Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is enjoying their day. It's been raining here off and on all day but that's OK, it's been a nice and relaxing day.

For our dinner I brined Cornish Hens all night and WOW it payed off. They
were delicious. Add in the mashed potatos, garlic green beans, deviled eggs and rolls and we had a pretty great meal. Dessert...Chocolate Cake with Strawberry cream cheese frosting between the layers and plain cream cheese frosting on the outside. YUM!

Hope everyone else enjoyed the day with good food and good company like I did.

Sopaipillas with Chocolate Sauce

Chocolate Sauce

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch of Salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the Sopaipillas
Vegetable oil for frying
Flour tortillas cut into wedges or strips.

Granulated Sugar and or Powdered Sugar for dusting.

In a sauce pan bring 1/4 cup of water, brown sugar and salt to a boil, stirring until the sugar totally disolves. Whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla and continue to whisk until well blended.

(Remaining sauce can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

Heat oil in pan until approximately 350. In small batches fry the tortillas, turning once. Approximately 2 minutes per side.
Place tortillas on papertowel and sprinkle with sugar and or powdered sugar. Plate and drizzle with chocolate sauce.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

"There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate." - Linda Grayson

This recipe was given to me from Miss Vittles Catering over on facebook. It is from the Joy of Baking and it is Amazing!

Cream Cheese Filling
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (we both used cake flour)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup corn or canola oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Cream Cheese Filling: Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla and beat until creamy and smooth. Set aside while you make the Chocolate Cupcake batter.

Chocolate Cupcakes: First, in a large bowl sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate blowl mix the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients until smooth. Evenly divide the batter amon the 12 muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons of the cream cheese filling into the center of each cupcake.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes until the cream cheese filling is a little brown and the cupcakes feel springy to the touch. Remove and cool.

The cupcakes can be stored in the refrigerator for about 3 or 4 days.

ENJOY!

The Green Thing

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman
that plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The
woman apologized to her and explained, “We didn’t have
the green thing back in my day.”

That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Back then,
they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to
the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and
sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So
they really were recycled.

But they didn’t have the green thing back her day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an
escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the
grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every
time they had to go two blocks.

But she’s right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day.


Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have
the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy
gobbling machine burning up 220 volts – wind and solar power really
did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their
brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right, they didn’t have the
green thing back in her day.


Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV in
every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a pizza dish,
not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, they
blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric
machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item
to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not
styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to
cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They
exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to
run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a
cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They
replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the
whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn’t have the green thing back then.


Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes to
school or rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a
24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not
an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they
didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from
satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest
pizza joint.

It’s a crying shame that we didn’t have “the green thing” back then!