Cupcake

How can you not love a wine called Cupcake?

I am going to make braised short ribs and goat cheese polenta today and I needed some red wine.

Cabin Fever.

That's what I have. We haven't left the house since Sunday and I am itching to get out. I am a homebody by nature but when you KNOW you can't go out, it kinda gets to you after awhile.

I have to take Caden to his tutor lesson this afternoon and I will run to the grocery store while he is there.

Last night I decided that I would bake this cake last night to use up some yogurt that I had. Then I realized that I didn't have any orange marmalade. Well, that didn't stop me. I knew that I could come up with a glaze so I baked it anyway.

*photo & recipe by Pioneer Woman

Well, the flour was bad. NEVER has flour (or butter) gone bad at my house. That tells me that all this moving has caused me not to have time to bake. I will remedy that today:-)

The sun is shining and the ice is melting and now I am getting a sore throat! Can't win for losing.

:)

Mel

Pioneer Woman’s Tomato & Pesto Pizza

This week I asked Denise if we could change our recipe from sugar cookies to pizza because I knew that I would not be able to resist eating them. I made this pizza while I was in Georgia so I actually didn’t have to make anything this week.

While I enjoyed the fresh ingredients on the pizza, I did not enjoy the crust.

The crust had no flavor and was a little bit dry and crumbly.

Verdict: I would not make this again. I follow Smitten Kitchen and she has a wonderful dough recipe. It has honey and white wine in it and I haven’t found another crust recipe that is as good as that one. Caden and Gary love that crust the best. It took me a few times to get the hang of it but I kept at it and finally got it down.

I would definitely suggest checking out Smitten Kitchen and trying some of her recipes and if you are in the mood for homemade pizza, try her crust.

You won’t regret it:)

Melanie

Pioneer Woman’s Mac & Cheese

I love macaroni and cheese. I like it cooked on the stovetop with a rue or custard style baked in the oven.

I really wanted to love this recipe and I thought that I would. I used sharp white cheddar and it was really strong. Gary didn’t like the white like he does the regular.

It was easy to make but I made a mess while making it:-)

This is what it looked like before I put it in the oven.

And the final product.

Verdict: good but not a keeper. Gary definitely likes mine better. He loves the custard style the best. I liked it when it first came out of the oven but when I heated it up the next day, it wasn’t good. It had separated and wasn’t creamy. It also made a large amount. I ended up throwing it away:(

Hopefully next week I will have better luck.

Melanie