Tater Tot Hotdish
Get your weeping cloths out kids! This month over at Yes and Yes Book Club I cover Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park. Dive into teenage angst and emotionally eat some Tater Tot Hotdish that I made to help!
Click here to head over to Yes and Yes to get the recipe and my two cents!
La Croix Blackberry Cucumber Cupcakes
I have a slight obsession with La Croix sparkling water. At any given time I have three plus flavors stocked in my refrigerator. I have lengthy discussions with my sister and other La Croix fans. And let it be known this is NOT a sponsored post. But simply my first attempts at admitting my addiction.
A few weeks back I came across a "new to me" flavor of Blackberry Cucumber La Croix at Target. My winter was made complete that day. And this past weekend I decided to put to test my new favorite flavor and use it in a one step cupcake recipe. I was very pleased with the resulting cupcake and then paired it with a simple Swiss buttercream frosting topped with a fresh blackberry. You could really use any flavor La Croix with this recipe so have fun and experiment.
La Croix Blackbery Cucumber Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350°F
Line two 12 count muffin pans with paper liners and set aside.
Mix one boxed White Cake Mix with one can of La Croix of choice. Omitting all other ingredients (the eggs, oil, and water).
Portion out batter into muffin pans and bake for 18-24 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely and frost with any basic white frosting. I used a simple white frosting with a hint of vanilla added. If it suits you, store bought frosting will work just as well.
This month I got a little homesick and sought out mental help from a great novel that takes place in the Midwest.
It covers everything you would ever want in a book about the Midwest. Lutefisk, cold weather and chef drama.Check out my review and the recipe for the peanut butter bars pictured above over at Yes and Yes - here.
Misshapen but bacon covered Super Bowl Cheese Ball
One year ago on this national holiday that is the Super Bowl I stood at the elevator outside my apartment door debating whether or not to attend the building sponsored party being held in the pimped out lounge. I hesitated, because at my age (early to late 30s), I already have a set a friends I told myself. Making new friends isn't always easy past...well whenever. That aside, the guilt set in as I had promised my mother I would go and I had maybe told that bright eyed leasing agent the day before "oh suuuuure I'll come", wink wink.
One year has gone by and I just wrapped up my football shaped cheese ball to bring to this year's party. You know I love a shaped cheese ball. Check out my last one here.
How painful was that first Super Bowl party in the lounge? On a scale of 1 to 10 I would say I have had gas pains worse than my experience feigning interest in a sport I know nothing about while trying not to binge eat the questionable crudite that was on display.
However, in the end I met a few people. People who over the course of the subsequent year have become great friends. And even though there are days that I am convinced I live in a college dorm, I find great relief when I pull in at the end of a hard day knowing that two floors down, around the corner, or across the hall I have people I can count on.
When I think of football I instantly go back to that rainy day at Woodland Junior High playing touch football with 30 of my never to be seen again friends. That day as I, well basically moved in some direction, slipped on the wet grass and landed flat on my backside. This story only really hits home the next day when I went to go get my still damp gym clothes out of my locker and realized that what I had really slipped in was a big ol' pile of dog shit. Imagine that smell. Not my usual Gautier Le Male.
If you had asked me anytime before I sat down to write this I would have told you team sports have done nothing to me in the way of friendships. Nobody offered me fresh clothes to wear the day I marinated in poo. I don't recall any of my badminton partners. Nor my square dance partners. And where I come from square dancing is a team sport.
All over the internet there are articles about the benefits of team sports and building friendships that last lifetimes. It may only be one year in, but I hope the friendships forged at last years Super Bowl party last a lifetime. And if I have to I will bribe them all with cheese balls.
Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream
It was the middle of November and I found myself on a rooftop bar of a BBQ joint at a baby shower for a hairdresser who cuts hair in the chair next to my own hairdresser. A friend of a friend kind of situation. Truth be told I didn't even know her name at the time as I hugged her and congratulated her on her fertility.
Now because my own mother taught me well, I did show up with homemade cupcakes as I wasn't about to push my baby fashion beliefs on this first time mother. Why shouldn't we let newborns wear Ralph Lauren?
Not sure what the scene was going to be I enticed my Primary Southern Gays to join me with the possibly of wings and beer. As we settled into a cozy corner four top and placed our orders we were soon joined by my own Hairdresser. Being of a smaller stature she had to get a running start across the bar before pulling a full Keri Strug, making a perfect landing on the bar stool.
Introductions were made and with that her full confession of how much beer and whiskey she had already consumed. Trying to determine how much of my time I should dedicate to this party I began to prod Hairdresser with a Who's Who of the guest list. Unlike most baby showers I've attended this one was well mixed with both men and women. Some family were there. Some friends. Some clients. It was at this point Hairdresser said with eyes as wide as a heifer giving birth to twins, "Oh my God! My momma is coming and you have to meet her! She's looks like a skinny Paula Dean but with enormous boobs! No, seriously. She's had reductions done twice and they are still enormous!"
How can you not be excited to meet someone when their own kin describes them as such?
And as if cued by a stage hand, Hairdresser's Momma (HM) appeared at the top of the stairs. I should say her breasts appeared at the top of the stairs. She actually arrived about 10 minutes later, baby gift in tow.
After HM made her rounds she pulled up a bar stool and got to kibitzing with us. We talked beer. We talked babies. We talked about our haunted homes. Basically we became best friends.
Naturally it didn't take long for us to get around to the topic of death. What better topic to cover when at a baby shower? Hairdresser told her Momma about my own mother's forethought to help me find a Jewish cemetery after I had converted. At this Hairdresser's Momma began to tell us about her own mothers passing. And the preparative events that took place before her demise.
First let me say that of all the Southern women I have met, concern about ones appearance trumps all of life's needs. There is a level of gloss that is expected to be met and anything but will only spur the gossip beast that roams all church functions.
Now Hairdresser's Momma Momma (HMM) was no exception to the Southern Rule of Beauty. One day years ago while HM was over visiting her mother she was summoned by her mother to join her in the bedroom. When she walked in, HM didn't see her mother.
Calling out, "Momma where are you?!"
She was greeted by her mother as she stepped out of the closet in a new dress, makeup and hair fully done to complete the outfit. HM complimented her mother on the beautiful new dress. HMM thanked her and then proceeded to crawl onto the bed, lay down, hands clasped gently across her chest, eyes closed.
"Momma what are you doin'?"
"I saw this dress at the mall and thought it might be a good funeral dress. Now walk on up next to me like you're payin' respect and tell me if I look good."
Benjamin Plante is a North Carolina based food blogger with recipes and food photography for the emotional eater in all of us.
Benjamin Plante
info@benjaminplante.com
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