Candied Sweet Potato Cupcakes- Martha Stewart's Cupcake Club

These cupcakes remind me of the sweet potatoes we had for Thanksgiving dinner when I was a little girl. Lots of marshmallows. Today, I actually prefer my sweet potatoes without marshmallow goo!

I stood in the kitchen for a few minutes trying to decide whether make a half or quarter of this recipe and whether to make mini cupcakes or standard size cupcakes. I just wasn't sure we would like these, so I figured we'd go with one bite mini's. As I was assembling these, I kept thinking...sweet potato??

Boy was I wrong, these are delicious. The sweet potato flavor is mild and the cupcakes are light and airy. YUMMY!!

Trying to brown the marshmallows with my torch, I almost set the kitchen on fire. So as not have to call 911, I decided to try putting the marshmallows under the broiler. All the while I kept thinking how do they stick to the top if you're browning them on top? So ladies, how do they???As I was setting up little trio's of marshmallows, it occurred to me I had a jar of fluff in the cabinet. Flame free and easy.



This month's MSC recipe was chosen by Karen at Karen's Cookies, Cakes and More. Thanks Karen for picking a recipe I would not have tried otherwise!!! You can find the links to all of the other MSC baker's here.

Butter Toffee Crunch - Sweet Melissa Sundays

Considering my sweet tooth, when I read this recipe makes 3 pounds, I decided to cut it in half. Cutting recipes in half always reminds me of grade school...converting fractions. I decided to take advantage of the internet and find a recipe converter. I found a great site that allows you to enter the entire recipe, directions and all and even print it if you like.



Cavities or no cavities, I am so sorry I didn't make the full recipe! This toffee is absolutely delicious and so easy to make. The mixture reached the 290 degree temperature much quicker than I expected. Don't take your eyes off that thermometer or you will overcook it. When you purchase toffee, you see it in those nice little triangle shapes. So how do the candy makers do that? I used the wooden end of my meat mallet and some pieces are nice shapes but others are small crumbles? Maybe the candy makers have eat all the leftovers? Kind of like that one unforgettable I Love Lucy episode?

This recipe would be great for holiday gift giving. Thanks to Kaitlin of Kait's Place for choosing such a wonderful recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog and links to all of the other Sweet Melissa baker's here.

Pear Crumble Pie

To keep them cool, I've been storing the pears that a co worker gave me in the garage. Due to an unseasonably warm weekend my storage area is a little warm, so I need to use the rest of the ripe pears.

I love crumbles! This recipe is a pie with a crumble topping. This week's Sweet Melissa Sunday's recipe was Pear & Cranberry Muffins with a Gingersnap Crumble. The crumble was my favorite part of this recipe. Perfect! I can use some of the leftover gingersnaps for the crumble for this pie.



Pear Crumble Pie

6 medium pears, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 9-inch baked pastry shell

Crumble
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter or margarine
12 gingersnap cookies, crushed
Combine flour and spices for crumb topping and cut in butter till crumbly.

Sprinkle pears iwth lemon juice. Mix sugars, flour, cinnamon and lemon peel; stir into sliced pears. Spoon into pastry shell. Sprinkle with Crumble Topping. Bake at 400♂F. for 45 min. or until pears are tender. Serve warm with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

At Least One Green Thumb

When I lived in Kansas City, I didn't have anything growing in my house. I always said I didn't have a green thumb. Now when I stop to think about it, I just didn't take the time to have a green thumb. Tim had lots of houseplants and they're such a wonderful addition to a home. Three years ago we traveled to Mexico on a cruise. We fell in love with the beautiful bouganvilla plants we saw while traveling the countryside. That summer we purchased a bouganvilla. Summers in Nebraska can be pretty tropical! Our bouganvilla thrived. Once the temperatures began to cool, we brought it inside and wintered it inside. Much to my surprise, it survived. As the temperatures began to get warm enough, we moved it outside. The second year, we wintered it inside again. That winter it flourished inside. When summer came, we decided it had become a beautiful houseplant and kept it inside.

It goes through spells where it doesn't bloom and looses a few leaves but always comes back. The secret to growing a bouganvilla is the right amount of light, water and feeding. I did a lot of reading about what kind of food to feed it. I ran across an article on using Epsom Salt as plant fertilizer. I decided to give it a try. Once a month, I put two tablespoons of Epsom Salt in a gallon of water and feed all of our houseplants. The bouganvilla seems to really like this food.




I still won't say I am a gardener but I do think I may have one green thumb.

Apricot Chicken

My husband was telling me about an Apricot Chicken dish he remembered having a child. All he could really remember was it had apricot jelly. I decided it probably had apricot preserves. The internet is such a great thing, hard to remember life without it. I did some searching and the recipe that kept coming up was one with just three ingredients, apricot preserves, onion soup and russian dressing. How simple is that? I decided to make it even easier and use my slow cooker. I work full time and the slow cooker is my friend! There's nothing better than coming home and having dinner ready.

Apricot Chicken

1 1/2 cups russian dressing
1 envelope onion soup
1/2 cup apricot preserves
6 pieces of chicken

Combine and pour over chicken. Cook in the slow cooker 8 hours. Remove the chicken from the the slow cooker, strain the sauce and use a fat separator to drain the grease. Whisk together 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 3 tablespoons of water. In a saucepan, combine sauce and cornstarch mixture. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or until thickened. Place chicken in serving dish, cover with sauce. Serve over rice.



My notes on this recipe: I thought this was good but a little bland. I want to experiment with the ratio of dressing to preserves. I think the addition of some herbs or spices would help as well.

Indoor Gardening - Week Six

Six weeks have passed since I "planted" the herbs in my AeroGarden. The garden is really starting to take shape.

I am seeing the same pattern with the chives and mint. The chives are very slow in growing and aren't as I would like. The mint leaves are really small. Hopefully they will grow larger as the garden continues to grow.

As with my last herb garden, the basil is the star! I am looking forward to using experimenting with the lemon basil. And of course, there's nothing better than fresh basil when it's cold outside.

Hopefully within the next couple of weeks, I can begin to harvest some of the herbs.

Pear and Cranberry Muffins with Gingersnap Crumble - SMS

This recipe couldn't have come at a better time. A co-worker gave me several pears from their backyard tree. They remind me of our backyard apples, lots of spots but beautiful, juicy fruit on the inside.

The Pear and Cranberry Muffins are the same base recipe as the Peach Muffins we made in August. This recipe makes a lovely, moist muffin. I decided to make 6 large muffins instead of the 12 small ones. They took about five minutes longer to bake. I used lemon zest instead of orange zest and rehydrated craisins for the cranberries.

Not being a big gingersnap fan, I was a little concerned about the flavor of the topping. Boy was I wrong, the topping ended up being one of my favorite things about these muffins. I used store bought gingersnaps. Next time I make these, I will use more pears.


Thanks to Jennifer of Maple N' Cornbread for choosing this week's recipe. The recipe can be found on her blog. You can find the links to all of the other Sweet Melissa Sunday's bakers he For links to all of the Sweet Melissa Sunday's bakers here.

Next week's Sweet Melissa Sunday's is Butter Toffee Crunch, a perfect recipe for holiday giving.