treats! :: cupcakes with buttercream frosting

i love cupcakes. i know, i know, they are all the rage right now. very IN. if a food can be IN, the cupcake is the food of the moment. but really, who's ever not loved the cupcake. it's just that it's finally getting it's due.

i decided to join in the fad. we had some family over for a party last weekend, so went all cupcake crazy. my son and i mixed up Martha's Yellow Cupcake recipe
and topped some of them with chocolate buttercream frosting and some with strawberry buttercream. it was a lot of fun to make them, but when it came down to eating them----what to choose!?

when my sister asked my son which flavor he wanted i was like, "hello? have you met my son? chocolate, of course." we kept sweets out of his life for a long time as i'm a weird combo of crazy health food momma but i also love the treats. . . baking them even more so than eating. so, the boy now being almost 4 has had enough chocolate and ice cream in his time to know what he likes. and that's what he likes. chocolate and ice cream in just about any form or combination.



me, i adore chocolate, but when spring is blooming and fruit is coming back, i have to have strawberry. it's just the right thing to do on a beautiful day in May.

so, whichever kind of cupcake eater you are, here's the buttercream recipes, so you, too, can have both!

BASIC BUTTERCREAM
makes about 8 cups

1/2 cup water
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup egg whites
6 sticks of butter, unsalted at room temp, cut into squares
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. in a saucepan, bring to a boil the sugar and water. once boiling let it boil for 7 minutes.

2. after 5 minutes, in the bowl of an electric mixer, begin to whip the egg whites at high speed and whip until stiff (they should be just about done at the end of the 7 minutes.)

3. slowly add the sugar syrup to the egg mixture. pour to the side to avoid the whip. continue to beat until the bowl is cool--approx. 10 minutes.

4. slowly add butter a little at a time until it's all incorporated.


5. at low speed add the vanilla. beat until light and fluffy. if it starts to look curdled, just keep going, it will come together and get smooth again.

for the CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM:

1. stir in 2-4 ounces of melted, body temperature (100 degrees F) semisweet chocolate per 1 cup of buttercream. make sure you mix it until smooth and completely blended so you don't get flecks of chocolate in there.
2. garnish with chocolate shavings, sprinkles or chocolate chips

for the STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM:

1. stir in 1/4 cup (or to taste) of strawberry puree per 2 cups of buttercream. mix until smooth and well blended.

2. garnish with mint leaves or fanned strawberries.....or both!

YUM!

happy mother's day

to all the moms out there in the trenches everyday--happy mother's day! yes, it might be a Hallmark, manufactured holiday, but so what. . . we moms need a holiday all our own cause dammit we work hard.

i got to sleep in today. PAST 7am. for real. it was AWESOME. when i awoke, hubby and son had cleaned up the entire 1st floor from a family gathering we'd had the day before. they even did all the dishes. again, AWEsome. but it gets better. then they sat me down, brought me coffee and made me breakfast. i'll say it again. they, the 2 boys in the house, one who is not yet 4 and the other who can barely boil water (sorry hubs, but you know it's true) actually cooked me blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and fruit salad. yes. it was the awesomeEST. they only asked my help with the pancake recipe twice. and they served it outside on my new picnic table. it was lovely. just lovely. i felt like a lucky mom today.

i hope you had an equally lovely day. moms, i salute you.

dinner with martha :: again!

i admit it. i have a martha addiction. i can't help it. her recipes are so neat and tidy and her website is so colorful. i'm just drawn there. that's the truth.

so, martha has a few Tomato Soup recipes on her website. i chose the following one because, well, i had nearly all the ingredients on hand. less to buy at the market is always appealing to me as i have 2 kids to cart around and all the groceries.

i really liked the soup. i was afraid it'd lack flavor because it is such a simple recipe, but it didn't. it was yummy and didn't taste like pasta sauce, which is always a concern for me with tomato soup. the onions make it really flavorful without being over-the-top oniony.









TOMATO SOUP
ala martha

Ingredients

Makes 6 cups.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 medium yellow onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

24 ounces canned whole plum tomatoes

3 cups homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock

2 teaspoons sea salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring, until onions have softened, about 15 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes, chicken stock, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook until tomatoes, onions, and garlic are soft, 10 to 20 minutes.
3. Working in batches, transfer soup to the jar of a blender and puree until smooth. Return to saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until soup is heated through. If soup seems too thick, stir in some extra stock to thin. Serve immediately.

dinner with martha

last night i decided to do it up martha style. i had just gotten her latest issue of Food and thought on a whim. so, i thought i ought to not just let it sit on the shelf this time. i ought to cook something up. i found a few good options, but then settled on her Sirloin Steak with Roasted Potatoes and Asparagus. not a really exciting recipe, but i happened to have almost all the ingredients, so i went for it. sometimes you want something simple and reliable, you know? and it was good. not great, but a tasty and easy dinner to be sure.

SIRLOIN STEAK WITH ASPARAGUS AND POTATOES

Ingredients

Serves 4.

• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus wedges for serving
• 1 garlic clove, crushed through a press

• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 large sirloin steak (about 1 1/2 pounds and 1 inch thick), trimmed and cut into 4 equal portions
• 1 pound red new potatoes, halved (quartered if large)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pounds asparagus, trimmed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a small bowl, stir together mustard, lemon juice, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Place cup

   

   mustard mixture in a resealable plastic bag. Add steaks, and rub to coat (reserve remaining mixture for serving). Let steaks marinate at room temperature 10 minutes, or refrigerate up to 1 day.
2. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss potatoes with 1 tablespoon oil; sea

   

   son with salt and pepper. Roast 10 minutes, then add asparagus to sheet, and toss with another tablespoon oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast until potatoes and asparagus are tender, about 15 minutes more.
3. While vegetables are roasting, heat remaining tablespoon oil in a large skillet over high. Remove steaks from marinade, allowing excess to drip off; cook 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare (if pan darkens quickly, reduce heat). Let rest 5 minutes. Serve steaks with vegetables and reserved mustard sauce; garnish with lemon wedges.

cookie carnival :: may

it's taken me a couple days to get it decided, but here's the scoop for May's Cookie Carnival. . . we'll be baking up some BLUEBERRY DROP COOKIES. yum!

the round-up for May will be SATURDAY, MAY 31st. if you are interested in joining us cookie freaks, we'd love to have you, of course! send me and email and i'll get you the recipe. kate (AT) thecleanplateclub (DOT) net.

happy baking, everyone!

breakast :: a blueberry muffin recipe

as i mentioned before, we have a serious muffin fascination around here. and given that we have finally begun to see spring and the summer fruit is on the mind, we're thinking about our favorite muffin. the classic. the most well-loved. the blueberry.

here is our favorite blueberry recipe. try it out and let me know what you think! and stay tuned for good muffin making tips!

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
Best with fresh bloobs, but do what you have to do.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 3/4 cups blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tin cups with paper liners. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. Fit your mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add egg, egg yolks, and vanilla; mix to combine. Reduce speed to low and add some of the flour mixture, then add some of the milk—alternating until done. Make sure to begin and end with flour. Gently fold in berries by hand. Pour batter into muffin tins and bake until light golden, 20-25 minutes. Cool the muffins in the pan, on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; place directly on the rack, and let cool completely.

YUM!

also, for some great information on blueberries, hit wildblueberries.com. they have got recipes, lists of the health benefits of blueberries and more on their site. . . and i think it's funny when a food gets it's own dot com.

williams-sonoma giveaway :: we have a winner!

i'm so excited to announce the winner of the $50 GIFT CARD to Williams-Sonoma. there were lots of entries! rest assured, i DID choose randomly with the help of random.org.

and i'm happy to say that the blogger (i don't know her name!) Smells Like Home has won! it's especially cool that she won (i'm assuming it's a she based on what i have seen of her blog) because she's a serious foodie. the icing on the cake is that she's a fellow New Englander.

i've been perusing her blog and it's chock full of lovely recipes and beautiful photos. i know she's worthy of the WS gift card and she'll use it well! maybe she'll even comment here and let us know what she got!

CONGRATS to SMELLS LIKE HOME!

now, go forth and shop!