Buckeye Brownies

For Valentine's Day the husband and I prefer staying in to going out.  We had decided to do seafood this year and I had asked him if he wanted me to make him anything for dessert.  He decided he wanted me to surprise him with something that was peanut butter chocolate and delicious.  I scoured the internet and found a recipe on pinterest for Buckeye Brownies which I modified slightly.

The brownies are essentially three layers.  The bottom layer is brownie, the middle is a peanut butter cream and the top is chocolate and peanut butter melted together.

The first step is to make the brownie layer with mix in a 13x9 pan.  I had a dark chocolate fudge brownie mix which had two reipes, one for a fudgier brownie and one for more cake like brownies.  I figure the flatter, fudgier brownies would work for this receipe.  I replaced the oil in the brownies with Greek yogurt and baked them.  The most important thing is to make sure that you leave enough time for the brownies to completely cool.

Making brownie mix with Greek yogurt

After the brownies are baked you make the Peanut Buttercream.  The original recipe calls for a stick of butter, I only used 1/2 a stick and replaced the other half with Greek yogurt.  I also reduced the amount of powered sugar that I used.  The recipe is so creamy you won't be able to tell the difference.

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1 cup creamy peanut butter

pinch salt

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1-2 Tbsp milk

• Mix together the butter, Greek yogurt, peanut butter and salt in a stand mixer until all lumps of butter are smooth. Mix in powdered sugar and vanilla. Add milk gradually until the cream is viscous enough to spread over the cooled brownies.

Spreading buttercream over the brownies

After the buttercream is placed it is time for the last layer, which is just peanut butter and chocolate melted together.

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

 Mix together and place in the mircowave for 30 seconds.  Stir and place back in for 15 seconds.  Repeat until melted and pour over the buttercream.  Once the chocolate cools, you have a delicious three layer brownie.

Three layers of chocolate peanut butter goodness

Honeymoon Day 10: Greek Theater and Giardini Naxos

The only thing that in Taormina that was a must see for me was the teatro greco, the ancient Greek theater.  A lot of the theater is brick so they think the Romans rebuilt on Greek foundations.  Either way I wanted to see it.  After a Sicilian breakfast on the terrace at the hotel, we headed to the town center on the shuttle and walked to the theater which is just outside of town.  It didn't take long to walk through the ruins but it was definitely worth the time and admission fee.

Sicilian ruins

Greek theater

View from the theater

After exploring the theater we wandered around the downtown area of Taormina before sitting down for lunch.  Over lunch we discussed what to do with our afternoon.  We had made reservations at the hotel for dinner, hotel Villa Ducale does not have an actual restaurant but for guests they offer dinners by their chef.  We decided to take a bus down to the beach since the day weather was warm.

Meats and cheeses

Penne for lunch

The bus terminal in Taormina is a short walk from the town center.  We asked the surly attendant at the ticket office and he suggested we go to Giardini Naxos, the buses ran about every hour.   Once we got on the bus our adventure started.  The bus was a city bus what went to another town and the beach was just a stop along the way.  There were only a few of us on the bus and the stop for the beach was not as obvious as we thought it would be.  In fact we never saw anything that looked like a beach.  After about 20 minutes I was getting worried that we were on the wrong bus.  An elderly woman at the front of the bus noticed we were on it and said something to the driver.  He stopped the bus and told us to turn right and we would find the beach.  I assumed we were a block or so from the beach.  We started walking through a neighborhood that was clearly not touristy or near the beach.   At this point it was getting close to 2pm, when shops start closing.  We found a small bakery where the guys there spoke very little English, but we finally communicated to them that we needed a taxi.  After about 20 minutes a very sketchy cab driver arrived at the bakery and offered to drive us back to Taormina but we convinced him to take us to the beach as originally planned.

Needless to say after all that we were grouchy and still unsure how we were going to get back.  I was starting to think we were going to have to shell out 100 euros for a ride up the mountain.  We finally were on the main street of Giardini Naxos and able to appreciate the view of the Ioanian Sea and Taormina from below.  Since Giardini Naxos is a beach town and it was November, there was not a lot open.  We stopped in dirty little beach front pub to get use the bathroom, get a beer and formulate our plan in that order.  The expat who owned the bar told us there were buses to Taromina that stopped along the main street but she didn't offer much more help then that.  We decided to walk along the beach for awhile before finding our way home.

View from the beach

The beach was surprisingly dirty

We waited awhile at a bus stop and miraculously a bus stopped that was headed where we needed to go.  This entire adventure was less then two hours but it was the most stressful part for me of the whole trip (other then the train ride on the Circumvensia.

Once we made it back up to Taormina unscathed I realized we were leaving in the morning and hadn't seen the main square of Piazza IX Aprile.  We did yet more shopping and bought some Christmas gifts before catching a cab to head back to the hotel.

View from the Piazza

Piazza IX Aprile

 We arrived back at the hotel in time for the hotel happy hour.  Every evening the hotel provides free appetizers to go with drinks.  We enjoyed our appetizers and drinks on the terrace before feasting on a homemade Sicilian dinner of seafood with fresh cannoli for dessert.  It was the perfect end to our two days in Taormina.

Honeymoon Day 9: Relaxing in Taormina

By the time we woke up early Tuesday morning the sea had become choppy and moving on the ferry took a lot of balance and grace... neither of which I have.  Announcements were being made over the intercom in Italian, which was no help to us so we just went out to deck and enjoyed the views of Mt. Etna before coming into port at Catania.  The husband had arranged through the hotel for a car to meet us at the ferry.  It was a little pricey but worth it in the end.  While driving out we saw the walk from the ferry to the bus station would have been at least half a mile, if we had even found it right away.  We were both a little crabby from the early morning so not having to navigate our way with all our luggage probably saved us from a fight.

Shades of blue

We arrived at our hotel halfway up a mountain and we were stunned by the views.  We stayed at Villa Ducale which is an old Sicilian villa converted into luxury boutique hotel.  It's above the town but there hotel has a shuttle service that runs several times a day and there is a bus that stops close to it.  The manager greeted us with glasses of prosecco and antipasta on the terrace while we waited for our room to be cleaned.  The wind was whipping through the terrace that morning but the view was breathtaking.

The room was ready pretty quickly and we were pleasantly surprised with the complimentary prosecco and roses.  The hotel and staff were amazing, it was definitely the nicest hotel of our trip.

Roses and prosecco in our sitting area

View from our balcony

By then it was lunch time and it was a gorgeous day, so we decided to take the trail down to the town center.  The trail started at a monastery and at each switchback had a station of the cross, I never would've known that but the husband went to Catholic school.

View from the top

View of the water

Stations of the Cross

Taormina is a resort town so it is full of shops and restaurants.  We quickly found a restaurant off the main road on a side street and had a delicious lunch of swordfish pasta and gnocchi.

View of the mountain during lunch

Swordfish pasta

 We headed back to the hotel and decided to take advantage of the bottle of prosseco, the views and the hot tub.  We spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather.  In the evening we asked the wonderful staff at the hotel to recommend a dinner location.  We took the shuttle down to town and of course had the first reservation of the night so we had the full attention of the waiter.  We had a full Italian dinner with an antipasta of fish, seafood pasta, carbonara and lamb.  The atmosphere of the restaurant, the delicious food and the staff made it one of our favorite meals of the whole trip.  It was the perfect end to one of the most relaxing days of our trip.

Fish antipasta

Spaghetti carbonara

Spaghetti with clams

Lamb in a lemon sauce

Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

As I've posted before, we love Greek yogurt and besides using it in chicken salad and dips, I also use it for baking.  We are also hardcore pumpkin lovers in this house, which is another great baking alternative.  Last year I found a recipe on Pintrest for the Softest Chocolate Chip cookies that is made with pumpkin and the husband loved them.  A few days ago a friend had us over for pumpkin pasta and gave us the extra pumpkin to take home.  Since we had a snow day I decided to use the pumpkin to modify the recipe I made previously and use Greek yogurt in lieu of oil.  I also used whole wheat flour since we always have some on hand but if all you have is all purpose flour that will work.

There is still sugar, that is hard to eliminate altogether but it is still less of what is in regular chocolate chip cookies.  Also I have never done the flour, baking soda and spices first like most recipes call for.  Mine is the lazy way of course.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup Greek yogurt

1 cup pureed or canned pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 pinches salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat together eggs and sugar.  Add Greek yogurt, pumpkin and vanilla.  Mix in flour, baking powder, salt and beat well. 

Greek yogurt and pumpkin... healthy cookies!

Once everything is mixed together add spices.  Stir in chocolate chips with a spoon, I never mix them in with the beater.  

Fall spices to give some kick to the pumpkin

Lately I have been just spraying a light sheen of PAM on my cookie sheet instead of using foil or parchment paper and it works just fine.  Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, the perfect time to take them out is right as the edges of the cookies are starting to brown.  I athink that many people ruin cookies by over cooking them.  Once the edges are starting to brown and pull them out and let them sit on the cookie sheet to set.

These cookies are very moist so they won't keep as long as regular cookies.  I also found they should be refrigerated.  I made just a few and froze the rest of the dough.

Snow Day

Yesterday morning we woke up to this

Shoveling a path for the pup

 Which meant just about everything shut down for the day in DC and everyone was home from work.  A friend of ours who lives a little less then a mile away offered to bring over Zing Zang and sausage if the husband would make biscuits and gravy.  

First of all, if you like Bloody Marys and you haven't discovered Zing Zang you are wasting your time with other mixes.  Not long after we started dating I had to go to New Orleans for a conference and the husband (the boyfriend at the time) came with me.  Everywhere we went we had the best Bloody Marys and we realized they were all using the same mix.  We looked for it all over in VA and DC when we got home with no luck but about six months later it started appearing in the liquor stores.  We actually realized the night before the snow storm we were out, so when our friend offered to bring it over in return for brunch we jumped on it.

Best Bloody Mary mix ever!

Despite the snow our friend made it over pretty quickly and she was rewarded for the trek and the Bloody Mary mix with this. 

Biscuits and gravy, bacon and fried eggs

 We try to eat healthy but once in awhile you have to treat yourself!

Hungry Girl Buffalo Chicken Dip with Old Bay

A couple years ago when we were first dating, I made my husband the Hungry Girl Buffalo Chicken Dip.  He loves it so I make it for special occasions, like for the Super Bowl last week.  I wouldn't say its healthy but its definitely a healthier option then a lot of the other dips and snacks.  Also it tastes great with veggies, I just cut up what we had in the fridge which was celery and green pepper.  We had some chips as well but mostly stuck with the veggies.

  When it's just us I make just half the recipe and for large parties I often double it.  The only change I make is using a chicken breast instead of the canned chicken the original recipe calls for and adding Old Bay.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast
1 (8 ounce) package fat free cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup Frank's RedHot original cayenne pepper sauce
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup fat free ranch dressing
1/4 cup fat-free Greek yogurt

Old Bay Seasoning

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place cream cheese in a medium bowl and stir until smooth. Mix in Frank's RedHot, mozzarella cheese, ranch dressing, and yogurt. Stir in chicken until thoroughly combined. Spoon mixture evenly into a deep 8-inch by 8-inch baking dish.  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until mixture is heated through.   Sprinkle Old Bay seasoning on the top for extra flavor.

Buffalo Chicken Dip with Old Bay sprinkled on top

The veggies make it healthy right?

Wordless Wednesday

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Sriracha Chicken Salad with Greek Yogurt

In our house we love Greek yogurt, we always have a tub of it in the fridge.  We use it when we cook Mexican food instead of sour cream, in dips and I have started using it in my baking.  Lately the husband has been using it more in his cooking to replace mayo and cream.  Last week he roasted a chicken and we still had leftovers we needed to use.  For lunch this weekend, it was chopped up and mixed with mayo, greek yogurt, celery and sriracha.  We still included a little bit of mayo to give it the tang that you are used to in chicken salad.

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast

1 Tbsp Light Mayo

4 Tbsp Non-fat Greek yogurt

1 stalk of celery

Sriracha (season to taste)

Chop up the chicken breast and celery and mix in the mayo, yogurt and sriracha.  I used it to make a sandwich with a toasted potato bun and pepperjack cheese.

Healthy chicken salad

Chicken salad sandwich

Honeymoon Day 8: Pompeii and Naples

We woke up Monday morning ready to move onto Sicily for our second week in Italy, but first we planned to head to Pompeii for the morning.  We packed up our room and headed to town to catch the Circumvesuviana for a 30 minute ride out to Pompeii.  It was much less stressful without our luggage.  The train was still crowded but not packed since it was late morning.  When we got off at the Pompeii stop we were approached by a lot of people offering tours but we made a right once we got off the train and headed to the entrance of Pompeii.  There are certified tour guides near the entrance and we almost went with one, he kept trying to add more people to keep the price down and the whole process was taking so long we decided to go on without him.  We ended up going with just the audioguides which worked for us, but I would recommend getting a tour guide if possible.

We headed into the entrance and up to a sort of town center where there were multiple alters to the gods and where some of the artifacts are housed.  We quickly realized that Pompeii was much larger then either one of us expected, which is what made me wish we had a tour guide.  I learned about Pompeii in school and read up on it before we went but I didn't really appreciate until we got there that it is truly a city and you can explore a lot of it.  I think I expected that we would only have access to a small portion of it.

View of Pompeii from the entrance

Artifacts dug up from the site

A lava cast of one of the victims

Alter to one of the gods

After we realized how large an area there was to cover, we pulled out a map and made a plan of what we wanted to try and see.  There is a cafeteria where you can get a decent lunch so we did that next before we did a couple hours of sightseeing.  There are several bath houses and brothels that can be toured as well as a theater.  We did a few times get turned around since roads would be blocked off for different reasons and we would have to work our way around.

Bathhouse 

Painting in the town's largest brothel

Looking down one of the city streets

Stairs to nowhere

Oven and mills used to grind wheat

 We spent about two hours walking around to different sites taking in as much as we could.  Our last stop before heading home was the amphitheater and forum.  We enjoyed walking around and fortunately had decent weather for it.  If you are nerds like we are I would recommend to anyone traveling to that part of the world to visit Pompeii.

Greek theater

Forum

By that point we needed to head back to Sorrento and get our luggage.  It had long been decided we would need to find a different way back to Naples then the Circumvesuviana.  An American couple we talked to had taken the ferry from Naples, we decided that made sense since we would need to get to the port anyways to catch our overnight ferry to Sicily.  We took a cab to grab our luggage from the hotel and then headed to the port.  We bought a ticket for the next ferry to Naples, they run pretty frequently even in the off-season and headed to a cafe at the port to wait.

The commuter ferry to Naples was large and comfortable, we were one of maybe 10 people on a ferry that could easily hold 150.  We were able to sit by the window and enjoy the bumpy ride to Naples.  When we arrived at the port we did have trouble finding our ferry.  We asked several people by showing them our tickets who tried to help but we ended up walking further then we needed to with all our luggage.  Eventually we found the office for the TTT ferry and checked in.  Since we had a couple of hours to kill we paid to leave our luggage with them and struck out to find pizza since we were in its birthplace.  I was a little nervous because we had a lot of our valuable items on us and I had read the worst part of Naples was of course by the port and it was dark.  We walked a few blocks and found a pizza place where we sat down for a Margherita pizza, which of course is known for being red, white and green like the Italian flag.  It was delicious, they don't mess around with their pizza in Naples.  

So good

After that we found some wine at a local store and headed back to the ship.  The overnight ferry was one of the parts of the trip that made me the most nervous.  We were decided to go to Italy I looked at our options and I thought the ferry made sense.  The cost of cabin was around $200 which was only slightly more then we were paying for hotel rooms most night so the overnight travel was almost a wash for us.  It took off around 9pm and landed in Cantania on the east coast of Sicily around 7 in the morning.  

When I started looking into our options though I found good reviews for the TTT ferry.  The English translation on the website had been shaky though and I was nervous even though I thought I had booked us an exterior cabin for two that we would have strange roommates or something else unexpected.  Flying from Naples to Sicily was another option but we wouldn't have saved the cost of a hotel room for Monday night and it probably would have taken more of our time since most of the ferry trip we were sleeping.  We got on the boat, which had a lot of people bringing cars on board since there is no bridge from Sicily to the mainland of Italy.  It became obvious quickly that we were probably the only Americans on board, if not the only native English speakers.  It very much had the feel of being off the beaten path, which made it an adventure!

We were the only ones in our room which was just like a small cruise ship cabin, with bunk beds and a small bathroom.  The ship was a bar and we also realized the cheaper tickets we had seen online literally bought people space on the boat and there were a lot of men camping out on bench seats.  

View of the cabin from my bunk

Slot machines in the bar

We sat in the bar for awhile before heading back to our cabin.  The ferry was not a bad way to travel to Sicily since we were able to get a good night sleep while traveling.