7-ish Minute Frosting

Today, we make seven minute frosting. It's a basic recipe that's been around for years. Your mother likely made it, your grandmother likely made it, it's in every Betty Crocker-ish cookbook, and if you google "7 minute frosting" you'll find ten thousand recipes all consisting of about the same ingredients: sugar, egg whites, water, and vanilla.

7 minute frosting is delicate in that it has to be beat over heat in a double boiler for it to gain the right consistency. I don't have a hand held electric mixer so this was my mixer of choice:

In addition, my double boiler is too small to make a batch of frosting, so I fashioned one out of a bowl and a pot:

The other changes I made were to use part brown sugar and part white sugar. I replaced about 1/3 of the white sugar that was called for with brown sugar.

Now for a few facts I made up about 7 minute frosting:

-When beating by hand, 7 minute frosting takes approximately 25 minutes to make (that's what she said)

-"7 minute frosting" was originally called "makes your hands fall off frosting"

-Make shift double boilers definitely don't slip around and almost spill your frosting all over the floor thus making you curse a lot

When all was said and done, the frosting wasn't half bad. It actually turned out pretty good, the brown sugar was a nice edition.

They made for a very special birthday at the office. Oh, and my secret recipe for the cake: buy a box of Duncan Hines mix ;-)

Salted Caramel Cupcake Catastrophe

We have a Spring potluck at work this week which is the perfect time to share my salted caramel cupcakes. I normally make these with a chocolate cupcake, but one of the docs I work with isn't a chocolate fan (crazy!) so I set out to find a cupcake that would go with salted caramel frosting that wasn't chocolate. All roads led to this post by Sprinkle Bakes for Triple Salted Caramel Cupcakes. A lovely buttermilk and brown sugar cupcake topped with salted caramel frosting, filled with salted caramel, and decorated with salted caramelized sugar. I modified things a bit...

...First, I didn't fill the cupcakes. I haven't quite delved into the world of filled cupcakes. Call me crazy, but I just don't see the need to fill an already incredibly sweet treat with more sweetness. I even have one of those adorable "cupcake plungers" to aid in my cupcake filling adventures, but I just haven't mustered up the courage to use it. For now, the only filled cupcakes I'll be involved with are produced by Hostess. Don't lie to yourself, no matter what organic, vegan, hippy way of life you've adopted you know you dream about Hostess cupcakes just like the rest of us.

I also used a different salted caramel frosting recipe. I've been using the same one for a while and it's never steered me wrong. The problem is: I can't remember where I got it. Since I would feel terrible posting a recipe without being able to credit its wonderful creator, I'm just going to encourage you to try the recipe on Sprinkle Bakes and let me know what you think. I'm sure it's wonderful, I just can't speak from experience having never made it.

I got ambitious and decided to tackle the decorative sugar as well...that was a mistake. Sugar and I don't get along well in liquid forms. My mother-in-law to be is masterful when it comes to candy making, my grandfather was a candy maker by trade, but I can barely get a caramel sauce to turn out 60% of the time. The most amazing infuriating experience I've had with sugar was when I attempted to make a caramel sauce (while attempting to make my cousin's daughter think I was super cool) and the sugar melted, boiled, continued boiling, then TURNED BACK INTO GRANULATED SUGAR. "Regranulation" is the smarty pants term for "I can't even melt sugar properly". I don't think my cousin's daughter found me to be very cool.

This time around it took a really long time for the sugar to turn the dark amber color it's supposed to after it starts to caramelize. Which is probably due to the fact that I didn't read the directions well enough and turned the heat down too low after reaching a boiling point. So my two tips for caramelizing sugar besides "don't screw it up" are:

1. Read the directions

2. Don't walk away from a boiling pot of sugar. The second you walk away the sugar will start to caramelize and in an instant your entire house will reek of burnt sugar. You stand right next to that boiling pot of sugar the entire time and watch it like it was about to run off with your husband!

Mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as Sprinkle Bakes beautiful cupcakes, but they'll do.

'Til we meet again caramelized sugar, 'til we meet again.

What do you do with baby bell peppers?

My answer: I have no idea.

I saw them at Costco and they were too colorful to turn down so, in the cart they went.

I asked a great friend (and great cook!) over at Devouring the World for some advice and she said, "stuff them!!" I assumed she was still talking about bell peppers so that's exactly what I decided to do!

"What do you stuff bell peppers with?", I asked myself.

My answer: I have no idea. (Are we sensing a theme in this post?)

I had some broccoli, some red onion, some garlic, some dried spicy pepper, some quinoa, and feta. In they went! I sauteed the onions and broccoli with the garlic first then stirred everything together once the quinoa cooked. I put feta in and on top of the peppers (Because mo feta is mo betta. Trust me, I'm a doctor.) After I stuffed the peppers I threw them in a 400 degree oven and they were off!

On the side we had asparagus. There's nothing bad about asparagus. It tastes delicious, it looks beautiful. I think when I get married I'll just carry a bouquet of asparagus so I can have a snack and a beautiful bouquet all in one. Or maybe I won't.

I usually like to throw my asparagus in a pan with some olive oil and once it gets cooking I'll throw in a little white wine and put the lid on for a few minutes until the spears are a beautiful vibrant green. I didn't have white wine so I just used some of the beer I was drinking. Once you've used your beer for cooking asparagus, you must get yourself another beer.

The dish looked pretty, but it was a little bland. I'm not actually a huge fan of bell peppers and the label that read "super sweet" was misleading. "So why did you buy them if you're not a fan of them?", you might be asking.

My answer: I have no idea.

But it was a nice adventure. The quinoa mixture was alright on its own, it needed some doctoring, and the asparagus turned out pretty good. When all was said and done it was just mediocre. Oh well, sometimes mediocrity is just what you need.

One more note before I sign off here. My friend over at Devouring the World honored me with a Liebster Award for small blogs. Thanks! Apparently you just pass it on to your favorite small bloggers that have less than 200 followers and hope that they do the same, praising other small time bloggers along the way. Hey, recognition is recognition, right? 

I don't really have 5 blogs to pick because I've been slacking on the blog reading, but here are a few of my favorites:

Taylor Renno (if you like art and you want to be amazed then this is for you)

Rebecca Ellison Photography (if you like photography and you want to be amazed, this is for you)

I don't actually know how many followers each of those blogs have because I don't know how to figure that out. I'm a little computer dumb sometimes. We'll just say they each have less than 200 followers, sound good?

Thanks, people who blog (because I hate the term "blogger"), for keeping my world fascinating!!!

Say, "CHEESECAKE"!

New York City holds a special place in my heart. I've only been there twice, but each time I've loved it more than most places I've ever been. I don't necessarily like to do all the touristy activities, I just like to walk around and take in the experiences the city has to offer. However, there are a couple of touristy things that couldn't be passed up each time we went. One of those things was going to Carnegie Deli. I could make a meal of the bowl of pickles they serve you. And then there's the cheesecake, oohhhhhh, the cheesecake. Imagine the best thing you've ever eaten...now imagine if it were better...that's what Carnegie Deli cheesecake is like. The best part is, they post their recipe on their website. There's rumors that the recipe isn't actually their recipe but, it's made a pretty darn good cheesecake the few times I've used it; so here goes.

The crust is actually a cookie crust, you bake the bottom portion for a few minutes before you put in the dough for the sides. Be strategic and careful in your rolling, you'll barely have enough (which means don't eat too much of it before your pan is covered, I learned that the hard way).

Once you've made your delicious and fluffy looking filling and poured it into your crust it's time for the first round of baking. Yep, first round. Your oven has to be preheated to almost 500 degrees to brown the outside and allow the cake to rise a little. Check on it carefully and often, even a few short minutes will make all the difference. 

Remember when I said to check on it often? Do as I say, not as I do. Sometimes your cheesecake turns out darker than dark, and since you're on an Instagram kick you find the filter that makes it look the least awful:

This particular cheesecake was for a very special birthday so I ended up remaking it. I wasn't up to the task of convincing the birthday girl that blackened, cajun style cheesecake is the latest rage in home baked goods. 

Now that's better, minus a few dark crust pieces.

Break off those dark crust portions, chill over night, and you've got yourself a beautiful and delicious cheesecake.

This lovely cheesecake was successfully delivered to its birthday recipient. However, there's still some blackened cheesecake hanging out in my fridge, any takers?

Hamburglar Strikes Again!

Occasionally I get inspired by a bag of flour. Okay maybe not "occasionally", more like I'm constantly inspired by a bag of flour. Think about flour. Now think about all of the different things you can do with flour. It's incredible! Remember that insanely expensive loaf of bread you bought at the store today? You could have made it yourself with flour. You know that pizza dough that always seems incredible hard to find at the grocery store? You can make it with flour. See that incredibly unappetizing looking pound cake sitting in your cart that you're planning to serve company later? You can make it...you get the idea.

I'm not usually one to get on a soapbox about processed foods, I love me some processed foods. When it comes to breads and baked goods, though, there's no reason not to make them yourself. It's totally worth it.

Today's recipe came from this lovely site. The recipe is easy, has very few ingredients, and is pretty darn tasty. My only problem: they didn't rise. I don't usually have this issue with making bread, but I've been having it recently which leads me to think I either need fresh yeast or my house is too cold in the Winter. It's probably a little of both. 

I ended up with some tiny, dense buns (which is usually a good thing! Ba Dum Chhhhhh!!!), not so pleasant when you're referring to hamburger buns.

We're planning to have pulled pork sandwiches later this week which was my reason for making buns in the first place. I'm thinking we'll just try using these anyways and hope that we coat our pork with enough delicious sauce that it'll be soaked up by the dense bread that surrounds it. We'll see. Maybe I'll get my buns in gear to make new buns.

No Table? No Problem!

When I was a kid my family and I spent a couple years living in a lovely little trailer park in beautiful Garden Grove. My sisters and I shared a the only bedroom, and my parents' "bedroom" was also the living room, dining room, foyer, rec room...you get the idea. When someone was in the bathroom you couldn't walk into the bedroom because the doors opened into the "hallway" in order to create room to actually move around in the bathroom.

Anyways, since we didn't really have much of a dining room table we made a regular event of having picnics in the living room when we ate meals. My mom set it up just as if we were sitting at a table, we just parked ourselves on the floor instead of in chairs. This weekend we had the family over for dinner and, being that we live in a small apartment, we don't have enough seating at our tiny table for 8 people. I managed to find a nice blanket and some decorative fabric and decided to have a flashback picnic family dinner in the middle of our living room. Our picnics weren't quite this fancy back in the day, but you make the best of what you have at the moment, right?

I got creative with the center piece and used some votives I found at the dollar store and put them inside some Ball jars I had in the cupboard. I have to say, I was quite impressed with how everything turned out.

Just goes to show, it doesn't matter what your table looks like, what makes a family dinner is the family that's there. Living room picnics will always hold a special place in my heart and I have my mom to thank for teaching me how to make any house a home no matter how big or small.

All Hail Caesar!

Nothing beats a delicious caesar salad, but there's two very important things you must not forget:

Parmesan makes the world go round and lemon isn't too shabby either. Today's recipe came from a lovely blog called Not Without Salt. No one should ever be without salt, or without the aforementioned blog, that's for sure. Once I saw the pictures of this mouth watering caesar salad I knew we had to give it a go. The dressing is made with nonfat greek yogurt so it's much lighter than your typical caesar salad dressing. As much as I love caesar salad, everyone knows that the dressing is so fattening that it can barely be considered "salad". If you're on a diet, caesar salad is generally not the salad for you, but then came this lovely recipe. 

In this house we have our go to bottled caesar dressing, my fiance's mom has been buying it for years from our local grocery store and even though she lives across town she will come back just to buy this dressing which she can't find anywhere else. It's to die for. There are only two problems with it: it's almost $7 a bottle (yikes!) and I made the mistake of looking at the nutrition label once (I may have been better off eating my weight in french fries for dinner). So this recipe had quite the competition as far as taste went, but we had faith and gave it a shot.

I didn't really change anything about the recipe, but I definitely took her advice about adding things to taste. It turned out a little heavy on the mustard at first and definitely needed some tweaking. 

I usually add chicken to our caesar salad, but the photos in the "Lighter Caesar" post looked so delicious that I couldn't help but buy a chunk of steak while I was at the grocery store. I seared the steak but, I'll admit, I had to google how to sear steak. No, I don't know how to cook steak, that's what men are for. There is a small handful of men in my life that are incredible when it comes to cooking steak (I'm marrying one of them). They leave the cake baking to me so I leave the steak cooking to them, why mess up a good thing?

Here's one of my not-so-appetizing photos of our lovely dinner:

Did we like it? You bet! It was great, and so easy! A lovely little meal for after you've worked a long day or if you want a decent, but not over filling lunch. The dressing still needs work (needed more parmesan), but it wasn't bad for my first try. I even got compliments from the steak master himself on how well I seared the meat which I find to be quite the milestone. 

Go forth, sear steak, and make your own salad dressing!