Easter Eggs

Much to my shock and dismay, I have a lot of friends that have never dyed Easter eggs before and have no clue how to do it. So, if you still have not dyed any eggs, never fear. I have an easy way you can accomplish this without having to shell (get it? shell? egg-shell? nevermind...) out dough on a dyeing kit.

First step:
Hard boil your eggs. I take a dozen (or however many you want to dye) eggs and place them in a large pot and cover with cold water (enough to cover about one inch over). Bring them to a boil. Once you have a nice boil, cover the pot and remove from heat. Let the eggs sit for 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes are up, drain off some of the hot water and run some cold water over the eggs. Remove from the pot and let cool.

Now onto the dye:
I didn't buy an Easter egg dye kit this year because I figured it'd be cheaper to just buy food coloring. Most of you will probably already have all of this in your pantry. What you'll need are:

Containers for your eggs
1 cup of hot water for each container
1 teaspoon of vinegar for each container
Food coloring of your choice. I used a combo of the Regular Colors and the Neon colors. On the back of the packages, if gives you a handy guide on how many drops to use.

Drop an egg into the dye and let it sit until it reaches the desired color.

Now onto the fun stuff.


For this egg, I took a sheet of vinyl sticker paper (you can get it at any craft store) and a craft puncher in the shape of an airplane. Once the dye dries, you peel of the sticker and voila! An airplane! I also used flower punchers but they didn't turn out as well as this airplane.


For these, I took a vinyl Alphabet sticker and soaked it in yellow. Then I took it out, let it dry and adhered another letter and soaked it in blue. Once the egg totally dried, I took a fine-tip Sharpie and wrote the rest of our names on the egg. It's a PB&J set!

Cajun Glazed Ham

What is Easter without a baked ham? In college, I did a Social Theory paper on why we have certain food items geared towards certain holidays. Thanksgiving=turkey; Christmas=turkey for some, ham for others, or beef for our family; New Years Day=black eyed peas; and Easter=ham. We've had this ham for as long as I can remember and it never disappoints. It's also AWESOME for leftovers for sandwiches. Now I'm really wishing I had a sandwich with this ham right now.

I'm not normally a bossy person, but I am for this recipe. There are absolutely no substitutions allowed. You must use Louisiana cane syrup. If you have family members in Louisiana, get them to ship it to you. You can even order it online. Trust me on this. You have to use it. It's worth the investment to get it shipped to you if you aren't lucky enough to live in Louisiana. Check your stores, you may be lucky enough to have it in your grocery store. Unfortunately, we're not so lucky in this area.

Ok, sorry for that. It's just crucial. :)

Cajun-Glazed Ham

Source: The Evolution of Cajun & Creole Cuisine by John D. Folse, page 251

Ingredients:
1 (5 pound cured ham)
1 cup Creole mustard
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Louisiana cane syrup (no substitutions allowed!)
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup cracked black pepper
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of allspice
pinch of ground clove

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a ceramic mixing bowl, combine all the above ingredients, except ham. Using a wire whisk, blend all spices into the mustard-sugar mixture until well incorporated. Place ham in center of dutch oven and coat completely with the sweet mustard mixture. Bake uncovered for one hour.

Printable version

Corned Beef

For as long as I can remember, we've always had Corned Beef for St. Patrick's Day. I'm sure most of you have already made your St. Patrick's Day dinner, but you can always have a belated holiday dinner and be festive later in the week. Plus the leftovers make yummy sandwiches or corned beef hash. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Homestyle Corned Beef
Source: My mom (not sure of the original source)

2 1/2 - 3 1/2 lbs. corned beef brisket
2 cups water
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp. Dijon-style mustard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place corned beef brisket and water in Dutch oven; cover tightly and simmer in oven, 1 hour. Turn brisket over and continue cooking, covered, 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until meat is tender.

Remove brisket from cooking liquid and place, fat side up, on rack in broiler pan so surface of meat is 3-4 inches from heat. Combine honey and Dijon mustard, brush half the mixture over the top of brisket and broil 3 minutes. Brush with remaining mixture and continue broiling 2 minutes, or until brisket is glazed.

Makes 6-10 servings

Tips

• Simmer corned beef since boiling will make meat tough.
• Do not use seasoning packet that comes with the meat.

Printable version

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

There are a few things in life that you just need. I believe these cupcakes should be on your list. Unless you don't like booze, then I just can't help you. These definitely aren't for kids, but adults need some cupcakes of their own every once and a while.

At Christmas, Caitlin gave me an awesome set of cupcake paraphernalia from Bake it Pretty and I've been trying to find a good cupcake recipe to use the awesome cupcake liners. I saw these green liners in the box and knew to save them for St. Patrick's Day. My intention was to bring these to the office, but I went for it and put all 4 Tbsp of Bailey's into the frosting, so they're a little too booze-y for the office. Thankfully, I only had about enough of the buttercream for half of the cupcakes, so I'm going to try and half the Bailey's with milk for the office's cupcakes.

If you shy away from this recipe because it has Guinness in it, trust me, you shouldn't. I don't like Guinness at all, but the beer cooks off and it gives the chocolate a very complex flavor.

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream
Source: Le Petit Pierogi as adapted from Smitten Kitchen

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes:
1 cup Guinness
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream (I used light)

Bailey's Irish Buttercream:
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 to 4 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and add Guinness. Bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat eggs and sour cream until thoroughly combined. On low speed, drizzle in Guinness-chocolate mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, and mix briefly on slow speed just until the mixture comes together. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17-19 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

To make the buttercream, whip the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for several minutes until the butter is very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.

When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn't, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Printable version

Gingerbread Cookie Mix

Eight days until Christmas. EIGHT!

Don't get me wrong, Christmas really is my favorite holiday. However, this year I'm so far behind, it's not even funny. Doesn't it seem like when you're little, you count down until Christmas and can't wait until the big day. But when you get older, Christmas morning creates a sort of panic? That could just be me, but I'm definitely feeling that way this year.

Oh, well. Always next year to be organized right? :)

If you are like me and still have yet to finish your holiday shopping, you should consider homemade gifts. I've never given them out before and don't know why it's taken me this long to give a gift I've made myself.

Gingerbread Cookie Mix in a Jar
Source: All Recipes

Flour Level:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Flour and Spice Mix:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 cup packed brown sugar

Directions
Mix 2 cups of the flour with the baking soda and baking powder. Mix the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour with the ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice. In a 1 quart, wide mouth canning jar, layer the ingredients starting with the flour and baking powder mixture, then the brown sugar, and finally the flour and spice mixture. Pack firmly between layers.

Attach a card to the jar with the following directions:
Gingerbread Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Empty contents of jar into a large mixing bowl. Stir to blend together. Mix in 1/2 cup softened butter or margarine, 3/4 cup molasses, 1 Tbsp. vinegar, and 1 slightly beaten egg. Dough will be very stiff, so you may need to use your hands. Cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut into shapes with a cookie cutter. Place cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Decorate as desired.

Printable version

Check out the other entries into the Flavor of the Month:

Rugalach

I believe I've mentioned this before, but the best mail day is when either Food Network Magazine, Cooking Light, and/or the Williams Sonoma catalog arrives. Saturday I was blessed with this month's Food Network magazine and it's beautiful cover is nothing but cookies. Which can only mean...

It's Holiday Baking Season!

One cookie caught my eye, which I found out (thanks to the handy-dandy insert of 50 cookie recipes) that the cookie was rugalach. I had no idea what that meant, other than I had to make it. Just so happens that my office is having a bake sale on Friday, so this could be a contender...

Rugalach

Source Food Network Magazine

Cut store-bought pie dough into 16 wedges (like a pizza). Starting from the tip, spread apricot jam over the top two-thirds of each wedge; sprinkle with chopped pecans. Roll from the fat end in to form a crescent shape. Brush with beaten egg and chill 30 minutes. Bake 30 to 35 minutes at 325 degrees.