Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon-Blueberry Buttercream

When life gives you lemons, rumor around town is that you're supposed to make lemonade with them.

That's nice. 

But sometimes, you're really just not that thirsty. 

So you're holding these free lemons, which, awesome. And then you think.... lemon poppyseed muffins would be awesome right now. 

And then you realize, who the hell has poppy seeds, just sitting around waiting to be put into muffins? Oh yeah, that's right. No one. 

And then you decide to try something new.  

And then this happens, which is, you know, just as good. Maybe much better. 

  
Okay, definitely better. 

So, if life gives you free fruit for absolutely no reason... You should probably go buy yourself some blueberries and flour and sugar and make this happen.

And while you're at the store you should probably buy yourself some lemons too, since, in case you hadn't noticed, that whole life giving you lemons thing is really more of a metaphor. 

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon-Blueberry Buttercream

12-16 cupcakes 

Lemon Cupcakes:

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1½ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup milk

¼ cup lemon juice

3 tablespoons lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake tins with

Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs. Beat together until fluffy. Stir in vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add half of dry ingredients into the butter mixture, mixing until combined. Stir in milk, lemon juice and zest. Add remaining dry ingredients, mixing again until everything is combined.

Pour into cupcake tins, so that each is abut ¾ full. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Once cooked, let cool completely before frosting.

Blueberry Lemon Buttercream:

1 cup butter, softened

¼- ½ cup freeze dried blueberries, pulverized in a food processor until fine (hint: Trader Joes)

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

1½-2 lbs powdered sugar

Cheddar Quinoa Salmon Cakes

I don't like cake. 

I'm talking about birthday cake, chocolate cake, red velvet cake. None of it really does it for me. The only exception is ice cream cake. I mean, I am human here people. But for the most part, I'm just not a cake person.

I am, however, a cakes person. You heard me. 

Cakes.

You know, crab cakes, rice cakes, salmon cakes. 

Generally, savory things are just more delicious (to me) than sweet ones. 

So it's not really very surprising that I prefer the crab kind of cakes to, you know, the chocolate kind. 


Or in this case: Salmon cakes.

Salmon's just such an awesome food. It's delicious, for one. It's incredibly healthy, for another.


Unfortunately, it can be also incredibly expensive too. And I'm pretty sure--maybe it's just me--but I'd like to NOT see my entire week's paycheck go to feeding myself fish. 

At least not ALL the time.

That's why canned salmon is the perfect solution. It means i can get my fish-fix without having to rob a bank.

And just to make the whole thing more awesome, these are completely easy and delicious. 

But there's a catch here (besides the salmon, pun totally intended).... 

I may or may not have written the recipe in Sharpie on a paper towel while making it up while cooking it (Shut up, I'm a professional). And then I may or may not have accidentally thrown away the paper towel during the clean up process. Uh oh. 


See, I cook as I go, add ingredients on a whim, dashes of this, hints of that. So when I don't write things down, or you know, happen to lose them, it can be difficult to recall exactly what I did. 

Which is going to make this next part a little awkward....

So um, here goes nothing. I'll try my best to recreate it. Sorry in advance.

Cheddar Quinoa Salmon Cakes
olive oil
1/2 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic2 cans wild caught Alaskan salmon 
3/4 cup quinoa, cooked
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup cheddar, shredded
1 large egg, beaten
seasoning: red pepper flakes, parsley, cayenne, paprika--use as much or as little as you'd like, salt and pepper to taste
butter


Heat oil in nonstick skillet over medium heat, add onions and saute until translucent. Add garlic and continue cooking until onions have begun to brown. Remove from heat. 


In a large bowl, add onions to remaining ingredients and season as you like. Mix together and form into patties--they should stick together well enough to form into patties without being too wet. If too moist, add breadcrumbs and/or quinoa until you achieve a workable consistency. If too dry, add 1 egg white (beaten). 

Heat small amount of butter in large non-stick pan. Saute salmon patties over medium/medium high heat for 3-5 minutes on each side or until browned on the sides and heated all the way through.


Serve warm. Here, they're served on bed of arugula with cherry tomatoes and drizzled with olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Balsamic and Brown Sugar Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Let's talk about vegetables, people.

I was never against vegetables as a child. 

I was never one of those kids that would make faces, push their peas around their plate, feed the broccoli to the dog.

This is probably because my grandmother was Italian, and like any good Italian, she would cover everything, and I mean everything, in extra virgin olive oil. 

And I'm not talking about a healthy drizzle here or there, I'm talking about pouring, covering, smothering. 

Drowning, those vegetables would be drowning in oil. 

Which, you know, suddenly not so healthy anymore. But whatever. I ate them. And I learned to love them, oil or no oil.

Now, when I make vegetables, I usually do the bare minimum, a pinch of pepper, a dash of salt, a little drizzle of oil--my grandmother would be sorely disappointed, but I'm sure my arteries will thank me eventually.

 

This, however, is not one of those times. 

This is one of those times where I cover these little sprouts with brown sugar and balsamic vinegar and red pepper flakes and, you guessed it, that childhood favorite, olive oil. 

And you know what? They're so worth it. 

Balsamic and Brown Sugar Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Serves 4-6 

1lb Brussels sprouts
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, and enough to lightly grease baking sheet
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt  
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 

Preheat oven to 400.

Wash and prepare Brussels sprouts, cutting in half if desired. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, tossing to coat Brussels sprouts evenly. 

Coat baking sheet lightly with olive oil then place Brussels sprouts into the oven. Bake for  25-35 minutes or until Brussels sprouts are crisp and caramelized on the outside and tender on the inside, shaking the pan occasionally so sprouts brown evenly.

Hum's Spaghetti and Meatballs

There are times when you just want to eat a damn meatball. Or, you know, 4.

When you're a little sad, when you're a little sick, when you're a lotta bit hungry.

Some people hate making meatballs.

They don't like the fact that the best meatballs are always mixed together with your hands, not a spoon. Which is sad, because that is absolutely the best part.

That sort of weirdly gross, totally satisfying feeling of making something with your hands. The feeling of breadcrumbs and meat and parsley between your fingers. The way you have to turn the water faucet on with your elbow because your hands are too dirty.

There are a million different ways to make meatballs. This is possibly one of the simplest.

It comes from my grandmother, like almost everything I love does.

The original hand-written recipe she left me is 2 sentences, which, sometimes, is all you really need.

Hum's Meatballs
serves 4-6

1 lb ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 egg
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix everything together, form balls in the palm of your hand, place in cooking pan greased in olive oil, bake for 30-45 minutes (or until cooked through).

You can also top meatballs with small amount of marinara sauce before baking in the oven to add flavor.

Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Pasta with Beetroot Pesto

Sometimes you feel just a little bit fancy. 

But then you go to make dinner and all you want is pasta, which is usually, you know, not so fancy.

Okay, maybe I'm the only one who's ever had this problem. 

Luckily, I'm creative (most of the time) and quick on my feet (some of the time) and classy (okay, almost never, but whatever). And I can always create a pasta dish to suit any and every moment.

 

Pro Tip: If your hands look like you may have murdered someone, it's okay, we all know you didn't... Right? Let's move on.

 Pro Tip: This dish is better when made in heels. It helps you get your fancy on.

Pro Tip: If you accidentally serve yourself too large of a portion, eat it all anyway. 

Pro Tip: Swirling your pasta on your fork means you have manners. Fact. And even eating the entire forkful of pasta in one messy, excessively large bite can't take that away, no matter what anyone says.

Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Pasta with Beetroot Pesto
Serves 4-6
 
Beets (about 3-6, depending on size)
1 Tbs Olive oil
1lb pasta
1/2-1 cup beet tops/leaves
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
5-10 fresh basil leaves
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 
1-2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
olive oil
2 cups arugula
4-5 oz goat cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash beets. Cut off beet tops and set aside. Cut beets into bite size cubes, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and place on baking sheet. Bake for about 45 minutes or until dark, caramelized, and tender.

Cook pasta according to directions while beets bake.

For the beetroot pesto, add beet greens, basil, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper into your food processor. While the processor is on, drizzle olive oil through the top funnel, add enough oil to give pesto desired consistency.   

Toss cooked pasta with enough pesto to coat, roasted beets, arugula and goat cheese. Serve.

Brazilian Spiced Chicken in Coconut Milk

Change can be a beautiful thing. But, it can also be a pain in the ass.

And whenever I choose (or have) to deal with change in my life: it’s usually both.

See, I just moved into my first real apartment.

Right now, my life is unpacking boxes while listening to Hall & Oates.

It’s lamps with no lampshades and a freezer with no ice cube trays and an unmounted TV and a half-put-together Ikea coffee table.

And it’s kind of amazing.

And last night, I made my one of my first real meals in my first real apartment. 

Now, cooking in a new apartment may sound great, but that’s actually where the pain in the ass part of change comes in.

See, when you’re moving into a new place, sometimes you realize you accidently have absolutely nothing whatsoever that you need to make a meal. No, really. Literally nothing. 

Sometimes you open your drawer to find, well, basically this:

And sometimes you get so excited by the shiny spice-rack thingies at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, that you don’t actually bother to pay attention to the fact that they only have random ass spices like Ground Fennel and, you know, Marjoram. Which... really?

And sometimes the only measuring spoon you have looks like it time-traveled from the 1970s.

And sometimes you realize you don’t have any measuring cups. Like at all.

But that’s okay, because then you maybe get to feel a little like MacGyver when you craftily use Japanese teacups to measure your rice instead.

Then sometimes you go to open a can of coconut milk and realize you don’t have a can opener. And that’s slightly less okay because you are, in fact, NOT actually Macgyver. 

So then you have stop what you’re doing and to go to the grocery store. And swear under your breath the whole drive there. Okay, maybe that last part wasn’t technically necessary...

But I guess change wouldn’t be so beautiful if it wasn’t such a ridiculous pain in the ass some of the time.

And it definitely wouldn’t be as delicious. 

Brazilian Spiced  Chicken in Coconut Milk

(adapted from the recipe found here)
Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper 

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 large jalapeno pepper (or 2 small), seeded and chopped

½ teaspoon ground ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can diced tomatoes

1 (14 ounce) can light coconut milk

1 handful fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the cumin, cayenne, turmeric, and coriander. 

Season chicken with salt and pepper and rub with half of the spice mixture, set the other half aside. 

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place the chicken in the skillet. Cook 10 minutes on each side until cooked through and juices run clear. Remove from heat. Once cool, chop into bite-size pieces and set aside.

Heat the remaining olive oil in the skillet. Saute the onion for a few minutes then add the jalapeno, garlic, and a ginger and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes, or until fragrant and beginning to brown. Mix in the canned tomatoes and coconut milk, add the other half of the spice mixture and chicken back into the skillet. Season with additional salt and pepper if needed. Let simmer on medium-low for about 10 more minutes. Serve over rice. Garnish with parsley.