Cupcakes

My valentine's day cupcakes were a hit at the office and at home. I used the same recipe for the cupcakes I made for the surprise party on Saturday.

I used this recipe for the cupcakes. The frosting was a stick up butter, a package of cream cheese and a bunch of powder sugar. I didn't really measure, that's how I roll.

Sangria

Image: Hostess with the Mostess

Hostess with the Mostess has a great Sangria recipe up on their site. I am a huge fan of Sangria and this one definitely sounds like a good one.

I had some sangria at Sangria in Chicago a few months back. They have a few kinds to choose from but I could hardly tell the difference between them. But they do have a lot of flavors of mojitos and a fabulous manchego cheese plate.

I guess I'm still longing for the first sangria I ever had at Emilio's in Wheaton, IL probably about 5 years ago. Maybe it was so good because I was underage (I was with my family at a family party and for the record, I'm not a fan of underage drinking). I remember the food being great and the atmosphere was lovely but it was the sangria I remember most. And now, I'm craving it.

Fried Food and Bread Pudding

I had a meeting today but it got cancelled so what did I do? Cooked and baked! YAY! I had some bread that was a few days old so I decided to make some bread pudding but I also wanted to make cupcakes... what to do?! I looked online for recipes but I never follow recipes. I just look up the necessary ingredients and then do what I want. I used 4 eggs, some whipping cream, sugar, DiSaronno, and almond extract, oh and a lil melted butter. I mixed in the bread and let it soak for a bit while I washed out some silicone cupcake cups. I decided that these would be more like little cakes you would flip over onto the plate when serving, so I melted some butter, then added sugar, DiSaronno, and slivered almonds. I put some of that at the bottom of ever cup. I also sprayed them with Pam, but I don't think that was necessary.

While those were cooking, I started playing around with some mac & cheese that was a few days old. I've wanted to make fried mac & cheese balls for a while now so I gave it a go. I rolled the pasta into a ball and then tossed it in flour, egg, and panko (I didn't have any bread crumbs so I used panko which is just as good and sometimes even better). I tested one and decided it was good and I should make more.

I also ended up making some tempura vegetables (green pepper, red pepper, zucchini) and shrimp. I also mixed up some cream cheese, imitation crab, and green onion a few days ago for crab rangoon so I made a few of those (thank you frozen wonton wrappers from the local fruit market). The tempura batter comes in a box that you just mix with cold water. FYI: Tempura battered avocado is delicious. I used to work at a sushi restaurant and on my last day, I made tempura battered pb&j w/banana sandwiches topped with powdered sugar and caramel sauce. It was gooood.

Anyways, back to todays meal. Too much fried food is not a good thing so I didn't eat too much. The rangoon came out okay but it needed something else- I'll figure that out some other time. The tempura stuff was good as usual. I don't make tempura sauce because I don't have mirin on hand, so instead I just make the sauce I use when I make seared tuna (dijon mustard and soy sauce. The sauce is great and just like you get in the restaurants (in fact, it is what you get in a restaurant I used to work at because my chef friend told me how to make it).

As for the bread pudding, it was great! I'm going to have to make it again soon and take some better pictures... or better yet, someone buy me a digital camera! Thanks.

Here's the pix:

Fried Mac & Cheese

Tempura Veggies & Shrimp

The Bread Pudding Cupcakes

Inverted BP Cupcake

BP Cupcakes in the Oven