New Obsession!

I posted about my newfound love of coconut recently, so no surprise that the obsession continues! I follow a blog called Mel’s Kitchen Cafe that I really enjoy reading and yesterday’s post was right up my alley…I just knew I had to run home and try this recipe out! It combined chocolate and coconut into a gooey bar-type brownie with a fudgy frosting sort of thing…mouth watering yet?!

Josh is obsessed with tacos and would love to have taco night at least 3 nights a week, however I apparently have been ‘slacking’ as he puts it, and we haven’t had taco night in at least two weeks!’ So in an effort to please both of us, we had taco Wednesday with coconut chocolate bars for dessert! Doesn’t matter that those two don’t seem to go together at all, we were both very pleased and let’s be honest, chocolate goes with everything!

So here’s the recipe I ended up using, slightly altering the recipe from  Mel’s Kitchen Cafe:

Chocolate Coconut Bars:

For the Bars:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• dash of  salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the topping:

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 4 T butter,  room temp
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 cups coconut

Heat the oven to 350 degrees  and spray an 8×8-inch square baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a larger bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar until evenly combined. Add the butter (cooled so as not to scramble the egg), eggs, and vanilla, and mix until the mixture forms a stiff dough. Gently press the dough evenly into the prepared pan and set aside.

For the topping: cream together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the beaten egg and mix well, then the cocoa powder and vanilla and mix until well blended. Add the powdered sugar gradually while beating until the mixture is smooth. Fold in the coconut.

Spread the topping over the base and bake 30 minutes. The edges should be set and the center still slightly under cooked looking. Cool completely, in fact the blog says that the bars are even better cooled and chilled in the refrigerator! Of course I couldn’t wait that long and had them hot right out of the oven! My recommendation would be to let them cool slightly, as they are very difficult to cut when they are still hot and gooey! Rushing out the door this morning I completely forgot to grab one from the fridge so the anticipation all day will be killing me…I can’t wait to get home and dive into them! I’ll let you know how they are

Finally!

I always wonder how those packaged cookies you see at places like Jimmy John’s, Pot Belly’s or even Walgreens look so perfect…all large, perfectly round and shaped, and so soft and chewy still?! Well, by George, I think I’ve got it! After years and years of trying different cookie recipes in a quest to find the ultimate, perfect looking and tasting cookies, I think I did it! I stole the method/idea for these cookies from a pin on pinterest and ran with it! This was a method I have never seen for baking cookies before…it consisted of stacking rectangles of dough on top of each other, with shaved chocolate in between the layers and then using a biscuit cutter to cut out perfect circles! The recipe for this was a bit more difficult than a standard cookie dough recipe but it was well worth it, let me tell you!

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 t baking soda
• 3/4 t salt
• 1 cup butter,room temp
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs, at room temp
• 1 t vanilla
• 3/4 – 1 bag peanut butter and chocolate chips (or all chocolate, whatever you prefer), chopped up

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined, then add the vanilla. Slowly and on low-speed, add the dry ingredients, beating just until incorporated.

Divide the dough into three equal portions and try to shape each into same size rectangles as best as possible, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This might seem difficult because the dough will be somewhat sticky, but wrapping in plastic will help shape them.

Unwrap the dough rectangles. Place one on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle half of the chocolate evenly over the dough rectangle. Top with a second piece of dough. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate over the second piece of dough, then finally top with the third piece of dough. The tower of dough and chocolate will be tall, and chocolate may fall out the sides, that’s ok.

Like so

Dust the top piece of dough lightly with flour, then use a rolling-pin to gently roll the stack of dough and chocolate into a rectangle about 1 1/2 inches thick. Use a 2-inch round cutter to cut as many rounds as possible from the dough. Transfer the rounds to a parchment-lined or silpat lined baking sheet. (Flour the cutter as necessary if it’s sticking to the dough.) Gather the scraps of dough together into a 1 1/2-inch thick mound and cut additional cookies out.

Pretty little cookie biscuits!

Cover the baking sheet loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate the unbaked cookies for at least an hour or two. You can leave them in the fridge this way for several days even and bake them off as you want/need!

Preheat oven to 375 F. Separate the cookies by at least 2-3 inches because these babies spread! Bake for 12 minutes. The centers will still seem really soft and under-baked, but that’s fine. They’ll set up as they cool. 

Gorgeous, I should have stacked them on top of each other!

 I might have cooked mine a minute or so too long, the edges got a little crunchy for my liking, but the centers were still soft and gooey! The peanut butter added a wonderful element of surprise to an otherwise chocolate chip cookie and the oats add a great, chewy texture.  I am so happy with this result, the extra work is well worth it in my opinion!!

Times are Blue (not really but the title is fitting)!

Living downtown Chicago during the NATO Summit has been nothing but a pain in my ass! So in an effort to avoid as much of the ruckus as possible, I ditched out on the city and spent the weekend at my parents’ house! What a great weekend it was, shopping with my mom, going out to eat, spending time with my brother, sister-in-law and two nieces, going to the taste of Glen Ellyn (something I haven’t been to in over 5 years now), and the list goes on! Aside from 4 of 8 of us getting a 24-hour flu bug, the weekend was fantastic…but always seems too short! Before I left, the fam barbecued a buffet of food in a last effort to enjoy the beautiful weather! I made some pan-fried potatoes to go with the rib-eyes, burgers and shish-kabobs!

Pan-Fried Potatoes:

• 5 potatoes, cubed
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, diced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
• cayenne pepper to taste
• dash of onion and garlic powder

Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add potatoes, toss to coat with oil, add seasonings and cover pan, let cook/steam for 5 or so minutes without touching. Lift lid, stir potatoes around, cover again and let sit another 5 minutes. Repeat once more, remove lid for good, toss around and cook until desired browness. Super easy,  very tasty and healthier than french-fries!

When I finally made it home last night, I was unpacking all of the groceries I bought and stumbled across a fruit tray in the fridge that a patient generously brought us last week. Neither Josh nor I are big fans of berries (except I love strawberries, but that’s it) so those were all that were left in the tray. I absolutely hate wasting food and didn’t have the heart to throw them out…so instead, I whipped up a blueberry quick bread and saved the raspberries and blackberries for smoothies or possibly another bread!

Blueberry  Bread

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup Silk Vanilla
• 1 t vanilla extract
• Blueberry Greek Yogurt
• 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Heat oven to 350. Coat 8 1/2X4 1/2 loaf pan with spray. Sift flour into a bowl, remove 1 Tbsp flour and toss with blueberries in a separate bowl. Add cornmeal, baking powder and salt to flour and mix well. In another bowl, whisk sugars with eggs, milk, yogurt, vanilla and lemon juice. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just blended; fold in blueberries. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 40 minutes. You can add a crumb topping to this or make these as muffins as well!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Josh and I have been celebrating our one year wedding anniversary for a few weeks now…we have already had three celebrations so far and a fourth is yet to come in June! I say after such a spectacular first year of marriage, why not celebrate the hell out of it!? We started a week early when Josh surprised me with a Tiffany necklace and we went out to a wonderful dinner at Kinzie Chophouse. What a great restaurant, we had been there a few times before for dessert and drinks (fantastic wine list and molten chocolate cake)! I knew it would be good, after all it’s a Chicago steak house but it really surprised me how good it really was. My filet was cooked absolutely perfectly and was so tender and juicy, and they serve their steaks with four different dipping sauces, all of which were fantastic additions, even though, not necessary since the steak was so good on its own! We also shared a baked french onion soup that was better than most I have had in French restaurants and a roasted red pepper pureed soup that was also smooth and flavorful. We also shared a broccoli fondue, which was not awesome but very tasty…can’t go wrong with broccoli and cheese! Lastly, they brought us out a buttered rum cheesecake that was to die for! I was a little upset at first, thinking I wasn’t getting my molten chocolate cake, but what a welcomed surprise, it was sooo good and went perfectly with our wine and cappuccinos! I definitely cannot wait to go back!

Our next mini-celebration took place on our actual anniversary, May 14th. We were working late and Josh had to coach a hockey game late that night, so I stuck around and we had some dinner, went to see the Avengers and ate some of our wedding cake! Nice romantic, not fancy way to spend our night together!

Third celebration took place last night, our first night home together for dinner in a while! So we teamed up in the kitchen and cooked an amazing dinner of basil orzotto with goat cheese stuffed chicken and a nice bottle of wine, followed by yet more wedding cake! Orzotto is risotto made with orzo instead of Arborio rice! The orzo was super creamy and cheesy and the chicken was a perfect highlight for the pasta. The goat cheese and lemon from the filling paired perfectly with the basil and parmesan in the orzo.

Basil Orzotto:

• 2 shallots, diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 T butter
• 1 1/2 cups orzo
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 3 cups chicken broth
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 cup peas
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 T butter
• 3 T chopped fresh basil

Heat oil in pan over medium, add shallots, cook 3-5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and orzo, cook until orzo is slightly browned. Deglaze pan with white wine. Cook until wine is evaporated. Add the broth, salt & pepper to taste and let come to a boil. Simmer over low, cover and cook until liquid is evaporated, about 12-15 minutes. Uncover, remove from heat, add in peas, parmesan, heavy cream, butter and fresh basil.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 4 ounces goat cheese
• 2 t lemon juice
• 1 t chopped fresh basil
• 1-2 T grated parm
• Salt & pepper to taste

Mix together the goat cheese, lemon juice, basil, parm, salt and pepper. Pound each chicken breast until thin but not too thin that it will fall apart when rolling. Place 1/3 of the filling in the center of each pounded chicken breast, roll up tightly. Salt and pepper outside of each breast (or use lemon pepper or any other seasonings you prefer). Grill or bake until cooked through. Serve atop the orzotto! We followed this decadent meal with the top-tier of our wedding cake…pistachio, Josh’s absolute favorite and a Ma Crawford special! She had never made pistachio for a wedding before we put in a special request…it came out sooooo good!!

And last but certainly not least, our fourth celebration is yet to come! We are going to Italy in June! We debated going for our honeymoon but in the end decided we would rather sit on a beach, relax and do nothing but be waited on hand and foot! Best. Decision. Ever. I don’t think I would have truly been able to appreciate Italy having gone right after my wedding, being exhausted, excited, overwhelmed, etc!  But when we got married, Josh promised we would go for our one year anniversary and I thought he was full of it! But much to my extreme delight, he is making it happen! I. Cannot. Wait.

My best friend is married…welcome to the club Em!! I had the honor of being Emily’s maid (matron sounds so old) of honor for her wedding last Friday evening. What a beautiful wedding it was too, she looked absolutely stunning and everything was just perfect…75 degree weather, gorgeous venue, amazing band and of course, delicious cake! Em had an idea a while back that her and I bake the cakes for the wedding and that her and Joe (the groom) would only have a small cake to cut into for pictures. Everyone thought we were crazy taking on such a huge and important task however, it turned out to be an amazing idea and not only made a great looking dessert table but we got a ton of compliments to boot! I ended up making four different cakes and frosting combinations, including red velvet with cream cheese frosting, german chocolate with coconut pecan frosting, marble cake with chocolate frosting and a cinnamon crumb cake. Em ended up making a pistachio cake with cream cheese frosting and a banana cake with Nutella frosting. Here is a pic of the dessert table:

I have already posted the Red Velvet recipe from Em’s wedding shower but here it is again!

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting:

Cake:

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups flour
• 2 T cocoa powder (heaping)
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 t baking soda
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 t vanilla
• 1-2 ounces red food coloring
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 2 t vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9X13  baking pan. Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time.  Add in vanilla and red food coloring. Sift together flour, cocoa, and salt. Mix together baking soda and vinegar. Alternately add buttermilk and flour, ending with flour. Beat in vinegar mixture. Pour into prepared pan and bake 35-40 minutes.

Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 8 oz butter, softened
• 3 1/2 – 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 t vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add in vanilla and powdered sugar, mix until smooth. Frost entire cake, eat and enjoy!!

German Chocolate with Coconut Pecan Frosting:

Cake:

• 1 pkg. (4 oz.) German Chocolate
• ½ cup water
• 4 eggs, separated
• 2 cups flour
• 1 t baking soda
• ¼ t salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 350°F. Cover bottom of 9X13 pan with waxed paper; spray sides with cooking spray. Microwave chocolate and water in large microwaveable bowl on high 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Beat egg whites in small bowl with mixer on high-speed until stiff peaks form; set aside. Mix flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Blend in melted chocolate and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating until well blended after each addition. Add egg whites; stir gently until well blended. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan 15 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

Frosting:

• 4 egg yolks
• 1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
• 1-1/2 t vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• ¾ cup butter or margarine
• 1 pkg. (7 oz.)  coconut (2-2/3 cups)
• 1-1/2 cups chopped pecans

Beat egg yolks, milk and vanilla in large saucepan with whisk until well blended. Add sugar and butter; cook on medium heat 12 min. or until thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add coconut and nuts; mix well. Cool to desired spreading consistency. Frost entire cake!

Cinnamon Crumb Cake:

• ½ cup brown sugar divided
• 1 ½ cups plus 5 T granulated sugar, divided
• 3 t ground cinnamon, divided
• 1 ½ cups chopped walnuts, divided
• 2 cups plus 7 T cake flour, divided
• ½ lb. (2 sticks), plus 5 T butter, divided
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ¾ t vanilla, divided
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 cup sour cream
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• ½ T milk

Directions: heat oven to 350, 9X13 inch pan. Combine ¼ cup brown sugar, 2 T granulated sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon and ½ cup chopped walnuts for filling, set aside. In bowl, combine 7 Tbs. flour, 3 Tbs. granulated sugar and remaining brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Using 2 knives, cut in 5 T butter until crumbs form. In bowl of electric mixer, cream remaining butter, gradually adding eggs, 1 ½ t vanilla and remaining granulated sugar. Beat 2 mins. In separate bowl, combine baking soda, baking powder, and remaining flour. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Beat in sour cream. Mix 1 min. Pour ½ batter into pan, sprinkle reserved filling over batter. Top with remaining batter and crumb mixture. Bake 45 mins, let cool. In bowl, combine powdered sugar, milk, and remaining vanilla. Drizzle icing over cake.

The marble cake was a little more difficult since I had to make two cake batters, chocolate and vanilla.

Chocolate Cake:

• Butter, for greasing the pans
• 1 3/4 cups flour, plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
• 2 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2  eggs, at room temp
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9X13 inch cake pan or line with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low-speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low-speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Yellow Cake:

• 4 cups plus 2 t cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 t salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 t vanilla
• 4 eggs,  room temp
• 2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low-speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.

Add a 1/4 cup of chocolate to center of 9X13 pan. Follow with 1/4 cup yellow cake. Repeat until pan is 3/4 full (there will be extra chocolate and yellow batter left over…I just made some cupcakes to have around for the weekend)! The important thing here is to make sure that both batters are the same consistency. If not, the runnier one will spread more and the cake will be dominantly that color, instead of marbled throughout. Either way it will still taste good though!!

Thick, Rich, Chocolate Frosting:

• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 sticks butter, room temperature
• 6 T milk
• 1 T vanilla

Add butter to mixer with whisk attachment, beat until light and fluffy. Add in powdered sugar, whisk again until fluffy and incorporated. Add in cooled, melted chocolate, milk and vanilla extract.  Frost entire cake!

Em and I use the same pistachio cake/bread recipe…it was her mom’s recipe and comes out perfectly every time…so here is that one as well! But I’ll have to get the banana one from Em to share with you guys since it was soooo good!! Josh and I were lucky enough to taste test that one out before the wedding!

Pistachio Cake:

• 1 pkg instant pistachio pudding
• 1 pkg yellow cake mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup water or milk (I always use milk)!
• 1/4 cup oil

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9X13 inch pan or line with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.  Beat all ingredients together, pour into prepared pan and bake 40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pan 30 minutes, turn out onto wire rack, cool completely. Frost with cream cheese frosting (recipe above)!

My beautiful friend Colleen modeling the red velvet, banana and pistachio cakes!

Party Time!

So this past weekend was spent celebrating my best friend’s last few weeks as a ‘single lady!’ The wedding is set for May 11, and is rapidly approaching! The bride and groom decided to do a combination bachelor/bachelorette party weekend and have events planned throughout the entire weekend. Friday night we all went out together to an Irish bar called Fado where there ended up being a very good one man band! Of course, we stayed out just a little bit longer than we should have, which made for a fun Saturday morning, lol! Saturday’s events were all split up, boys going golfing and the girls getting manis and pedis! We followed up our nails with a boozy Italian lunch at Maggiano’s…just the thing we needed to bring us right back to normal! Saturday night, the ladies were all meeting by my apartment for some food, booze and gift opening before heading out for the evening. I planned my menu so I wouldn’t have to spend majority of the get together in the kitchen, taking things in and out of the oven, etc! I tried to plan a booze themed evening, filled with drunken gummy bears (highly recommended), jelly bean vodka for jellybean martinis (which I forgot to serve, it’s fine), Arnold Palmer Jello shots, Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, and Kahlua laced puppy chow! For food, I went with macaroni and cheese cupcakes (delicious but difficult to eat), a savory basil cheesecake (was nervous about this one but it turned out great), a vegetable pizza and some cucumber tea sandwiches. The food was just light enough to not overfill us up but heavy enough to help soak up some of the alcohol we were over-indulging in!

Car Bomb Cupcakes:

Recipe adapted from of Annie’s Eat’s Blog

Cupcakes:

• 1 cup Guinness
• 2 sticks butter
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 cups flour
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup creme fraiche (or sour cream)

Ganache:

• 10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 T butter
• 3 t Kahlua (Annie’s Eats uses Baileys, which is thicker and creamier, so I just added more chocolate to thicken it up a little)!

Frosting:

• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 8 T Kahlua (same as above, didn’t use Baileys, used Kahlua instead, went with the full 4 cups powdered sugar so it was thick enough)!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with liners. Combine the Guinness and butter in a saucepan over medium low heat.  Once the butter is melted, whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. In another bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Mix together. In bowl of electric mixer, beat two eggs with creme fraiche, add in the Guinness butter mixture (this is why it’s important to let this cool or you’ll end up with scrambled eggs)! Slowly add in dry ingredients. Fill liners 3/4 full and bake 15-17 minutes.

For the ganache, heat heavy cream over low heat until just simmering. Pour over chocolate. Wait 1 minute, then whisk until smooth. Add in butter and Kahlua and mix until smooth and glossy. Set aside to cool completely. To speed this along, you can throw it in the fridge for about an hour, but be sure to check on it and give it a stir every so often.

For the frosting, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add in powdered sugar, mix until fluffy and combined. Mix in Kahlua. I think that next time I make these, I will add cocoa powder to make a chocolate version!

Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, cut out a portion of the center of each cupcake (I used an apple corer, just didn’t go all of the way through the bottom). Fill hole with ganache and top with frosting! Enjoy!

Basil Cheesecake:

Recipe adapted from Giada.

• 4 ounces ricotta
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 3 ounces goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh basil
• pinch of garlic powder, onion powder, thyme and rosemary (any herbs of your choice really, and this may not even be necessary)!

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a food processor, fold in chopped basil and bake 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees!

Macaroni & Cheese Cupcakes:

• 1 pound elbow macaroni
• 4 T butter
• 4 T flour
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 t dry mustard powder
• 1/2 t garlic salt
• 1/2 t onion powder
• pepper to taste
• dash of oregano and thyme
• 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 6 ounces Velveeta, cut into cubes
• broccoli florets
• mushrooms
• pancetta, diced (I used the pre-diced package from Trader Joe’s)
• 1 egg
• Bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta until al dente, adding broccoli for last few minutes of cooking…drain pasta and broccoli. In a small saucepan, cook pancetta with some olive oil until nice and crisp. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon, keeping juices in pan. Add butter to pan of drippings, once melted, sprinkle with flour, cook about 2 minutes. Add in cream and milk, whisking until smooth and begins to thicken, about 5 or so minutes. Add in seasonings. Turn off heat and add in cheeses, whisking until melted. Add in pasta, pancetta, mushrooms and broccoli. Beat in one egg. Pour into lined muffin pan, cop with breadcrumbs and Parmesan. Bake 14-16 minutes or until golden on top and heated through. Next time  I make these, I will add in another egg so it binds better, these were kind of difficult to eat!

Veggie Pizza:

• 2 packages crescent dough
• 2 (8-ounce) packages Neuchâtel cheese, softened
• 1/2 package ranch dressing mix
• 1/2 t onion powder
• 1/2 t garlic powder
• 1 t parsley
• 1 t seasoning salt
• 1/2 t black pepper
• chopped veggies
• 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Roll crescents onto greased baking sheet, pressing together all perforations, making one large rectangle. Bake as package directs and let cool completely (if you spread the Neuchâtel mixture onto warm crescents, it will become watery/runny). Mix together Neuchatel, ranch mix and seasonings until fluffy and combined. Spread over cooled crescent dough. Top with shredded cheese and any veggies you want. I went with broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, red, green and yellow peppers. Refrigerate until ready to serve!

Cucumber Tea Sammies:

• 2 avocados
• 1 cup peas
• 2 T lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• good, soft bread
• cucumbers
• carrots
• sprouts

In food processor, combine avocados, peas, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pulse to smooth and combined. Remove crust from bread, spread each slice with a generous helping of avocado mixture, top with cucumbers, carrots, and/or sprouts (or any combination of these you like, I mixed and matched with all three)! Form sandwich and cut into fours.

Arnold Palmer Jello Shots:

• 1 package lemon jello
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup chilled sweet tea vodka
• 10 lemons, halved, juiced and insides removed (this is way more difficult than it sounds, honestly took me an hour to accomplish this)!

Combine boiling water and jello until jello dissolves. Once dissolved, add in cold sweet tea vodka. Stir a minute or so to combine. Pour into halved lemons. Set in the fridge to harden. Before serving, cut halves in half (into fourths).

For the drunken gummy bears, I just combined gummy bears with vodka, pouring in enough vodka to cover the bears, and put it in the fridge. After the first day, I had to add move vodka since they little guys soaked it all up! I added enough to cover them again and let them sit in the fridge for another 4 days. They swelled up and not only looked super cute but were also very delicious! For the jellybean vodka, I separated out the jellybeans into colors, and put red, orange and pink each in 1 1/2 cups of vodka and let them sit in the fridge for 3 or so days. I then drained the vodka and it would have been ready to drink/serve, had I remembered! Oops! And lastly, for the puppy chow, I just added in a few tablespoons of Kahlua to the chocolate, butter, peanut butter mixture before coating the chex cereal!

 

All in all, the menu was a hit and the weekend was amazing! After our get together the ladies headed out to Whiskey Sky, on top of the W hotel for some martinis and an amazing view! We then headed to one of the bride’s favorite piano bars, Zebra Lounge; a cute little place with the same piano player every night! We then headed to Vertigo Sky in the Dana hotel to meet up with the boys, making this quite a brief stop for the debacle it was to get in! And then finally, ending our night at Local 22 for some karaoke! Sunday, we met at 25 Degrees for some brunch and bottomless mimosas (as if this was necessary after the weekend we had)! We all collectively stated that we will definitely be returning to 25 Degrees. The food was delicious, the mimosas were continuously flowing and the atmosphere and staff were very nice and accommodating! So to recap, I will be recovering until Wednesday! No seriously though, fantastic weekend, well worth it, even if I am dragging today!

Nuts for Coconut!

So the other day Josh and I got to talking about old banana bread recipes we used to eat as kids and they always had either chocolate chips, coconut or both in them. We then discussed how we love Almond Joy candies and coconut macaroons, leading to the critical realization that we both love coconut! It was kind of one of those things we knew we liked sometimes or with some things but didn’t really think too much about, turns out we pretty much like it in anything sweet! Due to my resistance towards anything non-chocolate, I didn’t even realize I liked macaroons until Christmas last year when I accidentally ate one out of the oven that had broken apart before realizing what I was doing…ended up being a very happy surprise! We kind of had a rough day at work yesterday so I decided to bake up a chocolate chip banana bread with our new favorite, coconut! I used the same basic banana bread recipe I have posted about before, and added in mini chocolate chips and a ton of coconut! (Banana Bread)

Chocolatey, coconutty, moist deliciousness!

Recipe:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 t baking soda
• dash of salt
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oil (or applesauce for a healthier version, texture will be a little different…more gummier and dense)
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 2-3 mashed bananas
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• bag of mini chocolate chips (amount desired)
• bag of coconut (amount desired)

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. In small bowl, combine flour, soda, cinnamon and salt. Combine oil (or applesauce) and sugar, mix until sugar dissolves. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add in vanilla and mashed bananas. Add dry ingredients to wet, alternating with the buttermilk and ending with flour. Fold in chocolate chips and coconut. Bake for 45-50 minutes. (Use as little or as much as you’d like, I went with an entire bag of each and to be honest, that’s probably not necessary)!

Cravings…

So lately, as if this is anything new, I’ve been seriously craving peanut butter and chocolate….waaaay more than usual! But surprisingly I was craving them separately, not necessarily together…which is somewhat odd! So I decided to make some peanut butter bars for breakfast and then some rocky road brownies for dessert! The bars turned out to be pretty good, however could have used more crunch, as they were super soft and chewy. Soft and chewy is not necessarily a bad thing, but these were almost crumbly they were so soft…they were better after I put them in the fridge. And the rocky road brownies were fairly good, but the marshmallows on top ended up kind of crunchy and chewy as they cooled. All in all, I would make both again but making some minor changes!

Peanut Butter Breakfast Bars:

• 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vanilla silk soy milk
• 1 egg
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/4 cup crunchy peanut or almond butter
• Dash of salt, to taste

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix together all ingredients. Pour into a greased 8X8 inch pan. Bake 18 -20 minutes. Let cool and top with Nutella or more peanut butter if desired! (At one point, I even covered a few slices with melted chocolate…I couldn’t resist! And it was quite tastier that way!

Rocky Road Brownies (Brownie recipe adapted from my sister-in-law Mandy)!

• 1¼ cups  flour
• 1 t salt
• 2 T cocoa powder
• 11 oz. chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup butter, cut into chunks
• 1½ cups g sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 5 eggs, room temperature
• 2 t vanilla
• mini chocolate chips
• For the topping:
• mini marshmallows
• mini chocolate chips
• hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans (any nut of your choice), coarsely ground or chopped

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and butter/flour a baking pan, whatever size you prefer (I went with a 9X9 because I really like super thick brownies)…but the smaller the pan, the longer it takes for them to cook and cool! Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler, stirring occasionally until smooth. Turn off the heat and add the sugars, whisk until smooth and  set aside, off of heat, to cool. Once cooled, add eggs one at a time, whisking just until incorporated each time. Sprinkle flour and a 1/2 cup or so of mini chocolate chips over chocolate mixture and fold with a spatula just until combined (some white specs of flour will still be visible), do not overmix! Pour into prepared pan and bake (the 9X9 took about 45 minutes so a 9X13 would probably take about 30-35 and an 8X8 closer to 50-55). During the last 10 minutes of baking, I covered the top with marshmallows, mini chocolate chips and a mixture of ground hazelnuts and almonds…push down slightly so the topping adheres to the brownies and put back in the oven until brownies are cooked through.

These were delicious right out of the oven…the marshmallows were super soft and melty, the nuts had a nice crunch and the chocolate chips melted in  your mouth. As they cooled, the marshmallows got hard and crunchy, the chocolate chips hardened and the nuts got kind of soggy! An easy fix was to throw them in the microwave for a few seconds to melt everything again but taking them with me for the day made that difficult! Didn’t stop Josh and I from finishing off the rest at lunch today though (yes, I made them last night), so I guess they couldn’t have been that bad!

Easter!

Yes, I realize this post is a bit late but still wanted to share about our Easter anyways! We all went over to my brother’s house since they just recently had the new baby and wouldn’t have been able to celebrate with us otherwise. My gram has a problem with overdoing everything (no surprise there) so she ended up catering an entire home-cooked Easter dinner over to their house. Crazy, yes, delicious, yes, unnecessary, probably! In an effort to help her out, we all made little things to bring along. I was given the task of side dish, appetizers and a dessert. I went with a pesto cream cheese dip with homemade pesto, a buffalo chicken ring, cheesy potatoes, and a caramel pie with a chocolate pretzel crust. So here they are:

Pesto Dip:

Pesto:

• 1/2 cup salted almonds
• 2 cups arugula
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 3 cloves garlic
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Add almonds, garlic and arugula to nut grinder, salt and pepper to taste. Pulse to incorporate/chop a little, then stream in olive oil until all blended, chopped finely enough for your liking. Pour into bowl, mix in parm.

For the dip, spread 1 (8-ounce) package of room temperature/softened cream cheese on the bottom of a serving bowl/platter. Top with homemade pesto and then diced cherry tomatoes. Sprinkle with more parmesan. Serve with crackers, chips, pretzels, anything your little heart desires will do!!

Buffalo Chicken Ring (aka, the one ring to rule them all):

I got this recipe from my best friend’s fiance Joe, he emailed it to all of us asking one of us to please make it for him! Here is the website he sent us: http://jayesel.net/2011/11/10/recipe-buffalo-chicken-ring/

• 2 crescent roll packages
• 1-2 ribs celery, finely diced
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
• 1/2 packet of ranch dressing mix
• Frank’s to taste
• 2-3 chicken breasts, shredded
• 1 cup cheddar cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Boil chicken until cooked through, set aside to cool. Combine cream cheese and ranch packet, set aside. Mix shredded chicken, cream cheese mixture, and Frank’s to taste. Mix in celery and cheese. Open crescent packages and keep in two’s; on a pizza stone,  form a circle, overlapping the corners so it looks like this:

Fill the ring with the chicken mixture and fold over outer edges, seal to close, like so:

   

Bake about 20-25 minutes, until crescent dough is cooked through. BE CAREFUL, you will want to eat this immediately out of the oven because it is so incredibly delicious but it will burn the shit out of your mouth, I promise! Let cool before indulging!!

Cheesy Potatoes:

This is a Hover family favorite, definitely all the credit for this recipe goes to them! I also cannot remember for the life of me if I have already shared this recipe in a previous blog, but it is  definitely worthy enough for another post if I have!

• 1 stick butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup (or 1 large can)
• 1 medium container of sour cream
• 1 bag frozen potatoes or hash browns
• 4 cups cheddar cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350. Melt butter in skillet over medium heat, add onions and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. In the meantime, in a very large bowl, mix together the cream of chicken soup, sour cream and 2 cups of the cheese. Add in potatoes and butter/onion mixture. Pour into a 9X13 baking dish, top with remaining 2 cups of cheese and bake 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Caramel Pie:

Emily made this pie for me and our friend Sisen a while back and it was sooo tasty, I had to try it myself (and her version was salted, which upped the tasty factor in my book)! Instead of salting the caramel, I decided to add the salty element into the crust. Warning, this recipe did not turn out how it was supposed, I should definitely have practiced this one ahead of time! It was still delicious however presentation was seriously lacking!

• 2 cans sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups chopped pretzels
• 6 ounces chocolate, melted
• 5 T butter, melted

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together melted chocolate, melted butter and pretzel crumbs. Press into bottom and up sides of a greased 9-inch pie plate. Pour sweetened condensed milk into crust, bake for 1 1/2 hours, COVERED WITH FOIL! This was my big mistake, I did not cover until half way through which caused a lovely burned topping of my pie. Luckily, this was easy to salvage by removing the burnt top and exposing the wonderfully cooked caramel underneath! I also disguised this by adding some crushed pretzel crumbs and drizzled chocolate on top.

Mia Rose!

I would like to announce the birth of my beautiful niece Mia Rose! She was born on April Fool’s Day (no joke) at 11:54 pm, weighing in at 7 lb 7 oz and she is just adorable, and with a full head of dark brown hair! We now have two beautiful, healthy, precious little girls in our family!

Here's proof!

I knew my brother and sister-in-law would be absolutely exhausted upon getting home and could use all of the rest they can get with a newborn so I decided to help them out and cook them a few dinners and save them some time/money! I even had my other niece, Arianna, ‘help me out’ in the kitchen! What a great little helper she is too!

I wanted to think of things that would be super easy for them that they could just throw in the oven or heat up so I settled on homemade mac & cheese with prosciutto and a chicken broccoli cheese casserole. The casserole is so amazingly simple yet delicious, it is a must have on our menu rotation! And of course, I baked them something as well, a zucchini bread.

Macaroni & Cheese with Prosciutto

• 8 ounces elbow macaroni
• Prosciutto, ham, bacon cooked and chopped
• 3 T butter
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 3 T flour
• 2 cups milk
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 t mustard powder or 1 – 1 1/2 t mustard
• 8 ounces american cheese, chopped up
• 4 cups cheddar cheese, shredded and divided
• parmesan cheese
• bread crumbs or panko

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a casserole dish or 9X13 pan. Cook macaroni  in boiling salted water until al dente, drain. Meanwhile, melt butter in saucepan, add onion and saute until soft, 5-7 minutes. Once soft, add flour, whisk and let cook 1-2 minutes. Add milk slowly, whisking to incorporate flour. Add salt & pepper to taste and let come to a boil and begins to thicken. Lower heat and add in american cheese and 2 cups of cheddar, stir until melted. Combine sauce with macaroni and pour into baking dish. Top with other 2 cups of shredded cheddar. Mix bread crumbs or panko with parmesan cheese, sprinkle over top and bake 30 minutes. (I fried up some prosciutto in a little olive oil beforehand to get it somewhat crispy and mixed it in with the cheese sauce and macaroni before baking).  You can add any type of meat you like, or leave it out completely, whatever suits your fancy!

Chicken Broccoli Cheese Casserole

• 1 package broccoli (I use eat smart veggie bags)
• 1 bag cheddar cheese, shredded
• 3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
• 2-3 T lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the cream of mushroom soups, the lemon juice and half of the cheddar cheese. Add cooked chicken and broccoli. Pour into prepared pan and top with remaining half of cheddar cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until heated through. See, I told you it was easy! We like to serve ours over white rice, but you can use whatever you like or just eat it plain! Also, you can add in any other veggies you like, we always add mushrooms with ours but since my brother is ‘allergic,’ I omitted them! I say ‘allergic’ because he really is not, he just doesn’t care for them so he tells restaurants that he is allergic so they don’t make the mistake of putting them in any of his food! Cracks me up! But I did get him to branch out a little and try, and even like, a blue cheese mushroom marsala sauce for steaks (http://wp.me/s1InCv-saucy)!

Last but not least:

Zucchini Bread

• 1 cup oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 t vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 3 t cinnamon
• 1 t salt
• 2 cups grated zucchini

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9X13 pan. Dissolve sugar in oil, add in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add in vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, soda, powder, salt and cinnamon. Add wet to dry, mixing until just incorporated. Fold in zucchini. Pour into prepared pan, fill 2/3 of the way full (if there is extra batter, use for muffins or whatever you’d like…but I fit it all into one pan and it just made one very large super loaf)!