Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

One day I was extolling the virtues of peanut butter and chocolate with a very good friend of mine. You can imagine how deep this conversation might have been.

Doesn't a peanut butter cookie sound good? You see why this is an important conversation.

And then I was lamenting the fact that we had all this chocolate left over from Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love chocolate. But melted down chocolate chips aren't exactly the finest way to enjoy it. So what if ...

What if you mixed melted chocolate in to peanut butter cookies?

There are obviously a few different ways this could work out. The chocolate could make the batter runny in the oven, and they might not ever come together. Or the chocolate could harden more like candy than cookie. And I was leaning toward it being an incredible runny mess. I like to stick to established, tested recipes. This is a pretty big deviation.

I started by making regular peanut butter cookies. The particular recipe I was looking at even suggested adding chocolate chips at the end, so once the cookie batter was together I added the great experiment: melted chocolate. I'd estimate I had about a cup to use.

It looked a lot like ice cream. The consistency in the mixer was a lot like ice cream. But it was obviously warm. I stopped mixing when there were still discernible swirls in the batter; any more and I think it would have blended together all the way. For future reference.

No special cooking here. Just the same as what the recipe called for (although you can see my bff parchment paper underneath the cookies).

These couldn't have come out better. The chocolate didn't harden into big chunks when the cookies cooled, and didn't ooze all over the oven. It was sort of like eating a peanut butter cup with a little cookie layer. Sure, sometimes there was more of one flavor than the other, but who is really going to complain about that?

They're especially neat because they didn't really require anything unusual. A little less mixing would make bigger swirls, and that might look cool. Or a little more, and no one would suspect they were peanut butter!

Pepperpot Beef

Once upon a time, I had a beautiful wedding and an absolutely perfect honeymoon. But you probably already knew that. Or now you're thinking, "great, another girl who's going to relive her wedding for the next 20 years." Not so.

But, it happened, and we had some amazing food while touring the Caribbean. One of which was a dish that I could only tell you was called "pepperpot beef" on the menu, and was amazing. It was essentially a dish of beef in a spicy sauce, served with sweet potatoes. Maybe not immediately the most appetizing-sounding combination, but believe me on this one.

Since then I've been snooping around for a recipe that sounds like it might get the same results. The beef was super tender, so anything I found would get cooked in the slow cooker. But as for the spices, I was at a loss.

Apparently, websites featuring recipes from the Caribbean are few and far between. For instance, everywhere we went there was this incredible yellow hot sauce. From what we heard, most people make it themselves, but you can also buy it. Yeah, if you want to pay three times the price of the bottle in shipping. As good as it was, around $50 for a bottle of hot sauce is a little beyond me.

I found this BBC recipe which happened to have the same name, and since it's been about nine months of looking, I was really ready for trying.


Now, this might be a good recipe. You might really like it. It didn't look very appetizing, but that's just how some slow cooker recipes look. And it was dark when I had it originally, so it might not have looked good either. But, it wasn't my Ti Kaye pepperpot beef.

I'm open to suggestions! If you figure it out, I'll make it for you!

February Resolutions

I don't believe in new year's resolutions. The whole thing seems silly, because can't you resolve to do or not do something any time? Why not a Tuesday resolution, or a February 1st resolution?

And then, everyone seems to make one of a handful of the same resolutions: lose weight, save money, get organized, stop some bad habit. We're a creative bunch, aren't we?

Let's look at 2009 for a minute:

• Graduated from school. Yes, I technically graduated in 2008, but all the celebrations were in May 2009, and my parents came to see me (!), and it's a really freaking big deal, so I can count it in two years.
  
• Bought my first new car. What an experience.
  
• Planned a wedding with all the fun before and after. Yes, I had help planning, and did do some before 2009, but the bulk of it happened those four months before.
• Participated in a duathlon. That was a crazy experience. And the half marathon. Oh, and somehow trained for both.
  
• Went to a cake decorating class. Mad skills acquired.
  
• My newly minted little brother moved out to LA. Hi neighbor!
  
• Rotated in to my last rotational position at work, and then got placed. That's three jobs in 2009. And yes, that's abnormal. Especially since one job was at a different site.
• Bought a house, moved, and had our first married Christmas in our new home.
  

So, when I said I was tired and hoped 2010 was a big bore, I was completely serious.

But January 2010 was a terrible month. Lots of bad goings-on. And I realized that some of these things wouldn't have bothered me so much last year, because I had so many other things to divert my attention.

Don't worry, though: I'm going to give 2010 a chance to redeem itself. This year I'm going to do things that I wanted to do before, but didn't have time. Some things I've started, some I'm just starting, and some I don't even know where to begin! So I'll let you know if I get any bright ideas.

White Bean Chili

I've been on a real soup-kick lately.

When I said I wanted to make white bean chili, the first thing my husband said was, "gross!" Like anything I make is bad!

OK, some of the stuff I've made is bad.

After some exaggerated pouting, I mentioned the key: "If I put bacon in it, will you try it?" I was pretty much going to make it either way. But the bacon did the trick.

I'm glad got mixed up and I didn't call it white bean soup. That just doesn't sound good at all.


In fact, I'll be the first to admit that just doesn't look very appetizing at all. I even made the picture smaller, just in case you're perusing my blog over dinner or during your lunch break. Sorry about that.

I like having chunks in my soup, so I didn't puree the whole thing down to smooth. And really, heavy cream? But either way, this was a great soup. I don't have white beans often, so the flavor was really unique. The bacon made it a little salty and a little crispy. And yes, we both liked it!

So when you make it, just close your eyes. Although I promise it looks less gross in real life.

Roasted Garlic & Potato Soup

January is, without a doubt, diet month.

I'm not about to go on a diet. But I like light soups, and I like potatoes, and garlic. I won't begrudge a recipe for being moderately healthy, either.

There is a Nordstrom's down the street. No clue if it has a cafe. But if it did, and they were serving roasted garlic and potato soup, I might be down for stopping in.


One of the nice things about soup is that they can be as low involvement as you want them to be. Yes, chopping potatoes is sort of time consuming. But using pre-chopped garlic and dehydrated onion flakes really gets things going fast.

OK, I'm a little embarrassed that I admitted to use onion flakes. But they were on sale. In a really big tub. Not. helping.

I didn't have any thyme. Or a rind of parmesan. Or chives. So between that and the onion flakes, I have a pretty lame kitchen. I did have some parsley to garnish the top. And after hearing all kinds of horrors about people putting hot soup into their blender and it exploding everywhere, I'm really happy to have an immersion blender too!

This really was as good as the author expounds. It's light and not overly garlicky, even though there's a lot to it.

Nope, no Nordstrom's cafe at my local mall. They don't post prices on their menu though, so it's probably just as well.

Salmon & Polenta Dinner

There's all kinds of good about this particular dinner.


Baked salmon? Awesome. One of these days, I'd like to try making salmon en papillote. One of these days. But I digress.

Black beans? Awesome. Years ago I would have never gone anywhere near black beans. Now I'm all for my quickie side. These were extra spicy.

Fried polenta? Awesome!! If corn and french fries got together, this would be their tasty baby. When I first moved to California, this was one of the things I would make. I don't remember where I heard about it. Whenever I make "cornmeal mush," as the recipe goes on the canister, there's always a lot left over. After a day in the refrigerator, it's perfect for frying. And goes amazing with extra spicy black beans.

Chicken & Ratatouille Dinner

There you have it. That's lemon pepper seasoning on the chicken, and the ratatouille recipe was actually one where you boil it in a pot. Baked is way better, but the pot is quicker.

Yay winter squash!