Chocolate Cupcakes w/Buttercream Frosting (with recipe)

Today is National Cupcake Lovers Day!  In honor of this, Thing #5 was happy to make some cupcakes for the blog last night!  That girl loves to bake!

We used a cake recipe turned cupcake recipe I loved from one of the kids' birthdays and a frosting recipe we downloaded in an e-book from a blog I discovered.  Thing #5 is going to be gaining a LOT of baking insight from them in the future.  Pretty sure they're her soulmates.

Do make sure you have enough time to make these, don't rush it.  Very important to let cupcakes cool completely before putting your frosting on .... but you all know this, right?  You don't need details on how to make a cupcake.

Here are your recipes for cupcakes and homemade buttercream frosting!  On National Cupcake Lovers Day, calories don't count!

CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspooon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder (can't find it?  Here are some alternatives)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Place cupcake liners in muffin tin
• Add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder to a large bowl, whisk or stir with a fork to combine.
• Add milk, oil, egg and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined.
• Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter, Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.
• Evenly distribute cake batter to your cupcake liners - start with 1/2 full and keep distributing until batter is gone
• Place in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Organic Powdered Sugar 
• 1 cup (2 sticks) Organic Butter
• 2-3 teaspoons of Vanilla (we used 3)
• 1-2 tablespoons Milk

Directions:

• Add powdered sugar to mixing bowl with softened sticks of butter, vanilla and 1 tbsp. of milk
• Beat on low until powdered sugar is incorporated.
• Move mixer up to medium-high speed, scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.
• When completely mixed the frosting may appear dry



First try at piping frosting!  She
did a great job!

• Add milk in small amounts at a time until frosting is the consistency you're looking for.

Thing #5 was gifted with her first beginner's frosting piping tips and bags last night and after watching a tutorial on YouTube, she tried her hand at making pretty swirls!  You can just as easily pile on your frosting with a butter knife as we've all done for years.  Either way - these are hands down the BEST chocolate cupcakes with the most amazing frosting .... Happy Cupcake Lovers Day!!!!

Pesto Pasta Bake (with recipe)

Brownie is busy with Baseball - so you were expecting vegetarian, right?

Thing #2 made this on our last weekend together.  He did an awesome job and it was delicious.  But I was so focused on watching him and multi-tasking as Thing #5 simultaneously mixed up a batch of chocolate banana muffins from her cookbook, that I didn't get any photos of his creation.  

So tonight I decided to make it again and make sure to get some pictures!

Yes, it's vegetarian but it's SO flavorful!  I printed this recipe some time ago from the internet but have no idea from where.  I've modified it a bit to fit our taste and for convenience.  Try this:

Ingredients for Pesto:

• 4 cups fresh basil (Basil sells quickly this time of year, I bought a large bunch from Safeway and yes, used the entire thing for this recipe.)
• 4 Cloves garlic (snip off the tips of each end of the cloves before blending)
• 1/2 cup Pine Nuts
• 3/4 cup parmesan, finely grated
• 3/4 cup Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (FYI - one small carton of cream is enough to make this recipe twice!)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Ingredients Cont'd:

• 16 oz. Pasta (use whatever you have on hand, or whatever you prefer)
  
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved (this is great for slightly withered cherry toms that my not be appetizing for snacking any longer - they're going to be cooked anyway!  Thing #5 didn't leave me 1 cup to work with, but it was close)
• 1 cup parmesan, finely grated
• 8 oz. ball fresh mozzarella (cut into small 1/2" pieces or sliced, as you wish)

Directions:

• Make Pesto - place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend well, set aside
• Cook pasta to very al dente, or about 3-4 minutes before the package instructs for the cook time
• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
• halve your cherry tomatoes
• In a casserole pan, mix pasta, cherry tomatoes and pesto sauce
• Top with grated parmesan and mozzarella pieces
• Bake at 400 F for 10-15 minutes, or until mozzarella has melted.
• Garnish with additional parmesan and fresh basil, serve immediately.

The flavor of this is phenomenal.  Even our pickiest Thing #5 loves this!  It's simple and easy and will quickly become a family favorite - we promise!

Fresh from the oven:

Summer Bruschetta (with recipe)

We love summer!  Fresh fruits and vegetables are available everywhere you look and organic produce is so easy to come by locally!

If you've never made bruschetta ... it's sort of like the Italian version of chips and salsa!  So of course, Jen is a huge fan.  Chips and salsa is a must-have staple in the Brownifer household!

We're still working on using up leftovers from our Cuban Sandwiches so instead of using pita chips for a quick and easy bruschetta fix, we toasted some of our leftover Cuban Hoagies to make this one.  Normal we'll buy a baguette and slice it, but we work with what we've got!  Whatever bread you have, I guarantee it will work.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 Heirloom tomatoes - the more colors, the more fun!
• 2/3 Cup chopped fresh basil
• 2/3 Cup chopped onion (as fine as you like)
• 5-6 cloves garlic, minced (however much you like - we go crazy with garlic)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Sliced bread for toasting
• Olive Oil
• Garlic Powder

Directions:

• Mix tomatoes, onion, basil, garlic in a bowl and salt/pepper to taste
• Let mixture sit for 30 minutes or so for flavors to combine, stirring periodically
• Slice bread and place on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder
• Put bread in the broiler or oven until crisp and browned to your liking
• Spoon tomato mixture onto bread and serve!

Brownie likes to sprinkle his bruschetta with romano or parmesan cheese - I prefer it light and fresh.  You can vary this recipe in so many ways, its a fun one to play with and a simple side to so many summer dishes! 

Eggs Benedict Cuban-Style (with recipe)

What to do with all that leftover pulled pork and delicious ingredients for Cuban Sandwiches when you're getting tired of eating Cuban Sandwiches?  Here's an idea for you!

Jen's favorite breakfast food is Eggs Benedict - so we wanted to try giving her favorite dish a Cuban flair - and it worked marvelously!  

Re-heat your pulled pork and ham and get ready to try this one!  This recipe is for two servings - but you'll be cutting up bread enough for 4 so adjust accordingly!

This is also easier done with two people so one can be poaching eggs while the other is whisking (and whisking and whisking) Hollandaise sauce!

Ingredients:

• Pulled Pork
• Ham Slices
• Cuban Hoagies
• 4 Organic Eggs (for poaching)
• 4 Organic Egg Yolks (for Hollandaise)
• 2 Sticks Organic Butter
• 1 Tablespoon White Wine Vinegar
• 1 Teaspoon White Pepper (use whatever you have on hand, this is just what we used)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon
• 1/4 Cup Cold Water
• 1 Tablespoon (or so) Yellow Mustard
• Dill for garnish (we sprinkled dried dill - you could use fresh as well of course!)

Directions:

• Put pulled pork in oven to re-heat on a low setting while you work on your sauce
• Gather all ingredients for your Hollandaise and get them together by the stove - you'll need to do this quickly.
• Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat; slowly bring to a boil, skimming froth from surface. (I used a large spoon and just kept skimming until the layer on top was gone) Carefully pour melted butter into a small bowl, holding back the milky sediment in the bottom of the pan. The clarified butter should be the color of light olive oil; let cool to room temperature.
• Wash saucepan thoroughly and dry - returning to stove for next step.
• While the butter is cooling - slice your Cuban Bread as you would for a sandwich, then cut in 1/2 to make 4 smaller pieces.  Place in toaster so they're ready for toasting.
• In saucepan, mix vinegar together with 1/4 cup cold water and pepper. Place over medium-high heat until liquid is reduced by one-third; remove from heat and let cool completely. (I filled a sink with cold water and placed the bottom of the pan in the water until it was cooled to speed things up)
• Add egg yolks to cooled reduction and whisk to combine.
• Place saucepan on stove over very low heat; whisk, making sure the whisk comes in contact with the bottom of the pan. Gradually increase heat whisking, so the sauce emulsifies progressively and becomes smooth and creamy, 8 to 10 minutes; do not let the temperature of the sauce rise above 150 degrees.
• While you're doing this - have someone start poaching eggs, toasting bread and getting your meat out and ready to plate!
• Remove saucepan from heat and whisk in clarified butter in a slow, steady stream; season with salt. Stir in lemon. Use a fine mesh strainer; strain mixture and discard solids. Whisk in mustard; Use sauce immediately.
• On a plate, place warmed ham on your toasted bread, topped with some pulled pork.  Lay two poached eggs on top of the meat and spoon on your Hollandaise sauce.  Garnish with dill and serve warm!

If you're making this by yourself, you'll have to figure out how to time it well, but it will be worth it!  This has some wonderful Cuban Sandwich flavor but it's clearly breakfast!  And just like the sandwiches, it's VERY filling.  We loved it!!!!!  This one is definitely going down as a success.

I modified the Hollandaise recipe I found here for this adventure.  

The Brownifer Cuban Sandwich

We were inspired by our visit to Stick a Pork In It to create our own version of the Cuban Sandwich. We hit the Internet Super Highway and did some research on the history of this tradition.

I won't bore you with the research, you can look all of that up yourself.  But we decided to stay authentic, leave off the salami and give it our own flair with Brownie's smoked, pulled pork.

In researching this sandwich, I found that Cubans are very adamant that you use Cuban Bread for this, so I did some reading on that as well. My adventure perfecting Cuban Hoagies finally came together in batch #3, they were delicious! You should definitely give them a try - not sure this would have turned out the same if we hadn't used them!

Now, pulled pork takes quite a few hours to do and you can't really time it. It's done when it's done. So we decided to make a Cuban Night of it and invited friends over for Mojitos and a Cuban-themed meal.  This also gave us a chance to get more opinions on our creation, which we love.

I'll shut up now, here's what we did:

Ingredients:

Pulled Pork (smoked on your own BBQ grill if possible)
Ham slices (we had the deli slice ours so the thickness was where we wanted it and uniform)
Brick of Swiss Cheese, thinly sliced
Sandwich Slicer Pickles (we even found organic ones with no artificial dye!)
Mustard - lots of mustard!
Cuban Hoagies (substitute any hoagies or bread - you know what you like)

Directions:

• Slice Hoagies sandwich-style
• Put mustard on both bread slices. A lot of mustard - and don't be shy - use that mustard!!!!!
• Lay top and bottom on broiler tray and liberally add a layer of sliced Swiss Cheese to each and put under the broiler on low until the cheese is melted
• Lay down your ham slices on the bottom slice of your sandwich (our bread used two slices)
• Lay down a layer of pickles - thick as you like (we used four to cover the bread)
• Top with pulled pork and put the top on your sandwich, pressing down so that cheese can do its job and hold everything together
• Slice sandwich at the diagonal

We served our Cubans with some traditional sides that I found recipes for here.  They turned out really well!  There were two of us in our dinner party who are not fans of sweet potatoes - and we loved the potatoes!  So even if it's not your thing, give it a try!  And the beans were so flavorful but a word to the wise, (learn from my Mojito-fueled mistake) measure your salt!  I always under-salt things and Brownie is always adding more salt to my recipes so ... in my mind I needed to add more than it called for.  Don't.  They tasted fabulous, but I used way too much salt.

These sandwiches were the talk of our Memorial Day weekend!  All of our guests loved them, but only one could finish the whole thing!  They're large.  We finished the night off with Mojitos, spiced rum and cigars by the fire .... all of us too full to eat anything else.

Try these out and let us know what variations you used and how they turned out!

¡Que aproveche amigos!

Death By Donutz

Our Things always hear about us reviewing restaurants and they really want to be part of this blog!  So they are working on a restaurant review of their own, stay tuned!

While visiting a restaurant they were interested in trying, we came by Death By Donutz in Corvallis and I mentioned that it was one of the places I had been wanting to try with the kiddos.

So when we were done eating our lunch, we headed in to check things out!

The kids were overwhelmed with their choices, so ordering just one doughnut probably wasn't ever going to be realistic.  We got a dozen and everyone set in trying them out.


They do have most of your favorite classic doughnuts, but they also have some signature names that you really must try!

Thing #5 was in love with her Banana Split doughnut, she said it was 'so good!' Be careful - one bite and the whipped cream will smear your nose!  Totally worth it.

Cookie Dough

Banana Split

Brownie and Thing #4 both had Cookie Dough and I chose the Nutella, topped with a wee little Filbert (we live in Oregon - they're Filberts, not Hazelnuts)  Both of those were very good as well.

Nutella

Beaver Tail

That big bar lined with chocolate stripes there?  Orange cream frosting.....Beaver Tail I believe.  Thing #5 was protecting it with her life so no one would eat it.













Now Thing #3 chose to be really adventurous and try the PB&J doughnut.  We were all a bit skeptical.  His review?  'Probably the best doughnut I've ever eaten in my life.'  His advice - order a milk to drink with this because it's rich and that peanut butter will stick to the roof of your mouth.  It's filled with jelly too - but it won't change the fact that you need milk!

Peanut Butter & Jelly

If Brownie and I had to recommend one doughnut to try here, it would have to be the Raspberry Fritter.  You heard us right!  And it's just as amazing as it sounds!

Raspberry Fritter

The novelty of this little place is indeed its attraction, the kids even got logo stickers to take home with them.  But you're guaranteed to find something you love here and fill out your dozen with some classics with which you can't go wrong.

Visit them and let us know what you tried!

Stick a Pork In It - Lebanon, OR (Review)

Someone Brownie works with recommended we try Stick a Pork In It.  They're a food truck in Lebanon, usually parked in the Mega Foods parking lot on Main Street.

We have eaten here on a couple of occasions and the food was consistently delicious!  Brownie is a pulled pork aficionado and  he will be the first to tell you that this is some good pork!  "I thought it had a good smoke flavor, wasn't dry, and was evenly pulled."

I am a huge fan of Brownie's pulled pork, I just don't think it gets any better.  But this truck definitely has their pork down to an art! Now, if you've driven by and rolled your eyes thinking, 'another BBQ truck?' - that's not what this is!  This is about pork and they play with it well!

Cuban Sandwic

There aren't a lot of places locally to order a Cuban Sandwich, so if you stop by here, be sure to try theirs!  It's done the traditional way with sliced pork loin, ham, swiss cheese, mustard and pickles and it's really good!  I love that they have this twist on their menu!

We've tried just about everything on the truck by now and we have our favorites! Thing #5 refuses to eat BBQ because it 'tastes like smoke'.  But the rest of us who've eaten it definitely have an opinion!

Pork Tacos w/Cilantro Lime Slaw

Porkadilla with BBQ Sauce

Traditional BBQ Sandwich

Brownie and I both agree that if you have to order just one thing, you really must try the pork tacos with their signature cilantro lime slaw!  It's a flavor punch with just the right amount of spice that compliments the pork perfectly and we can't get enough!

Thing #3 highly recommends the Porkadilla with BBQ sauce - he said it was 'Heaven.'  Thing #4 cleared his throat and asked about their Dad's BBQ.  Thing #3 quickly added, 'Well, except for your barbecue, Dad!'  Have I mentioned how smart our Things are!?  :-)

The traditional BBQ sandwich is also there if you're really craving BBQ but in our humble opinion - it's not the best thing on the menu - we recommend branching out!

We have also tried the strawberry lemonade blended and unblended, Brownie prefers it blended so the muddled strawberries don't block his straw, I prefer it unblended; I'll happily deal with muddled strawberries on my own. 

We will be returning often I'm sure; we still have not been able to try the Cuban Potato Ball.  In true food truck fashion, they run out before we get there.  So they must be good!

We rate our restaurants on our Brownifer scale and I feel like it must be mentioned that one of the areas where they scored a 5 was customer service!  They have proven that they love their business and their customers are their #1 priority!  Trust us, they will feed you well, keep you happy and coming back for more!

On our Brownifer Scale, Stick a Pork In It came out with a 4-Star rating!  It's well worth trying out and making one of your go-to BBQ stops!  We don't even want to hear how far the drive to Lebanon is.  It's worth it.  Just go!