I love looking at FOOD!

Tonight, as I was cooking dinner (a stir-fry), I decided that I really like looking at food. I love the bright colors of crispy vegetables, I love the brown of carmelized meat....I just love looking at food. What decided it was when I looked in the cupboards at all my cooking magazines and cookbooks....I have NEVER read one, but oh, I can't tell you how many times I've looked at all the pretty pictures. Food is....Pretty! I have my favorite magazines, those that have the prettiest pictures. I love my Food Network and my Rachael Ray magazines because they have such bright, cheery pictures of food! Do I try the recipes? Very seldom...I just love looking at the pictures. My favorite cookbooks still look brand new because I just look at the pretty pictures, I don't open them to try the recipes....they don't have spilled food on them, although that would be pretty and I may have to try it! I love my Martha Stewart cookbooks, my Sandra Lee and my The Biggest Loser cookbooks....I love looking at the pictures! 

Don't get me wrong, I love to cook. See: 

Tonight's Dinner - Beef Stir-fry (thrown together from the fridge)

Chocolate, Whiskey and Nuts - OMG! 

Sausage and Tomatoes - Can't go wrong!

Cream Cheese Mints - Too die for! 

Strawberry Shortcake - So easy and not so bad for you! Yum!

See....pretty pictures! Not as pretty as magazines but still....pretty! 

I have my favorite Blogs and Websites that I peruse, not for the articles (okay, sometimes I read them) but for the pretty pictures! I love looking at the process of creating a dish and the picture of the final product....pretty! I don't need to eat it, heck, sometimes I don't even like it but I do love to look at it! 

I love these Blogs: 

She is now my Food Hero because of the beautiful chocolate cake on her home page: The Pioneer Woman

I love, love, love this blog for all her comfort food recipes: Just a Pinch

Love this site but not for the Spinach Pie shown today (hate spinach): Skinny Taste

My absolute Fave because it's ALL pictures: Punch Fork

Love this one for the Quinoa Bites alone: Fit for Success

Pretty, pretty pictures: Tung in Cheek

Omigosh....just look at that sandwich: Closet Cooking

Love the name but the food looks yummy too: Peas and Crayons

So guess what I got in the mail today.....Rachael Ray's wonderful magazine FULL of pretty pictures! Just the cover alone is gorgeous....Chicken & Spring Vegetable Lo Mein

I'm off to print some recipes....all have pretty pictures! 

Car....Shoes....Car....Shoes

So, you know where this post is going? HA! A boy and his car....a girl and her shoes! Yup! That's where I'm going with this post!

Today...a beautiful, warm (15 degrees), sunny Winter day! A ride in the boy's new car! A ride in the boy's new car wearing the girl's favorite shoes!

Car - 

Boy's new Metallic Pearl, Honda Crosstour...

Shoes - 

Girl's favorite Chocolate, Converse All-Star sneakers...

What a great day for a ride...in the boy's new car, wearing my favorite shoes....with my boy! 

I didn't realize just what a great backdrop snow is for taking pictures....look how great the shoes look in the snow! Hmmmm, will have to take more shoe pictures in snow! Might be kinda chilly with the open toe dress shoes and the sandals, but hey, I'm game! 

The boy would find the pics of the car more interesting but the girl....well, they are SHOES! 

A boy and his toy, a girl and her shoes....

Lovin' this day! 

Yummy! Strawberry Shortcake - Easy Make!

Doesn't that look SO yummy? It couldn't be easier to make......

I started with a sugar free, store bought Angel Food Cake (hard to find, but doable). Cut the cake into 3 slices (horizontally), set aside. In separate bowl, mix sugar free whipped cream with chopped nuts. Spread whipped cream mixture between layers of cake. slice strawberries and place on top of cake. See - Easy Peasy!

You can vary the dessert by adding chopped strawberries to the whipped cream mixture, drizzle with caramel or chocolate, change out the fruit (pineapple would be delish), add chocolate curls to the top.
OR OR OR.......add/change out:
Sprinkles
Chocolate
Nuts
Fruit
Chopped Candy Bars
Caramel
Edible Sugared Flowers

 

How about a Game of Golf?

Today, we celebrated Bev's & Terri's birthdays, both of them love golf and curling! So, the obvious theme would be golf since I know absolutely nothing of curling nor would it be easy to find stamps, stickers or anything curling like that I could use for the cards and gift boxes! We don't have a lot of room in our conference for 12 people, boxes of stuff surrounding the walls, computer stuff and a big conference table with chairs....it's definitely a tight squeeze! Anyhow, I am making do with what I have....can't really decorate the walls or ceiling like I want but I do what I can....so, I spread a green table cloth (grass), wrote golf words all over it, drew two black circles for putting holes (cupcakes with "flags" stuck in them sitting on the black holes). Tracy picked and arranged the flowers, they are gorgeous....yellow, green and white, they matched the decor beautifully! The food was delightful...omigosh, I was stuffed all day: 2 quiches (is that a word), potato casserole (we almost beg Tracy to make this for each birthday...it's too die for), fruit, yogurts, absolutely yummy quinoa, nuts and I think raisins, roasted coconut and granola fresh from Hawaii (I mean fresh.....my boss just returned yesterday morning from Hawaii) and these most awesome "golf balls" date balls that Gail made....they looked like golf balls (powdered sugar)...OMG, I am still stuffed! I made cupcakes....would you expect anything else? I had a great time with this theme, I would have liked more time to create better decor but it still turned out great....I created two golf birthday cards and two golf gift boxes...altogether the decor looked awesome! I'm sure ya'll want to see....

So, here is the table....you can see how it all comes together with the cupcakes, the present boxes, cards and a glimpse of the flowers in the background. 

These are the birthday cards, the one on the right is upside down (I just noticed), LOL! Oops! Anyhow, you get the idea. I didn't have any golf stamps, had to use stickers (not my favorite way of crafting cards). I think they turned out cool anyhow!

A closer view....the cupcakes....well, you can see the sand traps were made with crushed graham crackers, also you can see the water hazard, rough greens and the putting greens...miniature flags and edible golf balls completed the picture! Oh, we had REAL golf balls hanging around on the table as well....if you look close, you can see the black cupcake with the flag stuck in it and the golf ball next to it....a putting hole? 

Obviously, I'm pretty proud of these cupcakes! LOL We keep getting closer and closer to check out the detail! Oh, besides fun to make, they were fun to eat! Yum!

Final shot....I won't bore you anymore....the water hazard...who's gonna wade in and get all those golf balls? 

See, I'm getting better at frosting....just keep practicing! 

Practice makes Perfect.....Right?

So, I'm practicing making cupcakes and frosting them for my son's wedding. The colors are purple, black and white....the bride and groom wants both white and chocolate cupcakes with a buttercream frosting. Each month on our Playday (my husband and I host Playday with our best friends as well as our son and his fiance)...for Playday, I'm creating cupcakes to taste test for the wedding. Each month I'm making a different flavor of cupcake and a different flavor of frosting. Did I tell you....I'm teaching myself to frost cupcakes, using different designs. Well, I can definitely see improvement each month.....it's not like all I'm doing is trying different techniques every night (I'm not a pro....yet, LOL)....I'm only working on them one night a month, however, I do plan on working on roses this week....I'm really excited to be working on these! Cross your fingers! I will post pics!
So, here is my first ever frosting of cupcakes:

I just pulled out tips and played. I tried a bit of everything. I suppose I should buy or look up some frosting techniques to help me out but I don't usually work that way...I usually just jump in head first and this is no exception! My first try! 

So, the next month I made Sparkling Cider cupcakes with Sparkling Cider frosting. The cupcakes were a hit, the frosting wasn't (it was good, just not too die for good)! But, they looked pretty! LOL Sticking with the purple, I tried my hand at flowers (the roses were pre-made, can't take credit for them). I posted in an earlier post the design choice from this session of cupcake making. I just want to show you my second attempt....here it is: 

I had a great time with the flowers, can't wait to practice more. I'm sure everyone is going to be tired of cupcakes by year end, but hey, I'm having fun! I don't want to make this post too long, don't want to bore anyone so I will post my third try another time. The third attempt was for Valentine's Day.....guess what: they are not purple! LOL

Cupcakes and Chocolate....

So, I haven't told ya'll that I'm making the cupcake/cake tower for my son's wedding....I'm so excited! I am having the time of my life creating cupcakes for taste testing. The first cupcakes I made were Sparkling Cider (a hit) with Sparkling Cider Frosting (not a hit, too runny)....Oh, did I tell you, I have never really frosted cupcakes before other than the standard spread the prepared frosting on cupcakes and pour sprinkles on them....you will watch me grow with my frosting techniques. Anyhow, going back to the chocolate (I did try to entice you to read through the title)! Okay....so first I will post the recipe (it's VERY chocolate) that I used and make notes of how I tweaked it and then I will show pics (stop drooling)!

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients: 
1-1/2 cups cocoa powder
3 cups all purpose flour
3 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking soda
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs (bring to room temperature)
1-1/2 cups buttermilk (***)
1-1/2 cups water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark syrup
2 tsp really good vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line muffin tin with paper liners or spray with cooking spray (I prefer the liners). Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and baking powder (I sift all dry ingredients so there won't be any lumps). Mix in the sugar and salt. Slowly add the eggs (one at a time), the vanilla, water, oil and buttermilk. Mix until combined (scraping the sides and bottom to reach all the dry ingredients). Fill liners to about 2/3rds full, using a 1/3 cup measuring cup works well and keeps the mess down. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from pans to cool on wire racks. This recipe made 36 fluffy, very chocolatey cupcakes.

(***) - If you don't have buttermilk, you can make it by pouring 2 tbsp lemon juice into a 1-1/2 cup measuring cup and filling it the rest of the way with milk. Let sit for 15 minutes, it will get curdled and look yucky but works so well! I always make it this way....I actually like the texture of the recipe better.

This is what was left after 24 cupcakes....Yum! I could have just taken a spoon to it but I knew I needed to make that other dozen! 

I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup to fill the cupcake liners...

This is what they look like....YUMMY! Can you imagine just biting into one? I usually fill the liners with a little less batter but I wanted them to over hang a bit! I am compromising by  not having  "too much frosting"   as we don't want them overly sweet, but yet have enough to make them pretty. The bride doesn't care for frosting so much and the groom (my son), well like me, he loves frosting! It's  Monday, I will be frosting on Thursday so you will just have to wait for those pictures....We'll see how these go over. Wanna try one?