This has become my favorite cupcake.  I just love the fresh, lime taste.  I found the recipe at Baking Becca’s (although I make a tweak or two).

Make your Lime Syrup first…

Lime Syrup

1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup lime juice
5 fresh basil leaves
about 1/4 of the lime you juiced, peel, pulp and all

Combine in a small pan and bring to a boil.  Stir frequently until the liquid is reduced to about a cup.  Strain the juice and cool completely.

Cupcakes:

Heat your oven to 350 and prepare your tins.

1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
zest of 2 limes
4 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 fresh lime juice
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream the butter, sugar and lime zest.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time.  Add the baking powder. Combine the buttermilk, lime juice, vanilla and ginger.  Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the flour.

Fill your cupcake liners to about 1/2 full.  Bake for about 25 minutes.

Yield:  2 dozen

Frosting

8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
6 tablespoons butter (room temp)
zest and juice of 1 lime
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons lime syrup
1 cup powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients and mix until of spreading consistency.  Ice your cupcakes and enjoy!

I found this recipe on AnotherYarn’s blog and it used to be my favorite cupcake.  I just love the flavors!  It’s a bit of work, but then aren’t most things that are really, really, good?  I made a couple of changes but basically it’s AnotherYarn’s recipe.

It’s best to make the basil syrup first - it needs to cool.  Prepare an ice bath by placing a small bowl in a larger bowl and putting ice and water in the larger bowl.  First you need to make a simple syrup:

Simple Syrup:

1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

Combine in a saucepan, bring to a boil and then cook, stirring often, until the sugar is dissolved.  When it’s cool you make the basil syrup:

Basil Syrup

1 cup basil leaves, packed
1/2 cup simple syrup

Put the basil into your blender and then pour the simple syrup over it.  Whirl until you have a lovely green liquidy mess.  Let set for 10 min or so and then strain.  Now, on to the cupcakes.

Citrus Cupcakes

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (about 1/2 orange)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2 1/2 limes)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger juice
1 tablespoon lime zest (about 3 limes0

Preheat over to 350 and prepare your tins.

Wash the limes and zest them.  Then juice them and set the juice aside  Cut your orange in half and extract the juice - set aside.  For the ginger juice you need about a thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and grated.  Put the grated ginger in a coffee filter and squeeze out the juice.  You should have about 1 tsp.

Cream butter and sugar.  Add your eggs one at a time.  Add the baking soda and powder.  Add the flour alternately with the liquids.  Beat until smooth.

Fill your cupcake liners about 1/2 way.

Bake for about 25 minutes (or until done).  Cool and then you are ready for the icing.

Basil Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese (soft)
6 oz tbs butter (soft)
2 tablespoons basil syrup
1/4 cup minced fresh basil.

Put all ingredients together and mix until spreading consistency (add a bit of milk or water if you need to thin the icing).

Your icing will take on a soft green thanks to all that basil.  Frost your cupcakes and enjoy!

So, I got out my Jamie Oliver cookbook (Jamie’s Italy) and found a recipe for the pasta, looked around my kitchen and thought - what the heck.  Let’s give it a go.  So I did.

First I put 2 cups of cake flour (it was the only really fine flour at the grocery store) and made a well in the middle where I put 3 hole, organic eggs…

I mixed the eggs, then stirred in the flour.  When I’d gotten most of the flour incorporated I added a bit to my hands and kneaded the dough until it was oh-so-smooth.  I then put it in a clean bowl covered with cling film and sat it in the fridge for about 30 min to rest.

While that was going on I looked at my gorgeous veggies (and fruits) that were just waiting to be consumed…

I had some asparagus in the freezer and thought it would be an interesting addition.  So I chopped some of the tomatoes and steamed some asparagus…

I then grated about 2 cloves of garlic into a pot that I’d placed some olive oil …

By then it had been close to 30 min, so I put on some water to boil.  When it was almost boiling I got out my ball of pasta and took half of it (leaving the other half for later).  I divided my half into four little balls and began rolling them out…

When the water boiled I added some salt — and then turned on the heat under the pan that had the olive oil in it.  When the garlic began to sizzle, I turned the heat down and added the tomatoes and asparagus.

I took my pasta, which had been somewhat drying

and added it to the boiling water - a piece at a time.  I let it boil for about 2-3 minutes (it was thin) and while it did I kept an eye on the “sauce”, stirring every now and then.  When the pasta was done I turned off the sauce and drained the pasta. I then took a long piece of pasta and put part of it on the plate, adding some sauce.  I folded the pasta over the filling and put a bit more sauce on it.  I did this a final time and the topped with a bit more sauce.  I made 2 of these for my dinner - drizzling olive oil over the top.  Are then not beautiful?

And the taste?  FANTASTIC!!!

PS - the recipe from the internet?  It had a picture so it was my inspiration.  It had a red sauce and other things, mine didn’t.

Yum.  Is there anything as diverse or elegant as a crepe?  I don’t think so.  And this morning I just had to have some.  I have some raspberries in the freezer, left over from this past summer and they were just calling my name.  And so, raspberry crepes for breakfast is what was on the menu.

1 egg
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cup milk

Put these three ingredients in a blender and, well, you know, blend. Heat your pan (preferably non-stick) and when it’s hot pour a little batter onto the pan. Pick up the pan and tilt it around a bit to make sure your crepes are nice and thin.

When they brown a bit, using fingers, pick them up and turn them over to brown the other side.

To assemble I put the crepe down and put my raspberries in a line (or two) down the middle. Then I sprinkle with powdered sugar (just a bit) and roll them up. I generally top with a bit of whipped cream and another couple of raspberries.

Perfect with my morning coffee!

2 cups sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa

.5 cup butter

.5 cup milk

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups quick cooking oats

.5 cup peanut butter

Put all ingredients except oats and peanut butter in a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil over medium high heat.  Once you have a rolling boil let boil without stirring for 1 minute.  Remove from heat, add peanut butter and oats stirring well and drop by the spoonful on wax paper or tinfoil to cool.

Yummy!

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Now playing: Chris Whiteley - It’s The Natural Thing To Do
via FoxyTunes

Cupcakes

6 Tbsp cocoa

1.5 c. sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 c. flour

1 tsp vanilla

.75 c. vegetable oil

1 c. cold water

Sift together the cocoa, sugar, salt, baking soda and flour.  Set aside.   Using a mixer, mix the eggs, vanilla, oil and cold water until creamy.  Slowly add the dry ingredients until well incorporated.  Pour into 24 muffin cups and bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Peanut Butter Frosting

.5 c. butter softened

1 c. peanut butter (smooth)

3 Tbsp milk

2 c. powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients until light and fluffy, you may need to add a tad more milk.

e that I adapted from Mediterranean Light by Martha Rose Shulman. The original recipe uses fish instead of chicken.

12 cloves garlic                                                    1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bunch cilantro 1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon ground cumin dried red pepper (to taste)
juice of 2 large lemons (6 Tbs) 1 teaspoon olive oil
12 ounces chicken (I use boneless, skinless breasts)

Put all of the ingredients (except meat) in a food processor and blend.

Now put your chicken into a baggie and pour in the contents of the food processor. Squeeze well to coat all of the chicken. Marinate in the fridge overnight (up to a day or two). Your kitchen will smell wonderful!!

You have several choices on how to cook this dish - grilled outside, indoor grill or bake in an oven - and each method will bring out a slightly different flavor. I chose to use my indoor grill and this was the result (but note, I didn’t have any paprika so I left it out which resulted in a much greener marinade):

1/2 Onion, minced
2 stalks celery, diced fine
1 carrot, shredded
1/2 green bell pepper, diced fine
Olive Oil Spray / Pam
1 3oz ham steak, diced (optional)
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes (I use Fasolino’s)
1 tsp cumin
2 bay leaves
.5 tsp paprika
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
2 cups fat free, low sodium chicken broth (or veg broth)

Saute the onions, celery, carrots and bell peppers over med-high heat in some olive oil spray until soft, add in ham steak and saute another few minutes.  Add in the canned tomatoes, lentils, broth and spices and simmer over low heat until lentils are soft and tender.

At this point you can put in your immersion blender to blend to the consistency that you desire.  Sometimes I like it smooth, other times I leave it chunky.