Simple Caramel Stuffed Brownies

I adapted this recipe from Annie's Eats to make it simple and used pre-made brownie mix I already had.

Ingredients-

Brownie mix & all eggs and oil the mix requires (Check out Annie's Eats if you want a full homemade version)

For the caramel filling:
14 oz. caramel candies, unwrapped
1/3 cup heavy cream (I used a low fat milk, butter and flour substitute)

Baking Dish

 Start by mixing your brownie batter in a bowl. Pour half of your brownies in your greased pan and bake for 20 mins at 350 degrees. Don't overfill your pan, it will expand.

Take your brownies out of the oven and cool for 20 mins while maintaining oven temperature. In the mean time start making your caramel mixture. I got these caramel candies, but it was annoying to take off the wrappers, so the little caramel chips would have been easier. Melt them in a pan on low/med heat, stirring often. Mix in your heavy cream (I used this heavy cream substitute since I didn't have any on hand.) I just eye balled it and it tasted just fine.

Once your caramel is smooth immediately pour over your cooked brownie mixture.

Pour your remaining brownie batter over your caramel, trying to spread evening as you are pouring. As I mentioned before, I used too much batter for the bottom and was running out towards the top. I did the best spreading I could and it turned out great. You can also top with nuts or chocolate chips.

Bake for another 20-25mins or until batter isn't so gooey.

Look how yummy this looks!

It was one of the best brownies I've ever had, so chocolatey and carmely. Enjoy!

Packages in the Mail

Yesterday I got home from work early because I went to my regular doctor about my throat issue. He didn't have exact insight as to why I have uvulitis (that's what he called it.) He gave me more steroids for swelling and an antibiotics in case the steroids make it worse, which would mean it was bacterial. It still looks the same today. Anyways, I got home a bit early yesterday and was able to get the mail and box from the postman and then the UPS guy came and brought me another huge box. It was quite fun and exciting.

Look at what was inside!! Our new Margaritaville Margarita Machine from the CheapCaribbean.com contest I won on Cinco De Mayo!

It's just as awesome as I would have pictured it. I can't wait to use it!

It came with some extra goodies like coasters, shot glass and a salt rim dipper. Now we just need to find a nice place to store it.

Look at this BEAUTIFUL wreath that my friend, Jen, made for me and sent from CO. I've been working on a special order from work for a few of her upcoming events and she was so sweet and made this for me!

I love EVERYTHING about it. The W, the berries, and the fabric flower colors! She is a talented crafter. I'm pretty sure my sister is eying mine, Jen, so you better get you an etsy shop or she'll steal mine when she comes to visit.

Weekend Urgent Care Visit

Well I had an interesting weekend. On Friday I woke up with a small pain in my throat when I swallowed. I took some advil and just went about my day just noticing it hurt a bit. When I woke up at 4am on Saturday to let the dogs out I was in a lot of pain. I took a flashlight and looked in the mirror to see if I could see any issue in my throat. Well, I discovered that my Uvula (the hanging thing in the middle of your mouth/throat) was enlarged, curved like an L and it was TOUCHING my tongue. It felt like I had a lump in my throat. I started to freak out and of course started googling. Apparently its more common than I thought, but no one could pin point what was causing it. I waited for the urgent care place down the road to open at 9am and off I went. They were basically no help. The doctor just kept saying I don't know. I said "what can cause this?" and he said I don't know. He asked if I ate anything different, which I didn't and just said he didn't know. He gave me a steroid shot and told me to take benadryl. His last words were, "If it feels like your throat is closing up, go to the emergency room." Thanks Doctor. I also had a bit of pink eye that I woke up with (not sure if its related, sometimes if the dog sleeps too close to my head I wake up with a really red eye) so I got a prescription for that as well. I took a picture of this and some family members have seen it, but its prob. not appropriate for blog world. You can google it I'm sure. It's feeling normal to swallow now, but its still doing it so I made an appointment with  my regular doctor for this afternoon. If anyone has any insight, let me know.

I am dog sitting a little Yorkie named Cocoa for the week. She is a co-workers little one and she is adorable. 

 Cocoa and Molly are enjoying playing together.

Isn't she cute! She is just as spunky as my sister's yorkie, Maddie. Cocoa has mastered the dog door so that has been fantastic! I'll keep you posted on my medical issue.

More Friends & a Vacation Decision!

 

Last night I had Erin over for dinner. Erin is a good friend and regular blog reader, HI ERIN!! I haven't seen her in a few months and I learned that she was working at the high school right down the road from my house. She is a sign language interpreter for a HS student. I had a lot of fun just catching up and eating dinner. I made Chicken Alfredo Pasta Bake that she loved and even took some home. She was talking to me about upcoming trips and she was wondering if we had decided on the big trip we polled everyone on. Well, we have decided and some planning is under way. We decided to go to.... Drum roll please............... 

ITALY!

We won't be going until beginning of November due to David's work schedule, but the money saving is under way. I hope to book the trip by the end of June so I will be keeping you posted on the itinerary. We got some brown packing paper from home depot that we're going to line the craft room with and lay out maps, pictures of things we want to see, hotels etc. I am a huge planner so this is going to be fun for me. Any recommendations are welcome!

Pizza Night & Guest Recipe Share- Eclair Cake

On Saturday night we had Matt, Kerry and their kids Morgan and Thomas over for make your own pizza night! Kerry also brought the most amazing eclair cake over for dessert (check out the recipe below.)

I made the dough before hand so it was well risen and ready to go (I wish I would have taken a picture, it was huge.) Matt and Morgan making their own personal pizzas.

 We cooked some in the oven and some on the grill to have them all ready at the same time.

 David was showing Matt his timer watering sprinkler system for the garden. They were looking at it and then it all the sudden turned on and they got wet (if they would have looked at the time, they would have known it was coming.)

 Kerry, me and the kids. Aren't they adorable?

 Our final pizza masterpieces fresh out of the oven/grill.

 David had fun setting up the limited number of toys we keep at our house for kids to play with.

 Kerry brought the most amazing dessert and is sharing the recipe with you all! THANKS Kerry, We loved it!!
 Eclair cake

1 box graham crackers
2 boxes vanilla instant pudding
4 cups milk
1 16 oz tub whipped cream
1 jar chocolate frosting

Put 1 layer of graham crackers on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Mix pudding mix and milk and then fold in whipped cream. Pour some of the pudding mixture in a layer over the graham crackers and top with another layer of graham crackers. Continue layering, ending with graham crackers. Cook the frosting on half power for 1 minute in the microwave and pour over the top and spread evenly. Refrigerate until set (at least 2 hours)

 It reminds me of smores! You should try it really soon.

Chili Cook-Off Results are In

Last week for Cinco de Mayo we had our annual chili cook off at work. Last year I made chili and didn't fare so well, but was nominated by default to make it again this year (that's what a good team leader does.)

The voting system was the same, you take 4 poker chips and put it in the bowl by the chili you like the best. You can put all your chips in one bowl, or spread them out.

This year we had 8 chilis.

Lacey made some awesome corn bread

We also had wings brought in (not sure how that is Cinco de mayo related, but chili isn't either.)

We wanted to try them all together so we made a clock wise pattern of the chili so it was easy to remember what one went with what number.

We enjoyed eating all the yummy food. Brooke, me Christina (who is pregnant and 22 weeks, but you can't tell at all), and Lee Anne.

The competition was really tough this year, everyone did a great job.

Keisha, Lacey and Andrea

Here we are posing by our chili, oh wait, I am the only one that made one. We are all on the same team and I represented.

The results were close and I was nervous. I spent a good bit of money and time preparing it so I was ready to be recognized this year. I got 2ND PLACE!!! Wohooo. I was excited, although you only got a $ prize if you got first (who made those rules up anyway.) I think I will keep the recipe a secret so I can claim it as my own. It came from a blog I read and I already thanked that person. 1st place went to Michael in customer service and 3rd place went to Kevin in IT. I had to break up the boys, we don't have that many, but the ones we do have can cook apparently.

Skinny Girl Margaritas & a Fun Friend Friday Night

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. I wanted to wish my mom, Ginny,  a Happy Mother's Day. Miss you mom and wish you could be closer!! Happy Mothers Day to David's mom, Cora. We had a fun day celebrating yesterday. You both are the BEST moms EVER, Thanks for everything!

 

Friday night we had David and Dana over for dinner and she brought over one of my favorite drinks. The Skinny Girl Margarita.

 

For those who aren't familiar, it was created by Bethenny Frankel, former real housewife of NYC, she also has a spin off show called Bethenney gets married and so on. She is hilarious and entertaining to watch.

 This is what she says about her drink, “Everyone loves margaritas, but no one wants the guilt or the calories. That’s why I created the Skinnygirl™ Margarita. At only 100 calories for a full 4 oz. serving, all natural ingredients, no preservatives or artificial colors, lightly sweetened with agave nectar and made with premium Blue Agave clear Tequila, Skinnygirl™ is the margarita you can trust.” She's supposedly coming out with a few other skinny girl drinks (I heard rumor of sangria and cosmo.)

 Back to the gathering, I really wanted to get my armoire upstairs since I painted it last weekend. The boys thought they could do it just themselves and I honestly didn't know how heavy it was. This is the aftermath of some of the slight damage that occured during transport. I couldn't watch as they brought it upstairs. The grunting noises they made was enough for me to understand what was going on.

 Thankfully they got it up in 1 piece with a few minor dings. You can see some of the white that brushed off onto the armoire, nothing a bit of paint can't fix.

 THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH for bringing that all the way upstairs, I know it was NOT easy, I really don't know how you did it. It is massive and I am actually having a hard time figuring out where to put it in our room (and I thought our room was pretty big.) It's definitely staying upstairs though and will probably be sold with the house whenever we sell it because its WAY too heavy to ever come back down.

And if that wasn't enough physical activity for them, they decided to have a push-up contest. I'm going to say it was a tie.

I also got in on the action, but just competed solo. Check out those muscles.

 We ended the night with a fire pit fire, sorry about your closed eyes David, I normally only have to check my David's eyes to make sure he kept them open. I wish I would have had smores stuff, that's normally my rule, I don't do fires without smores because I can't stand when my clothes and hair reek of it. Yes, I realize the fire is massive, he was burning the wood from the old wagon garden and didn't cut it down (good thing we had a firefighter with us.)

 Molly also enjoyed some cuddle time with her daddy. Lola was over and was on other David's lap, but my camera didn't like the dark and wouldn't take a photo. Hope everyone had a great weekend.