Hot Chocolate cherry cupcakes

I made these for my husbands birthday and since I am not organized enough to start posting about my trip I thought I would post about these.

I wanted to surprise him with something exciting and I had read about something like this awhile back except it was a trifle and I didn’t have a trifle bowl and  a trifle seemed a little to girly for a 33 yo mans birthday anyway so I came up with this on the spot while I was at the store buying the ingredients.

I bought one box milk chocolate cake mix, one bag guittard milk chocolate chips(they are larger than reg. choco chips but smaller than kisses), one can cherry mix filling, one jar milk chocolate ice cream sauce and then whipped cream.

At home I just mixed up the cake mix according to the instructions.  I lined the cupcake pan with liners and then filled the cups 1/3 of the way up with the cake batter then sprinkled in about 5 choco chips and after that I put a spoonful of the cherry filling (about 3 cherries and some of the filling) then I spooned the other little bit of cake batter over the top of the cherry filling and sprinkled a few more chips over it all and baked according to the cakes instructions.

When the cupcakes were done I immediately spooned some of the chocolate sauce over them and added some whipped cream.  I served them hot to acheive sort of a molten chocolate cake effect, but they were equally good the next day when they had cooled off with nothing on them at all.

Hope someone tries em!

She’s baaaaaaaaaaaack!

I’m back from NOLa and I had the time of my life.  It was certainly as good as I hoped and honestly, better.  <sigh!>

I wish I could say that I’m happy to be back in Colorado and while I am certainly happy to see my husband I definately wish I was still in New Orleans.

I am so lucky to have a best friend in New Orleans that I have known since I was an unruly teen who was happy to welcome me and my daughter in his home for such a long stay.  It’s really like a second home.  His room mate is one of my fave people, as well.  Mimi had a blast with just them alone.  She misses them and today asked if we could go to Kenny’s house.  Sorry girlie, not today, lol!

Anyway, I plan on doing a story a day until I feel tapped out. 

I will of course share the recipes and foods that I enjoyed and I am happy to be back on the blog!

Happy weekending to all!

Love,

Ruby

So we’re off….

My little girl and I leave tomorrow morning for New Orleans (HOME) and we are doing all of our little preparations.

I won’t be back here on the blog until I get back, I think June 1st will be a good start back date for me.

As for Emerald I don’t know her plans for blogging so I will let her explain that to everyone….

LOVE,

Ruby

And the winner is:

CHELSEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, congratulations and thank you ever so much for playing, even though you are new to our little blog we are so happy for you and hope that this little banner will bring you years of entertaining/decorating fun!

Please do get back to me with your address right away as I leave for a month on Saturday 🙂

LOVE,

Ruby

A surprise giveaway…

This is a beautiful example of a pennant banner made by bisongirl: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bisongirl/4233904413/

So I still don’t have photo taking abilities but I am doing a quick giveaway for a pennant banner and the above is a great example of one made by someone else.  (I usually don’t like to steal pictures from other people but I am linking back and let her know via a comment that I used it, hopefully she doesn’t make me take it down!)  The one I’m giving away I made.

Anyhow, I made two pennant banners this week and the giveaway will allow the winner to choose from either a more neutral/earthy colored one(it’s got a sky-like blue, a sort of putty and a saffron) or a more brightly colored one(think pink, lime, red, turquoise, yellow).   They are both great in their own ways, and lovely to pin up for a party of any sort or just to spice up a living space with summer around the corner.

So all you have to do is comment in this post and if you post about it on your blog you win three chances instead of just one.  Of course, let us know that you posted about the giveaway.

So, that’s it, you have til wednesday, did I mention that?  Okay.  Go free pennant banner!

Stuffed egg and bacon salad

This is going to be a quick post.

I made a salad that I loved last night and am in a frenzy to make and eat it again.

It was so simple and comprised of ingredients I always have on hand, ingredients I use to make another salad all of the time, but this time with the addition of the stuffed eggs it was even better than the usual.

I used arugula as the bed and fried up some bacon and then chopped it up and threw it on.  I quartered some large cherry tomatoes and thinly sliced some cucumber and then I made stuffed eggs(deviled eggs) with (of course) homemade mayo, dill pickle (chopped), white onion (minced, dijon mustard, dill and salt & pepper.   These really made the salad.

I thinly sliced some green onions and made a mustard viniagrette(lemon juice, coarse mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme) and then gobbled this down and immediately plotted to make it again tomorrow.  That would be today and I have already made a platter of stuffed eggs for the occasion. 

I am also considering becoming a professional mayonaise maker.

Love,

Ruby

Arkansas chicken salad

A picture of the beautiful bath row in downtown Hot Springs National park

So still no new pictures 😦   (My husband found the camera but it had been outside through a snow storm so you can do the math on that one…)

But lots of good content up in here anyway. 

So let’s start with the Arkansas chicken salad recipe.  I don’t know if Emerald will remember making this when we lived in Hot Springs, but I sure do.  Let me back peddle a little bit…..

When we lived in Hot Springs we went to a lot of yard sales and also frequented the thrift stores, Arkansas has some awesome thrifting going on.  So on one of our ventures out in search of others people’s junk we found a church cookbook and that church cookbook contained the recipe for chicken salad with shoestring potatoes in it.  That cookbook also contined recipes for coke jello salad, ham jello salad, raisin pie and candy-bar salad.  It was a gem to say the least.

So we made some of the funny but yummy sounding recipes and this one turned out to be a winner with me.  It’s a basic chicken salad recipe with the addition of shoe string potatoes to the top of each serving.  I like it over a bed of salad greens.

Arkansas Chicken Salad

2 chicken breasts, cooked(I used grilled chicken breasts this time and it was super great)

1 carrot, grated

1 stalk celery, diced

1/4 of an onion, diced

1 cup mayo, of course I made my own  🙂  (see the archives for recipe)

1 Tbs brown mustard

1 Tbs dill

salt/pepper

salad greens

shoe string potatoes (could use crushed plain potatoe chips I bet)

So presumably you know how to mix up a chicken salad, just stir it all up in a bowl(I think it is better chilled for a little while, but I also just ate a serving of it immediately after making it) and then  serve each serving over a small bed of greens and top with the shoe string potatoes and be ready to feel just a little bit trashy but a lot happy….or as my daughter says “It makes my mouth happy, Mama!”

Updated: You can also add some pickle relish or a little diced pickle up in there, I forgot to say that!

~RUBY

{these moments} for the mom who can’t choose

And have a great weekend, all!

~Ruby

Make your own mayo

Emerald will know exactly why this post is here.  This afternoon when we were catching up on the phone she got a little impromtu lesson in mayonnaise making.  I couldn’t believe she had never made it before!

So I thought surely if Emerald hasn’t done it then there must be other who also have not made their own mayonnaise, although what a shame!

So here is the recipe I gave her, the one I used today:

In the blender go one whole egg and one egg yolk along with a tsp. of dijon mustard, a tsp of salt and the juice of a lemon.  Whiz this until smooth.

(**Edited to say that I tried making the mayo only with egg yolks (2) and it came out thicker and in my opinion better as well**)

Then turn the blender onto maybe the second setting and leave it running~now this is the hardest part of the whole thing~you drizzle in a steady stream, the thinnest stream you can make, 3/4 to 1 cup of oil.  Olive oil is fine, but don’t use EVOO, use something lighter because the flavor will really impact the final result and you don’t want  it to taste to olive oil-y.  I think Canola would be ideal.

That’s all she wrote, folks. 

No, there are other things you can do with this, but that is seriously the whole recipe if you want to make simple mayo in a second with ingredients you probably have readily on hand.

Now this weekend I was reading that if you want to extend the shelf life of said mayo then you can take this recipe the next step and add some whey.  (You know, the stuff you probably dump right off your yogurt before you serve yourself some for breakfast…)  Well, whey is magical and by adding  it to this recipe (1 tablespoon, to be exact) and then letting the mayo sit out (yes, sit out) for about 7 hours in a clean jar with no lid at room temp. it will somehow make this preserved for about 3-5 months in the fridge!  The whey will also thicken the final product up some, as the original recipe is not that thick.

So the next time you need to replenish your mayo supply think about making your own and try the whey thing, you will have thick, luscious mayo that will keep for as long as the hellman’s you probably have now 🙂

Here is a link to another recipe I have tried:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/saladdressings/r/bl80620a.htm

Now adding garlic would make it Aioli, just so you know and that takes the whole thing to another level totally.

Anyway.

Tell me if you try it!

~Ruby

Make your skin happy

Hello, hello and happy Monday, all 🙂

I wanted to talk  today about something I have been making for many years now, since I was a teen, actually.  It’s sugar/salt scrub.

I know this probably isn’t a revelation, but we can all use a reminder now and then of those simple things that we probably already know about, but forgot about.

That was the case for me. 

Recently with my tax return money I was going to buy myself some sugar scrub because while I remembered how much I enjoyed using it I didn’t remember how easy it was to make, but I quickly recalled my love of kitchen crafting when I was faced with the $15 price tag at the bath store.

This time I made it with coconut oil, olive oil, sugar and gray sea salt.  It came out great, of course, and I have been enjoying the simple pleasure of it.

I poured as much as I could into a nice short jar I had saved and then found a fat mouthed tea-cup to put the rest in and have kept that at the kitchen sink to use everyday on my Colorado-reptile hands and it has really been working nicely, they almost look human again!

Here are some recipes if you are not the sort to just jump in and throw some stuff in bowl until it looks right:

http://tipnut.com/homemade-sugar-scrub-recipes/

So get into the kitchen , scrounge up some oil, a jar and some salt or sugar and get to mixin, summer is coming and your skin will thank you!

If anyone else has any nice pampering ideas please send them our way….

Love,

Ruby