#05 cupcakes 2

After having found my number one shop in London for bakery, it didn't took me that long to spend all my money. It also didn't took long for me to 'test' all these new kitchenery. From colours to rainbow sparkles, from rose molds to sprinkles,.. i bought it all, and I used it all.

I can finaly make cupcakes look as pretty as they taste! I've taken a next step in my hobby, and it does look like an expensive one. Therefore, I won't just make cupcakes for just any random occasion, and/or ask for compensation if people want to eat my treats. I still feel selfish about that.. a bit strange, to ask people for money while you enjoy making things and enjoy seeing other people actually enjoy the things you made. But alas, I'd rather make them a lot, and be able to do money-wise, than to be stuck in a never-ending circle of spending money on them ..

Anyway, back to these cupcakes! I tried to make them as different as possible, and even used a new recipe for both the topping as the cupcakes themselves. The topping was so delicious I could kill myself over it, but the cupcakes were rather.. wrong. I did something wrong in the baking, I just don't know what.. so for now I'll just stick to my other recipes!

A lot of cleaning....

Ah yes, tomorrow there will be a new batch, made for friends of mine and my boyfriend's; they are going to spend their evening filling themselves with cupcakes and trying to kill eachother (?) or whatever goals they chose, in a game of RPG. Good luck boys :D!

#04 Big dishes: pasta and noodles

I just love to make dishes that can be eaten over two days, with the two of us! Either that, or it can be served for four people. I used to hate a certain dish; stir-fryed chinese noodles with chinese vegetables, chicken and the enclosed herbs and spices. [NL: roerbakmie!] It was not until I went to the university and had to start cooking for myself four days out of seven, I started to realize that that dish was actually quite good.

Although it tends to differ from the way my mother's taste, the dish is made the same way. It comes in their own handy packages and it is easy to make. Not to mention the fact that there is less dishes due to the use of only two pans. (My boyfriend thanks me for this ! He is the dishwasher :D!) And the fact that we can eat twice from it, so no cooking the next day, AND no more dishes regarding pans.

Another big dish I like to make is a pasta dish. I have yet to go into detail with the recipe, but I can tell you this: it's just delicious and easy! You have to cook the pasta, and some vegetables (I use carrots) as long as they should cook. When it is done and strained off, add these ingredients and a pasta sauce of choice, a lot of mozarella, and ham, to a large oven-plate. Bake it in 20 to 30 minutes on 200 degrees C.

I hope I will come up with another dish like these, or stumble upon... Because I love coming home from something and realizing I don't have to cook because I already did that yesterday!

#03 Tapas and left-overs!

You know those days that you have absolutely no idea what to make or cook? Or that you just want to make something different than regular pasta? I had that yesterday. It started out as a day on which I just wanted to refuse cooking, even though it would pleasure my boyfriend to eat something not made in 2 minutes.

After walking around the supermarket together, I remembered the lovely book he gave me; a big tapas book. I remembered something with ham and cheese from the book, but also some things that I had made before, when I tried tapas for the first time.

The first time making tapas was after I ate them for the first time at a restaurant. My boyfriend loves them and wanted to take me out for dinner one day, so he thought he would introduce me to this 'new' cuisine to me. After tasting the delicious (but very garlic centered) tapas, I fell in love with them, it was like a big buffet of small things. So one day I decided to copy the filled mushrooms I ate there. It worked! Just a reminder to myself; don't give them to your boyfriend for lunch at work when you know he doesn't have a microwave at hand that same day >.< , the mushrooms are not that good when they are cold to stone-cold!

The second time making tapas was yesterday. And the best part was that I only bought two different things. I remembered what I had left in the fridge so I chose to make tapas from left-overs and whatever I have in the house, standardly. Sooo..this is what I made:

♥ scrambled eggs with onions, potatoes, pepper, salt & papric powder
♥ cottage cheese in parmaham (that is prob not english, so em.. very thin sliced salty meat)
♥ cucumber with cheese & tomatoes with cheese
♥ the aforementioned filled mushrooms with red pesto (they are better with green!!!! pesto though!), onions, some olive oil and the insides of the mushrooms that I had scooped out. All the latter parts baked in a pan and filled into the mushrooms. Then I put some cheese on top of each, and in the oven they went! 200 c 15-20 minutes, and they were done :3
♥ little pizza's made with bread meant for kebab and/or shoarma you know those little flat round breads? (pita-broodjes of shoarma broodjes) On top of that I put some pasta saus, tomatoes , oregano and cheese. I could have added some mushrooms when I think back of it :(. Same as the mushrooms, 200c 15-20 min. They're good with papric's/peppers as well :D!

The problem with the most tapas is actually that a lot are made with fish, which my boyfriend doesn't like, and I don't like the raw fish >.<. And the other problem is that a lot are made with vegetables and nuts of which I am allergic O_O. But allas ! I made a full tapas dinner without me dropping on the table choking to death XD!

Even if I say it myself, I think it was quite a succes, and so did my boyfriend. Oh and not to forget: home-baked cupcake for desert!!! :D