Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Sorry for the long silence, but I have some news...

We're having a GIRL!!!

So in honor of this news, I went through my pictures of yet to be blogged about dishes and found something pink :)

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes (minus the lemonade).


I found this recipe at Annie's Eats and it looked tasty, so I decided to give it a try. But I got lazy and skipped the lemonade part. :P

These were definitely better than my previous attempt at strawberry cupcakes. They weren't as gorgeous as Annie's but by my standards, this was a huge improvement. These were much fluffier than last time, the flavor was great and the icing wasn't a total disaster! I still need more practice baking, but I there is hope! :)

Inspired by Annie's Eats

Cupcake Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. lemon zest
- 12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 cups strawberries, chopped (I used thawed frozen strawberries)

Frosting Ingredients:
- 1 cup strawberries, chopped (I used thawed frozen strawberries)
- 12 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
- 18 tbsp. unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 2 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar (sifted)
- 3 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
- Mix flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Set aside.
- Beat the butter on medium in a stand mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add the sugar and beat until combined.
- Add the eggs one at a time until combined.
- Add half of the flour mixture and beat until well incorporated.
- Add the milk and mix.
- Add the rest of the flour mixture until everything is smooth and incorporated.
- Fold in the strawberries.
- Fill up paper-lined cupcake tins about 3/4 way full.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

- Blend the strawberries in a blender for the frosting.
- Strain the strawberries to remove the seeds.
- Beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy.
- Add the powdered sugar and beat until thoroughly mixed.
- Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract.
- Mix in the strawberry puree one tablespoon at a time until it reaches the texture, flavor, and color you want.
- When the cupcakes are totally cool, frost them and serve!

Egg Rolls (vietnamese style)

I love egg rolls, especially Vietnamese ones, so when I make my own, I always go for that style.

I've blogged about these before, but last time I baked them. Since fried ones are so much better and you're allowed to indulge during the holidays, I fried them this time. Everything else was pretty much the same.

I made these weeks ahead of time and froze them individually and fried them up the day of and served them with chili sauce. A tasty and easy appetizer for any time of the year!

Ingredients:
- ground pork
- carrots
- onions
- glass noodles (mung bean noodles)
- garlic
- wood ear mushrooms
- fish sauce
- soy sauce
- egg rolls wrappers
- oil (for frying)

Directions:
- Shred the carrots and set aside.
- Finely dice the onions and set aside.
- Mince the garlic and set aside.
- Soak the glass noodles in water until they're pliable (about 15-30 minutes), then cut them into shorter more manageable pieces.
- Soak the wood ear mushrooms until they're soft (hot water will speed this up), then cut it into thin strips.
- Mix everything together, seasoning to taste with soy and fish sauce. You can always fry up a small portion of the filling before wrapping the egg rolls to make sure it tastes good.
- Take a sheet of egg roll wrapper and fill it with a diagonal line of filling and wrap it up.
- You can either fry them immediately or put them in the freezer at this point to fry up at a later date.

Artichoke Dip

Here's another appetizer that I put out on our buffet table for Thanksgiving. I put the artichoke dip in a mini crock pot to keep it warm.

The crackers are rosemary crackers, also homemade. But since my husband made them (and refuses to share the recipe) I can't tell you how he made them. I'll keep bugging him about it, but in the meantime, here's the artichoke dip recipe.

Ingredients:
- Marinated artichokes
- Mayo
- Cream cheese
- Salt
- Pepper

Directions:
- Drain and chop the artichokes.
- Mix the artichokes, cream cheese and mayo together, microwaving it periodically, until it reaches the consistency you desire.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve with crackers, pita chips, or veggies.
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Cranberry Sauce (revisited)

This is another one that can be made ahead of time to reduce stress on Thanksgiving day. An even better way to reduce stress is to ask your husband to do it! Thanks babe! :)

We used the same recipe as we did last year, except we made a bigger batch. Too big in fact (we bought the Costco size bag of cranberries). Anyone want some frozen cranberry sauce or have any ideas of what we should do with all the leftovers? If you do, PLEASE let us know!

Ingredients:
- Cranberries
- Orange juice
- Sugar
- Lemon zest
- Ginger

Directions:
- Rinse the cranberries and then pour them into a large pot.
- Add enough orange juice to cover barely cover the cranberries (they won't look covered because cranberries float)
- Bring the mixture to a boil and then lower the heat to maintain a simmer.
- Add LOTS of sugar to taste.
- Add some lemon zest and grated ginger to taste.
- Simmer until all the cranberries of popped and the sauce has thickened.
- Let the sauce cool and then place it in the fridge to set.

Clam Chowder

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!

While I didn't do any cooking for the holidays, I still haven't finished my Thanksgiving posts, so here's one more.

I was a bit worried that the soup wouldn't get eaten and that I'd have a ton of leftovers, but apparently, it wasn't something that I needed to worry about. I made the clam chowder the day before and then popped in the crock pot in the morning to heat it up and left it there during dinner to keep it warm. Anyone who wanted it, had to get up off their butts, walk over, pour themselves a bowl, and bring it back to their seats.

The crock pot happened to be near my father-in-law who took it upon himself to tattle on people who went for seconds. I told him it was fine and that we had plenty - people could go for seconds and thirds as much as they wanted. Apparently that wasn't the reaction he was looking for out of me, so he decided to report to everyone, how many bowls each person had helped themselves to. Luckily, that didn't deter anyone from going back for more and we had less than one bowl's worth left at the end of the night. I'd call that a success :)

Happy New Year!!!


Ingredients:
- Clams and clam juice (I used canned clams that were packed in its own juices)
- Stock (clam stock would be best, then fish, then veggie or chicken. I used chicken because that's all that I had on hand. Water will do too if you don't have any stock at all)
- Milk (I used soy milk)
- Cream (I used half & half though I'm sure heavy cream would have been wonderful)
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Celery (optional)
- Parsley
- Salt
- Pepper
- Flour
- Butter

Directions:
- Peel and dice the potatoes.
- Finely dice the onions.
- Finely slice the celery.
- In a heavy bottomed pot, add a bit of butter or oil and the onions and sweat them until softened.
- Add the potatoes and celery.
- Saute everything until the potatoes and celery have softened a bit. They don't need to be totally cooked through yet at this point.
- Remove everything.
- Make a rue by mixing equal parts of melted butter and flour and cooking it until it is just starting to turn a bit golden in color.
- Add any of the liquids (milk, cream, stock) and whisk the mixture until the rue has been fully incorporated into the liquid and it has thickened nicely.
- Add the rest of the liquids, the clams, clam juice, onions, celery, potatoes, etc and bring everything to a simmer.
- If the soup is not thick enough, either add more cream or make more rue in a separate pot, add a bit of the liquid from the soup to the rue and add the entire mixture back to the soup once it's been fully incorporated.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the parsley at the last minute.

Baked Brie

I've been wanting to try this forever! I keep hearing how fabulous baked brie is and how it's always such a hit at parties, but I never got a chance to try it. Well, I still didn't get to try it this year since brie is on the "do not eat" list for pregnant ladies, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it!

Next I had to decide on what kind of baked brie I wanted to make. Wrapped in puff pastry? Topped with a fruit compote? What kind of fruit compote?

In the end, I decided to save myself a bit of trouble and just go with the easiest version out there...topped with honey and nuts.

I can't give a personal report on whether it was good or not, but it seemed to go over well with the guests. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it myself one of these days...

Ingredients:
- Brie
- Honey
- Nuts (I used sliced almonds)
- Crackers

Directions:
- Place the brie on a piece of foil and pop it in the oven at 350 until the middle is soft and gooey. It shouldn't take very long at all.
- Transfer the brie onto the serving plate and drizzle honey on top.
- Garnish with nuts.
- Serve with crackers. (I also placed a few apple slices around for a bit more color)

Sweet Potatoes

Normally, I'm a bit of a control freak. I like to do everything myself, but seeing as how we had 20 people coming and I was low on energy because of the pregnancy, I was forced to concede and let my mom help me out. But even then, I couldn't quite bear to give up control on anything too big like the turkey, so I let her be in charge of the sweet potatoes.

I had all sorts of ideas for the sweet potatoes, but my mom claimed she had a fabulous way of preparing them and I was too tired and short on time to fight her, so I bit my tongue and let her do them her way. And lemme tell ya, they were really good! I might even steal her recipe in the future and pass it off as my own :)

And next time, I'll remember to get a picture of the completed dish instead of it just simmering in the pot.

Ingredients:
- Sweet potatoes
- Orange Juice
- Brown Sugar
- Butter

Directions:
- Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into bite size pieces.
- Place the sweet potatoes in a large pot with orange juice, brown sugar, and LOTS of butter.
- Simmer the sweet potatoes, gently stirring them ocassionally until they're mostly cooked through. (You can skip this part if you want and put them directly into the oven, but since oven space is scarce on Thanksgiving day, we did most of the cooking on the stovetop and just finished them in the oven).
- Transfer everything to a baking dish and bake them at 375 until they finish cooking and have a bit of crisp and color to them.