All Quiet Throughout...

The BF had a family emergency and had to fly back to Michigan for a couple of days.  Since we moved out here, he hasn't had to go anywhere overnight without me.  I had a 2 night trip a couple of years ago.  He's only gonna be gone for 2 days, but it just feels weird.  I'm not used to it.  Even the animals are acting weird.  Last night, our dog Gypsy, sensed that he was leaving.  She started the night sleeping on top of the BF, which is not normal. 

But anyway, I have the place to myself for a bit. 

Here's some stuff from the week.

1.  I made mini pizzas.  I used Pillsbury Grands! Biscuits and lined a muffin cup (I halved the biscuit dough to make a thinner crust).  Cover with pizza sauce and top with whatever pizza toppings you want and cook.  I even used some mini pepperonis.  We ate every single one...

2.  I've been growing green onions for a couple of months now.  I love those little guys...

3.  For St. Patty's, I made a Guinness cupcake, filled with a Jameson whisky ganache and topped with a Bailey's icing.  Recipe follows.  They're delicious, and it's unfortunate that I made so many, because alot of them ended up in our bellies.  And I don't recommend these if you don't like the taste of liquor, because you can taste it :)

The recipe was adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes
Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes

For the Guinness Cupcakes
1 cup Guinness
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips)
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1-2 teaspoons Jameson Irish whiskey

Baileys Frosting
3-4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3-4 tablespoons Baileys

For the cupcakes:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring the Guinness and 1 cup butter to simmer in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
• Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add the Guinness mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using a rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

For the filling:

• Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth.  Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes:

• Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.  Meanwhile, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom - aim for 2/3 of the way.  Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting:

• Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
• When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys and whip it until combined.
• Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Note: You can bake the cupcakes a week or two in advance and store them, well wrapped, in the freezer. You can also fill them before you freeze them.




Stay classy,

Heidi

Week Recap

-Finally e-filed my federal tax return!  That was probably the biggest thing on my to-do list, so now I can spend all time back on Pinterest and catch up on my shows.

-I've made an improvement on my running distance.  I won't tell you what exactly it is, but just trust that it's a HUGE improvement for me and I'll leave it at that.

-I'm so looking forward to daylight savings.  Although we're losing an hour, we're getting more sunlight, so I'm game.  If we could have it my way, there wouldn't even be a daylight savings.

Picture recap (with explanations at the bottom):

#1.  The BF and I just had to try the Dorito taco shell at Taco Bell.  It was better than a regular hard shell taco, but I'd much rather have the Beefy Crunch Burrito, which they discontinued in order to make room for the new taco.  Call me bummed out :(

#2.  Speaking of taco, I made turkey tacos!  And I threw in some chopped avocado for the topping.  It was fantastic and I ate enough for a family of four :(

#3.  Monkey is strangely obsessed with plastic bags, any bag really.  He gladly jumped into this one.  Sometimes I wonder about that cat...

Stay classy my friends,
Heidi

Sloppy Joe Casserole

I love sloppy joes.  I did a little twist of it earlier this week.  I adapted the recipe from a cookbook that I wish I could remember the name of, so if anyone knows, please tell me so I can give the credit deserved for this awesome recipe.

Sloppy Joe Casserole
Makes 8 servings

*The amounts of each ingredient are a good starting point, but I usually eye ball alot of it and add less or more of each depending on my taste
4 tbsp olive oil
2 chopped onions
2 cloves minced garlic
2 lbs ground beef
1c ketchup + 1c bbq sauce (the original recipe called for 2 cups of ketchup, but I prefer even amounts of both ketchup and bbq sauce)
4 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp chili powder (I had Mexican chile powder on hand)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
*I also added a little bit of brown sugar for a sweeter overall taste.  I normally don't if the BBQ sauce already has it.)
salt and pepper, to taste (which I forgot this time and didn't even notice in the end)
2 handfuls of shredded cheese
1-2 tbsp melted butter
1 pkg premade dinner roll dough (I used a can of Pillsbury Grands!)
sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a skillet, heat the oil and saute the onions and garlic.

Add the beef and cook.  Stir in the ketchup, bbq sauce, molasses, chili powder, and Worcestershire sauce.  Season with the salt and pepper.

Simmer for about 15 minutes.  Remove from the stove and transfer to a casserole dish and sprinkle with the cheese.

Separate the dough and place on top of the cheese. Brush the rolls with some melted butter and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.  Bake uncovered until the rolls are golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Besides being incredibly easy, I love how they're not messy like traditional sloppy joes.  Even with just the BF and I, these didn't last long.  They even taste great reheated the next day.

Stay classy my friends,

Heidi

A Couch for a Treadmill...

So, I guess I forgot I haven't posted since Thursday.  Whoops.  I forget how fast time flies. 

We got a treadmill!  There was a ridiculous closeout sale and we couldn't pass it up.  Our only problem was, we live in a 2 bedroom apartment and we're limited on space.  We already have an exercise bike, so a treadmill was gonna be tough.  We ended up getting rid of our spare couch to make room for it.  Being the packrat I am, it was tough getting rid of that couch.  It was our first couch when we moved, until the BF was able to move his living room set up here.  There was a little sentimental value to that thing.  A co-worker of the BF offered to take it (no telling what him and his redneck friends are gonna do with it).  And we tossed in a a spare microwave as well.  Now we have ump-teen unused things to still get rid of....

Anyway, back to the treadmill.  I've gotten some pretty good use out of it in the week that we've had it.  The BF and I signed up for a 5K in the fall, and we are NOT runners.  So we've been slowly training for it.  Although the winter had been pretty mild so far, our work schedules prevent us from running during the day (and this area isn't the greatest for being out at night).  And when we're running outside, we like running together.  The treadmill's been great for training in the meantime.

In other news, Shamrock Shakes at McDonald's are out!  We had to reward ourselves after buying that treadmill...

And earlier in the week, I made a giant of a breakfast.

I used a regular can of cinnamon rolls.  I put one roll in the middle and unrolled the rest and wrapped the middle roll with them.

Even though we bought a treadmill, we can't deprive ourselves of such deliciousness!  We'll run it off...

Stay classy my friends,
Heidi

Being Mini Just Makes Them Even Better

"Mini" means you can eat more!  Well, not really.  But if you can stop at just one, then that's pretty good portion control.

Anyway, Valentine's Day came and went.  I am personally not a fan of this holiday.  I think it's way too commercialized.  Why show that you love someone just one day of the year, why not every day?  I feel the BF and I's anniversary is more special.  Our night was spent eating pizza and watching Dexter, which I think was a fantastic night.

Valentine's Day did give me a reason to make dessert though!  I saw it on Pinterest and just couldn't resist.  Red velvet, cheesecake, and mini...a perfect combination. 

Here's the recipe from Betty Crocker.

Mini Red Velvet Cheesecakes 

24 thin chocolate wafer cookies, crushed (about 1 1/4 c)

3 tbsp butter, melted

2-8 oz pkgs cream cheese + 4 oz, softened

1 c sugar

1/4 c unsweetened baking cocoa

2 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp red food color (I only had 1 tbsp)

3 eggs

1/2 c whipping cream

1 tbsp sugar (I used powdered)

Heat oven to 350°F. Place foil baking cup in each of 16 regular-size muffin cups. In small bowl, mix cookie crumbs and melted butter. Divide crumb mixture among cups. With back of spoon, firmly press cookie crumbs in bottom of each foil cup.

In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Gradually beat in 1 cup granulated sugar and the cocoa until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and food color. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Divide batter evenly among baking cups (cups will be almost full).

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until centers are firm. Cool 15 minutes (cheesecake centers will sink while cooling). Refrigerate in baking cups at least 1 hour; cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour longer before serving.

In chilled small bowl, beat whipping cream and sugar with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Spoon whipped cream on chilled cheesecakes. Just before serving, garnish with chocolate curls. Cover and refrigerate any remaining cheesecakes.

This is the picture from the Betty Crocker website.  They look so...professional.

This is my version (that I took with my cell phone, so the picture quality isn't the greatest!)  I had leftover red sprinkles from Christmas that I ended up using.

Oh my, these were so good.  As I've gotten older, I've become more sensitive to excessive sugar, but these weren't too sweet.  The BF, who doesn't normally like cheesecakes, even ate it...and finished it.  After having these in the kitchen for 2 days, I had to get rid of these bad boys...so I brought them to work.  My co-workers approved!!

Stay classy my friends,

Heidi

The Cake from the Birthday

It's amazing how fast a week can go.

The BF's birthday came and went. We went to the movies and ate Mexican food. And as I promised, here's a picture of the cake. The BF is into video games, and recently, he's been really into this game called Skyrim. Well anyway, I wanted to incorporate that into his cake. I made a homemade chocolate cake and used whipped vanilla frosting.

I made an outline of the dragon that's on the cover. I melted semi-sweet chocolate and poured it onto a wax paper that I placed on top of the outline I drew. I then put the dragon in the fridge to harden. After I frosted and topped with the dragon, I made the edges. I melted some more chocolate and smudged it on some tin foil that I cut to size to fit the edge of the cake. I put the tin foil with chocolate on the sides and put it in the fridge to harden. A couple of hours later, I took the tin foil off and the chocolate wall stayed on. The BF was impressed...and it didn't last very long.

In other news, the weather has been up and down here. It's warm one day and freezing the rest. I'm from the south and I'm just not used to this. The BF is from Michigan, so he's used to 8 month winters. Anyway, the day before his birthday, the sun was out and it was in the 50's (in February). We enjoyed the day by going for a walk/run. And we wanted to capture the fact that he's wearing shorts and a tshirt.  He doesn't recall having that many birthdays without snow.

Stay classy my friends,

Heidi

Happy Birthday!!

Today is the BF's 27th birthday.  We're keeping it low key.  All he really wants to do is go to Baja Fresh and go to the movies to see Chronicle.  So far, he's spent the day plaing video games.  Whatever he wants, it's his day. 

Him playing video games and being out of the kitchen has given me an opportunity to work on his cake.  I've kind of started this little tradition where I suprise him with a cake.  One of his favorite foods are tacos, so last year I made...a taco cake!  It took a little bit of creativity, but I got it done.


I mixed cookie crumbs into the white fondant to give the brown spots that are normally in flour tortillas.



I used half the chocolate batter for a round cake and the rest for cupcakes. I cut the round cake in half, frosted with chocolate icing and put them into the fondant "tortillas." I crumbled the cupcakes to resemble the ground beef and covered the rest of the round cake inside. 

The toppings were made out of fruit rollups and starbursts.

And the "taco sauce" was red icing.

As awesome as it looked, it didn't have the greatest taste.  I wasn't a fan of the sugary fondant. 

So this year, I'm leaning towards a better flavor with a simpler design.  It's a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting....with a suprise!



Stay classy my friends,
Heidi