Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies

So two weeks ago I had this brilliant idea to bake chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting for Rebecca’s small group. They just looked so adorable! So I did bake them, and they were adorable, only it turns out I honestly just don’t like raspberry. (Which I guess isn’t really a problem, considering they were for Rebecca and her girls, not me.) What was a problem was all the leftover raspberry frosting in my refrigerator.

Whole-Wheat Chocolate-Almond Biscotti (with Orange Zest!)

Honestly, the only way to motivate myself into doing schoolwork is to bake. I’ve been reasonably productive over the weekend, but I really need to do some honest-to-goodness studying this afternoon. The only thing keeping me from baking prolific amounts of muffins, cookies, and cupcakes right now is the fact that I have plans to bake tomorrow for Rebecca’s small group as well. So I decided to keep it quick (I do have studying to do, you know!) and simple.

Banana Cupcakes

Although you wouldn’t know it based on the recent chronicles of my baking ventures, I am a cupcake person. Indeed I am. Leave Amanda to her healthy bran muffins; I want a cupcake filled– and frosted!– with sugary goodness. 

So when I realized this morning that my remaining two bananas were wonderfully brown, I knew what I wanted to bake: banana cupcakes. Amanda and I made these, oh, probably two or three years ago from Martha Stewart’s recipe, so I decided to use it again (although, I admit, I don’t particularly remember how our earlier attempt turned out). Martha calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of mashed bananas, which she translates to about 4 bananas. As I only had two, I simply halved the recipe. (Incidentally, I ended up with seven cupcakes instead of six, as one would expect. Not that I mind.)

Vegetarian Enchiladas

Because I became quite ill after eating in a mexican restaurant about four years ago, I haven’t eaten in one since then. Even the thought of homemade mexican food bothers me sometimes. Fears aside, it’s time to try a recipe that I’ve been holding onto for a while.

I’m not vegetarian, but I’m not much of a meat-eater, either. My friend, who came over for dinner and a movie, is vegetarian, though. It seemed like a good time to test this recipe. Enchiladas for a girl who’s afraid of mexican food and for a girl who doesn’t eat meat!

Black Bean Stew

I don’t know too many recipes by memory, mostly because I rarely cook or bake the same thing that often. I like to try new recipes and change previously-attempted (and sometimes never-attempted) ones. This black bean stew is one of the exceptions. I’ve made it several times, but the recipe is so simple (and did I mention delicious!) that it’s almost impossible not to remember.

Chocolate Shortbread

Oh my, another Martha recipe.  I promise we’re not total addicts.  It’s just that Mary gave me Martha Stewart’s Cookies book for Christmas, so I had to try a recipe from it.  I had a lot of extra butter in the fridge from holiday baking, so I decided on a shortbread recipe.  Martha calls them “Chocolate Charms,” but I skipped dusting mine with cocoa powder, which gives me reason enough to rename them (drum roll, please) chocolate shortbread.

Whole-Wheat Raisin Biscotti

I’ve wanted to try a biscotti recipe for a while, but for some reason it always seemed daunting.  Maybe the twice-baked thing, and cutting the log into those adorable little pieces.  Yeah… terrifying.  

Nonetheless, I decided to face my fears the day after Christmas!  I found a recipe on Martha’s (we’re on a first name basis) website that doesn’t use butter (some biscotti recipes do, some don’t) and seems healthy (I’m on a whole-wheat baking kick).  Whole-Wheat Walnut-Raisin Biscotti!  It has great reviews.  Then I went and changed the recipe…

Martha’s Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies

This morning was a baking sort of morning. Some days are like that. (Okay, most days are like that.) The only problem this morning was I didn’t have any eggs. And how many things can you bake without eggs? Only one recipe I know off the top of my head: Marthat Stewart’s Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies. Amanda (who I affectionately call Pandy) and I have made these cookies together twice before, but I was certain that the batch I decided to bake this morning would fail miserably. We’re not too neurotic about following recipes precisely– actually, we rather like to experiment– so surely I couldn’t completely botch these cookies.