October 31, 2009
Have a Happy Halloween with Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
I just had to pop in today and post these cupcakes that I made on a whim last night. They are so good and super easy to make. And I have to tell you, they’ve kind of changed my world view. Or maybe just my…food view?
Anyway, on twitter last night someone posted that pumpkin and chocolate should never go together and until I made these, I totally would have agreed. In fact, this whole month, I’ve been turning my nose up as pumpkin flavored anything. I don’t know when I got it in my head that I don’t like pumpkin, but I think it’s just one of those things that I decided as a kid and I never challenged it. I’ve been overcoming a lot of these prejudices lately, it’s a wonder I ever ate anything with how picky I was!
I had read about the pumpkin shortage that is going on and despite the fact that I don’t ever make anything with pumpkin in it, when I saw a big can of it at the grocery store a few weeks ago I couldn’t help but buy it. I just felt it was something I had to do. What if I find a recipe that calls for it and I can’t find anymore at the grocery store? I’d have been kicking myself for not buying it when I could, right? Well…maybe not, but this is how my mind works.
October 25, 2009
Orange Cinnamon-Raisin Swirl Coffee Cake (AKA The GIANT Cinnamon Roll)
Late last week I finally got the island I ordered for my kitchen, which adds almost 4 glorious feet of counter space, so on Saturday I had an itch to break it in with some type of fun recipe that involved rolling out dough. Scanning through my cookbooks, I saw this recipe and it definitely fit the bill. I wound up modifying it to fit the ingredients I had in my pantry (mainly I substituted raisins for figs and added cinnamon and ginger), but it turned out really, really good.
And seriously, what’s not to love? It’s a giant cinnamon roll. Let me say that again: a cinnamon roll the size of a cake! It’s taken a lot of effort to eat this thing like an actual cake (ie you cut a small section from it) instead of just unrolling and eating the whole thing the way I usually eat cinnamon rolls.
October 15, 2009
Black and White Cake Cookies
I’m finally back from my little hiatus. We’re settled into our new apartment in Virginia and I’m ready to start cooking again. I was ready to start last week but after two things I tried to bake burnt to a crisp and set off the smoke alarm, it became apparent that the oven was broken. Luckily, the maintenance guy was able to fix it after he ordered a new part and now my oven stays at the right temperature (which I verified with an new oven thermometer, I’m not taking anymore chances with burning the house down).
But while I work on getting some new recipes under my belt, I wanted to finish posting things that I made this past summer. You may have noticed I have a thing for black and white desserts (see Black and White Chocolate Cheesecake Supreme, Black and White Cupcakes and Cheesecake Brownies), so when I saw Black and White Cake Cookies in my new Cooking Light cookbook, I knew I had to try them.
September 25, 2009
BBA Challenge: The European Trifecta (and some other stuff)
I’m still here! I just looked at the date on my last post and realized I haven’t posted anything since Sept. 1 and I can’t believe it’s been that long. This month has been a wash due to the fact that I’m moving. Again. Less than a year after I moved back to Orlando. Ugh. But I’m moving to the literal greener pastures of Virginia, which I’m extremely happy about it because it suits me much more than Florida ever did. We weren’t planning to move but my boyfriend found a new job in Charlottesville and we both hate Florida, so it seemed like the best decision for us, despite being incredibly inconvenient. We’re moving up there next week and once I finally get settled in my new apartment — which I chose entirely because of it’s large, well lit kitchen — I’ll be able to start cooking again and posting regularly.
But first I thought I would give an update on the BBA Challenge since I haven’t posted about it in forever. I’m still plodding along with it, though most people …
September 1, 2009
Pineapple Upside Down Cake Frozen Yogurt (no ice cream maker required!)
Thanks to twitter I recently discovered it’s possible to make ice cream without an ice cream maker. I honestly had no idea this was possible and have been actively contemplating buying an ice cream maker this summer after seeing so many great homemade ice cream recipes. But then my popcorn popper died (after weekly use for almost 2 years it was worth it’s $30 price tag) and I decided it was much more important to replace it than to buy an ice cream maker. But just as I had given up on being able to make ice cream, someone on twitter complained about not having an ice cream maker and another person replied with a link to instructions for making it by hand. I did some googling and found some more tips. Turns out it’s really easy. No, not as easy as pouring it into a machine, but for the most part with this method you are letting your freezer and a hand mixer do all the work, so it’s still not especially labor intensive.
First, I had to decide what …
August 26, 2009
Lasagna Rolls with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
This is a fun one! I recently got a new Cooking Light Cookbook
The dish is fairly easy to make and doesn’t take too long to prepare. You prepare the three different components separately (the noodles, the cheese filling and the sauce) and then you combine them. I was weary about the sauce since I’m still in the process of accepting peppers into my life after years and years of shunning them for no good reason (ahh, the logic of a picky eater), but in the end …
August 20, 2009
Light Strawberry-Lemon Muffins
img class=”centered” src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2463/3840762246_ddca3e4635.jpg” alt=”Light Strawberry-Lemon Muffins” width=”500″ height=”376″ />
Well, summer is almost over and strawberry season has ended, and every time I go to the grocery store they always seem to be having a sale on their strawberries, obviously trying to get rid of them as fast as possible. But looking closely at the strawberries, many are bruised or mushy and just don’t look that great. Definitely not something I’d want to display on a strawberry tart. But I have a hard time passing up such a good deal, so I buy these sad looking strawberries and immediately freeze them when I get home for use in smoothies or granita.
But sometimes this means I’ll look in the freezer and see that I have way too many strawberries. I came upon this recipe a while ago when I was looking for a recipe to use up some of these strawberries. It’s pretty much the easiest recipe in the world. You mix up the wet ingredients, including the strawberries, in a blender and combine that with the dry ingredients and you’re done. It’s takes about 5 minutes to make these.
