SUMMER!!

Hey guys!

Oh em gee.  It has been totally too long since my last post!  I have been so busy.  I went to England for two weeks and then moved into a new place!  Busy, busy, busy!  So, unfortunately, I haven't been able to cook that much.  FORTUNATELY, it is Summer and with Summer comes great opportunities to eat delicious and (usually) low-calorie meals.  To celebrate the coming of the season, I whipped up a summer meal a couple days ago for my new roommate, my best friend, and her best friend.  Cute, right!?

If you have been following my blog, you have probably realized that there is a lack of meat in my meals.  My roommate has willingly cut out meat from her diet too and now we both only go as far as fish.  It's pretty hard to entertain people when you don't eat meat or want to cook meat.  Fortunately, all of my friends like fish.  So I thought let's make something summery with fish..FISH TACOS!  I found a great recipe for fish tacos in Cooking Light magazine.  The recipe called for halibut, but I am pretty poor so I bought tilapia, which is a perfectly delicious (and much cheaper) alternative.  Also, I'm clearly a fan of alliteration (see name of blog) and Tilapia Tacos sounds way better than Halibut Tacos to me.

Terrific Tilapia Tacos

1 cup dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried oregano
3/8 teaspoon Turkish cumin
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 garlic cloves (crushed if you don't have a food processor, but minced if you don't)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 tilapia fillets
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
8 corn tortillas

If you have a food processor, toss the first 5 ingredients into that bad boy and mix them up.  If not, then just mix everything in a bowl.  While you're mixing, slowly incorporate the olive oil into the mixture.  The mixture should look like this:

Rub the marinade all over the fillets of fish.  Cover the fish and let them chill in the fridge for 2 hours.  They should look like this:

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in frying pan on medium-high heat.  Sprinkle salt and pepper on the fish and fry them.  Each side should be cooked for about 4-5 minutes.  You can tell when tilapia is done when it is white throughout and flaky.  When the fish is done cooking, break apart the fish into rough, bite-sized pieces.  It should look like this:

I served the tacos with vegetarian baked beans and salad to keep everything low-fat and healthy!

This meal was so delicious!  To stay with the summery (and I guess Mexican) theme I wanted to make a dessert that is refreshing and light.  The last thing I want to eat on a hot day is a cupcake...okay maybe not the last thing I want to eat.  I love cupcakes, but I wanted to try something lighter.  Summer desserts are really simple and usually low in calories and light.  Granitas are the perfect summer dessert and I have never made them before and found a very simple recipe in Bon Appetit magazine, so I decided to do something new and make a watermelon granita.

Watermelon Granita

 4 cups cubed seedless watermelon
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice


Blend all three ingredients until you get a really smooth mixture that should look something like this:

Pour the mixture into a deep metal baking tin.  I used a glass container because I don't have a metal pan at the new apartment.  If you only have glass, like I did then you will need to freeze the mixture for a lot longer than if you used a metal baking tin.

Freeze this mixture for about an hour.  The mixture should be semi-frozen.

This step is SO IMPORTANT to make a good granita.  At this point, you want to take a fork and scrape the dish.  Every hour you should repeat this step until you get a very icy mixture.  If you don't scrape as you go, then you will have a very large popsicle, which is cool and all, but it's definitely not a granita.  Scoop some out and serve!

This dessert is so simple, but it takes a little bit of time and patience.

Overall, it was a really great and light meal.  Hopefully, I'll be able to cook a little more often since I'm finally settled into things and I'll be able to keep you guys updated!

Stacey

SO BUMMED..but at least there are cupcakes to numb the pain

Hey Guys!!

UGH!  SO!  I must first start of this post with an "in memory" to my iPhone4.  It shattered AND it had all of my delicious pictures on it.  Some of these pictures I did not back-up on my computer because sometimes I can be a REAL dunce.  So, to the late iPhone4, I will miss you.  To the new iPhone4: 1.  Thank you for being free.

Unfortunately, I made some awesome food and cupcakes that I wanted to post about, but the pictures were on my old phone.  I will just have to make them again, but it is such a shame because I made the cutest sprinkle cupcakes that looked like bunnies and Easter eggs and some delicious artichoke risotto.

BUT DON'T WORRY!  I made some good food this week too and managed to capture some pictures!

Carrot Cupcakes

I love carrot cupcakes, mainly because they are horrible for you, but sound healthy because there is a vegetable in them.  I love deception.  But I also love them because they are super delicious.  I got the recipe for the cake from Ina Garten via foodnetwork.com because I saw her make some simple carrot cupcakes and I have never made them before so I didn't want to mess it up.  She made 24 cupcakes, but the recipe I have below is for 12 cupcakes because chances are I'm going to eat these cupcakes by myself and the beached whale look is so last season.

CUPCAKES

1 cup sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
3/4 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Beat together the sugar and vegetable oil and then add one egg at a time.  Add the cinnamon, then flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add the vanilla extract.  Stir in the carrots and the walnuts.  If you wanted to add raisins (I wanted to, but I realized that I didn't have any at last minute), then add the raisins at this stage and stir in.  You should add equal amounts of raisins and walnuts.  Bake the cupcakes for about 18-20 minutes, depending on your oven.  I always put my cupcakes in for 10 minutes, and then check them every 3 minutes after that because cupcakes overcook very easily.  They should look like this and when you insert a knife or toothpick, it will come out clean:

To top off these cupcakes, I made a cream cheese frosting from my own recipe.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

2 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1 stick butter (salted)
2-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoons vanilla

I always make my cream cheese frosting by just tasting it as I go.  It's important that your cream cheese and butter are at room temperature and very soft.  If they aren't soft then the frosting will be too dense.  Beat the cream cheese and butter until they are well blended.  Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and mix at low speed (for your own safety because powdered sugars gets everywhere).  Add the vanilla in at the end and top your cupcakes!  I love those little carrots that are on the top of carrot cupcakes when you buy them at bakeries so I made them too.  My sister always makes the colors for my frosting because it is the one thing in which she is better at compared to me. :-P  My cupcakes turned out sooooooo cute!

After making these cupcakes, I was hungry for real food.  My mom wanted me to make falafels for a while and I decided to make them for her finally.  The first step that you want to do is soak your dried chickpeas overnight to make them soft.  I only wanted to make the falafel balls from scratch because I already had tzatziki sauce from Trader Joe's that I wanted to eat with them.

Falafel Balls

1 cup dried chickpeas
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried cilantro
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon baking powder
8 tablespoons flour (approximately)
Vegetable oil, for frying

I don't know how anyone can make this recipe without a food processor, so I am going to assume that you have one unless your knife and mashing skills are equal to those of a ninja.  Put the chickpeas and onion into the food processor and press the "on" button.  It's a little tricky..  Then throw in the garlic, parsley, cilantro, salt and red pepper flakes.  Pulse in the baking powder and the flour.  You may need more than 8 tablespoons, but that's how much I had to use.  The mixture will look something like this:

Heat up the vegetable oil.  Test the oil by dropping a little piece of the batter into the oil.  If it sizzles, then the oil is hot enough.  I used an ice cream scoop to measure my falafel balls and then dropped it into the hot oil.  I didn't want to deep fry them so I half-deep fried them.  You'll need to flip them half-way if you do this method.  Mine looked like this half-way:

When you are done, put them on a plate with paper towels on it to soak up the excess oil and salt IMMEDIATELY.  Otherwise the salt won't really stick to the balls.  I wonder how many more times I can say balls and still find it funny..  ANYWHO, my balls looked like this:

I wanted to eat these in a wrap form.  But you can just put these in a pita and add some toppings.  I used tzatziki sauce and some pepper/onion medley that I got from an Indian restaurant.

The falafel wrap was pretty good, but I kind of think it tasted more like a hush puppy.

This Sunday is Mother's Day and I promised my mom I would bake a cake for her so let's see how that turns out!!


Stacey

Delicious Mistakes and Vegetarian Thai

Hey Guys!!

April has been such a busy month!  So I've been a little slow with the baking, but I made some pretty awesome things last week.  I wanted to be a little more adventurous with my cooking so I tried cupcakes with an unusual frosting and some Thai food, which I have never made before.

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Chocolate Mousse and Fudge Drizzle

CUPCAKES

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped up
1 stick salted butter (you can use unsalted)
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and set to the side to cool slightly.  Beat the butter and sugar together.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and stir until well blended.  Add the sour cream and water.  Then add the vanilla extract.  Line the cupcake tins with cupcake liners and fill the liners with about 1/3 of the batter.  Here is the mistake that I made..I kind of filled the cupcake liners all the way to the top.  This batter makes about 18 cupcakes, but I only had 12 cupcake liners and I didn't want to waste any batter.  After baking the cupcakes for about 18 minutes my cupcakes looked like this:

As you can see, these cupcakes are massive.  They overflowed and this would normally be fun, but the cupcake I was trying to make was supposed to have the top cut off and put back on after mousse was put int he middle.  There was no way I was going to successfully cut that top off without the cupcake completely breaking, unless I had some sort of magical powers...which I don't (?)

CHOCOLATE SAUCE

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons salted butter
1 1/2 cupcs semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the cream and butter in a medium-sized saucepan on medium-high heat until the mixture begins to bubble, but do not let it boil.  Take the mixture off of the heat and add the chocolate chips.  Let the chocolate chips sit in the mixture for about a minute and mix the chocolate chips and cream until it is smooth.  Add the vanilla extract.  I let this mixture cool at room-temperature for about an hour before using.  It should look like this.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

3/4 cup Chocolate Sauce from before
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Beat the heavy cream with the powdered sugar until you form stiff peaks.  Add the chocolate sauce slowly while mixing on low speed.  Some people fold the whipped cream into the chocolate, but my wrists are very weak and so was that excuse.  Anywho..I use a mixer.

Instead of putting the mousse on the inside I just spread it on top of the cupcakes and then drizzled the cupcakes with the remaining chocolate sauce by putting the chocolate sauce in a plastic bag, cutting the tip off, and drawing lines on the cupcakes.  They didn't look how I wanted them to, but I still think they looked pretty and they were, by far, the best tasting chocolate cupcakes I have ever made.

Refrigerate the cupcakes in order to solidify the mousse.  Mousse tends to run.

Thai Red Curry Tofu with Green Beans

I love Thai food and I love tofu, but it is really difficult to make tofu actually taste like something other than tofu, especially for people who aren't vegetarians, like my family.  A lot of people do not like tofu, but I think that this dish would be able to please anyone.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
12 oz firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste (you can find this in the foreign food section of any grocery store)
14 oz tomato puree (I used tomato puree because I hate big chunky tomatoes, which the recipe called for..use whatever you prefer!)
11 oz green beans, trimmed and cut into half

Heat the oil in a wok (or a large frying pan) on high heat.  Add the onions and the tofu and saute for about 5 minutes, or until the tofu is golden.  Remove the onion and tofu.  To the pan, add the curry paste and cook for about one minute.  Add the tomatoes and bring the mixture to a boil.  Add the green beans and the tofu and onion mixture.  Heat this for about 5 more minutes and you're ready to eat!

This meal was so easy to make and it was really really tasty (and, may I add, SUPER healthy)!  If you don't want to eat tofu then you can just cut whatever meat you want.  It's very versatile.  Add however much salt you want at the end.

Tomorrow is Easter so I will be cooking up a storm for the family!!

See you then!

Stacey

Long time...Some Healthy Food, And Some Not-So-Healthy Food: Cupcakes, Baklava, and a Vegetarian Meal

Hi Guys!!  I have been so busy and unable to update my blog in a while, but that does NOT mean that I have stopped cooking and baking.  In fact, you should probably brace yourself because I am sure this post will be a little on the lengthy side.

Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Cupcakes with Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting
 
Three weeks ago, I found a really beautiful cupcake in a book called cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans, that she calls "chocolate-covered hi-hats."  I really wanted to recreate these because they looked challenging and delicious.

CUPCAKES

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate, but you can use any kind that you like)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line your cupcake pans with aluminum cupcake liners.  Beat the butter and the sugar together in a bowl.  Add the eggs one at a time.  Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together in a separate bowl.  Slowly add the buttermilk and the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  Add the water and then the vanilla extract.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  The mixture should look like this:

Fill the cupcake pan 3/4 of the way up and then bake the cupcakes for about 18-20 minutes (depending on your oven).  You can tell they are done by sticking a toothpick into the cake.  The toothpick should come out clean and they should look something like this:

MARSHMALLOW FROSTING

1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

I love using my big mixer that you all have seen in my posts, but I have had it for over 5  years and in that amount of time I have lost the metal whisk attachment for it.  If there is anything I learned from making this frosting is that sometimes I cannot just slide on by just using the paddle that I have been using for everything.  Because of this my frosting didn't come out as it should have.  The way to make this frosting is very simple with the right tools.  First, you have to set up a double boiler.  This is a pot of water and a glass or metal bowl on top.  You want it so that the bowl is resting inside the pot but the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.  Mix together all of the ingredients in the bowl while the water is boiling.  Set your hand-mixer (mind you, one with metal whisks) on high until you form stiff peaks.  This means that when you pull the mixer out and hold the whisk upside-down, the marshmallow will keep its shape in a delicious peak.  Mine looked like this:

Frost the cupcakes and put the cupcakes in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or until the marshmallow becomes hard enough to dip in chocolate.  Mine looked like this:

CHOCOLATE COATING

2 cups semisweet chocolate
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Set up another double boiler and melt the chocolate and oil together until it reaches a nice, silky consistency.  Dip the cupcakes into the chocolate until the marshmallow is covered.  My final product looked like this:

Personally, I thought they still looked pretty, but they weren't as pretty as the picture in the book!  Also, if I were to make this again I would not put the almond extract in the marshmallow frosting.  I think it would have tasted a lot better if the flavoring was simply vanilla.

CHICKPEA PATTIES AND PEA SOUP

I try to cook a full-on vegetarian meal for my family at least once a week to show them that you can have delicious, nutritious food without having to consume meat.  However, I find that it's very hard to make meat-lovers enjoy vegetarian cuisine.  My brother and sister are big meat eaters so I figured I would be able to convince them to eat vegetarian food by making it look familiar.  SO..what's more familiar to a meat-eater than a burger?  I found an interesting recipe for a veggie pattie made with chickpeas and thought this would at least make my siblings interested in a vegetarian meal.  To couple this, I decided to make some pea soup.  I love anything that is green and I can't imagine anything greener than a cup of pea soup.  Plus, soups go really great with sandwiches.

CHICKPEA PATTIES

21 oz. chickpeas (drain them and rinse them if you are using canned beans)
3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic (if you are using a food processor then just crush the garlic cloves, but if you aren't then you should mince them)
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup baby spinach leaves, chopped
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1 carrot, grated
2 eggs
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Bread of choice

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat.  Cook the onions and garlic until they are soft.  Add the cumin and cook for about a minute.  Add the spinach, cooking for an additional minute and then remove it from the heat.

Mix together the other ingredients in a food processor (you could just stir it together, but I find a food processor easier).  Add the onion, garlic, and spinach mixture to the other ingredients.  Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan.  Form your mixture into patties (each patty should have about 1/2 cup of the mixture) and fry the patties, about 2-3 minutes on each side.

PEA SOUP

1 tablespoon butter
3 leeks (for this recipe you only use the white parts), chopped into rings
1 medium onion, finely chopped
5 cups vegetable stock
3 cups frozen peas
5 little potatoes (the original recipe I found called for 2 Russet potatoes, but we usually don't have those in my house so I used those little red potatoes), diced
1 tsp salt

***I would like to start this by telling people how to wash leeks.  Leeks have many layers and are incredibly dirty so you will want to clean them thoroughly before use.  I find it easiest to fill a large bowl with water, chop the leeks into rings, and then soak those rings in the water.  The dirt will fall to the bottom of the bowl and the leeks will float on top.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add the onion and the leek and cook until they are soft.  Add the stock, peas, potato, and salt.  Bring this to a boil and reduce the heat so that the soup is simmering.  Let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes.  Then puree the soup in a blender (or with a hand blender) until you reach the desired consistency of the soup.  I like mine with some texture so I leave some chunks in the soup.  Reheat the soup and then serve.

My meal ended up looking like this:

I added a little side salad because I opted to not eat the bun with the burgers.  My brother and sister really liked the chickpea patties, but only after putting a lot of ketchup on.

BAKLAVA

My mom has been dying for me to cook her some baklava.  I realized that I had some phyllo dough already in my freezer so I figured it's now or never; I was going to attempt to make baklava.  For those of you who have never had baklava I request that you slowly walk away from your computer and go get some baklava (unless you are allergic to nuts)!  Now that you have either indulged in some baklava or are eating some at this moment while reading I will tell you how I made baklava.

FOR THE PASTRY

1 package of phyllo dough (you can find this in the frozen foods part of your grocery store)
1 pound of chopped nuts (I prefer walnuts, but you can probably use your favorite nut)
1 cup of butter, melted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a pan and cut your phyllo dough so as it is the same size of the pan.  I used a pan that was approximately the same size of the phyllo sheets to make things easier (about 9"x13").  Take 2 sheets of phyllo dough and place them on the bottom of the pan.  Brush the melted butter onto the phyllo sheets.  Layer with 2 more sheets and repeat this and slathering the sheets with butter until you have about 8 sheets down.  Mix the nuts and the cinnamon together.  Butter the 8th sheet and then sprinkle on the nut mixture.  Put 2 more sheets down and repeat this until you only have about 8-10 sheets of phyllo dough left unused.  This is what mine looked like half-way done:

Take the last 8 sheets and do the same as you did in the beginning; put two sheets down, butter, and repeat.  This makes 16 ridiculously large servings.  Cut the dough in to triangles like this and bake for about 50 minutes, or until it looks like this:

While your baklava is baking, prepare the sauce.

FOR THE SAUCE

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Boil the water and sugar together in a medium saucepan on medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the honey and vanilla extract.  Bring the mixture to a simmer and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

When the baklava is done baking, spoon the honey mixture over the top.  Mine looked like this:

These have probably been my favorite item that I have EVER baked.  They were so yummy and pretty.  But (SUPER WARNING) if you want to serve them the way I did you may want to advise the person to share their piece.  These were seriously huge and I can't even imagine how wonderfully horrible they are for your body.

My birthday is coming up this week and I have a feeling I am making my own cake..so I'll talk to you guys after to tell you how that goes!!

Stacey


 

Funfetti and Indian

Hi Guys!!

I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long, but it was midterm week and spring break, during which I traveled to the happiest place on earth, Disney World.  Now I am back and looking forward to updating all of you regarding my recent cooking adventures. 

Sprinkle Cake with Mixed Berry filling and Sour Cream Fudge Frosting
(Makes approximately 16 cupcakes)

As I mentioned in my previous post, my friends in Genetics with me are usually my test subjects for my baked goods.  Now they have started to put in requests for cupcakes.  To make them all happy, I combined a bunch of requests into a hot mess, and really delicious, cupcake. 

CUPCAKES
My friend, John, has challenged me with a Sprinkle cake (Funfetti).  I love to make cakes from scratch and Funfetti always comes in a box.  John had the gall to ask me to bake him Funfetti.  So I made one from scratch.  Ha.

2 1/3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature
3 egg whites
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup long rainbow sprinkles (my grandmother informed me that these are called jimmies and that the short ones are called sprinkles..the "jimmies" are necessary for this recipe)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Blend the butter and the sugar together until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Add the 3 egg whites, one at a time, while beating; this is the wet mixture.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt; this is the dry mixture.  Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture slowly.  Then add the milk in slowly, all while having the mixture on.  Then add the vanilla extract.  At this point, I like to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula and then turn back on the mixture, just to make sure I get all of those delicious ingredients that got stuck to the bottom of your mixing bowl.  Add in the sprinkles.

Your mixture should look something like this:

Pour the mixture into a baking tin that is lined with foil cupcake liners.  You really should fill this up 3/4 of the way, but I did it like 7/8 of the way because I only wanted to make 12 cupcakes.  NOTE: This was a mistake, which I will tell you about in just a moment.

Bake the cupcakes for about 25 minutes, or until the outside is nice and golden and when a toothpick is inserted into the cake, only a few crumbs are seen when the tooth pick is removed. 

My cupcakes blew up into monstrous cupcake deliciousness.

To fix this problem, I just cut off the extra bits around the side, which meant that I ate some wonderful cupcake scraps.

MIXED BERRY FILLING

My good friend (and future roommate), Alisa, loves berries.  She brings fresh berries into class almost every day.  So, I figured that I would make a berry filling for these colorful cupcakes to make it prettier, and even better tasting.

1 bag of frozen mixed berries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Mush the berries and the sugar up in a bowl with a fork until they look like this:

Then heat this mixture in a small saucepan on medium heat.  Mix the cornstarch with water and add this to the berries.  Heat until the mixture is thick enough to spoon into a cupcake.  You can add more sugar to your taste.  I, personally, am not a big sweets person so my fillings and frosting tend to not be on the sweeter side.  Your mixture should look like this:

Allow this mixture to cool.  Cut some holes into the cupcakes with a pearing knife (you can use any knife, obviously, but I find that this is really easy to use).  A lot of people use apple corers to cut holes into the cupcakes.  If you have one of these (I don't) then totally use it instead.  Fill your cupcakes to just below the top with the berry mixture.

That last cupcake to the right was for my sister, Katie.  She doesn't like berries so I filled hers with a vanilla frosting.

SOUR CREAM FUDGE FROSTING

I found this recipe a while ago in Bon Appetit and I made it for a chocolate Valentine's Day cupcake.  My friend, Kris, absolutely loves this frosting and I figured that it would be a nice topper to this cupcake that I have already designed.

8 ounces milk chocolate
1/2 stick salted butter
2/3 cup sour cream
4 teaspoons light corn syrup

To melt the chocolate, you will need to make a double-boiler.  Heat up a saucepan with a little bit of water in it on high heat.  Place a glass or metal bowl on top of the saucepan so that the water does not touch the bowl.  Put the chocolate into the bowl and constantly stir the chocolate until it is completely melted.  Take the chocolate off of the heat and stir in the butter.  Then beat in the sour cream and light corn syrup.  Let the mixture cool to room temperature for about an hour.  Frost your cupcakes.  Mine looked like this:

I covered mine with little ball sprinkles and couldn't wait to eat that bottom left one.  It was wonderful.  The tangy frosting versus the sweet cake was just a very tasty blend of flavors.  My friends really liked them too!

QUESO FRESCO TIKKA MASALA (serves 4)

This vegetarian Indian dish is typically called "Paneer Tikka Masala."  I can NEVER find paneer for some reason so I substitute paneer with queso fresco, which is similar but a little more solid.  I made this dish yesterday for my friends, Dana and Alisa.  Dana is not a huge fan of Indian food, so I thought I would introduce her to Indian food with this very mild dish.  They both do not like spicy food so I couldn't make the dish painfully spicy, but if you like spice then I would recommend adding red pepper flakes.

FOR THE CHEESE

1 8 oz. package of queso fresco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red chili powder
1 tablespoon grated ginger, with juices
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon plain yogurt (I like to use Greek yogurt because it is thicker)
1 tablespoon oil

Cut the queso fresco into bite-sized cubes and place them into a bowl.  Mix together the other ingredients in a separate bowl and then pour it over the cheese.  Gently toss the cheese until all the cheese is coated with the marinade.  Cover the bowl and marinade this mixture in the fridge for about an hour.  The cheese should look like this:

FOR THE SAUCE

1/2 cup pureed tomatoes
1 green pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Blend together the tomato puree and the green pepper.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan on medium-high heat.  Throw the cheese into the pan until it is browned, which will take about 4 minutes.  Remove the cheese and place it in another bowl.  Heat more oil in the same pan and then add the cumin seeds until they start cracking.  Then add the bay leaves.  Add the tomato and green pepper mixture to the pan along with the coriander powder, paprika, and turmeric.  Bring this mixture to a simmer and then add the sugar.  Dissolve the cornstarch in a teaspoon of water and then add that to the tomato mixture.  Then add the cheese to the mixture and cook until the cheese is heated.  Take the mixture off of the heat and add the garam masala and garlic salt.  It should look like this:

It may look gross, but it was really a very tasty version of Indian food.  I would recommend eating this dish with garlic naan, which is what we did.

That's all I have for now!  I will be baking more and cooking more today, so hopefully I will have more delicious updates for you in the near future!

Stacey

The Beginning

I have always loved cooking. I watch the Food Network religiously. Eventually I got to a stage where I would see recipes and think, "I can totally make that." So, I would prep and cook. As it turns out, I am pretty good at cooking. There are two things that I love most about cooking: it is therapeutic and it makes people happy when you cook for them. I developed a deep love for cooking. Eventually, I became tired of just watching the Food Network and started reading Bon Appetit magazine and would try to mimic their beautiful, gourmet meals. As I became better and better at cooking I began to daydream about, in my opinion, one of the hardest parts about cooking: baking. Cooking is more of an art. You get to decide what and how much you want to omit from or add to a recipe. However, baking is a science. The timing needs to be perfect and the measurements exact. As a science major, I find baking natural.

I have been baking and cooking for a couple years now and my friends and family have always seemed to enjoy my goods. I have also practiced enough that I have learned how to incorporate my own ideas into already published recipes. So I figured it was about time to see what all this blogging was about. So I will post what I make. I use my friends in the Genetics major at Rutgers University as my guinea pigs.

Banana Butterscotch Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Butter Frosting (Makes 12 cupcakes)

This cupcake was very, very easy to make! The original inspiration was from the book cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.

CUPCAKES
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter (I use salted butter because I think that it adds more flavor, but the author calls for unsalted butter)
1 cup sugar
2 medium over-ripe bananas, mashed together in a separate bowl
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup butterscotch chips (The author called for a full cup, but add as many as you would like)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line the muffin tin with cupcake liners.  I find that the foil liners keep in the moisture in the cupcake. Mix together the butter, sugar, and bananas.  Add the eggs one at a time.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Mix in the flour mixture slowly to the banana mixture.  Add the buttermilk to the mixture.  Then add in the vanilla extract.  I find that it is necessary to add the vanilla extract last because if you add it too early the flavor will not be as strong by the end.  Mix in your desired amount of butterscotch chips.

The mixture should look something like this:

Then you pour this mixture into the cupcake liners, about 3/4 way up.

You bake them at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, until you can poke a toothpick into the cupcake and it will come out with dry crumbs on it.  Mine took about 18 minutes.  If you are new to baking then I would set your timer to 10 minutes and then check the cupcakes every 2 minutes after the 10 minutes until you see that they are done.

The final product should look something like this:

 

I then cut a hole into the middle of the cupcakes in order to fill them.

BROWN SUGAR BUTTER FROSTING
1/4 cup half-and-half
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 butter, at room temperature (This is IMPORTANT!  The butter should be very very soft)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


Put the half-and-half and light brown sugar into a medium saucepan and heat until the brown sugar melts.  Increase the heat and boil the mixture for about a minute.  It is important to stir this constantly.  You know you are doing this right when your mixture looks like this:

Let this mixture cool in the fridge for about 45 minutes.

After the mixture is cool, mix together the butter and powdered sugar, adding the powdered sugar to the butter about 1/4 cup at a time, until the mixture is fluffy.  While the mixer is still on, slowly add the brown sugar mixture to the butter mixture.  Finally, add the vanilla extract.  The frosting should look like this:

Then frost your cupcakes however you want them to look!

My friends and family found these cupcakes to be delicious!  So you should definitely try them.  I think the best part of these cupcakes is the frosting and I will definitely be using this frosting to put on anything.  Seriously.  I can easily make a batch and eat it straight.


The Devil's Tears Vegetarian Lentil Chili (Makes 8 servings)

I figured I would close off this blog with a meal that I cook a lot.  Being a vegetarian, I find myself missing a lot of foods that I used to eat that contained meat.  One of those things is chili.  I found a great recipe in Bon Appetit magazine a few years ago and I make this chili  all the time.  The great thing about chili is that you can add whatever vegetables you want to it and it will just get more delicious (and nutritious).  My brother named this The Devil's Tears Chili because I like my chili like I like my hell--as hot as can come.  So if you want to change up the heat level, and make it more suitable for a little baby, then I would recommend decreasing the amount of cayenne pepper, mustard, and sriracha that I use.

4 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chopped carrots (Not in the original recipe)
4 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I add about a teaspoon because I like it fiery hot)
8 cups of water
2 cups lentils
1 cup tomato puree
1 cup corn (Not in the original recipe)
Chopped scallions
Shredded cheese of choice

Of course, you can make a smaller chili than this but I was feeding 6 people so I figured I would make enough for left-overs.  Heat the oil in a very large saucepan on medium-high.  Add the onions, carrots, and garlic and sautee for a couple minutes.  Then add the chili powder, cumin, oregano and cayenne pepper.  Cook this for about 1 minute.  Add the water, lentils, and tomato puree.  Bring this mixture to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a medium-low and simmer for about 45 minutes, or until the lentils are fully cooked.  Add the corn and cook for another 5 minutes.  It should look something like this:

Put it into serving bowls and sprinkle some scallions and cheese on top.  I only had mozzarella!

It's really delicious and very easy to make.  Who needs meat, right!?  (But you can add meat too if you want..whatever.)

I am making some other cupcakes and some cookies today..so hopefully they will be just as good!  I'll tell you ALL about it later!

Stacey