Hoeing it in the garden

My mint is starting to fill out and look fantastic. I used some of it in my mint cupcakes as a garnish. Now I have some other recipes that uses fresh mint that I need to try out. Anyone have tips for using fresh mint? This is the first year I've grown it.

I finally took off my wall of water's. (walls of water or wall of water's?) It starting to get too hot for them. I tried to keep them on as long as possible mainly for a wind block. Poor plants don't have a chance. I knew one of them had a pepper on but didn't realize how big it was until I took off the wall of water and got a better look at it.

My spinach is up and ready to be eaten! I'm excited for some fresh spinach.

The lettuce is looking great, I have to wait to eat this type. It takes longer but is really great when it's ready. I forgot the name of it.

Radish's are up but they are looking a little picked on. Bugs are getting to them.

The garden is looking great, the tomatoes need the walls of water off as well, the peas are growing and have potatoes all through them. The potatoes from last year have come up without any help. Our corn didn't come up this year. I think the seeds were too old. We replanted and I'm hoping this new batch will do better.

I'm combating the weeds. They seem to be flourishing. I've been trying to hoe everyday but the wind or kids seem to get me off track. I find the first time through is the hardest and once I'm done with the initial one the rest are easier. The girls love helping me and we've been having plenty of baths lately.

Growing a garden? How's it coming? I can't wait for the new peas and potatoes! My mouth is watering just thinking about it and the fresh BLT's. I had one a day for a month last year.

Cauliflower Spaghetti

First, I know what you're thinking, gross. But you'll never notice the extra vegetables and if your family is anything like mine certain members choose to avoid the vegetables. I'm sure most of you have seen the book, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld, where she hides all sorts of vegetables in the food. Well I scanned through the book but most of the recipes I landed on wasn't something I was going to make. So I took the idea of hiding vegetables into my own hands. This doesn't mean that I don't make vegetables and have members of the family eat them, it just means that when they throw a fit about eating them I don't freak out because in my head I say, "That's fine, don't eat the vegetables, you've already eaten them." Insert evil laugh. Here's how I hide them in my spaghetti. I usually work with cauliflower because, it has a mild flavor and it has an easy color to work with.

First I take my cauliflower, fresh or frozen, and cook it till it's soft.

Then I put it in my food processor or blender. You may need to add a little water. I usually add water to the cauliflower when I cook it and then just dump in my cauliflower and water, that way I'm saving some of the nutrients that cooked out.

I puree it until it's a baby food type consistency. Smooth but not too runny. Once I have done that I just throw it in my sauce and cook it together. It hides well, just lightens the color of the sauce. If this is a problem for you, add a little tomato paste. I made my own spaghetti sauce in the Fall and then freeze it for the rest of the year. You can use whatever spaghetti sauce you want.

To make your spaghetti even healthier use whole wheat noodles. This transition was a little more difficult for us to make but now we eat the whole wheat noodles with no problem.

If you want to make cauliflower puree one day instead of having to make it all the time, just make as much as you want, freeze it in ice cube trays and once it's frozen pop the cauliflower cubes out and throw them in a freezer bag. When you want to add cauliflower to something just get out however much you want and thaw it.

Chocolate and Strawberry Cupcakes

I had another garage sale! This one was with my family. I decided to make chocolate and strawberry cupcakes. I didn't go all out since I was making 48 of them.

The cupcake was made from 1 package devil's food cake mix, 2 tablespoons cocoa, 1 1/3 cups buttermilk (I substituted plain milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar), 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 3 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla. I found this recipe in the Cupcakes! From The Cake Mix Doctor I bakes it at 350 for 18 minutes.

The frosting for the chocolate cake was 1/2 cup melted chocolate. I ran out of cocoa and I had some brick chocolate. I melted it down and used some of that.

I then added 1 1/2 cups shortening, 7 tablespoons milk and 4 cups powder sugar. When I was done it just wasn't chocolate enough. It needed more so I had to borrow some cocoa to help it. I added 3/4 cup cocoa which turned out to be enough, the frosting wasn't overly chocolaty but with the chocolate cake it was fine. I added blue sugar for an accent.

The strawberry cupcake was made with a strawberry cake mix and then I added 1 cup milk, 3/4 cup oil, and 4 eggs. The interesting thing I read in Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor was that cinnamon helps to enhance the strawberry flavor. When the cupcakes were all done I did sprinkle some cinnamon on one just to see if it would work and it tasted amazing. I think one day I'll have to try that flavor combination. I cooked the cupcakes for 18 minutes because that's how long it seems to take my oven, yours could be different. I set the oven to 350.

For the frosting I wanted to use a vanilla frosting. I used 1 cup shortening, 4 teaspoons vanilla, 3 tablespoons milk, 4 cups powder sugar and a few drops of red food coloring. I topped the cupcakes with chocolate jimmies.

My army of cupcakes, ready to be devoured.

Root Beer BBQ Chicken

So, the first time I made this I used pork but this time I wanted to mix it up a little and try it with chicken. When it's all done the root beer flavor is a subtle flavor. Nothing overwhelming.

I put the chicken (frozen, I can never seem to be able to remember to pull the chicken out in enough time to have it defrost) in the crock pot. This little crock pot that I used doesn't have a temperature control there is only high. I poured a whole can of root beer over the chicken and let it cook for six hours. You can salt and pepper the chicken before putting it in. Add other spices.

Once the meat is done, I shredded it.

Once shredded I added some BBQ sauce, your favorite kind will work. I like Kraft's Honey BBQ. I add about half a bottle, enough to cover everything. Then I add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of root beer.

After it's all done I put it on buns and eat it that way or just plain. The chicken was good but I think we all decided we liked the pork better. This recipe was made for two adults and 2 kids. Since my kids don't eat meat they really don't count and my husband and I usually share a breast just fine but you can add more meat depending on how big your family is.

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
1 can root beer
1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

My husband has been wanting these cupcakes for a while now. He finally said I needed to make them so the mint Oreo fudge cremes would stop calling to him. He even said he'd make the cake part if I did the rest. I resisted making these because I knew if I made them I wouldn't be able to stop eating them. Mint and chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations. In the end I only ended up eating a half of one but I did snack on all the ingredients before the cupcakes were even done, especially the chocolates and cookies.

I wanted to use Andie's Mints but I couldn't find them at WINCO. I was disappointed and ended up buying Palmer's mint chocolates, which turned out to be yummy. On another trip I did find the Andie's Mints.

I wanted to doctor up the chocolate cake mix that I used so I added 1/2 cup sour cream, 3 eggs, 1 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon mint and 1 cup of crushed cookies.

I put half the cookies in a Ziploc bag and then crunched them up with my hands.

They were easy to crunch up.

They looked so great after they were done baking.

After they were done I cut out the middle with the steak knife.

Then I took the end off the, I don't know what to call it, cone? Leaving just the top. You don't really need to do it the way I did, you could pipe it in if you want but I enjoy a lot of cream in the middle.

The filling was made with 3/4 cup shortening, 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup crunched up cookies, 1/4 cup of the chocolates (I didn't break them up before, just put them in there whole), 8 tablespoons milk and 1/4 teaspoon mint. I blended them together with a mixer. This breaks up the chocolates. I then filled the cupcakes.

Then I put the top on the cupcake covering the cream center.

Once the cupcakes were topped I melted the mint chocolates and smothered the cupcakes with the melted chocolate, I may have smothered my mouth with the melted chocolate as well.

The frosting was made like a buttercream. I used 1/2 cups shortening, 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons mint, 6 tablespoons milk, 4 drops of green and 1 drop of yellow food coloring. I was sad that this didn't cover all the cupcakes. I had some filling left over and had to use that to top some of them. I would up the shortening to 1 cup and the powdered sugar to 4 1/2, that should make enough to cover them. You can use more or less mint depending on how intense you want the flavor to be.

I topped the cupcakes off with the rest of the cookies cut in half and then I have some fresh mint that I plucked the leaves from for an extra garnish.

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 Devil's food cake mix
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mint
1 cup crushed mint cookies

Filling:
3/4 cup shortening
3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup crushed cookies
1/4 cup chocolate mints
8 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon mint

Frosting:
1/2 cup shortening
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons mint
6 tablespoons milk
4 drops of green food coloring
1 drop of yellow food coloring

Banana Cream Cupcakes

Recently I was involved in a garage sale, which was two days. The first day I went to a garage sale and they had food for sale. I didn't think much of it until I got home and thought, cupcakes, I'll make some and sale them at the garage sale for the second day. That night I went home and made 48 cupcakes for the garage sale. I made a regular chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and a banana cream cupcake with banana frosting.

I am not a fan of banana's. I only eat them when they are green and if they have any bruising at all I refuse to eat them. I'm so bad that I make the Dairy Queen workers to show me their banana's before I order a banana split.

I had some banana's in the freezer. They were older banana's that I had peeled and stuck in a freezer bag so that when I wanted to make banana bread for my husband I could.

I recently got the Cupcakes! From the Cake Mix Doctor book. They have a recipe for Banana Pudding Cupcakes. The problem was I didn't have a lot of the ingredients they called for so I had to improvise.

For the cake I followed the directions from the Cake Mix Doctor. I used a yellow cake mix, the one I used was a yellow butter cake. I used 3 medium sized ripe banana's, I mashed them with a fork and then used the blender to get them smoother. My husband doesn't like chunks, he's a strictly chuckless guy. He asks waiters if there are chunks in milkshakes and if there is he get's something else. Then I added 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1/4 cup milk, 3 eggs and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. I use the pure vanilla so I tend to add less since the flavor is more intense in pure vanilla.

After the cupcakes were cooked for about 20 minutes I let them cool on the wire rack. I have to say that I was hesitant to eat the banana cupcake but I had to taste it to see if it was any good. Even though I don't like banana I thought the cupcake was yummy!

After the cupcakes were cooled I cut the center our and filled them with a banana pudding. I took a instant sugar free package of vanilla pudding and added a 4 tablespoons of banana extract to the 2 cups of milk. I blended them together and then spooned them into the cupcake. This time I filled them a little differently. I wanted to put the top of the cupcakes back on after the filling so I used my steak knife, cut out a cavity, filled the cupcake, took the part I took out and took of the extra at the bottom. Then took what I had left and put it back on the cupcake.

The frosting. This was an interesting frosting to make. In the end I think it turned out ok but if I make these cupcakes again I'll just stick to a regular plain vanilla buttercream frosting. I started with 1 cup shortening then added 4 3/4 cups of powdered sugar. I added 4 tablespoons of banana flavoring. I think that was my problem. the banana flavoring gave it a weird flavor. Almost like banana but not quite. Tasted fake. I added 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla and then 4 tablespoons milk. I also added 1/2 tablespoon of meringue powder.

Ingredients:
3 medium-size ripe bananas
1 yellow cake mix
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla

Filling:
1 package (3 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons banana flavoring

Frosting:
1 cup shortening
4 3/4 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons banana flavoring
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons milk
1/2 tablespoon meringue powder

Father's Day Cupcakes

For Father's Day my husband requested the Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes. I tried in vain to convince him to let me make another one, something we had never tried before but he insisted on the peanut butter ones. Being the softy I am I gave in and made him his favorite, how could I say no on Father's Day?

I started off with a Devil's Food cake mix, made it to the box specifications. When I pulled them out I put them on a wire rack to cool. I just bought a few cupcake books and one of them says to cool the cupcakes on wire racks so they cool evenly. Something I hadn't thought of before.

After the cupcakes were cooled I took a steak knife and hollowed out the middles. I know some people take apple corers and take out a middle but I haven't reached that stage yet. So for now the steak knife works fine.

For the filling I mixed 1 cup of peanut butter with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and then 1/4 cup milk. I have to admit when I poured the milk in and started to mix it I started to worry. It just didn't seem like it was going to come together. Slowly it started to mix and look much better. The end result looked great but after eating the cupcake I wished I had made the filling a little thinner. The next time I make them I'll increase the milk.

I then took the filling and put it into the cupcakes. This part you might get messy on. I had to use my fingers to get the filling off the spoon, here's where having the filling a little thinner would have been nice. You could use two spoons, one to dish out the filling and the other to scrap it off the first spoon, if you don't want to get messy.

The next stage is to frost! The frosting I used was the basic buttercream frosting with 1 cup of peanut butter mixed in.

I designed the cupcake topper.

Nacho's are American?

They are when you make them with blue chips and add a festive American flag on top. For flag day I decided to have red, white and blue nacho's. Who knew nacho's could be patriotic? I found some blue tortilla chips at Fred Meyer in there organic section, the brand is Naturally Preferred. I saw that tortilla chips come in blue on a website but I'm not sure where they sell them. I did see on the internet that Tostito's makes them as well. Not sure where to get them though. I have to say these Naturally Preferred chips were the first organic chips I've had. I had my reservations about them but after trying one, my reservations went away. These chips were actually good! They're more of a purple than a blue but what can you do? On the back of the package it says that they get they're color from the blue corn. Wait, what? Blue corn? I've never heard of blue corn before but it exists and I must say it makes some great chips. They weren't too expensive either, only $1.99 for a 9 oz. bag.

I grated two types of cheese, Cheddar and Monterey Jack, you can use whatever kind you want. I had some taco meat left over from taco's so I threw that on top. Then I put the dish in the oven and turned on the broiler let it heat in there until the cheese was nice and melted. I added guacamole, sour cream and tomatoes for the top. I also used some avocado's. This was a fun way to celebrate Flag Day. Also, I did like to pretend that these were healthy, it hit all the main food groups, dairy, grain, vegetable, fruit, and meats. Like chocolate cake for breakfast, healthy right?

Ingredients:
1 bag blue tortilla chips
2 cups shredded cheese
1 cup taco meat
1 pkg. guacamole
1 tomato
sour cream
chopped onions (optional)
avocado (optional)

I would like to say that I appreciate the sacrifices those in the military make for our country. Not only those in the military but also their families and the sacrifices they make.

Flag Day

I wanted to make a cupcake for America's Flag Day. I wanted something light and a little different from the regular cupcake. I turned to one of my favorite cakes, Waky cake. I'm not sure where my mom came up with this cake, probably a church function, but I have always enjoyed it. I can remember it from my childhood and the only thing I really changed was that I used a box cake mix instead of making the cake from scratch. So let's get into how this patriotic cupcake came to be.

I started with a basic yellow cake mix and followed the directions on the box.
After the cupcakes cooled I took a tooth pick and picked holes in the cupcake for the jello. My daughter loved this part and it was fun to have her work with me.

I took a small package strawberry jello, sugar free (.44oz). I wanted to use sugar free because I cut the water in half and was a little worried it wouldn't dissolve completely with the regular sugar kind. Plus who needs more sugar? (I say this as I make cupcakes, a little hypocritical, I realize this.) I put one cup of water in the jello, made sure it dissolved completely then spooned the jello on the cupcakes. Here's where you'll appreciate the work you put into those holes. I missed a couple of the cupcakes and had to go back poke them. The jello has a hard time soaking into the cupcakes without the holes.

After the jello was soaked in I put them in the refrigerator so they could firm up a little. Another reason I put them in the refrigerator, I was out of milk so I couldn't make the frosting. When I finally borrowed some milk I was ready for the frosting. I wanted the frosting to be light so I took a small box of vanilla pudding, also sugar free, made it according to the directions on the box. When the pudding was solid I mixed in an 8 oz. tub of cool whip, lite.

I pulled the cupcakes out of the refrigerator took out a steak knife and cut the tops of the cupcakes off. This part was fun because I was able to see how the jello soaked in.

After the cupcakes were stripped of their tops I put my frosting in a bag and piped some of it on top of the bottom piece. I put the tops back on and piped another layer of frosting on the top of the cupcake.

Warning: these cupcakes are fragile. I did achieve my goal of being light. They were light, fluffy and wonderful. You might need a fork for this one.

Ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 cup water

1 small pkg. strawberry jello (cherry could work as well)
1 cup boiling water

1 small pkg. vanilla pudding
2 cups milk
1 cool whip 8 oz.