Peanut Butter Surprise Cupcakes

Have you ever had a peanut butter cupcake? I haven't. But I've always wanted to. So I invented them.*

And... you know me. I just had to kick it up a notch. So I embedded a *surprise* in these peanut butter cupcakes.

Can you guess what it is?

Any ideas?

TA-DA! Ready??....

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with a Peanut Butter Cup Center and Chocolate Buttercream

This is better than that time that I made it to the regional round of Invention Convention in 3rd grade for inventing non-slip bathroom floors.

Though I know I should be patenting this recipe and making the big $$$$, I believe in good karma and am therefore going to share it with y-o-u!

Here is the cupcake recipe. After about ten minutes of baking, push a peanut butter cup into the center. Bake for 10-13 more minutes. Allow to cool, and top with the chocolate buttercream found here.

*Disclaimer: I am probably not the person to discover peanut butter cupcakes. But it makes me feel good to think that I am.

Fresh tomato and ricotta salad

LOOK at those gorgeous tomatoes! Usually I am not a tomato fan, but I can't help but love the fresh, juicy, local tomatoes popping up all over farmers markets! I am also a h-u-u-u-u-g-e fan of ricotta. Mmm, mm, good. I found another easy Everyday Food recipe that combined the two! Here's what you need:

 1 1/2 lb day-old crusty bread, cut into one inch cubes

2 lb tomatoes, cut into one inch cubes

1/2 small red onion, cut in thin strips

1/2 cup basil leaves, torn

*I used 1/3 of a fresh zucchini, because I had it on hand

1 15oz container of ricotta cheese, drained

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Three easy steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and toast the bread cubes for 20 minutes.

2. Combine the remaining ingredients (except ricotta), and toss with toasted bread.

3. Allow the mixture to sit for 20-30 minutes, or until the bread has absorbed all of the liquids.

Serve with a dollop of ricotta cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

So fresh and easy - a perfect summer dish!

Christmas in July

Today I received a *surprise* package in the mail from my Aunt Connie! It was filled with adorable goodies (see below) and included a note: "Happy early birthday and Christmas in July!" So cute!

My two favorite things: cupcakes and CHRISTMAS. 

Just in case I need monthly cupcake inspiration :)

And some sort of teeny tiny cupcake gadget. Quarter to show size. It had Japanese writing on it? Maybe it belongs to Hello Kitty.

I got inspired by the Christmas in July theme and decided to play Santa to myself, with a little jcrew.com early birthday shopping spree. Among other things, I emerged with these two fancy headbands:

Thanks, Aunt Connie! You made my day!

Homemade Veggie Burgers

Yummers! Lately I've been trying to take my flexitarianism to a whole new level. *Cough* The truth: I had a few burger/bacon/chicken-filled weeks of complete carnivorism and I am trying to take it down a notch. The hardest part of trying to eat less meat, for me, is making sure I still get enough protein. Luckily, I found a recipe in Everyday Food magazine (amazing amazing - best subscription I have) for these EASY meat-free burgers. And the best part? Low fat, and packed with protein.

I have to be honest, though. Here is what the "burger patty" looked like when I followed the recipe:

Don't you worry. I am a whiz in the kitchen. I put on my culinary thinking cap, rummaged in the cupboard for some bread crumbs, threw in another egg, and....

Success!

Topped with an avocado, sans bun (so yummy it didn't need one!), and served with a side of sweet potato wedges. 

Here is the recipe (adapted from Everyday Food):

Ingredients

1/2 cup bulgur 

1 cup boiling water

1 (15 oz) can of pinto beans, rinsed and coarsely chopped

1/2 cup finely shredded carrot

1/2 cup shredded swiss cheese

1 tbsp finely chopped red onion

2 eggs

1/2 - 3/4 cup bread crumbs

salt & pepper

olive oil

Instructions

Combine bulgar with boiling water and cover until bulgar has absorbed the water (about 30 minutes). Place the bulgar in a fine strainer to drain excess water. Combine with remaining ingredients, seasoning liberally with salt and pepper. Form into 1/2 cup patties, and cook in a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat until brown on both sides and cooked through. 

Philly here I come!

Bye bye, Boston!

I'm off to Philadelphia to see one of my BEST and OLDEST friends, Erin.

Last time I was there I officially fell in love with french bulldogs. 

Can't wait to see what Philly has in store for me this time! Catch ya on the flipside, Beantown.

Fact.

I am more likely to purchase kitchen-related items than clothes. 

Evidence: my recent trip to Anthropologie.

Surrounded by gorgeous dresses, earrings, and tops....

I went with bowls. 

But honestly - who can resist their kitchen section? 

They remind me of rainbow sherbet! Soooo in love.

Zucchini and feta couscous salad

Recently I've been getting inspired by We are not Martha's feta salad recipes. I had some Israeli couscous in my cupboard that I've been wanting to try out for-ev-er, so I came up with this yummy, simple salad!

Here's what you need:

1 1/3 cup uncooked couscous

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

1/2 cup diced zucchini

handful of feta cheese

pepper to taste

Toast the couscous in 1T olive oil on medium heat for 5 minutes. Slowly pour in 1 3/4 cup boiling water. Cover and allow to simmer on medium-low heat for 12 minutes. Toss with remaining ingredients.

So easy and so good!

In case you've been wondering...

...what I did with those shiny things from my recent antique shopping trip. I am happy to report the pretty blue jar has settled in nicely on my counter, and was recently filled with homemade maple-nut granola. Yum!

And the fancy pin found a fancy home atop my mom's latest creation, this gorgeous navy clutch!

Inside:

Simply adorbs.

Zzzzipadeedoodah

Ahh, the magic of zipcar. For those of us non-car-owners, zipcar provides a way to get around to run errands or take fun little day trips. Today, Mike and I zipped over to Needham to visit Treat cupcake bar. This seemingly quick one-stop trip somehow turned into a full-fledged eating bonanza.

It all started when we "accidentally" ordered WAY too much food at Friendly's Express.

Yum?

Then we ventured out to find our cute little zipcar!

  

I loved the "power" button. No key needed!

Zzzzoooom! We're off!

We made a quick stop in the park to play ring around the rosie. Mike is seriously messing with the rosie flow here.

Luckily, as a preschool teacher, running around in circles is my job. So I showed him how it's done.

Phew! Back to cupcakes and the eating bonanza. Enter, Treat.

Here's the deal: 

1. Pick a cupcake (I went with "gold" - aka vanilla?)

2. Pick a frosting base (Buttercream pour moi!)

3. Pick up to three toppings (oreo, Butterfinger, rainbow sprinkles)

4. The cupcake bartender mixes up your frosting a la Coldstone Creamery and hands it to you in the adorable box:

*Coke can used to show size. So.much.frosting.

Mike went with rainbow sprinkles and nerds. Weird combo but I have to hand it to him, it was actually really good!

Sugar overload. But soo worth the trip.

Fresh berries with mascarpone cream

I've always been intrigued by mascarpone cheese. Is it cheese? Is it cream? Is it cream cheese?

Here's what I know it is:

on sale at Whole Foods.

I can almost never resist WF sale items. This stems from my inability to resist any and all things that are sold at Whole Foods. 

I digress. After a little google-search sesh, I found a recipe for mascarpone cream:

1/2 cup mascarpone 

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Beat until light and fluffy, and cream holds soft peaks.

I put the cream on fresh blueberries and strawberries. And yeah, okay, there's a little chocolate ganache in there too. Simple and pretty!

Happy Birthday, Miss Meghann!

Whew, so many July birthdays!!

Happy birthday to another fabulous teacher and loyal reader,

Miss Meghann!

For your birthday, I got you this giant piece of macaroni. You can pick it up in Faneuil Hall.

:) Have a GREAT day!!

Still feelin' peachy!

Ohmygosh. I went BACK to the farmer's stand and bought eleven more peaches today. Am I obsessed? Just a little?

When you see this peach crisp, you will understand why. Just another good old Martha standby. Sweet, syrupy peaches & crispy, crunchy, nutty crust. Oooohhh. The smell.

Feast your eyes on this:

The good news: no butter, minimal sugar.

The bad news: I'm not very good at sharing.

Oh! Don't mind if I do.

Genius.

Do you know the Pioneer Woman? She has an ah-mazing cooking, baking, photography, home and garden, etc, etc, all things amazing, blog. Like seriously amazing. 

I thought her life couldn't get any cooler until I saw.....

this.

*photo from here

These are flour and sugar drawers. In her kitchen.

This woman is absolutely genius. In my future life, when I have a billion dollars to build the kitchen of my dreams, these babies will be #1 on my list. So, SO awesome.

Shiny things

Here's the thing about antique shopping: I used to think it was the.worst.thing.e.v.e.r. My parents have loved antiquing for as long as I can remember, and for as long as I can remember I have been dragged along on their antique adventures. Childhood road trips consisted of meandering through upstate NY, stopping at each and every shop along the way. I could not, for the life of me, understand what was *so great* about stores upon stores full of smelly, dusty, OLD THINGS. I used to sit in the car for seemingly endless hours - which, looking back on my 7-year-old self, was probably more like 15 minutes - and CRY until my parents would come back with armfuls of (what I now understand are) valuable goodies.

Boy, have times changed. I NEVER thought I would say it, but antique & vintage shopping is soO fun and fab. I checked out a couple local shops with my dad today and wound up with three shiny, pretty things:

A old blue jar! I can't wait to fill it with something fun and put it in my kitchen.

Fancy earrings and a glittery pin for the new clutch my mom is making for me - gorg!

Feeling peachy?

Let's talk about the perfect peaches at the farm stand down the road.

They FEEL perfect. 

They LOOk perfect.

They SMELL perfect.

They TASTE p-e-r-f-e-c-t.

And I'm sure if peaches could make noise, these ones would sound like angels singing.

Today, I made those perfect peaches into positively peachy preserves. Oh boy, oh boy!

The recipe calls for twelve ripe peaches but I obviously went with lucky number thirteen - one for eating :)

Here's the tricky part: you have to peel them. It's actually not too bad, just boil the peaches for a minute, plop them in ice water, and the skin should come right off!

What was I saying about the way they look? 

Oh, right...perfect. Hello beautiful sunset.

Post-attack by the potato masher. Are you wishing for smell-o-vision yet?

Twelve smooshed peaches + three tablespoons lemon juice + one cup sugar + one pack fruit pectin = Positively Peachy Preserves.

TA-DA!

Makeitmakeitmakeitmakeit.