Birthday Cupcakes

This weekend we're having our family lunch celebration for my younger stepdaughter Ashley's birthday. We're a little late celebrating, as her birthday was October 16th, but we've been waiting for a weekend when the whole family is available. My amazing mother-in-law, Cuqui, is taking care of all the Disney princesses decorations for the party, and TLOML and I are taking care of the food, including birthday cupcakes.

I grew up cooking and baking. Years ago, when my son (now 17) was young, I did a lot of baking cupcakes for birthdays, cakes for Boy Scout competitions, and cookies to take to school for every imaginable holiday. You should see my collection of cookie cutters and Wilton frosting tips!

But truth be told, I don't really like to bake. I don't hate it, I'm just not inspired by it. I much prefer the kind of cooking that I find more creative and less rigid, like making spice rubs for meat or thinking up new salad ideas. I love opening up my magic bag of tricks, you know, that big Rubbermaid container with dozens of herbs and spices, and making up a witch's brew (it is Halloween time after all) with a bit of this and a dab of that.

There's a program on Food Network about cooking with only 5 ingredients. I just can't comprehend that. Why would anyone want to limit the number of ingredients in their cooking? Where's the fun in that? I'm sure my sweet hubby is secretly hoping that program will become my favorite show :)

Anyway, besides the fact that I don't really enjoy baking and neither does my hubby, neither of us even likes sweets very much. Now, don't get me wrong. That doesn't mean that I'm a whispy little gal, but the 40 or so pounds that I need to lose are owing to my love of salty, crunchy foods and my love of wine. Thank God I don't like desserts; if I ate that stuff, I'd be big as a barn!

So as I'm shopping for ingredients to bake birthday cupcakes for my sweet Ashley, which to me has always meant a box mix and whatever gets added to it, my darling husband calls me and is horrified to learn that I'm planning to make cupcakes out of a box. I know he's kinda kidding, but I guess he has a point since we try to make everything from scratch. That way at least we always know exactly what we're eating.

In the grips of my guilt-trip, I used the Epicurious app on my iPhone to look for a homemade cupcake recipe. Don't even get me started about my love of the iPhone and the greatness of the apps and how iPhone is one of the greatest inventions of our time, but if you have an iPhone, well, first of all, you get it, and second of all, I highly recommend the Epicurious app for rescuing you from prepared food embarrassment. I found a recipe for Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes and bought the couple of ingredients I needed to prepare them.

Recipe from http://www.epicurious.com/

CHOCOLATE CHIP ZUCCHINI CUPCAKES

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 pound zucchini, coarsely grated (1 cup)
1 (6-ounces) package semisweet chocolate chips

Equipment
A muffin pan with 12 (1/2-cup) cups with paper liners

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Beat together sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thick and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips. Divide among lined muffin cups and bake until tops spring back when lightly pressed, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then turn out to cool completely.

I frosted the cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting, using a star tip and a disposable pastry bag. Of course I forgot to take pics of the finished product!

Recipe from www.myrecipes.com/recipes

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Prep: 10 min. If you love lots of frosting, double the recipe.
This recipe goes with Basic Layer Cake, Vanilla Cupcakes (and Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes)
Yield: Makes about 2 1/4 cups

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
5 to 7 Tbsp. milk

Preparation:
1. Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
2. Whisk together powdered sugar and cocoa.

3. Gradually add powdered sugar mixture alternately with 3 Tbsp. milk, 1 Tbsp. at a time, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition. Beat in up to 4 Tbsp. additional milk for desired consistency.

Southern Living, MARCH 2009

Super Nutritious Hamburger Patties

My precious stepdaughters don't like to eat anything that could possibly be healthy. We made these hamburger patties on Friday night to "sneak" some fiber and vegetables into them. I must say they were mighty tasty.

1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground turkey
1 carrot, grated
1 small zucchini, grated
5 green onions, white parts and some of the green parts sliced very thin
cloves of 1/2 head of garlic minced very fine
4 teaspoons olive oil (divided use)
2-4 tablespoons tomato paste, to taste
salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence*
1 teaspoon Beef Roast seasoning*
1 large egg
1/4 cup wheat germ

If you want to really disguise the "evil, healthy vegetables" in this recipe from your little picky eaters, then walk your knife over the carrot, zucchini, green onion, and garlic until it's all minced so small that it's unrecognizable.

Warm a skillet over medium heat. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil.

Saute the vegetables until softened. Add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, and seasonings. Cook several minutes so that all the flavors meld together.

Remove the sauteed veggie mixture to a mixing bowl and let it cool. When cool, add the egg and wheat germ. Add the ground beef and ground turkey and mix by hand until well combined. If the mixture is too soft and sticky to easily make patties, chill it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so to let it firm up.

Form the mixture into patties. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil to the skillet and warm over medium heat, then cook the hamburger patties several minutes per side until nicely browned.

You can melt cheese slices (whatever kind you or your picky eaters like) over the patties when the hamburger patties are almost ready.

You can use your imagination and make all kinds of changes and substitutions to this recipe. My only word of caution is that if you have really picky eaters, don't go overboard with the amount of vegetables you add, and chop them very fine to disguise them.

* I've been buying most of my spices/spice mixtures from Penzey's. Their wonderful high-quality products are available in their store and online. I also find their catalog and online descriptions very helpful when I make my own spice mixtures: http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html