My Confession of Love for Dessert

I love sweets, just in case frequent readers haven't realized that yet ;) My largest board on Pinterest is the one I have devoted to dessert recipes (with over 200 pins to date) and I am especially obsessed with chocolate and cupcakes.

My version of a "Super Sweet 16" party meant that all my guests had to eat was colorful candy in pretty dishes and a few desserts. Seriously. They begged for veggies. Fortunately we had a platter of those made up just in case. My graduation party was also all desserts. Cookies, cupcakes, mini cheesecakes, some scones...

One of my favorite desserts though, is cheesecake. I have weirdly vivid memories of eating All to Myself Cheesecakes at various rainy Easter celebrations and in high school I once tried to woo my crush by bringing a chocolate cheesecake I'd made into class on my birthday. I love eating at the Cheesecake Factory and I fondly remember the days when our family friend Patty got on a cheesecake experimentation kick, my favorites from those being Turtle-Brownie-White Chocolate and White Chocolate-Strawberry.

The point of all that being, well, I really love cheesecake! So, naturally when I saw a recipe for Cheesecake in a Mug, I had to try it! When I'm trying something new, I like to make things according to the recipe the first time, then make some changes the next time.

Since I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake that's totally plain, I decided to mix it up with some peanut butter (another of my favorite things) and Nutter Butter cookies I've had in my cupboard. The results weren't aesthetically beautiful... I'll still have to work on that for the pictures, but it was delicious:

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

2 oz cream cheese, softened

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons sour cream

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

2 Nutter Butter cookies

1 Tablespoon peanut butter

In a mug, combine the cream cheese and sugar until smooth with a fork. Add the egg, vanilla, and sour cream and mix thoroughly. Break the cookies into smaller pieces or crumbs and add them. Drop the peanut butter into the mixture, about a teaspoon at a time. Stir or swirl the peanut butter and cookies into the batter then microwave about 1 1/2 -- 2 minutes or until the edges are set but the middle isn't quite (cheesecakes continue to bake a little after they're removed from the oven, or microwave). Let cool and keep in the fridge until you're ready to enjoy you're super quick and easy cheesecake.

There's so many alterations that you could make to this cheesecake! I can't wait to try it with Oreos, chocolate chips, cookie dough, try adding a crust... Endless possibilities! I'd love to see some comments with what you try! Happy nuking! 

Baked Oatmeal In A Mug

It's back! Another installment of Mug Monday! After a very long sabbatical...

Ever since my days at summer camp, I've loved baked oatmeal. In fact, baked oatmeal is actually one of the best-loved and well-known breakfast meals at Camp Luz.

When my parents opened the Cream & Sugar Cafe while I was in high school, we found a recipe that my sister and I decided was close enough to camp's and the love of baked oatmeal spread throughout West Liberty.

Now, in New York, I still love to make baked oatmeal. However, like everything that requires an oven, it was a little inconvenient to have to carry all my supplies to the kitchen one floor up.

Then I got to thinking, I can make regular oatmeal in a mug. And I can bake muffins in a mug; I wonder if I can make my baked oatmeal in the microwave?

I did a little experimenting, cutting down the recipe, adjusting ingredients, and I found that yes, yes you can make baked oatmeal in the microwave! The best part is it's super quick! Just 2 minutes at most to mix up the ingredients and 1-2 minutes to cook it! Plus it's filling, healthy, delicious, oh, and gluten free!

Baked Oatmeal

(Gluten Free)

1 Tablespoon butter

1 1/2 Tablespoon brown sugar

1 egg white

1 Tablespoon milk

dash salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

2 teaspoons cranberries, raisins, dried cherries, chocolate chips, etc. (optional)

Melt the butter in your mug. Add the brown sugar, egg white, milk, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder. Mix together then add oats and any extras. Stir until oats are coated and liquids aren't settled at the bottom.

Microwave 1-2 minutes (my microwave takes exactly 2 minutes but it's not a very powerful microwave, I would guess that 1 minute 30 seconds would do in most microwaves). When it's done, the oatmeal will pull away from the sides.

Give it a couple minutes to cool, as this is very hot when first out of the microwave, then enjoy warm with some tea, milk, or coffee.

Mmm Pasta

How great is it that you can cook pasta in the microwave?! So much more handy than having to get a pot of water boiling on the stove and wait for the pasta to cook. And especially if you're only making one serving, like me :)

It's been forever but here again is Mug Monday:

Pesto Pasta

1 serving of your favorite pasta

Enough water to cover the pasta

Dash salt

1-1 1/2 Tablespoon pesto (to taste)

One slice of tomato

Mozzarella cheese (I use string cheese and chop one of them)

Pour water over pasta in a mug and add salt. Cook in microwave until pasta is tender (my microwave isn't very powerful and it takes about 7 minutes for rotini). 

While pasta is cooking, chop up the tomato and cheese. When pasta is fully cooked, drain the water off of it and stir in pesto (it's super easy to make! So if you can do it! But right now I'm just using store bought) until noodles are coated then add tomatoes and cheese. Enjoy :)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Hi All!

It's been awhile since I posted a Mug Monday... Today though, I would like to share a recipe I was very excited to find: pineapple upside down cake in a mug!

I found the recipe from an awesome Taste of Home forum that has a bunch of mug recipes. Then made my own adaptations according to the inngredients I had :)

The original recipe called for a pineapple ring which would be brilliant in a mug... but I just had a can of pineapple chunks so I used that and chopped the chunks smaller and didn't have any maraschino cherries around so, although that's usually key to the presentation of pineapple upside down cake, mine was missing that. feel free to add your own though!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Topping:

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 Tablespoon pineapple juice

Pineapple chunks (or a pineapple ring)

Cake:

6 Tablespoons flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

1/8 teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons butter (melted or softened)

2 Tablespoons pineapple juice

Mix the brown sugar and pineapple juice in the bottom of a mug and spread out. Drop the pineapple chunks in (I just estimated on amount, as pineapple-y as you'd like it) and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes to get the brown sugar/pineapple juice all bubbly and delicious. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, egg, vanilla, butter, and pineapple juice until completely blended. Pour the batter into the mug and place in the microwave for about 4 minutes.

Hold an inverted plate at the rim of the mug and flip the mug and plate over so that the cake falls onto the plate, topping side up.

A Good English Cuppa

It's been a crazy last few weeks, first travelling home for the weekend which turned into a week then returning to New York for 5 days before heading out to Kansas for Thanksgiving and to be reunited with my college friends in what is a big visitation weekend at Hesston. My days and body are very confused on the ever changing schedules but I'm pretty sure that today is Monday which can only mean one thing: it's recipe time!

I'm not going to get all fancy this week, this isn't even going to be a recipe for food (although I do have some great dessert recipes I've discovered... stay posted!). This may be cheating since it's a drink and drinks are commonly made in mugs... but my recipe for the week is simple English tea in a mug.

Yes it's simple and maybe this version of tea is cheating on another level because it doesn't involve a kettle and stove and whistle but tea means a lot to me. You see, my granny was born in England and although she moved to America at just 6 months of age, she was very English, her mother having grown up and living in England until that point. And what is more English than tea?

Grannie passed on the tea-loving gene to my mom who also raised my sister and I on it. Our coffee maker was even turned into a hot tea maker as my dad slowly gave up on anyone else in the house liking coffee.

Growing up, I might be greeted in the morning with a hot cup of tea to 'help me wake up slowly'. Whenever I was sick or feeling down, a cup of hot tea was always the answer and would be quickly delivered by my mom or my grannie. Before school started each fall, my grannie would host a tea party for the girls in the family, my sister and I, Mom, my youngest aunt, and my younger cousins. Whenever we would stop by Grannie's house after school, have a sleepover, or after a big family meal, a nice cup of hot tea was offered. At our tea parties, Grannie would educate us on the etiquitte of tea and always have a few different choices of tea. Sugar cubes were always on hand because that was the best way to sweeten tea.

Back-to-school tea party - many years ago

My wonderful Grannie passed away almost a month ago. It's hard to believe it's been that much time already.  It's been a crazy, surreal, emotional few weeks. I don't want to dwell on all that though. The important thing is her life, I know she's in a far better place now and all we can do is remember the good times and happy memories. It is also important to keep her memory alive through the little things and, for me, one thing that will always remind me of my grannie is hot, English tea.

I don't use a kettle and stovetop. And I don't have sugar cubes on hand or beautiful china teacups. But the taste is the same and that is one of comfort and warmth and love.

Hot English Tea

Fill a mug almost full with water. Microwave 1 1/2 minutes. Place 1 teaspoon loose-leaf basic black tea (I like English Breakfast) in a tea ball, tea bag, or tea infuser of some sort (or use a pre-made, storebought tea bag, of a basic black tea such as English Breakfast. But PLEASE don't use Lipton :P ) 

Place the tea bag into the hot water and steep 3-4 minutes, depending how strong you like it. Remove the tea bag and squeeze out the bag with a spoon. Add sugar to taste (1 Tablespoon if you're a lady in my family ;) ) Add a splash of milk (about 1/2 Tablespoon) and stir. 

*Tea etiquette: Only add milk to basic, black, English tea.

Curl up with a good book, sit and look out the window, use it in the morning to "wake up slowly," or invite a friend over to join you, set out some cookies and sweet bread and enjoy your tea.

<3 Ashley

Hurricane Day

Well Hurricane Sandy aka Frankenstorm is blasting through NYC.

I have to admit, I was a little excited to witness a hurricane, especially one that was getting this much hype! I've always lived inland and hurricanes were never an issue, although the tornadoes I was in Kansas for were pretty exciting. So my first hurricane being a "hybrid" storm-- hurricane mixing with a winter storm front from the west and coming in at high tide on a full moon-- seemed like a pretty big deal!

I worked at Hill Country yesterday. I was the opening host and we ended up closing early (at 5) so I did all the closing work too. There was so much electricity in the air as we all rushed to get the place closed and get everyone home before the subways shut down at 7. 

Today the storm rolled in. I awoke to the sound of rain and wind, the wind getting worse as the day went on. I've been fortunate enough not to lose power or to have any flooding (something I was warned my ground-level apartment was prone to doing). With the subways being shut down, most of New York is too. Even the New York Stock Exchange closed for today and tomorrow, the first unplanned closing since 9/11.

Since I didn't have any hindrances, today was just a nice day off from work! (Well the buttons on my Cablevision box did stop working and since my remote has never really worked my tv is now stuck on Starz, which so far hasn't been too bad.) And hopefully tomorrow will be another nice break (praying that the electricity stays on all day!)

It was so nice to sleep in this morning and have a day where I had to stay home and mostly just relax! I like to wake up slow in the mornings. And make myself something delicious for breakfast of course :) In my quest for more mug recipes I found this recipe for French Toast in a Mug and thought it would be a perfect Hurricane Day breakfast (ok, brunch if we're talking time of day).

I made it for the first time a couple days ago and was impressed! Last time (when these pics were taken), I was fancy and used bread from a mini baguette I had gotten at the grocery but today I used regular bread slices and it was just as delicious!

Mug French Toast

1/2 Tablespoon butter

2 slices bread

1 egg

3 Tablespoons milk

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Few drops vanilla

Melt the butter in a large mug and tilt the mug so that the butter coats the sides. Rip or cut the bread into cubes and drop them into the mug, filling it up. In a bowl, beat the egg, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla together. Pour the liquid mixture over the bread, coating all of the topmost pieces.

Microwave for 1-2 minutes or until the egg is set (most of the egginess will settle in the bottom so pull the bread away from the sides to check that the eggs are no longer liquid-y in the bottom of the mug.) Top with syrup and enjoy!

I'd be interested in adding syrup to the egg mixture to get a maple flavor "baked" into the toast... Also in mixing peanut butter with the syrup as I love peanut butter on my French toast!

A Little Breakfast Something

Hello again!

It's been a busy weekend (aren't they always?!)-- working and hanging out with friends and cleaning up my apartment in the tiny bits of time I'm actually in it!

I'm trying to take some of the uncertainty out of my mornings by planning my outfits at the beginning of the week, packing my lunches the night before (and making foods that I can take as leftovers a few days in row), and having nutritious and delicious breakfast foods on hand. So far I'm not doing very well in those areas haha. I did make mini baked oatmeals last night so I'm set for some delicious breakfast this week :)

I get home from my internship somewhere between 9:30 and 10 pm and by that point I'm usually ready to settle in and waste time on the internet. Or, if I do have motivation, (like tonight) I get on Pinterest to look up something that I'm going to make/do then half an hour later realize that was a mistake.

I do still have some motivation though so I'm here to post a Mug Monday recipe then I'll be planning some lunchtime meals because, as my boss pointed out to me today, EasyMac is not very good for you. (I think he was a little disappointed that I had EasyMac for lunch after he saw me eating homemade baked oatmeal for breakfast!)

Speaking of breakfast, this was the very first mug recipe that I made. I found it on Pinterest and was intrigued. Then I tried it and was hooked! The original recipe is from the blog Chocolate Covered Katie, where I have also found some great recipes for oatmeal-- but that's a story for another post.

This coffee cake recipe is delicious! And super easy and fast, what could be better?! It takes about 5 minutes total but can also be prepared ahead of time and be nuked in the morning, or whenever you're ready for it! (I found this recipe while still living at home and after I tried it I mixed up 3 for my family one night. I left the mugs on the counter for them to pop in the microwave in the morning before school and work, that way I was treating them to breakfast and I didn't have to wake up at 6am)

Coffee Cake in a Mug

3 Tablespoons flour                                                               Topping:

1/4 teaspoon baking powder                                              1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

2 shakes salt                                                                                1 1/4 teaspoon brown sugar

1 Tablespoon sugar                                                                  2 pecan halves, chopped (optional)

1 Tablespoon + 2  teaspoons water                                  *I keep a ziploc bag with a

2 teaspoons oil                                                                           cinnamon/brown sugar mixture 

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract                                                 so I have it ready whenever

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add wet ingredients. Scoop 1/2 the batter into a greased, regular sized mug. Sprinkle half of the topping onto the batter. Add the remaining batter and top with the rest of the cinnamon and sugar. Microwave for 1 minute or so and enjoy! With coffee or tea or milk :)

Part of a healthy, balanced breakfast ;)

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

It's Mug Monday!!

I've been making recipes in mugs like crazy- partially to find new ones but mostly because they're just so easy! Breakfast, lunch, dessert... Mostly dessert :) I'm getting quite a collection though and it's difficult to only post them once a week! Maybe I'll have to start sharing them more often... but would that take away from Mug Mondays?!

Anyways, I had a request for this recipe after I'd told my mom about it and she mentioned it to a family friend. I found it (where else?) on Pinterest and it's originally from The Family Kitchen.

I've only added caramels but this makes an awesome, basic chocolate cake that would be equally delcious with chocolate chips, crushed up Andes mints, or a variety of additives. Feel free to be creative :)

Salted Caramel Chocolate Mug Cake

4 Tablespoons flour

4 Tablespoons sugar

3 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg--beaten

3 Tablespoons milk

1 Tablespoon oil

3-4 caramels

In a large mug, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add the wet ingredients and stir until smooth. *Optional: The original recipe calls for salted caramels but I didn't know such a thing existed. I usually just unwrap the caramels and sprinkle them with some salt to give it the salty-sweet combo.* 

Drop the caramels into the batter. (I usually spread them throughout, rather than dropping them all in the middle, because they tend to sink to the bottom.) You could also sprinkle some salt on top of the cake to add to the salty-sweet. 

Microwave the cake for about 1 minute and 30 seconds or until it is done. If I had caramel ice cream topping I would probably add that and sea salt on the top after it had cooked.

It might look like regular chocolate cake, but it has a secret!

Enjoy!!

Weekend Visits and Apple Upside Down Cake

Hey All!

It seems like forever since I've posted. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I've had a lot of excitement the last few days! Over the weekend, a couple of my friends going to school in Virginia drove up for a visit. They brought a guy friend who had two friends from Germany who were on holiday in NYC. It was a fun weekend of seeing old friends as well as making new ones!

We packed a ton of stuff into Saturday: Central Park, Times Square, lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, Grand Central Station, snacks from Crumbs bakery, Staten Island Ferry, Little Italy, supper at Puglia's, the Brooklyn Bridge... And that's not even including all the extra things we saw/did on the way to those places--street performers, street fairs, we even stumbled across the Pagan Pride Day gathering in Battery Park!

Getting a great view of the Manhattan nighttime skyline
from the Brooklyn Bridge

It was a busy, wonderful day followed by a relaxing Sunday brunch at Argo Tea on 58th Street, before they headed back to college.

I'll talk more about the other exciting stuff tomorrow! Because tonight, it's Mug Monday.

Inspired by the fall weather and the fact that I was going to have guests, I bought a bag of locally grown, gala apples and yum! My inspiration has carried through to finding tasty fall recipes using these apples.

Today I'd like to share a recipe I found for Coffee Cup Upside Down Cake. This recipe originally came from The Wichita Eagle (which made me like it all the more as I went to college 45 minutes from Wichita) and appeared in an article featuring four mug recipes, all of which look pretty delicious.

When I think of Upside Down Cake, I always think of pineapple but I thought that using apple would be a nice tribute to fall and that, likewise, the caramel-y topping would pay a nice tribute to the apples :) I was not disappointed.

Apple Upside Down Mug Cake

2 Tablespoons butter, divided

3 Tablespoons brown sugar, divided

1/2 apple, thinly sliced

1/2 egg

2 Tablespoons milk

Few drops vanilla

1/4 cup flour + 1/4 teaspoon baking powder + 2 shakes salt 

(or 1/4 cup self-rising flour)

2 pinches cinnamon

Lay apple slices, 1 tablespoon of the butter, 2 tablespoons brown sugar in the bottom of a coffee mug. Microwave for 1 minute. Using a fork, mix remaining butter with sugar until creamy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Add flour and cinnamon and stir until smooth. 

Swirl the coffee mug to coat all the apples with the sugary butter mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Pour batter into cup and microwave for 1 minute or until the cake is done. 

If you want to actually see the apples and prettiness of this cake, take a small plate and place it upside down on the top of the mug. Holding the plate to the mug, flip them over so that the cake falls onto the plate, apples up. 

Yum! Happy Fall, happy Monday, happy baking, happy eating :)

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/04/17/2301171/coffee-cup-cooking.html#storylink=cpy

Jumping On The Bandwagon, Mug in Hand

Welcome to Coffee Mug Mondays! (name pending...)

Here's the thing, I LOVE this new craze of mug recipes! If you don't know what I'm talking about it's like this: you take a regular old coffee mug, add a few ingredients, throw it in the microwave for a few minutes and voila! Some awesome creation that, up until now, we've always needed an oven/stovetop/a lot more time to make! The recipes are usually single-serving and I have yet to find one I don't like.

Basically, mug recipes are perfect for this single girl with limited access to an oven and a schedule that usually results in arriving home real hungry. It also means I might need to buy more mugs...

I've decided to share the love, the love for these super simple, single-serving mug recipes. And because I love alliteration (words starting with the same letter or sound) and because I already shared my recipe for a chocolate chip cookie in a mug last Monday, I've decided that every Monday I'll share a proven-delicious mug recipe.

Today's recipe is one that I came up with on my own. Pasta has become a staple for me, being relatively cheap, versatile, and easily making enough for leftovers. I stocked up on some basic cooking/baking ingredients before moving to New York (meaning that my parents bought me a bunch of food so that I wouldn't starve right away) and then set to work figuring out how to combine them into palette pleasers.

This recipe is seriously one of my new favorites--it's so flavorful and I always have the ingredients on hand. Sometimes I'll add mozzarella cheese or tomatoes (as I did tonight) depending on what's in my fridge. Tonight was the first time I really tried cooking pasta in the microwave and it worked great! So much faster than over my little hot plate, and it was a lot easier to make the right amount.

Umm, Yum! Pasta

1 serving of your favorite pasta (I used 2/3 cup of rotini)

Enough water to cover the pasta (I used about a cup but it boiled over a lot)

A dash of salt

1/2 TBSP butter

1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

1 1/2 teaspoon parmesan cheese

1 Tablespoon fresh chopped tomato (optional)

Place the pasta, water, and salt in a mug and microwave for 4-5 minutes or until pasta is cooked through. Drain the pasta and add the butter. Stir to melt the butter and keep the pasta from sticking together. Add the remaining ingredients and enjoy!

Every bite is so flavorful~ it will be gone before you know it!

Hope you enjoy this pasta as much as I do! And check back next Monday for another delicious mug recipe!