salmon and fruit cupcakes

For dinner tonight I had to make something fast, as we went to the dog park after I got home and didn't have much time before Ricky had to leave for work tonight.

I made salmon, couscous, steamed broccoli, and a salad. I love couscous! It's the mother of all fast side dishes.

This evening while I was watching Chopped I decided that I wanted to bake something.

Nectarine and lavender cupcakes with whipped cream topping. One for me, two for Ricky, and nine to take to work and give away.
♥
It's midnight and I'm still awake. I have to be at work at 7. Why do I do this to myself? I can't sleep!

sweet things ♥

I've been a baking fiend.
Fiend.

World Cupcakes. Chocolate chip cupcakes with almond buttercream. Even though I made more of them orange, The Netherlands lost. Sad.

This, my dear friends, is a bowl of very well beaten egg whites. It's only a stiff peak if you can turn that bowl upside down. Bazinga.

Little berry tartlets with vanilla beam pastry cream and a clear glaze.

I thoroughly enjoy treats that fit in your hand this nicely.

Tennis ball cupcakes for Chantal's birthday! Spiced white cupcakes with honey buttercream.

My favorite one so far. My first clafoutis. Now, a traditional clafoutis recipe insists that you leave the pits in the cherries, as they will give the dessert a distinct, almond-y flavor. I did not want to leave the pits in my cherries, so I removed them (wow. such cherry blood carnage) and added a tablespoon of pure almond extract in place of the Kirsch in the recipe, since I couldn't find Kirsch anywhere anyway. It was amazing. I will have to try it the traditional way, of course, but this was a-ok to me.

It looks and sounds fancy, but it is so simple to make! I'll be posting this recipe soon at Ever So Sweet.

apparently I suck at this.

I've been working so much and I've been so tired lately. I have no idea what's going on. I get 6ish hours of sleep each night, which is a lot for me, and I'm exhausted in the mornings. It's weird. It's weird and I do not like it.

That being said, I haven't been on here very much. I haven't even turned the computer on!
So to catch up on food...My first jambalaya, which was a lot simpler than I thought. Tomatoes, andouille sausage, rice, spices, celery, bell pepper, onion, hot sauce. That's it. Oh, and chicken stock. And lots of jalapenos, if you're me. Which you're not so you don't have to use those.
Fajitas with avocado salsa and of course, pepitas. Apparently pepitas are my favorite thing to put on Mexican food. Or to eat out of a bag. Just saying.
Last night's dinner was T-Bone steaks with steamed yellow squash and smashed red potatoes.
Tonight I forgot what time it was and sort of threw this together. Cellentani pasta with an un-breaded, skillet chicken parm. Homemade tomato sauce, chicky boobs, parmigiana reggiano, and mozzarella. I of course cannot leave pasta sauce alone and tossed in some red pepper flakes and capers, because who doesn't like salty spicy things? Nobody in this house, that's for damn sure.
♥

manger et d'être heureux

eat and be happy. =)

You know what kind of food makes me happy? Big dishes of cheesy, baked pasta.
Last night I made rigatoni with spinach, ricotta, parmigiano reggiano, and fontina.
I love fontina, the way it melts down and gets so gooey and fabulous. As cheese should, really.

Be happy indeed.

Tonight I made this!
Broiled steaks (it rained all day today!) with hash browns, steamed brussels sprouts, and a home made béarnaise sauce. This was my first time making hash browns and béarnaise. The sauce turned out great on the first try. Although it wasn't a traditional béarnaise as I'm not a huge fan of tarragon. I used tarragon vinegar in place of the white wine vinegar, and used thyme as my fresh herb. Other than that, standard operating procedures for béarnaise still apply.
The hash browns. Oh the hash browns.
Shredded russet potato mixed with bacon, shallots, fresh thyme, and green onions, cooked in a skillet, flipped, then finished in the oven.
Theoretically speaking.
They stuck to the pan the first time. I mean stuck. to. the. pan.
I had to scrap the whole batch and start over in my Calphalon Unison non-stick skillet.
Then, upon removing the pan from the oven, I set it on the stove top and then grabbed the handle with my bare hand. I'm awesome.
My boss says I should be surrounded by orange cones or wrapped in bubble wrap.
Back to happy.

(source)
I found these at the grocery store today. Filipino Halo Halo is probably one of my favorite foods of all time.
It has red mung beans, coconut, jackfruit... all sorts of awesome things. These made me smile, big time. Oh happy day.
Oh, I went today to get my stitches taken out and they wouldn't do it yet. Lame.

Happy Birthday Frida

She would have been 103 today!
Read about her life here.

chirp♥

Remember these little guys?

They were the third nest of baby birds that our little bird house had seen since the Spring. It seems to be the same parent birds, thought I'm not really sure how that works.
Well, here's a look inside the house this afternoonAgain! Three more beautiful blue eggiweggs.
Do they always lay three? Are these robins?
No idea, but I'm happy they're here. I love to hear the sweet chirp-chirping of baby birds in the back yard.
Love love love it.
(Although the amount of garbage in her next makes me sad)

Happy Independence Day!
OR:
Happy anniversary of the day Jeff Golblum used an Apple laptop to upload a Windows virus to the alien mothership, thus saving us all.

I'm not doing much tonight. Ricky has to work all night, so it's just me and the dogs. Speaking of the dogs, I'm also groggy and dizzy from my antibiotics.
What do antibiotics and my dogs have in common, you ask?
Oh I'll tell you.
Malo bit my face off, that's what.
Yup. Yesterday I was snuggling him like I always do, and I rubbed my nose on the top of his little Westie head, and without warning he turned around a took a bite out of my top lip. Malo has never been aggressive toward me, and when he's agitated with anyone you can always tell. He'll growl or snarl to let you know to back off. Not this time. Maybe he was just having a bad day?
Either way, I should have known better. "Anything with a mouth will bite you," as my mom always says.

Sorry about the blurry, strange phone picture. There it is, after several hours in the ER and three stitches. I'm going to look like Joaquin Phoenix.
On to happier subjects!

This afternoon Ashley let me leave work early to go get my Rx filled, my face was hurting. As soon as I got home I took one, and in all seriousness within 20 minutes I was out cold. Not cool. There's no way I can take these at work.
Anyway.
I woke up and realized that it was time to start dinner. We have to eat early if we want to eat together with Ricky working the schedule that he is.
I had no idea what to make, but this morning I had pulled out a pork tenderloin.
I ended up with roasted pork tenderloin with spaetzle, roasted asparagus, and salad.
The sauce on the pork is shallots, garlic, and bacon cooked in olive oil and butter, with chicken stock, marsala wine, and pepper. I let it reduce down and get thick, then added a little black truffle oil at the very end. Thanks for the awesome oil, Brittany Cooley. ♥
The salad dressing was a vinaigrette of olive oil, red wine vinegar, whole grain mustard, salt, and pepper.
The whole meal had a decidedly German feel, what with the mustard in the dressing, the spaetzle, and the flavors in the sauce reminiscent of traditional Germany Jäger sauce.
I'm going to try to feel better enough to go out and enjoy some July 4th Festivities. By doing laundry and watching Food Network. =)

jamaica!

As in the Mexican Agua Fresca made with hibiscus flowers. I love the stuff, and it's the perfect accompaniment to fajitas.

There's my skirt steak, marinating away. I made the marinade with red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, garlic, shallot, parsley, salt, and pepper. I poured it over the steak in a plastic bag and let it do it's thing in the fridge for about an hour.

That's pretty much it. Served with black beans and corn, and topped off with a mixture of red onion, red and green bell pepper, poblanos, and jalapenos. Easy peasy lemon squeezie.

Eat Steak. Drink Porter.

For some reason I've been waiting until there are several meals to blog about before I bother posting anything.
Hmm...
Chicken fried rice with red bell peppers, onion, green chiles, mushrooms, and scallions. Made with the leftover basmati rice from...

... Chicken Chile Masala with Basmati and Naan.
White meat chicken, white onion, yogurt, a secret ingredient that I will not divulge, red chiles, tomatoes, cumin, ground coriander, lots of garlic and ginger, and cilantro. One of my favorite meals to make and eat. A house it not a home until it smells of a curry. Fo sho.

Grilled steaks marinated in a mixture of soy, Worcestershire, and olive oil. Served with baked potatoes, steamed green beans, grilled radicchio with home made bleu cheese dressing, and a little herb butter to top off the steaks. The perfect meal to pair with Porter.

Andouille sausage sauteed with bell peppers and onions, served over ziti. The broccoli was cooked until crispy in olive oil, then tossed with lemon juice, zest, and red pepper flakes.

A cup of Tazo Thrive tea, and a copy of "French Women Don't Get Fat."
I even unwind in my kitchen, is that strange?

things that I love about my house

How my husband can lay down for a nap and attract all of our pets, including one laying on his back.

That it is five minutes from this place.

That this thing is always in my back yard. Mr. Tinkerton, perhaps?

And that this happens in my front yard.
As disgusting as butterflies look close up, they are remarkably lovely from a distance. Through a window.
Nasty curly bug tongues.