Piping Icing

My friend Karalee made some cupcakes for the potluck and I frosted. I think piping is getting easier and easier and these turned out too cute not to share! And she's a better picture taker than I am so I had her snap these photos. Here are closeups.

To get the raised middle, you pipe a small a small amount in the center first and then pipe around the cupcake starting w/the outside.

These were my favorites. So cute and fun. For these you pipe a star in the middle and then you just do this all around the cupcake. This seemed to be everyone's favorite.

We couldn't find all her piping gear so we used a ziploc bag, cut a small hole on the end and put the tip inside and taped the outside of the tip to the bag. It worked just fine.

When piping frosting I notice you just need to have a steady hand and consistant pressure. I love how these turned out and will probably never "frost" a cupcake again using just a knife.

Small Grown Up

I was listening to my 5 and 6 year old boys play. Since I've read Dr. Seuss I've always just called them little boy 1 and little boy 2. Annnnyyywayyy....The conversation went like this:

Little boy 2(5 years old): No, you can do that. You have to have a grown up to do that. Here, let me do it.

Little boy 1 (6 years old): Your not a grownup.

Little boy 2: I'm a small grownup.

Well, that explains it all!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Okay I thought I had these on my blog and just told someone to go look at them and guess what? They were not there, they were on my facebook page though... so

here they are:

I totally cheated using Betty Crocker's white cake mix and then divided the mix into equal parts and colored the mix with bright food coloring. Then you simply layer them into the cupcake liner. I frosted them using Betty Crocker's Cream Cheese Frosting w/a lot of food coloring in them because I wanted that bright color for my little guys 5th bday. These were fairly easy but they did take a lot of dishes and a lot more time than I thought they would take.

YUM

For frosting I piped it on there with Tupperware's squishy accordion thingy. I don't know what it's called but basically it's to pipe frosting on. It worked okay, although you can tell when it was almost empty on the ones in the back it was hard to get a nice full frosting look. It works much better very full.

Gluten Free Meetup Group

If you are looking for a gluten free "support" group there is one here in the Tri-Cities area. Here is the info.

GF Tricities- A way of life for many of us
Supporting the Tri City Area. See what we are all about!
Email Autumn Zuljevic: Glutenfreeinwastate@gmail.com

QUICK and EASY Taco Soup

This was quick and easy taco soup. It's not my "real" recipe but for the week I didn't have a stove it was a hit and it was easy.

1 lb ground beef , cooked w/taco season

(We had made up tacos before my stove died and so we just used the left over meat from that)

1 can red kidney beans

1 can corn

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

1 small diced onion

Taco fixins

tomato, sour cream, cilantro, cheese, chips, whatever else you put on your tacos

Dump everything but the taco fixins in the crock pot. Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 4-6 hours. Give or take a few. It really just needs heated through. You could omit the onion and/or put it on top of the soup w/the other taco fixins.

This was super simple and didn't require much cooking. I call it my cheating taco soup recipe.

TO FREEZE: Put all ingredients into a freezer bag instead of crock pot. Cook the ground beef and add it in there. TO REHEAT: Place in crock pot or on the stove top in a pan.

Gluten Free Dairy Free Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos

NOTE: Rice cheese (Aromatic brand) has casein in it. Which is a milk protein. So, read your labels if you need it to be 100% dairy free. Try almond or soy cheese. Or no cheese at all. Some can tolerate a small amount of casein but not milk.

Could the name get any longer? But I'm hear to tell you they are worth every bit of stuttering over their title. These were last nights an experiment while entertaining and the original recipe is adapted from Pioneer Woman's recipe only this is dairy free. Yes, they actually are good! So good that I had a few people try them and say they couldn't tell the difference, much. Maybe not quite as rich but they are still pretty yummo.

1 Tub or 8 oz of Toffuttis better than Cream Cheese. This is fairly soft already because it's not a block of cheese it's in a tub
1 PKG or 8 oz Rice Cheese. I used mozzarella because that is what I had
1 PKG Bacon
1 DZN or so Jalapenos
1/2 CUP BBQ Sauce (make sure it's gluten free)

Optional: chives, green onion or I used a couple dashes of Tastefully Simple's Onion Onion

1. Slice Jalapenos in half.


2. De-seed Jalapenos and wash. Let them dry a little while you get the cream cheese prepped. Recommend using gloves and try not to choke from the fumes. These are almost worse than onions!


3. Mix Tofutti Cream Cheese and Rice Cheese and any of the optional items in.


4. Stuff the peppers. There's no science to it just put the mix into these babies.


5. Wrap with 1/2 slice of bacon. Or if your jalapenos are real small cut your bacon into thirds.


6. Brush with a little BBQ sauce. I find this is also optional but it really helps that bacon to caramelize and taste goooooood. Here is a before picture.

7. Bake 350 for 30 minutes. This is where pioneer woman and I do it different...She cooks lower temp for longer. I have tried it both ways and they all taste good. I'm inpatient and want them sooner and they've always turned out.

Enjoy! And try not to eat them all in one whack because it's truly difficult.

Blog Re-name?

So I'm thinking about opening up a 2ND blog...one that has just my recipes, crafts, etc. so I can keep my family stuff separate. Or maybe just renaming to a catchier name. I need help figuring out a good name. Of course, the only ones I came up with may only make sense to the ones who know me but if you vote or think of something even cuter let me know! Here are the ones I came up with that aren't so...cute but hey, it was like 1am when I was thinking these up...I am one of those who can't sleep til I've got the idea down at least on paper...good idea or not. And then of course, after picking I need to figure out if the name is available.

1- Mamacop (or something along these lines) My husband is a cop and I used to work in the jail. So this is funny mostly to me and him. But I think others would get the hang of it. This would go along nicely with the someday coffee shop that my husband and I want to open up called "Latte Enforcement." Okay I know corny but you should of heard the funny things coming out of our mouth the other day on our date. "you have the right to a double shot, anything you say can and will order you up a coffee"...Okay okay already I know you are rolling your eyes.

2- Balancing Boys Anyone who has boys knows this is truly a feet.

3- Balancing? boys, business and baking There could be many other "b" subtitles to this.

3- Cherylene's I like the simplicity of this.

Or maybe all of these should just be subtitles under my original blog name. I just thought it would be fun to have something a little more catchy. Votes? I'd love to hear them or do you have something more fun to encapsulate all that I do. And my blog is new. I thought it would be easier to move things over while it was still new.