We are still having snow (it’s falling as I type) which was supposed to be gone by now. Everyone is at the point where they have taken to Twitter and Facebook to let us all know that they are tired of the snow and to complain over and over again. I wrote that if we were in Ghostbusters 2 we would be dead from the slime being turned so negative…and then included a link to the average temperatures in Phoenix in hopes of them moving there.

The dog and I of course still love it we aren’t complaining in the least. We were out in it this morning, it’s colder than it has been so I have to take the blow dryer to her (which she hates). I on the other had to rely on hot chocolate to warm me up. I got thinking yesterday that I want something other than chocolate and decided to try and make a Snickerdoodle Cocoa. Now, it’s not actually cocoa as it uses vanilla chips instead of chocolate chips but it’s warm and wonderful all the same.

The rim of cinnamon sugar adds a little something extra special as do the Cinnamon Bun Marshmallows (if you can’t find them just use regular marshmallows). I’m happy to say that it’s kind of like a cookie in liquid form. Mmm. You could always add a little spiced rum as well. If you don’t want your Snickerdoodle in liquid form you could always make the refund muffin.

Snickerdoodle Hot Cocoa

1 cup vanilla chips (I used Guittard Choco-Au-Lait Chips)
1 ½ cups heavy cream
1 ½ cups milk
¼ tsp. cream of tartar (it’s what helps a snickerdoodle have its flavor)
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

For the Cup:
¼ cup vanilla chips
¼ cup cinnamon sugar mix
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mix onto a plate.

On a plate sprinkle the ¼ cup vanilla chips for the cups. Heat in microwave until they melt (about a minute).

Dip cup rim into melted chips and then into the cinnamon sugar mix. Let set up.
Combine the vanilla chips, cream, and milk in a heavy saucepan. Heat up slowly, not going higher than low-medium.

Once the chips start to melt, add the cream of tartar and spices.

Continue to heat up until all chips are melted and you have a smooth consistency.

Pour into prepared cinnamon sugar rimmed cups.

Makes 2 servings.

I love me some BBC America (I’m a Top Gear junkie…though I could care less about cars) and recently started watching a new show Jamie’s American Road Trip which stars Jamie Oliver. I can personally take or leave him but I like the Layover (Anthony Bourdain) and thought I would give it a go. Wow, what a humbling night that lead to.

He had gone to NY but not in the way that normal shows go. He wasn’t highlighting restaurants for you to go to when you are in town, he was highlighting the food that influences the city by the people that live there, the immigrants. Specifically he was looking for underground food, “restaurants” that were in people’s homes that health code probably would crap bricks over.

He featured a man named George…and that’s when my life looked a whole lot amazing and a whole lot selfish. George, who was originally an illegal alien (no I’m not wanting to get political and discuss immigration) who eventually became an legal citizen of the US, but for many years he struggled. He works as a school bus driver, which let me tell you as someone who has worked for schools, doesn’t pay all that much. Here’s the humbling part…every night when he is done working he comes home and cooks up a chicken and rice dish (it varies) from his native land and goes out and feeds the homeless. EVERY night. EVERY night at the same time. He knows pretty much every person he feeds and they have come to depend on him. I am in awe of his dedication and that he is willing to spend his own money to do this. I don’t know his religion but if he believes in heaven I’m pretty sure he has box seats up there.

And while I pin pretty dresses I will never own and funny sayings, he is out helping his fellow man. So perhaps instead of every one’s New Year’s Resolutions focusing on how you can get killer abs and drink lemon, chili powder, and vinegar as a cleanse maybe, just maybe, we should start thinking about how we could be doing more for the fellow people we share this Earth with. Now I’m  not saying give up every night of you life to feed the homeless but there probably is something you can do. Even if you just took time out of your day to realize how pretty wonderful you have it. For one moment instead of complaining that Starbucks screwed up  your order maybe be thankful that you had the money for overpriced coffee in the first place. Just a thought.

I have had it extra good lately in the happy department. We have had snow. I love snow and as much as I love Western Washington I often sometimes wonder if living back in a place with consistent snow isn’t more my speed. Of course I haven’t had to drive anywhere in it. I’m dressed in flannel pj’s bottoms sipping peppermint hot chocolate, baking, running through the snow with the dog, watching hockey. Not a very rough life…I got a good reminder of that last night.

One of the goodies baked during our little snow storm (which made the news in London) were these vanilla bean sugar cookies with a faux-reo triple berry filling. I used my mom’s homemade triple berry jam but you can use any flavor of jam/jelly you like. Make them and give them to someone you love…or like…or don’t even know.

Triple Berry Filled Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies

Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies

1¼ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
2 vanilla beans, split and seeds scraped out
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
3 tsp. corn starch
3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. salt
coarse sugar for decoration

In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add in the vanilla bean seeds and extract and beat for another 30 seconds.

Add in egg and beat until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for another 30 seconds.

Sift together flour, cornstarch, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix until incorporated.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a drinking glass(you may want to grease it to avoid sticking) press down to make cookie flat. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake at 350F for 9-10 minutes. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes and them move to wire rack to completely cool.

Triple Berry Cream Filling
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3cup vegetable shortening
½ cup triple berry jam (or jam of your choice)
2½ cups powdered sugar

Using a stand mixer cream the butter and shortening using the paddle attachments at medium speed, gradually beat in the jam.

Continue to beat until jam is fully incorporated, it might look a little curdled.

Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating on medium high until fully incorporated.

To assemble take a knife and spread about a teaspoon-size amount of filling into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the filling. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with filling. I had more filling than cookies…so I just spread it on other stuff.

So while I do get lovely email asking about my sex life, the number one question that come via email is do you have an easier way to print your recipes? And before the answer was always no. The other question is do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to? That answer remains no. I seriously have enough trouble figuring out what to put on this blog let alone come up with a newsletter, which would be called Baking from a Crappy Apartment Kitchen. Which is what I would like the title of my Food Network show to be.

But in all seriousness you will all be excited to learn that thanks to RECIpage you can now print my recipes. Well right now 22 of them. But eventually all of them once the arm is feeling better to sit at a computer and put them all in. And you can Pin them…there’s a button. You can Tweet them…there’s a button. And you can Facebook them…there’s a button. Lots of options (email, text!). But the most important being the ability to print them.

If you look on the top right hand side of my blog where there are words you will see one that says Recipage. If you click on that it will take you to a page that has my recipes so far this year and the ones from December. Like I said, eventually I hope to have all six and a half years of recipes in there.

So I hope this makes you the reader a little more happy…I aim to please. Well not really. Well okay, kind of. Speaking of pleasing, almost everyone I know loves a red velvet cupcake. Which are popular around Valentine’s Day which (FYI men) is coming up soon (less than a month). These have a little twist with a White Russian Cream Cheese Frosting added to it…so not kid friendly, but can be made kid friendly.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with White Russian Cream Cheese Frosting

Red Velvet Cupcakes:
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) red food coloring
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

White Russian Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
4 cups (about a 1-pound package) powdered sugar
2 TBSP Kahlua
2 TBSP vanilla vodka
Cream to thin

For the cupcakes:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.

In a bowl of an electric mixer set on medium speed, lightly beat the eggs.

Add the buttermilk, vinegar, oil, food coloring and vanilla, beating until well-combined.

Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup about 2/3 full.

Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted near the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Remove the muffin pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn the cupcakes out of the tin, and place them on the wire rack to cool completely.

White Russian Cream Cheese Frosting
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
4 cups (about a 1-pound package) confectioners’ sugar
2 TBSP Kahlua
2 TBSP vanilla vodka
Cream to thin

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed, cream the cream cheese and butter.

Reduce the speed to low, and gradually beat in the powdered sugar, until the mixture is fluffy.

Beat in the Kahlua and vodka. Thin with cream if need be.

Adapted from The Greyston Bakery Cookbook by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan

I must have missed the memo that said it was email Peabody questions week. Holy cow. I am used to getting quite a bit of email but this week must have been REALLY slow at people’s work. None of them really hate mail either (so refreshing ) but some definitely quirky ones. So let’s answer a few shall we:

We will start with my favorite question which won’t be addressed but was too interesting not to post:

“I was just wondering if you were getting laid yet? If not, my brother’s roommate is a super nice guy with a good job. He loves the food I make for them from your website and says he finds you attractive. We live in the Seattle area. If you are interested, I can give you his info”.

Wow. That is all.

“What is your biggest pet peeve?”

Well that’s kind of hard to say as it really changes daily depending on my mood. But since it’s the beginning of the year I have to say all the low carb people. I realize you lose weight doing it. I watch many a friend lose doing it. And many a friend gains it all back once they go back to carbs. Why not just pick something that will allow you to fit a fun sized Skittles pack a couple times into your week? The only friends that I have that have ever lost weight and truly keptit off were people who had a very realistic timeline (the Biggest Loser has really made people have an F-ed up view of how much weight you should lose in a week) and kept all of their favorite foods in their diet throughout their diet.

Oh and the other one is cryptic people on Facebook who do things like everyone send good vibes my world is coming to an end…and then never answer you when you ask what is up. Just a bunch of drama llama attention whores.

“Whatever happened to your friend that was dating the much older guy?”

For those not familiar with what this reader was talking about go here. The answer is happily that they are still together. Her family has come around now as they realize that he was not just some creeper older guy trying to be with a younger gal. They have a house together and spend their free time playing hockey together.

“I follow you on Pinterest and have to say that you are way more girly than I would think of a hockey player to be.”

This was really more of a statement than a question but I will address it nonetheless. While I am often in a hoodie and jeans due to my large amount of time spent at hockey rinks, I do love to dress girly. I love Anthropolgie (the store) and anything that has a bow on it. I’m a big sucker for a bow, which is maybe why I love Hello Kitty so much (I own Hello Kitty Vans). When I taught school I was the one in ruffled skirts and heels. And my favorite color is pink.

“Do you floss?”

Only when food is stuck. I’m bad I know.

“Do you miss your kitchen you had when you were married?”

Oh my goodness yes. I miss the counter space and cupboards alone. And I miss cooking with gas big time. I miss the whole house in general. I’m very much a homebody so I miss having a home so to speak. I can’t actually bring myself to look at photos of my house even after all this time. And knowing I probably won’t be in a house of my own for a very long time, if ever, is a little sad to be honest.

Well enough with that, let’s talk cupcakes. Lucky for me one of the good parts about going to Physical Therapy is that I have people to bring snacks to. I asked if they would like any treats and I got a very large yes! So yay! These are basically devils food cupcakes with a banana added to them with a yummy fudge frosting. I went with minis because I was giving them to several people…plus people don’t feel so guilty when they are bite size.

And one last reader question: “You always call yourself lazy yet you seem to always be doing something, baking takes time. Are you really lazy?” Yes. Yes I am. I am so lazy that instead of taking down the Christmas tree I just threw new ornaments on there and called it a Valentine’s Tree. I’m considering a Spring one next.

Chocolate Banana Mini Cupcakes with Fudgy Salted Caramel Frosting

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 super crazy ripe banana, mashed
12 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
9 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (use a double boiler)
2 cups milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour two muffin pans (hold 24 cupcakes each).

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.

In a separate small bowl, beat the egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored, about 2 minutes. Add the beaten yolks to the butter mixture and beat well.

Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated.

Add the banana and beat well, until fully incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.

In a separate small bowl, beat the egg whites on the high speed of an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gently fold into the batter. Divide the batter among the prepared pans.

Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until cupcakes spring back when you touch them. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Fudgy Salted Caramel Frosting

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
5 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup salted caramel sauce (I used Trader Joe’s)
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
2-3 cups powdered sugar

Chop chocolates and transfer into a heat proof bowl. Add caramel sauce.

Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, pour cream over the chocolate and caramel.

Let sit for 1 minute then stir until combined.

Add butter and vanilla and stir until combined.

Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixture and let cool for 10 minutes.

Sift powdered sugar into the mixture and beat until combined. Add more sugar if needed.

Continue to beat with an electric mixer until lighter in color and creamy.