Valentine's Day

Well apparently everyone writes on their blog for Valentine's day and talks about all the amazing things they are doing/eating with loved ones.  I am not the biggest fan of Valentine's day which might be due to the fact that it is a holiday where everyone buys a ton of silly things or it might be because I am in a long distance relationship and I can't actually see my valentine today.  Regardless, I actually had a pretty darn good Valentine's day.

Last night I told the ladies of DTS that they were all my valentine and I made awesome Disney Princess Valentine's for everyone.  They were pretty sweet.  I mean they came with stickers AND sparkly princess tattoos.  Who doesn't want one of those?  Maybe it's my inner five year old  or the fact that I'm going to be a teacher, but I just love those little kid valentine's.  They are so silly, but they are the perfect way to let a large group know that you are thinking of them. Love you guys!

Today started with a GIANT cupcake from my friend Heather.  Heather and I are both doing our practicum at the same middle school and so I drive her over there in the morning.  For being so early in the morning, Heather is great company and I also feel like I start the day off better when I am able to get all pumped up about school with her.  Today was especially great because of that awesome cupcake :).

I had to take a bite!

Tonight I got to spend time with my lovely Grey's Anatomy girlies.  We are probably not getting together for Grey's this week because of conflicts, so why not celebrate Valentine's Day instead?  We are calling it "Anti-Valentine's Day," but in my opinion it looks a lot more like: "We love Valentine's Day because it is an excuse to get together and eat a bunch of cookies and pizza."  So we did.  Tamara made awesome cookies with Valentine's Day M&Ms...and oh, did I mention the Heart Shaped Pizza?  That's right, we are eating Rocky Rococo's Heart Shaped Cheese Pizza.  It looks like I have yet another reason to love this holiday.

Just make your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and
 instead of chocolate chips, mix in chopped up Valentine's M&Ms!

Valentine's Day M&M Cookies!..Thanks Tamara!

Heart Shaped Pizza!

Valentine's Day wouldn't be complete without an actual valentine.  That's where Brian comes in.  After my girls night I got home because Brian was supposed to "pick me up" for our SKYPE date...woo!  You know you have a good relationship when you get all excited over hanging out with your virtual boyfriend and watching tv or a movie. When I got home I was completely surprised to find beautiful flowers sitting by my door.  Isn't he the best?  I totally did not expect anything.  It made my night.  I love him so much and I am so grateful to have him around for our third Valentine's Day together (sort of).  Happy Valentine's Day!

Mini Peanut Butter Nutella Cupcakes

So I've made a decision: I am going to bake a TON this weekend.  I have a bunch of events and I am going to be that person who shows up to them with food.  I can't wait.  Also, I am just in a baking mood.  Weird right?


This week was ridiculously long and now that it is the weekend I want to do something relaxing.  That means cooking.  It is also almost Valentine's Day, that means that whenever I am browsing the internet looking for good recipes all I find are pictures of crazy-good-looking sweets.  That means baking.

Mini Peanut Butter Nutella Cupcakes just seemed too good to be true.  This recipe combines my love of peanut butter, nutella, and mini things. If you just tuned in, I'm on a "mini" kick.  I've already made mini chocolate chip cookie skillets and mini heart cheesecakes.  I also purchased a mini muffin pan with a holiday gift card and that led to mini chocolate chip banana muffins.  Now, it's time for mini cupcakes.

Mini Peanut Butter Nutella Cupcakes (adapted from 52 Kitchen Adventures)

For the Cupcakes:

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, softened (I used salted and reduced the salt for the recipe)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup milk (I used 1%)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease cupcake pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter, peanut butter, and sugar until well combined and light and fluffy.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.  Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk to the wet ingredients starting and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing in between additions until just combined.
4. Fill cupcake pan so that wells are 2/3 full. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely before frosting.

For the Frosting:


Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup nutella
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk

Directions:
Beat butter until smooth.  Beat in the nutella until well combined.  Slowly beat in the powdered sugar.  Add 1 tbsp of milk.  Add more milk or powdered sugar as desired.

I used my piping tools to frost the cupcakes.

Enjoy :)

Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies

Tonight I am at work in our union.  It is Saturday.  It is pretty quiet.  So, I have been making myself drool by looking through recipes that I have been wanting to try.  I also decided that I am going to have to make something ASAP because I just feel like baking.

We had our traditional Vegas Night get together last night and I got to hang out with a bunch of prospective DTS members.  I am so excited to get to know these people even better.  Tomorrow is Initiation, which is a short ceremony to welcome the new members and marks the start of their Junior Member process.  I am excited to see all of them again and I decided that I should welcome them in true Jodie fashion: with brownies.  I found a recipe for Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies on Brown Eyed Baker and then, while at work for four hours on a Saturday night, I could not get them out of my head.  

I can't wait to try these guys!

Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies

Ingredients:

8 oz light cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 egg yolk

2 1/4 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

8 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces

4 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup raspberry jam

3 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line an 8 by 8 inch baking pan with foil and grease well.

2. Beat cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, egg yolk, and 3/4 tsp vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

4. In a large bowl, microwave butter and chocolate, stirring after 30 seconds, for one minute or until melted. Whisk in 1/4 cup of the raspberry jam and let cool slightly. Whisk in remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar, eggs, and remaining 1 1/2 tsp vanilla until smooth.  Add flour mixture and stir until just incorporated.

5. Pour half of the brownie batter into the prepared pan.  Drop dollops of the cream cheese mixture and spread over the batter.  Warm the remaining 1/4 cup of jam in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir until smooth.  Drop dollops of jam over the cream cheese mixture and swirl to combine. Spread the remaining brownie batter evenly over the top.  Bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

Enjoy :)

Check out that ooey gooey brownie :)

Caprese Grilled Cheese

I had a grilled cheese fest over winter break and I made 4 different kinds of grilled cheese.  The caprese grilled cheese turned out really great except I found myself wanting to modify a few parts.  We are having our traditional Grey's Anatomy night tonight and for dinner we wanted to make something comforting, easy, and delicious.  The obvious solution to satisfy these three needs was: Caprese Grilled Cheese.

Grey's night is always interesting, but somehow tonight was special.  First of all, Emily, we discovered, had never cut a tomato before.  So we taught her...it turned out something like this:

Then, we had some of my Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and while they were delicious, they did something funny to us where we became this strange mix of exhausted and hyper all at once.  Plus, to top things off, our friend Lauren works at a candy store and she brought us chocolate hearts.  So then we ate more chocolate.  Basically we ended up being incredibly silly. Oh, and on Wednesdays we decided to wear pink...

Caprese Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:
8 slices of bread (to make 4 sandwiches)
butter
4 cups low-fat mozzarella cheese
2 large tomatoes
bunch of fresh basil (we actually used dried, but it worked out great)
balsamic vinaigrette
garlic powder

Directions:
1. Let the tomatoes soak in the balsamic with the garlic and basil for about 30 minutes.
2. Heat a large pan on medium heat.  Lightly butter the slices of toast on one side. Build the grilled cheese sandwiches: dust with garlic powder (on non-buttered side) place 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 1 thick slice of tomato, few leaves of basil, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, drizzle with balsamic and top with other slice.  The buttered ends should be facing outwards.  Place in pan and cook covered for about 4 minutes.  Flip the sandwich and cover for another 4 minutes or until cheese is melted and sandwich is grilled.  Repeat for the other 3 sandwiches.
Enjoy :)

Now it is time to watch some Grey's Anatomy!