Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Butterfinger Blizzard Cupcakes
Last night, Karen wanted to make something really delicious. She looked at a few cookbooks and ditched them all. She asked me about a blog I look at that features cupcakes that are so beautiful, but they're not only beautiful, they are usually divine. Last night's cupcakes were divine. These cupcakes need Butterfingers. Do you have any left over from Halloween?
You need to skin them from their chocolate covering. It's easy to do if you trim the sides first, then the tops and bottoms come right off.
I think you can read that look for yourself, without any interpretation from me.
You can get the recipe here. Lizzy has some other great cupcakes. Take a look around at Lizzy's blog and find some you want to make. It won't take long, I'm sure.
You need to skin them from their chocolate covering. It's easy to do if you trim the sides first, then the tops and bottoms come right off.
Once you get the cupcakes baked, you fill them with a caramel sauce. Doesn't my model have gorgeous hands?
You can also use a squeeze bottle to fill the cupcakes if you don't have this paraphernalia. Or cut a cone-shaped piece out of the cupcake and spoon it in and cover it back up with the cake.
After you frost them, they look like this.
But how do they taste? Let's see...
I think you can read that look for yourself, without any interpretation from me.
You can get the recipe here. Lizzy has some other great cupcakes. Take a look around at Lizzy's blog and find some you want to make. It won't take long, I'm sure.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Ice, Ice Baby!
On New Year's Eve, we went ice skating at the Olympic Oval. Free tickets are a great incentive!
What is it about ice skates that are so incredibly uncomfortable? Ouch!
We thought this would make it easy for Caleb to skate on his own. Nope.
Then he got an idea that he would just sit on the bar and have us push him. Yep.
Karen has now removed her coat. It was a bit of a workout! I know I was sweating!
What is it about ice skates that are so incredibly uncomfortable? Ouch!
We thought this would make it easy for Caleb to skate on his own. Nope.
Then he got an idea that he would just sit on the bar and have us push him. Yep.
We took turns pushing him.
Karen has now removed her coat. It was a bit of a workout! I know I was sweating!
If you look at the pictures, you'll see he had fun.
But if you ask him if he had fun, he'll say he didn't. But really, he did.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Winter
In case you thought winter would never arrive this year...
...it did. For one day. Karen took this picture. I think it is gorgeous. And cold. And beautiful. And cold.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Cauliflower Soup
Karen visited with some friends a couple weeks ago and the subject of soup came up. The friend (my sister's husband's brother's daughter-in-law in case you were wondering) said she loved Pioneer Woman's cauliflower soup. I had heard before from other sources that it was good, so it re-peaked my interest. We made the soup a couple of days ago and all who ate it could not stop loving it.
Pioneer Woman's Cauliflower Soup (slightly edited)
1 stick of butter (divided)
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1-2 heads of cauliflower, roughly chopped (I used one, but two would have been good)
2 T dried parsley (you can use fresh if you have it)
2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth or stock (that's four small cans)
6 T flour
2 cups milk
1 cup half-and-half (I didn't have any, so I used 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup more milk)
2-4 tsp salt, to taste (okay, watch it on the salt- I used 1 1/2 tsp salt and felt it was plenty salty!)
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
Melt 4 T butter (1/2 stick) in a large soup pot or dutch oven. Add onion and cook about 1 minute. Add the carrot and celery and cook a couple more minutes. Add the cauliflower and parsley, stirring to combine.
Cover and cook vegetables over very low heat for 15 minutes. After time is up, add broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer while making roux.
In a medium saucepan, melt 4 T butter (the other 1/2 of the stick). Mix the milk and flour together, whisking to combine, then add milk mixture slowly to the butter, whisking constantly (this was new to me- I'm used to adding the flour to the butter then adding the milk while whisking, but this worked too).
When the mixture is quite thick, remove it from the heat and then add the half-and-half. Add milk mixture to the soup. Continue to simmer for 15 minutes longer.
Just before serving, add sour cream to serving bowl and then ladle in a few scoops of the soup (not sure why you can't just add the sour cream directly to the soup in the pot, but maybe there's a curdling issue, like eggs?), blending it together. Pour in the remaining soup and stir, then serve.
Like I said earlier, we all loved it (okay, Caleb didn't even try it, but that doesn't count). I served it at a dinner party last night and my guests were hoping that's all they got to eat (it wasn't). Larry said he could have eaten 16 bowls of it.
Pioneer Woman's Cauliflower Soup (slightly edited)
1 stick of butter (divided)
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1-2 heads of cauliflower, roughly chopped (I used one, but two would have been good)
2 T dried parsley (you can use fresh if you have it)
2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth or stock (that's four small cans)
6 T flour
2 cups milk
1 cup half-and-half (I didn't have any, so I used 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup more milk)
2-4 tsp salt, to taste (okay, watch it on the salt- I used 1 1/2 tsp salt and felt it was plenty salty!)
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
Melt 4 T butter (1/2 stick) in a large soup pot or dutch oven. Add onion and cook about 1 minute. Add the carrot and celery and cook a couple more minutes. Add the cauliflower and parsley, stirring to combine.
Cover and cook vegetables over very low heat for 15 minutes. After time is up, add broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer while making roux.
In a medium saucepan, melt 4 T butter (the other 1/2 of the stick). Mix the milk and flour together, whisking to combine, then add milk mixture slowly to the butter, whisking constantly (this was new to me- I'm used to adding the flour to the butter then adding the milk while whisking, but this worked too).
When the mixture is quite thick, remove it from the heat and then add the half-and-half. Add milk mixture to the soup. Continue to simmer for 15 minutes longer.
Just before serving, add sour cream to serving bowl and then ladle in a few scoops of the soup (not sure why you can't just add the sour cream directly to the soup in the pot, but maybe there's a curdling issue, like eggs?), blending it together. Pour in the remaining soup and stir, then serve.
Like I said earlier, we all loved it (okay, Caleb didn't even try it, but that doesn't count). I served it at a dinner party last night and my guests were hoping that's all they got to eat (it wasn't). Larry said he could have eaten 16 bowls of it.
Friday, December 30, 2011
I'm A Copycat
A couple of days ago, Sara posted about her New Year's Eve tree. I fell in love with the idea! I am NOT creative, but I can copy like crazy. I told Karen about the idea and we didn't really do anything about it, but yesterday without prompting, Caleb started taking all the Christmas ornaments off the tree. We asked him why he was doing that and he said it was so we could make the New Year's Eve tree! So make it we did (well, they did it while I was in the other room)!
We're ready to PAR-TAY!
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