Grandma's Kitchen Table

MSC Club: Applesauce-Spice Cupcakes and Brown-Sugar Cream-Cheese Frosting

It's time for another cupcake adventure this month from the Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book.  This one is a bonus selection, the Applesauce-Spice Cupcakes, found on page 55 of the book, chosen by Sherry of Sherry Starts Cooking. Great recipe, easy to mix quickly (although will someone please tell me what I am doing wrong that I keep getting all these tunnels in my cupcakes when we open them up, doesn't happen with my cakes), and tasty. 

 

The recipe calls for applesauce and since I didn't have any apples in the house to make my own (a rare occasion), I used some Granny Smith applesauce that Mark had on hand for his lunches:  nice and flavorful in the cupcakes. 

 

The recipe suggested the Brown-Sugar Cream-Cheese Frosting on page 310 and I made that for them...basically some butter, some cream cheese, and some brown sugar.  It complimented the cupcake flavor nicely. 

 

The recipe called for pecans in the batter, so I opted to just plop one on top of the frosted cupcake as my guys don't like nuts IN things, but they will eat them on the outside of things. 

 

I made 2/3 of the recipe which gave us 12 cupcakes and 1/2 of the frosting recipe which generously frosted the 12 cupcakes nicely. 

 

Next month's recipe selection is my turn and in keeping with the season, I chose Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cookie Cutouts, found on  246.   Blogroll and Schedule found here.

Pull Up a Chair: Catching Up Around the Table

Well, well, well, look who is actually posting this week.  It's been busy around here, I have been working a lot, and the posts have just not been as forthcoming as usual. We'll see if I can do better this week. 

 

So, what's been going on around here...bits and pieces in photos from times I, or someone in my family, actually remembered to have camera in hand, or I should say, managed to have camera in hand and actually took photos with it.

 

We winterized the yard and plants, Alex's favorite peppers being the last to go, Matt hauling the big pots from deck to winter storage in garage, not exactly his favorite thing as storing all the big pots, and there are several, makes it harder for him to navigate in the garage from car to door.

  

The swimmers hanging out in Men's Den, always a popular activity.  (Janos, Mike, Daniel, Harrison, Kiernan, etc.)  Playing video games and watching movies ranks high on the list of things to do out of the water. 
The Knights had their yearly campout down in Brown County at the CYO camp.  Photos of some of my favorites upon return. 
Colin, Stephen, Matt, Jack, and Chas.  Matt is President this year of the Indiana Chapter of Knights as well as his own chapter, so he got to be Master of Ceremonies for the new initiates, and plan the retreat, etc.   Photo of my three favorite tall guys, Matt, Stuart, and Spencer.  As you can see, Matt at almost 6'4" is the shortest of the three. 

 

Some of the girls on Twitter had a bit of fun with Secret Baker, organized by three of them, where we each had a randomly selected participating member of the group to bake a little something for and send it to them.  Tracey got my name and I got a very nice package from Tracey that included Spiced Biscotti and Cranberry Bread, enjoyed by all.   I got Kerri's name, a girl I had yet to meet, so that was fun, and I sent her two kinds of cookies and some pumpkin bread.  Next month the Secret Baker group is sending Christmas cookies as the baked goods.   

 

Matt managed to break his hand on a Saturday night and have surgery on the following Tuesday, which was Alex's birthday.  Three and a half weeks from Short Course Senior Nationals and he was out of the water for a week, but back in after that week with a swimming cast, figuring out that one can swim with a broken hand after all.   

 

Alex turned 17 and had the candles to prove it.  His main wish is that he would be 18 instead...ah, the young, so eager to be adults and out on their own.

 

Friday Taylor came over and she and Matt did some seasonal holiday decorating, putting up the tree in the foyer (seen here with the stable underneath waiting for the appearance of the Nativity pieces bit by bit), the living room tree, the little sideboard tree in the dining room, and the greenery on the banister.  

 

We definitely have guy decorations, as Taylor described her family's decorations and her mother's collection of ornaments.  I was thinking Taylor was a good sport to help out with our mishmash of ornaments, lackadaisical manner of decorating, and hearing Matt say, "Oops, I broke one," in his yearly attempts at handling the little ornaments with those great big hands of his.  They had to leave before putting up the family room tree, but hey, they did a huge amount of work between morning swim practice and afternoon swim practice!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday the CSC fathers hosted the yearly tradition called The Dads' Day Breakfast for the Senior Group boys (high schoolers, Nik and Matt shown here, actually they were last in line Matt having to re-tape his regular splint cast after swimming in his swim splint cast) in their Dads' Day style, i.e. campout fare and fun. 
The guys loved it.  The menu consisted of Pancakes, Waffles, Sausages, Bacon, and I think they throw fruit and juice in there somewhere as I have never actually been to this, so I am only going by what I see in the photos.  Mark was assigned bacon and sausages (pre-cooked at home, so you can guess who did the pre-cooking at home as, although Mark offered to do it, I figured it would just be far easier to do it myself, however, now that I am thinking back, I could have sent him outside to grill those sausages...next year's plan).
Photo: Going clockwise starting with Jesse's back, Nik, Kiernan, Matt, JJ (home for the holidays from OSU where he swims now but happy to practice with his old team), and Charles.  

 

It's sort of a giggle with the boys as the girls' mothers host a similar breakfast for the girls on a separate day, which is quite a bit different:  more like hotel brunch style with linens and dishware, napkins, centerpieces, "girl food," and such.  Matt's comment:  "Oh, the boys' breakfast is much better, we just lined up, filled our plates, and ate without having to worry about a lot of girl things and manners and such."  There you have it.  Raising boys is definitely an education. 

 

Did I remember to take photos at Thanksgiving?  Nope...always busy, always a lot of people, and thoughts of camera and picture taking went by the wayside this year.  So now that there has been a bit of a catch-up around the Table, I hope to get back to posting for my baking/cooking groups this week.  Have a great week...it's going to be December already!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

   Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from me and mine.  We hope you have a wonderful day, filled with fun and joy and many many blessings.

Will Catch up Next Week, Taking a Vacation This One

Hi there, I know you stopped by expecting chit chat or foodie type stuff, but I'm taking a vacation this week and will catch it all up next week.  At least that's the plan at the moment.  Have a great week!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Cran-Apple Crisp

Thanks to Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef for her Tuesdays with Dorie pick of Cran-Apple Crisp, found on pages 422 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours cookbook. 
We are big fans of anything "crisp" around here, apple crisp being our favorite, so I was eager to try this recipe so that we could see what the addition of fresh cranberries and dried cranberries would do to it.  I used a combination of Granny Smith, Cortland, and Honeycrisp apples because I always think a combination of apples tastes best.  The topping was pretty standard: oats, a little flour, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, ginger, and a little extra surprise of coconut, which definitely tasted really wonderful in the finished product.  I was very happy with that discovery as we all like coconut and I don't get to use it near enough.   

The whole thing takes very little time to assemble, about 45 minutes to bake, and the efforts are very much worth it.   It has a sort of sweet/sour taste which I just loved. 

The Cran-Apple Crisp received rave reviews and I will be adding this to the standard rotation around here in the future.  Although not his Number 1 dessert, like last week's Molasses Cookie, you can tell from the smile that Matt really liked this and was more than happy to be the taste tester this week.

Next week:  November is a bit of a free-for-all with the recipes and the weeks selected for posting as we have free choice in November to post the recipes for this month in any order that works for our baking schedule with Thanksgiving thrown in there.  This recipe is actually listed for today, so if you want the recipe, you can visit Em's blog to see it. 

TWD blogroll found here.

Cooking Italy: Scallop Sauce with Olive Oil, Garlic, Hot Pepper, and Spaghettini

One of the recipes for the Cooking Italy group this month is Scallop Sauce with Olive Oil, Garlic, Hot Pepper, and Spaghettini, found on page 185 of the cookbook we are using:  Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. 

 

The recipe itself is quite easy: boil the water for the spaghettini while you begin the sauce.  The sauce starts with finely minced garlic being lightly cooked in the olive oil, the finely minced hot pepper and parsley are added next, then the little bay scallops are added, cooking for only just a very short time so they don't toughen.  Use a large pan because the pound of cooked spaghettini is then put into the pan and tossed with the sauce and some toasted breadcrumbs.  Delicious!   

 

Mark said, "I would be more than happy to eat this anytime you want to make it:  it was very good."  Matthew said, "Most excellent, I loved it, and I hope we have it again soon."  Alex said nothing but his dish was absolutely clean down to the shine, so that in itself is high praise.  Easy, quick, tasty, what more could you want?  Maybe if you are a guy, seconds! 

 

Am loving this cookbook and the recipes in it and so is my family.  If you would like more information on the Cooking Italy group, want to see the menus and schedules, and want to see fabulous food and photos, visit Angela's site here. 

CEiMB: Linguine with Shrimp and Vegetables

The recipe chosen this week for CEiMB, using Ellie Krieger's cookbook, The Food You Crave:  Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life, was selected by Farah at Confessions of a Novice Baker and is Linguine with Shrimp and Vegetables, found on pages 160-161.

 

Another hit of a recipe around here, enjoyed by all four of us.  Shrimp is a regular guest on our menus as we all like seafood and this was a fine way to showcase it. 

 

The recipe was easy:  make the linguine, meanwhile assemble the remaining ingredients and cook according to the directions, things like asparagus, garlic, shrimp, lemon juice, white wine, parsley, tomatoes, Parmigiano, salt & pepper.  As I was making the sauce, since it uses a cup of pasta water, I was thinking this sauce was going to be very watery and runny, even after reducing a bit.  The Whisk Chick in me wanted to secretly just add 2 teaspoons of butter and 2 Tablespoons of cream at the end to thicken it up a bit and give it some depth of flavor, but I resisted. Twice.  Because, I really wanted to add that extra bit at the end.  You know what?  I am delighted that I resisted because the recipe is perfect as written. 

 

The sauce is absorbed further by the pasta, the tomatoes with their juice give the sauce a nice soft pinkish hue, the flavorings from the ingredients, spices, wine, and lemon juice are very refreshing and light and the whole dish turned out perfectly wonderful.  I wouldn't change a thing the next time I make it.  Guys all loved it just as it was, so am thinking this one is a definite keeper.   

 

Next week:  Carrot, Green Apple, and Mint Salad, page 131.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

Thanks to Pamela of Cookies with Boys for her Tuesdays with Dorie pick of Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies, found on pages 76-77 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours cookbook.  Pamela bakes/cooks in a couple of different groups that I do and is also one of my favs on Twitter as she is just so sweet, so it was extra nice this week to get to bake a recipe she selected from the book.

 

Homemade cookies around here are always greatly appreciated.  These are particularly wonderful with the flavor of molasses and the slight taste of cinnamon in them.  The sugar on the top makes them sparkle!  

 

The cookies are easy to mix, they chill for a bit (I rolled mine in a log shape in clingwrap like I do for refrigerator cookies and that made it easy to divide and slice off the appropriate amount for each cookie before rolling it into a ball), you form them into balls, roll them in a little sugar, flatten slightly with the sugar dipped bottom of a glass, and bake for 14 minutes.  (They do spread a bit, so I only put eight cookies per sheet when I was baking them and that worked great.)  They come out all sparkly and flat and sort of chewy in the middle and crispy on the edges, just perfect.    

 

Drumroll please:  Matthew says that these are, without a doubt, no question about it, his favorite cookie!  And, this, is a boy who has had plenty of experience eating lots of cookies, so I would take this comment very seriously if you are considering whether or not to bake them. 

 

They were a big hit around here with all of us.  

 

Next week:  November is a bit of a free-for-all with the recipes and the weeks selected for posting as we have free choice in November to post the recipes for this month in any order that works for our baking schedule with Thanksgiving thrown in there.  This recipe is actually listed for November 17th, so if you want the recipe, you will need to visit Pamela's blog on November 17th to see it. 

 

TWD blogroll found here.