Dark Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

I am a bit of a chocoholic... if it's chocolate, I will eat it... if it's chocolate, it will last about two seconds in my presence.  Recently, I rediscovered the greatness that is Terry's Dark Chocolate Orange Balls.  Honestly, how can you not enjoy a piece of chocolate that requires you to physically assault it before consumption?  I'm not lying... it's motto, written on the box, is "whack it and unwrap it".  For those of us feeling stressed out and only a piece of chocolate will do, it has my vote.

My brother happens to agree with me so, when he graduated college I decided I would bring dark chocolate orange cupcakes to his graduation party as my present.  I was worried though about how they might taste, so I turned everyone in my immediate area into taste testers for my various trials. 

I found a dark chocolate cupcake recipe I really liked from Sally's Baking Addiction and then went to the wonderful world of Google to see how other bakers have flavored their cupcakes.  Every recipe I came across used the juice of 1 orange but, I was curious to see if extract would give a bolder flavor.  Round 1 was split - half batch with the juice of an orange, half batch with orange extract.  They came out fine and were tasty but, you couldn't really taste the orange.  You could smell it but the flavor was not quite there.  Round 2 was a combination and that was the winner.  I got overwhelmingly positive reviews from friends when I brought them to dinner.  Therefore, the following recipe is from round 2.

Ingredients:

Cupcake:

1 stick unsalted butter

2 oz. special dark chocolate chips

1/2 c. unsweetened natural cocoa powder

3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs - room temperature

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon orange extract

1/2 c. buttermilk

Frosting:

3 c. confectioners sugar

4 tbsp milk

1 stick margarine - softened

Zest of 1 orange

Orange food coloring (instructions should be on the box)

Directions:

Cupcake:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring each time. It took me 1 minute total to melt the butter and chocolate in my microwave. Set aside to cool down.

In a medium bowl, mix the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly combined.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, juice, and orange extract together until smooth.

Add cooled butter/chocolate and whisk again until smooth.

Add half of the flour mixture, then half of the buttermilk. Repeat, then stir until combined. Be mindful not to over mix. The batter will be very thick and when scooped, will resemble a mousse.

Fill the liners 2/3 of the way full with batter. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

In a medium bowl, put sugar, milk butter, and zest.  Beat together using a handheld mixer on a low speed until thoroughly combined.  Add food coloring and then mix again.

Using the standard food coloring colors, you will get a nice sunset orange.

When I made this recipe, I ended up with 14 cupcakes.  They come out nice and soft.  These are a must try for any cupcake lover!

Chicken Curry

Can't lie on this one, I came up with this recipe completely on the fly (I put the recipe together as I walked around the grocery store and grabbed the ingredients!).  Why would I do such a crazy thing? A friend and I had gone to dinner and we both had used this restaurant's online menu to decide what we wanted to eat.  Unfortunately, they had recently changed their menu but did not update the website version, so my friend was looking forward to eating a curry that was no longer being offered (super annoying, super disappointing).  When she and a I got together at my house a couple of weeks later, I decided I would throw a curry together to make up for what became a rather sad restaurant excursion.

Normally, when I am about to make a dish for the very first time I will find a recipe that sounds good and follow it explicitly.  Once I am comfortable with the original and know how it should taste, then I get experimental.  However, after searching around on the internet for a bit I realized that curries are fairly easy to make and only require the most basic of ingredients.  Honestly, put together coconut milk, chicken stock, and curry powder and you have yourselves a curry sauce.  This may not satisfy the foodiest of foodies but will make you and your dinner guests happy and satisfied.  So, as I just wrote, I decided to throw caution to the wind and developed the recipe as I shopped.

Ingredients:

1 onion - sliced
olive oil
3 garlic cloves - minced
2 broccoli crowns
4 chicken thighs
1 can coconut milk
1/4 c. chicken stock
3 tsp curry powder
1 tsp partially dried basil
Zest of half a lime
Quinoa - follow cooking instructions on box

Directions:

In large saute pan heat olive and then add onions.  Cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes.  Add garlic and stir.  Add chicken stock, curry powder, lime zest, and basil.

 Add the broccoli and coconut milk (it may be semi-solid at first but will liquefy quickly).  Mix well.

Place chicken thighs, skin down, in pan and then add broccoli.

Cover and cook until chicken is cooked through, approximately 20 - 25 minutes.  Once ready, spoon over quinoa and enjoy!

Spinach and Mushroom Rollatini

As I have mentioned before, I am a bit of an over shopper.  This time around, I had an extra box of lasagna noodles in addition to the half a box I had left from the previous week's kitchen adventure.  I did not want to make just another lasagna so I decided I would go crazy and do rollatini instead.  At this point you are thinking to yourself "but wait...last week she said she used no-bake lasagna noodles.  How do you use those to make rollatini!?"  The answer my friends: hot water and a 7 minute pre-soak.  MAGIC!

The Spinach and Mushroom Rollatini recipe follows quite closely with the Italian Lasagna recipe.  The cheese mixture is almost exactly the same and I made my sauce the same just minus the meat.  Based on the amount of filling I put on each noodle, I was able to fit 12 total into the baking dish, so this recipe makes 6 servings.

Ingredients:

1 pkg. chopped spinach - thawed and excess liquid squeezed out
2 c. sliced mushrooms
4 oz. creamy goat cheese rolled in black pepper
15 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
shredded mozzarella
1 c. Parmesan cheese - grated
1 large egg
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes with basil
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 onion - chopped
2 Tbsp. partially dried basil
1 Tbsp. sugar
olive oil
1 1/2 pkgs no-bake lasagna noodles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F

In a medium saute pan, heat olive oil.  Add mushrooms and cook until tender, about 10 -15 minutes.

While the mushrooms are cooking, boil several cups of water.  Fill a 9x9 baking dish about halfway with the water and begin soaking lasagna noodles. Soak each noodle for about 7 minutes then lay out on parchment paper.  If you are worried about the noodles sticking to the dish or each other, add a bit of olive oil.

Once cooked the mushrooms are cooked, set aside to cool.  Add a bit more oil to the saute pan and then cook onions until tender, about 7 minutes.  Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, 1/2 the parsley, and the basil.  Simmer until the sauce thickens up, about 10 minutes.  When I taste tested the sauce I found it to be too acidic for me so I added 1 Tbsp of sugar for balance.

In a large bowl, combine spinach, mushrooms, goat cheese, ricotta, Parmesan cheese, egg, and the remaining parsley.  Make sure it is well mixed, you want a fork full of everything in each bite!

No that you have all your parts, time to put it all together.  Spoon a little less than half of the sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  On one of the lasagna noodles, spoon out about 3 Tbsp worth of filling and spread across.

Sprinkle with the mozzarella and then roll.

Repeat until you have filled the dish.

Spoon enough sauce on top to cover the rollatini and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes.

The result, in my opinion, is spectacular.  The cheese has a nice flavor and the mushrooms provide you with something you can sink your teeth into.  This recipe is also easily adjusted.  If you want something heavier on the vegetables, just reduce the amount of cheese.  The noodles will not get mushy even with the pre-soak and baking.

Sausage Lasagna

I have always found lasagna to be one of the best "throw together" meals.  It requires four basic ingredients - lasagna noodles, marinara sauce, ricotta cheese, and mozzarella cheese.  After that it's up to you, which means you have been given carte blanche over your meal.  Add meat, add vegetables, add both...go crazy.  Of course, for some less experimental people, this could be your version of food hell.  Me, I have both gotten experimental as well as stuck close to a recipe.  What follows in this post is my adapted version of my absolute favorite lasagna recipe - Ina Garten's Turkey Lasagna.

I found this recipe six or seven years ago and fell in love because it uses creamy goat cheese to add a bit of tangy kick to the cheese mixture.  Another aspect that I really enjoy is that the sauce and the meat are cooked together.  For me, I feel that it creates a better flavor.  Plus, we're not putting together a dinner version of the 7-layer dip, we don't need individual layers for each section of the lasagna.  Some basic changes I've made to the original recipe include using a flavored goat cheese and crushed tomatoes with basil.  Using a flavored cheese adds a bit more depth (not that it's actually necessary) and having basil with the tomatoes means I was able to cut the amount I needed otherwise.  The result is a dish of fabulous everyone loves!

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 c. onion - chopped
3 garlic cloves - mincesd
1 1/5 lbs hot Italian sausage - casings removed
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes with basil
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1/4 c. Italian parsley - chopped
2 Tbsp. partially dried basil - chopped
15 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
4 oz. crushed red pepper flavored creamy goat cheese
1 c. Parmesan cheese - grated
1 large egg
1 lb. fresh mozzarella - thinly sliced
1/2 box no-bake lasagna noodles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until tender, approximately 7 minutes.  Add the garlic and give a couple of stirs.  Add the sausage and cook for about 10 minutes.

As you cook, break the sausage apart into small chunks.  Once it is no longer pink add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, 1/2 the parsley, and the basil.  Reduce heat to simmer and cook for another 20 minutes.  You want the sauce to thicken up.

While the sauce simmers, put together your cheese mixture.  In a large mixing bowl, combine goat cheese, ricotta, Parmesan cheese, the rest of the parsley, and the egg.  Don't be afraid to get your hands in there to ensure everything is well mixed.

On to the layers!  Start with 1/3 of the sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.  Next is a layer of noodles - no overlapping.  Follow with 1/2 the mozzarella, 1/2 the ricotta mixture, and 1/3 of sauce.

Then repeat, topping with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Bake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes until the sauce is bubbling.  Let rest for a couple of minutes before digging in.  It'll still be a sloppy mess on your plate, but I promise it is tasty!

Anna Maria Island, Florida

So, we're going to take a quick break from the kitchen adventures and instead have a restaurant adventure this post.  A few weeks ago I went on vacation to Anna Maria Island in Florida.  Breakfast and lunch were had at the motel, but the dinners were all at the local restaurants.

The first stop on our food tour is City Pier Restaurant at (surprise, surprise) the Anna Maria City Pier.

I ordered the Fish and Chips and they turned to be pretty average.  In general, Fish and Chips don't exactly get my "food loins" pumping but, I bring up this meal because the coleslaw was an absolute standout.  They added MANGO!!  The coleslaw was amazing, I will go back there just for the coleslaw.

Our next stop brings us to the Sandbar.  The restaurant was located right on the beach.

This time I ordered the Grouper Tacos or, as I would like it to now be called, Heaven in a Tortilla.  The tortillas were hand made and the fish was fresh.  The side was Sandbar Rice, their take on Spanish rice.  The tacos fell apart in my hands and the rice had the perfect amount of heat.  The flavor of the tacos was a sweet citrus. Add in a pitcher of margaritas and the whole meal was just perfect.

Next, we head over to Rod and Reel...

...where I dined on a Mahi sandwich.  I went with blackened mahi and it had (in my opinion) the perfect amount of heat.  Their coleslaw had pineapple.  I'm not sure if I prefer pineapple or mango, I do know that from now on all my coleslaw will include exotic fruit.

Now, let's take a walk over to Cortez...

...for Florida Pompano at Star Fish Company.  OH MY WORD, hands down the best meal of the vacation.  Star Fish Company is both a seafood market and a restaurant.  Much of what they serve is caught and prepped that day.  Something you can easily tell by the quality of your meal.  If you are ever near Cortex or simply in the vicinity of Florida, GO.  RUN don't walk.  It'll be worth it.

Other restaurants that I ate at include Hurricane Hanks, Duffy's, and Lobstahs.  Hurricane Hanks is simply a good place for pub fare.  It's also one of the few places that stay open late.  The island pretty much shuts down by 11:00pm.  Duffy's is nothing but burgers, and they are good burgers.  Make sure you made a stop at the ATM first though, cash only!  Lobstahs, ignoring the fact that the name irks me to no end, had decent food and really cool art on the wall.

Anne Maria, overall, was a great vacation, I'd go back just for the food!