Chocolate Banana Pudding Cupcakes with Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting

Oh, yes.  I love it when the recipes that get hypothesized in my THC haze turn out to be just as tasty and  delicious as I ever hoped they would be on the first trial run.  This idea came about from a classic case of "what do I have in my cupboards and refridgerator?"  I have a habit of collecting dry goods that I find on the on the cheap, so I had a couple of packets of banana pudding and some chocolate cake mix hanging out for a while...waiting for a birthday or some attack of the stoner sweet tooth.  

Ingredients

1 box Chocolate Cake mix

   +  ~2 eggs and some milk (whatever the box says)

8 oz whipped cream cheese

4 oz. Nutella or Nutella knock-off (Fantastico!!)

3-4 oz banana pudding

A pastry bag, icing syringe or some other type of goo-injecting device

Directions

Follow the directions on the cake  mix box for cupcakes.  When the cupcakes are done baking, let them cool for at least 30-40 minutes so they are room temperature.  Mix Nutella and whipped cream cheese together in a bowl and set aside.  Pull a syringe full of banana pudding and inject ~1/2 oz into the top of the cupcakes.  (This is so you can cover the hole with the frosting).

Then spread the Nutella-Cream Cheese frosting on top and enjoy your moist little surprise puddin' cakes!!!

                          

Stonerific Dessert Plates

If you dare to venture out in public...

Having a food blog turns you into one of those people that takes a picture of everything you eat before putting it into your mouth.  I'd like to to think that I spare you of my every intestinal traveller, but I will say that my camera is way overloaded with food photo shoots.  Some of them from restaurant foods that I was fortunate enough to be served.  I noticed that I had several shots from abundantly ridiculous dessert foods, so I decided to share them with you.  I hope they inspire you and make your salivary glands sweat!

Sekisui: Choko Maki Dessert Sushi

(pictured above)

This was the perfect combination of varying colorful and sweet foods presented in a creative display.  And you can eat it with chopsticks!  The "rice" element is made from a flattened and rolled Rice Krispy treat.  The middle consists of fresh banana, coffee chocolate mouse and cookie.  Strawberries, drizzled chocolate and shaved white chocolate decorate the top of the roll.  It was fun to share for my friend Emily's 29th birthday.  

The Melting Pot: Cookies and Marshmallow Dream Fondue

Mmmmm.  I've been meaning to acquire a fondue pot for a while.  

FONDUE POT = EASY, MELTY, CHEESY AND CHOCOLATY DELICIOUS STONER FOOD.  

This is from another outing with my friend Emily.  We opted for just cheese and chocolate for dinner with a bottle of wine.  The place is kind of pricey, so forgoing an entree was our way of keeping it cheap. 

Our fondue pot was filled with dark chocolate, marshmallows and chocolate and creme cookies (think Oreo like).  Our plate was full of wondrous things to poke and dip: bananas, cherry cheesecake, brownies, dusted marshmallows, rice krispy treats and strawberries.  (Hmmmm...kinda similar ingredients to the sushi).   Yum Yum  Fun.  

Pricci: Dessert Sampler

Oh, how I love thy gourmet dessert plates.  This particular gem was found at Pricci, a fairly upscale Buckhead restaurant where I celebrated my mother's last birthday with a group of old friends.  This one is DEFINITELY for sharing, and worth it for the communal dessert-gasm noises.  Featured on this plate were: 

Tiramisu (classic)

Zuccotto (Chocolate Cake with toffee & rasberry-hazelnut mousse) 

Cherry Almond Tart (it was warm!)

Prosecco Peach Jello 

Toffee Almond Clusters

-and chocolate n' caramel were squirted ever-so fancifully over the whole plate-

That's all for now.  If you have any stoner-approved food porn pics from a dish that you've been served, feel free to send them my way so I can post them!  

Loaded Veggy-Sausage & Black Bean Nachos

Is there a more excellent stoner food then Nachos?!?!  I think not.  They're crunchy, salty, cheesy, full of flavor and topped with sour cream.  AND you get to eat them with your hands!  Plus, they're quick and easy to make.  My only problem with nachos is that they tend to get soggy and difficult to eat after a few minutes, but I think I've got that bit figured out by heating up the soggier toppings separately and adding them at the end.   

Ingredients
4-5 handfuls of tortilla chips
4 oz Pepper Jack cheese, sliced
1 tbsp garlic, chopped or minced
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup black beans
1/4 cups ground sausage (fake or real, the fake kind is pictured above)
~10 cherry tomatoes sliced in half or 1/2 regular tomato diced
1 banana pepper sliced (the jarred kind is fine)
1 tsp chili powder or taco seasoning
1 tbsp oil or butter
hot sauce
a dallup of sour cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Saute onions and garlic in oil or butter in a frying pan over med-high heat.  Add ground sausage and cook for 5-10 mins.  Add black beans and chili powder and stir in until entire mixture is hot.  (I happened to have some chipotle hummus in the fridge and I added about 1 tbsp in with beans).  Keep this mixture warm as you prepare the chips.  Place the chips on aluminum foil on a baking sheet.  Place cheese, tomato and banana peppers on top of the chips. Place in oven and watch closely-- 5 to 8 minutes is all it should take to melt the cheese and slightly brown the edge of the chips.  Transfer the chips on aluminum to a plate and add spoonfuls of the bean and sausage mix.  Finish with a dallup of sour cream in the middle and hot sauce to taste.

Grilled Gouda on Raisin Bread

The first time I ever experienced anything like this was in The Netherlands.  I lived and worked there several years ago, and this sandwich (ungrilled) was in the vending machine at work and was also a common sandwich to find at sandwich carts and shops.  It was just gouda on a raisin roll, but I'd never thought to put cheese on sweet bread.  It's delicious!  I've been craving it for the last several days, so I bought some cinnamon raisin bread and some young gouda and decided to grill it up.  It's a simple combo, but tasty and works cold or grilled.  I was trying to think of a condiment to add and I almost put some tomato chutney on it, but the chutney also contained raisins and I didn't want to go overboard with the raisins.  If I had some mango chutney I think that could've made it something worthy of blowing minds.

Ingredients

2-3 slices Gouda

2 slices of cinnamon raisin bread

1/2 tbsp butter

Directions

Make a sandwich with the cheese and bread.  Spread butter on outside slices of bread.  Grill in a frying pan for 5-10 minutes on medium heat until bread is browned and cheese is melty.  

Mmmmmmm.....cheese.

   

Chocolate Hazelnut Smeared Strawberry Toaster Pastry

I've been working on some ideas to improve upon the simple toaster pastry, or Pop Tart if you will.  I like to keep it clean and use the Nature's Path brand pictured below.  I've got a few Toaster Pastry recipe ideas up my sleave, but any suggestions are welcome, just drop me a line.

I thought I'd start with a simple improvement by adding some off-brand Nutella from Italy called Fantastico (yes, thank you Big Lots) to the top of  the pastry, as if it were a slice of toast.  The result is a warm strawberry-chocoolate-hazelnut treat that far surpasses the lone tart.

            

Ingredients

1-2 Strawberry Toaster Pastries

~ 1-2 tbsp Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

Directions

Toast your Toaster Pastry (or Pastries) and then spread Chocolate Hazelnut spread on top! You could even go nuts and sprinkle the top with, well, nuts!  (or shredded coconut or sprinkles or those silver ball bearings...)

yum.

Everything Bagel with Cream Cheese and Fried Egg

It's Sunday.  That means a heady breakfast that doesn't require changing out of my pajamas.  To me, an Everything Bagel with cream cheese is the shit.  Throw a fried egg on top of that and it becomes a bad-ass stoner brunch you can eat with your hands.  I use Nancy's Cream Cheese --made by Ken Kesey's family at their dairy out in Oregon.  Check them out, they have a very colorful history!  You can find it in most Natural Food stores.  It contains probiotics which gives it a tangy kick, and even though it's still creamy, yummy and cheesy it's more environmental and a little bit healthier then the average cream cheese.

Ingredients

1 Everything Bagel

a heap of Nancy's Cream Cheese spread

1 egg

butter or cooking oil

salt and pepper

Directions

Heat up cooking oil or butter in frying pan over medium-high heat.  Crack egg into pan.  After dropping egg in pan, place bagel in toaster.  Spread cream cheese on toasted bagel then plop egg on top.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  (I eat mine open face with just half a bagel, but sometimes add the second half on top to make a sandwich).  Sink your teeth in.  Sit back and enjoy the day.

Ravioli Pizza

The concept for this pizza was conceived and carried out within an hour.  I couldn't decide if I wanted pizza or ravioli for dinner, so this delicious creature became my ingenious solution.  I had my pie and ate it too.

You can make your very own Ravioli Pizza.  It's easy.  Just make pizza like you normally do, and add some cooked ravioli on top before you throw it in the oven.  I used a trio of spinach, porcini mushroom and roasted red pepper raviolis for this pie.

A few tips I learned from my 1st Ravioli Pizza trial run:
1.  Let the cooked ravioli sit and dry out for 10-15 minutes after you cook it.  Pat dry if need be.  I didn't and thus there was some extra wateriness in the pasta.

2.  Place some cheese on top of the raviolis so the raviolis don't burn.  I used slices of fresh mozzarella and I experimented by placing some raviolis partially under the slices and some out in the open.  The raviolis began to brown a little too quickly.  It would be easiest to use a shredded or thinly sliced cheese to cover the raviolis.

3. Don't eat the normal amount of pizza you usually do.  These slices were heavy.  I thought I could handle two.  I could not.  I had to walk around my house like Paul Newman's egg-eating ass in Cool Hand Luke.

Ingredients
Pizza stuff
Raviolis

Directions
Make pizza like you normally do, and add ravioli.  You could even use frozen pizza (just put some extra cheese on top halfway through the cooking process).

For this pie I mixed pesto and vodka sauce together for the sauce, fresh mozarella, onions, tomatoes, and a few dashes of kalamata tapenade.  Here's some pics...