Sausage Gravy Breakfast Cups

Ever since I saw this post on Erin's blog, I have wanted to try these for breakfast.  Then, last year, Michael made the BBQ version of this recipe.  We had planned to try the breakfast cups soon, but it took us a little while before we planned it.  Boy, am I glad we finally made them.  They are delicious!

1.  Preheat oven to 350.

2.  Lightly spray muffin tin.

3.  Brown 1 pound breakfast sausage.

4.  Prepare gravy according to package directions (or make homemade gravy).

5.  Mix gravy with browned sausage.

6.  Open canned biscuits (or make homemade biscuit dough), and flatten/roll each biscuit so that it is large enough to line a muffin tin.

7.  Press each flattened biscuit into a muffin tin opening.

8.  Spoon sausage gravy mixture into each biscuit.

9.  Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until biscuits are browned.

10.  Enjoy!

Rainbow Cupcakes

In honor of Easter and spring, I made rainbow (or Easter or spring) cupcakes tonight!  You can find several recipes online, but after the fourteen layer cake, I opted for the cake mix and store-bought icing.  :o)

After mixing the batter, I divided it into six bowls and colored each batch.

Then I used a spoonful of each color to fill the tins.

I had a lot of fun making these cupcakes tonight.  I think they actually turned out pretty good!

To finish them off, I iced half of them with Strawberries 'n Cream frosting and the other half with Rainbow Chip icing (my personal favorite).

I love cupcakes!

Fourteen Layer Cake

I was supposed to make a dessert for our small group dinner/social tonight.  I didn't know what to make, and I finally decided to bake a fourteen layer cake last night.  I had seen this on Bakerella's blog and wanted to try it.  I don't think it was too bad for my first attempt.

Since I was pretty busy trying to make the cakes, I didn't get a ton of pictures through the process.  Everything was pretty easy and worked well.  The only thing that would have made it easier was to have a stand-up mixer.  I didn't know if my hand-held mixer would do the job.  It did, but that was a lot of flour, sugar, and butter to mix up.  The mixer got pretty hot, and I don't know if it could do it too many more times!

I couldn't find a cake board at the grocery store at the last minute, so Michael made one for me (i.e., he cut out an appropriately-sized circle from a cardboard box, and I covered it with foil).

Here are all fourteen of the cakes, ready to be iced and stacked.

Michael actually helped make the icing while I cleaned up from the cake baking.  It was nice not to have a ton of dishes once it was all finished.  He also washed all fourteen pans for me once I put the layers together...so sweet!

It took the icing longer to cool and thicken than I expected it to.  The recipe that I used said to make the icing as the last batch of cakes was baking.  Next time, I think I might make the icing first.  Finally I couldn't stand it anymore and began icing the cakes.

With all fourteen layers

Time to pour the rest of the icing to cover the top and the sides

All covered in this yummy homemade chocolate icing!

The finished product with a creamy frosting

I was worried about it sitting overnight before we ate it (I was afraid the icing would melt, and the layers would all start sliding).  It did fine, though.  I haven't made a cake from scratch in I don't know how long.  I wasn't a huge fan of the batter when I licked the beaters (I like the batter from the box mixes a lot more!), so I was a little worried about how it would taste.

I have to admit, I was disappointed in the cake.  Even though it looked great, I didn't think it tasted very good.  I am more of a boxed mix girl, I suppose!  I mostly ate around the edge of my slice...the bites that had all the icing from the top and side of the cake and very little of the actual cake.  Others seemed to like it, though.

On the way home, Michael said that he thought it tasted like wedding cake, and he liked it better than the boxed cake mixes.  I think I'll take the boxed mix any day!  This cake just didn't taste very sweet compared to one made from a mix (despite the 2.5 cups of sugar in the cake and 3 cups of sugar in the icing!).  At least I won't be tempted to eat the leftover cake tomorrow!

National Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day!  Did you know that today (3/14...get it?) was National Pi Day?  Did you do anything to celebrate?  Too bad Pi Day fell during Spring Break for a lot of math teachers out there!

Michael and I chose to make a pie in celebration of Pi Day.  We got the recipe from Emily at Today's Letters.  You should definitely try this one out.  It's easy and DELICIOUS!!!  We didn't have a 6" skillet, so we doubled the recipe for our larger cast iron skillet.  Next time I might consider tripling it for a thicker fruit layer.

Good Tunes and Grilled Food - The Riverwalk Edition (2-26-11)

Michael checking in...

The meal was a tex-mex feast of chicken and beef fajitas, homemade black beans, homemade Mexican rice, and all of the ancillaries that go along.  The music was a shuffled playlist of that ultimate Texan and overall top ten cool amigo, Lyle Lovett.  And when it was over, it felt like the Riverwalk had moved four hours to the north.

The day started early, but a pot full of Café Du Monde with chicory helped me along.

Although we don't have a patio by the river, we did look and dress the part!

After a long day of preparations (cleaning, cooking, stopping to appreciate ten hours of constant Texas country playing in our house, etc), we were ready to eat.

Fajita meat (chicken and skirt steak, both marinated, grilled over charcoal and cherry wood chips) and sautéed onions and peppers.

Homemade Mexican rice, homemade black beans (in the crock pot for eight hours), and some trusty old queso.

The fixin's...and yeah, the guac is homemade.

 

Finally, it's time to eat!

 

 

As if all of that wasn't enough, Melissa found some dessert recipe for Sopapilla Cheesecake.  Let me tell you, this was amazing.  Cheesecake filling, crescent rolls for the crust, butter, cinnamon, sugar, and honey to drizzle on top!  YUM!!!  We topped it off with some Blue Bell Snickerdoodle ice cream, and it was great.

Some other shots of the tex-mex flair...courtesy mostly (maybe all?) of Rhodonna...

 

All in all, I'd say it was a great night of good tunes and grilled food.  Thanks to Rhodonna for the deco's.  Thanks to the Reeves, the Kirks, and the Taylors for helping us get through that feast (and especially to the females for the dishwashing!).  (We missed the Packers.  Hopefully their chairs won't be empty next time!)  Thanks to Lyle Lovett for being cool and for making good music.  Thanks to the vaqueros from south of the border for figuring out that grilled meat in a tortilla tastes amazing.  And of course thanks to my better half for letting me find excuses to incorporate food and music into each other!

BONUS:  Because I know you are curious, my top five Lyle Lovett songs are as follows (in no order)...

• "Private Conversation"
• "In My Own Mind"
• "San Antonio Girl"
• "West Texas Highway"
• "Her First Mistake"

RECIPES:

• Mexican Rice (courtesy of allrecipes.com)
• Sopapilla Cheesecake (courtesy of allrecipes.com)
• Guacamole (3 avocados, 1 diced jalapeno, and unmeasured amounts of chopped cilantro, lime juice, pressed garlic, salt, and pepper)
• Meat Marinade (unmeasured amounts of vegetable oil, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, dried cilantro, garlic powder, and minced onion...the beef can marinate for a long time, but be careful with the chicken as the lime juice will "cook" it)
• Black Beans (dried beans, water to cover, and unmeasured amounts of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and dried cilantro)