When isn't a Picture Worth A Thousand Words?

When you have all TEN THOUSAND of your taste buds telling you that you must make what your eyes see!

I had this very thing happen to me the other night when I was reviewing my daily recipe emails.  The recipe popped up on one of them (I think it was Recipe.com)  and I after I saw the pic, I KNEW I had to make it.  The recipe and ingredients were pretty simple to find and execute.  (The lemon curd should be found with the jams & jellies at your local grocery store. I was at Whole Foods last night, so I picked mine up there.)


The recipe comes from the blog From Cupboard to Cupboard. I haven't had time to sit down and look through her other post and such, but it is on my to do list. The recipe is here for the Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes.  My recipe made 36 cupcakes.  I forgot to check my supply of powdered sugar before I began (yeah, I know...) so I only had 1.5lbs of the white stuff instead of the 2 it called for. But hey - it worked for a first try.  


The Taste Testers came to the kitchen to give their opinions.  Emma and Michael I knew would love them, but Joey was the one that I knew would give me his honest opinion.  Only because he does not like strawberries.   He called them "yodol-li-he-whooo good".  I informed him that they had strawberries in it and he told me they did not. So, I guess, I'll let him be in denial for a while longer.

Buffalo Turkey Burgers

It's spring break, it's raining and I'm craving a burger off the grill. Problem solved, I revert back to one of my favorite spring/summer go to recipes-a simple Buffalo Turkey Burger that I adapted from an old Rachael Ray recipe. I'm guilty of posting on Facebook what I'm cooking for dinner and tonight I saved a few friends from "trolling on Pinterest" for dinner ideas. However, this yummy burger left them wanting the recipe right then and there. 

Pinched for time and busy cooking, I snapped a pic of the recipe from my cookbook I made one year, tagged my friend and posted it to my timeline, so she could make it for dinner too. I cooked the patties on my new grill pan, then brushed them with Texas Pete Wing Sauce and a quarter of a slice of Pepper Jack cheese. I put the grill pan in the warm oven for a few minutes to let the cheese melt and the buns toast.

Then I served the burgers on toasted whole wheat buns, topped with light ranch dressing, lettuce and tomatoes alongside some fries. Add a Blue Moon beer and you've got yourself a pretty tasty dinner without a lot of effort! Enjoy!

Ma'am, do you have any bombs in your car?

Why, yes. Yes, I do! 

It's the famous question at the gates at any military installation when you're lucky enough to have your vehicle randomly selected and searched before entering. Luckily, enough I transported these bombs to a few friends on post without detection from the MP's (aka Military Police).

BOOM!

Irish CarBomb Cupcakes, a Guinness based chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache infused with Irish Whiskey piped into the middle and then topped with a vanilla buttercream icing that's been spiked with Bailey's Irish Cream.

Apparently, I stumbled upon the most wonderful thing according to my husband. Irish Car Bombs are his favorite bar drink and finding it made into a dessert put the icing on the cupcake for him. I've got to give all the credit to the Brown Eyed Baker for these sinful treats. In honor of St. Patty's Day, these cupcakes were a hit with everyone.

A few change ups in my version, I used an entire 12 oz bottle of Guinness Extra Stout,  ran out of sour cream and ended up using some light vanilla yogurt in addition to the remaining light sour cream I had in the container. I also cut the salt to 1/4 tsp because I used a cup of salted butter for the cupcake batter. 

I used Ghiradelli 60% Cacao bittersweet chocolate chips for the ganache, made the icing as called for with a ton of butter, Baileys and powdered sugar, well worth it in the end. These are going to be my new go to dessert recipe for special occasions. Enjoy! 

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes 

via Brown Eyed Baker

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Prep Time: 40 minutes | Bake Time: 17 minutes

For the Cupcakes:
1 cup Guinness stout
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

For the Whiskey Ganache Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons Irish whiskey

For the Baileys Frosting:
2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream

1. To Make the Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and beat briefly. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Bake until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.

3. To Make the Whiskey Ganache Filling: Finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then, using a rubber spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.

4. To Fill the Cupcakes: Using a 1-inch round cookie cutter (or the bottom of a large decorating tip), cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes, going about two-thirds of the way down. Transfer the ganache to a piping back with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

5. To Make the Baileys Frosting: Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until all of it is incorporated. Add the Baileys, increase the speed to medium-high and whip for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.

6. Using your favorite decorating tip, or an offset spatula, frost the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Store the cupcakes in an airtight container.

(Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Hello?????? Whew, thought you left me!!!!

I know you think I dropped off the face of the Earth since I haven’t posted in a very long time. I promise I am still here, just busier than what our past has ever been. My  family has become extremely busy with our 3 teens playing 3 different sports, so we may or may not have dinner at the same time. 

We did a Super Bowl party.  I didn't remember to take any pictures once we were done, but I did get one of Emma and Gracie finishing up the Ham Delights.  Jules made some pork and chicken Lumpias.  They were awesome.

Sometime in the past weeks, I made my Mom's Russian Beef.  This is really good on a cooler day.  We had it with some Italian Bread and a small salad. The bread was used to sop up the gravy the stew makes.

On March 4th, I made Steak Sammies and Fingerling Salt and Vinegar Potatoes.  The Steak Sammies began their creation after I watched an episode of Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee.  I took the idea and ran with it and created my own version September 4, 2005 and we have been loving them sense. To build the Steak Sammie, I pan fry up a minute steak or other thin type of steak that I sprinkle with some McCormick’s Montreal Seasoning. I place the cooked meat on either a potato roll or sliced Italian bread and top it with some caramelized onions and mushrooms and a smear of my Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing.

I am not sure who gave me the  Fingerling Salt and Vinegar Potatoes that was in my “To Try” recipe book but we gave it a shot.  They were okay, not something that I would make again. My family loves salt and vinegar potato chips, so that is why I wanted to try the recipe. The vinegar hits you in the back of the throat and is really overpowering.  I did use a 2lb bag of white, red and purple potatoes (shown in pic) only because I thought they were cool when I found them in the store.  I kinda hated that because we didn’t eat all of them and they were wasted.  Next time I will make something similar to them the next time I make Steak Sammies.

Yesterday morning I was asked to make sausage biscuits (again).  Back in January I found a recipe for making homemade sausage because all of the nitrates and other things found in commercially prepared sausage.  I have tweeted the recipe and came up with one that I use for sausage biscuits and my awesome sausage bread.  So, here is my recipe for Homemade Breakfast Sausage.

Last night, I made Onion Lovers Grilled Steak Kabobs with Crumbled Blue Cheese and Golden Butter-Crisped Spuds.  There is nothing that I will change to the kabobs. They were AWESOME!!!!  The potatoes matched well with the flavor from the meat, however, the next time we make them, we will cut the potatoes thinner.  This is because the ones that were thinner had a better butter crust than the thicker ones. Other than that, this meal will be done many more times.  (Sorry, no pic on this one b/c we were hungry and I forgot to grab my camera.)

Revamping some old favorites....

Dinner tonight came from little inspiration other than a bag of thawed chicken thighs and a container of Buitoni spinach tortellini from the refrigerated case at the store. I decided to revamp a few of our old favorites and put my new grill pan to good use.  

~Tonight's Menu~

Roast Chicken

Broiled Tomatoes

Lemon-Spinach Tortellini

Mixed Salad Greens with a oil & red wine vinaigrette

Sounds like I needed a few extra hands to help with dinner, but I did fine on my own. I marinated the chicken thighs in EVOO, honey and balsamic vinegar and a few spices, the same as I would for Roast Chicken and Pears. I omitted the remaining ingredients (craisins, pears, parsnips, etc.) arranged the thighs on my grill pan and cooked at 375* for about 40 minutes.  To make a Paula Deen favorite of mine, broiled tomatoes a bit healthier, I cut some Roma tomatoes in rounds, arranged them on a glass pie plate sprayed with non-stick spray and sprinkled salt, pepper & Italian seasoning over top and some fresh Parmesan cheese and cooked alongside the chicken about halfway through. 

This is about the time I sent my husband to the Class Six to pick me up the bottle of wine with the horses on it. He thinks I'm crazy asking for  a bottle of something called "Hot to Trot", but he came through. See? Having 14 Hands helping you in the kitchen isn't a bad thing. Check their website out at www.14hands.com and get a bottle shipped directly to you. The red blend was a great accompaniment to dinner tonight. So, I popped the cork, poured a glass and kept on cooking. 

I had thought about make one of my favorite dishes, tortellini spinach bake in a lemony-cream sauce from Our Best Bites, but forgot mozzarella cheese while at the store today. So I decided to make lemon-basil bowties that we love, but with fresh spinach tortellini and used fresh spinach in place of the fresh basil. I rounded out dinner with a huge salad of mixed greens, Roma tomato slices, sliced onion, sliced green pepper and topped with a classic oil and red wine vinaigrette. The vinaigrette is loosely based from an old cookbook that my Momma has called "Mama D's Homestyle Italian Cooking". There's a recipe in there for a tomato, onion and green pepper salad with a simple dressing/vinaigrette. It is so good, so I decided to add some mixed salad greens to it tonight and drizzled some oil and red wine vinegar on top. 

Tomato, Onion & Pepper Salad 

~from Mama D's Homestyle Italian Cooking

2 lg. tomatoes, sliced

1 lg. onion, sliced & separated into rings

1 lg. green pepper, seeded & sliced

salt & pepper to taste

1 tsp. basil

pinch of oregano

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 Tbsp of Parmesan cheese, grated

1/4 cup oil

Place tomato slices on a platter. Arrange onion rings on top. Garnish with green pepper slices. Sprinkle with basil, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic and cheese. Pour oil slowly over all. 

I hope tonight's dinner gives you all a little inspiration to revamp some of your old favorites. Enjoy. 

Whoa!! Where did we go???

Wow! Almost an entire 2 months have passed without a single blog entry. Where have we been and what were we doing? 

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I abandoned my kitchen for the month of February. The husband was away for some training and I fed my children pb&j's and take out for a month. YIKES! Not really, but I didn't cook and I mean dirty up 5 or 6 pots or pans with a full blown meal. We kept things simple around here and had cereal or sandwiches for dinner or I grabbed a protein shake and bowl of popcorn. Not the most nutritionally complete meal idea, but it saved on dishes. Who am I kidding! We ate off paper plates while the husband was gone. Pitiful as it may sound, it was nice to have some time off from cooking, but here I am back and revamping some recipes and making them a bit more "diet friendly". Yep, you read that right. The dreaded 4 letter word is back in my vocabulary. Last night's dinner was simple and easy enough on the waistline. We enjoyed a Chicken Cordon Bleu, steamed brown rice, some braised brussels sprouts from MtAoFC Vol. 1 page 451 and dinner was delicious. 

Other big news, I finally got my dutch oven, a cast-iron grill pan and panini press. 

I'm in LOVE with them both. I went with the Lodge brand in lieu of Le Creuset for a fraction of the price and both perform equally in the kitchen. The real test for the dutch oven is when I make Beef Burgundy again. Hopefully, we'll be back in our kitchens cooking and blogging again. Tonight we're having a salad of mixed greens and a Asparagus, green onion and goat cheese quiche. This recipe is great to double and make an extra to pop in the freezer for a night where you don't have much time to cook. 

Until next time....