Meet Ming

This is Ming. She is my brothers 11 week old pug. Isn't she just the cutest thing? Moose was very jealous of her and snipped at her a few times. He got a few snaps on the nose and went and sulked. Now he's kissin' up to me cause he knows I wasn't happy with his behavior. Freshy boy.




I took about 70 shots of her when she was here. It was hard not to get her moving. She makes this little sniffing noise constantly, sounds like me when it's allergy season. My brother says she snores when she sleeps. I sleep with a snorer too bro. It may be cute now, but trust me, it will become so not cute in a matter of time. My snorer doesn't have those cute bug eyes and pushed in face though.


I smell like puppy kisses now.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

This recipe is from Elise's (simplyrecipes.com) father. While I was busy baking this sat on the stove most of the day and simmered. I had let it sit overnight in the sauce to really soak up all the flavors. The smell of chile and paprika filled the house every time I opened the lid of the pot to turn the pork. I bought a 10 pound two pack of pork shoulder at Sam's Club, so my pork was a wee bit bigger than the recipe called for. I added a bit more of everything and cooked it longer. It was so tender that when John pulled it out of the pan, the shoulder bone slid right out. Pulled Pork sandwiches tonight and pork tacos tomorrow night!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
1 large onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 pickled jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons of Chipotle chile powder
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon paprika
1/3 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 bay leaf
Salt
3 lbs of pork butt shoulder roast, trimmed of excess fat
Hamburger buns

1 Purée all of the sauce ingredients (everything except the bay leaf, the pork and the buns) in a blender until smooth. If you have extra time, marinate the pork in the sauce overnight or for several hours before cooking.

2 Put sauce, bay leaf, and pork into a large pot and add 1 quart of water. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer, covered, turning frequently, for 2 hours or until the meat pulls apart easily with a fork.

3 Remove from heat and cool pork in the sauce. When cool, remove the pork from the sauce and shred into small pieces. Set aside.

4 Reduce the sauce by two thirds. Add the pork back to the sauce. Salt to taste. Remove bay leaf before serving. Serve hot over open-face hamburger buns.

Cappuccino Cupcakes

John got a cookbook for my birthday that I had been wanting for quite some time now, Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcakes Recipes. 125 delicious recipes. 125 different cupcake recipes to try. Better go stock up on cupcake liners.



Cappuccino Cupcakes
From Julie Hasson’s 125 Best Cupcakes Cookbook

1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon finely ground coffee
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 teaspoon warm water
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup sour cream
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl mix together flour, ground coffee, cinnamon, baking powder, soda, and salt.

In another bowl mix together sugar, oil and egg until smooth. Whisk in instant coffee mixture and vanilla. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and sour cream, making three additions of the flour mixture and two of the sour cream, beating until smooth. Mix in chocolate chips.

Scoop batter into prepared pan, with paper liners and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely on rack.


What better to top this babies off with then some coffee buttercream frosting!

Coffee Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 teaspoon hot coffee
1 teaspoon Kahlua

Beat on low with an electric mixer the butter, sugar and salt until well combined. Increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, beat until frosting is smooth.

In small bowl mix together coffee granules, hot coffee and Kahlua. Stir until coffee granules are dissolved.

Add coffee mixture to butter mixture beating until smooth and creamy. You will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl several times while mixing. Spread icing over cooled cupcakes with a knife or place in pasty bag and pipe decoratively. This recipe said it would make 12 cupcakes; I got 13 out of the batter. I topped mine with a chocolate covered hazelnut so it would look prutty!

Next steps:

Devour.

Smile.

Stuffed Shells

This is another recipe that I have been making for more than 20 years now. Never wrote it down, it’s all crammed up there in my noggin. I tried to approximate amounts while I was making this, so I am taking notes from my sauce and cheese spattered paper to re-type this.

Lisa’ Stuffed Shells
1 pound ground pork
1 ½ pounds ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 ½ pounds of whole milk ricotta (I use about ¾ of a 2 lb container)
2 large eggs
2 cups shredded mozzarella
8 ounces whole mozzarella
½ cup freshly grated parmesan
½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 box jumbo shells
Your favorite sauce (I usually make my own but you can use jarred and it still tastes delicious)

In a large pan cook the onions in a little olive oil until they are tender. Add the minced garlic. Let cook for 1 minute, add ground pork and beef, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks. Cook until browned. Drain any grease out of the pan. Set aside.

Boil your jumbo shells for about 8 minutes. You want them really al dente. While the shells are cooking, start on the ricotta mixture.

In a large bowl combine ¾ of a 2 pound container of whole milk ricotta. Add 2 eggs and mix well. Add 1 cup of the shredded mozzarella, ½ cup of grated parmesan, ½ cup parsley. I also added a good bit of Mrs. Dash at this point. Mix until combined. Add in the meat mixture and mix it up again.

Drain the shells and immediately run cold water over them to stop the cooking process. Pour some sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 pan, just enough to cover the bottom so the shells won’t stick. I make a bit of an assembly line to put it all together. I put the shells to my left, the pan in the middle and meat/cheese filling on the right. Fill each shell with about 2 teaspoons of the mixture. They should be full enough that the ends of the shell don’t meet. Like this:

Line them up in the pan:

Pretty huh? I buy the 16oz square cube of mozzarella. I cut about half of it up into thin slices and layer it all over the top, and then I sprinkle on about another cup of shredded mozzarella. Can’t have enough cheese you know. Top it all off with enough sauce to cover up all the shells and bake covered with aluminum foil in a 350 degree oven for about an hour, or until the shells are nice and bubbly. I usually take the foil off during the last 15 minutes cause I like the ends to get all brown and crunchy. Let stand for 10 minutes before you dig in.

I usually serve this with a nice big salad and some crusty bread. They are great heated up the next day too!

Ear Picks?

I work with a guy who always picks his ears with a car key. I kid you not. He sticks the end of the key in there and starts diggin'. It's a disgusting habit and every time he does it I yell at him and remind him about all the filthy germs he is ramming into his eardrum, but he still does it. It's such a compulsion with him that half the time he doesn't even know he's doing it until I tell him to stop. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the Asian Market this morning and saw EAR PICKS!

Ear Picks! I couldn't believe it. The make an item specifically designed to pick your ears with! That can't be safe right? Why would you want to poke a skinny stick into your ear? Why? That's why they make Q-Tips (which you aren't supposed to stick into you ear either, but who doesn't do that?). There were 75 cents so I totally had to get them for the car key ear picker, just to make him laugh. They have a little scoop on the end. How gross is that? I swear to God if he sticks one of those things in his ear while I am around I am going to whack him upside the head. I'll warn him before I give them to him...these are for decorative purposes only.....go back to picking at yourself with a key.

I also picked up a few other things:

Evan went a little crazy in the candy section. Jesse was sleeping over a friends, so we picked some stuff out for him too.

I still can't get over the ear picks.

New York Style Cheesecake

I got this recipe from one of the Kraft Foods magazines last year. I wanted a cheesecake that wasn't as dense and heavy as most, and this one was perfect. Light and fluffy and not too overly cheesy. I served it with sweetened strawberries, but you could use any topping you'd like.

New York Style Cheesecake

1 ½ cups graham crackers
½ stick butter
1 ¼ cups sugar, divided
4 pkgs (8oz each) cream cheese (softened)
2 tsp vanilla, divided
1 16 oz sour cream
4 eggs
2 cups strawberries sliced

Preheat oven to 325. Line a 9x13 pan with foil with the ends extending over the sides of the pan. Mix the crumbs, butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar and press firmly into the bottom of prepared pan.

Beat the cream cheese, 1 cup of the remaining sugar and 1 tsp of the vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium until well blended. Add 1 cup of sour cream, mix well. Add eggs one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition until just blended. Pour over crust.

Bake 40 mins or until the center is almost set. Center might still be a little giggly, that’s ok. Mix the remaining sour cream, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until almost blended, carefully spread over the cheesecake. Bake an additional 10 mins. Cool, cover and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Lift cheesecake from pan by using the foil handles. Top with strawberries, blueberries or whatever fruit you like. Store leftovers in the fridge.

Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake (approved by Nana)

I spent the last few days cooking and baking for Easter. We had a really nice dinner with Nana. She will be 84 on Friday. There is exactly 40 years and 1 weeks age difference between us. She was in good spirits today, making us laugh as always. For those of who don't know, my Nana has Alzheimer's. She is in the later stages of the disease but she still knows who we are, and she still knows who she is, most of the time anyway. She is fascinated with my fridge. She can't believe that it is black, and every time she is here, she comments on it, about 15 times. Today she was also fascinated by a wooden cow I have in my kitchen. She commented on that about 20 times. Always seeing it for the first time when she looks at it. It's funny, but it's sad too. I asked her why she wasn't wearing her glasses and she told me that she never wore glasses in her whole life. (She wore glasses for 50 years). So I showed her a picture of herself with glasses on. "That's not me", she said. You just have to agree, cause arguing with someone who has Alzheimer's has no point.

She loves Moose.

She had a good day. She had all her jewelry on as always. She likes to wear every necklace that she has at once, kinda like an old Mrs.T. She was happy when the sweets came out. She loves her sweets. I think that must be where I get my sweet tooth from. Before we brought out the desserts she had already eaten some Wandies, 2 pocket fulls of Cadbury mini eggs, 3 chocolate covered strawberries, 2 deviled eggs (which she later proclaimed that she never ate "I don't care for deviled eggs". Nana you ate two!!!), and some pizelles. We brought out the chocolate sheet cake and she ate FIVE pieces of it. I kid you not, five pieces! Then she moved on to the cheese cake, she only ate one piece of that, and she finished everything off with some more chocolate eggs, and another strawberry.

After all her sweets she announced that she needed to get back to "work". That's what she calls the assisted living facility she lives in...work. It was a nice day and her sweet tooth was very happy.

Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake

Combine in a bowl:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

In a saucepan melt:

2 sticks butter

4 heaping tablespoons of cocoa (stir together)

Add 1 cup of boiling water. Allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds then turn off the heat. Pour over flour mixture and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup pour:

1/2 cup buttermilk

Add:

2 beaten eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking make the icing:

Chop 1/2 cup pecans finely

Melt 1 and 3/4 sticks butter in a saucepan

Add 4 heaping tablespoons of cocoa, turn off the heat.

Add:

6 tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 1/2 cups powered sugar

Stir together, add pecans and pour over warm cake. I used an icing knife to spread it. I also omitted the pecans this time, cause my kids don't like them.

This cake was a big hit, especially with Nana. The kids loved it too.