Valentine's Day

 

It's the perfect holiday.  It's all about celebrating love.  Of course, you don't need a special day to celebrate love, but it sure is nice.  A day full of love, flowers, hand-holding, smiles, and sweet treats.
Since work is getting in the way of seeing my love until Tuesday afternoon, I will have to spend all day Monday focusing on the sweet treats part of Valentine's Day.

The most fitting treat I can think of that just screams VALENTINE'S DAY is red velvet cupcakes.  It's so moist, not overly sweet and so very very red.  With the addition of whipped cream cheese frosting, it's the perfect compliment to such a fantastic cake.  You know you want it.  Come along with me and we'll make some!

Whisk up the dry ingredients

Add in the wet ingredients. That batter is REALLY red!

An ice cream scoop works really well to ensure there's less mess and uniform cupcake sizes.

Frost 'em up with cream cheese frosting, and sprinkles make everything taste better.

Voila!  YUM!!

VALENTINE'S DAY RED VELVET CUPCAKES
(recipe taken from Ming Makes Cupcakes)

1 1/4 C. flour
3/4 C. sugar
1/2 tea. baking soda
1/2 tea. salt
1 Tbs. cocoa powder
3/4 C. vegetable oil
1/2 C. buttermilk
1 egg
1 Tbs. red food coloring
1/2 tea. white vinegar
1 tea. vanilla

Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, buttermilk, egg, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla.  While mixing at medium speed, gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture until just combined. Fill cupcake liners.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Makes 12 cupcakes

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

(recipe taken from Mel's Sweet Treats)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 pound (4 cups) icing sugar, sifted

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low.  Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, then vanilla, and mix until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  Easily frosts 24 cupcakes.

NOT A Photographer

I admit it.  I take terrible photographs.  It's not going to keep me from posting a few pics here and there, I'm just not going to worry about the quality of the pictures.  Even when I'm taking pictures of food, I'm not trying to make the dish look as beautiful as possible, just want to show what it looks like.  Hopefully I'll be forgiven for my shoddy photography and perhaps, I'll get to the point where I become better at taking pictures.  Until then, I'll resume with my regular crappy photography. 

Superbowl XLV

I don't really care about the Superbowl.  I don't have an attachment to either team so this year I'm in it for the food and the commercials. 

The Husband made baby back ribs, of course.  It's his go-to game food.  Usually, he'd make potato salad to go with it but it's a lot of work and he knows that I won't eat any.  Personally, it just doesn't do anything for me.  So he put me to the task of making a salad.  When he asks me to make a salad to go with ribs, it's not just any salad, I know just the one to make every time.  It's easy, tastes so good and with pasta as the main ingredient, it just keeps getting better and better the more it sits and marries with the dressing. 

PASTA SALAD

For the dressing, blend in a blender: 

1/2 c. mayo
1/2 c. olive oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tea. dijon mustard
1 clove garlic
1 tea. sugar
1/2 tea. salt
1/2 tea. pepper
1 Tbs. Italian Seasoning

For the salad: 

1 can quartered artichoke hearts
1 bunch green onions
1 package julienne cut sun-dried tomatoes
1 package (20 oz) cheese tortellini
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese (I like more)

*Cook the tortellini according to the directions.  The best way to know it's done is when the pasta floats to the surface of the water.  Drain and rinse with cold water to cool.
*Add all the salad ingredients in a bowl including the cooled pasta, mix in the dressing then refrigerate for at least 1 hour, but just like any pasta, it's best if you let it sit over night.  

YUM!

Comfort

In the months between October and March it seems like the word comfort becomes a regular piece of our every day vernacular.  Comfort food seems to be the most widely known use of the word.  These cold, dreary months put us in a kind of hibernation where our days are spent indoors eating rich, warm filling, stick-to-your-ribs foods.  These are some of my favorite foods.  At the top of my list are soups.  My favorite is definitely Minestrone.  With fresh ingredients it makes for a wholesome soup that won't bust the belt off your pants.  I like ruin whatever health benefits it has with large chunks of crusty bread slathered in butter.  Don't judge me.

*Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients.  I find that I typically have most of them stocked in the fridge and pantry.

*This EASILY makes 8-10 servings but tastes even better the next day and will also freeze wonderfully.

HEARTY MINESTRONE SOUP
Adapted from tasteofhome.com 

1 large onion, chopped
3 Tbs. olive oil
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 c. cabbage, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 1/2 c. water
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
1 can (10 or 15 oz) tomato puree
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
3 Tbs. dried parsley flakes
2 tea. dried basil
2 tea. dried oregano
1 tea. salt
1/2 tea. pepper
1/4 tea. cayenne pepper
1/2 c. small pasta shells
OPTIONAL: 1 LB. ground sausage or sweet Italian sausage.

In a Dutch oven, saute onion in oil for 2 minutes.  Add the celery, carrots, cabbage, green pepper, zucchini and garlic; saute 3 minutes longer.  Stir in the water, tomatoes, beans, tomato puree, tomato sauce and seasonings.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  

Stir in pasta; cook 12-15 minutes longer or until tender. 


 

Commuting

Been there, done that, NEVER again!!

For the first time in three years I'm commuting to work.  Not just the five minute hop, skip, jump from my house to the ferry dock, but actually planning to leave early to get to work on time, because my job is now an hour away.  There are so many people I work with that would say, "Suck it up, I'm commuting EVERY day for HOURS at a time."  I know this, and I also know they're crazy.  I, however, am doing it out of need and not exactly by choice.  The people who CHOOSE to work and commute far from home are nuts.  There are several people I work with who have the option of working at a port that's just 10 or 15 minutes away from their home yet they'd rather drive over an hour for the SAME job, just a different location.  That's just something that I don't really understand when it means that they spend less time with their loved ones.  I've done that kind of commute before and it's awful.  You're tired and cranky and wondering what the traffic is going to be like.  Then there's the cost of gas.  THE GAS!  No thanks, I'll take a job that's as close to home as possible. 

My commute. I will take this any day over an hour or more on the freeway.

It's only been a week for me and the commute is already taking a toll on my sleep and time with the husband and kid.  I miss the downtime at home already.  I am, however, very thankful that my commute is via ferry boat.  A 5 minute drive from home to the dock, driving or walking on, then relaxing for an hour is truly not much to whine about. 

All the cool people are doing it.

I've been thinking for quite some time that I'd love to be able to sit down and write something. Anything. Preferably something brilliant. Then I realized that I really don't have much to write about. I'd love to have some totally amazing idea come to mind and sit down and write a 500 page novel and make tons of money and become the next Dan Brown or Danielle Steele on the NY Times Best Seller list. I just don't see that happening. It's not selling myself short, just being realistic. On New Years Eve, we were talking about new years resolutions and somehow I blurted out, "I should start a blog." But then I realized that there's the whole "I have nothing to write about" issue. You never truly know though until you try so I'm going to give it a shot and put a bit of myself out there in the blog-o-sphere and see what happens. It'll be a little of this, a little of that, some of our highs and lows and a few pictures too. Most people know how much we like to cook and bake and I'm always being asked for my recipes so perhaps this will be a good place to share some of my culinary adventures as well. So here we go.