spoon... all this sugar was too tempting... Even little Flower-Power got it on the spoon-licking action.

 The finished product out of the oven... smelled too yummy. While it was cooking I made a glaze out of another WHOLE stick of butter, milk, cocoa powder, and vanilla.
 

 This is an action pic of Pat pouring it on the cake... and this is what the whole completed cake looked like.

This was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten... and you can find the recipe on the Food TV website.... It comes highly recommended.

Make Mine Corn Cakes

Seriously thought I posted this yesterday.... but I didn't... here you go anyway ENJOY!!!

Well, I am not going to lie to you, you faithful readers should be glad you are getting much of anything out of me today. This week has been straight CRAZY! Between work, various house issues, making a quick trip to Pittsburgh and back, Super Bowl shinangians, and running a training at my job this week I barely got a chance to cook anything. But here goes nothing.

Confession first, I kinda cheated but I still baked it and I make my corn muffins alot more interesting then they would have normally been.

Corn-bread muffins.... with spice

• I don't know anything about making corn muffins so I bought a premade mix and followed the directions to mix... I made 8 normal nothing fancy muffins.
• Next batch I got a little fancy and I mixed in some bacon and cheese... topped each muffin with some extra cheese and popped those babies in the oven.
• Batch 3: I got a little spicy and chopped up some jalapeno pepper bits and tossed it into the batter and baked it up.

They were all totally delicous and super yummy with our super bowl chili!!!!!

PS--- We were Team Beyonce and we definately did not lose