2013 New Years Resolution............ A little late!

Okay so even doing this post late is fitting because for 2013 I am really going to try and be better about blogging and keeping up with any comments (but I still don't think people read this blog - maybe if I actually blogged.........o catch 22 you get me every time!) I am also going to try and take time in taking my pictures and not oooooooooo last minute, hit someone's hand out of the way, and grab the iPhone type of picture.  Let's hope this goes well................

So Happy 2013 to All!

Beating the Heat!

Okay I have written this post twice (once last year and once again this year) but I have never posted it because BOTH times I forgot to take pictures!!!!! I am not a cook, I just don't like it and I am a vegetarian. However, even knowing this Las year I decided to throw a BBQ Memorial Day weekend on my small patio. I made enough food for a small country, seriously it was ridiculous. I don't think 1/4 of the food was eaten. However, one thing that went like hot cakes was my Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches. I am not sure if they went so quickly because it was ridiculously hot, I just love that DC is in a swamp, or because my air conditioning decided to break, or maybe it was because they were that delicious. I actually had some left over and they stayed very well in the freezer. I just made my Chocolate Chip Cookies (with minature chocolate chips) and after they cooled put some (melted because it was 1001 degrees inside my apartment) Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and froze them over nite. Even after the BBQ was over I still had a lot left but they were good for the rest of the week and a great treat just to grab out of the freezer!!

O a little tip I learned from this food extravaganza: the deep, disposable lasagna containers are awesome for cooking a ton of marinated veggies on the grill. This way I didn't have to sit there and skewer for hours!

So no picture but just imagine these cookies with an ice cream scoop size of ice cream in the middle!

Cheers with a Cupcake!

Of course as soon as I came up with the idea of a margarita night I started thinking about what I could bake; seriously I don't think I could have done any better since this had not only the cute factor but the delicious tasting factor. It was a huge hit. A lot of the margarita cupcake recipes I saw used tequilla either in them, glazed on top, or in the cream cheese and I really wanted one that did not have any tequilla in it because I knew we were going to have enough delicious margaritas and one of the girls who came was pregnant.

I made cupcakes out of this recipe and it came out to be 12 normal size cupcakes and about 8 minis (I do not use wrappers for the minis). O I messed up and forgot to add the lime juice to the cupcakes so at the last minute before they went into the oveN I sprinkled it into each muffin tin and then mixed it. The recipe below had a cream cheese recipe with it but not everyone seemed to love it and I knew I had an amazing cream cheese frosting recipe so I altered it to be a lime cream cheese frosting. I used the bottled lime juice because I am lazy. I ended up putting a lot of frosting on these (which everyone loved) and then sprinkled green sprinkles on top to look like green salt. I also cut straws down to size and used part of it to be a straight straw and then the bendy part too ( I had to cut both sides). I also bought some of the lime fruit salad slices and cut them in half for the big cupcakes and in thirds for the minis.


So happy with the way these came out. People took some cute pictures like they were drinking out of the straws :)

MARGARITA CAKE
(Source:Allrecipes)


INGREDIENTS

1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix (I used a golden butter recipe cake mix)
3 egg whites
1 (10 fluid ounce) can frozen margarita mix (such as Bacardi®), thawed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon grated lime peel
1 tablespoon lime juice

DIRECTIONS:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13-inch cake pan or a cupcake tin.

- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cake mix, egg whites, frozen margarita mix, vegetable oil, lime zest, and 1 tablespoon lime juice. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center shows moist crumbs, 30 to 35 minutes. If you do cupcakes about 15-20 minutes. Cake will be very moist. Cool in the pan.



LIME CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
(Source: Alexis)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2c. of unsalted butter (softened)
2- 8oz. packs of cream cheese (softened)
3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tbsp of Lime Juice (might need an extra 1 to 2 tablespoons based upon on thickness and flavor)
1/2 of a lime grated

Directions:

- Cream the butter and cream cheese together and then add the powdered sugar, lime, and lime peel. If you need to make it thinner use some more lime juice - I think I used an additional tablespoon but of course didn't write it down!

Easy and Delicious Guacamole

As I have said before I like to bake but not to cook so of course when I started planning margarita nite I planned the drinks and the dessert but did not think of food. The day before having everyone I was talking to my coworker and said that I couldn't decide if I was going to buy guacomole or make it fresh. Her husband is Mexican and in turn has become an excellent Mexican cook so she said that it was sooooooooooooo easy that I had to make it myself.

Even though I had no idea how to peel an avocado (I tried to use a peeler and then ended up just tearing the skin off but later she said the easiest thing to do is cut it in half and take the pit out and then scoop out the insides) and no idea how to actually cut and mash an avocado it came out delicious! (I think I might be really picky about guacamole because I either love it and that's rare or hate it because it reminds me of a face mask but this one is a love). She said I could use a potato masher to mash it up but if it is not a baking tool I do not have it, so I ended up cutting it a little bit and then acting like I was a 4 year old and using my hands to mash it, I left part of it chunky.

Also, the originally recipe was for 4 servings but I ended up doubling it but instead of using 4 tomatoes I used 3 and not quite 1 cup of onions. Everyone kept raving about it and the 5 of us destroyed it! (I bought regular tostitos and the whole wheat scoop ones.)

From searching the internet I learned a little trick that is helpful and impressive once your friends hear about it; take an avocado pit and stick it in the middle of the guacamole until it is time to serve it, it will help it from turning brown.

I apologize for the bad iPhone photo!

GUACAMOLE
(Source:allrecipes)


INGREDIENTS

3 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed
1 lime, juiced (I used 1 Tablespoon of bottled lime juice)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup diced onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)


DIRECTIONS

- In a medium bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt. Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes, and garlic. Stir in cayenne pepper. Refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor, or serve immediately.

Bucket of Deliciousness!!!!!

I decided to host a margarita girls night in the honor of my neighbor who was getting married. Well things didn't go as planned and instead of having 10 or so girls we had enough food to feed that many and had like 4 of us. o well more food for the rest of us! A few years ago I hosted a margarita night and I just remember spending most of my night in my kitchen making margaritas so I wanted a recipe that was easy and delicious and that is when I stumbled upon the Bucket of Margaritas recipe. This is a DEFNITE winner and keeper. I made 2 batches at once and kept it in a big plastic jug but some other people suggested making it and storing it plastic baggies. I took it out about 25 minutes before people got there and it took awhile to defrost but it was slushy and delicious (and a little strong). This is definitely a recipe worth keeping because not only is it delicioud but you can enjoy your guests too.

The second recipe I ended up using primarily as non-alcholic margaritas, one of the girls is pregnant so why should she miss out, and I made it with about a can and half of water. However, after she left I poured the rest of it into our glasses and added the Tequilla and Cointreau into the glass. One of the girls mixed the two and said it was delicious.

Bucket of Margaritas

(Source: allrecipes)

INGREDIENTS

4 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups tequila
1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen limeade
1/2 cup triple sec (orange-flavored liqueur)
1 whole lime, cut into 6 wedges

DIRECTIONS

- Mix the water, tequila, limeade, and orange liqueur in a freezer-proof container with a lid; stir.

-Cover and store in freezer until it reaches a slush-like consistency, about 24 hours. Serve in glasses garnished with lime wedges.


STRAWBERRY MARGARITAS
(Source: allrecipes)

INGREDIENTS

1 (10 ounce) package frozen strawberries
1 (6 ounce) can frozen pink lemonade concentrate
1 cup tequila
1/4 cup triple sec
ice cubes (I actually didn't use any because I kept it pretty thick).

DIRECTIONS

- Place strawberries, lemonade concentrate, tequila, and triple sec in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add ice cubes as needed.

Minty Deliciousness!

Since I am so far behind let's talk about Christmas...............in February! For the past few Christmases I have made boxes of cookies for neighbors and our priest at Church. For the past few years I have been using the same basic cookies and then usually added one new recipe to the box. This year I was craving some chocolate and mint (for some reason mint means the holidays to me!)

Aunt Nettie's Cookies

Thumbprint Cookies

SOFT MINT CHOCOLATE COOKIES
Source: all recipes)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter (no substitutes)
3 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

- In a microwave or heavy saucepan, melt butter and chocolate; stir until smooth. In a mixing bowl, beat sugars and egg; add buttermilk and peppermint extract. Beat in chocolate mixture. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually add to sugar mixture. Let stand for 15 minutes or until dough becomes firmer.

- Drop by tablespoonfuls 3 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

All About the Desserts.....I mean Babies!

Wow I really might be the worst blogger ever! Some of it is laziness and some of it is using new recipes and then losing them! I promise to be better. In October I helped throw a baby shower for a very dear friend from college. It was wonderful because her mom, sister in law, mother in law and another college friend helped out but let me do all the desserts. I was a little nuts, what's new, and over baked way too much but everything came out great.  People asked if it was a job or a hobby, I wish it was a job but not even sure if they were that amazing. I am proud to say that not only did everything looked good but everything tasted amazing!!!!

First was Red Velvet Cupcakes with bright blue cream cheese (it's a boy!).

I also made them in mini size! Which were a big hit, less guilt and just as delicious!

I also made cheesecake pops that came out great except I did keep them in the freezer before hand so they defrosted at the party.   I made them once before with Daring Bakers but I used a different recipe this time. They were super impressive at the party and a great hit.  I stored them in large plastic cups in the freezer so this way they could stand up as they were drying.The recipe I used this time is below.                                                                                                                 

These are 3D solid chocolate baby bottles that I made out of a chocolate mold. They werent perfect but everyone loved them and I did too!

CHEESECAKE POPS
(Source: Allrecipes)

INGREDIENTS:

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
24 lollipop sticks
10 ounces white confectioners' coating
miniature semisweet chocolate chips toasted

DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

- Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Mix in the sour cream and blend thoroughly, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour, vanilla and salt and mix well. Add the eggs one at a time, blending thoroughly before adding the next egg, but do not overbeat. Pour batter into a 9-inch springform pan.

- Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes or until the edges of the cake just begin to turn golden. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

- Use a small cookie scoop to scoop out round balls of cheesecake. Roll them into 1 1/2-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. Push a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Place the tray in the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.

- Melt the white confectioners' coating (or semi-sweet chocolate). Dip each cheesecake pop into the melted coating. Then dip into one of the toppings. Place on waxed paper until coating is set. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Store in refrigerator. (I store mine in the freezer)

BACK............AGAIN!!!

WOW!!! It has been forever since I have blogged and instead of throwing my hands up and saying I am done I have decided to come back to blogging. Since I have been back from Japan I have moved and redone my kitchen, I love all my new space and it is such a huge difference from my little galley kitchen!


So here it is what I have been doing:

THE KITCHEN:


Old Kitchen


New Kitchen

A FRIEND'S BABY SHOWER:
She didn't know what she was having so I made her favorite Red Velvet Cupcakes and made the frosting both pink and blue. I also made regular size and mini cupcakes. They were a big hit! I had sugar booties, duckies, and flowers to put on each one.

We did candy jars as favors:

BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES:
My officemate is not a chocolate fan so I made my lemon cupcakes and lemon frosting for his birthday. This time I let them cook longer and they came out delicious. In the earlier recipe I said to halve the cream cheese frosting so below is the halved recipe (enough for one batch of cupcakes). Sorry for the bad picture, they were the last cupcakes left!

LEMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
Source: Allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

- 1/2 of an 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
- 1/8 cup butter
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, lemon rind, and vanilla together until smooth and fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar in 2 additions. Beat until creamy. Add more icing sugar or juice as needed for easy spreading.

An Excuse and Travel Food!

Okay so I have been an AWFUL baking blogger lately, okay for awhile. It is a two part excuse, one part I have no idea maybe I haevn't been baking as much maybe I am lazy?!?!! The other part of the excuse is real......I was in Japan for almost 5 months and while I was there I baked a little (mostly old favorites) and I promise I will blog about the new recipes soon. But I was also doing a blog for my family and friends about my travel and that just took a longggggggggggg time. Now that blog is done, so is my trip, so maybe I can concentrate on this blog again!

Here is a food post from my travel blog.


Seriously why has it taken me so long to do this post. Unfortunately, not all the food I love is featured here but needed to show a few things. I will be honest and say that I have packed on a few pounds since I have been here; actually, every time I have lived abroad I have gained weight and I think that is because of being a vegetarian and compensating with carbs. Being a vegetarian can be hard, think about it if you aren’t eating meat what are you eating when you travel? In the states I have the lovely Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck as my dad calls it) but I always have difficulty outside of my comfort zone. Now this is where I could get extremely frustrated because my pants just don’t fit but I recently read something in a magazine that put it all in perspective (parphrased) “Instead of worrying about those last 5 pounds think about all the fun you had and the great food you ate to gain those 5 pounds.”

In Kyoto - I had some fantastic pees that were in this crunchy dough and some fantabolous dried fruit, seriously dried kiwi and strawberries!

OMG the fruit in Japan is HUGE! This asian pear was the size of my head, their peaches are the same way. The really cool thing is that they are sold with a foam protector.

On my last day of work in Sasebo Kaori bought me this awesome mini cake (even had its own ice pack with it!)

When I was in Korea Ryan and Holly introduced me to Tom n Toms Coffee, it is a Korean chain and o.......m...........g.............. this might be better than Starbucks! I know blasphemy but they have these pretzels that are made to order and the one below was sweet potatoe and cheese - I am salivating just thinking about it!

One nite when we were going back to the hotel Ryan, Holly, and I decided to stop and get a snack. Well I saw this ice cream that was "Sweet Corn" and I just couldn't say no because I was so intrigued. It tasted just like frozen sweet corn but honestly, I could not decided if I loved it or hated it and Holly was the same way. We both kept taking a bite and going hmmmmmmmmmmm not sure let me try it again!

A little bit out of the comfort zone...........

Wow let's talk about being MIA.........the past few months have been absolutely crazy. I am actually living in Japan right now, I moved here in the beginning of May and will be here until the end of September. I am living and working on a military base and so we had a potluck at work for the 4th of July. They decided to center the meal around KFC chicken and as we all know I don't cook! I am always the dessert lady; however, those options were already taken so what was a girl to do! I decided to make a salad and biscuits. They both came out excellent and I even put the leftover biscuits in the freezer. Delicious!

The biscuit recipe says it makes 8; I doubled the recipe and definitely got more then 16 but I also don't think I made them as big as the recipe calls for. Don't forget you can always freeze them and defrost them later because they are absolutely amazing warm!

The nite before the potluck, I got all of the ingredients for the salad ready but then prepared it right before the potluck at my desk. Therefore, I was stuck with my bowl and so I probably didn't make it to all of the measurements listed but it is a salad so you don't really need to follow a recipe - I just liked having one to have some guidelines.



CHEDDAR BISCUITS:

(Source: allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups biscuit baking mix
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons margarine, melted
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic salt

DIRECTIONS:

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet, or line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine baking mix, Cheddar cheese, and garlic powder. Stir in milk. Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Brush biscuits with melted margarine, and sprinkle with parsley and garlic salt. Bake for 5 more minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom. (I am getting used to a new oven so I subtracted about 1 minute from each of the times).





BEAUTIFUL SALAD:
(Source: allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

8 cups baby spinach leaves(I used 1 bag of spinach and 1 bag of 50/50 leaf mix)
1/2 medium red onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained (I think I might have used a can and half)
1 1/2 cups sweetened dried cranberries (I used craisins)
1 cup honey-roasted sliced almonds
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing, or to taste (I put it on the side)

DIRECTIONS:

- Put the leaves in a bowl and sprinkle a little bit of all the ingredients, while carefully tossing, and just keep mixing everything in. Beware, the almonds and cranberries will go straight to the bottom of the bowl!

Back with fun chips!

I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!! Between the holidays, family, work, and no computer I am finally back - not sure if anyone missed me but I missed blogging! When I was home I made containers of cookies for some family friends and for our priest and pastor at Church. I got these beautiful boxes at the dollar store, what a nice find! And they were filled with about 6 different types of cookies. Included were the Andes Mint Brownies that are always a huge hit.

I also made two types of cookies using my normal cookie recipe . I made one batch of cookies but split the batter in half and used Mini Chocolate Chips for one half and Cinnamon Chips for the other. The Cinnamom Chips came out great and definetly gave a little holiday twist to normal cookies.

Update and Cute Boxes!

I made the Lemon Cupcakes again but this time I left them in for 18 minutes and they didn't deflate!! They weren't super high but at least they weren't concave!

October is a very busy month for birthdays for me and since cupcake stores are all the rage in DC I decided to make my own, package them, and give them as gifts. Look at the cute boxes I got at Target!! I filled each box with regular size and mini Devils Food Cupcakes with Mint Frosting and the regular size Lemon Up Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese frosting. Though they weren't as pretty as the cupcake stores I think they tasted better and were big hits!! Happy Birthday to all October Birthdays!!

European Culinary Delights!

Last week I was on a much needed vacation to Germany and Austria! I had a fantastic time at Oktoberfest and then one of my closest friends and I went to Salzburg, Austria, then back to Germany to go to Berschegarten and Fussen. We ate, drank, and of course did some touristy things (Sound of Music tour was especially great!)

At Oktoberfest they love their food on a stick - corn with garlic butter, chocolate covered apples, and chocolate covered strawberries were some of our favorites! Radishes are huge over there! (WHO KNEW?!?!?)





Here are some of our culinary delights!


The authentic Salzburg Sacher Torte


Another view point


Apple Strudel from Hotel Sacher


Apple Strudel with a hot vanilla sauce (kind of like a thin vanilla custard)


Cheese Strudel with hot vanilla sauce - a break during our Sound of Music Tour


White Chocolate Fondue - not what we ordered but delicious!


So many types of pretzels!!! These were donut like pretzels!

Meme Time!

I just finished my first Daring Bakers Challenge and I have to say thank you to all the wonderful DBers out there who left comments! It really is a great group of people. Amelia from Diary from the Last Frontier sent me and other new DBers a meme today. I decided that I was going to follow in her footsteps and do it and tag some other Daring Baker newbies! Also, if you get a chance make sure you check out their blogs because they are all wonderful, including Amelia's!

The rules:

#Link to the person who tagged you.
# Post the rules on the blog.
# Write six random things about yourself.
# Tag six people at the end of your post.
# Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
# Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Now six random things about me:
1. I love baking but hate cooking!!! I don't cook at all!
2. I started baking as a challenge because I used to consider baking as cutting up the cookie rolls!
3. I DESPERATELY want a pug, I can't have one right now but that doesn't stop me from looking at petfinder all the time!
4. I LOVE reality tv!!
5. I have a slight obessession with Starbucks
6. The joy I get from baking is making other people happy! That's why I bake!

My six victims were chosen because they are Daring Bakers (well except 1) and I love their blogs!

Pineapple Princessa - Jess

The Hungry Housewife - Leslie

52 Recipes - Paula

Do Better - Karen

The Clumbsy Cookie - Rita

Modern Beet - Jen