Saturday, April 12, 2008

Ohhh so good!

I think this was one of the easiest, most delicious things that I have ever made. But I shouldn't be surprised, because the Barefoot Contessa rarely disappoints. It all started when I saw this episode. We have a standing Friday night plan...Pizza with the Glovers. We met Sarah & Tyler 4.5 years ago in birthing class, and slowly became great friends. Our Meredith and their Jacob have been raised like brother and sister...and act accordingly...lots of love-hate! Our relationship with our entire birthing class is worthy of its own post another time.

I whole-hartedly feel that you shouldn't cook on Friday nights...ever...pizza, mexican,go out, stay in...but Friday nights are special. When the kids we pretty young we established a regular routine of meeting up at casual restaurants on Friday nights...but after just a few embarrassing meltdown episodes, we turned it into a order pizza in, toss up a salad, grab a bottle of wine, maybe fix a dessert Friday night dinner...we switch hosting duties back & forth. It has been great!...But back to Ina...I saw this episode one night and thought it would be great for a Friday. Every once in a while we get crazy and grill up fajitas, or make homemade pizza, etc.

I thought caesar club sandwiches would be super tasty, but it was the cupcakes that reeled me in...peanut butter and chocolate...a favorite of Kevin's. And they were amazing! To be honest, I just used a box mix to make the chocolate cupcakes....I mean who really needs to make cake from scratch? But this frosting was like heaven...try if for yourself!

Kathleen's Peanut Butter Icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

3 comments:

Matt said...

Oh Marla....the frosting sounds sooo good. I think I'll try it on Friday! Thanks for posting it.

kelly said...

yum! i think i'll have to put this on the to-do list.

Amanda :-) said...

Ooh, that picture of the buns looked lovely, until I read what was in the icing :-(

I think, over the many years that I abstained from eating peanuts during my pregnancies, I've actually developed an intolerance for peanuts! Argh! Last time I ate any, it was just a smattering on some cereal and I came out in itchy hives. It's just not fair, because those buns look so cute!

By the way, I'm ALL FOR instant cake mix. In fact, if you use chocolate cake mix you can even cook it in a Pyrex bowl in the microwave, because it doesn't need to look browned. How perfect is that??