Chocolate Cupcakes

This post is to help Allison not feel so lonely on this blog! I've made these cupcakes from The Sisters Cafe twice now. Once with the truffles inside a few weeks back, and once with Hershey's Kisses inside for my little guy's birthday. Here's my review:

• The cake: it's a doctored up cake-mix and it turns out really good and moist. I think I'll have to do this to cake mixes from now on.


• The frosting: I prefer chocolate pudding and cool whip mixed together, but that's because I'm not a frosting person.


• Truffles or Hershey's Kisses inside?: they were both delicious. However, the truffles were probably a little better since they were creamier and meltier in your mouth. The Hershey's Kisses were still fun and way cheaper. My kids thought it was so fun to have one inside. Plus you can buy a whole bag of them and eat them while you are baking! With the truffles, you have to save them all for the cupcakes. The truffles melted into a thin, horizontal layer toward the bottom of the cupcake. The Kisses stayed in a clump in the middle of the cupcake.

Hungry-Girl Nacho-rific Chicken!

Judging from the fact that I've posted most of the recent posts about food, I would almost say that I am the only one cooking, BUT I KNOW THAT'S NOT TRUE!

COUSINS, have you fallen of the face of the earth????  I want to see what you're making!

Here's what I made last night:

You can find a link to the recipe HERE!

Or, here's an image of the recipe directly from the site!

Thin Mints--Knock Off!

Ok...so the story is:

I wanted to buy Thin Mints and Samoas from the Girl Scouts, but when I happened to see some girl scouts selling cookies, I only had $4 cash with me...which will only buy 1 solitary, sad, lonely box. And, I love thin mints, but I had a recipe. So, Samoas won.

But, the good news is that the Thin Mints were delicious homemade!

Jereld suggested the parsley twig garnish...don't laugh.

Girl Scout Thin Mints

Chocolate Cookie Wafers

1 18.25-ounce package Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix
3 Tbsp. shortening, melted
1/2 C. cake flour, measured then sifted
1 egg
3 Tbsp. water
nonstick cooking spray

Coating

3 12-ounce bags semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 tsp. peppermint extract
6 Tbsp. shortening

1) Combine the wafer ingredients (except the water) in a large bowl. Add the water a little bit at a time until a dough forms (the dough will seem very thick--this will give the wafers a crispy texture once baked). Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 2 hours.

2) On a lightly floured surface, roll out a portion of the dough to 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out wafers with a spice jar lid (like McCormick spices or whatever you have).  Put wafers on a lightly greased cookie sheet (they can be pretty close together--they don't spread out). Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool completely before moving on to the next step.

3) Combine chocolate chips, peppermint extract, and shortening in a microwave safe bowl. Heat on 50% power for 2 minutes, stir.  Repeat heating and stirring until chocolate is melted and is a smooth consistency.

5) Dip each wafer in chocolate. Let the excess chocolate run off into the bowl (tapping your fork on the side of the bowl helps).  Place dipped wafers on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

YUM!

Nativity Craft

Marsha, Camilee and my Mom came last weekend and we whipped out a ton of nativities. It was so fun. Steve had the boards (8X2's) all cut for us in 12" lengths (55 of them to be exact-I can't do anything in small numbers). We had to sand, stain, cut paper, and mod podge. The paper was a scrapbook nativity scene that I found at Michaels. I ordered most of them online, though. These will be our Christmas gifts this year. I love how they turned out.

(Doesn't Cam look so cute in that apron?)

Curious George Birthday

My friend taught me how to decorate cakes using a coloring page and an overhead transparancy. I put the coloring page under the transparancy and decorated on top. Then I froze the frosting. Then I turned it onto the cake and peeled off the transparancy. I loved how it turned out.

Chicken Pesto Pizza

This is more of a dinner idea than a recipe I suppose...but yummy none-the-less!

Top your favorite pizza crust (or cheat by buying one like I did) with:

Pesto (Costco--or should I say Kirkland--makes really good Pesto sauce)

Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Tomatoes

Chicken (cooked in a little olive oil with garlic salt and pepper)

and Black Beans

or add whatever else you want! I think black olives would also be a good addition! 

Mandarin Chicken--Panda Express Knock-Off!

I tried this recipe...and YUM! I should have taken pictures...didn't...oh well.

Mandarin Chicken (Panda Express Style) Sauce

2/3 C. sugar
1/4 C. soy sauce
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp minced fresh garlic (I never use "fresh" garlic. I always use the pre-minced garlic in the jar from the store)
1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger
1/4 C water
4 tsp arrowroot

Combine sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, oil, garlic, and ginger in a saucepan.  Combine water with arrowroot ina small bowl and stir until dissolved. The arrowroot will serve as a thickener (much like corn starch--in fact I'm sure you could thicken this recipe with some corn starch instead--just be aware that corn starch seems to thicken better than arrowroot and you would probably not need 4 tsp of corn starch).

Add the arrowroot/water combo to the saucepan and cook on high.  Bring mixture to a boil while stirring often. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or until sauce thickens.


Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Salt

Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and garlic salt (not too much!). Grill in a frying pan with some non-stick cooking spray OR cook them like I did...on the GRILL! YUMMY! Chicken should be browned in spots.

When the chicken is cooked thoroughly, chop into bite size pieces.

Serve the chicken over white rice (I'm a cheater and used Minute Rice).  Drizzle with Mandarin Sauce.


ENJOY!