Salmon

Now for the salmon recipe!



Ya'll will have to bear with me a bit as I start the recipe documentation process. Most of my cooking (and baking for that matter) is a conglomeration of several recipes with my own tweaks, or something completely formulated in my head. That being said, specific ratios and measurements are something somewhat new to me. So feel free to ask any questions about anything that I put here if you are unclear or are getting different results.



Mustard Glazed Salmon:



equal parts dijon and brown sugar (i.e. 2 tablespoons of each is usually what I use), my favorite dijon is Emeril's
salt and pepper
salmon fillet (I prefer without skin)



Preheat your grill (this could be made in an over probably at 400F). Place salmon on aluminum foil and season with salt and pepper, place on top rack of grill (if you place it on the bottom the glaze will burn) and let cook for about 5 minutes. While salmon is cooking mix dijon and sugar together until the sugar is mostly dissolved. After 5 minutes paint the glaze onto the top of the salmon, with any of the extra drizzling right along the top middle of the fillet. Let cook an additional 4-10 minutes (depending on how hot your grill is and how thick the salmon is) until an internal temperature of 140F is reached.



In the picture I made this with quinoa, which is a tasty healthy whole grain. I get mine at Trader Joe's but I think you can find it in any grocery store now. I make it according to the direction on the box but instead of water I use chicken stock (vegetable would be fine) about a tablespoon of lemon juice and some garlic powder. Normally I would add some chopped parsley too, but I was rushed. Basil or mint would be good with it as well.



I love this meal because it has a gourmet feel yet can easily be made in half an hour and is so easy.



Enjoy!

Key Lime Pie- with recipe!

I debated which recipe to give you first, salmon or key lime pie, and since summer is quickly coming to an end (as in today...), I thought I would throw the key lime pie your way before it's time for all my apple recipes.



I saw this on Oprah, and I thought I would give it a try. I'm normally not a huge key lime pie person, just because it's usually too tart and not very well balanced. This exceeded my expectations. Not only was it delicious, I was impressed with how easy it was too. They also freeze really well. I made some mini pies in ramekins, and I've got six waiting for me in the freezer.



Mar-A-Lago Key Lime Pie



Ingredients:Serves 8

Graham Cracker Crust:

• 3/4 pound graham crackers


• 4 Tbsp. granulated sugar


• 2 sticks melted butter


• 1/4 tsp. sea salt

Filling:

• 4 egg yolks


• 1 can (14 ounces) condensed milk


• 2/3 cup fresh Key lime juice


• 1 lime , grated zest

Topping:

• 1 cup heavy or whipping cream , chilled


• 2 Tbsp. confectioners' sugar


• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

To make graham cracker crust: Preheat the oven to 325°.

Break up the graham crackers, place in a food processor and process to crumbs. Add the melted butter, sugar and salt and pulse until combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan, forming an even layer on the bottom, sides and edge. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the crust to cool.

To make filling: While the crust is resting, in an electric mixer with the wire whisk attachment, whip the egg yolks and lime zest at high speed until fluffy, or 5 to 6 minutes. Gradually add the condensed milk and continue to whip until thick, 3 to 4 minutes longer. Lower the mixer speed and slowly add the lime juice until incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 15 minutes, or until the filling has just set. Cool on a wire rack, and then refrigerate for 20 minutes.

To make topping: Whip the cream, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until nearly stiff. Evenly spread the whipped cream on top of the pie, and place in the freezer for 20 minutes prior to serving.

On the show he put a ton of white chocolate on top. I did this at home as well (since it is what attracted me to the recipe) and I would really recommend doing this as well, it really helps the taste balance, texture and just gives it that something special.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

A few changes coming to this site. As much as I love cupcakes, and this site is meant to be focused on cupcakes (as the general focus will remain) I plan on expanding a little. I often get asked what I enjoy more, cooking or baking, and I always have difficulty answering that question. I love baking for the creative freedom it allows me, but I also love cooking and the ability to comfort and replenish.

That is why I am going to start including some of the meals that I make here and there (and hopefully the recipes if I am organized enough!). This will help me to document what I make and give me a source for brainstorming weekly meal plans, plus it will hopefully inspire you or give you some new recipes to try.

I have a few recipes waiting to share as soon as I have a little bit more time to type them out, but for now I wanted to inform you of the inclusion.

I will leave you with these:

My twist on a caramel apple: apple cinnamon cupcakes with a dulce de leche frosting

Minis

I have made a whole bunch of fun new cupcakes recently, but have been a big fat failure when it comes to documenting them. I just have too many people chomping at the bit to eat them! My new favorites, raspberry almond, with chocolate frosting should have pictures coming soon since I have an order for this weekend, which I will be SURE to take pictures of. I'm pretty excited to share those with y'all anyways.

But for today, I have cute, petite mini red velvets.

I do regular and mini size cupcakes, but I must admit I am a little partial to the minis. They are a bit more complicated, but for parties, gatherings with large people, and kids, they are absolutely perfect! They are easy to manage, make you feel less guilty, are less of a sugar buzz for the kiddos, and give you the option to try several flavors. I'm dying to do a wedding cupcake stand with regular and mini sized cupcakes in different flavors mixed together. With toppers like the ones in the post below with a monogram on top. Not that I have it planned out or anything... now if only I knew people who were getting married!

Baby Boy shower

Here are some cupcakes I made for a baby shower (obviously boy). They are double chocolate cupcakes with baby themed chocolate toppers. There is a baby buggy, bootie and bottles. I was pretty happy with how these turned out. I would love to do these for a wedding in co-ordinating colors with a monogram on top. How pretty would that be?

Side View:

Top View:

Again, I realize that I may be biased, but my double chocolate cakes are SO good. I normally don't like getting double chocolate cupcakes (or cake for that matter) because people usually don't know how to make them well. Either they are too rich to eat a whole one (which come on, it's a cupcake!) or they are too sweet with no salty balance.

Mine fall into neither of those categories, and still have enough chocolate punch. My husband is not a cake person. His sweet default is ice cream every time. I know my cupcakes are really good when he will eat two in a row (or more), if he only eats one, I know they need more tweaking. Let's just say I lost count of how many of these he ate the other night.

Cupcake Cake

Another example of a cupcake cake. This cupcake cake was 15 regular sized double chocolate cupcakes filled with strawberry cream that I made for my doctors office.

I called in today to get some test results I had done and the receptionist went out of her way to tell me how good they were. I was quite flattered. My cupcakes may not always win the prettiest on the block competition (not that they are ugly by any means...), but when it comes to taste, I like to think of myself as a cupcake rockstar.

This is a side view so you can see the cupcake part:

Top View:

Peach Ice Cream- with recipe!

Recently I have been so busy baking the cupcakes, I haven't had a chance to blog about them. Hopefully this week I will be able to make up for lost time. For now I will attempt to redeem myself with a recipe.



Peaches are in season here in Georgia, and ridiculously cheap. Having such a bounty of the luscious fruits I decided to get a little creative. Sure anyone can make peach cobbler, or crisp, but boys aren't big fans of that and quite frankly I was a little bored by that thought too. However, if there is one thing my boys like it's ice cream.



So why not give peach ice cream a go? When I first got my ice cream maker I used to use it all the time, but recently I have let it be neglected for my cupcake pan. I was glad to have an excuse to dust it off (and after my success I think it will stay in a more consistently used spot!). My go to recipe inspiration website is usually epicurious.com or chow.com. Epicurious gets first dibs, and they happened to have a recipe that was exactly what I was looking for with glowing reviews.



What resulted over the next 24 hours (yes it's a process, but a rather simple one) was one of the best things I have put in my mouth this summer. Unlike my boys, I usually find ice cream lacking a little something. Whatever that is, this version had it. I plan on making it again soon, and the same basic concept to give blackberry ice cream a try too.



Here is the recipe, and the results :

My only notes would be to not add the chunks of peaches, but to puree it all.

I had such success with the ice cream I thought I would give peach cupcakes a try. Somehow though they were eaten before I remembered to take pictures of them. Bummer. My taste testers all said they really liked them. I wasn't as thrilled with the texture, and I thought that they could have been more "peachy". Although that is what everyone said that they liked about them, that they weren't overly "peachy". Maybe I will just work on the texture and call them vanilla peach cupcakes instead! To give them the peach flavor I used the same concept that the ice cream uses to make the peach puree, and added that to my cake batter.

Anyhow, hopefully you can get some inspiration from this post to use whatever produce is most fresh in your area to experiment a little in your cooking/baking!