Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream Cake

My co-worker Trista Cox never fails to impress us with her kitchen creations. This cake she brought to work recently is the best I’ve tried in a long time!
The taste of rich chocolate and cool, minty ice cream with a crunch from chocolate wafers and crushed peppermint is a perfect combination!
Trista saw the cake made on the show, "Dessert First with Anne Thornton."
It takes some effort to make, with several steps - Trista took an evening to make hers - but it is well worth it!
Tip: To make the process faster, skip making the peppermint brittle (to top the cake). Trista used chocolate graham crackers in place of wafers.
To find the recipe at Food Network click on the title above.

Ghirardelli Mississippi Mud Bars

Here's a sweet snack from the kitchen of Cheryl Hoefler, my co-worker. She found the recipe on the packaging of a Ghirardelli White Chocolate Baking Bar.

½ C. butter or margarine, softened
3/4 C. brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large egg
1 C. all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 bar (4 oz.) Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bar, chopped and divided
1 bar (4 oz.) Ghirardelli White Chocolate Baking Bar, chopped and divided
1 C. walnuts, chopped and divided

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy at medium speed.
Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.
Stir in half of the semi-sweet and white chocolate and ½ C. of the walnuts.
Spread in greased foil-lined 9" square baking pan.
Bake 12-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean.
Sprinkle with remaining semi-sweet and white chocolates.
Cover with foil. Let stand 5 minutes or until chocolates are melted.
Swirl chocolates with small knife to marbleize.
Sprinkle with remaining ½ C. walnuts.
Cool in pan until firm, then cut into bars.
Makes 1-12 servings.

Easy Pear Crisp

This is from the kitchen of my co-worker Cheryl Hoefler of Prairie City. She canned some pears last year and used those in this recipe - delicious comfort food! So glad she shared this at the potluck we had at work!

Easy Pear Crisp

1/2 C. uncooked regular oats
1/4 C. firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp. cold butter
1 14-15 oz. can sliced pears, drained
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Combine first five ingredients in a bowl, and cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Combine pear and juice; toss well. Spoon pear mixture into a 9-inch pie plate, already coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle oat mixture over pear mixture. Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes. Makes four servings.

Tip: I you prefer fresh pears, try three red anjou pears, peeled and sliced.