Eggless Chocolate-Coffee Cupcakes

Cupcake batter:
1 and ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup strong black coffee (or you can use 1 tablespoon instant in hot water)
1 tbsp white vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil

Frosting*:
2 and ½ cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
6-10 tbsp heavy cream
Heart shaped chocolate chips for decoration

Instructions

1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees
2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, salt and vanilla in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl mix coffee, vinegar and olive oil.
4. Combine wet ingredients with dry ones mixing with a spatula. The batter will not be very thick. Do not overmix.
5. Share into 12 cupcake liners and bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Let them cool down before frosting.
7. For the frosting; sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl.
8. Beat the butter about a minute and gradualy add sugar and cocoa powder.
9. Pour heavy cream and continue mixing.
10. Top the cupcakes with the frosting and decorate with heart shaped white chocolate chips.

*As a warning - the frosting recipe makes about 2-3x more frosting than you need for the cupcakes. It's also super thick so expect to add more cream to thin it out than what I have listed. I've used a different amount each time aiming for a texture that's spreadable

Garlic & Almond Green Beans

I have a thing for green beans. I know I do. You know how I know? Because I love eating them! So much that I'm making another post about... GREEN BEANS!

I know, crazy.

These ones are made different than my last recipe (which was all about sauteing). These...are blanched. Depending on who you talk to - they may be over or under blanched at that. But who cares, make them however makes you happy.

Ingredients
2-3 pds of Green Beans, ends trimmed
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tablespoon salt
6 quarts of water
1

Instructions
1. Bring the water to a boil and stir in the green beans and 1 tablespoon of salt. Cook the green beans 2-5 minutes until slightly tender (but still with a bit of crispness left). Basically - don't boil them so long they go utterly limp, no one likes limp green beans.

2. While the water coming to a boil, melt the butter in a saute pan and add the garlic. Saute garlic for about a minute then add the almonds.

3. Drain the green beans and rinse under cold water to halt the cooking process. Then throw them back in the pot. Pour all that delicious garlic-almond butter all over your cooked green beans and toss to coat evenly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Congratulations, you have just made yourself delicious garlic-almond green beans. If you want to play around the recipe consider adding fresh rosemary or thyme. Maybe some red pepper flakes if you like spice. Or if you're me, just keep increasing the garlic until you reach your limit...whatever that is.