Bird Nest Cupcakes

I planned to make two kinds of cupcakes, both from scratch, for Easter.  Well, neither ended up being from scratch :p
I really wanted to make Annie's Baby Bluebird Cupcakes, but ended up going with nests as time was running out!  Still very cute and delicious :)

Make cake...I used the always fun Funfetti cake from Pillsbury:

Toast coconut over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Before:

After:

Make chocolate icing - I used this recipe.

Ice cupcakes and cover with toasted coconut-

Add M&Ms or any other candy that resembles an egg, and Voila!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Yum!  A classic favorite.  I fully intended on making these From Annie's Eats, but with company coming and time running out, I cheated and used this boxed mix:

  

It's a good one...there are shredded carrots & raisins in the box so it really seems homemade, and it really did come out very moist!

I did, however, make my own icing, following this recipe exactly.

The fun part is the decorating :)

 

Baked Pineapple

Like scalloped potatoes, I don't think I will make a ham without this anymore!  Slightly fattening but so good!
Recipe from allrecipes.com with minor omissions/ changes.  1 cup of sugar made it pretty sweet, so I would reduce it for next time, as indicated below.  I also mistakenly used DOUBLE the amount of butter I should have...doing too many things at once apparently!  I noticed while preparing that it was very moist and added more bread.  But it wasn't really tooooooooo bad with a ton of butter (taste-wise, not cholesterol-wise!).  So I would increase the butter from the recipe...just not quite so much as I did yesterday ;)

3/4 cup butter (1.5 sticks), softened
3/4 cup sugar (or 1 cup if you like things very sweet)
5-6 slices slightly stale white bread (I left them out overnight)
1- 20 oz. can pineapple chunks
4 eggs

Blend butter and sugar until well mixed.

Add the eggs one at a time until blended.

Add pineapple chunks (with juice) and torn up pieces of bread.

Bake at 350 for approximately one hour

The complete meal with spiral sliced ham, scalloped potatoes, and roasted broccoli:

Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes are a necessary accompaniment to ham for me.  We love them!
I combined a few recipes I found on allrecipes.com to create one that worked best for us.  We don't like a lot of cheese or too heavy of a sauce, so this blend of broth with a bit of milk works great.  Here is my favorite scalloped potato preparation.

6 large potatoes
1 large onion
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
1/4 cup shredded cheese
1/4 cup milk

Peel potatoes and then slice them with mandolin slicer into 9x13 baking dish.  Do the same with the onion, mix together, and add salt and pepper (as you can see, s&p has not been added as of this picture!).

Melt butter in saucepan and stir in flour.  Slowly add broth and milk, stirring constantly.  Add cheese and stir until slightly melted.  Pour over potatoes and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Lily...

says hello!

Easy Breakfast Strata

This could be dressed up with whatever you have in the fridge.  Leftover broccoli would be a great addition!

5 eggs
~3/4 cup breakfast sausage, grilled and chopped (this was about 1/2 of one of our packages from the local farm)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup shredded cheese
1/4 cup light sour cream
1 tube crescent rolls

Mix all ingredients except sausage with a wire whisk until well blended.
Lay the crescent roll dough in the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish.
Put sausage in dish and cover with egg mixture
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Enjoy!

Grilled Zucchini, Peppers & Onion

Summer is almost here and the grilling season has begun!  I can't wait until the ingredients to this dish are coming from our own backyard...

3-4 large zucchini or summer squash
2 peppers
1 red onion
drizzle of vegetable oil
salt, pepper, basil

Lay out your recycled aluminum foil, drizzle the bottom with oil, and add vegetables and spices, then drizzle on more oil.  You want the veggies to get a thin coating so they don't stick to the foil and/or burn.

Fold the foil over the top and tightly roll the edges up on the 3 open sides to seal tightly.  Do this carefully and thoroughly because oil spilled out will cause a flare- up!

Grill pouch for approximately 10 minutes per side over medium-high heat.  Be very careful when flipping as not to puncture the bag!  Reynold's Heavy Duty Recycled Aluminum Foil is much better than the regular for this.

Enjoy!