…for heart-y cupcakes!

These are the Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting that I made for Valentine’s Day. I know this post is nearly two weeks old, but I finally just got the chance to dowload the bajillion photos from my camera last night (even pictures from Christmas!). I hope you enjoy them!

Something I realized as I was decorating these, as pointed out by my brother: When you work with a palette of coordinating colors, in this case red, pink and white, you get a cohesive design element together, even if each cupcake is decorated differently. The result is eye candy that’s just as fun to eat! I’m keeping this in mind for when I decorate other cupcakes with a theme in the future.

Yum!

By the way, I haven’t been by most of your blogs because I’m just now finally buckling down to blog duties after months of running around like a headless chicken. I hope to be by real soon and can’t wait to see what everyone’s been up to!

“Beautiful soup, so rich and green
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!
Beautiful soup! Who cares for fish,
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth of beautiful soup?”
-    Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Soup is soothing to both eater and cook. The best kinds that are a delight both to make and eat are made with simple, basic ingredients: good broth and lots of memories. Flavors inspired by kitchens past are incomparable when they mingle in an aromatic, warm, comforting bowl of soup!

I had the chance to make Chicken Sotanghon Soup one wintry weekend. There was leftover rotisserie chicken from Costco and staple stock ingredients in the fridge, dried noodles in the pantry, and an itch in my hands to cook something. I’d been feeling out of sorts the whole week because I was still recovering from jetlag and had a knot of thoughts in my head—and I thought this malady could only be cured in the kitchen.

Sotanghon is the Filipino version of bean thread noodles. Called glass or cellophane noodles in other cultures, they’re made from mung bean starch (not rice flour like its culinary cousin, the bihon) and cook up transparent. They’re served in soups or as a dry noodle dish, as in stir-fried with vegetables, wood ears and tofu.

One of my absolute favorite things to do in the kitchen is prep cooked chicken for soups or salads. Many people find the task laborious and time consuming, especially when the meat has to be flaked off of a whole chicken and you have to deal with chicken bones and the sinewy stuff that holds all that meat together. I actually like to sit and take my time doing so, transforming a sinewy, bony mess like this…

…into clean, neat threads of chicken meat, like this! (Ahhh. So…pretty, no? Heehee.)

The process is very therapeutic, like calling order to chaos. My Lola Pin, who’s my mom’s mom, made her version of this soup for many years. She flaked the chicken meat patiently, humming while she worked. She did it with clinical precision (she was a nurse, after all) and was always calm and concentrated. Maybe this is why I love doing it, too.

I made my version of a mirepoix with garlic, onion, leeks, celery and ginger. Sauteed some baby bella mushrooms that were getting bored in the fridge from neglect, poured in some chicken stock, and let the broth come to a boil. Added the flaked chicken and simmered the mixture for about 15 minutes, or until the meat was tender and the broth took on its flavor. Dropped in the sotanghon noodles (which had been woken up from sleep through a 15-minute soak in a water bath—you’ll see this in the top left corner of the picture above.) Cooked the mixture for only about five minutes more as the noodles cook fast.

(Don’t ask me for a recipe—even as a stickler for rules, I always go by feel with this, just like Lola Pin!)

I topped off the happy stew with some thin slices of red bell pepper, so the eyes had something colorful to feast on before the mouth did!

Maybe even Alice would like to share a bowl of this soup with the Mad Hatter, and even the Queen of Hearts may very well approve.

A new year tends to bring all sort of philosophical musings, even in the kitchen. As 2008 drew to a close, I found myself asking the all-important question: What’s one thing I’ve always wanted to make, but never had the time or courage to pursue? And the answer was the same as it’s been over the last seven years since I’ve migrated to the US–to work with phyllo dough, to really see what it’s like, to study its papyrus-like delicateness and to transform it into something magical. We never had phyllo in the Philippines, or maybe I just didn’t know where to buy it, but I’ve always been fascinated, scared even, of what the stuff was.

Phyllo, also called fillo or filo, is the backbone of Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern pastries. It’s paper-thin sheets of dough made from flour, water and oil, usually layered on top of each other with a brushing of melted butter in between. Once baked, the sheets puff up and form the characteristic crispy shell of many a mouthwatering treat, like the spinach- and cheese-filled savory pies called spanakopitas in Greece or the syrup-soaked, nutty confection called baklava in Turkey.

I had the chance to finally try my hand at phyllo when, some time in December, I found myself with some leftover chicken and the now-familiar itch in my hands to just MAKE something in the kitchen. I’d had a package of phyllo in the freezer for the longest time, but was always too intimidated to work with it, imagining the papery sheets disintegrating in my clumsy hands. I had all the ingredients for a Chicken Pot Pie, but wasn’t in the mood to turn out a crust from flour. After turning up some Sigur Ros on my iPod, I decided to set to work, hoping that my plan to use the phyllo as a crust for the Pot Pie would work.

And to up the philosophical ante on this first real post for 2009–I want to say, here’s the thing about scary things: Your imagination (well, mostly mine!) often transforms them into almost mythical monsters. The phyllo wasn’t the easiest thing to work with, but it certainly wasn’t a beast! I found that I had some trouble in the sections that had folded over in packaging (and tore easily), but the dough was actually quite forgiving.

I decided to try two versions of the Phyllo Chicken Pot Pie, a simpler, rustic one with about 10 sheets on top of each other and the ends tucked into the dish, and a fancier one with the buttered sheets cut into strips and scrunched on top of a base of about two initial sheets of phyllo.

Which one do you like best?

Mine’s the plain one because it seemed to go well with the comfortableness of everything that went into the dish: roasted chicken, potatoes, cream of mushroom soup, beans, corn, carrots and baby bella mushrooms. It’s the first one I dove into. Yum!

And with this post, I say a curly, “Hello, folks!  I’m back.”  I’m not lost in the sands of Tatooine somewhere, nor have I been sucked into a wormhole. I’ve just been around and busy and remembering something I read in a cookbook once: “Life happens when you’re not baking.” I sat down to write tonight to disprove that. I’d like to think that life happens especially because you’re in the kitchen, on adventures like tackling phyllo and making food that feeds the senses, and sitting down to write all about them.

I have so much to blog about! Happy new year to all, and here I go now, making my way over to your neck of the world wide woods. I may be slow in getting there, but I will! I can’t wait to see what everyone’s been up to!

I’m in New York celebrating the new year with friends new and old. That’s a lot of NEW’s crammed in one sentence! I can’t wait to tell you about my many adventures in this city and in others I’ve visited these past few crazy weeks when I get back.

Hope everyone’s year is starting off just curly! I’ll be back blogging in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.

This is the first chance I’m getting to post about all the cooking that happened in my house over Thanksgiving. I love this holiday simply because it’s an excuse to cook. We didn’t have to make a whole lot, but I CAN tell you that I now sport two (somewhat gross) battle burn wounds on my right arm from not being careful as I reached into the oven to test the dishes for doneness. I know, I know, I should be more careful. I sometimes wonder how a klutz like me has survived in the kitchen all these years.

An interesting that happened was that I was actually able to cook with my mom. I’m sort of a cooking recluse/monk, you see. I take this after Lola Pinang, my mom’s mom, who didn’t like people in the kitchen. When I cook (and especially when I bake), it’s just me, the ingredients and maybe Radiohead on my iPod. People know to stay away when the apron makes an appearance. I was anticipating a lot of frustrated sighs and eye-rolling (from me) with having another person in the kitchen, but I actually really enjoyed the whole thing. (Hi, Ma!)

Instead of boring you with how these were made, I’ve decided that this is going to be a massive food post, with images recounting all the flavors that only greet the palette during the holidays. I’m sure these can be made any other day of the year, but they somehow seem that much more festive when they’re made at Thanksgiving!

French Bread Stuffing
French Bread + Celery + Onions + Black and Green Olives + Walnuts + Raisins + Oregano + Thyme

Cranberry Sauce
Fresh Cranberries + Sugar

Kale-Mushroom Bundles
Bella Mushrooms + White Mushrooms + Enoki Mushrooms + Blanched Kale

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Butter + Milk + Cream Cheese (my mom’s trick!) + Salt + Pepper + Fresh Parsely

Sweet Potato Casserole
Vanilla + Cinnamon + Cream + Brown Sugar + Pecans

Creamed Corn
White + Yellow Corn Kernels + Butter + Whole Milk + Parmesan Cheese

And for a post-Thanksgiving Italian dinner with friends:

Chicken Cacciatore with Asparagus-Fennel Risotto (can’t speak for the risotto because it was a yummy treat made by the host, but for the cacciatore…)
Fresh Tomatoes + Thyme + Baby Portobello Mushrooms + Onion + Garlic

Tiramisu
Lady Fingers + Ricotta + Whipped Cream + Coffee Liquer + Cocoa Powder

Seeing all these pics made me hungry. How true that we feast with our eyes first! Happy feasting!

The Vampie’s at it again! The folks over an Instructables.com sent me a note that my Twilight-inspired sweet treat would be a great entry to their DIY Halloween Contest. In case you’re bored and have nothing else to do online, head on over HERE to rock the vote for my Vampie. (And thank you again to those of you who helped make the Vampie a winner at Instructables’ Pie Contest!)

There are so many wonderfully gory entries in the current contest that I doubt I’ll even place, but it’s great how much interest my little experiment has generated nonetheless. Voting runs through November 16, 2008, perfect timing for when the Twilight movie hits theaters on November 21.

All the luck to the Vampie, and I hope you have a great weekend up ahead to sink your teeth into!

This is recipe #2 in The Girl With A Curl’s Fallin’ For Soup project.

This Turkey Chili is a family favorite. It’s embarrassingly easy to make! I’ve made this many times, but have found that its full, spicy flavor is best with the sweetness of cornbread, made moist by buttermilk and topped with fresh corn, so I try to make both when I get the chance. A chilly wind was blowing through the kitchen windows today, and this made for a perfect, cozy dinner.

CURLY TURKEY CHILI

* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

* 1 pound ground turkey

* 1 29-oz. can tomato sauce

* 1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes with jalapenos

* 1 1/2 to 2 cups water

* 1 15-oz. can white beans, rinsed and drained

* 1 15-oz. can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

* 1 15-0z. can corn kernels, drained

* 1 large onion, chopped

* 2 tablespoons chili powder

* 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

* 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

* 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin

* 1 pinch ground black pepper

* 1 pinch ground allspice

* salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in a deep pot, brown ground turkey in it. Drop in the onion and saute until soft.

2. Pour in the tomato sauce, tomatoes with jalapenos, and about a cup and a half of water. Stir. Add all your spices: red pepper, chili, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper and allspice. Mix in.

Bring chili to boil, then lower heat to simmer for as long as you want, stirring every so often. I’ve seriously simmered this up to three hours, the house filling up with that delicious chili smell. This time, I did so about an hour and 20 minutes while I tackled the laundry.

3. Drop in the two kinds of beans and corn.

Simmer for about 20 minutes more. Serve with some shredded cheddar cheese on top. You can also add dollop of sour cream.

GOLDEN BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD

Seriously the best I’ve tried (I’ve had many, but always come back to this). I’ve deduced that the buttermilk is key. I’m not entirely sure what buttermilk is, though I do know it’s a dairy by-product that’s a sour milk of sorts. Don’t have any on hand? You can make an easy substitute by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar or 1 3/4 teaspoons of cream of tartar to each cup of milk. Stir, let sit for about 10 minutes, and use.

* 1 cup unsalted butter

* 2/3 cup white sugar

* 2 eggs

* 1 cup buttermilk

* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

* 1 cup cornmeal

* 1 cup ap flour

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square pan. Shuck fresh corn and slice top section of kernels into a bowl. Scrape the rest into a separate bowl.

2. Melt butter in a microwave, taking care to check at intervals.

3. Pour melted butter in a mixing bowl. Add sugar and stir.

4. Add eggs and beat quickly. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk and pour that mixture into the melted butter mixture. Stir in the scraped fresh corn.

5. Stir in cornmeal, flour and salt and blend, just until all ingredients are incorporated. Pour into pan and top with corn kernels.

6. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown on top. I usually underbake this by about 3 minutes.

There’s nothing like chili to kill the chill!

Have a great start to your weeks, everyone!

Fall is my favorite time of the year. In the U.S., it officially began last September 23, and will last until December 21, when winter begins. I love fall because the weather starts to change and the leaves answer vanity’s call by bidding goodbye to greens and browns and wearing all those reds and oranges that the season is known for. The word “fall” actually comes from the term “fall of the leaf,” which happens to trees closer to the season’s end. Being in California is great for all the sun-worshipping freaks out here, but I personally look forward to bringing my scarves and boots out of hiding.

The nip in the air lends itself to the ultimate comfort food: piping-hot soup that fills the stomach and warms the heart. Making the hearty Turkey Meatball Soup with Curly Endive that you see above two weeks ago made me think about how this is a perfect time to seek out, make and share yummy soup recipes that are simple yet fun to make, and are savory celebrations of the season. And how timely: it’s a chance to take stock (pun intended) of my soup-making abilities, so that when winter blows into town, I can wield my pot of soup and say, “Ha, Winter! My consommé will kick your cold culo!” (Thanks to Via for always using the Spanish word for butt/bum while we were in college!)

Before I get any more carried away, let me say that this post introduces my humble FALLIN’ FOR SOUP project on The Girl With A Curl, which aims to bring you a hopefully delicious soup recipe every other Sunday, for the rest of the season. I understand that some of you might be in countries where fall is unheard of, but I hope these recipes still make their way into your recipe box. Nothing quite soothes like a bowl of good soup! 

By season’s end, you will have learned six soup or stew recipes along with me, if you care to follow along. That seems ambitious, considering how I work full-time and craftdancesurfthenetandhavealife during the rest of my waking hours, which means I could very well skip a Sunday or two. But there’s so much for us to try our oven mitts at: bisques, cream-of-somethings, slow-cooked stews, all that rib-stickin’ good stuff. Who knows, I might get so much into it that I’ll do more than six! I actually wanted to do something every Sunday, but that’s getting ahead of myself.

Here’s the recipe for my Turkey Meatball Soup with Curly Endive to start!

TURKEY MEATBALL SOUP WITH CURLY ENDIVE
* 1 pound ground turkey
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup onion, diced
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2-3 cubes of chicken bouillon
* 2 1/2 cups water
* 2 carrots, sliced diagonally
* 2 stalks celery, chopped
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 medium potatoes, diced
* 1 bunch curly endive, ends trimmed and the rest cut into 1 ½-inch pieces (You can also use spinach!)

* This is what curly endive looks like, by the way. It has a slightly bitter taste that rounds out the flavors in mild-flavored soups like this one.

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix together the ground turkey, egg, onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Form meatballs using a small ice-cream scoop (I use mine for cookie dough, too.)

Here’s a tip to check if your meatballs are well-seasoned (because I can never get them right): Fry a little bit in some oil for a taste test. This should give you a fairly good idea about whether or not it needs a little bit of this or that.

2. In a soup pot, sauté garlic, onions, celery and carrots.

Pour in water and bring to a boil. Drop in meatballs one at a time and simmer for 10 minutes. Drop in diced potatoes and simmer until soft to the fork, about 20 more minutes.

3.  Spoon some broth into a cup. Dissolve one chicken bouillon cube in the hot liquid and pour back into the pot. Taste and adjust accordingly, adding more chicken flavor if needed.

4.  Add curly endive, cover and let simmer. Turn heat off after five minutes. Enjoy!

Nutrition note: I first made a modified version of this for my mom while she was on a low-iodine diet by using only egg whites, non-iodized salt and by omitting the bouillon cubes.

The next Fallin’ For Soup post is this Sunday, so remember to check back! Until then, I hope to finally post something about my swap project and my quilt.

I can’t wait for our tureens to teem with yummy soup! (Which reminds me, I don’t even HAVE a tureen, haha.)

Between soupy posts and updates on my quilt’s progress, it’s shaping up to be a craftin’, cookin’ fall. I can’t wait.

Jerseys don’t mean squat. Case in point: Here’s mine, from the office’s softball team. They’re called the Stets (I work in a publishing company—points to you if you’re able to connect the dots! If not, and you want to be a nerd, you can go here.) My possession of this piece of clothing doesn’t in any way, shape or form mean that I’m athletic. On the contrary, the most athletic thing I do (aside from dance, but that’s a different matter) is knead dough and wrestle with my quilt as I’m feeding it through the sewing machine. Hence the nickname the team decided to give me on the back of the jersey. I don’t do sports…I just cook for the team.

I baked these homemade Twinkies for the Stets’ championship game. These were a hit!

I always just use the Vanilla Cupcakes batter from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook, and a tried-and-tested buttercream recipe with my own decorating tip and bag to goo-ify the little cakes with delicousness. You’ll see the yellow dots on top where I’ve filled the Twinkies with yummy frosting.

I got my Twinkies bake pan from a bakery supply store. It came with recipes and a special “frosting injector,” both of which I’ve lost. Oddly enough, the set’s available from Urban Outfitters.

Making these always makes me feel like I’m pretend-baking, the way I did as a kid. Coincidentally, my brother told me about this cupcake baking and decorating set (he watches the Cartoon Network even if he’s ____ years old, and well, hee, I do too!) I want it! It’s called My Girl Gourmet, and you can bake the cupcakes in the microwave, put them in a special decorating thingamajig that twirls while the frosting dispenses from a special tip. You even get a cupcake carrier. See what I mean:

As for baking for the team, the new season’s started. I haven’t been to any of the games, but maybe I’ll get the “Call To Den Mother” email again soon, and maybe more homemade Twinkies (maybe chocolate ones, with cream cheese frosting!) will get me another award like this:

Plaaay ball!

Thank you all for your healthy vibes. I am up, though not as much “about” as I want to be, but still. It’s the first time in days when I feel like I don’t have cotton for brains, and I’m glad to be blogging again.

To come back, let me start with a post full of thanks.

You know, I must say, all these years of having stuff lost in the mail has made me lose faith in the snail mail system. But these past few weeks have definitely proved me wrong. Look at all these wonderful goodies that came via post!

Childhood Yummies From  Malaysia

Mimi of Sleepless in KL read about my post on how much I loved Horlicks Malties when I was growing up. I was also bemoaning the fact that they weren’t readily available here in the US. A couple of weeks later, a package was handed to me by the office mailman. Thank you, Mimi, for being so thoughtful! I’ve had to ration these, by the way, because I can’t stop eating them!

A Creative Stash From Canada

My craft swap partner Leah sent a treasure trove of gifts. I love all the handmade jewelry she sent, especially the green bracelet because green’s my favorite color. And, AND, she sent FABRIC! They’re great additions to my collection, and I’m already thinking of ways to use them. Thank you, Leah, for all the creative stuff you’ve sent. I will DEFINITELY make use of those sewing machine needles, I was just about to get some!

My Prizes For Winning The Vampie

They came! If you remember that post about my Vampie win, the prizes finally came from Instructables.com: an Instructables robot tee and The Pie And Pastry Bible.

I was just about to see if the tee fit and to thumb through my new cookbook, but a pink teddy named Jenny beat me to it instead. (Though she looks kinda surly reading about pastry, don’t you think?)

Thank you all, and thank you Mr. Postman.

Any excuse to cook is good for me, even if it’s for my own birthday. Especially because it was for a picnic at the Hollywood Bowl, one of my favoritest places in Los Angeles. I’ve caught beautiful Easter sunrise services there, several Sound Of Music Sing-Alongs (yes, seriously) and an unforgettable performance by Dave Matthews Band a couple of years back, when LeRoi Moore still around. So, when I caught wind earlier this year that John Williams and the LA Philharmonic would be playing at the Bowl the weekend following my birthday, I decided that it would be a perfect way to celebrate another year in my life. I had already been to three other performances of his in years past, but still, I couldn’t wait to go this year. (Spoken like a true Star Wars fangirl!)

Going to the Bowl is always an exercise in decision-making: What should we bring to eat? A valid question with a million answers! Tradition calls for a packed dinner with beverages (they even allow wine) and an early arrival, so you have time to find your seats and settle in to eat and enjoy people-watching while the summer sun’s still out. We usually buy food from some place like Whole Foods or the Bowl’s own restaurant. But this year, I wanted to cook.

I took me weeks to decide what to make. This was serious business! It was the first time I’d be responsible for the whole Bowl-eating experience, and it was for my birthday. I was nervous, but finally came up with the idea of making restaurant favorites, done Girl With A Curl-style.

The final verdict? Homemade Mac N’ Cheese, Chicken Nuggets and Steamed Vegetables. Dessert was actually store-bought! Those pink Hello Kitty packs are Choco Pies from a Japanese market. I love them. I decided to throw in some Dove dark chocolates, Baci and Perugina candy from Rome and milk candy, also from the Japanese market (if anyone from LA is reading this, the Japanese market is Nijiya on Sawtelle.)

The Mac N’ Cheese was fun to make, because I knew it would be portable and un-messy and would fit right into my whole packable, picnic-able dinner plans. I could tell you that I used low-fat sour cream and fat-free cheddar cheese, but my cooking is something I don’t lie about. And it was my birthday, so I decided to live a little.

The Chicken Nuggets were interesting because they’re actually baked, not fried. I’ve found that the best tools for a task like this are two sets of chopsticks, one for dipping in your wet ingredients, another for dredging in dry. You dip pieces of chicken breast into melted butter (I know! But it was ever so little, and really, you can also use yogurt, buttermilk or plain old milk!)…

Dredge them in the mixture of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and spices (Italian seasoning, fresh thyme, salt and pepper)…

Lay them carefully on a rack that’s been sprayed with cooking spray and placed over a cookie sheet…

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, and under the broiler for another five. These were perfect with the cheesy pasta and the steamed-crisp veggies. These Rubbermaid Take-Alongs with dividers that I packed them in were picnic-perfect (more so because I got them at 50% off!). This way, each person had a portion of the main dishes. (Veggies went into a Ziploc bag, for easy passing-around.)

I have to admit, though, my favorite part of the meal was stuff I didn’t make, these ice-cold Orange Cream Gourmet Sodas. (Parang Mirinda na hindi!)

Drinks went into an insulated carrier, and the foodstuff snuggled with cutlery and paper napkins into my FEED bag*.

The evening’s performance was awesome , with John Williams conducting the Olympic theme while huge screens showed scenes from the games. The Bowl was decked out in colored swaths of light, as we were taken from Indiana Jones to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, to a special highlight that included scenes from (sigh) Singin’ In The Rain. (Gene Kelly, I heart you.)

And yes, of course, the evening ended with an encore that included the Star Wars theme. And, like every year, the ampitheatre lit up with light sabers as the theme played. There were so many of them, and I tried to take pictures, but was way too excited to take any good ones. Geek much? (I LOVED IT!)

Perfect. Evening.

*The FEED bag, a World Food Programme project, is available in two sizes, a smaller one (above) at Whole Foods and a larger one from Amazon. The cost of your purchase of the smaller bag equals 100 meals for hungry children in Rwanda who don’t have access to nutritious food. The larger one equals meals for a full school year for one child. I have both and use them for everything, from plane trips to picnics!

Hello, all! It feels good to be back. How has everyone been?

I’m jumping back onto the curly blogging highway with these NUTELLA cupcakes. These have a delicious ribbon of hazelnut goodness swirled into heavenly cake batter. When you bite into them, you get all the gooey Nutella scrumptiousness stuck to your teeth! I can’t even begin to describe how much I fell in love with these.

When I made these, I didn’t think I would ever blog about them. That’s because I have a secret: I keep good recipes to myself. (Insert evil laugh.) Especially the REALLY good ones that I’ve spent time kitchen-testing. I’m bad like that, heehee.

But you know, I am thankful for many things today: for writing my first post after three long weeks, for friends who helped me handle the all the overflowing “batter in my mixing bowl” when I was gone, for the fact that I’m racing home after work to finish reading Breaking Dawn (Toni! If you’re reading this, all I can say is, GAWD!!!) and for the month of August (my birthday month!).

I am overflowing with gratitude and can’t help but share the recipe for these yummy things. I first came across these from She Bakes & She Cooks, because I have an unabashed love for Nutella and was trying to find a baked good that used it on the net. These yield WONDERFUL cupcakes: the batter bakes up to a delicate crumb that’s a perfect backdrop for the rich hazelnut cream.

Nutella Cupcakes

10 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella, approximately 1/3 cup (I used a mini cookie-dough scoop for each cupcake)

1) Preheat oven to 325F.

2) Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.

3) Cream together butter and sugar until light, about 2 minutes.

4) Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated.

5) Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.

5) Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin liner with batter. They should be 3/4 full, if you’re not using a scoop.

6) Top each cake with 1 1/2 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella.

7) Bake for 20 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

I hope you make these! They’re the perfect antidote to a blah afternoon–both to cook, and to eat!

I hope to make my way to everyone else’s neck of the world wide woods. Welcome back to me!

Yummy images from a great Fourth Of July weekend with friends.

*Turkey Chili with Golden Buttermilk Cornbread

Chili was slow-cooked over nine hours, in a hearty stew with kidney, black and white beans. I mixed fresh corn into the cornbread and the small pat of butter you see is Honey Butter, made by whipping, well, honey into butter. Ha!

* Eggplant And Zucchini Casserole

A happy mix of these versatile summer vegetables, onions and tomatoes, layered with seasoned bread stuffing and a blend of four Italian cheeses.

* Black-Bottom Cupcakes

Moist chocolate cupcakes, with a creamy surprise in the middle (made from cream cheese and mini choocolate chips).

* Peach Pie

The queen of the entire feast, made with an embellished top crust. I cut out peach shapes with a mini cookie cutter into the dough. I was nervous the entire time! Crust can be so finicky, but this one was everything I hoped it would be: fork-flaky and a perfect complement to the sweet, fruity treat inside.

More pictures of the epic odyssey entitled, “And She Made Crust.” On hindsight, I should have used star shapes because of the holiday! This was served with a dollop of whipped cream, which I prefer to make myself, and a dusting of cinnamon.

All these were consumed with a great big salad and red and white sangria made by other friends. We all went into a food coma after lunch. Whew!