Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta

A quick, delicious meal that I will never get sick of!

Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta (Serves 4)

Ingredients

• 1 lb of dried pasta, any kind. I used cavatappi.
• Container of cherry (or grape) tomatoes
• 1 small - medium sized block of goat cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 a bunch of parsley, chopped
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
  

Directions

• Cook the pasta according to directions on the package.
• Drain (reserve some pasta water) and then add the tomatoes, goat cheese, parsley, olive oil, and salt and pepper (to taste). If too dry, add some of the pasta water.
• Serve!

Chocolate Cookies

I decided to make some chocolate cookies for our High School Musical 2 party tomorrow night. Of course, I'll bring some in to work, too.
Chocolate Cookies (Makes 30)

Ingredients

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chunks (I used Baker's)
• 1/2 cup walnuts, optional
  

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
  
• Melt the 8 ounces of roughly chopped chocolate with the 4 tablespoons of butter in the microwave. Be careful not to burn it. I did about 5 intervals of 20 seconds.
  
• In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, brown sugar and vanilla. Mix on high for about 5 minutes. The mixture should be thick and glossy.
• Mix in the melted chocolate and butter mixture. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until just blended. Stir in the 12 ounces of chocolate chunks and walnuts. Let the mixture sit for about ten minutes.
  
• Use a cookie scoop (about 1.5" in diameter) to scoop the dough onto buttered baking sheets about 3 inches apart. I put 9 cookies onto each sheet just to be safe.
  
• Bake for 13 minutes. Do not overbake!! You don't want the middle of the cookie to harden.
  
• Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 10 minutes and then place onto a cooling rack.
  
  
  
  Enjoy!
  

I've also come to the realization that I need to get some nicer plates. Living the life as a poor college student with a kitchen packed with hand-me-down dishes and silverware is no fun. But hey, at least it was free, right?

Mint Ice Cream Cake

Girl Scout Thin Mints, mint ice cream, hot fudge, and chocolate wafers layered into a cake - what could be better?

I had several boxes of Thin Mints laying around and as much as I love them, I haven't been able to finish them all yet. So I figured I would put them to good use.

Mint ice cream is also one of my favorite flavors, so I figured that I couldn't go wrong with this!


Mint Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients

• 1 box of chocolate wafers (I used Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers)
• 1/2 stick of butter, melted
  
• 1/2 box of Thin Mints (1 roll), crushed
  
• 1/2 gallon of mint ice cream, softened enough to spread
  
• 1/2 jar of hot fudge sauce
  

Directions

• In a food processor, crush the wafers (I used about 2/3 a box for the crust). Add the butter and mix until combined. Press the wafers into the bottom of a 9" springform pan.
  
• Carefully spread half the ice cream on top of the crust.
  
• Sprinkle the crushed Thin Mints (a food processor works fine) on top of the ice cream and drizzle the fudge on top of the Thin Mints.
  
• Spread the remaining ice cream on top of the Thin Mint layer.
  
• Freeze the cake for at least 30 minutes - you want the ice cream to harden back up.
  
• Before cutting, run a knife dipped in hot water around the edge of the pan to loosen. Cut the cake with a warm knife as well.
  
• Serve the cake with the remaining hot fudge sauce!

Eggplant Parmesan and Pesto Bowties

Even though most people think I can only make desserts, I like to think that I'm pretty good at cooking meals, too. For dinner tonight, Mike and I made eggplant Parmesan and some spinach pesto. We had a nice chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano leftover from Fromagination and we figured we should use it up before it dried out. I think we did a pretty good job. We have a little bit of the cheese left over and a huge piece of rind. The rind will be great in some soup though!


The recipe I used for the eggplant Parmesan is here - I cut the recipe in half and left out the capers. Even after I cut the recipe in half, it still made a lot of food! It's supposedly four servings... but in my opinion it was more like eight. If you make the full recipe, you will need a pan much larger than your normal 9 x 13 Pyrex. I used that for my halved recipe and it was packed full to the top.


Spinach Pesto Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup of fresh spinach leaves, stems off
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 5 tablespoons walnuts
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and black pepper
  
• 1/2 cup of Parmesan

Directions

• In a food processor, blend together the spinach, garlic, walnuts and olive oil. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
  
• Stir in the Parmesan.
  

I served the pesto with bow tie pasta. The pesto recipe makes enough to coat a pound of pasta.





The meal took 3 hours to make and 3 minutes to devour :)

Carrot Cupcakes

This is my first post! And my first cupcake of the summer - carrot cupcakes. I made these because the Olin HPVC team left a huge bag of carrots at my house after their stay. They had been sitting in my fridge for quite a while and I thought I should make something delicious out of them before they started to rot.

Carrot Cupcakes Recipe (Makes 24)

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
  
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans

For cream cheese icing:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin cups with cupcake liners - you will need about 24.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, brown sugar, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared muffin pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for about 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Let cool in pans completely.
   
4. To make frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cupcakes.