White Chocolate Peanut Butter

This is one of those recipes that I tagged a couple of months ago to make and just got around to it. I have to tell you, making this recipe has inspired me to make other kinds of butters too.  It was super easy, super fast, and super delicious!  I have been spreading it on some Banana and Peanut Butter Chip Bread that I made and will post about soon.  Great combination!

A good place to start is with peanuts, sort of vital to peanut butter.

Using your food processor, chop them up until they look a little like this.

Drizzle in some oil and vanilla until it gets creamy.

Melt some white chocolate and add it in.

Blend until it's well mixed.

Now, try not to eat it all in one sitting.

Find the recipe here

Chocolate Nutella Cookies

Nutella. Cookies. I don't see anyway these two things together could possibly be bad.  I was right, they're awesome!  The thing I loved most about these cookies are their texture, I'm really into chewy cookies and these fit the bill.  The chocolate flavor comes from Nutella of course but also from unsweetened cocoa powder so they don't take exactly like Nutella, but chocolaty non-the-less.

These cookies are easy to make and perfect for a picnic for barbecue since there aren't chocolate chips to get all melty.  I dig these.

Found the recipe here

Frozen Cherry Mojitos

When I saw this recipe on another blog I knew instantly I'd be making, and soon. With temperatures around here in the mid to upper 90's already I can't think of anything more satisfying than a frozen drink.  Cherries happen to be one of may favorites so that didn't hurt either.

I didn't have much time to whip this up but I plan to make them again very soon so I'll freeze the glasses ahead of time, and make the simple syrup in advance so it can cool properly.  I loved this drink, my friends loved it too.  I have a sweet tooth (in case you haven't noticed) so I thought it was perfect just as is, but if you don't like your drinks overly sweet, just add the simple syrup a little at a time until you reach your desired sweetness level.

Add the sugar and water to a small pot, zest three limes and then juice them and add to the sugar water. 

Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.

Let cool until room temperature.

Rum!

Frozen cherries...

Ice, mint, simple syrup - Now blend the heck out of it.

You should go make this, you'll be happy you did.

I found this recipe here

1 pound bag frozen pitted cherries
3 cups crushed ice, plus extra to serve if desired
1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves
1 cup white rum
Lime Simple Syrup, recipe follows
Lime wedges and fresh cherries, for garnish

Place the frozen cherries, ice, mint, rum, and lime simple syrup in a blender. Blend until smooth.
Pour the mixture into chilled glasses and top with crushed ice. Garnish with lime wedges and cherries.


Simple Syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 limes, juiced and zested

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, lime juice, and lime zest over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the syrup to cool to room temperature minutes before using. If making in advance, store in a sealed container within the refrigerator.

Red Velvet Crepe Cakes

Pardon the photo above, this was my Memorial Day block party dessert. Huge "Wow" factor going on here. This recipe makes two cakes and it it somewhat labor intensive but the look on people's face when they see it is priceless. This is a very rich cake (hello, every layer has frosting) and the texture is obviously different then a regular cake; not so much light and fluffy but more like dense and sweet.

This recipe was found in a "Taste of Home" magazine I received and I thought it would be fun to try.  I'm glad I did. It's not difficult to put together; but pull up a chair in front of your stove top because you're going to be there for a while. 

Begin with a boxed Red Velvet cake mix, and add more flower, eggs, egg yolks, butter, milk and vanilla.

Use a 1/4 Cup measuring cup and pour the mixture onto a hot, lightly greased 8 inch skillet.  Pick the skillet up and move the mixture around so it's circular and thin. 

Let this side cook until the tops start to look dry.

Flip over and let cook for another 15-30 seconds.  Re-grease the pan as needed.  I think I re-greased about every third or fourth crepe.

Add to a cooling rack.  I had two cooling racks and by the time the 3rd crepe was done the crepe on the first cooling wrack was ready to be moved to wax paper.

Get two cake plates ready.  When they are all cooked and cooled, put one crepe on each plate with about a Tbsp of frosting.  Frost each layer to within about 1/2 inch from the edge.  Continue stacking and frosting until they are all used.  Frost the entire cake and decorate as desired. 

I should tell you, I had some problems with the crepe's breaking off from the edges and mixing in with the frosting - hence the red sprinkles you see above.

You can find the recipe here.

Here's the recap:

Ingredients


1 package (18-1/4 ounces) red velvet cake mix
2-3/4 cups whole milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 teaspoons vanilla extract

FROSTING:

5 packages (3 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1-1/4 cups butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 cups confectioners' sugar
5 teaspoons vanilla extract
Fresh blueberries

Directions

•In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, milk, flour, eggs, egg yolks,
butter and vanilla; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium
for 2 minutes.

•Heat a lightly greased 8-in. nonstick skillet over medium heat; pour
1/4 cup batter into center of skillet. Lift and tilt pan to coat
bottom evenly. Cook until top appears dry; turn and cook 15-20
seconds longer. Remove to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter,
greasing skillet as needed. When cool, stack crepes with waxed paper
or paper towels in between.

•For frosting, in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and salt
until fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until
smooth.

•To assemble two crepe cakes, place one crepe on each of two cake
plates. Spread each with one rounded tablespoon frosting to within
1/2 in. of edges. Repeat layers until all crepes are used. Spread
remaining frosting over tops and sides of crepe cakes. Garnish with
blueberries. Yield: 2 crepe cakes (8 servings each).

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Still on my quest to find the "perfect" chocolate chip cookie.  I'll probably always be on that quest, lets face it.  I did however really enjoy these!  The combination of browned butter and dark brown sugar give these a toffee like cookie dough flavor.  The color is much deeper than a regular chocolate chip cookie and they are moist and chewy just like I like em.

I couldn't find my camera during the making of the cookies so sadly this is all I have, the finished product.  Try these, you won't be sorry.

These are simple to make, although very different from regular chocolate chip cookies.  When browning the butter just be patient, it'll turn a nice golden color if you keep watching it and stirring every so often.

Once you combine the sugar with the browned butter it'll look very buttery and not very well combined.  It's ok, it's supposed to look that way. Once you start to add in the other ingredients it'll start to look normal again.

I found the recipe here.  The info below is copied directly from the link to the left.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies


Yield: 2 1/2 dozen
Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 12 min
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon half and half cream
1 Tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 cups chocolate chips


Directions:
1. Sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
2. Melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Continue to cook on low heat, stirring often, until butter is browned. Turn off heat and stir in white and brown sugars.
3. Scrape into a medium mixing bowl and use electric mixer to cream the butter and sugars together. Add half & half, lemon juice, vanilla extract and eggs. Mix in until well combined. Add half of the flour mixture and incorporate into the batter with electric mixer. Add the rest and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be very soft and buttery. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until firm (an hour or two).
4. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop up heaping Tablespoonfuls of cookie dough and use your hands to roll into balls. Place 12 balls on a sheet, keeping about an inch and a half between each ball.
5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, depending on how large you've rolled your balls (mine took 11 minutes).

Tips:
*Milk may be used in place of the half and half cream, if needed.
*I prefer to use bittersweet chocolate chips in this cookie recipe.
*Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Source: RecipeGirl.com (Adapted from Alton Brown)

Chunky Guacamole

Memorial Day is upon us!  I'm so excited for this long weekend to thank our Military and spend some much needed time with our family and friends.  I hope you're all going to be spending some much needed time enjoying the life that our Military has made possible for us all.

Burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, beans....and guacamole!  Traditional barbecue food that we all love.  I've been making this guacamole dip ever since I saw it on The Food Network from Ina Garten.  I just love it.  I hope you do also. 

Four Haas Avocado's

Above is the avocado, onion, tomatoes, hot sauce, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Just throw it all in a bowl.

In a medium sized bowl, use two knives to slice the avocado's into bite sized pieces while incorporating all of the other ingredients at the same time.  Make the chunks as big or small as you like. 

Yum, enjoy! Happy Memorial Day!



4 Ripe Haas Avocado's
3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
8 dashes hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup small diced onion
1 large garlic,  minced
1 medium tomato, seeded and diced
Salt and Pepper to taste

Remove the pits from the avocados, take the peel off.  Squeeze the lemon juice over the avocado.  Add the rest of the ingredients; use two knives to cut the avocado's into bite sized pieces.  Add Salt and Pepper to taste. 

I found this recipe here

Caramel Sauce

I may have some sort of weird addiction to caramel sauce.  I'm just sayin, this is the second recipe I'll have posted about caramel and it's not likely to end anytime soon.

This one is super easy and super yummy.  That my friends is a dangerous combination.

Then entire recipe only has 4 ingredients.

Bring the first 3 ingredients to a hard boil for two minutes.

Add the sweetened condensed milk and let boil for just a minute.  Then remove from the heat.

Seriously.  That's it, you're done now.  Refrigerate in an air proof container, or eat all in one sitting.  It's totally up to you, I won't judge.

You can find the recipe here.