Espresso Fudge Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

While I love cupcakes, I've learned that unless there's a reason to make them, you really shouldn't. They're far too tempting and it can drive you crazy if there's a dozen uneaten cupcakes on your counter.

Thus, these have a purpose. Claire's birthday was about a month ago and she was still at school, so these are her belated birthday cupcakes. As she said, they're everything she's ever wanted in a cupcake all in one.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

2 tsp espresso powder

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

¾ cup milk

½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix flour, cocoa, espresso, baking powder and soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy.

Reduce speed to low and add vanilla and egg.

Alternate additions of milk and flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Fill the paper liners. Makes 40 mini cupcakes.

Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before adding frosting.

Frosting ingredients:

6-ounce cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream OR Greek yogurt

1 cup confectioner sugar

1 cup fresh raspberries

Combine cream cheese, yogurt, and confectioner sugar. Mix until there are no lumps. Then, add in fresh raspberries and mix again to break up the raspberries. Let stand in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Frost. Place a fresh raspberry on top for garnish. Enjoy. And don't feel too guilty when you eat ten--they're little.

Panera Mac and Cheese

As I said, I was feeling Panera pretty bad, but there isn't a Panera closer than an hour away, so I had to make do with my own cooking. It wasn't quite as good, but it wasn't bad either. Close enough, anyway. Although, just be safe, make sure no one has made fish sticks in your house before you start. I figured out, when I was doing the dishes, that the reason I thought it smelled a little unlike Panera mac and cheese was because my kitchen, even after chocolate chip cookies and mac and cheese, still smelled like the fish sticks my mom had eaten earlier.

With this one, there isn't a lot of time for pictures, so we'll have to make do.

Ingredients:
1 16-oz. box of pasta
1 cup shredded Vermont sharp cheddar
6 slices American cheese, chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
2-1/2 cups cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

Cook the pasta, stirring occasionally. It took the entire time I was making the sauce to boil the water and cook the large macaroni shells, just to give you an idea. Then deal with the cheeses.

Melt the butter over low heat and then whisk in the flour. Then, raise the heat to medium and slowly whisk in the cream. Continue until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Remove from heat and add the cheeses (and make sure to pull the chopped American cheese pieces back apart, or they'll take longer to melt), the mustard, the salt, and the hot sauce. 

 Drain the noodles and add the sauce. It sort of looks like Panera mac and cheese. My sauce is just sticking to the noodles more and I couldn't find medium shells, so I had to use large ones. Please eat while hot, because it's so delicious you won't be able to wait for it to cool.

To make you feel less guilty about eating cookies and pasta, chop up some fruit and make a fruit salad! I used raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Oh, and don't forget to do the dishes--the pans for this get gross if you wait much more than an hour.

So, there it was, my first real cooking adventure of being home. It wasn't the most adventurous, but that'll come in time. I'm thinking of learning to make a souffle this summer, and with how well my final products always turn out, that'll be interesting.

To the summer!

This recipe comes from the Panera website.

Panera Chocolate Chipper

So, for the first time since I came home, I was finally ready to start cooking again. And, of course, I couldn't go small. Oh, no, it's go big or go home around here. But because I'm utterly obsessed with finding the perfect balance of gooey and fluffy in a chocolate chip cookie, I had to give it another go. I love Panera cookies more than I should, especially considering how expensive they are, so I looted the internet in search of a relatively easy but delicious-sounding recreation. If I'd made them smaller, I think these might've been one of the best cookies ever.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups mini sweet chocolate chips

First, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix up the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. You know how tedious I think this is, but it does make mixing everything up at the end a little faster.

Then, beat the melted butter and the sugars on low until well mixed and a little fluffy. And by fluffy, I mean a little bubbly.

Then, add the egg, the egg yolk, and the vanilla. Combine thoroughly. Mm, and I love the lots of vanilla part. Makes everything better. I don't have a clue why being "vanilla" is bad--it makes everything so damn tasty!

Add the dry ingredients slowly and combine until thoroughly mixed. It looks like, well, cookie dough.

Then, the best part: add all of those chocolate chips and just stare at how delicious and chocolatey that looks. Sneak a bite of dough and then wonder if anyone will care if you eat the whole bowl. Then back away slowly and get out the cookie sheets so you can have real cookies, too.

Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease them--I prefer to grease them usually, but I think next time I'll make them, I'll give the parchment a try. I made enormous cookies, so I used a tablespoon and put six to a pan. Next go, and this is what I recommend, use a teaspoon and go with twelve to a pan. More cookies means longer to enjoy them. Bake for about 15 minutes if they're large or about 10-12 minutes if they're small, or until golden brown.

Let cool and enjoy. Because they're so large, they got a little crunchy, which isn't terrible and doesn't detract too much from their awesomeness. But, as I've said, I'd do it a little differently next time. Usually how it goes for me, eh?

Well, welcome back. Hopefully, we'll have a great summer of food ahead of us.

Credit for the original recipe goes to Danielle on Simmworks Family Blog

The Only Way to Really Know

One of the things I was really looking forward to doing this summer was redoing my room. I'd had a lot of ideas, but there was one I kept coming back to: purple and green. Now, this is me, so of course I couldn't be bothered with the usual varieties of green and purple. No, I went more towards the steely-gray purples and the olive varieties of green.

It turned out very well. While I was more trying to give my room a more grown-up, "your daughter is going to be moving out in a few years" sort of feel to it for my family, I think I just made it more my room than ever. That's okay, though--it's much better than okay because now I actually want to spend time in here. In fact, it's hard to get me back to any other room in the house, unless Brandon and I are having a Skype-movie date, for which I make the living room my room.

It's got all of my favorite personal touches: books all over the floor, fun lamps, fake flowers because my cats eat real ones, and my stuffed animals. Yes, I know, I shouldn't still have them, I'm almost 20, but I don't care! I love them. And my elephant collection is going on the top shelf of my closet, so it's not extremely visible. My Winnie-the-Pooh characters have taken up residence under my desk. Really, the only ones you can see at the giant ones I keep on top of my art tub.

Time is flying, though, and soon it won't be more than my mom's office slash guest room. How strange a thought. Growing up is weird.

A Bang, Not a Whimper

So today is my last morning at State, and I admit I feel weird about it. This whole year has gone by way, way too fast. I didn't know one person could change so much, but I have. I've learned an awful lot about myself, more than I even realized I would.

But I know you have no idea what's going on in my life, so let's have a show and tell, shall we?

This is my best friend from home. I hate to say it, but she's quickly being caught up by some of my friends from school. She has the most history, and the most dirt on me, so that counts for something. I went to visit her at her college when I was on spring break, hence the recent photo. Even though we live so far apart and rarely talk, not too much has changed between us.

Jim learned to shave with a regular razor! It's sad how proud we were. He's a lovable goofball most of the time. He has so much energy and I really admire him. I can count on one hand how many times I've heard him say something bad about someone else--and he talks a lot!

My friendship with Jim seemed a bit unlikely for the longest time. For some reason, we never were in the same place at the same time with our mutual friends. I don't think I met him until three or four weeks after everyone else. I heard all these great Jim stories that made everyone laugh to remember, and I was so surprised I hadn't met him. I was also a bit of a hermit, so that's something. But even though we took so long to meet, he's one of my dearest friends maybe ever. He's naive in an endearing way that makes you want to hug him, and admire him for it. It's almost a stubborn naivete, because it endures even when it seems like it's going to fail.

On the list of things that happened, Brandon and I started dating. I know, I know, if you've heard any of the story, you probably thought it was going to happen eventually. But it surprised me, in a good way. He's turned out to be everything I wanted and a thousand more things I didn't know I did--and he can keep up with me. Being something like 700 miles and 12 hours apart for almost four months isn't going to be easy, but I know we can find a way to make it work.

Abby turned 19, among other things. We all went to her house Friday night and crashed in her basement. Here are the boys, sans Mark, totally out. I got up before 8, Abby around 9ish, and Mark soon after her. I fell asleep sometime before midnight while everyone was playing video games. It was a combination of video-game-spectator isn't appealing to me and I was so worn out from all the work I was doing. Poor Brandon had to play pillow, but I guess he wasn't complaining too loudly. It was good to get everyone together again--we definitely didn't do it often enough, and I know it'll be much harder next year.

And there's this. This is an adorable, bite-sized cheesecake served at the Senior Send-Off at the library. I didn't even realize they did that, but because I'm an employee of the library, I get to eat cute, yummy stuff like this. Unfortunately, I probably won't be doing the same next year. I'll have research by then, if I don't have it right away in the fall.

In a positive nutshell, there was my spring. In reality, it was a lot of hard work and stress that I'm not even sure paid off, but everyone's so convinced it will, I'm starting to nervously hope so, too. I can't imagine not coming back--this place has become my home and these people, my family. 

So, until next year.

Or, rather, until I muster up the energy to bake again at home. This has been a long, tiring semester.

Cinnamon Bread

Um, so, I was particularly bad a taking pictures with this recipe. You know how I can be.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

6 tablespoons butter

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

Melt the butter with the milk to warm, not too hot, and stir in the yeast. Allow to sit for 10 minutes.

Combine the flour and salt in a smaller, separate bowl.

With a mixer, combine sugar and eggs and then add the butter-milk-yeast stuff. (Yes, technical term. Hush yourself.) Then add the dry mixture and beat until combined. 

Then, the fun part: kneading the dough. Do so for about 10 minutes on a flour-covered surface.

Coat a metal bowl in some oil--canola, vegetable, etc.--and dump in the dough. Cover with a damp towel and let rise for 2 hours.

Then, when you come back to it, knead it for about 10 more minutes and roll it out into a rectangle, size up to you. Smear melted butter all over it. Mix up the filling: sugar and cinnamon, and spread over the butter. Roll up the dough over it. Put it in a sprayed loaf pan. I chose to use a class baking pan--I like how those work with bread better. Cover it with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 2 more hours.

Then, when you make it back to it, heat the oven to 350 and bake for 40 minutes.

Banana Bread

Brad requested banana bread when Abby and I had a baking adventure, and I was kind enough to oblige. It was fun, in a way, even though I don't like bananas. I don't know what it is about them, their smell probably.

Ingredients:

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

This is pretty easy, don't even need a mixer. Preheat the oven to 350°.

Mix the butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. 

Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla.

Stir in the baking soda and salt before adding the flour last and mix. 

Pour mixture into a buttered loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour.

Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

It turned out well, even though I didn't eat any. I assume they liked it. Without direct, easy access to a kitchen, I don't get to back much at school, but I do enjoy when I get to.