Nothing screams summer like Lemonade and nothing is better than a tall frosty glass of Pink Lemonade. The tart, sweet, tangy taste just makes your mouth water and your face pucker thinking about it. I love lemonade and especially pink lemonade it always reminds me of my Granny's house in Mississippi. I remember she would have the Country Time Pink Lemonade on hand everytime we came to visit and we'd sit out on the back desk swinging and drinking Pink Lemonade. I used to pretend that I was some southern belle from Gone with the Wind or Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. So many beautiful memories surround that drink that in honor of Summer and the fourth of July I HAD to make Pink Lemonade Cupcakes and because today is a huge deadline at work and I'm a nice person LOL..no really I am ;) I made two batches of these cupcakes and brought them to work for my fellow co-workers. A little bribe to sweeten our day.
I had no idea these things would start a revolution!!! Apparently everyone in our office is chomping at the bit to get a taste of summer!! I'm already committed to making two more batches for employees in other departments not to mention my friends and family at home that feel "cheated" thier words not mine hahaha.
If you want to make these amazing summer time cupcakes for your family, friends, co-workers, or as a bribe to get your way the recipe is below. It's amazing simple and completely fantabulous to eat :)
Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
Cupcake Batter:
1 box of white cake mix (prefer to use the Pillsbury one that has the pudding in the mix)
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 tbs. Country Time Pink Lemonade mix (powdered not pre-made)
water.
Prepare cake batter according to the instructions on the box then mix in the 2 tbs of pink lemonade mix. The box may call for egg whites but I just used the whole three eggs not just the whites and it mixed fine and tasted better :).
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and arrange cupcake wrappers in muffin pan. Fill using an ice cream scoop. I used a scoop and a 1/3 to fill the cupcake wrappers but really you can fill however you want. Cook according to directions.
Icing:
1lb powdered sugar
3 tbs. pink lemonade mix
1/4 cup butter or margarine
Easiest icing ever!! Dump it all in a bowl and mix!!! Careful though because it melts when it gets hot!! So I suggest spooning it on top of the cupcake. I was going to go for a thicker sturdier frosting but everyone loves the glazed powdered sugar one so i'm gonna stick with what works!! :)
Usually I do a review from my kids and then one form the adults but since I sampled this in my office i'm just going to post a few of the e-mail responces I got on these.
J.Cromley (Academic Advisor) said:
Yum! Those are good! Thanks for bringing them in.
K.Lang (Transfer advisor from UMSL) said:
mmmhhmm oh my god so good nom nom nom!!!
M.Clincy (Academic Advisor) said:
Are there enough for me to have three? (consequently Ms.Clincy NO there were not enough for you to have three)
H.Steiner (LPC counsilor) said:
I love the glazed icing on these it compliments the cake well and doesn't leave a greasy, overly sugary mess. It tastes like summer.
K.Hadley (Dept.Secretary) said:
I had to sneak another one but shhhh don't tell!!! Wow I can't believe how good these are! they really taste like pink lemonade..i'm in cupcake love with these.
Why I love this recipe:
First off how easy is this recipe!!!!! I love when something so simple, so easy, and so cute comes together in an amazing package of perfect zen! I especially love when I make something that gets eaten in less than an hour, I mean hello you can put in such a small amount of work and get the greatest pay off. If you make these you will be the talk of any party and I mean that in a good way, not in a 'you drank too much tequila at the last moms night out and now you're the talk of the party oops!!!', kind of way. I'm way more leery of tequila, and pinata's now.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Portabello Mushroom and basil Panini
My mom friends and I are always talking about how the older we get the more we sound like our mothers. I'm pretty sure my mom is the worlds wisest mom I'm ok with hearing her words come out of my mouth when I'm talking to my kids. What I never expected was to hear phrases and sayings my FATHER said come out of my mouth. I remember very clearly the first time I heard one of his sayings uttered by me. It was as if I were in slow motion and yet helpless to prevent them being spoken. A true out of body experience. I won't go into his doubtful words of wisdom sufficet to say i've managed to come to grips with the fact that i'm more like my father than I originally thought. One of the biggest things we have in common is our love of kitchen gadgets and the soothing, peaceful feeling we get when we spend time in the kitchen. Today's recipe is in honor of my dad a man who could find a million and one uses for a skillet and was the king of improvisation: As my dad would say if you don't have what you need you find a way to make it work.
Portabello Mushroom and Basil Pesto Panini
Ingredients
Sliced Ciabatta, or other sturdy Bread4 portabello mushrooms,
slice tomato
sliced onion (preferably vidalia if you have it otherwise a sweeter onion like a red would work just as well)
mozzarella cheese (sliced mozzarella if you have it but the shredded one worked just as well)
fresh basil pesto (save yourself some trouble and money and just pick it up at Walmart)
olive oil
salt and pepper
Method
1. Saute mushrooms in olive oil until tender over medium heat. Brush one side of bread with olive oil. Turn over and layer both pieces with mozzarella. Then add to one side a teaspoon of pesto, sauteed mushrooms, sliced onion and tomato. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and put sandwich together.
2. Grill in panini press until browned.
If you don’t have a panini press, that's ok you can just grill it like a regular grilled cheese or you can improvise like dear old dad would have done and use a heavy plate or another smaller skillet to press the sandwich down.
If you are a member of the Produce Coop Portabello Mushrooms can be ordered through them. It's five pounds so I would suggest finding someone that can share them with you. Vidalia onions are also available through the coop but you're on your own with the cheese and bread :) I would suggest for money saving purposes hitting up your local discount bread store. You can often find the more expensive breads like ciabatta or sourdough on sale. If money is no option then Panera makes a great sourdough bread that you can buy and bring home to make these awesome panini's.
This weeks kid reviews for this recipe:
Gavin said: It's good but I don't like the green leaves. (that would be the basil)
Magnus said: More but I noticed he didn't eat the basil either.
Why I like this recipe:
Technically it's not a "recipe" it's a sandwich but I like it because it's a good hearty dinner without a lot of mess. You get a ton of veggies, protien and calcium from the mozzarella and it's a sandwich you can feel good about serving your children for dinner. For added vitamin oomph you can serve this with a side of Sweet Potato Fries. The best best best part of this dinner is it took less than 45 minutes to make it from the prep to table! For a busy working mom with after work activities you just can not beat that!!!
I hope you enjoyed this weeks I MADE THIS!! If you decide to try this at home I would greatly love to hear your feedback on what you thought. If you have your own reviews you'd like to add of this weeks recipe please feel free to post them below. I'm always on the lookout for great modifications to everyday recipes.
Thank you and happy improvising :)
Portabello Mushroom and Basil Pesto Panini
Ingredients
Sliced Ciabatta, or other sturdy Bread4 portabello mushrooms,
slice tomato
sliced onion (preferably vidalia if you have it otherwise a sweeter onion like a red would work just as well)
mozzarella cheese (sliced mozzarella if you have it but the shredded one worked just as well)
fresh basil pesto (save yourself some trouble and money and just pick it up at Walmart)
olive oil
salt and pepper
Method
1. Saute mushrooms in olive oil until tender over medium heat. Brush one side of bread with olive oil. Turn over and layer both pieces with mozzarella. Then add to one side a teaspoon of pesto, sauteed mushrooms, sliced onion and tomato. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and put sandwich together.
2. Grill in panini press until browned.
If you don’t have a panini press, that's ok you can just grill it like a regular grilled cheese or you can improvise like dear old dad would have done and use a heavy plate or another smaller skillet to press the sandwich down.
If you are a member of the Produce Coop Portabello Mushrooms can be ordered through them. It's five pounds so I would suggest finding someone that can share them with you. Vidalia onions are also available through the coop but you're on your own with the cheese and bread :) I would suggest for money saving purposes hitting up your local discount bread store. You can often find the more expensive breads like ciabatta or sourdough on sale. If money is no option then Panera makes a great sourdough bread that you can buy and bring home to make these awesome panini's.
This weeks kid reviews for this recipe:
Gavin said: It's good but I don't like the green leaves. (that would be the basil)
Magnus said: More but I noticed he didn't eat the basil either.
Why I like this recipe:
Technically it's not a "recipe" it's a sandwich but I like it because it's a good hearty dinner without a lot of mess. You get a ton of veggies, protien and calcium from the mozzarella and it's a sandwich you can feel good about serving your children for dinner. For added vitamin oomph you can serve this with a side of Sweet Potato Fries. The best best best part of this dinner is it took less than 45 minutes to make it from the prep to table! For a busy working mom with after work activities you just can not beat that!!!
I hope you enjoyed this weeks I MADE THIS!! If you decide to try this at home I would greatly love to hear your feedback on what you thought. If you have your own reviews you'd like to add of this weeks recipe please feel free to post them below. I'm always on the lookout for great modifications to everyday recipes.
Thank you and happy improvising :)
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Mini-Lasagna's (pictures to come later)
As promised I made the mini-Lasagna's last night. I was up till 1 a.m. making these because I had to get a late start on them :(
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/mini-lasagna-cups.html
If you click on the link it will take you to Kevin and Amanda's website which lists the original recipe for the mini-Lasagnas. You can use their version or you can use my modified version below. The only thing I would say is to make sure you use the wonton wrappers as actual lasagna noodles will dry out and get hard in the oven baking process. I discovered this when I tried it last night!
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb sausage
1 cup spaghetti sauce
1 1/2 cups part skim ricotta cheese
24 wonton wrappers
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
2 toes minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp. Italian Seasoning
You'll notice that I took out the pepper and kosher salt in my modified version. My reasoning for this is that canned spaghetti sauce has a LOT of sodium already in it and in place of pepper I used minced garlic and some dried Italian seasoning to kick up the flavor. Cause you know I'm Cajun and we can't leave ANYTHING alone lol. The recipe calls for 1lb of sausage Kevin and Amanda used Jimmy Dean pork sausage..I say no! Schnucks has an excellent selection of ground Italian sausage and pork sausage. Take your pick of these two sausages and you will be much happier with the end result. Just to be fair I did try the meat sauce with Jimmy Dean sausage and it wasn't bad but it was very bland. So if you're afraid of spices or seasonings go ahead and use the Jimmy Dean sausage but don't say I didn't warn you. Feel free to use any kind of shredded cheese you have on hand but I stuck with the traditional Mozzarella cheese.
How to cook this:
First get a big wide skillet for browning the meat. Normally I boil my ground meat in a pot of water to get rid of the grease but in this case we're cooking the sausage and the hamburger together and you want that grease from the sausage to flavor the hamburger. Go ahead and dump the ground meat and the sausage into the skillet together and mash it all up to start browning. While that's heating up and cooking go ahead and mince the two toes of garlic and set aside. Next go ahead and open the can of spaghetti sauce or jar whichever your favorite sauce is. I used Schnucks brand spaghetti sauce the Garlic and Herb one. In case you haven't noticed my family likes garlic. Ok now go check on your meat, if it's close to being done now would be the time that you want to toss in the minced garlic and the Italian seasonings, so go ahead and do that and mix it all up. Depending on how strong a garlic taste you want depends on when you toss it in. If you toss the garlic in early a lot of the flavor will cook away, toss is in toward the end if you want a stronger garlic taste. Let that simmer together for a few minutes then pour in your spaghetti sauce and mix together! Yum!! Then set aside and LETS GET READY TO ASSEMBLE!!!!
Preheat your oven to 350.
Next get out your muffin and grease the pan. I used Pam spray because it's easier and neater and cleaner then regular margarine or butter. Once greased place the wonton wrappers inside the muffin pan and use a regular small spoon to spoon in your cheese. If you have a small melon baller you can use that but I found a regular kitchen spoon works just as well. Next spoon a small amount of your meat sauce on top of the cheese and layer another wonton wrapper on top. Repeat with the cheese and meat sauce and then top with whatever shredded cheese you chose to use. Do this for all of them and then place in the oven and cook until the cheese melts.
Pull out and let stand for about 5 minutes or until cool enough to handle by hand. These slide out of the muffin pan extremely easy and bonus you don't need to dirty a dish to eat these :-)
RATINGS:
Gavin and Magnus both gave this recipe two hands up! Gavin loved that he didn't have to use a fork and Magnus just loved eating it.
Phillip gave it a 7 out of 10
Roxanne's rating is pending her trial taste tonight.
WHY I LIKE THIS RECIPE:
I love versatile recipes and this one is hands down the most versatile I've seen outside of Jamabalaya. I loved how easy it was to cook and assemble. The bonus of this recipe, other than it's portability, is the left over meat sauce. I don't know about the rest of you but when I can stretch one meal out into three or four I feel like a SuperMom and a SuperWoman all rolled into one and this recipe lets you do just that! With the leftover meat sauce you can either refrigerate it or freeze it to use later for spaghetti or bonus you can boil some lasagna noodles and make regular lasagna with the leftover meat sauce and ricotta cheese.
Since I was already in the kitchen and pretty slap happy by now I decided to use my two fancy new loaf pans to make two lasagne's with the leftover meat sauce and cheese. That means this one recipe yielded three dinners for my family of four. Now if my teenager had been home that would not have stretched near as far ;-)
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/mini-lasagna-cups.html
If you click on the link it will take you to Kevin and Amanda's website which lists the original recipe for the mini-Lasagnas. You can use their version or you can use my modified version below. The only thing I would say is to make sure you use the wonton wrappers as actual lasagna noodles will dry out and get hard in the oven baking process. I discovered this when I tried it last night!
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb sausage
1 cup spaghetti sauce
1 1/2 cups part skim ricotta cheese
24 wonton wrappers
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
2 toes minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp. Italian Seasoning
You'll notice that I took out the pepper and kosher salt in my modified version. My reasoning for this is that canned spaghetti sauce has a LOT of sodium already in it and in place of pepper I used minced garlic and some dried Italian seasoning to kick up the flavor. Cause you know I'm Cajun and we can't leave ANYTHING alone lol. The recipe calls for 1lb of sausage Kevin and Amanda used Jimmy Dean pork sausage..I say no! Schnucks has an excellent selection of ground Italian sausage and pork sausage. Take your pick of these two sausages and you will be much happier with the end result. Just to be fair I did try the meat sauce with Jimmy Dean sausage and it wasn't bad but it was very bland. So if you're afraid of spices or seasonings go ahead and use the Jimmy Dean sausage but don't say I didn't warn you. Feel free to use any kind of shredded cheese you have on hand but I stuck with the traditional Mozzarella cheese.
How to cook this:
First get a big wide skillet for browning the meat. Normally I boil my ground meat in a pot of water to get rid of the grease but in this case we're cooking the sausage and the hamburger together and you want that grease from the sausage to flavor the hamburger. Go ahead and dump the ground meat and the sausage into the skillet together and mash it all up to start browning. While that's heating up and cooking go ahead and mince the two toes of garlic and set aside. Next go ahead and open the can of spaghetti sauce or jar whichever your favorite sauce is. I used Schnucks brand spaghetti sauce the Garlic and Herb one. In case you haven't noticed my family likes garlic. Ok now go check on your meat, if it's close to being done now would be the time that you want to toss in the minced garlic and the Italian seasonings, so go ahead and do that and mix it all up. Depending on how strong a garlic taste you want depends on when you toss it in. If you toss the garlic in early a lot of the flavor will cook away, toss is in toward the end if you want a stronger garlic taste. Let that simmer together for a few minutes then pour in your spaghetti sauce and mix together! Yum!! Then set aside and LETS GET READY TO ASSEMBLE!!!!
Preheat your oven to 350.
Next get out your muffin and grease the pan. I used Pam spray because it's easier and neater and cleaner then regular margarine or butter. Once greased place the wonton wrappers inside the muffin pan and use a regular small spoon to spoon in your cheese. If you have a small melon baller you can use that but I found a regular kitchen spoon works just as well. Next spoon a small amount of your meat sauce on top of the cheese and layer another wonton wrapper on top. Repeat with the cheese and meat sauce and then top with whatever shredded cheese you chose to use. Do this for all of them and then place in the oven and cook until the cheese melts.
Pull out and let stand for about 5 minutes or until cool enough to handle by hand. These slide out of the muffin pan extremely easy and bonus you don't need to dirty a dish to eat these :-)
RATINGS:
Gavin and Magnus both gave this recipe two hands up! Gavin loved that he didn't have to use a fork and Magnus just loved eating it.
Phillip gave it a 7 out of 10
Roxanne's rating is pending her trial taste tonight.
WHY I LIKE THIS RECIPE:
I love versatile recipes and this one is hands down the most versatile I've seen outside of Jamabalaya. I loved how easy it was to cook and assemble. The bonus of this recipe, other than it's portability, is the left over meat sauce. I don't know about the rest of you but when I can stretch one meal out into three or four I feel like a SuperMom and a SuperWoman all rolled into one and this recipe lets you do just that! With the leftover meat sauce you can either refrigerate it or freeze it to use later for spaghetti or bonus you can boil some lasagna noodles and make regular lasagna with the leftover meat sauce and ricotta cheese.
Since I was already in the kitchen and pretty slap happy by now I decided to use my two fancy new loaf pans to make two lasagne's with the leftover meat sauce and cheese. That means this one recipe yielded three dinners for my family of four. Now if my teenager had been home that would not have stretched near as far ;-)
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
This is the first!
This blog is dedicated to Food! More importantly it's dedicated to those foodie bloggers out there that generously post thier own food experiences as well as yummy recipes on thier own blogs. So in a sense it's a blog about food about other blogs that are about food.
Each week I will choose a blog at random and make one recipe from that blog. I will post pictures of the preperation for the recipe as well as the final product and as an added bonus I'll have a kids and adults rating system. I work full time outside of the home so I will feature recipes that cater to all levels and time frames of cooking. I'll also add any tweaks for modifications that I personally make to these recipes and you will have the option of trying those or making your own modifications at home.
The kids rating system will be based on my own children's feedback and they range in ages from 2 to 14 years of age. The rating system will be as follows:
if it's a hit with the kids: "They asked for seconds"
If they liked it: "they cleaned thier plate"
If it was ok but not great: "they tried it"
If its a total bomb: "wouldn't even touch it"
I'll be polling my friends and husband for the adult ratings and they will be on a scale of 1-10 with ten being "I'd make this on a regular basis".
For our recipe this week we'll be making Mini Lasagna's brought to you by Kevin {&} Amanda's blog. Next week we'll be making Hash brown Casserole from "Wanna be a country girl" blog.
Each week I will choose a blog at random and make one recipe from that blog. I will post pictures of the preperation for the recipe as well as the final product and as an added bonus I'll have a kids and adults rating system. I work full time outside of the home so I will feature recipes that cater to all levels and time frames of cooking. I'll also add any tweaks for modifications that I personally make to these recipes and you will have the option of trying those or making your own modifications at home.
The kids rating system will be based on my own children's feedback and they range in ages from 2 to 14 years of age. The rating system will be as follows:
if it's a hit with the kids: "They asked for seconds"
If they liked it: "they cleaned thier plate"
If it was ok but not great: "they tried it"
If its a total bomb: "wouldn't even touch it"
I'll be polling my friends and husband for the adult ratings and they will be on a scale of 1-10 with ten being "I'd make this on a regular basis".
For our recipe this week we'll be making Mini Lasagna's brought to you by Kevin {&} Amanda's blog. Next week we'll be making Hash brown Casserole from "Wanna be a country girl" blog.
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