Oh Cupcake Hero Challenge, you almost got me on this one. I joined during peppermint, caught my stride during coffee, said cheers during liquor but this one was not an easy challenge for me. I struggled with what approach I wanted to take and I wanted a challenge. But how much can you do with a marshmallow?

I started making a list of all the desserts and dishes that have marshmallows (s’mores, Peeps, rocky road, sweet potato pie). I was actually committed to one of those desserts when I had a dream (some may even call it a premonition) about what cupcake I should make for Cupcake Hero: Marshmallow.

I had a dream about cupcakes. It’s the first time for me. Any who…

You see, I had been thinking about my grandmother (Moo Moo). I didn’t go home this year for Easter and she always puts together the best Sunday lunches. One of her signature dishes is Old Fashion Fruit Salad. It’s a simple cut fruit salad with homemade whipped cream and marshmallows! Ah-freakin-ha! There was my challenge. How could I turn her salad into a cupcake?

I started with the Strawberry Cupcake recipe from Sprinkles that I found on the website All Things Cupcake. This is the second Sprinkles recipe I’ve made. They’re good. It seems that most of them follow more of the chiffon cake method rather than traditional Betty Crocker recipes.

For the fruit in the salad I went with apples, pears and bananas. I also added in pecans and a small squares of vanilla marshmallows. I thought that adding juicier peaches would make the frosting too runny. And as you’ll read on later that was a good move.

See that ooey gooey frosting? Um, my original intention was for the frosting to actually stay on the cupcake, not run all the way down it. I had made a cream cheese frosting that had whipping cream in it also, which made the mixture too thin once I started mixing in the fruit. It could have been better to go with a firmer frosting and put the fruit on the top.

But that didn’t really stop me from enjoying every bite of it. The cake recipe called for fresh or frozen strawberries. I only had fresh ones and the flavor was good, but I think that using frozen strawberries would have made the taste more pronounced. I also added red food coloring to add more color and pop.

And we’re finished!

Fruit Salad Cupcakes

For the cupcake I followed the Sprinkles’ Strawberry Cupcake recipe posted on All Things Cupcake.

What I suggest you do for the frosting (not what I did)

Make a firm frosting like cream cheese or a buttercream frosting. Chop fruit and mix with the juice from 1/2 lime. This will help prevent it from browning. Add homemade marshmallows and pecans.

I love that I’m 30 years old and my parents still take the time to send me an Easter basket. Today my whole family is in Texas, cooking a big Easter lunch, hiding eggs for the two who are still young enough to hunt them and going to the Lake to try to get some hint of a tan.

There’s something that has always been deceptive about sunshine, Easter and tanning for us. It’s this time of year that it’s sunny enough that the lure of brighter days tease that it might be warm enough to actually get some sunshine and start working out the gray that’s set in over the past 3 months. And it never fails that after Easter lunch, someone will say, “Hey. Let’s head out to the lake and lay out for a bit.” And it never fails that we get swim bags put together, drive out to the lake and get settled out on the pier, only for 20 minutes to pass before the first person says, “Hey. I’m going to head inside.” It’s not long after that one by one we all start to head back into the house.

Since I’m too old to hunt Easter eggs and I’m not going to be around any kiddos today, I didn’t dye any this year. But I have been craving egg salad and today seemed as good as any to make some for lunch this week. Egg salad is simple, so paying attention to the quality of the components is important.

Boiling eggs as you can imagine is pretty fundamental when making egg salad. When prepping to boil the eggs, set them out for 10-15 minutes to help take the chill off of them. This will help ensure that they boil evenly through out. Put enough water in pot so that all the eggs are submerged in water. Bring the water to a rolling boil and add the eggs. For a hard boiled egg, it only needs to boil for 10-12 minutes depending on the size egg. (Soft boil eggs require 4 minutes for runny, 5 for medium and 6 for a partially firm yolk). When they’re finished cooking run cool water over them and I allow mine to sit for a few minutes in the cold water. Crack and peel. And don’t be fooled you can over boil and egg.

Easter Egg Salad
Makes 2 big sandwiches

5 hard boiled eggs (coarsely chopped)
1/4 cup mayonnaise (homemade if you have it)
1/2 juice of a lemon
1 t yellow mustard
salt and pepper to taste.

Combine all ingredients and serve on a sandwich or crackers.

And in case you were wondering, it’s 65 degrees in Central Texas today.

Do marshmallows quality has an ancient delicacy? Hard to believe that the stale little things found in a box of Lucky Charms were once only created for ancient royalty and gods. The roots of the marshmallow plant were harvested and turned into medicine. It was much later that the roots were boiled and turned into a gummy confection.

When I think of marshmallow’s contribution to my life I think of Easter Peeps and chocolate covered marshmallows shaped like eggs. The marshmallow made a come back a few years back when Oprah listed these fudge dipped marshmallows in O magazine as one of her favorite things.

Without having ever thought about it, marshmallows are made with gelatin, which means that if you’re a Vegetarian or Vegan, you’ll have to shop around for all no animal product marshmallows heck, if you keep a Kosher diet you’ll also have to pay attention to these little fluffy guys. Who knew there was so much to consider with a little marshmallow!

If you want to tour a marshmallow factory and you’re in Las Vegas, hit the road East for 20 minutes to Henderson and you can tour the Favorite Brands Marshmallow Factory.

There was several recipes I was considering when making marshmallows, but I went with a simple recipe that had been reviewed on Cooking for Engineers by Thomas Keller of the French Laundry. I followed the C4E recipe to a T (including the decision to boil the candy to the Hard Ball stage).

As the marshmallows mix, they will begin to fluff. I mixed mine for 8 minutes and by that time I was getting the consistency I was looking for.

One thing I wasn’t ready for is how sticky the mixture was. I found myself in a catch 22 when pouring it out. Everything I touched became sticky and everything that touched me was sticky. This is one recipe that you’ll need someone around to help you pour and scrape the bowl.

After I allowed them to sit for a day, I took them out of the pan, cut them with a pizza slicer and tossed them in powered sugar. The vanilla taste is so much more pronounced in these homemade marshmallows than I’ve ever experienced in store purchased ones. And besides the days wait, the recipe was really quite easy to follow and the results were spectacular.

I’ve always heard that you can tell that a girl’s from Texas if she can drink beer. Most people equate Lone Star Beer with The Lone Star State, but a beer that I’m finding more often outside of Texas is Shiner Bock beer. In college Shiner was elite keg party beer. Usually the Shiner keg was tucked away and you had to be invited to have some. Now that I’m gainfully employed; I can get Shiner whenever I want.

Shiner, TX is a small town about an hour to 90 minutes east of Austin. The population of the town is about 2,500 which is  about the same size of the town I grew up in. Do you know that kind of place? There was a time in high school that my friends and I sat at the lunch table and named everybody in the room (first and last name). That’s a small town!

This St. Patrick’s Day I wanted to make Irish Stew, but as I was mixing and simmering in the kitchen I started to deviate from the recipe and ended up with what I’m calling, Shiner Bock Stew.

From the Shiner website, they describe their beer as:

Shiner Bock is a distinctive, rich, full-flavored, deep amber-colored beer. Its handcrafted brewing process creates an inviting smooth taste without the excessive bitterness that characterizes many micro, specialty and imported beers.

Shiner Bock Stew

32 oz Beef broth
2 Bottles Shiner Bock Beer
1 T garlic
1 T dry Thyme
2 T tomato paste
2 lbs stew beef
1/4 c oil
3 lbs yellow potatoes (chopped about 1/2 inch slices)
1 lg yellow onion (diced)
2 c chopped carrots (chopped)

For the broth
Brown the beef in soup pot with oil. Add beef broth, beer, garlic, thyme and tomato paste in large soup pot.

For the other ingredients
Brown potatoes, onion and carrots in large skillet for about 10 minutes. Add veggies to beef broth.

To finish
Allow to cook for 40 minutes. Tastes better the next day.

One of my favorite Phoenix blogs is Lunch Bucket Bento. Lisa and crew are a bento toting, Daring Baking group. A few times a week, she posts snapshots of what I believe are the coolest lunches in town. Sometimes her posts are a simple list of what was packed and other times, she shares simple, but delicious recipies.

My work routine has changed this past quarter and my plans to ride the bus one day a week haven’t been working out. So, in thinking about how I can change just one thing in my day to help out Mama Earth, I’ve been taking my lunch to work more. I’ve been pretty good these past few weeks and as I was packing my lunch, I kept thinking how useful a bento box would be.

This weekend I acquired my very own bento box! I’m so freakin excited and it’s so much fun thinking about how much flavor I can pack in on little box!

This week I’m working through a batch of Sonoma Chicken Salad and Cantaloupe with Chili Powder and Honey.

I don’t know what website I was trolling when I saw this simple recipe for Cantaloupe with Chili Powder and Honey, but it’s super tasty and has really hit the spot this week.

Cantaloupe with Chili Powder and Honey

1 Cantaloupe (balled)
2 t locally harvested Honey and Mint
1-2 t chili powder

Method:
Mix it all together and enjoy!

I can remember when I was little making sure that the night before St. Patrick’s Day that I had green on my pajamas because I knew that if I didn’t that my dad would be in my room bright and early looking to get in a pinch. I love that St. Patty’s Day is a day where people who are Irish pull out all the stops and people who aren’t Irish pull out the “Kiss Me, anyways!” t-shirts.

Now, I have always been more of a green beer than Guinness girl. I know, there’s some cussing Irishman rolling his eyes as I type these words, but the beer is just too, um, stout? So, when cupcake bloggers started posting their Guinness cupcake creations, I knew I had to join in.

A few baking notes on the recipe from Fabulous Foods.  The batter was very runny. So much so that I was nervous and wanted to do a test batch. They turned out perfect and you can fill the cups 3/4 full and not worry about them baking over the edges of the tin.

Guinness Cupcakes
Makes 30-ish cupcakes

1 bottle (12 ounces) Guinness stout
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for garnish
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

For the Frosting
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 pound confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the Guinness, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the sour cream.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, and baking soda. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet Guinness mixture.

Butter 24 muffin tins and divide the batter among the muffin tins.

Bake 25 minutes until risen and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out of the tins.

Make the frosting:
Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the heavy cream. Slowly mix in the confectioner’s sugar.

Spring training baseball games in Arizona, hiking Camelback mountain and patio dining are all hallmarks of Arizona spring. We trade 4 months of 110+ degree days for 6 months of crisp autumn nights and bright spring days. So, when it seemed that my whole Twitter posse was kite flying and bicycle riding yesterday, I had to join in.

We headed to Tumbleweed Park in Chandler, the ride is only a few miles away, and it’s close to the new recreation center that just opened early spring.

A Boston Cooler seemed to be in order when kite flying was over. Boston Coolers are like a Root Beer Float, but made with ginger ale instead. Some sources site that the Boston Cooler came first and companies like McDonalds followed suit with Coca-Cola and ice cream. In Texas we’d make Coke Floats and you can even order them at Dairy Queens in Central Texas (along with tacos, but that’s a whole other story) or we’d make my favorite Dr. Pepper Floats. Can you imagine how good a Cherry Dr. Pepper Float would taste?

Boston Cooler

3 scoops vanilla ice cream
1/2 can Vernor’s Ginger Soda

Preparation:
Put ice cream in a highball glass and slowly add the ginger ale. Enjoy!

You know she’ll pull out the rock fist at her wedding. That’s a given. I wanted to do something special for Karrin’s birthday and I had this grand idea of making rock fist fondant cupcakes with sparklers and they were going to be the most rad cupcakes ever.

One problem…I’m not really a cupcake artist…I’m just a baker. But inspiration came and hence came the Karrin Rock Fist Commemorative Cupcake Collection. From left to right we have Karrin moving into her new house throwing I have a huge mortgage OMG double rock fist, Karrin at an elegant party throwing the couture rock fist and finally Karrin at the hospital carrying around an oxygen bag rock fist. Happy Birthday Karrin!!!!!!!!!!

So, in the spirit of rocker girl cupcakes. I need some help. I haven’t updated my iPOD in a year. I need some new tunes. What are some of your favorite songs to have playing when you’re cooking or working out?

Mayday! Mayday! Keesha I’ve had to make an emergency landing in Eloy and I need your help. That’s how my Saturday night started. My BFF’s husband Pat was flying a super secret mission over Eloy and had to make an emergency (thank God, not crash landing) unexpectedly.

It’s only now that the mission has been declassified that I can even speak of it to you. You see Patric has special training in spotting and obliterating highly illegal Guinea pig farming communities. The work he does for mankind really is quite amazing and he’s that silent hero type. You see the explotation of these small creatures doesn’t often make mainstream news, but these little guys are often exploited as small pint sized Border crossing patrolmen. This program is being tested as an alternative to putting up that big $20Billion dollar wall.

So, this mission was highly important and secret. And, it’s only been now 8 years since he graduated from the Air Force Academy and two deployments overseas later had prepared him for this critical mission. It was during this flight that he was going to have to battle a local militant group of Flying Elvis’s- Eloy Chapter.

I don’t know what happened up there in that big blue sky my friends. All I know is that somewhere between the Timberwood Saloon and the railroad tracks, I found Pat on the side of the road eating beef jerky.

If you’re from the South, you’re familiar with Velveeta cheese, white break and Miracle Whip sandwiches. I grew up on these sandwiches and it’s amazing that I’m not a million pounds. Come to think of it, my Mamaw would also make her macaroni and cheese with the stuff.

It was one day when I was at friend’s house and her mom was making us sandwiches when she asked me what I would like on it; mayonnaise or mustard? When I realized that the mayo she was referring to was real mayonnaise I almost gagged. But before I could protest, her mother said, “I can’t believe some people use Miracle Whip. That will never enter this house.”

All of a sudden I doubted the sandwich I had grown to love. Was Miracle Whip, dare I say, a little country? Not wanting to appear anything less than pristine, I ordered my sandwich with mustard and for the better part of 15 years, I’ve always made my sandwiches with mustard.

Editor’s Note: There was a little stint in college where I kept a sample size jar in the back of the refrigerator. But we were all a little crazy back then and I was living on the edge.

It’s been recent that I’ve actually started to appreciate the taste of real mayonnaise. I’ve started using it as a base for dips and I’ve been pleased with the taste. And I started thinking I should try to make my own.

The bonus of making your own is that you can play with what type of flavor you want your mayonnaise to take on. Use olive oil and garlic for a Spanish Aioli or go simpler with lemon juice and vinegar if you’re going to pair it with ham or roast beef use yellow, brown or Dijon mustard.

Classic Mayonnaise from Gourmet Magazine

1 large egg yolk, at room temperature 30 minutes
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3/4 cup olive or vegetable oil (or a combination), divided
1 teaspoon white-wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Whisk together yolk, mustard, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until combined well. Add about 1/4 cup oil drop by drop, whisking constantly until mixture begins to thicken. Whisk in vinegar and lemon juice, then add remaining 1/2 cup oil in a very slow, thin stream, whisking constantly until well blended. If at any time it appears that oil is not being incorporated, stop adding oil and whisk mixture vigorously until smooth, then continue adding oil. Whisk in salt to taste and white pepper. Chill, surface covered with plastic wrap, until ready to use.

References:

Classic Chicken Salad from Food Network

Aioli from Gourmet September 2002

Emergency Cupcakes from Superwife