Italian sausage and vegetable soup

I was craving a brothy soup which morphed itself into what I created...as it usually does... morph! 

I got everything I wanted to use out on the counter.  Celery, carrots, peppers, onions, Italian sausage, cauliflower.  I first chopped up my cauliflower...to temper the cauliflower flavour I decided to roast it.  I put it on a parchment lined sheet pan and put some olive oil and sea salt on it.  

Baked it at 375F convection until slightly brown and fork tender.  

Meanwhile, I sautéed my onions, celery and crumbled in 3 links of hot Italian sausage out of its casing. 

I added the veggies as I chopped them; carrots, yellow and red peppers.

Now for my liquid; I added 1litre of veggie stock and one canned of whole tomatoes and the juice.  Canned tomatoes are a great product because they are canned at their freshest state and hardly processed....I crushed these by hand into the soup.

I tossed in the roasted cauliflower once it was tender.  Now for the taste test....

It needed a little acid at this point; so I added in some apple cider vinegar and added water to the 1/6 of the jar of salsa I had in the fridge, shook that up and added that in.  

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Taste.

A squeeze of honey and we're good!!!!

The sausage was way hotter than expected; I will definitely be serving this with blue corn chips and Greek yogurt to cool the heat.

Sometimes all you need to do is see what you have in the fridge and the inspiration to come and help you create a delicious meal!

Good morning....morning glory muffins!

Well this morning we were upbrutly awoken by Aubrey setting off her window alarm in her bedroom.  Sirens we're blaring, we were running, phone ringing, we found her in her room nervously asking if firefighters were coming...that noise could make any 2 year old think that!!! After a few phone calls to and from the alarm company and my mom we realized she was just trying to let the sunshine in! 

So there was no going back to sleep after that...so what do we decide to do on this beautiful morning? Make muffins together, of course! What a great way to spend Thanksgiving Sunday morning...this would be something I am thankful for...my wonderful family and our love for being in the kitchen.

Morning glory muffins for some reason are one of my favourite muffins...I dislike raisins however these muffins are incomplete without them...go figure?!

2 cups flour (half whole wheat, half white)

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

Mix together

*Since we were doubling this recipe we decided to add in a can of drained pineapple tidbits instead of a doubling the carrots...we'll let you know if it worked out!

2 cups shredded carrot (*pineapple)

1/2 cup sultana raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts/pecans

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

1 apple -peeled, cored & shredded

Mix into the dry ingredients

Separately mix up:

3 eggs 

1 cup oil ( when I double the recipe I use half apple sauce)

2 tsp vanilla

Mix this into the rest of the ingredients; just until combined.

We thought these were fitting!!

350 for 25-28 minutes

We're all very excited to have a warm muffin topped with butter...or in Aubrey's case a little muffin with her butter! 

Despite the look on her face she really enjoyed them!  The addition of pineapple definitely worked; that was Jeff's great idea. 

Happy thanksgiving...enjoy the day!

Final product....sweet 16 cupcakes

Decorating is my favourite part of baking....I love being creative and making things look truly delicious.  My cupcakes are never identical, i prefer focus on making them look as scrumptious as they taste!

Feeling a little tired this morning I let Jeff and Aubrey make the icing!  

4 bricks of cream cheese and a cup of butter....mix thoroughly.  Add in vanilla and 5 cups of icing sugar. 

I decorated the cheesecake filled cupcakes with the cream cheese icing and topped with a mini Oreo.

Now for the chocolate cream cheese icing for the chocolate cupcakes. This icing tastes like chocolate cheesecake.  A nice switch up for the plain chocolate cupcakes.

I add about a 1/4 cup of cocoa to the already made icing.  I have added melted chocolate in the past, that works just as we'll.

I topped these with a cute chocolate triangle that I bought!

Ready for delivery!

Oh you're probably wondering what they look like on the inside....well I did put a few aside for Jeff...with his request for the chocolate icing!

Oreo cheesecake stuffed chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate cream cheese icing...Delicious!

Happy 16th birthday Tessa!!!!

The perfect party cupcake

If I get one request from my family for a certain cupcake I make; it would have to be my cheesecake stuffed chocolate cupcakes.  Not as difficult as it sounds...trust me...I wouldn't make them if they were! 

I found this recipe for "self-filled cupcakes" from the Calvary temple cookbook.  I think I've been making these for over 10 years and they are a hit every time. 

Instead of a chocolate cake mix I use my chocolate cake recipe which you can find on my blog from last month.  I have used a box mix in the past and honestly if you're in a rush; this works just fine. 

Now for the cheesecake:

I am making these for my friends daughters sweet 16; so at her request I am making an Oreo cheesecake filling.  I think these will work great.

I am doubling this so I used 2 bricks of cream cheese and mixed it with 2/3 cup of white sugar.

Scrape down the sides

2eggs and a pinch of salt

Mix really well

This is where you would add chocolate chips or in this case; crushed mini Oreo cookies.  

Mix really well. This ended up tasting awesome.  I have never thought of this before but you could substitute pretty much anything you wanted for the chocolate chips to personalize this!

Now for the assembly process:

I'm making half plain chocolate and half the cheesecake stuffed cupcakes.

I was a little worried I over filled them but they turned out perfect.  I would say that is the trickiest thing about this recipe.  So worth it!

And tomorrow I will decorate them; I will post that once the birthday girl sees them of course!

Aubrey was pretty excited to be my Oreo tast tester!!!! I don't think she's had these before!!!