Key Lime Cupcakes

March 15, 2018March 15, 20181 Comment

St. Patrick’s day is a mere two days away! You have probably noticed the shelves lined with Green, prepared for a day of debauchery, made plans for the Lower Greenville Parade (if you are a Dallas Resident), or maybe you just don’t care!

No matter how you feel about St. Patrick’s Day, this is a recipe that you can enjoy. If you are pro St. Patrick’s day use the green food coloring. If you are anti this Irish holiday you can omit that and you will get a white cupcake with just tiny green flakes.

T & M are allegedly a small percent Irish, so we MUST celebrate since it’s in our blood. What this likely means is that T will celebrate and M will pretend this holiday doesn’t exist.

As a parent, St. Patrick’s day is an interesting holiday because it covers two pretty big extremes. You have the children’s version involving leprechauns, pots of gold, and lucky charms and then you very quickly jump to the green beer shenanigans. There really isn’t much in between.

On the kids side, T remembers her mom taking them in the car to chase the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. There wasn’t always a rainbow on St. Patrick’s day but we would go anytime we saw one. The kids would yell at her to “TURN RIGHT HERE!” “No! It’s getting away from us go faster!” Unfortunately, we never found that pot of gold, but there is always tomorrow.

On the adult side, green beer is disgusting. SO replace that with some delicious green key lime cupcakes that you can share with the whole family! We also added some lucky charms on top to really get in the spirit. Do you have any St. Patrick’s day traditions for the whole family you can share with us?

Key Lime Cupcakes

4 1/2 C. Cake Flour
2 Tbsp. Baking Powder
3/4 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 C Milk
1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract
1 C + 2 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter, Softened
2 1/4 C. Sugar
7 Large Egg Whites
5 Limes or 9 Key Limes

For the buttercream

2 sticks Unsalted Butter, softened
1 Bag Powdered Sugar
1/2 Tbsp. Vanilla
2 Limes

Optional: green food coloring, lucky charms!

This recipe took about an hour to complete including icing and made 24 cupcakes.

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your baking tins with the muffin cups.

Step 2: In a medium bowl whisk together the Cake Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt. In a separate bowl or measuring cup combine the Milk and Vanilla.

Step 3: Drop the butter into your mixer bowl. Beat on a high speed until the butter is creamy. Then slowly add in the sugar and continue to beat until the butter and sugar is combined and looks light and fluffy!

Step 4: During this next step you are going to add your wet and dry ingredients one after the other. First add 1/3 of your flour mixture, then 1/2 of your milk mixture, 1/3 of your flour, 1/2 of your milk, and the last 1/3 of flour. Be sure to fully combine the ingredients into the batter before adding the next amount.

Step 5: Zest three of your limes and drop the zest into your batter. Cut all 5 limes in half and squeeze the juice into your batter. Beat until combined. Remove this bowl from the mixer stand. (If you want your cupcakes to be green add green food coloring during this stage. The more drops you add the darker it will get).

Step 6: Drop your 7 egg whites into a clean bowl. Using the whisk attachment for your mixer beat the egg whites until they are light and fluffy. If you stick a toothpick in and pull it out a stiff peak should form. If so you know you are done. You will then gently FOLD these egg whites into your batter. To fold egg whites into the batter you don’t stir. You use your spatula to pull the batter from the bottom and flip it over the batter on top. Continue doing this until the egg whites are fully combined with the batter.

Step 7: pour batter into cups and fill about 3/4 of the way. Then bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. You can tell they are done when the rims are golden brown and there is no jiggling in the center of the cupcake. Take out and let cool completely.

Step 8: While your cupcakes are baking you can make your buttercream. Add the two sticks of butter to the mixer and beat until creamy. Add about half of the powdered sugar along with the vanilla and juice from two limes. Beat until combined. Continue adding powdered sugar until you reach your desired thickness. Ideally, you want a thick icing that is still easy enough to spread with a knife.

Step 9: Add food coloring if desired and beat until combined. When you are ready to go put the icing in a piping bag, a zip lock bag with the corner cut, or just leave to ice with a knife.

Step 10: After the cupcakes have COMPLETELY cooled you can ice them and add your lucky charms!

Voila!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

xoxo, T&M

Gingerbread Houses

December 19, 2017December 20, 2017Leave a comment

We would have liked to post this weeks ago, but true to mom fashion, the holidays have been, well….chaotic. With an assortment of Christmas parties, Christmas programs, baking, shopping, school work, and adult work, it can be hard to fit it all in.

One tradition that many families try to squeeze in is the decorating of a gingerbread house. T loves the smell of freshly baked gingerbread in her home, but unfortunately hasn’t had the time to bake it. M has 5 kids and that would be a lot of houses to build. SO we decided to make our own spin on the gingerbread house (and by our own spin we mean we saw it on Pintrest and gave it a try!)

Graham Cracker “Gingerbread” Houses for the win!!!!!!!!!! These were SUPER easy, and took hardly any time at all. That is, of course, if you don’t count the clean up time. It took very little time and effort to get this set up though! T went to the store to buy the necessary elements, but she was profoundly disappointed in the lack of decorating materials this year. WHERE ARE THE GUMDROPS? WHERE ARE THE SNO CAPS?? So she was forced to improvise.

Need roof shingles? How about using some gum! Siding for your house? Wheaties do the trick! How about a beautiful walk way up to your front door? Give cereal a try! Most of the items T decorated with can be found in your home, but she did purchase things like: pull apart Twizzlers, Sweet tart balls, and candy canes.

Here is a list of your supplies:

Graham Crackers
Powdered Sugar (1 bag should produce enough for 3-4 houses)
2 egg whites per bag of powdered sugar used
1/8 C. of water
Zip lock bags
Decorating materials: cereal, gum drops, candy canes, twizzlers, jelly bellys, gum, white chocolate morsels, nerds, waffle cones (for a tree) just to name a few
Paper/plastic bowls and plates

First, you’ll want to go ahead and get all of your decorating supplies ready to go. We used little plastic cups to divide up the supplies. Then we used paper plates to build the houses on.

Second, break up those graham crackers the way you want them. We just broke our rectangles in half (bonus points for you if you can find the ones already in squares). Each house needs 6 squares. (Note: you can modify your design by leaving them as rectangles. You would need 4 rectangles and 2 squares. You can also use a knife to cut the graham cracker to a point on one side so there are not holes in the roof like ours)

Third, make the icing! Using a mixer combine your powdered sugar and egg whites together. If it is too thick, slowly add the 1/8 C of water to thin out the consistency. If you accidentally make your icing too runny just add more sugar to help thicken it back up. You want the icing to be thick, but workable. This particular icing will harden quickly once used, which is great for these houses!

Fourth, divide the icing among your zip lock bags. Seal the bags. Then cut a TINY hole in the corner of the bag. (For you pros feel free to use an icing bag and tip, but the zip lock bags work great for kids, and you can just throw them out when you are done.

Fifth, time to get building! You will want to use the icing to make a square on the plate, then stick your graham cracker pieces in the icing. Be sure to ice up the edges of each graham cracker piece so they are glued to the plate and to each other. The roof is attached with icing on 2 of the top edges of your square and then with icing on the edges that connect in a point. Let it sit for 2 minutes to harden.

NOW THE GOOD STUFF! Decorate your house however you like! M’s kids seem to prefer creating houses suffering from natural candy disasters. Other people, like T, prefer more symmetrical houses.

All that really matters is that you have fun doing it.

Merry Christmas!

T&M

Annual Family Games, a Tradition

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017Leave a comment

The holiday season is full of family traditions. Our family has done practically the exact same thing for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and Birthdays for as long as we can remember. And we really wouldn’t have it any other way. But about 6 years ago T came up with a brilliant idea…..to host an Annual Family Games competition! What an excellent tradition this turned out to be.

Our family is naturally quite competitive, so she knew everyone would be on board. To be fair, this isn’t so much a Thanksgiving or holiday tradition as it is an annual event, but this years games fall on the Friday after Thanksgiving! (We try to alternate between summer & winter games) So, it’s the perfect time to share with y’all.

How did this all begin? Well, T was reading Martha Stewart Living and Martha suggested some fun family games to do over the Fourth of July. It was just a few games, but T thought this was something she could work with. It had been a hard year for our family, as we had recently lost T’s sister, so what better way to lift spirits and bring the family together than some friendly competition!

This quickly turned into more than just your average family get together. T researched minute to win it game rules and included games she remembered from her elementary school Field Day. We made posters with “sponsors”, we decorated, we bought all of the supplies….and then it came time to draw teams. M is one of 7 kids, among them are 20 grandkids ranging in ages from 3-30 and 1 great-grandkid. We divided the names of the adults among four teams and then the names of the grandkids among the four teams. The Teams have really gotten a life of their own. Originally, the teams were four colors. Now the four team names are themed (for example: Christmas themed, Disney themed, etc.) The teams have also gotten into the spirit as the team “captains” order or make “uniforms” to show their team spirit.

Of course with the announcement of the teams comes loads of complaints. Some even made trade offers. But once the teams are set it’s time for some friendly banter and preparation for the games.

The game day schedule is as follows:

8:00-8:45 a.m. – Breakfast of Champions and team flag decorating

8:50 a.m. – Running of the torch/lighting of the Flame

9:00 a.m. – Opening Ceremonies and the Parade of Champions

9:15 – Games begin

Noon – Lunch and Crowning of the champions

Breakfast of Champions consists of super healthy foods like Lucky Charms, Wheaties, and cinnamon rolls. All that sugar will get your energy up so you are ready to go. Honestly, most of the families don’t make it for this part (it’s an early start so we are done before football games start). During this time, each team is provided materials to make a flag to carry during the opening ceremonies.

Moving on, what are Family Games without a torch run? Using a cutout of a torch, we take the younger kids down the block and spread them out along the way. When it’s time, the first kid takes off and hands off the torch as they reach the next kid. This continues until the last kid carries the torch into the house where our master of ceremonies is ready to turn on our gas fire place the moment the Flame is placed at its base. The flame lighter is typically, but not always, the youngest competitor.

This signals the beginning of our games and the opening ceremonies begin. Music is played as the teams parade around the pool waving at each other and all of the “spectators”. This is perhaps the silliest, but also T’s favorite, part of the event.

Now it’s time for the games. We have a master of ceremonies who directs everyone to each game station. (We will do a post about the specific games after this week’s 5th Annual Family Games.) But, they are typically minute to win it games or games you would find at a kid’s field day. We have games such as: watermelon seed spitting, pin the face on the potato head, leisure diving, relays, junk in the trunk, pyramid building, word games, etc. Really we could do several posts on the specific games. M’s parents (a.k.a. grandparents, and great-grandparents) serve as additional referees if needed.

The games get very competitive and there is an endless onslaught of trash talking. But you can tell everyone is having a blast the entire time. There may even be some mild “cheating” going on. The point is for everyone to be together having fun, so who cares! The Master of Ceremonies keeps score and an alleged winner is announced. Nobody just “wins” Family Games because they will perpetually be accused of cheating, having a stacked team, or getting the rule book ahead of time.

The Annual Family GAmes has been such a great activity to bring family together, get kids and parents outside, and have old fashioned fun. It can be extra hard these days to pull them away from phones, TV, video games, etc. But if you can just get them out the door they will forget all about the shiny electronics (at least until the games end).

We will be sure to fill you in on how the 6th Annual Family Olympics turns out. What are some of your favorite family traditions?

Happy Thanksgiving!

T & M

Cranberry Salsa

November 15, 2017November 15, 2017Leave a comment

An Appetizer to Bring to All your Holiday Parties

Tis’ the season…to never know what to bring with you to all of those holiday parties! But, whether you are hosting the party or just want to bring a little appetizer, this dish is super easy to make and will be a huge hit. We promise!

Cranberries are a super popular food in the winter, both to eat and decorate with. Yet, this little red gem is often discounted by those who don’t know what to do with them. We are here to help with that! Cranberries are gorgeous to look at and very tasty. They are even versatile! Who would have thought to pair cranberries with jalapenos? This particular recipe is a Cranberry Salsa that is a perfect addition to Friendsgiving or holiday party, and we hope you like it!

Fair warning…do not rub your eyes after touching the jalapeno. REPEAT! DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EYES AFTER TOUCHING THE JALAPENO! No matter how frequently T uses jalapenos in her recipe she almost always rubs her eyes. The last time she made this recipe her eyes burned for AN HOUR AND A HALF! That’s a rule most of you know, but for any beginner chefs…beware!

Cranberry Salsa

1 12 oz package fresh cranberries

1/4 C green onion, chopped

1 small jalapeno pepper

1 1/4 C sugar

1/4 t cumin

2 T lemon juice

dash salt

8 oz packages cream cheese

IMG_1032 (Edited) Step 1: Set the cream cheese on the counter to soften. Chop up the green onion and dice the jalapeno.

Step 2: Put the cranberries in a food processor. Use the chop button to get the cranberries as finely diced as you want. The smaller the dice the easier to scoop.

Step 3: Add all of the ingredients (except the cream cheese) in a bowl. Mix it all together and cover/store in the fridge for at least 4 hours. (It helps the sugar soak up and causes the cranberries tart flavor to fade just enough.)

Step 4: Right before you are ready to serve. Spread the cream cheese on your serving plate so that it is about a quarter of an inch to half inch layer across the plate. Be sure to leave room at the edge so the cranberries don’t spill over the edge and off the plate.

Step 5: Pour the cranberry salsa over the cream cheese and spread it all around!

Then you’re done! Hooray!!!!!!

This will seriously be gone in 5 minutes, so if you have a big family you might consider making a double batch. Or two separate batches, that way if no one eats it you can save the other for yourself! It can be served with: Tostitos, Fritos, Wheat Thins, pita chips, or any other chip you like to dip with! I would stick to a relatively bland flavored chip or cracker though because the salsa has so much flavor and you don’t want to take anything away from it.

M adds that this appetizer is AMAZING. She does not cook as much and is not as adventurous, but this was still easy to make and so good. She also suggests using a thicker chip/cracker as many chips can’t handle the weight of the dip. But, don’t worry, you can always just scoop it up with a spoon – it’s that good!!

xoxo, M & T

Beb’s Banana Pudding

November 8, 2017November 9, 2017Leave a comment

My sister’s birthday is coming up. She passed away six years ago, which is really unbelievable to think about. I’ve made a habit of trying to celebrate her birthday. Partly because I know wherever she is she is partying, so it feels like i’m doing that with her. I’ve shared this recipe in the past, but with her birthday right around the corner I thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring it back.

Banana Pudding was one of the few things she and I could ever agree upon. When we were both in school at Fordham in New York City we would go to Magnolia Bakery and buy these giants tubs of banana pudding. And when I say giant I mean it’s like a good 10 servings if not more. We would finish it in one sitting. In fact, I know she could finish it by herself in one sitting.

I guess I should share a little back story on this gem of a snack. I guess it all goes back to Black Eyed Pea. We had one down the street and frequently ate there as a family. I don’t think anyone ever ate their meals especially not the vegetables, but we certainly ate that banana pudding. It was a moment where all four of us could come together and appreciate something (that doesn’t happen often). This period was followed by a lull in banana pudding eating. Not to worry though, we more than made up for lost time in New York. Then my mom found this new recipe and it has been a staple in our home ever since.

The banana pudding recipe I’m going to share with you is by Paula Deen. Everyone can have their opinion about her, but the lady is a darn good cook. And her banana pudding is absolutely amazing. Lots of southern families have family recipes that have been passed down, but do yourself a favor and give this one a try. It might just become your new favorite.

Beb’s Banana Pudding

2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies*
6 to 8 bananas, sliced
2 cups milk
1 box instant** French vanilla pudding (5 oz.)
1 package cream cheese (8 oz), softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.)
1 container Cool Whip thawed (12 oz)

*Make sure to get the seasonal ones for Christmas!

**Make sure you get instant! This is essential

Step 1: Use the cookies to line the bottom of a 13 by 9 inch casserole dish, Then make a second layer with the sliced bananas.

Step 2: Blend the milk and pudding mix with an electric mixer. In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese and condensed milk together until smooth. (DON’T CHEAT! Make sure it’s smooth). Gently add the cool whip into the cream cheese mixture and then add to the pudding mixture. Stir until completely blended.

Step 3: Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas. Then top it off with a final layer of cookies.

Step 4: Refrigerate! You could eat it right away but I suggest refrigerating for 1-2 hours so it gets nice and cool. The way banana pudding should be eaten.

I hope you like this recipe as much as I do. It has become a staple in my recipe arsenal, and it is a quick and easy dish to bring to any get together or party you may have especially during this hectic holiday season.

Happy Eating

xoxo T

T&M's Insights on Parenting

Living, Learning, and Making it up as We go

Tag: Holidays

Key Lime Cupcakes

Key Lime Cupcakes

Gingerbread Houses

Annual Family Games, a Tradition

Cranberry Salsa

An Appetizer to Bring to All your Holiday Parties

Cranberry Salsa

Beb’s Banana Pudding

Beb’s Banana Pudding