Belated Birthday Cupcakes for Kathy

Maple Bacon Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I had no time to bake a Birthday treat for my baking buddy in time for her Birthday this year so I thought I would bake something really yummy this weekend for her.  I decided to make some maple bacon cupcakes frosted with maple cream cheese frosting.  My goal was to make a cupcakes that tasted just like pancakes and bacon with syrup.  This batter was based off the recipe from the book Baked Explorations (a Brooklyn based bakery).  I skipped breakfast today and starting cooking some bacon with my lovely bacon press (if you love bacon, I suggest you pick one of these up).  After it cooled, I cut up the strips into little pieces and began to work on the batter.  I used grade B maple syrup in the batter and then when it was all done I tossed the bacon with some flour (this prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the cupcake) and folded them in.  I filled the muffin tins with batter and placed them in the oven.  Total baking time was about 22 minutes.  Our kitchen smelled wicked awesome while these were baking.  I sampled them warm from the oven and they were great.  Then one more after it had completely cooled and it was even better.  Later in the evening, after I finished cooking beef barley stew, I went ahead and made the frosting.  Some maple syrup, butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and serious whipping action and I reached the perfect flavor to top them off.  All of the flavors work so well together in this cupcake and I am in love with this recipe since I am a huge fan of pancakes and bacon.

Christmas Dinner

Rack of lamb, wilted spinach and potato gratin

This year for Christmas Jason and I stuck around Chicago.  It really was fantastic but we did miss seeing family and some great friends… oh well, we considered ourselves a bit lucky since we avoided all the family holiday drama!  So on Christmas Eve we started our morning by going to to the Paulina Meat Market.  Wow, this place was so cool- they had a ton of delicious meats, sausages, some very fun specialty ingredients and I think I sampled my first piece of bologna in about 20 years and it was great.  We grabbed a rack of lamb, some chorizo for chillaquilles the day after Christmas, some delicious Chimay cheese for snacking on and a box of rice crackers.  We headed home and I started getting tomorrow’s feast in order by baking us a pumpkin pie.  Doing my thing, I was dancing and baking around the kitchen to Trim Up the Tree from the Grinch.  After it was done I hung out and just watch snow come down outside and it was so pretty.  We decided to go to Sun Wah for a roast duck dinner.  It was out of this world!  The duck was carved tableside and served with moo shu pancakes, fried rice, and soup.  The Volvo got us home safe and sound so now it was really time to wind down.  Jason made me a delicious vodka cranberry for me and we built our first roaring fire at home.  We sat back and watched It’s A Wonderful Life (my first time seeing it ever and I love everything about it) and our home was just so cozy, it was the best.

Christmas morning we woke up and did the whole gift thing (thank you everyone for everything) and then we relaxed and then started to play in the kitchen after a morning of enjoying some delicious craft beer and wine.  Jason took charge of the lamb.  It was so simply prepared but tasted so heavenly.  The lamb was a perfect shade of pink and very juicy, thank you Santa!

To go along with the lamb I made Thomas Keller’s Gratin De Pommes De Terre (Potato Gratin).  I sliced some potatoes on the finest setting on my mandoline and managed to keep all of my fingers.  I steeped the potatoes with some cream and garlic and bouquet de garni.  I then arranged them in a baking dish and layered them with the garlic, thyme, and then topped them with some parm and baked them.  Before they were done I sprinkled the top with some panko crumbs and put it under the broiler for a few moments.  Holy potatoes-  these were really good.  To finish off the dinner we quickly wilted some spinach and were ready to eat.

This had to be one of our best home-cooked meals of all time.  I am so lucky that we had access to our kitchen this year and we had time to relax with each other.  I hope everyone had a great holiday and I wish you all the best in 2011!

Banana Walnut Muffins

 

Banana Walnut Muffins

 

So this past weekend the kitchen was my playground.  Friday night I made pizza dough and sauce for a fun weekend pizza party.  On Sunday I decided to make some muffins to use up some bananas we had left from the week.  These muffins were super quick to assemble and they made the house smell really good.  It was that perfect moment of a beautiful crisp fall morning paired with something yummy baking in the oven.  I used a few mashed bananas and some chopped walnuts.  Added a little cinnamon to the batter to give it a little spice but nothing over the top.  I let them bake for about 18 minutes in a muffin tin and popped them out.  After they cooled I split one with Jason and they were super moist with great flavor.  I wrapped a few of them up so we could eat them for breakfast this week and then wrapped up the remaining ones to freeze.  Now we have something to look forward to during the early mornings when we would rather just stay in bed.  Now on to project brownie!  Happy baking weather!

Jam Packed Muffins

Blueberry Peach Jam filled Muffin

So I am in love with the long weekend and in love with the weather outside.  After sleeping in this morning I got up and made us some sharp cheddar grits topped with sausage, leeks and mushrooms.  It was such an easy breakfast to throw together and now I had some extra time so I thought why not bake a batch of muffins for the week ahead?  Lately we have been eating English muffins with peanut butter in the morning so these will be a nice treat.  I used a sour cream almond muffin recipe and filled the muffin cup about 1/3 full.  I then spooned in about a teaspoon of some jam.  I picked up some heavenly jam at Fox and Obel this weekend, Stonewall Kitchen’s Blueberry Peach Jam and Raspberry, Peach, Champagne Jam so I was really excited to try them out.  I made six of each.  After I put the jam on top of the batter, I topped each muffin cup with batter and baked at 375 for about 22 minutes and they came out perfect.  The jam inside is really nice and the muffin tops are nice and crisp.  I am going to do a double batch and freeze some next time I make them.  These will be a nice treat during the winter months.

Blue Moon… and other great treats from the D

Blue Moon

Jason and I ventured back to Detroit this weekend and went on a quest to eat items that we cannot find in Chicago.  The trip started out great with a classic breakfast of Better Made chips and a Heineken in the bar car.  Once Jason’s mom picked us up from the train we began our quest… Almond Boneless Chicken.  We have a great Chinatown in Chicago but Almond Boneless Chicken is nowhere on the menu out here.  We have chicken with almonds but no deep fried strips of chicken with gravy and scallions served on top of a bed of lettuce… a side order of white rice, won ton soup, and an egg roll.  We drove through Dearborn on our our way to her house and stopped at a few restaurants as Jason scoped the menu, we kept driving.  We looked up the restaurant that was close to where we were staying and I called,  I probably sounded like a lunatic, but it was well worth it.  The food was so good, everything I had been waiting for… and I even got a take away bag for a late night snack!  Forget about milk and cookies.  Next stop- my parent’s house.  Before we left Chicago I talked with my mom and she asked if there was anything we needed.  I quickly answered, Blue Moon.  For those of you that don’t know about this stuff, I am sorry.  It is the most unique flavor of ice cream and I still love it.  Citrus and spice and everything nice, it’s the original blue in Superman ice cream.  My mom grabbed a box of it and had it in the freezer waiting.  After a great time with everyone and learning once again we will never offer to cook at my parent’s, I had to have a cone…to be continued.

Summer Crisp

Before the crisp

So I must confess I have not been baking as much this summer because I have decided sitting on my ass along with eating a ton of great food is probably something I should not become great at.  So to re-vamp my sweet tooth (I will add that this is hard for me because I have a huge sweet tooth) I have taken on eating fresh seasonal fruit or frozen yogurt.  This past week we were in a pinch to use up some great fruit so I made a quick cheery berry crumble.  All I did was pit some cherries, wash some blueberries and cut some fresh peaches and arranged into a baking dish.

I melted a tablespoon of butter and mixed it with some pecans, a little bit of brown sugar and flour to make a nice topping.  I added a dash of vanilla and combined it all together with a fork until it had the consistency of sand.  I baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes and it was the perfect summer treat.  To finish it off, I topped it with a little bit of ice cream (I now use a 1 1/2oz cookie scoop for my ice cream scoop)  and loved every bite of it… and the little scoop of ice cream is just cute every time.

Poached Egg Meets Thai Hashbrowns

Poached Egg atop Salmon and Hashbrowns

Today was a great Saturday for lounging around and basically not doing a whole lot.  After putting a huge pot of coffee on I decided to attempt my first poached egg!  This is the most lovely way to cook an egg.  You get a dream-like pillow of egg whites and then really yummy ooziness that spills onto your plate.  I have always seen people cook poached eggs in little cups and now I know that is cheating.  This might be my new favorite way to eat an egg and it is pretty fun to make.  So I brought about an inch of water to a boil in a pan and added a little white wine vinegar… crack and in goes my first egg.  It does a little swirly dance and is ready in about three minutes.  While I got the eggs ready Jason made some fantastic hash browns.  They were tossed with Thai basil grown on our deck and siracha hot sauce.  To make this better we placed a piece of salmon in the middle and this was truly some sweet morning magic.

Rhubarb Cupcakes

Rhubarb Cupcakes

My husband and I started a farm crop sharing program this summer so every week we get a mystery box of a the most wonderful farm fresh produce.  This week we got strawberries, kale, romaine, spinach, and rhubarb.  Fantastic, but what on earth is rhubarb,  Yeah, it’s has a pretty pink hue to it but it looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.  When I was little I think I had it once, my dad made this awful jello mold with wine and I have been scared of it ever since.  Well, I was chatting at work and found out that Debbie did a cooking class at The Chopping Block a few weeks back and they made rhubarb cupcakes.  She was so kind to share the recipe with me and said they were fantastic.

This morning I woke up super early and decided to give it a go with the rhubarb cupcakes.  I started to dice the rhubarb and tried a little peice- it was so tart I thought these cupcakes were doomed.   They were very simple to put together, imagine a vanilla cupcake from Magnolia bakery studded with little pink gems of  tart rhubarb.  After they came out of the oven I wanted to try one pre-frosting but Jason kept telling me to wait.  I frosted them with some sweetened whipped cream.  I had one and it was out of this world good.  The cake to frosting ratio was perfect and the tartness to creaminess levels made perfect sense.  Thank you Debbie for sharing this keeper of a recipe and thanks to Genesis Growers

for providing us with delicious ingredients that will make some fun kitchen adventures this summer!

Grandma’s Lemon Fruit Freeze

Grandma's Lemon Fruit Freeze

Growing up my Grandma made the best frozen dessert. This magical goodness was so good it didn’t matter if we were bundled up during a family filled Christmas snowstorm or if it was the sunniest day of summer and needed a refreshing treat to cool off. This dessert is a light and made with some of the simplest ingredients.   I can’t think of anything that tastes similar.  To my surprise, my aunt discovered the hand-written recipe that my Grandma meant to send me. It was almost a week ago and my aunt mentioned she mailed me some fun summer drink recipes from Grandma’s and I saw the recipe…it was like I got the golden ticket out of a Wonka bar. I was so happy to have this to put in my book of special recipes.

Anyways, here is how to make Grandma’s heavenly Lemon Fruit Freeze:

• 2/3 c butter
• 1/3 c sugar
• 7 c  Corn Chex crushed to equal 3c
• 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 c reconstituted lemon juice (Real Lemon)
• 21 oz can of lemon pie filling
• 17 oz can of fruit cocktail, drained ( I am a weirdo and picked out all of the grapes because they creep me out)
• 2 c cool whip

• Melt butter and sugar together, then mix in corn chex, reserving 1/3 c to sprinkle on top
• Pat the crumbs in a 13 x 9″ baking dish.
• Bake at 300 for 12 minutes
• In a large bowl combine sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice
• Stir in pie filling and fruit cocktail, pour over pie crust
• Top with whipped topping and freeze at least four hours
• Remove from freezer 20 minutes before you plan to serve

I had served this treat while my brother was over and we confirmed it tasted just like Gram’s.  Thank you Grandma for this most special recipe, love you!

Beer Can Chicken

Beer Can Chicken

Friday after we got back into town from vacation we ventured to Home Depot and picked up the last item we needed to consider ourselves fully moved in… a grill.  It has been about five years now since we have had a grill and boy I sure have missed it.  Jason made the most perfect beer can chicken back in the day and I could not wait to see this beauty in action, I mean five years ago I was still learning the kitchen, this summer is going to be full of working the grill!  I wish I had a photo from Friday night’s dinner (two 12oz. delicious strip steaks with the most heavenly marbling of fat, grilled to perfection and topped with a pad of homemade roasted garlic compound butter, and a twice baked potato) but it was too beautiful to photograph, sorry.  Oh well, tonight Jason made the perfect beer can chicken.  He seasoned the chicken with a homemade Cajun rub and stuffed a can of Hamm’s into the bird.  He tossed some mesquite chips into a smoke packet in the grill, it  smelled so good.   As the bird was doing it’s song and dance I threw on the last of the twice baked potatoes and it was grilling magic.  For dessert I decided since it was hot as hell out why not turn the oven on.

Well to be honest, I have missed baking so much lately since I am trying to drop a few, so I made my first ever angel food cake (not as good as my Grandma’s) and topped it with fresh strawberries and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.  This was a perfect start to the summer at home and can’t wait for new grilling adventures!