Chocolate Cake Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

This is for Moms Crazy Cooking Challenge for February and the challenge was "Chocolate Cake" where you use another bloggers recipe and try it out.

I chose Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies by Cookies and Cups although I was not able to find the mini Reece's peanut butter cups at my local grocery store and had to adapt using peanut butter chps.

Adapted from Cookies and Cups

1 box chocolate cake
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 pkg. peanut butter chips
Parchment baking paper

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Hand mix cake mix, oil and eggs until combined.
3. Pour in entire bag of peanut butter chips (I used a 10 oz bag)
4. Mix chips. If necessary, add 1 TBSP of water until cookie doughish.
5. Roll with your hands the dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2" apart. Cookies will spread.
6. Bake for 9-10 minutes.

 Be sure to check out all of the entries at Mom's Crazy Cooking Challenge:)

Moms Crazy Cooking Challenge

Italian Cream Cheese Herb and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

This is for  Mom's Crazy Cooking Challenge where there is a theme each month and the mission is to use a recipe by a fellow blogger, make it and post it.  This month's theme is Mashed Potatoes and I picked this recipe from What's Cookin Italian Style Cuisine.   They turned out very creamy and spicy, but recommend cutting down on the cayenne as they do have a bite after you have taken a bite.

This easily made 6-8 generous servings.

Ingredients:
5  medium white potatoes
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
4 tablespoons sour cream
3 tablespoon cream cheese or Philadelphia Italian Cooking Creme
1/2  stick butter
1/2 tsp parsley or cilantro
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp oregano or Italian seasonings
1/4 tsp basil
Dash of cayenne pepper
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk, heavy cream, half and half
Non-stick spray coating

Topping (optional)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 -3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/2 to 3/4 cup Shredded mozzarella or Italian blend cheese

Bring water to boil and add a few dashes of salt (optional).  Peel and dice the potatoes until tender over medium heat until well cooked (test with a fork) - takes between 25-30 minutes.   Drain and return to pan.

Mince garlic (I used pre-minced) and measure out spices

Measure out butter, sour cream, cream cheese and parmesan.   I had a buy one get one free coupon for the Philadelphia Cooking cream cheese so I used that in this recipe.

I didn't have a heavy industrial mixer, so I started out using a blending mixer, adding a little of the milk at a time, but ended up going old school on it and used a potato masher until smooth.

Spray a baking dish with non-stick coating and preheat oven to 375 degrees

Transfer the potatoes over to the baking dish

For the topping, in a separate bowl put the bread crumbs and butter and melt the butter (I put it in the over for a few minutes) and mix together until crumbly.

I used to fork to sprinkle the topping on the potatoes.

Sprinkle the mozzarella or Italian cheese blend over the top. 

Put in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until cheese is melted.

I served ours with a country fried steak, but What's Cookin Italian Style Cuisine indicated she serves this with ham, pork or poultry and leftovers are great to use in croquettes or topping for a Sheperd's Pie.

Be sure to check out everyone else's recipes at the challenge.Mom's Crazy Cooking Challenge