William’s Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is based on a family recipe that I modified when I was about 16. It's one of my favorites...

1.5 cups brown sugar (packed)

.5 cups white sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1tsp baking soda

.5 tsp baking powder

2 cups quick oats

2 cup chocolate chips

NOTE: You can substitute other ingredients for chocolate chips, I personally like 2/3 of a cup of caramel bits, 2/3 of a cup of chopped cashews, and 2/3 of a cup of chocolate chips. (I call these Bear Claw Cookies)

Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla and eggs, stir well.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder.

Slowly mix sifted ingredients into batter.

Next slowly mix in quick oats.

Finally add the chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

Use a spoon or cookie scoop and place large spoonfuls on the sheet, spaced about .5-1 inch apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes (I’ve found 9 minutes to be the best time but this may vary from oven to oven.)

After removing from oven let them sit 2-4 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing them.

Best served with milk.

Cake Truffles

Level of Ease 3.5/5
Cake Truffles are a confectionery delight that consist of what is essentially cake, surrounded by a chocolate shell.
I discovered first discovered these at a cake shop in the Town of Mears, Michigan. They offered many different varieties, like Carrot Cake, German Chocolate, Marble and Lemon. After trying many of these little bits of awesome I decided to find a recipe and make my own.

Needed Items:
The makings of one cake, your choice of flavor. (You can use a box mix, but I don't)
2 1/2 - 3 cups of thinnish icing/frosting. (Once again you can use store bought, but I don't. I use about 2-3 tablespoons of butter, then I add powdered sugar and milk till I get the desired consistency and amount, if you're making chocolate mix coco powder in with the powdered sugar, tasting often to make sure it tastes chocolaty and not to bitter, or not chocolaty enough.)
1.5-2 pounds of melting/bakers chocolate. The type will depend upon what type of cake you make, I have made lemon and chocolate truffles and found that with lemon a milk chocolate works very well and brings out the lemony flavor of the cake, where as with chocolate cake a semi-sweet chocolate works best because it is not to sweet and balances very well, if you do another flavor cake and don't know or can't figure out what to use ask me and I'll try to come up with an answer.
1 metal spatula.
1 large mixing bowl.
1-3 Baking sheets lined with wax paper.
A silicone or rubber spatula.
Plastic Wrap
A decent amount of space in your refrigerator.
A double boiler.
Toothpicks

Instructions:
1)Bake the cake according to directions, except put it in a large rectangular pan, even if it is a bunt cake, just make sure to check the doneness of it.
2)While the cake is in the oven, prep your icing.
3) Once the cake is out of the over set it on the counter and let sit for 5 minutes.
4) Take the metal spatula and stab the cake like a psycho, chopping it up into small pieces/crumbs.
5) Add a portion of the cake pieces/crumbs to the bowl and put some of the icing on top. Stir it up with the silicon or rubber spatula, it should look like a fairly uniform mass. repeat until all crumbs are gone
6) Take a portion of the mixture in your hands and roll it into a ball of the desired size, then place it on the wax paper covered sheets. At this point you can place them fairly close together.
7) Cover well with plastic wrap and put in the fridge. (Make sure the plastic is on there good you don't want them drying out.
8) Leave them in the fridge for several hours, I've gone almost 24 before. I wouldn't go less than 4, you want them very cool for the next part.
9) Using the double boiler melt the chocolate. (I've found this goes better if you do it on an as needed basis.)
10) Prep another baking sheet with wax paper.
11) Drop one or two balls in the chocolate, roll them around with a toothpick until they are good and covered, remove by stabbing with the toothpick and place on the baking sheet. (Hint use another toothpick to remove from the stabbed one.)
12)Repeat until all are done. Then place in fridge for the chocolate to set, this will take at least 1 hr.
13) Enjoy
These will keep better in the fridge as the chocolate will stay a little firmer, although you can put them in a cookie tin and put wax paper in between the layers and it will keep fine.

Buffalo Mountain Grill

When I started this Blog I decided to do more than just give out recipes, see I love to eat out as well.
One of my favorite places is the Buffalo Mountain Grill, a wonderful little bar and grill located in Oak Ridge, TN. What makes this place so special is their burgers. In addition to their traditional hamburger they offer an excellent selection of wild game burgers, Buffalo, Boar, Elk, and Ostrich, as well as their super lean organic Piedmont Beef Burger (I mean super lean, only 3% fat, usually you get about 20% fat with traditional beef). The only burger meats I haven't tried are the Piedmont ond Ostrich. On top of that you can get these burgers with an astonishing array of toppings, BBQ, Bacon and Cheddar, being my favorite, although the Southwest Burger is good to. If you like mushrooms and bleu cheese you might try the Mushroom and Bleu burger, or for 'shrooms and sauteed onions try the Saute Burger.
Of course, there is no reason not to start you meal with some Fried Pepper Jack Cheese Cubes served with a side of marinara. The delicious little morsels of cheese lava have just enough kick to them to make you feel all happy in your mouth.
If you don't feel like having a burger they do have a large selection of other sandwiches and salads and other dishes that look very good, and my sister has assured me the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich is delicious, but I am more of a burger person myself.
They have a nice little bar area where you can sit and watch sports, or the news, as well as eat your food. While I am a non-drinker I do sit in the bar to watch ESPN or the news while eating, and have noticed that they seem to have a fairly good selection of alcohol, including Fat Tire's 1554 as well as many others on tap.
While not exactly cheap I feel you get your money's worth at Buffalo Mountain Grill, as I have never left hungry.

I give it a 4/5

Fudge Brownies

Level of ease 2.5/5

Preheat oven to 300 f
1 cup Butter
2 Cups Sugar
4 Eggs
3 teaspoons Vanilla
1 cup Flour
1/3 cups Cocoa powder
1 bag mini marshmallows
Chocolate Icing (homemade is best but canned works too)


Cream softened butter with sugar, stir in eggs and vanilla, sift together flour and cocoa powder, add the cocoa/flour in to the mix incrementally. (the longer you beat this stuff the better it gets, as it bakes, if you beat it long enough (15 to 30 minutes) it develops a very nice crust on top.
Pour into 9x7 baking dish bake for 55 min.
Remove from oven, cover with mini marshmallows.
Bake for 5 more min.
Remove from oven, let sit for 5 min.
Cover with chocolate icing.
Serve with Chocolate or Vanilla Ice-Cream.