Peppermint Brownie Bites

As of last Tuesday, I’ve been self-demoted from professional food writer to amateur food blogger. As I touched on in a previous blog entry, I left my job as the food (and weddings) editor for an Annapolis-based magazine recently to become a communications specialist for an association near Washington, D.C. As nearly all major life changes do, choosing a new career option had its pros and cons. One major advantage of my job at the magazine was that I got to write about really interesting things – such as food. However, being so focused on food all the time actually has some drawbacks, particularly when it came to my waistline. I’m now at a health-related company, and although I’m mostly writing about meetings and conferences, I hope that it will be easier to focus on making healthy meals.

Chocolate Raspberry Torte

It’s been 3 weeks since my last update, and I promise there’s a good reason for that.

New job.
Trip to Arizona (where my mom tried to give me a cat).
Producing a traveling troupe at the Children’s Theatre.
General Life.

I know, you’ll say that’s hardly an excuse. But look at this kitten my mom tried to rehome to me.

Actually, that’s not the kitten she tried to give us. The one she was working really hard on convincing David to take home is the one attacking the sweet one staring off into the distance. In other words, it would have been Crouton 2.0.

Needless to say, Crouton:Return of the Claws did not make her way to Maryland.

While I was in Arizona, we celebrate my mom’s 60th birthday. In her honor, I made a rich, fudgy chocolate-raspberry torte.

Black-Bottomed Coconut Bars

When it comes to baked good in my life, I nearly always have a dilemma. See, I love a cookie, piece of cake, or brownie as much as the next person, but there’s always that nagging voice of health in the back of my head. It’s that little irritating nugget that whispers in my ear, “Kelseyyyyy … why are you eating that?” So I shut it up by just not generally keeping the correct ingredients in my pantry to make baked goods.

But then the craving hits, and I don’t know what to do.

Two-Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

I don’t fancy myself much of a baker. At one point in my life, I was a dessert fiend, baking chocolate chip cookies and other sweet treats every weekend. These days, however, I always manage to mess up any baked goods. I’ve forgotten to add eggs to peanut butter cookies, burned the edges of chocolate-peanut butter bars, and neglected to add baking powder to muffins. So when I  signed up to participate in a recipe swap on one of my favorite websites and was assigned to make a recipe from a blog entirely about baking, I was pretty nervous! But after browsing Eva Bakes, I was happy to find this recipe for Two-Minute Chocolate and Caramel Mug Cakes,which seemed impossible to screw up…right?

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

We had a staff meeting at work today, and there was a wide range of delicious food. I chose to make pumpkin cheesecake brownies, a dessert recipe I must make every year. The rich chocolate base and swirls of creamy pumpkin filling just make for a fantastic fall dessert.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

For the brownies
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs in a bowl and combine thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients slowly and mix together. Spoon the batter into a greased 8×8 metal baking dish, making sure it’s level.

For the cheesecake batter
6 ounces cream cheese, softened (Make sure it’s really soft or else little chunks of cream cheese will bake into the batter)
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Beat the ingredients together. Using a spoon, drizzle vertical lines of batter, spaced 1/2 inch apart, on top of the brownie mix. Swish a butter knife through the lines in a perpendicular manner so it creates swirls of cheesecake batter.

Bake the brownies for 30 minutes or until a knife comes out of the center clean. Let cool thoroughly before cutting them.