Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Let us discuss a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. Shall we?

Frosting.

I love frosting.

Do you love frosting?

I don't just mean like it...like:

"Oh yea, I like frosting."

I mean, "GIVE ME MORE FROSTING!"

Like, you enjoy sweet slumber dreams about frosting.

No?

Yea, me neither.

This cake is really great too. I love the raspberry infused chocolate thing we got going on here.

I made these for a co-worker's birthday. They were yummy.

They are really pretty, too.

I love the raspberry on top.

I look at the photo and smile.

:) See? This is me, smiling.

I see that smile... don't try to hide it.

OK. Stop smiling and go make these.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
Yields: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/8 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups White Sugar
2 Eggs
3/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Raspberries, chopped

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with liners. 
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside. 
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Stir in chopped raspberries.
Fill cups 3/4 full. 
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Frost when cool.


Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Butter, softened
4 cups Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup Milk

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. 

Mom's Sketti Sauce

Are you going to be joining us for dinner tonight?

Wonderful!

What are we having, you ask?

Sketti and meatballs!

Sketti! Ya know,Sketti.

Anyway, my mom's sauce is one of the best recipes on the like the entire planet.

No, really.

Trust me.

Still don't believe me?

Guess you are going to have to make it tonight.

It's the only way to know for certain.

Of this, I am certain.

Mom's Sketti Sauce
Serves: 6

Ingredients:
1 28oz can Tomato Sauce
1 14.5oz can Italian Style Diced Tomatoes
1 8oz can Tomato Paste,use 1/2 to most of it
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Onion, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced or chopped
Itialian Seasoning, or various Italian seasonings, to taste
Black Pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste
Dash of Cayenne Pepper, optional
Generous pinch of White Sugar
8oz Sliced White Mushrooms
Fresh Snipped Parsley for garnish

Directions:
In a large sauce pan, sautee the onions and garlic in olive oil until tender and fragrant. About 2-3 min.
Pour in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and paste.  Rinse cans with a little water and add to pan. Stir to combine.
Season with seasonings of choice, peppers, sugar and salt. Taste and adjust.
Let simmer. The longer the better. This sauce can be ready to serve as soon as heated through, however if I have the time, I like to let it sit for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally.
Just a few minutes before serving, add in mushrooms and some parsley. Stir, let cook a few minutes until 'shrooms are tender. Garnish with more parsley and serve over hot pasta.

Crispy Asiago Chicken Nuggets

Hey, you!

Yes, you!

I have something special to share with you.

It is fun.

It makes me all tingly.

You too? Oh good, I thought I was a little strange there for a second.

It is crunchy.

And cheesy too!

It's name is kinda fancy.

Which again makes me tingly and giggly.

Stop staring at me with those googly eyes!

It is called Crispy Asiago Chicken Nuggets.

They warm my heart.

Crispy Asiago Chicken Nuggets
Serves: 2- 4 ( or one hungry woman)

Ingredients:
4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
3 cups Buttermilk
2 cups Panko Bread Crumbs
1 cup Seasoned Regular Bread Crumbs
1/3 cup Flour
1/2 cup Freshly Grated Asiago Cheese
1 teaspoon Garlic Salt
1 teaspoon Paprika
1/2 teaspoon Coarse Ground Black Pepper

Honey Mustard:
1/2 cup of Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup Honey
Mix together and season with black pepper and a little cayenne pepper if you like it hot.

Directions:
2-24 hours before serving, cut chicken breasts into nugget-like chunks. Season with the salt and pepper then add to a bowl and pour buttermilk over top. Let soak for at least 2 hours or overnight.
When ready to bake, heat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, then lay a wire rack on top and spray with non-stick spray.
Add bread crumbs, flour, cheese, garlic powder and paprika to a bowl and mix thoroughly. Remove each nugget directly from the buttermilk to the bread crumb mixture and coat, then set on the wire rack. Repeat with the rest, then spritz each nugget with olive oil or non-stick spray.
Bake for 7-10 minutes, then remove pan from oven and gently flip each nugget with kitchen tongs and spritz again with oil or spray. Bake for 7-10 minutes more, then serve hot with honey mustard.

Adapted from here.

Red Curry Thai Noodles

 

AAHHH!

I am way excited to share this with you today!

Scratch that, I am elated!

This is SOOO good!

Do you like Thai food?

Yes? 

Great! We can be friends. Want to come over and eat this with me?* My husband won't, he hates Thai food. 

Actually, he hates any food of an Asian descent. He says it's too salty and less than filling.

I actually think he knows not of what he speaks.

This is not salty. This is totally filling. 

And a side note, that really is the BIG note, YOU will feel so accomplished after having made such as tasty dish from the comfort of your own home.

It is definitely impressive, so be sure to invite guests! 

*PS. How many shall I set the table for?

Red Curry Thai Noodles

Serves:6

Ingredients: 

3 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (cubed) 

1 cans Coconut Milk 

1 teaspoon Red Curry Paste 

1 Tablespoon Ginger (fresh, Grated) 

1 Tablespoon Cilantro (fresh, Chopped) 

1/4 cups Sweet Thai Chili Sauce, less or more, to taste

1 cup Chicken Or Vegetable Broth 

1 package Mauifun Rice Sticks

1/2 Onion (julienne) 

1  Red Peppers (julienne) 

1/2 pkg Broccoli Slaw 

1/2 Tablespoon Salt, To Taste

Directions:

Start with a large pot over medium-high heat. Scoop the cream off the top of the coconut milk, and put into the pot. Along with the cream, add the curry paste and ginger. Let this simmer for 1 minute.
Then add the chicken. Cook the chicken through.
Pour in coconut milk, sweet Thai chili sauce, cilantro, and chicken broth. Bring this to a simmer.
Next, add your julienned veggies and rice sticks. Simmer this. You will see the broth slowly thicken as the rice noodles absorb it. It should only take about 5 minutes for the rice noodles to be cooked through.
Pull the pot off the heat, and let sit for about 5 minutes. It will thicken during this time. Garnish it with a bit more cilantro.

Baked Meatballs

Meatballs. Meat. Balls. Balls of Meat.
Meatballs are definitely man food.
You know, food that men eat.
Food that is not all dressed up.
Food that does not include the words, low-carb or fat-free.
Food with one syllable.

I have never been much on meatballs, especially spaghetti with meatballs...
I think it stems from watching one of those Kidsongs ( remember those movies?) movies, and the song "On Top of Spaghetti" comes on and this GIGANTIC meatball is rolling all around the set, from the campground table all through the dirt. I think it even rolls up on the dock where a man happens to be fishing, and somehow lands back on the kid's plate by the end of the song. Umm.. ew?

I will say, that I have actually come around, must be from being forced to make them, ya know, the man food. I will occasionally be spotted topping my spaghetti with a ball or 2.  But... these meatballs are not for spaghetti. I mean, they could be. But we ate them a la carte, along side some Rosemary Mashed Potatoes. Feel free to sub the tomato sauce for a gravy. That was my intention, but I figured jarred tomato sauce was so much easier at that point in the day.


Baked Meatballs
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:
1 lb Lean Ground Beef
1 Egg
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese
2 Garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp Dried Basil
1 tsp Dried Parsley
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
1/4 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce OR gravy

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, except the sauce. Mix until combined, careful not to over mix. This will result in tough meatballs!
Spray a large baking dish with cooking spray. Pour in the 2 cups of sauce.
Form the meatballs to desired size; mini for sandwiches or just to be cute or large if you want to eat them a la carte.
Place meatballs in sauce, top with additional cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25min or until cooked through. Yum!

Strawberry Cheescake Pancakes

So let's talk about...cheesecake.

I just love cheesecake. I want it any day, every day. 

Scratch that! 

I need cheesecake. I adore cheesecake. 

I also adore pancakes.

Pancakes + Cheesecake= Love. 

So I have an early childhood memory. Ya know, one of those ones where you actually don't remember anything except that one clip that remains solid in the back of your mind? One of those where the picture is sort of hazed, and the sounds are muted. Yes, it's one of those. And this memory is about cheesecake. 

We were on like our one and only family vacation road trip ( it is hard to take vacations when you have a 12 person family), across country and we stopped to visit my Grandma, and it happened to be around my brother's birthday. I remember her serving cheesecake. Ew! Cheesecake?! Like cake made of actual cheese? Like that stuff wrapped in plastic served on a sandwich? No thanks! 

So there it was. I was repulsed by cheesecake from that time on. Well, that is until the moment we (by we, I mean cheesecake and I ) stumbled upon each other while dining out one afternoon. White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. Sigh. To this day I still swoon. My heart skips a beat and my knees shake. See? Sometimes it is a good thing to revisit an old fling!

Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes

Serves: 2

Ingredients

 Pancakes:

1 cup Flour

2 tbsp Sugar

1 heaping tsp Baking Powder

Dash Cinnamon

2 tbsp Canola Oil, or melted butter

1/2 cup Milk

Juice from 1/2 lemon

1 Egg

Strawberry Jam

Sliced Strawberries for  Garnish

Cheesecake Filling:

4 oz Cream Cheese

2 tbsp Powdered Sugar

1 tbsp Honey

Directions:

In a small bowl squeeze the juice from 1/2 lemon. Add the 1/2 cup of milk. Allow to sit for 5 min.

Heat a skilet or small frying pan over low-medium heat. (I usually go for a 4 setting)

In a bowl of a mixer, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar and honey. Beat about 2-3 min.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Add the oil and egg. Begin adding the the milk and stir to combine. You want the batter to be lumpy, but not too thick.

Throw some butter on the skillet. Have the cheesecake filling handy. Once butter is melted pour on some batter. Throw on 2-3 spoonfuls of cheesecake. Allow to cook until bubbles form on top. Flip the pancake. Cook for another 45 sec to 1 min. Continue with rest of batter. 

Slather with strawberry jam and diced strawberries. Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs, and enjoy!  I like reunions! ;)

Greek Pasta Salad

  

I have had my "vacation." I'll let you guess to where...

Need a hint?

It was not tropical.

It was not filled with white sand and swarthy Hispanic servers.

I did not get to relax.

In fact, I hardly slept. I  was even more tired than before I "vacationed."

Answer: I went to St. George. Ask, me why. I have no clue. Traveling anywhere with an 11 month old is a joke. She didn't sleep. I didn't sleep. She was full of energy. I had no energy. I even got a taste of what those parents feel that have to drive around in the car to get the baby to sleep. And, I am here to say, I'm sorry. I'm glad Swayze is usually a very good sleeper when she is in the comfort of her own crib.

So, next time I decide to "go away for the weekend"... please tell me NO!

Time to get back to business. Well, actually this dish is not really a back to business dish. This one was born in an "I really don't feel like cooking anything... today, tomorrow, or for a week type of attitude." This is so simple, and definitely perfect for a hot summer day, or to bring to your next BBQ.

Greek Pasta Salad

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

1 lb Bow Tie Pasta, cooked and drained 

Juice from 1/2 Lemon

Cardini's Greek Dressing ( or Greek dressing of choice)

Salt, to taste

Coarse Ground Pepper, to taste

1 large Cucumber, diced

10 oz Grape Tomatoes, halved lengthwise

Chopped Parsley, to taste

4-6 oz Crumbled Feta

Directions:

Cook and drain pasta as directed on packaging.

Meanwhile, chop up all veggies.

Pour cooked pasta into a serving dish, or mixing bowl and transfer to a serving dish later. Squeeze the lemon half over the pasta. Add in the Greek dressing, start with about 1/2 cup. Throw in the cucumber, tomatoes, parsley and feta. Combine. Season with salt and pepper. Add more dressing as needed. Allow to chill, if time permits. ( I hope that it does.) 

Grill up some chicken or steak and serve over cold pasta for a main dish serving. Have a great Monday!