chocolate cookie love

Lately I’ve been experimenting with chocolate cookie recipes.

brown sugar bourbon glaze

Thanks to everyone who showed up this weekend to the San Diego Food Bloggers Bake Sale!  We have a ton of wonderful San Diego food bloggers and the bountiful display of goodies for sale Saturday was nothing short of jaw-dropping.  Our Bourbon Caramel Cupcakes and Chocolate Cherry Bombs were a huge hit (sold out! Thanks, San Diego!) and I fielded a few questions during the sale on how to top a cupcake. 

a tragedy of peanut butter-ian porportions

Those of you who follow this site’s twitter feed know I’ve been on something of a chocolate peanut butter kick lately. 

First there was the recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Bomb cupcakes – chocolate cupcakes with creamy peanut butter frosting and salty chocolate peanut butter ganache.

Then came Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, made with Smitten Kitchen’s homemade Oreo recipe and filled with leftover peanut butter cupcake frosting.

Next there were Stuffed Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, made by wrapping David Lebovitz’s Peanut Butter Cookie batter around Brown Eyed Baker’s Better Than Brownies chocolate cookie dough (and, yes, drizzling them with a bit of that leftover salty chocolate peanut butter ganache – I got a lot of mileage out of that cupcake recipe!).

pasta with shrimp, feta and sun dried tomatoes

Today’s recipe for Pasta with Shrimp, Feta, and Sun Dried Tomatoes is outstanding for three reasons: 

First: Everything you need for the standard version can be purchased at Trader Joe’s for about $20 – that’s one-stop shopping at around $3.50 a serving.  If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby (my condolences), most well-stocked grocery stores should work.

Second: This recipe is hard to screw up, but looks quite advanced and is dang tasty.  If you are trying to impress a date with a home-cooked meal but just barely know how to boil water, YOU CAN DO THIS!  If you don’t know how to boil water, go here first, then come back and follow the instructions below.  You can also do all of your prep work up to a day ahead of time so you only have to quickly assemble the sauce and cook the pasta when it’s time to serve. 

Third: This recipe adapts well and easily to many uses and dietary restrictions, including low-carb, low-gluten, and vegetarian (more on this below).

 And, okay, Fourth, take a look at this – it’s gorgeous!