teacher by day - chef by night
In order to celebrate Blue’s Clues I made BLUE VELVET CUPCAKES! Warning: these take a lot of food coloring and unlike Red Velvet: these are made with vanilla cake. I did cheat a little on these and used a box of Betty Crocker Mix (but I did make my own frosting since I’m not a fan of can frosting at all – that is why I thought I hated frosting growing up actually).
I love me some pesto! AND I love me some garlic! When we did our 1st CSA pick-up we had some garlic scapes (basically a white, more mild garlic – and the scapes are the top, kinds curly). Heidi (our farmer) told us to make …
I grew up not liking meatloaf.
I also grew up hearing stories of my father riding his bike to some diner for the best meatloaf ever. This diner was called “Yankee Tower Diner” and they released their meatloaf recipe when they closed. Mom followed their recipe and all of a sudden meatloaf was something that I fell in love with!
Warning: this is not low-calorie and there is nothing you can do to make it low-calorie, so run a few extra laps, go take a hike, hop on a bike – whatever you have to do to make and enjoy this meatloaf!!
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Season & make into a loaf. Bake at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes (internal temp of 160 degrees). Slice & Enjoy!
This meatloaf is SO good you don’t even need to put anything on your meatloaf (which my parents remind me every time I make/eat it – even though I always have some ketchup on this stuff. Also – be sure to enjoy the burnt fat/cheese that bubble out from this meatloaf (growing up, and still today, I fight over the black charred yummy fat with my parents)! REMEMBER– I told you that you need to enjoy this and not worry about the health content here on this one!
And I leave you with this…”Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you!” (Tommy Smothers)
Pasta: go to & quick and easy. There are so many ways to do pasta, but so often we find ourselves going to the same recipes. No no no – not this time! I pulled out my Pasta and Sauces cookbook from the Prevention Magazine’s Quick …
Think “Blondie Brownie” with all sorts of goodies added in! I guess these are called “Congo Bars” – but I had never heard them called that (I do not think I have ever had them before either). These bar cookies are a perfect way to …
“Please sir, may I have s’more”
Welcome to the summer season! There is nothing that screams summer more than some warm roasted marshmallows (ok – maybe grilling screams summer pretty loudly too, but I grew up in a house where dad grilled in a winter coat). There are so many awesome S’mores inspired recipes out there (none of them for that winter-grilling father of mine who hates them) and I finally had to pick one and make them.
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We went to a BBQ with some friends and I decided these would be perfect to bring (especially after my amazing baker co-worker made some a few weeks ago for us). These cupcakes were voted “best dessert at the bbq” (which I think is a pretty big compliment since almost everyone there is very into mountain/road biking and very health-conscious, so these can even convert your ‘healthy friends’ to the ‘dark side’)
adapted from 6 Bittersweet’s as she adapted it from lots of other places
as adapted from Creative Loafing
Now that these cupcakes are done, I came across Domestic Fits Smore’s Cheesecakes which I look forward to brining to my next (indoor) summer event – not sure how well cheesecakes would do outside. I wonder if maybe even my cheesecake loving but s’mores hating father would like these!?
I leave you with a question to ponder… One of the joys of S’mores is their simplicity, whereas these cupcakes take them to a different level of preparation and difficulty – which do you prefer!?