Icecream Cupcakes!

Hello!Sorry I have no picture for because I am awful food blogger and always forget to take pictures before I eat the food.
I needed treats for something today so I made cupcakes. It was requested that I make some easy stuff that is just no fun to make. So I ignored that request and tried something new. After so long of making a recipe it gets very boring to make. I would much rather do something hard that takes some skill instead of easy cake mix bars. And really those don't even taste as good as some of the other things I make.
I hate getting into a rut while baking. I like to experiment and try new things. You can only make so many pans of bars before you want to shot yourself, and I am very close to that amount. If the bars are so easy and so good make them on your own. They really aren't that hard. Try!!!
Baking and cooking are really not as hard as some people make it out to be. Here is the trick for baking. This secret may blow your mind so be prepared. FLOW THE RECIPE!!! If you don't know what you are do or have not made the recipe before then follow it! Its really that simple. Stop complaining about how you aren't good and how you don't know how to do anything. Just shut up and read the recipe. It is really that simple. People keep telling me that I am an amazing baker (and I am not denying that I am) but really all you have to do to be a amazing as me is follow what the recipe tells you to do. Then the dish, dessert, or whatever you are making will turn just as it is suppose to.
Here is something else I figured out. Recipes don't need to be some long drawn out thing. Not every little detail needs to be explained to death. No one like beating dead horses. So please everyone out there stop being stupid. It doesn't matter if you are reading or writing the recipe stop being an idiot.
So after my rant please enjoy this simplified Orange Dream Pop Cupcake recipe. This recipe is adapted from a cupcake recipe from The Bon Appetite cookbook. It tastes like heaven because everyone knows that heaven tastes like Orange Dream Pops. So here ya go!

Orange Dream Pop Cupcakes

Ingredients

2 2/3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 whole milk
6 large egg whites
4 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 package orange jello
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar

Cream butter and sugar. Mix together dry (flour, powder, and salt). Mix together wet (milk, eggs, sour cream, extract, and jello). Alternately add dry and wet to butter and sugar.
Fill 24 lined muffin tins about 2/3 full. DO NOT FILL TO FULL! You hear me I am talking to you. Do not fill them to full because these cupcakes will go over the edges easily.
Bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes.
Once my cupcakes cooled I took out some of the center and then put plain vanilla pudding in them. And then I frosted them with my normal frosting recipe (click here to see my recipe Frosting).

They tasted amazing and everyone loved them. So try them but don't be stupid. Stay fat and happy my friends!
Nancy

Boredom=Cream Puffs

Hello!
I was bored today. Wow, that is weird to say. I haven't been bored since... since.. I really don't remember. I have been just a little busy. Between speech, work, and school I haven't had much time to blog about the food I make. (But somehow I have had time to bake a lot just not to blog. :)) So back to me being bored. Because I was bored I made Cream Puffs!
I tired these out once before in my independent study at school, but I did not put whipped cream in those. I put pudding in the ones I made at school so they turned out more like tiny eclairs, but they were still good. Today I whipped up some heavy cream and put that in the middle.
They are amazing. So much better than the frozen variety available at supper markets. The cream squishes out the side when you bite into them. You will love these. They seem complex but they are actually really simple.
First you need to make some Pate a Choux. I used Alton Brown's recipe. I trust any recipe by him and this one was especially good and easy.

Sweet or Savory Pate a Choux
Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown and Food Network

Ingredients
1 cup water
3/4 stick butter (6 tablespoons)
1 Tablespoon sugar plus 1/8 teaspoon salt (for sweet)
1 teaspoon salt (for savory)
5 3/4 ounces flour
1 cup eggs, about 4 large eggs and 2 egg whites

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degree F.
Boil water, butter, and salt or sugar. Add flour and remove from heat. Work mixture together and return to heat. Continue working the mixture until all flour is incorporated and dough forms a ball. Transfer mixture into bowl of a stand miser and let cool for 3 to 4 minutes. With mixer on stir or lowest speed add eggs, 1 at a time, making sure the first egg is completely incorporated before continuing. Once all of the eggs have been added and the mixture is smooth put dough into a pipping bag with round tip. Pip immediately into golf-ball sized shapes, 2 inches apart onto parchment paper lined sheet pans. Cook for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 degrees F and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. Once they are removed from the oven pierce with a paring knife immediately to release steam.

Once your Pate a Choux is done baking let them cool. While they are cooling whip up some cream. I added a little sugar and vanilla to add a little flavor.
Put the whipped cream into a pippin bag with any type of tip on it. If the outer shell is cooled then fill them with the cream. After that ENJOY!
They are really easy to make and they taste fantastic. So please make these and enjoy them.
Here are a few pictures (that I am very proud of) of my cream puffs. I drizzles them with a little chocoalte syrup.

Enjoy!
Nancy

LET THEM EAT SOUP!!!!

Hello,
Again I have been dishonest with you. I once vowed to post every time I made something. Well... That didn't happen. I have making mass amount of food, but haven't found to much time to blog about it. Sorry. I have made food at school, food to bring to school, food the bring to youth group, and food just cause I was bored.
Recently I have been trying my hand a cooking instead of just baking. I have gone soup crazy! I love soup! I could go on and on about how much I love soup. Soup is amazing! I have not meet one type of soup I did not like. I could eat soup for about every meal. To practice my cutting skills in my independent study I decided that I would make soup. You have to chop a lot of vegetable for soup, so it was great practice. And I just really wanted to make soup because I love it!!!!!!
I made two amazing soup last week. Tomato Basil and Minestrone Soup. They were both amazing with fantastic flavor. I personally love the Minestrone. I really don't like to eat vegetables. I have an awful sweet tooth and would eat a brownie over a salad any day. Soup is a great way for me to eat vegetable without forcing myself to. The Minestrone Soup is full of vegis, pasta, and heaven. There is spinach, tomatoes, squash, celery, and carrots. To add some body to the soup you put in pasta and potatoes. Warning this soup is very good but very filling. You will want to keep eating but you will get full. I changed the recipe a little from what I found on Allrecpies.com. I did not put in the Swiss Shard (mostly cause I don't know what that is :)). I also added more noodles than the recipe calls for so my soup thickened up and was so brothy, which personally I liked. Also the store in town didn't have orzo so I just used shells instead and those worked very well in it. And don't worry right after you put in the spinach it looks like seawead with a couple vegetable in it, but the spinach cooks down, a lot.
The Toamto Basil soup was also amazing. It was creamy and rich. The flavor is beyond this world. I did everything exactly like the recpie with that and it turned out perfect. Tomato soup is my favorite type of soup, so this soup ranks in the top 5 of best soups I have ever eaten (and as you can tell I love soup and have eaten alot of soup).
So here are the recpies, and I know it is almost the end of soup season. But please for your sake and mine try these soups!!!!

Minestrone Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Spectrum Organic Extra VirginOlive Oil

1 medium onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, chopped

3 medium carrots, diced

2 large celery stalks, diced

2 medium yellow squash, diced

5 cups Imagine Organic VegetableCooking Stock

1/2 pound potatoes, peeled and diced

1/2 pound Swiss chard cut into narrow strips

1 pound spinach leaves cut into strips

1 cup orzo pasta

1 cup chunky chopped Italian plum tomatoes

2 bunches washed, julienned basis leaves

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons Hain Pure Foods Iodized

Sea Salt or kosher salt

Black pepper to taste

Fresh Parmesan for serving

Directions:

Heat the Spectrum Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a heavy bottom soup pot.

Add in the onion and garlic and saute for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft.

Stir in celery, carrots, squash and saute for 5 minutes more.

Add in the Imagine Organic Vegetable Cooking Stock, potatoes, chard, spinach, pasta and tomatoes, and bring to a boil.

Lower heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until the potatoes are soft and the pasta has cooked.

Stir in the basil and Parmesan. Season to taste.

Divide between 8 warm soup bowls and grate some fresh Parmesan over each bowl.

Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients

1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 (11.5 ounce) can tomato-vegetable juice cocktail

1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth

20 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup butter or margarine

Directions:

In a large saucepan, combine the tomatoes, vegetable juice, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in the basil. At this point, you may puree the soup if you wish. Add the cream and butter; return to medium-low heat, and stir until butter is melted. Serve immediately. Serves 6

LET THEM EAT SOUP!!!!

Enjoy

Nancy

Shakespeare and Pie

Hello,
This is a monumental day for me! It is the start of my last semester of high school!!! Hooray!!! I am almost of here and on my way to bigger and better things! This is also the best semester of high school I have ever taken. I have about 3 real classes. Band, an independent study, a crazy block scheduling class, and Shakespeare. Shakespeare might be about the best class I have ever taken. The teachers are two of my favorite teachers from the high school. And the class is made up of people who want to be there to READ!! If you know me at all you know that I like reading. Between reading and baking my life is pretty complete. This class is the best of both worlds than. Because the teachers are allowing me to bring food to class. Hiphiphooray!!!!!!! (If you can't tell by the exclamation points I am a little excited!)
For the first day of class we are having a pie day!! I love pie. It is sooooo much fun to make and it tastes amazing. We are mostly having a pie day because one of the males, who is unskilled in the areas of food, demanded I make him a lemon meringue pie. Of course I jumped on the opportunity to make pie. So hence pie day.
I am just hoping that today and the rest of the semester are amazing. And with my schedule and my baking skills I honestly don't know how they couldn't be. So here is a lemon meringue pie recipe that can hopefully make your life better somehow. The recipe I got off allrecipes.com, but I put a little of my own flare into it.

Tradional Lemon Meringue Pie (with a twist)
Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup Argo® OR Kingsford's® Corn Starch
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• 1 pie crust made out of crushed Vanilla wafers and melted butter
• 3 egg whites
• 1/3 cup sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine 1 cup sugar and corn starch in medium saucepan. Gradually stir in water until smooth. Stir in egg yolks.
2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, and boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon peel, lemon juice and butter.
3. Spoon hot filling into pie crust.
4. Beat egg whites in small bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually beat in remaining 1/3 cup sugar; continue beating until stiff peaks form.
5. Spread meringue evenly over hot filling, sealing to edge of crust.
6. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack at room temperature for 30 minutes; refrigerate for 3 hours before serving.

Hope you have a wonderful life filled with pie and books!

Nancy

 

Better Than What?

Hello!
This week contained the birthday of one of my favorite people. Crystal! Of course since it's a birthday there MUST be cake!! We didn't have to be at school today because of semester tests, so we went out for lunch. The Chinese food was superb, but let me say the best part was the cake. If you have never had Better Than Sex Cake you sir are missing out. Yes the name of the cake is Better Than Sex Cake. I have heard it called many other names in my lifetime. Heath Cake, Better Than Sunday School Cake, and Better Than Anything Cake are just a few examples. This cake is amazing. One of my friends who had never eaten this cake before took one bite, paused, and said "this tastes like heaven!" The cake really is that good.
Recipes that are first described as easy and simple sort of annoy me. I know that things that taste good can be easy to make. But really recipes should not have the words easy and simple in it. Better Than Sex cake is easy yes, but it tastes as if angel wings can down and landed on your tongue. It is the best cake you can make. It just helps that it's easy! So please please please make this cake. If you know what is good for you you will make this cake and eat it. But try not to take it somewhere because you will want to eat the entire pan yourself.

Better Than Sex Cake
Ingredients
-1 box german chocolate cake and ingredients to make it
-1 can carmel ice cream topping
-1 can sweetened condensed milk
-1 tub whipped topping
-bag of heath bar pieces
Make the cake a directed on the box. Once the cake is done poke hole in it while it is still hot. You can use a straw for this. Pour the sweentened milk and carmel over the top of the cake. Once it is cooled you can put the cool whip on top and heavly sprinkle on the heath pieces. The cake is better if you let it sit over night, and if you do that do not put on the whipped topping until you are ready to serve.

Remember if you know what is good for you, you WILL make this cake!
Nancy
(P.S. Sorry there are no pictures my mom took the camera to California with her :))

Shhhhhh!!!! It's a Secret

Hello!!      So I recently pledged to stop bring food to all of my friends get together. Call it a New Year's resolution of sorts. I really need to cut back on my baking budget. Well... to show how good I am at keeping my New Year's resolutions, I already broke this one even before it is the new year. I kept telling myself no! no! no! I will not bring food to the New Year's Party I am going to tonight, but since I am sharing recipes you can assume that that didn't happen.
      I got home from coffee with some friends this morning and my mom asked me if I was bringing food to my party tonight. I stopped and thought, than answered completely wrong. "If you buy me a bag of chocolate chips then I will make some cookies." WRONG ANSWER!!! I should have said NO! I am not baking for my friends. I spend all of my money making food for other people to eat. My parents just fuel my addiction. They don't even try and step in because they enjoy my food just as much as my friends. Apparently everyone just wants me to go broke!! My mother responds with "why don't you just use the bag of mini M&M's in the cupboard?" Than my father stands up looks in the cupboard and next to the M&M's finds a bag of peppermint Kisses. His response "Make these into some cookies for me." So needless to say I gave in and have been baking for the past few hours. I understand my parents clever tricks. When I bake I have to clean up my mess, well when the kitchen is messy before I bake I just end up cleaning the entire kitchen. Oh, parents you think you are so tricky. I am on to you!!!
       Even though I have vowed to spend less money and time baking for others here I am making two different types of cookies. So please dear readers keep my secret for me. Please don't tell anyone that I broke my New Year's resolution before the new year. So shhhhh!!!!!! It's a secret!!!! I trust you, dear readers, to help me!! I don't trust my friends and family to help me from going broke!
       Well even though I have not throughly enjoyed baking today, I hope you really enjoy these recipes. The two types of cookies I made today are Kisses Candy Cane Blossoms and Chocolate Chip cookies with mini M&M's instead of chocolate chips. The chocolate chip cookies is another thing you, dear readers, will have to keep a secret. The recipe is my mother's cookies recipe. It is amazing!!! This recipe is one of the first recipes I made. These cookies and Ramen noodles fostered my love for baking. So please please please dear readers help me protect my money and my cookies!! The Kisses Blossomes have no emtional attacment because I found the recipe on the back of the bag, so do with that recipe what you like!!
Thank you Luke, my art college student brother, for taking some very artistic pictures of my cookies!!

Kisses Candy Cane Blossoms
Ingredients

• 48 peppermint Kisses
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• red and green food coloring and extra granulate sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove wrappers from candies.
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, egg, and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; add alternately with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
3. Mix half the dough with green food coloring and the other half with red. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in extra sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookie set. Remove form oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press a candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies  

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter flavor crisco (please use crisco!!)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 tbl vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp spoons baking soda
• 4 cups flour
• 1 bag chocolate chips or mini M&M's

Directions:
      Combine crisco, sugars, vanilla, eggs, and salt; stir until creamy. Add flour and soda, mix well. Stir in chips. Put on ungreased cookies sheet by tablespoon full. Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minute.

Remember shhhhh!!!!! it's a secret!!!
Nancy

Holiday Balls

Hello!
I have been falling behind in blogging. Since it is the Holiday season of course i have been baking like crazy, but I have found very little time to blog about it. So here are some of my fantastic Christmas cookie recipes after Christmas is already over :).
Like I said that I have been baking like crazy. I made 11 huge cookie plates for my friends, baked multiple cookies and pies for my family, and had a baking day with my friends. That's a lot of cookies!! I will try to share most of the recipes with you, dear readers. Some are very simple, so are a little more complex, but are all are equally delicious.
Here is a list of what I have made
-Oreo Balls/ Reindeer Turds
-Peanut Butter Balls
-Almond Bark pretzels
-Minty Cookies
-Oreo Snowmen
-Turtles
-Spritz cookies
-Sugar cookies
-Cut-out cookies
-Chocolate chip cookies
-Apple pie
-Pumpkin pie
-Chocolate pie
As you can see I have been busy since Thanksgiving. I would like to share two of the easiest and nomiest recipes, Oreo balls and peanut butter balls.

Oreo Balls
Ingredients
-1 package oreos
-1 8 oz. package cream cheese (softened)
-Almond bark
First you crush up the oreos. (This would be really easy in a food processor, but if you are like me and do not own one of those a pastry blender or a meat tenderizer and a plastic bag work very well too!) After all of the oreos crushed are mix in cream cheese. (This might work better with your hands.) When it is all mixed together make balls of whatever size out of the mixture and set it in the fridge or outside if it is winter to harden. Once they are hard dip them in almond bark, let dry, then enjoy!!

Crispy Peanut Butter Balls
from the Taste of Home Holiday cookie magazine

Ingredients

• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3-3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 cups crisp rice cereal
• 4 cups (24 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon shortening, divided
• 1/3 cup white baking chips

Directions

• In a large bowl, beat peanut butter and butter until blended; gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Stir in cereal. Shape into 1-in. balls. Refrigerate until chilled.
• In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and 1/4 cup shortening; stir until smooth. Dip balls into chocolate; allow excess to drip off. Place on a waxed paper-lined pan. Let stand until set.
• In a microwave, melt white baking chips and remaining shortening. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over candies. Refrigerate until set. Yield: 6 dozen.

I could be very immature now and say I hope you really enjoy the balls, and make other inappropriate jokes about balls, but since I am mature I will not do that. ;) I really do hope you enjoy these easy and amazing recipes. I will try to share more recipes with you in the future.

Nancy