I’d been wanting to make these for a long time and I finally came across a recipe I like at Tidy Mom. She mentioned in the recipe to cut the amount of Root Beer concentrate because it was too strong but I think my flour made the taste change because there wasn’t nearly enough flavor for my liking. I am going to try next time with all purpose flour and see if that changes. The frosting recipe is spot on though!

They were definitely kid approved though!

Root Beer Float Cupcakes – Adapted from Tidy Mom – This is the recipe on her site that she adapted from Bittersweet

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

(from Bittersweet)

yields 12 cupcakes

1 Cup Rootbeer Soda (non-diet)
1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Canola Oil (Didn’t have canola I used corn oil)
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Teaspoons Root Beer Extract *(if you use root beer concentrate then only use 1/2 teaspoon)(Candy’s Note: I did not follow this for me it wasn’t enough I used nearly 3 TSP)
1 1/3 Cups Flour
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

• Preheat your oven to 350

• Combine root beer soda and vinegar and let stand for a few minutes.
• Add in the sugar and oil, whisking until slightly frothy.
• Mix in your extracts, and slowly add the flour, along with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Careful not to over mix.
• Fill cupcake liners approximately 3/4 full. (At first I thought I had a lot more batter than 12 cupcakes, but then I noticed the batter would settle, so I went back and added a little batter to each liner, which made 12 cupcakes)
• Bake for about 18 – 22 minutes.

Vanilla Frosting

The vanilla frosting gave the flavor of  the “ice cream”, though like I mentioned, these might even be good unfrosted and served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream instead.

1 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1.5 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Its obviously no secret that I am a super busy mom. I am busy so much that I don’t often get to cook a hot meal for my family. Recently I was invited to try Bertolli Meal Soups, which are purchased frozen but take only 5 minutes to cook on the stovetop. All you add is one cup of water. Sounds simple enough. The plan was to make my husband and I a nice hot meal and enjoy it before evening activities.

I just openend the bag

cooked it

and in 5 minutes I had set a beautiful rustic place setting with our bowls and garnished the soup with toast.

…and then my husband and son proceeded to eat both bowls in lighting fast speed. So much for a special dinner for me and hubs! But I do appreciate the fact that in 5 minutes I was able to easily make a nice hot delicious meal, something I can’t do from scratch in that time as I usually do being that I am a culinary student who will be a chef soon! So even though the challenge was sort of successful I hope I at least get to taste it next time. Or plan to feed the hungry teenager before he eats my entire bowl while I am cleaning up! And the fact that my guys loved the flavor I am pretty convinced that it tasted good!

About Bertolli Meal Soups:

• Bertolli Frozen Meal Soups are hearty and fresh-tasting with vegetables, meats, pasta and herbs individually flash frozen at the peak of freshness.
• Bertolli Frozen Meal Soups are available in the frozen aisle, and can be prepared on your stovetop in minutes.
• With robust flavors and rich textures, new Bertolli Frozen Meal Soups are available in four varieties: Chicken Minestrone, Roasted Chicken & Rotini Pasta, Tomato Florentine & Tortellini with Chicken, and Tuscan-Style Beef with Vegetables.
• Bertolli Premium Meal Soups for Two are available in 24 oz. packages, and with the addition of one cup of water, yield 32 oz. of mouthwatering soup. The new line of hearty, fresh-tasting meal soups are available in the frozen aisle of grocery retailers nationwide, including Walmart and Target, in four varieties reminiscent of flavors created by Italian Chefs:
• Chicken Minestrone – Roasted white meat chicken, beans, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, tomatoes and pasta in a hearty vegetable broth
• Roasted Chicken & Rotini Pasta – Roasted white meat chicken, pasta, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots and celery in a savory chicken broth
• Tomato Florentine & Tortellini with Chicken – Cheese-filled tortellini, white meat chicken, spinach and tomatoes in a rich tomato bisque with a hint of basil
• Tuscan-Style Beef with Vegetables – Tender beef, mushrooms, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots and celery with bowtie pasta in a savory broth

About Bertolli:

With a brand heritage dating back 150 years to Lucca, Italy, Bertolli celebrates the authentic restaurant-quality Italian dining experience. Through their variety of pasta sauces, frozen meals and olive oils, Bertolli brings flavors reminiscent of kitchens of notable Italian chefs.

Connect: Want to know more about these soups and other Bertolli products? Fan them on Facebook and Follow them on Twitter!!

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I was compensated by Bertolli to participate in the Weeknight Meal Special Challenge.

There is one thing I need to mention and that is that I am so happy I am taking THIS class because Chef Nick said at the beginning of class that we would be required to do plate presentations from now on. This means all that artistry that I didn’t learn from class last semester will have a chance to enter my brain this semester. I nearly hugged the chef when he said it and of course had to explain to him why I am so happy. He wasn’t very pleased when I told him what happened. But we get along so well. I was nervous he is pretty acclaimed and a bit of a celeb around Lansing but he is funny and smart.

In my class there is one other guy that has been through the program and this is his last class, everyone else is new. It feels weird to be the 2nd year know it all sometimes but hey I know where everything is and little secrets, and I don’t mind helping anyone so it makes it fun. So far there is only 6 or 7 people in the class though. its nice its not crowded! I think my favorite, aside from cooking PRETTY food again, is the fact he is teaching us authentic recipes.

Without further ado I will just go ahead and share what we made. As a class we each had to make 2 dishes for a total of 12. I made the Caprese..

and Tiramisu. I have made Caprese before but Tiramisu was completely new for me, I hadn’t even TASTED it prior. It is SO good!!’ My caprese has olive oil, this one has balsamic vinegar.

(Caprese Salad, Peach Cobbler, Risotto, Spaghetti Squash with lime and basil, Prosciutto Melon, Three Pasta, Tiramisu, Seafood moule (stew), Potato Gnocchi, Pasta Carbonara)

I can’t even find the word for how much I love my Garde Manger class. The kicker? it was only the first class! But its pure artistry. And the best part is there is no sweating involved. Well that might not be true we have ice carving in a few weeks and I might work up a sweat under the winter gear! Tonight we did some beginning carving and I found it all to be fittign of a tropical island. Or maybe I just wanted to be on a tropical island. you see, I woke up to this:

And also today is my 16th wedding anniversary. Carving some fruit was a nice escape!

Today we carved:

Pineapple Fish

Tomato Rose

Cucumber Bowl

Carrot Palm Tree

(radish flower there in the background)

Apple Bird

Lemon Basket

And this is just the beginning folks. I can’t express how happy I am that I HAVE CHEF BACK!!!

And of course it goes without saying that I am going to take photos of it all, like my little practice bird bowl!

Mmm I bet you can smell the orange! These Orange Crush Cupcakes are the first of the three monthly themed cupcakes I do and this month I chose pop, that is soda to you southern folks! I did end up putting some straight buttercream in the center of the cakes too so there is a hint of creme, which made a delicious orange cream flavor. Super easy makeup for these cakes just a little prep with orange zesting. For this particular recipe I would  suggest using a microplane to get your zest because you will have long strings, which I didn’t notice by my 8 year old did and she didn’t like that. Not sure how to use a microplane? You can check YouTube but if you hang tight for a bit I am starting a complete how to video series for basic cooking skills. In the meantime lets get started!

Ingredients:

1 C. Butter, softened

1 1/2 C. Sugar

5 Eggs, room temperature (if they are too cold they will make your butter separate)

1 TBS. Vanilla

Zest from 2 oranges (I used one giant one, see that pic? Its not a mini cake its a MASSIVE orange!)

3 C. Flour

1 TBS Baking Powder

1 TSP. Salt (OMIT if you are using salted butter)

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Buttercream Frosting -

1 C. Butter, room temp

4 C. Powdered Sugar, sifted

1/2 C. Orange Crush pop (soda)

2 TBS. Orange Flavor (Note: I used LorAnn Oils Orange Bakery Emulsion and used 1 TBS)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350° F and line your cupcake pan with papers.

Cream butter and sugar together, then add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.

Add vanilla and orange zest and mix for another couple minutes.

Add your flour, baking soda, and salt (if you are using it) slowly until batter is mixed well.

Fill your cups 3/4 full with the batter. I use a portion scoop, A.K.A ice cream scoop or medium cookie scoop. Has the perfect amount for uniform cakes.

Bake for 15-17 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

For the Frosting:

Cream your butter and add the sugar, mixture will be dry.

Add the pop and the orange flavor and mix well.

And then when your family stops stealing the cupcakes, grab yourself a glass of Crush and enjoy the fruit of your labor!

I just recently made cinnamon rolls from scratch for the first time. And it won’t be the last time either. As always with yeast you have to cross your fingers that it works and the first time I made a dough it didn’t rise but I tweaked my recipe the 2nd time and it was perfect. It’s a pretty common recipe, with few ingredients and most of the time is spent waiting for rise. The results are definitely worth the wait!

Cinfully Good Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

Dough
4 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
¼ C. granulated sugar
1 TBSP active dry yeast
¼ C. warm hot milk (very important)
3 eggs, room temp
¾ cup unsalted butter, cut in 12 pieces, room temp.

Cinnamon Butter
1 cup light brown sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of Salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened

Glaze
1 1/4 C. powdered sugar

3 TBS Heavy Whipping Cream

6 TBS water

Instructions:

For Dough: mix flour, salt and sugar together in a medium bowl, set aside. Give your eggs a quick wisk to mix them

In small bowl mix milk and yeast and stir very well with a wisk until the yeast is dissolved in the milk. If it clumps, your milk is too cold. Let sit for 4-5 minutes.

Add yeast/milk mixture to stand mixer bowl with flat paddle attachment and with the speed on 1, add the eggs and mix for 2 minutes

Flip the speed up to 2 and add the flour mixture 1/2 C. at a time. your mixture will be dry flaky, that is ok.

Change the attachment to the dough hook and start adding your butter one piece at a time. Mix this for 4-5 minutes until you get a nice big dough ball. Set ball in a large bowl and cover, and let this rise for 1 1.2 hours.

Cinnamon Butter: Add all ingredients to stand mixer with flat paddle attachment and mix low-med speed until smooth. By smooth I mean ready to spread on bread, this will take 3-4 minutes.

Uncover your dough and work out the air bubbles and turn the dough onto a floured surface.

Roll the dough into an 11X18 rectangle

Spread cinnamon butter evenly on the dough. and yes, you can lick the spatula.

Roll the dough on the long side like a jelly roll, and use a bench scraper to slice your dough. Place rolls on pan and cover woith plastic wrap, let rise 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake rolls for about 35 minutes or when they are golden brown. leave in pan on colling rack for 5 minutes.

Prepare glaze by mixing the sugar and cream and then the water 2 TBS at a time to thin until it reaches icing consistency. pour on still warm rolls. Admire. Take a photo.

You’re Welcome.

Earlier this week I received a box from  The Olive Tap, an outfit our of Illinois that is making some of the most amazing olive oils and vinegars I have ever had the pleasure of trying. In particular they sent me some Tuscan Herb, which is really great quality olive oil mixed with a precise amount of herbs including Oregano, Basil, Garlic, and Rosemary. I decided to try some on chicken and sauteed my chicken and noodles in it. And when I say its just the right amount of herbs I’m not kidding, all I added was some salt, pepper, and for the noodles a little extra herbs de Provence. No additional garlic needed. it was great and I like it so much I’m going to buy a full size bottle. They have some DELICIOUS sounding flavors like Porcini Mushroom and Sorrento Lemon. Seriously aside from wanting to drive to Illinois and have a tasting at this place, its really a chef’s dream for flavors and oils!

Tuscan Herb Chicken and Noodles with Organic Cherry Tomatoes and Parsley

You need:

1 lb chicken, boneless skinless

12 oz cooked egg noodles

4 TBS Tuscan Herb Olive Oil (you will want to have fresh garlic and rosemary if you don’t have this oil)

6 cherry tomatoes chopped

fresh parsley, chopped

3 TBS butter, for noodles.

salt and pepper

Dash of herbs de Provence

Instructions:

Boil noodles for 7 minutes, drain, set aside.

Cook chicken in olive oil on high heat to give it a little color.

Remove chicken, add butter,noodles, parsley, tomatoes salt, pepper and herbs to pan, using tongs toss the mixture for about 3 minutes. I added another splash of that delicious olive oil.

Add the chicken pieces back in to make the mixture nice and warm or serve chicken on top of pasta mixture.

My version,its a bowl

9. Crocembouche (cream puff cake with spun sugar)

8. Cakes

7. Beef Wellington

6. Crown Roast

5. Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa

4. Boeuf Bourguignon

3. Coconut Creme Pie (Father in law is BEGGING)

2. Risotto and Gnocchi ( taking italian cooking next semester, might help!)

1. Seafood Platter

(images courtesy of Flickr via Creative Commons License. I am going to post my own photos as  make these masterpieces in 2012!)