Every now and then I get a big ol’ craving for Mexican food. This only happens about once every, oh, day or two. I can’t help it. I love Mexican food. In fact, I sometimes regret not marrying an old Mexican grandma. I’m sure her cooking would have been divine. I guess my husband and his lackluster cooking abilities will have to do though.

He’s cute. I like him. Even if he does roll his eyes and say “Mexican food again?” At least he lets me pose him (sit here, turn your head this way, smile, no, not a fake smile, a real smile!) so that the internet can see how cute he is.

That’s enough talk about boys. This is a food blog.

Something that I must have to go along side my tacos, enchiladas, and burritos is this delicious, nutritious (Well, kind of. Maybe.), completely addicting guacamole. Trust me when I say that this guacamole will change your little Mexican food loving life.

The best part is, if you live with onion haters, you can easily substitute onion powder for the chopped onions and you don’t sacrifice any flavor. I like the crunch the onion adds to this, but the flavor doesn’t suffer a bit if you leave them out. And, yeah, that boy up there is the onion hater in my life. It’s a good thing he’s cute.

Guacamole

• 4 ripe Haas avocados
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup finely diced onion (I use a red onion, but any will work) (or sub onion powder)
• 1 lime
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tsp cumin (or more, to taste)
• salt, to taste

Chop the avacodos into small cubes and mash with a fork, leaving just a few chunks and add to a medium sized bowl. Add in the garlic, cilantro, onion, sour cream, cumin, and salt. Squeeze the juice of the lime into the bowl and stir everything together. Serve immediately.

Alright, y’all. Brace yourselves. I am about to share with you the most fudgy, delicious, amazing frosting recipe that you will ever eat in your life. (I know I promised to share this recipe a few days ago, but life has been crazy this week. I apologize.)

My mama used to make this and spread it on brownies. I’m not a fan of frosted brownies (the frosting does something funky to the texture of the brownie, in my opinion), but I had no problem scraping the frosting off with my teeth and tossing the brownie in the trash.

I can remember my mom making this, standing at the stove and counting to 60, making sure that the milk and sugar boiled for exactly 60 seconds. I’m not sure what would happen if it boiled for 61 seconds, or heaven forbid, 62 seconds. My mama took the 60 second rule very seriously. So do I, and so should you. Don’t mess with perfection

I also remember that my parents always let my brother and me lick the bowl when they made brownies or cakes, but when it came to this frosting, it was a family event. The kids had to share with the parents.

Have I convinced you to try this yet?

Put it on brownies if you’re a frosted brownie kinda gal (or guy) or use it to frost doughnuts like I did. It’s a bit thin for piping, but it hardens up very quickly into a fudge like texture. In fact, I plan on experimenting with this soon to see if I can turn it into fudge. I imagine it would be divine.

If you’re really desperate for a little chocolate, but don’t feel like baking, go ahead and make a 1/4 batch of this and eat it with a spoon. It’ll make you happy. Trust me. I know.

Chocolate Frosting
Recipe from my mama

• 1 cup white sugar
• 6 tbsp butter
• 6 tbsp milk
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semi-sweet)

Add sugar, butter, and milk to a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Boil for exactly 60 seconds and remove from heat. Stir in chocolate chips and continue stirring until the chocolate has melted. Use frosting immediately as it will harden quickly. Makes about 2 cups and will frost a 9×13 pan of brownies.

When was the last time you made breakfast for dinner? I’ve been trying to make it more often, just because it’s quick, simple, and budget friendly. I usually make eggs, bacon, biscuits, and potatoes. This week I decided to make doughnuts.

You heard me.

I made doughnuts for dinner. No eggs, no bacon. Just doughnuts. My children think I am the best mother ever. Or, at least they did, while they were eating, but then I shouted at them to clean their rooms not too long after dinner and I went back to being mean mommy. It was nice while it lasted, though.

Doughnuts definitely take a bit of time and effort, but that first delicious bite you take makes it all worth it. These aren’t difficult, by any means, just a bit more involved than I usually like. There was the rising, the flouring, the rolling, the cutting, the rising, the frying, the topping, and then, finally, happily, thankfully, the eating.

I know a lot of people are scared of yeast, but don’t be. If I can make yeasty treats, so can you. Besides, watching my flat little doughnuts magically puff up made me feel like some sort of superhero. A Superhero of Yeast.

The hardest part was getting the risen doughnuts into the hot oil without deflating them. Deflating. Is that the right word?

I found that it was best to stick my thumb through the hole and gently lift them up. It took me quite a few tries before I really got it.

I like variety, so I made glazed doughnuts, cinnamon and sugar doughnuts, and doughnuts with chocolate frosting. I’ll share the frosting recipe with you tomorrow. It’s the frosting my mama puts on brownies and I’ve been wanting to share it with you since the day I started this blog. It’s good. It’s real good.

Anyway, the glaze recipe that I used was bit chunky for some reason. They still tasted good, but they looked kinda funky.

I snapped this picture, shouted for my kids that their dinner was ready, and then, in just a matter of seconds, this is what my plate full of doughnuts looked like:

Crispy and Creamy Doughnuts
Recipe from allrecipes.com

• 2 (.25 ounce) envelopes dry active yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 quart oil, for fying

Pour the warm water into the bowl of your mixer and sprinkle in the yeast. (I always add a pinch of sugar to feed the yeast at this point. Not sure if that actually does anything or not, but I like to think it helps.) Let the yeast mixture stand for 5 minutes or until foamy.

Pour in the warm milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on low for a few minutes. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Knead for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

Put the dough into a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled in a warm place (your turned off oven works great for this!).

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Cover with a towel and let rise until double.

Heat oil in a deep fryer or large pan until it reaches 350 degrees. Carefully place doughnuts into the oil and fry on each side until they are golden. Drain on a wire rack.

Glaze

• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 tbsp hot water (as needed)

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat and add water, as needed, to thin the icing out.

I can pretty much guarantee that now that I have discovered the beauty of scones that you will all get sick of them and wish that I would stop posting scone recipes. Please, just indulge me for a bit longer okay? I need to thoroughly explore the world of the scone and I promise to only share the very, very best scones that I make. These fit in that very, very best category.

Bacon. Cheddar cheese. Green onions. Those are a few of my favorite ingredients and each one of them is hidden away inside these delightful little scones. Well, okay, so these weren’t “little” scones. They were big. Big and hearty and filling. They’re perfect for breakfast, but I think they’d go just wonderfully with a bowl of soup for lunch.

These were a bit fussier than my last recipe for Chocolate Chip Scones, but they were so worth the extra effort. We’ve been grabbing scones for breakfast every morning this week! They are quick to reheat in the microwave, but they are even tastier heated up in the oven for a bit.

Just look at these! They’re like a clean, compact little breakfast sandwich! In fact, I think I might go eat one now. For dessert. Don’t even try to stop me.

Bacon and Cheddar Scones
Recipe from The Pastry Queen

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 10 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 3/4 to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Fit your mixer with the paddle attachment and add flour, baking powder, salt, and black pepper to the bowl. Mix on the low speed. Slowly add cubes of butter to the flour mixture and keep mixing until it is crumbly and your butter is in small pea sized pieces. Add the grated cheese and mix until blended in.

(If you don’t have a mixer just stir dry ingredients together and cut butter in with a pastry cutter or two knives and then stir in the cheese.)

Add the green onions, bacon, and 3/4 cup of buttermilk to the flour and cheese mixture. Mix by hand until all the ingredients are incorporated. Do not overwork the dough! If the dough is still to dry to hold together, add in more buttermilk 1 tablespoon at a time, until you can form the dough into a ball.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a ball. Using a well floured rolling pin, flatten the dough into a circle about 8 inches wide (mine was closer to 10 inches) and 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into 8 to 10 equal wedges depending on the size of scone you want.

Whisk egg and water together and brush the tops of the scone with the egg wash. I sprinkled a bit of kosher salt on the tops because I’m wild and crazy, but the original recipe didn’t call for this.

Place scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes or until they are golden brown and no longer sticky in the centers. Serve warm!

I know it seems a bit crazy to be sharing an ice cream recipe in the middle of February, but yesterday it was 45 degrees outside! I was so hot and sweaty that I put on my swimsuit and went out back to sunbathe by the big pile of rapidly melting snow! Then I died of hypothermia. True story.

Honestly, though, I had planned on holding on to this recipe until it warmed up outside for real, but I just haven’t had the time to get in the kitchen lately. I’ve been busy with contractors making a mess of my house and staring at the pictures of my brand new nephew.  What’s that? You wanna stare too?

He’s even sweeter than this ice cream recipe I’m about to share with you.

Before I share though, I would like to take a moment to assure you that my children do not, in fact, sit around and eat sugar by the spoonful all day long. I know it seems as though all I do is bake goodies filled with sugar (and butter and, sometimes, bacon), but I’m actually pretty strict about my kids’ diet. They get one of each treat that I make and then the rest gets shipped off to work with my husband. Every now and then I’ll keep something around long enough for them to get two or three pieces, but that’s pretty rare. I figure they get enough sugar in the breakfast cereal they eat every morning, so I honestly try to limit sugar for the rest of the day.

You can imagine their surprise when I offered up ice cream for a snack, both because it meant something more complicated than me handing them a banana (the usual snack of choice) and because it was ice cream! At ten in the morning!

What they didn’t know was that their snack was still just a banana. My version of “ice cream” was just a frozen banana pureed in a blender. They were so excited that I felt a little bad for them and sprinkled some chocolate chips on top. They gobbled it up.

I’ve since made banana ice cream with a big spoonful of peanut butter mixed in. It gives it great flavor and the kids get a little protein. You could also stir in a bit of honey if you were feeling particularly nice, or better yet, drizzle in some chocolate syrup.

Banana “Ice Cream”

• One banana, with brown streaks, but not so far gone that it’s just mush
• optional: chocolate chips, peanut butter, honey, chocolate syrup, nutella, or anything else you’d like to mix in

A brown-ish banana will work best for this, because it will be softer. Peel and slice the banana into chunks and place them in a bag or bowl in the freezer until completely frozen. Put the chunks of frozen banana in a food processor or blender and process until creamy. Mix in any other goodies you’d like and serve immediately!

I have three important things to tell you today. Earth-shattering things, really. Are you ready for your world to change?

1. My husband does not like cake. We have to make him brownies or cheesecake for his birthday each year.
2. I force him to try foods that he doesn’t like all the time, not because I am a jerk, but because I love him and I have high hopes that one day he will wake up with normal taste buds like a normal person and he will eat normal food.
3. I forced him to try these Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and he took one bite, pushed me out of his way, grabbed two more cupcakes, and gobbled the three of them down quite happily.

True story. Except for the part where he pushed me. He would never do such a thing, not even for these cupcakes. He’s a keeper and so are these chocolatey peanut buttery cupcakes.

Click here to read the recipe and hear a bit about a campaign that Electrolux is doing with Kelly Ripa to help fund research for Ovarian Cancer.

It’s Valentine’s Day so I’m pretty sure that means that I should be alternating between napping and eating chocolate all day, right? Isn’t that what true love is about?

My kids aren’t allowing me to nap, but they can’t stop me from eating chocolate. I decided that today called for good old chocolate chip cookies, but not just any chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are special. They have a secret ingredient that makes them fat and fluffy and delicious and beautiful.

The secret ingredient is just a small box of instant vanilla pudding powder. Crazy, I know, but it does amazing things to cookies.

The only problem with making these for your Valentine is you won’t be able to sneak in any kisses. You’ll be too busy shoveling cookies in your mouth.

Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from allrecipes.com

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3.4 oz. package vanilla instant pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur’s white whole wheat)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and slowly mix that into the butter mixture until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (I use a cookie dough scoop) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes.

My first scone was bought from the grocery store bakery. It was pumpkin. It was also hard and crumbly and really dry. I don’t think I finished it.

My second scone was a chocolate chip scone that I made myself. It was soft, buttery, and delicious. I ate three.

Yes, it’s true. Scones are new to me, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know a good scone when I taste one. Anything this fluffy and delicious is good food. It’s a fact.

I don’t know about you, but I generally avoid recipes that require me to spread flour on my counter tops. It’s just so messy and I always get icked out thinking that my counters aren’t really clean enough to be smooshing food around on them, no matter how much I wipe them down. Having said that, the minute I saw that this recipe called for 2 cups of heavy cream I completely forgot about the fact that I’d have to make a big floury mess. Heavy cream will make me do crazy things.

This dough comes together pretty easily. Dump everything into a bowl, give it a stir to make sure all the flour is moist, and then dump it out onto a floured countertop. Knead it for a few minutes and then seperate it into three balls of dough.

The dough balls easily smoosh out into circles that you can then cut with a pizza cutter. Brush the tops of the scones with melted butter and sprinkle with a bit of sugar before baking.

These scones were just delicious. They were nice and moist and all that heavy cream really gave them a great texture and flavor. These weren’t too sweet at all and I think they’d go perfect with a nice hot cup of coffee or tea or a big ol’ glass of icy cold milk.

Chocolate Chip Scones
Adapted from Hershey’s

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease two cookie sheets.

I’ve had appetizers on the brain lately. These little BLT Stuffed Tomatoes aren’t helping much either. In fact, looking at these pictures makes me sad. I don’t have any left and now I want more!

These are the perfect little finger food, full of creamy sour cream, salty bacon, and a bit of parmesan cheese, all stuffed in a little cherry tomato and sprinkled with green onions. Could there be a tastier combination?

The next time you have a get together I beg you, I implore you, I command you to make these little guys. You won’t believe how quickly they fly off the plate.

These don’t take all that long to prepare and can be made a few hours in advance. You just slice a cherry tomato in half and then scoop out the insides. I use a paring knife and just cut all around the edges of the tomato and flip the insides out, but you can also use a small spoon to scrape the guts out. If you do use a paring knife, be careful! It’s easy to slip through the thin tomato skin and slice off a finger.

You then whip up your filling and either pipe it into the tomatoes or just use a small spoon and scoop it into the empty tomatoes. I prefer to use a spoon myself, but do what works best for you.

These aren’t all that bad for you either if you use light sour cream and turkey bacon. I’ve never used turkey bacon myself, but that doesn’t mean you can’t!

You can count on each person eating at least 3 or 4 of these little guys, so make plenty!

BLT Stuffed Tomatoes

• 8 ounces sour cream (light works great!)
• 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 tbsp parmesan cheese (the powdery kind is fine)
• 2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped (you can substitute dried parsley)
• green onions, for garnish
• salt and pepper, to taste
• about 20 cherry tomatoes

Wash cherry tomatoes and slice them in half. Use a paring knife or spoon to scrape out the insides. Dab the inside of each tomato with a paper towel to dry it and then sprinkle with salt. Mix together the sour cream, bacon pieces, parmesan, parsley, and salt and pepper. Spoon or pipe the filling into each tomato and sprinkle the tops with chopped green onions (or more parsley, if you’re an onion hater).

I’ve still got Superbowl on the brain over here. No, I don’t care about the teams or the game or any of that other completely interesting football stuff that the rest of the world cares about, I just care about the menu. Superbowl is the perfect day for dips and snacks and finger foods and I’m sorry, but there just aren’t enough days devoted to the finger foods.

This Jalapeno Popper dip is the perfect football food. It’s spicy, so the boys can act all tough and pretend like their lips aren’t burning off and the girls can say things like “My, my, my…aren’t you manly and strong!” Clearly, this is a winning dip.

This is positively full of jalapenos. The recipe calls for two diced jalapenos plus one jar of pickled jalapenos. I’m a bit of a wuss, so I won’t lie, my lips burst into flames. It’s hard being such a sissy. My husband had to throw a glass of water in my face. Go ahead and add the pickled jalapenos and then give it a taste. Add more jalapeno if you can handle it, but be careful, you don’t want to end up with a face full of water and third degree burns on your fragile little lips.

Jalapeno Popper Dip
Recipe from Closet Cooking

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (I used the powdery kind and it was fine)
• 1 (4 ounce) can pickled jalapenos
• 2 jalapeno peppers (diced, optional)
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Finely dice the jalapenos and add to a mixing bowl. Add in the cream cheese, mayonnaise, cheddar cheese, and parmesan cheese. Mix well and spread into a small baking dish or oven safe bowl. Mix together the panko and parmesan and pour over the top of the dip. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until heated through. Serve with chips and a big ol’ glass of milk to cool the burn.