BaconBurgers and Cupcakes

Last weekend, we went to 'the beach house' (location undisclosed). While we weren't having stiff drinks and pissing off the old codger of a neighbor with fireworks, a lot of good food happened, most notably, the BaconBurger.

I was really excited (I am a huge dork) that they had slider buns at Target, and proclaimed that we would be making use of them. These burgers were amazing. The patties themselves consisted of ground beef (duh), a nice chunk of bleu cheese (crumbled), Worcestershire, and salt and pepper. The Paul face grilled them up (although it should be known that I can make a mean burger). Near the end we glazed them with the best BBQ sauce ever. They were topped with bacon and avocado and were so amazing that I made the same a few days later at home for some friends.

To go along with the burgers, I also made a sweet potato salad, a recipe I stole from Bon Appetit, although what I made looked way better than the picture on the website. I would also like to note that I didn't peel the potatoes, because I like the skin.

Also, this week, I had an order for cupcakes, and was pretty pleased with what I came up with. It was for a dozen S'mores (naturally) and a dozen of these beauties:

Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Chile Buttercream. I was pretty excited about the sprinkles.

Wonderful Food That I Didn't Make

It's too warm out for me to do any serious cooking/baking in the house unless I'm getting paid. Last night, the Paul face and I drove around for an hour trying to decide what to eat. I originally wanted Mexican, and then we almost when down to Goose Island Shrimp House, and then almost over to Suzie's. While we were waiting in the drive through line there, I had a craving for a rueben, but not knowing where to get one, we reverted back to the idea of shrimp. And so we wound up at Snappy's Shrimp House (1901 W. Irving Park Rd).

We each got a 1/2 pound jumbo fried shrimp meal. The menu board inside takes pride in the fact that these shrimp are Gulf shrimp, and not farmed. You can really taste the difference, in that these shrimp actually had flavor. And they were gigantic. They are not lying about the jumbo part. We opted to have the hot sauce instead of regular, and I was expecting just a mild tang, but the hot was actually hot. It was good, but I think I should have gone with the regular cocktail sauce. My coleslaw was just your average Sysco stuff that comes in a 5 lb plastic jar, but the fries were also really good. They were nice and crispy and had just the right amount of salt on them. The only thing better than a well-salted fry, is a well-salted-and-peppered fry. The prices were quite reasonable, and the only bummer is that we didn't remember to order any hushpuppies, but I'm certain there will be a return trip.

Today, I was able to kidnap Danny K for a bit, as we were going to go to a toy signing at Rotofugi, but were quite discouraged by the long line. We skipped out and went the complete opposite direction for lunch, up to Taste of Lebanon (1509 W. Foster). I read a bunch of reviews on this place on Yelp! and figured it would be acceptable, as although I do have a profound love for meat, Danny is of the non-meat eating nature. This was another satisfying meal (Danny and I both got full meals, and a can of pop for a total of $14.00).

I had a falafel wrap and fries. The fries were nothing to write home about, but it really doesn't matter. My wrap was really good. The falafel was nice and crispy, and well spiced. It was topped with sauce, lettuce, tomato, and onion. The pita was amazing. More like a big tortilla, which is awesome because I hate those horrible rounds that come from the store that are like eating cardboard. Gross.

Danny went with the vegetarian combo #1 (3 falafel, 2 pita, baba ganoush, hummus, veggies, and pickled turnips). I tried some of the baba ganoush, and was a bit sad that I didn't order some for myself.

I think it's fairly certain that I'll be popping back up there in there near future as well.

I'm baking these muffins asbestos I can

So I survived jury duty. That was pretty much a waste of a day, as I sat in the waiting room pretty much the whole time. Let's hope I never have to do that again. The weather has been beautiful lately, so I'm trying to be more productive around the house. Sunday, I made tamales and crab rangoon to freeze for when I get hungry for junk. Yesterday for dinner I had Alton Brown's oven roasted broccoli. It was okay. I also made bread so that I could have a tuna salad sandwich for lunch today. I left out the celery (I hate it) and the grain mustard (which was a good idea, because just the dijon gave it plenty of flavor. It was a bit overwhelming. I think I'll just stick to the good old tuna, mayo, relish combo.

I've decided also, to put my cookbooks to a use other than gathering dust. I was going to work Alton Brown's cooking book cover to cover, but I think at this point, it's going to be easier for me to do that with his baking book, so tonight I started with the first recipe: 'Old School Muffins'. It's a basic muffin recipe which calls for you to add your own extras. I went with white chocolate chips and raspberries:

They turned out pretty good. Next time, it will probably be beneficial for me to use fresh berries, to avoid the juice discoloring the batter, but I had a bag of berries in the freezer that needed using. Alton's recipe was for 12 standard muffins, but I used the big muffin pan and got 6 substantial ones instead. His recipe called for one whole egg and one egg yolk, but I didn't feel like wasting an egg white, so I left the yolk out. They turned out fine

White Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins
2.25 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt
0.5 c. sugar
0.5 c. vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 c. plain low fat yogurt
0.75 c. white chocolate morsels
0.5 c. raspberries

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a muffin tin. Blend flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg, and yogurt until combined. Combine wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until batter just comes together. It will be very thick. Fold in the berries and the morsels, and spoon into prepared muffin tin. Cups should be quite full. Bake for 18-20 (for standard muffins. Bake 20-24 minutes for large sized muffins) minutes or until toothpick inserted the in the center comes out clean.

Best Week Evar?

This week went by really fast at work. But Friday was a killer. I enjoyed this weekend. I definitely need it, because I've got jury duty on Tuesday. I have to be downtown at 8:30. This is a problem for me. On work days, I don't even get up until 8:45. I am not a morning person. If I get up before 8:45, I'm generally cranky and unpleasant to be around. Speaking of cranky and unpleasant to be around.

Today I was coming back on 90 east. After the tollway, there is generally a bottleneck. Well, I let two cars in front of me, and I feel that was good enough. Then some dumb bitch from Wisconsin (FIGURES!) almost sideswiped me, because she was too busy being from Wisconsin to know how to drive like a normal person. So I honked the horn. Apparently she took offense to that, cut me off, and waved TWELVE cars in front of, whilst her and her "hubby", who looked like a low-rent version of William Regal from wrestling, turned and pointed a laughed at me. Well, guess who's laughing now?! ME! I would tell you how I sought my revenge, but it might get me in 'trouble', but if you ask, I shall tell. Sometimes it makes me giggle, what a bitch I can be.

BUT! I am not always such a bitch. This Monday at work, I did another fund raising bake sale for a couple coworkers for a breast cancer walk that they are going to do. Some of the tasty baked goods were:

Peach Cupcakes with a Ginger Buttercream


Mini Lemon Meringue Pies


And the ever popular S'mores Cupcakes

Friday night, I did some baking for my friend Dahlia's cousin's baby shower. I was asked to do the above mentioned S'mores cupcakes, as well as some pink lemonade cupcakes I had made before:

I hope everyone enjoyed them. Right now I've got a loaf of white bread going, so I can make some tuna salad.

I'm working on being more economical. I'm steaming some chicken tamales, that I can freeze for lunches at work. I'll be doing the same thing with breakfast burritos, and if I get around to it this evening, I may even make some crab rangoon. Whippy dippy.