Ever have one of those days when you NEED chocolate? I'm not talking about a craving that is going to be satisfied by snacking on a handful chocolate morsels. I'm talking about a serious, intense - bring on the double chocolate brownie with chocolate icing kind of craving. If you know this kind of chocolate craving that I'm talking about, you need to keep this recipe for dark chocolate cherry muffins close. Dark Chocolate Cherry Muffins 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted 1 3/4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 8 Tablespoons butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup buttermilk 3/4 cup dried cherries
Bake 20 minutes at 375. A cup of coffee, a warm dark chocolate cherry muffin and a 15 minute break before the kids get home from school - what could be better? These muffins are really good and as hard as it is for me to believe, I only ate one! They are super rich and decadent and best of all - chocolatey. This muffin completely satisfied chocolate craving - and gave me the energy I needed to tackle the rest of the day. Ciao!
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Sometimes the simplest recipes turn out to be the best. I love grilled shrimp and I made a simple little change to this meal to make it even better. - I added bacon! I wrapped some jumbo shrimp in bacon before I put it on the grill. Voila - grilled shrimp, kicked up a notch. Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Place 6 strips of bacon on top of 4 paper towels on plate. Top with 4 more paper towels and 6 more strips of bacon. Place 2 paper towels and a plate on top. Microwave for 4 minutes. Cut bacon strips in half and wrap each shrimp in bacon. Secure onto skewer. Put the skewers on the grill. I cooked mine about 4 minutes on each side. Check out the tiny little zucchini that I found at Trader Joe's to compliment my bacon wrapped shrimp. I cooked the zucchini alongside the shrimp and they were the perfect compliment to this yummy meal. Grilled shrimp is fine but bacon wrapped grilled shrimp is even better. Trust me.
Ciao! One afternoon last week, I rushed home from my son's cross country meet at 5:30 to get dinner on the table and then take my daughter to soccer practice by 6:30. (No problem.) These are the days when I'm grateful for my crock pot. I love that I can put dinner together before I even clean up breakfast and 8 hours later - voila - it's ready to serve. My brother is the master of throwing ingredients together without a recipe and he makes the most masterful dinners. I rarely cook without a recipe in hand. He cooks like a scientist, adding just the right amount of acid and seasoning and sauce. I, on the other hand, live by my recipes and I rarely trust myself enough to cook without one. With a package of country ribs in the refrigerator and an afternoon filled with activities, I was left with no choice - it was time to start "cooking like Scott." I sent the kids off to school, pulled out my crock pot and started to assembled dinner - at 8:00 am. Crock Pot Country Ribs Small potatoes 1 onion, sliced thin 6 country ribs fresh thyme salt and pepper
Fast forward to 8 hours later - cross country meet is over, homework is is full swing, 1 child is preparing for soccer practice and everyone is starving. Crock pot dinner to the rescue. I served my pork and potatoes with applesauce and whole wheat rolls and everyone was happy. The pictures don't really do this meal justice. I was lacking some serious color on this dinner plate but there was just no time to worry about color, I was much more concerned with getting dinner on the table quickly than I was with presentation. Coming home to a piping hot meal at 5:30 - priceless. I think I am going to be using my crock pot quite a lot this Fall. If you've got a good crock pot recipe - send it to me. I would love to try it.
Ciao! I hope that you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend. My family had a busy - but wonderful - weekend. We spent Saturday at the Celebrate Freedom concert and we got to visit with Ben's parents in Kennesaw. (We saw Jamie Grace, Jeremy Camp, Jars of Clay, Amy Grant, Hawk Nelson, Montell Jordan and Switchfoot!) On Sunday we were invited to a friend's house for a picnic and some parent's vs. kids volleyball. (Guess who won.) Needless to say, we all slept in on Monday. (Even I slept past 8:00!) I realize that I probably should have posted this blog before the holiday weekend because it would have been the perfect thing to take to a Labor Day cookout. Oh well, better late than never. I got the idea for these watermelon cups from my friend Susan about 6 years ago. She described to me how she made these delicate little fruit cups out of watermelon in such detail that I still remember the directions - even years later. (If you know me, you know how remarkable that is because I don't remember much of anything.) These little fruit cups, made out of watermelon are a great way to impress your family and friends. They are simple to make and really yummy. Cut thick slices of watermelon and lay them flat on a cutting board. Use a large biscuit cutter to cut big circles out of the fruit. Use a smaller biscuit cutter to cut smaller circles inside the larger one, not cutting all the way through to the bottom. Fill the centers with fresh fruit. I know that summer is nearly over but there is still time to get a watermelon and make fruit cups. They're elegant enough to serve at a bridal shower and casual enough to serve at a cookout.
Ciao! I attended my very first cross country meet last weekend. My son was instrumental in getting his high school to start a cross country program after a six year hiatus from the sport. There are 16 runners that joined the team and none of them had ever participated in a cross country meet - most of them had never even been to a meet! (I guess I wasn't the only newbie.) There were 45 teams at the inaugural meet last weekend - and yes, it was overwhelming - and I wasn't even running. All of the kids did well and I am sure they are going to have a great season. I am new to the sport of cross country but I've run dozens of 5K's in my pre-whimpy ankle days so I know a little something about what runners like to eat after a race. My favorite post race snacks were oranges, bananas, granola bars and oatmeal cookies. Thinking that these runners would have the same post race cravings, I decided to make a batch of Oatmeal cookies for the team to snack on after their big race last weekend. I found the recipe on Williamssonoma.com. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies 16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. salt 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats 12 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (I used 6 ounces dark chocolate and 6 ounces of white chocolate chips.)
Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough onto the prepared sheets, spacing them about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and let cool completely. Makes about 60 cookies. I'm going to be perfectly honest - these cookies were not the big hit that I expected them to be. I expected that they would get devoured by famished runners - not so much. A few of the kids ate cookies but I brought the majority home with me. Maybe it was the combination of white and dark chocolate and maybe cookies don't appeal to all runners as post race fuel. (Go figure.) Anyway, I think next time I will stick to dark chocolate and walnuts as the original recipe is written. (Maybe Williams Sonoma really does know something about cookie recipes.)
Ciao! |
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