Lislestyle week in review

Lislestyle week in review

Over roasted chicken

Kitchen tips with BUTTER

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes

Peppermint Bark Smores

Featured Ingredients: PESTO

Featured ingredient: Pesto

Featured ingredient: PESTO

Here are three great ways to use pesto. 

1. SANDWICHES AND WRAPS

Use on any sandwich or wrap for a tasty change!

2. PASTA

The easiest recipe is to just add pesto to cooked pasta and
stir the same way you might add marinara sauce. 

Here are some Pesto Pasta recipes to try:
Food.com - Baked pesto chicken
Pioneer woman: Pasta with pesto cream sauce
(A little more time consuming)
Kraft - No time pesto pasta

3. DIPPING SAUCE

Use it as a dipping sauce for bread. 

Have company coming over and want an appetizer? 

Slice some bread and pour some oil on a plate with a scoop of pesto in the middle. 

Your guests won't mind waiting a little longer for dinner. 

Peppermint Bark Smores

Peppermint Bark Smores

(This is a Lislestyle original!)

Someone gave me some Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark for Christmas. As I was getting smore supplies out for a New Year's Eve party, I had an idea!

What if instead of Hershey's chocolate bars, one used Peppermint Bark?

It brings a holiday twist to a traditional smore and gives another method for consuming all the chocolates from the holidays. As a teacher, I get a lot of candy.

For this recipe, I bought Chocolate graham crackers. 

I thought it would be a better flavor combination than with original graham crackers. 

My favorite brand is Kroger store brand because they tend to break less. 

You can even try a regular Smore combo with chocolate graham cracker for a twist. 

Add a piece of peppermint bark 

Toast the marshmallow
Over a FIRE - My favorite way to toast a marshmallow, of course.
OVEN - Toast it on broil until desired color and flavor.
MICROWAVE - In my microwave, it's 13 seconds for a perfect Smore.

Add candy canes.

Enjoy!

Other Lislestyle ideas for smores:
*use chocolate or cinnamon graham crackers

*use cookies instead of Graham crackers

*add pretzels

*use Reese's peanut butter cups

*make miniature smores with golden graham cereal and mini marshmallows

*Look for the jumbo size marshmallows...they're huge!

Don't have a fire, but still want a melted smore?

Build your smore, put it on a napkin or plate and microwave for 13 seconds.

(Play with your microwave to get the perfect time)

Don't be frightened the first time you do this. The marshmallow will swell to several times its normal size. That's part of the magic!

What ideas do you have? What other variations have you tried?

Marshmallows usually come in three sizes: miniature, regular, and jumbo. 

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes

Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Cupcakes!!

If you know me very well, you know that over the last couple of years I have fallen in love with making and decorating cupcakes. My friend Elizabeth started this obsession and it has been fun to have a cupcake buddy. Often one or both of us make cupcakes every week. We even have these cute little containesr especially designed to safely carry a cupcake in your lunch.

This mutual obsession continued to escalate until last Valentine's Day when we made over 400 cupcakes for a fundraiser for the adoption fund at my church. You might think that we wouldn't want to make cupcakes after that for a long time, but both of us made a batch later that week!

Me and Elizabeth, the day of our adventure

This is my friend Julie's blog post about it. Her adoption journey was a big part of our inspiration.
http://crattyfamily.blogspot.com/2012/02/church-cupcake-fundraiser.html

I've made a variety of cupcakes...monsters, picnic theme, valentine's day, camoflauge, Fourth of July, black forest, caramel apple, etc.

Here are some of the pics...

Vanilla, vanilla

My friend Anna's favorite...in fact, it is what she wanted for a baby gift

...for me to bring her cupcakes after Isabel was born.

Fourth of July

This recipe stretched me to try a new technique for icing.

I think I understand it better now and could improve, but they turned out okay.

Kinda cool with three colors, I just would like more control of the colors.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

from www.yourcupofcake.com 

(one of my favorite dessert blogs)

I was told, "I've never had a cupcake like this. This is the best cupcake I've ever had!"

Picnic Theme

 Picnic theme birthday cupcake cake for Brenna!

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

We made vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet all topped with Vanilla Buttercream.

It took me a long time to start making my own icing. It just seemed like too much unnecessary work. I'll admit it is more work than opening a can, but it is worth it.
Once I made my own...I decided I would never go back. It's a whole new flavor!

If you have a stand mixer, it's much easier. It makes a big difference when making icing.

I'm not going to spill all my cupcakes secrets just yet. But here is the recipe I use the most for icing, which I got from Elizabeth. It was the first one I tried and is still my favorite.

Martha Stewart's Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients

• 4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt

Directions

1. Put butter in bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium; add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well, about 5 minutes total. Add vanilla and salt. Raise speed to medium-high; beat until smooth, about 1 minute more.

Do you like cupcakes?

Sneak Peak of tomorrow's post...

Caption this!

It's an all edible cupcake cake!

Check out today's post

Check out today's post:

         Tuesday tip for the kitchen

Tuesday's Tip for the Kitchen: Using Butter

Ever have a recipe that needs a softened stick of butter, but you have no time to wait? What do you do?

Tips for using butter:

Learning this method has made my life so much easier for all those times I need a need a stick of butter at room temperature...now!

Secret to softening butter
http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/how-to-bring-butter-and-eggs-to-room-temperature/

Other helpful tips:
Quick tips for using butter

Healthy tips for cooking with butter

How to brown butter without burning it

What tips have you found to help in the kitchen?