Spicy Bananna Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I'm back again, with desert this time. These cup cakes are finger licking good. Just in time for memorial day weekend with the red, white and blue. I think the next time I do make these cup cakes I will grind up some walnuts and some chocolate chips and mix it in the batter, just something I thought about on my second batch. The batter had this warm delicious taste to it. You can choose to either make them into cupcakes or in a loaf pan. If you are planning on baking it in a loaf pan, use the cream cheese frosting only grade some orange or some lemon zest for some tang! Have fun with this and get creative!!!

Things you will need for the cupcakes:

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon all spice
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

Alright! Let's get to it! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. If your going to use a cupcake pan go ahead and put in your cup cake liners now. If you are using a loaf pan or a bunt pan go ahead and spray it now with some non-stick spray. Measure all the ingredients into a large electric mixer bowl. Blend for 30 seconds on low speed gradually increasing the speed. As you mix with your spatula scrap down the sides of your bowl. Beat about 3-5 minutes on high speed. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans, or fill cupcake tins about 2/3 of the way full.

The house is going to smell so yummy.

Things you will need for the delicious cream cheese frosting:

1 8-ounce package of regular cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Food coloring of your choice

I would leave the stick of butter out to get soften while you are preparing and baking the cake. Start to blend the cream cheese and soften butter with the electric mixer on low speed, as the butter and cream cheese mix gradually start adding the powdered sugar until you have completely incorporated the sugar. Add the vanilla slowly to give it some moisture while you mix the powdered sugar in. You can always add more sugar if you want the consistency to big thicker or you can always add milk if you want your frosting consistency to be thinner.

I hope you enjoy baking these delicious cup cakes! I know I had a blast and my house smells like I had candles lit everywhere.

Have fun! Ciao!

Penne a la Sauce Blance

I started making this dish a couple years ago because it is so delicious! It is inspired by one of my good friends. It's quick, simple and yummy! This is a type of dish that you can whip up in less than 30 minutes, Rachel Ray ain't got nuttin' on me. Just a couple things from your local grocery store a half an hour and wallah you have dinner ready. This is a huge hit with the kids, even the adults. It's cheesy, saucy and full of great flavors.

Things you will need:

1 whole rotisserie chicken (cooked)
2 16 oz boxes of Penne noodles (use only 24 oz)
4 packets of Alfredo Sauce Mix
1 16 oz frozen "California Style" Vegetables
2 cups of shredded mozzarella
1 tsp Herbes de Provence (depending on how seasoned you like your dish)
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of black pepper
1 pinch of all spice

First your going to want to boil the pasta and the frozen vegetables together. Boil it until the pasta is al dente because the rest of the cooking is going to happen in the oven. While you have the pasta and the vegetable boiling together, go ahead and d-bone the rotisserie chicken, shred and move to the side. Now follow the directions on the Alfredo Sauce Mix and add the herbs to the mix. Keep the sauce on a really low heat. After your pasta and vegetables are done cooking, drain them and put it back into the pot, mix in the chicken and the sauce and stir. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. If your sauce came out dry, don't let it simmer because it still has to cook in the over. Spray your lasagna pan with some non-stick spray. So now that you have your pasta mixture all ready to go, put down the first layer of the mix, and with your 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, spread out 1 cup of cheese and the put another layer of your pasta mix on top of the cheese and for the top layer put the other cup of cheese. Cover it with foil and cook in 350 degrees for the next 10 minutes, then uncover and bake for about 2 minutes on broil just to brown the cheese.

If you decide to make this dish I would love to know all about it. Thanks for reading!

Our Engagement

I know this doesn't have anything to do with my blog and the reason why I made it, but I am very blessed and happy with who I am with, where I am in life and who I have become as a person. I would like to share with all you people out there a little bit of our proposal. Enjoy!

From my fiance - Anto K.

Merry Christmas

I had been thinking about it for months now. Being unconventional by nature, I wanted to make sure the moment was going to be special, unique and most of all, memorable. Some thoughts that had crossed my mind were proposing in the air over the Bay in a Cessna, but I realized that Kakod would surely vomit all over me & the flight instructor and didn't want that memory in our lives for the next 60 years. Another equally brilliant idea was putting the ring inside of a dapkevadz kofte (fried beef meatball) and letting her find it. The reason that didn't make it past the drawing board is I was afraid if she took a big enough bite, ill have to propose whilst on my knees, sifting through her poop biscuits for the ring on the way out. Although now that I think of it, given our nicknames, it would be quite appropriate and definitely memorable.
What to do, what to do. Luckily, timing presented itself around Christmas and I thought what better time than on Christmas Eve, in front of all of out loved ones. The days leading up to it were a little nerve wrecking, and the more I played it over in my head the more nervous I became. The only problem I was having was the creativity part. There's not much you can do at a Christmas dinner with family. My original thought was to hang the ring like an ornament on the tree or attach it to a mistletoe. I realized later that good thing I didn't do that because Sako was trying to get some brotherly man love at the diner table, armed with the very same mistletoe.
After getting anxious about the big moment, I had the Idea of dressing up like Santa, its been a tradition in my family, and I came to find out it was tradition in Kakod's too. Perfect. So its Christmas Eve, 6 PM and I'm satisfied with my plan, playing out the details and ready to execute it with military precision. If only things were actually as simple as I made them out to be in my head.
As I dressed the part in the garage, with two of Santa's lil' helpers Sako & Bedig, and hiding the ring in the Santa bag, Kakod comes running in and almost ruins the surprise. Luckily, My sleight of hand was quick enough to conceal the massive boulder of a ring. What made this whole ordeal a little tricky was that nobody knew this was going to happen so getting cooperation from the fam was a bit difficult. I just remember giving my sister the video camera and telling her to get whats going to happen on camera, and not consume the 12th glass of wine she was working on. Watching the video now, in hindsight, I should have been more specific.
I got dressed, sent Kakod back inside to "get the kids singing" said a quick prayer and started inside. As I heard everyone singing I remember all I could hear was the beat of my own heart. In addition to being nervous about the proposal, I'm absolutely terrified of dancing in front of others. Good thing I said that prayer. I entered the gauntlet of bodies almost dizzy, and hopping around like a drunken, homosexual elf, wondering if the girl I was about to propose to was enjoying this hilarious display of torture & comedy. To make matters harder, the singing was awful. Off beat, out of tune...I mean c'mon my people. I remember standing there, with my Santa bag in one arm, gift wrap core, make shift cane in another, yelling something along the lines of "c'mon guys lemme hear you sing!!" I did a couple more sick ass dance moves, then pulled Kakod in to dance with me. She immediately responded with a "what are you doing!" insisting I don't drag her into the awkward spectacle I was orchestrating. Little did she know how awkward it was about to get.
I asked her if she had been a good girl this year and she said she had, she was right. I checked my list, twice. So I bent over into my bag, reached in and grabbed the little white box that had the rest of our lives together in it, got down and asked Kakod if she would marry me. After what seemed like hours of tears, laughter, and paparazzi-style photography, my Kakod made me whole, and accepted the invitation to spend the rest her life with me. Far more than what I deserve, this year, The Lord gave me the greatest gift of all, and on His own birthday at that. A Merry Christmas indeed.