These cookies were totally born out of necessity, which pretty much makes them amazing. Ok, I think I need to explain myself a bit here, right? See, here's what happened. It started with an awesome dessert that I made for my column in Ami Magazine. The dessert actually has nothing to do with mocha, but I needed something pretty to anchor the treat in the bowl. I headed to the local candy store, and looked around till I came up with these mocha flavored chocolate lentils. The color matched perfectly to the style I was going for. I loaded up a big bag full of these candies and headed to the checkout. On a related note, I sometimes wonder if the checkout people in the various stores I … [Read more...]
Brownie Bites with Peanut Butter Frosting
Brownie Bites with Peanut Butter Frosting are a chocolate peanut butter lover's dream come true! I recently came to an awful realization. I've been a horribly neglectful blogger. I am sorry. Really, I am. But this blog is almost a year and a half old, and to date, I only have one brownie recipe posted. Two, if you count my brownie pies. But clearly that isn't enough. I mean, is there even such a thing as "enough" brownies? I don't think so either. I realized this as I was going to sleep late on Saturday night. (And if you stalk my Instagram feed, you know that was about a million o'clock, when most of you were probably near waking up.) Anyway, I rectified the situation less than 24 … [Read more...]
Vanilla Glazed Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cookies
I feel like this post needs to start with an apology. I mean, first there's the whole repetitive thing. I know that I posted a red velvet cake recipe last week, so it's a little soon for another red velvet recipe. And then there's the whole "being too trendy for my own good thing." I mean, January is ending, which means that food blogs are about to get overloaded with red velvet in preparation for valentine's day. So while this post may seem like my desperate attempt at getting ahead of the game, and getting traffic at the same time, I assure you, that isn't the case. Let's blame this post on my brother-in-law. You see, my brother-in-law hates chocolate. Or so he thinks. Insane. I know. … [Read more...]
Mini Red Velvet Bundt Cakes with Cream Cheese Glaze
Mini Red Velvet Bundt Cakes with Cream Cheese Glaze are beautiful AND delicious! ***Before we start – have you signed up for my email newsletters? You’ll get new recipes, cooking tips, menu suggestions, kitchen deals – and more! Click here to signup.*** Hey friends! Long time no speak, huh? I would totally apologize for my long absence, but I had such a good reason that I am not going to even bother. Plus I might just do it again. I am not going to go into details, but I will say that if you're a reader of Ami Magazine, you are in for a huge treat. (Speaking of Ami, did y'all catch my gorgeous cookies on the cover last week?!) Anywho. Let's talk about the main reason you're here: cake! … [Read more...]
Key Lime Pie Cookies
I should probably start by saying that these cookies were the most spontaneous thing I ever did. No jokes. I'm not a spontaneous person at all. But it snowed yesterday, and nobody warned me. I know, someone should have said something. So I find myself getting home from work with a couple of inches of snow on the ground. All of my grand plans for the evening were cancelled. Instead, I slowly drove home, had some soup, and crawled into bed with my laptop. Honestly, that's the only place to be when the weather is so nasty. Suddenly though, I realized that I haven't posted anything on this blog since Sunday, and that was only a link to my guest post elsewhere. Which means that I decided it … [Read more...]
Shortcut Cannoli with Chocolate Mousse Filling and a Hanukkah Blog Party!
Giveaway Closed! Remember how I co-hosted a Rosh Hashanah blog party a couple of months ago with my friend Jessie? Well today I bring you another fabulous holiday blog party. This one is co-hosted by the one and only me and my friend Leah from Cook Kosher. I present: A Hanukkah Blog Party! Scroll down past the party info for the most delicious dessert recipe you've ever tasted. No jokes. PS: in honor of Chanukah, I totally deep fried it! Let's get some details, shall we? Welcome to our first ever Hanukkah Blog Party, hosted by Leah of Cook Kosher and Miriam of Overtime Cook. It's traditional on Hanukkah to eat fried treats, most notably donuts and latkes, and we've got a fabulous array … [Read more...]
Baked Peanut Butter or Nutella Donuts
Remember how I recently discussed how hard I find the process of making decisions? Well tonight's post is basically a post script to that one, because if you thought deciding between pecan pie or brownies was hard, imagine trying to decide between chocolate glazed peanut butter donuts or glazed nutella (chocolate hazelnut) donuts! I know, it totally boggles the mind. Well I, for one, don't believe in making such difficult decisions. So I thought to myself...why choose? Yep, that's right. I made both peanut butter donuts and nutella donuts. Which means, if you think about it, that these donuts are super easy to make. Because I started making them late at night, and still had time and … [Read more...]
Primary Colored Dessert Table for Charity Event
On Saturday night, my amazing sister-in-law hosted a charity party for an amazing organization called Rofeh Cholim Cancer Society, or RCCS. They are an incredible organization that provides an array of services for families in my community that are dealing with cancer, including financial support, emotional support, insurance subsidies and advocacy, tuition grants, and a lot more. For those who don't know, they are currently holding a huge fundraising Chinese Auction, with local showings hosted by women in the community. My sister-in-law is awesome that way, so she hosted a showing of the auction in her neighborhood. Naturally, I stepped in to bake. I figured I would show y'all what I made, … [Read more...]
Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Marshmallow Fluff Frosting
It's funny how certain things work out at times. Take writing for example. Honestly, it's always come very easily to me. My 12th grade English teacher once commented that I'm lucky she enjoys reading my essays so much, or she would probably fail me for turning them all in two weeks late. When I started this blog, I put a lot of thought into the food and recipes (obviously!) and of course, as you know, I thought a lot about the photography. But the writing? It was always an afterthought, just something I did in the last few minutes of my posting. And I guess it worked. Because suddenly in the last few weeks I've gotten a ton of comments from readers, both of my magazine column and my blog, … [Read more...]
Pecan Pie Topped Mini Fudge Brownie Pies
Let's talk about decisions, shall we? I don't know about you, but I for one, hate making them. I'm talking about literally the smallest decisions there are. Like in the ice cream store when they ask if I want chocolate, vanilla or mixed. Um, so I know I don't want plain vanilla; my love of chocolate is just too strong. But as between chocolate or mixed...I don't know! How should I decide? And when the decisions get bigger, oy. Don't get me started. I hate decisions. That's why this dessert is so darn awesome! Say you just finished a humongous meal, like, the biggest one of the year. It's time for dessert, and you don't have much room. Imagine choosing between a fudgey chocolatey dessert … [Read more...]