S'mores Cupcakes

I saw a segment on Martha Stewart a long time ago where she made s'more cupcakes and they were so cute. Tonight because I should be reading about the estrus cycle, I decided to finally try it out. I didn't really follow Martha's recipe, although her frosting idea might have worked out better than what I did. She made a swiss meringue and piled it up on the cupcake like marshmallow frosting. I will preface this post by saying, the cupcakes tasted really good but I am unhappy with the marshmallow application. If anyone has a better idea, I would love to hear it! So here is my "invention":

First I took one sleeve of graham crackers, put them in a ziplock, placed a dishtowel over it and crushed them with a rolling pin. You could also do this in a food processor but I didn't feel like washing it. Next, I added 1/4 sugar right in the bag and shook it around. Again, I didn't feel like washing another bowl.

Next, I melted 1/3 C butter in an Eskimo Joes cup in the microwave. That is how all the gourmet chefs melt butter. They all carry their own Joe's cup along with their knives on Top Chef, I'm sure of it. Then I just poured the butter on in the ziploc and closed it up and shook it around until everything was well combined.

Then I put liners in my cupcake pan and spooned about 1-2 T of the graham cracker mixture into each paper and used a glass to smoosh it flat. If you spin the glass before lifting, it won't stick.

Then I sprinkled a few chocolate chips over the graham crackers (Martha said to use roughly chopped bitter sweet chocolate but I didn't have any and I didn't want to go to the store). Then I put the pan in the oven at 350 F for about 5 minutes just so the crust would set up. Then I took it out and let it cool before added the batter.

In the meantime I whipped up my standard chocolate cake batter. It is the same one I posted in the Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcakes blog. If I were an intelligent blogger, I would put the link right here where you could click on it. But I have no idea how to do that so you're just going to go back and look yourself, if you want it. If you don't, use your favorite chocolate cake recipe or boxed mix.

So as I was saying, I whipped up the batter and loaded it into a ziploc. I learned this trick from one of my cupcake cookbooks, called Hello Cupcake. This book is awesome by the way, it has the cutest ideas. So anyway, what you do is take a big ziploc and fold it over a pitcher, like so:

Then, fill it with your batter, smooth as much air out as you can and seal the bag. Make sure you seal it really well and don't use the cheap bags here. If you do not follow these instructions and use the cheap bags, I will not be held responsible for the mess that you will make.

Then snip the corner off the bag with scissors. Start small. It is kind of like sedating a horse, you can always add a little more but you can't take it back, so don't make your snip too big! Also I usually keep a plate under the edge of the bag to catch the drips. Actually that isn't true. I always add sour cream to my cake batter so I use the sour cream lid to catch the drips.

So now use your ziploc and gently squeeze the batter into the cupcake liners. It takes a little practice but in my hands I make much less mess with this method than trying to spoon in the batter. So fill the liners about 3/4 full. Then take 2-3 more graham crackers and smash em up and then sprinkle some over the top of each batter filled cup. Then, just because it feels right, sprinkle on some chocolate chips too.

Now throw them in the oven and bake them for about 20 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

Okay, here was my dilema: first, I tried to lay a Hershey square over the the top of each hot cupcake and then stick a few marshmallows on the hot cupcake. They kept falling off. So then I cut them in half and stuck the sticky part to the cupcake. This helped but they still weren't stuck as good as I would like. Then I used my kitchen torch to brown the marshmallows. I heart my kitchen torch and any opportunity to break it out makes me happy.

This is how they looked with the "scissor torch" method:

So then I decided to try putting the Hershey square and marshmallows on the cupcake about 5 minutes before they were done baking and letting the oven do the browning. This worked okay but the marshmallows reminded me of sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving instead of s'mores and the Hershey square melted beyond recognition. I just don't like the presentation. This is how they looked with the "oven method":

Both methods tasted really good. This is what the crust looked like:

Adorable, huh?

So does anyone have any ideas for marshmallow attachment? Especially one where I can still use my torch? My torch really does make me happy, I'm thinking about making pumpkin creme brulee for Thanksgiving...

Crepes Like Me...

So if you're not a Lyle Lovett fan you probably don't get the humor of my title but that's okay. At least I crack myself up... So anyway, when we were on our Mexican vacation, I tried crepes for the first time and they were so good. I watched the guy at the little crepe station very closely and decided it didn't look that hard and bonus Trent liked them. Perfect. So I decided to give it a shot. I found the recipe on foodnetwork.com, it is one of Paula Dean's and I like her plus the one I found on marthastewart.com said I had to let the batter rest for at least two hours, come on Martha I am hungry here! So since Paula only wanted 20 min of batter resting time, I went with hers.
So what do you need? Very simple stuff. I have a friend who always keeps those boxes of Jiffy muffin mix on hand. She calls them her "mother in law" breakfast because it uses stuff you always have on hand and you can whip them up really quick and make your mother in law think that you cook breakfast every morning. Luckily I have a very cool mother in law who probably doesn't care if I make Trent breakfast but the crepes fall into the "mother in law breakfast" category because it is stuff you have in the pantry. Plus a bonus, they seem really fancy so you can impress your family, friends and neighbors but they are really pretty easy, shhhh.
You need:
3 large eggs
1 1/3 C milk
3/4 C flour
6 T melted butter
pinch of salt
(also I added a splash of vanilla)

So whisk the eggs first, then add your wet ingredients followed by the dry. I usually just melt butter in a coffee cup in the microwave. The batter will be a little lumpy but Martha said that was okay. So now that the batter is made, unload the dishwasher or check your email or some such thing for 20 minutes while it rests.

Next put a skillet or griddle on medium heat and let it get hot. Brush it with melted butter and then pour about 1/4 C of the batter on the hot pan. Now quickly lift up the pan and rotate it in a circle spreading out the batter as thinly as you can. Let it cook until the edges start to pull away from the pan and air bubbles start to puff up in the center.

A couple of notes, first I started with a round skillet because that's what Paula and Martha had in their photos but I found I didn't have room to get around the crepe to flip it so I switched to a large griddle pan. Also I think I had the pan too hot because my first crepes were a bit too browned. Also I just melted some more butter in the coffee cup and used one of those little rubber brushes to dab butter on the pan in between crepes.

So once the edges start to pull away, use a rubber spatula and tease the edges away from the pan. Then flip the crepe over. Paula and Martha said to do it in "one fell swoop" which meant nothing to me until I got the hang of it. My first one I tore to bits trying to flip it but basically what worked for me was I used the rubber spatula and and my fingers (Paula said I could use my fingers) and pushed the spatula as far under the crepe as I could then I used my cat like reflexes to flip it over very very fast. Here is one that I flipped. So you can use any fillings you want. If you had a lot of people over it might even be fun to do a crepe buffet. They can be sweet or savory. There are over 150 crepe recipes on foodnetwork.com including one with brie and smoked salmon that sounded wonderful. But you could use cheese and deli meat or vegetables or any kind of fresh fruit, jam, cream cheese, whip cream, peanut butter, chocolate sauce, bananas, etc. In Mexico I had Nutella and strawberries with sweetened condensed milk drizzled over the top. What is Nutella? I am so glad you asked because it is heaven in a jar. It is an Italian chocolate hazelnut spread. It is what little Italian kids eat on their sandwich because they don't have peanut butter in Italy. It is so decadent and wonderful. I eat it on bagels all the time. You can get it at most grocery stores, it is on the peanut butter aisle.

So today I went with Nutella and raspberries. Did you know raspberries had a "p"? I didn't, thank goodness for spell check : )

First I spread the Nutella in the center of the crepe. Then I folded it in half and rolled it up like a burrito.

Then I drizzled a little more Nutella because I am very naughty like that and sprinkled it with raspberries. It was sooo sooo good. Trent didn't like them, he said he could taste egg. Trent doesn't eat eggs. Have I mentioned that his weird food issues really stifle my culinary creativity? So make these for yourself, make them for your mother in law, make them for your friends but don't make them for Trent.

A nice stack of thin, airy, yummy crepes. This recipe made about 18 crepes (including the one I tore up while trying to flip it and then got mad and threw in the sink). So since I now have 15 crepes left and Trent won't eat them, does anyone want to come to College Station for breakfast?

Reeses Peanut Butter Cup-cake

Okay, first of all I think I need to take a course to figure out how to put the pictures on this thing the way I want! But anyway, it occurred to me that I have cupcake in my blog title and have never put a cupcake recipe on here. It also occurred to me that Trent had surgery over two weeks ago and I was only a good nurse/wife/compassionate type person for about one week. Then I got sick of the whole thing and kind of ignored him but I do love the guy and I want him to love me back so I thought I would try to come up with a cupcake that I thought he would love. He has always had a thing for peanut butter and chocolate and I have tried to make peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate frosting before but they turned out kind of dry and not stellar. So this time I decided to reverse the order and see how it turned out. So I made regular chocolate cupcakes and placed a mini Reese's cup in the center of each one. The above photo is the chocolate batter with the cupcake pressed into it. Then I made a frosting of cream cheese and peanut butter and decorated with Reese's Pieces (thank you for the idea Colby!)

These are the cupcakes before I frosted them. Most of them you couldn't even see where the Reese's cup was but in a couple it peeked out the top, so I just buried it in frosting.

Here is the finished cupcake, I thought they turned out really cute and the were really really good. Trent loved them, which is saying a lot because he doesn't hold anything back when he tells me what he thinks about my cooking (or anything else for that matter).

Here is one cut open so you can see the surprise Reese's cup center.

So here is the recipe:

Shalyn's Reese's Peanut Butter Cup-Cakes

Any chocolate cake recipe that you like will do. Here is my standard chocolate cake though:

1 box of chocolate cake mix (18.25 oz)----a box, gasp! I know.

1 box of instant chocolate pudding (3.4 oz)

small carton sour cream (8 oz)

4 eggs

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/2 C warm water

About 24 mini Reese's

combine all ingredients (except Reese's), then mix on high for two minutes. Fill baking tin with paper liners and fill cups about 1/2 full with batter. Place a mini Reese's in the center of each cup and gently press, (unwrap the candy obviously). Bake 350 F for about 20 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, I kind of made it up as I went but this is the basic idea:

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

1 brick cream cheese, softened (8 oz)

1 stick butter, softened

1 C creamy peanut butter

splash of milk

2-4 C powdered sugar

splash vanilla

cream together the cream cheese, butter and peanut butter. start adding in a little powdered sugar at a time. Add in the splash of vanilla and milk and keep adding powdered sugar with the mixer going until it gets to a spreadable fluffy consistency. The End.

Life as a Resident and Emily's Tortilla Soup

So the latest greatest in my life is that I started a residency in theriogenology at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine. So what does this mean? It means that for 6 months each year for the next two years, I will basically be working at Texas A&M in their equine reproduction service. I will be training to be a specialist in reproduction (theriogenology) and in 2011 I will be eligible to sit for the American College of Theriogenologists board exam. If I pass, I will be considered a diplomate. So far it is going great. The other two residents are really nice and the mentors and staff are so welcoming. I have already seen some pretty amazing things....a two day old hermaphrodite miniature donkey and an embryo being biopsied, frozen, thawed and transferred into a recip mare, just to name a couple! The alternating 6 months each year will still be spent in Whitesboro working for Dr. Hartman, so I am truly getting the best of both the private practice and academic worlds. Sometimes I can not believed how blessed I truly am!

So to keep up with my recipe a week plan, I decided to make Emily's Tortilla Soup the other night for dinner. We had talked about it on our vacation in Mexico because Amber had ordered some that was not as yummy as she had hoped. Emily gave me this recipe sometime during vet school and I have altered it a little but have always referred to it as EMILY's tortilla soup. While talking about it, she told me that she only made it one time and doesn't have the recipe anymore, so we got a chuckle out me proclaiming to people that this was my friend Emily's famous recipe! Anyway this is a really good and pretty danged healthy recipe, so here goes:

Emily's Famous Tortilla Soup

1 T olive oil

6 cloves minced garlic

1 small bunch chopped cilantro

2 chopped onions

8 tortillas, cut into strips

2 chicken breasts, cubed

1 box chicken broth (32 oz)

1 small can tomato sauce

1 T cumin

2 t chili powder

dash of red pepper flakes

1/2 C rice

shredded Cheddar

Avocado, sliced

Sour Cream

I usually just put the onion, garlic and cilantro in the food processor, since Trent won't eat onions if he knows they are there...but anyway saute them in olive oil until the onions are soft, then add in the cubed chicken. Cook until the chicken is done the add in spices, broth, tomato sauce and rice. Cook until the rice is done. (I use long grain brown rice since it is healthier but any kind will do)

Cut the tortillas into strips. You can either fry them with a little bit of olive oil or bake them. I usually spray a cookie sheet with olive oil and lay the strips flat and bake for 5-10 min on 350 degrees until they are crisp. (I usually use the whole wheat tortillas but again whatever kind you like or have on hand will do)

So now you just put your tortilla strips in a bowl, ladle in some soup and top with whatever you like. I do avocado, cheese and a little dollop of sour cream.

Also, sometimes if I make this for guests I do it like the tortilla soup at El Chico and put the broth in a pitcher, the chicken and rice in a serving bowl, and put out the strips and toppings and let people assemble their own soup. Not necessary but it looks pretty : )

A Happier Part Two in Playa...

After our tough morning, the rest of our first day of vacation was fun. A lot of laying around on the beautiful beach and sampling frozen drinks. That night we discovered our favorite restaraunt at the resort, Asiana. They had awesome sushi and we ate there about once a day during the trip. Trent, in his new effort to try foods outside of his very narrow comfort zone, discovered that he loves wasabi. Then later while strolling along 5th Avenue, he discovered that wasabi does not love him back. We are pretty sure that the NSAIDS he was taking for his shoulder must have caused an ulcer, which was not at all helped by the wasabi. So Trent actually spent most of the vacation curled up in a ball with stomach cramps. So I won't be winning any wife of the year awards but I completely abandoned him and hung out with our friends all week and had a great vacation.

So I haven't figured out the whole blogging thing yet and so the pics are out of order but this is Trent and I on the beach near our hotel. We had our 5th wedding anniversary while on the trip and I used this fact to force him into posing for some photos. Colby took them and they turned out really great, Thanks Colby and Trent : )
So what I actually did on our anniversary was leave Trent in the room and go snorkeling with the rest of the gang. We first went to a gorgeous beach where the sea turtles come to feed on the underwater sea grass. It was incredible. They were so peaceful and graceful. We saw four or five sea turtles and a spectacular coral reef with lots of colorful fish. Next we went to a nearby cenote. Cenote are a series of limestone caves filled with freshwater and connected by an underground river. People actually scuba dive through the water filled tunnels connecting the caves. It is supposed to be amazing, our guide told us kind of like being in outerspace because there is no water surface in the tunnel, it fills like floating. However I think I will stick with snorkeling in them because even that was a bit difficult for me with my combined claustrophobia and fear of the dark. The cenote was truly beautiful and very cold, i.e. the wet suit photos.

Colby, Emily, Amber and Moose on the platform going down to the water in the cenote. Our guide, Helen, is the the background.

This is the cenote that we snorkeled in

A sea turtle eating sea grass

Me, Emily, Colby, Amber and Moose getting ready to snorkle with sea turtles

The pristine beach where we snorkled with the sea turtles
So another fun thing we did was take the ferry across to the island of Cozumel and spend the day. First we had lunch at the Hard Rock. Then we went snorkeling. On the boat ride out to snorkle, Emily told us a story about how when she and Colby snorkled on their honeymoon, the guide told them to leave their jewelry on the boat because it attracted baracudas.....so low and behold, while snorkeling we see a baracuda. I am snorkeling next to Amber, who keeps grabbing my left hand and pointing it at the baracuda. I am thinking how sweet she is that she doesn't want me to miss out on seeing it but after the 3rd time she does it, I start thinking "hey, I'm not blind I see it!" Then we stick our heads out of the water and she is laughing hysterically. Turns out she could care less if I saw the baracuda, she was trying to feed me to it and was using my wedding ring as bait. So after narrowly escaping being fish food, Amber and Moose (or Aaron as his grown up friends refer to him) decided to go back to the resort and the rest of rented a jeep so we could drive around Cozumel and check out the beaches. We saw a Mayan ruin, ate at a really cool cliff top bar over looking a beach and collected shells and coral before taking the ferry back to Playa del Carmen. Those were our main excursions during the trip. We did a lot of relaxing on the beach or at the pool. Ate a ton of really great food and had a lot of laughs. I hope that we don't wait so long to take another trip together because it made me realize even more how much I miss hanging out with our incredible friends.

This is Trent on one of the beautiful beaches we found on our jeep trip. I really love this pic of him looking all thoughtful while staring at the water.

Relaxing and reading on the beach. Colby and I are currently having a contest to see who can read the most classic novels by Christmas....yes, we know we are nerds.

Trent took this photo of Emily while on the boat ride to snorkle in Cozumel. She looks so pretty and he was really proud of his photography.

I love this pic of Amber (also taken by Trent, I wonder if I should worry that he keeps taking pics of other women?)....anyway I think it completely captures her personality. She is one of the most fun people I know, you can not help but laugh when she is around!

Amber, Me and Emily on the beach in Playa del Carmen

I think this is a cool pic of Trent with a Tecate and cigar, pretty sure he was in paradise at that moment

Emily and I posing as hood ornaments on the jeep that we rented to drive around Cozumel

Our hubbies: Aaron Stachmus, Colby Carpenter and Trent Bliss

The ladies: Amber Stachmus, Emily Carpenter and me

For Grey Dog

Bailey and Trigger at Boomer Lake taking their last swim before vet school graduation, 2006
Bailey was always convinced she was going to catch a duck, she almost swam across the length of the entire lake on this day!

She had the softest floppiest ears

She could play fetch for hours

It has been a crazy two weeks, so I think I will break this up into a couple of posts because most of what I have to say doesn't really go together.... So I left Whitesboro on Aug. 1st and drove the 4 hours south the College Station. Reunited with Trent, the dogs and the cat and then packed my bag for Mexico. We drove to the airport in Houston the next day and eagerly awaited to meet up with our friends, who flew from OKC to Houston so we could all arrive in Mexico together.

We found them and headed to our first stop, the airport in Cancun! We got our luggage and then loaded on a van to our resort in Playa del Carmen. Everyone arrived safely and we had a lot of catching up to do. Our resort, The Royal, was really nice and had a beautiful beach. The rooms were awesome and even had a two seater jacuzzi tub! We had a great dinner and then all loaded into one of the prior mentioned hot tubs (in our bathing suits of course!) and had some laughs before turning in for the night.

The next morning was not so happy. Trent's phone kept ringing and he finally answered it. It was the dog sitter calling to say that when she came to check on things, Bailey was weak and pale and could barely walk. She took her into the vet school and they were running fluids and blood work and trying to figure out what was wrong. She had been completely normal the night before. Trent told her to keep us updated and I got in the shower. Five minutes later Trent came in and told me that Bailey was arresting and they were trying to revive her. He told them to let her go and not put her through all of that.

Our Bailey Grace Bliss passed away on August 3rd 2009. It is still so hard to believe that she is really gone. It seems like I am going to go in the bedroom and find her curled up in the middle of our bed. Bailey was only 8 years old. She was Trent's dog. He got her about a year before we met and for a tough period in his life, Bailey was his constant. For me, Bailey is part of Trent, I have never known one with out the other. Also, the two of them pretty much have the same personality: either spastic, happy and every one's friend or completely immobile and lazy, no where in between.

When we started dating, Bailey was always there: cuddled up on the couch, at vet school parties and cook outs, being a distraction while trying to study....trying to shove me out of the bed. Literally, she used to worm her way in between me and Trent until she was wedged in between and then she would start stretching her legs until she had shoved me all the way to the edge of the bed and I was about to fall off. Eventually, she decided to share her dad with me but in the beginning she was really jealous of me! We used to take her and Trigger with us all the time during our Stillwater days, some of my favorite Stillwater memories are when we used to take them to swim in Boomer Lake. She was the cuddliest dog I have ever met and even though she was a Weimaraner, she was convinced she was about the size of a tea cup poodle and should be able to curl into a ball and fit anywhere. She wasn't supposed to get on the furniture but she always found a way to sneak up. She would start with getting you to pet her head, then one front paw would be on the couch and she would wait. Then the other front paw and then she would wait. The back legs were the most hysterical to watch her "sneak" up one at a time. Pretty soon you had a whole dog curled up next to you and you didn't even know how it happened. Bailey loved people and was the nosiest dog ever. She would follow me from room to room in the house and I was always tripping over her when I was trying to do something. Prompting me to threaten to beat the grey off of her quite often : )

Trent requested a necropsy and they found two large tumors on her liver and mets all over her abdomen. One of the tumors had ruptured and caused her abdomen to fill with blood. For our vet friends, they said it was likely hemangiosarcoma but we still don't have the histology report back.

I am so grateful that she waited until I came home from my 6 months away before she died. Even if it was just one night, I am so grateful I got to have one last night of spooning with her. Grey dog, we love you so much and we thank you for all of the wonderful memories we have with you.

Cooking Italian for ACTUAL Italians

Okay, I'm getting ready to "toot my own horn" so if you find that annoying please stop reading and go back to goofing off on facebook or playing solitaire. So to start this story, about a year ago I watched my girl crush, Giada de Laurentis, make basil pesto on the Food Network. (She is hot, smart, sweet, funny and a great chef, I don't feel bad about having a crush)

Giada on a photo shoot


I tried the recipe and liked it so much that it inspired me to get a basil plant, which I kept alive for over a year. And that has blossomed into a full on herb garden this year.

So the thing I love about this dish is that if you have a basil plant, then it is one of those things that you can whip together in about 5 minutes and it is really good and healthy to boot. So I just keep pine nuts in the freezer and always have garlic and a brick of Parmesan and with my plant, I am good to go. I have given this recipe to lots of people and so far everyone thinks it is great, including my Italian roommate. She swears it tastes just like the pesto in Italy. But she is one of the world's nicest people and I was always just a bit suspicious that she was just being nice.

So last night we were making a different Italian dish called Caponata, when one of her friends from Italy called and said he was going to stop by to say goodbye to Bianca before she leaves on Sunday. So we invited him and his roommate to dinner. We look down at what we've got on the stove and decide it isn't going to be enough for 4 people and consider our options. After surveying the fridge and pantry, I tell Bianca we have stuff on hand for Amatriciana or Pesto but that's about it. She beams, "Emiliano is from the region in Italy where Pesto is famous, he would be so happy if you made it"

Great I think skeptically, a dumb Okie who thinks she can cook, is going to make Italian food for 3 Italians, one of which comes from the place where they actually know what this is supposed to taste like! But as they were expected in less than 30 minutes, I got to work. So they came, they ate my pesto and swore it was great. And both the guys went back for seconds, so I know they were telling the truth. I know it sounds dumb but I am so proud, Italians are very picky about their food and for me to pull this off, feels is a great culinary accomplishment. So below is the recipe for Pesto, basically it's Giada's except I don't measure anything anymore.

Two preparations notes: Bianca says that they only eat Pesto with a long pasta like spaghetti, fettuccine or linguine. I love it with the whole wheat tortellini that you can get in the refrigerator section. Also Bianca says they would never put any kind of meat in with the pasta but I love it with some shrimp tossed in that you sauteed in garlic and oil (grilled chicken is also good)

Buon Appetito!

Basil Pesto

about 1/4 cup of pine nuts (toasted)
2-4 cloves garlic
2 big handfuls fresh basil leaves
little salt and pepper
3/4 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 to 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan

Put everything but the cheese and oil in the food processor. Turn it on and slowly drizzle in the oil until it makes a runny paste.
Remove from good processor and mix in with the grated cheese. Toss with hot cooked pasta and enjoy.

Basil Pesto