Pumpkin Ale Cupcakes

I love summer best of all, but pumpkin anything and holiday treats help me make it through fall and winter. This fall I am on a mission to find THE perfect pumpkin cupcake. I found several on the internet this weekend, but when I stumbled on one that was chocolate I knew I had to try that one first!

Mamma graciously agreed to be my sous chef and even assisted in gathering the ingredients for a photo!

Pumpkin Ale Cupcake ingredients

I admit I was a little dubious about this recipe at first. I love pumpkin and I love chocolate, but I wasn't sure how they would be together. As pumpkin was my primary flavor objective, I decided to up the pumpkin on this recipe. Instead of just using the pumpkin ale, I also added 3/4 cup of pumpkin. I cut down the amount of sour cream to about 3 tablespoons.

I found the original recipe here. 

I've never understood exactly what adding one egg at a time really does to enhance the recipe, but nevertheless, I followed the instructions. (This time anyway.)

Yep, there's pumpkin beer in there! Yum!

And now it's getting chocolatey!

True to the recipe instructions, the batter is very runny, but don't worry!

And in we go! 

As the batter is fairly thin and runny it is easy to drip where you don't want it to. No matter, just scrap that off with your fingers (feel free to take a little taste!)

And now we bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. I often find cooking times unreliable, but 25 minutes was right on the nose for this. The recipe does say this makes 24 cupcakes. Our batch actually made 30 cupcakes. I think the secret to pretty cupcakes is to not overfill each cupcake well. This also means more cupcakes, yah!

I think these cupcakes would be great with just a basic cream cheese icing, but the buttercream icing recipe is also quite yummy.

Pumpkin spice buttercream icing ingredients

We decided to cut the icing recipe in half and we had plenty to ice each yummy cuppycake!

Yum!!!

And now for the final touch.

Aren't they beautiful?

This recipe turned out to be a lot of fun. The combination of rich dense chocolate flavor combined with the spicy pumpkin and pumpkin ale flavors was very unique. I would definitely make these again.

If you know of any pumpkin recipe I should try, please let me know!

Pumpkin spice love!

Wine for supper

I'm sure this never happens to my food blogger idols like the Pioneer Woman, but sometimes supper just doesn't work out like you hoped it would. There are some nights you plan to go home and get into your pjs straight after work and have wine or perhaps a can of icing for supper, but some days it's just a last resort.

My Dad (bless his heart) tried to make hamburgers in a basket for our supper tonight and it was a dismal failure. Perhaps dismal is too strong a word. It really wasn't horrible, it just wasn't good but we are apparently food snobs in my family and refused to eat it. Hamburgers in a basket is sort of a 70's fabulous dinner item that is an old favorite of ours. We haven't had it in quite awhile and Daddy thought it was a good idea to break out an old favorite.

The recipe is simple. You put a hamburger patty in a packet made of tin foil and top it with sliced potatoes, onions, carrots and green pepper. Season it all well and put it in the oven for about an hour. The secret is in the seasoning. My Dad always accuses Mamma and me of over salting everything. The secret to the recipe really is in the seasoning though. You have to coat this stuff down with salt, pepper, seasoned salt and Worcestershire.

***We interrupt this blog post with a message from Mamma***

"Why are you putting that recipe in a blog. I've always hated that recipe. It's not good. The potatoes don't cook up crispy enough in that foil," says Mamma. 

Well, clearly after all these years Mom has decided to confess her hatred of hamburgers in a basket. I agree with her that the potatoes don't get crispy. However, if it is seasoned correctly I still think this is a fast and easy weeknight menu item. One pot (or packet of foil, as the case may be) meals are always good for busy week nights.

Unfortunately, Daddy seems to have a seasoning phobia and failed to put enough salt, pepper, seasoned salt or even Worcestershire sauce on the burgers in a basket. Flavorless meat and veggies are just a major bummer. If you decide to try burgers in a basket, salt, pepper and season till your heart's content. I promise it will be good. I think some Tony Cachere's would be great on it! Maybe I'll try that next time.

Sadly, tonight's supper was a failure so we ended up eating cheese, crackers, olives and wine for supper.

Really the only downside to having large amounts of wine and cheese as a meal on a Tuesday night is that it may make you feel like crying at random commercials like the University Phoenix of Commercial. Are they really using Amazing Grace as the background music?

Sunday Dinner

Our menu for tonight's dinner promises to be very exciting. We are trying several new recipes shared with us by friends and making up a few recipes of our own. It's really a joint effort between myself, my boyfriend and my mom. I confess, they are doing most of the work. I'm more the idea person! (Teehee)

The pork loin was rescued from the freezer and we searched various cookbooks and the internet for a recipe before finally deciding to make up our recipe. A friend of ours makes a fantastic dry rubbed pork loin and we used his seasonings. Unfortunately, we didn't exactly have the measurements so we pulled some spices out of the spice drawer and started dumping stuff in the bowl! 

Spice line up for our dry rub

The spices in our dry rub are kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder, hot paprika, dry mustard and course ground pepper. Dump desired amount into bowl and mix together then smash it into your meat (I made boyfriend do that part!) 

Yummy spiced up pork loin all ready for the grill!

The pork loin should be cooked on low heat for a long time! Meat should have an internal temperature of 170 when done. Hey, I told y'all this wasn't one of those detailed food blogs. :)

 Our next menu item was recommended by a family friend. This recipe combines a vegetable with one of our all-time favorite ingredients. . .bacon! Cut a cabbage head into four quarters, sprinkle with salt, pepper and seasoned salt. Wrap with two strips of bacon. Wrap bacon-wrapped cabbage quarters tightly in foil and cook on the grill for 45 minutes to an hour. The bacon wasn't quite crispy enough for us so we unwrapped them and put them in the oven on broil for about 5 minutes. YumEE!

We need a fun name for these!

Our sweet cousins brought us a whole bunch of jonagold apples that they picked straight from an orchard in Ohio. We just had to incorporate these beauties into our meal. We threw in a pan with a stick of butter, brown sugar, white sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It's fruit! It's good for you. Yum!

Yummy Fried Apples

So just to recap, we had grilled pork loin, bacon wrapped grilled cabbage, twice baked potatoes and cinnamon apples. We were all pretty much stuffed by the time we finished eating, but it was all delicious! 

Our decadent Sunday dinner

Close shot of the pork loin. Yum!

Many thanks to Mamma and Morgan (that's my boyfriend;) who helped (ok, did most of the work) put this meal together. Yum!

Cheers and Pork!

Steak and Pumpkin Cake

Our annual Pumpkin Festival is this weekend and I volunteered to bake some pumpkin goodies for a charity bake sale. I really wanted to try to bake these pumpkin nutella muffins, but I decided instead on this pumpkin pound cake recipe.

Pumpkin Pound Cake

I thought the overall flavor of the cake was nice, although it could have been more pumpkiny (is that a word?) The cake called for a glaze, but frankly, I'm just not a glaze kinda girl. Since it was for a charity bake sale I also thought it would be less messy without any icing. If I make this recipe again, I would definitely ice it with a cream cheese frosting.

When fall arrives, I become a pumpkin junkie! If you know of any other great pumpkin recipes I should try, please let me know! And now on to my other culinary adventures of the evening. . .

Tonight for dinner we had one of my all time favorite meals ever, steak, baked potato and salad. Sadly, I have realized that I am actually quite content to just eat steak and potato and forget the salad. Oh, yes, and garlic bread. I do adore garlic bread! Yum!

Steak, Salad, Wine & Garlic Bread. Yum! Yum!

Since we are such good friends, I will share my secret steak recipe with you. If you are a steak purist, like my boyfriend, you may not care for this, but if you like a steak with a little kick, you will love it! I put a small splash of olive oil in a deep pan and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, then I lay the steak in the pan. I prefer a t-bone, preferably one with a large filet side! I sprinkle both sides of the steak with an unflavored meat tenderizer, white pepper (you know it's my favorite!) and garlic powder. Then I coat the entire thing in Tony Cachere's creole seasoning. I adore creole seasoning! I think I could actually just eat this stuff right out of the container. Ok, maybe not, but it is yummy! After I put the creole seasoning on the meat, I sprinkle a few more dashes of Worcestershire. I like to let this marinate for a few hours, but even if I don't have time for all that, I still use this same method and it makes the steak very flavorful. A few minutes before putting on the steak on the grill, I add a sprinkle of kosher salt to the meat. This steak is so good I actually lick the bone when I'm through! YumEE!

I always like to serve a nice hearty red wine with steak. In the above photo is a bottle of Castle Rock Petit Verdot that I bought at the beach this summer. (I confess this was taking awhile back as I was too intent on chowing down to actually take any pictures tonight.) Tonight we had Cupcake Malbec, which was excellent!

Cheers!

Food Blogger Wannabe

You know all those awesome food blogs with the great step by step photos of everything the recipe entails? This is not one of those. But I do aspire to that. Personally, I'm not sure I have the patience to photograph each and every step of a recipe. You're lucky if I'm patient enough to finish the entire recipe. I think I would be great on a Food Network show where all the ingredients are already on the counter and measured out perfectly in neat little colorful bowls. I would only occasionally have to walk over to my cutesy pink refrigerator and get out some heavy cream. Of course, I would NEVER have to clean up the mess afterwards. So. . .until then. . .here a few things I have prepared lately.

I am a tad obsessed with the Pioneer Woman! My mom just got the cookbook for her birthday and everyone at the party stared at me when I started screaming. I haven't had a chance to peruse the book yet, but I am a huge fan of everything on her web site and her hysterical comments throughout the recipes. While Ree is channeling Lucille, Vivien and Ethel, I'm channeling her!

I was recently searching through Ree's web site for a picnic friendly recipe to make for my friend Sarah and me to take to see my boyfriend's outdoor theatre production. (It was Smoke and the Mountain and he and the entire cast did a wonderful job! ;) I found this lovely layered salad recipe and it was perfect! I have always loved a green pea salad and we often make a similar version around the holidays. This recipe is a great mix of healthy greens and some yummy fatty bacon and cheese! If a recipe includes bacon and cheese, I'm sold! I added just a tad Hidden Valley powdered ranch dressing mix and some fresh dill to the mayo and sour cream mixture. I was also extremely pleased with my smart self when it (Ding! Lightbulb!) dawned on me to make the salads in individual bowls for Sarah and myself. Because it was in a smaller container, however, the dressing was a bit overpowering. If I do that again for a picnic I would prefer just a dollop of the dressing on top and not a full layer.

As my boyfriend's show ran for two weekends, I had to come up with yet another picnic friendly recipe. I had lots of fresh dill and some lemons so I came up with my own recipe! I really just dumped stuff in a bowl and kept adding and tweaking it, but here is my estimation on the measurements for the recipe. Ok, so its not very accurate. I promise I'll do better next time!

Lemon-Dill Dressing

• 1/3 cup (possibly, maybe? How about just a couple of good glugs) of good extra virgin olive oil 
• juice of half a lemon plus some lemon zest
• splash of pinot grigio (or any white wine you may have)
• tablespoon (ish) of dijon mustard
• lots of fresh dill
• tad of honey
• pinch or two (or three) of sugar
• kosher salt (I like a lot of salt)
• white pepper (I'm obsessed with white pepper, don't ask me why. I can't explain it.)

Cook about 3 cups of fusilli pasta in some heavily salted water. (I added some pink food coloring because I'm silly like that.) When the pasta is done, drain in a colander and add some fresh spinach immediately. The spinach will wilt a bit and I like it like that.

When pasta is cooled, add whatever additional fresh veggies you like. I used some colorful red and yellow grape tomatoes sliced in half, cucumber diced very small and some minced shallot. Then pour on your dressing and eat it all up!

It is a very light and refreshing dish so you don't have to feel the least bit guilty. I served it with some bagel chips and a manchego cheese, which my boyfriend said was too overpowering for the salad. I personally liked it, so there!

Both of these salads were lovely, but you will just have to take my word for it as I didn't take a picture. Here is a picture of the Caprese salad I made for my Mom's birthday party yesterday. This was so easy it was scary! I still had some of those beautiful little yellow and red 'maters so I sliced the larger ones in half and the teensy tiny ones I just dumped right into the bowl. Then I added fresh basil and mozzarella balls. I doused it all in some olive oil, kosher salt and both white and black pepper. It was delish!

Caprese Salad

I'm from the South, I'm supposed to love butter!

I'm not sure how I lived before there was pinterest! Where else can you waste hours and hours gazing at tranquil ocean scenes, planning a wedding even though you aren't engaged or finding recipes you know you'll never actually make? It's amazing! Thanks to pinterest I have discovered many things, but I know of at least one I have actually tried - Butter London nail polish! 

Being from the south I was naturally drawn to the name of the product and I'm a bit addicted to nail polish anyway so I knew this was going to work out. I have to preface this by saying, I had acrylic nails for years and I'm always disappointed in the longevity of regular nail polish. Let's face it, I don't care how good a polish you buy, if it is on your natural nail it just isn't going to stay as long as acrylic, gel or shellac.

Clearly, I have a nail polish addiction!

Butter London polish doesn't have any magic staying power either, nevertheless, I greatly enjoy the freedom of being able to change polish whenever I choose and not have to plan my schedule around a fill in. 

Like OPI, Butter London also has fun names for the colors. My personal favorite is "No more waity Katie." Come on, we all know that the cutesy name is half the fun! 

Other than having cool colors with cute names, the main selling point of this polish is that it is non toxic. Unlike most other nail polish is it formulated without formaldehyde (isn't this what they put on dead people so they don't smell?), toluene, DBP or parabens (I don't even know what those others are.) 

Dosh by Butter London

I never really thought about the fact that my nail polish had those icky things in there! Think about how often you put your hands near your mouth! EEk! I have a ton of other polish and I confess I will probably continue to use them, but after using Butter the thought of using the others does freak me out a little. I sort of have to psych myself up to use some OPI. 

"It's ok, Kitsey! Think of the cute name, not the formaldehyde!" 

I do have to say that the price for Butter London polishes is pretty steep. My boyfriend gives me the judgmental face whenever I buy some. But you know what, there are some things in life you just shouldn't skimp on and being from the south I'd say Butter is definitely one of them! 

Lovely Jubbly by Butter London

Leopard Print & Sparkles!

Kitsey