Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

I know, that last thing you guys want to hear about in the middle of bathing suit season is an indulgent dessert.  But this is DELICIOUS.  Its chocolate and peanut butter.  Its crunchy and creamy.  How could that go wrong?!?  And because this is so rich, you don't need to eat much, just a few bites will do.

This is a 3-layer dessert bar.  It has a crunchy caramel-y crust, topped with a creamy chocolate peanut butter layer.  Then that is topped with a final layer of chocolate.  YUM!

Birthday Cupcakes

I really have no excuse for the delay in posting this.  I had it written a week ago!  I was just waiting to upload the pictures, and apparently that took me an entire week.  Because these recipes are a little complicated, I'm trying something new with the post.  Let me know what you think of this format!  Well, better late than never...

There are a lot of things my dad and I don't see eye to eye on, particularly when it comes to food and drinks.  Cake is a perfect example.  We were recently discussing what kinds of cupcakes I should bake for our joint birthday party.  The recipe he wanted me to make has probably been in my family since before I was born (and its entirely possible my grandma has been making them since before my mom was born, I really have no idea).  I guess the way he sees it, if it ain't broken, don't fix it!  I prefer to experiment with flavors and textures, which is just lost on him.

My family was visiting this past weekend to celebrate my birthday and my dad's birthday.  My dad (reluctantly) agreed to let me cook whatever cake I wanted, as long as I got him a little chocolate frosting and kept the booze away from his cupcake.  But I decided, since its his birthday too, to honor what he really wanted me to make.  The result?  I made 2 kinds of cupcakes.  Thats 2 full batches, both of them super rich, for a total of 48 cupcakes.  Who wants to help me eat leftover cupcakes!?

Homemade Nutella

As soon as I saw this recipe on smitten kitchen the other day, I knew I had to make it.  I've just been waiting to get to the grocery store to pick up some peanuts.  If you aren't familiar with Nutella, it is a creamy chocolate hazelnut spread.  This, however, is much nuttier than Nutella.  This is more like chocolate peanut butter.

The texture is really similar to all natural peanut butter.  This is super simple.  Its just a matter of toasting peanuts and grinding everything together in a food processor.  My tiny, low powered food processor wasn't able to make the super creamy product I was expecting.  Maybe a larger food processor would do a little bit better with this?  My food processor is also really loud... so perhaps the noise kept me from grinding them as long as I should have?