The CAKE in cupcake....

Growing up I loved baking with my mom and still do. Looking back though, we never made anything from scratch, everything was out of a box. So over the weekend I decided to bake vanilla cupcakes from scratch. However, this was not the case with the chocolate frosting. I shared this with friends/family just to get the same reaction: "What!? frosting is the easiest part! here let me give you a recipe..." Who knew people were so passionate about their cupcakes. Needless to say I was worried my cake batter would not turn out to my liking, so I admit I bought the store bought frosting just in case I had to mask the taste of the cake.

Neil found this super easy recipe on-line at cupcakerecipe.com. (click on link) Makes 24 cupcakes. Enjoy!

Ingredients:


A good excuse to finally use the Cuisinart hand blender!


A missing cupcake! I had to try one before putting the frosting on all :)


Voila! finish product


a beautiful cupcake if I do say so myself - and the hubby approved!

If you would like to share your frosting recipe post a comment below. I'm ready for my next batch!

Antipasto + pasta = not so antipasto salad!

Neil loves salads and I love pasta. So it only made sense that we compromise on a quick and easy Monday night dish!

Our ingredients:


bag of pasta from Cost Plus World Market


mixing the pasta with the salad


top it off with some fresh mozarella and viola!

Mama Mia - Neil's a makin the pizza

When Neil and I were dating he went through experimental stages with food. I remember one month he decided to experiment with pizza dough and making that from scratch - I think we had six pizzas in a two week span!

Flash forward to married life - we are both quite busy and nobody ever said that everything we cook together has to be completely from scratch. Thanks to grocery chains like Fresh & Easy, and Cost Plus World Market we were able to get most of our ingredients and pre made pizza dough. No recipe really needed, just add all the toppings you want to your little heart's desire :) Well on this particular night our hearts desired two kinds of pizza. I can only take credit for the grocery run - since Neil did all the prep. But that's what team work is all about.

Neil's homemade sauce (2 finely diced med. yellow onions & 2 cloves garlic crushed, sauteed in olive oil until translucent, add 1 large can peeled roma tomatoes with basil, a little bit of sugar, sea salt, and red wine vinegar, simmer about 30 min).


Pizza #1 - toppings: wild Italian mushrooms, artichoke hearts, bistro blend olives, and fresh mozarella.



Pizza # 2 - toppings: fresh mozarella, thin sliced onions, and roma tomatatos, and spinach.

You buy... and I'll fry!

It's a new year and we haven't given up on cooking together! So Neil and decided to try our luck.... or I guess my luck at frying fish. Mission accomplished. Pictures below:

Fish batter (flour, salt, a good amount of cayenne)


Deep Fry! (well, not really deep fried, but a good quarter inch of vegetable oil is good).


Catch of the day - tilapia

What's a leek?

I did it! I made a meal all by myself.

Over the last few months we have received thoughtful housewarming gifts. However, the trend seems to be cookbooks. Haha. Another clear sign that I should learn how to cook. So, I finally decided to open one of them - The Williams Sonoma - Bride & Groom Cookbook (thanks, Lauren).

Since my last fiasco on "how to chop an onion," I decided to start with something simple, but I still wanted to hone my veggie-chopping skills. Hence, potato and leek soup. Looks simple, but challenging enough for a gal who can barely peel an apple.

So here are a few highlights of my soup-making afternoon:
- Realize that I don't know what a leek looks like, so I had to ask the produce boy for help.
- Who knew there were so many potatoes at a grocery store? This store had five types to choose from!
- Laid out my ingredients on the kitchen counter, only to realize (when Neil pointed out to me) that I purchased only one leek with with five leaves, not realizing that I needed five leeks like the recipe asked for.
- Discovered a new technique for chopping with the back end of the blade (Thanks Neil!)
- Creme fraiche can be substituted with sour cream.
- Leeks are part of the onion family (I discovered this while I was chopping them, when my eyes started to water).
- I also learned how to peel and crush garlic, without a garlic press. Lay knife flat on a clove and smash, remove the peel, and then mince - be careful not to slice yourself with the blade!


I probably had a few more "aha" moments, but the main point is that I did it! I made my first meal, all by myself, and it was a yummy meal for a So-Cal winter's night, at that! :)




I think next time I am ready to move on to poultry, meat, or fish. What do you think? Until next year... happy New Year everyone!

So you don't have to buy salsa at the grocery store?

Don't worry friends, I have not given up on my attempts to cook. However, due to the holidays and all the festivities that come along with it, we have taken a short break from our homemade meals. When I say "we" - I mean me (Jenny). haha.

I really wanted to make a nice meal for my good friend Mahua who is in town for the holidays. However, due to the heavy Southern California rainstorms and a 2 1/2 hour commute home one night. My dear hubby, ended up making dinner for the three of us on his own. Thanks Neil!

So, what dish did he whip up ... chicken enchiladas with homemade tamatillo salsa. Hence the title of this entry - Who knew how simple it would be to make your own enchilada sauce. And thanks to our good friend Eric, we now have the ninja blender. That bad boy really works!

Below are a few snap shots of this simple yet easy dish. Note: blog will be updated with Neil's recipe shortly.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Let's start with breakfast....

Neil and I enjoy a good Sunday breakfast. So this morning we decided on scrambled eggs, sausage, and pancakes. Pretty simple, right? Wrong, especially when I have been a bit spoiled by a man that loves to cook from prep to finish. Well let's just say I have to start somewhere.

On the menu:

• 4 eggs beaten with a splash of veggie oil, milk, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.

• 2 cups of Aunt Jemima pancake mix (cheating, I know but I never said we were going to make everything from scratch)

• 4 Italian sausages (leftover from dinner two nights ago)
• Sliced green/red/yellow bell peppers (leftovers from a veggie party platter)
• 1/2 medium yellow onion
• Handful fresh Italian parsley

Now here is where it gets funny and sad all at the same time. So I decided to get to chopping, while Neil worked on the pancakes. But before I started to chop I asked Neil two questions:

1. How fine did he want me to chop the cilantro?

2. How do I slice the onion?

You know you have a good thing when your husband doesn't laugh but instead pauses and nicely corrects me on the fact that I was chopping parsley, not cilantro and then shows me one technique to cut an onion.

Maybe next up will be "how to slice/chop veggies 101" with Neil. haha.