Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting

Chocolate and peanut butter is the best combination of all time.  Combining them in a cupcake only seems fitting.  I just used a box cake mix and added a miniature Reese's cup to it.  Just bake the cupcakes like you normally would and set the Reese's in the middle.  DO NOT push it down, I did that once and the chocolate melts and burns at the bottom. The best part is the frosting, it's so yummy :)

tastes as good as it looks

Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter

Half a stick of unsalted butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Make it

With a mixer, beat peanut butter and butter together in large bowl until it is well combined and you can't see butter chunks anymore.  

Add the vanilla extract, and half of the milk and powdered sugar.  

Beat together until combined and then add the remaining milk and sugar.  

Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Chicken lasagna roll ups

This recipe is so good and so easy :)  It's a great twist on regular old lasagna, I like to use chicken but ground beef would be good too.

pre-cooked deliciousness

Chicken Lasagna roll ups

What you need:

1 jar of pasta sauce

8 oz ricotta cheese

about 3 cups cooked chopped chicken (I like to use a rotisserie chicken)

1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

1 egg

1 tsp. garlic powder

8 lasagna noodles

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1/4 c. parmesan cheese

Make it:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Boil water and add noodles

While noodles are cooking, mix together the ricotta, parmesan, chicken, egg, garlic powder and italian seasoning.

Once the noodles are done lay them all out and put the filing on each noodle, making sure you distribute it evenly. If you do it all at once you won't run out.

Roll each noodle and put half the pasta sauce in the bottom of you pan, place the rolls in the pan and cover with remaining pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Bake for about 30 minutes

Cheesecake stuffed strawberries

Just another cute easy thing to make that everyone will like :)

cheesecake strawberries 

Ingredients

2 pints of strawberries

Graham crackers crumbs

8 oz. package of cream cheese

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 Tbsp. powdered sugar

1/2 a bar of dark chocolate for drizzling



Make it

Wash and cut off the tops of the strawberries.  Using a small paring knife, cut the inside of the strawberry out.  Mix cream cheese with vanilla and powdered sugar with a blender.

 Fill strawberries with the cream cheese mixture by putting it in a plastic bag for easy filling.

Press top of the strawberry in cracker crumbs.

Melt the chocolate and put it in a plastic bag.  Cut the tip off and drizzle over strawberries.

Crispy oven fish

Mixed it up a bit with some fish the other day, I found this recipe at Kraftfoods.com and it is delish!

I doubled the recipe because I had four pieces of fish so we could have extra!

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/crispy-oven-fried-fish-118204.aspx

crunchy fish from the oven

Crispy oven fish

Ingredients

5

 RITZ Reduced Fat Crackers, finely crushed (about 1/4 cup)

1/4

cup  panko bread crumbs

2

Tbsp.  KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

1/2

tsp.  garlic powder

1/8

tsp.  ground red pepper (cayenne)

1

 egg

1

Tbsp.  KRAFT Mayo Fat Free Mayonnaise Dressing

2

tsp.  GREY POUPON Dijon Mustard

1

Tbsp.  flour

2

 tilapia fillets (1/2 lb.)

Make it

HEAT oven to 425ºF.

MIX  crackers, bread crumbs, cheese, garlic powder, and red pepper together in a shallow dish such as a pie plate. Beat egg,

dressing and mustard with fork in separate pie plate until well blended. Place flour on plate.

Dip fish in flour then egg mixture then bread crumb mixture and place on a foil covered baking sheet or put a cooling rack on a baking sheet to keep the fish from getting soggy on the bottom.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until the fish flakes easily with fork.

Peanut butter and chocolate torte

Peanut butter and chocolate might be the greatest combination of all time, in my opinion anyway.

I have made this recipe twice, the first one turned out really good and the second not so much.  The biggest mistake I made was not putting milk or cream in the chocolate ganache topping.  To avoid the chocolate cooling and becoming hard you really need to heat the chocolate with cream over a burning, watching it carefully of course because it can burn fast!

drooolllll

Peanut butter and chocolate torte

Recipe from: http://annies-eats.com/2009/04/10/chocolate-peanut-butter-torte/

INGREDIENTS

For the crust:
32 Oreo cookies, finely processed into crumbs
5 1/3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt

For the crunch:
½ cup salted peanuts, finely chopped
½ cup mini chocolate chips
2 tsp. sugar
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
Dash of ground nutmeg

For the filling:
2 cups heavy cream
1¼ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups creamy peanut butter (not natural)
2 tbsp. whole milk
¼ cup salted peanuts, finely chopped

For the topping:
½ cup heavy cream
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup  salted peanuts, finely chopped


DIRECTIONS

• To make the crust, preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and place it on a baking sheet. Combine the Oreo crumbs, melted butter and salt in a small bowl. Toss with a fork to moisten all of the crumbs. Press into a thin layer covering the bottom and sides of the springform pan. Freeze the crust for 10 minutes. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before filling.
  
  To make the crunch, in another small bowl combine ½ cup of the chopped peanuts, mini chocolate chips, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Toss with a fork to mix and set aside.
  
  To prepare the filling, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in ¼ cup of confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Scrape the cream into a separate bowl and refrigerate until needed.
  
  Wipe out (do not wash) the mixer bowl, replace the whisk with the paddle attachment, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, whole milk, and ¼ cup of the chopped peanuts until well combined.
  
  Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about 1/4 of the whipped cream just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then gingerly fold in the remaining whipped cream. Scrape the mousse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight; cover with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.
  
  To finish the torte, put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan. Bring the ½ cup of cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and, working with a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and smooth.
  
  Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, at least 20 minutes. When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the springform pan. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Shish kabob

So chicken is my favorite thing to eat and I like trying to find new ways of cooking chicken.  Shish kabobs are so good but I never know what type to make!  I made this marinade up with a few items I always have so it's not difficult at all!

kaboby

So I can't take all the credit, I made the marinade and the kabobs, but Ross is the master griller who cooked them :)

Chicken shish kabobs

1 lb. chicken cut up in pieces

1 green pepper

half a tomato or grape tomatoes

onion

asparagus

For the marinade:

1/4 cup of each, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, olive oil, and vinegar

1 Tbsp. parsley

splash of lime juice

pinch of salt and pepper

1 tsp. red pepper flake

4 cloves garlic minced

Mix together all ingredients of marinade and add chicken.  Let marinade for at least 3 hours.  Put the chicken and veggies on a skewer and grill!

Cheese & Wine

Sadly summer is coming to an end, but there is still time to enjoy a few more warm evenings!

A few of my friends visited over the weekend for some cheese and wine (we are so classy) I made a cheeseball and sangria both recipes I found on pintrest and thought I would share them because they turned out really good!

The sangria I made was with white wine, strawberries, apples and basil, there were a lot more at this website http://www.inspiredbycharm.com/2012/04/very-pinteresting-sangria.html, the one I used is at the bottom.

mmmm summer

Strawberry and basil sangria

1 bottle of white wine (I used chardonnay)

1 cup club soda

1 cup white grape juice

1/2 cup sugar

1 pint strawberries

1 apple

handful of fresh basil

Put fruit basil and sugar in large pitcher and let sit for 10 minutes.  Pour all liquids in, stir and enjoy!

Pineapple cheesball

There are more appetizer recipes at this website as well! http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/12/mouth-watering-monday-20-holiday-appetizer-ideas/

cheeseballs are by far the best party idea!

12 oz of cream cheese

1/2 small can of crushed pineapple

about 2 slices of deli ham, cut up into pieces

2 Tbsp. of green onion

1/2 cup of crushed pecans

Drain pineapple then mix cream cheese, pineapple, ham and green onion together and roll into a ball in sarane wrap.  Let sit in fridge for a least an hour.  Roll in pecans and serve with crackers!