Mocha Salted Caramel cupcakes with an Irish surprise

We invited some friends over for dinner this weekend and one of them had a birthday coming up, so I thought what a great excuse to make cupcakes.  I was in the mood for chocolate and salted caramel, but also wanted to try a Bailey’s whipped frosting.  I decided to go with the salted caramel butter cream as the frosting and use the Bailey’s along with some of the salted caramel as a secret filling.  The Chocolate, caramel and Bailey’s cream is heavenly together.

Individual Baked Veggie Pasta Dishes

I decided to make individual baked pasta dishes the other night and let me tell you it hit the spot.  It was our normal pasta night and I wanted to try something a little different, not to mention try and slip some veggies for the kids.

This was super easy and because I baked them in individual dishes it didn’t take long at all.  The kids were so excited to get their own little dish.  This is a great dish for those busy weeknights and pretty healthy too, if you limit the cheeses. 

Vegetable Enchilada’s with Creamy Tomatillo Sauce

After the fabulous meal we had last night (Halibut withZucchini and Toasty Roasted Garlic Mojo), I was contemplating what to make for tonight.  I knew had a little bit of the zucchini and asparagus left and was craving that roasted garlic flavor, so I turned to my new ‘toy’ and started searching.  After finding a couple that caught my eye, this is what I came up with.

Chunky Roasted Tomato Salsa

This is such a quick and simple recipe for refreshing salsa.  I can honestly say you will always find this in my refrigerator.  It’s not just for chips; I eat it on everything, whether it’s over steamed veggies, fish and even pasta.  This salsa is so versatile too.  If you don’t care for fire roasted use plain or even fresh tomatoes, just roast them under the broiler until the skin is slightly charred (also you can roast the chilies and garlic), peel and chop.  The possibilities are endless.

Halibut with Zucchini and Toasty Roasted Garlic Mojo

I am a huge fan of Rick Bayless and was so excited when I received two of his cookbooks, “Fiesta at Rick’s” and “Mexican Everyday”.  It is a Saturday ritual at my house to take in an episode of “Mexico, One Plate at a Time”, to get the creative juices flowing on what to serve for dinner that night. I love his passion for making everyday a celebration.  Thank you for inspiring us Rick.

Individual Chocolate Toffee Trifle

I have to admit this dish was created by accident after a little mishap in my kitchen (which happens quite a bit :) ).  I had invited my girlfriend over for dinner and because her birthday was the previous week I wanted to make her a special dessert.  Since I was going through a cupcake phase I wanted to incorporate a chocolate cupcake with English toffee bits and homemade salted caramel.  I had tried Ina Garten’s recipe “Beatty’s Chocolate Cake” and loved it.  It was so moist and had just the right amount of Chocolate goodness.  So I decided to try her recipe in cupcake form.  As always I was rushing to make sure everything was ready when my girlfriend arrived.  Cupcakes are in the oven and when I checked on them… let’s just say they were not pretty (I’m thinking I should have adjusted the amount of baking powder).   I was frantic, time was running out and I had a pan of spread out cupcakes.  Thank goodness I had recently viewed pictures of individual trifles that I thought were so adorable.  I had already made my salted caramel that had been cooling, so I threw in some heavy cream and English toffee bits in the food processor and created creamy toffee bliss.   I layered all the ingredients in a nice glass and voila my accident just turned into something delectable.  Indulge!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcake

As I mentioned in an earlier post about my daughter’s birthday, how she wanted pumpkin flavored cake.  So I had decided to add two cupcake flavors one being the Tiramisu (the last recipe I posted) and this one~ Chocolate Covered Strawberry!!  There is just something about Chocolate and Strawberry that is so intoxicating.  When I was putting it together I knew I didn’t want to use store bought strawberry preserves.  I had a recipe for quick homemade strawberry jam that would work perfectly (this jam is so fresh and delicious I could eat it alone by itself).  As for the frosting I thought about incorporating the strawberry in, but decided that I would add another chocolate… White chocolate!  The way all of these flavors come together are just heavenly.  Indulge!!