More Kitchen Adventures

The star of this morning's breakfast was strawberries from the ann arbor farmers market. (seriously, nothing beats farmers market berries).

Also my peanut butter drizzling skills are unmatched.
(don't worry I added another glob of peanut butter prior to eating, but for aesthetics, it was added post-paparazzi)

These oats were just your run of the mill old-fashioned variety cooked in water, but I think next time I need to do some sort of milk. Oatmeal is best when creamy.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so I, of course, baked for her. She requested carrot cake, and I found some great recipes before realizing that any sort of baking dish that i owned (i.e., 9x13 dish, 9x9 dish) had been sent home already. Luckily, among the recipes I found was one from the Gourmet Today cookbook for carrot cupcakes. Sold.

Getting recipes from fancy cookbooks and fancy bloggers has lead to a bit more work than just mixing up a batter and popping it in the oven. This one called for toasted walnuts as well as toasted coconut.

The walnut toasting went great - in the oven for ten minutes on 350. perfection.
Coconut? Not so much. The coconut browned much more quickly than expected, and my tiny kitchen didnt leave me a ton of room to let it hang out and cool, so I attempted to immediately pour into the batter bowl.

DISASTER. the 350* baking sheet was heavier than expected and I walked away with 3 burns, and lots of toasted coconut on the floor. frick.

Yay battle wounds.

Regardless, the cupcakes turned out fantastic.

pre-frosting

 I went against the recommended cream cheese molasses frosting and just stuck with the tried and true cream cheese frosting. so delicious.

 This was my first foray into frosting using a simple plastic bag and not my fancy pampered chef icing gun (obviously not the real name).

I think I did okay. 

delicious.

My tuesday night kitchen adventures also included a pretty awesome casserole.

While at work, I realized I had all the ingredients necessary for Iowa Girl Eats' Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Casserole (found through the always lovely kate.) Again, sold.

This has been the only thing I have wanted to eat lately.

My alterations? Horizon organic shredded cheddar for the sauce, TJ's shredded pepperjack on top, and no green onions, just because I didn't have any.