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The very first Valentine’s Day Daniel and I celebrated together I made him cupcakes as one of his presents.  Not just any cupcakes though… Daniel has a love affair with spicy foods, and when I was looking for sweets to make, I was specifically looking for HOT recipes.

In my search I came across this recipe for Chocolate Chipotle Cupcakes, and I thought, “This is perfect!”  It’s got spicy, it’s got chocolate (who doesn’t love chocolate?), and it’s definitely more unique than other cupcake flavors I could of made.  I was sold and decided to make the recipe, and I was super impressed with how delicious they turned out!

Now I’d like to share the recipe with my changes and suggestions with you!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 box of chocolate cake mix
• Any ingredients the cake mix calls for (usually water, oil, and eggs)
• 2 TBSP pureed chipotle peppers in adobo
• 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/4-1 tsp of cayenne pepper (depending on heat preference)

Here’s what you do:

At first glance, what I loved about this recipe was how simple and quick it was.  It would be really great for anyone running short on time, or for a novice baker!

Preheat oven to temperature indicated on your cake mix.  Then puree your chipotle peppers.

Next, in a large bowl mix all of your ingredients until blended.  In a prepared cupcake pan, fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full.  Then bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack and you’re done!

This recipe made 20 cupcakes for me.  Now, the cayenne pepper is my suggestion if you actually want these cupcakes to have a kick.  While the chipotle peppers give a delicious flavor, it really didn’t give off any heat to us.  While you may be thinking, well, why don’t I just add more chipotle… that’s what I thought too.

The second time I made these cupcakes that’s exactly what I did, I doubled the amount of pureed chipotle pepper, and it was WEIRD.  I’m not sure if it had to do with something in the adobo sauce, but it completely changed the texture of the cake and made it way too salty.  I would definitely recommend learning from my mistake!

The original recipe suggests sprinkling the cupcakes with powdered sugar and cinnamon, but a cupcake isn’t a cupcake to me without icing.  I wanted these cupcakes to take decadent, so I knew I wanted to use a buttercream frosting.

I found this delicious recipe that is apparently from a Sprinkles cupcake mix.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 TBSP cinnamon (I added this)

Here’s what you do:

1. In a medium bowl, combine butter, sugar, salt and cinnamon.  Beat until blended.
2. Add the milk and vanilla, and beat until smooth and creamy.

This frosting is amazing!  I added in cinnamon because I wanted to play up that flavor in the cupcakes, and I was not disappointed.  One heads up though, the recipe states that the serving size is 12 cupcakes… well, I frosted 20 and had tons left over.  The second time I made them I even used some to pipe extra decorations, but still had maybe 3/4 of a cup leftover.  Maybe I don’t add as much frosting as other people though, this buttercream is also very sweet so you don’t need a whole lot either.  While it’s better to have more frosting than too little, you might want to adjust the measurements depending on how much you need.

As for decorations, I kept it pretty simple, and rimmed the sides with chocolate sprinkles and chili powder.

I remember Daniel absolutely loved them, and I know it made our first Valentine’s Day very memorable.  They also freeze really well too!  Since Daniel had a whole box of cupcakes to himself, this Valentine’s Day gift lasted for the next few months!  What a sweet reminder for your man (of their girlfriend or wife that made them)!

Tis the season for holiday parties, and Daniel and I will be throwing our first one this year!  If you follow me on Pinterest, you’ll see I’ve been fervently pinning holiday party ideas like crazy.  While I’m still pinning last minute ideas, we had to finalize our menu and activities so we could get our invites out.

If you want more ideas, definitely check out my holiday party ideas board, but here’s what we’ve decided on… We will be throwing a Christmas sweater (ugly optional), white elephant, finger food potluck!  The reason why an ugly sweater is optional is because Daniel bought a sweater that isn’t technically ugly, and I haven’t bought mine yet… So who knows what I’ll find!

I’ve always enjoyed playing white elephant at holiday parties, and it’s fun to see how creative people get with their gifts!  We chose to put a $10 limit on gifts, mainly because we don’t want anyone to feel obligated to spend too much.  I thought this would be a fun gift to give and very easy to do!  You could most likely find white mugs at a dollar store, then all you have to do is Sharpie the instructions on the mug!  Most tutorials I’ve seen say to bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  I’m thinking of adding a second mug and writing the “cookie in a mug” instructions so they can be a pair!

After searching through pins, I decided that I was a huge fan of food being the decorations.  I saw these great appetizer ideas, which provided most of my inspiration.

We plan to do combination of all of the these!

While the food will be the decorations on the main table, I plan to do this on our coffee table.  It’s going to be so easy and yet so chic!  Daniel also had a great idea to use some of our tree clippings to surround the wine glasses!  I plan on getting the candles and some new ornaments at the Dollar Store!

For our main course we will be serving cookie cutter pizzas.  These are actually the reason I chose to make it a finger food potluck.  They were just too cute and festive, I was smitten with them as soon as I saw them!

If you happen to be strapped for time though (which we might be), you could also just make full size pizzas like these.

I saw these melted snowman cookies all over Instragram, and I think they will be a hit for dessert!

It looks like they are usually sugar cookies, but I plan to switch it up and make gingerbread cookies instead.  I think it would be more Christmas-y, and they will also look like the ground the snowmen melted on!  Daniel and I made gingerbread cookies last week so we could test a recipe out, and it was a winner!  We used the Nauvoo Gingerbread Cookie recipe, and here it is with my changes.

Here’s what you need:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup and 2 tbsp softened butter
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1 egg
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

We halved the recipe and it made about 30 cookies.  The original recipe called for lard, but we replaced it with butter, because ew.  It also uses white sugar, which we ended up using, but for the party I’ll be using brown sugar because I think it will give it more dimension.  I also added a few new spices and upped the amount on others

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, molasses, butter and hot water.  Mix in egg.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.  Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until dough forms.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until firm.
2. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a well-floured surface.  Cut out shapes with cookies cutters, and place cookies onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 10 minutes and then cool on cooling racks.

We iced ours with royal icing and they were delicious!

Of course, we also need drinks at our party!  I saw this awesome looking pin, which has since been repinned over 100 times from me!  I clearly have to do it now.  The original pin was a broken link and didn’t have any information, but I’m pretty sure those are pomegranate seeds at the bottom, glasses are filled with champagne, and coarse green sugar is rimming the top.  If you buy ready to use pomegranate seeds, this drink will take no time at all, yet looks super impressive!

Another drink we’ll be serving is, of course, eggnog!  Which happens to be Daniel’s specialty, and the recipe he uses is amazing.

Here’s what you need:

•  6 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brandy
• 1/2 cup dark rum
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg, ground or grated

Begin with pre-chilled ingredients for the best results.

Here’s what you do:

1. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs together until they’re very frothy.  Add sugar and continue beating.
2. Sprinkle in nutmeg and vanilla, continue beating.  A little at a time, add in the whipping cream and continue to beat.
3. Beat in the milk also a little at a time.  Lastly, beat in the rum and brandy.
4. Chill for 1-2 hours and serve cold.

Last but not least – party favors!  I’ve never hosted a dinner party before, or been to one that gave out favors, but I personally think it’s a nice touch.  I also think that homemade gifts are often the best kind, and these hot chocolate stirring sticks seemed like a great choice!  I think they will be fairly easy and fast to make – we plan to pop a few in a cellophane bag with a pack of hot cocoa!

Other than white elephant, we also plan to play board games, and if we want to get a little rowdy… a Christmas Vacation drinking game!  We will also have a variety of santa hats and other Christmas costume pieces, for anyone that wants to take photobooth-esque pictures.

I hope this gave you a few ideas for your party, and if you want more, remember to check out my Holiday Party Ideas on Pinterest.  I can’t wait to show you all how everything turned out!  Happy Planning!

As promised, here is the 2nd round of apple recipes we tried after apple picking.  If you missed my first batch of apple recipes, be sure to check it out!  Lots of tasty meals to try!

The first recipe we tried this time was Momma Pritchett’s Grilled Pork Chops and Apple-Pear Topping.  If you eat pork, you must try this recipe.  The pork chops turned out so juicy and tender, and the marinade added delicious flavor.  Based on reviews, we didn’t change anything except the serving size (we reduced the recipe to 4 servings).

 For the apples and pears, I did not bring the sugar mixture to a boil as suggested.  I simply whisked the sugar until it dissolved, and then added the fruit to the pan.  We also placed the fruit directly on the grill rather than use a grill basket.

We don’t have an outdoor grill, so we just used our grill pan.  As you can see from the photos, both the pork chops and the fruit turned out picture perfect.  If you’re in the market for a grill pan, this is the one we have.  We are more than satisfied with it, and I highly recommend it!

We paired our entree with a Sausage and Apple Stuffing.  If you recall from my first apple recipe post, I used apple smoked bacon in a turkey dish.  I also used chicken breakfast sausage in our Apple and Sausage Penne recipe.

Well, we used the rest of those ingredients in this stuffing recipe!  What was great about the recipes we decided on was that a lot of them used the same ingredients, so we really got the most bang for our buck!

The recipe did not call for bacon, but other recipes we saw did, so we decided why not add it in!  I mean, who doesn’t love bacon?  I diced the bacon and cooked it with the sausage.  We used a cornbread stuffing mix, and we used water instead of chicken broth since the recipe only called for 1 tbsp.

The stuffing turned out really well and paired beautifully with the pork chops.  We chose this recipe specifically because it was quicker than most.  I must say, even though we used a stuffing mix, there were so many fresh ingredients added in that it didn’t taste like a mix AT ALL.  This would definitely be an easy and fast stuffing for Thanksgiving, not to mention impressive!  And no one needs to know it was semi-homemade… If you make it for a large group, I suggest doubling or tripling the recipe.  Maybe we just like heaping helpings, but this didn’t last 12 servings, probably only 5-6 between the two of us.

The entire meal was SO good, and a lot quicker to make than we thought it would be.  I would highly suggest trying these recipes out!

The next recipe I tried was a pin I saw on Pinterest.  I’ve been wanting to cook a faux pasta dish for awhile now, so when I saw this Gluten-Free Cheesy Veggie “Pasta” Bake, I knew I had to try it!

While grocery shopping, we were trying to figure out other ways to use up our apples.  So when I saw this gorgeous spaghetti squash at Trader Joes, I immediately thought of the “pasta” bake.  I mean, apples and spaghetti squash are both typical fall flavors, so adding apples to the recipe seemed logical.

If you’re not familiar with the spaghetti squash phenomenon, it’s a great alternative to pasta if you are gluten intolerant, trying to cut back on carbs, or just want to try something different.

After cooking the squash (fastest and easiest method would be microwaving) and removing the seeds, you use a fork to scrape the flesh out.  You eventually end up with a big pile of spaghetti-like strands like this picture.

We followed the recipe pretty exact, but we replaced the zucchini with about 4 cups of chopped apple.  We also cooked the dish about 15-20 minutes longer than the recipe indicated, as the spaghetti squash wasn’t as soft as we wanted.

Here is the finished “pasta” bake!

So tasty and a very healthy meal!

Now, I think we’d be pretty crazy if we had all these apples and we didn’t make caramel apples!  So we invited a couple of friends over for a caramel apple making/board game party.  We made this Apple Salsa for a snack!

A very unique salsa compared to a typical tomato based salsa.  We followed the recipe exactly, and it turned out really nice.  Fresh, tart, and sweet!  There wasn’t a whole lot of spice, despite the two peppers, but you could always skip deseeding them if you want more heat.

And now for the caramel apples!  We melted the caramel according to the directions on the package, we also melted some white chocolate for double dipping.  As you can see, we had quite the topping spread.  Our toppings included:  toffee bits, Nerds, cinnamon chips, crushed Butterfinger, peanut butter chips, and chopped pecans.

Here are a few pictures of some finished apples!

The apples Daniel and I made were:  Nerd covered, half Butterfinger covered, peanut butter chip and pecan covered, and the one pictured above…  Double dipped in white chocolate, and covered in cinnamon chips and toffee bits (which was by far the best apple).  This was the first time we made caramel apples, and they turned out pretty good for being novices!  The only trouble we had was the caramel and toppings sinking to the bottom.  If any of you have any tips to prevent that from happening, let me know!

And finally, the very last recipe… Apple Brownies!  Now, I will warn you, these are not technically brownies and do not have the texture of a brownie.  I’d say it’s more of an apple cake, and we knew this from reading the reviews beforehand.  Most reviewers said it was delicious despite the misleading name, so we still wanted to try it out!

We did change a few things after reading several reviews.  We added 1 tbsp of vanilla extract to the wet ingredients, and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg to the dry ingredients.  We creamed the butter with the sugar instead of melting it first.  We also diced the apples instead of slicing, and sprinkled the top generously with cinnamon sugar.

Not sure if you can tell by this picture, but after you’ve combined the ingredients the batter will be very thick.  It will look like only apples and barely any batter.  Totally fine!  The apples cook down and the batter surrounds them perfectly!

They came out incredibly moist and with a nice crust on the top.  Unfortunately, they’ve gotten a bit mushier with storage, but still very tasty.  Again, it’s more of a cake, so I’d say the best way to serve this would be warm and with a scoop of ice cream!  We started heating bars in the toaster oven to crisp them back up!

Whew!  I can’t believe how many recipes we tried in such a short timespan, and I seriously can’t believe how many apples we’ve eaten!  All in all, it was a fun experience.  It gave us the opportunity to try out new recipes, create our own, and cook with ingredients we don’t normally use.  So I hope you all enjoyed both part 1 and part 2 of our apple recipe adventure, found some new favorite recipes, and inspiration for your own everyday cooking!  Happy Eating!

After we finished the first round of apple recipes from our apple picking adventure, we took a little break and cooked how we normally do…  By creating an on-the-spot delicious meal with only the ingredients in our fridge and cupboard!  Of course, we still had a plethora of apples, so we decided to incorporate some into this dish as well.

Our Apple and Sausage Penne was one of those “I can’t get enough of this!” meals.  It is the perfect blend of sweet and savory, the apples were an unexpected delight, and the sausage made this a wonderfully hearty dish!

Here’s what you need:

• 1/2 sweet onion, diced
• 3/4 bell pepper, diced
• 4 cups diced apple
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 chicken breakfast sausages
• 1 jar of Cabernet Marinara
• 1 bag of penne pasta
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• 1/8 tsp ancho chili pepper
• Parmesan, grated (optional)

Here’s what you do:

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to the directions.  We used Trader Joes High Fiber Penne, and used about 3/4 of the bag.  I always prefer penne when making a chunky pasta, but any type will do!

Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Slice open the casing of the breakfast sausage, crumble, and brown and cook until done.  Remove from pan.  We used chicken breakfast sausage from Trader Joes because we already had it on hand for another dish, but you can use any kind you like.  You could also omit the sausage to make this into a vegetarian meal.

While your sausage is cooking, chop the onion, bell pepper, apple and garlic.  Once your sausage has been removed from the pan, saute your veggies and apple until tender, about 6-8 minutes.

Add your spices and garlic, and cook another 1-2 minutes.  Add your cooked sausage back into the pan, add your pasta sauce, and cook to heat through.  We used Classico Cabernet Marinara, which paired perfectly with the apple since the sauce was a little bit sweet.

All that’s left is to combine the sauce mixture and strained pasta, top with Parmesan, and enjoy!  I believe this pot lasted 4-5 dinners for two.  I seriously can’t wait to make this meal again!  It was so warm, comforting, satisfying, and so very tasty!

Bonus!

As I mentioned in both my apple picking and 1st apple recipe post, we also walked away with a gallon of apple cider.  We were trying to find creative ways to use it up, and one way was… drinks!  We tried out this Apple Cider Margarita, and it was delicious!

We didn’t have Grand Marnier, so we substituted with triple sec instead.  We also omitted the orange segments, as we didn’t have any on hand.  But we figured the triple sec would add the orange flavor back in.  While the drink was great, it was a little strange drinking it with this meal.  Probably better paired with dessert, or as dessert itself!

I hope you enjoy these recipes, let me know if you try them out!  Until next time, Happy Eating!

As I mentioned in my Apple Picking post, Daniel and I ended up bringing home about 20 lbs. of apples.  And we were on a mission to use all of those apples in a variety of sweet and savory recipes.  We mainly looked up recipes online, but actually ended up inventing a few ourselves as well!  Below is the first round of meals we made.  Enjoy!

First up:  PIE!  I’ve never made a pie before, but have been wanting to for a while now, so this was the perfect excuse.  We followed the Apple Pie by Grandma Opie recipe, but changed a few things based on reviews.

1. We cooked the pie at 350 degrees the whole time.
2. Added 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1 tbsp vanilla extract to the filling.
3. Omitted 1 tbsp of water (because of the vanilla extract).
4. Mixed the apples and syrup mixture together first before putting into pie pan.
5. Brushed the top crust with milk, and generously sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

We ended up only using 6 medium sized apples, which turned out to be the perfect amount.  We cooked the pie for 45 minutes uncovered, and then covered the top with foil for another 15 minutes.  I would definitely suggest waiting until the pie is cooled before trying to cut into slices, as it WILL fall apart!

We did use a store bought crust to cut down on time (since we knew we’d be cooking a lot that week).  The crust was a little small for our pan, so we chose not to do a lattice top crust.  It turned out just fine keeping it whole and cutting a few vents.  Next time I make a pie I will be trying out this Pie Crust recipe.

The bottom crust became a bit mushy, one reviewer suggested brushing the bottom with an egg white.  Not sure if that would have helped, but I will definitely try it for my next pie!  Other than that the pie turned out beautifully, and (in the words of my boyfriend) tasted “legit.”  Sweet success!

The second recipe I made was a Curry Chicken Salad for lunch that week.  The recipe would have been fine on its own, but I added a few of our favorite spices to customize it a little.  I added 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper, and a little bit of fresh ground black pepper.

Something I always keep in the freezer is Trader Joes frozen chicken tenderloins.  These are so great to have on hand – it’s a fast and easy way to add protein to any meal.  I always cook them straight from a frozen state by adding a little olive oil to a pan, and cooking them with the lid on.  Usually as they melt it provides enough moisture to steam them, but if not I’ll add about a tablespoon of water.  This takes about 10-15 minutes to cook a whole pan of chicken.  Towards the end I take the lid off so the tenderloins can brown.

About 7 tenderloins made 2 cups of chicken (my pan is too small, so sadly I had to cook the last two separately).

Definitely try this recipe if you like chicken salad!  Next time I might add a bit more curry power and chop the apples smaller, but this was one tasty lunch!

Next up:  dinner!  We made Apple Bacon Baked Chicken and Sweet Potato Fries with Spicy Aioli.  This recipe was great not only because it incorporated apples, but it also used apple cider (which we had far too much of)!  We did not soak the cranberries as long as the recipe indicates; we just soaked them while preparing the rest of the ingredients, which seemed sufficient enough.

We wanted to switch it up a little and bought turkey breasts instead of chicken.  Trader Joes had two HUGE turkey breasts, which I cut in half and pounded out to about a 1/2 inch thick.

We used apple smoked bacon, which obviously went perfectly with this recipe!

This meal was SO good!  Hearty, tasty, comforting, and the epitome of fall flavor!  Here are a few things that I would do differently next time:  I’d add the apples and onion halfway through the cooking time, as they became extremely mushy (would have liked a little more texture).  And I’d cut the onion and apple slices a little smaller, maybe even exclude 1 of the onions.

The recipe for the sweet potato fries and spicy aioli came from a recipe binder Daniel had, so I am including them below.  Please note that I am not taking credit for inventing them!

Sweet Potato Fries

Here’s what you need:

• 1 tsp Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 1/2 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 3 tbsp olive oil

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  In small bowl, combine Lawry’s seasoned salt, paprika, garlic powder and chili powder; set aside.
2. In large bowl, toss sweet potatoes with olive oil; sprinkle with seasoning mixture and toss to coat.  On baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, arrange potatoes in single layer.
3. Roast, turning once, 40 minutes or until potatoes are tender and golden.

Fortunately, the temperature for the fries and turkey breasts was the same, so we were able to cook them at the same time.  Easy peasy!

Spicy Aioli

Here’s what you need:

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp kosher salt

Here’s what you do:

1. Mix all ingredients with a whisk in a medium bowl.
2. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Serve as a dipping sauce for fries, or as a spread on burgers.

This aioli is to die for, you’ve absolutely got to try it!

Lastly, we couldn’t forget about breakfast.  Specifically, Apple Strudel Muffins!  We read through a lot of the reviews, and here is what we changed based on reviewer suggestions:

• Added 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp nutmeg to the batter.
• Shredded half the amount of apple and chopped the other half for even distrubution.
• Used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar.

This recipe made 14 muffins for us (two of which were bigger than the rest).  These muffins were perfect with my cup of coffee in the morning, but they would also be delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Whew, there we have it – the first round of apple recipes!  My next Foodie post will be an original apple dinner recipe.  Thanks for reading!  Let me know in the comments section if you try any of the recipes (and how you like them)!