it's wild!

as of last week, i had my very first Morrel. it was so darn delish! my boss sauteed it with butter, salt, and pepper...yum!

today, i was lucky enough to have been given Morrels and wild asperagus too! so after a long day, i decided to destress with a simple recipe.

1 1/2 pounds fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

8 oz of veggie broth

1/2 pound sliced Morrels

8 ounces linguini

1 tablespoon olive oil  

1/4 tsp of garlic salt/powder

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

cook pasta. heat the olive oil in a nonstick skillet. saute asparagus in the pan over medium heat for about 3 minutes. add sea salt and ground pepper to taste. add veggie broth and mushroom slices; cook 3 minutes more. since i used 8 oz of broth, the sauce will be super runny, so you could reduce it some more or use as is...i used it as is cause i like a lot of sauce.

toss the drained pasta with asparagus mixture; sprinkle with Parmesan and voila!

Ladie's Tea on Easter

this Easter, Lacey held a Ladie's Tea for a few of us girls. she planned out a vegan menu in which we could pick an item to make and all got together in her back porch for some tea time. we got dolled up...


Lacey went all out and made several of the dishes on the menu, which were all SUPER delish and i made an easy quinoa salad and vegan red velvet cupcakes using beets to dye the cake red.



the table looked amazing. the spread was all delicious!


no dainty tea time plate for me, i ate a whole lot of food!


we had dessert...


i had a few things on my plate...




 this was Lacey's last week before her big move to Alexandria and it was such a special time and we all had a blast. thanks Lacey. here's to a great Easter.


ps - more 'real' photos to come!

...and i shall call you, cupcake!

i'm sorry about the insane amount of cuppycake posts, but i've just had the urge to bake bake BAKE! the other day, i bought some yummy cupcake liners for $2 and i just couldn't help myself but to stay in on a Saturday night and bake til the wee hours.



this one was a doozie. it's a vegan s'mores recipe that i had found on Cupcakes Take the Cake. i say a doozie because i felt like it took me forever to make. sometimes i admit i jump into things a bit too early and found i that i didn't have all of the ingredients (for the chocolate glaze and the icing). luckily, Lacey came to the rescue and brought some of them. she also helped me decided to forgo the ganache part and instead to stirred some mini vegan chocolate chips into the icing. BEST IDEA EVER. and instead of sticking a piece of graham cracker into the top of the cupcake, i decided to dip the sides of the icing into graham cracker crumbs...like this...



this cupcake turned out so rich and got many good responses. tomorrow i will be making a batch of cupcakes for my girlfriends' senior show here in town. they've asked some of us to whip up some food for the opening and i'm so excited. i've got a few ideas for decorations, but i've yet to find the perfect cupcake recipe. any suggestions?

Food Friday...uber delayed

voila! Thursday night i had Coconut Heaven Cupcakes from Vegan with a Vengeance. i borrowed the book from Lacey, after learning that a co-worker of mine loved coconut cupcakes...and on top of that, it was her birthday! she mentioned that her most favorite cupcakes were from a bakery in Baltimore and you couldn't get it anywhere else. so i took the challenge and after reading the first line from the recipe:

"These are a must for the coconut lover in your life: dense coconut cupcakes topped off with fluffy coconut icing to die for, thus the name Coconut Heaven Cupcakes."

i used the book for recipe, but i just found one here. the only difference from all of this was that i used sweetened shredded coconut. i cut down the confectioner's sugar (because i ran out) and added 1/4 cup of vegan cream cheese because my icing turned out runny. the results were pure bliss. i loved the icing with the hint of cream cheese. Elia loved it too. she even said that it was better than her favorite cupcake from Baltimore. sweet!!

i baked

so i ended up baking Vegan Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. my friend, Chris, just got a job playing the bassoon for the Naval Band and just enlisted, so i took them over to his bonfire. i kept a good bit for myself to pass around to some special people. i got this recipe from Kirby Von Scrumptious which is loosely based on Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World.





they turned out really great and was super moist. delish!

you're my cuppy cake

this here is a Vegan Chai Latte cupcake. i got the recipe from Bake and Destroy, who got the recipe from the book, Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World. i first got wind of this when one of my girlfriends baked some for her bake sale. i was hooked...i even went back to get seconds and bought extra the next time there was another bake sale. so Sunday night for a pot luck i decided to make some...i made two batches actually. i made both batches with vanilla soy milk, vanilla soy yogurt, and used agave instead of sugar in one (partly because we thought we were out of sugar at the time). the one with agave came out tasting rather muffin-like and not too sweet...which is a great thing since i don't like cakes what are too sweet. tonight i'm thinking about make more cupcakes, but haven't decided on the type. any suggestions?

Food Friday

for St. Patrick's day, i wanted to make Guinness cupcakes. i had Lacey in mind so i wanted to make sure the recipe was Vegan. i was ready, bought all of the necessary ingredients...and then i scrolled down on the recipe page and found that some of the comments mentioned that Guinness wasn't Vegan. what?!?! then why are there recipes for Vegan Guinness cupcakes?? luckily, i live right above a beer & wine store (how convenient), so Meg ran downstairs and found that Rogue made a chocolate stout suitable for my cupcake...and voila!



i adjusted the recipe based on one from Dulcedo. it turned out rather yummy (Lacey said it was better the next day), but the vegan butter cream icing i had made for it was too runny. i also recently made Vegan vanilla whoopie pies with modified to be vegan orange cream cheese icing and the icing was runny again. can anyone remedy this or point me in the right direction? haaaalp!

what we make

happy Friday everyone! before i go back to work, i just wanted to pop in and show you what's being made around these parts.

last night, Meg made delicious S'More cookies! they were so good!



Shane finished his electric cigar box guitar out of a vintage cigar box that he thrifted for a couple of dollars and some found supplies. this guy is uber talented, but doesn't want anyone to know about it, so SHHHH! he actually carved the handle himself! it sounds so good hooked up to the amp.



and today, your's truly made a dinosaur tail with little C as my helper. he got distracted after a little while, so i had to finish it up all by myself, but i'm certainly not complaining. C is completely into his dino phase and loves anything T-Rex related, so when i saw this tutorial mentioned on Craftzine's blog, i totally jumped on it!\



it was so adorable i want to make more!

hope everyone's having a fantastic Friday. off to work i gooo!

Food Friday

 hi! i , cooked! finally! it was my roommate's birthday, but she was bed ridden with migraine. she had previous plans to cook dinner with another friend of ours, but i saw a recipe for Portabello Stroganoff that Mellow Moods had posted on their facebook and i could not for the life of me, stop wanting to eat it! so i took the bulls by the horns and started to make it...luckily, my roommate felt better and we sat down for a nice quite dinner.

Portabello Stroganoff (recipe via Mellow Moods)

1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup unflavored yogurt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons dried or fresh dill
1/8 teaspoon salt, or to taste
pepper to taste
6 medium portobello mushrooms (5 to 6 inches in diameter; 1 1/4 pounds total)
2 tablespoons butter or margerine
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2-3/4 cup vegetable broth

**We like to serve over noodles (egg noodles, veggie bow tie noodles, rigatoni, etc.)**
So put some noodles on to boil before you start the rest:

1.) mix sour cream, yogurt, mustard, dill, salt, and pepper. sit aside.
2.) slice mushrooms into long thin strips (1/4 inch think or so)
3.) In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onion; cook, stirring, until soft, about 6 minutes.
4.) Stir in flour until absorbed. Stir in the broth to deglaze the pan. Cook, stirring, until broth boils. Stir in sour cream mixture. Cook, stirring, about 1 minute longer.

Serves:4  Prepare time: 15 minutes.

------------

i had to improvise and made it vegan with coconut milk because i forgot to pick up some yogurt. those of you who know me, know that i'm pretty skeptical about vegan food at first, but it turned out really well, although it took me more than 20 minutes for me to make (because i am slow and i get frantic when i cook). the girls liked it, but the true test is if the real vegan, Lacey, approves. i gave her some leftovers for dinner today, but i have yet to her from her. we will see what she thinks!

Food Friday

every once in a while, i like to take photos of what i eat. Lacey, is really good at that. but me? i'm just shy of mediocre. but when it's just too pretty to dig in without evidence, i whip my camera out. for instance, my breakfast from the other morning.



and speaking of food photography. here's a look at what i baked last night...



that, my friends, is a piece of cookies n cream Oreo fudge brownie. you can thank my roommate, Meg, for that. she was the mastermind and found the recipe from KevinandAmanda.com. (Meg has just found StumbleUpon and she's been sending me food and photography links left and right.) as soon as i saw the recipe, it was over. we hopped over to the store, grabbed the ingredients, and whipped up a batch...oh my goodness was it tasty! i'm not sure if i had undercooked it (like how i like to bake most of my brownies so it's really gooey on the insides) or if it's because of the extra fudge added into it...wait! did i tell you there was fudge AND cookies 'n cream ice cream in the batter itself?? oh yea, and we used double stuffed Oreos. it's so rich i could only handle eating half of a piece...so maybe a nice glass of cold milk would help wash it down.

thanks to Kevin and Amanda (and their cute Bostons!!!!) for this divine recipe...

Cookies ‘N Cream Oreo Fudge Brownies
1 box Brownie Mix
eggs & oil (as called for by the brownie mix)
1 heaping half cup (6 oz) Cookies & Cream ice cream
1/4 Cup hot fudge topping (chilled or room temp)
Preheat oven & spray an 8×8 baking dish generously with cooking spray. Combine brownie mix, eggs, and oil as directed on the back of the box, but do not add the water. Add ice cream and hot fudge to the brownie batter and stir to combine. Pour half of the brownie batter into the baking dish, layer with Oreos, then top with remaining batter. Bake for 40-50 minutes or as directed on the back of the box.

YUMMMMMMM...

Cause two out of three ain't bad

over the weekend, my friend Brian and i entered a Chili Cook Off to help raise money for Relay for Life at Shepherd University. our chili was our very own concoction, a spicy three meat chili...ole! we diced and sliced and cooked it over night, simmering it in it's own juices and spices for a little less than twelve hours.


we chose the name the Oxymorons because Brian and i are two completely different people. our pairing does not match at all. Brian loves spicy food and i can't stand it. luckily, our chili was just spicy enough for me to tolerate.


intimidating people into voting for us. we wanted to go all out for our very first cook off so luckily we found some sombreros at the Goodwill and mustaches from the quarter machine at the grocery store! it was so meant to be!


our friend Lynn (middle) was the one who told us about this cook off!


our boss came out to support us!

we ended up winning 2nd place in people's choice and honorable mention in 'the Beast' category (manly/spicy). totally more than we ever expected! we just really wanted to have fun, but the win was the icing on the cake! and did you know we were three votes shy of first place...so.very.close!



at the end of the day, they ended up raising over $700 to go towards Relay for Life. thanks for everyone who came out and for the people at home who was rooting for us. especially my mama who came out and stayed at our corner the whole time, listening to the bands and cheering us on from the sidelines. she was even the photographer at some points!

next stop, DC's huge chili cook off! um, just kidding!

I baked

as i was reading my friend's blog on her baking some roasted banana cupcakes (sounds good right?) and i was completely inspired to make my own. i had one obstacle in my way though, Ashley had used a recipe from her Martha Stewart's Cupcake book, which i lacked. so i did a little research (searched on Martha's dot com but didn't find it) and found the recipe on The Messy Apron. et voila! roasted banana cupcakes with honey and cinnamon icing!


i roasted my ripe bananas.


i whisked my egg white until it formed a stiff peak.


yum!

i must say i really enjoyed making these cupcakes from scratch. now that we don't have a junker of an oven, i can probably get back into the joy of cooking again!

...and this makes four...

i wanted to show you a few prezzies that J got for me...


Diana lens for my dslr, Scrabble dictionary (because i suck), a Lomo album, Roadside Project prints, and mustaches on a stick from Somethings Hiding in Here!!! lots of mustachio-ed pictures to come!


oh! and i baked! i was going out to lunch with Lacey, so i woke up early and baked lemon poppy seed shortbread cookies (but i didn't follow the whole recipe and added my own twists) for her and some friends of mine. i hope they liked it.

...i'm sorry for MULTIPLE posts in one day...but we had a lot of catching up to do...right?...ok, so i had a lot of free time on my hands today...oh well, goodnight!

good morning Monday.

hey gang! top of the morning to ya! today, my photographs from the snowy weekend were featured in the local newspaper's online section. check in out.

ok, time to go back to sewing. i am planning on taking a break later in the afternoon to try out a new shortbread cookie recipe i saw on the post. i'm hoping to take them to an early family Christmas gather later today. why celebrate early you ask? that's because my cousin who is serving in Afghanistan is home, but he is leaving to go back on Christmas Eve. tonight we are having a family dinner and exchanging gifts with him. it's going to be fun and i am really looking forward to it!

happy Monday!

thinking of you.

once in a while, i would get a few people together for a dessert party. (i haven't had one in a long long while) my good friend Mel would make these delicious raspberry cupcakes. i've been in the mood for cuppycakes lately, so i decided to Google the recipe and found it!

tonight, i decided to try my hand at it...not trying to toot my own horn, but it was pretty dang good! raspberry cream cupcakes, so delicious!

rich and sweet

the lovely Emily of the Black Apple shared a yummy brownie recipe on her blog the other day (she's been perfecting it for 3 years!) and i couldn't wait to try it out. i was so very stoked that her recipe didn't call for any vegetable oil and on top of that, i would be making the whole thing from scratch! the only thing i did differently was using a quarter cup brown sugar and another quarter cup light brown sugar since i didn't have any regular brown sugar...i was confused on that...is 'brown sugar' light brown sugar or dark brown sugar??? ok, moving on...


the result was delish! it was rich, sweet, and fudgy! success! i think i might have found my favorite brownie recipe. thanks Emily!

yum yum

J and i made a 5 min chocolate mug cake last night for dessert. yumm!!

simple recipe found here!

the wet dog

i had a wet dog from the Lost Dog today in honor of Miss Meaghan of Oh Ginger. she introduced me to it (espresso & cream spritzer) and it's just wonderful. here's her take on the (plus illustration) if you're interested.

Let us recap...part 5

for Christmas, i was in charge of bringing a dessert. i got a recipe for these really yummy, super chewy chocolate cookies from my boss, so i gave it a try.


Chewy Chocolate Cookies (from Cooks Illustrated)


1/2 cup granulated sugar
plus 1/2 cup for coating
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (i didn't have any, so i used bleached)
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa poweder (i used Hershey's)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 tablespoons of unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees. line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. place 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a shallow dish.
2. whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl.
3. whisk corn syrup, egg white, and vanilla in small bowl.
4. in stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment (i used a hand mixer), beat butter, brown sugar, and 1/3 cup sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 2 mins). reduce speed to medium-low, add corn syrup mixture, and beat until fully incorporated (about 20 seconds), scraping bowl once with rubber spatula. with mixer at low, add flour mixture and chopped chocolate; mix until incorporated (30 seconds). give dough a final stir with spatula.
5. chill dough for 30 minutes.
6. divide dough into 16 equal portions; roll between hands into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. drop 8 dough balls into baking dish with sugar and toss to coat. place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
7. bake, make sure to turn the cookie sheet halfway through the baking process. cookies are done when puffed, cracked at the top, and edges have begun to set (about 10-11 minutes)
8. cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move to cool on a wire rack.


...they turned out alright, but it wasn't like the ones my boss had made. her cookies were so much more delicious than mine! my cookies tasted a bit floury and weren't as chewy. i'm not sure if its the bleached flour or the hand mixer really...or was it because of me (i had to ask Lacey for help!). oh well...a lesson learned.

dinner time!

i made lasagna tonight, it's been a while since i've made one instead of buying frozen ones (going on 3 years?). i used loose country sausage instead of beef, but it turned out quite delicious. some time ago, J had told me how much he disliked ricotta cheese, but i used it anyway and he didn't seem to care...so it all went well! i'm sure everyone already knows how to make this dish...i'm going to share anyway.

Oven Ready Lasagna (straight from the box...with a little tweak!)

...this makes 9-12 servings...

1 package of oven ready lasagna
15 oz of ricotta cheese (it called for 30 oz)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese, divided (i only used about a fourth cup/what i had)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp dried basil
3 lbs bottle of spaghetti sauce (it called for 54 ounces...is that equal to 3 lbs?)
1 cup water
1 lb beef (country sausage in my case)

1. preheat over to 375.
2. combine ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, 1/4 cup Parmesan, eggs and basil in a medium bowl and mix well.
3. combine cooked meat, water, and spaghetti sauce in another container and mix well.
4. in a 9 x 13 pan, spread 1 1/2 cup of sauce to use a the base.
5. place 1/3 of noodles over sauce.
6. spread 1/3 of cheese mixture over the noodles and top with 1/2 of meat sauce.
7. repeat layering once.
8. top with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
9. cover tightly with foil.
10. bake for 45 to 50 minutes and let stand for 10.

enjoy!