what's cookin, good lookin? 2.0

 School has been majorly cutting into my ability to get in the kitchen, but I had a little bit of downtime in the last week so I made some new stuff and some tried and true stuff. Believe it or not, the tried and true stuff was WAY better than the new stuff...

Up first, carbonara courtesy of Rachael Ray. I am never a fan of watching Rachael Ray, but this recipe is to DIE FOR. It is a family favorite, and now I make it for Sam all the time. I'm not going to type the recipe all the way out, but let me just entice you: it has PASTA. and CHEESE. and BACON. and WHITE WINE. how can you go wrong? For my vegetarian friends, I imagine you could just omit the bacon (which we substitute for pancetta--its too expensive) or use a bacon alternative. Another plus?? It's a 30 minute meal!

My stomach is growling as we speak!

Next on the menu are Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes. I wasn't a huge fan of these. I found them on allrecipes.com, and they're big spiel was that you wouldn't need to frost them because there is a peanut butter cup inside. wrong wrong wrong. I made the recipe exactly like it said, but I thought the cupcake was really dry. It tastes fine, but I just think it needs a little something extra on top. I would recommend a chocolate icing, because you use peanut butter in the batter as well, so it would be overpowering if you used a peanut butter icing. If you like those cookies that I see around Christmas time with little chocolate kisses on top, you will like these!

Sorry for the blurry picture... thanks iPhone!