Lemon Cupcakes

I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of lemon flavored things, but I'm working on it. I threw a birthday party for my best friend and wanted something light for dessert. I found this recipe on Kraft and the picture of the cupcakes sucked me in and I had to make them. The frosting was a little thin so I let it sit in the fridge for an hour and it firmed up a bit. They were light and the lemon flavor was subtle, not overdone which I liked. These will be made all throughout summer!

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix
1 pkg. (4-serving) Jell-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1 cup water
4 egg whites
2 Tbsp. oil
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, water, egg whites and oil in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until moistened. (Batter will be thick.) Beat on medium speed 2 min. Spoon batter evenly into 24 paper-lined 2-1/2-inch muffin cups.
Bake 21 to 24 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely. Meanwhile, beat sugar, cream cheese, butter and juice with electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Frost cupcakes.

Entertaining Tip

Pick a theme for your party. I know, this can sound corny and dumb but it doesn't have to be. When you pick a theme for your party it makes planning easier. Your theme can be almost anything, a book, movie, flower, song, color,a piece of clothing, a pattern on a pillow, anything you want. You can also pick how involved you want your theme to be. You could throw a party and decorate your house and have people wear costumes or you can pick a color and have everything revolve around the color. Just be creative!

Nilla Apple Crisp

Last Sunday my family had dinner and of course I made the dessert. I wanted to make something wonderful. I was thinking apple crisp and came across this recipe that was an apple crisp topped with Nilla Wafer cookies. So I decided to check it out. I made the crumb topping and had crushed the Nilla Wafers to mix with the topping. Well I put the topping on, put it in the oven, started cleaning up and noticed that I didn't add the Nilla Wafers, so I just threw them on top. The topping was wonderful and the apples were juicy and bubbly. I chose to not use Cool whip and served it with cold vanilla ice cream, how American can you get?

8 cups thinly sliced peeled Granny Smith apples (about 4 large/2 lb.)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar, divided
2 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided
1/3 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup cold margarine
25 Reduced Fat Nilla Wafers, crushed (about 1 cup crumbs)
1-1/2 cups thawed Cool Whipped Topping

Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss apples with 1/4 cup of the brown sugar and 1 tsp. of the cinnamon. Spoon into 8- or 9-inch square baking dish. Combine oats, the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut in margarine with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add wafer crumbs; mix well. Spread crumb mixture evenly over apples. Bake 30 to 35 min. or until apples are tender. Serve warm or cooled. Top with whipped topping.

Great Harvest Pumpkin Chocolate Bread

I am in love with the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread at Great Harvest. So I searched and found the recipe for it. I doubled the batch and made 3 loaves plus 9 mini loaves. I took 1 of the loaves to work and they said it tasted exactly like Great Harvest bread!

GREAT HARVEST PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD

2 1/2 cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

16 oz cooked or canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

1 cup oil

4 eggs, beaten lightly

2/3 cup water

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two (9x5 inch) loaf pans or three (8x4 inch) loaf pans. Mix flours, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a large bowl; set aside. Mix pumpkin, oil, eggs, and 2/3 cup water together and stir into dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Place batter in prepared pans.Bake 60 or 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

**I don't know why the ingredients are double spaced but it wouldn't let me change it. Oh well.

Projects in the works

I have several projects in the works right now! One is a present for my friend who reads this blog so I can't say anything about it. The other projects are a headboard to go above my bed and some decorating in my bathroom. I will post pics and details as soon as they are finished!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

While on a recent road trip I grabbed the latest Rachael Ray Magazine and found this recipe. I was dying to make it! I am not a huge nut lover, so I left out the nuts and added chocolate chips. I also used sour cream instead of the yogurt. These muffins were very moist, light and the tops were crunchy from the brown sugar-very good!

3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 cup mashed banana (1 to 2 bananas)
1 cup whole milk yogurt (can use sour cream)
1 large egg
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, or vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with baking liners. In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, walnuts and raisins.
3. In a small bowl, beat together the banana, yogurt and egg with a fork. Stir in the butter. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until just combined.
4. Fill the lined muffin cups with the batter. Sprinkle the reserved cinnamon-sugar mixture on top. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out dry, about 20 minutes.

Thank you Rachael Ray-again!

Christmas Craft

Before Christmas last year my sister and I went to Tai Pan to look at their decorations. We found a cute sign made with tags. It was $50 and I started thinking that I could make it for half that price. So I went to a craft store and purchased a shadow box frame. I took the back panel of the frame and wrapped it in silver wrapping paper. Then I spelled out the saying with rub-on letters and tied some cute ribbon on the tops of the tags. The white snowflakes are ornaments and I placed some bells in the corner of the frame. I got tons of compliments on the sign and everyone loved it. It ended up costing me about the same price as the original sign at Tai Pan (the rub-on letters were expensive even with a coupon because we had to buy 3 packs to spell out the saying). My intention is to swap out the decor for each season, but I haven't done that yet.

Everything Jambalaya

I have wanted to make jambalaya for a while, but my husband is a picky eater and doesn't really like veggies. Well, he got a sinus infection and can't really taste or smell food so I thought it would be a perfect time to make it. I pulled up Food Network and was looking at Emeril's recipes, too hard, so I then went to Rachael Ray's recipes and found this recipe. I tweaked it a little bit to fit our tastes. We don't like shrimp so I left those out and I didn't have some of the spices and was not in the mood to buy them. It worked out great though. It was very filling and we had lots of leftovers.

2 cups enriched white rice

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, once around the pan

1 tablespoon butter

1 pound boneless, skinless white or dark meat chicken

3/4 pound andouille, casing removed and diced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 bay leaf, fresh or dried

Several drops hot sauce or 2 pinches cayenne pepper

2 to 3 tablespoons (a handful) all-purpose flour

1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice

1(14-ounce) can or paper container chicken stock or broth

1 teaspoon (1/3 palmful) cumin

1 rounded teaspoon (1/2 palmful) dark chili powder

1 teaspoon (1/3 palmful) poultry seasoning

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 pound medium shrimp, raw, deveined and peeled (ask for easy peel at fish counter)

Coarse salt and black pepper

Chopped scallions, for garnish

Fresh thyme, chopped for garnish

Cook rice to package directions. Place a large, deep skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and butter to the pan. Cube chicken and place in hot oil and butter. Brown chicken 3 minutes, add sausage, and cook 2 minutes more. Add onion, celery, pepper, bay, and cayenne. Saute vegetables 5 minutes, sprinkle flour over the pan and cook 1 or 2 minutes more. Stir in tomatoes and broth and season with cumin, chili, poultry seasoning, and Worcestershire. Bring liquids to a boil and add shrimp. Simmer shrimp 5 minutes until pink and firm. Remove the pot from the heat and place on a trivet. Ladle jambalaya into shallow bowls. Using an ice cream scoop, place a scoop of rice on to the center of the bowlfuls of jambalaya. Sprinkle dishes with salt, pepper, chopped scallions, and thyme leaves.

Side Note: I bought a package of rice that took 15 minutes to make. Since you are not cooking the rice in the food, you could use a quick cooking rice to speed things up.