Peanut Butter Buckeyes

A few years ago I dedicated a post to peanut butter. A few readers were disappointed after committing themselves to a recipeless post. So now, two years later, I have made a set of the miniature balls of decadence. It was quite a thrilling exercise to finally make the little confections; it was like walking behind the scenes. I am from Ohio, and have consumed dozens of them in my life, but have never coated my hands in peanut butter and done the deed. It should be a right of passage to make them at least once.

There was a certain sense of pride seeping into the kitchen the afternoon, the Midwest and the Northwest combining forces. I was humming a little bit more while gliding around the kitchen. The sun seemed to be shining brighter through the blinds. Going beyond peanut butter and chocolate and embracing my roots was so grounding. The rest of the day felt like an open canvas. Now I just need to remember that feeling and do something inspiring, however small it is, everyday...who knows where it could lead. Buckeyes sure are memorable little things.

Peanut Butter Buckeyes
Makes 15 buckeyes
Inspired by an Allrecipes.com recipe

3/4 cup natural peanut butter (such as Adam's(R))
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pinches salt

1/4 10 ounce bag good quality dark chocolate chips
1 tablespoon butter

Mix peanut butter, powdered sugar, softened butter, vanilla extract, and salt together in a medium bowl until evenly combined. Roll peanut butter mixture into 15 ping pong ball-sized balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate peanut butter balls for at least 1 hour.

Heat chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon butter in the top bowl of a double boiler over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth.

Insert a toothpick into a peanut butter ball and dip into the melted chocolate until the majority of the ball is covered; transfer back to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining balls. Pinch the tops of the buckeyes back together to close the hole where the toothpicks were used. Refrigerate buckeyes until chocolate has solidified, at least 30 minutes.

Pumpkin Biscuits

The eve of 2013 has arrived. It is a passageway from one year of experiences to a road of possibility. A clean slate to start eating better, being nicer, or taking a new vacation. Every year around Christmas when I am home in Ohio, my family and I fill our wine glasses, pull out our pens, and gather around the dining room table to write our resolutions for the upcoming year. Since 1999, we have carefully placed our resolutions into individual envelopes that are collected into one large envelope, that is ceremoniously tucked into a hidden venue until the next year. Then after Christmas, we contribute new plans and goals to the growing stack of papers. It is always interesting to review goals of years past. There are always a few that get rewritten and added to the next year. And there are ones that get crossed off...those are the most satisfying.

One of my resolutions this year is to be open to seeing life with a new perspective. You never know who you may meet that will change your life or what corner you may turn that will lead to a new path. This pumpkin for example was left over from Thanksgiving and needed to be either be roasted or composted. I chose the former, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It was brimming with seeds that got tossed into oil and roasted, and meat that was cooked, pureed, and refrigerated until inspiration hit. I was at the gym and as usual, day dreaming of what to have for breakfast the next day. There is a bakery near my house that serves sweet potato biscuits with egg and cheese. These breakfast sandwiches have been creeping into my mind for weeks. But when I have a day off, I often like staying home to drink coffee and make a fancy meal. So why not use the pureed pumpkin to create a similar meal?

So let's allow the pumpkin biscuits to symbolize change: transforming an ordinary pumpkin into a colorful breakfast biscuit. Go the extra step to make a small difference. Eggs and Cheddar cheese have never looked so cheery.

Pumpkin Biscuits

Makes 10 to 12 small biscuits

Inspired by an Allrecipes.com recipe

This was originally a sweet potato biscuit recipe that pumpkin was swapped into. Feel free to use sweet potato instead. I simply had a spare pumpkin that needed to be roasted and found its way into the biscuit dough.

1 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 to 2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt together in a bowl. Using your hands, mix butter into dry ingredients until butter is fully incorporated. Stir in milk until dough is sticky and well mixed. Refrigerate dough for 15 minutes.

Transfer dough onto a well-floured surface and knead until dough is smooth, about 1 minute. Roll dough using a floured rolling pin into a 1/2-inch rectangle; cut into about 2-inch squares. Place biscuits onto a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet. Place baking sheet and biscuits in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Remove from freezer and bake until biscuits have risen and are lightly browned, 15 to 18 minutes.

Spicy Date Compote

It is recipe swap time of month again and Christianna of Burwell General Store has given us a festive recipe this month: fruit cake. It is the long-standing traditional gift we have been joking about as the unfriendliest item on the holiday table. I never really understood why fruit cake has gotten such a bad rap over the years. In theory, it isn't so bad. A cake made with dried fruit and nuts could be good if it didn't involve those creepy, artificially-colored candied fruit pieces that dot the dry cake.

Thanks to my coworker and friend A, inspiration hit. She had been raving about a fig compote she had in New York about a month ago. We were simply standing on both sides of our cubicles one day last week when she announced she would be featuring the compote at Friday happy hour. A light bulb suddenly appeared above my head. I could evolve her recipe for the recipe swap and bring it to H and J's latke party on Sunday.

So yesterday morning my house was filled with aromas of simmering red wine. The compote is a perfect blend of sweet and spicy, especially when served atop a cracker with cheese, and even better, thinly sliced coppa. So this holiday season, as your are slaving over the Christmas cookie baking, pop these ingredients on the stove, for a quick and easy appetizer for your holiday parties, or just an everyday snack spread.

Spicy Date Compote

Makes about 3/4 cup

Any variety of dried fruit can but used in this recipe. A's orginal recipe used dried figs. Serve alongside crackers and cheese for a nice appetizer.


1 cup red wine
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup freshly chopped dates
Salt to taste

Mix wine, honey, sugar, and red pepper flakes in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until honey and sugar have dissolved, 5 minutes. Add cranberries and simmer for 10 more minutes. Add dates and salt; simmer until mixture is thickened and dates are just starting to dissolve, 5 to 10 more minutes. Remove from heat and cool in the refrigerator until serving time.

Bacon and Cauliflower Pasta

Sometimes on a Friday night you need a bowl of comfort food and a glass of wine. After a discussion with a coworker about macaroni and cheese with bacon and apples, I decided to evolve that idea into a decadent bowl of pasta featuring cauliflower, bacon, Parmesan cheese, and pasta. That combination really can't go wrong, having a perfect balance of salty, earthy, and Italian goodness.

Speaking of balance, I have recently had a few light bulb-over-the-head moments on the yoga mat. Everything on the yoga mat is a metaphor for life. I do yoga of the hot version which takes me to a whole other level of exhaustion...the good kind of exhaustion where all the little hang-ups I carry around during the day somehow don't seem so important anymore. It is as though you come to realize what is actually important.

Last night the instructor said, 'If you can reach back and touch your heels in camel pose, then you must'. This is such good advice for life as well. It allows for no excuses. I often feel like this about walking home from work. Sometimes I really don't feel like walking home, but I physically can, so I must. Now I will just have to remember this for all aspects of my life!

While in warrior 2 pose, another instructor said 'You need a solid base in order to stretch upwards and grow'. What a true statement about life and about getting yourself taller in the actual pose. I have recently been taking more conditioning-type classes at the gym and have been doing more yoga, and am finding that the more I do, the more I can feel my muscles engaging in different ways. When the teachers say to evenly balance both legs in warrior 2, I know what they mean. So nice when things suddenly click. It is the little things in life that make the difference.

So let balance be a theme in the back of our minds today. Sometimes, after a great workout and a long work day, you need a bowl of pasta with bacon sprinkled into it...and a glass of wine.

Bacon and Cauliflower Pasta
Makes 2 servings

2 slices bacon
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 head cauliflower, cut into small pieces
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup pappardelle pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat a large skillet over medium heat; add bacon to the hot skillet. Cook until bacon is cooked through and crispy, 6 to 7 minutes per side. Remove bacon from skillet with tongs and drain on a paper towel-lined plate to cool; crumble and set aside.

Drop onion and cauliflower into the bacon grease in the skillet; cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft and cauliflower is very tender, 20 to 25 minutes, adding water to skillet if needed. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil; drop pasta into the boiling water. Boil until pasta is cooked through but tender to the bite, 5 to 10 minutes. Drain and transfer to a serving bowl. Toss pasta with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle cauliflower mixture with Parmesan cheese and crumbled bacon; toss until cheese is melted. Spoon cauliflower-bacon mixture over pasta.

Carrot Pie with Coconut Glaze

It is the first Monday of the month which means recipe swap time again! Christianna of Burwell General Store has given us a Thanksgiving-themed recipe this month: carrot pie. Upon reading it, I was very intrigued, having never heard of such a recipe...

But as it turns out, this is a fairly popular dessert. Spending a great deal of time looking at recipes at work, I realized that carrot pie is baked quite often. You can see from the above recipe that it is basically like a pumpkin pie but carrots are substituted. My interest was peaked, so I stayed pretty on par with the theme. I upped the ante by using coconut milk and ground ginger and decreased the amount of egg.

Keeping in line with my Honesty 2012 policy, I do have a truth to unveil, dear reader. I made my own pie crust, but wasn't happy with the result, so I will not be sharing that component of the pie with you. Almost all the recipes I found for homemade pie crust used either a whole stick of butter or a cup of shortening and I just couldn't bring myself to use an entire stick of butter. So I used half a stick of butter and the result was sub-optimal. Let this be a lesson learned. If you are going to make a pie crust, just use the whole stick of butter...better to be very pleased with the result, than feel deflated when serving it to your friends at Sunday brunch.

I give the pie filling a B+. If served a slice at Thanksgiving, I would definitely assume it was pumpkin pie, with maybe a hint of coconut. The glaze is by far the best part. As T and M said at brunch today, it reminded them of sweetened condensed milk. It looks like, smells like, and tastes like sweetened condensed milk, but with a whole lot less sugar.

This month's recipe swap definitely kept in line with trying new recipes and new perspectives. I would have never concocted a pie consisting of pureed carrots, which turned out to be an inspiration to make use of regular ingredients in a new way. I also gained a new respect for the lighting in my apartment. By pulling every single one of my blinds up 100%, I was able to get an incredible amount of light in the front room today...even with the time change and all. So that was also a nice discovery. As always, thank you Christianna for this month's inspiration!




Carrot Pie with Coconut Glaze
Makes one 9-inch pie

Pies such as carrot or pumpkin are easy vehicles for creativity. Any variety of milk, whether it is cow's milk, soy milk, almond milk, or coconut milk will work. You can add more eggs or more cinnamon. You sprinkle in some nutmeg or cloves for added spice. The options are endless...

2 cups baby carrots
1 cup light coconut milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 pinch salt
1 pie crust (homemade or store-bought)

1 cup light coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring carrots to a boil in a pot of water over medium heat; cook until carrots are tender enough to cut with a fork, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and let cool for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a food processor.

Add 1 cup coconut milk, egg, maple syrup, 1 teaspoon vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and salt to the carrots in the food processor. Blend until very smooth, scraping down the sides once or twice if necessary.

Press pie crust into a 9-inch pie pan; pour carrot filling into crust. Bake pie in the preheated oven until edges are lightly browned and middle of pie is set, about 50 minutes.

While pie is baking, place 1 cup coconut milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced and syrup-like consistency, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve pie slices with a drizzle of coconut glaze.