Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Three of my favorite things.

 Chocolate. 

Peanut butter. 

Any sort of baked good involving bananas.

 It's about time someone combined them all! You're welcome.

This rain is really getting to me (my umbrella has officially flipped 17 times in the past 3 weeks and is officially broken) and I was feeling the need to make something warm and gooey and delicious. So I threw some chunky PB into my banana bread batter. Then I tossed in some chocolate chips. Y-u-u-u-m.

I pretty much stuck to this recipe from Martha Stewart, but substituted half the butter for peanut butter and opted for 3/4 cup brown sugar instead of 1 cup white. Enjoy!

Cheese Souffle

I have been wanting to attempt a souffle for...well, ever. Yesterday Fina and I were watching a Food Network show all about cheese and we got inspired. Here is the recipe we used, from Alton Brown.

Ingredients

• Butter, room temperature, for greasing the souffle
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
• 1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/3 cups milk, hot
• 4 large egg yolks (2 1/2 ounces by weight)
• 6 ounces sharp Cheddar
• 5 egg whites plus 1 tablespoon water (5 1/2 ounces by weight plus 1/2 ounce water)
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions

Use room temperature butter to grease an 8-inch souffle mold. Add the grated Parmesan and roll around the mold to cover the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the freezer for 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, heat the butter. Allow all of the water to cook out.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, dry mustard, garlic powder, and kosher salt. Whisk this mixture into the melted butter. Cook for 2 minutes.

Whisk in the hot milk and turn the heat to high. Once the mixture reaches a boil, remove from the heat.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks to a creamy consistency. Temper the yolks into the milk mixture, constantly whisking. Remove from the heat and add the cheese. Whisk until incorporated.

In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until glossy and firm. Add 1/4 of the mixture to the base. Continue to add the whites by thirds, folding very gently.

Pour the mixture into the souffle. Fill the souffle to 1/2-inch from the top. Place on an aluminum pie pan. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes.

Here is a before picture:

And after:

So successful. Try it out!!

Spring cupcakes

This weekend, my roommate had a yard sale, and she asked me to bake. My first bake sale?? It's about time! I can't believe I've been a self-proclaimed baker for 6+ months and have not yet tried to sell my overly-sprinkled, obnoxiously pink goodies. As with my last decorating extravaganza , I first made a stop at Target for some Easter-themed cookie cutters and sprinkles. And food coloring. And frosting. 

It's really hard for me not to get caught up in holiday themes and colors. Like right now...I NEED all things pastel. Don't even get me started on the Easter candy aisle at CVS. 

Anywho, I got all ambitious and made cookies AND cupcakes for my "sale".

I mean, come on. Robin's egg blue? You would be making vats of frosting too!

Oh, and I can't forget teeny-tiny Easter egg sprinkles.

In the end, I made $10. But that is exactly ten dollars more than I have ever made from baking before. So I say, success!

Rain, rain, go away!

Here is the forecast for the next three days:

Rain, rain, RAIN! Go away!

Because we are inevitably in for another wet, messy week, I thought I'd share a recipe idea that will brighten any day!

Smiley Face Pancakes

Last Monday was totally gross, so Ali and I were trying to come up with fun rainy day activities. As usual, we decided on cooking! We were inspired by the rainbow pancakes from a few weeks ago, and came up with the idea of cheery yellow smiley pancakes! We added a little yellow food coloring to the pancake batter and sprinkled on some raisins to make a face. The kids loved them and they brightened up our gray day.

Cake Balls

Ever since I started following Bakerella's blog, I've been wanting to try out the famed Cake Balls. They just look soooo delicious and combine three of my favorite things: cake, frosting, and chocolate. I think cake balls are genius. I mean, who doesn't struggle trying to get the perfect ratio of cake to frosting in each bite? I know I sure do. And I know that mixing the frosting into the cake is the BEST idea EVER.
The recipe I followed said to use red velvet cake mix, but alas, the grocery store had run out! SO, I opted for strawberry cake. Pink cake + chocolate covered strawberry goodness? Sold!

All you have to do is bake the cake according to the box instructions, let it cool, and crumble it up.

Then, add a can of frosting. I mixed it up with my hands, and it was messy!!

Roll into balls.

Dip in chocolate, and voila!!

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Cookies

I bought a huge bag of sweet potatoes at Trader Joe's last week, so I brought some in to school to make with the kids. Ali and I were stuck on what to make - fries? muffins? pancakes? We decided to go with cookies, and made up the recipe as we went along. Unfortunately this means I have no recipe to share with you. But, I can give you a list of ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, egg, butter, applesauce, shredded sweet potato, cranberries, chocolate chips. It was the first time I've made up my own recipe, and I'm happy to say it came out deliciously!

We took them outside and had a picnic. Lesson learned: try out your own recipes! And then taste-test them with little kids...they'll have no problem telling you the truth!

Meet Benjamin Blop.

Today, we bought a fish! His name is Benjamin Blop. He doesn't really like to pose for pictures, so it's hard to tell how pretty he is, but he's bright blue and purple.

Fina and I co-own him. Liz got one too!

His name is Charlie.

Charles and Benjamin, welcome to the family!

A day at the park

Saturday was GORGEOUS. Sunny, warm, perfect. Flowers were blooming and most of Boston emerged from their winter cocoons and went OUTSIDE!! I headed to the Common with my roomies.

So did everyone else. Who knew so many people lived in Boston??

We had a picnic :)

Bread, cheese, and prosciutto

And strawberries!

We also kept track of how many french bulldogs we saw!! I believe the final count was three.

Stalkerazzi. But sooooo cute!!

Quinoa!

This week, I learned about quinoa. A "perfect" protein. It's a whole grain that is slightly crunchy and has a nutty flavor when you cook it. Quinoa is really versatile and can be cooked with lots of ingredients - I made a "dinner" batch and a sweeter "breakfast" batch. For dinner, I followed a recipe adapted from one I found in Food and Wine magazine, Roasted Squash with Quinoa Salad.

While the quinoa was cooking, I made some dressing to mix in

Olive oil

Red Wine Vinegar

Honey

S&P

Chopped up onions, apples, parsley and garlic. I also threw in pecans and cranberries.

Meanwhile, there was squash roasting in the oven. Yum!

Mix it all up, and there you have it, quinoa salad on top of roasted butternut squash!

And then, breakfast quinoa!

So so good, and really easy!

Boil 1 cup quinoa in 2 cups milk. Stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, and berries.

Thanks for the recipe, Tracey!

Sunshine!! Flowers!! Happiness!!

I LOVE THIS WEATHER!!!!!! 

Excuse me while I collect myself....

Today it was so warm that I didn't need a coat. Not only did I not need a coat, I actually felt hot in the sun. After roughly 100 days of gray, rainy, wet, gross, windy (need I go on?) weather, this was exactly what I (and everyone on the East Coast) needed. So, now that it feels like spring might actually appear, I thought I'd share some spring cupcakes I made and decorated with Feener last week.

Forgot to mention: Fina got me a cupcake kit!! With piping tools included!!! I tried out the flower tip first.







And, I got some new sprinkles!

Fina is a future cake decorator, for sure.

Chirp chirp!

Yummy yummy snack

Yesterday I made my own tortilla chips (from Gluten-Free Girl) - and they are actually yummy!

Start with some corn tortillas - cut them up into bite-sized pieces

Toss with olive oil, salt & pepper

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Voila! Chips!

My own little unprocessed snackpack :)