Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Test post

Just trying to figure out this mobile blogging thing. I hope it works.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

(I accidentally hit post, so if you got a blank menu, sorry.)

I haven't been blogging lately and I'm not sure why. I've still been reading all of the ones I follow, and commenting occasionally, but just haven't had the motivation to write anything of my own. I've done some fun stuff in the past month or so, so I'm going to try to post some things that I should have posted about when they happened - better late than never I guess.
Mr. McHacker reinstalled Windows onto my laptop, and I'm not loving it. It's not his fault though, I asked him to do it. But after running Ubuntu Linux for the past year or so and returning to Windows, I am reminded of why I left it in the first place...oh well. I told you that to tell you this, several things I want to write about have accompanying photos and all of my pictures and stuff are still on the DVD backups that I haven't gotten around to putting back onto the laptop. And by "haven't gotten around to," I mean really mean, "have been too lazy to do." So, I'll work on that and try to get caught up.
Since it's Monday (for a few more minutes anyway) I thought I would do a Menu Plan Monday post to try to get myself back in the habit.

Monday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Ham or turkey sandwiches
Supper: Chicken fried rice

Tuesday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftover chicken fried rice
Supper: Chicken Caesar salad

Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Leftovers or sandwiches
Supper: Lasagna, homemade bread sticks

Thursday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftover lasagna
Supper: Baked pork chops, Pasta Roni, green beans, breadsticks

Friday
Breakfast: Grits and toast
Lunch: Chef Boyarde ravioli
Supper: Fried chicken tenders, french fries, some kind of canned or frozen veggie

Saturday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftovers or pb&j sandwiches
Supper: Cheeseburgers on homemade buns, french fries (yes I know we're have fries two nights in a row - don't judge)

Sunday
Brunch: Scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage, toast
Supper: Chicken fajita salad

I'm also making these things for desserts:
Strawberry shortcake (homemade pound cake, more about that later)
Pound cake with blueberry sauce
Brownies
Peach cobbler

I hope everyone's week is off to a good start.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

I needed a break from blogging, so I took one. Now I'm back.

We're going to a friend's for dinner tonight and these are the cupcakes I baked to take along. The recipe came from a Taste of Home bake sale magazine. Actually, the cupcake part of it is from one recipe and the frosting is from another, but they work really well together. I've made them before and they are really good. If you like peanut butter and chocolate (who doesn't?), give them a try.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar ( I use light brown)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
12 miniature peanut butter cups

In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla (scrape down sides of bowl). Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fill paper lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup batter. Press a peanut butter cup into the center of each one until the top is even with the batter but not covering. Bake at 350 for about 22 minutes. Cool about 10 minutes then remove to wire pan to cool completely. (The recipe says 16, but I find it makes 12 nice, big cupcakes.)

Peanut Butter Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 3/4 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups confectioner's sugar
4 to 6 tablespoons milk

In a mixing bowl. cream the butter and peanut butter. Add the vanilla, confectioner's sugar, and enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. (I piped the frosting on with a decorating tip rather than spreading it.)


Yes those are Winnie the pooh cupcake papers, and yes, only adults will be eating them. And after we finish off the cupcakes, we'll be eating the rest of these: