Simple Yet Gourmet

Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!  Do you do anything fun to celebrate? My daughter always gets really excited for this day and can't wait to see if some sneaky Leprechaun left her a scavenger hunt.  This year I decided to make this green popcorn to sneak into her lunch for a fun surprise.  I know she's going to love it!

I haven't made cupcakes in so long! When Valentine's Day was right around the corner I decided that I wanted to make some cupcakes to send into work with Aaron.  Just for fun! It seems like in the past I've always done some sort of chocolate so this year I decided to mix it up with a fruity frosting.  It ended up being amazing! I came across the idea of using Freeze Dried Strawberries for the flavor and it worked like a charm. The frosting is bursting with strawberry flavor, but without the moisture, and I even got this beautiful color to boot!  Although I made these for Valentine's Day, I'm thinking they would be perfect for Spring/Summer.  I paired these with some lemon cupcakes but they would be delicious with a variety of cakes.

One of my favorite restaurants, Zupas, has a creamy white cauliflower soup that is so good.  My love for that soup sent me on a quest to find a version I could make at home.  After trying a few different recipes, and adding a few tweaks of my own this soup was born.  Now, it's not exactly like the Zupas version, but I love this soup.  As the name implies, it is creamy and cheesy, but hearty as well thanks to the cauliflower.  You can choose to puree the cauliflower for a smooth creamy soup or leave some pieces in there if you like to have more texture in it.  Hope you like it!

A few months ago we celebrated my husband's birthday.  Last year all he wanted for his birthday were his beloved chocolate chip cookies, but this year he said I could surprise him.  I had a lot of fun looking up different cakes and trying to find the perfect one for him.  Aaron loves chocolate but doesn't like it to be too rich so this Oreo cake seemed like the perfect solution.  The cake itself is fudgy and studded with chocolate chips, but the frosting is light and not as sweet as most.  It's still plenty sweet, especially with the Oreo chunks in it, just not sickeningly sweet.  I had my doubts about this frosting seeing as it starts out with a flour base (what?) but I was really pleased with the outcome.  Overall, this cake was really fun to make and we all loved it!

I've been making these drumsticks for a while now and we love them! What started out as an attempt to find something Brynlee would like has turned into a family favorite.  Aaron even requested these for his birthday dinner.  They are simple to make and are really tasty. The drumsticks marinate in the sauce for a few hours, then while they are in the oven the sauce is simmered down till it's sweet and sticky with just a hint of garlic and rosemary.  Seriously, you should try these. Just have some napkins on hand because your fingers will get sticky.  These are what you call finger-licking-good.

I wanted to make a fun treat for family movie night and this was perfect! Sweet, salty, crunchy, and chocolatey.  I couldn't stop eating this.  It was so good!  

School might be in session but temps are still in the 90's.  As much as I wish it was Fall, Summer is still here, and in that spirit here is a delightfully different type of homemade ice "cream".  This is made with coconut milk in place of milk and cream which might sound a little odd but it works! The base was still creamy and delicious but had a mild taste of coconut which went great with the strawberries.  It froze a little harder than traditional ice cream, but  I found a few seconds in the microwave helped it get to a nice consistency.