Sister Weekend

This weekend my sister got to come visit!  It was a weekend filled with eating, shopping (mostly of the window variety), and laughing.  She got in Friday afternoon and that evening we went and ate at The Firehouse.  She got to meet a lot of my co-workers and we split a piece of home made pumpkin pecan cheesecake that was amazing!  Well, we ate normal food too, but the dessert was the highlight.

Saturday morning we hit up a few shops in town and then headed to Asheville, North Carolina.  This would be her first trip to Asheville, so not only was I excited for her to experience it, but I was super excited about the drive there.  The leaves are absolutely gorgeous right now and I couldn't wait to see the mountains covered in them!

Once we got into Asheville we stopped by Mast General Store and French Broad Chocolate Lounge.  French Broad is a very well known chocolate shop, especially in the south.  There was a whole wall of framed magazine articles that they had been featured in, including Martha Stewart Living and several from Southern Living.  The wait was only 12 minutes or so, which wasn't bad.  I've waited close to 25 minutes before!  Amanda got a French macaroon and I got a piece of shortbread dipped in chocolate and sprinkled in pistachios.  It was very good, as I expected.

After that we stopped in Malaprop's and Bookends, both book stores.  Then Tops for Shoes, a shoe store where I petted all the Toms, and L.O.F.T.  L.O.F.T is a funky little shop with all sorts of cute and odd knick knacks.  I've gotten lots of gifts there over the years but didn't find anything this time.  By this time we were getting really hungry and went to put our name in at Tupelo Honey Cafe, because I knew there would be a wait.  The hostess told us it would be about 30-40 minutes, but it ended up only being about 20.  And in that time we were able to look around in the store next door, so it went by pretty quickly.

Amanda and I ended up ordering the same thing - their massive grilled cheese and tomato soup.  It had havarti cheese, goat cheese, ham, bacon, a fried green tomato, and basil on sourdough wheat bread.  Delicious!  The original sandwich actually had pimento cheese on it, but I subbed goat and Amanda subbed cheddar.   When we left we were stuffed and moaning about wanting to put our stretchy pants on.

We headed home after that, and encountered the weirdest weather along the way.  It started out fine, then out of nowhere it started pouring, and then it started sleeting!  A few minutes later everything stopped and there was a huge rainbow.  It was quite bizaire!  I had wanted to stop at the scenic overlook on the way home, so I was glad that all the bad weather stopped a few miles before the overlook.  These views never cease to amaze me!

We were having some issues with the self-timer...

...and then a cute little old man offered to take our picture.

After we got home we wasted no time changing into comfy clothes, watched tv, ate popcorn and went to bed early, even though we knew we were getting an extra hour of sleep.  Sunday morning we stopped by Panera for bagels before church, then went to church, and after that Amanda headed back to Blacksburg.  I'm so thankful for a great weekend during my favorite season, with my favorite sister - ok, my only sister - before I move away!

Brownie Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

This was another Pinterest recipe for the band.  Honestly I didn't think they were that great, but the band loved them so I decided to put them on the blog.  The brownie cupcakes were fine, it was the peanut butter frosting that I had problems with.  Now don't get me wrong, I love peanut butter (a lot), but I thought this frosting was too much like straight-up peanut butter and not enough like frosting.  It was still quite dense, and in my opinion not fluffy enough to be frosting.  I don't know if it's just the recipe or if I didn't mix the ingredients correctly or what.  I guess you'll just have to take a chance and try it for yourself!

Brownie Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients

• cupcakes
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 8 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• frosting
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temp
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350. Line a standard 12 cup muffin tin with paper cups. Line an 8 inch square pyrex dish with parchment paper and grease.
2. Mix canola oil and butter, add cocoa and stir until well blended.
3. Beat eggs with a mixer. Add sugar and vanilla, beat well. Add flour and salt. * Stir in chocolate chips. 
4. Fill the muffin tins about 3/4 of the way full, using about half of the brownie batter. Spoon the other half into the prepared pyrex dish.
5. Bake the cupcakes for about 8-10 minutes and the pan brownies for about 18-23 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting. Using the parchment paper lift the brownies from the pan and allow to cool before cutting into shapes.
6. Frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment (or an electric handheld mixer), add the peanut butter, confectioners sugar, butter, vanilla and salt. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy and smooth. Slowly add the cream and beat on very high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy.
7. To assemble the cupcakes take the cooled brownies and using a 1 inch heart shaped (or any other fun shape you may desire) cookie cutter and cut out 12 hearts. Frost or pipe as desired and top each cupcake with a heart.
8. If you do not want to make brownie hearts, just use the remaining batter to make 12 more cupcakes and double the frosting recipe. 
9.  * I realized in the directions that it never says when to add the baking powder, so I just added it with the flour and salt.

from Half Baked Harvest

Chocolate Chip Muffins

I'm pretty sure these are the first plain chocolate chip muffins I've ever made, and I don't think I'll be looking for a new recipe - these were wonderful!  Easy to make, light, fluffy, and full of chocolate...what more could you ask for in a chocolate chip muffin?

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray the wells of the pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla, mixing until well combined.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid ingredients into the well. Stir until ingredients are just combined - do not over mix the batter. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Evenly divide the batter into the prepared muffin pan wells. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
6. Remove muffins to a wire rack and cool for at least 5 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

from My Baking Addiction

Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Crescent Cookies

Another Pinterest recipe!  These were super simple to make, and apparently very tasty to eat.  I made them for The Well band to have to munch on during their practice on Tuesday night.  Usually there will be leftovers and I'll go grab one for myself when I get there Wednesday afternoon to set up, but when I got there yesterday there was nothing but an empty plate!

I would make these again, but I would make one change - I wouldn't use all of the cream cheese mixture.  I like cream cheese, but I wish there had been a little bit less of it and more crescent role.

Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Crescent Cookies

Original

Ingredients

1 can seamless crescent rolls

1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese, room temp

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.

Unroll the crescent roll. Stretch out the dough into a rectangle. (If you can't find the seamless crescent dough then just make sure you pinch the seams together well.)

Spread the cream cheese mixture over the top of the crescent dough - leave a gap at the edge of about 1/2 inch.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Roll the crescent roll up tightly and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Once chilled - preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Slice the cookie log into about 1/4 inch slices. Bake on prepared sheet for 10 - 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Let cool on sheet for about 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies and Cream Cookies

These are the cookies I made for our Pinterest Party!  Since the Oreos are the only thing that give them the chocolate flavor, they're light, not dense; so they'd be perfect for those of you who don't like super rich, chocolatey desserts.

Cookies and Cream Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup crushed Oreos

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. In a stand mixer, beat together the butter, sugars, salt, vanilla, baking soda, and baking powder until well combined. Add the egg, beating until smooth.
2. Add the flour and milk and mix until smooth. Put about one cup of oreos in a plastic bag and crush them using a meat tenderizer or a cleaver. I crushed mine to the point where there were still some big chunks, but also most of it was smaller crumbs. Pour the crushed oreos into the dough mixture and mix again until oreos are thoroughly incorporated.
3. Shape cookie dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter and place them on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. If you want the cookies to spread more, you might want to flatten the balls with the palm of your hands before baking.
4. Bake the cookies for 11 to 15 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown at the bottom.
5. Remove from the oven, and move cookies to cookie rack to finish cooling.

Layered Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars

I've made these twice in the past three weeks, and they have been quite a hit!  The first time I made them one of the guys said they were addicting, and Sunday night I made them for my ministry team and it was one of the guys that asked for the recipe.  So ladies, if you need to bake something to impress the fellas, this might be one to try!

Layered Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars

adapted from Jif recipes

Ingredients

No-stick cooking spray

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c. packed brown sugar

2/3 c. creamy peanut butter

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 c. all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 c. quick rolled oats

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 13 x 9-inch pan with a no-stick cooking spray. Melt chocolate chips in dry, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100% power) 1 minute. Stir. Microwave at additional, 10- to 15-second intervals, stirring just until chips are melted. Set aside.
2. Beat together brown sugar, peanut butter and butter in large bowl with an electric mixer, until smooth and creamy. Add egg and vanilla. Beat until well blended.
3. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to peanut butter mixture. Beat just until combined. Stir in oats. Press 3/4 of dough into prepared baking pan. Spread evenly with melted chocolate. Dot chocolate layer with remaining dough.
4. Bake 24 to 26 minutes. Cool. Cut into 24 bars.

Swoon Pies

Every Tuesday night The Well band has practice, and one of the girls on ministry teams make a snack for them, and it was my turn today.  Having a hungry group of college guys who will eat anything is useful for when I want to try a new recipe but then don't want treats at the house to tempt me.  Tonight I made a recipe from the February issue of Southern Living, and they're called Swoon Pies.  I'll confess that I'm not the best at planning ahead when I cook.  A lot of times I'll try a recipe just because the picture looks good, which is dumb because it's all staged for magazines anyways.  Or I'll glance over the ingredients, and if they don't seem too bizarre I'll go for it, without reading the directions first.  This often results in me in the kitchen late at night saying, "What have I gotten myself into?"  This happened last night while making these.  They weren't necessarily hard to make, just very time consuming.  It was well worth it though, because they ended up looking great and were a huge hit with the band, and a few other people who managed to get a hold of one...

Swoon Pies

Ingredients

For cookies:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 8oz. container of sour cream
• Parchment paper

For marshmallow filling:

•  1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 1 cup marshmallow creme
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

For chocolate topping:

• 1 12oz. package semisweet chocolate morsels
• 2 tsp. shortening
• Toppings: chopped nuts, chopped crystallized ginger, sea salt. * I just used sprinkles

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together flour and next 3 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir in graham cracker crumbs.
• Beat butter and next 2 ingredients at medium speed.  Add egg and vanilla, beating until blended.
• Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  Beat at low speed until blended after each addition.
• Drop batter by rounded table-spoonfuls 2 inches apart onto parchment paper lined backing sheets.  Bake for 13-15 minutes or until set and bottoms are golden brown.  Remove cookies to wire racks, and cool completely (about 30 minutes).

 For filling:

• Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating well.  Add remaining ingredients, beating until well blended.

• After cookies have cooled, turn half of them over, bottom sides up.  Spread each with 1 heaping tablespoonful of marshmallow filling. Top with remaining cookies, bottom sides down and press gently to spread filling to edges.  Freeze on parchment paper-lined baking sheets for 30 minutes or until set.
• Pour water to depth of 1 inch in a medium saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, and simmer; place chocolate and shortening in a medium-size heatproof bowl over simmering water.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 5 to 6 minutes or until melted.  Remove from heat, and let cool 10 minutes. *
• Meanwhile, remove cookies from freezer, and let stand 10 minutes.
• Dip half of each cookie sandwich into melted chocolate mixture.  Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Sprinkle with desired toppings, and freeze 10 minutes or until chocolate is set.
•  *  I did not use the double boiler method to melt my chocolate.  I just thoroughly coated the inside of a pot with cooking spray and melted the chocolate and shortening together on low heat.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I hate that I haven't posted since Monday!  I've had something every night this week, and as much as I love the blog, I love sleep too, and it won out this week.  My last post was about the 80's skate night, and after I left the skating rink, I had to go to Kroger.  I took out my side pony tail and took off the striped leg warmers, but I still felt ridiculous walking in there with my yellow tights and and bright blue eye shadow!  But I had to get ingredients to make dessert for The Well band Tuesday night.  Last week Sherri had posted a recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Cookies; they looked delicious and I knew I wanted to make them for the band.  They were easy to make and chocolate peanut butter perfection!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 1 c. peanut butter
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 bag Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
• extra sugar to roll dough in

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350* and place Reese's in the freezer until ready to use (this allows the wrappers to come off cleanly).
• Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt with wire whisk and set aside.
• Beat butter and peanut butter.  Add sugar and beat until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla.
• Add four mixture to wet ingredients and mix well.
• Roll dough into 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls and roll in sugar.
• Press dough into the cavities of a mini muffin tin, and then push an unwrapped Reese's into the dough.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.  Makes 2-3 dozen cookies.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Today I made one of my all-time favorite recipes - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins!  They're good year round, but I think they taste better in the fall.  It seems that every time I make these somebody says "But I don't like pumpkin," to which I reply "Just try it, you'll probably like it," and they always do :)  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 15 oz. can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

• In a large bowl, mix eggs, oil, sugar, and pumpkin until smooth.
• In a medium bowl, mix the remaining ingredients, except the chocolate chips, and then add to the wet ingredients.
• Fold in chocolate chips
• Bake at 375* for 18-20 minutes.

Decorations and Dessert

As promised, here are some photos of my fabulously fallish door front!  My favorite part is the wreath, which my grandma made me for my birthday a few years ago. 

This is where I get my craftyness from!

Meet Molly the Mum

And I tried a new dessert today.  They're called Chocolate In-Betweens, and I got the recipe from Lauren's blog Only From Scratch.  I made one change to it though.  I added 1/3 cup of butterscotch chips to the mixture.

Monday Munchies

I'm writing this on Sunday evening, but scheduling it to release on Monday because I'll be gone on a retreat.  We're having a leadership retreat and I needed to make a snack to munch on.  A couple weeks ago at Wal Mart I noticed that they've come out with all these flavored marshmellows, one package was Caramel and Vanilla.  I didn't buy them, but have definitely been thinking about what I could do with them.  Then I thought that they would be great in Rice Crispie Treats!  So after church today I went to Kroger to pick up the marshmellows and Rice Crispies, but was so disappointed to find out that Kroger didn't have them. Nooo!  I really didn't feel like going over to Wal Mart.  And even though I had lots of recipes at home I wanted to try,  I didn't want to go home to find out what ingredients I needed and make another trip back.  So I was going to have to figure something else out while at Kroger, and I didn't want to make regular Rice Crispie Treats, so I turned around and looked at the cake mixes on the shelf behind me, since they have recipes on the sides.  That's when I found one for Peanut Butter Fudge Bars from Pillsbury and went with it!

Ingredients

1 package Pillsbury Moist Supreme Golden Butter Recipe Cake Mix

1 cup crunchy peanut butter (it called for Jif, but I used Kroger brand)

1/3 cup water

1 egg

1 16 oz. can of Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Chocolate Fudge Frosting

1/2 crunchy peanut butter

1 cup candy coated chocolate pieces aka M&Ms

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350* and spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl combine cake mix, 1 cup of peanut butter, water, and egg.  Spread into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown (I baked for 20).  Cool completely.

In a small bowl blend frosting and peanut butter, spread on cooled bars.

Is there a better combination than chocolate and peanut butter?  I think not!

 Top with M&Ms and chopped peanuts.

That is 1 cup of happiness!  My friend Sherri wrote the M&M people and asked them why they put ugly brown in with all the pretty colors.  And they wrote her back and said it was so people wouldn't confuse them with Skittles.  Who knew?!?

When Jenni and I lived together, she had this handy little chopper thing that I would use a lot when I cooked and baked.  Well, since I don't have one anymore, I had to improvise.  At first I put the peanuts in a Ziploc bag and beat them with a wooden spoon.  But that just resulted in the bag busting and peanuts flying everywhere.  So then I poured the peanuts in a mixing bowl and crushed them with the bottom of a can of soup.  Hey, whatever works!

So cheerful!

Oh. my. dear. sweet. goodness.  This is good!  And rich.  And for me to say something is rich, it's rich!

Monday Continued: Chocolate Mint Cookies

All of the following pictures were taken yesterday and were intended to be on yesterday's post, but it got to be too late and I needed to go to bed.  So I did.  And so you're getting them today...

Every other week or so I make some sort of dessert for The Well band when they practice on Tuesday nights.  Earlier in the semester I made my Chocolate Mint Cookies and they were a huge hit.  Huge!  When I made them a second time, Henry even took some for himself and hid them from everyone else.  Two weeks ago I figured I'd let them request the last dessert of the semester and my "conversation" with Henry went something like this...

Me: Since there are only two weeks of The Well left, which desser...

Henry: MINT COOKIES! We want the Mint Cookies!

So that settled it, I'd be making Chocolate Mint Cookies Monday night.  I figured I'd get right to work on them and started making the dough as soon as I got home from work.  I looked down at one point and realized that the combination of Chaco's and a pink, plaid apron was slightly odd, but at the same time, completely me.

And I've never posted a recipe, let alone taken pictures of me cooking something, but figured it would be a good time to start!

Chocolate Mint Cookies:

3/4 c. butter

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

2 tbl. water

2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

2 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 packages of Andes mints, broken in half

Step 1) In a saucepan over medium heat melt butter, brown sugar, and water.  Remove from heat and add chocolate chips until melted.  

Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

This smells so good!  It's hard not to eat it alone!

Step 2) Pour chocolate mixture into a large bowl and beat in eggs one at a time. 

Step 3) Combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add to the chocolate mixture and mix well.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Step 4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray cookie sheets with non-stick spray or use parchment paper, which I recommend.  Roll dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.  The dough can be really thick when it comes out of the fridge, almost like fudge.  I usually use an ice-cream scoop to get it out, and then roll it into balls.  Bake for 8-10 mintues.

Step 5) When cookies come out of the oven, place half of an Andes mint on top of each cookie.  Let them sit for about 1 minute and then use the back of a spoon or a knife to spread the melted mint on top of the cookie.  Let the chocolate cool and set before serving.

The finished product!