Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies

Can I confess something?

When a recipe calls for peanut butter, I've gotten into the habit of just estimating by sight the right amount. Because I hate cleaning measuring cups that have peanut butter all up in there. It's annoying, right? No one likes to clean peanut butter off things. It's sticky. It sticks.

So with these brownies...

I think I over-estimated the peanut butter and under-estimated the Nutella. Because you can definitely taste that slight hint of peanut butter, but the Nutella gets virtually lost in the mix. Or maybe I just have a tongue that likes the taste of peanut butter more, thereby picking it up more.

Or not. Because Nutella already has chocolate in it, so it's not a surprise that its flavor gets easily lost in a chocolate-based dessert. And, you know what else? My eyes may have overestimated the peanut butter because, well, I like peanut butter. And Nutella? I'm only on the fence about. I'm not sure. It's okay. I'm sure this is blasphemous to many a person, but you know what! Whatever. It's not like I need to be obsessed with some other fatty buttery spread. Peanut butter, my lifelong friend, can do that all on its own.

At any rate! These brownies. They're pretty good. I would not hesitate to experiment a little with ratios, though, because they get hard pretty quick. I like a brownie that can hold its own for a few days, rather than just one.

Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies
(as taken from Tasty Kitchen member Chrystal)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup nutella

Preheat oven to 350F. Either line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper, or just spray it with some non-stick spray.

Measure flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a small bowl and whisk to combine.

Stir the sugar into the melted butter. Beat in the eggs one at a time until each is combined. Stir in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Put the Nutella and the peanut butter in a small, microwave-safe, bowl and microwave 30 seconds. Stir it around and get it all mixed together, then fold into the brownie mix.

Pour batter into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until top forms a crust and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Cut, devour, enjoy.

I forgot to take pictures of the step-by-step stuff. "Forgot," as it really was just night, and therefore dark, and therefore devoid of natural light, and therefore hard to get good photographs. And night cravings for brownies just won't be denied, blog be damned.

Molten Chocolate Cake

Warm gooey chocolate center.

If that doesn't sound good to you, I'm not sure we can be friends.

Here's a pro tip: test your eggs if they could be of questionable good-ness. You really don't want to take a bite into a dessert and go "this tastes weird." For those who don't know how to test your eggs, listen up. It's easy. All you have to do is plop it into a glass of water. If it sinks, it's good. If it floats? Bad. Do not use. If it kind of bobs somewhere in the middle - you can use it, just make sure you use it soon.

See? Easy. There are no excuses for ruining perfectly good things.

Not that I did that. Because I wouldn't do that, would I? That's an amateur mistake, for baking losers!

...

I can only assume it was the eggs. Because otherwise, what could possibly make these taste weird? Nothing, because they're made of good things. If your eggs are good. Which we've discussed.

So just look at the pretty pictures and imagine the molten chocolate taste, sans weird eggs. It's the only way to move on from this sad state of affairs.

Molten Chocolate Cake

4 pieces (squares) semi-sweet baking chocolate
½ cups butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 whole eggs
2 whole egg yolks
6 Tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Spray 4 custard cups with cooking spray and place on cookie sheet.

Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted. Whisk until chocolate is also melted.

Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.

Divide between cups.

Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute.

In photos:

Butter and chocolate whisked together.

Adding some sugar... this does not look a whole lot different.

And the eggs and flour. Only subtle differences now. It just looks chocolatey.

Fill up some ramekins.

Fresh out of the oven, they look pretty poofy.

Gooey chocolatey center. Would be better with ice cream. I also was lazy and did not invert it onto the plate to give you the full effect. Sorry. Sometimes laziness wins.

Supernatural: Most Beloved Guest Stars (Seasons 1-6)

After going over the most controversial characters on the show, I figured it was time to give the other side their due. Because though we have had some controversial characters, we have also had a lot of awesome guest stars. I decided to focus more on the actors themselves over the characters, because for some reason that was easier in my brain. Weird. Sometimes my brain is weird, don't try to understand it.

I also had a couple criteria for myself. The guest had to appear in more than two episodes, and I don't include Jim Beaver just because he's more of a regular to me than a guest star. I may have missed some of your favorites, but I tried to go with what I thought were the most universally beloved, the ones that everyone gets pumped about when they would see his or her name at the top of the hour.

These aren't in any particular order (I included a link to one of my favorite scenes from each guest beneath the photo)...

Chad Lindberg

The erstwhile Ash makes this list based on his ridiculously embraced mullet alone. You can (or could) always rely on him to bring a lighthearted tone to whatever dire situation they may have been in, which was always a breath of fresh air.

Fred Lehne

While the yellow-eyed demon was a constant background presence for most of season one, he gained a face in season two when Fred Lehne brought him to life. He seemed to have a lot of fun playing the demon, and it made us love to hate him.

Rob Benedict

A lot of people have basically cemented their belief that Chuck was actually God, but I'm not so sure. I prefer him as the goofy Chuck, the prophet and writer of the Supernatural novels. While it could be argued that bringing in that meta-type story was kind of weird, you can't deny that Chuck was entertaining, and I think we can thank Rob Benedict a lot for that.

Richard Speight Jr.

Trickster turned angel Gabriel. I'm not sure I really liked the twist that he was actually an angel in hiding. I preferred him when he was just the trickster up to no good. But hey, a prime example of a guest star being so popular that his role was expanded.

Samantha Ferris

Women have a hard time in the Supernatural world. Unless the woman happens to be older and more of a mother-type. And Ellen fits that bill completely. As played by Samantha Ferris, Ellen was hardcore but with a soft heart, and it's always a pleasure to see her, even though she may be technically dead now. Come to think of it, most of these guest stars' characters are dead!

Colin Ford

From the first time Colin Ford played young Sam back in season three, it became clear that he was perfectly cast. I know personally I get really excited every time he's going to be on the show. Not only because that means we get to see a flashback moment (most of the time), but because I love his take on the young Sam.

Samantha Smith

Mary Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Okay, sorry, I don't know what I'm doing. Mary is not a very contrary character in the Supernatural world, and it's always great to see her come back. I went with Samantha Smith instead of Amy Gumenick because when you think of Mary, you think of Sam. At least, I do. Though she had a secretly badass past to her, the Mary Dean knew as a kid was nothing but his mom, and... ahem. Awww.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

By far the guest star I most wish the show could get back. (And can I just complain for a second how epically long it took me to just find that damn clip?! You'd think that would be an easily searchable clip but no!) ANYWAY. John Winchester was a polarizing figure in the boys' lives. He made them the hunters they are today, but that led to a lot of resentment. I really wish JDM could come back for at least some flashback episodes or something, because seeing him and Colin Ford together would be pretty epic, wouldn't it? Or how about him and Samantha Smith? I'm not sure they even really had a scene together in the pilot at all! Sad.

For my past lists, head over: here.

Psst! Hey you! You should totally go like my Facebook page. I'd love you forever and ever. Click and like: http://www.facebook.com/freshfromthe.com. 

Raspberry-Blueberry Muffins w/ Streusel Topping

This post is coming a few weeks after the fact for these muffins, but that does not diminish their loveliness in mine own eyes.

Because these muffins? They're kind of great.

You wouldn't necessarily think to combine raspberries and blueberries together in a muffin, since you nearly almost always see just blueberries, but let me tell you something - why not? Why is this not a more common thing? Is it because of growing seasons or something? I really know nothing about growing seasons, so this could be true. Or it could be people just make blueberry all the time because they are boring old fuddy duddies.

But me? I push the envelope! Not really, I just happened to have a lot of both on hand and wanted to do something fun with them together. And then I still had two little plastic boxes of the raspberries go bad on me. Dang it!

But before that, there were muffins...

Raspberry-Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping

Ingredients

• FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING:
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 Tablespoons old-fashioned oats
• FOR THE MUFFINS:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 Tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)
• 3/4 cup fresh raspberries
• 3/4 cup fresh blueberries

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners OR spray with non-stick spray and go liner-free.
2. To make the topping, in a medium bowl, mix together the topping ingredients until crumbly. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, whisk togteher the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the melted butter. Add the buttermilk and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just to combine. Batter will be somewhat lumpy, make sure to not overmix. Gently fold in the blueberries and raspberries so they do not break open, and pour into the prepared muffin tin. Crumble the streusel topping over the muffins and bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
5. Let cool in the tins for about 10 minutes, then remove and cool on wire racks.

Adapted from a recipe by Emeril on foodnetwork.com

In photos:

Crumbly topping! Tip: if you like nuts, you can use chopped walnuts or pecans instead of oatmeal.

The butter and eggs and "buttermilk" all mixed together. Why is the buttermilk in quotes? Because I used powdered, so this is actually butter, eggs and water.

And all of the dry ingredients, which includes the buttermilk powder. You see, you add the powder to the dry ingredients, and use water instead in the wet. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. (As another aside, the original recipe calls for a bunch of lemon zest... I am not a lemon fan, so that was nixed!)

Wet and dry all mixed together. Slightly lumpy, and that's okay.

A berry good time! Oh man, sorry. Bad pun.

I just sprayed my tin with non-stick spray, as I did not have any liners. They plopped out fine, but did make for harder traveling. Also, I put these in the oven for a full minute before I remembered to add the streusel topping! Quell horror!

Oh wow, these bake up quite nicely, don't they?

Can I tell you something? These muffins tasted like I had bought them at a bakery. They were really that good. I was kind of amazed at how professional they looked and tasted. Or wait, no! No, I was not amazed! I was like - oh yes! Duh! I am amazing, and it is to be expected! Ha, sure.

SYTYCD: Season 8 Finale

Can you believe the season is already over? This summer has just flown by so incredibly quickly, it's crazy. But, yes, everything must come to an end eventually, and tonight was the crowning of season eight's America's Favorite Dancer.

It should come as absolutely no surprise whatsoever that the winner is none other than... MELANIE!

Do you know, I've had the top three as my top three from the very start of the competition? I'm not making this up. Following Melanie were Sasha, Marko and Tadd, in that order. And apparently, Melanie and Sasha's votes combined to over 70% of the total votes, which is pretty crazy. The poor guys didn't stand a chance!

Are you satisfied with who won, or do you wish it was someone else?

Before I sign off, I'm going to give you a quick rundown of all of the top routines of the season that the judges picked, and add one of my own that I think definitely should've been included. In the order presented (click on them to see a youtube clip)...

Sasha and Kent - Tyce Diorio contemporary (picked by Mary)
Melanie and Marko - NapTab hip hop (picked by Nigel)
Tadd and Lauren - Mandy Moore jazz (picked by Robin Antin) ** this link is the original, though their finale performance was better!
Robert and Miranda - NapTab hip hop (picked by Lil C)
Top 8 Circus Routine - Tyce Diorio (picked by Cat)
Melanie and Neil - Mandy Moore contemporary (picked by Mary)
Marko and Allison - Sonya Tayeh contemporary (picked by Jesse Tyler Ferguson)
Top 10 Girls Geisha Routine - Sonya Tayeh (picked by Tyce)
Chris and Ashley - Spencer Liff Broadway (picked by Lil C)
Sasha and tWitch - Christopher Scott hip hop (picked by Nigel)
Top 10 Guys Routine - Christopher Scott (picked by Sonya)
Caitlynn and Pasha - Argentine tango (picked by Jesse)
Melanie and Marko - Travis Wall contemporary (picked by Mary)
Melanie and Sasha - Sonya Tayeh jazz (picked by Nigel)

And the one that I personally think should've been included...



Well, that's it for this season! Were any of your favorite routines left out?

Congratulations Melanie!

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