.my birthday wish- R.A.O.K.

maybe you know that i'm a huge fan of birthdays. maybe you don't. maybe you've heard that my mom totally showered me with so much excitement about my birthday growing up. maybe you haven't. maybe you're aware that i now love celebrating the birthdays of the people in my life whenever i can. maybe you're not aware. here's something for certain- i love a good birthday.

this week is my birthday week. while it isn't a milestone birthday, it does mark another mile traveled in my life. i've been inspired by something i read recently and would like to ask each of you to grant me this birthday wish.

whether we're family, acquaintances or close friends, i ask you to please participate in my birthday wish for this, my thirty-second birthday. i ask that some time this week you carry out a Random Act of Kindness. do something that shows kindness to an unsuspecting recipient.

in line at your local coffee shop? pay for the person behind you before they even get to the register. someone struggling loading kids and packages into their car in a parking lot? offer to return their shopping cart for them. if you don't have the means to give, there is so much gratitude from even the free gifts of kindness. pick up some mess around your office that will make the custodian's or cleaner's job a little easier that day. if you do have the means, maybe surprise the person behind you at the grocery store with a grocery gift card. you never know what may be going on in their life and that little amount could make a grand difference.

candy bar for your mail person with a note...a balloon for a child you don't know...carrying an elderly person's groceries...donating to a local shelter...giving old towels to an animal shelter...paying the toll of the person behind you...taking your neighbors' kids to school for them...taking a flower to a co-worker who could use a smile...the possibilities are beyond my scope!

whatever you decide to do this week, please post and let me know! my birthday wish is to collect thirty-two tales of Random Acts of Kindness this year. my wish in general is that we all see how rewarding it is this week to give what we can and hopefully we will keep it up all year long.

i'll also keep you posted on my own opportunities to show kindness and i look forward to all the smiles this week. THANK YOU in advance for the only birthday gift i'm asking for this year!

.mini muffins, many ways.

one of my favorite things to do is to start with a basic batter and then get crazy with it. i've done it before with waffles and cookies and it is oh so fun.

when some dear friends of ours had their second child, my eye guy and i took them dinner and i couldn't resist baking something. i didn't want to take them something overly sugary and full of confection. so, i thought mini muffins would go further and even their little guy, the new big brother, could grab a mini muffin without frosting or chocolate getting all over the place.

wait, i did add chocolate, but not frosting.

this recipe i found for a basic muffin was made for normal sized muffins, but i don't like following rules. instead, i changed them to smaller versions, little mini muffins. if they are little and mini does that make them extremely small?

i made the entire batch of batter and then separated heaping spoonfuls into a separate bowl to create a new flavor each time. maybe a little white chocolate chips with walnuts? sure!

how about some pumpkin filling? it is fall after all.

want some basic milk chocolate chips? i do.

nutella? now you're talking!

what i'm getting at here is that you can add the most delicious ingredients you have in your pantry to this basic batter and create a variety of yummy flavors.

i'd be remiss if i didn't let you know that both nutella and pumpkin puree made the muffins extra moisturized which yields blobs when they come out of the pan. basically, it is too much liquid. now, the blobs tasted good, but didn't hold their form well at all.

so, when it is your turn, you may want to add just a wee bit of extra ingredients that have liquid and mostly dry ingredients like chips and nuts.

or sacrifice form over taste and add all the nutella you want!

mini muffins, many ways
adapted from danilo alfaro
ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
½ cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 stick butter

(shortcake + shoes note- grab all the extra ingredients you'd like to add into your mix)

directions
Preheat oven to 400° F.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt.

Unwrap the butter and heat it in the microwave, in a microwave-safe bowl, for about a minute, until it's thoroughly melted. Set it aside at room temperature to cool, but don't let it solidify again.

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then add the sugar, milk and vanilla to the eggs.

Thoroughly grease and flour a muffin pan (or use paper muffin liners).

Pour a tiny bit of the melted butter into the egg-vanilla-milk mixture and stir it in. Repeat 3-4 more times, adding a slightly larger amount of the liquid butter each time until it is all incorporated.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones and mix no more than ten seconds. The batter should be visibly lumpy, and you may see pockets of dry flour. That's OK! It's extremely important not to overmix the batter, or the resulting muffins will be too hard.

(shortcake + shoes note- separate your plain batter into a separate bowl, one heaping spoonful at a time. this way, you can add your extra yummies and have a variety of flavors!)

Gently pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and bake immediately.

Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

.spaghetti pot pie.

you've probably had chicken pot pie before. if you liked it, you know that the secret ingredient is the secret itself. below this delicate, flaky crust lies a hidden meal. there's something soothing about poking your fork in to the pie crust on top to find a hearty dish waiting beneath.

so i decided one night that while i wanted that pot pie effect, i didn't want the usual underneath the crust. instead, i was craving spaghetti. who says there's a die hard rule that pot pies can't come in multiple forms? if there is, i just broke it.

start by preparing your pie crust. probably the easiest way to do this is to walk into your neighborhood grocery store and buy a ready made pie crust.

however, if you're feeling frisky, a homemade pie crust really isn't that hard to make and you can control the thickness to suit your preference. plus, there's something so satisfying about making a pie crust from scratch.

either way, get your pie crust ready and then move to the spaghetti. most of us have our favorite spaghetti recipes and there's no need to deviate from that. i went the easy route and used jar sauce. hey, it's good and i just made a pie crust from scratch. give me a break.

once your sauce is simmering and your spaghetti has been cooked to just past el dente, load a shallow casserole dish with the spaghetti. apply your pie crust to coat the top. you will want to poke some holes or leave some spaces to let a little air in as it cooks.

with your oven to the degree of your crust's liking (probably around 375 degrees), put your spaghetti pot pie and wait for the crust to bake into flaky goodness.

if you'd prefer, feel free to bake yours in separate smaller ramekins for individual spaghetti pot pies. either way, i think you're going to be happy.

here are the two things i'd tweak if i made this again. one, i think individual pies would be more fun. and two, i'd add more liquid to my sauce. as the pie cooked, some of the spaghetti's liquid disappeared and it was drier than i would have liked when i went in for that first bite.

this is a novelty dish, but really, it is good and adds a little twist to your dinner plate.

.pumpkin pound cake with cinnamon glaze.

a new and sensational concept for me when we moved to tennessee was the invention of fall break. in florida, we had no such reason to celebrate, i suppose, the beauty of fall. here, though, we bask in the glory of cool breezes and vibrant foliage.

for my fall break this year, my husband and i decided to travel east to knoxville, tennessee where the leaves were surely breathtaking, football was on the agenda and a little escape to easier times awaited. we are so lucky to have family friends of my husband's in knoxville who open their warm home to us. they are the kind of family that fills a room with their humor and love for each other.

to show a fraction of our gratitude for staying with them, i knew i wanted to bring the kind of baked good that could live on their kitchen counter for nibbling throughout the weekend. in walks the the pumpkin pound cake with cinnamon glaze.

nothing says fall like the the flavor of pumpkin to match the color of changing seasons. by skipping the obvious pumpkin pie and jumping in to something more subtle and yet substantial, this pound cake was anxious to come to life on my kitchen counters.

one of the unique ingredients to this recipe is vanilla pudding. seriously, look.

after stretching my wrist for all the upcoming whisking, i got to it. this is definitely the type of recipe that calls for a lot of exercise of the wrist, but the great news is that you won't have to wash your stand-up mixer.

once the pumpkin batter was ready to bake, i put it in the pre-heated oven and got started on the glaze. while the recipe for glaze called for one cup of confectionery sugar, i ended up adding more to thicken mine up a little. i felt like it was too thin without doing so. while i did not use all the glaze i made, it did make the parts i used a little richer.

after the cake cooled in the bundt pan, i held my breath and turned it upside down. there's a baker's joy that moment after the cake perfectly slides out of the pan to form a hearty wreath of cakey goodness on a plate. don't even ask me what it feels like when it breaks and crumbles coming out. shutter.

i'm not going to pretend that the cake didn't get a little messy on the six hour drive east that fall weekend, but it held it's ground in the taste department. even though it was a gift, i had to sneak a little sliver at their house to ensure it didn't taste gross. it tasted so ungross in fact that i believe i'll make it again soon.

pumpkin pound cake with cinnamon glaze
from the creative mama
ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (3.3 ounce) package vanilla pudding mix
1 (15-ounce) pumpkin puree
For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3-4 Tablespoons water
directions
Whisk together both sugar and vegetable oil. Whisk in the eggs one at a time.
In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and pudding mix. Set aside.
Whisk in the pumpkin, alternating with the flour mixture in three additions.
Pour the batter into a greased Bundt pan and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and then turn out onto cooling rack to cool completely.
When the cake has cooled, whisk together the powdered sugar, cinnamon, and water. Start slowly with the water, if it too thick, add a few dropfuls until the glaze is the right consistency. Drizzle over the cake.

.being halloween.

for me, it has always been halloween. from the first time i got to adorn a costume as a child and transform into someone else to this year where i still find the same joy decades later. since i came into the life of my eye guy, i have won him over to the halloween side. i usually start brainstorming our costumes the day after our previous year's halloween comes to a close.

this past weekend was no exception as we threw our annual halloween soiree and woke up the next morning reliving all the costumes and fun from the night before. while doing so, i of course started on my rant of the possibilities for next year and now already know what i want us to be. is it halloween again yet?!

it is a rarity for me not to wonder why...so when i start to ask myself why i love halloween so much, i come up with a few reasons. first of all, i treasure the chances i get to be creative and halloween most definitely allows for the creative sparks to ignite. but there has to be more to it than that. imagination and escapism both attract me to them. donning that costume, we are free to be a new character, wipe away our every day selves and imagine what it must be like as that entity.

halloween is a delightful ride for me and one that i look forward to trying out again every year. however, there's some substance to the holiday that is worth exploring more than just at the end of october. character transformation.

how about an 'i've got this under control' mask the next time you feel overwhelmed at work? or, 'i will not blow a gasket' mask the next time your loved one grates your patience? maybe even don the 'i will do something a little more daring than i usually do' after a really ordinary string of weeks? the hardest character to play well is the one furthest from how we really feel. yet, sometimes demanding of ourselves to cloak our traditional reactions may lead us to find that we like the feel of the costume better after all.

happy haunting!

.chunky apple cake.

several friends of mine at work all had birthdays in the same week. to celebrate them, i wanted to bake something scrumptious that embodied the season in which they were born- autumn.

with apples in abundance, i found this delicious apple cake recipe on smitten kitchen and couldn't resist making it for my birthday friends.

after chopping up apples for what felt like days, i tossed them with cinnamon and had the scents of the dish start to fill up my kitchen. delish.

with all the ingredients mixed and ready to be matched together, i layered the batter and apples into my greased bundt pan and placed the unbaked cake into the oven.

what came out on the other side of cooking was a chunky, apple-licious and gooey cake that emanated autumn.

if you're looking for a pleasing fall dessert that is a little different than a traditional pie, try out this apple cake. it is oh so good.

apple bundt cake
adapted from smitten kitchen
ingredients
6 apples, Mom uses McIntosh apples
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.
Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.
Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.

**i baked mine for less time. i suggest you begin checking with a toothpick to come out clean at about 50 minutes.**

.belgian waffles

a great weekend breakfast tastes best after a morning of sleeping in. probably much like your own home, that is a rare occasion at ours. however, these hearty belgian waffles are sure to satisfy the well-rested and groggy alike. i used emeril lagasses' recipe with a few tweaks of my own.

the unique and fluffy component of this recipe has to be the cake flour. other waffles i've made in the past have used regular flour, but the introduction of cake flour is what i think adds the belgian to this waffle. i made that up but it sounds good.

one process that makes this waffle stand out is how you treat your eggs. you've got to beat them to death with the sugar util it becomes a pale yellow. i'm not sure about the chemistry of why this is pivotal, but it does work.

add a little more of this and a little more of that from the recipe below and you've got yourself an excellent waffle batter to pour on your hot waffle iron.

now, what you do with the batter from here is where your creativity is in control. i added pecans to my waffles because my husband and i are a little nutty. throw your extras into your batter before it cooks so that it is an actual part of the waffle. i also sifted some confectionery sugar on top for a lacing of added sweetness.

in the spirit of halloween, add some orange m and m's or reese's pieces. get creative with a spider web of syrup on top or some fun halloween sprinkles.

no matter how you do it up, this will be a scrumptious and filling weekend breakfast.

belgian waffles
adapted from emeril lagasse
Ingredients
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 cups milk
non-stick cooking spray

Directions
Preheat the waffle iron according to the manufacturer's instructions. In 1 medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a second bowl use the wooden spoon to beat together the egg yolks and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved and eggs have turned a pale yellow. Add the vanilla extract, melted butter, and milk to the eggs and whisk to combine. Combine the egg-milk mixture with the flour mixture and whisk just until blended. Do not over mix. In third bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, about 1 minute. Using the rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the waffle batter. Do not overmix! Coat the waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray and pour enough batter in iron to just cover waffle grid. Close and cook as per manufacturer's instructions until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Serve immediately.