Triple Chocolate Mess

Who knew that a cake made in the crock pot could be so moist? In fact, it is so moist that there's no cutting this cake into squares, it just falls apart. Hence, the "mess" part of the cake's name. The "triple chocolate" part is chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, and chocolate chips.


Although making this cake is extremely easy, deciding on what cake mix to get is not. I must have stood in the baking aisle for 15 minutes trying to decide between chocolate fudge, dark chocolate, devil's food, german chocolate, milk chocolate, and triple chocolate fudge. Why must Betty Crocker make this so hard? It's like having to pick which of your children you love more. I love them all! I grabbed a box of devil's food and quickly found the chocolate pudding mixes. More choices. I chose chocolate fudge. Really, I don't think any of them would have been a bad choice.


1 box chocolate cake mix
1 box (3.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 pint sour cream
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1 cup water


Mix all ingredients with a mixer in a large bowl. Pour into a greased crock pot. Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours. I did 6 hours on low and it was perfect.

P.S. Pups still sick, no school again for Big pup.

Wiederkehr Onion Soup

Did you know that my Granny B is a TV star? It's true. She made a small appearance in season 1 of The Simple Life. She and the other ladies of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Altus (Arkansas) belong to a quilting group and one day Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie just happened to drop by. With a camera crew. And what did these church ladies think of these Hollywood celebrities? Well, not much, apparently. My grandmother mentioned that they were filmed by a tv show but she couldn't remember what it was called or the names of the 2 stars.

Besides being the setting for The Simple Life, Altus is also home to Wiederkehr's Wienkeller Restaurant. While dining there with family one Sunday evening, WD raved about their onion soup. It wasn't until halfway through the meal that I remembered I had cut out a recipe for Wiederkehr onion soup several months ago. Jay Harshaw of the Fort Smith Times Record had printed the recipe in her column. So last week when our heat went out, I got out the space heater, piled extra blankets on the bed, and fixed up a pot of this delicious, creamy soup.


1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can water
1 can French onion soup
1 can chicken broth
6 TBS flour (or 3 TBS cornstarch)
1 can milk
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese


Heat chicken soup and water over medium heat. Add onion soup, chicken broth, and flour. Whisk until lumps of flour are dissolved. Add milk. Melt in mozzarella cheese.

Corn Chowder

Okay. Forget that it was 70 degrees outside last week. Arkansas momentarily forgot that it is the middle of winter. This week, the temperatures have dropped once again and they are even calling for a chance of snow over the next couple of days. That's more like it. Perfect time for another yummy soup recipe. And you can't get more yummy than Angie's Corn Chowder. Or more simple.


1/4 cup butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups cream
1 can (15-1/4 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (14-3/4 oz) cream style corn
8 oz velveeta, cubed
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper


Saute onion and red bell pepper in melted butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add flour and stir into a paste. Add milk and cream and whisk until thick (don't give up! It will thicken!) Then add the 2 cans of corn, velveeta, salt, and pepper. Stir until cheese is melted. Top with crumbled bacon, if desired. And, boy howdy, do I desire.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Brrrrrr.....it's cold out there. With high temperatures in the 30's and 40's for the next few days, it's a perfect time for a bowl of soup. My favorite is broccoli cheese soup served with a loaf of french bread to soak up all that creamy, cheesy goodness. Forget the snickerdoodles, forget the greek spinach bake, if you try only one recipe from my "cookbook" let it be this one. After all, anything with a pound of velveeta in it can't be bad.


1 lb frozen chopped broccoli
1 pint half & half
2 cups water (I use 2 cups of the water that I boiled the broccoli in)
1 lb velveeta
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cornstarch with 1 cup cold water


Cook broccoli until tender; drain and set aside. In a large saucepan, add half & half and 2 cups of water. Then add velveeta, salt and pepper. When cheese is melted, add broccoli. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl and stir into hot soup to thicken. Ladle soup into a bowl, salivate, get out camera and take 36 pictures of said bowl of soup and hope that there's one picture good enough for posting.