Baking at Midnight: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

One thing that Brent and I differ on is keeping snacks on hand in the house. I have a strict policy of not buying sweets or junk food at the store, because honestly if they are in the house I will eat it. ALL of it. I have no self-control.

Sure, I get cravings for cookies, brownies, and chips, but the craving is rarely strong enough to make me want to drive to the store and go buy some. Brent on the other hand never resists he sweet tooth. That man will leave the house at any time of night if he wants some ice cream.

The point I’m getting at is that the “don’t buy it” game plan has served me well for a number of years. Until recently when I started to keep things like flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and chocolate chips on hand.

Do you see where this is going? Do you know how easy it can be to convince yourself at midnight on a Friday that baking cookies is a suburb idea?

I do. And I have 3 extra pounds to prove it.

A recently new product is Reese’s MINI Peanut Butter cups. I love Reese’s and the second I saw the commercial I knew I wanted to try making some cookies with them.

These cookies are pretty awesome. They are soft, slightly chewy and not overly sweet. Oh and the big peanut butter filled bites? They rock. If you have a well-stocked pantry, all you will need is the Reese’s to make them! Resistance is futile.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

*Makes 2 dozen(ish)

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

- 2 sticks room temperature butter

- 2 cups sugar

- 2 eggs

- 2 teaspoons vanilla

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- ½ teaspoon salt

- 2 ½ cups of Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl beat butter and sugar together until smooth. Add vanilla and eggs. Beat again until mixture becomes fluffy and light.

2. In a separate bowl combines flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Stir to combine, and then add gradually to mixture of butter/sugar/eggs beating until fully combined. Gently fold in Reese’s cups.

3. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Drop small golf ball-sized amounts of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 6-8 minutes. Allow to cool completely before storing.

A couple of notes:

- I needed about a large bag and half of mini Reese’s.

- The dough will seem stiff – it’s totally OK.

- If using a spoon to drop the cookies, it is helpful to spray it just a bit with cooking spray.

- These will keep for about 3 days in an airtight container.

And if you’re wondering what to do with the leftover Reese’s that didn’t make it in to the batter. I suggest tosses them in the freezer for moments of weakness.

Recipe adapted from: Hershey’s Perfect White Chip Cookies Recipe

 

Grinders - A Summer Favorite

Summer is starting to wind down and the Autumn Equinox is only a few days away and will mark the official start of fall. Personally, fall is my favorite season…even though here in Florida it isn’t exactly colorful and crisp and cool. Still, the humidity seems to subside a little and we do have some beautiful days of bright blue cloudless skies with a slight gentle breeze every so often.

This past summer has been a bit strange for me. Personal circumstances disrupted my everyday routine of working, studying, cooking, and blogging, which lead to my absence here. Amidst all the chaos and craziness that summer brought, I think the best moments for me were the quieter ones. One of our favorite things to do during the summer is on Sunday nights to pack a small picnic – or pick up a pizza- and head to the beach to eat, take a stroll, and enjoy the sunset. If you live anywhere near a beach, I highly recommend ending your weekend on such a relaxing note.

These grinders – or subs/hoagies as other regions call them – are one of my top three favorites. At Coffee’s in Old Lyme, CT they make an amazing Italian Grinder and these are my almost-as-good- as-the-real-thing recipe. Sometimes simple is best and these definitely hit the spot whether at a park, on the beach, or tailgating before a football game.

The recipe below gives some very adaptable guidelines for amounts of each ingredient. Feel free to adjust as desired.

Italian Combo Grinders
* Makes 4 grinders (6”)
(Printable recipe)

Ingredients:
- 2 foot long Italian baguettes
- 1/3 pound sliced deli pepperoni
- 1/3 pound sliced deli ham
- 1/3 pound sliced deli capicola
- 1/3 pound sliced deli cooked salami
- 1/3 pound sliced provolone cheese
- Thinly sliced tomatoes
- Thinly sliced red onion
- Shaved iceberg lettuce
- Olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
- Dried oregano
- Grated parmesan cheese
- Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Slice open baguettes ¾ the way through. Layer in deli meats and cheese and then top with tomatoes, onions, and lettuce. Lightly drizzle on olive oil and red wine vinegar, then season gently to taste with salt, pepper, dried oregano, and parmesan.

If traveling, wrap tightly in aluminum foil and seal in a Ziploc if placing in a cooler of ice.

My black thumb strikes again!

I was lucky enough to inherit a lot of great qualities from both of my parents, but their green thumb was definitely not one of them. It’s pretty much a give in that I will eventually kill any plant I’m put in charge of. I can’t even keep those little “lucky bamboo” plants alive longer than a month or so. I have no idea why I seem to have such a honker of a black thumb, but I figure I can’t excel at everything in life and accept it as a small flaw and then go eat some ice cream.

Still, every year I am so jealous of people who can plant a little garden and get beautiful veggies and herbs by summer’s end. This year I decided to give herbs a try and I was met with some success. I planted basil, cilantro, parsley, chives, dill, and oregano. What I ended up with is a lot of weeds, a sprout of dill, a little tiny bit of cilantro, the start of some parsley and more basil than I know what to do with at this point. The basil has pretty much become a monster plant.

Surprisingly Brent knows more about growing herbs than I knew he did, and has helped me out a wee bit. But then he keeps saying we should give some of the basil away and I’m thinking not. I grew something! From a seed. It’s like my baby and there is no way someone else is going to reap the benefits of my diligent watering everyday. Especially since everything else was pretty much a bust.

This picture was about two weeks ago and it has gotten even bigger!

So I’ve been dreaming up as many ways to use the basil as possible. One dish I knew without a doubt I was going to make once I could pillage some leaves was a caprese salad. For me the caprese salad screams summertime with fresh ripe tomatoes, sweet mozzarella, and bright basil. It’s an absolutely perfect salad and I could probably eat it everyday if given the chance.

While the last thing the world needs is another recipe for such a simple salad, I figured I’d share the basic idea here because just posting my failed attempt at growing herbs isn’t all that exciting. And I’ve come realize that I do one thing that most people do not… I add some red onion. Is that weird? I just like the contrast of flavor it has against the other ingredients. Don’t use too much though or it will overpower everything else.

On the day I went to pick up the tomatoes, the larger vine-ripened and beefsteaks weren’t looking so hot. They were kinda pale and not a juicy red color, so I went with roma that day. Use any kind you prefer.

Caprese Salad
*Serves how ever many you want!
(printable recipe)

Ingredients:
- fresh, beautifully ripe tomatoes
- fresh mozzarella
- red onion
- basil
- balsamic vinegar
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper

Fast and Loose Directions:

- Evenly slice your tomatoes and mozzarella to be about the same size. Generally I use about 25% less mozzarella than I will tomato. Layer on a plate.

- If doing larger slices of tomato and mozzarella, thinly slice red onion, or mince red onion if using smaller, bite-sized portions. As a general rule, I will only use about the same amount of red onion as I will basil. Layer in or on top of salad.

- Tear or mince basil. You can leave it whole as well and layer in-between the mozzarella and tomatoes.

- Season with salt and pepper, than lightly drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Enjoy!

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Pesto Chicken Salad

If you were to ask me to list my top three most hated foods, the list would most certainly include mayonnaise. I just can’t stomach it and therefore I steer clear of a lot of summer favorites such as potato salad, macaroni salad, and chicken salad. This recipe is my solution to that problem and is probably one of my favorite new recipes I’ve come up with in the last couple of months. It’s very satisfying but not overly heavy, and if you buy a rotisserie chicken to use, you won’t even need to turn the oven on. An added bonus is that it’s a little healthier given that mayo has a good amount of calories in it.


The “hardest” part of making this salad is the prep work, other than that it comes together in a snap and is a great make ahead lunch or light summer supper. When we had this for dinner a couple of weeks ago we served it with a lightly toasted flatbread and some mixed greens but you can certainly enjoy it alone, either warm or cold.

Pesto Chicken Salad

*Serves 4- 6
(printable recipe)

Ingredients:
- 3 cups cooked and shredded chicken
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
- 1 cup baby swiss cheese, cubed
- ½ cup chopped prosciutto
- ¾ cup artichokes, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup red onion, minced
- 3 tablespoons plain yogurt
- 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon prepared pesto
- Salt and pepper

Optional: flatbreads, pita bread, fresh spinach, arugula, or mesclun greens

Directions:

1. Prep and chop the chicken, tomatoes, cheese, prosciutto, artichokes, and red onion. Add to a large mixing bowl.

Seriously Awesome Burgers

Last night I came home from work and the last thing I felt like doing was putting any effort into cooking. I knew we had some burgers in the freezer, so I pulled them out to thaw and decided tater tots for a side.

Classy, I know.

Once Brent threw them on the grill, I decided that I was just going to eat mine with cheese, mustard, and ketchup. No fancy pants toppings this time! Just a damn good and simple burger.

Until, I decided that bacon didn’t sound too bad…and if I was cooking bacon I could certainly take 5 minutes to sauté some crimini mushrooms because I need to use them up… and oh no, we only have one slice left of the good cheese, so why don’t I use up the goat cheese in there from that failed dish I attempted the other night… oooh I have a lonely little sun-dried tomato…I’ll make a goat cheese sun-dried tomato spread for it! That jar has been taking up way too much space in the fridge anyway.

And right there folks, is how I almost always get carried away with dinner. Sometimes I think there should a twelve step program of some sort for this type of behavior. But then…what would I share with you?

These little beauties were delicious and completely satisfied my burger craving. The burger was juicy, the bacon crispy, and the goat cheese sun-dried tomato spread was awesome. It was the perfect compliment to the burger and other toppings. I devoured these with no shame, juice dripping down my chin, and inevitably onto my shirt, which now is probably ruined. Not that this is anything new to me, I tend to always get something on me from either the cooking or eating part of the process.

With Memorial Day coming up, the spread would be a great and simple addition to your cook out. It seriously takes less than 2 minutes to whip together, and that includes pulling out the ingredients!