You Can't Really Go Wrong..

...with beer and chocolate. Seriously. This post will include little to no input or advice from me - other than to make this cake. I found another great blog - smitten kitchen - and it features a ton of delicious looking recipes.


The first one I tried is the chocolate stout cake, which I made for my dad this past weekend for Father's Day. Even my mom, who isn't a big Guinness drinker, really enjoyed it. It's easy and delicious. Give it a try!

Also, please forgive my pitiful cell phone pictures, as I was not initially planning to post this.

The leftover pizza experiment.

I love a good deal...and pizza. So when I am offered a second pizza with my delivery order for 25 cents, I can't turn it down. Unfortunately, I can't eat it all either. So the question becomes, what do I do with all this pizza? So I decided that freezing it must be the answer. But after reading some websites on the topic, I found that there is much dispute about the best way to do this. So I have decided to give several of the suggestions a try in an attempt to answer the question... what (if any) is the best way to freeze leftover pizza?

The actual freezing part seems to be agreed upon for the most part...wrap in plastic wrap, put in freezer bag, put in freezer. So that is today's task. Results to come in a week or so. Try to contain your excitement. Haha.

Father's Day is on the Way!

I just wanted to share a suggestion for a delicious, cheap, and easy Father's Day cookout. Beer can chicken. I have made it a few times in the past for family and friends and it has always been well received.

So here is the recipe - George Duran's Spice Rubbed Beer Can Chicken.

I am also going to try my hand at homemade baked beans as a side dish. Here's the recipe I am thinking of using - Slow Cooker Baked Beans. Let me know if you have any suggestions for recipes/techniques!

I haven't figured out what else I will make, but I am going to attempt to cook everything on the grill to avoid a hot June kitchen.

Happy Father's Day!

Easter Goodies - Pecan Pie Bars

Here's the first of the goodies I made to fill my easter baskets. Pecan Pie Bars. They are sooo good and easy to make. If you like pecan pie, you will love them! Give them a try!

Choosy Moms Need to Think Again...

Homemade peanut butter! Yum!

So it has been a while. Being a grad student takes a lot of time. Ha ha. But for the sake of my sanity, I have taken a break for some food and blogging. Why peanut butter, you ask?

1. This giant jar of mixed nuts in my freezer (and let's face it...who eats the peanuts with all those yummy cashews and pecans and almonds to distract you?)

2. My overwhelming desire to use my "new" thrift store blender (1.98!) and its awesome ability to blend things in mason jars.. see this tip at Simply Recipes for more info.

3. This spaghetti jar...

So the peanut butter adventure begins. Here's what you will need:

• 2 cups peanuts (in my case, painsakingly picked from the mixed nuts jar)
• 1 - 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
• salt (if desired)
• blender or food processor
• jar for storage (or blending if you have one of these cool old blenders)
• spatula or spoon to scrape down jar if needed

From there, it's pretty simple...

First - fill jar, food processor, or blender with two cups of peanuts (the spaghetti jar had the ounces marked on the side of the jar making this task even easier) and 1 tablespoon oil.

Next - Blend! Add up to one more tablespoon of oil if the mixture is too thick. Keep in mind, though, that it will make the final product slightly thinner.

When it looks like peanut butter, stop blending. Pretty simple. At this point, I tasted it and added a little extra salt...probably about a quarter teaspoon with my salted peanuts.

Finally - Enjoy!!

Be sure to keep the peanut butter in the refrigerator. Unlike the commercial stuff, there are no preservatives!!

And they're all made out of ticky tacky...

Although Christmas is long past, in my family we are still trying to squeeze a little more celebration in. So with a trip to visit some more family just around the corner, I have just finished round two of cookie baking and gift tin packing.


It seems that 2008 is the Christmas of the paper (and wax paper) box. So using my new found paper box making skills I made these wax paper boxes to hold cookies instead of buying more candy or muffin cups. They worked pretty well, despite being no where near as precise as its scrapbook paper relative.

I tried some new cookie recipes this year in addition to some of my regulars. The tins (purchased around this time last year for a dramatically discounted price at Walmart) include:

• Peanut butter blossoms
• Snickerdoodles
• Ginger cookies
• Cinnamon peanut brittle
• Chocolate crinkles

I thought I would share some of these recipes because I think they are delicious and super easy. The peanut brittle (which is in its third year of Christmas gifting) is a great recipe from Gale Gand.

I normally make a double recipe (one recipe at a time), resulting in 2 cookie sheets full of brittle. I also like mine very heavy on peanuts so instead of using two cups of peanuts as the recipe states, I use about three cups (one and a half jars) of peanuts per recipe.

The ginger cookies are on year two and seem to be a hit. I only bake them for about 12 minutes resulting in a chewier cookie than the recipe would create.

Last recipe - the chocolate crinkles. This is the first year I tried these and they are absolutely delicious! I made these just as the recipe is written and they turned out wonderful.

The crinkles would also be great for Valentines Day!