Okay, so first I have to get this off my chest...why in the world did the producers choose Juan Pablo to be The Bachelor in the first place!?!??!!  I never understood how or why he was chosen.  I remember all of this talk about how he was "the sexiest bachelor ever" and the previews kept referring to how women loved his accent.  Maybe I'm crazy but I never saw the appeal and his accent never did anything for me.

After watching this season of the show, I was blown away by how insensitive, rude and arrogant he was.  I feel so sorry for the girls who were on this season.  What a waste of their time and what a disappointment.

So now that I've gotten that off my chest, on to a sweeter, more pleasant subject.  :)  This week I've been in the mood for something chocolatey with a hint of caramel so I told Luke I wanted to create a turtle cupcake or a turtle cookie.  Luke with blunt-self said he'd rather have cookies, but then he had to add "aren't there tons of recipes for turtle cookies already".  I told him I was sure there were but I was going to make my own version. :)

This is what I came up with...



1 stick (1/2 cup) and 2 tbsp of butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven, to 350 degrees.  Cream the butter/margarine and sugar together.  Then add the egg and vanilla extract.



In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  To make sure there aren't any clumps, whisk the all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda and salt together.



Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. 

Once combined, stir the chocolate chips and chopped pecans into the batter.



Using a small ice cream scoop, drop about 2 tbsp. per cookie onto a greased cookie sheet.  As I mentioned before, I hate cleaning dishes so I always place tin foil on the cookie sheet before I cook on it to avoid having to clean a sticky mess.



Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.  This makes about 26 cookies.



For the caramel drizzle, there are 2 recipes to choose from depending on how much you like caramel.  The first recipe is a thinner, milder caramel flavor but the second recipe is thicker and richer in flavor.

The Milder Caramel Drizzle:

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 1/2 tbsp. butter or margarine

In a saucepan, stir the brown sugar and water together over medium low heat.  Once combined, increase the heat and bring to a boil and continue stirring.  Boil for about 5 minutes (until it's a light caramel color).  Remove from heat and let cool.

OR

The Richer Caramel Drizzle:

2 sticks (1 cup) of butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar, packed

In a saucepan, melt the butter.  Once melted, add the brown sugar.  Bring to a boil and continue to stir until it turns a light caramel color.  Remove from heat and let cool.



Once the caramel sauce you choose to make has cooled, drizzle the caramel sauce over the cooled cookies and enjoy! :)


 

I love the fact that it's 7:20 in the evening and the sun is still out!  It's such a great feeling to know there are still a couple of hours of daylight left when I get home from work!  To me that's worth losing an hour of sleep.

The weather was perfect today too.  It was 75 degrees when I left work this evening.  I came home today and took Izzy for a walk around the neighborhood, and I didn't feel the least bit rushed to get back to the house to start dinner.  I feel like I still have time left in the day to enjoy.  That's such a great feeling!

Dinner tonight was super easy.  Publix offers the most amazing Stuffed Clams and Stuffed Scallops.  They're on sale 4 for $5 through tomorrow.  So they're not only delicious but they're cheap. ;)  If you like crab cakes, you'll love these and even if you don't like crab cakes, you'll love these.  Luke doesn't like crab cakes very much, but he LOVES these.

You can find them in the fresh market section (the fish counter) of the store.  The cooking instructions are printed on the price label.

To cook the stuffed clams and the stuffed scallops, you preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Place the stuffed clams and/or stuffed scallops on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 18 - 20 minutes.  Then they're ready to serve!


The green beans:

1 lb. of fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, minced

First, blanch the green beans (in a pot of water, bring the green beans to a boil, remove from heat as soon as they start to boil and use a slotted spoon to put the green beans into a bowl of ice water).  Pour 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a pan over medium heat.  Then add the cooled green beans to the pan.  Add the salt and pepper and toss the green beans to make sure they're all coated with the EVOO, salt and pepper.  Then add the minced garlic and cook for a few more minutes.


Don't forget to run over to Publix before Wednesday to grab your stuffed clams and/or stuffed scallops!!! :)

TGIF!!!!  I'm so glad it's finally the weekend!  Luke and I rented a movie so we're going to have a quiet evening at home.  I'm so excited for our quiet night at home after having such a long, crazy week at work.

Before I sign off for the week, I wanted to share a yummy treat I found last week...a cream cheese spread with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Oh my goodness, it is so delicious!  It's actually Wal-Mart brand (the Great Value brand) and it's a "Limited Edition" so I'm not sure how long they're going to have it on the shelves.  I've decided I'm going to have to go back and stock up on it before it disappears. 

For breakfast this week, I've been eating the cream cheese spread on an English Muffin and it's such a treat.  I've looked forward to it every morning.  It's kind of like eating cream cheese icing on an English Muffin.  It's delish!  I can't imagine how amazing the cream cheese spread would be with  apple slices but I'm going to find out this weekend. ;)

YAY!!!!  It's almost the weekend!!!  It's time to make a toast to the upcoming weekend with one of Luke's cocktails.

Luke is the bartender/cocktail maker in our house.  I usually make drink suggestions and he comes up with a drink combination.

This is what I'm toasting with tonight ;)

If you're anything like me, by the time Wednesday rolls around I'm so ready for the weekend, and the last thing I want to think about is what we're going to have for dinner.  I just want dinner to be as simple as possible.  So tonight's dinner is a crockpot/slow cooker meal. 

In my opinion, crockpots/slow cookers are one of the best appliances you can have in your kitchen.  Especially since most of them have timers you can set so you don't have to worry about whether or not you'll get home in time to turn it off before your food burns.  Plus, crockpot/slow cooker meals are usually a one-pot meal which is great for me because I hate washing dishes!

Tonight's dinner is a recipe I recreated based on a recipe I found in one of my vegetarian cookbooks.  It's an Italian Potato "Stew" and it couldn't be easier to make!



Italian Potato "Stew":

1 oz. package dried porcini mushrooms
6 medium red potatoes, washed and quartered
1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup white wine
3 cups jarred marinara sauce
1 cup Kalamata olives, sliced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Basil

Soak the porcini mushrooms in a large bowl of water for 20 - 30 minutes or until softened.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the softened mushrooms from the water.

Pour the potatoes, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, garlic, wine and marinara sauce into the crockpot/slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours or until the potatoes are tender.  Before serving, add the Kalamata olives and the salt and pepper to taste and continue cooking for another 20 - 30 minutes.

Drizzle each serving with EVOO and chopped basil or you can use 1/4 teaspoon of Gourmet Gardens Basil Paste which is what I used instead of fresh basil.

I love chocolate and peanut butter...who doesn't?  The other day, I was in the mood to bake but I didn't have the time or the energy to bake something from scratch so I got out the Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies box mix.  The baked box mix brownies would have been delicious on their own but I always have to make recipes my own so of course I couldn't just bake the brownies and call it a day. 



I thought about adding peanut butter and chocolate chips but then I remembered the package of Reese's peanut butter chips I had found in the grocery store earlier that week.  After following the box mix instructions for fudgy brownies (if your prefer cake-like brownies, there are instructions on the box), I added the entire package of Reese's peanut butter chips and a cup of Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips.   

In my opinion, there is nothing like a fudgy gooey chocolate peanut butter brownie!!! :)

For Fudgy Brownies:

1 box of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies mix
1 egg (for cake-like brownies, use 2 eggs)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 package of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
1 cup Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix the brownie mix, egg, water and vegetable oil together.  Once combined, stir in the Reese's Peanut Butter Chips and Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips.

Luke and I have decided it's time to buckle down and post on our blog on a regular basis.  It's not always easy to find the time to jump on the blog to share our recipes and ideas with both of us working full time and commuting to work. 

Over the weekend, we came up with a plan so we'll see how well we execute the plan.  We're going to do our best to share our recipes with you Monday through Friday each week.  Each day will have a dedicated title with recipes to follow.  Mondays will be "Meaty Monday" or "Meatless Monday" depending on what recipe we post that particular day.

Today we wanted to share the grilled Mahi Mahi recipe we ate for dinner.  Luke is always in charge of the grill so this is his recipe in his words...

Per Mahi Mahi fillet:

1 tablespoon of EVOO
Pinch of Kosher salt
Pinch of Black Pepper
Dash of Ground Rep Pepper
1 Lemon Sliced (placed on top of Fish)

First of all I like to use aluminum foil on the grill just to make sure it does not get burnt to much.  So get the fish and place on aluminum foil.  I put the EVOO on the Foil and make sure there is enough so the fish will not stick.  At that point, sprinkle the salt, pepper and the ground red pepper on both sides of the fish.  Place the lemon slices on top of the fish and then make a tent with the foil place on the grill and cook for 8-12 minutes and then it should be ready to go.  If you like the char of grill on the fish do the same thing and then flip over around 6 min and then put the lemons on top. 

For our side dish, we roasted about a pound of asparagus.  Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Trim off the woody ends of the asparagus and drop the asparagus spears onto the cookie sheet.  Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and about 1/2 teaspoon of pepper over the asparagus spears.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.



We also ate stuffed mini bell peppers but I'll share that recipe with you later this week.  :)