Dine

Ruby Birthday Bake Off!

As many of you know, I work for an amazing company called Ruby Receptionist.  I cannot say enough amazing things about this company, the wonderful people I work with, and the love that is truly exchanged among us. 

Birthday's are a big deal around here!  When it's your birthday you get a beautiful birthday card signed by everyone in the office, and a gift.  When it comes time for our company's birthday party, it's a big deal too, and we like to celebrate it in perfect vintage office fashion.... a bake off!  I decided to bring my specialty Red Velvet Cupcakes. I LOVE red velvet, the flavor I never get tired of, I love the fact that it's red!  So this year I opted to frost my red velvet ladies in our company colors Orange and Pink. 

Ingredients:

2½ cups all purpose flour

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1½ cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk (combine 1 cup nonfat milk w/ 1 tbsp lemon juice is you don’t have buttermilk)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. white vinegar

red food coloring

Preheat the oven to 350, and line your cupcake pans with liners. In a medium bowl, combine; flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt, whisking together. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar, beat until well blended. Mix in the dry ingredients on slowly until creamy. 

Fill the liners and bake for 15-18 minuets, check with a toothpick that they are cooked through.  Cool on a wire rack until cooled completely. 

I choose not to make my own frosting because, well I suck at it and I never get the consistency right.  Hey, I'll totally be the first person to admit when I cannot get something right!  Normally I choose cream cheese frosting because of the way it pairs with red velvet, and with these I used my Wilton's food coloring gel's to make them to correct colors.  As always they were a hit, although I didn't win I'm still very proud of them!

Pennie B

June 5th

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Spring Treats!

Neither of these need directions, but they really did come out cute, I thought I would share some tips though.

I really wish that I could take credit for this inspiration, but I cannot. This one came from one of my girlfriends, but since she doesn’t blog,  and with her permission, I thought I'de share! I do want to give a couple of tips when frosting a cake, I see a lot of mom’s are still frosting with butter knifes. I have a couple of different frosting knifes a basic Wilton’s and an economical one from Cake Boss, both purchased at Michael’s. I thought I would prefer the economical one, but I tend to stick with the Wilton’s basic, I think it’s the weight.

First you have to cut off the top of the cakes and make sure they are as level as possible {perfection not required} . If you choose store-bought frosting {I am guilty nearly every time} make sure that you give it a few good stirs outside of the container to loosen it up, otherwise you run the risk of ripping the cake. Make sure your cake is completely cool! I like to place it in the fridge for no more than 30 minuets after I have leveled the cakes to make sure. Spread frosting on the top of the first cake, then place on the second cake. This first layer is called the “crumb layer”, because it’s not going to be perfect, but the goal is to get rid of all those pesky pieces that get in your frosting, and are a potential cake decorating nightmare! Get a nice even layer all over the cake, you will have to play with it a bit if you have never used a frosting knife before, but it’s very quick to get it. After you have a nice layer on there, place it back in the fridge for about 20-30 minuets, until the frosting is set. Time for the final layer, you will do the same thing as with your crumb layer, pay close attention to the creases, and smudges.

For this cake I lined the outer edge with peeps, and placed chocolate chips around the center in a circular pattern, to creat a sunflower effect. Total credit goes to my fabu girlfriend Tiffany for telling me about this cake, because I hate peeps and never buy them.

Inspiration for these cookies, is found from our cupcakes from last spring, they were even cuter I think. These are your basic chocolate chip cookies, but anytime that you are using solid decorations on your cookies, you need to have a “glue” so to speak. Frosting is the perfect solution because you can dye it any color you need, and it holds really well! I used a layer on the cookie to hold the shredded coconut {dyed green} and dipped each “egg” in the frosting before placing it on the cookie. Leave them to set for 30 minuets, store in an air tight container, and serve when ready! viola!

Just a couple dips that I have come up with over the years, they are very simple but if you don’t know them, they are huge lifesavers!

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Sausage and Peppers

I am a sucker for italian food, yes Italian is my weakness for sure. Lucky for me, my family enjoys pasta almost as much as I do. This recipe is one that I threw together inspired once again by groceries shopping. I find so much inspiration while I’m groceries shopping. Sometimes, I deliberately leave out a day or two on my menu planning, because I want to think of something new and exciting. Plus it gives me an excuse to see what fresh and in season at my local market if I haven’t had a chance to check lately. Remember to always try new veggies too, to many mom’s are quick to go to the canned veggies, because they are easier. Of course they are easier, they are in a can! I’m all for easy, but don’t do it all the time. If you are going for easy, check the frozen section. The frozen veggies are frozen when they are fresh, so most of the nutrients are still there. Canned is a last resort, but something is better than nothing! Now on to the yummy meal!

You will need fresh sweet peppers, I used Open Nature’s Sun Dried tomato and Basil chicken sausage, penne noodles, and vodka sauce.

1. Cook your penne noodles, according to the package ont he box. While your noodles are cooking, go ahead and chop up the sausage and peppers, and saute that until done in some E.V.O.O. {extra virgin olive oil} , you can even throw in a little minced garlic if you like.
2. Once the sausage is cooked through and the peppers are done, add the vodka sauce, add the lid and let simmer stirring when necessary. I do like to add chopped fresh basil if I have that handy, unfortunately while cooking this dinner I did not have any.
3. I usually serve with a veggie, in this case I chose broccolini, and bread sticks, which made it to my tummy before the camera made it into my mouth {sorry}

And there you have it, a super easy meal that is crazy yummy and even the clean up is pretty simple if you didn’t burn your sausage. Good luck ladies, you are all inspirational!

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California Club Sandwich

It is rainy and nasty outside, and I am needing something to remind me of summer. Few things do that better than a california club Sandwich!

Again I’ll go for the thin sliced chicken breasts

sourdough bread loaf

bacon

guacamole

Thousand Island Dressing

Tomatoes

Butterleaf Lettuce

Ham and Turkey lunch meat

Once I prepare the bacon and the guacamole, toast the bread. Viola! Dinner is served and it is so yummy!

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Mamma’s Cajun Breakfast

We love breakfast for dinner in our house! I do get tired of same ol’ bacon, eggs, and hash browns. So I created this!

1 Bag of hash browns

Cut up the desired amount of bell peppers

Cook in pan with 1 ham steak cut into bite sized pieces.

Then add Creole seasoning to taste. We like ours with a bit of a kick!

Add the ham and peppers to the hash browns until done.

Serve with eggs, we have used scrambled and fried, they are both delicious!

Sorry, I don’t have a picture of the finished product. It always seems to get eaten before I am able.

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Coconut Chicken Strips!  TO D-I-E FOR!

I found this recipe and it has become a family favorite! It does take some time, so this is not one of the quick fixed, but it is worth the effort! The girls eat all the dinner, and seconds, and then keep coming back sneaking more pieces. The recipe is super easy, it is time-consuming that’s all.

What you need:

2 lbs. this sliced chicken breast, cut into strips

1 1/2 cups plain panko crumbs

1 cup shredded sweet coconut

1 egg

1/2 can condensed milk

1/2 cup orange juice

peanut oil

In a medium bowl mix the orange juice, milk and egg, until creamed together. In another medium bowl combine the panko crumbs and coconut. Pour the peanut oil into a frying pan, filling about 1/2 an inch deep. Dip each chicken piece into the egg/milk mixture, then into the coconut/panko mixture. Align on a banking sheet, not on top of each other.

Bank over medium to high heat, careful not to burn because they do NOT taste good burnt!

Make sure they are done all the way if you are not familiar with frying. The last thing you want to do is to serve 1/2 cooked chicken to your family! After the chicken cools down, I can hardly keep the kids away from the tray!

Pennie B.

December 16th 2011

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Mamma’s Ranger Cookies

I woke up this morning craving oatmeal cookies. This happens quite often because they are one of my favorite cookies. No, not oatmeal cookies…..Mamma’s Ranger Cookies!! Confused? No worries! After years of experience I have found that I wake up and crave oatmeal cookies, so of course I make up a batch, I wait for them to cool off. Finally I can bite into it, and……it is the most disappointing cookie of my life! But for the life of me, I NEVER crave these cookies! My poor overloaded brain cannot get oatmeal cookies out of my head. Oh well, I digress, over the years I have found this recipe is the best there is. I love all the different dried fruits in the cookies, but by all means MIX IT UP! The dried fruit is one of my favorite isles in the store and I’m sure you can find the perfect mix. FYI, when I was taking the pictures for this post I doubled the recipe for an a la mode for a dinner party! It made a LOT of cookies, I even took some to work the next day!

1/2 cup butter

2/3 Cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1/2 tsp. Vanilla

2/3 Cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 Cups rolled oats

3/4 C up of dried fruit {I use dark and light raisins, dried cherries, dried apricots, dried cranberries}

1/4 C white chocolate chips

preheated the oven to 350-

In a large bowl combine the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla, use the mixer until you get a smooth creamy texture, scraping the sides of the bowl as you going along

Now

add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Using the mixer blend until you get a thick peanut buttery texture to it.

Combine the oats, dried fruit, and white chocolate chips until evenly mixed.

Now line your cookie sheet with wax paper, and using two spoons dish the dough evenly across the pan. Put in pre heated oven for 10 minuets, you will know they are done when the edges are golden brown and the top still looks a little under done. These cookies smell AMAZING and the taste will knock your socks off! I am ridiculously in love with this recipe!

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CARIBBEAN LETTUCE WRAPS

These lettuce wraps are a huge hit in our family! They are healthy, and really simple to make. What you’ll need:

1 head butterleave lettuce {I prefer the living butterleaf lettuce}

1 lb carne asana cut into strips

Carrots cut into strips

Celery cut same size as carrots

1 box fresh chives

1 bottle Caribbean jerk marinade

Boil the box of chives for 1-2 minuets.

Remove from boiling water and place in bowl of ice water for 30 seconds.

Leave to dry on paper towel and set aside. {don’t worry they’ll be fine}

Using the indoor grill or skillet cook the carne asana thoroughly.

Cut the carrots and celery identically.

Arrange the beef and veggies on the lettuce and wrap .

Using one of the chives from earlier, tie the lettuce wrap.

Cut off the excess ends of the lettuce and trim the chives.

SERVE!! I usually serve with some white rice cooked in chicken broth with some chopped green onions! Super simple, and SOOOO yummy……ENJOY!

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“WHAT’S FOR DINNER?” Is a question that I better have an answer to when they start asking! I use to dread dinner time, it was a battle from start to finish. But there have been some changes in casa de la Boutton! Weekly menu’s are posted on our family board in the kitchen so everyone knows what we are having I go shopping twice a week, so I eliminate the need to go shopping every day and it works great!

I get my cooking inspiration from all over the web and TV, parts of recipes inspire me to add things our family would like and eliminate things that they don’t. Grocrie shopping can be as inspiring as shoe shopping if done right. I’ll share some of my family favorite recipes and some ideas that I’d like to try too!