Just Let Me Cook

Chicken and Mushroom Wanna be

2011-02-23T05:32:00.001-08:00

This recipe was inspired by one of my favorite blogs: The Pioneer Woman! She makes amazing and delicious looking food! I was searching through her blog the other day and got some inspiration and here is what I came up with! Here is her blog address if you want to look her up! http://thepioneerwoman.com

Ingredients:

1 bone in chicken cut into pieces
½ onion rough chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
12 mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2/3 cup of white wine
2 cups heavy cream
½ box of noodles (anything you have on hand)
2 tsp. dried rosemary
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Now before I begin telling you the how-to….I must confess that when I made this tonight.. it did not turn out like I had hoped! You see when you’re in Italy, everything is in Italian! Seems like a simple concept till you go to the store and want to buy heavy cream but buy regular milk instead :( If you use milk, it will not work the same! Trust me I KNOW! Ha! So buy the heavy cream! Back to the how to:

How to:
Start with putting your chicken in a pot and covering with water. Turn the heat up high and cook till done. Also, preheat your oven to 375*F and butter a casserole dish-set aside.

While that’s cooking, chop up your onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Then in another pan, put about 2 Tbs. of oil and your onion and garlic in. Use about medium heat because you want your onions to get nice and light brown.

After browning, remove onion, add some more oil and add your mushrooms in. You can turn up the heat alittle here cuz you want your mushrooms to get nice and brown too!
*Don’t you just love multitasking?! *

Okay, at this point you should have brown onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Put these on a plate and set aside.
Now remove your chicken from the water. DON’T THROW OUT THE WATER!! Use this water to cook your noodles while you shred your chicken. **Once again multitasking!* Nothing special about shredding, just make it into bite size pieces.

Now to bring it all together! While your noodles are finishing cooking, using the same pan as you did for your onion and mushrooms, put it back onto high heat. Now pour your wine in. This is going to make a lot of noise and alittle smoke but don’t worry it will settle on its own.
Add in everything but the noodles at this point, so onion, mushrooms, heavy cream, chicken, rosemary, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer.

Once at a simmer, add your cooked noodles and toss to coat everything. Pour everything in your casserole dish and top with Parmesan cheese! Cook for about 25 minutes or till cheese is melted and slightly brown. ** Remember that my dish is not exactly like the recipe so your picture will look more like mac and cheese consistency than soup!* But if it looks like soup, it is still yummy, I promise! ha**

I like alittle extra pepper with mine and it is a simple garnish!

Serve with more cheese, a side salad or some crusty bread!
Enjoy!

Food Update!!

2011-02-19T05:02:00.000-08:00

Food Update!
Well lately I’ve been eating some yummy stuff. First was in my Traditions of Italian Food class. We made chicken with dill and almond. AMAZING! It was delicious and I’m definitely bringing it back to ya’ll.

Our next dish was sweet and sour eggplant. Not quite as good but still yummy. You can substitute anything for the eggplant: zucchini or squash whatever you like! The whole play on this dish is sweet and sour tones. These come from vinegar and sugar added. I really liked this dish and will bring it home to ya’ll as well!

When I was in Siena, we went into this cute pastry shop.

Beautiful creations right?! Now look at these?!!

Yep these are the yummy things I made in my dessert class, in an actual store…BUT I have made these!! So cool!! Haha

Also in Siena, was this random brown hut thing in the middle of Plazza de Campo. Turns out this place, fries little balls of tapioca, then tops them with more sugar! OMG, these are amazing! Worth the 6 euros just to get to Siena. They were incredible!

Last update: to my excitement, my piping skills are getting better!! Now please don’t judge to hard cuz they are by far not perfect but I think with alittle more practice I’ll be writing Happy Birthday on cake before you know it! Hahaha!!

Feeling Chilly?! Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup!

2011-02-10T05:48:00.000-08:00

This recipe came from 2 different inspirations! 1- Wedensday in my cooking class we didn't cook so I was craving alittle culinary pleasure. And 2 I keep hearing about all this snow going on in Texas so i figure ya'll could use alittle warming up! So here we go, chicken noodle soup from water to soup! It's amazing and will last you days!!

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken cut up into pieces (you can get this at the store. Just look for a chicken into 8 pieces)
3 stalks of celery
2 carrots
1 medium size onion
1 bay leaf
1 stalk of rosemary
3 whole peppercorns
1 chicken or veggie boulon cube
pasta of your choosing

How To:
Take a large pot, put all ingredients (except noodles) and cover with water. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and let cook for 2 hours. *You can totally leave this going and go to class or run some errands, just make sure the heat isn’t too high and you’re golden.
After 2 hours, strain broth into another pot and cut up all the veggies into bit size pieces and shred chicken. Remove peppercorns and bay leaf-throw away Then put all back into broth and bring back to a simmer. If you are serving this all in one night, then when the water is to a boil, add pasta and cook till the noodles are done. Then serve with fresh parsley!
**If you are only serving a few people and will have left overs, cook pasta in another pot and serve individually with the soup. This will keep your noodles from getting really soggy!
I was in the spirit of styling so here are my attempts to make soup look beautiful! First 2 are just with a bunch of parsley and the 2nd two are with finely chopped parsley.

This was really delicious and great for a cold day! Feel free to add anything else in like green beans, peas, corn, or broccoli! You can even make croutons!

Homemade Croutons

Ingredients:
1 loaf of stale bread
2 Tbs. Italian seasoning
3 Tbs. olive oil

How To:
Pre heat your oven to 400* F. Cut bread into small cubes. Toss with olive oil then toss with Italian seasoning. Spread out evenly on a cookie sheet and toast cubes till golden brown. **Keep an eye on these they could toast fast! Giving them a good shake to rotate every minute or so helps** After nicely toasted, serve on top of your yummy soup or just eat them plain like I do!
**Sorry there is no picture for these. I have made these before but did not make them for this soup..

Amy, Briana and I are thinking about chicken parmesan soon!! Get excited!!

Beginning of Italian Cooking...

2011-02-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Well so please don’t think ill of me for not posting any of my yummy foods yet. Lately when eating comes around its like stuff my face so good, so no pics! Ha! But I have cooked alittle bit here and there. This task is also difficult because my kitchen is alittle inadequate to cook and my fridge is about the size of an American freezer so you get the point.
How ever, this is my latest dish!

Sautéed Chicken with Fresh Green Beans in a White Wine Reduction
Ingredients:
Olive Oil
Italian seasoning
Chicken breast (one per person)
Fresh Green Beans (about a handful per person)
Salt, pepper, and a dash of red pepper flake (more if you like it hotter)
4 Tbs. White Wine (whatever you have on hand, nothing fancy)
Toasted Bread

How to:
Put about a 2Tbs. of olive oil in a pan and heat it to about a medium heat. Once heated, season your chicken with salt and pepper and alittle Italian seasoning. Cook till golden brown and no pink left in the middle. This will be about 4-5 minutes per side depending on thickness.

While that is cooking, if your green beans have stems, remove those and set aside. In another pan, heat about 2Tbs. of olive oil and a dash of red pepper flakes. Once heated, put in your green beans. Cook till done but if you like alittle crunch in your veggies then just keep testing them till they are to your liking!

After you chicken is done, remove from pan and set aside. Take your pan off the burner, and add the wine. Immediately put the pan back on the heat and bring to boil. Using a wooden spoon, scrape anything that has stuck to the bottom( it’s the good stuff, trust me). Once, your wine has reduced( less than when you started) remove and pour over your finished green beans.
Serve chicken and green beans with toasted bread to soak up any sauce that might remain. Sounds fancy but totally do able!

Tomorrow I start my Italian cooking class and then Thursday I will have my Dessert Styling class!! EKKK so excited and I will post pictures and recipes, ASAP!

Peace, Love and Cooking ☺

World Traveler...El Salvador to Italy

2011-01-17T14:53:00.001-08:00

Well to say the least, my poor blog has been neglected. After my last post, I worked 8 week of Pine Cove, went on a cruise, fall semester at Tech, turned 21, drank wine (In moderation), went to El Salvador, and now in the process of packing for Italy!!!

A picture of me in El Salvador!!

My life has been running a hundred million miles an hour but it's been amazing but now I am ready to sprint full steam ahead into cooking and baking! In 10 days my study abroad Italy orientation will be under way and my eyes will be popping out of my head in excitement!!! As I bake and eat my way through Italy, I will blog all about my culinary adventures, here at this site! I will also be blogging about various adventures, travel and whats going on in school at my other blog called www.timeofmylifeinitaly.blogspot.com! I'll post Facebook statuses when I've updated!
Ready or not Italy here I come!!

Peace, Love and Baking :)

Strawberry Lime Pie

2010-05-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

So sorry it has been awhile since I've posted anything. ALOT has happened in the past few weeks. Spring classes, finals and school have all come and gone. I've moved back to Tyler for the summer and in 3 days I'll start my summer job at Pine Cove.
Pine Cove is a christian summer camp for camper from 2nd-12th grades. I'll be working with 2nd-5th graders for 5 weeks, encouraging their walks with the Lord, playing in the sun, and having a blast! Because of camp, this will be my last blog for a while, but I promise I'll be back after July 4th! Now on to baking!!

Strawberry Lime Pie:
This is a recipe I created while having way too much free time on my hands and after watching a Foodnetwork episode of amazing pies!

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen strawberries
2 limes zested and one juiced (can use extra zest for garnish)
1 cup sugar
1 carton of fresh strawberries, cut in half
3 tablesspoons of cornstarch
3/4 cup water
1 frozen pie shell, pre-bake according to package
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons of powdered sugar

In your cooled pre-baked crust layer your fresh strawberries in a single layer. Then in a medium saucepan, combine first 3 ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring often. While strawberries are boiling, mix the water and cornstarch together and add to the strawberry mixture. Remove from heat and stir till thick.

Pour into your pie shell, decorate top with extra fresh strawberries (if desired) and chill overnight or at least 5 hours.

If you wish to garnish your pie: in a mixer whip heavy cream till it starts to thicken, while continuing to mix add the powdered sugar and whip till stiff peaks. Serve on the side or pipe pretty like this!

This recipe was so easy and super yummy! Good pantry staple for the summer and will also keep well in the frig so make more than one! Have a wonderful May and June of summer!!

Peace, Love and Baking <3

Surprise Party!!!

2010-04-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my mom turned the big 50! Unknowingly to her, my dad and I have been planning a surprise party for her since spring break. Which is so hard to do when your mom knows everything and your living 8 hrs away. But dad and I pulled it off with the help of Susan and Kristi. I flew in the day of the party and went straight to work on my appetizers and dessert. Within a few hours, food was done, decorations were up and everyone arrived. And mom got surprised!

and here is another catch... mom didn't know I was there so here is her reaction to that!

So here is what I made: Stuffed Mushrooms and Gourmet Deviled Eggs

and for dessert.. Banana Pudding ( half eaten too, HA)

Recipe for Stuffed Mushrooms:
12 whole fresh mushrooms
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems and discard.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and saute till golden brown, taking care not to burn garlic. Set aside to cool.
When garlic is no longer hot, in a standing mixer or a large bowl with a hand-mixer, add cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Whip untill combined. Mixture should be very thick. Using a little spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.

Recipe for Gourmet Deviled Eggs
12 eggs, hard boiled and shelled
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 slices bacon
4 tablespoons finely shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoon djion mustard

Place eggs in a saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, and cool. To cool more quickly, rinse eggs under cold running water.
Meanwhile, place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Alternatively you can: wrap bacon in paper towels and cook in the microwave for about 1 minute per slice. Crumble and set aside.
Peel the hard-cooked eggs, and cut in half lengthwise. Remove yolks to a small bowl. Mash egg yolks with mayonnaise,cheese and djion mustard. Fill egg white halves with the yolk mixture and refrigerate until serving. I like to use a large star tip to make them look really pretty. Garnish with crumbled bacon and parsely for some green.

Recipe for Banana Pudding:
1 5oz. package of instant vanilla pudding mix
2 1/2 cups of whole milk
1 can of Eagle brand milk
1 box of vanilla wafers
3-5 bananas thinly sliced.
16 oz. container of cool whip

In a large bowl combine pudding mix, both milks. After combining, fold in cool whip till no lumps and set aside. Then in a 9X13 pan, line the bottom with vanilla wafers then top the wafers with banana slices. Pour about half of your pudding mixture on of the bananas and wafers. Add another layer of wafers and bananas and pour the rest of your pudding. Top the whole thing off with the rest of your whipped topping and crushed up wafers. This is soo good and so quick its fool-proof!

Overall, the night was a success, I was exhausted and mom was surprised. I love surprise parties!

peace, love and baking :)

Easter Baking

2010-04-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

So it's Easter break and the LBK is dead because everyone went home for the long weekend. I did not, 8 hours is too far for me. So what will I do with all my spare time? O I will stay up till 2:30 a night decorating easter goodies! Not to mention my mom sent me a easter basket via mail, which contained the movie The Blind Side, and DVD of Julia Child's cooking shows and interviews. I haven't watched any yet but it wouldn't surprise me if an all nighter was coming soon ;)
People always say don't drink alone.. I think the rule can apply to baking: Never bake alone! My dear friend and Chi O sister, Hannah was staying in town as well and is a foodie like me so we were determined to practie our baking and decorating skillz over the weekend!

First up on the menu was BBQ Chicken Pizza for dinner:
Ingredients:
- 1 Pillsbury pizza dough
-1/2 cup marinara sauce
-1/2 cup BBQ sauce (whatever you have or like)
-1TBS of fresh cilantro
-2 chicken breasts
-2 cups mozzarella cheese grated

Steps:
In a medium skillet on medium heat,cook your chicken breast with 2 TBS of BBQ sauce. After cooked, cut into bite-size pieces.

Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl combine the BBQ sauce and marinara. On a greased cookie sheet, lay out your pizza dough and spread the sauce all over. Use as much or as little as you like.

Now to your crust add your cooked chicken and cheese. Bake for about 18-20 minutes and let it rest for 5 minutes before cutting into and stuffing your face, cause that's what Hannah and I did!

TA DA!!

Now onto decorating spring cupcakes! Hannah is a pro at youtubing and looking up videos on de-mything decoratng technics. Here it is the beautful spring flower!

Looks alittle scary right? Thats what I thought too but it was so easy! Here is the how-to

Ingredients:
- 12 pre-baked cupcakes, completely cooled and iced a spring green
- 1 bag of mini marshmellows
- 1 box of dot or colored candies for the middle
- a variety of sanding or fine colored sugars ( we got ours at Michaels)

Steps:
-pour your colored sugars into individual bowls with lids. Then using scissors, cut your mini marshmellows on the diagonial like this:

And keep cutting them till you have about a cup or so of each in each color. Put the lids on and shake to coat, they should then look like this:

Now with your iced cupcake pick one color and line the edge of the cake with the marshmellows. And continue doing this till you get to the top middle!

Then top it off with a colored dot or candy of your choice! And TA DA the final product!! People will think you are brillant and you can all the credit for cutting those marshmellows!

Peace, Love and Baking:)

Homemade mayonnaise

2010-03-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

As I've said before, Im a RHIM major, focusing on culinary and event planning. One of my classes this semester has a food lab. In which, we had to buy chef coats and we cook for 3 hours once a week. This week we were making mayonnaise from scratch. Now to most people this sounds so dumb when you can buy great stuff from the store. But to us foodies out there, it's just one of those thing you have to try! Naturally, I was so excited unfortunatly that did not last long. We had to way to make it in class, you could make it with a immersion blender (hand blender) or in a food processor. My group chose to make it with the hand blender. Our recipe called to dump everything in a container and slowly pulse till you have mayonnaise! Sounds really easy right?! NOT EASY!! The first time was a totally bust from the start. But our second time was looking so promising till I added alittle too much oil and it all fell apart. See when you make mayonnaise from scrach you have to literally add oil drop by drop. This takes forever and if you make the smallest mistake like me, you will have yellow oil mess. All this being said I will never make mayonnaise from scratch because the store bought already is easy and taste better than what mine would have. So learn a lesson from me and BUY YOUR MAYONNAISE!

peace,love and mayo-less :)

More Spring Break Cooking

2010-03-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

After making,key lime pie my creative juices were going. On Wendesday, my little sister Hannah, was practicing her dance for cheerleading tryouts on Friday. She continued to ask me what she should give for good luck gifts. Then TA Da! The ladybug cupcake was formed! My sister said the ladybug is a symbol of good luck so it would be perfect! Now even though I'm loving blogging, sometimes I forget to take pictures along the way. This would be one of those times. So I'm very sorry but all I have is a picture of the final product. Sorry I promise I'm going to get better at this!

This is a picture of all 16 I had to make. They are alittle ladybug colony :)))

Peace, Love and Cooking :)

Key Lime Pie

2010-03-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

So after a weekend of perfect skiing with one of my bestest friends, Megan!! It was back to Tyler for relaxing and of course baking!! Well being that my sister and meg's brother's favorite dessert is key lime pie, it was a must. Now I wish I could take credit for this, I found this recipe on the side of the key lime bottle. So Im sure you are thinking, " What she bought key lime juice instead of the fresh squeeze?" Well in case you havent seen a key lime before, it's about the size of a bouncy ball. So squeezing them would have been a pain. So bottle it is. So here we go:
Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Pie
9" graham cracker pie crust (how to make below)
14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks (whites not used)
½ cup Nellie & Joe's Key West Lime Juice

For the crust you need:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 crackers)
1/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
mix all ingredients together and using your fingers press into your pie plate. Bake for 15 minutes at 350*F or till golden brown. I would suggest baking the crust first and letting it cool for about 10 minutes before making the filling.

For the filling:
Mix all the ingredients together with a hand or standing mixer. Pour into cooled pie crust and bake for another 15 minutes at 350*F. chill for 4 hours or overnight. can be garnished with a slice of lime or whip cream.

Till next time,
Peace, love and cooking :)

A Christmas Tradition

2010-02-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

Since I can remember, every christmas eve my family gets together to make scotch eggs. What is a scotch egg? Its a heartattack in a ball, a deep fried sausage ball that is so unbelieveable, my mouth is watering thinking about them. I know it is the middle of Febuary and I said that theses are a Christmas tradition but time flies in college, so here they are now! This is really fun to get a lot of people involved since it's assembly line.

Scotch Eggs:

Ingredients:
- 1 dozen hard boiled eggs, peeled
- 1 large package of owens sausage(regular seasonings)
- 1 container of italian breadcrumbs
- 6 raw eggs beaten with milk ( just eyeball it)
- 1 cup flour with a tablespoon of both salt and pepper
- cookie sheet
- the biggest pot you have and lots of crisco!

Here is goes!
To begin set up each of the ingredients in an assembly line like so... Boiled eggs, flour, sausage patties, egg/ milk mixture, then breadcrumbs, cookie sheet.
Take a few of your hard boiled eggs and cover them in your flour mixture.
Then one at a time, take two sausage patties and wrap them around your floured egg.

Now take your sausage ball and dip it into the beaten egg then into the breadcrumbs. Repeat this step again: beaten egg, then breadcrumb making sure you get a good even coat.

and here is what it should look like after all the breading!

Now to the fryer! This part takes some trial and error. Too hot of oil will burn your egg before its cook and too cold with absorb too much oil. I would test the oil by dropping some breadcrumbs into the oil. If it burns up quick its too hot, if it doesnt sizzle its too cold. Good Luck!

Ta Da!!!! The finished product!!

Even though these might be a little time consuming, trust me they are well worth it! Plus they are great for a crowd we make about 40 every Christmas!

Enjoy!

Snowed In = Apple Brown Sugar Tart

2010-01-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to find my apartment covered in snow and school cancelled, which means...baking time!!
So being the foodie/nerd that I am, when I get alittle bored I pull out a cookbook and start reading. Well a good family friend of mine, let me borrow her dessert cookbook. So I started reading...and what I found to my delight was an tart recipe, a skill I have not yet tried! Here it goes!

What you need:
Filling: Crust:
- 4 green apples, peeled and thinly sliced - 6 Tbs. unsalted butter
- 1/3 cups of sugar - 2 Tbs. sugar
- 1 Tbs. flour - 1 large egg plus one yolk
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract - 1 1/2 cups of flour
- 1 tsp. cinnamon - 1 Tbs. baking powder
Brown Sugar Topping:
- 3/4 cups flour
- 1/2 dark brown sugar
- 6 tbs. butter
- 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Lets start with the filling. Begin with thinly slicing your peeled apples. Put them into water as you slice, so that they don't turn brown. Put the rest of ingredients into a plastic bag and add your drained and dried apples. Shake around till the apples are all coated. Set aside.

Topping Time!
Mix all the ingredients except, butter, together in a large bowl. Then using your fingers pull apart the butter and mash it into the flour mixture. It's alittle messy but it should look like little bits of of butter covered in flour..
Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the finished topping, so here it is pre-butter

Crust, its a must!
With a mixer, blend sugar and butter. Slowly add the egg and extra yolk.Then add the flour till it comes together.Pull out the dough, and start pushing it into the tart shell with your fingers. Till the the crust comes up the sides of the shell. Use a measuring cup to help you press the dough into the shell.

Now with every part together, put the filling into the crust, and cover the apples with the crumble mixture.

Bake in the oven for 50 minutes at 325. And Ta Da!!! Apple Tart!!

Best Night Ever...with Chicken and Dumplings!

2010-01-29T14:20:00.000-08:00

So tonight goes on my top 10 list of great nights.... Watching Julie and Julia, and eating homemade chicken and dumpling, college style! Now don't worry of course I'm going to share it with ya'll... so here it goes!

This recipe is from my mother's cookbook. I love this book, it's practically falling apart, recipes torn out and stuck back in random spots, it's the best! It was created by my grandmother( or Gran as I call her) when my mom got married and moved off!

What you need:
- 2 chicken breast thawed
- 3 cans of low sodium chicken broth
- one can of biscuits ( not the flaky kind)
- pepper and salt to taste

So first you need to bring both your water and broth to a boil in separate pans. Once the water comes to a boil place your chicken breast in the water for about 20 minutes or till the chicken is firm to the touch. Take your chicken out to cool off before handling. After cooling, using your fingers shread the chicken into bite size pieces.

While you are waiting for the water and broth, take your biscuits and cut them into fourths( as seen in the previous picture). Depending on the size of your biscuits, you might want to cut them smaller because they puff up!
Now add your biscuit pieces slowly till they are all combined. Wait 5-10 minutes for biscuits to puff up and cook.
Then add your chicken back with the dumplings, bring to a boil and ENJOY!!

Almost like mom's, maybe better, and definately easier!

Fall 2009 Baking

2009-11-13T12:19:00.000-08:00

Like I said in my profile, I'm a college student at Texas Tech. So every once in awhile I get the time to bake and do alittle experimenting!
During the summer and holiday time when I am not at school, I work at a cute little kitchen store, The Kitchen Drawer. My boss and coworkers are so much fun and there is never a dull moment, especially when you have tons of cooking magazines/catalogs to read through! All this saying, over the summer, my boss ordered Collegiate cake molds! Naturally I HAD to have the Double T! Brownies are so yummy in it, especially those who love crunchy edges!

Next up is the blueberry-lime poundcake!Sorry for the poor picture! :( This poundcake was just as beautiful as it was satifying! I got this recipe from The Best of Fine Cooking, Sweet Cake (Holiday baking issue), and honestly it is just a normal poundcake with lime zest and fresh blueberries. So, I'm thinking any small fruit or flavoring will go great inside!

Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, my roomate invited me to a mock "Thanksgiving" party. Everyone had to bring something...so I baked! A classic spiced apple pie. All your favorites, apples, cinnomin, nutmeg, lemon zest, and brown sugar! There is no way to go wrong with this! Once again, sorry for the bad picture, it was eaten before I got a final product pic, so here it is about to head into the oven!

**Don't be deceived by the "latice" crust. All I did was take a small paring knife and cut little square out. A cookie cutter would have been easier but in my apartment kitchen...not so lucky!

Rehearsal Dinner Desserts

2009-11-13T11:50:00.000-08:00

This catering event was for a wedding rehearsal dinner. The couple go to school at TCU and the mother of the bride and the bride wanted a TCU purple cupcake tower....with MINI cupcakes! She sent me the most delicous cupcake recipe from the Magnolia's Bakery in New York. So sadly, I can't take credit for the taste of these vanilla cupcakes but I can share the recipe! Like I said, they asked for mini cupcakes but I didn't mention how many...12 dozen! So this recipe is for 24 normal size, but if you want to make mini's, I got about 3 1/2 dz. per batch of batter.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line two 12 cup muffin tins with cupcake papers
In a small bowl, combine the flours, set aside
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of and electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat unil smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition ( about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

And ta da! here they are!

Now on my computer, these cupcakes are purple but the color hasn't come through very well...thats okay because did I mention I made a GAINT cupcake for the center?! This cupcake was not for eating, so I used 2 boxed cake mixes to make sure the cupcake could hold its own weight.

They were soo yummy and soo fun to make!

Where it all began....

2009-11-12T22:20:00.000-08:00

So in the summer of 2009, I was at a dinner party in which a family friend requested my help to prepare her son's graduation dinner. Dying to help I said yes! Having never prepared a large dinner party I set right away to planning the perfect menu. This is what I created and now this menu is now a staple in my book.
Graduation Dinner Party:
Appetizers-
* Shrimp cocktail in shot glasses

* Cheese straws

* Cold Brie dip with vegetables

Salad-
* Strawberry and mangrine orange spinach salad with vinaigrette

Main Course-
* Herbs de Provence crusted beef tenderloin
**Sorry no picture for this one...They ate it all up before I could get to it!
* Baby red potatoes and green bean saute

Dessert-
* Raspberry-lime Cake

* White Chocolate Poundcake

* Chocolate covered strawberries

So there it is...my first catering menu! More menus to come!

< Peace, Love and Cooking