 Normally you think of pumpkin treats being served closer to Thanksgiving. That hasn't stopped me for getting ready for pumpkin season right now. I've even planted a pumpkin patch! I put pumpkin seeds in the ground during the first week of June and I've already got some small pumpkin plants sprouting. I can hardly wait for my vines to start producing flowers. I thought I would share this recipe for Pumpkin Pecan Cupcakes - in anticipation of all of the great pumpkins that will be appearing in my garden this Fall.  Pumpkin Pecan Cupcakes 1 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ginger 1/4 teaspoon allspice pinch of nutmeg 1 cup pumpkin puree 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 eggs 1 cup toasted pecans, chopped
Bake 18 minutes at 350.
I will keep you updated on the progress of the pumpkin patch that I planted. Hopefully, I will be seeing flowers soon.
Ciao!
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 Taking time to stop and smell the roses isn't something that comes naturally to me. Maybe it's a result of having 2 busy teenagers to keep up with, but I am constantly having to remind myself to take time to appreciate my surroundings. There are whole days that I get so caught up in the busyness of life that I don't even take time to sit down and eat a meal. Of course there is never a lack of food in my kitchen - a benefit of working as a personal chef. I find myself doing a lot of snacking and tasting throughout the day and I just don't take the time to sit down and actually enjoy my food. With that being said, this pink lemonade cupcake is meant to be savored and enjoyed - sitting down. Take a moment for yourself and sit down with this delicate pink lemonade delicacy. It truly is something that should be savored and appreciated slowly. It should come as no surprise that the secret ingredient in my pink lemonade cupcake is...pink lemonade.
Pink Lemonade Cupcakes 1 cups flour Cream Cheese Frosting 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder 16 ounces cream cheese 1/4 teaspoon salt 6 Tablespoons butter 6 Tablespoons butter 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 3/4 sugar 1/2 cup milk 3 egg whites 1 packet pink lemonade Kool Aid mix a few drops of pink food coloring
Beat egg whites until stiff.
Scoop batter and pour into cupcake liners.  Bake 30 minutes at 350. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack.
Decorate with edible pink pearls.
Happy Summer.
Ciao!  Summertime is here. We're staying up a little later and sleeping in a little longer. That means that we can wake up and have a leisurely breakfast instead of rushing to finish breakfast by 6:30 so that the kids can get to school. My kids are big doughnut fans - I would go so far as to say that they are doughnut connoisseurs. I found this recipe for baked doughnuts on sotongcooks.blogpost.com and I wanted to see if I could make a baked doughnut that the kids would like just as well as their fried counterparts. I had seen baked doughnut recipes in the past but most of them required a doughnut pan - which I don't have. This recipe looked like it was simple enough for me to make, it didn't require a quart of oil for frying, and I didn't need a special doughnut pan to make them!  Baked Doughnuts 1 egg ¼ cup sugar 1 cup milk, heated to 115 °F 1 tablespoon active dry yeast 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoon vanilla extract 2½ to 3½ cups flour, divided, plus more for kneading 1 stick butter cut into 1″ cubes
Punch down the dough and roll it out to about ½” thickness. With doughnut or cookie cutter, cut out 3″ circles with 1″ holes.
Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C). On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, place the doughnuts 1″ apart. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 20 minutes.
Serve immediately. Doughnuts are best eaten while still warm.   These doughnuts were soooooo good. They were even better than their fried counterparts. I am officially done with frying homemade doughnuts - from now on - it's baked for this family. The kids loved them too. They stayed fresher longer too because they weren't soaked in oil.  I think I'm ready to give Dunkin Doughnuts a run for their money with this recipe.
Hungry yet?
Ciao!  I am growing watermelon in my garden again this year. I can hardly wait to pick my first, ripe, juicy melon from the vine. If everything continues to progress on schedule, we should be enjoying our first home grown watermelon of the season in about another month. Until then, we can enjoy watermelon rice crispy treats. This recipe came from glorioustreats.com. It's a keeper.  Watermelon Crispy Treats For the green (rind) outer ring- 4 cups Rice Krispies cereal 4 cups mini marshmallows 3 Tablespoons butter green food coloring For the red (watermelon) center- 5 cups Rice Krispies cereal 5 cups mini marshmallows 3 Tablespoons butter red food coloring mini chocolate chips
Melt 4 cups marshmallows and 3 tablespoons butter in a large bowl in the microwave about 2 minutes, or until very puffy.
Add "seeds"  Slice into wedges.  Serve on a stick ... or wrap wedges in cellophane bags.
This might just be the sweetest slice of watermelon that I have ever had.
Ciao!  We took a family vacation to the beach last week. The weather was less than ideal but we got to spend lots of quality time together. (My kids didn't have much choice it the matter since we were trapped inside on rainy days.) Despite the weather, we managed to sneak out the beach to take some family photos.
The week wasn't a complete wash, we did sneak in a couple of days of water fun.
Of course, there we had lots of good food - and ice cream.
I love family time.
Coming home from a great vacation is never easy. A plateful of grilled jalapeno and lime shrimp makes leaving the ocean, just a little bit easier.  Grilled Jalapeno and Lime Shrimp Skewers 1 jalapeno chili 3 Tablespoons olive oil 3 cloves garlic 1 teaspoon lime zest 5 Tablespoons fresh lime juice (3 limes) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 1 1/2 pounds shrimp Process all ingredients, except shrimp, in food processor.
Reserve 2 Tablespoons marinade and transfer remaining marinade to a bowl with shrimp. Allow shrimp to marinate up to 1 hour in the refrigerator.
Remove from grill.  Serve with rice.  Or serve over lettuce as a salad.  Ciao!
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