(Cupcakes pictured above are lemonade cupcakes with lemonade buttercream frosting and hand-made toppers for a a baby shower)

Assorted cupcakes. Chocolate cabernet, carrot cake, and lemonade

Cupcakes with “regular” cupcake icing: $2.50/cupcake ($30 a dozen)

-Minimum 2 dozen order for most flavors

Baseball cupcakes!

Specialty cupcakes (determined by type of design requested): starting at $2.50/cupcake

"Cliff Bar" Cake

Cake with fondant icing and gum-paste flowers

Cakes- Price available on request.

–

The first time I made these tacos they were the product of a craving for tacos and not many items in my pantry, but since then I have tested and perfected them into a dish that friends will request when coming over for dinner.

Taco Filling

• Pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• Can of sweet corn, drained and rinsed
• One bell pepper (can be red, yellow or green)
• 1/2 of a Yellow onion
• 2 Small to medium sweet potatoes
• 1/2 Package of sliced baby portabella mushrooms

1. Peel and chop sweet potatoes into french-fry sized pieces. In a large skillet, heat a few tablespoons of coconut oil and add sweet potatoes to the pan. Cook on medium-high heat.
2. Add chopped onion after about 2 minutes. Stir with potatoes and drizzle with more coconut oil.
3. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine drained corn and pinto beans. Cook on medium-low heat with 3-4 teaspoons of Valentina hot sauce.
4. When onions begin to appear translucent, drizzle Valentina hot sauce into the pan and add the sliced bell pepper. Stir to coat, turn heat to medium heat and cover. After 2 minutes, add a handful of sliced portabella mushrooms, drizzle with more hot sauce, return lid and check in 5 minutes. Turn off heat when mushrooms are cooked.  ——————————–
5. Place the desired amount of corn tortillas on a plate and microwave for 10-15 seconds.       ————————————–
6. Fill each tortilla with the sweet potato mixture followed by the bean mixture and top with crumbled feta and a sprinkling of Valentina hot sauce.

(Best when served with a margarita)

Grapefruit Margarita

Mix one shot of tequila with a splash of triple-sec and top with 100% grapefruit juice and serve over ice.

–

(3/14/11) Yesterday when I was shopping I found a large package of portabella mushrooms for only $1.01 at Fresh & Easy, so I wanted to plan a meal around them. I also wanted to do something that would go well with “Pi day.”

To make the pie crust you’ll need:

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 2 cups flour
• pinch of salt

Although many recipes suggest the shortening and flour be mixed together first, this recipe mixes the shortening and boiling water until smooth before adding the flour.

After all the ingredients are mixed together, form the dough into a ball.

Next, squeeze off a small portion and roll out between two pieces of waxed-paper.

After you roll out the dough, set it aside while you prepare the filling.

Portabella Pot Pie filling:

First, peel and chop the potatoes and carrots and place them in a medium-sized saucepan to boil.

In a large skillet, add a small amount of coconut oil and when heated, add chopped onions and garlic. When onions are nearly cooked, add the chopped portabella and white mushrooms and after cooking for a while, add 1/2 a cup of red wine and 1/2 a cup of vegetable broth.

When the mushrooms are cooked, drain the sauce into a bowl, set aside the mushroom/onion mixutre and return the sauce to the pan. Drain the potatoes/carrots and place in the bowl with the mushroom mixture, leaving a small amount of starchy water from the potatoes to add to the sauce. Add an additional 1/2 cup vegetable broth, more jarred garlic, and a splash more red wine. Bring to a rolling boil and slowly add some cornstarch dissolved in water to the sauce until it begins to thicken.

When sauce is desired consistency, pour sauce over the vegetables and mix well. Spoon mixture into pans lined with crust. I chose to make three small bread-pan shape pot pies, but the crust is enough for a full 9″ round pan with top and bottom crusts. After mixture has been added, top the pies with the remaining crust and “seal” them to the best of your ability.

Poke the crusts with a fork to vent the pies and place them on a large baking sheet before putting them in a 375 degree oven for 20-30 minutes (until crust is golden brown) time will vary based on the size of pan you use.

Tip pie out of pan and onto a plate to serve. I served mine with a small mixed green salad to balance out the heavy flavor of the pot pie.

The pot pie was not as gravy-y as I hoped it would be, but I think I may have added a tad too much cornstarch when thickening.

Yields 3 small bread-pan sized loaves. (Each loaf can easily feed 2 people.) I shared my meal with two guests, packed 1/2 a pot pie for lunch tomorrow, and popped one in the freezer.

Things have been very busy around the PoorGirl house, getting my other half settled and doing some reorganizing. One thing in particular that we’ve been working on is integrating his furniture into our house.

And… for those of you who know me, you know how much I love redoing furniture.

I wanted to share a few photos from the nightstand and dresser we just finished.

Here's the before of the nightstand... kinda boring...

After a little sanding, varnish, and new hardware… ta-dah!

I kind of think this looks like a little guy with a mustache and smile...

Our second project was the dresser that matched. A  larger project because it also involved wood glue… and a lot more sanding.

I could've lived with this dresser, but I am SO happy we decided to redo it as well.

This dresser is going to make a huge difference in the general organization of our bedroom. YAY!

The room is coming together nicely. Next up... looking for art!

Hope you all have a happy Valentine’s day!!

On to more exciting things… this weekend, the wonderful man I share my life with is moving into my house!

I couldn’t be more excited AND I can’t wait to show him some PoorGirl kitchen tricks. Lucky for me, he loves to be in the kitchen. Lucky for him, he is about to cut his grocery bill in half!

Last weekend, we should’ve been packing his stuff to get ready for the big move, but we went on a camping and rock climbing trip instead… it was worth it!

Can't wait to get this guy settled into my kitchen

We made some of our usual camping food favorites on our trip. An added bonus this time was some cupcakes I had left from a baby shower.

Not all the cupcakes survived the transport, but camping with cupcakes was definitely appreciated by our friends.... I will be posting about these cupcakes soon!

Since I have a few moments of time, I wanted to share some photos from my annual ugly sweater party. The party was a blast and everyone’s sweaters were awesome. And, as usual, my friends did not disappoint in the potluck department.

This fits the PoorGirl budget for sure. A staple of all my ugly sweater parties... cheese ball! I picked this one up for $3. Perfect price for a party snack.

My friend Maggie made goat cheese, fig and prosciutto crostini. They were a big hit and made it only for about the first hour of the party. YUM. Also, thanks, Maggie for coming over to help me beforehand... major stress saver.

These little guys were SO spicy I couldn't handle them, but for those with iron tongues they were delish. Bacon wrapped jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and cilantro? Makes me wish I had a higher spice tolerance. Oh, and these were thanks to my boyfriend's amazing mom Carol. She loves to cook and always volunteers to make things for us to help save time.

Cranberry Margaritas! Probably the biggest hit of the night. I saw this recipe online (and wish I could remember where!) and tweaked it to fit my taste.

Cranberry Margaritas

• Cranberry Juice
• Tequila
• Triple Sec
• Lime Juice
• Fresh Cranberries and Limes

The measurements on this one are a bit confusing, so please hang in there. For every 2 1/2 or 3 cups of cranberry juice, add 1 cup tequila and 1/2 cup triple sec and 1/4 cup lime juice. This is really all about your personal taste, so add more liquor or more juice until you feel like it tastes just right. Top punchbowl with fresh cranberries, slices of lime and ice and enjoy!

Another big hit of the night was saltine toffee, a recipe I got from my mom that is totally PoorGirl friendly!

Saltine Taffy

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 sleeve of saltine crackers
• 1 package of chocolate chips
• (optional) sprinkles for decoration

(1) Spray a 9×13 pan with baking spray and line the bottom with saltine crackers and preheat oven to 375 degrees.  (2) In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together and bring to a boil. After a boil is reached, boil for 2 minutes and immediately pour over the crackers, spreading evenly with the back of a spoon or small spatula. (3) Bake covered saltines for 7 minutes, remove from oven, turn off oven, and set on stove top to slightly cool. (4) If needed, use a fork to put the crackers back to the bottom of the pan. Some of them may have bubbles under them from the toffee. After about 2 minutes, evenly distribute the whole package of chocolate chips over the toffee, and set back into the oven (make sure it is off) for about 5 minutes. (5) Remove from the oven and use a mini- spatula or icing spatula to spread the chocolate chips into a smooth layer of chocolate. Garnish with sprinkles if desired and set in the fridge to completely cool. (6) When chocolate has completely hardened, remove from fridge and cut or break into small pieces. We used a pizza cutter and it worked well!

And now for some of the fun photos from the evening!

Shawn and I with "Buster" the dog... one of the best parts of the party, provided by my friend Claudia.

Our friend Carlos read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to all of us. I would've never thought a group of adults could enjoy storytime so much...

A photo of the ladies. Gotta love those sweaters!

First course was a tomato basil soup served in THE cutest mini-tureens ever. They were all types of squashes/gourds

And, the contents were as delicious as the presentation was cute.

For the main course we had many choices, strawberry salad with chicken, salmon with mixed greens and baby root veggies, chicken sandwich with artichoke and sun dried tomato… and then TA DAH… my choice for the day, a mushroom, leek and goat cheese tart made with goat cheese from a local(ish) goat farm. OH MY GOSH… it was so good!

The tart came with a side salad that was the perfect compliment to the heartiness of the tart.

No cheesy bridal shower games for this classy shower… just a nice afternoon with friends, family, and a lot of great loot (they are registered at Crate & Barrel… and lots of gifts revolved around wine… whoops, haha)

Dessert followed the theme of super deliciousness. It was a very moist yellow cake with whipped frosting and fresh berries topped with dark chocolate shavings. And, it went perfectly with a large cup of coffee.

mmmmmm....

Me and the guest of honor... funny story, I have that same dress and almost wore it to the shower. That would've been hilarious and kinda awkward.

On the menu we had:

•  ”roasted roaches” (aka bacon wrapped dates stuffed with cheese)
• “broken brains” (aka hot wing chicken dip- thanks to Cassie)
• “goat eyeballs”  (aka cocktail meatballs- thanks to Shawn’s mom)
• “pumpkin barf” (aka guacamole)

Here’s a close up of the roaches and barf… haha

On the dessert table we had my cupcakes, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin bread, various candies and my personal favorite, witch fingers!

I think these witches are in need of a serious mani! Don't you agree? Look at those cuticles!

The cupcakes turned out really well (if I do say so myself!) Maggie had some luster-spray that was a really nice finishing touch to make them shine!

To wash everything down we had a bubbling cauldron of witches brew, both spooky and intoxicating.

Here’s a photo of me and the mister from the night. If you look close you can see the little snakes in my hair!

This time, we cooked the trail mix right into the pancakes instead of putting it on top. Definately made it that much more delicious!

And we ate them with some more trail mix on top and some of the chicken sausages chopped up on the side… (don’t mind the beer bottle in the photo… it was a vase for some beautiful wildflowers)

After breakfast we went on a hike around the lake (which was WAY farther than we thought) but a very beautiful 7 or 8 miles.

It was a really great day for a little hike! Perfect weather!

And, we worked up an appetite for a giant lunch (complete with mini-wine bottles)

We cooked up the peppers and onions and had some pre-grilled chicken that we heated up to have on whole grain tortillas with hummus. Such a tasty and filling (but not too heavy) lunch.

After lunch we took a nap and woke up to our friends saying “psssst, don’t come out of your tent… we’ve got visitors!!”

Turns out the visitors were a little family of elk! They were so cute, but I was a little leery of how close they were to our tent.

Dinner the second night was a little lighter than the hobo bags. We decided to grill some steak on skewers and make steak salads. We had mixed greens, steak, onion, Gorgonzola and even brought little bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to make dressing. They were SO delicious! I’ve really been on a Gorgonzola kick lately, and I’m totally okay with that!!

The second night we ended up turning in pretty early which was a good thing because a huge storm rolled in and there was a torrential downpour from about 10 until 4 am! I woke up a couple times in the night and listened to the rain… but was really glad to be safe and warm in my cozy tent!

These were a life-saver on the trip! Perfect for waking up and crawling out of the tent... and oh so cozy, too!

The next morning it was time to pack up and get ready to head out. Because of the heavy rain, this meant no fire, so we opted for a quick meal on the Jetboil… just some mini breakfast burritos.

And... what's morning without coffee?... this is where the "camp gourmet" really comes in! haha

A few weeks ago I accompanied my boyfriend on a camping trip with some of his friends (and now my new friends!) We headed out to Woods Canyon Lake near Payson and it was a really great trip. Left early on a Friday morning and made it to camp in time to make lunch.

The first meal of the trip looked a lot better than it tasted, but it was a good lesson in learning to cook with the Jetboil… That thing heats up so quickly it can boil water in one minute… needless to say, getting used to that much heat for regular cooking is a bit much.

Oh a whim, we decided to grab some stuff to make little pizzas… and the lesson we learned was that Jetboil+pizza= unevenly melted cheese… but if you have a better cooking method, pre-cooked pizza crusts work great for camping topped with cheese and your favorite toppings. We decided to use some chicken sausage.

Our dinner that night definitely made up for the lunch disaster. We did another version of the Hobo bags that we tried out last time we camped. 

See the big foil pouch on the left in the fire? That's it!

And they came out great! Mmmm… potato and onion and peppers and chicken sausage.

Everything was mixed together perfectly and the little sprinkle of gorgonzola I added at the end was a perfect touch.

A few hours after dinner we decided to recreate the “awesomeness” that happened last time we were camping… aka sweet goody-ness wrapped in foil.

This is the “before”

Banana, chocolate, Reeses and marshmallow!

And this is the “after”

mmm... use a graham cracker to dip!

Tastes WAAAAY better than it looks (unlike that pizza earlier). One of the kiddos that belonged to a couple in our group said “that looks like poo! SICK!” (it might look gross, but if she had a bite, she’d eat her words!