Guinness-Chocolate Cupcakes

Every Sunday afternoon, my husband and I eat dinner at our friends' house. Normally they cook the main course and dessert, but today I'm bringing the dessert: Guinness-Chocolate Cupcakes! This is by far my all-time favorite cupcake recipe, because they are delicious and they turn out perfectly moist every time. This is a recipe I adapted from the Brown Eyed Baker's Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes.

The ingredients:

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1&1/2 teaspoonsful baking soda
1/2 teaspoonful salt
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cocoa powder
2 sticks butter
1 bottle of Guinness. Don't be afraid of the Guinness--all of the alcohol cooks out, so anybody can eat these.
You'll also need some cupcake pans and cupcake liners.

Let's get started! Pre-heat the oven to 350, then line your cupcake pans. This cake is so dark that you won't be able to see any pattern or color on your liners, so don't worry about using those cute expensive ones.

Put the butter and Guinness in a medium saucepan and heat on medium until the butter melts and the mixture begins to simmer.

Once it is simmering, take the pan off of the heat and add your cocoa.

Whisk the mixture until all of the cocoa is dissolved, then put it to the side and let it cool.

Mix together your sugar, flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

Mix your sour cream and eggs together with a hand mixer on medium speed until it is a nice creamy yellow.

Add your cooled cocoa mixture and beat until fully combined. Make sure your cocoa mixture is cooled enough so you don't scramble your eggs when you mix.

Gradually pour in your dry ingredients and beat until it is fully mixed.

Now fill your cupcake liners with the mixture. Here's a trick: use a smaller Pyrex measuring cup to pour your batter into the pan. It makes it easier to maneuver, so you don't accidentally pour it all over the pan. I was in a rush to pour mine, so I got a little bit of batter on the pan, but normally it comes out perfectly clean every time.

Fill your liners almost 4/5 full, then pop them in the oven for 17 minutes exactly. If you don't want them super moist, add a few more minutes on your cook time.

While those are baking, I made a dark chocolate glaze for the cupcakes. You'll need dark chocolate chips, heavy whipping cream, and powdered sugar. If you don't like dark chocolate, this is great with semi-sweet chocolate or milk chocolate. I prefer dark chocolate because it doesn't overpower the subtle sweetness of the cupcakes. Heat about 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream on medium heat in a heavy saucepan. Put about 1/2 cup chocolate chips in a metal or glass mixing bowl. If you want a thicker icing, use more chips and less cream. Once the cream is simmering, pour over the chocolate chips, then let it sit for one to two minutes.

Then, with a rubber spatula, stir the center of the mixture until the chips are completely melted.

Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to the chocolate sauce. If you want it sweeter, add 1/2 to 1 cup extra powdered sugar.

Whisk until the mixture is smooth, then set to the side and let cool.

Once the cupcakes are done, set the pans on cooling racks and let cool for about 5 minutes. Then carefully transfer the cupcakes onto the racks.

While the cupcakes are still warm, spoon the chocolate glaze over them. This gets VERY messy, so I always put paper towels underneath the racks so cleanup is a breeze. I was out of paper towels this time, so I used plastic wrap.

These are delicious served fresh, all warm and gooey, with a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top. If you have leftovers, or you're making these ahead of time, they store beautifully in air-tight containers at room temperature for up to 4 days. They may be good past that, but I've never had any cupcakes left after 4 days.

There it is: the most delicious, moist cupcakes, and they come out wonderfully perfect every time. I have gotten so many compliments on these, and they are so easy to bake. Enjoy!

Bacon-Stuffed Grilled Cheese

There are two foods that will always make my husband smile, and those two foods are bacon and cheese. In fact, if I served every meal full of bacon and smothered in cheese, he would be more than happy. So when he asked "What's for dinner?" and I replied "Bacon-Stuffed Grilled Cheese", you can imagine his delight! Served with a nice, light salad on the side, it made a delicious meal.

For the sandwich:

Wheat bread
Butter
Bacon
Cheese. I used maple bacon and Monterrey jack and cheddar cheese, but any combination would probably be wonderful.

For the salad:

Romaine lettuce
Sweet red cabbage
Tomatoes
Carrots
2 to 5 cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like garlic)
Olive oil
Red wine vinegar. If you don't like red wine vinager you can substitute balsamic.

First, make the salad dressing. Chop up your garlic--I like to use a lot because it gives this dressing such a great flavor.

Add two parts olive oil to one part vinegar in a glass or mason jar.

Then add your garlic and 1/2 teaspoon sugar to the oil mixture and shake it all up. You can add more sugar if you want your dressing a little sweeter. If you don't eat salad very often, you can make a small batch of this, but I like making it in bigger batches because this dressing gets better the longer it sits and the flavors meld.

Now for my husband's favorite part: bacon! Fry up the bacon, making sure not to overcook it. It needs to bend when you try to fold it, not crumble.  

When your bacon is perfect, let it drain on a paper towel to get some of that excess oil off.

Finely grate your cheeses on both slices of bread. I found with grilled cheese that finely grated cheese gets meltier than sliced cheese does.

Then add your bacon. Is your mouth watering yet?

Isn't that lovely?

Melt a pat of butter in your skillet on medium heat. If your heat is set above medium, your bread might burn before your cheese fully melts.

Add your sandwiches and let cook for a few minutes on each side until your cheese is gooey and your bread is toasted.

Chop up your salad fixings and toss with the dressing.

Then cut your sandwiches and serve!

And there it is! An easy, light(ish) supper that is quick to fix and very satisfying. And after dinner my husband asked "Can you fix this again in the morning for breakfast?", so this is definitely a man-pleasing meal. Enjoy!

Spaghetti with Mushrooms

Most days I'm so busy that my lunch consists of a piece of wheat bread with crunchy peanut butter and apricot jam. But today is different! I have the day to myself at the house, so in between laundry and sweeping, I decided to fix up some hot lunch. On today's menu: 15-minute pasta with mushrooms! This is such a simple, quick meal, and it is one of my favorite lunches to whip up when I'm home alone.

The ingredients:

Olive oil
Spaghetti
1 clove of garlic
Mushrooms (I like using mini portobellos)
Romano cheese.

And that's it!

So let's get to it. Cook the pasta per package directions, and heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Slice up the mushrooms and chop of the clove of garlic. Then add the mushrooms to the hot olive oil and saute. If the olive oil gets soaked up by the mushrooms, add a bit more--this will be the "sauce" of your pasta.

 After a few minutes, add the garlic and saute until they're just starting to turn golden.

Put the spaghetti in the skillet and toss to coat. Make sure and mix it all up so you'll get a forkful of mushroom and garlic with each bite.

Pour contents of skillet into your favorite bowl, and sprinkle with some romano cheese.

And there you have it! With about 15 minutes and a few ingredients you have a simple, delicious meal that is definitely one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Mexican Stir Fry

Nothing is more satisfying than finishing a meal and hearing "That was delicious!" from my husband. So when I heard it three times during the meal and twice more afterwards, I knew this had to be a keeper! This recipe is very simple, easy to throw together, AND it cooks in under 30 minutes. I call it "Mexican Stir Fry", and chances are you have most of the ingredients in your refrigerator already.

The ingredients:

 1 red onion
1 clove of garlic
1 bell pepper
1 package chicken sausage with poblanos and corn
1 can of diced tomatoes
Fresh corn
Tortillas
1 can black beans
Spanish rice

Let's get started! Turn your oven to broil, then heat a few swirls of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Chop up the onion, bell peppers, and garlic.

Add the onion and bell peppers to the skillet, stirring occasionally, and saute for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, then continue to cook until onions are almost translucent.

While that's cooking, line a baking sheet with foil, and rub your corn with a little butter. If you want you can skip the butter altogether, but it really helps caramelize the corn and makes it super delicious! Stick the corn in the oven on the middle rack, and let the oven do its magic.

 Once your onions are semi-translucent, empty the onion mixture into a bowl and set aside.

 Now for the gross part: take the sausages out of their casings and break them apart into the skillet. This is my least favorite part about cooking sausage, but it makes it so good when you cook it this way that I do this every time.

 Saute the sausage in the skillet, stirring frequently so it doesn't stick to the pan.

 Once the sausage is almost cooked through, add your can of diced tomatoes. I drained mine before adding them, but you can dump the can in as is if you want your meal to be a little juicier.

 Let that cook for about 3 or 4 minutes, then add your onion mixture. Cook down for another 5 minutes, until everything has sort of melded.

 By this time, your corn should be perfectly caramelized, with just a few kernels browned. Serve the meal with tortillas, Monterrey jack cheese, beans, rice, and seasonings for the corn--my husband loves coating corn with lemon pepper, but I usually stick to salt and pepper. The beans and rice I served were leftovers, but a can of black beans and some white rice would have been delicious with this meal. I also made some avocado-cream dip by mixing 2 avocados, 2 tablespoons or so of sour cream, a few dashes of garlic powder, and a few dashes of onion powder.

And that's it! Simple, quick, and cheap! My husband loved it, and we had so much extra food that we're eating the leftovers for supper tomorrow.  Enjoy!