The Perfect "Mix" Cupcake

Cupcakes are IN right now.  The Food Network has the Cupcake Wars show and it seems every blog has featured at least one cupcake recently.  There are so many gourmet recipes that I decided to try making some.  My main goal was to practice icing these babies so I could make some for the girls' birthdays and not need to say "OH, Misses Mia and Aisey helped ice them . . ."

I decided to start with a basic recipe.  I found this one at Saucy's Sprinkles.  Hint - it uses a cake mix!  YAH!  She has an entire tutorial.  I'm just gonna toss the ingredients on here.  I loved this batter; it did not resemble cake mix batter at all.  I will be making this one again for when I need cupcakes quickly.

The Perfect Cupcakes (using a mix)
~ adapted from Saucy's Sprinkles

1 cake mix
3 large eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup water

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl.  Mix on low 1-2 minutes, scraping down bowl.  Mix on high for another minute.  Scoop batter into cupcake pans.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Cool completely prior to icing.

dandelion

It's finally warming up here and that means our lawn is turning yellow from dandelions!  So, what's a gal to do but pick 'em and make cookies????


This is a great recipe to create with your toddler!  Miss Mia was able to pick the flowers, rip them apart, measure the flour and oatmeal, break the eggs and mix everything together.  Even better was that she enjoyed eating the yummy result of her labor!

I will admit, I won't "crave" these cookies, but I will make them again.  They smell great when they are baking, are chewy and are just sweet enough to be a treat.  Plus, it's always fun to tell people they are eating the one plant with which most people are at war!

Dandelion Cookies
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup unbleached flour
1 cup (dry) oatmeal
1/2 cup dandelions

- make certain dandelions picked have not been subjected to any type of lawn treatments (or 'treatments' from your pets)

Tear dandelions apart.  For this recipe, you will only use the yellow flower part, none of the green outer edges.  There were enough dandelions in my pan for a triple batch of cookies, so if you have large dandelions, you won't need too many!

Preheat oven to 375.  Blend applesauce and honey.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Gently stir in both the flours and the oatmeal as well as the dandelions.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake 12 minutes.

Linked to:

Tatertots and Jello

Pumpkin Muffins

I know I've posted another Pumpkin Muffin recipe . . . but that one was a "lazy" recipe.  This one is more of a from scratch, "real" baking recipe.

Pumpkin Muffins

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar
1 tsp honey
1/2 c applesauce
2 cups pureed pumpkin*
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour**
2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

In large bowl, cream butter, sugar and honey.  Add applesauce and pumpkin.  Mix.  Slowly add flour, cinnamon, soda and salt.  Mix until moist.  Turn mixture into muffin pans (ice cream scoop will make consistent size muffins).  Bake at 350 for around 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

* can use canned (NOT pumpkin pie mix) pumpkin in place of pureed pumpkin.
** can use 2 1/2 cups regular flour instead of the 1 1/4 each mix - muffins will be lighter.

Garlic Herb Bubble Loaf

I will be baking this again . . . . if only for how WONDERFUL it made the house smell!  YUMMY!

Garlic Herb Bubble Loaf

~ adapted from Taste of Home's Quick Cooking September/October 2000

1/2 cup warm water (70-80F)

1/2 cup sour cream

2 T butter or margarine, softened

3 T sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups flour

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (I used bread machine yeast)

Garlic Herb Butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 tsp each of dried oregano, thyme and rosemary, crushed

Place the first seven ingredients in bread machine pan.  Select dough setting and check dough after 5 minutes, adding 1-2 T water or flour, if needed.  When dough cycle is complete, divide dough into 36 pieces.  Shape each piece into a ball. 

In a bowl, combine butter, garlic and herbs.  Dip each ball into mixture; place in ungreased 9x5x3 loaf pan.

Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes (or oven set to "warm" with shallow pan of boiling water on bottom rack). 

Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm.

Yield:  1 loaf

Linking to:
Gluesticks

Golden Honey Pan Rolls

Miss Mia snapped this picture.  The minute anything comes out of the oven, she runs for the camera - even if it's a basic cake mix or a store bought pizza!  I think I've created a monster!

My meat 'n potatoes Dad requires bread with every meal.  So, I pulled out the trusty bread maker and attempted some recipes.  This was a pretty good recipe and I may attempt it again.  I loved the taste of the honey baked into the rolls.

Golden Honey Pan Rolls
~ adapted from Taste of Home's Quick Cooking September/October 2000

1 cup milk (at room temp) (I used 2%)
1 egg
1 egg yolk (keep the egg white for the glaze!!!!)
1/2 cup canola oil
2 T honey
1 1/2 tsp salt (I used sea salt)
3 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (I used breadmaker's yeast)

Glaze:
1/3 cup sugar
2 T butter (or margarine)
1 T honey
1 egg white

Put the first 8 ingredients in bread machine pan.  Select dough setting (checking after 5 minutes and adding 1-2 T water or flour, if needed).  When cycle is complete, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface.

Punch it (yahhhh!!!).  Cover dough and let rest for 10 minutes. Divide dough into 24 pieces; shape each into a ball (it helps to flour your hands).  Place 12 balls in each of two greased 8 inch baking pans.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes (or put oven on warm (170 is what my oven calls warm) and place a shallow pan of boiling water on bottom rack.  Place baking pans of rolls on top rack, cover and let rise until doubled.  Remove water and rolls from oven and preheat oven to 350.).

For the glaze, combine the 4 ingredients and drizzle over dough.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Brush with additional honey if desired.

Yes, I PAPERED My Floor!

I know, I know.  This is a blog about my cooking.  BUT I had to share this with you.  It was a fun project and it turned out pretty dang awesome, should my opinion count for anything.

My basement is getting converted into an office so Miss Aisey will (one day soon, PLEASE) have her own bedroom.  Needless to say, I wanted my office to have something other than just boring old cement. 

The one part of the room is very high traffic and I knew that carpeting would be ruined in days, floating floor clawed to pieces in hours by the doggies and painting the cement just seemed B-O-R-I-N-G!

Then, one Sunday, a blog update landed in my Inbox.  Someone had decided to "paper" their basement steps.  It looked neat.  Better, it was CHEAP!

So, I decided to go for it.

Yah, my 28 x 32 foot room - just a little bit larger than the woman's staircase!  I'm still waiting to learn my lesson on "biting off more than I can chew!"

But I digress.  The papering of the floor is a simple process.  It also goes quickly.  I did split my project into two weekends - a newborn is kinda needy, so I didn't get as much accomplished the first weekend. 

I recommend lots of ventilation! Oh, and if you plan to do this, get used to people telling you that you are insane or that the project isn't going to work.  I cannot begin to tell you how many people told me I needed help, the project was a dumb idea, or that I was wasting my time and money.  When we started, I was afraid, but it is beautiful.  AND there are so many combos . . . I'm thinking of trying other paper for in my sewing room!

Paper Bag Flooring
Ingredients:
1 roll contractor paper
1 gigundo jug of Elmer's Glue
2 gigundo cans of Polyurethane
1 old ice cream bucket
Old Clothing

(I purchased the paper, glue and polyurethane at Lowe's.  Home Depot's site said they had it all in stock, but they didn't.  I asked the woman in the paint section for the Elmer's Glue in a large size as they only had a small bottle like we'd use at school - she said Elmer's had quit making that size years ago.  Once again, WHY did I bother with HD?  I have NO LUCK with that store and always leave there so frustrated.)

The Hubby pretending to work on the floor.

Clean the floor, removing any dry wall paste, etc.  Mop it again for good measure.

Riiiiip!

We cheated here - we didn't use paper bags from the supermarket.  We would've needed WAY too many for such a large room.  Instead, we just purchased a roll of contractors paper when we picked up the glue and poly.  (Note - we actually needed two rolls.  Instead, I ran out and had to use paper bags and packing paper.  I recommend the contractor's paper.  It is heavier and makes it so much easier to work with when wet).

Rip up the paper.  I liked going with all sorts of shapes and sizes.  If you want, you can make your rips uniform.  It just won't be as rewarding to "fit" them together, covering the floor.  Place the paper with the factory straight edges in one pile and all of the rest of the paper in another.

Crumble the paper into balls. 

Make a mix of 3 cups water to 1 cup glue.  Stir well.  Drop a few paper balls in the water.  Pull out a ball and squeegee the water off.  Lay it on the floor and press all of the air bubbles out.  Continue with next ball until floor is covered.  Use the factory edge pieces of paper for along the walls/stairs.  Be certain to overlap pieces of paper to ensure coverage of cement.

Miss Picky loved putting a lot of gluey water down, and then complaining about it being gross.

One half of the first half of the room . . . yah!

Watching the floor dry.

A close up of the floor as it dried.

You can see how the left half is dry and the right half is still wet.

Let the glued down paper dry.  For us, it was around 12 hours - we have radiant heat.  I suggest having a dehumidifier close by the room as well as our room was very humid by the time we were done from the amount of water/glue we used!

After the paper is dry, roll on a coat of polyurethane. 

Let it dry (it was around 3 hours for us).  Apply 6 more coats of polyurethane, letting the floor dry between coats.

Floor can be walked on in 24 hours from last coat of polyurethane and furniture can be moved in after 7 days.

This is the side that we had to use other brown papers as well. 

Miss Aisey enjoying the new floor while we did some more work on the room.

 Some thoughts after having done this:
- if part of the floor gets damaged, just get a new piece of paper, slap on some gluey water, put over damaged section and then polyurethane it!

- packing paper is HORRIBLE.  It is way too thin and dissolves in the water.  It is not pleasant to use in this project.

- You CAN break out from too much gluey water on your arms!

- Polyurethane does NOT wash off of your clothing.

- You will realize there are many muscles in your body that you do not usually use!

Linking up at:

tatertots & jello

Lavender Loaves

This recipe is very close to the Lavender Pound Cake I made for my return to work, but I think I like the Pound Cake a little better.  The loaves taste like a pound cake with no real hint of the lavender flavor.  Plus, I just like the glaze on the Pound Cake better!  This is a simple recipe, so I won't be quick to put this in my "not-so-much" pile, but it won't be my "go to" recipe when I'm craving some lavender.

I think this recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens, but the ripped out page has no little tag in the corner like most magazines AND no page number!

Lavender Loaves
~ adapted from Better Homes and Gardens (I think)!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 T dried lavender
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup light sour cream
1/4 cup 1% milk

Drizzle:
1/4 cup water
1 T dried lavender
3/4 cup confections' sugar

Heat oven to 350F.  Spray two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 5/8 inch loaf pans with cooking spray.  Mix flours, baking soda and salt in medium size bowl.  In a large bowl, beat butter, lavender, sugar and vanilla until fluffy, bout 3 minutes.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.  Slowly add 1/3 of flour mixture, 1/3 of sour cream and 1/3 milk.  Beat after each grouping has been added.  Divide between pans.  Bake at 350F for 55 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool on rack 10 minutes before removing from pans and cooling completely.  We enjoyed one loaf without making the drizzle.

To make Drizzle:
Microwave water and lavender for 30 seconds on high.  Let steep 5 minutes.  Strain out lavender and discard.  Whisk together 4 tsp of the lavender water and the confections sugar.  My lavender soaked up all of the water, so I had to actually add more water, microwave again and steep another 5 minutes.  Drizzle over both loaves.  Slice and serve. 

~ Makes 2 12 slice loaves;  approx 227 calories

Penne-Wise Pumpkin Pasta

I'm not certain what I think of this recipe. I had decided to make it because I had all of the ingredients. I also thought it was a somewhat healthy new way to enjoy pasta . . .

I didn't hate it.

But, it isn't a meal I'll ever "crave".

It won't go on our meal plan, but I wouldn't NOT make it again, should I feel like enjoying some pumpkin in my main meal one evening.

Penne-Wise Pumpkin Pasta
~ adapted from rachel ray magazine

1 pound whole wheat penne rigate
2 T extra virgin olive oil
3 shallots, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, grated
2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
15 oz pumpkin puree
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
2 pinches ground cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
Pepper
grated parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the EVOO in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, pumpkin and cream. Add the hot sauce, cinnamon and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper. Lower the heat and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.

Toss the pasta with the sauce and pass around the parmesan cheese at the table.

Flour Substitutions

CONFESSION!
Have I said before that I NEVER actually read over the entire recipe before I make something?  Seriously, I'll glance at the recipe and think "oh yah, I should probably get ingredients a and d . . ." and then, impulse will strike prior to me buying them, so it's off to the computer I run.  There are TONS of suggestions for what/how to make substitutions, so I usually read over quite a few of them, average the amounts together and come up with what I use as MY substitutions.

Self-Rising Flour
- to make two cups of self-rising flour, use 2 cups all purpose flour with 3 tsp baking power and 1 tsp salt

Cake Flour
- to make 1 cup of cake flour, use 3/4 cup all purpose flour with 2 T cornstarch

All Purpose Flour - Whole Wheat Flour
- substitute up to half of recipe's called for all purpose flour with whole wheat flour (i/e recipe calls for 2 cups of all purpose flour - use 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)

Meaty Moussaka

The Hubby really liked this meal!  Miss Mia liked it as well - she called it "CHEESE!"

Meaty Moussaka
~ adapted from EveryDay with Rachael Ray

4 T butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 pound ground beef
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
salt and pepper
8 oz tomato sauce
2 large eggs
2 T whole wheat flour
1 cup 1% milk
4 oz low fat cream cheese
1/2 cup reduced fat ricotta cheese

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons butter over medium high heat.  Ad the onion and cook until softened, 3 to 5 minutes.  Add the beef and cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the cinnamon and nutmeg and season with salt and pepper.  Add the tomato sauce and cook 3 to 5 minutes.  Pour into an 8 inch square baking dish and set aside.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs and set aside.  In a small saucepan, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter over medium high heat.  Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking often, until the mixture is smooth, about 30 seconds.  Slowly whisk in the milk until thickened.  Lower the heat to medium and stir in the cream cheese and ricotta; season with salt and pepper.  Whisk one quarter of the cheese sauce into the reserved eggs until smooth.  Whisk the egg mixture into the cheese sauce in the saucepan.

Pour the sauce over the meat in the baking dish and spread evenly.  Bake until the top is lightly browned and firm to the touch, 40 - 45 minutes (mine took about 55 minutes to brown).  Let cool for 10 minutes; cut into squares to serve.

Recipe states it is 4 servings; It was more like 6-8 servings in our house.

This can be prepared ahead, covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 3 days.  To reheat:  discard plastic wrap, cover with foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes; uncover and bake for 10 minutes more.

To freeze:  cover the moussaka with plastic wrap and freeze for up to 4 months.  To reheat:  discard the plastic wrap, cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours; uncover and bake for 15 minutes more.