In my twenty three years of existence, I’ve never had a red velvet cupcake…so much for being a foodie. Luckily, a few weeks ago, in celebration of a co-workers birthday, my boss bought us cupcakes from one of the speciality cupcake stores in Washington, DC – Red Velvet Cupcakery. It was a lucious deep red color with a large dallop of whipped cream cheese frosting on top and a few red sprinkles. The cupcakes looked a little small…but as always, don’t let size fool you, sometimes good things come in small packages! Despite it’s deceiving size, it was packed full of deliciousness!!! It was amazing and I craved for more…I even decided that my birthday cake would be red velvet with cream cheese frosting & sprinkles! (My birthday is 5 months away, mind you) BUT, since I try not to over-eat on the sugar & desserts, all I had was the sweet memory of that single red velvet cupcake (that I actually shared with the BF) … LUCKY FOR ME, Valentine’s day was on the horizon and a perfect excuse to recreate Red Velvet Cupcakes… Read the rest of this entry »
Beef Stroganoff Sans Cream
Beef Stroganoff is like a comfort food for me…which is unusual because I RARELY eat it…but I suppose that’s what comfort foods are, something you rarely eat because they are so UNHEALTHY, but when you are craving it and are feeling down – it hits the spot beacuse it’s sooooo good!
Yesterday I was trying to find a recipe that included all the stuff I had sitting in my fridge, sirloin filets, sliced portobella mushrooms and leftover egg noodles…nothing really, except beef stroganoff! I would usually be up for making it, but I’m sort-of-kind-of on this healthy eating thing and stroganoff requires a hell of a lot cream and butter – and I just couldn’t do it.
So, I was brought back to this delicious side dish that Tyler made for dinner a few weeks back…Sauteed Wild Mushrooms (adapted from Ina Garten). My original plan was to sear the beef cubes and reduce it in a red wine and beef stock…then cook the mushrooms and eat them over the egg noodles, however, we decided to get a little creative and came up with…
Jambalaya with Shrimp & Chicken Sausage
I’ve had this recipe in my foodnetwork.com recipe box for a while now and have been dying to make it…and finally today I decided to give it a try…and sometimes it really is the most simplistic meals that are the greatest! This recipe was from the Ellie Krieger Eating Well collection…it’s originally called “Jambalaya with Shrimp and Ham“, but I’m just so and so with the ham..and I had chicken sausage in my fridge, so I opted for chicken sausage (mild italian chicken sausage, delicious btw!)
Blueberry Crumb Bars
Usually I buy blueberries because I like to make blueberry muffins…however, I do not have very good luck with blueberry muffins. They never come out the way a true blueberry muffin should…so I decided to try something else out. And that is how I landed on Blueberry Crumb Bars. Recipe adapted from one of my favorite food bloggers…Smitten Kitchen!
Malaysia Kopitiam.
Whenever my two oldest friends and I get the chance to get together for dinner, we always try to venture out to somewhere we’ve never been before – usually one of the Washingtonian’s top picks, cheap eats or some restaurant we’ve heard of and received good reviews on yelp – for our Christmas dinner, we decided to check out a Malaysian restaurant in the heart of DC: Malaysia Kopitiam.
Chicken Pot Pie
what else is better on a cold winters day than a pot pie?
Update Soon
Sorry folks. It’s been a busy few weeks for me with the holidays – parties, presents, brunches, dinners, etc. etc.! but I have lots of pictures, recipes and food stories to share – I’ll be updating soon :)
December Birthday Cakes
Today is one of my best friend’s daughter’s 3rd birthday…Happy Birthday Jaelynn! She is absolutely adorable & perhaps one of the smartest 3 year olds I know. Well, this past weekend Lauren (my friend, Jae’s momma) threw her a birthday party – Madagascar themed. Let me tell you, despite the huge hype and awesome movie, finding Madagascar things are nearly impossible —especially cake toppers!
I volunteered to bake the birthday cake. I definitely dreamt big…decorating a cake is not easy work, it’s almost as hard as making pie from scratch.
I cheated and decided to skip making the cake/frosting from scratch and used store prepared box cake mix and frosting…I know, I’m a cheater, but when you’re on a time crunch & didn’t do a trial run, it’s better to go with what’s tasty than the unknown!
The cake decor didn’t turn out as well as I hoped…actually I don’t think it’s remotely close to a good job (Sorry Lauren!) BUT here’s how it did turn out:
P.S – the cake toppers were from McDonalds Happy Meals.
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Earlier this month was my brother’s birthday (Happy Birthday Mike!) He was coming over for dinner and I asked him if he wanted a cake, he said he wasn’t really a big sweets fan…but then he sends me a message the day before dinner and tells me he wants a vanilla cake, just like the store bought ones – can’t be too wet, or too dry. (talk about demands!!!!!) Well, being me and him being my big brother – I was on a mission to bake and impress! This time, I actually baked from scratch. :)
I tried a recipe I found on a few blogs first and the results were a very very very DRY cake, almost like a sponge cake meets angel food cake – I was NOT impressed and was definitely not going to serve it to anyone. SO, round two. I decided to use my handy Test Kitchen Cookbook and made the All Purpose Buttery Cake – it was a hit!
I’ll post the recipe later…but in the mean time, enjoy the picture…
P.S – The pastel colors and the pink, not his style, but I had some left over strawberry frosting in the fridge that I wanted to use up. (Sorry for the girly cake Mike, but it’s the taste that counts right – ha ha) :)
P.P.S _ I definitely have to work on my decoarting skills, DEFINITELY!!
Meatloaf.
Ah, meatloaf…classic comfort food…some people love it, some people hate…
i can’t say that in my life i’ve eaten too much meatloaf, but i can remember my mom making it every now and then and it wasn’t exactly something that stuck out in my mind. It just a big loaf of meat…how could go wrong, really???
i don’t know how we came about it, but one of my best friends (dr. gin) suggested a meatloaf recipe that got really good reviews, so i decided to give it a try.
the results? not too bad! it was sweet, tangy and not dry…great flavor, but definitely needed some modifications. I tore up the bread slices as directed, but when cooked, you could still see the bread chunks. I chopped the onions as suggested, but they were still too big. Many meatloaf recipes call for a mixture of meat, but this one only uses ground beef and wasn’t dry. As Tyler said, when he thinks of meatloaf, he thinks of a big flavorful loaf of meat, where all the ingredients are incorporated and can’t be picked out individually. So, in the recipe below, i’ve included all modifications.
MEATLOAF:
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice, divided
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 3 slices bread, broken up into small pieces
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon beef bouillon granules
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- In a small bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and mustard powder.
- In a bowl tear up the bread and combine with the egg and bouillon
- In a separate large bowl, combine the ground beef, onion and bread mixture, add remaining lemon juice and 1/3 of the ketchup mixture from the small bowl. Mix this well and place in a 5×9 inch loaf pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour, drain any excess fat, coat with remaining ketchup mixture and bake for 10 more minutes.
Banana Bread
I had some over-ripe bananas, so instead of wasting them, decided to make some banana bread. I used a recipe from one of my cook books, America’s Test Kitchen, it’s great because it is divided into all different types of food (breakfast, appetizer, meats, poultry, seafood, etc.) and there are a lot of great recipes – however, it can be hit or miss…I’ve tried a few recipes that weren’t all that.
I liked the way the cake turned out, it was a gorgeous golden color and had a wonderful banana aroma, however, the cake was a tad bit on the dry side and didn’t have as strong as a banana flavor as I was expecting (even with two extremely ripe bananas and one artificially ripen banana).
Recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well (1 1/2 cups)
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup plain yogurt
walnuts* (optional)
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Generously coat a 9×5-in loaf pan
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk the mashed bananas, melted butter, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla together in a separate bowl. Gently fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in the nuts (if using). Do NOT overmix, batter will look thick and chunky
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top (give it a few taps on your kitchen counter). Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, about 55 minutes (I would do 50minutes)
5. Let loaf cool in pan for 10 minutes before unmolding onto a wire rack to cool for 1 hour
Recipe Courtesy of: The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
