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Recipe #12: Neopolitan cupcakes
Recipe #13: Golden Brussels Sprouts.

Matt and I have a rule that every time we go to Costco we make a stupid purchase. In the past, the stupid purchases have been treats of some sort. Ex: cream puffs, frozen cookie dough, a case of muffins, a frozen cheesecake sampler, and the case of Tootsie Pops that currently resides at my desk.

But today, we really outdid ourselves, and purchased something I've been wanting for years.

Here we are together. Isn't she lovely? I only wish I had this beauty when I baked 12 dozen mini-cupcakes as Christmas gifts.

Naturally, I had to break in my new toy by making a batch of cupcakes. Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I made some Neapolitan cupcakes--vanilla/chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

The cake part is from two box mixes--one chocolate, one vanilla. Using a boxed mix in a new mixer is sort of lame, but I was feeling a little lazy. I was more excited about making some frosting!

This may sound conceited, but my frosting is the shiznit. There's nothing special about it, but whenever I make it people ask for the recipe. I think it's because they're used to the canned frosting.

My recipe is based on this one, but I usually end up adding one more cup of powdered sugar. 

For the strawberry frosting, I just added about 3/4 cup of pureed strawberries to my trusty buttercream recipe and an extra 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and the result was a smooth strawberry frosting that tasted like strawberry ice cream. I contemplated adding some strawberry JELL-O to give it the strawberry flavoring. The Utard (Utahan? Utahite?) in me likes JELL-O with a little vodka in it. (Fun fact: JELL-O is the official "state snack" of Utah.) If it's good enough for Bill Cosby, it's good enough for me. But, in the end I decided to go all purist on these cupcakes, and used real strawberries. 


I wrote this recipe out myself, so forgive me if it sounds like a third-grader wrote it.

Strawberry Buttercream
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/2 tbsp heavy cream (I think this is about right; I just sort of poured some in until I liked the consistency)

1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup pureed strawberries

Cream butter using mixer. Slowly add 2 cups of powdered sugar. Add the cream, the vanilla, and strawberries. Mix well. Add the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more cream or powdered sugar until it is the consistency you like.

After Matt ate five cupcakes (this is not an exaggeration), I decided to make some dinner, since it's not acceptable to eat cupcakes for every meal. Besides, everyone knows cupcakes are a breakfast food.

As my dinner sidedish, I decided to try my hand at cooking some Brussels Sprouts. Brussels Sprouts, or B.S. as I like to call them, get a bad rep at the dinnertable. Many a child has whined about eating them, but I actually think they are pretty tasty. Plus, you can pretend you're a giant eating heads of lettuce while eating them. No, I'm not drunk right now. 

I read up a little about B.S., then decided on this basic recipe: Golden Brussels Sprouts. I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar on mine while they were cooking in the pan, because I like to live dangerously.

The result? Tasty B.S. with a carmelized side, sprinkled with fresh parmesan. I accidentally cut mine the wrong way, so they looked like little roses.