Mom's Birthday.

Today is my mom's birthday and my siblings and I decided to throw her a little party. It was just dinner and cake, but we had fun.





I made her a cake using this cake recipe, this frosting recipe (it's her favorite!) and spread some raspberry jam and some frosting in between the layers.



We made decorations using this tutorial for the pom poms and we wrapped some twine around styrofoam balls. My sister and I had a ton of fun making them, and it was so easy.



Happy Birthday Mom! You are the best mom anyone could ask for, and I thank God for you all the time. I love you!

pomegranate cupcakes.

I have a love/hate relationship with pomegranate juice. It’s pretty good when it’s flavored with other juices, such as blueberry, but I just can’t drink it on it’s own. It’s much too strong for me. But I wish I could!


When I first found this recipe I was a little apprehensive, it didn’t have any butter or eggs (OH NO!) and it just straight up pomegranate juice. I printed it out and it sat in my recipe book for a couple of months.



Then, when I was in the grocery store the other day, trying to figure out what I wanted to bake for the week, I saw all those bottles of POM wonderful, calling out to me. It was destiny.

These are pretty good, but not knock-your-socks-off good, if you know what I mean. They are good for being totally vegan, and the frosting is VERY good. But it’s not vegan. I used the Pioneer Woman’s frosting recipe from her chocolate sheet cake and used pomegranate juice instead of milk. The frosting is actually more pom-y than the cupcakes. Overall, a pretty good cupcake, I’d definitely make them again.



Pomegranate Cupcakes
adapted from here.
Cupcakes:
1 cup POM Juice
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water, heated to boiling
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar (not wine vinegar)
1 tablespoon vanilla


Preheat oven to 350F with rack in the center.

Place a paper baking cup in each of 24 regular sized muffin cups.

Whisk together the dry ingredients to combine well.

In a large measuring cup, combine pomegranate juice and boiling water.

Add oil, vinegar and vanilla to the pomegranate juice mixture.

Add to the flour mixture all at once and whisk to combine (batter will be lumpy).

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups (about half full).

Bake 25 minutes (mine only took about 19 mins.) or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.


For the icing:

Melt 1 3/4 sticks butter in a saucepan.
Add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat.
Add:
6 tablespoons Pom Juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 lb minus 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Stir together.
Pour over cupcakes


NOTE: I halved this recipe and it gave me a lot more than 12 cupcakes!

banana pudding

I love Banana Pudding. I love it’s retro, deep south feel. I like that it’s far too sweet for its own good. It’s one of those things I have vivid memories of eating as a child, at church pot lucks, family dinners, chinese restaurant buffets (oh yes.). Its natural place in life is in a big bowl right beside the jell-o and the congealed salad. You know the one, with the pineapple chunks and marshmallows?



And it doesn’t get any better than home made stove-top pudding. No instant pudding packets should be let near banana pudding, it's just not right. And it’s so easy to make it yourself, you really have no excuse.



So last night, to go with our first chicken cooked on the grill of the year, I made banana pudding pie. And covered it cool-whip. It was delicious.

Ingredients:
2 cups vanilla wafers
3 bananas, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Line the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate with a layer of alternating vanilla wafers and banana slices.

To Make Pudding: In a medium saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with flour. Mix well, then stir in half the milk. Beat egg yolks and whisk into sugar mixture. Add remaining milk and butter or margarine.

Place mixture over low heat and cook until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Pour half of pudding over vanilla wafer and banana layer while still hot.

Make another layer of alternating vanilla wafers and banana slices on top of pudding layer. Pour remaining pudding over second wafer and banana layer.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Chill before serving.

delish.

When I first tried out this salad, it was like heaven, all of the flavors go together so well and the dressing is AMAZING. Today I decided I wanted to make a version of it, minus the spinach (although it is amazing with the spinach, i just don't have any!).



So what I did was cut up some apple and onion, throw some honey roasted almonds on top and cover it when the dressing.



Simple and delicious. It would be a perfect side dish. Or whole meal, if you want something light. All I know is it’s totally worth eating.




So here’s what you’ll need:

1 apple, I used fuji
1 red onion
A handful of almonds, honey roasted works really well

Slice the apple and the onion, throw them in a bowl or on a plate, throw some almonds on top.

for the dressing:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 heaping! teaspoon honey (i like it sweet.)
a pinch of salt
some fresh ground pepper
some grated parmesan

Combine it all in a bowl and whisk! Pour it on top of the apples and enjoy.