Sunday, October 05, 2008

OM NOM NOM



I realize that the whole cupcake fad has more or less come and gone, but really, how far can it go? Who doesn't love a single serving size of cake with an overabundance of delicious frosting. To celebrate the fall weather that we're finally privilege to, I made my favorite pumpkin cupcake recipe, with some delicious cinnamon cream cheese frosting. It was a rainy weekend, probably not the best for baking, but man, that cream cheese frosting...I can't resist it. Even if it was only for a few minutes, I was a total spoon licking, batter eating fattie...and it was glorious!


The cupcakes were actually not just for my voluptuous hips, but actually to help raise money for the Philadelphia AIDS Walk happening at the end of the month. The folks at work seemed to enjoy them, and, admittedly, I may have bought a few myself during a particularly stressful day.

Sometimes, it's really refreshing to work with my hands and produce something that isn't made of fiber. On that note, the cupcakes were only part of that afternoon's project. Next up was Dirty Risotto, the Everyday Italian take on dirty rice. Spicy sausage, pancetta, mushrooms, red peppers...pretty much all of my favorite things in a risotto. Genius!

It started like this...


And then it grew a little bit...



And then I added some rice and the real work began!



I love risotto, but you really have to put some muscle into it to get that rich creaminess. I've heard of people who add a lot of cheese or heavy cream...this is completely unnecessary. Cheese, you need a little at the end, along with some nice flat leaf parsley.
It was so good that I ate it more or less every day for a week.



PS. I have been knitting, and actually finishing things that I will share with you very soon.

No comments: