Look What I Got in the Mail

I participated in my first blog gift swap recently. 

I LOVE to shop for gifts and REALLY love to shop for a bunch of little things to put together. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a photo of the gifts I sent to my blogging gift swap partner. 

However, here's what the lovely Randa over at About Life (be sure to check out her blog...someone is getting married soon) sent to me.

Dark chocolate espresso snack mix, dark chocolate Godiva chocolates...can you tell I emphasized my love of dark chocolate in my "favorite things" list?

Thanks to Meg over at Life of Meg for hosting the Fall Frenzy Blog Gift Swap. It was great fun.

Divine Wine Cupcakes

I am thinking that this would be a great wordless Wednesday post but I want to share the recipe with you because these cupcakes are seriously delicious AND easy to make.

Remember the Friends episode when Rachel makes the trifle and accidentally mixes two recipes together and adds a layer of beef sauteed with peas and onions (I think) and Joey says..."Jam, good. Custard, good. Beef, good."

I promise that there's no beef sauteed with peas and onions in these cupcakes but there is an unusual ingredient...

Zinfandel wine! It's in both the cupcake AND the frosting...thus the blog post title "Divine Wine Cupcakes!"

Here's the recipe for all of you chocolate AND wine lovers!

Zinfandel Cupcakes

Batter
1 box devil's food cake mix (super moist recommended)
3/4 c. water
1/2 c. Zinfandel wine
1/2 c. vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 c. miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for dark or nonstick pan). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Make cake batter as directed on box using cake mix, water, wine, oil and eggs. Stir in chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about 1/2 full).

Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center. Cool in pans 10 minutes, remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Frosting
6 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. unsweetened baking cocoa
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. Zinfandel wine

In large bowl, beat powdered sugar, butter, cocoa and salt with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Beat in wine. If frosting is too think, beat in more wine a few drops at a time. Frost cupcakes. Garnish with chocolate curls (if desired).

I veered from the recipe in a couple of cases.

I didn't have mini chocolate chips so I used regular chips...however I failed to coat them prior to mixing them into the batter and the chips fell to the bottom of the cupcakes while baking. So I suggest taking a couple of tablespoons of your dry cake mix and tossing it with your chips. This should keep them from dropping to the bottom of your cupcakes!

Second, I just realized as I am typing the recipe that I forgot to add the salt to my frosting...I think it turned out OK.

And...I sifted my powdered sugar and cocoa before mixing them with the butter. I also started with four cups of powdered sugar and a quarter cup of wine and added more of each until I got the consistency and the taste I thought worked best.

I definitely recommend these cupcakes...they'd be great for a girls night in or a bridal shower or a Tuesday night.

Simply Smores Cookies

I had some mini chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge and decided to bake them up tonight and make my own ice cream cookie sandwiches.

Then I saw these...

via

...and I knew what I had to do!

Mine weren't nearly as pretty and fancy as Martha's, but they were delicious and oh so simple to make.

I started with already baked mini chocolate chip cookies. I just made four but you can do as many as you want at a time. I turned my oven to broil and let it heat up.

I put a quarter of a square of dark chocolate on top of two of the cookies and left the other two plain just to see if the chocolate chips were enough chocolate.

I didn't have any jumbo marshmallows so I used Marshmallow Fluff - a spoonful on top of each cookie. Then I popped the pan in the oven for a couple of minutes...just keep an eye on them after about a minute and a half because they toast quickly after that!

They were DELICIOUS. I definitely liked the ones with the added chocolate piece better but I ate all four of them.

I didn't abandon my idea of making mini ice cream sandwiches...

There are now a dozen of these babies inividually wrapped in my freezer waiting for me!

I'm linking up to Show Us Your Life at Kelly’s Korner.

Ahoy There...Happy Heart Day!

I've never marked my calendar with a big red heart around February 14th but I do like giving my loved ones a nice Valentine's Day card. Unfortunately I am NOT the best at getting cards in the mail on time ever.

This year was no exception. I found the cutest Valentines (I thought they were the cutest...really the packaging was better than the cards themselves) months ago, bought them and thought to myself..."This year will be different."

Fast forward to Sunday, February 13th, and lo and behold the cards were still sitting in their pretty package on my kitchen table!
So, I thought I'd share them on here.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my pals in the blogosphere!

I feel the need to explain WHY I decided Pirate Valentine's were the way to go this year.
This summer a coworker of mine introduced me to what I think is a great party game...the pirate joke. Let me demonstrate...

JOKE: Why did the pirate become a lawyer?
ANSWER: He liked to ARRRRRR-gue!

Are you laughing out loud yet? No, check out my post explaining the joke a bit more.

Well, the "funny pirate" jokes on each card are cute, but not as good as the ones my coworkers and I laughed over this summer. Here are a couple...

I was planning to give one of these to my coworker who introduced me to the pirate joke but I forgot (again where my organizational skills need work) that she's out this week so I'll leave one on her desk with one of these as a treat for when she returns!

Who wouldn't want a pirate Valentine's Day card and a CRUNCH chocolate heart?

Happy <3 Day!

Butterflies, Chocolate & Wine...Perfect Birthday Gifts

Birthdays are not at the top of my "favorite" list anymore.

Once your 21st birthday passes and it's legal to do everything fun (that's not illegal for everyone), are birthdays really necessary?

However, I have some great friends and family who know me so well and gave me some perfect gifts. I'm not going to list them all here, but I LOVED them all and a big thank you to all!

Earlier in the week, my East Coast pal, Patti, sent me this beautiful framed butterfly that will find a home with my others shown in this earlier post.

I love this type (can't think of the correct term...don't you hate that?) of butterfly because even though it doesn't have the brilliant colors as most, the illusion of a pair of eyes is just breathtaking.

That takes care of the butterflies. Now comes chocolate!

My good friend, Bathtub Mama, is spending the weekend with me. As a birthday treat, she made me a pan of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Brownies. If you've never had these, you must try them. They will change your life. OK, probably too dramatic, but they will become your favorite boxed brownie the instant they hit your mouth. And since they are "dark chocolate," I'm sure they have some health benefit to them!

Bathtub Mama wanted to add candles to these, but I already had a knife in them before she could find the candles and matches.

The next gift incorporates chocolate AND wine and was given to me by another good friend - I'll call her "S."

S loves shopping at Trader Joe's and loves buying wine with pretty labels. Combine these two and you have the perfect birthday gift...

Yes, you read correctly...Chocolate Wine!

I don't think I'll mind this birthday quite so much once I open this!