Day Two

As I pulled up to the car next to me at a red light today, the man sitting in the passenger seat had the largest cup of Starbucks coffee I had ever seen. Readers, do you know what happen then? I was able to actually smell to coffee. The aroma was in my nose, a buttery caramel deliciousness, and just as sweat was beginning to drip from my brow with the anticipation of driving as fast as I could to the closest Starbucks... I realized I just picked up two pounds of coffee, and the smell was from my backseat. Crisis Averted!

I can feel a type of change in the wind when I go to target and instead of blowing my Target card (from my wonderful aunt & uncle) on their cute clothes or blowing all of it on the kid stuff (I did still get myself a Henley and the kid a couple packs of Gogos), readers, I bought food. What I assume to be Target's brand, Archer Farms, is pretty decent, though for me kinda on the high priced side. I picked up the above coffee bags, Cinnamon Vanilla Nut and Toasted Caramel (my tastes in coffee make it apparent that I want it to taste more like a candy store than actual coffee), a bag of chips that were Parmesan Garlic kettle cooked (which my house guests and I devoured all last night during an intense late night game of Balderdash), and two side items. These side item are Mushroom Gnocchi and Porcini Mushroom Mac n' Cheese (people, there are even whole wheat noodle, though I did not know that when I bought them). I am not trying to be Julia Child or Julie Powell, but I do think I should try to make at least one side with each meal and I struggle with it not being blue box Mac n' Cheese every time. I don't want to attempt each night for 3-4 "made from scratch" creations. I want possibly one and then super instant sides or whatever is left. What do you guys do that easy & I can not botch up?

As you may have read, I had my first dinner party last night where I did all the cooking (okay, not really, my beautiful friend made an insane garlic butter paste for garlic bread she prepared as if it were making a bowl of cereal). I prepared lasagna ( I stuck it in the over, it was a massive party size Stoffer's), prepared a salad (which meant cutting up 2 tomatoes, as I bought the bag of salad), and then I made a pie!!! I made it, I just kept saying to myself and my guests, I wish Michelle could see this. My pie even looked pretty (pictures to come). And... while they are all my friends, the guests seemed to really like it. I have enclosed the recipe below, I had caramel sauce leftover, so I did not make my own, and I only had to go to the grocery store twice, even though I was pretty sure I owned all the ingredients for the pie. I have on work on pantry stocking, big time!

Funny story from last nights venture cooking. I was opening the Stoffer's box and reading the directions. Directions are where I get lost in cooking. If I lived at Hogwart's I would be thrown out of every potions class conducted. I have lived in my county for 7 years and if you give me street directions, I will never even make it across town. Back to the box, the very first instruction is about tearing the perforated strip and removing something, and I spend a solid 5 minutes trying to find the perforated strip on my metal lasagna container. I have to ask my hubs to come in and help. There are many things that have been lately adding intricately detailed descriptions of use, light bulbs, batteries, tampons, just to name a few. The strip was on the outside of the box. The first step of simply to remove the lasagna from the box (which I had already done, and from the non-strip side of the box, hence my dilemma of locating it). Baby Steps, Katherine, baby steps.

Fudgy Brownie Pie w/ Caramel Sauce
Crust
1 refrigerated pie crust (from 15-oz box), softened as directed on box

Filling
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks (from 11.5- or 12-oz bag)
1 cup chopped pecans
Sauce
1 bag (14 oz) caramels, unwrapped
2/3 cup half-and-half

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Place pie crust in 9-inch glass pie plate as directed on box for One-Crust Filled Pie.
2. In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat; remove from heat. Stir in sugar, vanilla and eggs until well blended. Stir in flour, cocoa and salt until smooth. Stir in chocolate chunks and pecans. Spread evenly in pie crust.
3. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until set. Cool 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile, in 2-quart saucepan, heat caramels and half-and-half over low heat, stirring constantly, until caramels are melted and mixture is smooth. Serve hot caramel sauce over each serving.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Bake 50 to 55 minutes.