Happy 30th Michelle

Last weekend marked our dear friend Michelle's 30th birthday. We were having a low key celebration to ring in her new age so I enthusiastically volunteered to bake a cake for the occasion. I love an excuse to bake for since I hate baking and having the left overs here. When we went to cheesecake factory with Michelle a couple weeks ago she had ordered the Adams Reeses Pieces Peanut Butter Cheesecake, I felt inspired by her cheesecake selection and baked her a cake of a similar nature since I knew she'd be sure to love the flavors. The cake turned out fantastic and looked as good as it tasted, even Mike commented how I have taken my baking up to the next level.


Reese’s Cup Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
Source: Annie Eats  (cake)
Source: Ina Garten (icing)


Ingredients For the cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled (optional)


Ingredients Peanut Butter Icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream


For decorating:
1 ½ – 2 batches peanut butter frosting
miniature Reese’s cups, halved and/or chopped

Directions:
For the cake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°.  Butter two 9×2” round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess and line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper.  Place the pans on a baking sheet. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.  Add the sugar and beat for about 2 minutes, until thoroughly blended into the butter.  Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Beat in the vanilla.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk; add the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the buttermilk in 2 (beginning and ending with the dry ingredients).  Mix each addition only until it is blended into the batter.  Scrape down the bowl and add the melted chocolate, if using, folding it in with a spatula.  Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans.

Bake for 26-30 minutes or until the cakes feel springy to the touch and start to pull away from the sides of the pans.  Transfer to wire racks to cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners.  Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.

For icing: Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a cardboard circle covered in foil.  Spread peanut butter frosting on top of the cake layer.  (If desired, sprinkle with chopped Reese’s cups.)  Place the second cake layer on top of the frosting.  Frost the top and outside of the cake with remaining peanut butter frosting.  Decorate with halved and chopped Reese’s cups as desired.

Classic Casserole

I'm working on building my go to recipe index. I figure this way by the time I have kids and need to cook for them all my recipes will be a breeze as I'm sure there will be plenty of busy nights with little time to cook a gourmet meal. I've made this casserole before and we've enjoyed it, it's a quick and easy go to weeknight recipe.

I put my own slight twist on the recipe. It's supposed to be a tuna noodle casserole but I'm not a huge tuna person and I don't keep canned tuna on hand. We do however keep canned chicken on hand, so it's now a chicken noodle casserole. I was going to add a small can of carrots I had in the pantry in but I decided against it last minute, I'm just not a huge carrot person. I did however add some cheddar cheese I had in the fridge on top for a little extra something.

Campbell's Tuna Chicken Noodle Casserole
Source: All Recipes 

Ingredients
2 (10.75 ounce) cans Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup (regular or 25% Lower Sodium)
1 cup milk
2 cups frozen peas
2 (10 ounce) cans tuna, drained -- Or chicken
4 cups hot cooked medium egg noodles
2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs -- I used 3 Tbsp panko
1 tablespoon butter, melted
About a 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions
Stir soup, milk, peas, tuna and noodles in 3-quart casserole.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes or until hot. Stir.
Mix bread crumbs with butter in bowl and sprinkle over tuna mixture. Bake for 5 minutes more.

Tax Day And....

While today is the deadline to file your taxes it also marks the anniversary of when we bought our first home together. Hard to believe another year has come and gone already. I remember when we fist bought the house we had said we'd stay for like 3-5 years, it's definitely going to be much closer to 5+ years at this point. This isn't a bad thing, we love our house for sure, but it's also not our forever house. I mostly dream about a larger kitchen and a nice backyard for Rocky to play in would be nice, but this'll do for now. Last year at this time we were still planning for our wedding as an engaged couple, and now here we are a married couple for almost 6 months already. At least now that we're through the wedding we can do a couple more small house projects we never got around to doing with saving for the wedding. I still can't believe this was three years ago already, time sure flies!

Spring Bread

For some very strange and unexplainable reason I got the idea stuck in my head that I wanted to make zucchini bread. It's not something that I've had very often but I really wanted to make one. I came across a couple recipes but then found one that was reasonably healthy, after all the main ingredients are vegetables, vegetables in cake are healthy right? It was a very easy and simple recipe to make. I liked the different flavors in it like the zucchini, to crushed pineapple and coconut. The original recipe also called for putting a cream cheese frosting on it, but I was too lazy and didn't feel like beating the cream cheese and sugar and making a mess with it so I just omitted it and left it more as a bread than a cake really... I think next time I am going to dust off my Mom's (well really my Aunt Mary's) zucchini pie recipe instead, that pie is excellent!

Pineapple Zucchini Cake
Source: Skinny Taste

Ingredients: 
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup flaked coconut
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg, optional
1 pinch ginger, optional
3 tbsp canola oil
2 whole large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini, unpeeled
20 oz. can crushed pineapple in juice, drained

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, coconut, baking soda, salt, and spices; stir well with a whisk.

In a medium bowl, combine oil, eggs, and vanilla; stir well. Add grated zucchini and pineapple; mix well. Fold wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, batter will be stiff and dry but keep folding it and it will all come together.

Spoon batter into a Bundt pan or 13 x 9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for about 33-40 minutes, depending on pan size or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and cake is pulling away from sides of pan. Cool cake completely on a wire rack.

Servings: 16 • Serving Size: 1 slice • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 6 pts

Calories: 230 • Fat: 7.6 g • Protein: 3.3 g • Carb: 36.8 g • Fiber: 1.8 g  

2011 Books

Since I got my kindle earlier this year I've been doing a lot of reading, a lot more than I had been for this time of year. I usually do the majority of my reading in the summer time poolside since that seemed to be the only time I could find to sit down and read a book.

I think it's been a combination of two things that's lead me to read more books lately. One being that in the beginning when we first got Rocky I was spending a lot of time with him locked up in the kitchen because I didn't want to let him out anywhere else and it was good to confine him to the small space, since it didn't matter if he had any accidents in the kitchen.

And two, I have to say I really enjoy reading on my kindle. I never would have thought I would have liked it this much but I really enjoy it. I find it so much easier to read on the kindle than with a print book, it's easy to handle the kindle in one hand and makes 'turning the pages' so much easier. So in the winter time I can bury myself under the blanket and balance the kindle on top with just one hand. I love downloading samples of new books to try on it and I love the instant gratification of purchasing new books on it without having to go out to the store. It's so easy to just keep clicking and buying books, I think I'm going to be asking for Amazon gift cards for my Birthdays going forward!

So far I'm on my fifth book since I got my Kindle in January and Rocky in February. Although now I've stopped reading on the floor in the kitchen with him but at least I'm almost done with graduate school and 'fun' books are all I will have to read now while I'll be sitting poolside soon enough. I've got a lengthy list of books built up that I want to read.

Book's I've read so far this year: The Girl Who Played With Fire; The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest; Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back; Still Alice; The Art of Racing In The Rain

Books I want to read: (in no particular order) Room; The Hunger Games; Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet; Anna and The French Kiss; Cutting For Stone; Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption; Suite Francaise; In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto; Something Borrowed; The Paris Wife: A Novel; Sing You Home; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Wow I didn't realize just how many books I had on my list, I think I am going to go broke on books but hey at least with finishing school now I'll have time to sit down and read them all.... Now if only I could find a book club!

More Rocky

Ok I am slightly obsessed with the little guy but I can't help it, he's just so darn cute and lovable! I feel like I won the doggy lottery with him. He has got the best personality ever and he's my buddy!

I'm an Auntie Again!

I'm so excited, I'm going to be an Auntie again! I think I may have mentioned it recently but I am very excited for all these arrivals but my very best friend Bridget recently shared her big news with my Mom and I.

When I was home earlier last month for my other best friend Kristin's baby shower, Bridget and her Mom came over that evening, for what I thought was for her mom to meet little Rocky. When they came over Mom poured us each a glass of wine as we sat and caught up. What I somehow didn't notice or wasn't paying attention for was that Bridget wasn't actually drinking her wine. It was funny afterwards her Mom said she looked over at Bridget while my Mom was pouring the wine and told her to take it so we wouldn't suspect.

As we were chatting the topic of babies came up and we were talking about being in the delivery room. When Mommy Helen (as I affectionately call Bridget's Mom) asked me when I was thinking I would be in the delivery room, I said something like "oh not for like 3 years or so" as we're not planning to have kids right away, and then she asked Bridget what about you, trying to get her to say it, and she said "in about 6 months!!!" and then the squealing and hugs began. We were so excited for Bridget's big news, she is going to make such a fantastic Mom!

There is Baby Lime (with Kristin) and The Cub (with Andrea) and now we have The Pumpkin (with Bridget) since the baby is going to be born this October - my favorite month! I'm so excited for all these arrivals, I hope they hurry up and get here soon so I can meet all of them and spoil them. I can't wait to go shopping with Bridget for some cute maternity clothes (and some regular clothes for me too) and look for cute things to decorate the nursery. So exciting!!

Meeting Jayden

Our little nephew Jayden Chase was born on February 4 and is months old already. Since his Mom and Dad moved down to North Carolina we hadn't had a chance to meet him yet. We were very excited when we heard they would be coming into town (or relatively close) for a wedding this weekend. They were headed back to their hometown of Scranton, PA for the week so we set out for PA to go meet the little guy first chance we got.

Jayden is absolutely adorable. He's such a good baby and really cute. We were so happy we got to meet him and hold him. We couldn't believe how big he was already at his just 2 months old and already 13 pounds. We had a great day playing with the little guy. Even Mike got his turn to hold the baby. I think he looked like a natural and you could see his smile while he was holding the baby.

We can't wait to see him again hopefully soon. Maybe this summer we'll plan a trip down south to go visit Mike's brother and fiancé (I love saying that), Carmen and Dawn and also Andrea & Adam and their upcoming arrival as well!

New Recipe Trials

I've been testing out a couple new recipes recently but haven't blogged about all of them. We recently tried

Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi 
Cheesy Meat Loaf Minis
Spinach and Artichoke Baked Pasta
Light Vegetable Lasagna

My favorite of that bunch would def have to be the vegetable lasagna. It was delicious. I think I ate all the leftovers by myself for like 3 days straight.

The lemon pepper shrimp scampi was also really good (although I think we added a touch too much pepper in it). It was a really easy shrimp dish and I loved it served over the orzo versus a more traditional pasta. It was very light and so quick and easy to make. I'll def keep that one handy for a quick weeknight meal.

Yes, I made a different meatloaf other than my Mom's recipe. I wanted a change. The recipe called for making like 6 mini meat loaves, but I was lazy and made mine into one traditional sized loaf, however it seemed to fall apart, it didn't stay molded together nicely while it cooked, so the presentation wasn't great, but it still tasted really good. It had a lot of different condiments in it, including horseradish, while it tasted good and I didn't mind the horseradish, I don't think I loved it in there either. It was tasty though but I think I might play around and look for a different alternative meatloaf dish to Mom's if I was going to make another one.

We made the spinach and artichoke pasta for dinner tonight. It was very good but considering it was a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal it was really quite a process and made a huge mess and required lots of pots, it was not a simple recipe. I also decided to add chicken to it as well which didn't help any but it was a great add. I decided to poach the chicken breasts which I had never done before, it's pretty cool, considering you're just boiling chicken in water for like 20 minutes to cook it. It was a great add to the pasta. The pasta was def good and I liked the all the spinach in it and aside from the Gruyère cheese in it, it didn't seem too unhealthy either. I think I'd make it again.

So back to Vegetable Lasagna, this recipe I had to post to add to my collection. I cannot wait to make it again. Mike even gave me the idea of maybe adding some eggplant in it next time which I think I might try. This recipe seemed like such a great way to get extra veggies into a meal that tasted delicious and also lightened up what is usually such a fattening recipe.

Vegetable Lasagna
Source: Fitness Magazine

Ingredients
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
21/2 cups zucchini, sliced - about 2 small zucchini
2 cups sliced fresh portobello mushrooms
1 cup fat-free ricotta
3 tablespoons finely shredded Parmesan
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 whole wheat no-boil lasagna noodles - I used 9 for a third layer
2 cups prepared pasta sauce
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella - I ended up using the whole bag
1/2 cup chopped, seeded tomato - I forgot to put this in

Directions
Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions, zucchini, and mushrooms; heat 5 minutes or until tender, stirring. Remove from heat; set aside. In a small bowl, mix the ricotta, Parmesan, and pepper.

To assemble, place 3 lasagna noodles in the bottom of a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Spoon half the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Top with half the veggie mixture, half the pasta sauce, and half the mozzarella. Layer with remaining noodles, ricotta mixture, veggie mixture, and sauce.

Bake, uncovered, in a 375-degree oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with tomato and remaining mozzarella. Bake 5 minutes more or until heated through. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Cut into 6 pieces.

Panda & Cub

I'm such a lucky aunt, it seems like so many of my very best friends are having babies and I get to be an aunt to all of them. I already love them all so much already and love seeing them grow in their Mommies bellies.

Getting to see one of my dearest friends Andrea last Saturday with her HUGE belly was no exception to how excited I was to see her and her bump again in person. Andrea has been texting me picture messages of her growing bump for the past several months, and I've only been able to see the size through my montage of picture messages. I finally got to see it in person and it is an adorably big bump! Pregnancy def seems to agree well with Andrea, she's already a happy and bubbly person but you could see she was absolutely glowing with her big pregnant belly!

It was such a beautiful, small, intimate celebration to honor 'the cub's upcoming arrival. Friends gathered from near and far for the celebration. We had an absolutely delicious brunch, all of the food was fantastic and homemade, I think I need to get some of the recipes. From a chicken salad with apples, craisins and walnuts, to vegetable egg bake (I'm not sure what it was really called), delicious homemade potato casserole and more, all the food was delicious, I know I had at least seconds.

The cub received lots of wonderful presents that I'm sure will come in handy for Mom and Dad once he or she arrives. Their stroller was pretty neat too I have to say the way it folded up (Bridget - if you're reading this you should ask Andrea about it), I wasn't quite sure how it worked but it looked pretty cool.

 

It was a beautiful day with the Mom to be, and the next time I see her I'll get to meet my new niece or nephew!

Rocky's First Yankee Game

Of course Rocky had to wear his Yankee jersey for the Yankee's home opener
It was his first Yankee game. He watched part of it with his Dad! 

 

He's getting so big in comparison to the first time he wore his Jersey!

Puppy Love

It's hard to believe that Rocky has been in our lives for almost 2 months already and yet it feels so much shorter AND so much longer than that already. He is also growing up so fast it seems. I can't believe that he is 5 months old already. In some ways I'm sad to see him grow up so fast since puppies do all of their growing within the first 6 months of their lives it seems. In others I am happy to see him leave some of his puppy traits behind. It has been a tremendously time consuming process but also tremendously rewarding!

Having a puppy has changed our lives. I couldn't ask for better company. I feel so lucky to have gotten what I think is the best puppy, yes I'm a bit prejudice I admit that, but he's such a good dog. He already seems like he's gotten so much bigger, granted he's only put on 3 pounds since we've gotten him but he was only 7 pounds to begin with and now he's nearing 10. Mike and I keep commenting on how big he is getting. His little pink pads on the bottom of his paws are now starting to turn black and I've already noticed some of his baby teeth are falling out.

I won't however miss his crying. When we first got him for at least the first two weeks he used to cry to get up in the mornings and sometimes for a few minutes when he went to bed. He used to let us know when he was ready to get up in the morning not the other way around. Thankfully now he waits for me, but as soon as he hears me start stirring in the morning he lets me know he's ready to be let out of his cage. We also couldn't leave him alone in the kitchen without him freaking out but now he's ok with being left alone in there on his own.

I love watching him run after and play with all his does. This pup loves his toys thats for sure, especially the squeaky ones. He has so many funny mannerisms, it's adorable to just watch him play or do anything, watching him trout around and run after his ball is so funny. He'll sleep next to us in his little bed while we're working, sometimes he is half in his bed, with his legs up, and his head on the floor and if his stuffed bone is nearby he's used it as a pillow before.

When people say having a puppy is good practice for having a child they're not kidding! Although I obviously don't have any kids of my own yet it is easy to see some parallels in the two. But man if a puppy is this much work I can't even imagine how much work a baby must be. I think I'll stick with the puppy for now.  I can't believe how quickly the time is going by and already by how much he is growing, and thankfully out growing some of his puppy traits already. When I look at the pictures of him from the first day we brought him home he already looks so much younger than he does today. My little old man, he's just too adorable for words!!!