Creamed Spinach

I have a love affair with spinach. I love it raw in a salad or sandwich, I love it boiled, I love it with cheese, I love it in a lasagna, I just love it. Unfortunately, my family does not share my passion, so like okra (which I love more than spinach) I rarely eat it. And I won't lie to you, my family does not love creamed spinach. But I do! This recipe is so simple and sooooooo good.

You will need:

1 box frozen spinach
1 T butter
1 tsp garlic
3/4 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
squeeze of fresh lemon

Optional: pinch of cayenne pepper



Thaw your spinach and squeeze out the water.



In a medium-size saucepan, melt the butter and garlic. Cook over medium heat for one minute, but don't let the garlic color.



Add the spinach...



cream, lemon, salt, and pepper.



Cook over low heat, stirring often, until the spinach is soft and the cream has thickened. It should take about 15 minutes.





That's it! Your spinach is ready to eat.



I ended up eating it all by myself, but I'm not complaining. So tasty!! I served it with some honey baked ham.



Perfection. Enjoy!

Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes

This week's found recipe is from Martha Stewart's website. I didn't try to make this recipe any healthier, sorry. It's been my experience that cupcake recipes do not like to be messed with. I made one minor substitution and doubled the recipe, but that was it. Now let me tell you about the taste...perfection. They were fluffy with a bit of heft, not-too-sweet, moist (even the next day), and even better without the frosting. I measure the success of a cupcake by how good they are without frosting. If they need it, the recipe needs tweaking. A cupcake should be able to stand alone and then the frosting is just an extra special treat.

I pureed enough strawberries in my mini food processor to make 2/3 cup. Half of that is for the cupcake batter and half for the frosting.



Your strawberries should look like this:





To the strawberries, add 1/4 whole milk (or heavy whipping cream, which is the only change I made) and one tsp of vanilla. Set that mixture aside.




Cream 1 stick of butter (Smart Balance stick) and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. That is the secret to good cakes and cupcakes. You need to beat a lot of air into the butter/sugar combo.





It is also important to add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. The recipe calls for 1 large egg and 2 large egg whites. I put the 2 discarded yolks into a baggie and add them to the scrambled eggs in the morning. In a separate bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Add half of the flour mix to the butter, sugar, eggs mix and beat just until combined.




Then add all of your strawberry, cream, and vanilla mix.




The last step is to add the rest of the flour. Be careful not to overbeat! Just until combined.



Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners, fill, and bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes. I found that 23 minutes was perfect. If you overbake your cupcakes will be dry and sad.

The frosting is amazing, if unnecessary. I ran out of powdered sugar before I could give the frosting a fluffy texture and ended up with more of a glaze. But it was a darn good glaze!

3 squares white baking chocolate
2 T heavy cream
2 cups (more!!) powdered sugar
1/3 cup strawberry puree
3 T butter, melted



I melted the chocolate in a double boiler. Really just a metal bowl over a small saucepan. The water should not get hot enough to boil and should never touch the bottom of the bowl.





Add the rest of the ingredients to chocolate and beat, adding more cream or powdered sugar, until you get the consistency that you prefer. Thick is good. :)



You've fallen in love a little bit, haven't you? I can't blame you. The little guy tastes even better than it looks!

Whipped Cream

I hate Cool Whip. I'm pretty sure I can taste the chemicals in it and I know it leaves a metallic aftertaste. Yuck. I bet you can whip up some fresh cream to top your pies in the same amount of time it takes to get that plastic safety wrap off a carton of Chemical Whip. All you need is heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar.



I usually add about 2T of powdered sugar because I really like the flavor of the cream and most pies don't need much sweetener. But you can add more!



Now whip it! Whip it good! But not too much. If you keep whipping it you will get butter, but that's another post. Like meringue, you want it to peak, but unlike meringue you don't want the peaks too stiff.
Not ready yet...



Now it is...



Takes maybe two minutes. If that. And here's what it looks like on a slice of sweet potato pie.



Mmmmm.