Chocolate Torte

This is a dessert that has always been made for family gatherings or camping. I'm not sure where the recipe originally came from, I just always remember my mom having it. When I was little I used to like to take a piece and mix it all up in my bowl and eat it that way :)

When you go to buy the ingredients, make sure you get instant pudding. I don't know how, but I've managed to get the pudding you have to cook, not once, but twice!

Crust
1 & 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Mix all ingredients together and press in to bottom of 9 x 13 pan.
• Bake for 15 minutes and let cool.

Topping

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

12 oz cool whip

2 small packages chocolate instant pudding

3 cups milk

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

• Blend cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 1 cup cool whip. Spread over cooled crust.
• Mix pudding and milk until soft set. Spread over cream cheese mixture.
• Cover with remaining cool whip and sprinkle with walnuts.

Banana Bars

An old neighbor gave me this recipe. It is an absolutely fantastic recipe. When my husband saw I was making it for the trip, his response was "Yeah, but what is everyone else going to eat?!" Haha :) It is always a favorite wherever we take it!

In my picture you'll notice I made it in a 10 x 14 pan. I did this because my oven isn't big enough to fit the pan called for in the recipe. It works both ways, so make whatever you prefer. The larger pan makes them pretty thin, but also means it makes "more" bars.

Bars
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 & 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 medium sized ripe bananas

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix together the butter and sugar until creamy.
• Add eggs, sour cream, and vanilla and blend.
• Add flour, baking soda, and salt and blend.
• Blend in mashed bananas.
• Pour in to greased 10 x 15 x 1 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter

2 tsp vanilla

3 & 1/2 - 4 cups powdered sugar

• Blend all ingredients together adding powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.
• Top cooled cake and refrigerate.

Macaroni Salad

My mom has made this side dish for a few BBQs or family gatherings. It is fantastic, so for a recent trip I had to get the recipe from her. It was in one of her cookbooks, a church potluck collection.

Note that this recipe is HUGE! I halved it and still filled that bowl in my picture. Unless you literally need to feed an army, I would suggest always halving it. I will leave the recipe it's original size because it leaves some of the numbers a little more round.

The one thing I found difficult was actually finding the pimientos. I wasn't sure exactly what they were, let alone where in the store to find them. I knew they had something to do with olives (turns out they are the red things stuffed in green olives). In our local store I found them on the same area as the canned olives and peppers in a short little jar. Also, I purchased the ham already cooked and diced in the meat section of the grocery store.

2 lbs uncooked elbow macaroni
12 hard cooked eggs, chopped
2.5 lbs cubed fulled cooked ham
16 oz frozen peas, thawed
3 cups sliced celery
1 large green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
4 oz diced pimientos, drained
4 cups mayonnaise

• Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain and rinse in cold water.
• Place in large bowl and stir in remaining ingredients.
• Cover and refrigerate for at least three hours.

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

I made these cookies for a bachelorette party a couple of weeks ago. You can see the recipe for the cookies and the poured icing here: Sugar Cookies with Poured Icing

Because I wanted them to be a little more decorated, I had to find a good icing for piping. I had never piped icing before so I looked up a few recipes online and kind of made up my own. I wanted an icing with some flavor in it, but I couldn't find any that used meringue powder, which is what I had. So I used this base recipe and replaced some of the water with some vanilla extract.

3 Tbsp meringue powder
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
6 Tbsp water (replace some with vanilla, lemon, or other extract for flavoring)

• Beat all ingredients together on low for 7-10 minutes or until low peaks form.
• Keep frosting covered with a wet towel as it dries out very quickly!

The pink frosting is the poured frosting and the grey is the royal. I piped the edge grey, poured the pink in, and then did the decorating after the top of the pink had set up a little bit.

If you can't tell, they're booty shorts and bras :)