peanutella [chocolate peanut butter]

i eat a lot of peanut butter atop ritz crackers and apples dipped in peanut butter. one of my all time favorite snacks is to melt equal parts peanut butter and chocolate - the darker the better - in the microwave until smooth. while it's nuking, core and slice a crisp, juicy apple. dip until your heart's content. that was one of my favorite snacks when i lived alone and something i still eat relatively frequently now. until i made this chocolate peanut butter. i think of it as a much better tasting version of my bachelorette snack.

cheesy artichoke bread

this bread is a simpler and easier way to both make and eat one of my favorite party foods - artichoke dip. instead of baking the dip in a dish, it's spread on loaves of crusty italian bread. not only is it easy, it's delicious. since we aren't much of the partying type anymore - with all the duplos, little people, talking dinosaurs, and dump trucks hanging around - ours accompanied dinners of fish and salad. with a whopping five minutes of prep, this bread could be a side any night of the week.

chipotle chicken skewers with creamy cilantro dipping sauce

rushing off to a new years eve party? or hosting one yourself? these chicken skewers would be the perfect party food! they're simple to throw together, can be cooked up quickly, and are delicious hot or at room temperature. and who doesn't love food on a stick?!

roasted artichoke dip

around noon on thanksgiving i stopped at the grocery store, halfway between my house and my parents', to get a loaf of bread to go with this dip. as i pulled into the parking lot, almost at a dead stop scanning for a spot, i hear jason yell "woah, woah, woah" at the same time i hear a crunch. i was t-boned in a parking lot by a woman who pulled out of her spot directly into my stopped car. note i said pulled out, not backed out. so if she looked up, she saw me. needless to say, we were all perfectly fine, since the car wasn't moving, but she managed to do $3,500+ in damage, including replacing both of my passenger side doors. thank goodness that's all it was.

white chocolate peanut butter [12in2012]

and let me tell you what, making peanut butter is simple. for any of you that love the all natural stuff, usually with a layer of oil on top that has to be mixed in, will be blown away by the homemade stuff. it just tastes so much better. obviously, since it takes all of 10 minutes (including clean up) to make.

initially, i set out to make two kinds: honey and white chocolate. but jason and i loved the white chocolate version so much better than the honey (instead of adding white chocolate, add a couple tablespoons of honey to your liking) that the honey peanut butter became honey white chocolate peanut butter. it's good right out of the jar, atop a homemade english muffin, or spread over apple slices.

cook's illustrated's blueberry muffins

as soon as my mom mentioned going blueberry picking last week, i knew one of the first things i'd make is blueberry muffins, as they're jason's absolute favorite. sure enough, first thing the very next morning i was googling the best blueberry muffin recipe. i have been pleased with cook's illustrated's baked goods in the past, so i knew they were a good place to start. and after how relatively quickly and simply these came together and how delicious they were, they're my - and jason's - new favorite muffin.

hot pepper jelly

my mother turned my sister on to hot pepper jelly a couple years ago at one of the major holidays. she decided to change things up and introduced us to a new appetizer - hot pepper jelly mixed with cream cheese on crackers. personally, i don't care much for it - i don't particularly care for peppers - but the two of them and other friends and family go crazy for this stuff. so last summer, in the height of pepper season, i made two batches for them for christmas.

honey nut popcorn

while i have professed my new found love of coconut many, many, many times in the last few months, i have yet to profess my love of popcorn. see, before i discovered coconut, i was making popcorn four or five nights a week. i air popped a few cups, tossed it in butter and salt, and that became my evening snack. and as much as i love classic popcorn - when i was a kid, we ate popcorn for dinner a lot on sundays, after our roast earlier in the afternoon - after a couple weeks i was getting ever so slightly bored with it. i love caramel corn, but after many failed attempts and only a few true successes, i wasn't in the mood to mess around with it. besides, i didn't want anything that took more concentration than tossing some popcorn with butter and salt.

until i stumbled upon this honey nut popcorn. it's slightly sweet from the corn syrup and perfectly peanut buttery. and while it does require dirtying one pan on the stove, there are no thermometers involved, so i was able to watch an old grey's anatomy while mixing this up. and since i made such a large batch, i was able to snack on it all week!

peanut butter granola crispy bars

last month when i was mixing up these granola bars, i couldn't stop thinking about how easy and fast they are to make, and the countless flavor combinations. and the classic chocolate and peanut butter beat out the others.

if you've ever made rice krispy treats, you can handle these bars. instead of marshmallow, it's sweetened honey and peanut butter that holds the oats and rice cereal together. topped off with mini chocolate chips, they make a great peanut buttery chocolate snack.

marshmallows [12in2012]

marshmallows tend to divide people as much as mushrooms: you either love them and can't get enough or you can't stand the taste and refuse a smore. i belong to the first camp; jason belongs to the second. how a person can shake their head no and scrunch up their nose to a smore is beyond me, but each and every summer, he does. i don't know if it's nostalgia that gets me - remembering all the marshmallows i caught on fire, melted off my stick and lost into the fire, burned my tongue on, or the few that made it to my smore successfully while camping - or the pillowey sweetness, but i'm a marshmallow lover through and through.

secret recipe club: chewy no bake granola bars & carrot cinnamon waffles

i've been a loyal reader of allison's for at least a year now. it was sweet tooth friday that caught me. each friday allison posts a sweet treat - cookies, cupcakes, ice cream and everything in between - and hosts others to link up their sweets.

 

and since i've been following allison for a while, i was surprised to see her blog, alli 'n sons, was my selection for this month's secret recipe club entry! and that meant i had a hard time choosing a recipe from her blog, especially because i already had a bunch bookmarked in my google reader. i managed to narrow the list down to two: chewy no bake granola bars and carrot and cinnamon waffles.

greek yogurt with pear & maple syrup

for the most part of the last five or so years, every monday through friday morning included a combination of fruit and yogurt for breakfast. for the first fourish years, it was light vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit and occasionally a handful of granola thrown in for kicks. until about a year ago, when tracy, the woman whose office is right next door to mine and usually eats the same breakfast, switched her light vanilla yogurt to vanilla greek yogurt. the rest of us soon followed suit.

churros

these churros are really a testament to trial and error. since churros have been on my to make list for a while now and since my churro expert susie happened to be hanging out after an impromptu dinner tonight, we set out to make these.

the recipe and the dough is surprisingly simple. three things tripped us up: the right size tip when piping them into the hot oil, deflating churros, and the fry time. the first few i made with a small star tip. they were way too small and scrawny, so i upgraded to a large star tip. they were a lot thicker and one side looked beautiful. as the first side was cooking, the other side facing up split right down the center. once we got over the fact that their looks aren't perfect, we noticed some of the larger ones would puff up all nice and golden while cooking and almost immediately after we took them out of the oil, deflated - the middles sunk right in. this time, we weren't cooking them long enough and the insides were still gummy. a few more seconds on each side gave us a nice medium brown we were looking for. and of course we nailed it, with the very last bit of dough.

graham crackers two ways: honey & cinnamon

i made this graham crackers a long time ago - months ago, to be exact. and since i felt ambitious, i decided to make two different kinds and have a taste off. the winner? both. karen's honey graham crackers have the perfect amount of sweetness to them while alton's have the perfect amount of spice from the cinnamon. 

if you haven't made or eaten homemade graham crackers, they don't have much in common with their store bought mass produced counterparts. where store bought crackers are super light, these are definitely a bit more dense, almost like a cookie. and the flavor is light years better than the relatively bland ones from the store.

beer battered green beans with spicy dipping sauce

the last few times i've been to the distillery, i've had their crispy green beans - green beans perfectly fried with a buffalo ranch dipping sauce. since green beans are now competing with cucumbers for the top spot in my garden and i finally have the courage to try frying something again (let's just say i had a batch of homemade donuts that did not end well), i turned about a pound of them into the perfect salty spicy snack.

refrigerator garlic dill pickles

a few years ago, i made a mistake with zucchini. it was the first summer in our house and i was excited to have my own space to grow whatever i wanted. a quarter of the space was dedicated to six zucchini plants. yes, six. i spent the second half of the summer trying to give away zucchini faster than they were growing. i vowed never to plant so many again. that same year, my cucumbers did absolutely nothing.

caramel corn two ways

in the last two years , i have attempted caramel corn at least half a dozen times with zero success. i was determined to tackle it this year, so much so that i added it to my 11 in 2011 list. first i burnt the popcorn (bad enough that have a pan dedicated to stovetop popcorn). then i mastered the popcorn and burnt the caramel. and the last few times, i mastered - or so i thought - the popcorn and the caramel, only to have it turn to sand once the popcorn was coated and cool enough to eat. the only thing worse than taking a big bite of sand coated popcorn, is a bite of actual sand.

mini bacon scallion corn muffins with cheddar cheese

whenever i get invited to a party, i always ask if i can bring something, hoping the response is something simple like "how about dessert? cookies or something would be great!" is that how most people respond? nope. instead, i get "i don't care, bring whatever you'd like." whatever you'd like. sounds simple enough, and for most people, it most likely brings relief.

blackberry crumb cake

i love a good coffee cake. a good breakfast cake with fruit in it. like raspberries. or peaches.

i've just never made one.

why?

that's what my mom does. ever since i can remember my mother has been baking up something. fallen over birthday cakes. homemade cookies in the cookie jar. and since i've grown up, it's a toss up between cinnamon rolls and coffee cake first thing in the morning whenever we stay at their house. for me, it's my mother through and through. and only comes out for special occasions.

so next time you have house guests and want them to feel extra special, whip up this cake. it's easy, tasty, and super moist. i used fresh berries, but i bet frozen would work too. and swap out the blackberries for raspberries if you prefer them. it's your cake! make it how you want it.

blackberry crumb cake
adapted from real simple, july 2010

for the topping:
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

for the cake:
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into pieces
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups blackberries (about 1 pound)

1. preheat the oven to 350F. grease an 8 inch square baking dish.
2. in the bowl of a food processor, making the crumb topping by pulsing all ingredients until crumbly. pour out of the processor and set aside.
3. make the cake in the food processor too. pulse the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until crumbly. in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, and vanilla together. add the dry ingredients from the processor to the egg mixture and mix until combined.
4. pour the cake batter into the pan and top with the blackberries. sprinkle the topping over the cake. bake about 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. let the cake cool in the pan before serving. and cool completely. otherwise you might end up with berries down your shirt and a soupy piece of cake.
   

bread & butter refrigerator pickles

i was super excited last saturday when i saw these beauties at the public market for $1.

it's finally cucumber season. and with cucumber season comes pickles. only i couldn't decide which ones to make. traditional dill? bread & butter? super garlic dill? sweet? they all sounded good so the decision came down to one thing: jason. after 2 seconds of thought he decided bread & butter all the way. there's no way i was going to can my first round of pickles. i needed a good refrigerator recipe. lucky for me, smitten kitchen made some last month from her farmer's market cukes (hey, how'd she get cucumbers a month before me?!)

with recipe in hand, i set out to cut up the cukes & onion. stupidly, i used the slicing blade for my food processor to whiz through all six cukes and 2 small onions in 2 minutes. smart because it only took a couple minutes. stupid because they came out way way way too thin. next time i'll take the extra couple minutes to hand slice the cukes into thicker slices.

once the cucumbers and onions are sliced, pickles couldn't be easier. mix them up with some salt in a large bowl. cover with ice and let sit about 2 hours.

when the cukes & onions have about 15 minutes left to sit, start making the pickling liquid. it's a simple sweetened and spiced up (turmeric, mustard, coriander and celery seed) vinegar mixture. bring it to a boil and remove from heat.

drain the cucumbers and onion (don't rinse) and add to the liquid. stir thoroughly and place into a quart jar. refrigerate. we let them sit in the refrigerator over night before eating like crazy. if you make them in the morning, i'm sure you could have some for the night's dinner.

...and i never realized tumeric is the big flavor difference between these and sweet/dill pickles (and adds the characteristic yellow color). interesting. never would have guessed that.

easy bread & butter refrigerator pickles
get the recipe at smitten kitchen