Raspberry filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I brought this dessert to recipe night on Tuesday, I was really happy with how they turned out. 

Time: 60 minutes
Yield: 30 cupcakes
Recipe idea from Jamie Cooks It Up! Cake recipe from Cindi Schut

RASPBERRY FILLING: 
2 heaping C (one 12 ounce package) frozen raspberries
1 1/2 T cornstarch
2 T lemon juice
1/2 C sugar
1 T butter
1 t almond extract
dash salt

CUPCAKE: 
1 box Duncan Hines White Cake Mix
1/3 C flour
1 (3.4 ounce) box instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/3 C sour cream
1 1/2 C water
1/3 C oil
1 t almond extract
  
FROSTING:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 C butter, softened
3 T shortening (I use butter flavored Crisco) 
5 1/2 C powdered sugar
4 T whipping cream   
1 t vanilla
dash salt

RASPBERRY FILLING
1. Place 2 heaping cups frozen raspberries, 1 1/2 T cornstarch, 2 T lemon juice and 1/2 C sugar into a medium sized sauce pan. Stir it around with a whisk to combine.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly. The raspberries will break down very quickly. Continue to stir while the mixture boils for about 2 minutes. 
or until the filling becomes glossy and thick...like this.
3. Remove the pan from the heat, add 1 tablespoon butter, 1 teaspoon almond extract and a dash of salt. The filling is a bit sour if eaten plain. However, remember that we are going to pipe it into a sweet cupcake and top it with an even sweeter frosting. The sweet and tart will work nicely together.
4. Set the filling aside to cool.
CUPCAKES
1. Into your stand mixer add 1 box white cake mix, 1/3 C flour and 1 small box of vanilla pudding. Toss it around with a fork to combine.
2. Add 4 eggs, 1/3 C sour cream, 1 1/2 C water, 1/3 C oil and 1 t almond extract to the dry ingredients. Mix on low for about 1 minute. Then scrape the sides of you mixer with a rubber spatula and beat on medium speed until the batter is smooth and a bit thick. 2-3 minutes should do the trick.
3. Line your muffin tins with cupcake liners and spoon the batter into them. Now...a word to the wise here. I always tend to fill them too full. Don't make my same mistake, ok? Fill the liners just a bit over half way full. This will give you a nice round domed cupcake. If you fill them too full like I always seem to do, you will have cupcakes with more of a mushroom shape.
4. Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. Remove the pans from you oven and allow the cupcakes to rest in the pans for about 5 minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack and let them cool completely. 
6. When your cupcakes (and filling) have cooled completely, place a large cake decorating tip into a pastry bag. Carefully fill the bag with the raspberry filling. This can get a little bit messy. Be sure that when you are filling the bag you turn the tip end up a bit so the filling doesn't run out.
7. Pipe the filling into each cupcake.

FROSTING
1. Place 1 package softened cream cheese,  1/2 C softened butter and 3 tablespoons shortning into your stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until well combined and smooth.
2. Add 5 1/2 C powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons whipping cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla and a dash of salt. Mix until well combined. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit more whipping cream. If it gets too runny, add a bit more powdered sugar.
3. Fill another pastry bag with the frosting and pipe it onto each cupcake.
Might be fun to add a few sprinkle hearts or something...since Valentines Day is just around the corner. :)
Enjoy!

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

This soup came together so fast and had so much flavor. I LOVED it! 

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

 Time: 1 hour
Servings: About 15 main course servings.
Recipe from Kristine Anderson
PRINT RECIPE 

1 large pot full of water
4 chicken breasts (you can start with frozen..love that!)
10 bullion cubes
1 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground pepper
2 boxes Rice a Roni wild rice flavor
1 onion chopped
1 1/2 C carrots chopped
3/4 C celery chopped
2 sm cans mushrooms
4 cans cream of chicken soup (I use the 98% fat free)

1. Fill up your large pot with hot water add the chicken, onion, bullion, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer about 25 minutes.

2. Stab each chicken breast with a fork, lift out of the pot, and use scissors to cut/shred it up. Put shredded chicken back in the pot. The chicken should be cooked through.

3. Add the carrots, celery, mushrooms and boxes of rice (pour in the rice and the seasoning packets that come along in the box). Cover and let simmer about 15 minutes more, until the veggies and rice are cooked.

4. Add the cream of chicken, turn up the heat and let it come to a boil. Once the soup is thickened just a bit (just a few minutes after it return to a boil) you are ready to eat.
This goes great with my Easy and Fast Breadsticks. Enjoy!

Homemade Lasanga

Found this recipe on the Sister's Cafe blog. I have tried Ina Garten's lasagna and Paula Deens recipe for lasagna, but I really like this one the best.

What's great about this recipe is that it's doubled. The lady that submitted the recipe made a good point, if your going to all of the work of making a lasagna you would feel so much better having two lasagnas after all your work. You can either give one to a friend, or freeze the second lasagna and you have dinner already made for another night. So here is the meat sauce for two lasagnas. This sauce tasted so good just like this, it would also be good served over pasta.

I froze one of my lasagnas. When you want to bake it, let it defrost in the fridge overnight and cook it the next day. 

So this was our meal, so tasty. I'll have to post the recipe for the breadsticks.
We don't do lasagna very often. Rich can't eat cheese, and this is a high carbed meal for Brooklyn. (Or for anyone really)
But maybe that's why it taste so good because we don't make it very often.
Enjoy!

meat sauce:
2 lbs mild Italian sausage
1 lb ground turkey
2 large onions, diced
4 tsp garlic, crushed (6-8 cloves)
2 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
3 (15oz.) cans tomato sauce
4 cups stewed tomatoes (mine are homegrown and frozen but you can substitute canned stewed tomatoes)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tb dried basil (or 1/4 cup chopped fresh)
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup water

cheese mixture:
32 oz. ricotta cheese (can substitute cottage cheese)
4 oz. cream cheese, optional
2 extra large eggs
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg

24 lasagna noodles, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes
2 lbs mozzarella cheese, shredded (8 cups)
1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese

In a stock pot, cook sausage (remove casings), ground turkey, onion, and garlic over medium heat.  Stir in remaining ingredients listed under meat sauce.  Simmer, covered for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally. Use the back of your stirring spoon to break up large chunks of stewed tomatoes.   **If you are making this the day before you plan on serving it, you can skip the long simmer time.  The flavors will meld together as it sits in the fridge, even if you have already assembled the lasagna.**

Soak lasagna noodles in hot water for 20 minutes.  (They will be partially cooked – soft but firm enough that they don’t get soggy while baking.  This helps the lasagna servings hold their nice square shape when you slice it up.)  While noodles soak, combine ingredients for the cheese mixture and set aside.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Set out two 9×13 inch pans.

To assemble, scoop 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of each 9×13 inch pan.  Lay down 6 noodles lengthwise over sauce and spread with 1/4 of cheese mixture in each pan.  (This will use up half of your cheese mixture.) Next sprinkle 1  1/2 cups mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan on top per pan. (Or desired amount of cheese) Repeat layers and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.  Cover with foil and bake for 1-1.5 hours (depending on if you bake both at once).  For last 15 minutes, remove foil and allow cheese to crisp up on top.  Let lasagna cool for 10 minutes before slicing. 

If you wish to freeze one, cover tightly with foil and pop into the freezer without baking.  Remove from freezer the night before you wish to serve it and let it thaw in fridge.  Bake covered in foil for approximately 1-1.5 hours.  If it’s slightly frozen it will take longer of course! 

Fajita's

I found this marinade recipe online for flank steak and made fajita's out of it. YUM! The steak had so much flavor and it was perfect for fajita's. Here's the recipe I used for the marinade. For the vegetables, I cut up some red peppers and onions and sauteed them in a McCormick Fajita seasoning.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds flank steak

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix the oil, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic, and ground black pepper. Place meat in a shallow glass dish. Pour marinade over the steak, turning meat to coat thoroughly. Cover, and refrigerate for 6 hours.
2. Preheat grill for medium-high heat.
3. Oil the grill grate. Place steaks on the grill, and discard the marinade. Grill meat for 5 minutes per side, or to desired doneness.

Garlic Cheesy Bread

I found this recipe on Pinterest. Oh my goodness, this bread is HEAVENLY. I already have a french bread recipe that I really love, but sometimes it's nice to switch things up a bit. This one as gooey cheese on it and a garlic butter that gets brushed all over. It's delightful! 

Hasselback Garlic Cheesy Bread

Hasselback Garlic Cheesy Breadyield: 2 loaves
Ingredients:
1 cup Warm Water
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 envelope Active Dry Yeast (2 1/4 Teaspoons)
1 teaspoon Salt
3 cups Bread Flour
Olive Oil, For Greasing Surfaces
⅓ pounds Sharp White Cheddar, Or Any Other Cheese You Prefer
½ cups Garlic Butter
Directions:
In a large bowl, stir water, honey and yeast together. Let yeast proof 5 minutes. Once you know yeast is active, stir in salt and the flour in 1/4 cup increments. If you are using a stand mixer, be sure to not increase your speed higher than a 2 or ‘stir’. Once dough starts pulling away from the sides and the bowl seems to be pretty clean, set a timer for 5 minutes and walk away. Let the machine knead the dough. After 5 minutes, dough should be smooth and tacky but when touched shouldn’t leave any dough on your fingers.
Grease the bowl and the dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Punch down dough and cut into two equal portions. Form into two long baguettes the length of the cookie sheet. I like to twist mine because it looks cool, but it also keeps its length and doesn’t shrink. Cover with plastic wrap and rise 30 minutes. Start to preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place dough close to the oven where it’s nice and warm. Once oven is preheated, remove plastic wrap, from the dough reduce oven to 350F, put the bread into the oven and bake 20 minutes.
In the meantime, slice the cheese into thin slices and melt the butter.
Pull loaves of bread out of the oven after 20 minutes and brush with the melted garlic butter. Bake another 5-7 minutes or until bread begins to turn a golden brown. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes.
Cut 1-inch slices 3/4′s of the the way through the loaves. Brush garlic butter in between each slice and fill with a slice of cheese. Bake another 3-5 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.

After you make the dough and let is rise, you punch it down. Then divide into two loaves, you then twist each loaf to make it looks pretty and let it rise again.

After the bread bakes, you cut slits in the bread and slide the cheese in. Then you brush with garlic butter  and return to the oven to melt for a few minutes. 

The garlic butter on top is really good!

The recipe I used for the garlic butter is below.

• 
  
• 
  
• Garlic Butter
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon garlic salt(I didn't have garlic salt, so I used 1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder and 1/2 tablespoon of salt.
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground paprika
• 
  
• Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine softened butter, minced garlic and parmesan cheese. Season with garlic salt, Italian seasoning, pepper and paprika. Mix until smooth.