Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

These cupcakes are the greatest cupcakes I have ever made. They don't have much competition, as I do not like to bake all that much, but out of all the cupcakes I have made, these are the best. I'm not a big fan of pumpkin pie, and these cupcakes are a great way to have pumpkin pie spice (so delicious!) without having to have the pie. I also added some pumpkin pie spice to the frosting, which only added to the awesomeness.

Make these. Trust me.

Pumpkin Scones

I'm not the biggest fan of pumpkin pie, I think it has to do with the texture and not so much the taste. I love the spices that are used in pumpkin pie; cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. I like the taste of pumpkin, but put them in a pie and something just doesn't add up.
These scones are a perfect way to get your pumpkin pie fix, if you don't actually like the texture of the pie.

Asian Meatballs

It's no secret that I love Everyday Food. When I received the newest issue in the mail, I immediately flagged a few recipes I wanted to make. The Asian Turkey Meatballs with Carrot Rice was the first one that I tried, though I made it with ground pork instead of turkey. (Ground pork is cheaper)
I was skeptical of how flavourful the meatballs would be, but I needn't have worried. Everyday Food recommended serving them with lime wedges and a squeeze of lime on the meatballs was perfect, it balanced out the spiciness from the hot sauce.

(also hit "read more" for a Sweet Marie bar recipe)

Sesame Street Cupcakes

My aunt, or Tante as I call her, has been making my nephew's birthday party cake for as long as I can remember. She made the following for previous birthday parties of his:

Last week I was looking at foodgawker, when I found the cutest Cookie Monster cupcakes, courtesy of Penguin Says Feed Me.   Since it was my nephew's birthday this weekend, I sent the link to my sister and told her she should ask my aunt to make them for his birthday.
My aunt did not disappoint. She even went beyond the Cookie Monster cupcakes, and made four different Sesame Street characters. I apologize for the poor quality of photos below. I forgot my camera at home and was relying on my cell phone to take these.

Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch

Elmo

Big Bird

The Cookie Monster ones were my favorite. Probably because it involved a cupcake and a cookie, together!

Apples, No Pie, a la Mode

I'm just going to get down to the nitty gritty, this dessert was so good I made it twice in the same week. Both times I served it to company. The second time I made it, I accidentally browned the butter in the initial stage, I discarded it and added new butter which was a bit brown from the remnants of my mistake, but it still turned out really good.
This has all the makings of an apple pie (crust less, obviously) but it only takes about 10 minutes from start to finish to prepare.
The type of ice cream for a la mode part is important. If you are going to use vanilla ice cream, find the vanilla ice cream with flecks of real vanilla bean in it. If it doesn't have the vanilla bean in it, you are purchasing an inferior product.

Pumpkin Bars That Are More Like Cake

On Sunday I had a killer day at the gym. I beat my personal best time for a 5k run on the treadmill, I ran straight for 13 minutes, and then I weighed myself. I have lost 19 lbs since I started going to the gym! I celebrated the 19 lb loss by buying myself a new pair of jeans (the smallest size I have bought in years) and by making this cake, courtesy of Paula Deen. She named the recipe pumpkin bars, but I think it's much more like a cake than a bar.

Spiced Carrot Cake

I have been on a bit of an Everyday Food kick lately. I have over four years' worth of issues piled up and I have started feeling bad about how little use I get out of them. I made this spiced carrot cake the other night and I was thrilled with the results. I could still taste the carrots, but it was very subtle. The glaze kept the cake moist, even over the next couple days. I topped it with a bit of Cool Whip that I had lying around, but it wasn't necessary.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

I found a recipe for snickerdoodle blondies on FoodGawker, and I had to make them. The picture on the blog I got it from shows a light and fluffy blondie. I made the recipe exactly as directed, and somehow I ended up with a blondie that was pretty dense, and tasted more like gingerbread than a snickerdoodle. However, I happen to really like gingerbread, and so I really liked these.

(also see after the jump for a picture of my second attempt at cinnamon buns)

Cinnamon Buns

I love The Pioneer Woman. I have only one small problem, she is generous with the fat and sugar in her recipes. So generous, that sometimes I wonder if she is doing it for shock value. I have her cookbook, and she has a recipe for the most incredible looking cinnamon buns. I tweaked the recipe slightly to lower some of the health concerns I had regarding them, and this is what I came up with:

Pulled Pork

I love love love cooking things in my slow cooker, or "the wife". Sometimes I can get stuck at work late, and it's nice knowing that I have supper waiting for me when I get home.

I have never made pulled pork before, I think this may be the first time I have used pork in my slow cooker. I found the recipe on Iowa Girl Eats. I used her basic recipe, but changed a couple things. (also click the "read more" for a faux ice cream recipe)

Health Nut

If anyone who knows me was asked to describe me in two words or less, I believe their answer would be health nut. *this may or may not be a gross exaggeration* A while back I wrote about how I was going to start working out more, and I have been doing a fairly good job of sticking with it. Currently I am unable to walk normally, due to Jillian Michael's No More Trouble Zones.

Now that spring is around the corner, and summer isn't too far behind, I am having nightmares about shorts, dresses, skirts and bathing suits. So for the next while, I am really going to try and attempt a more balanced eating lifestyle. This does not mean I'm going to eat steamed chicken or fish with a salad every night. I am still looking for really good food, that's tasty and satisfying, but borderlines on the description healthy.

Yesterday I had a flat tire on my car, I took it to the shop, and by the time my car was ready to go it was 6:30 pm. I still had to go to the grocery store, so I had to make something quick or I wouldn't be eating until 9 or 10. I went with Everyday Food's Orecchiette with Bacon and Tomato Sauce. Those of you thinking that I am crazy if I think this is healthy... it's not so bad. The sauce is comprised of canned whole tomatoes, red onion, garlic and 4 strips of bacon. The recipe serves 4 people, so that is roughly only one piece of bacon in a ton of produce per person. I also only used 3 strips of bacon, and even that small amount created a lot of flavor in the sauce.

Since the sauce has so little ingredients, you want to use a good brand of canned tomatoes. Look for Italian whole plum tomatoes. Every time I have bought them they were in a can with a yellow label. I used tri-colored bowtie pasta, since that's what I had on hand, but to make the pasta even healthier I would have preferred to use a whole wheat pasta. Finally, it was topped with Parmesan cheese, which also isn't so bad because it doesn't take a lot of cheese to get a lot of flavor out of it.

This was very good, and it was ready, start to finish, in under a half hour.

I did follow up this meal by making Peanut Butter Brownies. Even though that's what they are called, they are more of a blondie. (Brownies are made with cocoa powder, blondies are made with brown sugar) Those of you thinking that I will never be able to follow a healthy diet, let me show you something using my awesome Paint and awesome Internet skills. I bet there isn't many of you who click on the recipe link so I took a little screen shot of the recipe to show you how healthy this bad boy is:

Unfortunately my zoom skills are lacking, so if you can't read that it says "2 cups white whole wheat flour". Ok, so making a sugar laden baked good with whole wheat flour doesn't make it entirely virtuous, but it tasted really good!

Cute Cake

This past week has been extremely chaotic for me. It's been a whirlwind of ups and downs and I have neglected my blog in the meantime. Last Friday I had intended on blogging about a very important event, and I missed it, and haven't been able to make up for it yet. So let's all suspend reality for a minute and pretend it is March 19 again. Ready...



Like I said, an important event in history. This might surprise you, given the high quality of the image, but I made it using my impressive skills in Paint.

The other night I made a Tortilla Pie. I loosely based it off this. Since it's loosely based, and not the same with only a couple tweaks I will write the recipe below for what I made.

Rebek's Tortilla Pie
1) In a large skillet brown up a pack of ground beef. Once browned, add a package of taco seasoning, half a cup of water, a can of kidney beans (rinsed), and a can of black beans (also rinsed). Add some chili powder as well if you like things to be a bit spicy.
2) You will need tortillas, I used a whole wheat flour variety. Pick a round baking dish the same size as your tortillas. Place a tortilla on the bottom, and spread a thin layer of salsa over it. Layer some of the meat mix on next. Sprinkle with cheese. (I was feeling lazy so I used a pre-grated Kraft Mexican mix). Top with another tortilla, repeat the salsa, meat, and cheese layers. Do it again. And again. For the very top, sprinkle the cheese generously.
3) Place in a preheated oven (350 F) for 20 minutes or so. Until the cheese is melty, and the top tortilla is browned and crispy.

This was really tasty. I served it alongside some salsa and and a Cilantro Lime Crema. Which is sour cream with lime juice and cilantro mixed in. If I was feeling lazy, I probably would have added some chopped onion, and a can of tomatoes.

Cute dishes!

I also made Miniature Coffee Cakes. The coffee cake does not taste of coffee. Apparently it is called this because it goes very well alongside coffee. These were fantastic. I did have to tweak a little though. I had no pecans, so I used slivered almonds instead. I did the first part of the recipe in my miniature food processor, but for the mixing I used my stand mixer.
I also only made half the glaze, and added just a wee bit of vanilla to it.

They were great fresh from the oven, as well as the next day. I will be making them again very soon.

Meatballs

My mom is an incredibly talented woman. To start off with, she raised four kids almost on her own. My dad was a truck driver (he works in an office now which is why that is in past tense) and he was rarely home. My mom also survived cancer, that left her with an arm that doesn't work as well as it did pre-cancer. And even with a wrist that doesn't work to its full capacity, my mom is very crafty. I mean in the artistic way, not in the deceitful way. She makes beautiful quilts, and I would love to be able to scrapbook anywhere nearly as good as she can.

There are a few meals that my mom made, that are my all time favorites. One of them is the meatballs pictured above. My twin and I love these. (No, I don't really have a twin, one of my sisters is convinced that she is my twin so we sometimes call each other that).

The original recipe called for adding diced onion to the meat, which I substitute for onion powder. My twin and I also didn't think the original recipe had enough sauce, so we doubled it.

If you are feeling particularly lazy, you cannot just brown up some ground beef and pour the sauce in with it. My twin did this once, and the result was not good.

To make the meatballs you combine:

1 package of ground beef

just over half a cup of rolled oats

1 egg

a couple pinches of onion powder

a couple pinches of garlic powder

a dash of Worcestershire sauce

if the mix seems a bit dry, you can add a bit of milk.

Roll the meat into balls that are bigger than ping pong balls, but smaller than tennis balls. Place them into a baking dish.

To make the sauce combine:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup ketchup

a pinch of garlic salt

a dash of Worcestershire sauce

Pour the sauce over the meatballs. Cover the dish and bake at 350 F for an hour.

Every single time that I have made this is serve it over white rice, with canned brown beans on the side.

After supper I had a hankering for cookies, so I made Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal cookies. I did a couple things differently. I didn't have all purpose flour, so I used bread flour. I had googled whether or not that was ok, and I was warned that the bread flour might make the cookies dry. The mix did appear to be dry, so I added a bit of milk. I was out of vanilla, so I used Kahlua instead. The recipe said drop the cookies in teaspoons, but I did them in double tablespoons. Which meant after 12 minutes, they were not done baking, and they took about 5 or 6 minutes longer.

Even with all my meddling, the cookies turned out really good. I gave one to my brother in law to try, and he said that there wasn't enough chocolate chips. He is right, so if you bake these use a cup of chocolate chips.

Not These Ribs...Those Ribs

If it's one thing my family never does, it's overuse a joke. If something was hilarious once, it will be hilarious a hundred times more. Last year I went to Hawaii with my parents and one of my sisters. My parents, rebels that they are, love the coffee shop called the "Bad Ass Coffee". Neither of my parents are particularly known for swearing. Especially my mom, who if you make her mad in traffic she will call you a "doe-head", but if you make her really angry she might call you an "idiot". I think this is why they love the Bad Ass Coffee so much, it gives them a sense of being "wild".

So we're in Hawaii, and my parents realize that the Bad Ass Coffee that they always go to, is no longer there. Great disappointment ensues. One day when we were driving around, my parents spotted where the Bad Ass Coffee had moved to. We go inside, and gave our order to the Bad Ass Coffee maker. At this point my mom tells her about how upset they were when they couldn't find the first one, and thought they wouldn't be able to partake in the coffee. The cashier replies "Thanks gods you found us". This has lead to us saying "thanks gods" for the rest of the trip, and actually still to this day. We find it hilarious.

Another common joke in my family is always mentioned when someone is making ribs. My aunt "Tante", whenever someone asked what she was making for dinner, if her answer was ribs she would follow that by saying "not these ribs...those ribs". You probably aren't getting how this is a joke. It's hard to get it, unless you can see her as she says this. To help I used my awesome skills in Paint (photoshop is for sissies) to demonstrate.

First she says "Not these ribs" as she points to her ribcage:

No, my aunt is not a Bruce Willis look-a-like. I used him as a model, since sometimes I think this blog could use a little "brucing up".

She then says "those ribs" while pointing to the actual ribs that are about to be consumed.

I suppose this could actually be more eye roll inducing, than actually hilarious, but we still do it. Every time. Let's get to some food. Thanks gods there was a point to this story eh?. I made ribs the other night. I have been known to make ribs before, usually I do them up in the wife. This time I tried a little something different. My Aunt C had mentioned that she had made a recipe that appeared earlier in my blog, and now she had a bottle of fish sauce she didn't know what to do with. The latest issue of Everyday Food had several recipes in it that included fish sauce, and I concluded that it couldn't just be a coincidence.

The recipe is actually for chicken wings, but they did mention that you could substitute the wings for pork ribs. (Not these ribs....those ribs).

I can't find the recipe on Everyday Food's website, so I am writing it out:

Sticky Ribs

Ingredients:

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp soy sauce

a 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and smashed

1 Serrano chili

pork ribs, cut individually

The steps are written in my words, not EF's

1) Preheat oven to 300 F

2) Mix the sugar, fish sauce, lemon juice, soy sauce, ginger and chili in a bowl. I didn't peel and smash the ginger, I cut it into slices and didn't bother with peeling it. The peel will not hurt you. I also just cut the chili in half and threw it in, without bothering to seed it.

3) Place the ribs in a 9 x 13 baking dish. They should no longer be together in a row of ribs, but rather all single ribs.

4) Pour the sauce on top of the ribs, and mix a bit so the ribs are coated. Cover with foil and bake for an hour.

5) Remove the foil. At this point the ribs are grey and kind of gross looking. Turn the oven up to 450 F, and bake for another 40-45 minutes. At this point the ribs will have browned, and the sauce will have turned into a glaze.

6) This wasn't in the recipe, but I did it anyways. I removed the ribs and put them on a plate. I poured the sauce into a saucepan (after discarding the ginger and chili pieces) and boiled it down for a couple minutes, and then spooned it onto the ribs.

I served it with jasmine rice. I made the rice according to package directions. When it finished cooking I added a mix of carrot, red bell pepper (or capsicum), and peas that I had sauteed a little in a pan with a bit of olive oil. To this mix I added some of my sauce I made the other night for the fried rice and chicken. (The mix of mirin, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, honey and rice vinegar)

The ribs were so good. I could have ate the whole rack in one sitting. I didn't, but I wanted to. You must make these! They were so flavorful.

The following dessert I made on a different night. This is loosely based off of bananas foster.

I took a pineapple, peeled it, and cut it into pizza topping sized chunks. I put a 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and about half of a 1/4 cup of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum in a saucepan and heated it over medium until it was thick and bubbly. I tossed in about half or so of the pineapple chunks and stirred to coat. Easy, and oh so very delicious. Not kidding, this was magical.

I feel slightly embarrassed to admit this, but I drank all of the sauce that was in the bottom of the bowl. Yes, I realize it was a 1/4 cup of brown sugar. To be completely honest, this dessert would have been really really good with a bit of ice cream. Thanks gods I didn't have any in my freezer, because the 1/4 cup of sugar was already bad enough for my health.

Heaven

If heaven had a taste, I believe it would be dulce de leche. Dulce de leche is an incredibly good caramel sauce that is popular in South America. To sound smarter than I am, I googled dulce de leche so I could blog interesting tidbits about it. The first five websites all had different terms of what dulce de leche meant in English (it's Spanish). So I gave up on that idea.

The websites basically said that dulce de leche meant candy or caramel made from milk. I guess it doesn't really matter what it means, it sounds better in Spanish anyway. Who would want "candy from milk" over dulce de leche? (dull-chay de lesh-ay).

Making dulce de leche is simple. It takes 30 seconds to prepare, but 2 hours to cook, plus cooling time, and the biggest catch is it requires checking on (you can't just set it and forget it).

You start by taking one (or more) cans of sweetened condensed milk. (Please make sure you didn't grab evaporated milk, I did this the first time and believe me, dulce de leche is not the end result).

Place the can, with the label removed, in a large pot of water and fill it with water until it's FULLY SUBMERGED.

Now you might be wondering why I didn't take the time to clear away the red pot before taking the first picture. Or why I made FULLY SUBMERGED all caps. This is very very important. The top of the can must always be covered with water. If the top becomes exposed you run the risk of the can exploding. Which at the very best would leave you with a big mess to clean up, at the very worst exploding tin could seriously hurt someone. What does this have to do with the red pot? When making the dulce de leche, the water in the can pot will evaporate, leaving the potential for the can to explode. Keep a separate pot of water simmering the entire time so that you can replenish the water in the pot holding the can.

Bring the water in the can pot to a boil, and then turn the heat down to a simmer. I have made this a few times now and I noticed when it was at an actual simmer the milk didn't caramelize enough. Keep it at a low boil. My definition of a low boil is that water still bubbles to the top, but there's no rolling boil. I kept the stove at medium.

Keep it at this low boil for two hours. Making sure to replenish the water (and then replenish the replenishing water as needed).

After two hours, remove the pot from the heat and let it cool slowly. Why? By immediately taking it out of the water you could shock the can and cause it to explode.

I can almost hear someone saying "Rebekah, with all this possible exploding going on, is dulce de leche really worth it?" I am replying with "Did you not hear me call this heaven??" I do not toss the word heaven around, as a description of food, lightly. I apply it to things like creme brulee, exceptionally good quality ice cream, mushrooms browned in butter, bacon, or a medium rare teriyaki sirloin from the Keg. Please people, give me some credit.

Once the the dulce de leche has cooled sufficiently, open the can and you will have:

You can use dulce de leche on many things. It can be spread on toast, or muffins. Pour it on top of angel food cake. Eat it out of the can with a spoon...not that I have done this...

I use it for an ice cream topper.

Let it Snow!

I woke up this morning and my half-closed eyes looked between the cracks of the blinds and I saw snow. The scene reminded me of Christmas movies, ones where there is no snow on Christmas Eve, but when people wake up the next morning there was a Christmas miracle and it snowed six feet worth overnight.

(I just think this picture is so cute)

I have underground parking, and the beauty of this is that I don't have to scrape off my car in the morning. And my car is warm without me having to idle it. (And right now my key fobs have been driving me mental by not working half the time, so that is a good thing)

The snow and road conditions didn't bother me until I had made it to Tim Hortons. As I slowed down to pull into their parking lot, my car resisted stopping and was sliding. I am enough of a coffee addict that my biggest fear was that I was going to slide past the parking lot entrance, and not that I was going to crash into someone else.

My day at work was fairly uneventful, but it was long. I left at 18:45 after having started at 7:15. Side note: I prefer the 24 hour clock. If I can get my clocks to read 24 hours, I do. Those of you who don't know how to convert the 24 hour clock into the regular boring time, you subtract 12 from the number. 18-12 = 6, therefore I left work at 6:45 pm.

The ride home was terrifying. One of my biggest fears is winter driving. I have been in several car accidents in the winter (NONE OF THEM BEING MY FAULT!) So I am a big bundle of nerves in the winter. My car also has a mind of its own. Even if I start from a complete stop at an incredibly slow rate, I will always spin out.

Now at this point I was at work for a little over eleven hours. I'm stressed out. And work also had me out in the snow and it got into my shoes so my feet were so cold they hurt. I wanted nothing more than to get home and never leave my place again.
I stopped at Sobeys first. I love Sobeys. I go there probably 4 or 5 times a week, and I pretty well know where everything is. So much, that when I make a grocery list I can pretty well put my list in order. I don't just mean produce, to meat, to deli, to frozen section. I mean I can put the produce in order of where the produce is located so that I just walk down the sections without having to backtrack. (yes, I do know I have no life)

I thought that the most perfect way to get over this day was a hot bowl of soup, with homemade biscuits, and blondies to finish out the meal.

For the soup, I made a soup adapted from a cheese and potato soup in a Williams-Sonoma cookbook.

Cheesy Potato Soup

Ingredients:

4-6 slices of bacon, chopped

2 leeks, thinly sliced and rinsed

3 large baker's potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 cups chicken broth

2 cups milk

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

To make:

1) brown the bacon to your desired crispness in a medium saucepan. Remove bacon and set aside on paper towel to drain

2) In the leftover bacon fat (remove some of it if there is a lot), saute the leeks. Note, you should include the white, the light green, and the darker than light green part of the leeks, but not the dark green part.

3) add the potatoes to the pot and stir so that each cube gets coated in the bacon

4) pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 20 min to half hour, until the potatoes are fork tender. Maybe simmer is the wrong word, keep the heat on about medium.

5) When the potatoes are tender pour in the milk and bring the soup back up to a boil. Remove from heat. At this point I use a potato masher to mash up the potatoes. I like my soup to have pieces of potatoes and leeks. If you like yours completely smooth you can blend it.

6) stir in the cheese

7) divide into bowls and top them with the cooked bacon.

I also made biscuits tonight, and the recipe for biscuits left me with and extra half cup of whipping cream. I didn't want it to go to waste so I used 1/2 cup whipping cream and 1.5 cups of milk instead of the 2 cups of milk in the soup.

I have made this soup about eight or nine times, and I have to say this was the best one I have had. I am crediting the cream for this, and it is unlikely I will make this soup without the cream in the future.

The biscuits. I was nervous about the biscuits. The last time I attempted a biscuit, they turned out more like rocks. My sister called them biscotti biscuits. They were not good. Tonight's though, were amazingly good. So light and fluffy, and they were EASY. I hate baking and this recipe was simple for me. Chef Michael Smith's Cheddar Biscuits can be found here

Lastly... the blondies. Blondies are most commonly described as brownies made with brown sugar, not chocolate. I made Toffee Crunch Blondies. The blondies have chocolate chips and toffee bits in them, and then are topped with more toffee bits. Now, the recipe states that it makes 36 bars. I don't know who was deranged enough to cut them so tiny that one would get 36 out of a pan, but I made mine so that I had 16.


Tonight's meal was so good that I couldn't even wait until tomorrow to blog about it. I have plenty of dishes waiting to be written about, but this one pushed its way to the front. I was dead tired (still am) but I fought to stay awake long enough to post this.

Now I am heading for bed.

Too Much

A movie that I really enjoy is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. If you aren't familiar with it, the movie is about a woman, Toula, who is from a large Greek family, who pressures her to marry a nice Greek boy, and make lots of Greek babies. Toula ends up meeting and falling for a man who is not Greek, to the dismay of her entire family. One of my favorite parts is when Toula's aunt invites Toula and Ian (the non-Greek) for dinner. Toula says to her "He's a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat". And the aunt looks horrified (as would I) and says "He don't eat no meat? It's ok I make lamb".

The other day I was talking to someone I work with and I had asked if he was going to have a turkey dinner for Christmas and he said no because his wife was a vegetarian. It took all my will power not to say "She don't eat no meat?"

I am a carnivore through and through. I can't think of very many meals of mine that don't contain an animal of some sort, my very favorite being beef. Last weekend was a good weekend for beef. On Friday night I went to dinner at The Keg, which is one of my all time favorite places to eat. I ordered the prime rib. On Saturday I had my friend and her family over for dinner and I served Beef Bourguignon. That same family invited me over on Sunday for prime rib. By Monday I was feeling a little beefed-out and was planning on making chicken. Then I saw a recipe for chimichangas and I had to make it, so once again I had beef. I drew inspiration from the recipe I had found, and changed it enough that I can call this one my own.

Chimichangas

To make the filling:

1) I browned a package of ground beef

2) I added a can of chili beans (it included kidney, navy and a third kind)

3) I also added a pack of taco seasoning and the amount of water it instructed to add

Take a tortilla, place some of the filling in the middle, top with grated cheese (I used cheddar) and wrap it up like a burrito. I did this by folding the bottom up, folding in the right side as tight as possible, folding down the top, and bringing the left side over to the right as tight as possible.

Heat some oil (I used safflower) in a skillet over med-high. Just enough to over the pan. Place a burrito in the oil and cook until browned, flip and brown the other side.

Serve with salsa and sour cream.

(is anyone else thinking about that part in Napolean Dynamite when Summer says "So, who wants to eat chimichangas next year? Not me")

Since I had company I followed up dinner with dessert. I made the Bananas Foster, from Everyday Food. This particular recipe involved heating dark rum and brown sugar together until they form a syrup. Then placing cut bananas into the syrup to heat them through. It's served with ice cream. Delicious. Sadly my pictures turned out pretty crappy, so if you want to look at them all delicious-like, click on the link.

How Long Gone

It feels like a long time since my last post. I haven't had a lot of extra time lately, but I'm going to try and update more often.

This particular post, however, will be short and sweet. The last time I had attempted to make creme brulee, I had actually made a creme anglaise. The difference being the one I wanted was a custard, and the one I made was a cream sauce.

I made an actual creme brulee in this attempt. I used a recipe from Chef Michael Smith. Those of you familiar with the Food Network will know him from Chef at Home and/or Chef at Large.

The final result was delicious, and custardy!

Caramel

I am not a baker by any means. I am the most impatient person on the face of the Earth. The reason I love cooking so much is that everything is open to interpretation. Back when I thought chipotles in adobo were as fictitious as unicorns, I would use Tabasco Chipotle sauce in place of them in recipes. I could remove any item from the recipe I didn't like, and omit anything that I didn't have. If a certain recipe called for only two slices of bacon, I could throw in four.

Baking on the other hand, is a real b...witch. Some recipes even call for you to spoon and level the needed flour. Are you freakin' kidding me? Who has time to spoon and level anything? There's so many dishes wasted too. If a non-baking recipe calls for a cup of something, I eyeball it. In baking, one must actually find the measuring cup.

I was scouring the web the other day and found a picture of the most delectable brownies I have ever laid eyes on. I looked up the recipe, and saw how simple this recipe was, and knew I had to make the Caramel Brownies

The blogger is right. The most annoying part of making the brownies was unwrapping all the caramels. That and trying to save some for the brownies.

The only thing I did differently was used a cake mix for Swiss Chocolate cake. I couldn't find a German version.

Sick & Tired

Today I woke up and was so excited about it being Friday. Then reality checked in, it's only Thursday. I find it hard to be positive on Thursdays. Actually I find it hard to be positive on most any day. I'm no Pollyanna.

I got to work today and things actually started to turn around. I am having a really good morning. Every Thursday myself and a couple of my friends update our Facebook statuses and call it Things I Love Thursdays. This idea was taken from the blog iCiNG written by Gala Darling.

Every Thursday she makes a list of things that she loves. I find it difficult sometimes to come up with my list. How sad is that? My life is pretty awesome. In a time when most people are worried about job security, I know I have a job and I will have that job for a long time. I have a car that is paid for. I have a wonderful apartment that I own. I have a family that I love. I'm never worried about when my next meal might be, though I do drive my one sister nuts by always wanting to know what those meals might be days in advance. I am blessed with good friends, and overall good health. Yet, I can find 100 things to complain about.

I was scouring through some other blogs, and I came upon this real estate listing. I love this house. If I had 3 million dollars I would be moving to San Francisco tomorrow. (Anybody who has an extra 3 mill kicking around... feel free to pass it my way)

The listing can be found here:

How sick is this house??? Look at the fireplace, no house these days has that!!!

If you get a chance I recommend looking through all the pictures included on the listing. This house is insanely wonderful, and it has a crazy history. The owner of this house bought it as a part of a partnership. Her and the other buyer ended up hating each other and went through a vicious court battle over the house. The owner has been sued by her family, and people she rented rooms to as well. It's been rumored that even the Rolling Stones have partied in this house. San Francisco has declared it an official landmark. I love this house, I really do...

Last night I had a friend over for dinner. I made smoky beef tacos from the Everyday Food magazine.

I did a couple things differently. Instead of making it in the oven, I placed all the ingredients in my slow cooker for the day. TIME OUT. I love my slow cooker. As a joke I call it "the wife". (I recommend you stop reading this if you are offended by sexism) I call it "the wife" because it always has dinner waiting for me when I get home from work.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of water to be added into the pot, and since I was using a slow cooker I only added half a cup. (Slow cookers tend to create a lot of moisture on their own, unlike baking in an oven which draws out moisture) This was also excessive, next time I wouldn't add any water.

Any of you who checked out the recipe would see that it calls for chipotles in adobo sauce. THEY ACTUALLY DO EXIST! My friend Angela from Adventures of the Homemaking Mommy, knows someone who sells them and she picked some up for me. Very exciting!

The tacos are the perfect heat. You can still taste the food, and there's a lingering heat in your mouth, but the heat doesn't overwhelm the taste of the beef. Perfect.

Everyday Food recommends 3 different toppings for the tacos. One was an avocado and red onion relish. I was going to make this, but upon opening the avocados I discovered they were a hideous brown color and they had to be discarded. Another topping was a corn and tomato dish but I didn't make it because I have an aversion to corn being part of a dish. I love corn on the cob, I even like corn as a side dish, but I do not like corn in salsas, chilis or the like. The last topping was a lime crema, which was a mix of sour cream, lime juice, and cilantro. It was perfect on the beef. It was super refreshing.

This was a very easy meal to put together. The picture above includes: the taco filling in the slow cooker, in the saucepan is some Mexican rice (made by Old El Paso), the lime crema, red onion and tortillas

Now I must talk about "the wife" a bit more. I love love love this slow cooker. It was a gift from my mom. My old slow cooker wasn't used a lot because it was rather small, and the liner wasn't removable which made cleaning very difficult. My new slow cooker is the Ferrari of slow cookers. Not only can you remove the liner, which makes for an easy clean, you can BROWN THE MEAT IN THE LINER! This is so magical. There is no need to take out a skillet to brown the meat/veggies, and then transfer them into the slow cooker. Why is browning the meat in the liner way awesome? The browned bits from the meat will stay in your meal, which enhances the flavor. And there is one less dish to clean up. I love this slow cooker!

I also made dessert for after the meal. The recipe comes from my own mind. I took mini angel food cakes from the bakery section and topped them with a berry sauce and whipped cream. The berry sauce was made from taking about a cup of frozen four berry mix, sprinkling sugar on top, pouring Cointreau on it and letting it thaw in a bowl for a couple hours. I then pureed the mix in my mini food processor and strained it into a small saucepan and heated the mix just a bit. The whipped cream idea came from one of my aunts. I chop up a Skor bar and mix it into some Cool Whip. Delicious.