Cinnamon cupcakes with apple pie filling and caramel frosting

I find myself spending a lot of my free time on Stumbleupon.com, especially nights like this when Peter is snoring so nicely beside me and I cannot sleep. I tend to like the food sites, and have a plethora of sites saved for recipes I want to try some day.

Last night, I worked the night shift. I got home relatively early around 8am, changed into pj's, sat on the couch and told my mom and sister about my night and fell asleep until 1245. I woke up, ate a turkey sandwich and watched the latest episode of Vampire Diaries while drinking a cup of coffee. Coffee after a night shift is wonderfully magically delicious. Just like lucky charms.

It was about 2pm then, and I had a feeling that Peter wanted cupcakes, so I tried out my own adaptation of a recipe I found here.

Cinnamon cupcakes:


1 c. milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
1 3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Preheat your oven to 350F and line your muffin tray with cupcake wrappers. Heat your milk and butter in a saucepan until melted. While that's going, mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Remove the butter/milk mixture from heat when it's done melting. In a separate bowl, beat together eggs and sugar together until thick ribbons form. Add flour mixture and vanilla. Add to the cupcake wrappers and bake until they are done. It didn't take too long.


Apple Pie filling:


About 4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. dark brown sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. cornstarch

Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add apples, sugars, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Cook until apples are tender over medium heat, then add cornstarch.


Caramel Frosting (from Betty Crocker):


1 c. butter
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. milk


Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat and add brown sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly and let boil for 2 minutes. Reduce heat. Add milk and bring to boil, remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm. Beat in 2 cups powdered sugar.




When the cupcakes were cooled, I cut off the tops and scooped the apple pie filling into them, then added the frosting on top. My family raved about them. They were most delicious!!

Wood cutter

Do you need your yard cleaned up of branches and twigs? I have the perfect solution for you: my 5 month old pitbull/lab mix puppy... Rosie! Not only does she LOVE the humongous branches that fall to the ground, but I can guarantee that she will have it chewed up to tiny pieces in a couple of hours. She loves to bring in sticks from outside and chew them on my carpet and couch. It's great.

This morning on our walk, I thought she was munching on some bark. It wasn't. It turned out to be part of a dead bird. Gag. Barf. Puke. Cringe. Shudder. Die. I was able to get it out of her mouth without touching the decaying bird. I was happy.

I have my dream job in Rochester! I am SO excited. I have been working for this exact moment for almost 23 years and now that it's finally here, I couldn't be happier and more thankful. We're moving in with my parents for the time being. I'm also really excited that Rosie will have a fenced in yard to play in and a playmate (Coco). She's a growing puppy and going for walks just doesn't cut it. She needs room to romp and play!

Cat scratch

Tonight, as I am sitting at the computer, Sierra, my calico kitty, comes and sits on my shoulder. Rosie runs in with Peter from her walk outside, runs up to Sierra and scares Sierra.

Sierra uses my face to get away. I put my hand up to my face, crying, take my hand away and see blood all over my hand.

It's much worse in person. Trust me. 

I'm so happy.

Puppy love

It turns out that I like reading blogs more than I like writing in them. I check in daily to read all the blogs I follow but I can't bring myself to write a post. It's probably because I don't do anything exceptionally cool. I go to school or clinical, come home, eat food, play "Reasons why I should go to the gym tonight and reasons why I shouldn't get off this couch," watch America's Funniest Video's or NCIS (Pete's favorite show), get more tired, go to sleep.

EXCEPT!!!!!!!.... Pete and I adopted a puppy. Her name is Rosie and she is adorable/a menace/a heartbreaker. She's 10 weeks old and barely trainable. She knows her name though, and it's sooooo cute to call her and see her puppy prance towards you.

Chicken and dumplings

Growing up, on cold days my mom would make chicken and dumplings. It's one of my favorite meals and I could eat tons of it. Wednesday night, I adapted her recipe to my own liking.

 I chopped up a large carrot, a small onion and two celery stalks and added them to a pot with three cans of Wegman's reduced sodium chicken broth. I sauteed two chicken breasts in some seasonings and then cut it into bite size pieces and added to the broth. You can add whatever seasonings you like to the broth. I added garlic powder, parsley, oregano and pepper. I set it on medium and left it to boil while Pete made the dumplings:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon parsley

 Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and parsley. Cut in the butter until crumbly them mix in milk. It will form a dough. Drop dumplings by the spoonful into the boiling pot and cover, cook for 15 minutes. The dumplings will expand when they cook, and they are delicious.

Apple and carrot cookies

YES, it's Friday! I love Friday's, even if I don't have any special plans for the weekend, just for the feeling of opportunity of being able to stay up late, sleep in and party like it's 1999. ;)

I have a plethora of extra apples and carrots in my refrigerator and knew I had to do something to not waste them. Thus, I made apple&carrot cookies. Here is the recipe:

3/4 c. margarine
1/2 c. honey
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour
1 c. whole-wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. grated carrots
1/4 c. grated apple

1. Mix margarine and honey until creamy. Add eggs and beat well. 2. Blend in vanilla. 3. In separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. 4. Mix together all ingredients. 5. Stir in carrots and apples. 6. Drop mixtures by tsp. on greased baking sheet. Cook at 350F until golden brown.

I used only 1/2 c. margarine, less honey and wayyyyy more carrots and apples and it turned out pretty good. Very fruity/vegetably. Pete loved them. :)