Baking Turns Into Dinner

I did a little baking tonight.

Can you guess what I made?

Mmm. Peanut butter.

Tonight I whipped up a batch of flourless peanut butter cookies for Jessica, the wonderful woman who bid on my cookies through Tina’s charity blog bake sale.

Now I’m not one to eat other people’s food, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist nibbling on these cookies, so I made sure to bake half of a batch for me and Ryan to enjoy.

I baked the cookies on a Silpat, the most amazing non-stick baking mat that my friend Merri introduced to me.

I flippin’ love this thing!

The cookies slide off the mat so easily and clean up is a breeze.

Once the cookies were cooled, it was time to enjoy one… or five.

What? They were small…

I had to put a lid on the cookies to stop myself from eating my body weight in these bad boys!

Guess who else likes these cookies?

She’s a huge peanut butter fan just like her mama, though she doesn’t appreciate it when you smear peanut butter on the roof of her mouth and laugh as she tries to get it off.

I ended up eating so many cookies and a significant amount of dough that I basically ruined my appetite for dinner.

I still managed to eat half of a stuffed pepper right out of the Tupperware to get something nutritious in my belly.

After enjoying my cookies and pepper, Ryan and I spent the evening catching up with our friends Dru and Carrie who came over to hang out and answer the bazillion questions we had for them about their recent engagement and upcoming wedding.

They got engaged last week and it was fun to talk to them and hear the excitement in their voices!

Dru and Carrie just left and now we’re unwinding a bit before heading into bed.

Hooray for Friday tomorrow! 😀

Cleaning: No, Baking: Yes

After making the two-hour drive back to Orlando from Sarasota, Ryan and I opened the doors to a semi-messy apartment. I was so not  in the mood to clean and instead opted to do some baking!

I didn’t want to bake anything too complicated since cleaning the apartment was still on the agenda, so I decided to make my favorite three-ingredient recipe.

Flourless peanut butter cookies!

Within 15 minutes, I had a huge plateful of these little beauties:

Flourless PB Cookies

Cookies

Sweet 'n' Nutty

I ate four immediately and see more in my future…

Time to run to the grocery store  and get to that cleanin’ I’ve been avoiding…

Portobello Pizzas

Since Ryan had jury duty downtown today, when he got off in the late afternoon we were able to meet up for a super-speedy date at Mochi.

Mochi!!!

Looks like frozen yogurt Friday came a bit early!

I knew we had to go today because word on the street was that they had red velvet *my favorite* fro yo on tap today. Who could say no?

Ryan and I shared a small cup of a swirl of red velvet and cheesecake soft serve with rainbow sprinkles, naturally. 😉

I was still a little full from lunch, so when we were making our bowl I kept our portion on the smaller side. Since the bowl was polished off in approximately 2.5 seconds, I think I could’ve handled a little more. We are seriously ice cream machines.

I get my love for ice cream from my dad. The two of us can do some serious damage to a carton of chocolate marshmallow ice cream. (That flavor is hard to find, by the way). Ryan is the only other person I’ve met that can hold a candle to our ice cream-eating abilities. And that is why I’m marrying him. 😉

Dinner

At the farmer’s market on Sunday, I nabbed several fresh portobello mushroom caps. I wanted to use them before they got all slimy and gross in the fridge so I decided to get a little creative in the kitchen.

Gooey cheese and savory marinara sauce sounded like a great combination to me tonight, so I figured I could incorporate both of them into my evening meal in a personal portobello pizza.

I used the mushroom caps as the pizza crust, and let them bake at 350 for 8 minutes or so after spraying them lightly with cooking spray.

I then topped the caps with sauce, cheese and olives and threw them back in the oven until the cheese was melted and slightly browned.

Portobello Pizza

I paired the portobello pizzas with a side of roasted zucchini.

Zucc

All Together Now

Dessert

After dinner, Ryan, Ross and I were in the mood for something sweet, so I whipped up a batch of flourless peanut butter cookies for us to nibble on while watching Jeopardy!

Three Ingredients... That's It!

Guess who had which cookie?

R + J + R

Just FYI

I added a link on my Q & A page for those of you who would like to ask me a question but are feeling a little bashful about emailing me directly. I know I love learning more about you guys, though I sometimes feel a little shy asking the questions I have for ya!

The link on the Q & A page will take you to a form that you can fill out anonymously. I’ll try to address your questions in a comprehensive post once a month or so… That is if there’s anything you guys want to ask that you don’t already know about me. 🙂

For those of you who are new to the ol’ blog, I did a series of Ask Me Anything posts a couple of months ago (You know, when everyone else was doing it? I’m such a bandwagon-rider. 😉 )… Anyway, here are links to those posts:

• Round 1
• Round 2
• Round 3
• Round 4
• Round 5
• Round 6
• Round 7
• Round 8
• Round 9
• Round 10
• Round 11
• Round 12

Of course, if you’re hoping for a fast or personal response to any of your questions, email (pbfingers@gmail.com) is always the best way to go!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Please excuse me as I breeze through dinner. I hope you don’t mind, but believe me, dessert is what ya wanna read about tonight!

For dinner I made eggplant medallions, prepared the same way I made them last week, but without chicken and with Brie instead of shredded cheddar cheese.

Eggplant Medallions

Dinner

On the side I enjoyed roasted cauliflower, which came out of the oven first and was devoured before the eggplant medallions were done cooking.

Roasted Cauliflower

Sometimes ya just can’t wait!

I also enjoyed three large Monterey Pasta Company lemon shrimp ravioli, which I received from the company to sample.

Lemon Shrimp Ravioli

I was a little apprehensive about this particular flavor because a lemon flavor in ravioli didn’t really call to me.

I was pleasantly surprised though and really enjoyed the big chunks of real shrimp meat in the ravioli.

Tres Ravioli

Peek-a-Boo

Though dinner was yummy, dessert was yummier.

Dessert

Tonight’s dessert was comprised of only three ingredients. Three *delicious* ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. peanut butter

1 Cup PB

Ingredients

Combine those three bad boys and bake at 350 for 10 minutes and what do ya get?

Flourless peanut butter cookies!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Moist 'n' Delicious

For as much as I love peanut butter,  I have a hard time finding really good peanut butter cookies.

I often think peanut butter cookies are too dry or floury. I want moist peanut butter goodness and – trust me – these cookies deliver.

Sadie was loving the leftover peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Lover

I had three bite-size cookies for dessert.

Dessert

The cookies don’t really expand in the oven, so the dough is perfect for shaping into whatever shape you want.

Since Ryan is out at a soccer game right now, I made him three special cookies to enjoy when he arrives home:

I Love You

I hope he likes his sweet treat! (I assure you the cookies will be devoured by the cookie monster *me* if he doesn’t 😉 ).