Bacon cupcakes rock!

Today was our best friend Mike's birthday!  Mike loves bacon.  He will eat an entire pound of bacon at once!  So I knew I had to make him bacon cupcakes. This recipe was adapted from All Recipes. Of course I substituted Pamela's gluten free baking mix for the flour and leavening agents.  Everything else was as written.  I used all natural, uncured, hickory smoked bacon.  I don't like all the chemicals that are in normal bacon.  For the icing I decided on a simple ganache.  I heated one cup of heavy cream and stirred in a 12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips until smooth.  Then I topped the cupcakes.  Perfection!  They really are good.  My husband was totally weirded out by the bacon, it was too much for him!  Everyone else loved them.  The saltiness of the bacon accentuates the sweetness of the dark chocolate.  Really a unique and delicious cupcake!

In other news I am cooking more due to gluten restrictions.  I love deli roasted chicken for quick and easy dinners but I noticed the ones at Kroger's are not gluten free!  So the past couple of weeks I have been roasting a chicken at the start of the week and using it for a couple of quick dinners and lunches!  As you may notice I do not tie the legs.  This is because I'm too forgetful to buy the twine.  I've read it makes the chicken more moist  but I've not had any trouble without it.  I make this the simplest way possible.  I rinse and dry the chicken, rub it with olive oil and Bragg's seasoning mix plus salt and pepper.  I then put it in the oven at 350 for about an hour and forty minutes.  I let it rest for about 20 minutes and dig in!  The night I make it we will have the legs and thighs with a salad and baked potato.  Then I'll shred some and take for lunch with beans and rice or in a greek salad with lettuce, olives, and feta.   The rest I put in soups or casseroles.  Another good lunch idea is of course chicken salad!

I mix the shredded chicken with Hellman's olive oil mayo, sliced seedless grapes, and toasted pecans.  Served over greens.  Simple and delicious like most of the best things in life!

Happiness and it's causes!

First off I want everyone to know that Lori is giving away a book on her blog this week!  It's called Lose the Diet.  I think it sounds like a great book because I hate "diets" and think they are silly!  You have until Sunday to enter! 

Speaking of Lori she has passed an award on to me!  The  Happy 101!  I now must list 10 things that make me happy!  These are in no particular order by the way!   

1.  My family!   I have a great husband and daughter and we laugh together often! Plus 2 cute nephews!
2. My friends!  I have some of the best! Anytime I'm down they cheer me right up!
3. Hate to put TV shows on here but honestly The Office, Seinfeld, and the Twilight Zone make me really happy!
4. Cooking and baking.  Trying new recipes is so much fun!
5. Museums.  Seeing history and art up close is amazing!
6.Traveling.  I wish I could do more of it.  I love exploring different places!
7. Eating.  Sad as it seems this may be my favorite recreational activity! lol!
8. Reading a good book.  I prefer fiction. Favorites are Charlene Harris, Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell, Sue Grafton, and so many more.
9. A perfect cup of coffee or tea.  Especially with scones.  Except now they must be gluten free scones!
10.  Sleeping.  Yep, I love, love, love to sleep!  I'm so lazy!


I pass this award on to anyone and everyone who wants to share their happiness! :)

Rum makes everything better!

This weekend was one of my best friend's birthdays!  I invited her over for lunch.  I served shephard's pie (which I've blogged about before) along with rum cake and rum fudge! You can never have too much rum! ;)

First up the fudge!  I got the idea from Steph Chows.  She made coconut fudge with Captain Morgans last week. At the time I had banana rum so I thought I'd sub that.  Then I decided I should add macadamia nuts and make it Tropical Fudge!  So I did.  I'd never made fudge but this was soooo easy!
In a saucepan I poured 1 (14oz) can low fat Eagle brand condensed milk.  Then I added one bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I simmered until the chocolate melted then added one shot of banana rum and stirred until creamy.  I removed the pan from heat and added 2 handfuls of sweetened flaked coconut and around 2 handfuls of chopped macadamias.  Then I poured it into a 8 in. pan lined with wax paper and threw in the fridge overnight.  It turned out perfect!  My friends said it was the best fudge they'd ever had so I was pretty proud of it!

For her birthday cake I made a rum cake.  I got the recipe from Recipezaar.  Naturally I had to make a few changes.  First up I used Captain Morgans rum because I'm not crazy about vanilla and I thought spiced rum would be better.  My second big change was obviously making it gluten free.  I subbed the flour in the recipe for Pamela's Baking mix and omitted the leavening agents.  I must confess though that I misplaced my non-stick cooking spray and tried to drizzle the pan with canola oil.  The cake stuck pretty bad and came out in four pieces! lol!  The taste however was out of this world!  Seriously the best cake I EVER ate. You totally couldn't tell it was gluten free!  I am making myself one for my own birthday in a couple of weeks!

Here is me with the birthday girl!  She seemed to enjoy her lunch!  I just love cooking for people! :)

Tired of snow!

I must escape to the tropics soon.  I can't take anymore snow.  It has pretty much snowed non-stop since a week before Christmas!  It's ridiculous!  We are currently expecting around 8 inches.  Fun, fun!

Well I didn't photograph tonights dinner.  It was breakfast for dinner night and I tried making eggs in a cast iron skillet.  One word: UGLY.  Tasted okay just mangled.  Not photo-worthy.  Normally I would skip blogging until I had something exciting to blog about but I was randomly awarded:

from Susan.  This requires me to give readers 7 random facts about myself so here goes!

1. I've had the same best friend for almost 30 years.  We met when I was two!

2.  I wanted to a psychologist when I was little but now I'm an accountant at a mental health clinic.

3.  I went ziplining in Belize and a lady had a heart attack and died in front of us.

4. I have no tonsils or gallbladder.

5. I'm only 4'11.  My husband is 6'5.

6. I've had every color hair but green and blue.  Purple was my favorite.

7. Embarrassingly I don't think I have 7 readers to pass this on to but I'll try! :(

Erin

Steph

Lori

April

Mikey

Leah

Nicole

First Post of 2010! Better late than never I guess!

What a decade.  It went by crazy fast! At the dawn of the year 2000 I was a divorced mother attending beauty school.  I"m starting this decade as a happily married accountant with a teenager!  A lot can happen in ten years, eh?

Top ten things in my life of the past 10 years!
1. Became a beauty school drop-out!
2. Went to college and got a bachelor's in accounting
3. Met my husband!

4. Was blessed with two adorable nephews, Logan and Landyn!

5. Went to Disney World!
6. Discovered my love of Savannah, GA...twice!
7. Got married!
8.  Went on a wonderful cruise!

9.  Made some great new friends!

10. Got my first job that's not in retail or a call center!

Here is my first action of the decade!  Shooting my friend's riot gun! We're in WV.  Things like this are acceptable here! ;P

The rest of New Year's day was spent enjoying family.  Like my nephew Landyn.  He's going to be one this month!

I don't make resolutions...so I'm not starting a diet plan or an exercise plan at the moment.  I'm going to first get my health straightened out and then go from there.  No pressure.  No remorse at year's end!  My only quasi-resolution is to be more in the moment from now on!  I want to experience many more great things this decade than last! 

Christmas accomplished!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!  My family was very blessed this year.  First of all I am typing this blog from my new Dell Inspiron mini!  I really wanted a netbook quite badly but I knew it was out of our price range this year.  As luck would have it my husband went to an IT conference a couple of months back and won one!!! He kept it a secret and gave it to me on Christmas Eve.  I'm still not fully recovered from the excitement.  I also got a new camera.  A Canon Powershot.  A big upgrade from my last camera!

Christmas Eve I stayed up late making bourbon balls.  I had a hard time with these as they were hard to form without melting and obviously once formed you have to work fast with the chocolate.  They don't look too pretty but they tasted amazing!  I could've eaten every single one.  I must say I made twice this many but the first batch fell out of the fridge into the floor! :(  I used this recipe for Kentucky Bourbon Balls.  I did use a few extra tablespoons of bourbon and a bit extra powdered sugar to make it easier to roll.  I also put the mix in the freezer for an hour or so instead of waiting overnight in the fridge.  Honestly these were a huge pain in the ass to make but they are so delicious I'll make them again for certain!

Here is a picture of me and my daughter enjoying the finished product.  She wasn't really eating hers, just posing!  They are an interesting creation because straight from the fridge you barely taste the bourbon...let them sit on the counter for an hour or so and you would probably fail a breathalzyer! lol!

Here is a gift I was very excited about!  Mom and Dad got me the cast iron skillet I've been wanting forever and have been to lazy to buy.  I am excited to start cooking with it!

Christmas dinner was delicious and gluten free!  Mom made her famous deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes.  I made the cranberry sauce and some Bob's Red Mill wonderful bread mix.  We had ham and turkey!  It was amazing!  The best meal I've had in weeks!  The best part of Christmas was enjoying time with my family!  We spent the day playing Beatles Rock band!  Even my parents were singing along!  Such fun!

Today was the last of our Christmas festivities!  Our friends Jessi and Danielle were to have a party last week but it got snowed out and was rescheduled for today!  It was an all appetizer party!  Everything was delicious.  Just for me they got gluten free crackers and made gluten free brownies!  I was also able to enjoy several of the dips!  I'm so glad I have friends who make special accommodations for me!  I know how hard and expensive gluten free can be so I would never expect anyone to cater to me but they insisted!  I am so very lucky to be blessed with great friends and a great family!

New Year's is fast approaching.  I can't believe 2009 has passed so fast!

Christmas Eve Mayhem!

It's been a crazy week.  Last Friday things were looking good.  We were invited to a party that night, I was getting together with my best friends Saturday afternoon, and we had another party to attend on Sunday.  Well Friday afternoon it started snowing and kept snowing for three days.  Two feet of snow.  We were snowed in all weekend!  No parties! 

Cocoa didn't know what to think of it at first.  He was a bit bewildered.  He grew to accept the snow and almost like it!

Even enough to go for a walk with me!

While snowed in I watched Food, Inc.  I never wanted to eat again!  LOL!

I quickly recovered upon making cranberry bliss bars!  I followed the linked recipe except I used Pamela's Gluten Free baking mix (which is WONDERFUL) and for the icing I only used 1 cup of powdered sugar. Also I skipped the white chocolate drizzle.  Seemed unnecessary.  These are so delicious.  Make them and you will be glad you did!

Well I must go.  We have a get together at my father in laws house in a few minutes.