Cake Series: Ghost Cupcakes

Last weekend, we went to a Halloween party and were asked to take some cupcakes for the kids.  So, I went about searching the web for fun cupcake ideas and I came across this one.  I knew I had to make them!  However, these directions call for each one to be made of one regular cupcake and two mini cupcakes.  I figured the other parents wouldn't be very thrilled with me if I gave their kids that much sugar, so I continued to scour the internet until I came across this.  I kind of merged the two methods and came up with my own ghost cupcakes.  They were a hit and the kids loved them (particularly the lollipop)!

Ghost Cupcakes
Cupcakes (any flavor)
Frosting (optional)
Lollipops (such as Tootsie Pops)
Fondant
Black food dye
Fine Paintbrush (or mini chocolate chips)

Make sure your cupcakes are cool before you start assembling your ghosts.  You can either leave your cupcakes plain (no frosting) or frost them.  However, if you frost them, you're going to want to also cover them with fondant so your white ghosts don't get frosting on them when you're assembling them. If you're going to frost them, cut out circles of fondant that will cover the top of your cupcakes. Spread a little frosting over the top then cover with your fondant circles.

To make the ghosts, you'll need to find something you can use to cut out fondant circles big enough to drape over the top of your lollipop and hang down.  I used a plastic bowl that is 5 inches in diameter.  It still wasn't quite big enough, so I just cut a little bit off the end of each lollipop stick and it worked perfectly!

What I used to cut out the fondant circles for the ghosts.

Once you determine how long you need your lollipop sticks to be, stick them straight down in the center of the cupcake.  Drape the fondant circle over the top of the lollipop.  With a fine paintbrush, use black food dye to paint the faces on your ghosts.  You can make friendly ghosts (like mine) or scary ghosts.  You can also make it easier on yourself and dab a little frosting on and stick mini chocolate chips on for eyes.

**Note: You probably won't want to use filled cupcakes for this recipe, as there might not be enough structure to hold up the lollipop.**

Favorite Chex Mix

I mentioned that we were on vacation with my husband's family and posted a picture of all the food it takes to feed 24 people.  Well, you better believe we had some amazing food while we were there!  My husband's family has a tradition of making Chex Mix every Christmas.  While I realize it wasn't Christmas, we still had the Chex Mix while on vacation, so I decided to share the recipe with you!

Favorite Chex Mix
13 cups Chex (5 cups wheat, 4 cups corn, 4 cups rice)
3 cups pretzel sticks
1 lb spanish peanuts
1/4 cup bacon grease
1/2 cup butter
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp Tabasco
1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp savory or poultry seasoning

Preheat oven to 250.

Combine cereal, pretzel sticks, and peanuts in a large roasting pan.

In a separate bowl, melt the bacon grease and butter.  Add worcestershire and Tabasco to butter mixture; pour over cereal mixture and toss to coat.

In a small mixing bowl, combine seasoned salt, celery salt, garlic salt and savory or poultry seasoning.  Sprinkle over cereal mixture; tossing to make sure the Chex mix is evenly coated.

Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

This picture was taken before it was baked.  Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but it looks pretty similar to this.

Independence Day BBQ!

Wednesday is Independence Day, and that means barbecue!  Over the past two years, we've posted a lot of recipes that would make any Fourth of July celebration a hit.

Main Dishes


Treat your friends and family to these delicious burgers or some finger-licking ribs.

Side Dishes


Every BBQ can use some potatoes.  Slice and grill them or wrap them in foil for clean cooking.

Want a green salad?  Try a green salad with strawberries and strawberry vinaigrette or a Caesar salad with homemade dressing.

So summery!!

This corn and black bean salad looks and tastes yummy!

And of course, it's corn season!!

So good!!

Beverages


Cool off with some homemade lemonade!  Add some strawberry puree for strawberry lemonade.

No lemons?  Brew up some homemade iced tea.

Desserts


And you can't have a BBQ without a few sweet endings!  How about cherry pie or cherry crumbles?  Do half cherry and half blueberry for a festive red, white, and blue dessert.

You could use star cut-outs for the top crust!!

For the kiddos, bake up some sugar cookies in the shape of stars.  Finish them off with some royal icing or homemade colored sugar.

Dip some strawberries in white chocolate and add some blue accents!

We hope you all have a great Independence Day!  We'd like to say a special thank you to those of you who fight to keep us free!

Since it is a holiday, we'll be taking Wednesday off, but we'll see you on Friday!

Easter Follow-Up

A couple weeks ago I shared my favorite carnitas recipe along with our planned Easter menu.  I thought I'd write a follow-up post to tell you how it went.  Before that, though, I need to apologize for our absence on Monday.  The whole family has been together and it's been busy and chaotic...in a good sort of way.

Our Easter menu consisted of:

• Carnitas (complete with toppings - tortillas, sour cream, lettuce, cheese, beans, rice, salsa, hot sauce, etc.)
• Refried beans
• Brown rice
• Tortilla chips
• Pico de gallo
• Guacamole
• Peanut butter cup brownie bottom cheesecake
• Grapes (on sale for 88 cents/lb)

First of all, let me just say that everything was a big hit!  Sure, it wasn't a traditional Easter meal, but it was delicious and didn't require much preparation on Sunday, leaving us free to spend time with each other (mainly just chasing after kids all day)!  Here's how a little run-down on how I got everything done.

Friday:

• Made the cheesecake

Saturday:

• Made the ganache for the cheesecake and put the peanut butter cups on top
• Defrosted the pork
• Started the refried beans in the slow cooker right before I went to bed 
• Prepared the meat for the carnitas, put everything in the crock of my slow cooker, and stuck it in the refrigerator (I borrowed a slow cooker, so I had 2)
• Made pico de gallo
• Pulled guacamole out of the freezer to defrost

Sunday:

• Got up shortly before 4:00 am to put the crock into my slow cooker and start it.  This worked out perfectly, as the meat was done right as we walked in the door after church.
• Shredded the cheese (should have been done Saturday, but we were gone most of the day)
• Used my immersion blender in the slow cooker to "mash" the refried beans (note: to get a chunkier texture, I usually remove some of the beans before pureeing, then add them back in at the end).  
• Warmed the tortillas
• Shredded the pork; crisped in the oven

I would definitely recommend this type of meal for any family holiday, as it truly does free you up to do other things than just work in the kitchen all day.  Not only is it efficient and delicious, but it's also very cost-effective.  The most expensive part of this meal was the meat, which I had bought a couple weeks ago when it was on sale for $1.79/lb and stuck it in my freezer.  I had about 7.5 lbs of pork, so it only ended up being about $13.43 for the meat (keep in mind there were 6 adults and 5 kids eating this meal). The other ingredients were quite inexpensive as well.  Often, carnitas contain mainly just the meat and maybe some cheese, but to cheapen it up a bit by stretching the meat, we added the beans and rice to ours.  Since the beans were homemade and I bought the pinto beans for about 69 cents/lb, they were much cheaper than buying canned beans (and much healthier as well!).  I'm guessing the refried beans ended up costing less than $1.50 for a slow cooker full of them.  The rice was also cheap but filling.  I made 2 cups of rice, which I had bought for around 75 cents/lb.  I'd say the total price for the main portion of our meal (not including dessert) was less than $20.  And we not only ate a big lunch of it on Sunday, but we've also been eating the leftovers for lunches for the past two days and we still have more!  I'm thinking this may become our family's traditional Christmas dinner as well as Easter!

Now let me talk about dessert.  Oh yes, dessert.  If you recall, we had planned on making resurrection rolls and cheesecake for dessert.  However, we had visited some relatives Saturday afternoon and came home with some cupcakes, so we ended up not making the resurrection rolls and giving the kids cupcakes instead.  We did end up making the rolls, but not until Tuesday night.  Anyway, what I did end up making was this super amazing, super rich cheesecake.  Oh my.  It was delicious.  It definitely doesn't fit the usual Near to Nothing parameters of being healthy and inexpensive, but it is oh. so. yummy.  And if you can get a good deal on cream cheese and cream, it's not so bad.  You'll also want something salty to eat after the cheesecake, because it is so sweet and rich.  Thankfully we had tortilla chips leftover from lunch.  Oh, and I guess I should mention that we were all so full from lunch that we skipped dinner and just had cheesecake instead, which is totally acceptable on holidays.

So, next holiday, if you're looking for something easy, inexpensive, and delicious, let me encourage you to try this menu or something similar!

Planning Ahead for Easter?

As Kimiko mentioned yesterday, we will be having non-traditional carnitas for our Easter dinner.  We just want the day to be as stress-free and dish-free as possible.  We'd rather spend our day hiding and re-hiding (and re-hiding and re-hiding...) the plastic eggs in the backyard for the kiddos.

Leftover ham quiche

But if you're having a more traditional meal, you might want to check out these recipes:

Mashed potato casserole

• Mashed potato casserole - make ahead and stick in the oven to heat!
• Leftover ham quiche - tired of ham sandwiches?  Give your leftovers a make-over.
• Resurrections rolls - a sweet cinnamony treat with a lesson?  Teach your kids (and remind yourself) of the real reason we celebrate Easter!

Resurrection rolls--empty like the tomb!

For those of you who will be dying Easter eggs, you might be interested in these posts from last year:

• Homemade Easter egg dye
• Deviled eggs
• Red beet eggs

Red beet eggs

Cake Series: Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Many people look forward to this time of year because it means it's time for the Shamrock Shake at McDonald's.  I must confess that I've never even tasted one, but I love mint ice cream.  Growing up, each year for my birthday, I would request an ice cream cake, made with chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Yummy!  As I got to thinking about St. Patrick's Day coming up (next Saturday!), I started thinking about things that are green and my mind went to mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Then it somehow turned to mint chocolate chip cupcakes (this diet stuff has me thinking about sweets a little too much!).  I've never had one, and I've never really even heard of them, either.  But I figured I'd try to concoct some sort of recipe for them, and St. Patrick's Day was a good excuse to try them.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
1 box Vanilla cake mix
1 large box instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup warm water
4 large eggs
1 1/2 to 2 tsp peppermint extract
Green food coloring
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake pan with wrappers; set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil, water, and eggs.  Mix on low for about a minute; then beat on medium-high for about 2 more minutes.  Add peppermint extract and food coloring; mix until well incorporated.  Add chocolate chips and mix well.

Fill cupcake wrappers 1/2 to 2/3 full with batter.  Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Check back next week for my peppermint buttercream recipe!

Homemade Marshmallows (plus a Valentine's breakfast idea)

I'm not a fan of marshmallows.  Well, that is unless they're melted and inside of a s'more...but only if the s'more's made with dark chocolate.  Ok, so I'm realizing I'm a bit of a chocolate snob, but really, dark is the only kind of chocolate that's worth eating.  Anyway, as I was saying, I'm not a fan of marshmallows.  That is, until I discovered homemade marshmallows.  Mmmm...these things take marshmallows to a whole new level.  They're not dry and hard like the store-bought variety.  It's really hard to describe; you'll just have to try them for yourself!  I have to thank Alton Brown for this recipe (and you'll want to thank him too after you try these!).

As I was brainstorming what I could give my neighbors for Valentine's Day this year, homemade marshmallows came to mind.  I like to do something different than the typical cookie when I have the time. Anyway, I was thinking it might be strange to just give marshmallows, so I was trying to think of a way to make it work.  Then it hit me.  I could make pink marshmallows, cut them into heart shapes, and give them with hot chocolate mix!  If I had a little extra time to plan, I would have gone in search of some cheap Valentine's mugs to put the marshmallows and hot chocolate mix in, but I didn't, so I had to make what I had work.

Marshmallows
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
12 oz granulated sugar (this was just over 1 1/2 cups for me)
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
Nonstick spray

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the wisk attachment, add the gelatin and 1/2 cup of the cold water.  Set aside.

The gelatin and cold water after it had ben sitting for a couple minutes.

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine granulated sugar, corn syrup, and salt.  Cover and let cook for 4 to 5 minutes.  Remove lid and continue cooking, without stirring, until it reaches 240 degrees.  Once it reaches this temperature, immediately remove it from the heat.

Turn the mixer on low and slowly pour the sugar mixture down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture.  Once all of the sugar mixture has been added, increase the speed to high and beat until the mixture is thick and lukewarm, about 12-15 minutes.  Add vanilla during the last minute of whipping.  For my special Valentine's treats, also add red food coloring during this time.

While the mixture is whipping, prepare your pan.  Take a metal 9 x 13 pan and spray it with nonstick spray.  Mix powdered sugar and corn starch; put some into the greased pan.  Shake the pan around to coat the bottom and sides with the powdered sugar mixture.  Return the excess powdered sugar to the bowl for later use.  I ended up using two pans because my heart cookie cutter was bigger than I would have liked it to be.  However, I figured it would still work but because my cookie cutter was on the bigger side, I didn't want them to be too thick.  Hence I divided mine between two pans.

Pour marshmallow mixture in prepared pan(s).  Use some self control and try not to eat all of the marshmallow creme now.  Use a well-oiled rubber spatula to spread it evenly in your pan(s).  Dust the top of the marshmallows with your powdered sugar mixture.  Allow to sit, uncovered, for at least 4 hours or up to overnight.  Turn marshmallows out onto a cookie sheet.  You may need to use your hands to help pull them out of the pan.

For regular marshmallows, dust a pizza cutter with your powdered sugar mixture and cut into 1-inch marshmallows.  For the Valentine's Day marshmallows, take a heart cookie cutter (not too big if you want it to fit into a mug with hot chocolate), dust it with the powdered sugar mixture, and cut out the hearts.  When the hearts (or regular marshmallow cubes) have been cut out, make sure all sides are coated with your powdered sugar mixture so that they don't stick together.  You can store these in an airtight container for up to three weeks.  For instructions on how to make miniature marshmallows, click here.

Ready to sit for at least 4 hours. (sorry for the lack of white balance on this photo)

The gifts we took to our neighbors.

For extra yummy marshmallows, you can dip them in melted chocolate.  Yum!  I've even been known to dip them in chocolate, then roll them in graham crackers for a sort of s'mores marshmallow.

And if you're in need of a Valentine's breakfast idea, here's a pretty simple one.  In October, Sumiko wrote about eggs in a hole and talked about making fun shapes for the hole.  This is such an easy breakfast to make on Valentine's Day by using a heart shaped cookie cutter!  Also, in order to make the shape a little more distinguishable (Sumiko outlined hers in ketchup), I first cut out the heart, buttered both sides of the outer part of the bread and toasted one side in my frying pan.  Once it was nicely toasted, I flipped it over, then added the egg and broke the yolk.  Once the egg was cooked well on that side, instead of flipping it over, I stuck it in a preheated 350 degree oven and left it in there until the egg was cooked through.  Easy peasy!