Spicy Sweet Grilled Pineapple Rings

Meat on the grill takes caveman like simplicity to prep yet seems to deliver so much flavor. If you have enough salt & pepper on your chicken or steak plus a little olive oil you're going to win every time.  Top simply prepared meat with these equally simple spicy sweet rings of pineapple & you'll think you're ready for the grilling version of Chopped.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 4 3/4-inch-thick pineapple rings
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4cup thinly sliced basil

Make it! (recipe from Rachel Ray Everday)

1. Preheat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat.
2. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and chili powder.
3. If you don't have a pre-cored pineapple cut your rings & punch out the core with a cookie cutter, or keep the core in they have surprising nutritious values. (If your rings break apart they will still taste good, so don't sweat it!)
4. Brush the pineapple and steaks with 1 tbsp. olive oil.
5. Sprinkle the pineapple with the chili sugar and season the steaks.
6. Grill the pineapple, 2 minutes per side.
7. Transfer to a plate and tent with foil until ready to serve.
8. Serve meat stacked with pineapple rings & sprinkle with basil.

The Baker Chick's Cinnamon Rolls

As you may know, it's more or less freezing outside. Earlier this week instead of going to the gym I made cinnamon rolls. When it's super cold out you really should just throw on your favorite soft pants, crank the oven & bake something sweet.

After perusing the internet & recipes by Paula Deene & The Pioneer Woman I came upon a new (to me) blog, The Baker Chick.  I immediately loved this blog & decided that her 90-minute browned butter cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting recipe was the one for me.

My one word of advice would be to read the recipe all the way through & to plan for a pan that the recipe calls for. I did not follow this advice & found myself with cinnamon rolls popping out of my pans! Fortunately, the outcome was still delicious, in fact dangerously so. After Chris & I taste-tested the fresh rolls out of the oven we knew we couldn't keep them in our house. I packed up two to-go containers of rolls to share with our teams of coworkers in the morning. There was no way we could have been trusted at home with them alone. They wouldn't stand a chance, we would have eaten them all!  Luckily our coworkers took care of the leftovers :)

Read more for tons of photos & The Baker Chick's full recipe. Be sure to check out her other recipes like these blueberry cinnamon rolls on the-baker-chick.com, too.

Double Tree Chocolate Chip Cookies

A co-worker made these cookies for my team & I long before I'd even tasted the original famous Double Tree Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I was instantly impressed & needed the recipe.  Since then I keep a stained piece of paper  in my mini recipe binder (that I've had since I was 12 ) with just the ingredients written down. I've made these cookies so many times that I have the process down pat, but I still need to double check my measurements - this is baking we're talking about after all.

There are four things that make these cookies as good as they are (besides the obvious chocolate chips & butter):

1. ground oats
2. cinnamon
3. lemon juice
4. the fridge/freezer

There is probably some kind of chemical reaction that happens - but I'm not going there because I'm not going to even pretend to know.  What I do know is that these cookies offer the perfect thickness & the right amount of yum to keep you making them over & over again.

Without further adieu, per Ms. Lindsey Barton's request, please click through to get the official recipe!

Blueberry Cobbler

After our shrimp boil we finished off the night with some fresh blueberry cobbler & ice cream (read: yum).  I came across this recipe that makes the basic cobbler a bit more figure friendly using a base of butter, greek yogurt, oats, sugar & whole wheat flour for the crumbly delicious topping (as opposed to the butter & sugar combo usually found in a cobbler recipe). I added some vanilla extract to the berry mixture & sprinkled some cinnamon on top of the crumbles.

You really can't go wrong with this recipe, be sure to check out SproutedKitchen.com for more yummy healthful recipes or better yet order the cookbook that's what I plan to do.

Peaches with Basil Sugar

I love the flavors of a mojito, sweet, citrus-y & refreshing.  But why should mojitos have all the fun? Theses peaches with basil sugar taste like a virgin mojito that you can actually sink your teeth into.  Take advantage of your local farmers market & pick up what ever fruit is in season, sprinkle some of this basil sugar on top with a squeeze of citrus & you've got yourself a fresh desert in no time.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup tightly packed fresh herbs (try basil or mint)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 lime or lemon
• fresh fruit 

Make it:

1. In a food processor combine herbs & sugar until it looks like green sugar.
2. Slice fruit & place on dessert dishes.
3. Sprinkle fruit with herb sugar & squeeze a lime/lemon on top of each pile of fruit.

Hot Molten Chocolate Cake

Everyone always has room for dessert when it's hot molten chocolate cake, with ice cream of course.  This dessert is not as hard as it looks to make but there is some love involved. It's not what I would call a call-me-maybe-dessert, this isn't for a first date.  This is for the date when you celebrate you first wedding anniversary. This is a you-count-big-time-in-my-book-dessert.  For those of you that I've made this for - you know who you are- & yes I'll make it for you again.

This recipe is built out of some I found online & through some basic trial & error.  But lucky you, you don't have to do the leg work because you get my full recipe after the jump, so read on for some more photos & the recipe!