Rainbow Cuppycakes

Slacking Queen takes a holiday.. The whole theory of a blog/place to share my latest concoction with friends is awesome. The actual effort it takes is a whole nother thing! (Especially with two glittermonsters being uber clingy!) Here's what we had for their birthday "party" (This isn't too bad.. Was only a month ago we made them!)

Cake Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 c all purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 c sugar
• 12 tbsp butter (around 1.5 sticks) at room temperature
• 2 large eggs and 2 egg whites at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (I think I used more around 3 tbsp, lol!)
• 1 c milk
• food coloring in your choice of shades (I used Wilton's gel colors because that's what I had, but have seen this done with the liquid colors as well.
• Toppings/garnish of your choice (We had rainbow jimmies)
• Cream cheese frosting (You can really top with whatever you wish. This cake goes well with the rich and sweetness of a cream cheese frosting.. Trust me! I'm not a fan of it at all under normal circumstances!)
  

Pre-heat to 350 (352 for dark or lined pans) and get your pan lined (or greased, if you're going to do a full cake instead.)

Sift the flour, soda, salt together and set aside. (Make sure your "assistant" isn't adding jimmies while your back is turned.)

Beat sugar and butter till combined. On low speed, add eggs and egg whites, one at a time. Next, add the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients an milk, alternating.. D-M-D-M-D

Divide the batter into 6 (Or whatever will reflect the number of colors you are using.)

Tint each bowl of batter till you achieve the shade you want. Fill cupake liners till about 3/4 full.. You'll want to use around 1tsp of each color to fit them all in if going for the rainbow effect.

Bake 17-20 mins or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan to a rack to completely cool.

(I was out of paper liners so I had to use the foils.. So not a fan!)

Spread/pipe on your frosting and add your pretties :)

Gimmie a break I'm no professional, so you have to deal with halfarsed pictures.

{edible!!} Play-dough Cookies

Came across these on a baking community and thought they'd be fun. Pops was gone for the weekend so we decided these would keep us entertained.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
assorted colors of paste food coloring (You can also use the liquid..)

Process:

In a bowl cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.
In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir till soft dough forms.

Divide dough into fourths.

Tint each with a different food color. (I said we're going to color the dough, she comes back with her basket of crayons!!)

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Working with half of each color, shape dough into 3/4 inch balls and for each cookie place 1 ball of each color together to make 1 large ball.

Shape into a 12 inch long roll (like a snake), starting at one end, coil roll to make a 2 3/4 inch round cookie. Place cookies 3 inches apart on lightly greased (or parchment lined, as I used) baking sheet.

Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Even the insides look awesome!

Then there's the overachievers who aren't completely satisfied with plain spirals...

Changes I would make: Probally throw in some lemon or lime zest. They were extremely bland in my opinion. They look great though so I suppose that makes up for it.

Southwestern "eggrolls"

So I snaked this recipe from nates's blog,(who got it from another cinc's blog). It sounded tasty enough. I made them when the guys went snowboarding thinking they'd be out late and it would tie them over until the venison steaks were cooked.. Punks showed up early so they wound up being a side item. Anyways, on to the formula!

Southwestern egg rolls(mini burritos)

• 1 can black beans
• 1 can kidney beans (the original recipe called for pinto beans)
• 1 can corn
• 1 package frozen spinach (thawed, drained)
• 1 boneless chicken breast (So I had part of a chicken leftover that my MIL gave us.. I just defrosted it and used that instead.)
• 2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used 4cups of 5 cheese mexican)
• 1 tsp onion powder, chili powder, cumin (I have this ginormous container of taco seasoning I used liberally, along with some fajita seasoning, cracked pepper, couple dashes of tabasco. Season to your tastes)
• 1 package tortillas (taco size)

Dice the breast into bite size pieces. Cook in pan until no longer pink, add spices. Personally, go with an almost done, then add your spices so the meat's not dry.

In a large mixing bowl, combine everything, except for the tortillas.

Warm tortillas in microwave. Spoon in the filling. Fold the two sides down and roll from one end to the other.

Bake on a sheet in 400 degree oven for 15-20 mins until slightly brown. Enjoy with favorite dipping/sauce. We had salsa and sour cream. Would be great with a guacamole, even ranch! mmm.. ranch.

So I didn't take any pictures since mine came out pretty much the same as posted. Well, except they were fuller. Check out nates blog if you want to see each step photographed. I skipped it this round.

Venison..

So my mister bagged his first deer a couple weeks back. Wootage! I think I totally insulted him the first night he cooked some here because he was enjoying steaks, and I just wasn't in the mood, so I passed on the bites he tried to share. Well, that and I'd also cooked these awesome apple simmered BBQ pork ribs. (Love me some BBQ!) They (steaks) were also a bit rarer than my personal tastes were down for.

It's gotten frigid out as of late, so decided to make something nice and warm for our bellies. Nothing says fall/winter like stew, so I went with it.

• venison about a pound or so of stew meat
• mierepoix (1c each: carrots, onion, celery)
• potatoes (your choice on variety and peel... I felt like taking it off)

-all of the above into whatever size you feel is appropriate. I've got P so went with a parmentier (1/2 inch dice)

• thyme 1/4 tsp
• marjoram 1/4 tsp
• garlic 2 table spoons or 3 cloves
• adobe couple dashes
• crushed pepper 10 twists of a mill
• bottle of red wine
  
  
  

Crank your crock pot up to high. Brown the venison in couple table spoons of butter, olive oil, and tablespoon of garlic in a sauté pan. (Don't worry bout the greasiness.. It'll work itself out, plus venison is wicked lean.) Pour into heated crock pot. Add mirepoix, potatoes, and spices. Take about 3/4c red wine to deglaze your sauté pa and pour into your pot. Finish covering the mixture with either stock or water (I'd boiled down the scraps I cleaned from the meat and had a venison one.) Simmer for a good 5+ hours and you'll have savory tastyness like we did.

Which I served along with cheddar garlic biscuits.

These were a last minute decision so I bust out the Bisquick. It's been pointed out to me they don't appear to have any cheesyness to them. That's because I used Cabot cheddar cheese, which being a Vermont cheese, means there is no coloring added, so it's the actual white color cheddar has. Many companies add annatto, an extract which comes from the achiote tree, to gain that orange color most people relate to cheddar cheese.

Breaking traddition.

I'm such an asshole when it comes to sharing recipes.. I don't know why. Mabey it's because everyone in my family has always been like that. There was family favorites that you had to wait till a specific time of year.. Like the Special K Bars my wenchy Aunt would make. She's an awesome baker, but woman can't cook a meal to save her life. Remember the one Thanksgiving we had at her house where she 'cooked'.. Yea the turkey was frozen solid in the middle!

My poor Gram. Memories of her cousine included burnt pancakes that would ooze batter when you cut into them, charred grilled cheese sammiches with tomato soup, lumpy cream of wheat and oatmeal.. I still prefer my grilled cheese "cajun" and cream of wheat to be somewhat "chunky" lol. She could make the divinity and pinnochi tho. (However, she always wound up with hardcore burns on her belly from getting too close to the pot while cooking.)

Moms. Well if anyone should have gone to Culinary School it was her. Sadness back in her day they didn't allow females in the kitchen, so the closest she came was taking a dining room course at the tech school. She would have owned! Somewhat annoying that she no longer cooks, so it's all up to me now. I go visit and want something she used to make, I gotta make it! No baking cookies with that Grandma..Oh well more fun (work!) for me I guess.

Everyone seems to have their own recipe blogs these days.. I suppose I might go that route with this one. I mean, I've found alot of the "super top secret" things online anyways. I think it's kinda neat when there's pictures along with the recipes, which works so you know what stuff "should" look like. I still thing things always come out different because every person is different and will alter things to their taste/liking. I guess this is my "comming to a blog near you: top secrets of the disco kitchen" lol. So the title need some work. Gimmie a break!