Starlight Cupcakes to the Rescue! #Recipe for #Foodies

It's cold. Freezing cold. And I need a reason to smile. What’s a woman to do?

Bake cupcakes! Yes! One of my favorite recipes for cupcakes comes from my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook. I have the one I was given as a gift when I married my husband. I also have my grandmother’s Betty Crocker Cookbook which has her notes and hand-written recipes tucked inside. It’s a treasure!

Starlight Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

3 eggs

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups milk (substitute almond milk, if you wish)

2 teaspoons vanilla (original recipe calls for 1 teaspoon)

1.     Cream together the sugar and shortening. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition until ingredients are well incorporated.

2.     Add flour, baking powder, salt, milk, and vanilla. Stir just until batter comes together and no flour is visible. (Too much mixing at this stage will develop the gluten in the flour and make the cupcakes tough.)

3.     Line 36 medium, greased muffin cups with cupcake liners. Fill each liner half full with batter. Bake in a pre-heated 350º F oven until golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 18 min. Allow cupcakes to cool to room temperature.

I like my cupcakes sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar, but you can use a tub of any flavored frosting you like. Enjoy!

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As you can imagine, I’ve been antsy lately. So I took on the task of creating a new cover for my book TAKING LOVE IN STRIDE. Here’s what I came up with. What do you think? The story is about a stiletto-loving school teacher who gets into a battle of wills with a do-it-my-way businessman. It’s a fun, sweet contemporary romance.

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Getting Fit with 300 Calorie Meals

My FitBit One, Burgundy

Santa left a FitBit under my tree this year, and I have to say I love this little gadget. It counts my steps, my flights of stairs, my calories burned, even my hours of sleep (although I still have to figure out this function). I downloaded the free app on my phone, and when I inputted my height and weight, the program automatically put me on a 1200 calorie per day plan. The way I figure it, that gives me 300 calories per meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) with three 100-calorie snacks.

So can I follow this regimen? I think so. The first few days haven't been difficult. (We'll find out if I can keep at it. LOL) I googled “300 calorie meals” and hit a plethora of sites that offer easy recipes that look delicious and filling. Here are just a few:

CookingLight.com 300 Calorie Dinners

BettyCrocker.com 300 Calorie Meals

FitnessMagazine.com Flat-Belly Foods: 300 Calorie Breakfasts

RealSimple.com Low-Cal Breakfasts

Shape.com 10 Tasty Sandwiches Under 300 Calories

EatingWell.com 100 Calorie Snacks

I have a terrible sweet tooth. My son gave me a delicious box of chocolate covered caramels for Christmas, and I was overjoyed to learn that 1 piece is 60 calories. These are NOT sugar-free or “diet”…just regular caramels coated in dark chocolate.

I’m going to give this regimen a try. It’s a New Year; I want to start out with a spring in my step and work toward less curve in my rump. *grin*

Do you think this is a “doable” plan? What are you doing to keep fit in 2015?

Beautiful Biscuits Recipe

Few people would use a word like 'beautiful' to describe these easy homemade biscuits, but that's just the way I roll. (Pun intended!) You see, I have an on-going love affair with food so it's easy for me to see an type of bread as beautiful (as well as delicious)!

Today, I'm sharing my Buttermilk Biscuit recipe. Mmmmmmm!

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup cold buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. (Preheating the oven is important.)

Measure out the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Work in the butter and shortening until you've got a crumb-like consistency. (I use my fingers, and I work fast so the butter and shortening won't melt.) Add the buttermilk and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Dough will be sticky.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and fold it a few times. Pat into an oval that's about an inch thick. I use a drinking glass to cut the biscuits into rounds. Gently reform the 'scraps' and cut into rounds. Place the dough rounds on a cookie sheet. (If you like soft-sided biscuits, let the rounds touch. If you like crisper sides, give each biscuit some room on the sheet.) Bake for 15-20 until they're tall and golden brown.

Alton Brown has a similar recipe, but suggests using a little less salt. Even with all those cookbooks and cooking shows under his belt, what does he know?

Here are some other delicious biscuit recipes I've found on the web:

Paula Deen offers a great recipe for Garlic Cheese Biscuits. Yum, y'all! Yum!

These Mayonnaise Biscuits look interesting, although I haven't tried them. Yet.

And for those who feel biscuit-challenged, here's a neat video from the Joy of Baking website. (Please note, I never add sugar to my biscuits.)

If you're looking for fast and easy, the Betty Crocker website has a recipe using Bisquick, that very well-known all purpose baking mix. I've added chopped herbs and a 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese to this recipe to make dumplings for chicken stew. Everyone knows a dumpling is simply a steamed biscuit!

Whether they're slathered with butter, honey, or jam - or steamed on top of a pot of thick, luscious chicken stew - there's nothing quite as delectable as a fluffy biscuit!

If you enjoyed my Buttermilk Biscuit recipe, or any of the recipes I've linked to, please use the buttons below to share this post. Thanks, and happy eating!