food

Mini Cupcake Baking Tips

Posted by Nat on Feb 14, 2012 | 1 comment

To all of my lovely readers:  thank you for visiting my blog as often as you do!  Would you help me out?  I’m working really hard on my blog and I’d love you to help if you have a few seconds.  If you like what you read, if you find it interesting or useful, please pass it along.  You could leave a comment below (be sure you’ve clicked on the post title if you’re on my “home” page), you could pin a photo to Pinterest (there’s a “Pin it” button at the bottom of this post), or you could share a link via Facebook.  Anything helps.  If you’re not a blogger yourself you may not know that the world of blogging revolves around sharing and comments- they are sort of the currency of the blog world.  Thanks so much!  And now, back to the post at hand….

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I was busy making mini-cupcakes for the kids to take to school, thus the lack of posting yesterday.  I’m capitalizing on the fact that one teacher just said to bring something, and I did not specifically hear the words, “healthy snack,” so I’m bringing mini-cupcakes.  That way, if it was supposed to be healthy, it’s just a mini-cupcake rather than a full-size one, and the teachers can eat them if they want to hide them from the kids- I don’t mind.  Ha!

While I love eating mini-cupcakes (or 7 or 8), I loathe the batter process.  All those tiny cups that have to be filled “just so,” the washing of the pans….  Today I discovered a new trick that I’ll share with you to hopefully make it go faster and neater for you, too.   I’ll also share some other tricks of my cupcake trade.  They aren’t revolutionary or anything, but if you’re a new cupcake-making person, hopefully they will help.

As I said, my issue with the process was getting the batter into the cups.  I didn’t want to waste a pastry bag, but… pouring the batter from a measuring cup into those little tiny cups was also too messy.  Spoons don’t work well- the batter falls off the spoon and doesn’t always go where you want it to.  Yesterday was my “a-ha” moment.

Here’s what you do:

Make your batter.

Also (not pictured) prep your mini-cupcake pans.  Either line them with paper or spray them with a non-stick baking spray.  Or if you’re REALLY good, smear butter all over them- I’m a spray person these days.

Line a 4-cup measure with a gallon food storage bag, preferably one with two layers of zips.  You may have to use something else if your measuring cup is too wide.  My cups are the “OXO” brand and it fit perfectly.

Pour in your batter.  (Are you impressed?  I took the photo with my LEFT hand while pouring with my RIGHT.) 

 Zip up your bag.

 Turn your bag and smooth all the batter away from one of the bottom corners.  Snip the corner of the bag.  Make it small- you can always make it bigger.

 Mine was actually a smidge too big, and it was probably about an inch wide, so next time I’ll make it 1/2 inch and see if that helps.

 Carefully move your bag over your pans and start squeezing!  The batter comes out fast unless it’s a thick cake batter, but you’ll get a rhythm going and pretty soon all of your pans will be full.  Love it!

 Here’s that red one up close:

 This made the process of mini-cupcakes sooo much easier.  And here are my finished products:

Now some other tips:

• To frost cupcakes, regular or small, the fastest way… I always use a pastry bag with a #16 Wilton tip (or some other star tip).  It is so much faster to use the pastry bag, and it really doesn’t take that much practice to make them “pretty.”  All frosting is pretty, really.  If you find yourself reading this and thinking, “No way.  There’s no way I can do that…”   If my girl scout troop leader could simultaneously teach 8-12 girls scouts, all sixth graders, to decorate cakes, then you can try it.  Just try it once.  You’ll thank me.  I frosted about 50 mini-cupcakes in 15 minutes yesterday.  Boo-yah.

• If you’re displaying your cupcakes and it’s possible, frost them AFTER you position them.  For example, I’m taking these cupcakes into school today.  I frosted them after I placed them in their containers.  The less you have to move something after it’s been frosted, the less likely it is to get messed up.  This is impossible with a cupcake stand, but with platters it works great.

• For the best tasting cupcakes on little time, I use a box mix of cake but I always make fresh frosting from scratch.  If you think about how long canned frosting sits on a shelf waiting to be used…. it’s really just shortening with sugar.  Bleh.   Buttercream or whip cream frosting is yummy and preservative-free.  My favorite is buttercream, and I love this recipe– it’s super easy.   For some reason dry ingredients sitting around doesn’t bug me as much as frosting on the shelf.  Just me.

I used that red silicone heart tray for the first time today.  For me, the jury is still out.  I was expecting them to just fall out of the silicone, but they didn’t.   Anyone love them and have any tips?

Do you have any cupcake tricks?  Please share!  I also wrote a post about making a hat cake- you can read it here.

Our Lemon Tree

Posted by Nat on Feb 7, 2012 | 2 comments

Living in SoCal has so many perks… it’s a bit ridiculous.  I’ve lived here for 10 years now (wowzers) and there are still days when I say to myself, “Holy Cow.  I live in California.  Southern California, no less.”

When we moved into our house, which is also the house my husband grew up in, I was sort of non-plussed about having a lemon tree right outside our kitchen.  It’s cute and everything, but I didn’t really let it register.  Can I tell you something?

 It’s awesome.

 Need one lemon for a recipe?  Done.

Have a four-year-old who loves lemonade?  And a two-year-old?  Done.

Want to add some zest to something?  Done.

Our lemon tree is a Meyer lemon tree.  Apparently they are milder in flavor and are more closely related to the orange.  Hmmm.  The lemonade we make with them is definitely not too tart- it’s very smooth, but still lemon-y if that makes sense.

All I know is they are delish, and I love them.

They also make great last-minute gifts.

Do you have any simple pleasures where you live?  It’s the little things.  Or in this case, the rather big things that produce the little things…

Make Your Own Chicken Nuggets {in bulk}

Posted by Nat on Feb 2, 2012 | 1 comment

One of my goals recently has been to find good, tasty recipes that my whole family will eat.  No more short order chef!  Paired with that is that I want to cut out a lot of processed foods, especially meats.  My kids LOVE chicken nuggets.  I, however, found myself cringing every time I put them in the toaster oven because I know too much about chicken nuggets now.  They gross me out.

I recently bought this cookbook and I love it.  I’m still working my way through it, but I have tried several recipes.  So far, this one is our ultimate for a chicken nugget replacement.  It tastes AMAZING.  And here’s the thing- I do not like coconut.  But I LOVE this chicken recipe.

I decided to take it one step further and make it in bulk so that I could freeze a bunch and have them ready for an easy dinner. I am so happy I did this- it was a bit of a process, but now we have a ton of these in the freezer.  I learned a lot the first time around, so hopefully I can pass on some tips to you so you can do this with the same recipe or one that is similar.

Here’s what I recommend if you think you want to try this.

1)  Try the recipe for dinner sometime soon.  Just make one batch. (recipe below)

2)  Love it?  Move on.  Make it in bulk.

3)  Hate it?  Something is wrong with you.  Try again. (Just kidding!)

So here is the recipe in it’s original state.  See below the recipe for a few notes from me.

Coconut Chicken Fingers

by the Meal Makeover Moms

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons canola or peanut oil, divided

1. Place the chicken on a cutting board and slice each breast into 1/2-inch thick by 4-inch long strips (to yield about 7 strips per breast).
2. Place the coconut, bread crumbs, salt, ginger and garlic powder in a medium bowl and stir to combine.  Use a fork or your fingers to break up any clumps of coconut.
3. Place the egg in another bowl and the flour on a plate.  To bread the chicken, coat both sides with the flour and shake off excess.  Dip in the egg and then coat evenly with the coconut mixture.
4. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the chicken and cook until the bottoms are golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat if the coconut browns too quickly.  Flip the chicken strips, add the remaining oil, and cook until the meat is no longer pink and the bottoms are golden brown, about 4 minutes.

My notes on just the single-meal recipe:  I used more egg and flour.  I think in the end I used 3 eggs and about a 1/4 cup of flour.  The key to this recipe is in the breading, though, which I also doubled.  I must have macho chicken pieces or something. Also, you’ll see in some of my photos below that the coconut browns very easily.  Unless it’s totally black and singed, this does not affect the taste at all, so don’t feel like you’ll ruin them if there’s some dark brown coconut- it’s still delish!

Another Note:  you can watch these ladies make a version of this recipe in a video here.  In the video online they add flaxseed meal to the breading- I will do that next time and will update the bulk recipe after I do so.  Totally wish I had watched this video first!  It does bother me how neat they are, though- I made a complete mess when making them.

 Now make them in bulk!

Okay, so, now if you’ve tried the original recipe and you love it as much as I did, then you’ve come back and are ready to make it in a big batch.

Some things to think about as you plan when and how you’re going to do this.

• Don’t plan much the day you do this.  It is straight forward, but it’s time consuming.  If you have really small kids like me, then I would recommend doing this when your partner is home to keep things less stressful.  You’re going to be dealing with a lot of raw chicken and you don’t want to mess it (or your family) up.
• Give yourself plenty of time.
• Wear some good shoes.  I know-weird, but you’ll be standing a lot, so you should be comfy.
• Make space in your fridge just in case you need to throw the chicken in while you take a break or if you feel like it’s getting too warm.   You don’t want to have to rearrange things mid-process, believe me.

Here are some basic things you’ll want to pull before you get started

• at least 4 cookie/baking sheets- 2 for raw chicken and 2 for cooked
• parchment paper
• foil
• disposable gloves (if desired, for working with raw chicken)
• meat mallet/pounder (if you like to have flat chicken- not totally necessary)
• large freezer bags
• paper towels
• lots of clean bowls
• a good pair of tongs for turning over the meat
• a good sturdy cooking pan- bigger is better
• cutting board
• patience and a desire to eat this totally awesome recipe again

Here is the adjusted recipe, followed by the process I followed.  I’m sure one could do this faster, but I didn’t want to mess it up.  After you do it once you’ll have your own process down in your head and you can make your own changes.

Recipe Adjusted for Large Quantities*:

You’ll see below that I bought two bags of all-natural, whole chicken breasts, rather than using chicken breast halves.  These two bags combined had seven whole breasts in them.  I got mine at Trader Joe’s, but this is cooking, not baking, so you don’t have to be too precise with most of this- the breading is the only thing.

• boneless chicken breasts; about 7 or 8
• 4 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 4 cups panko bread crumbs
• 4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 6 large eggs, beaten
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• a bottle of canola oil (or peanut if that floats your boat)

*In general, make sure you have extra of all of these ingredients.  If you run out of something, you don’t want to be scrambling for it right when you need it- no fun.  If you run out of the breading, you can refer to the original recipe to make a smaller amount, but the ratio of panko crumbs, ginger, garlic and salt is sooo important, so be sure to stick to it!  Also, as you work, pay very close attention to your chicken.  You don’t want it getting too warm or you run the risk of making yourself or your family very sick.  When in doubt, stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Rinse and pat dry your chicken.  This takes away the slime (blech) and makes it easier to cut into pieces.  You can also remove any bits of fat or other things you don’t want.

I used parchment paper.  This is for later, but best to do it while the chicken is still cold.  It just felt better than putting them directly on the sheet.

You can see above how I handled the really big breasts (tee hee).  I butterflied them, and then each half was cut into about 8 pieces.  I did end up cutting some of those really long pieces again, so sometimes I had as much as 20 pieces per breast.  If you want, while you prep the chicken you can pound it so that it’s all the same thickness.  I started with that in mind and then sort of threw that idea out the window after the second or third chicken breast.  To each his own.

This is a good stopping point if you need to take a rest. I did.  If you’re going to take a long break, be sure to cover your chicken with some saran wrap or it will dry out.

Step 4:  Dredge the chicken pieces in flour.  I didn’t take any pics of this process because it was very hands-on and I didn’t want to get my camera all covered with flour and chicken.

This was a great space saver.  When I filled up the first parchment-lined cookie sheet, I placed a big cooling rack on top of it so that when I filled up the 2nd sheet, I could just slide the first sheet on top of the second.  This way I could keep the chicken cool while I put together the breading and got the eggs ready.   If you’re going to take another long break, be sure to cover them up.

You could also do this ahead of time, but your chicken will likely need to cool down a bit if it took you a while to dredge it in the flour piece-by-piece.  This breading is the magic of this recipe.  Do not mess with it- it’s awesome!

Step 7:  Beat your eggs.  Don’t have a pic.  You can beat your eggs without referring to a picture, right? 🙂

 This is what worked for me:  I like working from left to right, so I set up the tray of chicken, the eggs, the breading, and then got my cook top ready to go.  I made sure I had extra ingredients at the ready- especially the canola oil because you need to replenish it often while cooking.  Here’s another view:

Start your process.  I worked really hard this time to figure out a way to prevent both hands from becoming nasty, flour/egg/breading messes.  Here’s what worked for me:

Left   hand:

• Use a fork to place flour-coated chicken pieces in the egg.
• Transfer egg-coated pieces to the breading bowl.

Right   hand:

• Use a different fork to coat the chicken in breading.
• Transfer the chicken to the pan to be cooked.

You’ll see in the picture above that there are little bits of coconut everywhere.  You need to turn your chicken carefully or your tongs will essentially peel off the breading, so be very gentle when flipping them over.  Regardless, you will need a coconut depository or you’ll have lots of overcooked coconut.  Mine was reallly fancy-  I used a paper towel, and I put it right above my cooktop so I could just grab them during the process:

As you begin, you need to find your magic number.

 I worked with no more than six pieces of chicken at a time.  I threw six pieces in the egg, transfered them to the breading.  They are easy to lose in the breading, and you don’t want to pull out a piece of chicken and wonder,”How long has this been buried in here?” or “Did I get them all?”  So I decided that six was my magic number.  Once I plopped one batch into the pan to start, I could prep another while they cooked on their first side.  Soon I had a rhythm to it.

The paper towels will absorb a lot of the excess oil.

You just made a boat load of chicken.

Once the chicken has cooled a bit, bag it up for the freezer.  I filled four gallon-sized freezer bags full of this yumminess.  I didn’t want to jam them too full so that the breading would stay nice.  I labeled them with the date and how many pieces were in each bag.  For our family, 25-30 pieces serves all four eating humans (7-month-old baby isn’t quite there yet). I’m sure that will change, but for now it works.

To reheat, I would recommend doing them at 375 for about 15 minutes, give or take.  They reheat very nicely, but you want to get them very hot so that the breading will crisp up again.  Do not even think about reheating these in the microwave- they will not crisp up again.  And if I hear about it I will hurt you.  Okay, maybe not, but still- use your oven or your toaster-oven.

Did you get to the bottom of this post?  If so, I’d love it if you left me a comment!  I’d really love to know if you do this- I’m so excited about it because it’s so much better for my family and ME.  I know what I’m eating, I know it’s fresh, I know it’s yummy because I MADE IT.  If you got this far, I’d also love it if you “liked” me on Facebook.  If you scroll back up to the top you’ll see a “like me on Facebook” in my sidebar.  I’m trying very hard to “grow” my blog and my audience, so I’d love to hear from you here or on Facebook!  Thanks for stopping by!

*please note, I am not getting paid for this post; I dig the Meal Makeover Moms and their book, but am not making any cash-ola in singing their praises or elaborating/extending this recipe.

Do Yourself a Favor… {Make this soup!}

Posted by Nat on Feb 1, 2012 | Comments Off on Do Yourself a Favor… {Make this soup!}

Warning…  this post has a lot of bird-walking.

Sweet Potato Chowder, folks!  I’m tellin’ you.  Nom nom.

This chowder is so good that I started writing the post before I even tasted it.  Yeah, I know.  What I like most is when a soup you cook for just about 30 minutes tastes like it’s been cooking all day.  This one tastes just. Like. That.

Here is the one picture that turned out well.  Good thing it’s a closeup of bacon.  (If you’re vegetarian, don’t leave! I think this recipe would be delish sans bacon, too.)

This is like a “twofer” deal because you get the original recipe and my own adaptation.  Why my adaptation?  I don’t like chilies or peppers.  Isn’t it funny that my last name is Chiles but I don’t like chilies?  🙂  I always want to spell it chillies.  Or Chili’s like the restaurant.

Anyhoo, I pinned this recipe recently on my Food & Drink board.  Man, that board is getting crazy.  I need Pinterest to start allowing drag and drop editing with boards because mine are a bit cluttered.  I digress.

Here is the original recipe from Real Simple:

My problem is that chiles really don’t sit well with me, both in taste and digestion fun.  I just don’t put them in my food.  And the taste of any pepper- red, green, yellow… makes me want to gag. However, if you look at that recipe, you’ll see that it has quite a bit of chile and pepper action going on.   I knew that if I didn’t substitute anything else in for the chilies and peppers it would be pretty colorless and bland.  I also love a good, creamy chowder, so here’s my new, adapted version of this soup:

Nat’s Sweet Potato Chowder

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 large white onion, diced
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 3 13-ounce cans chicken broth
• 2 14-ounce cans corn
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8-12 oz. frozen peas, to taste
• kosher salt
• Greek yogurt for serving

Directions

1. Cook the bacon in a large stockpot over medium heat until it begins to crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Spoon off all but 1 tablespoon of the drippings. (I found that when I spooned off the grease it was exactly 1 tablespoon.  Just sayin’.)
2. Add the onion to the bacon and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the onions are tender, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add the sweet potatoes and chicken broth and simmer, covered, 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
4. Stir in the corn, peas, milk, and ½ teaspoon salt and cook until heated through.
5. If desired, plop on some Greek yogurt.  Enjoy!

Make Your Own Coffee Creamer {Genius!}

Posted by Nat on Jan 23, 2012 | Comments Off on Make Your Own Coffee Creamer {Genius!}

My sister, Stephanie, is responsible for this one.  Thanks, Steph!

She can tell when I’m on a kick.  Lately I’m on a “make my own stuff” kick, as you may have read in my post about making my own laundry detergent.  Soon after that post, Stephanie texted me that she had tried making her own coffee creamer and it tasted pretty good.  She shared this link with me.   I immediately gravitate to all things chocolate, of course, so I decided to give the mocha recipe a try.   I also happened to have dry milk in my pantry (bread making) and hadn’t used it yet.  I had all of the ingredients (only three!) so I made it up.  I have to say…. I like it!

A lot of whether or not you might enjoy this creamer is, I think, going to be based on how much you need the cream experience in your coffee.  While it doesn’t give me that, “MmmmmMMMMMMMM!” experience that some of my favorite flavors of creamer give me, it still does the job of making my coffee taste less… like coffee.  And the cocoa is very nice- at the end it’s almost like having a cup of hot chocolate- nice!  What I like most is that it’s not made with high fructose corn syrup, it’s only three ingredients, and those ingredients are simple.  Sugar?  Yup.  Sugar is not going to kill me if I put just a few (okay, three) spoonfuls in my coffee.

If you like the experience of watching your creamer take over your coffee and change it from a dark, black mass of caffeinated sludge to a caramel-colored, smooth warm drink… this is not going to do it for you.  As shown above, your coffee will not look that much lighter.  But it does make your coffee taste… less like coffee and more like creamer.  There are other flavors listed on the link, but here’s the recipe I used:

Mocha Coffee Creamer

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups nonfat dry milk
• 4 teaspoons cocoa

Of course, I did add a bit of this and that helped with the creaminess.  Nom-nom.

Stephanie tried the orange flavor.  She said that she used Splenda and it was very sweet, but she still liked it.

Thanks, Steph!  And thanks, “desertgal”, whomever and wherever you are!

I Miss My Salad

Posted by Nat on Jan 16, 2012 | 2 comments

Yes, you read that right.  I miss my salad.

If you’re new to Crafting Crazy you should know that I’m currently a breastfeeding mommy.  Emily is currently 6 months old, and she has now earned the title “longest breastfed baby” of my 3.  It’s going really well and I love it, but teeth are on the horizon.  Teeth change everything for me in the world of breastfeeding, but that’s an entirely different post.  Back to why I miss my salad.

This is my salad:

Doesn’t it look AMAZING?  It is.  It’s sooooo delicious!  It’s my go-to salad.  My, “I think I’ll have an adult lunch today” salad.  My, “DAMN.  This is good!” salad.

Why do I miss it?  I can’t eat it right now. Why?  Because every time I do, it makes this little miss….

very unhappy in the tummy department.  And we’re not talking just a few toots and hollers, folks- she screams in pain every time I eat it.  Boo.  I haven’t had it for at least 2 months, and I think I will have to wait to have it again for a while- maybe once she’s on more solids we’ll try.  The sacrifices we make as mothers….

What’s in it?   Well, like most salads, it’s a bit different every time, but I’ll give you the basics and then you can add your own spin.

I use baby spinach as the base.  I LOVE spinach.  It’s my favorite leafy green.  In the photos on this post I think we were getting rid of some other salad mix so it’s romaine that you see up there, but spinach is my fave.

Add to that:

• chopped apple (I’m a big fan of the Fuji these days)
• roasted almonds (or unroasted if that’s how you roll), or toasted pine nuts if you want to get fancy
• cranberries
• grape tomatoes (I like them better than cherry- they are sweeter and smaller- no slicing)
• avocado
• shredded carrot or baby carrots
• crumbled coat cheese (my husband likes crumbled blue cheese- bleh)
• cooked chicken or other meat if you need some protein in there- you could even add tofu

And then, there’s the piece de resistance:  my honey-dijon-balsamic vinaigrette (recipe below).

I put the salad in the bowl, I sprinkle everything else on in the quantity that I want (I probably put on wayyyy to much goat cheese because….well, it’s goat cheese), and then drizzle on the dressing.  This salad does not mix well in a big bowl- the toppings are too heavy and they all sink to the bottom.  So, if you make this for a dinner party or something (it’s always a big hit) I usually do a “make your own” and let people build their own salad.  It looks prettier and everyone gets what they want.

The dressing:

• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard (I use Trader Joe’s)
• 1 garlic clove, pressed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• dash of pepper
• *bloob of honey

Combine all of the ingredients and whisk until combined.  If it sits for a while before you use it you’ll need to whisk it up again.

*What’s a bloob ?  Depends on how much sweetness you want.  I usually hold the honey over the measuring cup and squeeze while I count to 5.  Then I taste and add some more.  I could say “honey to taste” but I think bloob sounds more fun.  Almost like boob, but not.

Let me know if you make this- it’s awesome!  And one more shot: