I can do more than cook

I haven't spent a lot of time cooking this week. I know it's only Wednesday. Monday I mowed the back yard. Then I went to Lowes it replace the sprinkler I broke. Run right over the top of it with the lawn mower. I straightened out the garage. Threw away old boxes, put sleeping bags up in the attic. Tuesday I just kinda vegged out. Don't think I left the house until 7:00 PM when I went visiting teaching. Can you say, "wait 'til the last minute"? Today I went to the grocery store at 8:00 AM. Had to get it done before Kristi brought the girls over. You put 3 little girls in the house and boy goes it get noisy. Katie and Madie thought it was great fun to run around and squeal at the top of their lungs. It was even funnier listening to it over the baby monitor. They sure can put a smile on your face. Jenny was busy with a puzzle. I guess I going to need to go get some more puzzles for older kids, I only have one. This afternoon I went and got my hair cut. Not an earth shattering change, but I like it. The real test will come next week when I go back to work. How will it look after I take off my helmet? I'll let you know.

Cupcake Day.

Here we go again. I mentioned to Ashley a few days ago that I never get asked to bring dessert for Sunday diner. So Saturday Joanne calls and asks if I can bring dessert. Is that weird or what. So I decided to make cupcakes.

1st up, a chocolate lovers paradise, Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes. These are for serious chocolate lovers.

Made from scratch, these cupcakes have an entire can of Hershey's chocolate syrup. Not to mention chocolate ganache frosting. Ruth asked for recipes, so here you go.

Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes Recipe (makes 20-24 cupcakes)

from the Barefoot Contessa (I made a few adjustments. The original recipe had coffee and I substituted cocoa powder)

• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 (16-ounce) can Hershey’s chocolate syrup
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder

For the ganache:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease muffin pan or use paper liners.

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the chocolate syrup and vanilla. Mix in the flour and coffee granules until just combined. Be careful not to overbeat, just barely mix all ingredient together.

Fill muffin cups with batter halfway. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Don’t overbake! Let cool thoroughly in the muffin pan. Again, let cool thoroughly in the muffin pan. I repeat, let cool thoroughly in the muffin pan. Get it? Got it? Good.

For the ganache: In a double boiler (with simmering water in the bottom) heat the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and instant coffee until warm and smooth, stirring occasionally.

If you’d like you can dip the tops of the cupcakes into the ganache. (I didn’t dip these. I topped the cupcakes with a spoonful of ganache but if you like dipping, have at it. It may look mo’ bettah dipped.) Do not refrigerate.

Not every one in the family likes chocolate so I also made pineapple upside down cupcakes.

These are made with a white cake mix. The topping is 1/2 cup butter (melted) and 1 cup brown sugar. I put a spoon full in the bottom of each cupcake pan (my pans are silicone so no stick factor). I put half a maraschino cherry and then a spoon full of crushed pineapple. You need to bake a few minutes longer than regular cupcakes. When you take them out of the oven run a knife around the sides of the cupcake pans and invert onto a cookie sheet.

So I went a little crazy and added white cupcakes (used some of the batter from the pineapple upside down cupcakes) with home made buttercream frosting. If you want to make really good buttercream frosting, use real butter and real cream. Margarine and milk just don't cut it.

So there was something for every one!

When it's 106 degrees outside...BAKE!!

That's what I did. A few days ago I made brioche dough. I made a loaf of the brioche, a slightly sweet French breakfast bread. It was very light, but I was a little disappointed. I thought it would be sweeter. So now I have enough dough in the refrigerator for 3 more loaves of brioche. So what to do. Ah, bake sweet bread. When you bake you must make sure you have good equipment. Make sure your oven temperature is accurate. You can pick up an inexpensive oven thermometer at Target. Then make sure you have a timer that can be heard well through out the house.

Mine is fantastic, and looks like this.

When the timer goes off Madie comes running to find me yelling,

"Grandma, Grandma, it went beep".

She even hears the beep when she is in the other end of the house.

Nothing gets over baked in this house.

So what did I make with my brioche dough? Let's take a look.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread!! Ron loves Cinnamon Raisin bread.

I better make sure to save him some.

Caramel Apple Rolls. Filled with home made dulce de leche, apples and pecans.

Glazed with a caramel powder sugar glaze.

Still more dough to use. So I tried my hand at doughnuts.

Because brioche is a light dough, they turned out pretty good.

They got Zach and Madie approval.

Ashley thought they needed chocolate ganache icing.

Since I was in a baking mood today, and not every thing should be sweet, I made rolls to go with dinner tonight. These are just the frozen roll dough in a cast iron skillet. After they raise, brush with butter and sprinkle diced fresh rosemary. Brush again with butter to cover the rosemary and add a light sprinkle of sea salt. Bake for 20 minutes. When you take them out of the oven one more brush with butter. Was I just adopted by Paula Deen?

Puff Daddy

Last month Ron and I were watching a episode of "Throw down with Bobby Flay". Okay I like the food network and he humors me. Any way in this episode they made puffy tacos, and boy did they look good. So a week or so later we tried to make some. I must say they turned out pretty good. Although every Hispanic lady in the world would laugh herself silly if she saw me making corn tortillas with Ashley grill pan. It was the only thing I could find to flatten out the masa. Well the tacos were such a hit that I ordered a tortilla press. It arrived Wednesday. So here is tonight's adventure with puffy tacos.

You start out with corn masa (I got mine at food city). Make a ball about the size of a golf ball.

Put it in the tortilla press between 2 sheets of wax paper. Flatten to the width of your average thick corn tortilla.

So much easier with a tortillas press. Not to mention prettier.

Fry in hot oil (about 350). While it is frying bath the tortilla with hot oil using a metal spatula. When it starts to bubble up, turn over and bath with more hot oil. This is what makes the tortilla puff up. When it gets nice and puffy fold in half using the metal spatula. When the tortilla is golden, put not crunchy, remove from the oil. If there is not a hole in one end, poke a hole so you can drain out the oil. It is not fun to bite into a puffy taco filled with really hot oil.

Tonight we had ground beef puffy tacos. We have made them with chicken and smoked pork.

So what every trips your trigger.

My family really enjoys puffy tacos. Wow the things you can learn from T.V.

Sorry Randi, but right now I am a little obsessed with cooking. Just wait until tomorrow.

The toy that Ron Built

My sweey hubby built me a UDS. What is a UDS you ask? UDS stands for upright drum smoker or ugly drum smoker. The smoker is made from a 55 gallon drum. Luckily racing fuel comes in 55 gallon drums, so Ron has quite a few drums laying around. The top is from a weber 22.5 inch grill I got off craigslist for $20.00. You also use the cooking grate and charcoal grate for the smoker. I bought a second cooking grate and the thermometers at Lowes. Ron got the intake values at Home depot. Since her birth last week, I have smoked a pork shoulder and a chicken. Yesterday I went a little kitchen crazy. I threw some pork ribs in the smoker.

While the ribs cooked I made chocolate won tons with Ashley and Madie. Madie loves to help in the kitchen.
Chocolate won tons are really easy. You take won ton wrappers and run an egg wash around the edges. Put a piece of chocolate in the middle. Fold in half and seal the edges (that's where the egg wash does its magic). Them fry in oil for about 90 seconds on each side. Sprinkle the finished product with powdered sugar. They are best while still warm.

I also made some bread. I got this new book last week. I think I am in love. I made the Pecan Sticky rolls on Friday and a second batch on Saturday.

My little loaves of bread just hanging out in the kitchen,

So how did things turn out? Let's take a look.

Mmmm Ribs!!!!

Hot bread! Hey what happen to the other loaf of bread?

So I guess the moral of the story is this: If you want a bikini body, don't come to my house.

Plum good time

We have a little plum tree in the back yard. It was my Father's Day gift to Ron last year. So this is the first year we are getting fruit. Just as with the apricot tree we thought my one or two plums. But this little tree has a couple dozen plums. And they are just beginning to turn purple. We had to net the tree to keeps the birds away from the fruit. It is doing a pretty good job.

It's been a while

Wow I can't believe how long it has been since my last post. Time just seems to fly. Yesterday was my last day of work. So to start of my summer "vacation", I kissed my husband goodbye this morning as he headed to Ohio for a race. He should be back late, late Monday night.

Tomorrow I have all 6 of my grand kids coming over for Grandma 'roney's 1st ever un-slumber party. Let's face it 6 kids, no one is going to sleep. We should have a great time. I'll try to take pictures, but let's face it I'm not really good at that. I always seem to busy playing to get the camera out. That's just awful behavior. I really need to document my time with these perfect little people in my life.

So what's on the schedule for my first day off. I have a lunch date with a friend from work. Other than that, I don't have a clue. Any suggestions?