A twist on PB Cookies

This is a recipe I made over a year ago, but since I haven't been baking recently, I thought I'd start posting about past creations :)

This cookie turned out quite well and S gave it her seal of approval. She thought about them so much and actually got the recipe from me and attempted to make them on her own, which is saying a lot! Especially since she was always the big eater and not a cook, at least during our college days ^_^;;

Anyway, the only part I had a little trouble with was the peanut butter filling and that was just not realizing it takes a little time for the peanut butter and the powdered sugar to combine. They turned out great and when I took them into work, they disappeared in no time :)

Magic Peanut Butter Middles from Allrecipes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter

Directions

1. In small bowl blend flour, cocoa and baking soda. Mix until well blended.

2. In large bowl beat sugar, butter or margarine and 1/4 cup peanut butter, until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg, beat. Stir in flour mixture until blended. Set aside.

3. To make Filling: Combine confectioner's sugar and 3/4 cup peanut butter. Blend well.

4. Roll filling into 30 - 1 inch balls. For each cookie, with floured hands, shape about 1 Tablespoon of dough around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with glass dipped in sugar.

5. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 7-9 minutes. When cookies are done, they should be set and slightly cracked.

Ajishin

To commemorate the end of our spring break, I went out with some friends to Novi for dinner at what can probably be considered one of the best Japanese restaurants in the area. We went to Ajishin, which apparently serves very good udon and sushi. I ordered the ikura and sake chirashi and it was quite good. I haven't had Japanese in a while so it was a welcome change from my usual dinner fare and the ikura and sake were pretty fresh and tasty :D

Blast from the past

I went shopping a while ago with my cousin at a local Chinese grocery and I found ma hwa cookies! I haven't had them since I was in elementary school! I used to absolutely love them and I remember I used to try to get to them before my dad lol. I guess he introduced his childhood snack to me and then we had to battle. Epic. ... well not really haha. Anyway, I was thrilled to see them again, and immediately threw them into my basket. Although I don't think I'm addicted to them like I was when I was little, I still think they were worth it for the sake of nostalgia. And they're still good :)

Chicago Eats

A couple of weeks ago, I met up with some good friends in the Windy City for a quick weekend getaway that had lots of food, lots of fun, and went by all too quickly T_T I had never been to Chicago before that, so I was looking forward to trying the famous Chicago foods- pizza and hot dogs! We were also there during the Restaurant Week, so we couldn't pass up that opportunity and had lunch at one of the participating restaurants :) If it weren't for E proposing to go to the exercise room or walk up the stairs, I think we would have been even more round and bloated by the end of the weekend than we actually were ^__^;; Ok, now on to the photos! lol

Day One

E's coworker recommended Portillo's for Italian beef and hot dogs, so the first thing we did was bus over there and try out the Italian beef sandwich! I was too focused on eating and didn't remember to take a photo until I was nearly done eating (oops!) My sandwich was dipped, so it was slightly soggy and quite delicious. The three of us collectively gave the sandwich two thumbs up lol.


Italian Beef

Day Two

This was the first full day we had in Chicago, so we jam packed it with food, food, and lots of food. So much that we ended up retiring before dinner and bought snacks at a nearby grocery store and munched on them while watching movies on tv. Ahh good times..

Our first stop was lunch at Quartino. We went here after looking over the Restaurant Week options and I think it was overall pretty good. Family style Italian food with mismatched silverware and dishes and a friendly staff made it an enjoyable experience.


Baby Spinach Salad, ricotta on the side because E is not a fan of cheese. This was very nice and light and the cheese was delicious :D


Wild Arugula and Orange salad, dressing on the side by E's request. The orange was...spicy.. lol.


Napoli style, half sausage and half margherita pizza. Thin crust. So delicious. I repeat, so delicious.


Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Puttanesca sauce. Also quite delicious! The sauce was spicy, but not overwhelmingly so.


Mushroom Risotto. F hadn't tried risotto before, so she was curious to try one. I'm not a mushroom person, so I can't say I loved this, but I did like the consistency of it and ate more than I thought I would lol.


Coppa al Banana. OMG DELICIOUS. Banana, biscotti, ice cream, and chocolate? Can we say recipe for success? lol lol.


Zeppole with dark chocolate and honey. I believe zeppole is basically an Italian donut? They were freshly made and quite delicious in both the honey and dark chocolate, although I think E would disagree about that lol.

After lunch we headed to the Art Institute and wandered around for a good few hours before leaving to take a break...with more food!


Almond Croissant from Au Bon Pain. It was rather sweet, but I liked the filling :D


Pecan Caramel Crisp from Garrett Popcorn. Mm so sweet lol. This was E's bag, and unpictured is the bag of just caramel popcorn that F got. The popcorn here was pretty good, and they give samples! I think we were just a little disappointed that it wasn't warm and fresh.


CheeseCorn from Garrett Popcorn. This was my bag. I wanted to cut all the sweetness that we were eating with some salt.

Day Three

This was our last day here ::sniff:: so we made this day all about food :D

We started off with a breakfast at the 3rd Coast Cafe which was literally 3 blocks away from our hotel :D We were pretty satisfied with our selections and the portions were just a little too big, but we managed to finish everything :D


my eggs benedict


E's blueberry pancakes


F's eggs florentine

Then we headed back to Portillo's to try their hot dogs for lunch before F had to leave to catch her plane. I don't really eat hot dogs but F said they were pretty good and I had no complaints :) The chocolate cake, however, we felt wasn't alll that special.


Hot dog and fries!


E opted to get the Italian beef and sausage sandwich. You can't see the sausage but it's in there under the beef. I think E's conclusion was that the regular Italian beef sandwich was better, esp with the dip.


Chocolate Cake. Not the best, but still tasty.

After F left us for the airport, E and I wandered a bit around the area and had some froyo at Berry Chill. The froyo was ok, not the best but decent. I think we regretted not getting different toppings, like Girl Scout cookies, instead of our usual fare. Oh welll.. The coolest thing was the color changing spoons though lol. We took them home with us... :X Actually, I don't know what happened to mine..



And for dinner, we met with one of E's old coworkers at Gino's East for some Chicago style deep dish pizza :9 We got a medium supreme pizza that pretty much stuffed us to the brim. So much that it felt nice when E and I walked all the way back to the hotel (because we missed the bus :X)



And that ended my whirlwind eating tour of Chicago. There are definitely more places I want to go and I definitely want to go back before I move away from the midwest!

When you run out of eggs...

...make eggless chocolate cupcakes!

Ok, so I'm just lazy :X I ran out of eggs and I've been meaning to go grocery shopping but I just haven't really had the drive to leave my apartment and now it's a foggy and slightly rainy day which just lends itself to be one of those stay inside days. All would be fine except the nagging chocolate craving I've been having and so when I stumbled upon an eggless chocolate cupcake recipe on Taste and Tell, I felt like I struck gold :D I guess as a bonus, this is also the first vegan recipe I've tried as well. Yay? lol.

I liked how they turned out, although this probably won't be my go to chocolate cake recipe. It has a very nice, tight crumb, but there feels like there's something missing when I eat it. I guess maybe a combination of moisture and lightness? But then again I accidentally overbaked them by a minute or two :X




frosted with a simple vanilla buttercream



Recipe here: Eggless Chocolate Cupcake