Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Who doesn't love cupcakes?  You get the satisfaction of eating an entire cake without actually scoffing down a full sized cake and wallowing in self pity for the next few days.  I work at Kohl's department store and we occasionally sell cookbooks for the Kohl's Cares for Kids charity.  So, I spent $5 and bought Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella.  

Anything you can possibly do with a cupcake is in this book.  I decided to make lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting.  The combination just sounded amazing in my head.  I love lemon anything...if you couldn't guess that seeing as it's part of the name of my blog.  

I followed all the instructions and the cupcakes came out normal.  Not too wet or too dry.  The icing however gave me some issues.  The recipe said I could use either fresh or frozen strawberries, and I decided to go with fresh.  I don't know which would work better for this kind of thing.  If you have any tips, please feel free to fill me in.  The recipe also said to have lemon juice handy in case the frosting was too dry, so I was nervous that it was going to come out badly.  I definitely had nothing to worry about.

The recipe made waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more frosting than I needed for the 24 cupcakes I made.  I didn't end up using most of the frosting either.  I put it in my fridge hoping I could end up using it on anything, but in the end I just threw the rest away.  Huge waste.  The icing also did not need any lemon juice since it was pretty soupy with just using the fresh strawberries.  Even though I let my cupcakes cool down before I frosted them, the icing was still wet and sloppy.

Even though the strawberry icing did not turn out the way I expected it to, it still tasted really good.  The cupcakes came out really well too.  They weren't super sweet and they were nice and moist.  I wish they had a little more lemon flavor to them.  I'll have to add a little more zest next time.  I kept some of them, gave a few to my boyfriend, and brought the rest of them to work.  They were gone from work between the time I got there and the time I went on my first break (around 2 hours).  They must have been pretty good.  The truck team was there though, and they devour anything that people bring in from home.

There's so much I want to do from this cookbook.  If you dig cupcakes, I highly recommend this book (just make sure you make less than the recipe calls for with icing unless you're making 60 cupcakes).  My family will be coming up mid-May for my commencement ceremony, so I'm thinking I'll make them a little treat from this book.  How do root beer float cupcakes sound?

Mmm, Starfruit.

Isn't it pretty?  I've been trying to broaden my horizons in the food world for some time.  I used to be super picky with whatever I was eating.  In high school, I would have dance class later in the day as well as work, so my meals would usually consist of hot pockets and whatever junk was around the house.  I didn't eat nearly enough food that grew out of the ground.  All in all, I had terrible eating habits.  

Somewhere in college, I decided I wanted more out of my food experiences.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a kitchen and had to settle for crappy food court meals.  Now, I have a choice.  Choice is good.  

I saw some starfruit at Wegmans one day and decided I hadn't tried anything new in a while.  It looked cool and I couldn't resist.  I bought it home and wanted to eat it, but I realized I didn't really know what to do with it.  Sadly, I googled how to eat this bad boy.  

Turns out, it's a lot like a star-shaped apple, both in texture and taste.  I sliced off the ends and cut the tips of the corners off since they were starting to brown a bit.  After that, I sliced them all up into awesome little stars.  Then, I picked the seeds out of the center which are also very similar to apples.  

This fruit is super tasty.  It's nice and juicy and has a taste similar to a sweet apple.  I'm usually really weird about textures and certain fruits are always what I have a problem eating.  This I was able to handle though.  Sadly, I probably won't be seeing this fruit around much in stores for too long.  Tropical fruit usually comes and goes from Wegmans.  

I definitely need to broaden my fruit horizons.  There are three things I REALLY want to try:

Dragonfruit

Young Coconuts

Blood Oranges

...Anyone have any suggestions?

First Experience with Coconut Milk

I remember a few months ago my cousin Megan was back home on Long Island and so was I.  It was either for Thanksgiving or Christmas...but that doesn't matter.  I remember her talking about making a meal with coconut milk and red curry sauce and I was automatically intrigued.  I picked up a can of coconut milk months ago...but didn't know what to do with it.  So it sat in my counter until this week when I was  once again food shopping.  I found a jar of red curry paste and decided it was finally time to try out the meal my cousin was talking about over the holidays.  

I've never cooked with coconut milk before.  I opened the can without looking and reading all the wonderful words on the can.  I was very confused when I opened it to find a white paste that looks like Elmer's glue.  I poked at it, thinking that maybe the looks were deceiving.  I was wrong.  I shrugged and got a spoon.  This is what went into my pan.

I decided to read the can after pouring the weird paste and water mixture.  Turns out, coconut milk separates naturally.  Now, I'll forever read all boxes/cans/jars of foreign cooking ingredients I use in the future.  After stirring it, the liquid became a lot more milk-like.

I put a tablespoon of the red curry paste in with the 16 ounce can of coconut milk.  I let that combine on medium heat, then added two chicken thighs.  I decided not to add any extra herbs or spices to the mixture, just so I can take in the taste of the two alone.  I figured there was enough in the paste to add enough flavor to the meal.  

I let it cook until the chicken was done.  I made some white rice to go along with the meal (I prefer brown, but it can be pricey and the places I normally shop don't seem to like to keep it in stock).  I know it's lacking in the veggie department, but I didn't have anything that would have really gone well with the meal.  It doesn't look pretty, but it tasted alright. It was nice and creamy, but it was missing something in the taste department.  I'll definitely need to play with some spices and add a little more paste to the coconut milk the next time I make this meal.  I think I'll use a different part of the  chicken, or a completely different meat all together . 

I'll definitely make this again, but next time I'm adding a lot more to it, along with some additional colors to make it looks more appetizing.  I've only had Indian food a few times in my life, but I want to experiment with it a lot more.  Boring meals are no fun.

Introducing...Lemon Zinger!

Welcome!  My name is Heather and I'm not making unicorn (if only, right?)...It's just chicken.  I'm a newbie to the world of food, kind of.  I don't really have many original recipes; I'm more in the experimental stage of learning how to cook and bake.  I like to mix things together and see what comes of it.  I like buying food products that catch my eye and discovering whether or not I can eat it.  I pick recipes I see in cookbooks, and blogs I read and magazines and cook them to see if I can make it taste as good as it looks.  

I'm a food n00b who wants to become more than that, and this blog will follow me through the ups and downs of my experience.  I'll share with you the things I eat and make and slowly but surely become one of those people making my own unique recipes. 

I'm lacking experience, but I'm a huge food nerd.  I watch the food network religiously.  Alton Brown is my hero.  I browse through cookbooks with a fascinated twinkle in my eye.  Food shopping is a very exciting experience for me.  People hate food shopping with me because I take so long and get easily distracted.  I always think about the next meal I'm going to make, and my boyfriend has constantly made fun of me for it.  Food is my passion.

Off the topic of food, I love to write.  I recently graduated from Buffalo State College with a B.A. in English and a minor in writing.  I'm starting graduate school in August to receive my M.A. in English as well.  If all goes well, I also hope to pursue a doctorate in literature as well.  I also want to become a novelist.  So yeah, combining my love of writing and food is a pretty good deal for me.

I work part-time retail, so my budget is low for now.  I also have a crappy camera and a very dark house that barely lets in any natural sunlight (which is the only way my camera takes decent photos), so the photos will look far from pretty most of the time.  My goal is to entertain you, and hopefully you'll enjoy what you see and read.