The Nifty Foodie

I was a huge *NSYNC fan back in the day, and every year, I get a real kick out of the “It’s Gonna Be May” meme. Seeing it 2390859 times on Facebook this week made me watch the video again, and it reminded me of the days when I would get to drive my Mom’s minivan and would blast *NSYNC’s “Pop” CD in the old Discman (with the cassette tape attachment), since the minivan only had a cassette player. Ahh…how times have changed, y’all!

(Please tell me someone else attached their Discman to the car stereo with the cassette tape adapter…)

Anyway…it’s May (whoa..). And well, since it’s May, Cinco de Mayo is just around the corner. Usually the tex-mex places appeal to me with their food and margarita specials for the day, but lately, I’m not that much of a drinker since I started calorie counting. Give me ice cream over a 1,000 calorie cocktail. I know…I’m weird. We actually purchased alcohol on our cruise in December, and this is the first time I opened the tequila we bought there. We’re kind of boring in this house.

I’ve been wanting to make these cupcakes for a while, but the boozy aspect is what got to me. I can’t exactly do my usual baking routine of baking a recipe and bringing it to coworkers. I’m pretty sure HR would be at my desk within 2 hours, so I’ve never made them. However, these are for a celebration for a good friend of mine, and since she’s a big fan of everything tex-mex, I thought these would be the perfect cupcake to celebrate.

I ended up adapting a strawberry cupcake recipe by adding lime juice and zest, as well as brushing the tops of the cupcakes with tequila (which I found this idea on another blog). The frosting is a simple buttercream with strained strawberry puree, lime zest and of course, tequila. The combination of these flavors are just awesome. I hope she enjoys these!

Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes
Source: cupcake recipe adapted from Martha Stewart, technique from Confections of a Foodie Bride, frosting is a Nifty Foodie Original

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• juice and zest of one lime
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 10 oz. strawberries, hulled and diced finely
• 1/4 cup tequila

For the buttercream:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3-4 cups of confectioners sugar, divided
• zest of one lime
• 1 tbsp. tequila
• 1/4 cup strained strawberry puree (puree in a blender, put in a sieve over a bowl to let excess liquid drain for appx. 30 minutes)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and prepare 2 cupcake pans by lining them with paper liners. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the two flours, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer (using the paddle attachment), beat the butter and sugar for 3-4 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl, and beat in the eggs one at a time, until well-mixed. Add in the vanilla, as well as the lime juice/zest, and mix until just combined. Put the mixer on low speed, and add 1/3 of the flour mixture (mixing until combined) and then 1/3 of the milk (also mixing until combined), repeating until everything is in the batter. Fold in the strawberries.
4. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full. Bake the cupcakes, rotating the pan halfway through baking (at the 10 minute mark), for 20 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean). Immediately brush the cupcake tops with tequila (using a pastry brush), and then transfer the pans to a cooling rack to cool for 5 minutes, and then remove the cupcakes from the pan to finish cooling on the wire racks.
5. While the cupcakes are cooling, make the buttercream. Cream the butter for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add in 3 cups of confectioners sugar, and beat well until the mixture is sort of crumbly. Add the lime zest, tequila and strawberry puree, and beat the mixture for 2 minutes. If the buttercream appears to be too wet for piping, add more confectioners sugar (1/4 cup at a time), beating for about a minute after each addition.
6. To serve, pipe or spread the buttercream on completely cooled cupcakes. Enjoy!

This past week, I’ve been spending my afternoons prepping the gardens/weeding/planting annuals. Wasn’t it just Christmas? Man…can’t believe it’s almost April, y’all! With the weather starting to warm up over here, the colder the beverages, the better. I started making iced coffees a couple of weeks ago, and now, I just can’t get enough of smoothies/shakes.

As far as this shake goes, peanut butter and jelly is a favorite of mine. Move over ham sandwiches…if you offer me a PB&J, I’m going for it! I wanted to try these flavors in a shake, and while I used frozen fruit instead of jelly, the flavors (strawberry/peanut butter) work beautifully together. This was so refreshing, and filling (thanks to the protein powder). It’s definitely a goodie!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Protein Shake
Source: an original

Ingredients:

• 1 cup ice
• 1 cup water
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 1/2 tbsp. peanut butter

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend on high until everything is smooth (about 2 minutes).

A few weeks ago, our basil was absolutely booming. I ended up making a huge batch of pesto, but I also wanted to try something sweet with the basil. I know that strawberry basil is a popular combination, so I figured why not try something with blackberries?

When I was a kid, I remember going to my grandma’s house, and picking a bowl full of these near the ditch by her house. They grew like crazy out there, and as kids, it was the coolest thing to pick your own food and bring it back for everyone to enjoy for dessert. Every time I eat blackberries, I’m always reminded of grandma’s house.

These popsicles are simple to throw together, and they are insanely good. You only need your blender or a food processor, and you’re good to go. I made these in those tiny bathroom cups (I think they’re 3 oz) and stuck a paper straw in there, since I couldn’t find popsicle sticks at the store. I think it makes them look more fun anyway.

Blackberry Basil Popsicles
Source: an original

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups fresh blackberries, rinsed
• one heaping handful of fresh basil, rinsed
• 1/4 cup honey
• juice of one lemon

Directions:

1. Add the berries, basil, honey and lemon to your food processor or blender and puree the ingredients until well combined. (Optional: strain out the seeds, if you’d like.)
2. Add the mixture to popsicle molds or 3 oz. cups. If you’re using cups, allow the popsicles to freeze for about 30 minutes before putting the popsicle sticks in, so they stay put.
3. Freeze for about 8 hours or overnight. Enjoy!

I absolutely love making holiday treats. You know it’s the holiday season in our house when our fridge has at least 5 lbs. of butter, 8-10 packages of cream cheese at any given time and 2 extra bags of flour and sugar in the pantry to ensure that I don’t run out of the essentials.

The big bake-palooza (as I like to call it) is this weekend. There’s quite a few coworker and neighbor gifts to make this year, which has me super excited! This year’s packages are going to have some old favorites and new ones too, which I plan on sharing with y’all next week.

While this particular recipe won’t be with the gifts this year (since they need to be refrigerated), I wanted to share these truffles with y’all, since this is still a delicious recipe if you’re looking for something to include with your holiday parties. I came up with this recipe for a local recipe contest with the newspaper. I was actually torn between an eggnog inspired dessert and a peppermint bark inspired dessert. This recipe idea won out though, because after asking some friends, it seems like a peppermint bark inspired recipe would be more popular, since quite a few people hate eggnog. Fair enough.

The great thing about these truffles is that they come together pretty quickly. It’s definitely an easy dessert recipe to add to your holiday menu! Just keep in mind since the recipe involves cream cheese, these truffles can’t sit out for too long without needing to be refrigerated. They actually taste a lot better cold anyway.

So, I’m sure you’re wondering how these little truffles did in the recipe contest! I won first place! FIRST PLACE! I still can’t believe it. The prize was a big deal too… $1000 to a local furniture store! (I can’t wait to share with y’all what we used that generous prize on, but I’ll save that for another post once it’s delivered.)

I’m also supposed to be in the paper tomorrow. Crazy, right? I’m completely giddy about that! I’m sure I’ll buy multiple copies for family.

Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Truffles
Source: an original

Ingredients:

For the filling:

• 1 pkg cream cheese, slightly softened
• 5 candy canes
• 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 cup (appx. 6 large) ground graham crackers
• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips, chopped

For the coating:

• 2 cups of white chocolate chips or almond bark
• 1/2 cup of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips
• 2 crushed candy canes

Directions:

1. With a spatula, whip up the cream cheese to a stirrable consistency.
2. Using a food processor, grind 3 of your candy canes to a powder. Stir the ground candy canes, powdered sugar and ground graham crackers into the cream cheese with a spatula until everything is well-incorporated.
3. Place the last two candy canes in a quart sized plastic ziploc-type bag, and using a heavy bowl, crush up the candy canes into small pieces (not quite a powder, since you want these to add a bit of a crunch to your truffles). Add the candy canes, along with the chopped white chocolate to your cream cheese truffle mixture.
4. Chill the mixture well, for four hours or overnight.
5. When ready to assemble the truffles, divide the mixture into tbsp. sized balls and put the balls on a cookie sheet. By the time you’re done making the truffle balls, the mixture probably warmed up a bit, so place the cheesecake balls in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to firm up.
6. In the meantime, melt your white chocolate for the coating (either in the microwave or with a double boiler).
7. Take your cheesecake balls out of the freezer, and individually dip each ball in the white chocolate mixture. Place the finished dipped balls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper for the chocolate to set.
8. Once the white chocolate has set, melt your milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips and add a small amount on top of each truffle, along with some crushed candy canes for decoration.
9. Enjoy these cheesecake truffles right out of the refrigerator and keep the truffles cold, since there is cream cheese in the recipe.

This past weekend, I bought a flat of strawberries. Since it’s the peak of the season, how could I not? It took me about an hour to slice up a flat of strawberries, and as delicious as they are on their own, I figured I had to make SOMETHING with them!

Well, a couple of weeks ago, one of my awesome food blogger friends, Serena of Big Apple Nosh, filled me in on a new challenge that she’s doing on her blog: The NoshGirl Chef Challenge! The challenge features two common ingredients, and each blogger has to come up with a recipe idea using those ingredients. The two ingredients for the challenge were plain yogurt and brown sugar. Since I had these strawberries on hand, I definitely wanted to also feature them in my recipe.

I really didn’t come up with the idea until this morning. Talk about last minute! I was debating between a coffee cake, a cookie or something frozen. Well, it’s already feeling like summer out here, so I had to do the frozen idea. I was worried about using brown sugar instead of regular sugar, but it really goes well with the strawberries. The addition of orange zest and juice also brings out the flavor of the strawberries really well. I really love how this turned out!

Strawberry-Orange Frozen Yogurt
Source: an original

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. strawberries, chopped and hulled
• 1 5 oz. container of plain greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp. orange zest
• 1 tsp. orange juice
• 1 tsp. vodka

Directions:

1. Place the chopped strawberries and brown sugar in a bowl, stir the mixture together and allow to chill in the refrigerator for about an hour for the sugar to sort of dissolve into the strawberries.
2. Place the strawberry mixture, yogurt, heavy cream, zest, juice and vodka in a blender and blend until pureed.
3. Pour the mixture in an ice cream maker and mix according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
4. Let the frozen yogurt set in the freezer for a couple of hours, and enjoy! (Note: If you serve this a couple of hours out of the freezer, it will be the perfect texture. I found that the longer I left it in the freezer, the icier the frozen yogurt became, because strawberries tend to contain a lot of water and can contribute to an icier texture when pureed.)