What to Do With a Can of Pumpkin Part II

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Makes: 24 cupcakes
                                                     
1 (1-pound 2.3-oz) package pudding-included yellow cake mix   
1 cup canned pumpkin                                          
1/2 cup water                                                 
1/3 cup oil                                                   
3 eggs                                                        
1 teaspoon cinnamon                                           
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg                                           
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips                          

Cinnamon Frosting:                                            
2 teaspoons cinnamon                                          
1 (16-ounce) can vanilla frosting                             

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper baking cups. In large bowl, combine all cupcake ingredients except chocolate chips; beat at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at high speed. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full.

2. Bake at 350°F. for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan; cool 20 minutes or until completely cooled.

3. Stir cinnamon into vanilla frosting. Frost cooled cupcakes.

These are so tasty! Light and really moist (probably due to the cake mix) but definitely one of my new favorite cupcakes. These did not last long in our house! For the cinnamon frosting, I actually used some leftover cream cheese frosting I had already made the week before and just stirred in some cinnamon (I used more than 2 teaspoons, probably more like 2 tablespoons to get it cinnamony enough for my taste buds).

This is just a random recipe that came with my cookbook program so it might be a Pillsbury recipe or might not. I don't have a real way to attribute it but I can't take credit for it myself. :)

Roasted Garlic and Grape Tomato Pasta With Basil and Arugula

Wow, that title is a mouthful! But it's a tasty one, I promise. The mister saw this on the Food Network the other night and decided we must try it. It's a lot of garlic, and your breath will NOT be friendly afterward, but totally worth it if you're a garlic lover like we are. Super easy to make and the extra added liquid really soaks up and makes the pasta more tender and the sauce thicker and just adds that extra flavor that is so delicious. We also added shrimp to this since we're addicts.

Roasted Garlic and Grape Tomato Pasta With Basil and Arugula

Ingredients

• Salt
• 1 pound penne pasta (I used whole-wheat penne)
  
• 2 pints grape tomatoes
• 8 to 10 cloves garlic, cracked but left in skins, plus 1 clove peeled and halved
• 3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus some, for drizzling
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup grated Parmigianino-Reggiano, a few generous handfuls
• 1 cup basil leaves, about 20, torn or shredded
• 2 cups coarsely chopped arugula

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Place a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil for the pasta. Salt water, add pasta and cook to just-shy of al dente. It needs to have a real bite left to it because it will sit in the sauce for 2 minutes later on and continue to cook. Heads up: you will need 2 ladles of starchy cooking water just before draining, about 1 1/2 cups.

Place the grape tomatoes on a cookie sheet with the garlic. Coat the tomatoes and cracked garlic with 3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and season with lots of salt and pepper. Roast 20 minutes. Take the tomatoes and garlic out of the oven. Turn the oven off.

Remove the roasted garlic from the skins and mash into a paste with the side of your knife. Transfer the garlic paste to the bottom of a pasta bowl. Using a fork, mix the garlic into 2 ladles of starchy pasta cooking water, about 1 1/2 cups. Add the tomatoes to the bowl and mash them with a potato masher until a sauce forms and tomatoes are well combined with garlic broth. Add penne, grated cheese, arugula and basil and toss a minute or 2 to allow the pasta to soak up flavors.

*Recipe from Rachael Ray, courtesy of Food Network.

**We also thawed out some frozen shrimp and tossed it in with the pasta the last couple minutes of cooking, then tossed it at the end. Yum!

Things to Do With a Can of Pumpkin: Part I

I had a can of pumpkin I opened to try in my morning oatmeal. I kept hearing how good it would be so I was excited...yeah, not so good. I was disappointed but then set on a mission to find other fun new recipes to use with the remainder of the pumpkin.

Part I

First, I tried out these Pumpkin Muffins. If it's any indication how good they are, I don't have any photos because we ate them so fast! So moist and light and yummy! This made it onto my list of favorites pretty quickly.

Pumpkin Muffins

Serves: 12
Source: Gourmet Magazine

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Put oven in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Sift together flour and baking powder.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about three-fourths full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

Stay tuned for Part II coming soon!

Addicted to Etsy

I spend way too many of my nighttime hours perusing Etsy, but it's an addiction I have trouble breaking.

Here are this week's favorite finds:

























1. Obsessing over these tea light holders...made out of pages from the dictionary! Talk about my favorite votives ever!

2. Gingham cherry apron? Hello!

3. I will never get over the duckie addiction. This is too cute!

4. These just crack me up. Bookmarks made out of book covers from the Twilight series. I do love the colors though.

5. Mmm cupcakes. I love anything with a cupcake on it! These gift tags are so fun.

Beauty on the Cheap

I'm not a total girly girl, but I love being pampered like there's no tomorrow. I have come to the conclusion after much research that I'm just not a massage kind of person. My vice is facials. Last year I decided to get a facial monthly to help my skin be as perfect as possible for my wedding day (it worked!); but I also didn't want to break the bank.

Instead, I started frequenting the local beauty school of cosmetology (here's a great one with branches all across the country: Marinello Schools of Beauty). Prices range from $15 on up to $40 and they are definitely worth the price.

You might not be in a private spa room, but it's actually very quiet and relaxing and the students are monitored by trained teachers, so I actually feel like they focus more and put in more attention than at some professional spas and salons I've visited for the same services. I highly recommend! Had a great one today and it was fabulous! A 90-minute deep pore facial for $30? Talk about a great deal! (And they have coupons for 50% off all the time, too!)

There are also massage schools in my area (probably yours, too; Google to find out!) and professional massage therapists oversee students or perform massages themselves.

These schools are also great places to get hair styled (I've been afraid to get it cut by a student since I was in college, but I have friends who do it regularly and happily), nails done, etc. Happy pampering!

Balsamic-Glazed Salmon and Garlic Snap Peas

By request, here are a couple of my favorite NO-CARB recipes. :)

The first one is a more recent find, a South Beach Diet recipe. The latter is a favorite, and since I bought a giant bag of sugar snap peas at Costco last weekend, it's also one I've made twice this week and will probably make again before the weekend is out. It's actually the P.F. Chang's recipe. Yum! No photos today but if I make the snap peas again, I'll take a pic for you all.

Balsamic-Glazed Salmon

4 6-ounce salmon fillets
1 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt
Pepper

Heat oven to 450.

Season salmon with salt and pepper; place in ovenproof baking dish and bake until opaque throughout, 10 to 12 minutes.

While fish is cooking, place vinegar in small saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until reduced to 1/3 cup, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat, whisk in oil and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Place salmon on serving plates and drizzle with glaze.

*You can also try this glaze on chicken, pork, or grilled steaks.

P.F. Chang's Garlic Snap Peas

2 cups fresh sugar snap peas
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (I've also used my trusty olive oil)
1/8 teaspoon salt
Dash ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced (if you are a garlic lover like me, I will sometimes add more)

1. Prepare snap peas by cutting off tips on each end of pod (or buy the pretrimmed to save time).

2. Preheat oil in wok or medium skillet over medium-high heat.

3. Saute snap peas in oil with salt and pepper for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, tossing often, until peas are cooked, but still crispy.

4. Add garlic and saute one more minute. Serve!

Recipe from Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2: More Amazing Clones of Famous Dishes from America's Favorite Restaurant Chains by Todd Wilbur.

My Black Thumb

I've been waiting all year for this time to come. It's been months in the making and it's finally here! We moved into our home almost two years ago and since that time I've been wanting to plant an herb garden on our patio. We moved too late for planting season and last year I was too crazy busy with finding/starting a new job, sadly leaving my old job, and doing something else big...oh, that's right, planning my wedding. So life was too busy for me to deal with getting dirt under my nails.

But not this year! This year my awesome husband took matters into his own hands, determined we were getting our herbs this season. They are everywhere right now and we'd been price checking at every store we went to (we finally decided Wal-Mart and Home Depot had the best deals and selection). He really took the lead on this one, and was the enforcer in our little gardening experiment.


Now I have to go off on a tangent for a minute and say that we are a great match for each other. I'm not gonna be modest here 'cause it's pointless. We really work well together. Case in point: I like to vacuum, he likes to mop. I like to bake, he loves to cook. I like to play on my computer, and he can fix it for me I inevitably break it. He's handy with stuff like tools and I ... well, I like to alphabetize stuff. I do the laundry ... and he leaves it in a pile on the floor. Hmmm.

Anyway! We balance well in most areas. But when it comes to gardening, we've both got the blackest thumbs you ever did see (I could make a comment about my mother here, and believe me, I've thought of several good ones, but I think she reads this blog and I value my life too much). I always traded chores with my brother growing up so I wouldn't have to do any of the outdoorsy stuff (like weeding, raking leaves, anything with dirt). I'm not that much of a girly girl but I HATE having dirt under my nails. Sadly, my husband is the same if not worse. So we have a quandary.

But despite the odds against us we forged ahead!! We bought a bag of soil, 8 little pots of herbs, a watering can, gardening gloves, and a couple planters. And, ta-da! Herbs. I really hope they don't die. We're six days out and so far they are thriving, or at least still looking green.

By the way, I went to Vons this morning and SCORE! They have the cheapest herbs around! $1.99 each, and they had a better selection than anywhere else we looked. Go figure. So if my starter herbs make it through the next couple weeks, I may be adding another row to our garden. Oh, we also planted some garlic but nothing has sprouted yet so we can't tell if we've killed it, drowned it, dried it out, or if something down there might actually be growing.