ingredients:
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons powdered green tea (matcha)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk

Cook the sugar and water over low heat, basically making a simple syrup. Remove from the heat, and add about 1/3 of the syrup into a separate bowl, with the matcha.

Don’t freak. The stuff looks nasty. Almost seaweed like, and believe me, it could smell better too. Dump that mixture back into the pan with the simple syrup and mix well.

In a medium bowl, add the cream and the milk - then add the matcha mixture. Cool it down in the fridge for about 15 - 20 mins. It will turn a lovely lime green color.

Pour it into your ice cream maker - according to manufacturer’s directions and there you have it. Yummy green tea ice cream….great with shave ice, too! If you like this, you should try my lychee sorbet…

Just look at all those toppings!

ingredients:
cupcakes
frosting
yellow gel dye
2 cups yellow (various colors) jelly bellys
yellow starburst
black sanding sugar
white sanding sugar
corn cob holders

Since these cupcakes are yellow I used a lemon cupcake. I decided to go with a plain vanilla frosting and I tinted it with yellow gel dye. I only use gel dye. Liquid dye is just awful - don’t even go there.

I frosted the cooled cupcakes and started to place the jelly bellys, alternating the colors in rows, about 4-5 rows per cupcake. Once I had three done, I stuck in the corn cob holders on the ends.

I took the yellow Starburst and softened it a little until it looked like melted butter. Starburst is a fantastic for decorating, I never would have thought of it until I saw this book. They made great blankets for my baby shower cupcakes.

Put the little piece of ‘butter’ on one of the cupcakes, then sprinkle with black and white sanding sugar. That is what REALLY makes the difference here. You can’t help but look twice, because it really looks like salt and pepper!

These things were so fun to make and when I took them to the party everyone thought it was fun and hilarious. Also: delicious. Try them yourself, your friends will get a kick out of it!

ingredients:
2 9×13 sheet cakes
buttercream frosting
chocolate fondant
white fondant
yellow gel dye
black gel dye
graham crackers (for sand if you want)
blue sprinkles (for water if you want)

First I laid out a plan. Every good designer has a plan right? Well I just thought it’d be easier to get a vision on how I wanted the height of things, and how I wanted it to look.

The Godzilla was fairly short so a three stack high cake turned out to be just what I was after. So I cut and stacked it according to the plan that I had laid out.

Once everything was cut and in place, I rolled out the fondant to the size that I could drape over the cake. Luckily my cakes were small, so it was easy to do with one package. I found chocolate fondant, which was great because it was almost as if it was pre-dyed but with flavor. I was also going for more of a ‘cartoon-y’ look for the cake, so I wanted the same color for all the buildings, knowing that they’d be detailed in different colors.

Right before I laid out the fondant, I quickly frosted the cake, not heavily, just as if I was doing a crumb coat, enough for stickage.

Then I covered the cake, smoothed it out and cut off any excess. I added little smoke stacks and turrets out of the same color fondant to give the roof a little more depth.

My goal was to just get this done quickly, so I dyed white fondant into just two colors, yellow and gray parts for the windows/details of the building.

Keep in mind, all of these buildings/cakes are not on my board yet. I am decorating them just sitting off on individual cutting boards for the moment. First I wanted to ready the site, I dyed fondant gray to lay out the paving for the street and laid that down. NOW you move your buildings onto their sites.

On the back side, I laid down some frosting, covered it with blue sprinkles for water, then a little bit of sand, which is just crushed up graham crackers. If I was feeling more ambitious I’d have built a bridge too, but let’s not get nuts.

And there you have it. A completed Godzilla cake. To which the Baby said, “YAY. WHEN DUZ HE SMASH IT ALL?” Uh…I realized that I had just built an architectural model. Not so much “Godzilla destroys the city” as “Godzilla goes out for a leisurely stroll to see the sights.” Too bad. I figured once the cake was eaten, then it’d look like there was some damage done. I just couldn’t bring myself to build a bad structural building.

In the end, the guests ate the cake and the Baby got his ’smashed’ city. I think Godzilla felt a bit of satisfaction too.

ingredients:
4 frozen - skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 medium onion, sliced
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
salt
pepper
1 can black beans

cooked rice

Put in a crock pot for 6 -8 hours on low. Serve with your cooked rice.

I could end the recipe here, but what else can I say. Hm. Sometimes I throw in corn or peas, just for the hell of it. OH. You can add about a cup of water if you are freaked about not having liquid in your crock pot. I hear you, but since the chicken is frozen, you have a bit of moisture in there to keep you from burning the house down.

That’s it. This is the quickest recipe ever. It’s perfect on those days when you don’t want to do a damn thing and just want to come home and eat. Basically - every day.

ingredients:
cupcakes
frosting
sprinkles
bat cookies
dum dum lollipops

I bake the bat cookies the day before and keep them in a sealed container. It makes for quicker assembly, and who has time to be fooling around last minute?

For these cupcakes I made, seeing as it was Halloween and all, and I thought it’d go good with the chocolate bats. Chocolate bats on chocolate cupcakes would have been good too. Mmm. Chocolate overload.

pumpkin cupcakes

After the cupcakes cool, frost them. I used white chocolate and chocolate frosting to give some variation, it looked really nice when served. I edged the cupcakes in different colored sprinkles, it added a lot of color and texture too them, without going overboard on the decoration. Not a fan of going nuts with the decor, nope.

I then placed the Dum Dum lollipop towards the ‘back’ of the cupcake, to act as a little stand for the bat. Now place the bat near the front and lean it on the lollipop. You won’t really need to add anything to make it stick, it should stay put just fine.

I recommend assembly right before serving, if you do it ahead of time, your bats may get soft, the moisture in the frosting will creep into your little bats.

This is a fun party food, Trick or Treat!

ingredients:
2 Italian eggplants
flour
2 eggs
breadcrumbs
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic

1 28 oz can tomatoes
2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
fresh ground pepper

1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmigiana cheese

Slice the eggplant into rounds and sprinkle with salt. Let dry out on paper towels.

Prep your dredging ingredients. On one dish, flour, the next, 2 eggs beaten (add a dash of milk, if you like), the last dish, your breadcrumbs, mixed with some salt and pepper.

After the eggplants are dry (about 30 mins) prep a pan on medium high heat with the olive oil and garlic, don’t let the garlic burn! Dredge the eggplant, going from the flour, to the egg, to the breadcrumbs, into the frying pan. Cook a few minutes until brown, then turn over and brown the other side. Drain on a rack or papertowels and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, pour in the can of tomatoes, adding the oregano, salt, garlic powder, onion powder and fresh ground pepper. Chop up and mix well. Now you can use a marinara of course, but this is another easy way to throw some ingredients together to make this dish quick and easy.

Using a 2 quart baking dish, lay down half the eggplant slices. Top with the tomato mixture and then half the mozzarella. Lay the rest of the eggplant slices on top of that. Top with the rest of the tomato mixture, the rest of the mozzarella, and then the parmigiana.

Put your baking dish on a baking pan before you put it in the oven, in case it bubbles over. Bake for 30 minutes, and you’re ready to serve.

This is a really nice side dish to pasta, and allows people to serve themself, frankly, making less work for you in the end. Not only that, the baking allows all the flavors to combine in the best possible delicious way.

ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg (room temp)
1 cup milk (room temp)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prep a muffin pan with liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk egg lightly. Whisk in milk, melted butter and vanilla extract.

Make a well in center of dry ingredients and pour in milk mixture. Stir until just blended, don’t overdo it, if you go too far your muffins will get tough. No one needs tough muffins. Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide batter among the cups. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

This is the PERFECT recipe for new parents. When I had a newborn I was up late at night, these muffins would have been good, 1. the coffee part would have helped keep me alert. 2. They are easy to grab and eat. 3. There is nothing on late at night but Classic Trek. See how that all works out?

Caramel apples are very fall-ish, and I know I’d seen caramel apple cupcakes done before - because the completely useless stick is just so cute. So here’s my version - let me tell you it has been tested well, as I gave them out to 3 separate groups of people who all gave them rave reviews, so give ‘em a try.

Apple cupcakes
ingredients:
(frosting to follow)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup applesauce
1 cup shredded or finely chopped, Granny Smith apples

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a mixer, stir the eggs, butter, and applesauce. Mix until combined. Carefully add the dry ingredients.

Now is when I chop the apples. This may seem like last minute, but I hate how quickly apple brown up after cutting. So I do it right before I throw them in. The way I do it - peel and slice the apple. Then using a grater, grate the apple into fine shreds, like cheese. You can also chop it finely which works just as well. Now stir the shredded apples into the batter mixture.

I like to fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full to almost full, so that they have a nice rounded top like an apple. This batter will make 12 cupcakes.

Bake for 15-20 mins, 17 works best for me. Test with a toothpick for done-ness.

See how they rise a little and puff and overflow? That is perfect to me, because then when you frost it - it gives it a little roundness, and makes it more…apple-y? If that makes sense. Cool on a wire rack. While they are cooling…make the frosting.

Caramel Frosting
ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1tsp cinnamon
1 TB maple syrup

In a saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar. Paula Deen would be in heaven right now. Give it a stir now and again. When they are melted and bubbly, add the milk. Carefully raise the heat and bring the mixture to a quick boil. Careful - you don’t want to burn it. Once it foams up and turns that lovely caramel color, take it off the heat immediately.

Remove pan from heat and stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla, cinnamon and syrup, mixing until frosting is smooth. I like to put it in the fridge for about 20 mins to cool down. Then I simply frost the cupcakes by dipping them into the frosting. It’s more of a glaze - in the sense that it will firm up.

Now the fun part - you can roll the sides in sprinkles and of course, for effect, put in a popsicle stick to make it look like a real caramel apple. It’s totally useless but lots of fun. Even without the sticks, these are really tasty and I think they’d be great for a party.

As a kid I remember going to Taco Bell, you wouldn’t catch me dead there now, but in the 80s, we went there. My brother LOVED their ‘dessert’ called Cinnamon Crispanas. This is a healthier version. I got the kids to be my little sous chefs, since the recipe is so easy.

ingredients:
flour tortillas
cookie cutters
melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside. Put the melted butter in another bowl.

On a cutting board, lay out the tortillas and cut out any shape you want. If you are boring, just cut them into triangles. BO-RING. (but it works too.)

Brush butter on the cut out tortilla, sprinkle with cinnamon mixture. Turn over and do the same. Lay them down on a prepped baking sheet. By prepped I mean with a silpat or a parchment liner.

Bake for 5 minutes, turn and bake another 5. That’s it. Super simple, very tasty. And fun for the kids, at that!

ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
½ cup ovaltine
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup ovaltine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 inch pan. Wanna know how to get brownies out of a pan easily? Take a piece of parchment, long enough for overhang on the sides. BUTTER the parchment. Then when you go to pull it out, it will lift out easy, yay!

Key ingredients, Ovaltine of course, but Valrhona cocoa powder is what makes these so good. Don’t go cheap with that Hershey’s crap. You’ll regret it.

Melt the butter. Mix the dry ingredients, add to the butter. In a small bowl, whisk the vanilla and eggs, then add to the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour into your prepared pan. Sprinkle the top with ovaltine, Bake 20 to 30 minutes, until the sides get that yummy crispy edge.

Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then lift out using the parchment and let it cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares.

Even Godzilla will tell you, this is the good stuff.