Margherita Pizza

This weekend my mom and sister came up to visit. We had a blast! One day was spent at the beach taking my sister's senior pictures, another lounging around the house, and one of the last included a trip to Trader Joe's. A couple of my favorite purchases were the Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce (We love this on pasta. I've never liked store-bought sauce, but I buy two jars every time I'm at Trader Joe's. It's that good.) and a big basil plant. The two inspired me to make a fresh margherita pizza.

Here's what you need:
-1 box Jiffy pizza mix
-Fresh basil leaves
-About 2 roma tomatoes
-Roughly 1/2 pound mozzarella cheese (I like cheesy pizza, ok?)
-Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce

Here's what you do:
-Make pizza dough according to instructions on box. (make sure to pre-bake the dough for about 3 min. before adding toppings)
-Slice tomatoes and mozzarella into thin pieces and cut basil leaves in half
-Cover pizza dough with as much marinara sauce as you like.
-Add tomatoes, mozzarella slices, and basil until pizza is covered.
-Bake according to box.

What I love about this pizza: it's fresh, the crust is thin and crunchy, and the marina adds an extra flavor that many margherita pizzas lack.

Enjoy!

I Want S'more Cupcakes Please!

Sometimes on my way home from work I sing. Sometimes I reflect on the day. And sometimes I create really unhealthy food combinations like the one on this post.

I love s'mores! But since I don't have a campfire in my apartment, I have to get creative in order to enjoy the delicious combination of graham crackers, chocolate, and toasted marshemallos! This is how I created my own s'mores cupcake! It's very sweet, but oh so good! I had Jake take them to work so I wouldn't eat them all, and everyone loved them!

Here's what you need:

Graham Crust: (from All Recipes)

• 1 ½ cups finely crushed graham crackers
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1/3 cup melted butter

Vanilla Cupcake Batter: (adapted from Food Network)

• 3/4 cup self-rising flour
• 1/2 (plus a little more) cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsalted, softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Here's what you do:

Pre-heat oven to 350 F

Grease muffin tin.

Combine all ingredients for graham crust.

Press a thin layer of crust into each tray.

Bake for 3-5 min.

Batter:
Combine both flours.

Whisk butter until smooth.

Add sugar and beat until fluffy.

Add eggs until everything is combined.

Gradually add flour mixture, milk, and vanilla alternating. Mix until well blended.

Add batter into muffin tins filling a little over ¾ full.

Bake 20-25 min.

Insert one Hershey’s square into the center of each cupcake after about 15 min. of baking. Allow to finish baking until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool.

Add a spoonful of marshmallow cream onto each cupcake. Place 3 mini mallows on top. Broil until golden. (This is what makes this treat so good)

Add a Hershey’s square on top!

Enjoy!

P.S. I also made some with chocolate gnache... You can easily do this by creating a gnache, cutting a hole into each fully baked cupcake (Don't cut all the way to the bottom!), and filling it with the gnache. This makes it more like a dessert than a s'more.