Things I've Made Recently

Baked Shell Pasta

I used a Baked Ziti II recipe from allrecipes.com. I had some leftover ricotta cheese from the time that I made cupcake lasagna. This recipe came out super delicious and its really easy to make!

Blueberry Cobbler

The recipe came from a blog called Cheap Cooking. A truly simple and easy blueberry cobbler recipe! Just mix up flour, milk, sugar and some baking powder. I would double the recipe in the future though, since it came out a little bit crunchy.

Chicken Enchiladas

I used a recipe from Rachael Ray for chicken enchiladas. Another really simple and quick recipe, it came out delicious! I ended up using organic tortillas, since I was shopping at Wholesome Foods.

Mushroom Risotto

The picture doesn't make the risotto look very appetizing, but this is one of the most stupendous dishes I have ever eaten. Definitely a dinner party must! The recipe is adapted from Anthony Bourdain, the chef who wrote Kitchen Confidential. (Its a pretty funny and enlightening book. Tells you more about the going-ons in the back of restaurants than you probably ever really want to know!)

I ended up using portabello mushrooms that I bought from the Essex St. Market (truly a delightful place). I chopped those up, sauteed them and then put them aside. Then you sort of make the risotto as always, with the exception that Bourdain's recipe does not require wine. I used shallots (yes, shallots! btw, I found some more inexpensive shallots at the Amish Market in Hell's Kitchen) and some aborio rice from the Garden of Eden.

The best part was the white truffle oil. Heavenly. You must try this dish!

Make Your Own Magnolia Cupcakes

I got my Braun Multiquick and Zyliss Salad Spinner yesterday! Wow, go Amazon! They are super impressive.. free shipping and it came so fast! Wow.

Now that I have a mixer, I wanted to try out another cupcake recipe. (I tried to make cupcakes about a month ago, but they just came out really bad. They were too dense, since my arm got tired from all the mixing, and the frosting tasted too much like cream cheese.)

I used the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, and I made the vanilla butter cream cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.

I am pleased to say they were a success! [So watch me gain 20 pounds!]

I started off by creaming the softened butter (1 stick) for 3 minutes. The Multiquick actually sort of hurt to use, since you have to keep the button depressed at all times to get the mixer to continue working. I was afraid I would lose control and everything would splatter over the kitchen (which btw I just cleaned!)

Then I added 1 cup of sugar to the butter, mixing it in slowly.

Then I took a mixture of flour and self-rising flour (well since I didn't have self-rising flour, I just added salt and baking powder using this recipe from allrecipes) and added it into the wet mixture in quarters. I also added some milk and vanilla extract. Mix, mix, mix with the multiquick.

Then poured it into little cupcake cups and baked it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

While they were baking, I prepared the icing. First, I melted about 3 ounces of chocolate over my "double boiler", which is just a glass casserole dish over a pot of boiling water. I let that sit for about 5 minutes after it melted. Then, I creamed another stick of butter (yikes all this butter) for 3 minutes, poured in the chocolate, added some vanilla extract and then added confectioner's sugar, little by little into the mixture.

Delicious! Very chocolatey and creamy.

Great recipe.

The cupcakes turned out fantastic! I recommend that you try the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, the cupcakes are divine!

What's next on the kitchen counter? I want to make roasted garlic and potato soup.