Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

I don't know why this isn't letting me list the ingredients. I type it up so there is a column of ingredients and a paragraph of instructions, but it posts in one paragraph. Any suggestions? This is an EXCELLENT go-to cake when you want to throw something together quick, easy, and DE-licious! It bakes to a moist cake on top and a hot fudge topping on the bottom. Add ice cream and WOW! Another one from my darling mother, Leslie Nebeker. Hi, mom!

1 C flour
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C and 2 tbsp cocoa, divided
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C milk
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 C nuts, chopped(optional)
1 C brown sugar
1 3/4 C hot water

Stir together flour, sugar, 2 tbsp cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Blend in milk and oil, stir in nuts. Spread in ungreased 9x9 baking pan. Stir together brown sugar and 1/4 C cocoa, sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over batter. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees or until cake bounces back when touched. Don't over cook it or there will be no fudgy topping. Serve warm with ice cream on the cake, hot fudge on the ice cream.

Go- To Side Dishes

It is taking everything in me not to start flooding this thing with my recipes! But, since our theme is "Go-To's", I figure I should represent more than just the main dish! This is SUPER simple when I'm wanting to throw fruit in the diet.

1 can fruit(15 oz)

1 cup yogurt

Drain the fruit then mix with the yogurt.

That's it. Our favorite is peaches with strawberry yogurt.

This next one is from my mom. She is AMAZING in the kitchen, but she'd never let you tell her so! This is one of the recipes I grew up on and there was NEVER enough at dinner!

Cooked Carrots

1-2 carrots per person (or 1 lb baby carrots)

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 C brown sugar

2 tbsp butter

Peel and slice carrots, boil just until soft in salted water(about 10-15 minutes). Drain water thoroughly. Add butter and brown sugar, replace lid and let sit until they melt. Stir once before serving.

April 7th

Our maiden voyage! Since many of you are looking for something that you can pull together pretty quick with ingredients that you are likely to have on hand, the first theme will be "Go-To's". Please share that one recipe(or two!) that you go to most often. That good old standby. Frozen pizza doesn't count! Here's one of mine:

Impossible Cheeseburger Pie
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped(or about a 3 tbsp dehydrated onion)
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 C bisquick
1 1/2 C milk
3 eggs
1/4 C barbecue Sauce
1 C Cheddar cheese, grated

Brown ground beef with the onion, drain grease. Stir in salt and pepper and spread in a greased 10" pie pan. Put bisquick, milk, and eggs in a blender and blend on high for 30 seconds(or beat with whisk until almost smooth). Pour over beef. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, spread barbecue sauce over the top then sprinkle with cheese. Return to oven for 5 minutes. Cool 5-8 minutes before serving. *** To make prep even faster, brown 5 pounds of beef at once then divide the meat into 5 ziploc bags and freeze. Then it's just a matter of defrosting one bag for a recipe like this! Plus, it's usually cheaper to get your meat in larger quantities.

Here We Go!

I am so excited that you are interested in getting and sharing some fabulous recipes! To make sure we're all on the same page, here's a few start up items to share. Please let me know if you have suggestions!

We'll be meeting the first and third Thursday's of the month. I will send an email for interested people to sign up for a day that they could host future gatherings. To make it easy, the first will be at my house. For privacy sake, addresses will be sent via private messages or emails. The host will be responsible for providing the dishes and drink(water is fine, but this can be the recipe they contribute), but everyone is welcome to help set up or clean up!

We'll have a theme each time so we can try lots of different things. At the end of each gathering we will draw to see what the theme will be for the next get-together. Please bring your favorite dish and the recipe for it and if you have additional tasty recipes that fit the theme, you can either add it here yourself(all those who are regular participators will be invited to be authors here), or bring a paper copy and I will add it for you. If you have something you would like to share but are not an author(and we hope you do!), please email me the recipe and I will make sure it gets shared. I'll also include any tips that are shared, so keep 'em coming! To kick start each theme, I will include one of my recipes of that category when I post what the next theme will be.
Some of the theme's I have thought of are: Chicken, beef, pork, soups, salads, appetizers, desserts, BBQ food, European foods, South of the Border, pasta, breakfast, lunch on the go, comfort food, kid favorites, Chocolate(or we can just do this once a month!) simple snacks, 30 minutes or less, gourmet(or the busy mom version of it!), fruits, various holidays, cookies, carb night, low-cal night, new-recipe-I've-been-wanting-to-try, Sunday dinner, camping recipes, or slow cookers.
Send me a comment if there is something I left out that you'd like to see!

I hope this becomes a fun night we can all look forward to for good food and fun times with great people! Please RSVP to the invite we will send via Facebook which will give the location and theme each time. If you have friends that would like to join us, we'd love to have them but please let the hostess know so they know how many to plan for.

Please let me know if you think of something that could make this more fun and smooth. I look forward to getting to know you all better and get some wonderful new ideas to keep dinner from getting boring!