From The Good Life

Sharing a few pics of our new home.......

Apple Cupcakes - Club Baked

Two nights in a row I am going to play the moving card. Since we moved two weeks ago, time just hasn't been on my side where baking is concerned. However, this recipe looked delicious and Tim needed treats for work. I knew I didn't have time to make the layer cake and caramel sauce the recipe called for so I made a few changes. I decided to make cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I cut the recipe in half and ended up with 21 cupcakes. I baked them for about 18 minutes. This recipe totally says fall. The aroma coming from the kitchen while this was baking was heavenly!! These cupcakes are so moist and very delicious. I would have liked a just a little more spice flavor in these!



Thanks to Melissa of Lulu the Baker for choosing this month's recipe. For sure, it's a keeper! You can find the recipe on her blog and links to the other Club Baked bakers creations here!

Chocolate Ginger Angel Food Cake - CWF

I spent all day yesterday unpacking the last of the moving boxes. The moving boxes that really needed to be unpacked, that is! The good news is I did it! The bad news is that didn't leave me a lot of time to bake for Chocolate With Francois. It's a proven fact if I wait till last minute to bake for one of my baking groups, the recipe won't turn out quite right. Once again, that's the case. I baked this cake after work tonight, yes the last minute! I am not sure if I didn't let it bake long enough or what but it didn't come out of the pan quite right. The texture is unlike any angel food cake, I've ever had before. The cake is very heavy and dense, not light and airy like I think of when I hear angel food cake. I omitted the candied ginger because I didn't have any and it wasn't in the cards to make some tonight. The flavor of the cake itself is good but I can't get past the texture!



You can check out the other CWF baker's cakes here. You'll find their cakes look much better than mine did. The recipe should be up over at Leslie of Lethally Delicious' blog sometime soon. If not and despite my not so great review, you want the recipe, just send me an email! Next up for CWF is Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme!

Happy Halloween!

Herbed Spaghetti Squash

I have been a bit of a slacker with my posts lately, moving has taken a tole on my cooking!

As I was looking for a recipe to post today, the ones remaining in my drafts were either squash or something pickled. I've made spaghetti squash only once before and I don't think I let it bake long enough. Spaghetti squash is so fun to make. You bake the squash and then use a fork to scrape out he strands of "spaghetti" in the squash. This would be a fun dish to make with kids.




Herbed Spaghetti Squash
Recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse

• 1 small spaghetti squash, about 2 1/4 pounds
• 2 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 2 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped mixed soft herbs, such as basil, chives, parsley and sage
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Using a sharp knife, cut the squash in half lengthwise and place, cut side down, in a baking dish. Add enough water to come 1/2-inch up the sides of the baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes, until the squash is easily pierced with a paring knife. Turn squash over and cover with foil again and continue to cook another 15 minutes, until the squash is very tender. Remove from the oven, uncover, and allow to cool slightly. Using a spoon, remove the seeds and discard. Using a fork, gently pull the strands of squash away from peel and place the squash strands into a mixing bowl.

Heat a skillet. Add the butter, spaghetti squash, herbs, salt and pepper and toss thoroughly but gently to heat and combine. Serve immediately or cover and keep warm until ready to serve.

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday.

From The Good Life

Tim and I both have a love of water! Not the kind you drink, although we love that too but the kind you boat or swim in. When we were first looking for our house in Omaha six years ago, we drove around Riverside Lakes, a great community just on the outskirts of Omaha. We thought it would be a wonderful place to live but it just wasn't in the cards at the time. As it happens, Riverside Lakes is right by our dog kennel and our mechanic. Both of which we visit frequently, the mechanic sometimes too frequently! We'd often drive around the lake and comment on how much we'd like to live there.

A few months ago, we noticed there were several houses for sale. Just for the heck of it, I called on a couple of them, from there I contacted our real estate agent and set up an appointment to tour the houses. Tim was reluctant at first but I convinced him to take a look. After a few weeks of driving around and looking at houses, we decided to put our house on the market. We made an offer on the house at Riverside, they accepted our offer and 9 days later our house sold. The rest is history. Four weeks and way too many boxes later, we're enjoying a beautiful fall in our new home. Today I'm sharing a view from our deck. More pictures to come, as we get a few more of those boxes unpacked and some pictures on the walls.

Sticky Chicken Wings - Secret Recipe Club

When I received my Secret Recipe Club blog assignment for the month, I immediately checked out her blog. Lavender and Lime is a lovely blog and one I have browsed on several occasions before! There's a lot going on here at Little Bit of Everything, so I needed a recipe I could make quickly and have ready in plenty of time for today's posting date.

It's football season and a few Sunday's ago there was a game between my KC Chiefs and Tim's Minnesota Vikings. Neither one of these teams had won a game yet this year, so this was a big event in more than one way. What foods do you think of when you hear football? Chicken Wings, Nachos and Dip are the first that come to my mind. I found a recipe for Sticky Chicken Wings on Tandy's blog. Perfect! Normally I make these wings, much more spicy than sticky.



I cooked these in the oven for about 30 minutes and then finished them on the grill. Tim enjoyed the wings a lot more than the outcome of the game. KC Chiefs 22 - Minnesota Vikings 17.

STICKY CHICKEN WINGS

ingredients:

8 chicken wings

juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon crushed ginger

1 tablespoon oil

1 tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon wasabi sauce

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

method:

preheat the oven to 180°Celsius

make a marinade out of the lime, soy, ginger, oil, honey, wasabi and garlic

massage the marinade into the chicken and leave to marinade for 20 minutes

place the chicken and the marinade into an oven proof dish

season and cook for 25 minutes

grill for a further 2 minutes

Note: I grilled these for about 20 minutes. I didn't find these to be done after 20 minutes in the oven.