a99kitten's Musings

I *had* to swing by Stanford Shopping Center today so *had* to swing by Sprinkles since I had to walk right by it to get to my car…after I strategically parked in the first spot available closest to the Sprinkles door…

I purchased 2 cupcakes for me: a red velvet cupcake and a peanut butter chip cupcake. The red velvet I don’t even need to discuss as we all know they are DELICIOUS! If you have never been to a Sprinkles, but feel like going..get a red velvet. Don’t muck about with other flavors – just go straight to the heart :) Once you are hooked, you can be adventurous and add other flavors to your order.

Now, since I am a Sprinkles veteran (what? why are you looking at me like that?) I added a peanut butter chip to my order. If you don’t like peanut butter that much – just pass this one by. HOWEVER, if you are like me and love peanut butter – GET THIS! OHMYGOSH – so peanut-buttery!!! This thing was delish – highly recommended for peanut butter fans. Each bite was a like eating a spoon full of peanut butter but mixed in with cakey goodness. Nomnomnom!

Of course, no visit to Sprinkes is complete without pupcakes for my boys. If you get these for your doggies…ummm…remember to take the paper cup off first…luckily I got it back form Angelus and got the paper off :)

Pupcake for Angelus!

Pupcake for Storm!

I’m fairly certain there no cuter dogs in the entire universe :) They thoroughly enjoyed their treats…and asked where the rest of the dozen were :)

So I bought some of the spaghetti Shirataki tofu noodles and wanted to try to make a yum and quick spaghetti for lunch. I LOVE spaghetti!!!

I made up this “recipe” on my own :) Ok, ummm…a 3 year-old could have as well :)

Spaghetti Ingredients = 3!

I used the entire package of noodles for me. They are low cal and I am hungry :) You just need to drain them. At home – easy as I have a colander. Here at work, I just cut a tiny hole in the corner of the package and squirted the water out, using a paper towel to cover the hole so as not to lose any noodles (hey – I said I am hungry!!)

Then I microwaved them in a tupperware bowl for 1 minute. Then drain again and pat try (the back of the package says we are doing this to “reduce the authentic aroma”. Hmmm…reducing aromas from food…ok (???)

Then I added 1 serving (1/2 cup) of the Prego Heart Smart sauce and 1/2 a serving (1/8 cup) of the shredded Parmesan cheese (I couldn’t find the reduced fat one so just bought normal fat type.) Mix well and then microwave again for 1 minute and voila:

Yummy, fast, cheap and healthy lunch!

This lunch is EASY! And I just tried it and it is YUMMY! The noodles were 40 cals (6 grams of carbs, 1g of fat); sauce was 90 cals and cheese 55 cals! = 185 calories for a yummy lunch!! I’m SOLD!! I am so, so, so sold on these Shirataki tofu noodles.

Now the biggest challenge will not be spilling red sauce on my cute Banana Republic dress…green and WHITE dress…

But I am SO making this for lunch on a regular basis! Would I like a piece of buttery and cheesy garlic bread to soak up the leftover saice – of course I would! But this is bikini season people :)

Decided to make tonight a girl night. A friend came over, make some girl-friendly (i.e. bikini season approaches friendly) dinner, have a glass of bubbly and watch a chick flick. You know – the kind that makes men roll their eyes  ;)

We made some of the Hungry Girl Fettuccine Girlfredo. YUM! Still cannot get over how good this is. I showed my friend how easy it was and assimilated another member into the Borg collective :) And her roommate I think too :)

Here is the concoction after mixing but needing 1 more run in the microwave!

Almost done

This dinner is so quick and easy, I’d eat it several times a week easy! Now…we did add a few extra calories with a glass of bubbly…but it was girl’s night!

Dinner is served

Storm wanted to know where his portion was since he guarded the kitchen from marauders all evening…

Storm wonders where his serving is..

Movie time! We had Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants  2 and Baby Mama. We decided on Pants 2 because we had both seen Pants 1 and loved it!  I would say it was not quite as good as the first one. But thoroughly enjoyable. And NO crying. This part was *most* appreciated. A good lesson to take away is that life will keep you busy, and you might seem to drift away from those you are closest to. But don’t ever think they are very far, or not thinking of you and caring about you. And to make the time to see them, to care about them, be there for them and allow them to be there for you. Your relationships are what matter. You choose your friends and they choose you.

Ok, enough of that. Time for sleep. I have fluffy alarm clocks that do not care what time I go to sleep :)

Ok, next stop on my cupcake tasting experiment!

Today is a grand experiment! I have never baked cupcakes from scratch – no boxed mix! There are no store-bought red velvet cake mixes that I know of (Sprinkles sells one I think though) so I figured go with making something I couldn’t get a mix for anyway. Especially since I won’t attempt chocolate cupcakes from scratch as Dough Boy and Betty do such a GREAT job with their nummy mixes :)

I found this recipe on www.pinchmysalt.com when I was searching for a homemade cream cheese frosting recipe. It seemed easy-ish (knock on wood…) Not toooooo many ingredients or crazy prep work.

My hand mixer is in Tahoe so I will be breaking out the Kitchen Aid countertop mixer that we got as a wedding gift. 10 years ago. And I think this might be the first time I’ve used it :) Excellent maiden voyage (after I clean the layer of dust off of it!!)  :)

Here are the ingredients:

Red Velvet cupcake ingredients

You need to use room temperature eggs and buttermilk (clearly diet cupcakes…) and softened butter so plan that a little early (unlike me who had to wait a while after planning to start!) :)

Had to sift and then re-sift the flour. Between this and the cheese grating from last week, I learned to switch off hands doing it so both the left and the right are equally as sore. I wonder if boys do that too :-0

So you make the red part of red velvet using red dye (I read other ways to do this in other recipes but I like this recipe.) Oh, and..so…red DYE stains your fingers…go figure :)

Red part of recipe

Then you mix, and mix and mix some more of the various bowls of ingredients (the butter/sugar mixture, the flour mixture, the red and cocoa mixture (above) and then the the vinegar and baking soda (science class time – it fizzes!) mixture last.  p.s this mixer was AWESOME. To quote Ferris Bueller “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”

Batter up!

Then you fill your cupcake pans using an ice cream scoop.  At first I thought that was goofy but it works great!!

Now you bake for 20 minutes and voila! 24 naked cupcakes!

Naked cupcakes

Now I let them cool for a while (so I could get other chores in the house done!) and then frosted them with the same cream cheese frosting I tested a couple weeks ago, also from www.pinchmysalt.com:\. I used red sprinkles to decorate :)

YUM! - Done!

Storm wanted to help with the cupcakes….

Storm wants to help frost cupcakes..

His argument was that these were not chocolate! I told him we had to use cocoa so no dice..he asked why I didn’t make pupcakes then. Good question!

I just tried one…yum….

Bite!

Would I make them again JUST for me? No..I’d just drive to Sprinkles for a cupcake. But if I needed to bring cupcakes to something, it was someone’s birthday or someone wanted them – yes, they are quite tasty :)

Now I am putting 3 in tupperware for home and the rest into other tupperware to take to the office to make them fat :)

Recipes here: http://pinchmysalt.com/2009/02/04/red-velvet-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/

Today I went to the K&L Wine in Redwood City for their “Sparkling Wines From All Over The World” tasting.  5 of us from work met there.

The tasting was only $15 which I thought was pretty reasonable as there were 9 bubblys to taste.  I arrived on time and everyone else was late :) so I spent some time talking to one of the guys (Gary) who worked there (as a Champagne buyer – excellent job!) and he was telling me all about the Champagne region, smaller places to visit, restaurants, etc. I just finished reading “The Widow Cliquot” so am quite excited to visit the region (and of course I LOVE bubbly.) He was very friendly and informative and spent about 25 minutes chatting with me about champagne: the business of champagne, the region of Champagne and, of course, drinking champagne and what we’d be tasting today :)

More and more people started coming in the store so he had to move on and help others so I went into their tasting room to start my tasting as my friends STILL weren’t there!  The girl that was pouring was very friendly and informative.  She wasn’t a snotty wine snob in ANY way and she said she preferred bubbly too (like me!) As were the other 2 women who were there tasting. So I was in good company right away :)

We tried:

-Jean-Francois Merieau “Bulles” Touraine Sparkling (Loire Valley, FR) *good*
-Dibon Cava Brut NV (Spain) *very good*
-Bianchi Extra Brut NV (Argentina) *good*
-2005 Argyle Willamette Valley Brut (Oregon) *pretty good*
-Launois “Quartz” Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne (Champagne, FR) *meh*
-Cremant de Limoux Rosé Antech “Emotion” (Limoux, FR) *very good*
-Taltarni Brut Rosé “Tache” Sparkling Wine (Tasmania) *good*
-Ca Berti Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro “Robusco” (Italy) *meh*
-NV Majella Sparkling Shiraz (Australia) *ok*

I used very technical ratings in astericks next to each name :)  I found it funny that I liked the French Champagne the least. Kinda makes me laugh since they are so snotty about being the only ones able to call their sparkling wine “champagne”.  I’ve read the reasoning, blah, blah. I have tasted California Sparkling, Cava and Prosecco that are all very delicious. So they don’t need the the ‘champagne’ label. But if I call it champagne in casual conversation – I don’t want to be corrected by some dolt who thinks I don’t know it’s “only Champagne if it comes from the Champagne region.” (NO ONE at K&L did that!!!)

I bought a bottle of the Cremant de Limoux Rosé Antech “Emotion”. Was my favorite of the bunch. And reasonable! $14.99.  I also bought a tiny bottle of Soligo Prosecco Brut. I bought it for 2 reasons: 1) the bottle and label had a black & silver combo – very pretty!

Tiny Prosecco!

And 2) To add to the now growing collection of tiny bottles on my desk at work :)

Bubbly on desk :)

If you ever want a good, inexpensive and local bubbly (or wine) tasting, I suggest checking the schedule for K&L.  You can sign up for their email list and then you will see when they schedule them! They have 2 locations in the Bay Area (SF and Redwood City) and 1 in LA:

http://www.klwines.com/default.asp

I recently started following @hungrygirl on twitter. Which then led me to sign up for daily emails. She sends really good recipes and information in her emails. The one that caught my eye…the one that got me to sign up for her emails was the Fettuccine Alfredo with 80(ish) calories and 9g of carbs – WHAT?!?!?

I love pasta. When I say I love pasta, I mean I LOVE PASTA. I would live on carbs solely if it didn’t mean I went up 2 sizes.  I want to visit Italy so badly but I know that, while I will go see all there is to see there, I will want to EAT!

Hungry Girl’s recipe uses tofu noodles. I am normally not a big fan of tofu…like..AT ALL…but I figured I should give the tofu noodles a chance.  It’s a super easy recipe that takes like 5 minutes of prep/”cooking”.  You can find the recipe here: http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=468

The only challenge might in finding the tofu noodles. I found them at the Piazza’s grocery store by my office (score!) The website offers shipping as well: http://www.house-foods.com/Tofu/tofu_shirataki.aspx

I got home from work tonight and was starving! But I was also exhausted so didn’t want to spend any time cooking. So this recipe was perfect!! It took 5 minutes. And the only “cooking” involved was the microwave.

I have to admit, I was very skeptical on taste as I read the recipe and made it.  But I was willing to try since, if I could find any form of low-carb pasta that tasted good, I would be elated.

This pasta was delicious!!! No kidding! Now, the recipe calls for 1/2 of a Laughing Cow wedge of cheese but I used a whole one. But besides that, I followed the recipe and it turned out great! The calories following the recipe is 80, fat 3g and carbs 9g.  Now I altered this slightly with the whole wedge but don’t believe it to be by that much.  So this is a GREAT healthy and quick lunch or dinner option!!

I am now sold on this tofu noodles option! I need to go buy more :) Now…not to say I am so full that I couldn’t eat more food but I feel more full than if I had eaten a Lean Cuisine or some other diet dinner thingie.  And WAY less sodium, calories and chemicals.

So if you are looking for a low-carb option for pasta, check these tofu noodles out.  And if you want a low fat or low-cal recipe for yummy pasta, check out hungry girl (she also has several books/cookbooks that I now want to check out!) http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hungry+girl&x=0&y=0

I should have taken pictures but was too starving…next time as there WILL be a next time. Like…this weekend!! And I can’t wait to try another of Hungry Girl’s recipes! :)

Update this morning: I just ordered the 2 Hungry Girl cookbooks from Amazon. Definitely willing to give more of her recipes a try :)

Yesterday I tried a cupcake from Sugar Butter Flour (Campbell, CA.) I have never been there or tried anything from there  before now and, since I am doing my great cupcake experiment, I wanted to try one :) Was supposed to try Kara’s (at Santana Row) but we forgot in our post-brunch-get-to-the-shopping haze :)

My friend bought 4 cupcakes. 3 of them looked like a homemade version of the historic Hostess Cupcake.

Hostess

The 4th stepchild cupcake looked like a vanilla/whitecake with chocolate frosting. But I did not try that one. I was still so amazingly full from brunch that it seemed like I would be committing a deadly sin (GLUTTON!) by eating more…But…there they were…

SugarButterFlour cupcakes

So I had 1/2 of the Hostess looking one (the officially and aptly named “Chocolate Cupcake”.) My friend kept them in the fridge so they were cold (she had picked them up that morning so they were fresh.) I think this actually helped as the cake was still moist because they were fresh from that morning and the frosting was cold so it seemed more fudgey.  Quite tasty. I would definitely say better than the 2 chocolate flavors I have tried at Sprinkles (have tried the Black & White and Vanilla Milk Chocolate flavors there.)

So I feel I need to try other flavors there (Red Velvet and perhaps the Coconut.) http://www.sugarbutterflour.com/products/Cupcakes.htm

So onto the next place. I am thinking I *might* make some homemade red velvet this weekend! Yikes….:)

I love macaroni & cheese.  Like, I love, love, love it. In any form – fancy restaurant multi cheese, baked, infused with truffle oil, weird cheeses, whatever or simple Kraft blue box mac and cheese. Love it.

I have boxes of mac & cheese in my cupboard (Velveeta, Kraft and Safeway’s Organic brand) and a few frozen entrees from Stouffer’s, Lean Cuisine and Trader Joe’s in the freezer. I don’t eat it very often though…I guess maybe just saving up for the Apocalypse when I no longer care about a bikini-ready tummy ;-)

Then one of the foodie people that I follow on twitter mentioned a delicious cookbook about mac & cheese. WHAT? So I searched for it on Amazon. Found it. Ordered it. Bad news for the low-carb diet plan :)  (the book is “Macaroni & Cheese 52 Recipes, from Simple to Sublime” by Joan Schwartz.

So tonight is my first try and a recipe from the cookbook.  I am trying the “Comfort Diner Mac and Cheese” Page 30. I *think* it’s the same one on the cover of the book. But I couldn’t find any reference to the cover photo.

This one seemed like a simple enough recipe so I thought a good start :)

mac-and-cheese-ingredients

Had to grate the american and fontina cheese. So have you ever tried to grate american cheese? Umm…not so easy. The reason it is so awesome for grilled cheese, etc is because it’s nice and soft. And this great fact makes grating it a PAIN! But that’s ok :) Grated half of it and then chopped the rest into teeny, tiny bits.  The Fontina grating was a breeze after that since it even had a skin to hold as I did it.  Thankfully you could use shredded Cheddar which means pre-packaged!

Cheese!

Once you mix all the ingredients, blend, whisk, etc. you bake. And I am making a boneless ribeye with it (using a rub I got at the Charles Krug winery!) so I am not consuming ALL carbs :)

And VOILA! Out of the oven baked goodness:

mac&cheese!!

I just took a bite…it is frackin’ delicious…I am keeping this recipe for sure!! But trying the other 51 in the recipe book :)

I have no idea how “official” this is but I *love* cheese so I am happy to support the cause :)

I am off to stores tonight to see if I can find the “Humboldt Fog”. If so, I will post some pics and a review :)

In the meantime – yum….

http://cheeseandchampagne.com/2008/12/05/humboldt-fog-california/

I love cupcakes. I have always loved cupcakes. This is not a latching-on of the trendy cupcake fascination there is today (although I like it!) So today I decided to begin my cupcake taste test :) This will be a combination of making my own and trying them at various local places.

My mom used to make homemade cream cheese frosting and it was the only frosting I ever really liked.  One time,  one of my best friend’s got the recipe from my Mom and gave the recipe to the dessert chef at Stars in San Francisco to make my cake for my birthday. I will always remember that!

Since I am in Tahoe, I didn’t want to experiment with homemade cake recipes due to the high altitude.  So today I used Betty Crocker’s Super Moist Butter Recipe Chocolate mix. It’s good. Not the best chocolate cake mix I’ve tried but good. And very soon I AM going to try the red velvet cupcake recipe on www.pinchmysalt.com! I need to compare the red velvety-ness to Sprinkles… (my favorite one of bakeries/cupcakeries so far) :)

I DID make a homemade cream cheese frosting. It is DELICIOUS! Much creamcheesier than the pre-made store ones (which are quite yummy and easy!)  I found several recipes online and chose one from pinchmysalt.com to try as my first homemade experiment.  It is very simple:

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz. cream cheese (2 packages), softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

Ingredrients!

With an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Turn mixer to low speed and blend in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract.  Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.  If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth).

Bowl o'frosting

I baked all of my cupcakes, let them all cool and then made the frosting. The frosting is quite simple and quick to make and super delicious. The cupcakes are very yummy :)

Cupcakes!

I’ve sent my husband with plates full over to our neighbors to get them OUT of my house. I packed a Tupperware container with some for the office and I know a couple friends who will probably try them for breakfast tomorrow before we go river rafting :) I will save 2 for me – one for tonight and 1 for tomorrow night.

a perfect dessert...