Apple Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

These were really good. I brought them to work Monday and everyone loved them. Because I decided to get fancy with the decorations they took me a while to make, but if you just make the basic cupcake w/frosting it will take you no time at all. I wanted the marshmallows to look like little cinnamon rolls on the tops. How fun!

Ingredients:

• French Vanilla Cake Mix
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Can Apple Pie Filling
• 1 Container Duncan Hines Cinnamon Roll Frosting Creation
• 1/4 Cup Frosted Flakes
• 1/4 Cup Cinnamon Bun Marshmallows (I know- Do these really exist? Yes they do!)
• A handful of chocolate chips

Steps:

1. Open can of pie filling and chop up apple slices - you don't want whole slices for cupcakes

2. Mix pie filling, cake mix and 2 eggs until well blended (you don't need a mixer, just a good wooden spoon)

3. Fill cupcake liners and bake according to directions on cake mix box

4. Let cupcakes cool completely

5. Crunch up Frosted Flakes - I put in a prep bowl and mash with a spoon until the crumbs are the size I want for a topping

6. Mix up Duncan Hines Frosting Creations frosting -- really well so you don't have swirls. One thing I have to say is although this frosting mix is very tasty it is kind of runny and always seems to slide off some of my cupcakes. Boo. But those are the ones I eat then so I guess its ok. Maybe I should refrigerate the cupcakes when I use this frosting.

7. Cut marshmallows in half so they are not so big. (I had a hard time slices them and mentioned this at work and then the marshmallow expert said I should have used scissors to cut them. Duh! That would have been easier! oh well- next time)

8. Melt chocolate chips and using a toothpick drizzle or draw circles on the marshmallows.

9. Frost cupcakes.

10. Sprinkle Frosted Flakes and top with a Cinnamon Bun marshmallow.

Ahhhhhh- when I was done this is how I enjoyed one of these.....

with a scoop of Neapolitan ice cream. Yum!

Monday night dinner

Roast beef in the crock pot
I'm sure there could be some fancy name for this but I just call it what it is.

This is probably my favorite dinner of all time. My mom would make it all the time for me back in high school. It was my most requested meal when I lived at home. I can still remember coming home from school, walking up the front steps, just barely opening the front door and smelling this dinner. Ahhhh.

Mondays can be a really lazy night and I knew I would not want to cook after work so I prepped this last night, threw it together this morning before work and it was ready for me when I got home. I love coming in the door and having dinner ready to eat. It makes me so happy to smell that heavenly aroma instantly. Before I even set my purse down I stick a fork in to taste a carrot, then a potato -- yummmmm - Hot! But Yum. Yup! Another masterpiece that I can't wait to eat! So simple yet my taste buds go crazy for this meal.

Ingredients:

• roast (this time I think it was a Eye of Round Roast, but I just browse the roasts and buy what looks good)
• carrots
• potatoes (russet)
• onion (I usually buy white onions but yellow is ok to use too)
• beef broth
• roast beef seasoning (I have this container of roast beef rub that I usually use for this meal - its by all the other seasonings at your local grocery store)
• S&P (that's salt and pepper)
• 2 bay leaves

Steps:

1. Peel and chop carrots, potatoes and onion. You want them in somewhat big chunks but still cut up fairly well. Now if you're prepping this meal the night before you can stop here and do the rest in the morning. Or, if you can fit your whole crock pot in your fridge you can do the rest up to plugging it in and turning it on. I switch it up depending on the shelf space in my fridge.
2. Throw in a handful or two of the carrots, onion, potatoes then pour in about 1.5 to 2 cups beef broth and about 2 cups water.
3. Season your roast - I use a roast rub so I first put S&P all over the roast and then the rub all over.
4. Put the roast in the crock pot (Now, my sister sears the roast first, then puts it in the crock pot. I don't do this because I rather just throw everything in and let it cook itself and save a step.)
5. Throw in the rest of the carrots, onion, potatoes
6. Pour in more water and/or beef broth so the liquid is just at the top of the roast.
7. Plug in and turn on low if your leaving it all day, mine was on low for about 9 hours today
8. Feast

I could stand at the counter with a fork and eat the whole darn thing its so good. Oh, sometimes if I have an open bottle of red wine I'll throw some of that in while its cooking too, but I didn't have a bottle open today.

When I got home I made a couple salads and dinner was ready. Happy Monday to me!





After dinner it was time to give Patches a bath. We went for a loooooong walk down to the lake on Saturday and smelt terrible! blahhh! He does not like baths but he is much more well behaved than he was for his first couple baths when we first got him.

He's saying "I hate baths and now I'm a wet doggy!"

He doesn't stay like this for long.

He's already back up, running around, squeaking toys.

My Favorite Pasta Salad

I had two friends visit a couple weekends ago and I made roll-ups (see post on Roll-Ups) for a snack and this pasta salad for lunch. This is another recipe you can add almost anything you like and are craving at the time.

What I used this time: cucumber, green pepper, cherry tomatoes (actually I think they were grape tomatoes), pepperoni, pasta (I like the colorful pasta for pasta salads), cubes of Colby Jack cheese, and Italian salad dressing. I wanted to add artichokes but Cub moved them and I couldn’t find them!

Chop anything that needs to be- I like to slice the tomatoes in half because they are easier to get on your fork that way, other than that –chop and throw in a bowl. Boil pasta, rinse and throw in bowl. Stir everything together and squirt in the Italian dressing. Stir and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. Done!

If anyone can tell me how to keep my pepperoni from clumping up I would really appreciate it. I hate it when this happens! Hate it!

I love this pasta salad- its so good and you can throw just about anything in it. One of my friends called it the debri salad. haha!


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This summer at the cabin we have been trying to get Patches into the lake to go swimming. Of course its always great how nice he smells after the lake– NOT!!!!!

The first time Patches did not like swimming at all. He swam straight for the dock and was done.

But the second time he liked it much more!

He swam around and didn’t head for the dock or land for a while. Just kept swimming.

Hummingbird Feeder and Food

I just got into bird feeders this summer – I’m trying not to go nuts and keep it to a few. So far I have a suet, thistle and hummingbird feeder.

The suet feeder works great – its just a simple square cage one and most birds love it. The thistle does well – it took about a week or two before the first birds ate from it but now there are almost always yellow finches feasting. I love the bright yellow birds in my yard- I think they match my garden so they are the perfect bird to have.


The hummingbird feeder
The first one I bought was no good at all. No one ate from it. The “food” or whatever you call it got moldy and gross. I showed it to my dad and he said to throw it away and that kind never works. When I asked why they even sell that style in the store he said “cuz those people who make feeders don’t know shi*t about feedin’ birds”. Apparently there are feeders at the store designed by people who just sit in their house and have never seen a bird before. I think that is a bunch of crap-all feeders should be tested first. Well, not really, but how is a person supposed to know what style feeder to get when there are about 15 different kinds of one type bird feeder?!?!?

So this is the style I ended up getting. My dad said it will be much better—and it was! I see hummingbirds all the time now. I love those little birds – they are so cute and funny looking.

Food for hummingbirds:

First, you do not need to buy anything they sell in the store. Second, hummingbird food consists of just water and sugar and cannot be easier to make.

Boil one cup of water, stir in one cup of sugar.Once dissolved completely stir in two cups cold water. Done.


Fill feeder only about half way and then keep the rest in the fridge. Sometimes with the hot summer weather the food might get icky so you’ll need to pour it out, wash the feeder and fill again. So, if you only fill half the feeder the food will go faster and you can fill with fresh food more frequent and not have to wash it out as often.

Enjoy!

PS- I tried to get a pic of a hummingbird at my feeder but just couldn't catch them. Sorry!

Hens

While I was choppin away making the roll-ups for the potluck my mother and dad were at the cabin feasting on Cornish hens. Yum! They look delish!

Mother stuffs them with sauteed celery, onions and mushrooms. I think I’ll have to make these soon because now I’m craving them!!!

I know- they are really roughin it up there are the cabin - huh.

Roll-ups

This is my last week with the staff in my department. Monday I begin a new position in a new department. So my staff threw me a good-bye party. They asked what type of food theme I wanted for the potluck because we have had so many different themes- walking tacos, breakfast, hot dog bar, pasta par, baked potato bar, apps/finger food, sweets, state fair food, green (that was for St Patrick’s day), and many more. I picked the kind where we eat all day! For those we bring sweets, appetizers, finger food, hors d'oeuvres  – usually this is for our Christmas party. Its my favorite because, well, duh- you get to eat ALL DAY!!!

I brought roll-ups. Not too difficult of a hors d'oeuvre but really good! You can put just about anything in them. For these I stuffed them with carrots,cucumber and turkey lunch meat. I have used other types of lunch meat and romaine. Just about any veggies or meat works great.

Ingredients: veggies, lunch meat, tortilla shells, cream cheese

Start by slicing your veggies in super duper skinny sticks – what’s the appropriate term? Julienne? I don’t know who Julianne is, so I’m going to say super skinny sticks instead. That is something my dad would say- “who’s Julie?” Whenever we use rosemary in our house my dad would say “Rosemary? Is she coming?”  Anyway.....

Once you have all the veggies ready get out any other ingredients you want to use. I like to have all my “stuffings” out while assembling.

Spread cream cheese all over the tortilla shell – all the way to the ends.

Now line up your fillings – not in the middle – just to the side of the middle, about a quarter of the way in from the end. You don’t want too much filling but enough. I used a few “sticks” of each ingredient. Just play with them til you get the right amount.

Then roll it up- really really tight. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight.

  
When you are ready to eat slice up and serve! Yum! They will disappear faster than you believe so eat a few before you serve them.

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My send off party was so yummy! All my staff made such great food. They gave me a picture of all of them on a Hello Kitty pink picture holder, Hello Kitty pink key chain - both perfect!- and all signed a super nice card. They are the best!

Here's some of their deliciousness we feasted on throughout the whole day.....

A few other varieties of roll-ups (mine are on the plate in the back) and antipasto kabobs (should have taken the plastic wrap off first so you could see how pretty those were).

Veggie pizza - I think by the end of the day I had eaten about a quarter of this. So good! And I love how she really loaded it with veggies!

Taco dip! Yum Yum Yum!

Other items we feasted on included: sticky buns (had to have something to start on in the morning for breakfast), eclairs, fruit, rice crispy bars (my favorite dessert of all time) and little cut up smokies/wieners in bbq sauce.


Now that I ate all day I think I'm going to spend the evening sitting on the couch so I don't throw up. haha.