pineapple upside-down cupcakes

I altered my favorite Pineapple Upside-Down Cake recipe today to make Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes!

Prep: 25 min    Bake: 18 min    Stand: 1 min    Cool: 30 min

• 6 Tbs butter
• 12 Tbs brown sugar
• 2 cans sliced pinapple in juice, drained and juice reserved
• 12 maraschino cherries, without stems
• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 cupcake pans with non-stick spray. Cut butter into tablespoons, then cut those into quarters. (So you end up with twenty-four 1/4 Tbs of butter.) Place one piece in each baking cup. Place in oven for a minute or two to melt butter. Sprinkle 1/2 Tbs brown sugar over the butter in each baking cup.
2. Drain the juice from the canned pineapple (save juice!). Cut 12 pineapple slices into quarters. Arrange two quarters and 1/2 cherry in each cup. Press fruit gently into brown sugar. (To save time cutting cherries in half, or if you just like cherries!, use 24 whole cherries.)
3. Make cake mix as directed on package, using oil and eggs except use 1-1/4 cup of the reserved pineapple juice instead of the water. Cut up some of the leftover pineapple slices to make 2-4 Tbs crushed pineapple and add to batter. Pour evenly over the fruit in the 24 cups.
4. Bake 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. immediately run knife or toothpick around sides of baking cups to loosen cake, and turn pans upside down onto heatproof serving plates (or cookie sheets). Leave pans over cakes 1 minute so brown sugar topping can drizzle over cake. Cool 30 minutes. Serve warm or cool. 12 servings (or 24 petite servings).

What will lure me out of a nearly 3-month blogging break? Food. Beautiful, delicious food.

pancakes, 3D, and fireworks

Independence Day (actually celebrated on Saturday, the 3rd, this year) started off early with a pancake breakfast with family and old church friends.  The fun included balloon swords and hats, a flag ceremony, and riding bikes decorated at home.

Next, many of the aunts and uncles came with us to watch Toy Story 3 in 3D.  It was fantastic!

Saturday night we watched fireworks, of course!  And we enjoyed BBQs each day of the 3-day weekend.    Good times.

   …  

*some of the photos stolen from my sister, Debi

Spaghetti & Meatball Cupcakes

A week ago was the birthday of my favorite person in the world.  When I first saw these cupcakes in my Hello, Cupcake! book, I knew I wanted to make them for Tom.  He could eat spaghetti for dinner at least once a week.

These were so much fun to make!  They’re just vanilla cupcakes in white liners.  I tinted the vanilla frosting and piped it on the cupcakes to look like noodles.  The “spaghetti sauce” is strawberry jam and the “meatballs” are Ferrero Rocher chocolate hazelnut candies.  The final touch was the “parmesean cheese” (grated white chocolate).  Yum!

Happy Birthday, Tom!

Apple Hill

In October, we had such a nice trip to Apple Hill! 

#1 High Hill Farms

We started at High Hill (the crowd confirms that everyone does).  Only because sometimes you can watch them making cider through a window, they give free samples, and I knew we could buy a a gallon of cider to take home. 

At the Fudge Shop, we shared a caramel apple.  I had never had a real one.  Real, like made from a fresh apple and homemade caramel candy.  It was delicious!!

 

#20 Apple Ridge Ranch

Our next stop was Apple Ridge Ranch, for dinner.  We’d never been to this farm before, and I wanted to make sure to go to some new ones.  We were not disappointed!

We started by having some BBQ tri-tip sandwiches.  The meat itself was really mild, but you add as much of their homemade BBQ sauce as you want.  It was really good!  I liked being able to make it just the way I like it.  Tom & I should have shared a plate.

They have  an old tractor there the kids played around on.

   

Apple Ridge Ranch also has a “petting farm” with the cutest sheep and goats ever!  They were so sweet!  That’s where we found out that sheep and goats really like Tom. 

After a short nature walk, we went to our next stop.

 

#38 Abel’s Apple Acres

This place is famous for their Apple Doughnuts.  After reading about them, I knew I’d be skipping the apple pie to try them.  They are the greatest!  Warm & soft on the inside, crunchy with cinnamon-sugar coating on the outside.  To die for!  (Posting this is really making me hungry- which means a lot since I’ve been queasy lately.  I think we’ll have to make a trip back before they close on Christmas Eve.)

We ate them on these cute rustic swings that line the deck.

 

The kids love photo cut-outs!  They spent a while running back and forth between these.

 

  

Lots of good food & family fun at Apple Hill.  Can’t wait til we go back!

 

Jared’s 4th Birthday

While I was “out”, my baby turned four! 

He wanted Chick-fil-A for lunch.  My kids love that place.  They think the cows are funny.

                 

Next, we took him to Build-A-Bear-Workshop.  It was his first time.  Magic!  (That place is really very cool.)

He named his bear “Bear”.

Finally, we went to the theaters to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  We all thought it was fun & silly.

Its hard to believe he’s already four.  He’s growing up so fast.  He’ll start school next year.

I love that kid.

The Cooking Show! The Cooking Show!

the kids are chanting right now.  Luckily, they think that 3-1/2 hrs isn’t a long time to wait until our Pampered Chef show tonight.  They pretty much think these “cooking shows” are parties for them.  They love our “cooking lady”, Lisa, and can’t wait to start helping her in the kitchen tonight!

 

P.S.  The answers to the 1st grade quiz will be coming soon.

 

Family + Pizza: Part Two

This week, we had the 2nd Annual combined Esther & Debi Hawaiian Pizza Birthday Dinner.  + pulled pork sandwiches (Debi really wanted those, so she brought them, too.)

To add to the fun, the girls requested that everyone dress Fancy Nancy style.  And if you don’t know who that is, I am so sorry for you.  Adorable stories.  Scrumptious illustrations.  Really.

Nancy would say that wearing posh accessories really does make dinner taste better.  Would you agree?

 

Family + Pizza: Part One

On Sunday, the Avis’s came over for Family Home Evening (or FHE).  Our church encourages families (usually immediate families, but extended families, or even groups of friends when family isn’t near also work) to gather once a week for family learning and fun.  You can learn more about FHE here and here.

Traditionally on Monday nights, we hold ours on the first Sunday of each month because its easier for our merged schedules.

This time, they came over a little early so we could have dinner before.  Homemade pizzas!  The best!!  I made the dough (which is what inspired the dinner last month when Heidi was saying she wants a pizza dough recipe), and they brought all the yummy toppings. 

The kids had fun, and got messy (they didn’t make mistakes, though (sorry, Magic School Bus quote) but you can’t really make mistakes when making your own pizza, right?) adding the toppings to their individual rounds of dough like masterpieces.

(Insert collage here.  Okay, I just have to say that you are going to be seeing a lot of these collages.  I have been admiring them all over the web, and couldn’t figure out how to get any of my photo editing programs to do it for me.  I even tried making my own, but YIKES!  Getting the sizes and spacing right was just too much!  Happily, I found the program I needed.  And in case any of you are looking for the answer to photo mosaics as well, I’ll save you some time:  Picasa.)

 John showed Tom how to grill the pizza on the BBQ (thanks, John, we’ll be doing this a lot more often!) and I’m sure we made our neighbors jealous with the savory scent.  Just look at those pizzas & I dare you to try to keep your mouth from watering.  Too late! Ha!

We took advantage of the tables still set up on the patio from Esther’s birthday.

 

Oh, WOW!  That was good pizza!  I know, you’re all jealous.  But that’s okay.  Give me a call and come over sometime and we’ll show you all the tricks to a perfect grilled pizza.  Just bring the toppings.