My Man Can Cook

Michael and I enjoy good food. We spend a lot of money food, mostly in two categories: Groceries and Restaurants. We are completely spoiled to live in such a fine city as San Francisco. There are so many restaurants you could eat out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the year and not repeat. That is a lot of restaurants. Some of those are likely terrible and may make you sick, and some are fantastic and leave you happy and feeling gluttonous. We have an ongoing list of restaurants we want to eat at. It's a good idea because there are so many you loose track. We have our favorites, and we have our desires. Restaurants we desire are the ones you need a really excuse to go to because you end up spending way too much money on two people. They also require a bit of planning since you need to make reservations too far in advance. Our favorites are a bit more simple and we tend to go more often.

While dining out is fun and someone else has to clean the kitchen, we do cook quite a bit. I have mentioned before in my Lovely Lady Baker Cooks posts or Meatless Monday posts, that I like to plan meals. Michael on the other hand can throw something together in less than 30 minutes (eat your heart out Rachel Ray) and it is simple and tasty. I'm envious. Just last night he made onion and gipsy peppers with polenta rounds, shrimp, and marinara sauce for a quick and tasty meal.

He also likes to grill. This knack is likely derived from growing up in the midwest. Both of us grew up grilling on warm summer evenings and we grilled quite a bit in college too. One warm summer evening in college, our propane tank caught on fire while we were grilling! The house didn't blow up, and the kebabs came out fine.... Now, we have a seriously-large Weber (thanks Dad!) and we grill on our little deck even though most of the time it feels like very very late fall weather.

Michael's grilling is getting more and more serious. Manned with grilling recipes galore, he has smoked ribs and other meaty items, and learned to make BBQ sauce. One of my favorites was the smoked chicken basted with BBQ sauce. His barbecuing is testing patience since smoking meat takes a lot longer than your standard grilling, but it's worth it. Definitely worth it. Michael, Master of the Grill, please don't stop grilling! Just looking at these photos makes my mouth water.

Now all we need is real summer weather and big slices of watermelon. Oh, and you might want to check out this grilling cookbook - it's proved itself so far.

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

I don't normally take step by step photos while I'm baking, but for this cookie I made an exception. I really love these cookies and they have a nice wow-factor because most people don't know how to make them. Well, I'm going to spoil the fun for all of you. Feel free to stop reading at any point to keep from revealing the entire mystery.

 Combine 1 1/2 C flour 1/2 C cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda

 mmmm cocoa

mmmm peanut butter

 Cream 1/2 C butter, 1/2 C sugar, 1/2 C brown sugar, and 1/4 C peanut butter in your mixer stopping half way through to scrape down the sides

 Add 1 egg, 1 T milk, and 1 tsp vanilla until combined

Add as much of the flour mix as you can with the mixer (likely all of it) and stir in the rest with a wooden spoon if your mixer sounds like it might die 

 Divide the dough into two and form them into disks. Cut each disk into 4 pieces. From each of these pieces make four 1 1/4" balls and set aside

 Clean out your mixer bowl and add 3/4 C powdered sugar and 1/2 C peanut butter. Cream until thoroughly mixed and the dough holds together when pinched

 Divide the dough the same as the chocolate balls, except the balls will be 3/4 inch

 Flatten out the chocolate ball and place a peanut butter ball in the center

 Pinch the chocolate dough around the peanut butter ball making sure to cover it entirely and as evenly as possible

Fill a small bowl with 2 T granulated sugar. Place each ball on an ungreased baking sheet. Dip a glass into the sugar and lightly press down on each ball flattening them slightly. Dip in sugar again and repeat until all of the dough is flattened (to make the sugar stick to begin, touch the glass to the cookie dough and then into the sugar bowl)

Bake at 350˚ for 7-8 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Cool on the sheet for 1 minute then transfer to parchment paper to cool completely. Enjoy warm.