Father's Day

I love Father's Day, because I love my dad. And, because there are a lot of dad's out there that I love and respect. I love all of my uncles, I love My Man's dad, I love my brother's who are dads, etc. But, I hate that Father's Day just flies by like nothing for the most part. Mother's Day on the other hand, wow. And, gross. Talk about a money making day. And so I just want to acknowledge right off of the bat, I don't want Father's Day to become what Mother's Day is, but in general, I do feel like mothers are way more celebrated than fathers. I do wish the day came and there was more of a pause and thought during it than there is now. Because the truth is, a father is needed in a child's life just as much as the mother. Yes, the mother usually does the raising, but I think Mother's Day is a celebration of motherhood---taking someone's life and becoming an active part of it. It is not a celebration of the actual taking care of the kids....and Father's Day is just the same. A celebration of fatherhood--- taking someone's life and being an active participant in it. Influencing it for the good. But, as of right now (and the past who knows how many years) I feel like Mother's Day is national "let all of us women remind our husbands how important we are(and they better acknowledge it) and how much heavy stuff we go through raising these kids of theirs". I'm not saying that is what you think, but the fact that Mother's Day is this big she-bang "how could we survive without our mothers!" and then father's day is like, "Oh, hey pops. Love ya." Society has told the family that father's are less important, and it just aint the truth. And we wonder why there are more absent fathers than mothers in the family unit throughout the world. When someone is told their role is less important, they believe it and they treat it that way. Both are just as needed. So, dad, Happy Father's Day. You shaped all the parts of me that mom didn't. And mom, Happy Mother's Day, you shaped all the parts of me that dad didn't. And while I'm at it. Happy Me Day, because I shaped all the parts that they didn't. Also, Happy Father's Day to my awesome My Man, because he sure has being an active and present participant in his children's lives down. Aint no denyin' that!

Onto what we did for Father's Day.

We ate. Because that is what My Man loves best. We did buy him some gifts, like some potted mint plants (all different varieties) and a corn tortilla press (yum) and....I forget what else.

The girls cooked him eggs and toast for breakfast and did it themselves. Number one cracked one egg and girly two cracked the second. They put the toast in the toaster and buttered it.

For dinner we did Shrimp Scampi and then a fresh fruit tart pie for dessert.

The Shrimp Scampi recipe I used was this one, and I loved it. It was the first time I have ever cooked shrimp (seafood is creepy), but I did it just for him. And, it was probably the second or third time eating shrimp in my entire life (I only ate two of them. Baby steps...)After he saw me eat those two shrimps like a total boss, he pretty much wanted to make out because I owned it that much, but alas, it was five o'clock and the girlies were there so aint none of that happenin'. This is one of those great examples of how seeing your significant other doing things they don't like to do that you do like to do makes you love them more. I would highly recommend the recipe because I did it, which means it is easy. But the flavors were very well balanced and I really did like it. And, the shrimp was decent!

My Man had said he wanted a fruit tart for dessert, but I don't yet own a tart pan :/ It is something that will be added to my "want" list. Because I LOVE fruit tarts. So, I decided to just do a fruit tart pie. Pretty much the same thing! My mom makes this BOMB fresh strawberry cream pie and I could literally eat a whole pie (okay actually probably only half) in one sitting. So, I basically just did that recipe. I baked a pie crust that turned out magnificent and flaky and crusty.This is the recipe I used. Then I took 8 oz of softened cream cheese and blended it up with a teastpoon of vanilla and a half cup of sugar. That is the cream! You bake the pie crust and when it is completely cooled, you smear ALL of that cream cheese mixture all over the inside of the pie shell. Then you can fill it with whatever sliced up fruit you want. This time I did strawberry slices, blueberries and some canned mandarin oranges and then I squeezed some lime juice and mixed it with sugar and drizzled it all over the fruit. And it was .SO. good. You have to experience it to believe it. Plus, it's easy to make.

Happy late Father's Day to all the awesome men out there doing their best! We need you all.

Beehive Lemon Honey Cupcakes

I've been slacking on the cupcake entries, so let me just reassure you, there are plenty of them to come. Trust me. Just haven't had the time to write about all of them. These are some cupcakes I did for one of my really great friend's baby's first birthday. The theme was Winnie the Pooh (hoo hoo hoo!). I'm a big Winnie the Pooh fan, and loved him probably a lot longer than a normal kid, but I don't care because he's just too cute. Him and his stuffiness...maybe that's it. The fact that he's a stuffed animal. I've always had a huge thing for stuffed animals.Moving on...

I tried thinking up tons of really great cupcake frosting recipes that involved honey, but nothing that brilliant came to mind, and anything semi-cool that did come to mind I knew I didn't have enough time(or the money, let's face it...butter prices are way too high!) to experiment around with. So, lemon+honey=always the right choice. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty disappointed with the cake itself, but I'm not focusing on the actual cake this year, I'm focusing on frostings, and I thought the frosting was a winner.

The frosting recipe is one I have used A LOT this year. Because I have already decided it's my favorite. Why??? Because you can pipe it like buttercream, but it's NOT buttercream! And, I'm not that big of a buttercream fan (but I have had a couple of killer buttercreams before). This recipe uses whole milk, regular granulated sugar, and flour and butter of course. You can check out the original recipe over at Our Best Bites (which is a blog I have loved since forever ago. The first food blog I fell in love with, in fact! It was before I had even gotten married).This frosting has a soft flavor but some weight to it, which is what I love. It's like you're actually eating a dairy product, instead of just sugar air. Honestly, I have not ever used the recipe the exact way it says because I have never used it for a vanilla frosting. I've used it for an orange-vanilla frosting, a coconut frosting, this honey butter frosting, and a couple of others that I don't remember right now. So, I am always toying around with it to get the right flavor and texture I want. So, here is how I made the Beehive Honey Lemon Cupcakes!

Lemon Cupcake:
1 lemon cake box mix
substitute water for whole milk
substitute butter for oil
add 5 eggs instead of 3 (I am pretty sure this is what gave it the texture I didn't like. It was way to fluffy-ish...I'd probably just add one or two egg yolks instead of two whole eggs if I were to do it again which would make it more dense which is what I like. I'd also maybe add a bit of milk kefir or sour cream to help keep it very moist)
Bake according to directions on box.

Honey Butter Frosting:
Make according to the directions on Our Best Bites, but do not add the vanilla extract. Also add 1/4-1/2 tsp salt depending on how you like it. Add in 1/2-3/4 c honey. Be tasting it as you add it! Not all honey has the same strong flavor. I also added about a half a stick of butter, because the butter flavor had gotten drowned out by the honey, and I really actually wanted it to be honey BUTTER flavored, not just honey. Because butter makes everything better. Luckily, I was able to balance the flavor without messing up the texture of the frosting ( I used half liquid honey and half crystallized honey to help keep the frosting more stiff). I also added quite a bit of drops of yellow dye until I got the color I wanted.

To pipe the frosting like a Beehive, I just took a gallon sized ziploc bag and cut the corner at a curve to make the frosting come out round. I started on the outer rim of the cupcake, make sure to be squeezing tight enough to make a thick circle come out, and laid each new layer about halfway onto the one below to make sure it didn't fall into itself (if that makes sense). It's so hard to get the frosting perfectly centered and looking the same each time! As you can obviously tell. They are definitely not consistent, but I still thought they turned out cute. My friend (the one hosting the party) is awesome and made those cute little bees out of royal frosting, and she did awesome! Maybe I'll have her do a guest post on how she did it :)

I didn't take that great of picture because I procrastinated and didn't take them until they were out on the food table! Ha! O well, don't care. They still look delicioussss. And, even though I didn't like the cake texture much, the flavors were still great.

The Year of Frosting Cupcakes Series:1

Ever since watching the Cupcake Wars however many years ago, for the first time, I've thought making cupcakes looked fun. I'll be the first to admit, cupcakes aren't my favorite dessert to eat, but I strongly believe that is because cupcakes have been slid to the back burner and underplayed for far too long. Cupcakes can be better than from the box with a little tub of Pillsbury chocolate frosting. Sure, for a random craving or an upcoming event you completely forgot about, those boxes and tubs put something sweet together pretty dang fast. But, cupcakes can look cute or beautiful and taste simple or complex. I like simple, and I like cute. I have been wanting to practice my piping for a while, but have never done it because i seriously can't eat all of the cupcakes it takes to practice that, and I am pretty sure people actually CAN get sick of you giving them cupcakes when they are the only people you give your sweets too. I came up with this great idea to bake them monthly and hand them out to the women in my congregation that have birthdays that current month. Then, I can bake and decorate to my hearts desire at least once a month, and have a place for those cupcakes to go and be appreciated. They might not taste the best or look the best, but hopefully over the months they will at least get a little bit better. Currently, I don't have tips so I use what I've got (plastic zip lock bags). Hopefully, one day I will convince myself to get some actual tips! Right now, I am more just looking into which frosting recipes I actually like, because there are so many NASTY frostings out there (which I mainly blame for people's hate of cupcakes). Maybe next year I will actually focus on the cake of the cupcake. I will be posting the cupcakes I have made and what recipe I used for the frosting and how I altered it and if I liked it---if anyone is interested in purchasing a certain amount of a particular recipe of cupcakes for any event, you can contact me at oneforthefamblog@gmail.com about getting an order of them for an extremely low price! Look forward to showing you which ones I've liked making!

Cypress' St. Patty's Birthday---Chunky Carrot Cake Cupcakes

My Cypress Sky was born on St. Patrick's Day. I wasn't too thrilled about it but My Man was, because his family loves celebrating St. Patrick's Day. I had never celebrated St. Patty's Day, until I married My Man. They eat corned beef (how did I live my whole life without it?), cabbage and carrot cake. Is that carrot cake part Irish? No idea. I have no idea about that carrot cake. And my poor little Cy Sky will be stuck with that exact same meal every birthday her whole life, and green as her birthday theme color. Anyways, with carrot cake being the cake she will forever eat every birthday, I've decided to find ways to spice it up a little. This year, cupcakes. Very magnificent, I know. But, let me say. They were so so good. You should make them. And, then eat them all. There are so many carrot cake cupcake recipes out there with so many ingredients i.e. wheat flour, apple sauce, chunked apples, spices, etc...I seriously have limited time when baking or cooking or anything, so I chose the fastest one. And, I loved it. And it was fast, and it was good. But, I did change up the recipe quite a bit. Find the original here.

Chunky Carrot Cake Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

1 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 c grated carrots (use a hand grater---the largest holes)
2/3 c oil
2 eggs, beaten
approx. 1/2 c water. Add this last, because the amount of water you add will depend on the texture of the batter after mixing everything together. When I had finished adding all of the ingredients from the original recipe, it was not a batter AT ALL. I think it's because I grated the carrots instead of using the food processor. So, add the amount you think makes the best better. I had added about 1/2 c.

Cream Cheese Piping Frosting I doubled the recipe

8 oz cream cheese
8 tbs butter
1 c powdered sugar(she uses two.that was way too much for me)
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 12 cupcake pan or line it with liners.Combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl, making sure to beat the eggs a little before adding them in. Add in the water at the end. Spoon them about 3/4 full into the cups. Bake for 15 minutes (that time is based off of my oven). For the frosting blend the cream cheese the butter and vanilla together (make sure the cream cheese and butter are softened) until smooth. Add in the cup of powdered sugar or however much you choose to at the end. Adjust to taste and texture. Separate into two separate bowls, and dye one of them green(or whatever color you want). Spoon each color side by side into your piping bag. I just used a zip lock and cut the tip with a little dip so that the frosting would come out round. Check out this video that shows you all sorts of cool ways to use zip locks to use as your piping bags. It's the one I learned it from! Refrigerate cupcakes (optional, but I like them cold).

Buñuelos(Easy Mexican Treat)

These are one of my all time favorites. I DON'T eat them often in real life, but I do in my dreams. And when I do eat them in real life, I always end up reminiscing about spending holidays at my abuelita's house in the good and great El Paso, Texas!!! Specifically, a New Year's Eve we spent there while I was still pretty little. My abuelita had made a TON of dough, and had us all rolling it out into HUGE circles. I kid you not, these things were wider than a full twelve inches. We would roll and stretch them out as thin as we could and hang them anywhere there was room. Over the chairs and across the table and her bed. She would fry the heck out of these babies and drench them in cinnamon and sugar. DONE. That's how easy they are. They taste amazing. Thin, crunchy, oily and buttery and cinnamon-y and sugar-y. I ate them for like every meal that trip. And anyone who knows me knows I'm seriously not kidding about that. But, when you only cook them once a year, who really cares? NOT ME. And, tonight I made them with my family. AWESOME. I love eating good stuff with them. Today was mexican monday for food (yes, I make up things like Waffle Wednesday, Fish Friday or Fancy Friday or Pasta Tuesday (because they both have T's.... to help me think of things to cook)) so I did chicken enchiladas with lettuce and tomato and sour cream(plain yogurt) and then buñuelos for dessert. And, the best thing about this recipe is that it's SO SO easy and almost tastes just as good as if you were to make the dough yourself. There's no way I could ever say anything I make mounts up to how my grandma does it, because she's just that good. But, I can say that out of 100(her's being 100) this comes to like a 98. FOR REAL. Check it out. And more importantly, MAKE THEM.

Ingredients:

Frying oil-vegetable or coconut ( I like the coconut because then it adds a coconut flavor...)

Uncooked Flour Tortillas

Cinnamon 

Sugar

Directions:

Combine the sugar with the amount of cinnamon that you would like. Set to the side in a bowl.

Put 2-3 Tbs(or you could put more if you really want to fry it a lot) of the oil into a pan set at medium heat. Let it heat up. Test it by putting in an edge of the tortilla. If it sizzles it is ready. Put in the tortilla and let it cook and brown on one side, then flip it and do the same on the other side. Take it off and set it on a plate. Put some butter on it while it is still hot and then dust however much cinnamon and sugar you want all over it. Then flip, and do the same with the butter and sugar on that side. Then, it's done! That's all. Super easy, super good.

Side note: You don't have to put the butter. Only if you like living on the edge---chances of experiencing a heart attack being on the edge. But, boy does the butter taste good :) I'd say, if you are going to eat one. DO THE BUTTER. If you are going to eat two, don't. Ha ha! Hope you like it.

Easy Take 5 Cupcakes

Peanut buttttterrrrr.
Chocolaaatttteeeeeeee.

Peanut butterrrrrr.
Chocolaaateeeeeeeeee.

Um. YUM. Peanut butter and chocolate. Need I say more? YES.
Peanut butterrrrr
chocolateeeee 
caraaaamelllll
pretzelsssss.

QUADRUPLE YUM in honor of the link-up party at Buns In My Oven! Make sure to go here and check out other deliciously awesome recipes.

Take 5 has been one of my favorite candy bars since first biting into that salty caramel-y chocolate-y goodness....y(ha). There is this adorable quaint little cupcake shop that I miss more than anything back up in northern Utah, my former stomping ground. In fact, this little cupcake shop happens to be this past season of Cupcake War's winner! Hurray. And I must say, they definitely deserved it. Just last night it was me and my hunk-of-a-husband's date night and we've already gotten ice cream twice on our date night because its so hot here(already hitting above the 100's!). I don't know how I will survive. Anyways, we decided to go try out the cupcakes at this cake parlor just in the heart of St. George. MISTAKE. They were expensive.Tiny. And, most importantly, none of their cupcakes have any filling.SAY WHAT?!Yeah, don't I know it. Needless to say, we just bought one and left feeling this deep yearning for the large and luscious decadent cupcakes sold at Cravings Alisha's Cupcakes in Pleasant Grove, Utah. I am not kidding you guys, best cupcakes ever. They are big and moist and crumbly and everything a perfect cupcake can be. And, most importantly, they have filling. I want to tell you about all the kinds of cupcakes I've eaten there. Rather, I'll just encourage you to try them out yourselves. The atmosphere there is extremely comfy and family friendly. We go eat cupcakes on Monday nights and let our little Yogurt Drop play in the kitchen play area they have there for kids. She loves it. Anyways, I've been needing great cupcakes badly. I was going through withdrawals when I got here, and so I thought up one that I have never had before. And, oh my. Um, yeah. You'll see.

HUBBA WUBBA! Yeah, baby! Starting from the bottom, up.
Crumbled pretzels on the bottom.
A peanut butter cupcakes that is so moist inside you'll die, and so crunchy on top it's like a peanut butter cookie!
Is there filling you ask?Caramel.
The frosting on top is one I made up which you don't need a lot of and it's not super buttery, which I love. 
Garnish: a few chunks of soft-chewy caramel, Hershey's chocolate and a few more pieces of pretzel.
Make it. You wont regret it.

TAKE 5 CUPCAKES
The peanut butter cupcake recipe I used was from: marthastewart.com. I used crunchy peanut butter instead of soft, and I used salted butter. Also, don't forget to crumble up some pretzels and sprinkle them in the bottom of the cupcake liners before putting the batter in.

Peanut Butter Cupcake Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
Make cupcakes as directed in Basic Cupcake How-To, adding peanut butter before adding eggs. Use sour cream and vanilla as wet ingredients. Once cupcakes are cool, frost tops with peanut butter frosting. Place a dollop of jam in center of frosting. Decorated cupcakes will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 2 days.

Once your cupcakes are looking like they are ALMOST ready to take out, take a Werther's original chewy caramel and just shove it right into the center of the cupcake! Then, let them finish baking. Take them out and let them properly cool. Put however much frosting you would like onto them, and garnish them with the leftover pretzel bits, caramel bits and little chunks of Hershey's chocolate.

Take 5 Cupcake Frosting
1 8 oz. tub of Cool Whip.
1 16 oz. container of Hershey Milk Chocolate frosting.
Then, just blend it all together in a big bowl! I don't like that much frosting, so if you want more you can just put as much Cool Whip or chocolate frosting as you want. I used beaters to blend it all together, which makes it kind of runny which is how I like it. You can try to fold it in to make it a bit more fluffy.
Toppings
1 bag of Werther's soft and chewy caramels (1 per cupcake center). After you have filled the center of each cupcake chop up the left overs to put on top of the cupcakes.
1 Hershey's milk chocolate bar. Break this into small chunks, as well.
Use the left-over crumbled pretzels to sprinkle on top.

THE muffin

Time to set aside coffin time (meaning couch time) because this chocolate muffin(cupcake?) kills! Okay, not really. It is most likely one of the healthiest chocolate muffins you will eat. Really. Just look at the ingredients before leaving the page. I promise! See, I told you so. I first saw this recipe on another girls site (she deleted it! I wanna give cred.) and thought I would give it a try. I did. After making them I would spend hours between eaten muffins staring at them and looking away dramatically, acting as if I didn't want another. But I always gave in. Because who has ever said greek yogurt, oats and cocoa are bad for you? Until it is proven that they can cause heart attacks, I will feast my heart out on these little suckers. Here are a few not good pictures of them, just to show you how they shouldn't look if you are a pro-baker (or even just a good baker) which I most definitely am not.

There it is. I added a little plop of homemade strawberry jam because I thought it sounded good (fruit and chocolate always goes good together) and because it would add to the V-day festiveness. The rest of this batch is going to go to friends! Then I won't have them weighing on my mind all day. P.S. the jam was great. Do it.

Nutri-Choco V-Day Cupcakes

1 3/4 c old fashion oats

3 egg whites

3/4 c unsweetned cocoa

1 tsp vanilla(if you have some from Mexico use that!)

1/2 c plain greek yogurt (or regular low fat yogurt)

1/2 tsp cream of tartar( or 1 1/2 Tbs vinegar)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 c hot water (I microwave it for 2 min.)

1 c sugar substitute (I just use sugar because I don't like the diet taste-maybe try honey?)

1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix it all together in a bowl. I mix dry ingredients first then add liquids. Then put it all in a blender and blend away! Put into cupcake liners. Heat oven to 350 F and cook for about 15 minutes. To check if they are cooked stick a toothpick or knife in and if it comes out clean they are done! Instead of them looking shiny they should look more of a matte brown.