Butterbeer Cupcakes

Pretty sure the only thing I love more than cupcakes is Harry Potter, so why not combine the two! Alas, I present to you... Butterbeer Cupcakes! The recipe for these cupcakes is superb and creates a perfectly sweet and delicious batch of cupcakes.

Butterbeer Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from: Sweet Tooth

The only thing that I found difficult for this recipe was that I made them when it was a 100 degree day--- which meant it was 90 degrees in my non air-conditioned home. Yikes! I had a hard time keeping the frosting cool long enough to decorate the cupcakes, but after much difficulty, I was able to decorate a few long enough for pictures and devouring... yum, yum, yum!

Other than that, I  only advise that you not skip out on any ingredients. The butter flavoring, vanilla, and cream soda (as well as the rest of the ingredients) are all important in achieving that wonderful Butterbeer flavor. After taking a bite you'll be saying... "Good to be back at the Three Broomsticks!"

Mofongo

Recipe for the day is... Mofongo! Mofongo is a dish that is thought to have originated from Puerto Rico, and can often be found there. The main ingredient is fried green plantains. Yummy!

I decided to make this dish for my roommate Darrell's 24th birthday. Mofongo has been his favorite meal since having it while vacationing in Puerto Rico--- lucky him! It was definitely fun to make, however since I've  never had Mofongo, it was pretty hard to tell whether I had made it correctly or not. He seemed to like it, so it couldn't have turned out too bad, right??

Mofongo

Recipe adapted from: The Cooking Channel

The recipe is pretty simple, the only thing that I found challenging was frying the plantains properly. I have yet to purchase a deep fryer, so I just had to use a deep frying pan. You want to make sure they're starting to brown, but not too brown, otherwise they'll be too dry. Think of them as the consistency of pretty much a potato. If you were to deep fry a potato too long, at some point it becomes too dry and hard to mash--- which is what you do to the plantains after you've fried them.

Also this recipe says to use bacon (which is great, because what meat-eater doesn't like bacon?!), but I think this recipe might have been a little too simple. The bacon was pretty much the only stand out flavor. For next time I think I'll go with a a recipe that calls for a few more flavorful ingredients--- maybe this one: Mofongo Relleno de Pollo Guisado?

Steak Tacos with Chipotle Cherry Salsa and Caramelized Onions

So... obviously I haven't started off as the best blogger. I've only posted one blog in the few months since I started the blog. You know, life gets busy! And it gets even busier in the summer. There are place to go, things to do, and countless episodes of Grey's Anatomy to be watched. But, I have been cooking... a lot! And I'm really, really enjoying it. Cooking new recipes is always fun, yet the ones I've chosen so far are also very challenging and I'm learning so much! It's also been specifically great to cook for my roomies---three males that are always eager for a meal! 

I've decided that since I'm not coming up with any recipes on my own (not yet, that is), I won't give full instructions on how to cook the recipe. Instead, I'll have the link of where I found the recipe attached to the post and I'll include a few thoughts on how I personally made the meal---my challenges, things I did differently, etc. 

Steak Tacos with Chipotle Cherry Salsa and Caramelized Onions

Recipe adapted from: The Partial Ingredient

For this recipe, I made steak tacos with a chipotle cherry salsa. It's probably best to make this when cherries are in season, otherwise you'll have to dish out quite the pretty penny to pay for all the cherries you'll need. This recipe also asked that you use a food processor to blend the cherries completely. That's great and all, but I like my salsa a little chunky, so I didn't blend it as much as they asked. 

This was actually a fairly easy recipe, however my biggest challenge was the steak. I opted for a less expensive steak that was about 1/2 an inch think... not something I should have done. The steak ended up cooking a little too quickly---I also learned that my new stove cooks a little hotter than I'm used to---and the meat ended up being a little over cooked. But alas, I am determined to cook steaks well! My grandma makes the best steaks EVER, so I've been picking her brain for all the details. I'm planning on making steaks later this week, so fingers crossed that they turn out better!