 I love to cook meals outside on my Big Green Egg - especially when the weather gets warm. I'm accustomed to cooking meats on the grill but I haven't tried grilling very many vegetables on the Egg. I found a recipe for Roasted Broccoli recently and even though the directions said to roast it in the oven, I decided to try it on the grill.  Grilled Broccoli 1 large head of broccoli 3 Tablespoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon sugar ground pepper
Sprinkle with shaved Parmesan cheese.  This is my new favorite way to eat broccoli - grilled and topped with Parmesan. I loved all the crispy browned parts on the broccoli and the salty cheese. My husband liked the broccoli this way too but I think the kids still prefer to eat their broccoli smothered with Velveeta cheese. (oh well) I still like this grilled broccoli and I have a feeling that it will be a frequent side dish at our table this summer.
Ciao!
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 Summer is so close - I can taste it! I grilled some chicken with orange glaze a couple of weekends ago and now I have the taste for summer. This chicken is super easy to prepare and the bright citrus flavor just makes it feel like summer in your mouth.  Orange Chicken 4 boneless chicken breasts ¼ teaspoon pepper 5 Tablespoons white balsamic vinegar ¼ cup honey 1 Tablespoon oil 2 teaspoon orange zest 3 cloves garlic ¾ teaspoon salt
 I'm a self proclaimed foodie but I was also born in the early seventies so when I hear the word "blondie", the dessert is not the first thing that comes to my mind. My first thought is the singer. My second thought is the cartoon. Today's blog recipe is a different kind of "blondie". These butterscotch flavored delicacies are the albino counterpart to the rich chocolaty brownie. I packed mine with toasted walnuts and white chocolate to amp up the flavor and I think you will agree that they are equally delicious as their darker counterparts.  White Chocolate Blondies 1 cup walnuts 1 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 12 Tablespoons butter, melted 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 2 eggs 4 teaspoons vanilla 6 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped
Fold in nuts and white chocolate.
It's no secret that I'm a huge chocolate fan and in most cases - the darker the better. It goes against my better judgement to take the chocolate OUT of a perfectly good dessert (like a brownie) and replace it with white chocolate but sometimes I just have to go out on a limb. As much as I hate to admit it - I really do like these blondies. (Almost as much as their chocolate counterpart.)
Ciao!
 Why do I dream in cupcakes? I find myself daydreaming of new cupcake creations more now than ever - I think I'm watching too much Cupcake Wars on T.V. I had some leftover chocolate cake batter from a graduation cake so I decided to turn my leftovers into Chocolate Covered Cherry Cupcakes. A chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate ganache, cherry cream cheese frosting and a chocolate dipped cherry on top. (Ooooo baby!)
This is my batch of chocolate cupcakes. 
The tricky part about the ganache is getting it to the right temperature so that it's the proper consistency. Too warm and it will be too runny and run right off of the cupcake. Too cool and it will be too thick to spread on the cupcake.  I put my ganache topped cupcakes in the refrigerator to "set" for a few minutes while I made the cherry cream cheese frosting. (I used my regular cream cheese frosting recipe and added a couple Tablespoons of cherry juice from my maraschino cherry jar.) To finish these little beauties, I piped some of the cherry cream cheese frosting on top of the ganache and topped each one with a chocolate dipped cherry.  I wish that I would have taken a picture of my kids who were both waiting eagerly, for me to finish photographing these cupcakes so they could try one. They looked so pitiful that I let them each have a cupcake before their dinner.  Chocolate Covered Cherry Cupcakes - Oh yea.
Ciao!  A couple of weeks ago, we witnessed the last official baseball game of the season for my son's team. The team won both games of the double header and we ended the season by recognizing the seniors with a party. My contribution to the party? - cupcakes of course.  I made over a hundred cupcakes for the occasion.
I made a fondant baseball decoration for each cupcake. (I did that more for me than for the players. They really could have cared less about fancy cupcake decorations.) The boys loved the cupcakes and their party.  Red Velvet Cupcakes 2 ¼ cups flour 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda pinch salt 1 cup buttermilk 1 Tablespoon white vinegar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs 2 Tablespoons cocoa 1 ounce bottle red food coloring 12 Tablespoons butter 1 ½ cup sugar Whisk together flour, salt and baking soda in bowl. Whisk buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla and eggs. Mix cocoa with food coloring until paste forms.
Scrape into muffin liners and bake 25 minutes at 350.
If cake fits your occasion better than cupcakes, turn this batter into a 2 layer 9" cake. This is a red velvet cake that I made a couple of years ago at Christmas time.  Ciao!
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