Today is my birthday.

If I were to plan and cook the perfect meal it would look something like this:

Root Beer Pulled pork sandwiches

Pasta Salad w/Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Coffee and Donuts cupcakes
Hey, it’s my birthday I can have TWO desserts in one!

Now, to get someone ELSE to cook it. Kids…where are you going?

I am back from Comic-Con and it was crazy – in a good way! It was so nice to meet so many blog readers who also love comics too!

But I know what you’ve come back here for – to find out the winner of the giveaway! Out of 158 lovely comments it seems that a lot of people love the Root Beer Pulled Pork! Which is great ’cause it’s one of my favorites too.

And the winner of the giveaway is…

#81 – Ellen Kim! Congrats! Email me with your contact info!

Now that things are back to normal new recipes will be going up this week and I’m also offering free shipping this week in the shop. Thanks for reading!

I will be gone this week for the San Diego Comic Con! If you are coming, stop by and see me at Small Press table N10!

If you’ve been reading this blog you know my love of gadgets, and now here’s your chance to WIN some of my favorite things…

One of my tried and true items is my musubi maker. Not just for spam musubi, I also use it for desserts! Brownie ice cream sandwiches, rice krispy ice cream sandwiches – ok, maybe I just like ice cream.

Another favorite is my Lego man mold. Sure it’s for ice, but you know I think it’s perfect for making chocolate cupcake toppers.

Finally, this isn’t a gadget, but it is hard to find – so you blog readers might appreciate it – Hello Kitty pasta! aka the cutest pasta in the universe.

If you want a chance to win this fabbbulous prize package just leave a comment on this post from now until Sunday. Tell me your favorite recipe from this blog that you’ve tried, or heck, just why you come here to read. Like cupcakes? Scared of fondant? Love bacon? Let me know! I’ll announce the winner next week, thanks for reading!

On August 4th, my good friends at the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach are gracious enough to host ME for one night only! Wednesday (new comics day) from 5-8pm, I will be at the Comic Bug with my whole line – stationery, comics, buttons, gifts – **new** designs that probably won’t make it to Comic Con cause I’m lazy – and more importantly…CUPCAKES. I plan to make as many as my little hands can handle, so come by and say hi!

I am telling you a month in advance so you can plan to come by – come after work, bring the kids – the Comic Bug is a great family-friendly place and really, I just love that store so much.

RSVP to the event invite, leave a comment to let me know you are coming, or just stop on by. O.G. is supposed to be there, but I’m not promising anything because I think ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ is on that night…thanks in advance for your support, see you then!

Want to taste some of my cupcakes or cookies? Now you can – this Saturday June 19, the Eat My Blog Bake Sale will be held at Tender Greens in West Hollywood, benefiting the L.A. Regional Foodbank, this is a HUGE sale for a good cause!

I like to bake things for bake sales that people wouldn’t normally make for themselves. I mean who wants to sit and make babies out of candy, am I right? Just me, I know.

So here’s what I’m bringing to the bake sale – two of my signature treats: Sleeping Baby Brown Sugar Cupcakes and Burger Bite cookies.

Please stop by this Saturday and buy some great sweets for a wonderful cause!

Nothing says love and wedding like cupcakes – sweet heart cupcakes to be exact. I made 65+ of these for a lovely May wedding reception.

I did them pretty much the same way I did for the Lemon Heart cupcakes (recipe, here), except as requested – I did these in both lemon and red velvet.

I overfilled the cupcake pans just a touch, so that when I pulled them out they had sort of fluffed over. I carefully cut off the top and cut out a heart. Then I frosted the bottom cupcake and then replaced the top so that the frosting peeked through the open cut-out heart.

It’s a nice way to not go overboard on frosting, but still have a delicious and unique presentation.

They are time consuming, that’s for sure, but when you have them all laid out for guests – wow – they are really eye catching.

After they were served, the rest were packed up in clear boxes as favors for everyone to take home. The clear boxes really showcased the cupcakes – and made a wonderful parting gift for the guests!

Over the weekend Darlene (of My Burning Kitchen) and I went to a California Avocado event at Ciudad, hosted by two of my favorite chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, the Too Hot Tamales. I remember watching them on tv back before there was even a Food Network!

At the event they made us do a Top Chef style Quick-Fire challenge, sort of an homage to the fact that Susan is on the current season of Top Chef Masters. Darlene and I and other pairs had to come up with our ‘signature’ guacamole in exactly FIVE minutes using a large buffet of ingredients…

Squid ink, anyone? Darlene and I quickly scanned the foods and decided to come up with a guacamole using fresh fruit focusing on pomegrante.

I am now even MORE of a fan of Top Chef, because developing a recipe on the fly AND making it in just under 5 minutes is ridiculous! We were chopping ingredients, running around like crazy – it was insanity. Cooking under pressure is no fun.

We were judged on the best guacamole and the best named guacamole and believe it or not…we won!…best name. Ha! Good enough for me. Our guac incorporated fresh fruit with a sprinkling of pomegrantes so we named it POM-OCADO…MOLE! Catchy, right? Hey, whatever, we won.

So here’s our recipe…

ingredients:
2 ripe avocados, peeled and seeded
1 banana
zest of half an orange
juice of half a lime
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup diced tomato
1 cup pomegrante seeds
salt
pepper

In a large bowl mash together the avocados and the banana. The banana will mix together nicely and the the guac a bit of subtle texture.

Add the orange zest, lime juice, red onion and tomato. Stir to combine.

Add in the pomegrante seeds, season generously with salt and pepper.

It was a fantastic event and I hope Susan wins it ALL on Top Chef Masters – go Susan!!

According to the random integer generator, the winner of the giveaway is…

#62 – Anne

Congrats Anne! According to her comment she has been reading for SIX years! (?) Man, she must REALLY like cupcakes and stories about my Grandma. Yikes! Speaking of, we had ham for Easter (click here), how was your holiday?

Thanks so much for entering the giveaway, I loved finding out which recipes you all like the most – and thanks for reading!
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Don’t forget – you can become a fan of justJENN designs on facebook or follow on twitter for recipe post updates and sale/event info~! Or to just find out what I’m making for dinner…hint: it’s probably pancakes.

I don’t know how it’s possible, but I’ve been posting recipes on this blog for three years. That’s a long time, and a lot of recipes. (If you came here from the other blog you know that one’s been around for seven years! That is a lot of blogging.)

To celebrate I’m having a giveaway! What can you win? Well you know I love sprinkles, I buy a lot of them and use them to decorate cookies, cupcakes, donuts, ice cream – you name it. People always ask me where I get such a vast array and I am lucky to have a lot of local sources, but now they can be all yours!

TEN different ones – stars, confetti, dinos, mini hearts (I think those are my favorite), and more – just for you~!

Just leave a comment on this post from now until Sunday. If you’ve made any of the almost 400 recipes I’ve posted here, (Seriously? Man, I cook a lot.) let me know which recipe was your favorite, I really want to know what works for you! Or just let me know your favorite thing to cook. If you don’t cook… well then why do you come here? That’s weird.

Even if you just started reading or have been here for three years, thanks so much – I love cooking for/with my kids, I love creating new and fun recipes. I always appreciate all your comments (Well, the nice ones. Ha!) and thanks for reading, it truly means a lot to me.

There’s nothing better.