Freaky Friday Favorites

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Zombies Or Just Annoying Television Hosts

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There is obviously some really bizarre stuff going on in Florida and I’m not talking about Jeb Bush.  At this point, nearly everyone has heard about a naked Rudy Eugene chewing off the face of a homeless man near a Florida highway and subsequently getting shot by police when he wouldn't stop the face chewing.  But did you also know that Haz Mat teams have been called to several places in Florida regarding a “mysterious” substance and that another man was charged with felony battery charges for spitting blood in a policeman’s face.  But don’t just think this all a Florida issue.  In Hackensack, New Jersey, Wayne Carter stabbed himself, cut out his own intestines and then threw them at police.  A lot of people are placing the blame on the expected and anticipated Zombie Apocalypse.  Now don’t get me wrong…I’m prepared for the zombies, but I think these recent events are more easily explained.  I think people are finally losing their minds over the stupidity of the Bachelor and Bachelorette shows on ABC.   The show’s host, Chris Harrison, finally just said, “the most shocking what the whatever,” one too many times.

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Apple Pie Cupcakes - WTF and WOW Recipe Wednesday

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Apple Pie Cupcakes

Ingredients

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp.

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup milk

2 tbsp. butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

2-3 tbsp. sugar

3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

Vanilla buttercream (Iused this recipe)

Preparation

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350°. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well to combine. Add in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3-3/4 full. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 to 22 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pans. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

To make the apple filling, heat the butter a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cinnamon and sugar and cook for a minute, until the mixture begins to bubble. Lower the heat to medium and stir in the apples. Mix well. Cook until the apples are somewhat tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

While the apple mixture is cooling, use the cone method to remove a chunk from the center of each cupcake, making sure to leave a rim around the top of the cupcake. Fill the holes with the cooled apple mixture. To decorate, top each cupcake with a swirl of vanilla buttercream.

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"True" History Tuesday

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Memorial Day Gardening

Back from the front in 1918
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Happy Memorial Day!!  I decided today, of course, I would cook out, spend the day in the sun and drink, but that I would also tune in to the History Channel to watch programming honoring those who have served our country in battle.  Sadly, I discovered that the History Channel had opted to show a Pawn Stars marathon.  I’m not sure why the History Channel would chose to ignore a day that could have been a good teaching opportunity…but, I suppose, I will just have to further lower my programming expectations for that channel.  Thankfully, the History Channel 2 is showing WWII and then the Vietnam War in HD all day.   I’ll keep my channel tuned to that instead of Pawn Stars.

I spent the morning gardening.  Part of my cookout later will include fish tacos.  I’m not in any way a fan of guacamole.  It is purely a texture thing with me, but Tiffany loves it.  It isn’t fair for me to deny her guacamole so I made some earlier.  The beauty of making it (aside from the gag reflex of removing the “meat” from the avacado) was that I got to use an onion and a tomato from my own garden.  I used to think people were crazy when they said, “food you make just tastes better,” but truly it does.  I tried the tomato and onion prior to combining them with the avocado.  They were delicious!!  I took up gardening to keep myself busy after getting laid off and now it is a legitimate way for me to provide fresh food for my family.  Here’s a look at what my garden yielded this morning, plus the way I prepared Tiff’s guacamole.

Potatoes!!!

This is the first pepper from one of my red pepper plants.  I used red peppers all the time.  I'm anxiously awaiting for this pepper to turn red!

Super Easy Guacamole

Ingredients

2 Avocados
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons of parsley, chopped
1 tablepoons fresh lime or lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 ripe tomato, pulp removed and chopped

Preparation
Cut avocados in half and scoop avocado from peel.  Save the seeds if you'd like to try to grow an avocado tree.  See picture below to see how to start it.  Leave the seed end in the water for three to six weeks prior to planting.  I'll keep you posted as to how my avocado tree project is coming along.  Use a fork to mash avocado.  Add onion, parsley, lime or lemon juice, salt and pepper and tomato.  Combine completely with fork.  Cover with plastic wrap completely to prevent oxidation  from air reaching guac and place in the fridge until ready to serve.

I Want a Farm and Martha Stewart's Fried Chicken

I want a farm.   Nearly every summer, when I was a kid, we would visit my Mom’s parents for a week.  They were pig farmers.  I was always fascinated by their way of life.  Particularly interested in the facts that lunch was called dinner and that it always involved fried chicken (killed personally by my Grandma), you only “went into town” twice a month, my Grandma had kittens living under her house and that my Grandpa used a spittoon in the living room and drank moonshine “secretly” in his tool shed.  The desire to have a farm somewhat died in me for a number of years (when I was working full-time or rather all-the-time), but now it is back in full-force.  My partner is behind this idea and even seems pretty adamant about us raising Alpaca, too.  Who knows if this will ever happen, but it seems logical that one day we could be the lesbian Fabulous Beekman Boys...only not boys.  Until that time, in honor of my Grandma Wall (her first name was Clover…for real), I made fried chicken last night.  It was delicious.  I should have made it for lunch which would be called dinner instead of lunch.  This isn’t her recipe, but it is Martha Stewart’s…sorry to say Martha, but my Grandma Clover’s chicken was better.  I would suggest trying this recipe though because it was pretty freaking good nonetheless.

Patriotic Jell-O Shots

This picture sums up my weekend...

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I’m pretty sure your Memorial Day cookout plans will be incomplete if you don’t make these Patriotic Jell-O shots.

Patriotic Jell-O Shots

Ingredients

Red Layer

1 pack red raspberry Jell-O

1 ½ cups water

½ cup Pomegranate Vodka

White Layer

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 cups water

2 packs Knox Gelatin

Blue Layer

1 pack berry blue Jell-O

1 ½ cups water

½ cup Blue Curacao

Preparation

Red Layer:  Boil 1 cup water.  Add the Jell-O to the boiling water, stir until dissolved.  Mix the vodka with ½ cup cold water, stir slightly.  Wait for the Jell-O mixture to cool slightly, and then stir in the cold water and vodka mixture.  Pour into 1 oz Jell shot cups (portion cups or Dixie cups will do), about 1/3 the way full.  Chill in the fridge.

White Layer:  Boil 1 cup water, mix in the milk, and then set aside.  Sprinkle the gelatin over ½ cup cold water, let stand for a few minutes.  Boil ½ cup water, and then blend into the gelatin mixture.  Stir until dissolved.  Blend the milk and gelatin mixtures and let cool to room temp.  Once the red layer has set, carefully pour this onto the shot for another 1/3 height.  Place in the fridge.

Blue Layer:  Boil 1 cup water.   Add the Jell-O to the boiling water, stir until dissolved.  Mix the Curacao with ½ cup cold water, stir slightly.  Wait for the Jell-O mixture to cool slightly, and then stir in the cold water and Curacao mixture.  Once the previous layers have set add and this mixture cools a bit, pour on top of the other layers about 1/3 height or until the top of the shot is reached.  Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

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