Fried Nutella Won Tons

I love Giada on the Food Network! She is talented, gorgeous and loves chocolate like I do! I watch her shows frequently and she often makes fried won tons filled with Nutella. For those of you who don't know, Nutella is a chocolate hazelnut spread. It's kind of like chocolate peanut butter, but way better.

I hosted our Annual Friend Christmas Party and knew that these would be perfect to make. They were so simple, quick, easy and yummy. We dusted them with powdered sugar and served them with ice cream-so good!

Fried Nutella Won Tons (Easy I Swear)

Ingredients
16 wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten to blend
1 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella)
Vegetable oil, for frying
16 fresh mint leaves
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
Granulated sugar, for dredging
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions
Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap. Place 1 wonton wrapper on the work surface. Brush the edges of the wrapper lightly with egg. Spoon 1 tablespoon of chocolate-hazelnut spread into the center of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper diagonally in half over the filling and press the edges of the wrapper to seal. Place the ravioli on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining wonton wrappers, egg, and chocolate-hazelnut spread.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Add enough oil to a heavy large frying pan to reach a depth of 2 inches. Heat the oil over medium heat to 350 degrees F.

Working in batches, carefully add the ravioli to the hot oil and cook until they are golden brown, about 45 seconds per side. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the ravioli to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Then, transfer the cooked ravioli to another baking sheet and keep them warm in the oven while frying the remaining ravioli. (The fried ravioli can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cool them completely, then cover and refrigerate. Before serving, place them on a baking sheet and rewarm in a preheated 375 degrees F oven just until they are heated through, about 7 minutes.)

Spray the top side of the mint leaves very lightly with nonstick spray. Working with 1 leaf at a time, dredge the coated side of the leaves in sugar to coat lightly.

Arrange 2 fried ravioli on each plate. Dust the ravioli with powdered sugar. Garnish with the sugared mint leaves and serve.

PB Fudge and Xmas Oreos

For my neighbor gifts this year I chose to make Peanut Butter Fudge (my hubby also loves this so I made some for him too) and Christmas Oreos. For the Oreos I used THIS recipe, but used Red Velvet Cake and tinted the frosting green-very festive! I put the cookies and fudge in Christmas Tupperware and everyone loved them!

PB Fudge

2 sticks of butter
1 can evaporated milk
5 cups sugar
2 cups butterscotch chips
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter in saucepan. Add sugar and canned milk. Bring to a boil and boil about 15 minutes. test in cold water (get a small bowl of cold water, drizzle some of the hot mixture into if. If you can pinch it together into soft/firm ball and it stays, then you are good). remove pan from heat and add the peanut butter, salt, butterscotch chips and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into a 9X13 pan lined with wax paper. Once cook, pull the fudge out and cut into pieces.

The Perfect Sunday Roast

I love a Sunday Roast! There is nothing better than putting the roast in the crockpot, going to church and then walking back into your house and smelling the aroma that fills your entire house! And you can't beat putting everything in the crockpot and having dinner without doing any work! I have tried several recipes for roasts, but found my version the best! I had 2 friends that were talking about roasts one day and how they couldn't find a recipe they liked. One of my friends tried my roast recipe and loved it!

Sunday Roast

1 Roast (whatever size you need for your family or whatever size will fit in your crockpot)
1 bag of baby carrots
1 onion, quartered
5-6 Potatoes, cut into small pieces (or how ever many you can cram into the corners)
1 packet of Roast Seasoning (comes in a packet with a bag but I don't use the bag)
1 cup of water

Put the carrots, half of the potatoes and half of the onion pieces in your crockpot. Place the meat on top. Cram the rest of the potatoes and onions in around the roast. Mix the roast seasoning with the water and pour over the roast. Turn the crockpot on low and cook for 8 hours! You can cook it on high for 4 hours, but I really recommend that you cook it for 8 hours. It makes the meat more tender and it truly tastes better!

Sparkling Punch

I posted this recipe on my Thanksgiving Day post, but it's an amazing drink and needs to be posted again. I made this drink for my Annual Friends Christmas Party and had Melanie been able to lick the bottom of the bowl she would've!

Sparkling Punch
1/2 cup Orange Juice
1/2 cup Grapefruit Juice
1/4 cup sugar (My dad is diabetic so I will use Splenda)
2 cans Sprite Zero
2 bottles Welches Sparkling White Grape Juice Cocktail
1 orange, thinly sliced
24 grapes, frozen

Mix all liquids with Splenda, add Welches last and pour in slowly. Stir well. Add ice and grapes last.

Almost a Quitter

When I started my blog it was to keep an online journal or recipe book of my favorite recipes and recipes that I have tried. Then as I got into food blogging I saw that some people get 200 comments on their recipes. I so wanted to be one of those people but I'm just little Amber from Utah! Who would want to look at my blog? I make a few certain people look at it, but not many people leave comments and that made me want to quit my food blog. I'm sure that people look at my blog, but hardly anyone leaves a comment which makes it not worth it to me.

So last week I decided to quit the blog, that is until I got a comment from someone who wanted to use my blog in an article for a newspaper. People do look at my blog! Then I was blog hopping and I came across 2 people that blogged about my Thanksgiving Bundles. People do look at my blog! It made me feel really special! So I decided to keep my blog running, keep posting my recipes and maybe, just maybe someone will use a recipe from my blog. In exchange, please leave comments! I love them and they make it worth it!

Oh and I have tons of recipes coming. I spent all weekend making goodies and cooking!

Photos, Finally

My laptop and hubby have returned from Africa so I can now

post photos of the Caramel Cupcakes!

Caramel, Caramel, Caramel

This months Daring Bakers challenge was one of my favorites! I love sweets, cake and caramel so this cake was right up my alley! Shuna Fish Lydon's Caramel Cake was the chosen recipe and Dolores, Alex and Jenny were the hosts.

I have to say that I was nervous about making the caramel syrup,but it was very easy and so good! I used a tip that I had read about putting foil over the pan and then pouring the water in. This prevented me from getting splattered with hot caramel and worked very well. I had also read that many people thought the cake was too sweet, so I cut back on the sugar and only put in 3/4 cup of sugar and they were perfect!

I was on a local television show this month for a cooking contest and knew that I wanted to make cupcakes to bribe them and they loved them! These cupcakes were easy to make and the brown butter icing was to die for! They joked about having me back on to make the icing! I will be using that recipe on many more cupcakes! However, I did think that the cupcakes were not as light and airy as most cupcakes are, but they were still delicious!

I am at work right now and don't have my camera and my laptop is with my hubby in Africa right now. So tomorrow I will bring my camera to work and post my photos!