Mini Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

We had our neighbors over for dinner the other day, and I got a little too excited and made two different desserts for the occasion. I made Mini Vanilla Bean Cupcakes, with Vanilla Bean Butter frosting, and some Oreo Brownies. I'll get to the Oreo Brownies later; today I'll just talk about the cupcakes.

I originally got the idea for the Vanilla Bean frosting from my baking and blog friend, Grannyloohoo. On this post, she mentions a vanilla bean cream frosting, and I immidiately knew I had to make it! I have a large stash of vanilla beans hanging around, so I added the seeds from one bean to a batch of butter frosting. For the cupcakes themselves, I took this recipe and added the seeds from two scraped vanilla beans to the batter. Then I made them into mini cupcakes, and baked for 12 minutes. I got 58 out of the recipe. I frosted the mini cupcakes using a 1M tip, and practiced making different swirly designs on top.

Vanilla Bean Frosting

1/2 cup salted butter, softened

1/2 pound powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out

1-3 TBS. milk

Cream butter and powdered sugar together. Add vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds. Add milk, a little at a time, until frosting is at desired consistency.

This made enough to frost all of my mini cupcakes, with enough left over to make 4 graham cracker sandwiches. :)

My Version of KaseSpaetzle

The other day we had an easy dinner of German Bratwursts, green broad beans, and I wanted to have a Spaetzle dish to go along with it. I remembered my mom telling me about a dish they serve in Germany, which consists of basically spaetzle, sauteed onions, and emmental (a kind of swiss) cheese. This is my easy version, using dried packaged spaetzle. I'm sure this would be even better with fresh spaetzle. The leftovers (the spaetzle combined with the green beans, and sliced bratwurst) were even better the next day, stir-fried in a little olive oil.

My Kasespaetzle

2 cups dry spaetzle

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 red onion, sliced thinly

1 1/2 cups shredded emmental cheese

2 tablespoons chopped green onion

salt, to taste

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add spaetzle and cook until done, 8-10 minutes for dry. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil and butter and cook onion slowly, over low heat, until carmelized. When spaetzle is done, drain well, and add to the skillet with the onion. Add emmental cheese, and stir until melted. (Some may clump together). Season with salt, and top with chopped green onions.

Homemade Reeses Bars

My mom made a really delicious version of these Reese-like bars growing up, and someday I'll post her recipe. I didn't have enough peanut butter on hand the other day to make hers, so I made these ones instead. They are so good- I used natural peanut butter, and you must store these in the refrigerator, or they'll be a gooey mess. Also, I used a mix of milk and semi-sweet chocolate in the topping, and I added some natural peanut butter to that too. The mix didn't melt smoothly, probably because of the rougher texture of the peanut butter, but it's still very yummy, even if it's not perfectly smooth and shiny.

Homemade Reeses Bars

1 cup butter, softened
1 packet (about 8-9) whole graham crackers, crushed into fine crumbs
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup milk chocolate chips
2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons butter

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the butter , graham cracker crumbs, confectioners' sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter until well blended. Whip until light and fluffy. Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan. In a metal or glass bowl over very hot water (almost simmering), melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter and butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. Spread over the prepared crust. Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into squares. Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com**

Lasagna

I make lasagna sometimes for company. It's yummy, filling, and you can save time, and stress, by making it ahead of time, and then baking when needed. I think this allows the flavors to blend better, as well. I try to avoid overly-salted food, so when I make this, I use no-salt-added tomato sauce (but I do use regular tomato paste and crushed tomatoes). This makes a great meal with some focaccia and a green salad, or some steamed green beans or broccoli.

Lasagna

1 pound extra- lean ground beef
1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 medium/large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
1 (14.5 ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
9 oven-ready lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced
8 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a large pan, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, Italian seasoning, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (or 190 degrees C).*

3. To assemble, spread 2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 3 noodles over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with some of the mozzarella/provolone cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella/provolone, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining sauce, mozzarella, provolone and Parmesan cheese. (You may have some mozzerella and/or provolone left over). Cover with foil sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

*To prepare ahead of time, assemble lasagna completely, and cover with cooking spray-lined foil. Refrigerate. When ready to bake, heat oven to 375 (or 190 C). Bake for 40 minutes; uncover and continue baking for 20 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is starting to brown on top.

Favorite Drop Sugar Cookies

I love these easy sugar cookies. Usually, when I make them, I leave them un-frosted, because they taste wonderful that way, but we had some extra kids (ha ha) over at our house last night, and I had them frost and decorate these cookies for fun. These cookies are so fast and easy to whip up- they're ready in no time. I took a good recipe and modified it to suit my tastes. If you have access to Bob's Red Mill Flours, try their whole-wheat pastry flour- it is great for cookies and quick breads and you can't even tell it's there! When I moved overseas, I was lucky enough to take a few bags with me.

I can't say enough good things about whole wheat pastry flour- I've used it in cookies, pancakes, quick breads, brownies, etc. Right on the bag it says "Superb for cookies, muffins, pancakes, cakes and pie crusts."

These cookies are lightly almond-flavored. For more almond flavor, up the amount to one teaspoon, and omit vanilla. I bake for 8 minutes and these cookies are soft and chewy, which I love. To get a harder cookie, bake for 10-12 minutes.

(Note:  I made these again in April 2012 and added candy-coated, mini chocolate chips to the dough- I get them from Nuts.com.  They are so tiny!  And so cute in these cookies.  (Pictured above.)  I also made the cookies mini by using my smallest cookie scoop.  They were delicious!)

Favorite Drop Sugar Cookies
adapted from Allrecipes

1 3/4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (or 190 degrees if using Celcius). In a small bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat for a few minutes, until very light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Using a medium cookie scoop, form dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

2.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **

Ginger Lemonade

A few years ago, we lived close to a Trader Joe's (well, we did live close, in miles, but the area of the Puget Sound we lived in was so gosh-darn crowded that it took about an hour to drive the 20 miles to get there!) and we'd make trips there about twice a month. There are many, many fine foods I love from Trader Joe's, but one of my faves was thier Ginger Lemonade, available with the fresh juices in the refrigerated case. Knowing Trader Joe's, there's a good chance it's not available anymore. Right now, that doesn't matter to me anyway, since I'm over 4,000 miles away from the nearest Trader Joe's. Even before I was that far away from TJ's, I started making my own Ginger Lemonade. (I say that like I do this regularly... when in fact, I only made it for the 2nd time a few days ago!) It is soooo, soooo good though, that we should all be making this regularly! In the future, I'd like to experiment with using part honey for the sugar, so it can be honey-ginger-lemonade! Note: Ginger is easy to peel; use a very sharp knife to carefully slice off the outer peel. Also, there are 4 cups of water, twice in the recipe, for a total of 8 cups.

Ginger Lemonade

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 cups water
fresh ginger root, about 3 inches, peeled and sliced into thin slices
2 cups fresh lemon juice

4 cups cold water
1 lemon, sliced

In an large saucepan, combine sugar, 4 cups water and ginger root. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Let boil 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice. Cool 15 minutes. Strain into a pitcher; discard ginger. Add the 4 cups of cold water; stir. Refrigerate lemonade at least 2-3 hours, or until chilled. Serve over ice, and garnish with lemon slices.

Garlic-Lime Fajitas

Yesterday, we had fajitas for dinner, and I'm pretty sure they were the best ones I've ever had. I've made fajitas lots of times, using different recipes, but yesterday I decided to just throw a marinade together with stuff that sounded good. I had a package of meat, probably about 1.5-2 pounds, labeled "Beef for Fajitas". So, I have no idea what cut it was. I'm thinking it was either skirt of flank steak, but I really have no idea- I'm just guessing here! It was cut in 4 big pieces, so after a few hours of marinating, my husband grilled it up, and then we cut it into bite-sized pieces when it was done. I cooked veggies on the stove-top just until they were crisp-tender, and we had fresh tomatoes, cilantro, sour cream, sharp cheddar and salsa to top our fajitas.

Garlic-Lime Beef Fajitas

Beef:

1.5- 2 pounds of beef for fajitas

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lime juice

2 cloves garlic, chopped

cumin, to taste

chili powder, to taste

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 large yellow onion, cut into wedges

1 large sweet bell pepper, cut into strips

1-2 tablespoons canola oil

1 tomato, chopped

3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

1-2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

light sour cream

salsa

8-10 flour tortillas

1. Stir together marinade ingredients and pour over beef. Marinate for a few hours.

2. Preheat oven to 400. Wrap tortillas in aluminum foil, and place in the oven to warm.

3. In a large skillet, heat oil and add onion and pepper. Stir-fry until cooked to your likeness- I only cooked until the veggies were crisp-tender.

4. Meanwhile, grill the beef until done- ours was a tiny bit pink in some places still. Let meat rest for a few minutes; then cut into bite-sized pieces.

5. Serve meat with veggies, tomato, cilantro, cheese, sour cream, and salsa; all wrapped in a tortilla.