Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I found this recipe online here. I immediately thought “chocolate chip cookie dough AND cupcakes?! what in life could be better?!”, took a look at the recipe, and thought I could SO do that…

This is where the story takes a flammable nosedive. I found this recipe on Thursday and then went home and caught the tail end of an episode of Semi-Homemade. I’m not gonna lie, this show makes me lazy. I sit there with my all-involved cupcake recipe, thinking to myself… why do I need to make frosting when I can buy it? why do I need to make cake when I can buy a boxed mix?

I’ll preface this with saying that I hate buttercream. I’ve tried it a bunch of times and can’t stand it. I used it in this recipe and I don’t think I’d do that again.

I used premade chocolate chip cookie dough from the store for the centers and they were the best part. My suggestions for this recipe (assuming you are okay consuming raw eggs, and really… how much egg are you eating when it’s all mixed together and then spread amongst 24 cupcakes???) are to use those break and bake cookie dough balls for the centers, the tube of cookie dough mixed with a can of frosting for the frosting and boxed cake mix for the cupcake part.

The uber-Aunt Sandy way.

Quick “recipe” recap:

1. Mix cupcake batter.
2. Fill half full, then stick a frozen cookie dough ball in the middle (push to the bottom)
3. Cover the balls with a little more batter.
4. Bake.
5. Mix cookie dough and frosting together.
6. Frost.
7. Roll incredibly tiny balls of cookie dough and bake in oven. Watch like a hawk. I think mine took about 6 minutes at 350.
8. Frost (chocolate chips got stuck in frosting tip so I ugly-frosted them with a knife) and top with mini-cookie.
9. Have a bunch of drunk boys tell you how AMAZING your cupcakes are. 🙂

Carmelized Onion Dip

I love parties. I love parties because they are now an excuse for making dips and desserts and anything else fun I want to make.

It’s mildly humorous how far I’ve come in party hosting since my freshman year of college. I remember a weekend that my parents came down for an afternoon football game and after the game asked me what I my plans for the evening were (I was the second child, they knew what I was up to).

Me: “Oh I don’t know, I think one of my friends is having a party we’ll probably go to.”
my mom: “Do we need to run by the store and grab some chips and salsa or anything?”
Me: “Really Mom? No, it’s college, unless you’re planning on buying your underage daughter beer, I think we’ll be fine.”

I do think she palmed me a twenty when my dad wasn’t looking.

Here I am, only two years out of college and I’m ridiculously excited to make snacks for my boyfriend’s “party”. I was informed no fussy, frou-frou snacks. I chose my carmelized onion dip, chips and salsa (I bought from the store!) and then made chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.

Keep in mind that I like more dip than onions, so I added more sour cream, cream cheese and mayo, but you could also use less onions — I figured more dip was better than less dip? If it had only made its way back to the fridge at the end of the night… oh well!

Caramelized Onion Dip
from: Cooking Light March 2007

Ingredients
Cooking spray
3 cups chopped onion (about 2 medium)
3 tablespoons low-fat sour cream, divided (I used about 5)
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) 1/3 less-fat cream cheese, softened (I used about 3.5)
3 tablespoons light mayo (I used about 5)
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt (I added more at the end)
dash of ground pepper

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over med-high heat. Add onion; saute 2 min. Reduce heat to low; cover and cook 20 minutes or until golden brown, stirring frequently (this is easy to burn so REALLY watch it closely!!!) Remove from heat; cool.

2. Combine 1 tbsp. sour cream and cream cheese, stirring well. Add remaining sour cream, mayo and remaining ingredients, and stir well to combine. Stir in onion.

3. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

I’ve made it twice once refrigerating overnight and once right before the party. I think it was a little bit better overnight, but nothing to worry about if you don’t have the time!

Grandma Faye’s Spaghetti Sauce

This is by far, the aboslute best spaghetti sauce I’ve ever had in my whole life. I never actually got to have Grandma Faye make it, but my mom has been making this stuff since long before my dad. It’s a family recipe that has never really been written down, so I’ll try my best at it.

Grandma Faye’s Spaghetti Sauce
total cook time: anywhere from 30 min. to as long as you want to simmer it for

Ingredients: 
3 slices of bacon
one medium onion
4 cloves of garlic
1lb. of very lean ground beef (I usually do half sausage, half ground beef)
16 oz can of tomato sauce
8 oz can of tomato paste
8 oz tomato paste can filled with ketchup
dash of nutmeg
2 dried bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut up the bacon and brown to desired crispiness in a large skillet (I like mine reallllly crispy). Add the onions and saute until light brown. Add in the garlic right before the onions are finished.

2. Add the ground beef into the onion/bacon/garlic mixture and brown.

3. After the ground beef is thoroughly cooked, add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup and one 8 oz can of water. Mix together well (I usually use a spoon because I always splatter with a bigger kitchen utensil!)

4. Season with salt and pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and toss in the two bay leaves.

5. Simmer on the stovetop until it thickens to desired consistency. I usually put a lid on it because I like it a little thinner and I don’t like cleaning my stovetop. 🙂 My dad likes it like chili though, so my mom cooks it with the lid off.

*This usually makes enough for us to eat at least two dinners, unless Matt eats it with a spoon after I go to bed. 🙂 I freeze the other half and it makes for a really quick dinner when we need it.

Cupcakes = best first post ever!

So today was one of my coworker’s birthdays and I brought in cupcakes! I was pretty excited about them since they turned out very well. I’d include the recipe, but it’s a store bought mix with store bought icing. Don’t hate… everyone thought I bought them from a fancyschmancy bakery. 🙂

And my awesome coworker Kelly, SUPER excited about her cupcakes.