Pickle Cupcakes

Anyone want to try a pickle cupcake? They are the most wonderful thing in the world. If you have not tried them yet you are really missing out. April Fools!!!! These are not real pickle cupcakes. I actually think that would be really disgusting. The pickle on top of these cupcakes are actually pickle shaped candy that I found at work the other day. When I first saw these candies I just thought they were the funniest candy I have ever seen and I just had to buy them and do something fun with them. That is when I came up with the fun idea of pickle cupcakes. To make the cupcakes more interesting I dyed the cake batter with green food coloring to make it more pickle like. I can't wait to see every ones reaction at work today when they see these cupcakes. Hopefully everyone gets a good laugh out of these. Have a fun April Fools Day!!!


Unfortunately, the wrapper to the pickle candies got tossed right after making the cupcakes and I cannot remember the brand. I have been searching and searching online since I made these as well as continuously looking at my job, and I cannot find these candies anywhere. As soon as I do I will post all the information on here that way everyone can enjoy these pickle candies. :) 

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Blackberry Pie

More blackberries!!! I just couldn't resist buying more blackberries while at the grocery store last night, especially since they are on sale for buy one get two free. Who could resist such a great deal. Now I didn't want to make blackberry cobbler again, even though it tasted wonderful. I wanted to make something different this time around, therefore I decided on making a pie. Now usually I buy the pie dough at the store, but I decided to make it myself for a change. To my surprise it was easier than I thought it would be, so easy I would definitely make this pie crust again.

Pie Crust

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold water

Double if doing a two layer crust or lattice crust

Blackberry Filling

3 baskets of blackberries

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Toss the blackberries in sugar and set aside. Mix the shortening, flour and salt together using a pastry blender until well combined and crumbly. Add in the water a little at a time. Mix well using a fork until combined. Place dough on a floured surface and roll out into a 12 inch circle. Place the dough into a pie plate and cut off any excess dough. Add the blackberry mixture to the pie plate. If you want to make a lattice crust or give it a layer of crust on top then repeat the recipe to make more pie dough. If you choose not to do the lattice crust you can do a crumb topping if you like. If doing a lattice crust roll out the dough and cut into 1/2 inch strips. Weave the strips over and under to give the latticed look. Bake at 425*F for 15 minutes then turn the oven down to 375*F and continue to bake for 25-30 minutes or until the pie is done. Sprinkle a little sugar on top for a little sparkle. Serve and enjoy. :)

Pie crust recipe from allrecipes.com

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Fresh Blackberry Cobbler

Tomas and I just love cobbler. Yesterday I was at the grocery store I saw that blackberries were on sale. So I grabbed a few baskets of blackberries and decided that I would make a cobbler for us. We were both very glad I did because it tasted wonderful. Now I have posted a cobbler on here before and I just so happens to be the same recipe as last time, besides I used a different fruit this time. I just had to share this recipe again because it very easy to make and it is very versatile. All you have to do is substitute whatever fruit you like for the blackberries, but I do recommend the fresh blackberries because it was super delicious. Whatever you decide to do I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. :)

Fresh Blackberry Cobbler

3 baskets fresh blackberries, washed and dried

Topping:
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
½ cup butter

Place blackberries in a lightly greased 13x9 inch baking dish or any baking dish of your choice. In a separate bowl mix sugar, flour, and butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over fruit mixture. Bake at 400ºF for 30-45 minutes or until topping is a nice golden brown. Enjoy

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Soft Sugar Cookies

It has been a long time since my last post. Part of it had to do with the fact that I went out of town for business. But I am back and well rested and ready to post on my blog again. While away I bought myself a new cookbook, which happened to be on clearance which is probably why I bought it. Anyways the book I bought was The Taste of Home Cookbook and it is full of great recipes that I can't wait to try. Today I tried my first recipe out of the book which was for the soft sugar cookies. They remind me of the soft sugar cookies you can buy at the grocery store, which I absolutely love. So which is why I could not resist making them, and I do not regret one bit. I will be making these for sure in the future.

Soft Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Frosting

1/4 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons hot water

Sprinkles, optional

Preheat the oven to 350*F. In a large mixing bow, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, vanilla and almond extract. Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls on an ungreassed baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Remove to wire racks to cool. To make frosting combine all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and blend until it is fully blended. If you want you can add food coloring at this point or you can keep it white. Gently spread the frosting on to the cookies and sprinkle the sprinkles of your choice on top. Serve and enjoy :)

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Brownie Ice Cream Cake

Happy Birthday To Me !!!!!! Yup, today was my birthday and I had a very great day. To celebrate Tomas and I went to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo and we had a blast. (I posted some of the pictures of the animals under the My Life section of my blog if you want to see them). Anyways for my birthday I wanted to make myself something special. I really did not want a cake, but I wanted something like a cake. Therefore I thought that instead of cake I will make brownies and turn it into an ice cream cake. It came out good, very rich, but very good. Since it was frozen it made it very difficult to cut, so I recommend defrosting it a bit before serving. Enjoy :)

Brownie Ice Cream Cake

2 brownie mixes (or prepare your favorite brownies)

Ice cream

Chocolate frosting

Prepare your brownies according to the package, but bake in two round greased cake pans. Bake 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the brownies cool completely. When cool remove the ice cream from freezer and set on the counter to soften. once soft enough to handle, spread the ice cream on to one of the brownie layers. Place the second layer on top of the ice cream and then place the brownie layers back into the freezer to set. When set, remove fro the freezer and frost the cake. When ready to eat, defrost for a little while then cut and serve.

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Pesto Bean Soup

This has to be one of the best soups i have made, and Tomas agrees with me. It has a nice kick to it and lots of flavor. One of the things that he likes most is that it has no meat in it. I originally found this recipe in the Foodnetwork magazine, but I made quite a few changes. First off I doubled the recipe, besides when it came to the beans which I only added 3 cans, 2 cans of cannellini beans and one can of red kidney beans. Next I omitted the olives and celery, because I don't like either of those ingredients. When it came to the red pepper flakes I just about dumped a lot in since we love the spice. Now if you don't like the changes I made then you can always follow the original from Food Network if you like. Well anyways, I hope you love the soup as much as we did.

Pesto Bean Soup

Saute 1 head of sliced garlic cloves and 1 or more tablespoons of red pepper flakes in a pot with olive oil. Add 2 cans drained cannellini beans and 1 can drained red kidney beans and add 2 cups water; simmer until thick, 8 minutes. Stir in 6 tablespoons pesto ( I bought pre-made pesto at the grocery store) and 4 tablespoons grated parmesan.

Add 6 cups chicken broth. Cook 15 minutes. Stir in 1 diced roasted red bell peppers. Serve and enjoy.

To roast a bell pepper:

Using a pastry brush, brush vegetable oil over the bell pepper, making sure it is fully covered. Place the pepper on a baking sheet and place on the top rack in the oven and broil them. Using tongs, turn the pepper over as it blackens. Once blacked a little on each side, place in a container and cover for 15 minutes. Take the pepper out and pull the stem out. Dice up and set aside until ready to place in the soup.

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Coconut Stuffed Brownies

I love brownies and I really love coconut. I don't just love coconut, I am obsessed with it. My friend Katie and I always talk about how much we love coconut and anytime we find something good with coconut in it, we always share with each other what that something is. For instance at our job, HomeGoods, we sometimes get in these toasted coconut chips, and let me just say they are to die for. The only down side to these chips is that because they are so good they fly off the shelves in no time. Lucky for us I found them at Savemart, which I told Katie about right away, so now we can have those delicious coconut chips anytime we like. We did get even luckier when the came into our store a couple of weeks ago.

Well anyways let me get to the coconut stuffed brownies. The other day I was sitting at home pondering on different things I should make. Since I was really craving coconut and chocolate brownies, I knew I wanted to do something dealing with those two ingredients. So I got to thinking, why don't I make coconut stuffed brownies. I didn't know how they were going to turn out because I have never made them before, but I gave it a try and they came out tasting amazing. They would have probably come out tasting even better if I made the brownies from scratch, but I used a boxed brownie mix instead to make it easier on myself. When it came to the coconut filling I got the recipe from the chocolate macaroon cake that my mom and I make ( you can find the recipe for the cake on her blog. I have yet to make it for my blog, but I plan on making it real soon). So if you love coconut and brownies and think that the two combined sound amazing, then I highly suggest you make these things yourself real soon. :)

Coconut stuffed Brownies

1 boxed brownie mix ( and the ingredients listed on the package)

2 egg whites

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup white sugar

2 Tablespoons flour

1 3/4 cups shredded coconut

Preheat the oven and prepare the brownie mix according to package. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and salt until foamy.Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Blend in flour and coconut. Pour half of the prepared brownie batter into a greased baking pan. Spread the coconut mixture on top of the brownie batter. Pour the remaining half of the brownie batter on top of the coconut mixture, making sure all the coconut mixture is covered. Bake according to the package directions or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve and enjoy. :)

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