Monthly Mix-Ins

1.  This was my breakfast last Sunday at the Tomcat Café.  I present to you the Fluff -N-Stuff.  As you can see, I went the healthy route.   How this place is not world famous I have no idea, but it definitely deserves the local notoriety, wait time and long lines every weekend.  I'd wait forever to eat here.

2.  It's no secret I love red velvet.  I've been drooling over this ice cream all week.

3.  I was dying last night over this:  23 Dogs Who Are Too Adorably Stupid For Their Own Good.  Espeically numbers 2, 7, and 22.  Cuteness overload.

4.  How gorgeous is this cake?  I did not even know chocolate pearls were a thing.  I'm so behind.

5.  Does anybody else watch Suits?  I'm glad Harvey and Mike are back together with their whole Batman and Robin gig, but how bad did you feel for Louis?!  More importantly, who throws away a cake??  And somebody please make Rachel Zane's wardrobe appear in my closet, stat.

6.  23 People Who Are Permanently Remembering The ’90s.  That is a male with the Hanson tattoo, correct?  Umm.  I'm not going to lie, though.... the Fresh Prince and George Costanza ones are legit.

7.  Tomorrow is August and that's weird.  However, there are some super fun events coming up for me in August including:  two weddings, a concert with my best, going to see a comedian, making cupcakes for a bridal shower, judging cheerleading tryouts for a university, and soaking up all the sun that is physically possible before my summer disappears.  How about you??

Parmesan Grilled Corn

I hate to admit it, but I'm still kind afraid of my grill.  There are too many knobs.  And I always envision there being some sort of gas leak explosion when I turn it on.  Oh, oh... and when I opened it this most recent time?  SPIDER IN THE GRILL.  Inside of it, directly where I wanted to put my food.  It was a traumatic experience.  Dramatic?  Perhaps. 

But still disgusting. 

This corn, however, is amazing.  I may be weary of the grill but I never miss a chance to give a vegetable a good trashin' up.  Sweet corn is aplenty right now where I live (not to mention dirt cheap) and I've been partial to grilling it in aluminum foil to keep it nice and juicy.  It's delicious plain with some salt and pepper, but what isn't better covered in melted butter and cheese?  Throw some garlic and fresh parsley in the mix and you have a super easy/delicious side for your next cookout. 

Parmesan Grilled Corn:
Makes 6 servings

6 ears of fresh corn
4 tablespoons of butter
2 cloves of garlic, grated or minced
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Preheat your grill to medium-high heat.  If corn is still in the husk, remove and discard the husk and silks.  Wrap each ear of corn in aluminum foil (don't make the foil too thick - one layer between the corn and the grill is enough).  Grill the corn for about 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so to ensure even grilling.  While corn is grilling, melt butter and garlic together in a small bowl in the microwave.  When corn is finished, brush the garlic butter over each ear of corn.  Immediately sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and then garnish with the fresh parsley.  Devour.

Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

I was under a cookie curse for about a month before my wedding.

No matter what recipe I tried to make in those few weeks, they were epic fails.  I burned one batch.  Another batch spread way too much to form one big jumbled mega-cookie.  My Silpat slipped and I dropped a different batch on my open oven door before I could bake them.  The oven door was hot so they immediately started cooking and it took like 20 minutes to scrape off and clean up.  Point being - there was some serious bad cookie juju going on.  The thing is... up until that point, I had NEVER screwed up cookies.  Some of these were tried and true recipes I've made a million times before.  I chalk it up to wedding brain and trying to focus on a million other things, but to this day I have not figured it out. 

The greatest part of these particular cookies?  No baking!  They're fast, there is no oven involved (perfect for summer if you don't want to heat up your house) and they're gluten free.  These come together in about 20 minutes total and are totally foolproof.  Take that, bad cookie juju.

Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies:
Heavily adapted from Brown Eyed Baker
Makes about 30 cookies


1 stick butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups quick cooking oats
peanut butter chips

In a medium saucepan, combine butter, sugar, milk and cocoa powder over medium heat.  Bring to a boil while whisking smooth, and let boil for about a minute.  Remove from heat.  Stir in peanut butter and vanilla extract, and stir until the peanut butter melts.  Add the oats and stir to coat.  Drop by rounded tablespoons onto wax covered baking sheets.  Individually press peanut butter chips into the tops of the cookies, if desired.  Let cookies cool on baking sheets until they are set.

S'mores Cupcakes

Well, helloooooooo summer love.

To me, summer means a few things.  I am unfortunately not a kid anymore so summers off is not one of them.  But summer does mean the days are longer, the colors seem brighter, and I seem to be able to eat my body weight in fresh watermelon and cantaloupe.  Summer also screams for the classic combination of chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallow.  I've been looking for the perfect s'mores cupcake recipe for awhile now, but I couldn't find anything that fit my vision.  Most of the recipes I found had a chocolate cake base with a marshmallow frosting, and the graham sort of took a backseat with either a little square on top or some crumbs as the base.  Finally, I decided to take bits and pieces of other recipes to create my perfect Frankenstein s'mores cupcake.  These babies have a dense graham cracker cake, a milk chocolate filling, and a rich and fluffy marshmallow buttercream.  I rolled the outside in extra graham cracker crumbs and garnished with some chocolate pieces, mini marshmallows, a chocolate covered-graham cracker and a drizzle of ganache.  Ohmygoodness.  It's pretty safe to say these didn't make it two full days in our house.  They did, however, make it into my top 3 cupcake recipes of all time.  Allow me to introduce you to your new summer love (a la Justin Timberlake circa 2006).

S'mores Cupcakes:
Makes 12 cupcakes

Graham Cracker Cupcake (source: Vanilla Garlic)
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, room temperature

Monthly Mix-Ins

1.  Soooo these S'mores cupcakes happened this weekend.  They were pretty much devoured in one day.  Stay tuned for this one, folks.

2.  I want to meet whoever wrote 22 Excellent Reasons to Drink More Whiskey.  I feel like we would be the very best of friends.

3.  I have been dying over these super festive July 4th Layered Drinks ever since I saw them on In Katrina's Kitchen a few days ago.  Somebody come over so I can make these for us. 

4.  Sometimes... I think I'm pretty tough.  Then I see new stories like this and think nope.  Not tough at all.

5.   Jessica from How Sweet Eats shared this in her latest edition of Tuesday Things and I've been mass e-mailing the link ever since:  If Kids Tweeted About TV Shows Like Adults Do.

6.   Dairy Queen had a S'mores Blizzard for June and I'm just now realizing it's gone.  I had one last week and it was really good!  The fact I may never eat one is making me horrifically sad.  Someone tell me they're not gone forever?

7.  I'm not going to touch the whole Kim/Kanye baby name thing because... no.  It's just too easy.

8.  So sooo happy that my summer shows are back on, but Michael and Fi really need to just get back together on Burn Notice already.  Stop messing with their relationship, because it is really damaging my overall real life well-being. 

9.   How cute are these mini mason jar lanterns for a 4th of July party or any other summer barbeque?!  Dying of cute DIY-ness.  They make me feel like I need to seriously step up my craft game.