May 23, 2010

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

Yes you read that correctly. BACON! These cookies were a birthday treat for my precious bacon-loving friend, Whitney. They were a hit at her pre-birthday tapas celebration last week! Six of us ladies scarfed them down for dessert. Ca-caw!

The recipe comes from my best baking friend, Joy! She’s my go-to person when I want to bake something sweet and different! I love her. I love bacon. I love peanut butter. I love super easy recipes. So it’s a match made in heaven!

Let’s talk about how IN-CRED-IBLE these cookies are! The salty sweet combo is WICKED! They are chewy because of the brown sugar, crispy because of the bacon, and crunchy because of the light sugar coating! My mouth waters as I type this…I really wish I saved a secret stash of them. If you are a bacon lover, this recipe will not disappoint. I’m pretty sure Elvis would have been tickled for a tray full of these! CONTINUE READING

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May 20, 2010

Stuffed Poblanos

Here’s a pretty easy and straightforward recipe for you! You are going to need to whip out your blender for the sauce! There’s a little bit of prep involved with about an hour of cooking–but that’s it. This means you can clean up your kitchen and watch your kid run around outside in the backyard while you wait. Or you can get in an episode of one of those trashy shows you’ve been telling me about! The smell that will waft from your kitchen is worth the effort you put in. You might even find yourself watching commercials instead of fast forwarding…because the scent is so intoxicating. Believe me.

The peppers will get fork tender after all that roasting and the cornmeal/ black bean/ cheese mixture turns part solid and part gooey inside the peppers. It’s as if a tamale mated with a chile relleno and produced a lighter & healthier offspring! (YES- I really just said the word mate!) You are going to want to spoon a bunch of the leftover sauce on your pepper. You’ll probably sit there imagining what else to put that sauce on…if you have any left. It’s quite enjoyable. Go ahead, top it with some hot sauce. You like it spicy, don’t you? You’ll find that the peppers taste even better the next day. Funny what a little overnight stay in the fridge will do to a pepper. Enjoyable, huh?
CONTINUE READING

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May 19, 2010

Carrot Pineapple Bundt Cake w/ Sour Cream Frosting

Somehow I got the idea that you need an occasion to make a cake. Like you can’t just make a cake because it’s a Thursday and you want one. That’s bad. That kind of thinking gets you into trouble. In a perfect world every day is worthy of cake, isn’t it? My excuse/occasion for making this cake was that my husband has been working his ass off for the past few weeks at work and deserved one. And thank god he’s been working hard, because if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have this heavenly recipe to share!

Carrot cake! We loooooove carrot cake. A carrot bundt cake? I’m intrigued! A few weeks ago, I showed Casey the photo of this cake from the magazine and he insisted that there wasn’t enough frosting. NOT TRUE. There’s tons! Like a ridiculous amount of it. There was a pool of frosting in the middle of the bundt hole and yes, I went for it. No one witnessed my moment of gluttony so it might not have happened. So how did it go? Extremely well! The best part of this cake? The crunchy caramelized edges you get from using a bundt pan! It reminds me of a cross between a pineapple upside down cake, a coffee cake and carrot cake! Three of my favorites! The tang of the sour cream is a perfect substitution for the classic carrot cake’s cream cheese frosting. Total winner. It’s going in the cake rotation fo’sho!

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May 16, 2010

Blackberry Ginger Sours

I probably shouldn’t drink & blog but I HAFTA tell you that these are SCRUMPTIOUS before I forget! Imagine me saying the word SCRUMPTIOUS with the biggest slur! I’m totally at the slurring stage. SHUT UP!! Don’t make fun of me. I had a gin & tonic on Friday with my neighbor. Gin…a libation that I’ve hated ever since I started my career in drinking. I couldn’t turn away a drink that my neighbor mixed, so I drank it and was pleasantly surprised. The best part about drinking the gin & tonic was how it took the sharp edge off my day. In the past, when I had a sip of gin, all I could taste was pine trees. Now I realize that it really depends what it’s mixed with! Suddenly I like it and am not reminded of Santa and Christmas. Ho ho ho.

I decided to make us some fancy drinks with gin today! Blackberry Ginger Sours! They aren’t super super sweet. They aren’t super sour. They are a perfect balance of adultness with a little bit of fun. Half way through my first drink, I started to feel wonderfully buzzed. It was like I had a nice fuzzy blanket all around me. Yes, I am talking about my buzz. It was glorious. What a nice way to get to my happy place! Oh and wow! I forgot how yummy blackberries are. I can’t remember the last time I had one. When I was a kid? I am so glad they are on my radar again.

Ok that’s enough. I don’t think I’m making sense here. Bottom line=You should make this.
CONTINUE READING

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May 14, 2010

Pineapple Mango Carrot Ginger Juice

That’s a mouthful, huh? I’ve had this mango and pineapple sitting in my kitchen staring me in the face all week. Today was their peak day of ripeness so I rolled up my sleeves and cut them up and juiced. With a few carrots and ginger added to the mix, we have ourselves a little tasty afternoon beverage! It’s definitely thirst quenching on a hot day. With a little kick from the ginger, it’s sweet & spicy! Me likey.

In my juicing research, I’ve seen a few sources discuss how great it is to freeze pineapple & mango pulp. When you juice a mango, you don’t get tons of juice– but you do get a nice mango sludge! Go on, take a taste! After juicing, I put the pineapple mango pulp into an ice cube tray to freeze. I think it will be fun to throw a few cubes into a smoothie or maybe add a few in some sparkly water later on in the day. Perhaps I’ll bypass the freezing process next time around and stir some directly into my yogurt!

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May 13, 2010

Bell Pepper Egg-in-a-hole

I’ve been running out of breakfast ideas that are quick and healthy so I was delighted to find this little concoction in the latest Everyday Food magazine. It’s a fun to make and it’s a healthy alternative to the egg-in a hole that I love so much. I think a little drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar on top would be delightful…or maybe I’ll top it with some black beans, cilantro and hot sauce! I’ll get on that tomorrow morning. Hope you enjoy it too!