Flaked Coconut Cupcakes

I don't even like coconut that much but I love these cupcakes.  The frosting is the most banging-est frosting ever! This is one of my Cuisine At Home recipes that has only been slightly tweaked!

What you need:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup coconut milk or 3/4 cup whole milk (not sweetened coconut milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick)
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

For the frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (do not use nonfat)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick)
1 teaspoon coconut extract
2 ounces white chocolate, melted (30 seconds in the microwave)
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 1 lime
1-2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut (for topping)


What to do:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a regular sized muffin tin with cupcake papers
Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl
In a measuring cup combine egg whites, coconut milk and extracts
Cream together sugar and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed.  Blend until butter lightens in color and texture
Alternately add dry and wet ingredients, starting and ending with dry, in 3 additions
Fold in coconut using a rubber spatula.  Scoop batter into prepared tin, filling each about 3/4 full
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25-30 minutes
Cool in the pan 5 minutes; remove completely


For the frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until smooth
Add melted white chocolate, lime juice and coconut extract,  beat to blend
Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth (it will be gooey).
Spread 3 Tbsp frosting on each cupcake
Top cupcakes with coconut

*For some reason the formatting is not working properly for me this evening. Please pardon

These Ratchet Lemons...

 

 

...made the most awesome lemon curd!

 

Remeber a couple of weeks ago when I purchased these shortbread tartlets? This is the recipe I filled them with! Full disclosure: Babe and I eat this on buttered toast and directly from a spoon.

 

Easy Lemon Curd

Adapted from http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/12/improved-lemon-curd/

 

What you need:

 

• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 eggs yolks
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• Pinch of salt

 

What to do:

• In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, whisk together lemon juice, zest, sugar, eggs, and salt. Add the butter and cook over low heat stirring constantly until the butter is melted
• Increase heat to low-med heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon. DO NOT BOIL or even come close to boiling
• Strain the curd through a mesh sieve. You may have to press the curd through the strainer
• Immediately fill pre-ccoked shells with filling and place in the fridge to cool or store the lemon curd in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Crockpot Pulled Pork

This right here was some great eats! That kid of mine asked me to put some aside for her for next weekend...LOL (it's funny because we gave up meat for Lent). After you do a few tricks to seal in the flavor, the slow cooker does the rest. Put this on in the morning and your house will smell all kinds of good when you get home!

Let me tell yall how easy this was to prep:

Season. All I used for this shoulder of pork was a rub of black pepper, garlic powder, salt (to taste). Make sure your meat is dry before putting the seasonings on the meat. Just pat it dry with a couple of paper towels.

Sear. Place the pork in a heavy bottom skillet on high heat with enough olive oil to get a good sear all over the meat. Seriously, you will not regret this step! Sear the meat 3-5 minutes per side. Don't smash it down in the pan, don't cover it with a lid just leave it be to get a proper sear all over that baby!

Slow cook that joker!  Add 4-5 cloves of garlic to the bottom of your crock pot. Add the seared pork and all the juices from the pan you seared it in. Add about 1/2 cup of stock or water, slice an entire onion, grab a bunch of fresh parsley or a tablespoon of dried, a bunch of cilantro or a tablspoon of dried and place it all on top of the pork. Cover it and let it cook on low for eight hours.

After it's been cooked strain about 1-2 cups of that "pot likka", as my grandmothers used to say, into a boiler. Add 1/2 cup of your favorite barbeque sauce to that "likka" and simmer on low. While your sauce is simmering, place the pork on a platter and pull it apart with two forks, it will look like shreds of meat. Be careful that meat is HOT!

At this point the sauce is not even necessary but I like sauce. We kept it very church picnic and had our pork on slices of "light" bread with onions and pickles and peppers and spooned some of that sauce over the meat.  We also stood at the counter and just ate it off the plate. That meat was soooo tender and the sauce was perfect. Another good thing about this pulled pork is that you can have it over two meals: pile that meat on a baked potato with some sharp cheddar and sour cream and green onions...what!!!

Cook.EAT.REPEAT.

The Saturday Sandwich

It has been quite a while since we've had a Saturday Sandwich....well we actually had this for lunch on Sunday. It was so freaking good!

Fresh toasted bakery loaf, carmelized onions, havarti cheese, Virginia ham, bacon, smoked turkey, sharp cheddar and a piled high with spring mixed lettuce and a little honey mustard.  When we were done with this we had the "itis" fa sho!!! 

What To Do?

So I was in one of my local grocery stores cashing in on the gas savings when I ran across these little pieces of possible deliciousness.  I plan to fill these little poppables with homemade lemon curd and homemade banana pudding! Cook.EAT.REPEAT.

I Love Photograzing

I am on there again!!  Vanilla Bean Scones and Sausage Peppers Onions

http://photograzing.seriouseats.com/2011/03/12/

Well Well Well...

Hey guys!

I have been super busy with school but I promise to have proper posts up before the week is out!  In the mean time, my Crispy Fried Okra and Easy Pumpkin Bread were included on Sunday's Photograzing segment. Check me out!

http://photograzing.seriouseats.com/2011/03/06/

Amaya's Friday 'Three'

Babe's Miss America smile throughout is killing me softly! LOLOL