If I can't get to NY to try Magnolia cupcakes . . .

I'll make a Magnolia inspired version of their cupcakes myself!
I came across this recipe a while ago and was hesitant to try it cause I've never attempted to make cupcakes from scratch before.

I have to admit, the process can be a bit involved and messy (to avoid splatter, I put the mixing bowl in the clean side of the sink while beating with the hand mixer) but the end product was SO WORTH IT! These cupcakes were THE TITS! Seriously. Soooo moist, fluffy and delicious. I don't like things toooo sweet and found the icing seemed a bit sweet for me (Chris disagreed) BUT..the combo of the cake and icing made for a perfect balance.

I found these cupcake liners that required no tins. Just place em on a cookie sheet and fill. I was pleasantly surprised that they worked! A couple turned out not so round shaped but rather heart shaped and I wasn't mad at that.

Anyhoo...the batch made over 2 dozen, probably cause the liners were smaller. I also had a fair amount of icing left over. I had 6 taste testers I think and they were an absolute hit!

Here's a link to the recipe I followed. This site seems pretty awesome so I'm gonna try my hand at more of their recipes!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Fluffy Vanilla Butter Cream!!!!!!!

A lovely Easter...and then some.

Spent my first Easter in NC and LOVED it!
We spent the afternoon at Chris' mom's place. She cooked a spiral ham, potato salad, beets, some sorta cheese ball thing that wasn't really cheese (but still good), beans, deviled eggs, kielbasa, BANANA PUDDING (mmm). Needless to say, we had some leftovers to take home.

I was doing some "freebie" searching earlier and came across 24 hours free access to the cook's illustrated site. I was thinking about what we could do to use up the ham and somehow thought, "pizza". Weird.

Anyhow, I found a recipe on that site, hit the store and for $10 got all the stuff I'd need. Mind you, $10 bought enough flour to make a whooooooole bunch of pizzas so I estimate a homemade pizza costs no more than a couple bucks vs ordering.

I also got to use my food processor..bonus!

The recipe I'm gonna post is just the dough. It makes an AWESOME dough if you like thin crust. I was really impressed with it. Our toppings tonight was just ham/pineapple and I'm already thinking about what to do next time!

Pizza Dough

1 1/4	teaspoons instant yeast
1	cup water (8 ounces), room temperature
1 3/4	cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces), plus extra for dusting work surface and peel
1	cup cake flour (4 ounces)
1 1/2	teaspoons table salt
2	teaspoons sugar

• Whisk together the yeast & water in a measuring cup
• In a food processor, pulse the flours, salt & sugar a few times to mix through
• Slowly add the yeast/water mixture through the feed tube while the processor is running
• Let it mix for 2 minutes. If after 1 minute, it's sticking to everything, add a tbs or 2 of flour. If it looks dry/crumbly, add a tsp or so of water.
• Mix until the dough forms a satiny ball and comes away from the sides of the processor.
• Divide dough into 2 and place on a floured surface or baking sheet 3 inches apart
  
• Cover loosely with plastic wrap that's been oiled
• Let stand until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour
• Roll it, stretch it, do whatever to make a pizza...
• At this point, I didn't follow the recipe much anymore cause I don't have a pizza stone or any of that. I oiled a cookie sheet and stretched the pizza out as thin as I could
• Add toppings (ie. pizza sauce, ham, pineapple, mozzarella)
• Bake in preheated 500 degree oven with rack on lower level for 10 mins.

No pics cause we ate it and it was DEEEEEEEEEEELICIOUS!

toys and treats

For Easter at Chris' mom's I made a couple treats...english toffee & "millionaire's shortbread". Got the recipe from Food Network..I guess it was featured on that new show that only uses 5 ingredients per dish. I dig that. Makes my life easier and helps with the wallet, too.

Anyhoots..I'm too lazy to do anything right now so just follow the link for the recipe. It tastes kinda like Twix! Mmmmmmmmm. i LOOOOOOOOVE using dulce de leche when I make desserts. It's the best flavor everrrr.

OH YEAH...Macy's had some major sales and they had a 7 cup Cuisinart food processor for $79.99 (regular $140 or somethin). I had to have it and it's AWESOME.
I've used it to make red pepper hummus (recipe will follow soon), chop nuts, grate a block of cheese in seconds, bangin scalloped potatoes (lost the recipe i used) and the shortbread. HEELLLLLL YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

git in mah belleeehhhh

ok so working out has been paying off. instead of being WAY off my 2 lb/week weight loss, im 1 lb off. booooo but not as bad as i thought considering the weekend. hopefully i dont run into any problems in the next few days. actually wait..i already have. i dont feel like goin to the gym today. there goes my shopping treat. this could change in the next few hours but im not countin on it.

***EDIT***
I dragged my ass to the gym..in the rain! That means shopping is still a possibility this weekend!
I procrastinated my ass off but I MADE IT. i did all elliptical today for an hour. Even as I worked out part of me was like "just get off after 15 minutes...okay get off at 30 minutes.." BUT I DIDN'T! I stayed on that bad boy for an hour, burned at least 800 calories and did 3.8 miles.
HOLLERRRRRRR. I'm real proud of myself cause I really was bein a lazy bugger.
Tomorrow, I gotta force myself to get up with Chris and hit the gym one mo time.

ON TO BETTER NEWS..........
ive surprisingly been keeping to my calorie goals. this is gettin hard cause last night i made ENGLISH TOFFEE!!!!!!!!!! tasted just like skor bars....but better! and so easy to make.
Today I saw some cream cheese in the fridge. Figured I should use it so I randomly went on a search for recipes using cream cheese. I came across a cheese puff recipe. (think cream puff but savory).

Realizing I had all of the ingredients to make the puff I got to it. SUPER EASY to make. The cream cheese part came in making the "filling". I didn't follow what the recipe said, instead I looked in the fridge, found a few slices of bacon, saw the garlic.....thought, "bacon & roasted garlic cream cheese". Fantastic.

Neither the toffee or puffs are calorie friendly so MODERATION is key.

And since I'm feelin like a complete lazy ass, here's the recipes.

ENGLISH TOFFEE

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Couple handfuls of chocolate chips
• Crushed nuts. I woulda used almonds but only had peanuts on hand. Still worked.
  

1. Combine butter/sugar/water in a medium sauce pan over low-med heat, stirring constantly with a heat resistant spatula.
2. You've got to keep stirring for like...10-20 minutes. Crazy, I know. The recipes I referenced said you need to have a candy thermometer but I don't.
3. When the colour started turning into what I know toffee to look like, I dropped a bit of the hot mixture into ice water. It solidified instantly. This is the "hard crack" stage & it's done.
   
4. Mix in the vanilla.
   
5. Spread the mixture into a pan lined with parchment paper & let it cool for 10 minutes.
6. I then slid the parchment paper/toffee out of the pan onto the table top and sprinkled it with the chocolate, waited a few minutes, spread the chocolate out then sprinked on the nuts.
7. Let it cool completely. After 30 minutes, the chocolate was still soft so I stuck the candy in the fridge for another half hour or so.
8. Break the pieces up and enjoy.

CHEESE PUFFS WITH ROASTED GARLIC BACON CREAM CHEESE FILLING

For the puffs:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 2/3 cup water
• 2/3 cup flour
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of Cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
  

1. Bring the butter and water to a boil in a sauce pan.
2. In a bowl mix flour, salt, cayenne & cheese
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the melted butter/water mixture off the heat
4. Beat it up until it's well mixed and kinda forms a ball, let it cool slightly
5. Gradually beat in the beaten eggs and mix it hard til it's smooth and glossy.
6. I don't have a pastry bag so I scooped the mixture into a ziplock bag & let it cool more.
7. Preheat oven to 425F
   
8. Line a big baking sheet with parchment
9. Snip a small corner off of the ziplock bag
10. Squeeze out the pastry mixture making 16-20 "puffs"
11. I wet my finger 'n smoothed out the tops of the puffs/formed them better cause I saw this on a cooking show once.
12. Stick em in the oven for 15 minutes then lower heat to 375F and cook for another 10-15 or until golden brown.
13. Remove from oven and let cool.
14. Use a serated knife to cut each puff in half horizontally.

For the filling

• 4 oz softened cream cheese
• A few strips of cooked then crumbled bacon
• 3-4 cloves roasted garlic, mashed up
  
• Salt/pepper to taste with a pinch of paprika, cayenne, onion powder
• quick squeeze of lemon

1. Mix up all of the above ingredients
2. Spoon a small amount of mixture onto half of a cheese puff then top it with the other half
3. Do it to all the puffs and try and resist the temptation to eat each one as you finish it.
   

This blog is making me laugh. I feel like I contradict myself cause one minute I'm posting about health/weightloss then the next it's restaurants and recipes. Oh well!