Honey, I shrunk the cupcakes...

Mini-cupcakes, absolutely one of my favorite things.  I've been working on fairly decadent cupcakes recently and I find that it might be best for all involved if I make them smaller.  Plus, they are just so much cuter!

Because I had been going a little crazy with the cupcake baking - and I don't like to waste anything - I had some extra Raspberry Triple Cream Frosting, enough ingredients to make Lemon Drop Frosting, and an extreme need to figure out how to make Orange Chocolate Frosting after making a batch of the Orange Chocolate Scones.

Once again I used cream cheese as my base for this frosting.  I wasn't sure at first but it provided a nice tang and compliment to the orange flavor.  Simply a combination of powdered sugar, dutch cocoa (I prefer Ghirardelli), butter, cream cheese, milk & orange juice.
Chocolate sprinkles add a nice touch and texture to these cupcakes!

I changed the Lemon Drop frosting a bit and added lemon zest to enhance the lemon flavor!  These cupcakes were a last minute treat for a girls night in...basically, a baking friend is a good friend.

Lobstah!

Just a quick little note about lobster...it's summer, we've got soft shells and sweet, juicy meat!  A nice piece of corn on the cob, hefty bowl of lemon-butter and a large napkin.  I'm all set!

 Here's a quick dessert - or breakfast treat - depending on your mood.  Simply puff pastry filled with nutella [or any jelly/jam you desire] rolled and baked until golden brown and puffy!  Sprinkle with sugar right out of the oven and you've got a lovely, little treat.

Shrimp & Lemon Pasta

Yum!  I might be over-doing it with lemon recipes in this house, but so far no complaints.  We were in the mood for some lite pasta and I had just bought some shrimp, just happened to have some lemons hanging around and everything else is always in my cabinets.  This recipe is fast, flavorful and really simple.  

Ingredients:
12-14 medium size shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails on
1-2 cups of all purpose flour
Garlic Salt - you can also use powdered garlic & sea salt
2 Tbsp. of Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. of Butter - unsalted
.5 lb. of Angel Hair pasta - really you can use whatever you prefer but the angel hair really has a nice texture with the shrimp
1/4 cup of white wine
Juice of 1-2 lemons - depends on how much lemon you want!
2 Tbsp. of Butter
Chopped fresh Parsley, to taste
Grated Parmesan Cheese


Prep:
Juice lemons
Chop parsley
Measure out ingredients and place on counter/workspace


1.  Boil salted water and cook your pasta according to package directions
2.  Mix together flour & garlic salt; dredge all of the shrimp in the flour mixture. I advise    that you do this all at once and leave shrimp in the flour mixture, you can easily pick the shrimp out to batch fry - shrimp cooks so quickly you don't want to be distracted.
3.  Heat Olive oil & butter over medium heat in a large skillet.
4.  Cook the shrimp over medium heat, 2-3 minutes per side, until shrimp is no longer translucent and heated through.
5.  Transfer shrimp to a plate
6.  Remove any overly dark pieces from the pan, pour in the white wine, lemon juice and butter to lift drippings.  Heat to a slow boil, reduce heat to simmer until mixture has thickened and reduced.  Remove from heat and toss the shrimp in the sauce.
7.  Drain pasta, toss with olive oil, fresh, chopped parsley. Serve a portion on a plate.
8.  Divide the shrimp among the portions and pour the sauce over each serving. Top with parmesan cheese if desired
9.  Enjoy!

Lemondrop Cupcakes

I love lemon.  It's absolutely one of my favorite ingredients. Give me lemon with my chicken, booze, shrimp, water, and now cupcakes!  We had a few potlucks last weekend so I had an opportunity to make a few new cupcakes for the masses.  First we're going to talk about the Lemondrop Cupcakes which were semi-homemade.  

Betty Crocker Cake Mix with homemade frosting - this is the way to go if you're in a hurry to make a dessert, buy a good mix and make your own frosting. There's nothing worse than frosting from a can, really guys, not good stuff.  So, go ahead and make the cupcakes, let them cool.  While your cupcakes are cooling, make some frosting. Start with a plain buttercream - like this one, but omit the whipping cream, use milk if needed.  

Start with the base and slowly add confectioners sugar, when you've added half, add freshly squeezed lemon juice.  Slowly add remaining confectioner's sugar, do a quick taste and decide if you need more lemon [start with 1-2 Tbls].  

Garnish the cupcakes with yellow crystals, lemon rind or candied lemon pieces [see above].  To "candy" lemon, slice a lemon into 1/8-1/4", roll in sugar.  Spray a pan with non-stick spray, heat pan and place lemons in the pan and cook for about 6-8 minutes, flipping once. Absolutely don't let them burn! You're looking for the lemons to glaze over and turn a slightly darker yellow.  

Roll the lemon slices back in some sugar and cut to an appropriate size for the cupcake. Serve & Enjoy! 

Chicken Scallopini & Broccoli Sunshine Salad

Here was a dinner that hit a home-run! I was expecting it to be just a simple dinner, another recipe to try but it was so delicious, we'll be sure to make it again soon.  I have been finding more and more that the recipes that taste the best are the ones with the simplest ingredients.  Plus, this Scallopini calls for lemon juice and it's one of my favorite flavors anyway! You may not know that Scallopini actually describes the type of meat you are using for the recipe, in this case I used chicken, not veal.  I have a hard time eating large amounts of veal and I usually reserve it for when I make bolognese sauce only.

Now, for the second treat of this meal. The Broccoli Sunshine Salad was so delicious!  So quick too, the broccoli is raw [my favorite way to eat broccoli] and the red onion mixed with lemon is just bright and wonderful.  Here's the thing with salads like this, they only get better the longer it's in the fridge allowing the flavors to mesh.  Don't be afraid to use this for a leftover or make it a day ahead of a BBQ or get-together.

This was a perfect spring/summer meal. Lite, quick and full of flavor! Enjoy!