Last night Beka and I were in dire need of bestie time.

The last few weeks have been stressful and exhausting – so we remedy it with baking. The beauty and tragedy of girls being stressed leads to cravings… but I firmly believe that when we have those outrageously stressful days and we crave food (sweet and salty food anyone?) – we have the power to create wonderful food.

Beka’s idea was fudge with pistachios. C’mon, that’s right up there with chocolate covered pretzels, french fries dipped in soft serve ice cream, or M&M’s in popcorn.

It was simple enough to make the fudge, 2 bags of chocolate chips to one can of sweetened condensed milk. Top it with a cup of pistachios and you’re ready to go!

And in betweenst the heating of the chocolate we whipped up a stress-busting comfort food – Pronto Pups. These little biscuits are tradition in a good many households I’m sure, ever family giving the their own name – but in my house growing up they were Pronto Pups.
Delicious artificially cheese filled dogs wrapped in Big n Flaky Pillsbury Cresents. How can you lose? 
Maybe it was just the stress talking, but at the time these were a GREAT idea!

But back to my original point, that the sweet and salty of the fudge with pistachios was the perfect combination. 

Seeing as the last few weeks were really stressful, they also called for Red Velvet Cupcakes. I’m a diehard for Paula Deen’s Red Velvet Cake and Bobby Flay’s Cream Cheese Frosting, but after flipping through on of the MANY cooking mags Ms. Kandace has brought over in recent weeks, these Red Velvets with Mascarpone Cheese frosting really caught my eye.

Beka was having fun playing with my camera and actually managed to get Huck to sit still for a while – miracle anyone?

So noble…(giggle)

Again I’ve segway-ed – so back to cupcakes. 
These turned out deliciously. They may actually be my new favorite.

The mascarpone wasn’t exactly my cup of tea though. It seemed like a good idea, seeing as it is a cream cheese like consistency but the flavor just didn’t give the same zing, bang, or boom that cream cheese frosting gives you.  
These were just a little too sweet for my liking. Fuzzy slippers on my feet aren’t exactly how I roll. 
But needless to say, the stress has been relieved and it was an all in all success with my bestie.
And I’ve got left over sweet and salty chocolate fudge. Life is good.