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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Hershey Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

I was on Pinterest, like I am almost every evening on my iPhone with DH deployed, and I came across this wonderful recipe. Holy cow!! I was in love with the picture and so naturally since its chocolate and I am a woman after all, I had to give this a try. Hats off to Doughmesstic for posting this yummy, rich recipe! Her blog is amazing so please check it out. She has tons of awesome recipes.

Well here we go.

What you need:
10 Tablespoons of Butter (the real stuff please)
3  ozs of Hershey's milk chocolate chips
1 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla
3/4 cup all purpose flour (NOT SELF RISING)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of unsweetened Hershey's cocoa powder

For the Cream Cheese Swirl
8 ozs of cream cheese softened (please use real cream cheese..this is already so fattening, there is no point cutting back calories with this and it will ruin the texture)
1/3 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
1 large egg
2 tablespoons of vanilla

For the top after it is baked you will need full size Hershey bars to top it with. I used almost 7 full bars

What to do:
Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper long enough to hang over all sides for easy removal. Spray the paper with cooking spray.

In a small saucepan or in the microwave, which is what I did, melt the chocolate and butter over medium heat until melted and stir until smooth. Let cool slightly.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla with the sugar until well mixed and slowly add in the chocolate mixture until well combined.

In small bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, and salt and add to the rest of the batter. Mix together just until combined. DO NOT OVERMIX. and pour batter into prepared baking pan spreading it evenly across the pan.

For the cream cheese mixture, beat the ingredients until smooth ( I mixed this in the same bowl I mixed my brownie batter in.) Pour over brownie batter and spread evenly across. Use a knife to swirl together.

Okay so this is where I differ from her, She says to cook one hour to one hour and 10 minutes. I only had to bake mine about 40 minutes before it was done. You need to be able to stick a toothpick in and it come out clean.

Take out of the oven and turn oven off. Top with hershey chocolate bars and return to an already turned off oven until slightly melted.

Allow to cool, IF you can wait that long. ;) Serve with ice cream or milk, but please enjoy!

This is what it looks like pulled out of the pan with the chocolate bars slightly melted and before it was even cut. As you can see. I covered the surface in Hershey bars :)
This is completely cooled! The chocolate is still soft and it is so yummy!




These brownies were so dang good!! I am mean for real. They were rich! So warning, you will need milk.
I hope you enjoy these as much as my girls did. Have a great rest of the week.








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Monday, September 3, 2012

The Deployment Blues

"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord they God is with thee withersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:9
One thing I LOVE about my blog is, I can pretty much "vent" and not get people's panties in a wad like you do if you post on Facebook. I am trying to be more cautious what I do post on Facebook as far as that goes. MOST of what I say is a general statement, but some people take it to heart. Anyway, enough about Facebook. MOST if not all military wives who have been through deployments, and its hard finding one nowadays that hasn't, will tell you that you have your really good days and your really bad days. Your really good days are really good, good mood, all smiles, feel good about everything, feel like you got this. Then you have your bad days which for me are few, but nonetheless there. Those days, I HATE! You feel helpless, like you have been abandoned, lonely, and depressed sad. It is those days when I kind word from your husband or best friend goes a long way.

I will say this. I AM NOT one of those wives that need to be "babysat" while hubby is gone. I am 34 years old with 2 girls. HOWEVER, not everyone deals with things the same way. I had someone say on facebook a while back that people needed to put their big girl panties on and quit "whining" when you don't hear from your husband or quit "bitching", hey that is a quote, because you have to cut your own grass. Let me tell you something. If I wanna "whine" as they put it to a good friend then that is what I am gonna do. End of story. Am I gonna expect someone to do things for me? HECK NO. But what people, me included, need to realize is, not everyone deals with things the same way you do. Ya know? And you don't always know what else that person has had to deal with on top of the deployment.. Now, I know there is a difference between acting like a big baby and venting. I KNOW that. Now that person that posted that was making a reference to several different people as she put it. But from experience, and I am still learning this, you don't need to be dogging other people on Facebook or twitter or anywhere else. If you have something to say to them you need to say it to their face or in a PM. They way I deal with stress is to let it all out. I need to tell someone! I feel better afterwards.

Now as you may have noticed, this is a down day for me. I am not looking for pitty, honestly I'm not. It just helps to get it out. Again, that is how I deal with it.

I hate that my husband is thousands of miles away in a combat zone. I wish I could just go to him and get a big hug, but I can't right now. I hate it. but I know I can deal with it. I know after a good cry and a good conversation with my husband I am better in the end. I know God does not give us more than we can handle and I love and respect my husband for what he is doing. He is doing his part to keep me and his girls safe.

Tomorrow is another day and honestly without, God, family, and my close friends (in that order) I couldn't do this.

I hope everyone has a very safe and happy Labor Day. Enjoy your families and thank a man or woman in uniform today if you see one.

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