Beer & Pretzel Cupcakes

The crazy cupcake lady is back!

Can we take a minute to recognize that I haven't posted a cupcake recipe on this blog since May 2012.  Now that's really crazy, considering how obsessed I was with them for such a long time.  Today, I am fixing this situation.

I'm coming in hot for St. Patrick's Day with some boozy cupcakes!  St. Patrick's Day used to be my favorite holiday to celebrate.  While it no longer is (because let's be real, I can't drink all day like I used to!) I still enjoy celebrating in spirit.  If you happen to live in Hoboken, NJ, as I do, we tend to celebrate this day twice each March: once on the first Saturday of March, and once again on March 15th.

I typically like to make something involving beer around this date and this year will be no exception.  Boozy cupcakes are always in style.

Livin' The Life 2/20/2014

It's been way too long since I've shared "real life" photos on this blog.  I'm really trying to be better at this.  I swear I am.  So without further ado...here ya go!

I'm really having a moment with spiked coffees lately.  The severity of this winter probably 

has something to do with it.  See pic below...

 Seriously, Tuesday?  Why?!?!!?

Snickerdoodle Blondies

I'm pretty sure my neighbors think I'm loony.  By "my neighbors", I mean the real estate brokers who work in the building next to mine.  My living room windows just so happen to look directly into two of their office windows.  I also just so happen to take my blog photos on my desk, in front of one of my living room windows. (Gotta have that natural light too!)

I'm sure these folks don't realize what's going on.  All they see is a flash going off every 20 seconds in this apartment.  No big deal really, but sort of weird if you're just minding your own business working at your desk.

This usually doesn't happen very often since I tend to cook or bake on the weekends.  However, recently I've been getting up early to whip up some treats and the brokers are in the office by the time I'm taking pictures around 8am.  "Good morning!" from the crazy lady across the alley.

This crazy lady did something really crazy the other day.  I made brownies without chocolate.  That is insane because I have something you may call a "chocolate obsession".  It's not always out in full force, but it's always there.  I have never, ever in my life, made non-chocolate brownies before.  But since there's a time and place for everything (and since I was out of chocolate chips and didn't want to leave my apartment to brave the polar vortex), I pulled together some cinnamon sugar goodness in blondie form.

Garlic Lime Salmon

I feel as if it's been forever since I've made a Secret Recipe Club post!  We took a break for the holidays and now we're back!

Since I've been blissfully working from home for the past few weeks (wait, can we ever be "blissfully working"? .... hmmmm), I've been trying to incorporate more seafood into my diet.  I rarely make seafood because I am not interested in eating frozen seafood.  While I have no objection to cooking salmon that was raw and was then frozen, it's completely another thing to eat salmon that has already been seared, roasted, baked, whatever, and then frozen.  Yuck.

So here we are, with me making salmon for dinner while actually living at home.

This month, I was excited to be assigned Angela's blog for the SRC, which is appropriately named Angela's Kitchen.  Angela's blog is chock full of recipes just waiting to be made.  She is also an expert on gluten- and dairy-free recipes.  From all the recipes I looked at, I decided to make a salmon dish (of course!) but I would also suggest popping over and having a look-see at Angela's site.  There's so much to learn and her information would be especially helpful to those of you living gluten- and dairy-free.

Avocado Salad with Bacon & Feta

Guys.  The day that I thought would never come, actually came last week.

I ate too much bacon.

Once you recover from the shock of that statement, let me tell you that it was my own fault.  I somehow thought that I could eat a package of super-thick bacon (yes, that's a thing now) and still feel good about myself an hour later.  Quite unfortunately, I have over-estimated my tolerance for that.

Thankfully, I had this salad the day before I ate too much bacon, so I can still give you an honest assessment of my thoughts on this.  And to be truthful, if there were no bacon on this salad, I would not have loved it as much.  There is no just nothing else that would complement the creamy avocado and tangy lemon dressing as well as a slice of crunchy bacon can.

The good news is that now I'm over my bacon overdose, so I'm back in action.  I will be having a few more of these easy and tasty salads in the near future and I will not be thinking twice about it.

Carrot Cake Muffins

Are we still on that health kick thing?  You know, the whole "It's a new year and I need to workout and diet like a mofo" thing?  I'm pretty sure that ends once the Superbowl comes around.  I mean, who doesn't love a good queso dip?  I will never say no.

So anyhow, I guess that means we can talk about these carrot cake muffins without any guilt, right?  Cool.  'Cause that's what I'm about to do.  I don't know why I haven't made any form of carrot cake before since I absolutely love it.  Let's be real.  It's all about the cream cheese frosting.  It gets me every time.

I had been looking for a recipe for healthy muffins when I initially crossed paths with these.  Pretty soon,  I was convincing myself that the amount of carrots in each muffin definitely negate the amount of cream cheese filling inside it.  AmIright?  That's carrot-cake-math, in case you're wondering.