Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

I saw this recipe on Facebook, and I really wanted to Pin it because that's where Pinterest is where I look for recipes. My father loves lemon meringue pie, so I have to think he would love these cupcakes, so I will be making them for his birthday in March.  If you'd like other recipes from the lady kind enough to share this one, she says you can friend her:  www.facebook.com/nancy1952.

Nancy Michael

LEMON MERINGUE CUPCAKES!!!!

Lemon Filling:
3 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
3 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. lemon zest, loosely packed
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Cupcakes:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Meringue:
3 egg whites
pinch of salt
1/4 cup sugar

1) Make lemon filling: In small saucepan over low heat, whisk egg yolks, sugar, flour, and salt; whisk in lemon juice, lemon zest, water, and melted butter; increase heat to medium and, whisking constantly, cook until lemon filling is smooth and thick, about 7 minutes; remove from heat and set aside
2) Preheat oven to 375 degrees
3) Make cupcakes: In medium bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs, lemon juice, baking powder, and salt; beat in flour until just combined
4) Divide cupcake batter between 12 cupcake liners in a muffin pan; bake 15-16 minutes until center of cupcakes firms up; remove cupcakes from oven and cool 5-8 minutes (do not turn off oven)
5) Meanwhile, make meringue: beat egg whites with salt until mixture begins to stiffen; add sugar and beat until meringue is stiff and forms pretty peaks (don't overdo it)
6) With a sharp knife, remove center of each cupcake (about 1" in diameter), leaving a layer of cupcake beneath cut out; discard cupcake core (or treat the weary baker to a tart little snack); fill cupcake centers with lemon filling
7) Divide dollops of meringue between cupcakes, spreading out to edges and gently tapping with back of spoon to form peaks; return cupcakes to oven and bake an additional 5-6 minutes until meringue peaks are golden brown; remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes; refrigerate an hour or more before serving
Makes: 12 absolutely delicious cupcakes

Easy 3 ingredient snack cake

I haven't posted in a long time. I missed a few days, then got out of the habit, then sort of forgot I had started it. That's the main reason I hadn't advertised it much yet. Hopefully I will get going better once the summer break gets going.



So my latest Pinterest try was a 3 Ingredient Cake Orange Dreamsicle Cake from Better Recipes blog.  It's labeled as low-fat, but I tried it because it was super easy!  I really wish I would've taken pictures; I need to remember that.


We were going to a small group meeting with our church, and I had offered to bring to dessert.  I found the recipe and thought it looked easy, and Spring-y.  But since it only makes an 8x8 pan, I needed to make 2.  I decided on two cakes - one Dreamsicle and one strawberry.


You only need three ingredients:
1 white cake mix - the variety that has pudding in the mix
1 6oz container of plain non-fat Greek-style yogurt
1 cup orange juice
Grated orange peel, if desired


Mix the ingredients together in a bowl, then pour into a greased 8x8" cake pan.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  Sift powdered sugar over the top when cool, if desired.


Two things I found about the recipe:
1.  The picture the original poster posted has "pudding in the mix".  Some of the comments indicated their cakes turned out dry, so I think that is an important distinction.


2.  The recipe calls for a 6oz container of Greek-style yogurt.  Most of the containers I found (Yoplait, Chobani, Oikos) were 5.4oz.  They used Fage; I used my local store (Kroger) brand.  Again, I think that using a smaller container of yogurt would affect how moist the cake would be.


When I made the cakes, I used white cake mix, blood orange yogurt and orange juice for one, and for the other I used strawberry cake mix, strawberry yogurt and a strawberry juice drink for the juice.  While the adults liked these cakes, the kids and teenagers and really enjoyed them.  And of course they aren't healthy, but they don't use oil or eggs, so they should be a little better for you than a standard cake.


I'm thinking of trying a chocolate cake mix with cherry yogurt and cherry juice and putting whipped cream on top for a Black Forest-type dessert.  I would love comments if anyone else tries other flavors!  And when I make one again, I'll add a pictures!

Meal Planning on Google Docs

It has been several days since I posted to my new blog, which I realize is not a good thing.  This past week was our first week back to school after Christmas break, we had 12 new students start and we were one person short in the office all week.  Long way to say I was really tired at the end of the day!  Hopefully this week will be a bit easier, now that I've had a week to get back in the swing of things.

Sunday is my meal planning day.  It's also my laundry day, my lunch preparation for the week day, and a bunch of other chores I should've done on Saturday day.

I have seen so many cute meal planning boards on Pinterest!  I have pinned several and even downloaded and tried out a few.  Most involve some sort of grid with some sort of attachable meal ideas that you stick on for each day of the week.

The idea behind each is the same:  come up with 14 -28 dinner ideas that you rotate throughout the month, and use a handy device to help you note which meal you will eat each day.

I like several of the ideas I saw because of different reasons - one was really attractive, one was more clever than the others - but in the end, they didn't work for me.  I'm not good at getting things hung up on the wall, the best wall in our kitchen for such things is next to the door to the garage which seems to get slammed too hard and cause things to fall, and I'm just too computer-oriented.

I used to work in software development, and I have some ideas on creating an application for meal planning.  However, I have always been an analyst and never really a programmer, so my ideas are stuck in my head with nowhere to go.  So instead of a complex program or a cute wooden planner on the wall, I use a document in Google Docs.  Yep - that simple.  I save a couple of weeks' worth, then I can go back and copy and paste into the current week if I need to.

At the top of the page, I list each family member and generically what I put in their lunch:
Hubby - sandwich, yogurt, veggie, fruit, chips; Son - sandwich, veggie or chips, fruit, protein drink for snack, water; Daughter - sandwich or salad, veggie, fruit, protein bar, snack, water
This is my reminder for my grocery list.  Then I just list each day of the week and what I'll cook for dinner.  Next to the day of  the week, I also note any event we have that may affect the meal - if I'll be home late due to an appointment or if one of the kids will be with a friend for dinner.  Then I make my grocery list on Google Keep.

Now I have my meal plan and my grocery list on my computer and my cell phone. If I decide to run by the grocery store after school, I don't have to worry if my list is with me, or what is it that I'm making tonight?

So that's my tip for today.  The beginning of this week we're eating cheap because payday is on Wednesday (see my earlier post for my chili recipe!)

Karen

Chicken Noodle Soup on Pinterest

My most re-pinned pin is a recipe for Homemade Chicken Soup in the Crock pot.  Here is the recipe.  According to my notifications, 480 people have re-pinned it.  I can't imagine that any of my other pins have been re-pinned that much!

However, I have never actually made that soup, so I thought it would be a good idea to try out.  The good news is that it's really tasty.  The bad news is that I don't really find it to be a crock pot recipe.  To me, a crock pot recipe should take several hours of cooking.  This recipe cooks for only 45 minutes, then you add the noodles and cook it another 15.  I just cooked it on the stove and it looked like this:

I had some onion that I sliced up and cooked with the chicken, and I also used boneless, skinless chicken.  People who know me well know that I don't like to be reminded that I'm eating something that used to be alive.  I'm a hypocritical meat-eater.  I should be a vegetarian, but boneless meat tastes yummy!

I also used baby carrots and cut them in half, because I had them to put in lunches for the week.

We had the soup with some Rosemary and Olive Oil bread from Kroger's bakery.  You have to bake it for 15 minutes, and it was really, really good.

So the verdict on my most re-pinned - make it if you want a delicious soup, but don't make it if you really want a slow cooker (all day) soup.

Karen

A Stocking for Gracie, Our Dog

I posted a picture a on my Facebook page of the Christmas stocking I made for our little dog, Gracie, and I was thinking that I would elaborate on it here.

Here is the pattern from Red Heart yarn and here is a picture of my completed stocking:

I am proud of it; I think it turned out really cute.  It's crocheted, because I can't knit.  The pattern of course tells you that you need a skein of green, a skein of white and a skein of red.  You can tell by looking that you don't need a whole skein of white or red.  As a matter of fact, I had a small ball of red, and I still have a small ball left so it doesn't take much red at all.  Probably the same amount of white.  I don't think it took even a 1/2 skein of green.  

The only thing that disappointed me is that it's smaller than I was hoping it was.  Had I read the directions all the way, of course, I would've noticed it's only 13" long, but apparently I didn't see that.

As I was driving home from getting lunch today, I had an idea.  The stocking only took me about 2 1/2 hours to make, and I think it would be cute to make in real pet colors too.  And since it's small, it would be easy to fill with new pet needs like a leash, collar, little snacks, etc., and would make a great gift for a new pet parent!

I'm not a big cat person, but I'm also thinking that if you replaced the bone with maybe a fish, this could also be used for cats.

Please share in the comments if you have any other ideas!

Karen

Pinterest - The Good and the Bad

I really love Pinterest. I'm sure I waste too much time on it but there are so many cool ideas out there!  I have 78 boards and over 7,400 pins.  

Although I have tried many of them, I certainly have not tried them all.  But what I was realizing today is while I'm pretty good at trying out the recipes and crochet patterns and various crafts, I'm not so good at following up on the articles I have pinned about ADHD and Organization and Parenting and Health, and I think you get the picture. 

I noticed that many of the cleaning schedules people post assign a particular chore to a day of the week - clean the bathrooms on Mondays, do the laundry on Tuesdays, etc.  So I'm thinking I'll apply this same logic to reading my pinned articles - I'll assign a topic a day: 

Organization and Cleaning on Sundays

ADHD on Monday

Health on Tuesdays

Blogging Tips on Wednesdays

Money Tips on Thursdays

Parenting and For My Family on Fridays

For My Honey on Saturdays

And back to my handy-dandy cell phone.  Since I have Pinterest on my phone, I can read my articles while the kids wait their 30 minutes for their allergy shot reactions, or while I wait for my car repair, or while I eat lunch (if I ever eat away from my desk) or maybe even while I get my nails done.  (Although I have to say, I have never quite understood how women use their phones while the manicurists are working on their nails.)  Maybe I'll even confiscate my husband's tablet so I can have a bigger screen . . . .

By the way, if you haven't joined the Pinterest yet, I just have this one bit of advice for you:

Karen

Keeping Myself Organized Online

I am a geek or a nerd or whatever adjective you prefer to call my type.  I was National Honor Society president in high school - don't get much nerdier than that! But I did NOT wear pocket protectors, ever - promise!   

In that vein, I have always loved lists and forms to stay organized and remind me what I need to do.  Even after I moved onto the computer and software, I kept using paper forms and calendars to keep me going - until the last year or so and the real reason I switched to online is as simple as Google.  

I used Microsoft Outlook for years and years and always loved it, to the point that I really didn't think I could manage a calendar without it.  But then my computer crashed and my husband had lost his job and I just didn't see how spending the money on Outlook was a valid expense when there were so many free calendar options available.  

I tried a couple of different calendars, including Cozi, but I ended up using Google's calendar.  It's good for a family because you can invite the rest of your family to share your calendar and see your schedule.  This is a theoretical advantage, however, because granting them permission doesn't mean they will actually ever look at it.  Maybe one day!  I do tell my husband to check the calendar online when he asks me about dates, though.   

It's also great because I can add the school holidays at home on my full keyboard laptop, and have it with me on my phone when I'm at the doctor's office and need to schedule a follow-up appointment.  I don't have to remember to have my paper calendar in my purse!

But what about my to-do list, you might ask?  To that I reply, Google Keep.  It's like Post-It notes, but you can make lists or notes, and you can even put alarms on them.  I use them for daily to-do lists, my grocery list, my errand list, and even a reminder of our safety deposit box number.  I have one for each room of the house for decor needs I still have, in case I run across a good sale.  And the notes can be color-coded.  Again, they are online so they are available on my PC and phone, so as long as didn't forget my phone, I didn't forget my grocery list.  Here's what my phone screen looks like now:

When you click on one one your notes, it blows it up so you can click off your done item (or type in an item that you did that wasn't originally on your list, just so you can click if off.  I can't possibly be the only  person who does that!)

Oh look, I have a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Class to go to on Thursdays!  There's a tip for people who need some help with their finances - I very highly recommend checking it out - http://www.daveramsey.com/home/.  Organizing our finances is another thing on my list.

So this ends today's topic.  Hope it helps someone!

Karen

PS - Does anyone else ever type their name wrong half the time they type it?  It seems like I am constantly typing Karne instead of my correct name!