Happy Birthday to ME!

Today's my 30th Birthday... in honor of becoming an "old woman" I thought I would take a step back to the elementary school days... you know, when you used to bring birthday treats to school. Well, today, I come to *work* bearing treats.

Yes, I know I just baked an apple pie and brought it to my coworkers on Monday.

I guess it's turning into birthday treat week! :)
Better than "having-a-$h!tty-day-at-work" week... :)

What did I choose? CUPCAKES!

Chocolate on Chocolate Cupcakes - that was just a box mix with some Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Frosting.

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, garnished with crystallized ginger.



YUMMY!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cupcakes
Source: marthastewart.com, with a couple of tweaks by me
Makes: about 15 regular cupcakes


2 cups flour, all-purpose
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger (Optional - this was added by me)
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
15 ounces pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling - plain pumpkin)


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and crystallized ginger; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin purée.
4. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool.

Frosted with Cream Cheese Frosting.
I used approx. -
2tbsp softened butter
4oz fat free cream cheese (or any kind of cream cheese)
1/2t vanilla
1 to 2 cups powdered sugar (until you get the texture you like)

How Do Ya Like Them Apples...?

My First Apple Pie...

I've never made an apple pie before. Or, any pie before for that matter... Well, maybe I tried making a pecan pie once as a present for my Dad on Father's Day, but, I most certainly bought the crust from the store.

Yesterday, my "knottie" friend Kedrin got married. In exchange for her help at my wedding, I was her "ceremony set-up/reception set-up/coordinator/keeper-of-the-timeline" extraodinaire. The wedding was fantastic! Kedrin, Ellis, and all of their guests had a great time.

At the reception, there were some very cute fall-ish apple centerpieces, and, at the end of the night, I packed everything up in my car to cart it away from the Mount Vernon Inn. With centerpieces from at least 20 tables - that's a lot of apples...
So, I thought that today's as good as any to make my first apple pie!

Chances are, you'll see quite a few apple recipes in the next couple of weeks!

So - here's the end result! Not the prettiest, but, I hope it tastes good... my coworkers will let me know tomorrow, I'm sure.

The "2BMrsEAB" Apple Pie
Makes 1 9-inch deep dish apple pie
Source: Better Homes & Gardens - with just a couple tweaks

- 10-12 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 T lemon juice (optional)
- 2 T flour
- 1 t cinnamon (BHG recipe called for 1/2 t)
- 1/8 t ground nutmeg
- 3 T crystalized ginger, chopped in really small pieces (optional, this was an addition to the BHG recipe - an idea I got from the Good Housekeeping Cookbook)

Dump everything in a big bowl, and toss to coat the apples (this is my version of the much longer BHG recipe instructions...). Once coated, place the apples on top of an uncooked pie crust (recipe below) that has been placed in a 9inch pie pan. Once the apples are mounded in the pan, cover with the top half of the uncooked piecrust, and seal the edges all the way around the pie. Cut a few slits on the top center to let steam escape. Since the pie may bubble over, place the pie on a cookie sheet while cooking.
If you want the crust to brown a bit on the top, brush with milk. You can also sprinkle with sugar for decoration (optional).
Cover the edges loosely with foil, so the edges don't burn. Cook at 375 for 40 minutes, remove the foil, and cook for another 20 minutes.

The crust recipe was given to me by a fellow D.C. knottie - I think it was vtinmdbride? Once I remember, I'll post who it was!

Pie Crust
Joy of Cooking Flaky Pastry Dough
(makes two 9-inch pie crusts, or two 9.5-10-inch tart crusts, or one 9-inch covered pie crust)

This dough makes a light, flaky crust that shatters at the touch of a fork. (They reference a couple of other pages in the JoC for process info.) If you only need a single crust, decrease all ingredients by half, or freeze half the dough for future use.

Using a rubber spatula (or Kitchen Aid mixer), thoroughly mix in a bowl:
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar (or 1 tbsp powdered sugar)
1 tsp salt

Add:
1 cup solid vegetable shortening, or 1/2 cup shortening (1/2 stick Crisco) and 8 tbsp (1 stick) cold unsalted butter

Break the shortening into large chunks; if using butter, cut it into small pieces, then add it to the flour mixture. Cut the fat into the dry ingredients by chopping vigorously with a pastry blender, or by cutting in opposite directions with 2 knives, one held in each hand. (Or, use Kitchen Aid to mix.) When you are through, some of the fat should remain in pea-sized pieces; the rest should be reduced to the consistency of coarse crumbs or cornmeal. The mixture should seem dry and powdery and not pasty or greasy. Drizzle over the flour and fat mixture:

1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp ice water (Britta in the fridge works well here)

Using the rubber spatula, cut with the blade side until the mixture looks evenly moistened and begins to form small balls. Press down on the dough with the flat side of the spatula. If the balls of dough stick together, you have added enough water. If not, drizzle over the top:

1-2 tbsp ice water

Cut in the water, again using the blade of the spatula, then press with your hands until the dough coheres.

(Or, use KA to mix until a ball is formed - much easier!)

The dough should look rough, not smooth.

Divide the dough in half, press each half into a round flat disk, and wrap tightly in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and preferably for several hours (the freezer is a good back-up plan!), or for up to 2 days before rolling. The dough can also be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 6 months; thaw completely before rolling.

Fresh Country Pork Sausage and Spinach Feta Scramble

So, I've had 4 humungous, thick, boneless center cut pork chops sitting in the freezer for a while now - Greg just didn't like them on their own.

This weekend, I was planning to cut them in chunks to make some sort of stew or soup... but, my Kitchen Aid mixer had other plans. ;) For our wedding, my fabulous co-workers bought us the grinder attachment for the KA. Given that this week at work was filled with some fabulous bureaucratic "sausage making" - I thought it would be a good weekend to put the grinder to the test for some real sausage making. Unfortunately, I haven't yet bought any sausage casings, and, even more importantly, I'm on the new eating healthy plan. Hence, no nibs of pork fat lying around to make REAL sausage. ;)

So, from this was born our delicious - and relatively healthy - brunch this morning. Yum! Overall, it satisfied my craving for breakfast sausage without all of the fat & calories.

Fresh (Light) Country Pork Sausage
Makes approx 8-9 patties
Source: Me!

- 1lb lean ground pork (I used fresh, course ground, center cut pork chops)
- approx 1 t kosher salt
- one clove of minced garlic
- a few turns worth of freshly ground pepper
- leaves from approx 5-10 sprigs of fresh thyme
- a few shakes of poultry seasoning
- a dash of cayenne pepper

Put the ground pork in a bowl with the seasonings on top. Mix in all the seasonings lightly with a fork. Don't overmix. Hand shape into patties. Cook over medium high heat... but, don't overdo it, or you'll have very dry pucks of pork, since there's not a lot of fat in these (if you use lean meat).

Spinach Feta Scramble
2 eggs
3 egg whites
handful of frozen spinach
clove of minced garlic
a couple tablespoons of feta cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Lightly saute the spinach with the garlic for a few minutes over medium high heat, then, spread it evenly over the bottom of the pan.
Mix the eggs and egg whites in a bowl, and pour the egg mixture over the spinach.
Let the mixture set a bit, and then begin to scramble the mixture.
When the eggs are fully cooked, put them on a plate and sprinkle with feta cheese.

Another one for my sister...

Since my little sis is a big advocate for either "Taco Tuesday" or "Spaghetti Sunday" - I thought she'd get a kick out of this Onion article - "A Mockery of Taco Tuesday"... hehe. Maybe, for now, we will have to start our Taco Tuesday tradition at the local Taco Bell. Then, G can have chicken - and, I won't have to "slave over the ground beef." haha.

Moo...Ground chicken is a scam!

For those of you who are eating ground chicken to be healthier - warning! Make sure you read the label!

My sister bought some ground chicken at the store this past weekend. The package touted "1/2 the fat of ground beef!"... Then I looked at the fat grams. !!!12!!! per serving! With nearly 4 grams of saturated fat!

Compare that with the nutritional information for 90% lean ground beef:
10-11 grams of fat, with 4-5 grams of saturated fat.

Nearly identical to the ground chicken.
And, you could shave even more fat calories off by buying the premium 95-97% lean ground beef.

Fresh Mediterranean Salad

This evening, I made my lunch for tomorrow. I wanted something fresh with a lot of veggies - but, I didn't want a wilted salad. I'm tired of romaine lettuce! So, I whipped up this salad, reminiscent of the Lebanese salad I used to have at the Middle Eastern restaurant in college.

It's a little tart, given that it's flavor comes from a lot of lemon juice, and a Middle Eastern spice called "sumac". Sumac is some sort of ground dried berry - that has a very distinct, lemony sort of flavor. Sumac can usually be found at international markets - in the Middle Eastern section. It's usually in a bag, and looks like dark reddish brown flakes.

The recipe also calls for Persian cucumbers. These are shorter, skinnier, and wrinklier than American cucumbers. They are similar to English cucumbers, in that they have less water, less seeds, and are crunchier. I love cucumbers - and they're my favorite kind!

Best of all, this salad is pretty healthy... Lots of veggies, just a bit of olive oil, and, of course, garlic! :) Doesn't garlic belong in everything? :)

Fresh Mediterranean Salad
Source: Me!
Serves: Approx 4 side salad servings

Veggies -
2 green bell peppers, cut in approx 1 inch chunks
2 roma tomatoes, diced
2 persian cucumbers (or, 1/3 to 1/2 of an English cucumber)
Optional: diced red onions

Dressing - these are rough amounts... all of these ingredients can be adjusted to taste.
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 teaspoons sumac (you might want to cut back on this a little - I like it, but it can be a little tangy for some tastebuds)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions: Mix the dressing ingredients, and pour over the veggies. Toss to coat.

Jamaican Style Beef Patties

I've been promising the hubby an attempt at Jamaican Beef patties for a while now. In Haiti (hubby's home country), they eat Jamaican patties, but call them "Patty Burger". Here in America, they're one of his favorite "freezer aisle treats" - and, I figured that they couldn't be too hard to make.

After watching an episode of the Food Network's "Have Fork, Will Travel" - I decided that this past weekend was the time to give them a try!

Overall, they turned out great! G loved them. Next time, I think I will fiddle with the crust recipe a little bit, as it could have used some more lightness and flakiness. But, this is coming from the girl who, to date, has never baked a pie. I sense one coming soon, though.

Warning - these little patties are pretty spicy. If you're not used to these flavors, I would highly recommend cutting the spices in 1/2, since I used more spices than most of the recipes I found online called for. We like a little flava in our house! ;)

Becareful when working with scotch bonnet peppers. Do not touch your eyes, wash your hands with soap and water after touching, and, do not sautee them by themselves. I once had to evacuate the house for 20 minutes because of the vapors! Scotch bonnet peppers are basically the yellow/orange version of habernero peppers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this type of pepper, check out this link.

The recipe calls for ground allspice, which is a characteristic spice in Jamaican cooking. I used ground up allspice berries, because they didn't have the ground stuff at the Latin market by my house. If you purchase the allspice in an ethnic market, it may also be called pimento, or ground pimento.

The curry powder and annato in the crust recipe is added for coloring. Typically, Jamaican beef patties are yellowish/orangish in color.

Since I had fresh thyme on hand, that's what I used - however, crushed thyme would work fine as well.

Jamaican Style Beef Patty Recipe
Source: Based loosely on a recipe from about.com and Jeff Lee's Recipe on allrecipes.com
Makes approx. 25 small patties.

Crust:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground annato (optional - for color)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
approx 1 cup water

Filling:
1.5 pounds ground beef
2 small onion, finely diced (I used my Pampered chef chopper & it worked beautifully!)
2 scotch bonnet peppers (Becareful!), finely chopped - not including the seeds, stems or veins
2 teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or, leaves from approx 10 sprigs of thyme)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup beef or chicken broth
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten

If you are not accustomed to strong flavors or spiciness, I recommend halving the amounts of pepper, curry, allspice, and thyme.

Prepare the filling:
In a heavy skillet, saute the onion until it becomes limp. Add the ground beef, Scotch bonnet pepper, allspice, salt, pepper, curry powder and thyme and mix well. Brown the meat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the breadcrumbs and stock and combine all the ingredients well. Cover the skillet and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. When all the liquids have been absorbed, the filling is ready. It should be moist but not watery. It may look kind of like dogfood (but, it tastes good!) Remove the skillet from the stove and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare the pastry:
Sift the flour, curry powder and salt into a large bowl. Cut in the shortening and margarine until crumbly. Add the cold water to make a stiff dough (you may need a little more or less water). Lightly flour a surface and roll out the dough until about 1/8-inch thick. Make sure it's rolled fairly thin.
At this point, I used my Pampered chef cut-n-seal to make the patties easily. Place approx 2 tablespoons of filling on half of each. DO NOT OVERFILL, or they will break open/leak. A couple of tablespoons of filling is plenty. Alternatively, you can out circles, put the filling in, and seal with a fork. Lightly brush the pastry with a mixture of the egg and water. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for approx 15-20 minutes.

These actually taste best after a night in the refrigerator, warmed up in the microwave for approx 30sec-1min!

Magnificent Mango Margaritas!

So, I figured that since I'm planning on starting Weight Watchers this week - yummy, sugary, alcoholic beverages are going to be OUT for a while. So, I took this weekend as an opportunity to have one last yummy blended drink - one of my new favorites - Mango Margaritas!

Mango Margarita Recipe

Source: Me!

• 1/2 bag frozen mango pulp (approx. 1 cup, or approx. 7 oz.) I used the "LaFe" Brand, from the International Freezer section of the grocery store. If using real mangos, the pulp of one or two mangos should be perfect. If you use fresh, make sure they're very ripe. Honestly, frozen is just easier!


• 3 oz. (1 "shooter" shot glass, or just over 1/4 cup) Tequila


• 3 oz. (1 "shooter" shot glass, or just over 1/4 cup) Triple Sec


• 3 oz. (1 "shooter" shot glass, or just over 1/4 cup) Vernors, Ginger Ale, or Sprite


• 3 oz. (1 "shooter" shot glass, or just over 1/4 cup) Simple Syrup


• 1.5 oz. (1/2 "shooter" shot glass, or just over 1/8 cup) Lemon juice. Fresh may be better, but the stuff from the green bottle is fine...


• Ice

Throw it all in a blender and blend until ice is smooth.

Optional: Garnish glass with coarse sugar or kosher salt.

This recipe calls for simple syrup. Simple syrup is great to have on hand in the bar, tastes better than adding granulated sugar, and is *super* easy to make.

Simple Syrup recipe:

• 1 cup sugar


• 1 cup water

Put the sugar and the water in a small saucepan. Bring water to a simmer, stirring constantly, and simmer until all of the sugar is dissolved. You should be able to tell whether it's dissolved by looking at a spoonful of the liquid - when it appears clear with no crystals, it's ready. Cool, and keep in a container in the refrigerator.