BakeAwayGirl

This little beauty of a recipe was accidentally stashed on the wrong Pin board, and as soon as I rediscovered it, I knew it was time.  Jeff makes some killer homemade brownies, and he suggested we use his recipe, but I wanted to do it exactly the way the original had it. I'll put the original recipe on here, but I will probably never make it the same way again.  The alcohol is mixed (uncooked) into the cream topping, and it tastes pretty boozy.  That sort of bitter taste ruined the brownies for me.  Don't get me wrong, I love me my booze.  Nothin like coming home from a Monday and knockin back a bottle of wine (ok, not a whole bottle) or going out on Friday with friends for beer.  But this was too much. When I make this in the future, I'll pass on the alcohol.  There is enough orange zest to give it the flavor.  We also discussed using raspberry extract instead of orange zest to make raspberry brownies, but we haven't tried it yet.  I'l...

It's coooold here today!  When I woke up this morning, my phone said it was 9 degrees outside.  This calls for warm comforts at home.  I spent most of the day under blankets on the couch, watching movies, and avoiding the whole outside.  Jeff was feeling a little skittish about my ideas of dinner because I made so much spicy food last night (man up, right?), so I sat down and browsed Pinterest (duh). I discovered a recipe for chicken dumpling soup.  Maybe I should call it Cheater's Chicken Dumpling Soup, because this isn't your homemade southern style soup, but it is absolutely delicious nonetheless.  I know how to make real dumplings, but this was so easy and still so amazingly delicious.  Even if you're a soup snob, you should try it.  It's a wonderful crockpot dish that takes just about no work for you.  My friend Courtney makes something similar to this that she found on Pinterest, and it was what inspired me to try this one. Chicke...

I don't have enough adjectives to describe these.  Just trust me, they are awesome. What drew me to these were (of course) the Pinterest pictures.  Who doesn't want food that tastes delicious and looks amazing too?  Problem is, I'm no artist.  I'm not patient enough or steady enough to make things look as nice as they do on Pinterest, and the fancy camera is currently in my father's possession, so my little digital camera has to do. But something miraculous happened with these cookies... they came out beautifully!  I think it's the dark cocoa powder in it.  They were just stiff enough that they held the cookie cutter shape perfectly.  Even before refrigeration, they were stiff enough to cut out (but I didn't).  It turns out that I didn't have the heart-shaped cookie cutter I needed for a perfect Valentine's Day treat.  So my cookies refrigerated overnight, and it didn't do any harm.  They have almost the consistency of an Oreo. ...

Jeff and I were starving on Saturday, so I loaded up my Pinterest food board and went to work.  I've had things on there since I signed up about a year ago that I've just never tried, but I went for a new recipe anyway.  Most of those have ingredients that we don't leave around, so they are more of a special occasion.  Maybe I should just give up on those others... Anyway, these were deeeeelicious!  We usually have the ingredients laying around, so it was an quick, easy meal for us!  Even if it takes a trip to the grocery store, this is worth it.  There are no amounts because you make as much as you want to use.  Be aware, though, that if you use an entire can of black beans, you will have enough for about 10 tacos from the 6-inch tortillas.  They do keep fine in the fridge for a while if you cover them. Crunchy Black Bean Tacos Adapted from Endless Simmer Canned black beans or cooked black beans Diced onion Taco seasoning Corn tortilla...

I hope you all enjoyed your Superbowl, whether it was alone or a party.  I don't know how anyone would enjoy football alone, but then, I don't care about the football.  I tune in for the commercials, and I only like to watch it with other people. And let's be real... I love Beyonce. I was rootin' for the Ravens, so I was thrilled with the final score, but the game itself was nerve wrecking.  I don't like close games, and that blackout killed me.  I like to go to bed about 10, but our apartment wasn't even cleared out until then!  We were all pretty ready for the end of the game at that point. Well, it's a week later and I think I'm finally hungry again.  We had so many snacks for our superbowl party that I thought I was going to explode.  Jeff did make his delicious carne asada, I made some guacamole to go with it.  We bought the phenomenal salsa verde from our local carniceria, but it was too spicy for most. The snacks I made were all fav...