Chinese New Year Good Fortune Cupcakes

Chinese New Year 2009 - The Year of the Ox- will fall on January 26th and will mark the 15 day long festivities beginning on the said date and going on till the 9th February.

Good Fortune Cupcakes

Whip up these Good Fortune cupcakes to share your wishes of good fortune for the coming year. According to Chinese tradition, red is the symbol for fire that scares away evil spirits. The markings on the cupcakes represent good luck.

What You Need

1 box of yellow or white cake mix

1 can of vanilla icing

red & yellow paste food coloring

cupcake liners

good luck pattern

What You Do
Prepare cake mix as directed. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners and fill 3/4 full. Bake as directed and allow to cool thoroughly before icing.

You will need 2 bowls: one for red icing, the other for yellow icing. Use the paste food coloring to color the icing. You will need quite a bit of red food coloring to achieve a deep red color. Make sure that you tint enough red icing to decorate all of the cupcakes because it is nearly impossible to match the same color red for a second batch.

Frost the cupcakes red. Add the yellow icing to a baggie, creating an icing bag. Snip the very end of the bag creating a tiny whole. Draw the Chinese Symbol for "Good Fortune" (see pattern) on top of the cupcakes.

Chicken Barley Stoup

I found the original recipe for this "stew" in our local newspaper a few weeks ago. I've made so many changes to it, that I've decided not to print the original recipe, instead I'm sharing my own recipe.

I call it a "stoup" because it is thicker than a soup, yet thinner that a stew. It's smells wonderful while it's cooking. There's a lot of ingredients and each one helps to make the stoup delicious.

The recipe calls for giardiniera - aka: Italian pickled vegetables. (here's an example) You can find it with the other pickled veggies and relishes in your stores. Until this recipe, I had never even heard of this product, although I've eaten other pickled vegetables before.

Like I said, the list of ingredients is pretty long but it's worth it.

Chicken Barley Stoup

2 carrots, diced pieces

3 potatoes, diced small (turnips would sub good)

1/3 C. olive oil
1/2 C. giardiniera, drained and diced into tiny pieces (reserve liquid)
3 C. of shredded rotissere chicken
1 lg. can of chicken broth
3/4 C. white wine
1 lg. can of diced tomatoes in tomato juice
1 C. quick cooking barley
1 tsp. Italian seasonings
3 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp black pepper
shredded Parmesan cheese for topping
cooked rotini pasta (optional)

Add chicken broth, wine, 1/4 C of the reserved liquid from the giardiniera mix and tomatoes to a large pot over medium heat.

Peel and dice potatoes and carrots and add to pot. Continue cooking while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.

In a large frying pan, add 1/3 C. olive oil. To the oil add the giardiniera, chicken, Italian seasonings, garlic and black pepper. Saute until lightly browned, adding a few TBSP of broth to the mix while browing. Once the mixture has browned, add all if it to the broth. Stir well.

Lower heat, partially cover the pot with a lid and continue cooking for 20 minutes.

Add the quick cooking barley and cook for an additional 12 - 14 minutes or until the barley is done.

Ladel into bowls (over rotini noodles, if desired) and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

**The 3 other members of my family feel that all soups must be served over pasta. My mood at dinnertime determines whether or not I add pasta to my dish. I didn't add any to this particular stoup because of the potatoes and barley in it. It was delicious.

TWD - Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins, was chosen by Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake.

I hate to say that I've made yet another corn muffin recipe that my family didn't like ...but it's true, no one liked them. I loved the way they looked when they came out of oven...very country homestyle.

One bite into them, though, and they crumbled all over the place. They were very dry. My search continues for a good moist, sweet corn bread/muffins. I'm sure that those who added extra sour cream to their recipes greatly improved the texture.

The only pepper that I used in my recipe was the black pepper. I knew that my family definitely would not eat them with the other peppers in there.

I've read that many other TWD followers had great success with this one so if you would like to check out their pictures and tips, you can click here to check out their blogs.


Happy Cooking!

A wonderful award!

Check out my beautiful butterfly award!



Michelle, from Something New is Cooking, gave me this butterfly award for having a blog that she really likes! You must check out her blog. She makes the yummiest recipes! I am always starving by the time I leave her blog.

Thank you so much, Michelle! My blog will wear it with pride!

I'm passing the butterfly on to a few of my favorite blogs because they make me smile when I visit them:

Amanda's Cookin'

Maier Memories

The Omnomicon


Thanks for smiles, ladies!

Crockpot Swiss Steak - Cooking with Alicia and Annie Contest

Tonight's dinner was Crockpot Swiss Steak from Annie's Recipes.


I love trying different recipes in my crockpot. This recipe for Swiss steak is quite similiar to my "Chicken Cacciatore in a Crockpot" recipe that I've been making for years. (my Chicken Cacciatore recipe is at the end of this entry). The beef is a nice change up from the chicken. It smells like stuffed green peppers while it is cooking

This is another entry for into the January edition of the Cooking with Alicia and Annie Contest.
Click here to see the prizes that you could win this month if your recipe is selected and also to see all of the delicious recipes that have been made!


Here is the recipe with any changes that I've made highlighted in red:

Crock Pot Swiss Tenderloin Or Steak

2 tbsp. oil
2 1/2 to 3 lbs. meat
3 lg. carrots, diced
3 lg. stalks celery, diced
1 med. or lg. onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 tbsp. Cajun spice
1 tbsp. Creole seasoning
1 tbsp. parsley flakes
1 tbsp. oregano
Water
1 qt. tomatoes, crushed

Instructions

Put oil in heavy pan. Add meat and brown on all sides. (Do not cook past browning.)

Put meat in crock pot.

Add carrots, celery, onion, green pepper, and all spices.

Put 1 cup of water in browning pan and cook loose all the "Brown". - If you use a nonstick pan, this step is not necessary and the water will make your sauce very thin. Pour over meat and vegetables.

Add crushed tomatoes. Add water to cover meat, if necessary.

Cover. Turn crock pot on High in the morning, it's ready for supper at night.

Great over mashed potatoes. I served it over Jasmine rice.

One more tip: Make sure that you have 6-7 hours to cook this on high to allow enough time for the vegetables to soften. The meat was tender at around 4 1/2 hours so to lessen the whole cooking time, I will partially steam the veggies before adding them to the crockpot the next time.




Everyone in my family who I thought would enjoy it, did - my husband, my son and I. My daughter, on the other hand, is 5 1/2 and has sworn off anything to do with tomatoes or anything that resembles spaghetti sauce. She knows, as a rule, that she has to try at least one bite of it so we managed to get through that and then she moved on to eating plain rice with some meat and veggies with as much of the sauce drained off as possible. I hope that she outgrows this stage soon!

Chicken Cacciatore in a Crockpot

Starting from the bottom up in a crockpot:

4 lg. boneless chicken breasts
2TBS of Italian seasoning
onion powdergarlic powder--both powers, use amts that you like. We like a lot of seasonings.
1 lg. green pepper, diced into small chunks
1 onion, diced into small chunks
1 sm. pack of button mushrooms, chunked into pieces

Pour over everything:
2 cans Rotel or similiar tomatoes
1 C. chicken broth

DO NOT STIR -- It will cook down together.Cook on High for 4 hrs.

Remove chicken to a plate and shred with 2 forks.

Add the chicken back into the crockpot mixture.

At this point, you could thicken the mixture if you like a more "gravy"-like sauce. I didn't thicken it.

Serve over rice.