Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes with a bit of cocoa powder and peanut butter chips with peanut butter frosting, also with a touch of cocoa powder, garnished with Belgian chocolate sprinkles!

And if I do say so myself, they are pretty damn good.


I used a box for the batter. I went online for the peanut butter frosting recipe but it really wasnt working for me, so I kind of made my own:


1 cup of smooth peanut butter
1 1/4 cup of smooth butter
4 cups of sugar
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
5+ tablespoons of milk (add to make consistency 






Hattie

If i had to eat only one more pie for the rest of my life i'd eat this pie

I love mountains and have a special draw to Colorado.  My mom's brother lives in the mountains and it is a major highlight of my year to visit my cousins.  Sometime along the way we picked up a Colorado cookbook and it has in it the majestic recipe for the best peach pie ever conceived.

It is so good I can't ever remember to get a picture of its juicy goodness before it disappears.

But.  I'll try on the 4th pie of the month when it comes along. (Edit: see below for picture)

The pure simplicity of pies is incredible.  With a simple crust (a stick and a half of butter cut into a blended mixture of 1 1/2 cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of sugar, binded with 2 tablespoons of water) you can entice the juicy wonders of any fruit, bringing out the subtle textures and flavor profiles of fruits from apples to currents to strawberries with nothing more than a dash of cinnamon or a handful of chocolate chips.
The method of topping the pie may be as important to the presentation and personality of the pie as naming a child.  Latticed pies ring of Americana and farmhouse wives perfecting their berry pies for state fairs, while a whole crust topping with a few vent holes can either bring to mind apple pies cooling on the windowsill or, for the non-baking culture, boxed frozen pies from the store.
If you are really interested in baking a pie that is complete from top to bottom, perhaps a more creative topping must be employed.  Apparently people like to eat cheese with everything.  To prove my point, try mixing a lot of butter with a lot of cheese, some sugar and enough flour to hold it all together, crumble it over the top of a peach pie and j in your p.

Cara

Sunday Brinner

Today I decided to make brunch, because sunday brunch is my favorite thing ever and I'm hardcore missing mohome right now. Mama Matwijkow decided to make it a big thing and invite over all of the hooligans (Jimmy's friends) over, so we planned for a crowd... and then only Devin came over. But whatever; now we have a ton of yummy leftovers!!

I made french toast with strawberry rhubarb compote, scrambled eggs, bacon, and breakfast potatoes.

The compote was the only thing I hadn't made before, but was super easy. I cut up about 3 cups of strawberries, 3 cups of rhubarb, added about a cup of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla, and cooked it down. It was really easy and absolutely delicious.

Om nom nom I love brunch!!

-Carol

Homemade Ice Cream

I work at a summer camp and this week and next week, the theme for my older kids is "kitchen science" where we learn about acids, bases, caramelization, etc.

Today we made ice cream.

What you need:

Homemade soy ice cream

• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
•      *to make it dairy free, 1.5 cups of soy milk
• 1tbsp of vanilla extract 
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• salt
• ice
• One small bag
• one large bag

1. Put ice in the large bag and add salt -- the salt will make the ice melt slower. 
2. Combine the milk, whipping cream, vanilla, and sugar and pour into the small bag. 
3. Put the small bag into the big bag.
4. Roll the bag, shake the bag, toss the bag, move it around to help thicken the mixture. 
5. Put the bag into the freezer for an hour (or more, depending how hard the mixture gets)
6. You have ice cream! 

We have a camper with a bad dairy allergy (which is perfect for my lactose intolerance) so we made a portion of soy ice cream. It tasted incredibly like silk milk, but with the caramel sauce we made yesterday in class, it was delicious. 

Hattie

MELT

I'm going to go ahead and say that Melt Bar and Grilled has the best food in Cleveland. 


Holy hell.

Originated in Lakewood, Ohio, Melt is the home to the best grilled cheese in the nation. With sandwiches from "the Godfather" -- 3 cheese lasagna, fresh fennel-oregano pasta sheets, spicy red sauce, provolone with garlic spiked bread -- or "the Parmageddon" -- 2 potato and cheese pierogi, fresh napa vodka kraut, grilled onions, and sharp cheddar -- Melt is aimed to please.

Having only been to the Cleveland Heights location, I assume that Lakewood is similarly decorated with tacky, light up yard decorations of pumpkins, santa claus, and vampires. The Cleveland Heights location has a huge (original) Dairy Queen sign and a huge mural on a side wall of famous people from Cleveland, including Michael Symon (Iron Chef) and Alan Ruck (Cameron Frye of Ferris Bueller's Day Off). The surrounding televisions play the same-old sporting events, food network, and there are a few tv's hooked up to a DVD player, which have played Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Star Wars, Beetlejuice, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Big Lebowski, etc.

"Parma, Italy"

I went today with my family and my dad and I split the "summer chicken" -- grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, havarti, roasted garlic herb dressing (the best part, if you ask me) between two, thick pieces of bread. Out of the five times I have been to Melt, this is the first time I have broken the streak of getting the "Parma, Italy" -- breaded chicken, sun-dried tomato pesto, roasted garlic, provolone (pictured here).  Where the "Summer Chicken" sandwich is very light and perfect for summer, the "Parma, Italy" is just right for colder weather -- it is a much thicker and heavier meal.

With your huge sandwich, you're given a large helping of great fries and some of the best cole slaw I have ever had. You can check out the menu here -- my uncle had "the Dude Abides" and my cousin had the "Gyro Melt". Basically, I drool at everything on the menu.

And if you get a "Melt tattoo" of the grilled cheese sandwich with crossbones, you get 25% off for life.

Lets do it.



Hatte

The story of 70 lbs of strawberries and why my brother and I aren't allowed to go to the grocery together

70 lbs is not a typo: my brother and grandfather really came home from the farm with 70 lbs of strawberries, hand-picked. After cleaning and capping berries all day we were finally ready to sit down to gnash on all things strawberries: smoothies, angel food cake, plain strawberries, strawberries and cream, milkshakes and mixed fruit salads.  Now two of these require the accompaniment of whipped cream, so off to the grocery go Ian and I.

We were aso looking for spelt flour and the boy wanted to know if ginger brew is as good as I said so there was a significant amount of looking around to do.  After getting all of the grocery requisites we split off; I get whipping cream and he looks for spelt.  Finding Ian in the baking aisle unsuccessful on his quest yet turning around and deciding he likes pudding.  We load the cart with about 7 different types of pudding at which point he sees my heavy whipping cream and he says "no, I said whipped cream!" to anyone who lives under a rock, (probably the only acceptable excuse for not knowing) whipped cream is whipping cream plus air.  So I said to Boy, "I got it."  He then escorted me to the dairy section and pointed out the RediWhip.  As it was on sale, we would get two and I discovered the blue can which is the EXTRA CREAMY variety. Assuming that eating whipped cream is all about how creamy the product is, I pulled out two of these cans.  Boy said NOOOOOOOOO you have to get one that is original, to which I told him how sad he would feel eating the regular kind and lacking the ultra creamy experience.  I was poo poo'd.

We then went to two more groceries to find spelt, one being the store where he works (he didn't even know where the baking isle is!)  Whole Foods was the jackpot, carrying not only bagged spelt, but also bulk spelt  and 231435114 other awesome bulk items.  Running around trying to get boy to taste test the pita chips and veggie chips and whatever else was free, we ran along the peanut butter grinder and had to grind our own.  Then he learned that other places have different butter and was incredibly amazed and got some english butter.  Finally coming home, my mom took one look at the bags we had, mentally compared the image to how many bags we were supposed to have and sighed.

The culmination of these two stories is this image:

note: whipped cream here is the extra creamy kind

Cara

Sunday Day of Cooking

This Sunday was Papa Matwijkow's birthday! To celebrate, I made him brunch, my favorite meal, and Rebecca and Mama M and I made him dinner.

Brunch spread

 Brunch was uber delicious: scrambled eggs, fruit salad, and pancakes. I have this nifty gluten-free baking mix that I used to make my pancakes. The only weird thing about them was that they didn't bubble around the edges like normal pancakes do when they're ready to be flipped. Regardless they were nom-able.

I did the Blackmer tradition with my pancakes: pancake, fruit salad, yogurt, syrup. Deeelish.

kuchen, pre baking

 For dinner, Mama M made gazpacho, tilapia, and veggies. Rebecca and I made kuchen with peach and blueberries. I have no idea where kuchen is from, but we have it in my family ALL the time. You can make it with any fruit you have around.

First, you get flour (or gluten-free baking mix in this case), baking powder, a little bit of salt, and sugar, and mix that all together. Then you cut in butter (or margarine), make a crumbly delicious mix, and then press the mixture into a pie pan. You put the fruit on top, sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon on top, and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 min.

While thats going on, beat one egg and then add 1 cup of yogurt to it. After the kuchen has baked for 15 minutes, take it out of the oven and pour the egg and yogurt mixture over top. Put the kuchen back in the oven and bake for half an hour.

Finished kuchen!!

It'll have to cool a bit once its done, so plan ahead for that. We had it with vanilla gelato and it was SO good. Its also mad good as leftovers, once the fruit has gelled.

Yay cooking!!

Carol