Living Insanity's Loving Food

We celebrated Memorial Day a few days late, but we tried several new recipes.  We spiralized and marinated hot dogs, made Mexican street corn casserole, and I made a ranch pasta salad. Marinated Hot Dogs 1 package of beef hot dogs, usually 6 to a pack 1/4 cup ketchup 2 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 package of hot dog buns Place hot dog on cutting board and use a knife to cut the hot dog at an angle until the length has been cut into a spiral. In a large resealable bag combine the marinade ingredients of ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce.   Add hot dogs to marinade and keep in fridge a minimum of 20 minutes.  Can be kept overnight. Grill hot dogs and place on buns with your favorite toppings.   My favorite toppings are mustard and raw diced onion, but sometimes I do sauerkraut.   Ranch Pasta Salad 1 lb prepared macaroni noodles 1 cup shredded carrots 1/2 cup diced celery 1/4 cup red onion (I...

 My birthday was between Super Bowl Sunday and Valentine's Day which also happened to be Ash Wednesday this year.  I made myself a few devil's food cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting to celebrate.  

 I was able to throw together this applecake in 30 minutes on a Friday after work!   Fresh Apple Cake Cream Together in Stand Mixer: 1 cups sugar 1 cup oil 2 eggs 3 tablespoons vanilla Sift Together in a Bowl: 3 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon Add the dry ingredients into the creamed mixer in the stand mixer. Cut up 2 apples (2 cups worth of apples) into a small dice and fold them into your mixture.  It will be thick! Press into a well grease bunt pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Let the cake cool before turning it out onto a cake plate.

  We went to the Wizarding day in old Ellicott City and bought a jar mix for butterbeer cupcakes.  These turned out very good and made so many!  We made them in a regular muffin tin but they were supposed to be mini.  We had almost 24 regular sized cupcakes!  

 Green Valley really does have the best cupcakes around.  Boyfriend likes the cookies and cream!

 This was Krusteaz lemon pound cake.  I made it for Mother's Day.  Boyfriend's family devoured it.  I need to make 2 of these!  

Krusteaz cinnamon cake.  Boyfriend's family wiped this cake out on Easter before it was even officially desert time!  I need 2 of these things next time.

 Red velvet hearts from Bonheur

  This cake was a little involved to make, but it turned out great and everyone seemed to enjoy it! Ingredients: 1 box lemon cake mix 2 boxes of instant lemon gelatin 1 box of instant lemon pudding 1 cup hot water 1 cup milk 8 ounce container of thawed whipped topping (like Cool Whip) Directions: Spray bottom of 9x13 pan with cooking spray.   Make the cake according to box directions in a 9x13 pan.   When cake comes out of the oven poke holes all over the top with a fork. Combine 1 cup hot water with 1 package of instant lemon gelatin. Pour over the cake. Place cake in the fridge until cool. In a large bowl combine remaining instant gelatin package, instant pudding package with 1 cup milk.   Stir in whipped topping. Refrigerate cake until serving.   *I messed up and bought cook and serve lemon pudding, so I actually had to make the lemon pudding.  If this happens to you, just follow the pudding directions.  Water, sugar, pudding, 2 ...

  It is the boyfriend's birthday!  He is not a chocolate person so I decided on these lime cupcakes. Margarita Cupcakes Recipe from Confections of a Foodie Bride blog Ingredients: * 1 package (18.25 oz. white cake mix (no pudding in the mix) * 1 can (10 oz.) frozen Margarita mix, thawed (undiluted) only use 8 oz! * 3 egg whites * 2 tablespoons vegetable oil * 1 tablespoon grated lime zest.  I used 3 limes Yield Makes 24 cupcakes.  I ended up with a few less than 24 Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line standard muffin pan with baking cups. 2. In large bowl, combine cake mix, Margarita mix, egg whites and vegetable oil using electric mixer. 3. Stir in lime zest; mix completely. 4. Fill prepared pans 2/3 full. 5. Bake 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean. 6. Cool in pan on cooling rack 5-8 minutes. 7. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely. 8. Frost cooled cupcakes with icing and garnish, if desired, with a strawberry ...

We celebrated a little late, but these were the softest most perfect devil's food cupcakes!    

I was craving a chocolate chip muffin.  I didn't like this recipe though :(  feel free to send me a suggestion

For someone who likes Reeces Cups.  Peanut butter and chocolate swirled frosting, which all melted off because it's summer.  booo

It felt like fall, for about a minute.  Then it went back to being 90 degrees

When I have people to the beach house I like to cook. hashbrowns with leftover fajita toppings cinnamon roll fajita steak Plain cheesecake Doctored up store bought ramen M&M sugar cookie bars Cinnabon cake Bacon, rosemary, and cheddar quiche Breakfast spread Dig in!

This was my first time making swiss meringue buttercream and I think I can never go back to my usual frosting recipe again. It was so good! I used this recipe from Chef Mommy. My only change was I did 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract to try to get more lemon flavor into the cupcakes.

For my husband's 30th birthday I baked him a German Chocolate cake. I used the recipe on the back of the Baker's German Chocolate bar. The recipe can also be found here on the Kraft website. The cake was so soft and fluffy and the frosting had lots of coconut flavor and was really rich.

Cake Ingredients 2 cups flour 2 cups sugar 2 sticks of unsalted butter 6 tablespoons Hershey's Cocoa powder 1 cup water 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup buttermilk 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs Sift flour and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. In a small saucepan, combine butter, cocoa, and water. Bring to a rapid boil. Pour the mixture over the flour and sugar. Mix well. Combine buttermilk and baking soda in measuring cup. Lightly beat the eggs and add in buttermilk/soda mixture. Mix well. Add salt, cinnamon, and vanilla to mixing bowl. Mix well. Last add everything in the sugar/flour/chocolate bowl to the mixer. Mix well. Pour into a greased 16 X 11 X 1 inch jelly roll pan. Bake 20 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Frosting Ingredients 1 stick unsalted butter 5 tablespoons Hershey's cocoa powder 6 tablespoons cooked black coffee 1 pound box of powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup chopped pe...

Two coworkers on my team had birthdays this week so I made a cake, another teammate bought cards, another teammate bought balloons, etc. This time I made a french vanilla cake (same as Karen's birthday cake in Dec) and I made a new frosting. I wanted strawberry frosting but the strawberries didn't look great at Harris Teeter on Tuesday. I went for the blackberries and just subbed them into Cooking Agents' strawberry frosting recipe. I found my frosting to be too wet to hold up to piping. I tried a few different swirls and tips on wax paper but the shape wasn't holding. I did have a lot of frosting leftover. I must make some cupcakes to use it up!

One of my teammates has a birthday right before Christmas and we try to make our teammate birthdays special. Last year we had snowpocalypse and we missed having the work celebration. No snow this year so I made a cake and we all got to enjoy it! This is a vanilla cake. The two layers were split in two resulting in 4 layers of cake. In between the layers is a seedless red raspberry jam and my frosting. For the jam I heated it in a saucepan making it spreadable. My frosting recipe was 1 package cream cheese and 1 stick of butter, vanilla extract, and add powdered sugar until I like how it tastes. I thin the frosting with milk usually but this time I just used a little water. The snowflakes were made with some white candy melt. A design was drawn on paper, wax paper was placed over the design, candy melt was scooped into a pastry bag, and then the design was traced in the candy melt. Pop in the freezer until it has hardened and you can easily peel the snowflakes off the wax paper...