thankful

This week was a stressful one for me on the home front. Adding to my playing hostess to my first Thanksgiving for both of our families, which in itself carries its own stresses, my papa bear, Al, was in the hospital, recovering from a terrible infection in his leg. After a few days of straight panic about whether or not he would be coming home (we have never spent a Thanksgiving apart in 27 years), he was finally released yesterday. Thanks be to baby Jesus and the Pilgrims and the Indians (since it’s really their holiday).

So in light of this week of togetherness and thankfulness and turkeys and my Daddy being healthy again, I wanted to share what I am most thankful for in my life these days (and always):

-          For Phyl and Al, my parents  – who after almost 40 years of marriage, not only still love each other, but genuinely like each other. All that they do for me and my siblings still inspires me every day.

-          For Bill, my husband - who provides for me, loves me endlessly and really is so good to me all while dealing with my moments rage over tablecloths and burnt cupcakes. (hey, thanksgiving is stressful.) and for the love that we have together.

-          For my parents-in-law, Anna and Bill – who accepted me into their family and always treat me like their own daughter. And for having Bill. Because he’s the best.

-          For my brothers and sister, Bryan, Joe and Jeanine – who I know are always there for me, no matter how near or far they may be.  And are always, ALWAYS good to me.

-          For my dear friends (all of them) – who are always a bright spot on my day, especially when I really need one. And who don’t hate me when if I fall off the spectrum for a while when life gets a little crazy.

-          My love and health of my entire family – which is always endless and comforting.

-          For the roof over my head that Bill and I work so hard for and are so happy to call our home.

-          For my working DVR  at the end of a long work week.

-          For a steady and providing job in a time when so many do not have either.

-          For my own health and a working body that I sometimes take for granted. (like when I hurt my knee running last week – maybe my body’s way of saying, “slow down, girlfriend!”

-          And for the 5,000 calories I will be consuming tomorrow in turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce, butter pecan bread pudding, shrimp cocktail, spinach dip, stuffing, cheesecake, wine and Sambuca. Food is good.

What are you thankful for this year?

my sweet mother in law

A lot of ladies can have an unfortunate and hateful relationships with their MIL’s- like, you married my son and now I hate you! Not so with me and Mama P. She’s about 5 feet tall, looks a LOT like Bette Midler and she is so excellent. She also makes some of the most delicious food I have ever tasted in my life. Like, honestly… the thought of her Alfredo sauce makes my heart race. Probably because she adds enough butter to give me a heart attack. But whatever – it’s delicious as is every single thing she puts on the table. Even her eggs. Like how did you make these basted eggs SO good? What did you do??! One time, I stated that I had a hankering for hot chocolate and that I was going to go get some. But Mama P said, “no honey, I’ll make you some.” If you’re thinking I got a cup of Swiss Miss, you are so wrong. She brought me in giant-ass mug filled to the brim with homemade hot chocolate made from melted chocolate and heavy cream and full size marshmallows. She just whipped it up. She doesn’t screw around. It was the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had – I could cry thinking about it. Tears of happiness, of course.

Four years ago, two days before my birthday, was the first time Bill brought me home to meet his parents. Mama P made a pot roast, mashed potatoes and a pumpkin cheesecake for my birthday. I was all like “When can I come back? Oh, tomorrow? Cool.”

So I did. I went back the next day and Mama P made rigatoni with chicken in vodka sauce.  At that point in my life,  I had the mentality that pasta was the devil. So what now? This vodka sauce is staring me in the face and it smells DELICIOUS. So I ate a few bites.

Then I ate a few more.

Then I had two plates.

This is one of my very favorite dishes of hers and while Mama P. has shared a lot of coveted recipes with me, she never gave me the vodka sauce recipe. But at my bridal shower, my mother started a book of recipes and asked all the guests to fork over their favorites. When I opened the book, there it was. Mama P’s vodka sauce. I almost died. Since then, I’ve made it twice and it just doesn’t taste as good as hers does. I don’t know if it ever will, to be honest, but I’m okay with. It gives me an excuse to go over her house and beg for vodka rigatoni and hot chocolate.

Being part of Mama P’s family now, I can’t share the EXACT recipe with you. But I will give you a close variation of it for you to enjoy.

1lb prosciutto, diced small

2 tbsp. butter

1 pint of light cream

1 jar Prego tomato sauce

Few dashes of hot sauce

¼ grated cheese

Garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

1lb rigatoni or tubey pasta of your choice

Boil and cook pasta till al dente.

Brown prosciutto in butter and garlic powder. Add tomato sauce till heated through. Add light cream and heat through again. Add grated cheese, hot sauce, salt and pepper and mix through.  Add pasta and mix together.

You’ll notice the real secret to vodka sauce according to Mama P is NO vodka! Suckas! This recipe is also great with shrimp, chicken and peas.

new friends, new treats

I am starting to go through some serious blogging withdrawal. Writing in my blog… reading blogs.. looking at new blogs…redesigning my blog. Do you get it? Good.

Anyway, I have a new job – and while I am really enjoying it – I miss the extra freedom that I came along with hating my last job. (I also miss my coworkers. They were pretty okay.) That extra freedom meant more time to blog during the work day. Those days are gone and I’m okay with it, except.. I still miss blogger life.

So I have this new job…and it’s good. But regardless, I’m still the new kid. So what’s the best way to get people to like you?

Make them treats. And lots of them.

My second week, I brought in pumpkin spice cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. This got them to remember what my name was.

The following week, I brought in chewy chocolate chip cookies with sea salt. This got them to warm up to me. They were also gone before noon, which is always a good sign.

The third week, I made some cake batter bark, courtesy of this lady, and this really sealed the deal. Now on my fourth week, I was asked why there weren’t any treats this week. HA suckas.. no real, I need to bring in something for next week or else I’ll probably be fired. (ok, not true).

There have been so many other things that I want to blog about lately…the delicious shrimp scampi, chicken cordon bleu, cheesy stuffed potatoes and caramel-stuffed cupcakes with dark and white chocolate ganache that I made; my latest obsession with Taste of Home magazine; my experience at the Amish market; my restraint in eating all of the Halloween candy and my excitement for hosting my first thanksgiving.  It’s been one busy fall season so far…this weekend, I am baking a whole lot of mini red velvet birthday cakes for this little lady. And my birthday is Sunday. A day to which I consume roughly about 8,000 calories and drink alcohol before 11am. Phylis is making me an orange-raspberry coconut cake (my nannie’s recipe) schwing! Anna is making Chicken Marsala from the Carmine’s cookbook. (double shwing!) It’ll be a good day.

Anyway, that’s what’s livin’ on the home front. So what’s up with you guys?

pumpkin time at target

oh boy.. it's been so long. terrible, i know. between getting a new job (SCORE!), getting a few cupcake jobs and throwing a housewarming party for our amigos, our lives have been pretty hectic...but here i am...ready to r-o-c-k.

i had the day off, but willy didn't, therefore I was by lonesome all today. Sometimes, a gal needs her time to  herself to unwind, have several cups of coffee and watch Crossroads with Britney Spears. (alright, so this happened.) However, today I was particularly bored without my hubsta around...even after waking up, making myself a pancake, doing laundry, organizing my clock, reading a new nook book...I was still a little restless...so I went to target. bah.

i grabbed a cart and wheeled around for about an hour... and somewhere between getting toilet paper and toothpaste, I ended up in pumpkinland. Where you aware that Target carried such an array of pumpkin products? Me either.

So here's what I ended up with:
4 cans of pumpkin puree (something that seems to be sold out everywhere i go. tis the season, right?)
1 box of pumpkin oatmeal
1 box of pumpkin pancake mix
1 box of eggo pumpkin spice waffles
3 containers of pumpkin pie yogurt
1 loaf of Pepperidge Farm Swirl Pumpkin Spice bread

i know, i know. I went into overload...i couldn't help myself. I think the pumpkin oatmeal is to blame.. not to worry though... i have major plans in the future for all of my pumpkin goods!

running something up the flagpole...

..gonna see if anyone salutes it. (12 Angry Men. anyone?)

here's what I have marinating... going to bounce this off a few of my peeps here and see if it floats.
I started this blog to document all of the delicious desserts that i love to eat and to share my recipes with the rest of the blogging world. Now while I can live on dessert alone, that guy I live with (you know, my hubster) cannot. that man likes his food. so I need to be a good wife and make it for him. Lucky for him, I happen to love to cook and I'm pretty great at. (i know, it's hard being me, isn't it?) But lately, I find myself coming up with more recipes that are savory, and not so sweet. Thus, I seem not be coming up with a ton of sweet-related things to blog about, which is a dilemma for a blog that has cupcakes in the title.

Here's what inspired this: I made a black bean soup the other night that was so damn good, I wanted to shout the recipe from the roof of my house. And I thought, "I really want to blog about this soup. it's too tasty NOT to blog about. can I do that? there were no cupcakes in it."

So here am I... wondering....despite this being a dessert only blog...can I make the transition? Adding the occasional food post (like, real food) in addition to blogging about desserts? This feels like when Selena crossed over from Tejano to mainstream.

here's the soup, by the way. It looks a little offputting because I ran half of it through the food processor and well, ground up black beans just ain't pretty. But hey, what can you do?

I also took this picture on my Blackberry, which is actually just Satan disguised in the form of a mobile device. i used this recipe, and instead of 10 slices of bacon (which is aggressive, even for me), I used three slices of pork roll chopped up. it was delicious. Bill told me so at least five or six times. I love that guy.

so back to question at hand.... what are your thoughts about making this a crossover blog? (staying with the Selena theme here. Como la Flor!!!!)

i have found my blog soul mate

as expressed in my previous post, i have since found a million blogs that I am obsessed with since joining the blogger world a year ago. But yesterday, I fumbled across a blog that takes the cake. (GET IT!?!!)

no really. and it belongs to this gal right herez: The Girl Who Ate Everything

I love this blog. i mean.... i REALLY love it. not just because her recipes are brilliant (like this right here?? genius.) but because i relate so much to her. I don't care for people who say "welllllll... i really have more a salty tooth. I don't care for sweets the way i care for potato chips." orrrrrr "I really love cupcakes so much and hate Cheetos." take it a step further.. people who don't like to eat at all? go away.

i don't trust these people. and anyhow... where does that leave me? I love cupcakes. and cheetos. and cookies. and chicken parm. am i alone here? *crickets*

Enter Christy here. She loves to eat. And her family is cute. She is honest and hilarious. so therefore... i am in love. I have spent the last half hour printing out recipes that I will make this weekend and then re-blog, bragging about how amazing Christy is, yet again.

am i teetering on creepy? whatever, get out of here then.

just kidding. please keep reading my blog. and Christy's too.

happy birthday blog o'mine!!

hard to believe it's been a year since i said to myself (ok, wrong. It was out loud and to this gal), "i think i want to start a blog."

and so i did. i started a blog to document my fave recipes, baking techniques, gripes, moans and as many delicious desserts as I could get my hands on. this blog has provided me with the creative outlet I craved when I left the publishing industry and really helped me discover what a strong passion I had for baking. It also turned me on to a plethora of other amazing blogs that I now enjoy reading everyday.

it's been quite an eventful year on my end...i got married, bought a house and started a business. 2011 has been a pretty excellent year so far, and I'm hoping the next 3.5 months of it will continue to be just as excellent.

don't worry - I've already treated myself to a birthday dessert. i mean, come on!