30 May 2010

Update!

So, our kitchen now has flooring,  counters should come in this wednesday, and finally our oven will come in this week too!!! (Sooo excited, it's a double oven!!!)  So I will finally be able to begin baking again... yayy!!!!

Until then, here are some links to some awesome, healthy foods, courtesy of Hungry Girl!

In the mood for an AWESOME California Pizza Kitchen pizza?? Well, try this on for size, it only has 340 calories, compared to the actual one with 1,136 calories!!!

Click here for the recipe!

And if you have a sweet tooth, try these guilt free cupcakes!!!!  They have next to no calories.  I am going to bake these next week to try them out and will give you the results! Gah I can't wait to have an oven again!!

Click here for the recipe!

On June 9th I leave for NYC for 5 days of fun and a reunion with all my college girls!! I can't wait to post about all the goodies I will eat and everything I will see, so stay tuned!!

Happy Baking!

25 May 2010

The Destruction of our Kitchen...

Question:  Want to know what happens when you get a little ity bity leak underneath your dishwasher??

Answer: They have to not only take out your dishwasher, but also replace ALL the hardwood flooring in your house.  Which also involves ripping out alllll the cabinets.  Oh, and to top it all off my Mom decided to completely redo the entire kitchen... aka new appliances, granite countertops, strip wallpaper, paint walls.... the list goes on and on and on.

So, for the next two weeks (and the past week) the bottom floor of my house looks like a death trap war zone with random planks fitted into random places on the floor.

What does this all mean for my blog? Hiatus... again... no baking, nada... I may go insane, what will I do to relieve my stress??  Idk...  If the blog posts get exceedingly crazy, I'm sorry.  I will try to entertain you with my mundane annoying life in the meantime.

Mundane fact #1:  I hurt my knee at work today, pain shooting up and down my leg... who do I work for you may ask?? Oh, that would be the knee specialist at The Orthopedic Center, who didn't seem to care, fml.

18 May 2010

Making beautiful cupcakes!

Many big cities, and a bunch of smaller towns, have bakeries that make the most beautifully decorated cupcakes.  The worst part is that these cupcakes can cost anywhere between $3-6, each... and frankly, I think that is ridiculous when you can just decorate them yourselves.

I had to bake a bunch of cupcakes last week for people's birthdays, graduations, house warming gifts, etc.  For the first time, I didn't want to decorate them by hand with a knife, I wanted them to look like they were bought in those same stores that charge an outrageous amount of money.

SO, I made a TON of strawberry cupcakes and decorated them with vanilla buttercream icing.  The recipe for the cakes is found hereThis recipe made about 36 cupcakes total (remember it is cake flour and not all purpose flour).  The recipe for the buttercream can be found here.

One of the finished cupcakes!

To decorate the cupcakes you simply need the following: 1 icing decorating bag and the tip 2D made by Wilton, these can be found at Hobby Lobby or any cake decorating store (fyi, you do not need a coupler for this tip).

This is the 2D tip, it can also be used to make these flowers when decorating cakes!

These clear decorating bags can come in large packs, and are disposable or you can clean and reuse them like I do!

Now, like everything else when it comes to decorating, practice and a LOT of patience is necessary.  After the cupcakes have cooled you can use your 2D tip, fill the bag with icing, and begin decorating!

1.  Start with the tip pointing towards the outside of the cupcake.  Slowly begin to swirl the bag around from the outside-in, using medium pressure.  Make sure you decorate the uggliest cupcakes first, because if you're like me, they don't turn out looking very pretty!

These are sloppy... yucky... not swirled.  But it's okay!! I kept going!

2.  Keep practicing, and eventually they will look like these!

Just like the store ones :)

Happy Decorating!!

14 May 2010

Chocolate Chip Pie

Most families tend to have some sort of "secret family recipe" that they have always used.  Well, this could be said to be ours, since it is made for almost every family gathering.  The first time I made it for friends, I made it when I was living at the sorority house in college... needless to say it was devoured within 1 day (2 pies, 1 day, 4 girls, do the math).  Saying it is a huge hit everytime I make it is an understatement.

So I guess the recipe will no longer be a secret, but I have to share it with yall, because I love my readers... few though they may be!


Ingredients: (makes 1 pie)
1 defrosted pie shell (9in, not deep dish)
defrosted fat free cool whip
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 325.  In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, melted butter, milk and vanilla extract.  Stir well.  After butter has cooled down some mix in the eggs (beaten already).

2.  Add the chocolate chips and pour it into the pie crust.

And to show that everyone makes mistakes... I accidently bought the deep dish pie crust. Oh well!

3.  Bake for 40-50mins, or until slightly browned on the top!  Serve warm with cool whip, enjoy!!

Happy Baking!!! And I hope everyone has a great weekend!

11 May 2010

Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding!

So this past wek has been insane! I have finished school and moved back home (boo).  Moving has been stressfull, to say the least, and my entire family is here visiting, so I have been super busy and not able to post, sorry!!

On Mother's day I made Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding from the cooking light cookbook!! So it's healthy... well healthier then normal.  It's very easy to make and tastes sooo good!  It is the perfect dessert to make for a dinner with friends or family because you can make it ahead of time and then place it in the oven when you're ready to eat!


The following recipe serves 2 ppl, so adjust the ingredients accordingly to the number of people you are serving.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup of 1/2 in cubed Hawaiian Sweet Bread (at publix it comes in rolls by the bakery)
2/3 cup milk (i use skim or 2%)
2 T sugar
1.5 T unsweetend cocoa
1 T kahlua
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (not chips)
2 T fat free cool whip, defrosted

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Arrange bread cubes in a single layer on a baking sheet, bake for 5mins of until lightly toasted.


2.  Combine milk and next 5 ingredients in a bowl, mix well with a whisk.  Add bread and toss gently to coat.  Chill for 30mins to 4 hours.


3.  Preheat oven to 325.  Divide half of the mixture between two 6-ounce ramekins coated with cooking spray.  Sprinkle evenly with half of the chocolate.

4.  Divide remaining mixture between the ramekins.  Top with remaining chocolate.

5.  Place ramekins in an baking pan with hot water added to a depth of 1in.  Bake for 35 mins or until set.  Serve warm with cool whip topping!




Happy Baking, and happy belated Mother's Day to all of you amazing Mom's out there! (especially mine)