Cursed: The Beginning - Episode 1

My all time favorite cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for Valentines Day. Added a little red food coloring and turned the frosting pink :) They were SO pretty. Confession Time: I will admit this frosting is NOT homemade :( I wanted to spend this day with my family and less time in the kitchen so to shorten the time I just bought some cream cheese frosting, but homemade would taste wonderful!

Lindt Truffle Chocolate Cupcakes

1 box devils food cake
1 box instant vanilla pudding (small box)
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1 cup sour cream
Milk chocolate Lindor truffles by Lindt ~ approximately 24

Unwrap milk chocolate Lindt truffles and place in a bowl for use later. In a separate bowl, add all ingredients and mix well. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake at 350. After five minutes, lightly press a Lindt truffle into each partially baked cupcake. Let the cupcakes bake an additional 13 minutes (total of 18 minutes). Cool completely, then frost with cream cheese frosting.

The cake that tasted like a Whoopie Pie

Ingredients

• FOR THE CAKE:
• 2 cups Flour
• 2 cups Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 2 sticks Butter
• 1 cup Boiling Water
• ½ cups Buttermilk
• 2 whole Beaten Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

fROSTING

Ingredients

• 5 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 cup Butter
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!)

Preparation Instructions

Bake your favorite chocolate cake and let it cool.

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.

Grab a spoon and taste this wonderful goodness. If there is any left after your taste test, spread it on a cooled chocolate cake.

Apple Sauce Bread the remix

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cups applesauce
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup softened cream cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 by 5 loaf pan.I used my mini loaf pan that makes 8 loaves.
   
2. Beat together eggs, sugar, and oil. Blend in applesauce, and then softened cream cheese or buttermilk. Mix in flour, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon. Stir in raisins. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. I am not sure on how long I cooked this, 30 mins maybe...just stick a toothpick in and if it comes out clean, it's done :)

This is VERY MOIST and very yummy!
Enjoy!

Sweet Potato and Chicken Stew

Last week the flu went through my house like a wild fire. We were hit hard with it, and now a week later I am still sick :( Well during this time when we were having chills, achy and stuffed up I thought it would be good for my family to have something for dinner that would be warm and healthy to help fight this sickness and soothing for sore throats.

Soup was an obvious choice.

So I came up with this stew, prayed it would taste OK and started cooking...

I am a throw this and that in kind of cook, writing down measurements for later reference is not my cup of tea ha ha After thinking hard on what I used this is what I came up with....Enjoy!

2 Large Chicken Breasts ( boneless)

1 Large Sweet Potato cut in Large chunks

1 cup of frozen peas

1/2 cup of whole wheat mac. noodles ( for a filler)

2 cans of unsalted tomato sauce

about 6 cups of water to boil chicken

pinch of cinn.

salt and pepper

garlic seasoning ( about 1/2 tsp)

When boiled chicken is cooked add potatoes ( I left pealing on for health benefits )

and peas'

half way through potato cooked add mac. noodles

add rest of ingredients

serve up with some buttered crusty bread and enjoy!

Spring Cleaning update

Kitchen- done!

Livingroom- done!

Master Bedroom- done! ( except closet which is organized but clothes need to be sorted for a yard sale)

Nursery- done! ( same as the other bedroom, clothes need to be sorted and packed away)

Bathroom- done!

Closets- done!

PRAISE GOD!

next up- go through yard sale items, add a few new rugs, some spring flowers, candles, paint touch up on walls and trim, sell treadmill, oraganize, clean and paint back entryway to use this summer as our new entry ( hopefully * fingers crossed* ) going to make some new throw pillows, and would LOVE to redo the bedroom end tables at some point. Just some freshening up and making pretty for Spring/ Summer seasons. BRING ON THE WARM WEATHER! :)

gardening?

I am researching all I can on growing a vegetable garden. I have never gardened before so this is all new to me and a bit scary. Anyone have any ideas?

It's that time of year again!

That's right...Spring Cleaning! I love to spring clean. Yes, I am aware I am probably pretty alone with this but having a freshly spruced up, clean, organized home is just so darn relaxing! Of course it takes LOTS of elbow grease and hard work to get to the relaxing part, but a little cleaning never hurt anyone ;)
Today was spring cleaning day 1 for me. I started with the kitchen. I keep a pretty organized and clean home but there are some things I never do! Like pull out the frig and clean behind it....dun dun dun. The dust OH THE DUST! but after an hour or so of good hard scrubbing the kitchen is officially clean for Spring!
Next up is touching up the paint, adding some spring flowers and maybe a rug :)