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Garden Blue Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Whole Foods .... need I say more?! So on this weeks trip I was going to buy some feta cheese to stuff mushrooms for an appetizer I thought of, but I found a great alternative. They had this Garden Blue Cheese Spread which contains blue cheese, provolone cheese, cream cheese with peppers, and spinach I think. At the end I placed some of the "almost-burnt" cheese on top and a little leaf of sweet basil - it added a nice taste of the burnt cheese and sweet/citrus of the basil. Makes 1 small carton of mushrooms (~12). Next time I will be doubling or even tripling this reciple!!


1 small carton of baby portabella mushrooms
1 small container Whole Foods garden blue cheese spread
3 prosciutto slices, with fat cut off
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
1 clove of garlic, minced


Preheat oven to 350
1. Wash the mushrooms softly, snip the stems and core out the middle. Set caps aside.
2. Mince up half of the mushroom stems and place in bowl. Mix in blue cheese spread and garlic.
3. Fill mushrooms with cheese spread.
4. Slice prosciutto into squares about 1x1 inch or small strips and press on to cheese spread. Place shredded cheese on top of each mushroom.
5. Place filled shrooms on baking pan and bake for 10min until cheese mixture is melted and mushrooms are slightly browned. You may want to put under broiler for a minute or two to get the tops brown and bubbly.

Vanilla Bean 'Hand'cakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Do I have to say much I enjoy TJ Maxx with the Home Goods store in it? Pretty much TJ Maxx and Marshalls has decorated my house but also my kitchen – along with cooking utensil and items. One of my latest finds is whole Madagascar vanilla beans – 2 for $4. You bet your ass I grabbed all four remaining vials off the shelf. I scrambled for a good recipe using the beans in a ‘hand’cake. Now I’m sure everyone has had vanilla cupcakes in their life – but have you had real vanilla bean  ‘hand’cake with vanilla bean frosting?? I bet most of you are responding no. So for those who haven’t or those that are able to get your hands on vanilla beans, enjoy and try not to lick the batter out of the bowl at the end.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cups sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoons baking powder

pinch teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out

1. Preheat oven to 360. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. 2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined. 3. Measure the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine. 4. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine. Scrape out the vanilla bean seeds into the milk and stir. 5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk vanilla bean mixture and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry. 6. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Bake cupcakes for about 22minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. They turn golden brown early so make sure you test it and not go by color. Makes about 14 handcakes.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened

½ of a 8oz pack of cream cheese, softened

1 whole vanilla bean, split open with a knife and vanilla beans scraped out

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3-4 cups confectioner sugar (I try and use as little as I can, but making sure it's pipeable)

Cream butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until texture is uniform. Add 2 cups of confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. Add 2 more cups and again mix on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. Add scraped vanilla beans and mix on medium speed for several minutes, occasionally scraping down sides. For creamy frosting (this one) I used the paddle attachment and not the whisk one so not a lot of air got into it.

Spinach Artichoke Dip with Gorgonzola Cheese

So I must admit, for this f’in awesome hot dip, I got it from the dreaded annoying Rachael Ray. I just can’t stand her raspy voice and the unnecessary abbreviation of EVOO.  How about you just call it olive oil or put a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen, maybe a large label that says Extra Virgin Olive Oil so you don’t have to say it EVERY episode? Just please stop.  Buuuttt, I do like her recipe for spinach artichoke dip with gorgonzola cheese so I made it, and make it often to the point where I don’t need to read the recipe. One time I made it was on my ski trip back in Albany where my old roommates Ant and Kat were on a very strict diet for their CrossFit classes. Let's just say they broke their diet their with this snack as the two of them hovered over the dish feasting on the dip and chips. That’s how good it is. Best served with pita chips but for the poor folk, tortilla chips work fine too.

2 (10oz) boxes chopped frozen spinach OR  one 20oz bag of steam in bag spinach

1 14oz  can of artichoke hearts

3 tablespoons butter

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup of chicken broth (just buy a can)

1 cup milk

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 small container of Gorgonzola crumbles

8oz container shredded  Parmesan-Romano (check near the cheese section)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Defrost spinach 10 minutes on defrost setting in microwave then drain well by wringing out in dish towel. Defrost artichokes as well, 6 minutes on defrost in microwave then wring out and finely chop. Heat a sauce pot with butter over medium to medium-high heat. Add garlic to melted butter and stir 1 to 2 minutes, then sprinkle in flour and combine 1 minute more. Whisk in stock and milk and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Thicken 2 minutes then remove from heat and melt in Gorgonzola. Stir in spinach and artichokes and half the shredded cheese then transfer to a small casserole and top with remaining cheese. Brown and bubble in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve with bread sticks, celery hearts and pita crisps for dipping.

Parmesan Pork with Tomatoes and Brown Rice

The East Nashville (aka East Nasty) Tomato Art Fest was this past weekend. Another excuse for me to be eating and drinking at 10am! They have a bunch of contests for tomato apparel and even a red head contest. I picked up a couple of awesome heirloom tomatoes. I mentioned the Ugandan Vanilla ice cream I had, but I saved the other flavor for here: Purple Cherokee Tomato ice cream from Jeni's Ice Cream. Jeni's is a franchise from Columbus OH which just made a shop here in East Nasty. Very cool flavors, I've tried in the past Backyard Mint, Buttermilk Peach, annnnnd Sweet Corn and Black Raspberry! Check out their site: http://www.jenisicecreams.com/.

Anyways, I had these tomatoes I had to use and also had a couple of butterflied pork chops from Publix. This is probably one of the easiest meals ever, and I wish I thought about it in college. The key was finding this flavor packet at Walmart, Kraft Parmesan Seasoning (see pic).

2 boneless butterflied pork chops
1 fist sized heirloom tomato (choose your own color)
1 Kraft parmesan seasoning packet
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 microwave bag of steam-in-bag brown rice
Parmesan cheese for topping

1. In a large skillet, heat oil on medium high heat.
2. Cut the pork chops along the butterfly to make 4 thin chops. Slice the chop widthwise to make short strips of pork. Place pork in a ziploc bag with parmesan ans shake until pork is coated.
3. Place pork in skillet to sear and brown, draining grease when needed.
4. Microwave the rice for a about 2.5 minutes and place in large sealable container (gladware). Slice tomato in small chunks and squeeze tomato chunks over the rice and drop in. Place cooked pork into container and seal. Shake container to mix around tomatoes, rice and pork. Serve and top with parmesan cheese.

Vanilla Lemon Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream

Strolling through the aisles of the Farmer's Market, cartons of fresh blackberries stood out on the tables. Only $5 for probably a half pound of them too! I had saw frosting recipe online for mashing blackberries and extracting the juice to mix into it. So, going along with this "handcakes" thing, (I will now be changing the term cupcake to handcake to make it sound more masculine, and there are because there are so many cupcake stores around her, so when I open up my own place people will come and see what handcakes are) I had some lemons left over from a a weekend of vodka and tonics. I was thinking about using the vanilla beans I got from Home Goods but I was those to be the main flavor of the recipe so I skipped it on this round. Speaking of vanilla, I went to the Tomato Art Fest (see post later of tomato/pork dish) this past weekend and tried Ugandan Vanilla Ice Cream from Jeni's Ice Cream, it had a deeper and more earthy flavor and was really good.


Lemon Cupcakes:
3 cups flour                                                                                      1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt                                                                                      1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar                                                                                    4 large eggs
grated zest of 2 lemons (about 2 Tbsp.)                                2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract                                                                          1 cup milk, I used soy

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. 2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in zest and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown or toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

Blackberry buttercream frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup blackberry puree (I used a blender and then strained it)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract                                                                            1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest
pinch of salt                                                                                            5-6 cups confectioner’s sugar

1. With a mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add blackberry puree, vanilla, lemon zest and salt, and mix on medium-low until well-combined. Gradually add in the powdered sugar, beating on low speed until combined. Then beat for 3-5 minutes on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.

Honey Sesame Ginger Soba Noodle Salad

Asian Sensation, not just a nickname of my Korean roommate in college, but also a good word to describe this easy cold salad dish. Soba noodle is an "O'tay" buckwheat noodle that cooks very fast, make sure not to over cook it. I'm hoping you got the O'tay as Buckwheat from the Little Rascals and not think its some part of China. The noodle definitely has a different/denser taste and therefore more filling I think. The flavors of the soy and honey and ginger go great with it. 

I originally had something like this at DeJohn's in Albany (try their martinis!) one summer outside on their patio. I was low on cash like more of my college life, and this was only like 8 bucks. I read the description and it sounded good, and out came a huge bowl of brownish cold noodles with fresh vegetables mixed throughout. Moving on, I was at Whole Foods for some strange reason and saw soba noodles on the shelf when I remembered the dish at DeJohn's. I bought the rest of the stuff to make it and checked DeJohn's menu to see what it was about again and tried to do a little spin-off of my own. It is a great salad and I brought the rest to work with me since it made so much, almost a whole pot, and the coworkers liked it also.

3 bundles of soba noodles (usually come in bundles of 3)
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 Tbsp soy
3 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp chili flakes (optional)
1 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
4 scallions or small red onion, sliced finely
1 small carton of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 cup carrot, shredded
1 large cucumber, cubed

1. Bring a medium pot of water to boil. Add noodles and simmer for five minutes or until tender. Drain and rinse in cold water.
2. In a bowl, add the remaining ingredients, except for the sesame seeds and scallions. Mix to combine and pour over the noodles. Mix, taste, and adjust to your taste. Sprinkle over most of the sesame seeds and scallions, reserving a little for a garnish, if you like. Mix, garnish, and serve.

Tres Leche Cake (3 Milk Cake for non-believers)

Another dinner, another dessert. This was baked for the mexican dinner. I saw this cake originally in Whole Foods, they sell it by the square in the fancy dessert fridge section. I was intrigued by the half mexican name to this piece of cake sitting in a little puddle of milky substance in a small container. The ones at Whole Foods were just topped with whipped cream and cinnamon or nutmeg. I had bought a carton of strawberries at Publix and needed to use them so I figured I'd slice them up, I got creative with it and placed them in different directions and then another layer on top of that. I sprinkled a little powdered sugar over the final product to get the strawberry syrup . Overall, this dessert kicked ass and was liked by everyone. The creaminess (is that a word?) and the fluffy of the whipped cream with layers of strawberries -- f-ing awesome!!  It is a little different at first when you think about eating a cold soggy cake, but relax and eat it!

for the cake:

1-3/4 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 c sugar

5 large eggs

1-1/2 tsp vanilla

for the glaze:

1 12-oz can evaporated milk

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 c half -and-half

for the topping:

2 c heavy cream

1/4 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly grease and flour a 13x9 pan and set aside.Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, if necessary. Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, and mix to thoroughly combine. Add the flour mixture to the batter in three batches and mix until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cake is lightly golden. Allow the cake to cool and then poke the top of the cake all over with a fork. Whisk together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and the half-and-half in a medium bowl. Once combined, pour the glaze over the cake. It will seem like a lot of glaze! The cake will not completely soak up the glaze until it has sat overnight. Place the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla into the bowl of a mixer. Beat/whisk together until stiff peaks are formed. Increase mixer to medium speed and whisk until thick. Spread the topping onto the cake. Slice strawberries and layer them across the whipped cream. Allow it to chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Tex-Mex Baguette

For a "family dinner" this past Sunday, we had a Mexican themed dinner. Jen made carne asade pork tacos, lime quinoa and black bean salad, and a roasted corn and black bean salad. I made these (as I am dubbing them) Tex-Mex Baguettes and a Tres Leches Cake (recipe for the cake to follow). The baguette was very easy to make and took little time.

Either a soft baguette or I used a long thin loaf of French Bread (thanks Publix)
Pico de gallo (either store bought or I made my own, cut up 3 tomatoes, half and onion, cilantro, garlic powder, S&P)
Queso dip
Guacamole ( I used store bought since I hate cutting/scraping avocados)
can of re-fried beans

Preheat oven to 325F. Slice bread diagonally just less than an inch thick. Place bread slices on baking sheet and drizzle a little olive oil across the bread and place in open for about 5-7min or until just toasted. Next, spread the re-fried beans down on the bread (acts as a glue) and then put the Pico on that. Next (if you buy the Wholly Guacamole it comes in a small bag, cut the corner off) and squirt some guacamole across that and finally top it off with a dollop of queso. Put in over for 5-7 minutes until queso is melted nicely. Serve.

Sa-vee-chay? Ceviche!

If you watch Top Chef, or Hell's Kitchen, you often hear the term ceviche ... WTF?! Even this blog doesn't know what that word is and tries to correct it to crevices or cervical ... ???? Again I had a 'family dinner' to go to and always like to try new things so I found a recipe for an easy shrimp ceviche. Ceviche is a technique of 'cooking' a raw food in a citrus base for several hours, cooking is in quotes because you heat the raw food, it's cold. Some people may be turned off from the raw/cooked shrimp and not try but they truly are missing out on this great appetizer served with tortilla chips. Next time I think I'm going to add some jalapenos for a little heat.

1 pound of raw shrimp (medium size)
1 red onion, chopped
2 avocado, cubed
4 lemons
4 limes
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper

Chunk the shrimp into small pieces (about 3-4 chunks per shrimp) and place in large bowl. Juice the lemons and limes over the shrimp (try to make sure most of the shrimp are covered by the juice) and place bowl in fridge for 4 hours stirring the shrimp every hour or so. Add the onion, avocados, tomatoes, cilantro and s&p and stir all to mix up. Place in fridge for another half hour or so to let flavors mix. Place in serving dish and serve with tortilla chips.

Espresso Mocha Cupcakes with Whipped Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Just how good does the title sound?! Well it's pretty much as good as they were. A nurse on one of the floors mentioned to me that I should make mocha cupcakes, and I told her that I really don't like the taste of coffee and chocolate together. But I had just bought my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer and wanted to make something with it. So I thought of using my espresso maker (since I like how espresso tastes, not coffee for some reason, except Starbucks and the Dunkin Donuts I lived off of in college.. but anyways) and making a caramel espresso cupcake, but instead I made whipped caramel cream cheese frosting.

1-1/3 all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
2 shots of espresso (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 egg


1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Make espresso and set aside to cool to room temperature.
2. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Beat the butter and both sugars together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. In a measuring cup, combine the milk, espresso and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture, alternating with the coffee mixture, ending with the flour mixture.
4. Pour batter into cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Baking for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool.

I actually messed up my original plan for caramel cream cheese frosting but after I added the caramel flavoring to it, it was too runny for cupcakes so I made a batch of real whipped cream and folded that into it - a great decision by me.

1/2 stick butter unsalted, at room temperature
6 oz cream cheese (3/4 of a 8oz block), softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp caramel syrup flavoring (I had some as a coffee flavorer, maybe ice cream caramel would work?)
10 oz heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup confectioners sugar

1. Mix together cream cheese, butter, caramel and vanilla until smooth. Slowly add confectioners sugar until a frosting is formed. Set a side.
2. Whip whipping cream and granulated sugar until stiff (tip the bowl over and it won't fall out)
3. Fold in caramel frosting into whipped cream, if still runny add more confectioners sugar and mix on low.

Root Beer Float-cakes

Have you ever really looked at the type of extracts and concentrates in the baking aisle? You know they have the regular vanilla and almond, then they get into lemon and orange, and then you see maple and then ROOT BEER???!!! I am a big fan of root beer vodka (courtesy of Three Olives) and figured what the hell, maybe I can add it to vodka and save me some money. Then since I started this whole cupcake thing, BAM! Root beer cupcakes. Makes ~12 cupcakes.

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 teaspoons root beer concentrate

1/2 cup root beer soda

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk egg and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in sour cream. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Add root beer concentrate and root beer. Mix until batter is smooth. Line a muffin tin with liners, add batter to each cup about 3/4 the way up. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Let cool before frosting.                                              
Vanilla and Root Beer Frosting

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

4 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon root beer extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter until smooth. On low speed, add powdered sugar one cup at a time, increasing speed to bring the frosting together. Add milk, vanilla extract and root beer concentrate. Mix until uniform and smooth.

Hitch up your Bloomers!

I do not own a Fry-daddy or whatever they are called, but if I did .... then I would make Blooming Onions at least twice weekly. The best ones I have ever had were at the Great NYS Fair in Syracuse, NY. I would either go with my parents or siblings and set out for an entire day of eating, who gives a shit about the actual fair when there is fair food everywhere?! Since I don't own a fryer, I found an awesome recipe for Blooming Onion Bread, real easy, real good!

Blooming Onion Bread

1 large unsliced loaf sourdough bread 

1.5 - 2 pounds Monterey Jack cheese, thinly sliced

1.5 sticks butter, melted

1 cup finely diced green onion

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the bread lengthwise and widthwise without cutting through the bottom crust. This can be a little tricky going the second way but the bread is very forgiving. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Insert cheese slices between cuts. Combine butter, onion, and poppy seeds in a mug and microwave until melted. Drizzle over bread and sprinkle garlic salt over the bread. Wrap in foil; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Unwrap the bread and bake 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted. 

Bakin' with BACON!!!

So there's this trend of cooking with bacon and also maple syrup with bacon. I had seen a couple recipes for making other desert and chocolate with bacon, then I saw my goal -- cupcakes! Maple Bacon Cupcakes that is! If you think about it, cupcakes - good, maple syrup - good, bacon - GREAT!!! 
Maple Bacon Cupcake:
-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-3/4 teaspoons ground ginger
-1 stick unsalted butter, softened
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-1 cup maple syrup
-2 teaspoons vanilla
-1/2 cup milk
-1 package of bacon, cooked and cut into small bits

Maple Frosting: 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature, 1 stick unsalted butter, 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Preparation:  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. 2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ginger. Set aside. 3. Beat the butter and sugar together using a mixer set on medium speed in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, syrup, and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture by thirds, alternating with the milk. Add in bacon pieces and fold in.  4. Fill muffin cups 2/3 of the way up and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool completely. 5. For Frosting: In a bowl of, cream the cream cheese and butter and beat on low speed until smooth. 6. Stir in the maple syrup and vanilla extract. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the confectioners’ sugar and mix until smooth. 7. Frost cooled cupcakes and garnish each with a pieces of bacon. 
After, I even drizzled some more syrup of the cupcake. Pretty much tasted like breakfast, think maple pancakes with frosting and bacon!!

Happy Memorial Day

I hosted a small BBQ on Sunday for Memorial Day and besides the heat, it went very well. So what's the best thing about sitting out on the deck at night? Margaritas! For this desert or is it dessert, either way - I made Margarita Cupcakes. Normally I would definitely get green liners and and green frosting for the margarita look however I got red liners and made the frosting blue with white sprinkles ... RED WHITE AND BLUE. The cupcakes are more of a denser lime cupcake and the frosting is the margarita/tequila touch:  
-3 cups flour
-1 Tbsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
-2 cups sugar
-4 eggs
-3 limes, zested and juiced
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1 cup buttermilk
1) Preheat oven to 325. Prepare muffin tins with paper liners or baking spray. 2) Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside. Cream butter, vanilla, and sugar on a high until pale, light, and fluffy (about 5 minutes). 3) Add eggs one at at time, mixing thoroughly before adding the next one. 4) Add lime zest and lime juice. 5)Turn mixer to the low. Add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches. Mix only until just incorporated. 6) Fill each muffin cup ~3/4 full. Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer shows only moist crumbs attached 7) While the cupcakes are still warm, brush the tops with tequila. 
Frosting:  1 cup butter at room temp, 16oz bag confectioner sugar, 2 Tbsp white tequila, 1 lime juiced. Beat sugar and butter together until uniform mixture, add tequila and lime juice, beat until light stiff peaks form. After frosting the cupcakes and decorating with sprinkles, I tapped some coarse sea salt on top to give that little bit of salty punch that a margarita glass would.


Since I love desert/dessert so much - I also made a trifle (not including beef sauteed with peas and onions - for those Friends waters) since I had gotten a trifle glass for Christmas a couple years ago. For this I made a Patriotic Trifle (red, white and blue again). 
-2 cups heavy cream
-½ cup white sugar

-2 cups milk

-2 pkg instant cheesecake pudding mix

-2 teaspoons lemon juice

-½ cup sour cream

-1 prepared angel food cake

-2 (16 ounce) carton strawberries, sliced

-strawberries for garnish

-blueberries for garnish

1) In a medium bowl, combine cream and white sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside. 2) In another bowl beat cheesecake pudding mixes with milk for 2 minutes or until thick. Mix in sour cream and lemon juice. Fold in one cup of the sweetened whipped cream. 3) Slice angel food cake into one inch cubes. 4) In a trifle bowl, start by layering ¼ of the angel food cake on the bottom of the trifle bowl. Next, layer ¼ of the pudding mixture followed by a layer of ¼ of the strawberries. Repeat layers four times or until bowl is almost full. 5) Garnish the top of the trifle with the remaining whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries. 6) Chill in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Whole Foods Adventures

So I tried something vegan ("Let's all make fun of the vegans and their crazy lifestyle"). I purchased vegan chocolate cake. It was ... different. At first I thought how the hell can you make a vegan cake? Turns out you can and it wasn't that bad. It was very moist but crumbled or came apart really easy (maybe since no eggs?) and the flavor was just a little off, probably from the binders and other stuff it in, the label read like a chemical list haha. I guess the 'healthy' choices are either organic and no chemicals, or vegan with no real products but chemicals added.

Found a great new chocolate. This gem was tucked alongside the beer cooler near the cheeses. My favorite since I moved south has been the  Olive and Sinclair chocolate that stone ground in Nashville. Also the Nashville Toffee Company makes awesome homemade toffee. This new brand is Vosges Chocolate! At first I looked at the boxes all hanging in rows and thought, what the hell is this? Come to find out, the story of the chocolatier is that she graduated from Vanderbilt University and traveled all around and founded the company with a concept of "Travel the World through Chocolate". The flavors I've tried so far are the Barcelona (hickory smoked almonds, sea salt, 45% cacao), Woolloomooloo (roasted and salted macadamia nuts, Indonesian coconut, hemp seeds, 45% cacao), Black Salt Caramel (black Hawaiian sea salt, bunrt sugar caramel, 70% cacao) and my favorite so far, Mo's Dark Bacon Bar (applewood smoked bacon, alderwood smoked sea salt, 62% cacao) - it's so good with little pieces of bacon in it. I can't wait to try more!

Final item of my recent WFA is Arctic Zero 'Ice cream'. I put ice-cream in quotes because it really isn't ice cream, it's lactose free, gluten free, and fat free. The best part is an entire pint (sold just like the Ben and Jerry pints) is only, get this, 150 calories, yes 1-5-0! They even market it saying you don't have to feel guilty for eating the whole pint! It's basically a frozen protein shake with water, whey, sugar cane sugar, guar gum and xantham gum, sea salt and monk fruit (calorie free sweetener, ancient Chinese secret). The flavors I've tried are chocolate, mint chocolate cookie, coffee, chocolate peanut butter, and my favorite so far, vanilla maple. They also make (and soon to try) strawberry, strawberry banana, cookies and cream and pumpkin spice.

Chicken Riggies and Utica Greens

Home. This is where this dish originates from. I'm originally from upstate NY (near Utica) and this area has its own selection of dishes that you can't find outside about an hour and a half radius from there. These include Halfmoons, Tomato Pie, and this posts Chicken Riggies and Utica Greens. I made these for my friends and their first question: What's a 'riggie'? Answer: a rigatoni, but 'riggies' is pure ecstasy, pair it with greens and you are out cold from a tastebud explosion. They actually have a Riggie-Fest where local restaurants compete to make the best riggies. The pictures may not do justice since I made the dishes at a friends house and had to take the picture the following day, since this is one of the few things I will eat leftovers of. A good thing with the riggies is that if you make a lot of it or have it left over, you can freeze it for later.

Chicken Riggies
1 pack of boneless chicken breasts (about 4 breasts), cubed
1 cup white flour
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup cooking sherry
1 stick of butter
8oz canned mushrooms sliced
12oz can tomato sauce
12oz can chicken stock
8oz heavy cream
10oz can black olives, sliced
2 large green bell peppers, chunked
3 hot cherry peppers, finely sliced (more seeds for heat)
2 tsp garlic, minced
Parmesan cheese, grated
Salt, pepper, dried basil, dried parsley

- Melt butter in LARGE skillet, then add onion and cook until translucent on medium heat

- Coat chicken with flour, s&p, basil, parsley, then add to skillet and cook

- Add cooking sherry, mushrooms, olives, peppers, sauce, stock, garlic

- Stir and simmer for 20-30min (until peppers are soft)

- Add handful of cheese and container of heavy cream, stir and simmer for ~5min (add more cheese if thicker consistency desired)

- Serve atop rigatoni, and only rigatoni to be called true 'Chicken Riggies'

Utica Greens

2 large heads of escarole, chopped in large pieces

1 cup potato, cubed

1/2 cup onion, chopped 

2 clove garlic, minced

6 slices prosciutto, chopped

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup grated romano cheese

1 cup chicken broth

2 long hot italian peppers, seeded and julienned

3 Tbsp olive oil

Salt, pepper, parsley, italian seasonings

- In large skillet, combine 1T olive oil, potato, onion, salt, pepper, parsley, Italian seasonings on medium heat. Toss potatoes and onion to get coated. Leave on for about 10min until potatoes soft

- Clean and rinse escarole twice. Chop in large pieces. Place in skillet with potatoes to get wilted and tender for about 5min

- Remove escarole, potato, onion from skillet and place in bowl set aside for now

- Place remaining olive oil in pan along with the garlic, prosciutto, and hot peppers for about 5min

- Add escarole, potato, onion back into skillet along with the chicken broth tossing it for about 5min

- Gradually add in bread crumbs and cheese, mixing and tossing as added. Turn broiler on to get warm.

- Place the greens in casserole pan and cover lightly with bread crumbs and grated cheese. Place in broiler for about 5min or until crumbs/cheese gets toasted. Serve hot.

CHEF NOTES
- I could not find escarole in the south at all, so I used a combination of collard greens, endive and turnip greens.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Irish Cream Frosting

WOW, great St. Patty's Day dessert or anytime you've got some Guinness and Baileys laying around. These are really rich and moist with a good stouty flavor topped with a irish-creamy buttery frosting. I made them for a St. Patty's day dinner and it made 3 Dozen Cupcakes.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes
1 1/2 cup stout beer
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a sauce pot, melt the butter and add the stout. Once simmering, remove from heat and whisk in cocoa powder, let cool. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sour cream. Beat in stout mixture. In another large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the stout/sour cream mixture into the dry ingredients and beat briefly to combine, then fold batter until mixed thoroughly. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way and bake for approx 17min.

Irish Cream Butter Frosting
6 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup butter unsalted
2 tsp vanilla
1 mini bottle of Baileys Irish Cream
1/4 cup Crisco
                                                                                                             Beat on high for ~5min until mixed and creamy.
Again, I used my completely hetero non-gay frosting decorator on the shell tip and round tip for the different spiral tops, then regular green sugar sprinkles

Restaurant Style Salsa

I love this salsa, and so do my coworkers when I bring extra into work. It's really easy to make, and really cheap, well I mean inexpensive. I use Mission Tortilla Chips from the grocery store. I used to get the Santitas chips since they are only $2 but the Mission ones are the better buy per ounce if you do the math ... or look at the price per ounce on the shelf label. 

2 cans of 14oz diced tomatoes

2 cans of 10oz Rotel original
1 cup chopped cilantro

1 cup chopped onion

1 finely chopped jalapeño pepper - the more seeds, the hotter it will be
1 clove minced garlic

1 tsp cumin
juice of half a lime

pinch of salt

blend until desired chunkiness

I use a blender since I don't own a food processor. Place all ingredients in and pulse a couple times then take a wooden spoon and push/fold the mixture down a couple times then pulse again.
CHEF NOTES:
- Since I consider this a healthy bite - I get the diced tomatoes that are no salt added
- Rotel also has a chunky style that I usually get, but I haven't tried the Mexican or Spicy one
- I found that if you get risky with the jalapeño, you might want to grab an extra can of diced tomato to throw in if its too spicy, or for your house guests are too pussy for the heat

Blood Oranges

I am a frequent flyer of Pinkberry ever since it swirled into Nashville this past fall. I usually go on my days off after the gym, I consider it a healthy snack even though I sometimes add chocolate crisps, brownies bites, graham crackers, waffle cones, cheesecake bites (they keep them hidden under the counter, just ask for it!) and sometimes the swirly-whip. Logically the pomegranate seeds, blackberries, granola, pineapple that I'll get cancel those bad ones out. I have tried the original, chocolate, pomegranate, pumpkin, coconut and blood orange. The blood orange was something I had never heard of before and thought it would be no different than a regular orange, I was wrong, it was better.

Another Whole Foods Adventure (WFA is what it will now be abbreviated to because typing it is too long), brought me to the orange section where there was blood oranges, so I grabbed a couple of them. I wasn't sure how to eat them, if they would peel off like a navel orange, if they had seeds, or how much blood would flow when I cut into it.

Overall, the blood orange did not have seeds, the rind does peel away like a navel orange, and only a little blood spilled (CAUTION - the dark blood stains). The flavor is juicier and not tart like an orange can be, like I said, it's better than a real orange.

Whole Foods Adventures

Went to the great Whole Foods in Green Hills (mine to the left which is where Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban frequent, but I've yet to see them) again recently, it's probably a once a week trip. Since I've never been to a Whole Foods before I moved south, I told myself that every time I go, I would buy something 'new' or 'weird' and try it. Some of the things so far I bought were: Almond butter - kind of like Nutella but different taste, amaretto-ish, not a fan of the grittiness, Coconut milk - drank a couple sips and dumped it out, Rice milk - like it and still buy it regularly, Red snapper - great with just some garlic, lemon, s+p in a pan. That's all I can remember for now, but I'll post more if I remember

Marlee is also a huge fan of Whole Foods, she gets some holistic All Natural Dog Food (corn and wheat free since her food allergies acted up once we moved south to the Nashville Dustbowl), Newmans Own organic dog treats (turkey and sweet potato), frozen dog food meals, and a whole bunch of other expensive items that I buy for her and get no thanks in return for. 

My newest purchase is buckwheat soba noodles. I'm thinking about making a sesame/soy/ginger sauce to go with it I had back in Albany once at DeJohn's Restaurant (great martinis!) - probably post it when I make it, if it turns out good.

What a delicious  mess!

I'm currently making my own cucumber vodka. I was at Virago sushi bar and had a drink mixed with it, the only thing to describe it was refreshing. That should be done in a week or so and if that turns out good then I'll post the recipe for it along with the drink.

Since no food with this post, I'll post a pic of the foot-long chili cheese dog I had at the Predators hockey game the other night before I went to work, lets just say that work was shitty that night.

Fran's 'Famous' Frosting

This frosting, which I dubbed famous, is one of the best homemade frostings I've ever had/made. The key to this frosting is that its fat based, meaning lard ... just kidding it's Crisco, wait is that lard?

I first had this frosting several years ago at the Fran's house (my sister's mother-in-law) for New Years. I was taught that the main way to eat this frosting is not on desserts, but by the spoonful in the bowl, which she served both ways.

4 cup confectioners sugar

1 stick of softened butter (not margarine)

1/2 cup Crisco

1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup evaporated milk

beat on high for 5 minutes in large bowl

These brownie fingers were made with the Pillsbury box kind of brownies in a 13x9. I got this awesome Wilton 'triple-finger' cutter from Michaels. The frosting is piped from my entirely, completely non-gay Wilton dessert decorator. The brownies fingers are made even more manly with the white sugar pearls.