Thanksgiving Cupcake Disaster

It's Thanksgiving and I'm at my parents place.  I just took the Mac and Cheese out of the oven and we're going to sit down to our family Thanksgiving meal at 2pm.

But I was up and at it early this morning.  I woke early because after reading through recipes, I decided last night that I was going to make Almond Cupcakes.  I love almond-flavored items.  In fact, my favorite drink is the amaretto sour.  So I took myself to Fairway last night, which surprisingly wasn't very crowded because I needed to get ground almonds/almond flour/almond meal and I just wasn't sure that Stop and Shop would have it.  Let me just say, almond meal is crazy expensive.  I paid close to $10 for a 16 oz. bag of the stuff.  As I saw it ring up, I thought, these cupcakes better be good.

Back to today...the butter was soft, my baking utensils were prepped and ready, the muffin pan was lined and the oven was pre-heated.  I followed the directions to the letter...cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs, add cream and almond extract. By the way, Fairway doesn't have regular extracts i.e. McCormick, so I had to get some organic and all-natural extract.  You would think that would mean the extract would be at its strongest because it's without impurities etc. But it simply smelled less potent.  Give me unnatural and inorganic extract! ahaha Then I sifted in the flour and folded in the almond meal.  After doing this final step, I could see and feel that the batter was very heavy.  Usually when I spoon batter into a pan, it's more liquid, but this batter had a more solid quality.  Then when I tasted it, it wasn't particularly sweet.  But I thought, it'll all work out, I'm sure it'll be fine.

Well, it wasn't fine.  I'll admit, I'm not quite in sync with my oven...it's big, it's old, it's gas powered and I think it gets and stays hotter than any other oven I've ever used.  So I had already decided not to leave the cupcakes in the oven for as long as the recipe stated, but even taking them out early couldn't save this batch of cupcakes.  They were hard, dry and damn near flavorless.

I called my mom and said, "these cupcakes are bad, I can't bring them over to have as dessert."  Thankfully, mommy said not to worry about it, because she had pie.

So on this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that mommy has been cooking and making desserts much longer than I and that mommy and daddy did enjoy my dinner contribution.  Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm cookin'!

As I mentioned a few months ago, I bought a place for myself and I'm living on my own.  This is the first time in six years that I've been by myself.   Being by myself isn't a problem.  I'm an only child...I know how to amuse myself and not feel lonely.  But for six years I didn't have to cook!  My mom made dinner most of the time.  The only thing I handled was my lunch and meager breakfast.  If I wanted to cook I could, but honestly the motivation wasn't there.  Occasionally I would put together a meal and I had no problem baking, but when I came home from work, there usually was something in the house for me to eat and the most I had to do was warm it up.

So I find myself in my new place and I have to cook.  I'll be honest, the first few weeks I started staying here, I ate my meals at my parents' place.  I didn't even want to plug in the refrigerator or stove because if I wasn't planning to cook, then those appliances didn't need to be sucking up electricity.  Eventually, the time did come for me to make a meal and I made quesadillas and guacamole. GUACAMOLE!! Yes, I made an item on my Resolution list.  Admittedly, it wasn't the best.  I didn't have anything to properly mash up the avocados, but the flavor was there and I ate it. ha!

Since then I've really been impressing myself.  I made coconut curried chicken with pineapple served over rice that was DA BOMB!  I tasted it and was shocked by how good it was...it was restaurant quality y'all!  And again, this was an item on my Resolution list.   

But I've noticed that even the scraps that I've been throwing together taste pretty good. Just today I had a very simple meal that consisted of a salad, a piece of Texas toast and something that I'll just call turkey stuff. LOL  It was crumbled ground turkey breast with onions, garlic and red peppers, then I added some tomato sauce. The meal was simple and yet so flavorful and satisfying! 

I'm no one's Top Chef, but I can hold my own in the kitchen and the more I do cook, the better I get. Soon I'll invite y'all over for dinner.  ;-)

Ok...I've got a Resolution

So I've been thinking about my New Year's Resolution, or rather I've been trying to come up with a resolution for 2011.  Last year my resolution was to make a new dish each month, and up until October, I did!  My items included a Pepper Steak, Spinach Stuffed Zucchini, Black Beans and Rice, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Two Pasta Dishes, and Mashed Potatoes.  Even though I didn't make something for the final three months of 2010, overall, I did cook more.  I actually make Black Beans and Rice on a pretty regular basis now.  So with that I mind, I've decided to focus on food again for 2011. 

This year, I will learn to cook dishes that I love to eat, but obviously, don't know how to make.  I'm not going to force myself to cook one of these each month, but the overall goal, before 2012 rolls in, is to cook all of the following:

1. Creamed Spinach
2. Pulled Pork
3. Guacamole
4. Macaroons
5. Tres Leches Cake
6. Coconut Curried Chicken
7. Enchilada Suiza
8. Tiramisu
9. Carmine Pizza (I'm determined to figure out a version of Bertucci's pizza that I can make for myself)
10. Baked Potato Soup

If you've got any recipes for any of these delectable items...send them my way!