Peanut Butter Amazingness

I think that peanut butter and chocolate are perhaps the best combination ever created and will eat anything constructed of this concoction.  Every summer my mother makes a peanut butter pie, which is to die for.  Unfortunately this summer, we didn't get to see my parents, and I missed out on the pie experience.  Due to this misfortune, I decided to try my hand at this pie with a few twists of my own.

The result was glorious, an amazingly peanut butter and chocolate explosion.

 Reeses peanut butter cups, chocolate and peanuts mmmm...

Yum .. Here's the secret to the deliciousness:

Peanut Butter Amazingness

• 2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream 
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 large Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
• 1 12 oz bag of miniature Reeses (chopped)
• 1/4 cup chopped peanuts
• Chocolate sauce

Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until moist.  Press into bottom of 8" spring form pan (lined with parchment) to form a crust. Stick 8 whole Reeses Cups facing outward onto the sides of the spring form plan.

Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar and peanut butter until combined.  Whip cream with 2 tbsp of sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.  Fold whipped cream into peanut butter mixture, until smooth.   Fold in half of the bag of chopped miniature Reeses.  Pour mixture on top of graham crust.  Top with remaining chopped Reeses and peanuts.  Then drizzle chocolate sauce on top.

But don't enjoy yet.. you need to freeze it for at least 2 hours.  It can be hard but you can resist.  I have faith in you.

Beating the Heat

Living in the South, I have had my share of steamy summers.  It is normal for the highs to be in the 90s.  However, this summer has been particularly brutal.  After 4 days of 100+ heat, it was time to make ice cream!  Fortunately we have an ice cream maker (1).

Mr. MedSchool and I aren't happy with just plain vanilla.  We like to give our ice cream a little something extra.  One of our favorite ice cream shops in Big City South use to make all sorts of crazy ice cream flavors like animal cracker, candy corn and (our favorite) red velvet cake!  One day we decided, we can make that. So we made vanilla ice cream in our ice cream maker and crumbled red velvet cake in it.  Then we swirled cream cheese frosting in it (2) and voila!

Perfection!  The recipe is below so buy yourself an ice cream maker, buy some premade red velvet cake (3) and frosting and get started!

Ice Cream
 Mix 1/2 Gallon of Half and Half
         1 pt of heavy cream
         1 1/2 cups of sugar
         1 tsp of salt
         1 tbsp vanilla
 in ice cream maker canister and begin to make ice cream (4). When the ice cream begins to get solid (15 to 20 minutes), mix in 2 to 3 slices of red velvet cake (roughly chopped).  Then continue to let the ice cream maker do its thing.   One the ice cream maker stops, put half of ice cream in a tuber ware dish.  Then spoon dollops of cream cheese icing onto ice cream.  Cover with the remaining ice cream.  Then spoon more cream cheese icing onto the ice cream.  Swirl with knife and either freeze or eat!

Enjoy!  

1.  Standard wedding gift for Southerners
2. Clutch 
3. Or make it, if you are adventurous  
4. You will also need ice cream salt and ice to do this. Note if you have never made ice cream ... look it up online first.

Brownies That Move Mountains

I have found that one of the best ways to thank people is food (1).  Whether it’s thanking some guys for helping you move, a friend for inviting you to a dinner party or a relative whose house you stayed at, food is always to say thank you.

I recently ran across a recipe for brownies from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (2).  The recipe sounded great but a little intense.  I mean there’s a double boiler involved (3) and multiple types of chocolate (semisweet melted, semisweet chips [4], unsweetened).  However, it is completely worth it.  I add frosting to mine as well a ganache or cream cheese frosting make these even better

Outrageous Brownies

Note: These are baked in a 12 x 18 baking sheet.  You can also use two 12 x 9 baking sheets.

Ingredients:

                  1 pound unsalted butter

                  1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

                  6 ounces unsweetened chocolate

                  6 extra-large eggs

                  3 tablespoons instant coffee granules

                  2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

                  2 1/4 cups sugar

                  1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

                  1 tablespoon baking powder

                  1 teaspoon salt

                  3 cups chopped walnuts (didn’t use these, still good)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet.

Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake!

1. Or beer  

2. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/outrageous-brownies-recipe3/index.html

3. Problem, since my method of melting chocolate involved a microwave.

4. Please use good chocolate!  Like one of the ones that has a percentage of Cacao in it.  Even Kroger has a generic brand, come on  

Awesome. The only word to describe it.

So you ever have one of those overwhelming cravings?  Well I often get a hankering (1) for peanut butter and chocolate (2) and this time decided to make something satiate the craving.  I decided a chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and dark chocolate Reeses would do the trick.  I looked up a chocolate cake recipe that I hadn't tried before (3).  To complete the Peanut Butteriness of the cake, I mixed in 1 1/2 cups of chopped dark Reeses (4) into the cake batter and 1 cup of peanut butter into the frosting. Then I spread a layer of peanut butter (it's easiest if you melt it) on each cake layer.  After frosting the cake, I put another cup and a half of chopped Reeses on the outside of the frosted cake as decoration (5).

Normally I feel like my baking is pretty good but this time I out did myself.   This cake was awesome.  It was rich and dense, just like my grandmother use to make.  Just as proof, I took this cake (6) to work and 2 people asked me for the recipe (7).

Here it is again.  It can be a bit scary, if you don't make a lot of cakes from scratch but it would be a special holiday treat! Just try it.

4 Pictures.. yeah it really was 4 pictures good.

Sorry for the big chunk taken out of it... It was calling my name.

1. Southern for a Strong and relentless desire
2. The best combination that God invented after cheese and wine
3. http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/dark-chocolate-cake-with-ganache-frosting 
4.  Feel free to mix in more for a little more pb kick
5.  on second thought, it's probably better just to get 2 bags of Reeses .. That way you can eat lots some of them as you bake.
6. Actually just 1/3 of the cake b/c Mr. MedSchool and I ate the other 2/3rds over the weekend
7. Which seems small but it's like 15% of our office

Let Me See that Tootsie Roll

For Halloween, we had planned to go to a few parties but wouldn't be leaving our home until 9pm or so.  Just in case a trick-or-treater or 2 came by, I went out an bought a couple of bags of candy.  Of course, as fate would have it, no trick-or-treaters made it by equaling tons of 

Now I specifically got these 2 candies because I am not particularly fond of them (1).  So now we have the dilemma of what to do with all of this candy (2).  After an afternoon of recipe searching on the Web, I decided to do what I do with all of my leftover Christmas candy and stick the leftover Tootsie rolls into a batch of blondies (3).  With the addition of some peanuts in the batter and left over ganache frosting from a cake.   They turned out really well except for the Tootsie rolls that melted on the bottom of the pan (4).   

Now if I could just figure out what to do with the Smarties.

1. But Mr. MedSchool will eat anything

2. I mean...besides eat it all

3. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tori-ritchie/monster-macadamia-nut-blondies-recipe/index.html

4. Parchment paper...next time

Anatomically Correct Halloween Sweets

It’s almost Halloween!  Due to that and the fact I was in a baking mood.  I put together these lovely beauties. 

They are both Martha Stewart creations (1) and were surprising simple to make. Note: the brain ones call for some kind of difficult Martha-ifed icing.  I decided that regular butter cream was good enough and just made that instead (2). 

I did these not only because of the obvious proximity to Halloween but also as a tribute to my flag football boys.  As Team Mom, I am obliged to bring a snack and felt like these cupcakes were not only seasonally appropriate but also added an additional educational anatomical element (3).

Well they must have been a good luck charm because the kids guys actually won.  However, Mr. MedSchool finally did himself in and hurt his hamstring.  He has been limping around the house and turned into a pitiful mess.  He has declared that he won’t be able to play next week (4) and has been downing Advil like they were tic tacs.  Ohh… the pains and pressures of professional (school) Athletics.  Next thing you know they’ll be asking for a raise (and by that I mean an upgrade to Capri Suns and twice the baked goods).       

1. http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/brain-cupcakes , http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/skull-madeleines

2. Butter and Powdered Sugar Martha…not everything has to be difficult 

3. And a constant reminder to the guys that they really needed to be studying…not pushing each other  around and throwing a ball.

4. Yeah, we’ll see if pride plays out on that one. 

You Put Brandy in These?

As stated before, I love to bake.  However, with the current diet du jour, I don't need to eat the things that I bake so work, Mr. Med School's friends or tailgating buddies are often the beneficiaries of my food.  For this past weekend's game, Mr. Med School and I went up to tailgate at our Alma Mater.  I decided to make a tasty treat that I had seen recently on the Martha Stewart Show (1), Martha's Perfect Sugar Cookies (2).  Martha's recipe called for all of the normal ingredients .. butter, sugar, flour, brandy, baking powder...wait Brandy?  Since when do you use that in cookies (3) ? 

Anywho, they came out really well if I do say so myself.  Especially after I figured out that my cookie cutters were still in storage (4) but that just made me get creative.

They ended up good although I did have an interesting time trying to write the players names on the Jersey cookies (5) but for a first try they looked pretty good, and I'm told tasted great!

1. Yeah when I was unemployed and worshipped daytime television
2. Ahh but isn't everything she does "perfect" http://www.marthastewart.com/article/cooking-school-perfect-sugar-cookies-and-royal-icing?
3. Seriously Martha's done time... I have the feeling she's adding liquor to a lot of her recipes since that span of her life
4. Yes, I do own cookie cutters, about 50 to be exact.  Just in case anyone needs a cookie shaped like a pumpkin, school house, train, dog, sail boat, I can arrange that for you.  
5. Thank God all of the recognizable players have short last names!

Food, Football and Fun

So I am a huge College football fan, mostly thanks to Mr. Med School's obsession with all things BCS.  Although I am not as passionate (1) as Mr. Med School about the Game, I do love the watching the game.  I should also mention that I love gamewatching parties and tailgating almost just as much.

This past weekend, we were unable to go to our alma mater's game so we invited some fellow alumni over to watch the game.  Just to show everyone a good time, we made a few snacks (2).  However, I think that my favorite new find were Nutter Butter and Oreo footballs (3).   The lovely little delights are super easy to make too.  Just take a package or either Nutter Butters or Oreos and throw them in a food processor. Then add a block of cream cheese and mix.  Shape into footballs and put in fridge.  Then melt some almond bark and dip the football shaped goodness into the chocolate.  ...and Wah lah

Nutter Butter Filled Deliciousness

  

Yum, and yes those are chocolate covered pretzels in the background (4).

Not only were these super easy to make but they were a big hit.  And no, due to the current diet, I didn't eat any (5). I would definitely recommend these and tons of other stuff on Bakerella's site.  Never fear, there will be many more game watching parties and tailgates.  I will be sure to report back with other yummy recipes.

1. At least if passionate counts as yelling, throwing things at the television or people in his vicinity and coaching the players throughout the game.  I honestly believe he thinks that they can hear him.
2. Elaborate meal of heavy hors d'oeuvres
3. Courtesy of Bakerella on  http://www.bakerella.com/super-bowl-funday/
4. I had extra chocolate, did you not expect me to use it?
5. Yay Will power!