Karen's Favorite Dinner

Tuesday was all-Karen's-favorites day. I started by making bread...plain ol' white comfort-the-soul bread. Then I made the chocolate chip cookies you saw Caleb eating on yesterday's post. For dinner, I made Karen's fave-oh-right dinner EV-er. She loves this salad. LOVES this salad.
I was certain I had posted it and after an in-depth search, I finally found it from two years ago. It's Sara's recipe from Our Best Bites . I don't really have to keep clarifying that Sara (who told me yesterday that she loves Karen even though she doesn't know her-it's the cilantro war I have going on with Sara) or Kate is from OBB, do I? You all just know that by now, right? And if you haven't tried it, you are seriously missing one of the best combinations of flavor your mouth has ever experienced. It's in their cookbook, and it's online, so there's no excuse for you not to be enjoying this soon. And, being the nice mother that I am, I even bought some cilantro for Karen to put on her salad, but I made her chop it up, and I made her sit on the other side of the table from me while we ate. I can't even stand to smell that stuff, let alone eat it. Gag. The photo is of my plate- sans cilantro, of course.

Here's a quick link for the caramelized macadamia nuts that are used in this recipe, which can be used with any type of nut.

Cookie Boy

Caleb will only eat chocolate chip cookies (and Oreos). You'd think that a kid would love cookies of any kind. I had some frosted animal cookies downstairs and he turned them down immediately. Since we made these cookies a couple weeks ago, we have made them again and again. I finally got to taste one on the same day they were baked, and I can understand why he wants me to keep making them. I have finally found my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. The search is officially over. If you haven't tried this recipe yet, what are you waiting for?




He allowed me to take his picture, but kept leaning over to his mom because he loves being next to her, and likes her to be in the picture too.


"Okay, Nana- are you done yet? Seriously!"
How could I be done when there was still this picture waiting to be taken? Okay, now I'm done.
Happiness is a warm cookie. And a sweet grandson. Or a sweet grandson eating a warm cookie. And I want you all to know that I refrained from licking all that melted chocolate from his face, but it wasn't easy.

Prerequisite First Day Photos

Moms are always taking pictures of their kids and their firsts. First steps, First day at school, etc. Yesterday was my kid's first day of work, so I took the obligatory first day pictures. Once a mom, always a mom.

Saying goodbye to your kid is always hard, I don't care how old you are (okay, it was a little easier for me to say good bye to my kid than it was for either of these two, but still...).
She doesn't have her lunch box, but that's because she should be home by lunch time.
Which do you like better...no glasses...or...
glasses?
She thinks glasses looks more natural than no glasses. For me, I like her either way (but that's because she's my kid!).
Okay, Kake- have a good day at work. Your mom loves you!

One Last Chance

As yesterday was Patriot Day, if you didn't get a chance to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with Tom Brokaw yesterday, you can see it now (or later). Very, very good.

We have tried three recipes lately from the book 101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 Minutes. The first two were less than stellar. Karen wasn't going to give up easily, but we both concluded that our kitchen fairy had taken a vacation at our expense Saturday night. Not only did the cupcakes not turn out (why does Wendy Paul think that a cake mix and 1/2 cup of liquid or less will make a cupcake batter? It does not!) but the Mar-a-lago turkey burgers also failed, and I had even made them before! Karen was about to have a melt down, and I was about to join her. Luckily, the third cupcake recipe showed promise. I was on my "free-day" so I dipped my finger into the batter of cupcake #3. Yum! And- it was actually batter, not cookie dough disguised as cupcake batter.

So, I haven't decided to toss out the book just yet, but we will steer clear of recipes with too little liquid from now on! I've read reviews from others and they all seem to like the book...so what's the problem over here?
Anyway, this one is good, so give it a try, if you are so inclined. Just make sure you aren't currently on a diet. I ate three of them in one day.

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes (from the aforementioned source)
1 pkg. white cake mix
2 eggs
1 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt (I think this can be omitted if you wish)
2 cups diced strawberries
2 T sugar
Stir the 2 T sugar into the diced strawberries and let sit while you mix the cake ingredients.
Mix cake mix, eggs, whipping cream, vanilla and salt (if using) and beat until light and fluffy (and actually LOOKS like cake batter!). Fill cupcake liners with a small scoop of batter (I used my small cookie scoop) and then add a teaspoon of macerated berries, then fill liner with an additional amount of batter to cover the berries, filling no more than 3/4 full.
Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 15-18 minutes (I found we needed the extra time on these). Cake should spring back slightly when lightly touched.
We topped these with 2 cups heavy whipping cream sweetened with 1/2 cup powdered sugar. It was our plan to garnish them with additional sliced strawberries, but my Costco berries have been going bad faster than I anticipated, so no garnishing for cupcakes here.

The Strangest Cupcake Ever

Did you realize that today is 9/10/11? Fun, right?

Karen has been on a cupcake kick lately. She looked through my books and picked out a recipe (out of all the books and all the recipes in all the books, she picked this one!).

Without fully reading the recipe, we got started on it. Part-way through, I realized we were in trouble. The only liquid in the recipe, besides the eggs and vanilla, is 1 tablespoon of milk. What? That's not cupcake batter, that's cookie dough! Panicked, I sent an email off to the author of the book (did you know you could even do that?). She replied in about an hour and said I was doing it right and just keep going. Okay.

I used my cookie scoop to plop some "batter" into the cupcake liner and then added a chunk of chocolate chip cookie dough to the cupcake as well, because that's what these were all about.

Here's Caleb and Karen making them look purdy.
Seems they turned out the way they were supposed to, but since I'm on that silly ol' family fitness bah-humbug deal, I didn't get to taste them. I have absolutely no idea if they were good or not.
Cheryl? Can you tell us if they were worth making again?
Karen wanted to thank the guys who helped us unload the moving van, so she and Caleb delivered the cupcakes to the appropriate houses. I hope we didn't poison them. Come to think of it, I haven't heard from anyone we delivered these to, so maybe we DID poison them. I'll wait for a call from the D.A. and keep my fingers crossed. The author of this book (Wendy Paul) is going to be on Studio 5 next Tuesday (11AM, channel 5) if you're local and want to check it out.
Chocolate Cookie Dough Cupcakes (from 101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 minutes) by Wendy Paul

1 box chocolate cake mix
3 eggs
1 T milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pkg. ready-made chocolate chip cookie dough (we used real ccc dough, not ready-made)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine cake mix, eggs, vanilla, and milk. Drop 1 tablespoon of batter into the paper liners, filling all 24. (Note- at this point the directions became very unclear and it's when I had to email Wendy for clarification. She never said when or how to add the cookie dough, just saying to "Pour the remaining batter on top of cookie dough filling and fill 3/4 full." However, the batter was anything BUT pourable, so I thought I must be mistaken. Evidently not).
I used my small cookie server (scoop) to plop some cake batter dough into the liner. I then broke off a chunk of ccc dough and added that to the batter dough, and tossed them in the oven. Then I prayed, because I had no idea how these were going to turn out. Crazy enough, I still have no idea how they turned out. We frosted them with a little Cool Whip because I forgot to buy cream while I was at Costco, and added a few mini chocolate chips for a final touch.

Oreo Cupcakes

What do you do when you have a lot of Oreos lying around? Do you dunk them in milk? I'm not a dunker. Do you separate them in half, scrape the filling off the cookie and then eat it? I'm not a scraper either. I just toss the whole thing in my mouth and chew (okay, occasionally I bite it in half first). But then what? You can only eat so many Oreos before you get Oreo'ed out (well, in theory anyway). I saw a fun idea and wanted to try it out. I baked an Oreo into a cupcake. Of course, this is not an original idea. I got it from Lizzie at Your Cup of Cake. Click over if you want the recipe.
It was nice to have a helper add the finishing touches.




I was disappointed with the cupcake liners. They didn't really stay up very well. What's up (pun) with that? And the edges of the cupcakes aren't pretty either. That is because I over-filled them though, and then they kind of stuck to the pan along the edge.
I substituted mint Oreo's in some of the cupcakes. I wouldn't recommend that. It was too overpowering. Stick with regular Oreos on this one. And when you are cutting the Oreos in half, use a serrated knife and saw through the first couple of strokes and then push down through the cookie. It should snap in a clean break for you.
P.S. Now I have this song stuck in my head...

"Oh, Oh, Oh, ice cold milk
and an Oreo Cookie
They forever go together,
What a classic combination
When a dark, delicious cookie
meets an icy cold sensation
Like the one and only creamy,
crunchy, chocolate, O-R-E-O."

Just thought I'd share. If you are too young to remember the tune, come over and I'll hum it for you.