Happy birthday Mom! with a Blueberry Cupcake recipe!

 

 

hi everyone,

I’m always so grateful when October rolls around not because it’s my mom’s birthday, or Halloween. It’s due to her triumphant battle over Cancer.

You see there were times we thought we were going to lose her after several surgeries, chemotherapy,and  radiation. She is here with us celebrating another birthday with us.

Happy Birthday to all the Cancer survivor and please don’t forget to donate to the Cancer Society.

 

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup soymilk unsweetened

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces

3 large whole eggs , at room temperature

1 cup splenda

 

Directions:

 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin pan with paper liners. 

• Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Whisk together eggs, butter,vanilla, and sugar until fluffy.

Gently  fold flour mixture into the egg mixture a little at a time.

Fold batter onto the muffin tin, add blueberries on top of the batter.

bake for 20 minutes.

Drizzle  a little of melted butter over  the top of the cupcake.

 

 

My mom’s favorite Blueberry cupcake!

 

Have a fabulous week,
Maggie

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Happy birthday Mom! with a Blueberry Cupcake recipe!

Spicy fish Taco with cilantro and avocado dressing

Hi Everyone,
Lately I’ve been having an affair with Tacos, specifically fish tacos to be precise. Several eateries have opened up in the Asian section of Orlando Tako Cheena




Spicy Fish Taco
For this dish you can use a variety of
Fish from Tilapia, Basa, Grouper,
Red Snapper, Yellowtail Snapper.
If you are the adventurous type Bacaloa will be perfect.

Ingredients

2 cups water
1 tablespoon butter
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
4 grouper fillets 1 1/2 lb.; thawed
Juice of 2 limes, divided
1/2 teaspoon adobo seasoning (Spanish seasoned salt)
1 cup red and green peppers dice
1 1/3 cups roma tomatoes dice
4 (10-inch) low carb tortillas
1/4 cup Mayonnaise

1/4 cup red onions dice

1/4 cup mild salsa
1/4 cup olives dice

1/4 cup seeded jalapeno

1/2 teaspoon cumin, and pepper

1/4 teaspoon olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Dice avocado

Prep

• Preheat a pan with olive oil, add the butter
• Clean fish, wash with water, sprinkle  1/2 of the lemon juice onto the fish, season with salt and pepper, set aside
• Chop all the vegetables including the cilantro into a bowl add the remaining lemon juice, cumin, pepper, mix well so all the vegetables are coated with the spices
• In a blender, liquefy mayonnaise, 1/2 of the jalapeno, olive oil, cumin, pepper to create the dressing, set aside

Directions

• Sautee the fish in the preheated pan for 2 minutes on each side, remove from heat to a plate to let cool
• Once cool dice the fish set aside
• Clean pan, return to medium heat stack the tortilla to warm
• Remove the tortilla spoon the vegetables onto the tortilla, add fish
• Sprinkle the jalapeno mayonnaise on top, add dice avocado, garnish with cilantro

You can also add dice queso blanco if desired for more textures.

This is a perfect meal for small gathering for games served with a light beer or cider beer.

Have a great,

Maggie

PS don’t forget to follow my pinterest boards

Spicy fish Taco with cilantro and avocado dressing

Pumpkin Cupcake with Mascarpone bourbon frosting!

 

Hi Everyone,

Today is my friend’s Daphne Birthday and my ex-husband. Daphne will be celebrating at Epcot Food and Wine Festival all week long, I made their favorite scrumptious Pumpkin Cupcake for their birthday.

As y’all know I’m not fond of frosting, so I use my favorite cheese (mascarpone) to frost the cupcakes.

 

 

Pumpkin cupcake with Mascarpone bourbon frosting!

Ingredients:

1 box of Pillsbury Sugar free moist yellow cake
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon Splenda
1/2 cup canned pumpkin purée not the pie filling kind (stay away from those)
6 ounces mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon bourbon
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. line  muffin tins with paper liners

2. In a bowl whisk together the eggs, pumpkin purée, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Add the cake mixture and stir until combined

3. Add batter to prepared tins bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when tested

4. Let cool for 10 minutes before frosting

 

Mascarpone bourbon frosting

1. In a bowl cream the mascarpone cheese and butter until smooth. Slowly add in the bourbon,vanilla extract, and splenda mix until smooth

2. Spread the frosting on the cupcake using a frosting bag or a Ziploc bag, sprinkle cinnamon over the frosting

 

Happy Birthday my friends :)
Have a great week,
Maggie

Pumpkin Cupcake with Mascarpone bourbon frosting!

Happy Birthday to me with a savory cupcake!

Hi everyone,
I woke up today one year older, and with more grey hair and aches and pains. As you know a year ago I told you about the back pains I was going through. However what you didn’t know was 2 months ago I was diagnose if the medications didn’t work I might become paraplegic.
I’m happy to tell y’all the inflammation is almost gone and the meds work. I’m happy to be able to cook and celebrate with all of you.


Savory eggs bacon cupcake


Ingredients:
Eggs
Smoke bacon dice
Roma tomatoes dice
Red onions dice
Springs of cilantro
Tbsp. jalapeno, seeded and diced
William Sonoma smoke salt
Madagascar pepper
Salsa
Muffin tin
Olive oil

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F

• Coat muffin tin with olive oil,
• Add tomatoes, onions, jalapeno, bacon onto muffin tin
• Crack an egg into each tin.  Season with pepper
• Bake on the middle rack in the oven  for 10 minutes

• Remove from muffin tin
• Plate, add a tsp. salsa and cilantro on top before serving

Savory muffin/cupcake serve with latte.

Enjoy,
Have a great week!
Don’t forget to follow my boards on Pinterest :)

Happy Birthday to me with a savory cupcake!

Spicy shrimp en Papillote

Hi Everyone,
My mother is the most creative woman I know from the kitchen to mix media art. I’ve discovered a lot of her techniques are actually becoming very mainstream. Example I grew up with my mom smoking bone marrows, only to discover a celebrity chef Norman is now serving this dish as a delicacy of 4 small bone marrows for $27.00.
One of the ways my mom love to steam shrimp is by using an aluminum foil as a pocket or en papillote. Hold and be hold this technique is called in French Papillote.
I’m sure you are wondering what is en papillote cooking?
It’s a simple technique meaning to cook in a pocket using parchment paper, tightly for baking. In France the chefs always use parchment paper. However my mom always use aluminum foil, when I asked her why she told me it was what she had in the kitchen, and also she can grill it, as opposed to the parchment paper that can only be baked.
Today I continue the tradition in my own kitchen,of using you guessed it :) ALUMINUM foil!


Spicy Shrimp en Papillote



Ingredients:
Shrimp, deveined, clean
Roma tomatoes dice
Red onions dice
Celery dice
Jalapeno pepper seeded dice
Olives
William Sonoma smoke salt
Madagascar pepper
Ancho Chili powder
Cilantro
Smoke pepper bacon
1/2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
Aluminum foil

Instructions:
Heat oven to 450 degrees F.

• Mix olive oil with salt, pepper, Ancho chili powder in a bowl
• Add shrimp,jalapeno, celery,onion, tomatoes,coat all ingredients well with the spiced oil
• Lay 2 15-inch-square pieces on top of each other, so it will be sturdy on the counter
• Add coated shrimp onto the center of aluminum foil, add cilantro, bacon, olives on top of the shrimp
• Pull the sides of the aluminum foil fold together to create a tent pocket, place in the center of the oven for 10 minutes
• Let cool on a cutting board before opening the pocket

Here’s a video on the techniques of Papillote

Enjoy,
Have a great week,
Maggie

Spicy shrimp en Papillote

Strawberry champagne preserves

 

Hi Everyone,

I made it to the farmers market very late, but it turned out to be my lucky day. There were a few baskets of strawberries left that started to sweat and the vendor marked them down to $1.00 a basket. However being the savvy shopper that I am, I bargained I will take the whole lot for .50 cents a piece.

 

Now the proud owner of 8 baskets of strawberries, It occurred to me they will be best as preserves. 

 

Strawberry Champagne Preserves

Strawberries washed and pitted

2 cups of Champagne

1/3 cup of Splenda baking sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mason Jar

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 300F

• Hull, wash, and slice strawberries, mix in a container with the champagne, let stand at room temperature for 2 hours
• Cook on medium heat, stir continuously until it baubles and then lower the heat and cook for another 10 minutes, until the juice have reduce to half
• Add the cinnamon,mix well let sit for 1 minute

 

 

Clean mason jars, place into the oven for 2 minutes

 

• Remove jars from the oven, pour strawberry champagne onto jar
• Place jars into the oven and turn off the oven, let cool in the oven for 45 minutes

 

 

 

Voila! Preserves that is diabetic friendly

 

A few more ideas: this is perfect on crostini with mascarpone, or better yet spread it on brie and bake for 10 minutes.

Enjoy,

Maggie

Strawberry champagne preserves

Blueberry Banana Cupcake/muffin

 

 

Hi Everyone,

As we say goodbye to Blueberry season, I want to savor these fresh blueberries one last time before moving on to Pears, Plums and Pumpkins.

As you know I’m not a fan of frosting, however you can create a flavorful maple syrup mascarpone frosting to add more flavour and textures.

 

Banana Blueberry cupcake

 

1 box of banana bread

2 eggs

1 pint of Blueberry

1/4 cup extra virgin Olive Oil

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

 

 

Directions

• Separate the eggs and in a clean bowl, beat the eggs, add the oil until well mix
• Add the vanilla and cinnamon
• Pre-heat the oven to 350 F
• Add the banana mix a little at a time to avoid lumps,mix well
• Coat a muffin tin with oil
• Add the batter
• Sprinkle the blueberries evenly over the top of the batter
• Bake at 350F for 25 minutes

 

 

 

Serve with a touch of butter with espresso!

 

 

 

Enjoy,

Have a great week!

Maggie

Blueberry Banana Cupcake/muffin

Fall is here finally!

Hi Everyone,

It’s with a sigh of relief from the scorching 96-98 degrees and 40% humidity we have endured this Summer. I am looking forward to the balmy 75-80 degrees this Fall and enjoy the pool more.

Since my daughter is in college now I no longer have a partner to go to the pumpkin patch with,luckily we have the flea market that carries smaller varieties that I can get and start putting my fall menu together.

Here are a few pics of what I’m going to be basing my menu on.

Have a fabulous week,

Maggie

 

Gorgeous peppers, that are perfect for cream cheese stuffing with shrimp.

 

 

Red delicious perfect for pickling or pies

 

 

 

Peppers perfect for stuffing with dirty rice, or jambalaya

 

 

 

Perfect for bars, or cookies

 

 

 

Pumpkin bars, cakes, cookies, pies and the list goes on and on :)

 

Fall is here finally!