We're Cooking This Summer!

In high school, I was quite notorious for my (and these are direct quotes from guys I grew up with) "CHICKEN DOUGH SOUP" and "DUMP BARS". Not much left for the imagination in those titles, eh. ;D

I have managed to transform "CHICKEN DOUGH SOUP" into a scrumptious "Chicken NOODLE Soup" that would make my grandma (an excellent cook) proud. She showed me how to make the noodles from scratch before she left this world. Her homemade noodles were very popular amongst grandchildren, and now mine are equally loved. (I just had to learn from trial and error that you never put the noodles in first...This is how my blond brain works...I am not blond by hair color, just brain waves.)


I absorbed a mother load of interest in cooking when I was pregnant (pun intended) because I was hungry all the time, which sparked an addiction to The Food Network and all of their yumma little recipes. (I was like the girl, Jody, [ironic?] on Smallville who eats everything and everyone in sight, except I haven't ever eaten people to my knowledge...although I swear something about Taco Bell meat is not quite beef.) Anyway, ever since the food network obsession I have been much more conscious about healthy eating and making food from scratch instead of prepackaged...Yay!

So, I have come up with some really yumma recipes recently. The first one was chicken teriaki with steamed veggies over steamed rice. Obviously I didn't invent the dish, but I did not follow a recipe, just kinda dumped stuff in there. Even the kids ate it up, and if you know my kids (or at least one of them), you know that is as rare as a flying purple elephant. I guess I just get all excited when I can get the kids to eat something I cook besides mac & cheese....LOL




Million Dollar Cupcakes...
Also, a new cupcake cafe opened in my town recently, and just the idea of a cupcake cafe made me happy all over. So I walked in there, all ready to order everything on the menu...and then I saw the price list. Holy cupcakes, Batman! (they better be pretty holy and sacred for that price!!!) Yikes, they are...comparatively...3 times more than a gallon of gas for half a dozen cupcakes....that's SIX cupcakes for the price of 3 gallons of gas (depending on where you live).
So my brain is thinking, "I can buy a cake mix for $0.88 and make two dozen cupcakes including frosting for like a buck and a half." But they looked very appealing and I had to judge for myself if they were worth the price, so I splurged enough to get the girls and myself each one...okay, two for me and one for each of the girls. Shhhhh...don't tell anyone. They were very yummy, but nothing I couldn't whip up at home myself in practically no time if I could stand the heat of the oven in the summer long enough to bake them.


So I came home and tried my hand at cupcake copying from scratch for Father's Day...and mine were just as good (only slightly smaller) as the million dollar cupcakes downtown. The family all gobbled them up and approved of my recipe. I wish I would have taken pictures of the ones I bought so we could compare, but we did not take time for that as we all devoured them like cheetahs on their prey.
I did manage to take a picture of a couple that I made. The chocolate one got smooshed a little on the trip back from our Father's Day party, but it started out as puffy as the chocolate mint one. Keep in mind, these pictures were also taken the day after I made them, so the frosting had dried slightly. They look very similar to the ones at the cupcake cafe, and they were a piece of cake!!! (wink)


Gee, I'm not making you hungry now am I?