Moose's chocolate cake (with mashed potatoes)

 Mashed potato chocolate cake:

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup leftover mashed potatoes

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups flour

½ cup cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Prepare a 9x13 Pyrex by spraying it with oil.  In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in eggs, potatoes, and vanilla.  In another bowl combine dry ingredients.  Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet mix, then add half the milk. Beat on high in a beater mixer. Repeat and beat on high for about 40 seconds until the batter is well mixed. (This will be a thick batter.)  Pour into the prepared cake pan.  Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes. Once cool, frost with your choice of frosting.

Aunt Sherry's Plum Pie

  I use 4 cups of plums, and about 3/4 cup of sugar if the plums are tart, 1/3 c flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp salt. Add 2 Tbsp lemon juice and 2 Tbsp butter dotted on top. Bake at 425 for around 35 minutes covering edges.

Pie crust from Mom

Christmas Eve hot chocolate

Christmas Eve hot chocolate 

1 gallon whole milk
1 pint half and half
Hershey's Dark Chocolate syrup

Stir together until your desired chocolate level. Heat on low in slow cooker for 3-4 hours. Serve with marshmallows, whipped cream and sprinkles.

Maple Bars

Makes 8 bars.

Ingredients:
1 tube of Pillsbury refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough
2 cups vegetable oil (for frying)

Icing:
1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon mapleine or maple extract (found in the spice aisle of the grocery store, near the vanilla extract.
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:
First, get started on your icing.  Melt butter, brown sugar, and milk together in a saucepan over medium high heat, and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, turn heat down to low and stir constantly over heat for 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 15 minutes.

In a frying pan, heat about 1 inch of vegetable oil over medium high heat.  Open your biscuit dough, and stretch each one out into the shape of a maple bar.  Be gentle, they will rip if you aren’t.

You will know your oil is ready when you place a test piece of dough into it and it bubbles all around it and floats to the top of the oil.

When that happens, remove the test piece and place a few bars at a time into the oil.

Cook each side until golden brown, no more than a minute or two.  Then flip over and cook the other side, then lay on a paper towel.

Now, finish your icing.  Add powdered sugar, salt, and mapleine to the cooling butter/sugar/milk mixture and mix until smooth.

Dip the top of each cooled maple bar into the icing, and place back on the rack for a couple of minutes.

Then, enjoy!

Source:  http://rumblytumbly.com/2013/10/02/homemade-maple-bars-using-refrigerated-biscuit-dough/