Rainy (rainy!) day eats

We're getting ready for Hurricane (tropical storm?) Ida to pass over. We're getting lots of rain. Don't worry, our hatches are battened.

Dulce De Leche is a glorious thing. Sweet, sticky, caramely... perfect. This afternoon I made dulce de leche filled pumpkin cupcakes topped with dulce de leche buttercream. Damn right.
Recipe is here at Ever So Sweet.

I used sweetened condensed milk for mine, and it only took about an hour in the oven. In a water bath. At 475º. Covered in foil. Yeah, lots of little steps, but well worth it. I love caramelized or browned anything. I'm a huge fan of the Maillard reaction, and will eat just about anything that involves it. For those of you scratching your heads, the Maillard reaction is the name given to the reaction between amino acids and sugars that results in browning. Look up Maillard, he was a pretty clever feller'.

My pumpkin cupcake batter. Super fast and easy. Amazingly delicious.

Oooh yeah. Moist cake, mounds of sweet buttercream, sinfully tasty and sticky dulce de leche filling...bliss.

Yes I know it's blurry, but it was this or the one with the flash. You're welcome.

Dinner tonight was, once again, Ricky's favorite fajitas with pepita salsa. I made a quick paella/risotto hybrid (?) rice to go with them. The rice had onions, arborio rice, saffron, and garlic. I let it cook for a while after the liquid was absorbed (I used chicken stock) to get a nice crust on the bottom, quite reminiscent of a good paella. I really liked it, and plan on eating some for lunch tomorrow.

P.S. Maggie apparently likes tortillas. I swear she's a goat.