if the name has fruit in it, is it healthy?

My parents have been here visiting us for the past six days. I’m pretty sure that we’ve all gained about five pounds between Thanksgiving and all the varied recipes and restaurants that we’ve been trying. So… why stop now? This afternoon, while the boys were watching “Animals Eating Animals TV,” my mom and I made Chocolate Raspberry Cookies… filling the house with a crazy-yummy aroma that’s a complete departure from the past few days.

They’re just a little on the cakey side, they’re flavorful, and they’re easy to make. The only challenge might be finding the special Hershey’s Premier Baking Pieces filled with raspberry creme (which appear to be no longer in production). However, if you can’t find those at your local store, you can certainly use Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Squares with raspberry filling (chopped)… OR you can reduce the vanilla and add in some raspberry extract and just use regular semisweet chocolate chips. Either way… make these little babies. You won’t regret it.

Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies
(adapted from Paula Deen)
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 (6-ounce) package raspberry creme filled dark chocolate baking pieces (recommended: Hershey’s Premier Dark Chocolate Baking Pieces Filled With Raspberry Creme)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheets or line with Silpats.

With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars together at medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating well.

In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Stir in baking pieces. Drop cookies by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 12 to 14 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool. Store tightly covered.

pumpkin pie that will rock your socks

One of my favorite things about the holidays? Pumpkin pie. It thrills me to no end that both of our families enjoy pumpkiny goodness at both Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, when I was planning our Thanksgiving meal this year, I was pretty excited to stumble upon Dorie Greenspan’s Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie. It did not disappoint. This will certainly find a home in my recipe box. Delicious!!

Recipe after the jump…

happy thanksgiving!

Hope you’re all enjoying a wonderful day filled with yummy things!

anticipation

The bird is defrosting and will go into the brine tomorrow morning. All groceries, save for a bottle of wine, have been purchased. Recipes are marked and I’ll begin prepping what I can tomorrow.

On tap for us this year…

• Brined, roasted turkey with gravy
• Smoked gouda and garlic mashed potatoes
• Stuffing
• Fresh asparagus
• Buttermilk biscuits
• Sweet potato casserole
• Cranberry sauce
• Saucy apple dumplings
• Sour cream pumpkin pie
• Cranberry-white chocolate cupcakes

What’s going to be on your table this year?

countdown to Thanksgiving – white chocolate-cranberry cupcakes

The countdown continues and the clock is ticking! Thanksgiving is just days away. I finalized my menu and my grocery list yesterday afternoon after finally settling on a couple of sweet treats to compliment the traditional pumpkin pie. The last one I chose doesn’t need to reside in the fridge (instead, it will do fine wrapped up and hanging out in the cool of the garage), is tasty, totally portable, and doesn’t require dirtying any dishes!

My inspiration?

Cranberries! (Okay, cranberries and my first blogging challenge!)

The original recipe is actually intended to be a cake that’s topped with a glaze (which I have no doubt would be awesome, too). But, cupcakes are personal, and portable, and – did I mention this already? – don’t require dirtying any dishes. And who wouldn’t love these little beauties?

Recipe after the jump…

don’t give up hope!

I’m still alive! Holiday dessert recipe on tap and coming soon!

countdown to Thanksgiving – smoked gouda and roasted garlic mashed potatoes

In case you haven’t checked a calendar lately, Turkey Day is fast approaching. I’ve been sifting through recipes trying to decide what’s going to land on our dinner table this year – the first time, actually, that we’ll be hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our little townhouse in the ‘burbs rather than being a guest elsewhere. It’ll be a small affair, just the Husband, my parents (traveling all the way from Missouri for the occasion), the pets and me. Nonetheless, I’m pretty excited to finally be in charge of a whole meal rather than an appetizer or a side dish because… well… I have all of these ideas running around my head and now I can finally put some of them to work!

There are a couple of recipes that we’ve tested prior to adding them to the menu and, considering they’re pretty wonderful, I thought I’d share them here for those looking for a little pre-Thanksgiving inspiration.

First up – smoked gouda and roasted garlic mashed potatoes. I got the recipe for these from a newspaper not too long ago and knew as soon as I first tasted them that, in addition to finding a home among my favorite recipes, these would absolutely have a place on our Thanksgiving table.

Recipe (and tutorial) after the jump…

basement bargain dinner deal

Pizza anyone? Looks good, doesn’t it?

We were looking for a relaxing evening – a pizza and a DVD and a little down time. Rather than make a pizza (too lazy), or order a pizza (too in-between paychecks), we opted to try something different. $8.98 for 16″ of really pretty great pizza. Better, I think, than any pre-prepared or frozen pizza that I’ve ever had… for under $9.00. Really. I don’t think I’ll ever go back. And the secret?

Wal-Mart. Sam’s Choice Take & Bake. Seriously.

the fate of the banana cupcake

So… what, exactly, does one do with thirty-some banana cupcakes? The logical thing here would be to freeze them and pull them out closer to the holidays to serve as part of the many goodie plates I find myself doing. Logic, however, is apparently the furthest thing from my mind these days. Because, instead of putting these little babies into the freezer, I frosted them and made them into even more indulgent (and hard to resist) little treats.

Banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, topped with a milk chocolate chip. How can you say no to peanut butter and chocolate? Obviously I cannot. Now we just need to recruit some willing friends to take some of these away before we eat them all ourselves.

Elvis would be so proud.

b-a-n-a-n-a-s-!

What do these say to you?

To me, they say (heck, they practically scream) banana bread.

I’ve looked for the perfect banana bread recipe for years and years. Most of the recipes I’ve tried leave me feeling rather disappointed. Either too dry or too dense… it’s never quite right. Until the other night. I finally found it. The perfect banana bread recipe. And all because I was looking for a recipe that used SIX ripe bananas. Serendipity, folks. Serendipity.

Beautiful, isn’t it? And check out the crumb…

Light, moist, banana goodness. Instead of full-size loaves, I made mini loaves and cupcakes (yes, really). Check back in a day or two to see what I did with the banana cupcakes!

My modified recipe behind the cut…