Foodbuzz is on YouTube

Take a look
~ A word of warning.... it will make you hungry =)

Seth's Baseball Cupcakes

My son Seth turned three on Friday. We were having a picnic with his preschool class today so I made cupcakes to celebrate. Seth is unexplainable obsessed with baseball, so I decorated the cupcakes like balls and made a little fondant bat and glove for his cupcake.

Shanthi's Cupcakes

My sister's friend was getting married and wanted cupcakes. She wanted fondant buttons on top, made of her wedding colors. They were much cuter on the stands, but I forgot to bring my camera!

Daisy Cakes

I had two friends I wanted to thank - and so I made them cakes with daisies - the friendliest flower!

Potato Kielbasa Skillet Dinner

This was surprisingly very yum, yum yummy!!!

Potato Kielbasa Skillet

1 pound red potatoes, cubed

3 tablespoons water

3/4 pound smoked kielbasa or Polish sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon pepper

4 cups fresh baby spinach

5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled (I used Hormel bacon pieces)

Place potatoes and water in a microwave safe dish. Cover and microwave on high for 4 minutes or until tender; drain.

In a large skillet, saute kielbasa and onion in oil until onion is tender. Add potatoes; saute 3-5 minutes longer or until kielbasa and potatoes are lightly browned.

Combine the brown sugar, vinegar, mustard thyme and pepper; stir into skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Add spinach and bacon; cook and stir until spinach is wilted.

Easy Chicken Cacciatore

This is a two-thumbs-up recipe!!

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup flour

1 cup thinly sliced onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 16-ounce can whole tomatoes

1 8-ounce can tomato sauce

1/2 pound sliced mushrooms

1/4 teaspoon sal

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon basil

Dredge chicken in flour. In a skillet heat oil on medium heat. Brown chicken in oil, remove from pan.

In the same skillet, sauté onions, pepper, mushrooms and garlic. Stir in remaining ingredients. Add chicken and cover. Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. Serve over thin spaghetti.

Serve Chicken Cacciatore with a tossed garden salad and Italian bread for a quick and easy family meal.

YUMMY!!!

Halloween Puzzle Cookies

This is a great recipe to make with your kids. I came across this in a newsletter that I get emailed and thought I would pass along. It's from the Better Homes and Gardens website if you want to check out other halloween recipes they have. Enjoy =)

Ingredients

• 1/4  cup all-purpose flour
• 1  18-ounce roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 2  egg yolks
• 2  teaspoons water
•   Food coloring

Directions

1. In a medium bowl knead flour into sugar cookie dough. Divide dough into 6 portions. On an ungreased cookie sheet, pat each portion into a 5-inch square. Press a well-floured 3- to 4-inch Halloween cookie cutter into the square (use smaller cutters, if desired). Carefully remove cookie cutter without removing dough. Using a table knife, cut outside portion of square into large puzzle pieces.

2. In a small mixing bowl beat egg yolks and water. Divide mixture among 3 or 4 small bowls. In each bowl, add 2 to 3 drops of liquid food coloring or desired amount of paste food coloring in desired color; mix well.

3. Brush dough puzzle pieces with different colors of egg yolk mixture. Apply to cookie dough with small clean paintbrush. If mixture thickens while standing, stir in water, one drop at a time.

4. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 7 to 8 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just start to brown and centers are set. While still warm, carefully recut pieces with cookie cutter and knife. Trim edges as needed. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool completely. Makes 6 puzzle cookies (24 servings).

Broiled Salmon with Onion, Tomato and Lemon

This was so good and yummy!!!

The piece of salmon that I had was huge, so I had to double the recipe and cook it longer, but I wanted leftovers for Joe to take to work. I do love salmon!!!

So here goes the recipe:

Broiled Salmon with Onion, Tomato and Lemon

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

2 tablespoons minced parsley

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 16-ounce salmon fillet with skin

4 thin onion slices

4 thin tomato slices

4 thin lemon slices

Melt butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat. Add parsley, garlic and lemon juice and simmer 2 minutes.

Preheat broiler. Place salmon on large piece of heavy-duty foil; season with salt and pepper. Brush salmon with half of the butter mixture. Arrange onion, tomato and lemon slices over the salmon. Drizzle remaining butter mixture over the top. Fold foil over the salmon and crimp edges tightly to seal. Place salmon package in broiler pan. Broil 5 inces from heat source until salmon is just cooked through, about 10 minutes.

This is what it looked like just before I put it in the oven.

Wendy's Birthday Cake

Sunday we celebrated my niece, Wendy's birthday!

It was supposed to be a surprise. But I'm not too sure it was. Hmmmm?!!

I made her a french vanilla cake with buttercream. Decorating consists of a baskestweave design on the sides, gum paste yellow rose and leaves.

And I still hate writing on cakes!!! It's amaturist!!

Wendy's family served a very nice dinner and I had a good time visiting with them and was very happy I went. We live only a several miles away from Wendy and we hardly ever see each other!!!

What's wrong with us!!!

Hope you had

a very Happy Birthday, Wendy!!!

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches

LAUNCH OF GLOBAL FOODBUZZ BLOGGER COMMUNITY

LEVERAGES REAL-PEOPLE, REAL-TIME POWER OF FOOD PUBLISHING

San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.

“Food bloggers are at the forefront of reality publishing and the dramatic growth of new media has redefined how food enthusiasts access tasty content,” said Doug Collister, Executive Vice President of Foodbuzz, Inc. “Food bloggers are the new breed of local food experts and at any minute of the day, Foodbuzz is there to help capture the immediacy of their hands-on experiences, be it a memorable restaurant meal, a trip to the farmers market, or a special home-cooked meal.”

Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions. Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors.

“Our goal is to be the number-one online source of quality food and dining content by promoting the talent, enthusiasm and knowledge of food bloggers around the globe,” said Ben Dehan, founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, Inc.

The Foodbuzz blogger community is growing at a rate of 40 percent per month driven by strong growth in existing partner blogs and the addition of over 100 new blogs per month. “The Foodbuzz.com Web site is like the stock of a great soup. The Web site provides the base or backbone for bloggers to interact as a community, contribute content, and have that content buzzed by their peers,” said Mr. Dehan.

Global Blogging Event

Demonstrating the talent and scope of the Foodbuzz community, 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs offered online food enthusiasts an international, virtual street festival of food and diversity. The new feature showcased blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz partner bloggers chronicling events occurring around the globe during a 24 hour period and included:

• Mid-Autumn Festival Banquest (New York, NY)
• The "Found on Foodbuzz" 24-Item Tasting Menu (San Francisco, CA)
• Aussie BBQ Bonanza – Celebrating Diversity (Sydney, Australia)
• The Four Corners of Carolina BBQ Road Trip (Charleston, SC)
• Criminal Tastes – An Illegal Supper (Crested Butte, CO)
• From Matambre to Empanadas: An Argentine Dinner (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• A Sweet Trompe l’oeil (Seattle, WA)

“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” captures the quality and unique local perspective of our food bloggers and shared it with the world,” said Ryan Stern, Director of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community. “It illustrates exactly what the future of food publishing is all about – real food, experienced by real people, shared real-time.”

About Foodbuzz, Inc.

Based in San Francisco, Foodbuzz, Inc., launched its beta Web site, foodbuzz.com, in 2007. In less than a year, Fooduzz.com and its community of over 1,000 exclusive partner food blogs have grown into an extended online property that reaches more than three million users.

Cinnamon Muffins

This is nice for the cool fall months that are approaching that you need something to warm you up a bit.

Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 c. milk

1/4 c. packed, brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1/2 c oil

Frosting:

Powder Sugar

Milk

Directions:

Sift together flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder salt, and cinnamon.
Combine egg, oil, milk and mix. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir just enough to moisten.
Bake muffins for 15 to 17 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

For the frosting, mix together the powder sugar and milk then frost the muffins. Enjoy!

Recipe from recipezarr

I Love Your Blog

Another award for my blog, I feel so special =) I have been awarded the I Love Your Blog reward from Caffine Mom. I'm glad you enjoy my blog and thank you. Here are a couple that I think should have the award:

Janet - What's On My Mind Today

E Sheppard - The Non-Traditional Student Blog

On another note, I plan to get a few recipes or ideas in sometime this week for Halloween since I have a bit of free time. Stay tune.

Carlee's 3rd Birthday

It's hard to believe that my little munchkin is 3 years old already!! Yet when she was born, it seems so long ago. Time has passed by so quickly!

I had the kids at my house two days before Carlee's birthday, so when Kami came to pick them up, she decided to make the kitties to go on Carlee's birthday cake.
Carlee just adores kitties, but these are the only ones that she can touch, since she is allergic to real kitties!! Kami did make some very cute ones for her.

The birthday person usually gets to have their favorite foods on their day. Since Carlee loves...I mean...LOVES...hot dogs, Kami wanted to make homemade corn dogs. It was a first for us and they came out very good!!! You can find the recipe here.

Collin handed the hot dogs to Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn dipping the hot dogs in the cornmeal mixture.

Carlee said "Heck with waiting...I'm eating mine NOW!!!"

Kaitlyn putting a corn dog in the deep fryer while Tina cooked them.

Mmmmmm Mmmmmm!!!

After we ate our meal, it was time for cake!!

I made the cake using a recipe from my big cake book that Kami gave me. She picked out an applesauce pound cake recipe that sounded good. I substituted the eggs with ENER-G egg replacer so that Carlee can eat it. I also didn't add the dates and the walnuts, even though it would have been very yummy with them! I used regular cake pans too!

Applesauce Pound Cake

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2 cups firmly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

3 cups unsweetened applesauce

1 cup chopped, pitted dates

1 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 10" tube pan.

Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt into a large bowl. Beat the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy. Add the eggs (or egg replacer), one at a time, until just blended after each addition. With the mixer at low speed, gradually beat in the dry ingredients, alternating with the applesauce. By hand, stir in the dates and walnuts. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 80-90 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes. Turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

I took the top tier of the cake off for Carlee and I dropped it!!! lol!! Good thing she didn't care!!!

BLOW!!!

I handed Carlee a fork and let her have at it!!!

The kitties tasted the best!!!

Oh Yeah!!! While we were cooking the corn dogs, some how the door to Kami and Eric's bedroom was left open and Carlee saw where they were hiding her present!! Once she saw her new doll house, there was no way she was going to wait until she opened the other presents!!!

Collin gave her a stroller for her babies.

What a nice big brother!!!

There's Carlee opening the present from Joe and I.

It's a Fisher Price All About Town toy. I thought it would help her with her development. The only thing was, is that everyone loved playing with it!!!

Even me!!!!