Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Its literally taken me 2 weeks to post these. Which is sad since they turned out so well. Aren't they pretty? But hopefully we're still in time for the long weekend and the opportunity to impress some folks with these delicious comfort-with-a-twist delights!

I came across this recipe on Martha Stewart's Web site a few weeks ago and knew that I needed to try them. I've always loved snickerdoodles. They are such a comforting, throwback cookie. Easy to make, easy to eat. Sweet, but not too sweet, and just the right hint of cinnamon. For awhile, I baked them so often, they were my "signature" cookie.


Now that cupcakes have become more of my signature, this seemed like a no-brainer. And boy are they ever good. The cake is absolutely feather-light, just sweet enough, just moist enough and full of vanilla goodness. The recipe calls for a mix of all purpouse and cake flour, which is lighter and finer than regular all-purpose. At first I was irritated by the idea of using two kinds of flour, but I'm convinced that the cake flour is the key to the cake's tender texture. Its worth it, so don't skimp.

As for the frosting, the original recipe called for a "Seven Minute" version that featured raw egg whites. Since I was taking these to a party with small children and pregnant women, I opted for my standby/signature favorite: Vanilla Buttercream. This frosting is sweet, but not too sweet, fluffy without being runny and absolutely delightful.


Finally, for that authentic snickerdoodle touch, you finish the cakes by dusting with a generous coat of cinnamon sugar. Don't skimp...dust the heck out of em!

To be frank, I only got one bite of these and it barely registered because JiT shoved it in my mouth while I was still frosting them. But I realized immediately that they were soft and tender, and judging by his moans of delight, coupled with the fact that 28 of them dissappeared within an hour of our arrival at the party...I'd say their a hit.


Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
Makes 28 regular size cupcakes


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for dusting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line muffin cups with paper liners. In a small bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, salt and tablespoon of cinnamon. Set aside.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together butter and 1 3/4 cups of sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time and continue beating until well incorporated. Add vanilla. Put mixer on low speed and begin incorporating flour mixture in three small batches, alternating each addition with milk until all are incorporated.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each cup to about 3/4 full. I use an ice-cream scoop since this usually gives about the right amount. Bake cupcakes for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the oven and cool on a baking rack to room temperature.


Meanwhile, make your frosting. I recommend this Vanilla Buttercream.
Combine the remaining cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

When cupcakes are completely cool, pipe frosting onto each (I use a ziploc bag with a small hole cut from a corner). Then dust each with the cinnamon sugar mixture sprinkled through a mesh strainer.

The JiT-Arita -- A "Killer" Margarita

My husband is a multi-talented man. He's an artist, a photographer, and a golfer; he knows virtualy every country song ever recorded, has an incredible talent for cheering people up, looks great in a white t-shirt and makes a damn good margarita.

JiT doesn't use margarita mix because he likes to keep it real. You can't have one frozen because real men don't "do" frozen. And you'll have to wait your turn because he makes them one at a time...shaken; not stirred (sound familiar?). The result: a drink thats refreshing, smooth, tart and slightly sweet all at once. Just like JiT.

Clearly, its high time I share some of his magical genius with you. So for this post, we're doing this a bit differently. I took the picture and he's sharing the recipe.

So, without further ado, I give you the JiT-Arita, with instructions written by JiT himself:

The JiT-Arita Margarita: "It's pretty simple, but really killer"

Makes 1 margarita

1.25 shot of tequila
.5 shot of countreau
1 shot of triple sec
1.25 shot of freshly squeezed lime juice (juice of about 2 limes)
3 Tbspn of powdered sugar

Combine with ice in a cocktail shaker. shake it the hell up. use a lime to rim your glass and put it in salt. then I think you're good to go. oh and garnish it with a lime slice.

- Love JiT

P. S. from Rebecca_C: in case you're wondering, he does mean POWDERED sugar, and its the key ingredient. It dissolves into the drink much more smoothly than regular granulated sugar (believe me, we've tried).

P.P.S. from Rebecca_C: as I was reading this over, I realized why I like those "The Most Interesting Man in the World" commercials so much. ("I don't always drink margaritas, but when I do...")

Sophisticated Scrambled Eggs (with goat cheese and truffle oil)

Recently I've had a few folks remark about my slow-down in blog posts over the last few weeks or months and, yeah, I acknowledge my posting has trickled from at least bi-weekly to once a week or so. I think its the result of a few phenomena...general busyness and the fact that JiT hasn't been around for dinners quite as often (fewer pictures and pic-worthy meals); the blog is now over a year old and with the change of seasons, I find myself using favorite recipes that you've seen before; some genral blog-fatigue, which I've noticed a few of my friends experiencing recently as well (mine seems to be exacerbated by the pile of unwritten wedding thank you notes that take up many of my evenings).

That said, I'm still here and still happy and well-fed (as is JiT) and feeling rather comfortable with the once-a-week-or-so routine we've settled into. I hope you are too.

So, now that we've set things straight, on to the eggs. Oh, the EGGS! So sunny and yellow and happy, just like it was when I scrambled them up on Sunday morning. Such a lovely day! A day for going for a run, stopping by the farmer's market and then heading home to make eggs to enjoy along with the Sunday paper.

And not just any eggs. Frankly, these fancy babies would be just as comfortable on a piece of sourdough toast seated alongside a fancy green salad, as they are on the breakfast table. I find the whole thing rather ironic too, since scrambled eggs tend to reside on the lowest rung of the proverbial egg-based meal totem pole. Usually, fancy ingredients like goat cheese -- and dare we even speak of the truffle oil -- are reserved for more refined fare like quiche.

Well, I say, no to that! These are so delicious and so, so, so simple. The rich taste of the eggs pairs so nicely with the earthy truffle oil, creamy/sharp goat cheese and bright, fresh basil. If you're feeling cloudy, mentally or literally, these babies are sure to brighten you up!

Sophsticated Scrambled Eggs

Serves 2

4 eggs and 1 egg white

1/4 cup milk

1 Tbs. butter, softened

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 Tbs. crumbled goat cheese

2-3 small leaves of fresh basil, chopped

1/2 tsp. truffle oil

Mix together eggs and milk in a small bowl until whipped and fluffy. In a small, non-stick skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Pour in the egg mixture and begin stirring continuously while eggs scramble (I recommend using a silicone whisk as opposed to a spoon, since the eggs seem to scramble more evenly).

Continue stirring and scrambling until the eggs reach your desired consitency, pulling from the flame just as they lose their creaminess and start to seem firm (about 2 minutes or so). You don't want them to get too hard. Season with salt and pepper to taste

Plate the eggs for serving, then sprinkle with goat cheese and basil and a drizzle of truffle oil. Serve immediatley.

Big, Beautiful Biscuits

This past weekend, we headed out to Rockford to visit my parents. I ended up waking early on Sunday and since it was raining out and the house was quiet, I thought it was high time I broke in my mother's new Kitchenaid mixer with a batch of something warm and yummy. That something ended up being fluffy homemade biscuits slathered with butter, honey and jam but we had leftovers which I suspect my mother has since repurposed for strawberry shortcake.

I didn't manage to snap a pic of the biscuits, but if you're using them for shortcake you'll want to try the vanilla orange whipped cream I made in the picture above, taken last June (see the whipped cream recipe here).

Also, don't be intimidated by the word "yeast" in the ingredients list....you DON'T HAVE TO WAIT FOR THEM TO RISE. The yeast adds just enough oomph to the dough to make the biscuits light and fluffy...without a two hour rise time (because I dont' get up that early).

Now heres to hoping we actually GET some strawberries soon once this crazy Chicago weather starts cooperating.

Big, Beautiful Biscuits

Adapted from The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook

Makes about 12 biscuits

1/2 package of dry, active yeast

1/4 cup warm water

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 Tbs. baking powder

1 Tbs. sugar

6 Tbs. butter or margarine, cold

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Sprinkle yeast into the warm water and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, sift together the dry ingredients until evenly combinded. Cut butter into small pieces and add to flour mixture, tossing with fingers unti well-combined and the texture is crumblike. Add yeast/water mixture and buttermilk. Mix well.

On a lightly floured surface, turn out dough and roll to the desired thickness. Cut out with a biscuit cutter and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 12 minutes or until browned.

Looking Back at the Wedding: The Placecards

Now that some time has passed since the wedding and I've had a chance to catch my breath and enjoy being married and, frankly, NOT thinking about the wedding, I thought it would be a good time to start revisiting some of my favorite special things from that very special day -- decorations, memories, etc. Today we'll start with one of my favorite "projects" from the wedding: the placecards.

I should start by saying that I don't like placecards, at least not in the traditional sense. For some reason, all those tiny pieces of folded paper, lined up like little alphbetical soldiers on a table has always made me cringe. Probably because they inevitably look disordered once people start taking their cards (I'm anal, okay?). And also because I never know what to DO with the placecard once I've found mine. Put in at my place to mark my territory? Take it home like a souvenir? They just seem senseless...but necessary. Oh boy are the necessary. Nothing says mass chaos than a wedding party vying for the best tables at a free-for-all reception.

So, since I knew we needed something, I decided to get creative. I started off by browing the wedding section on Martha Stewart and found some nifty ideas for creating cool looking boards to attach the placecards to. Since our wedding and reception were taking place in a room with huge, white doors, I thought they would be the perfect spot to hang the cards. This way, the boards and the cards themselves would literally welcome our guests as soon as they walked in in the room...all withough taking up an entire table's worth of space.

I was all set to leave it at that when the real genius came into play. While out with some friends one night (including my amazing friend Amy who created our invitations and placecards), someone pulled out a little card they'd recieved at a bar: a business card-sized sign with a tab designed to stick on the edge of a drink glass. The sign said something to the affect of "Gone to Pee, Leave My Drink Alone."

Though the terminology would need some wordsmithing, I knew we finally had our double-use for the placecards. So, we had them printed two-sided and my friend Amy took the time to hand cut the little tabs for hanging them.

With the end result, one side looked just like a traditional placecard, with the guest's name and table number (photos above). The other side said: "Dancin' the Night Away, Please Leave My Drink Here to Stay."

Instantly, the wait staff had a better idea of which drinks should be cleared or left untouched, and since the person's name was on the other side of the card it helped to prevent mix-ups much the same way that a wine charm would.

The pic is a bit fuzzy, but you get an idea of the final result.

So there you have it. Definitely one of my favorite little details from the wedding. As it should be I guess, since I spent about 6 hours pinning ribbons to those foam boards the month before the wedding. Not to mention about an hour sticking the cards on the board the night before the wedding. But in the end I was so happy with the result, it was worth it.

Speaking of happy, I couldn't resist including a shot of the happy couple: