Projects: Lots o' Baking!

I've been a busy lady with baking these last few days. I had an order for the banana cupcakes I made awhile ago. A co-worker wanted two dozen for her son's first birthday. She provided the liners and picks and asked for just a little icing. So I whipped some up really quickly. My goodness, I wish all orders could be so simple and fast! I'm sorry the picture is so dark. No excuses, really. It just is.

The same night, I also made four dozen mini cupcakes for another co-worker's farewell. She's moving on to teaching at a school district. As sad are we are to see her go, we are all happy for her new opportunities. I made some chocolate banana cupcakes with the same recipe as the banana cupcakes above, only using a milk chocolate mix. The banana didn't stand out so much since the chocolate had so much flavor. Next time, more bananas! I used the same buttercream that I made for the baby's cupcakes. Just colored it her favorite colors. Then I mixed up some matching fondant and made simple decorations. I was quite please with how they came out. And I think it was the best buttercream I've ever made.

I had also bought a box of no-bake cherry cheesecake. I got to it the next morning and made cherry cheesecake cupcakes for that co-worker to take home since the mini ones were for everyone. Didn't take a picture since I didn't really do anything to them... and I finished them at work on a break.

Yesterday, I was in a grumpy mood for various reasons. I vented to my husband about it. Blogged about it. Prayed about it. But I needed to do something to get my mind off of it. So I made some snickerdoodle cookies. They were amazingly simple and amazingly tasty. Two dozen vanished in less than 24 hours.

Four different projects in three days. I'm spent. However, I am very likely going to be out of a job soon for an undetermined amount of time and, if/when that happens, I'll have a lot more free time to do things.

Speaking of my job, please go here to show your support for Head Start, federally-funded preschool that comes free to low-income families and families with children with special needs. And not for me. I can find another job. But for the hundreds of thousands of parents and children that depend on it.

Project: Attempting to Duplicate a Restaurant Meal

For Valentine's Day this year, Billy and I agreed that we wouldn't buy each other presents since we don't have a lot of money to throw around right now. We said we would figure out another way to celebrate. (He got me a beautiful bouquet of daises and other flowers [which is technically a present, but I still love them] and took me to a movie and out to dessert.)

I decided I would make him dinner. In our entire relationship, I hadn't made him a V-Day dinner. Time to improve my wife-ing skills! I thought about what I was going to make him and the first thing that I came up with was the best: his favorite meal from a beloved restaurant that closed about a year ago. He has mentioned ever since it closed that he still craves a Turkey Eater, so I thought I'd try to duplicate it.

What I made slightly resembled a Turkey Eater, but it tasted nothing like it. It was still good, though!

It is essentially a turkey sandwich on sourdough with cheese, slathered with butter, and lightly cooked. As you can see, I cooked it too long. But I also didn't use as much butter AND I totally guessed wrong on the cheese. He loved it, but I really think he liked Turkey Eaters more. I also made Parmesan zucchini and asparagus. Never cooked asparagus, either. It was pretty good. And, for the third day in a row (blame camp), I cut up a whole pineapple. We had all of this with a glass of wine. And since we are totally uncultured, we didn't enjoy the wine at all, haha. I don't know what inspired me to buy that particular kind, but it was no bueno. So we had some cherry limeaide instead.

All in all, I didn't capture the buttery deliciousness of the Turkey Eater very well, but I made a deliciously fancy grilled cheese dinner for my deserving husband.

Project: Salsa Chicken

I found a recipe on Spark Recipes that looked easy and had very few ingredients. Just how I like it. So I tried it out today. It uses a slow cooker and, despite the fact that I own two (shower/wedding presents), I don't know if I've ever used one. And, of course, we are out of the liners for it so I'll have some scrubbing to do pretty soon. On to the project!

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (condensed)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

The chicken was defrosting in the microwave when I took the picture. Then I decided this was a pretty dumb time to use the fancy camera app since you can't frame anything well.

Directions:

Add chicken to slow cooker.
Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.
Pour salsa and soup over chicken.
Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.
Serve with rice.

See? Easy peasy. The chicken breasts were ginormous, so I added some extra salsa. After everything (except the sour cream) was in there, I started to doubt if it was going to taste good at all. It looked like diarrhea.

But I let it cook because you never know how something is going to turn out until the end.

Hubby told me Mom-in-Law doesn't like sour cream, so I left it on the side and we just added it to our plates. When the chicken was done, it was SO easy to shred, which I wasn't expecting. We ate it over brown rice with steamed veggies on the side. But all three of us were a little concerned because it smelled spicy.

General consensus? Delicious! It was moist and flavorful. And unlike most shredded chicken plates you get at Mexican restaurants, it wasn't greasy at all. I hate greasy food, ugh.

I will definitely be trying this recipe again. I want to try adding black beans, corn, or peppers. This dish would be great for anyone that doesn't have a lot of time to cook dinner. Just add instant rice and microwaved veggies. And, if you get low sodium seasoning (or make your own) and reduced/low fat soup and sour cream, it's pretty nutritious as well.

Here is a link to the recipe, but I don't know if it will work without a SparkPeople account.

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=672711

If you have any recipes that are quick, tasty, and have few ingredients, I'd appreciate any suggestions. I'm trying to cook more and eat out less, but I work until 5 every weekday and am pretty exhausted from chasing the kids around all day.

Project: Cupcakes 1 (with recipes!)

Okay, so I've been lagging on updating my blog. Blame my new toy/phone. But I've still been doing projects.

The first: Cupcakes.

I didn't take any pictures of them, but they really weren't that impressive. I don't even remember what color the icing was. Oh, white and pink. But they were really delicious and easy (and healthier than usual), so I'll post the recipe.

BANANA CUPCAKES

1 box of yellow cake mix
1 mashed ripe banana
Water equal to cake mix recipe
Applesauce equal to amount of oil in cake mix recipe

You basically replace the eggs with mashed banana and replace the oil with applesauce and follow the directions on the box. How much banana equals one egg? Eh, guess. I used almost a whole medium-sized mashed up banana to replace three eggs. Spoon it in the muffin liners. Bake them for the minimum time given on the box and keep checking on them until a toothpick comes out cleanly.

I also added semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter and it gave a nice textural difference.

CINNAMON CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN CUPCAKES

1 box chocolate cake mix (or devil's food or milk chocolate or...)
1 can of pumpkin pie puree (make sure pumpkin is the only ingredient) (and the smaller can, not the big one)
Water equal to cake mix recipe
Applesauce equal to amount of oil in cake mix recipe
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix cake mix, water, applesauce, cinnamon, and about 2/3 of the pumpkin puree can (no oil or eggs). The batter will be thicker than usual, so add a little more applesauce if you think you need it (can you tell I just kind of play it by ear?). Spoon it in the muffin liners. Bake them for the minimum time given on the box and keep checking on them until a toothpick comes out cleanly. This usually takes me longer than the maximum time given, so be patient.

I sometimes add different spices. Cardamom is my favorite. =)






Easy peasy. Healthier. No cholesterol. Low (maybe even non-) fat. Possibly vegan (I haven't checked the box mix ingredients).

Then I made some SUPER yummy pseudo buttercream frosting with just powdered sugar and butter. Ooooh my goodness, was it delicious. How could it not be with those two as the only ingredients? Piped some swirls and roses. Voila.

Other than that, my other project was laundry, which is far less interesting or informative to read about. Except that I finally bleached our white curtains and they're white again!

Project: Cake 1

So, in keeping with my New Year's resolution, I completed a project in the first week of January.

Okay, so my mom wanted me to make a cake for a birthday party and I made it the project. But nonetheless, it was a project.

She gave me a lot of liberty as far as design goes. "Something for two women. Maybe pastels." There were a million things I could have done. When I get that much room for creativity, I like to try something I've never done before. Learn something new, ya know? Last time, I learned how to make buttercream roses. So easy, but so pretty. I figured I'd try fondant roses this time. I had all of the tools to do it and now I had a reason. So I made them. I didn't make as many as I planned on doing because, although they are easy, they take a loooong time to make. I got to use some Styrofoam circles that I purchased for but did not end up using for our wedding (tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary, btw). That was pretty... resourceful.

I like doing both frosting and fondant on cakes because a lot of people don't like the taste of fondant and it gives a lot of textural interest. I didn't have enough shortening for the recipe that I was following for the buttercream, so I had to improvise. And it tasted really good, if I do say so myself.

Baked two 10 inch round chocolate cakes, two 6 inch round white cakes, and one 8 inch round chocolate/white marble cake, stacked and frosted 'em up, stuck in the flowers, piped borders/dots/leaves/letters, and there you have. A cute little birthday cake.

It's definitely not perfect (crooked lines and slanted words), but hey. Considering I've never taken a single decorating class, I think it is quite cute. And I heard it was yummy, too. My mom and one of her friends at all of the flowers, haha.

Next project: decorating cupcakes! Jenelle and I are taking a break from our baking nights to do a little decorating. =)

I know I said my first project would be to clean out my trunk so I could find my camera, but my mom got me an iPhone for my birthday. Now I can procrastinate on that project a little longer, haha. Yay for a new fun toy!!