Armed with our tin foil hats, we safely toured the city and the Alien and UFO Museums.

When we made it back to Arizona we made cupcakes.

The cake of these treats was more dense than a typical vanilla or chocolate cake. Partly because of the bananas and partly because I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of while flour.  I roasted the bananas as recommended by the recipe, however, I started with really ripe bananas so I think the flavor would have been pronounced without that step.

For the frosting, I used raw honey, which made the flavor more pronounced than had I used conventional honey. If you have it on hand, I recommend it.

Martha Stewart Cupcake Challenge 23/175

Roasted Banana Cupcakes

Makes 12

* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

* 3/4 cup sugar

* 1 teaspoon baking powder

* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

* 1/4 teaspoon salt

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

* 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas), plus 1 whole banana, for garnish (optional)

* 2 large eggs

* 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix). Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack. Spread tops with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting. Just before serving, peel and slice banana into rounds, and place one on each cupcake, if desired.

via Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com.

Honey Cinnamon Frosting

* 1 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, honey, and ground cinnamon until smooth, 4 to 5 minutes

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Honey-Cinnamon Frosting and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com

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As a result of the event, 5 Phoenix Valley groups had new websites, customer management systems and more designed or fixed by these people. I estimate that with off-set development cost alone, they contributed $170,000 worth of skill on their projects.

Lots of companies including the one I work for gave to help underwrite the cost and supply food. The City of Chandler also donated work space for the weekend. The venue was less than a mile from my house, so it was easy to take a batch of Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting to the group.

If you want to learn more about the developer’s efforts you can go to their website: AZGiveCamp.org.

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes from Cook’s Illustrated

3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine

1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa

3/4 cup hot coffee

3/4 cup bread flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 t table salt

1/2 t baking soda

6 T vegetable oil

2 large eggs

2 t white vinegar

1 t vanilla extract

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 d. Line standard-size muffin pan with baking cup liners. Place chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in refrigerator to cool completely. Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar and vanilla into cooled chocolate cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups.

Bake until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17-19 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature before frosting.

Kathleen’s Peanut Butter Icing:

* 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

* 1 cup creamy peanut butter

* 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

* 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

* 1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

via Chocolate Cupcakes and Peanut Butter Icing Recipe : Ina Garten : Food Network.

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So when I read a Twitter about a Tatcho plate in Portland, I had to have some.  Lucky for me, I read the tweet on a weekend day, so I was able to satiate my immediate and primal hunger right then!

Tatchos

1 package tator tots

1 cup canned pinto beans

1/2 lb ground meat

1 small onion

Taco seasoning

Shredded Cheese (colby jack blend)

Add favorite traditional nacho or baked potato toppings.

Prepare ground meat with taco seasoning and saute the onion, set aside. Heat pinto beans.

Place tator tots in oven and season generously with taco seasoning.

1/2 through heating tots, top with beans, meat/onion mixture and lots of cheese.

My tips is to use more of the seasoning an d cheese than you think may be necessary. The potatoes really absorb the flavors.

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I love making this salad, putting it in a Tupperware and snacking on it on weekends or on weeknights when inspiration and energy escape me after a long day.

I recommend paying attention to this suggested boiling method for the chicken. Typically I boil my chicken within an inch of it’s life. This method produced thoroughly cooked through moist chicken: Bring the broth and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add chicken to broth and simmer, covered, for 8 minutes. Turn the heat off and let chicken stand in the cooking liquid, covered, until cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Curried Chicken Salad

Ingredients

* 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

* 1 cup water

* 1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast halves, no more than 3/4-inch thick

* 1/4 cup sliced almonds

* 1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt

* 2 tablespoons mayonnaise

* 1 teaspoon curry powder

* 1 cup halved red grapes

* 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves

* Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Bring the broth and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add chicken to broth and simmer, covered, for 8 minutes. Turn the heat off and let chicken stand in the cooking liquid, covered, until cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove the chicken from the broth and cool completely in the refrigerator. Cut into 1/4-inch dice. Toast the almonds in a small dry skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant and beginning to turn golden, 2 to 3 minutes.

In a large bowl, stir together the yogurt, mayonnaise, and curry powder. Fold in the chicken, grapes and cilantro and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

via Curried Chicken Salad Recipe : Ellie Krieger : Food Network.

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I read Stefanie’s Cupcake Project post on how to infuse stronger tea flavor into baking and thought if it works for tea, it should work for dried herbs and spices. I followed the same method in her post and substituted lavender for tea in the heated butter mixture. The aroma was pronounced which gave me confidence that the lavender flavor would be stronger in the cake.

Infused Butter Method from Cupcake Project

* Slightly more butter than your recipe calls for. When you make the tea-infused butter, some of the butter will get stuck on the tea leaves and you’ll end up with less usable butter than you started with. How much more butter should you use? You’ll have to experiment. It will vary depending on the type of tea that you use and how good you are at pressing the butter out of the wet tea leaves. I found that I needed 1 cup of butter to end up with 3/4 cup of butter.

* 2 grams (or approximately 1 1/2 teaspoons) of whole-leaf tea per tablespoon of butter. As Robert says, “The key to flavor is freshness so be sure that you are using only tea that is highly aromatic and butter that has no off aromas or flavors.”

Instructions:

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter until just liquid.

2. Add the tea leaves.

3. Continue heating the mixture for about 5 minutes on low heat.

4. Remove from the heat and allow to stand for another 5 minutes or until the butter is discernibly tinted by the tea leaves.

5. Pour the mixture through a fine sieve, pressing hard on the tea leaves and then discarding them. This is the part where you will undoubtedly end up with some butter that you can’t get off of the leaves. I encourage you to press as hard as you can, but not to obsess about lost butter – it’s for a good cause.

6. Let the butter come to room temperature and then use it as you would regular butter in your baked goods.

via Baking with Tea – How To Get the Flavor of Tea Into Your Baked Goods ~ Cupcake Project.

Frosting

* 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

* 1 cup powdered sugar

* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

* 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

* 3/4 cup lavender honey (purchased at Williams Sonoma)

via Pear Cake with Lemon-Honey Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe at Epicurious.com.

Lemon Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 24

* 3 cups all-purpose flour

* 1 tablespoon baking powder

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted lavender infused butter, room temperature

* 2 cups sugar

* 4 large eggs, room temperature

* Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (about 3 tablespoons), plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* 1 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in zest and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

4. To finish, spread 1 tablespoon lemon curd onto middle of each cupcake. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large open-star tip (Ateco #828 or Wilton #8B) with frosting. Pipe frosting onto each cupcake, swirling tip slightly and releasing as you pull up to form a peak. Hold a small kitchen torch 3 to 4 inches from surface of frosting, and wave it back and forth until frosting is lightly browned all over. Serve immediately.

From Martha Stewart Cupcakes, May 2009

via Lemon Meringue Cupcakes and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com.

via PrissyCook » Blog Archive » Lemon Mergingue Cupcakes.

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Yesterday, my thermostat read 100 for the first time this year. It was teetering at 99.9 and I remember sitting there and watching it till it got to 100.

Cucumber Salad is simple and cool and not something that readily comes to mind when you’re thinking about, “what to eat?” My cucumber salad isn’t especially unique, I choose to leave out the red onions which are typically seen in this type of salad.

Also this used one of my ingredients from my Bountiful Basket.

Cucumber Salad

Special equipment: mandolin

1 cucumber

1 t dill

1 t salt

1 t sugar

3 T white wine vinegar

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For this dish, I started with spinach, cilantro, onion and zucchini. Optional toppers: tomatoes and avocados. My task was to figure out how they could all go together.

Spinach-Cilantro Sauce

1 cup cilantro, packed

1 cup spinach, packed

2 cloves garlic

1 t crushed red pepper

1/2 juice from one lime

2 T olive oil, plus more for saute

salt and pepper

Saute cilantro, spinach, garlic and red pepper in garlic to help the flavors come out. Add saute to blender, with lime juice and olive oil. Puree so that a sauce forms.

Vegetables and Beans

2 zucchini chopped

1 small onion chopped

1 can black beans drained

Saute zucchini and onions in olive oil. Add drained black beans to heat through.

Pasta

Cook 2 cups spiral pasta. Drain

Spinach Cilantro Pasta Salad

Place pasta in a large bowl. Add Spinach Cilantro Sauce, sauteed vegetables. Combine and serve warm or cold.

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The co-op pools money from their members and leverages the money for better, bulk deals on produce in this case. So, it’s not a Farmer’s Market, it’s not a grocery store, but in my opinion, it’s snuggled right in the middle. Heck, we picked up our first co-op basket at local park.

We opted for the standard basket ($15) and the Mexican pack add-on ($8). For $23, here’s what we were able to bring home:

Here’s a quick retail calculation of what I estimate retail would have cost for everything in our basket:

8 Gala apples .80 6.40
8 Kiwi
2 bunches bananas .45 90
4 avacado .33 x 4 1.32
5 limes .69 3.45
7 tomatoes .59 4.13
8 tomatillos 4.13
3 containers blackberries .99 3.98
1 cantaloupe 4.39
1 honeydew 4.39
1 onion 1.00
1 head garlic 1.00
2 scallions 1.39 2.78
2 cilantro .99 1.98
1 bag radishes 1.39
3 small squash
2 cucumber 1.00
4 artichoke 1.50 6
1 spinach 2.19
1 green lettuce 2.19

Overall I think it would have cost us close to $60 at the grocery store. Here’s another view:

To make it all worth it, I’ve got to plan out how we’re going to use all these ingredients this week. The goal: Minimize Waste!

You can check out the program here, BountifulBaskets.org. Thanks @wconeybeer and @cconeybeer for the info.

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A few years ago, my kitchen mini-prep food processor was on the chopping block. I was inventorying my kitchen appliances and was on the fence on weather or not to donate it. Why not, I had a larger higher duty food processor.

I’m happy I hung onto it.

This salsa has some kick to it. I recommend having a refreshing beverage close by. For some reason, I think a horchata is the right cooling agent.

Crunchy Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa

Salsa Verde Crujiente con Aguacate

Makes about 2 1/2 cups

Recipe from Season 7 of Mexico – One Plate at a Time

Ingredients

8 ounces (about 4 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed

1/2 cup (loosely packed) coarsely chopped cilantro

Hot green chiles to taste (roughly 2 small serranos or 1 small jalapeño), stemmed and roughly chopped

1 ripe avocado, pitted, flesh scooped from the skin

1 small white onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

Salt

Directions

Roughly chop half of the tomatillos and scoop them into a food processor with the cilantro and green chiles. Measure in 1/4 cup water and process to a slushy, coarse puree. Roughly chop half the avocado, add it to the processor and pulse until it is incorporated into the salsa. Scrape into a serving dish. Scoop the onion into a small strainer and rinse under cold water. Add to the salsa. Finely chop the remaining tomatillos and add them, too. Finally, chop the remaining avocado into 1/4-inch pieces and stir them into the salsa. Taste and season with salt, usually about 3/4 teaspoon.

Alternative Method: Put all the tomatillos (quartered), cilantro and chiles through a meat grinder to chop them (no water necessary), then stir in finely chopped avocado and rinsed onion.

via Recipes from Chef Rick Bayless – Rick Bayless | Frontera.

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When I get a new copy of Cook’s Illustrated, I don’t read the magazine all the way through. Mainly because they only publish a few issues a year and I like to savor the articles.

The other day, my fella walked into the living room and he looked like he had some bad news to deliver. He said, “Did you see the Cook’s Illustrated article on Vanilla Ice Cream?”

Me: “Really!! I didn’t. Did they include Blue Bell?”

Him: “Yeah, the good news is that they recommended it for children.”

Me: “And?”

Him:  (really fast paced) “They said it tasted artificial and gave it a rating of recommended with some reservations.” (and he quickly left the room)

There it is. In black and white. I was shocked into silence for just a minute.

My next words were very passionate, “DON’T THEY KNOW THE MAIN INGREDIENT IS LOVE!?!”

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