something out of nothing

One of the best things that has come from moving into a house with two great roommates, is the company to eat dinner with. Most nights we eat together. Sometimes not the same thing, but we eat at the same time, and it's fun! A few nights a week we'll either all cook something, or one of us cooks something for everyone.

A special bonus is that one of my roommates in particular is always quite pleased to just throw whatever random ingredients we have into a pot and hope it comes out delicious. On Sunday, we had some guacamole and pineapple salsa left over from a study session I hosted, and so it appeared that Mexican was on the docket for the evening. She suggested quesadillas, and who was I to protest? Quesadillas it was - but with what vegetables? We had...yellow squash. So, yellow squash quesadillas with guacamole and pineapple salsa it was. And, they were delicious.

Similarly, last night I had some peppers that needed to be used - best way to deal with that, stuffed peppers. I used to stuff them with ground turkey, but in my less meaty phase I've also stuffed them with white beans, tomatoes and lemon peel. I had none of that last night. So, we did up some brown rice, black beans, taco seasonings, chopped grape tomatoes and topped each one off with some shredded mozzerella.

I must say, using whatever we have on hand has been working out quite nicely for us!

This however, does not count as my Recipe Challenge 2009 - stay tuned for that adventure tonight.

Cupcake Fever

It was a friend's quarter-century birthday last week, and she's been begging for carrot cake since I last tried to make it for Easter.  You'll recall that at Easter I wanted to make cupcakes, but I had no cupcake pans (HOW?!) and so I made a bundt cake. After that tragedy I quickly bought some cupcake pans, and this time around I made the cupcakes I wanted.  Thanks to the best birthday present ever, Williams-Sonoma mechanical pastry bag, I used the super-large open star tip and swirled the cream cheese frosting on top for a fancy finish!

There is a story in here, although it's not about the baking.  It's about the cupcake pans.  In March when I discovered I had none I was amazed.  I couldn't believe I didn't have cupcake pans - but I decided maybe they had been my old roommates and were left with her in Boston.  On Monday when I went to bake these cupcakes I opened the under-stove drawer where my pans are, and there were no cupcake pans.  I've been doing some major house reorganization lately, so I checked in the cabinet with other pots and pans and baking sheets.  Not there.  Now, I was sure I had two cupcake pans, but I couldn't find them.  I opened the under-stove drawer one more time, and as I did this I accidentally pushed one cake pan over the back edge and into the scary dark abyss.  As I reached my hand back to get the lost cake pan, I heard it clink against something.  So I did some more digging.  And what did I find there??  FOUR cupcake pans.  The two I bought in March nestled snuggly on top of the two I couldn't find in March.  Apparently, the under-stove drawer is constantly stealing my cupcake pans.  But the good news is, now I can make FORTY-EIGHT cupcakes at once!!

What's in the freezer?

Okay, if you're reading this at home, you have to play along. Get a pen and paper. Go to your freezer. With the exception of ice cubes, write down EVERYTHING that's in your freezer at this very moment. Nonedibles included. Now post your contents in the comments section. Ready... set... GO!