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Mini Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

Try these cupcakes...they'll make you smile! Happy Friday!













Mini Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart
makes 48

Cupcakes
1 3/4 c. flour
3/4 T baking powder
1/2 - 3/4 t. salt
1/4 t. baking soda
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 c. sugar
2/3 c. natural, creamy peanut butter
3 large eggs

Frosting
6 oz. cream cheese
1/3 c. confectioners sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 c. peanut butter
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. heavy cream
fruit jam, for topping

Cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line mini muffin tins with paper liners.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and soda.
• In a small bowl, combine the sour cream and vanilla.
• Using an electric mixer on medium-high, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter and mix until incorporated. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry.
• Divide batter among muffin cups using a 3/4 oz. scoop or two tablespoons. Bake cupcakes until a toothpick comes out clean, about 11-12 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks. Once completely cooled, frost cupcakes.

Frosting

• Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese and confectioners sugar. Add salt, peanut butter and vanilla. Mix until incorporated and transfer to a large blow.
• Again in the mixer, whisk cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold whipped cream into peanut butter mixture.
• Pipe frosting in a ring around the outside edges of the cupcakes, leaving a space at the center about the size of a penny. Fill that space with a dab of jam.
• Enjoy!

If you want to make standard cupcakes, follow the same steps and bake them for about 20 minutes.
Store cupcakes in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Black bean soup two ways

I love to cook and often become happily obsessed with trying new recipes. That said, I can also be rather lazy. When the slug in me wins out (but my appetite remains voracious), my saving grace is the much maligned leftover. I LOVE leftovers!! I cook, for example, a big batch of spicy black bean soup and freeze a portion of it for future hectic Wednesdays or boozy football Sundays. I eat said soup, eat it again (and probably again-I have a high tolerance for repetition and, luckily, so does my boyfriend). Then, when I finally tire of eating the same old delicious soup, I use it to make a brand-spanking-new dish. Enter baked potato skins with black beans and three cheeses. Then I retire to the couch.














Chipotle Black Bean Soup
Serves a small army

olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 7.5 oz. can chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped (this will be messy:)
4 15 oz. cans black beans, drained, and divided in half
2 28 oz. cans whole peeled tomatoes
hot water
2 bay leaves
4-5 sprigs cilantro, plus more for garnish
salt to taste

optional garnish: chopped cilantro, cheese (I like cojito or feta), sour cream, avocado, toasted pepitas, etc.

• In a large stock pot over moderate heat, use enough oil to coat bottom and cook onions and peppers until soft, about 10-15 minutes. Salt onion mixture to taste.
• Add chipotles and adobo sauce, and then half the black beans. Stir to coat beans with oil and adobo. Again, add salt to taste.
• Add tomatoes and enough hot water to cover beans by about two inches (your pinkie is a good measuring stick). Turn heat to high and bring to a slow boil, stirring often.
• Once soup has boiled, turn heat down to medium low, add bay leaves and cilantro and cook for about an hour. Again, salt to taste.
• Remove bay leaves and cilantro and puree soup until it's almost smooth. I highly recommend that you get an immersion blender, if you don't have one, because they are super handy. If not, puree the soup in batches in your standing blender. Make sure not to fill your blender more than half way unless you want to wear your soup!
• Add remaining black beans and cook until they're warmed through, 15-20 minutes. Add salt, one last time, if necessary.
• Serve hot and enjoy!

A quick note: Because you salt the soup a number of times while you are making it, don't be heavy handed; a small pinch will do. Most importantly, make sure to taste throughout the process. And, trust those taste buds of yours!

Freeze soup, cooled completely, for up to six months. Defrost under running hot water.














Turn your soup into...
Baked Potato Skins with Black Beans and Three Cheeses
Serves 2-4

1 1/2 cup black bean soup
4 baked potato skin halves leftover from making hash browns
1/4 cup each, shredded and combined: cheddar and jack cheese
1/4 cup feta cheese
cilantro, chopped

• In a small sauce pan over moderate heat, cook down the black bean soup until it has thickened and you have about one cup
• Preheat broiler
• Place potato skins in an oven safe baking dish. Fill each potato with one quarter of the black beans. Cover beans evenly with the cheddar and jack cheeses. Broil until cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.
• Top baked potato skins with feta cheese and cilantro, serve hot and enjoy!

Hash browns

I like to bake the potatoes the night before (as I am NOT a morning person). With this step taken care of, the hash browns will take all of 15 minutes. Order up!

Hash browns
serves 2

2 baking potatoes, scrubbed and dried
butter or oil
1 medium onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

• Preheat heat oven to 350. Prick spuds a few times with a fork and brush lightly with oil and bake for about an hour, or until soft to the touch. Allow to cool enough to handle, cut in half and scrap insides into a small bowl. Set skins aside for another use.
• In a small saute pan over moderate heat, cook until soft, about 7-8 minutes. Increase heat to high and add potatoes and season well with salt and pepper. Cook until golden brown, 5-6 minutes, flip and cook for another 5ish minutes. Serve hot.
• Enjoy!

Use the leftover potato skins to make Baked Potato Skins with Black Beans and Three Cheeses

Mint Brownies

New Year's resolutions be damned (or at least tempered). "They" say that if you completely deprive yourself you are less likely to stick to your diet. It's better to be moderate. Well, there's nothing moderate about these decadent mint brownies -read cream- but their beauty lies in their richness. No joke. One chocolaty bite leaves me satisfied and I don't feel the NEED to sneak another one (you know, the "Once you pop, you can't stop" syndrome). Whatever, maybe I am justifying, but I like to think that this minimal indulgence helps me ultimately tow the line. Anyway you couch it, these brownies are heavenly!













Mint Brownies
adapted from epicurious.com
makes about 6 dozen

Brownie layer
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
10 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 t. vanilla
3/4 c. flour
1/4 c. plus 2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 t. salt
Mint ganache
1/2 c. heavy cream
10 oz white chocolate, chopped
2 T green crème de menthe
1 t. peppermint extract
Chocolate ganache
1 c. heavy cream

10 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Brownie layer

• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375. Lightly butter a 13 x 9 inch baking pan and line with 2 crisscrossed sheets of parchment or foil, leaving a 2 inch overhang on all sides. Butter parchment or foil.
• Melt butter and chocolate with brown sugar in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in eggs and vanilla until combined. Whisk in flour, cocoa, and salt until just combined.
• Spread batter evenly in baking pan and bake until set and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs, about 20 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

Mint ganache

• Bring cream to a simmer in a saucepan and remove from heat. Pour cream over white chocolate. Let stand 1 minute, then whisk until smooth. Stir in crème de menthe and extract and chill, covered, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 1 hour.

Chocolate ganache

• Bring cream to a simmer in a saucepan and remove from heat. Pour over bittersweet chocolate in a bowl. Let stand 1 minute, then whisk until smooth. Chill, covered, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 30 minutes.

Assemble

• Spread mint ganache over top of cooled brownie in a thin layer using an offset spatula, then chill until firm but still slightly sticky, about 30 minutes. Spread chocolate ganache over mint and chill until firm, about 2 hours.
• Lift brownies out of pan using 2 inch overhang. Run a heavy knife under hot water and wipe dry. Cut into small squares.
• Enjoy!

Brownies will keep in the fridge for three weeks.

Avocado Toast

I feel like I'm moving a million miles an hour these days. Perhaps that's hyperbole, but I am movin', so I'll cut right to the point- A GIRL'S GOTTA EAT and creative cooking and leisurely eating is certainly not in the cards until this here catering season comes to a screeching halt. Until I've got the time, I'll just have to eat fast food. Enter the avocado.













Now this is what I call fast food! It's healthy, tasty, totally satisfying and, well, fast. What you see pictured below is unadorned avocado toast. Go ahead dress her up though... add olive oil and some cayenne pepper for color. Top with a handful of spicy arugula, a spritz of lemon juice and freshly cracked black pepper. Or throw on some diced pickled jalapeno. Yummmy vinegary jalapenos;) Whatever you do, get on the avocado bandwagon. Pick up a couple once a week, give them a day or two to ripen and you'll have a happy breakfast, lunch or dinner at the ready.














Avocado Toast
serves 2

1 ripe avocado
2-4 slices of bread, depending on the size/shape and how hungry you are
salt

• Cut the avocado in half by rotating a sturdy knife around the pit. Rotate the halves to split and remove the pit. Slice avocado (see below).
• Toast bread to desired darkness. Spoon avocado onto toast and spread evenly. Sprinkle with salt.
• Enjoy!

Roasted Carrot Soup

This warm weather is for the birds. It is December after all. It's soup season. Soup season! So, I'm gonna soup and stew and roast and braise and thumb my nose at this weather by mashing my pretty purple carrots into a soothing soup. You heard me. I need to be soothed during this hustlin' and bustlin' time of year.

Roasting the carrots and onions until they are caramelized and slightly blackened brings out their sweet earthiness. The lemon juice brightens and balances. I feel better already.














Roasted Carrot Soup

8 medium carrots (about 1 1/2 lb), cut into 1 inch pieces
2 red onions, quartered
8 garlic cloves
olive oil
salt and pepper
3 1/2 cups water or vegetable stock
juice of 1/2 a lemon

• Preheat the oven to 400.
• Place carrots on one baking sheet (lined with parchment for easier clean up, if you like) and the onions and garlic on another. Toss vegetables with olive oil, season liberally with salt and pepper and roast until they are soft and slightly blackened, about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a large pot, boil the water or stock. Add the cooked vegetables and puree with a hand blender until smooth, adding more hot liquid for a thinner soup. Alternatively, puree in batches in a blender or food processor.
• Stir in the lemon juice, add salt to taste and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
• Enjoy!