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Peanut butter. It’s a debated food, as I’ve heard from most people that they either love it or hate it. And some are sadly allergic to it. If you couldn’t tell, I love it. It has such a strong, distinct flavor that is like no other. I feel so bad for those who have peanut allergies, as they can’t regularly eat something I think is a wonderful invention. I also feel bad because peanut allergies can be deadly, which is probably the point I should’ve mentioned first, but oh well. Anyways, if you’re a fellow peanut butter lover, these easy cookies are perfect for you.
Ingredients
1 ½ cups flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup peanut butter (preferably smooth)
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
¾ teaspoons baking powder
Preheat your oven to 350℉. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat the sugar (white and brown), peanut butter, and butter until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and egg, and mix until combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, and fold until combined.
Separate mixture into ¼ cup large scoops, and move onto a baking tray.
Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and use a fork to make indents on the top of the cookies in a square pattern.
Some love it, some hate it, but I love it. Pink and white are some of my favorite colors and hearts are just so cute to me. It’s a day to celebrate the love you feel for your partner or any of your other loved ones. You don’t need a significant other to celebrate Valentine’s Day in my opinion. Going out with friends and appreciating them and the love you share for each other is such a nice way to spend your time. Sure, you can show your love for another person any other day, but having a whole holiday centered around love can remind us to appreciate one another. And if you don’t have a plan to give anyone Valentine’s Day presents, then these adorable heart-shaped cookies are perfect for you.
Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (Remove 3 tablespoons of flour as well)
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon espresso powder
1 large egg
¾ cup unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
4 tablespoons water
¼ teaspoon salt
Food coloring (optional)
Sprinkles (optional)
In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and baking soda. Whisk until combined.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla extract, and mix until combined.
Pour the dry mixture into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
In the meantime, mix powdered sugar, water, corn syrup, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth for the icing.
Add your desired amount of food coloring to the icing, and mix until the color is the same throughout.
Preheat your oven to 350℉ and sprinkle flour on a clean counter to roll out your dough.
With a rolling pin, flatten the dough until the dough is about ⅛ of an inch thick.
Using a cookie cutter or knife, cut out cookies to the desired shape.
Place on a cookie sheet, and bake for around 10 minutes, or until cookies look golden brown (depending on size)
Place on a cooling rack and wait until completely cool.
Once cooled, use a knife to spread icing on the cookie and add your sprinkles. Place back on the cooling rack to allow the icing to dry.
With a story far away from reality, I chose the first book of the thrilling Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, written by Ransom Riggs, for this week’s Book Buzz.
Most of you have either seen or heard of the movie based on this book, which got incredible reviews back in 2016, starring Asa Butterfield, Samuel Jackson, and Eva Greene.
This story is a fantasy filled with deranged twists and turns cover to cover. To keep the imagery alive, Ransom Riggs included pictures and descriptions to help the reader see exactly what the character sees.
This fantasy follows a bland teenager named Jacob (Jake) Portman who lives in Florida. He views the world from a glass half-empty angle. He holds no value to anything or anyone other than his “deluded” grandfather Abe. Jacob’s grandfather came from Poland in the darkest depths of World War II, he took refuge in Wales along the coast. He was welcomed into a home made for children with added quirks to them.
The beginning starts with Jacob talking about his grandfather’s stories about the unique home he lived in, saying how unrealistic they were now that he was older. He brought up the pain he felt for being so foolish for believing such impractical fictions. Though Abe had photo evidence to back up his claims, Jacob always found a hidden truth to debunk it. The older Jacob got, the more he wanted to label his grandfather as sick and mental. Nonetheless, they had an unbreakable bond.
Working his retail job that he was hopelessly trying to get fired from, Jacob received a stomach-churning call from Abe asking if he knew where the key to his gun box was. Filled with certainty that he was just going through a peculiar episode, Jacob rubbed it off and lied saying he had no idea. Abe started to get restless saying something was after him, and that it was coming for Jacob next, making it easy for Jacob to believe that his grandfather was going insane. He still went to check on him anyway, only to find a costly riddle and years of therapy.
I always enjoy books that are followed by a movie, so I can point out what was left out and what was left in. This book is the start of a six-book saga. This story is deeply descriptive and makes it easy to paint a picture in your head. It has humor, style, horror, but most importantly, peculiarity.
Over the past few days, I went to the CKM library to pick out a book to review for this week’s book buzz review. I came across a book called I’m With Stupid written by Geoff Herbach. This novel creates a safe space for struggle, angst, and self-doubt.
Since we are starting the second semester out with a bang, seniors are grinding their teeth to leave high school. So I thought it would be fitting to find a book based on college fits and not-so-good fits.
This book is about a high school football phenomenon named Fletcher Reinstein. He is a national treasure and is the top pick for every college in America. His life is very public at such a young age in the world of sports. He went to school in a small town in Wisconsin, where everyone had certain expectations of him and where he should go to college.
The book does in fact start as a story about football and what it takes to be a jock going into college until about halfway through. He talks a lot about how he isolates himself thinking he doesn’t deserve someone to lean on and help him. A shoulder to cry on in other words. He constantly thinks of himself as a burden to others causing him to spiral very publicly causing the whole state to hate him eventually.
This character has a lot of baggage for someone who is described constantly as someone who ‘has it all.’ Gifted with all the righteousness a young man could have. He turns to substances to ease his worries. The whole book he’s in desperate need of someone else to worry for him, instead of talking he holds it all in at the risk of being that hellish burden he thinks he is.
This story brings an excellent reason for why there is no point in suffering alone at the cost of feeling like a burden. Everyone deserves to be heard, and everyone deserves to be seen without feeling judged or misunderstood. Isolating yourself at the cost of someone else’s feelings and expectations only brings hell down onto yourself.
This book can offer you guidance on how to surround yourself with good people who will listen because they want to. This book will also help you reflect on yourself on how to still be there for other people you care about, but it’ll also help you understand yourself.
This book revolves around the emotion and dialogue of two Irish characters, Marianne and Connell. Starting their story in January of 2011, they start with the typical stereotypes. Connell is popular, well-liked, shy, and easily embarrassed. Marianne is a loner, she has no friends and has no interest in creating any relationships with people her age.
In their final year of finishing school before university, there’s a relationship that forms between Connell and Marianne. Connell is a prevalent figure at their school and is terrified of anyone finding out about his relationship with Marianne. He goes into a frenzy of what his crappy friends would think and say about him. His past relationships were very public and out of line through gossip. Since Marianne was the ‘freak’ of the school he was even more paranoid that anyone would find out about them. Marianne on the other hand really couldn’t care less about anyone’s feelings besides Connell’s. She didn’t want to lose or upset him so she kept everything a secret. She was very aware that it was foolish and stupid. But she went along with it anyway.
Keeping their relationship a secret and under wraps, Connell and Marianne pretend to be strangers in their school. Passing by each other in the halls without making eye contact at the risk of Connell’s reputation.
Fast forwarding to university, everything seemed to switch. Marianne finally grew up and became more of the popular girl of the college. Connell slowly became more insecure and distant. They were still friends in a complicated way but valued each other nonetheless. Long story short, this book has insane emotional ups and downs, especially with the art of conversation. There’s a lot of power in what people say, especially when it comes down to how people feel.
This book was overall an emotional rollercoaster with many counts of miscommunication and held emotions. I feel as if this whole storyline tries to tell you that saying what you feel when you feel it is more valued than most actions. Not taking people for granted obviously and don’t be afraid to be unreasonable. In my opinion, I think this book should be called ‘The Delicacy of Conversation.’ regarding how private the words spoken between Marianne and Conell were.
The Prospector staff took a mini field trip to Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters on Freeport Blvd. Each of us tried something off the menu and have provided our thoughts:
3.5/5 stars
I ordered an iced “Mango Tango” tea from Chocolate Fish, this is my review:
I generally enjoy tea much more than coffee, so I opted for just that. Perhaps it was because I got it iced rather than hot, but I thought the flavor was bland. Not bad though, but for a drink called “Mango Tango” you’d expect more of a mango flavor. Overall it was very refreshing and I enjoyed it for what it was!
3/5 stars
Having passed by this place multiple times in the last few years and hearing many raving reviews from students, Chocolate Fish did not live up to its expectations for me. Maybe it’s because I’m not a big coffee nor tea drinker, but the only good thing about the place for me was the baked goods.
3.25/5 stars
I got an Iced Mocha and a Chocolate chip cookie, here are my thoughts:
I usually like chocolate and coffee. When I first received my items I thought they would be really good. However, when I tried the iced mocha I thought it was too strong and bland. It tasted a little too much like just water and mocha. But I still enjoyed it sip by sip. Then I tried the cookie. It was good but I would’ve preferred it warm. Overall, it was good but probably won’t get the same order.
4.5/5 stars
I recently had the pleasure of going out for a coffee run with my staff from the Prospector, and we had a blast. We all had some laughs, cries, and maybe even some delicious coffee. However, I cannot review what Chocolate Fish is known for because I did not order a coffee and instead, I ordered a Matcha ice drink. And it was quite delicious and it was not what I was expecting coming from a matcha. Though I love Japanese food and culture, I do not consider myself a Matcha individual, but I wanted to try something new. The drink was delicious! Though most people do not like matcha, I would say to give this one a try.
3.5/5 stars
Chocolate Fish is a comfortable cafe that offers a variety of healthy snacks and drinks. Although I failed to capture pictures of my two other items, I remembered to take a picture of the avocado toast I had ordered. Based on looks, the cafe was modern and chic, the interior consisting of blue, gray, and white. Upon looking at the menu, I was confused and impressed with the healthy beverages and food they sold. It was cold out so I wanted to order something to warm me up. I decided to get a hot cocoa with marshmallows and a blackberry scone. I never had a scone before, but I heard they were good. It was pretty dry, but overall alright. After my drink, I decided to get some avocado toast, which cost seven dollars. I was hungry so I decided to add an egg for an additional two dollars. Don’t get me wrong, it was tasty but not worth ten dollars.
2/5 stars
I got the green tea from Chocolate Fish. Here is what I thought about it: It wasn’t really my cup of tea, literally. I tried to sweeten it a little, but it didn’t make any difference. I don’t really enjoy regular tea and coffee like that only if it’s sweet tea or from Starbucks. But, my snack which was a croissant was really very good! I love croissants. I would’ve rather it heated or something but it still was good.
4/5 stars
I got a blended mocha and banana bread, which were both delicious. Here are my thoughts:
I wanted something sweet, so I opted for a blended mocha because I figured it would be like a frappuccino. It was not as sugary as I was expecting, but I still enjoyed it. The banana bread was my favorite part of the meal. It was heated up after I ordered it and had a subtle banana flavor, which complemented the chocolate chips in the bread too. Overall, my two choices paired very nicely and I had a great experience.
4/5 stars
I got a macchiato with caramel and banana bread. These are my thoughts on my order: I’d say the coffee was a 10 out of 10 with no doubt. I was kind of going for a Starbucks type of drink and it didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t too sweet, but it wasn’t too bitter or strong either. I’d say it was just right. On the other hand, I thought the bread would have more flavor, don’t get me wrong it did have flavor but not what I was expecting. It had something green in it, not sure exactly what that was. There were also chunks of bananas which I was not so big of a fan of. Overall it kinda disappointed me. I’d say I would go back for the coffee but for sure not the banana bread.
4/5 stars
I got the iced white mocha, and I was pleasantly surprised! I usually absolutely hate white chocolate, but the syrup they used didn’t really taste like white chocolate. It gave the coffee a nice creamy flavor, and it wasn’t too sweet. Plus, coffee usually gives me a stomach ache, but not with this drink. Overall, it was really good!
What’s more classic than a brownie? I’m sure you’ve seen thousands of recipes, but this one is actually worth making. A major problem I find with brownies is that they all taste the same. If it’s from a boxed mix or a bakery, the difference is negligible. But the main ingredient that elevates this brownie’s flavor is one thing: the brown butter. It gives a rich, nutty, caramel flavor to the brownie, which makes them incredibly addicting. So, ditch your old recipe and try these out for a change.
Ingredients
1¼ cups white sugar
¾ cup all-purpose flour
⅔ cup cocoa powder
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ cup powdered sugar
½ cup chocolate chips
A pinch of salt
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon espresso powder
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 320, and put butter into a medium saucepan to brown over medium heat. Stir constantly, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the pan. Continue to heat until the butter begins to boil and take on a brown color. Remove from heat and place into a large bowl to cool.
Whisk together sugar, flour, salt, espresso powder, and powdered sugar into a medium bowl and mix until combined.
Once the butter is slightly warm, add cocoa powder, and mix.
To the butter mixture, add eggs, water, and vanilla extract, and mix until combined.
Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, and fold in until almost combined
Add chocolate chips, and fold in.
Grease a baking pan with nonstick spray or butter.
Is there anything more festive than cinnamon-baked goods? I don’t think so. Apple pies, gingerbread, and of course, snickerdoodles, It’s the season for spiced everything. They just warm the heart and soul so incredibly well. These snickerdoodles should be able to make you feel warm inside as well.
Ingredients
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar (Plus 2 tablespoons for rolling)
½ cup brown sugar
2¾ cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon (Plus 2 teaspoons for rolling)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl, beat together brown sugar, white sugar, and butter until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla extract, then add eggs and beat until creamy.
In a separate, medium, bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt, and cream of tartar until combined.
Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture 1 half at a time, and mix until just before fully combined. Repeat with remaining dry ingredients until fully combined.
In a small bowl, add remaining sugar and cinnamon and mix until combined.
Make 2 tablespoons worth of dough into balls and put in the sugar mixture.
Since Christmas is coming up, what’s more festive than cookies that look like snowballs? These chocolate crinkle cookies are named such for their distinct crack in the center. These are perfectly dense, delicious, and decadent.
Every family has their own Christmas traditions and while my family doesn’t take Christmas too seriously, we make sure to have a fun time nonetheless. Most people celebrate Christmas on the 25th, but we celebrate on the 24th in the evening. My late grandpa did this, so we decided to keep that tradition in memory of him. My family keeps our gatherings small with only immediate family. Every Christmas, we always eat cheese ravioli in tomato sauce. Why? Well, honestly I’m not sure. No turkey, mashed potatoes, or anything like that. We do have the usual apple pies and cookies though. Whatever you choose to do during this holiday season, I wish you a happy holiday and a great new year!
Ingredients
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
A pinch of salt
½ cup powdered sugar (for rolling)
In a large bowl mix butter, brown sugar, salt, and white sugar until light and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla and beat until fluffy.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda until combined.
Now, add half of the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. Add
the other half of the dry ingredients, and mix until almost combined.
With a spatula, fold in the chocolate chips.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Pour your powdered sugar into a small bowl, and make balls out of the dough (about 2 tablespoons). Add them one at a time to the powdered sugar.
With your hands, roll the dough ball in the sugar until completely coated.
Repeat and place dough on a baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before eating.
Today I will be showing you how to make this delicious cheesecake that my dad and my aunts have shown me how to bake. It is a delicious but different kind of cheesecake, the recipe has been passed down to me by my family.
TOOLS:
• bowl
• mixer
• spoon
• store bought pie crust
• blender
INGREDIENTS:
• 5 eggs
• 1 condensed milk (as much as you think you’ll need)
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 1 bar of cream cheese
• vanilla extract (as much as you think you’ll need)
BEFORE MAKING THE MIXTURE:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
STEP 1:
Add in all the ingredients in a medium/ Large bowl
STEP 2:
Mix it all together with a mixer
If the consistency looks like this with cream cheese chunks in it still
STEP 3:
You get out a blender and pour it all into the blender so you get a better consistency of the mixture. Blend until you think it is good enough.
STEP FOUR:
Take out your pie crust, two of them
STEP 5:
Pour the mixture of the cheesecake into the pie crust evenly
STEP 6:
Once they are both evenly poured into the pie crust you can now put them in the oven, preferably the middle rack
STEP 7:
Bake for 45-48 minutes, you need to take it out and check on it once it hits the 45th minute and if it needs more time pop it back in for another 2-3 minutes
STEP 8:
Take them both out and let them chill in the fridge/freezer for a bit
