Pistachio Cupcakes

Ever since I fell in love with pistachio macarons, I haven't been able to go back to making almond ones. I just love pistachios! They have such a great taste, and are so versatile. I'm now attracted to any desserts that include pistachios, or "pinashios" as my dear little niece calls them.


I'd been waiting to try this pistachio cupcake recipe for so long now. But when I excitedly bought pistachios in St. Louis, I realized to my dismay that no one I knew there had a food processor or way to grind them. So I returned the bag and waited till I got home.

A Midwest Vacation with Effects

On my recent trip to St. Louis, for some reason I thought Joe only had one exam. Turns out he had three spread over the week. It was a blessing in disguise though, because I hardly ever cook and tend to stick to desserts. But since he and his roommate were too busy studying, and his roommate's girlfriend was also sick, I forced myself to get used to making actual meals. I made breakfast, lunch and dinner, and still found time for desserts!

Blueberry Muffins/Cupcakes

This is going a bit backwards since this is one of the last recipes I made in St. Louis...  I had a pretty good trip besides the fact that I planned my dates horribly and landed up in the midst of Joe's exams. Not smart. But thankfully he is because he did great on all of them despite me being there! I had to learn to cook actual meals instead of desserts all the time since he didn't have time to cook. It was interesting. I'm glad I have more recipes under my belt now. It's so midwestern housewife of me but I did make a really great meatloaf on one of the nights...!


Joe and his roommate generally buy a box of huge muffins from Sam's but those look so calorically dense and a bit stale. I decided I wanted to make them fresh muffins so they'd stop eating the store-bought crap. So I bought a bag of frozen blueberries but then I didn't get to use them for a week since I had other things to make and do. The bag proved to be quite useful though, since we used it as an ice pack for his roommate's girlfriend and for me when it was needed :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I finally did it! I'd had this recipe on reserve for months, but I don't like uncooked cookie dough much... until this cupcake. The frosting on this cupcake tastes exactly like cookie dough, I kid you not! I didn't think I'd like this but I really really did. I made the original recipe to the T which makes 24 cupcakes. I was wondering what I was going to do with 24 since I usually have trouble just getting rid of 12... But once people discovered these, I had to sneak away enough to take to STL for Joe and friends!
My family loved it, my friends loved it, and even the concierge in the building loved it. :)

Nutella Banana Swirled Muffins

Mm, I saw someone post this online and I had to try it. I have mixed sentiments about bananas. I don't know how I feel about them in desserts, but I don't think they're bad. They're great for a mid-meal snack. My mom would put them in milkshakes, but I quickly got tired of that. And I find banoffee (sp?) odd... Anyway, this still sounded like a great breakfast snack to me, probably because of the inclusion of nutella. I made it with whole wheat flour so that it would be denser and a little bit healthier.

This was so quick and easy to make.
I got the recipe from here, but the blogger never lists banana in the recipe! So I just assumed it was 1 medium sized banana. Mine wasn't overly ripe yet but I still liked the way it turned out. The recipe tells you to divide the batter in half and put nutella in one half. Then swirl them together in the pan. So cute!