Brown Butter Salted Caramel Mocha Cookies

These are adapted from Kevin and Amanda's recipe found here.

Ingredients: 

2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter

1 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar

1/4 cup of white sugar

2 eggs

1 TB of Vanilla 

2 1/4 cups of flour

1 packet of Starbucks Via Mocha

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of caramel bits

3/4 cup of Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips

Course sea salt for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter starts to foam, begin whisking constantly. When the butter turns brown, fragrant, and you see little brown bits at the bottom of the pan, immediately remove from heat and and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Set aside to cool (I threw mine in the fridge to cool).

Whisk together the flour, coffee, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugars until well combined, about 3-5 minutes. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla until well combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low-speed just until combined. Add the caramels and chocolate chunks and stir until just combined.

Spoon golf ball sized dough on cookie sheet lined with silpat. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool and enjoy!

Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes

These babies are tart!

 

Ingredients:

2 8oz blocks of cream cheese

1 cup of white sugar

1 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste

1 packet of lemon jello

the zest and juice of 2 lemons

8 oz tub of Cool Whip

A sleeve of crushed graham crackers (9)

6 Tablespoons of melted butter

Directions: 

Mix crushed graham crackers and butter together. Spoon into cupcake liners and smash with a glass to make even.

In a mixer, cream together cream cheese, sugar, jello, zest, juice and vanilla.

Gently fold in cool whip.

Spoon batter into cupcake liners.

Pop in freezer for at least 4 hours and serve cold. Enjoy!!!

Turtles...

Dwight: Thanks for meeting me. 

Michael: Are you kidding me? I'd go anywhere to see a turtle. 

Dwight: There is no turtle. 

Michael: Man, now I'm going to have to go online and look at turtles. Otherwise I'm gonna be off the whole day. 

The Office, Season 7 Episode 20

Ham, Peas, Mac and Cheese

My friend gave me an old issue of Cooking Light magazine and I found this recipe. The reviews weren't great but I thought I could make it great. Below is my version.

Ingredients: 

12 oz of Eating Light veggie elbow macaroni
1 1/2 cups chopped ham
1 1/2 cups frozen peas 
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
3 cups milk (I used one cup of heaving cream and two cups of organic whole)
4 cups of sharp cheddar
1 teaspoon of garlic salt
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1/4 teaspoon of paprika
1/8 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon of italian herbs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup of panko crumbs

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 400°.
Cook pasta in boiling water 6 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water; drain. Combine pasta, ham, and peas in a large bowl.
Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Melt butter then add flour. Cook until flour has soaked up all the butter. Add milk; bring to simmer and whisk. Dip a spoon in and run your finger down the middle of the back. If sauce stays separate, it's done. Remove from heat; stir in cheese, seasonings, salt, and peppers. Pour cheese mixture over pasta mixture; stir to coat. Spoon pasta into a 13 x 9 glass baking dish coated with cooking spray.
Sprinkle panko over the top. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.
This feeds 8 people. Enjoy!

Favorite Things Post!

Here is a list of my favorite things right now, Oprah style, well not really Oprah style because I can't give the items to everyone in my studio audience... I also do not have a studio audience... Click the links for where to buy!

Pacifica - Pretty much any scent is amazing. Their body lotion is thick and creamy. My favorite scents are Hawaiian Ruby Guava and Island Vanilla.

Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Stress Scrub - This clears my face and makes it feel clean with a tingle.

Le Creuset French Oven
I cook many things in this. Pasta, soups, meat, etc.

Aladdin 20 oz Tumbler 
I drink water in these at work, goal is three a day. Helping me hydrate.

Alba Passion Fruit Nectar Chapstick - Smells delicious and heals my lips.

Kettle Honey Dijon Chips
Nuf said.

Nike Women's Free Run+ 3
Super light weight and comfy

Happy shopping and perusing.

White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 8oz blocks of cream cheese

1.5 cups of white sugar

4 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste

8 oz of melted white chocolate (I half melted mine so there would be bits of chocolate to crunch into)

8 oz tup of Cool Whip

A sleeve of crushed graham crackers

6 Tablespoons of melted butter

Caramel

Macadamia Nuts

Directions: 

Mix crushed graham crackers and butter together. Spoon into cupcake liners and smash with a glass to make even.

In a mixer, cream together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla.

Add melted white chocolate while mixer on.

Gently fold in cool whip.

Spoon batter into cupcake liners, sprinkle with chopped macadamia nuts and caramel.

Pop in freezer for at least 4 hours and serve cold. Enjoy!!!

DIY Glitter Ornaments

I love the look of glitter. But, I hate glitter itself. It gets everywhere, falls on everything and it's hard to get rid of. Someone put glitter all over my co-worker's desk in June for her birthday. It's November now and she is still finding glitter.

I found this tutorial on Pinterest: http://www.plumadorable.com/make-your-own-glitter-ornaments/

They were so beautiful and the glitter was INSIDE!!!

I went to Joann's and picked up a 16 pack of glitter samples and 18 clear ornaments (one broke and the other I put extra glitter and some acrylic paint inside). Then at Safeway I got some MopNGlo. I have no idea why the MopNGlo helps the glitter stick but, it does.

Set up a station with newspaper or a cardboard box because this gets messy. I also used a shot glass to help rest the ornament if I needed an extra hand.

Remove the silver tops of the ornaments, swirl in some MopNGlo making sure to get the entire inside coated. Drain the remainder into the MopNGlo container. Use a Q-Tip to get rid of bubbles or excess in the opening. Pour in your glitter, shake to coat all areas, replace silver top and hang!