Chocolate Gravy

 Have you ever had chocolate gravy? Its like chocolate pudding without the eggs, in fact the leftovers can be eaten like pudding after being refridgerated. Growing up I didnt know that a lot of people never tried it or ate it on a regular basis. I was always kinda shocked when people said it sounded gross, I awlays say dont knock it until you try it. Even if it doesnt sound to appealing to you it is to kids. My boys love it.
 I wasnt always able to make gravy, I watched my Grema make it and she showed me an easy trick.  Heat the milk with the fat in the pan, then wisk in the dry ingredients and keep stirring until it gets thick. I consider this a family recipe, something that we all make and like. Whats your family recipe?

Chocolate Gravy
This is my Grema's version of the recipe
A heapin coffee cup of sugar (1 cup)
2 heapin tbsp coco powder (I use hersheys)
2 heapin tbsp flour
Fat (usually the grease of the meat your cooking, bacon, sausage, etc.)
Butter
Vanilla
Milk
Mix the first 3 ingredients in a bowl until it looks like sand, yes it will look like it. In your pan you just cooked the meat in drain all but about 2 tbsp of the grease, try to keep the small chunks in there too. Pour the milk in and let it heat up, wisk in the dry ingredients and stir until thick. When you get it thick enough turn the heat off and add a couple tbsp of butter and a few tsp of vanilla and stir. Be sure and save the leftovers for later and try not to worry about how unhealthy this sounds, just dont eat it every day.

Oatmeal chocolate chip, raisin cookies

These cookies are a new favorite of ours, I make them about once a week. I found the original recipe here http://buddingbaketress.blogspot.com/2011/07/chewy-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies.html but of course I tweaked it a bit. I hope you like it, they go great with coffee.

Oatmeal chocolate chip and raisin cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) + 6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tsp flax seed, ground
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup raisins
Cream the butter and sugars together. Add eggs one at a time mixing well with each addition. Add vanilla. In a seperate bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt,flax seed, and cinnamon. Add to wet ingredients mixing well each time. Fold in the oats and choclate chips and raisins. Bake on greased baking sheets for 9 ish minutes at 350 degrees. They will still look under done but will be done, if that makes sense. If they cook too long they will be hard.
Edited to add:
I just made these with half whole wheat flour and half white, I also used dried plums instead of raisins. Im betting most dried fruits would be awesome in these. It took a tiny bit linger to cook, but tastes delicious.

Tiny pies and cholcolate spoons

For those of you who still have last minute Christmas shopping to do or baking, I have some ideas. Yesterday I realized I had another Christmas party to go to and no gift to bring for the gift exchange. So I loaded up the kids and headed to the dollar store, picked up some coffee cups, marshmallows, plastic spoons and wax paper. The gift exchange is for gifts under $5 the cups were only a dollar each. I already had some supplies on hand at home like, chocolate chips, m &m's, celophane bags, pepermint candies and hot chocolate. To make the spoons you take the chocolate chips and melt them in the microwave, it doesnt take long. Dip the spoon in the chocolate so the part you eat off of is covered. You can either leave it plain or dip it in assorted toppings.

 My boys loved to crush the candies with the hammer and they also loved to decorate the spoons. When you get your toppings on, place the spoons on the wax paper so they can dry. When dry I put mine in a ziploc bag and put them in the fridge. I put the celophane bag in the coffe cup and then placed two packages of hot chocolate in it and added small cookies, two spoons and some candies for the kid cups. Here's the finished product, looks like a good gift to me and the leftover spoons are awesome in my coffee this morning. On the left is the kids cup and the right is the adult cup.


Tiny pies
I have lots of jam and jelly left so this is a good way to use up your canned goods. You can either make or buy pie crusts, I chose to buy this time because Im in a time crunch. Lay the dough out on a lightly floured surface and using a circle cookie cutter (biscuit cutter or coffee up), cut out lots of circles, place a 1/4 tsp or so of jam or jelly in the center and some butter (because who doesnt like butter?)


Fold the circle in half and with a fork press the edges together, make tiny holes in the top too. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake until lightly browned on top. I think I have my oven on 375 to 400. Cool on rack and enjoy! These are messy to make if you are like me and insist on putting too much jelly in the pies. I used blackberry jelly and apple preserves, I wanted to use pear honey but I found out that it is too runny and squishes out the sides easily.