Chocolate Cupcakes With Caramel Frosting

I appear to be on a bit of a food kick lately! I made these cupcakes for a meeting I have today. The lab I work in was split into two groups for what amounts to an extended homework problem. Our boss gave our teams names - Team Butterfly vs. Team Cupcake. (Guess which team I’m on!) I promised my team cupcakes for today’s meeting, so here they are. Both the cake and frosting recipes came from my Better Homes and Garden New Baking Book. The cake is the Classic Chocolate Cake and the frosting is Penuche Frosting. The cupcakes baked up very nicely, with the perfectly shaped tops.

I’m a little wary of the frosting. I think it’s supposed to be pretty heavy and dense, but I had a really hard time spreading it onto the cupcakes. I think that if I made it again, I would use less powdered sugar to change the consistency of it a bit. I’ve always been very happy with everything that comes from this cookbook, so I’m sure that they will be well received by Team Cupcake!

Nachos!

It has been extremely hot here these past few days. I always find it a challenge to get excited about eating anything when it’s this hot, especially since using the stove or oven for more than a few minutes is out of the question since we don’t have air conditioning.

Last night I made these nachos - they were just perfect. The base was refried beans and melted jack cheese, the warmness of which was offset by lettuce and black olives. On the side is some salsa, sour cream and guacamole I made from the excellent recipe posted by Catnip and Coffee.

I tried to make this the healthiest version of nachos that I could - I used vegetarian refried beans, low fat sour cream and tried out some multi-grain chips (which were actually pretty good!).

As I was putting this all together, I realized that I felt a little silly plating out nachos for myself. Ever since I started blogging, I automatically try to make a pretty presentation even though I’m going to sit in front of the TV and nosh it all down in under 15 minutes. But then I thought about it a little more, and it really makes dinner feel a little bit more special, so I think I’ll keep my strange little habit!

Cool Pasta Salad

I made this pasta salad for a barbecue this past weekend. It was very refreshing, since it was about 95 degrees out! It has rotini pasta, cucumber, green pepper, muenster cheese and black beans with italian dressing. The beans give it a nice little burst of protein without having more meat, which was good because we had the largest pile of ribs that I have ever seen!

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

I love twice baked potatoes. If they weren’t food, I would marry twice baked potatoes. So, when my sister and I were talking about a side dish to make for a party at her house (during the weekend of our brother’s college graduation!), we were sad that twice baked potatoes would be too much work for 27 people. So, we decided to turn it into a casserole! It was a hit, and was all gone by the end of the night! The recipe is below.

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

• 7 lbs baking potatoes
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 5-6 tbsp butter
• 2(ish) cups milk
• bacon bits
• shredded cheese (we used cheddar)
• salt and pepper
• sour cream for serving

Wash the potatoes and poke each a few times with a fork. Bake at 350 F until done (tender when poked with a fork). This will probably take 30-45 minutes. Quarter and peel the potatoes. It’s ok to leave a little bit of flesh on the peelings, actually a little preferable. Toss the peelings into the bottom of a casserole dish (we used a disposable turkey roasting pan, it was a great size for this).

Put the flesh of the potatoes into a large bowl. You want to work quickly so the potato innards stay warm. Mash the potatoes with the cream cheese, milk, butter, salt and pepper until they are a good consistency, maybe a little more wet than your average mashed potatoes since they will be baked again. Layer over the skins in the baking dish. Top with bacon bits and cheese. (You can also add anything else you usually enjoy in your twice baked potatoes, such as green onion, garlic, chives, etc…) Bake until it is all warm throughout and the cheese is melted.

This can also be made ahead, and stored in the fridge for a few hours. Take out of the fridge, warm to room temperature, add your toppings and then bake. So, not only is it yummy, it can also be a time saver since it can be mostly assembled in the morning for a large diner gathering!

We served this with a little sour cream on the side, and it was completely gone by the end of the night, with tons of compliments! Enjoy!

That’s Just the Way I Roll…..

As promised, here is another attempt at one of the wonderful recipes from Baking Bites. I multiplied the recipe by 1 1/2 because that is the amount of yogurt I bought (two individual serving cups). It made so much dough; I was afraid it would take over the kitchen! But they are so spectacularly soft and yummy.

I had one straight out of the oven with some butter, there’s nothing like fresh rolls, still warm so that they melt the butter, yum! I’ve also made some egg salad sandwiches and some buffalo chicken subs on the longer rolls. I’m so glad that I’m on a bread kick lately!

Peanut Butter Chip Brownies

These delicious brownies were made from this recipe over at Baking Bites. (Has anyone noticed that in general, I’m in love with her recipes? In fact, look for another one coming up soon here!) I replaced the nuts with 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips - I reserved a handful that I didn’t mix into the batter and sprinkled them on top right before they went in the oven to give them a pretty look.

I also reduced the baking time by 5 minutes and didn’t use the water bath at the end to cool the brownies. I like my brownies a little undercooked so they are fudgier, and I can’t not eat a warm brownie straight from the oven. The really excellent thing about these brownies are the edges are really chewy, not crispy or hard. Also, they are chocolate and peanut butter so they have to be great!

Coconut Shrimp Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

Last night’s Lost dinner was most excellent. It was pretty warm yesterday, so my original dinner plan of sloppy joes and mashed potatoes didn’t sound very appetizing. This was an amazing alternative. I breaded some raw shrimp in coconut (flour first, then egg, then coconut) and pan fried them. It is really easy to burn the coconut, so the oil shouldn’t be too hot!

The salad is just a baby arugula mix. The peppery flavor of the arugula was a little strong for the lightness of the dressing, so next time I might go with baby spinach instead. The dressing was fresh lime juice, honey and olive oil. It was like a lime kick in the pants, which is awesome if you like lime as much as I do. This recipe is definitely going in the must have again, over and over category!

Peanut Butter Banana Cake

Banana cake with peanut butter chips and peanut butter glaze. I love the combination of peanut butter and bananas, and this cake was no exception - it turned out great! I replaced the butter in a standard glaze with peanut butter and it worked wonderfully. I used about half a bag of peanut butter chips for this recipe, although next time I might think about using the whole bag since they are a little sparse in the cake.

NOM NOM NOM NOM BACON NOM NOM NOM

This was my very yummy dinner last night. It’s a repeat of one that I made for thing-a-day in February. Caramelized onions, garlic, cubed portabella mushrooms and bacon! Yum. The onions are cooked down in olive oil, then the garlic and mushrooms are added. I fried the bacon until crispy, then added it at the end to the onion mixture. It’s all served over some egg noodles, with the olive oil basically serving as the sauce. I can’t wait to eat some of the leftovers tonight!

Recipe book…

    It is standard operating procedure in my family to have a recipe book with about seventy-five thousand loose recipes hanging out in it between the pages. Most of these accumulate right inside the cover, a few are buried in the center. We make fun of mom for this, but it happened to me!

    I started a recipe binder years ago, when I left for college. It’s just an old red binder with construction paper dividers for different classes of recipes: breads, desserts, main dishes, etc. Well, random paper creep happened, and all of the sudden I had an exploding full book with recipes on post it notes, scraps of paper and even on the back of envelopes! It was insanity. So, I’ve finally managed to re-write all of them onto looseleaf paper and secure them in the binder. Now, everything is organized and right where I can find it. I like it, but mom did sound a little sad when I told her….