Coffee Pancakes

I used to drag myself out of bed with the promise of a cup (or two) of coffee.  It worked every time.  Lately, though, I've been waking up voluntarily at 7:30am just to get a jump start on the day.  This is insane!  Am I becoming a morning person?  I don't even know me anymore.


When I came across this recipe for coffee pancakes on Pinterest, I knew it was something that I would need to make.  As you can see, I already have an excellent relationship with coffee.  Now that it seems I have some extra time in the mornings, I can even whip up some pancakes!

These pancakes were so easy to make and so tasty.  The coffee flavor definitely shines in these.  Of course, I did use instant espresso granules instead of the instant coffee granules which were recommended in the original recipe, but that's just me.  Go big or go home!  OK, you're probably already home if you're making these.  Oof.  Never mind.  Too much coffee.  Just make these!

Cappuccino Muffins

I'm in a breakfast mood lately.  I'm either eating Mexican food or breakfast food these days.  Oh, and fries.  Because I always have room for fries.

This weekend, I'll be eating a ton of fries.  They're a special at the fine establishment that we lovingly called "The Dirty O" at my college in Pittsburgh.  That's right, folks.  I'm heading back to Pittsburgh for a few days to meet up with some old friends and hang out at all the local hotspots.  There will be pictures...some heavily edited pictures.

While I work on getting those fry pictures for you, you should check out these muffins I made.  They have coffee and chocolate and you can eat them guilt-free in the morning.  That's the best I can do for today, but I think that's pretty dang good if I do say so myself.

Biscoff Cheeseball

I've been holding out on this recipe for almost a year.  Sorry about that.  

I first made this tasty appetizer for my housewarming party back in May 2013.  I was hoping to snap a few pictures of the final product before putting it out to be devoured, but of course time got the better of me and all of a sudden it was already half eaten.  I must say that I think this was the life of the party.  If you happen to love cookie butter and cream cheese, then this is probably a bandwagon that you will want to jump on.

This week, my client had a "breakfast for lunch" event, or as I like to call it, "brunch for lunch".  I described this biscoff cheeseball to someone last week and their reaction was: "Oh, so it's like a biscoff cream cheese frosting."  Technically, I guess that could be correct, but I like to see it as a dip.  You can serve it with fruit or graham crackers or whatever else you desire.  I picked up some Nilla wafers as well, because why not?  (Ok, I know this cheeseball has nothing to do with breakfast, but I really just wanted to make it again, so I volunteered it for the party.  That's a good enough excuse to make this, right?)

This biscoff cheeseball is quick and easy to create and it only requires 5 ingredients.  Blend the first three together, freeze the result, then roll it in the final 2 ingredients.  Freeze once again.  I can pull this together in no time and lately, I've been realizing that most of my recipes have required less than an hour of active time to make.  What can I say? A girl has things to do.

Mini Double Chocolate Cake Donuts

As you're reading this, I am relaxing somewhere on the island of Grand Cayman.  Yes, my friends.  I am on va-ca-tion.  I'm sure I'm loving it.  Most of that probably also has to do with the fact that it's barely spring in the Northeast and it's definitely much warmer down here.

Unfortunately, the, uh, "preparation" I needed to make it here and hang out in public in my bathing suit required me to pack up these delicious baked donuts and remove them from my kitchen the same day that I made them.  Because it makes sense to bake chocolate donuts even when you can't eat them.  That's practical, right?  Sure.

To be completely honest, I did have to taste test a few of these suckers.  I'm always skeptical about the freshness factor of baked donuts.  I don't think they taste as good a day or two after they're made.  Since I sent these donuts out in three different batches, I had to taste three of them to make sure they were still as good as when they were made.  I do have a reputation to keep, you know!  (They were fine, by the way.)

You also don't have to make these into mini baked donuts.  You could use a regular-sized donut pan, but seeing as I don't have any of those, mini donuts it is!

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.

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.

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.

Toffee Squares

These bars have no toffee in them.

Yes, I know what they're called, but I didn't name them.  However, I didn't feel the urge to change the name either.  Hear me out.  If you have ever savored the wonder of a Heath candy bar, you would definitely recognize the flavor of these gorgeous desserts.

These dessert bars were the business!  I loved these so much that I eventually had to get them out of my apartment or I would have eaten them all.  One thing to note is that the crust can be a bit crumbly.  That didn't bother me one bit.  In fact, I took one for the team and "disposed" of any broken bars so that no one else had to worry about them.

In the end, I packed up the majority of the bars (the unbroken ones) and took them over to a friend's place so I could salvage my dignity.  Or at least attempt to.

Cappuccino Cookies with White Chocolate

I had an internal struggle going on for a while and I've decided which side has won.  On one hand, I really wanted to publish some healthy recipes to kick off 2014, because no one really goes into the new year thinking you're going to stuff your face with tons of calories.  We already spent all of December doing that.  And if I'm being completely honest with myself, I also spent the tail end of November doing that as well (hello, Thanksgiving!).

Now, if there's anything I'm good at, it's getting you to break your diet.  I'm not proud of it, but I am that girl who is going to eat what I want and then figure out how much time I have to spend working out to counteract that decision.  OK, I'm only like this 95% of the time, but you get the idea.

I also couldn't live with myself if I wasn't able to post the recipe for this cookies asap!  These cookies could seriously be called life-changing.  I would say that I never want to be without these again but the problem with that desire is that I tend to eat at least three in a row.  Let's be clear that this is not me sitting down with three cookies on a plate eating them.  It's me sitting down with one cookie in hand, then getting up to get another one, and sitting back down.  And let's repeat that one more time because I needed to get a cup of water and the cookies were RIGHT THERE...butreallyIjustwantedanothercookie.

To help me help myself, I gave away about a dozen of these cookies, but somehow, within two days, the other dozen disappeared.  I don't know what happened!

Iced Champagne Pound Cake

Remember when I told you I was going to give you healthy recipes?  Well, I lied.  Sorry 'bout that.  

I ended up making this amazing cake for a New Year's Eve party last week and I just about died over it.  Let me tell you a secret: I don't like pound cake.  It's just one of those things.  However, I figured this pound cake had champagne in it, so it wasn't really the same as a regular pound cake, right?  Well, when I made this and finally got to taste it, I discovered that it was amazing!

But hey, can you guess what is NOT amazing?  Not using real butter and flour to coat the inside of your bundt pan, then turning out your cake onto a plate and leaving parts of it in the pan...Not cool.  Not cool.  So the next logical step was to patch things together, and then pour icing over the cake in an effort to hide the evidence.  I believe this step worked out favorably for everyone.

Truth be told, I was thinking of drizzling an icing on this cake anyhow.  This iced pound cake reminds me of the iced lemon loaf at Starbucks.  I actually do like that Starbucks dessert (I know, I know! I'm only slightly ashamed) and once I tasted my own iced cake, I realized that Starbucks had already tricked me into liking pound cake.  Sneaky!  I see what you did there 'bucks.

Note: Since I had some eggnog in my refrigerator, I made use of it in this icing.  However, if you don't have eggnog (especially since it's a seasonal drink) you can use heavy cream or milk.  While it seems as if this cake would be best suited to a special celebration, I would also recommend making this cake for no reason at all.  Treat yo'self.

Baked Eggnog French Toast with Cranberries and White Chocolate

 

Let's get Christmas-y up in here.

I've been super busy lately traveling for my job, but this is just too good to keep away from you guys.  Baked eggnog french toast is the new business.  And we add some cranberries and white chocolate to make it festive.  I will definitely keep this breakfast item in the repertoire for the future.  I think I can also tweak this to make it work for various seasons.  Not that this particular recipe isn't completely amazing.  It is.

I got the luck of the draw this month when I received the Cheese Curd in Paradise blog for the Secret Recipe Club.  Ashley has blogged about so many recipes that I want to indulge in, but unfortunately I can only choose one for this post.  That special "one" turned out to be this recipe.  Once I laid eyes on it, my mind was immediately made up.  I made this recipe when my family came to visit me the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It was the perfect indulgent post-Thanksgiving brunch item and we all fell in love with it.  I allegedly had two servings.  Let me tell you that it was worth it.

Bailey's Brownies

I want to have a heart-to-heart with you about Bailey's.

You see, the holidays are upon us.  Starbucks says that they are.  Don't worry about that little Thanksgiving thing in between now and then.  Focus.

We need to start trimming trees, decking the halls, and adding Bailey's to every darn drink we pour. But let's not limit ourselves.  I want to eat it too.  Is that strange?  No.  No, it is not.  Don't look at me that way.  This is how I make friends.  I put booze in a bunch of desserts and go forth into the world.  Ok, that's not completely true.  It's close though.

Can we add brownies to that list of desserts?  Yes.  Yes, we can.  Because we are adults and we do what we want!

Banana Speculoos Microwave Brownie

I can't be the only person obsessed with the Starbucks chocolate smoothie, right? ... 

OK, I'm pretty sure 90% of the people reading this have no idea what I'm talking about.  Let me drop some knowledge: Starbucks makes protein shake smoothies!  The next time you go there, check out the menu and you'll find it.  It's pretty much overshadowed by any and every holiday/seasonal/espresso drink, but it's there.  (Speaking of holiday drinks, I got my gingerbread latte yesterday in my very first red Starbucks cup of the season!  It was initially a weird experience since I picked up my drink right next to a display offering coffee grounds in the flavor "Thanksgiving".  I was confused for a second and then realized that pop culture is now celebrating Christmas a month before Thanksgiving and two months before the actual Christmas day, which is sort of aggravating to me but...I'm digressing...)  Chocolate Smoothie.

This smoothie happens to be a chocolate banana protein shake (20g protein!).  I discovered this by accident one day when I was bored and scrolling through the Starbucks app on my phone.  Over the past year or two, I've become a consumer of protein shakes before, during, and/or after a workout, so finding this shake was exciting for me!  I admit that at first I didn't love the taste of it.  My taste buds were expecting a pretty sweet milkshake instead of a slightly sweetened and (relatively) good-for-you smoothie, but eventually I came to love it.

The other day I was looking for a quick snack to whip up and I came across this recipe for a Banana Nutella Microwave Brownie.  Right away, it reminded me of the Starbucks smoothie!  Alright, it's definitely not the same thing, but the flavors are sort of similar.

Then I realized I didn't have any Nutella in my pantry.  However, I do have crushed cookies in the form of Speculoos hanging around!  I picked that up instead and got to work.

Do the dang thing!

Watermelon & Mint Salad

The title of this post is way less interesting than originally intended.  You see, I picked up a few items at the grocery store the other day and this stash just so happened to include watermelon and an avocado.  The thought never entered my mind to combine them together.  I'm typically a salted-avocado slice kind of gal.  However, I then saw this post which combines watermelon and avocado into a salad! Since I already had most of the ingredients at hand I figured I'd throw this together to see what it was all about.

Let's segway to that moment when I slice open my avocado and there's a black ring throughout the entire fruit... You know that avocado got the stink side-eye.  But I pulled up my big girl pants and decided to simply leave the avocado out of this equation.  Problem solved in three seconds flat.  The recipe is pretty free-form, so I grabbed the ingredients I did have and got to work.

Malted Milk Ball Guinness Floats

It's time to get your float on.  Cause it's summer and you can justify drinking these as "beverages" and/or dessert.  Go get you some.

Can we all agree that there's nothing better than ice cream/gelato/fro yo?  I'm not picky, really.  All of these frozen custards call to me and I will immediately cave.  I fell victim to a pint of Malted Milk Ball gelato last week.  There may also have been a Key Lime Graham gelato flavor picked up at the same time.  What can I say?  I'm weak.

I started thinking about what to do with these newly acquired desserts.  Of course I could just eat them.  Nothing wrong with that, clearly.  However, I could also try to be creative and make something else out of them.

Enter the Guinness.  Have I mentioned before how I'm in a Guinness phase?  Probably.  To continue this trend, I decided a Guinness float was in order.  One can never have enough Guinness floats.

Guinness Brownies

I don't know about you, but I've been on a Guinness kick lately.  And since I'm an equal opportunist, I would even venture to say that I am on a "stout beer" kick.  I blame it on the stout beer that I had to consume as a member of my local bar's beer club.  After a few of those, the taste just started to grow on me and soooo...here we are.  With me checking off stout after stout on that beer list.  Yah, that's how I'm livin'.

What's better than stout beer?  Stout beer in brownies.  Have I told you I've been on a brownie kick lately too?  Mmmmhmmmm.  That has been happening.  What can I say?  I'm a mess.  A mess of beer and chocolate.  I could do worse.

Chocolate Palmiers

I just returned from a pretty bangin' trip to New Orleans.  I want to go back straight straight straight away.  I recently developed an affinity for jazz music and a slight obsession with the Big Easy.  I blame the Preservation Jazz Hall Band.  You see, I went to see them at City Winery in NYC back in February.  Halfway through the concert, I came to the conclusion that these talented men seemed to live pretty happy and rich lives down in New Orleans.  So clearly I had to go check it out!

Now I don't usually do this.  You can be certain that I am not much of a traveler, but I figured I should probably work on changing that up.  I like to travel, but there always seems to be a reason not to go just-this-second.  I switched up the game this year.  In 2013, we will travel more!

So anyhow, I went to NOLA and ate my face off, while listening to a ton of jazz music and making new friends along the way.  I did it up right.  However, I have now developed an addiction to pralines.  This cannot lead anywhere good.  I know it. I just recently weaned myself* off these chocolate palmiers and I already have another replacement!

*Disclaimer: I have not actually weaned myself off these palmiers, but I did run out of them.  I have been holding myself back from making another batch so that I don't scarf them down all at once.

S'mores Cookies

I know I'm doing something that is just so rude.  Please don't despise me for it, Erin.

It's Secret Recipe Club time again and this month I was paired up with the Wholesome RD blog.  Hi, Erin!  Um, this is awkward, but I'm totally renaming your Campfire Cookies.  Let me tell you why.

Anytime I hear of a combination of chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallow, I immediately hone in on smore's.  I mean, it's only natural.  The entire time I was making these cookies, I kept referring to them as s'mores cookies.  I couldn't help it!  I finally stopped fighting it.  They will be called S'mores Cookies.  So sorry.

By the way, these are fluffy, delicious little things!  I may have taste tested quite a few of them.  It was necessary though.  Since my big move, I haven't yet realized exactly what I'm missing from my cooking/baking stash.  What I found out this weekend was that I lack a second baking sheet.  You may not think that is a problem, but when a recipe makes 3 dozen cookies and you can only bake 8 - 10 per baking sheet....you have a long afternoon ahead of you.  Alright, it wasn't that tragic, but you get my drift.

Back to the deliciousness. These cookies weren't as sweet as I thought they would be, which is probably a good thing given that I taste-tested 1-2 cookies per batch.  (If you don't want to do that math, I made 4 batches of these cookies, sooo...)  One thing that I would love to experiment with is doubling the amount of chocolate, graham crackers,and marshmallow mix-ins.  I know I just said I loved the taste, but as one of my favorite YouTubers always says "Why be subtle?"

Spiced Cocoa Brownies

In case you're wondering, I ended up in Target the other day.  Big surprise.  I seriously went in to get some candy and a few toiletries...

Let's cut to me in the Home Decor section, which, in case you were also wondering, is nowhere NEAR the candy and toiletries aisles.  You know how it is.  You just stop in for one or two things and the next thing you know, you get sucked into a vortex, your shopping cart is filled to the brim, and your credit card bill is atrocious.  I ended up purchasing a starburst mirror for my new place (new obsession), along with a set of pots and pans, a set of knives, utensils and a few small kitchen gadgets.

As I ran away from the store hiding my face in just a little bit of shame, I realize that I still. don't. have. a. brownie. pan.  Target trip fail.  Well, not a real fail, since I also didn't own a starburst mirror, a set of pot and pans, a set of knives, utensils, and a few small kitchen gadgets prior to this trip either.  I complained about my lack of a brownie pan in my red velvet brownie post from way back in December, and I still haven't resolved this situation.   I'll just have to "stumble upon" a brownie pan the next time I swing by Target to pick up some face cream or something else just as obscure.  Until that happens (probably next week), I had to make these spiced cocoa brownies in the trusty ole' casserole pan.  You just do what you need to do.

Cranberry-Almond Chocolate Biscotti

I want to let you guys in on a little somethin' somethin'.  I'm moving.

No, this blog isn't moving.  (At least not yet.  I actually do want to make it snazzier but that's not happening for a bit. Sorry!) I'm physically moving my junk from one apartment in Hoboken to another apartment in Hoboken.  I've been living in the same spot since I started this blog a few years ago, so this is an exciting, yet nerve-wracking, time for me.  I have a few blog posts lined up for the next couple weeks, so you most likely won't even realized I've been busy packing, unpacking, assembling furniture and decorating and the likes (crossing my fingers!).

However, you'll probably see a difference in the pictures that I start taking in a few weeks.  Will it be a good or a bad difference? Uh, that remains to be seen.  I actually previewed the new place at night-time, so I'm not certain of that situation just yet.  I'm hoping hoping hoping that I still have a good source of natural light.  If I don't, it will probably take me a few posts to figure out how to fix that....so what I'm saying is that I'm possibly gonna need some slack here.  No judgements, right?  Fab.

Oh hey, and I also have this biscotti recipe for you.  In the spirit of cleaning things out of the kitchen, I found some dried cranberries in the cupboard and slivered almonds in the freezer.  I've been going through a huge carb-craving phase lately, so I was inspired to adapt Katie's cherry-hazelnut biscotti recipe based on the ingredients I had on hand.