Raspberry Cream Cupcakes, Uh, Oh, It's Valentine's Day!

Doset Daram.

Te Amo.

Mahal Kita.

Je T'aime.

"Ah, mon petit chou, it is love at first sight, is it not, no?"

Ah yes, love is in the air, Valentine's Day is this Saturday and men all over America are cursing. A contrived day designed to increase flower, candy, greeting card and restaurant sales. Wanton commercialism wrapped in wanton lust. It's a travesty I say.

But let's face it, left to their own devices, men would rarely, if ever put forth the romantic effort. At least with Valentine's Day they get clear cut signals on what to do: Nice smelling stuff - Flowers, check. Feed Me - Restaurant reservation, check. Have someone else tell me you love me - Valentine's Day card, check.

See, it's all laid out for you.

So who am I to stand in the way of love? Today I give you a recipe that's sure to please the most jaded of hearts. This is a recipe from my some-day-to-be paramour, Giada DeLaurentiis. It's ludicrously simple, so simple even a man could do it, though in truth I leave all the baking to SSSal. So fire up the candles, put on he romantic music and enjoy...


Raspberry Cream Cupcakes
by Giada DeLaurentiis

1 (18.25 oz) box white cake mix (preferrably Duncan Hines)
1 1/3 cups water
3 large egg whites
2 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (6 oz.) containers, fresh raspberries (or 6 oz strawberries chopped)
1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar, plus additional for dusting

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Line 18 muffin cups with muffin papaer.

Using an electric mixer, beat the cake mix, water ,egg whites, melted butter, almond extract and vanilla extract in a large bowl for 2 minutes or until batter is well blended.

Using about 1/3 cup of batter for each cupcake, scoop batter into muffin cups.

Bake cupcakes until the are pale golden on top, about 15 minutes.

Cool cupcakes completely on a cooling rack.

Using a fork, coarsely mash 1 1/2 containers of raspberreis in a medium bowl.

Whip the cream and 1/3 cup powdered sugar in a large bowl until form peaks firm. Fold the mashed raspberries, gently, into the whipped cream.

Remove the muffin papers from each cupcake. and cut the top (horizontally) off of each cupcake. Place a spoon on the raspberry whipped cream atop the cupcake bottoms. Return the cupcake tops to the cupcakes, forming a raspberry cream sandwich.

Dust the cupcakes with the remaining powdered sugar. Garnish with remaining berries and serve.


Using a box cake mix makes this recipe ridiculously easy; even a crab could do it. SSSal has made this dessert several times and it never fails to impress.

So crablings, that's your little something for Valentine's Day. A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, a plate of cupcakes and a bowl of extra raspberry whipped cream; I'd go into more details about what happens next, but this isn't that kind of web site. Until next time, remember, you can do it, you can cook.


Crabby Quiz: I opened this post with "I love you" written in four different languages, name each.

Extra Credit: After the four "I love yous", there is a quote in italics, name the speaker.

Beef & Black Bean Chili with Chipolte & Avocado

Well, as Dad always used to say, "The sandwich always hits the carpet jelly-side down".

I'm in the process of learning my new computer but I'll admit to having had vague hopes of salvaging something of the old machine. Alas and alack, it wasn't meant to be.

CrabCake2 borrowed his father's credit card, bought a gizmo or two and tried to recover what was in the old hard drive. But the old Dell, she is kaput. He offered to take it into the Geek Squad and see if they could do anything with it but, given that all I've really lost is about 8 sets of unpublished Crabby food photos, it just seems like throwing good money after bad, (See: Government Financial Bail-out of Wall Street).

Interestingly, in addition to the "who-zy" he needed to work on my machine, a surprisingly large amount of new equipment ended up in his room. Seems like profiting from my misery is the price I have to pay to hear that there's no solution to my losses, (Again, see: Government Financial Bail-out of Wall Street).

Well crablings, I've got a new machine and the only real pain is how much poorer I am. So today's recipe is going to be something fast and cheap. I know I've told you that I'm not a big chili fan, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Here's a recipe that will work at your next sports party, outdoor BBQ or Mexican dinner, enjoy...


Beef & Black Bean Chili with Chipolte & Avocado
from Fine Cooking

3 15-oz. cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 14-1/2-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 medium chipotle plus 2 Tbs. adobo sauce (from can)
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. 85% lean ground beef
Kosher salt
1 large red onion, finely diced
1-1/2 Tbs. chili powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 lime, juiced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Freshly ground black pepper
1 ripe avocado, cut in a medium dice

Put one-third of the beans into the bowl of a food processor, along with the tomatoes and their juices, chipotle, and adobo sauce. Process until smooth and set aside.

Heat the oil in a 5- to 6-quart Dutch oven or similar heavy-duty pot over medium-high heat until it’s shimmering hot, about 2 min.

Add the beef, season with 1/2 tsp. salt, and cook, using a wooden spoon to break up the meat, until it loses its raw color, about 3 minutes. Transfer the beef to a large plate using a slotted spoon.

Add half of the onion and 1/4 tsp. salt, and cook, stirring, until it begins to brown and soften, about 3 min. Reduce the heat to medium.

Add the chili powder and cumin and cook for 20 seconds. Add the remaining black beans, the puréed bean mixture, and the beef to the pot and simmer for 10 min., stirring frequently.

Add half of the lime juice, half of the cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste. If the chili is thicker than you like, it may be thinned with water.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the remaining lime juice and onion with the avocado. Season generously with salt and pepper. Serve the chili topped with the avocado mixture and remaining cilantro.

Fast, frugal and flavorful, (I've been using a lot of "f" words since the old computer died). This recipe appears as it did in Fine Cooking; I'll warn you that I thought that there was too strong a lime flavor; SSSal disagreed. I also think a better application than chili would be to use this meat/bean mixture as the stuffing of tacos; SSSal agreed.

OK crablings, I'm off to try and remember as many of my old bookmarks as possible. Until next time, remember, you can do it you can cook.

Meyer Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake & Disaster

"It's been a rough day. I got up this morning, put on a shirt and a button fell off. Then I picked up my briefcase and the handle fell off. I'm telling you, I'm afraid to go to the bathroom."


Brilliant.

Right after posting Sauerkraut Soup, disaster struck. Truth is I could sense it coming, but like everyone else I just chose hope over evidence.

Crash. Bang. Boom.

Right after getting confirmation of the last upload, my up-til-now-trusty computer died. Blue screen fading to black. Tried rebooting, but it's always a bad sign when your machine's death rattle is a snicker.

Last words? I swear I heard it whisper, "I told you to back up more often".

After six years the Dell is a goner. I'd been backing up more often, but I'm pretty sure I've lost a number of as yet unpublished photos. Ah well, I'll just have to make the recipes again. Put's a little pressure on me to create some inventory, but no sacrifice is too great for Crab Nation.

It's been a little shocking to live without my own computer. You just don't realize how attached you are to the possibility of communicating with the world. I've taken to borrowing SSSal's and CrabCake2's machines, but it's not the same. I feel like a technology stalker...unwashed, vaguely feral, desperate for a few moments of connectedness; Gollum Jonesing for a laptop.

Well what are you going to do, cry in your scalded milk? No. Life gives you lemons, you might as well try to make lemonade. But that's a recipe for another day. Today let's go for dessert. Early last summer, SSSal and I received a Meyer Lemon Tree as a gift from JeanneBean. It's taken about 9 months for the fruit to actually ripen but I'm not complaining. It's great to look at ripening citrus in the middle of winter. So without further downtime, please enjoy...


Meyer Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake with Fresh Berries
from Bon Appetit, January 2005

1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup sugar, divided
4 large egg yolks
1/3 cup Meyer lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unslated butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large egg whites

whipping cream
fresh berries (blue- and or rasp-)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter an 8x8x2 inch glass baking dish.

Blend buttermilk, 1/2 cup sugar, egg yolks, lemon juice, flour, butter and salt in a blender until smooth.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites in a large bowl until sift peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until stiff but not dry.

In 3 additions, gently pour buttermilk mixture into the beaten egg whites. Note: Batter will be runny.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Place dish into a roasting pan and then into the oven. Pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the baking dish. DO NOT GET ANY WATER INTO THE BATTER. (This is safer to do with the pan already in the oven.)

Bake until the entire top is evenly browned and the cake moves very slightly in the center, but still feels springy to the touch, about 45 minutes.

When done, remove baking dish from roasting pan and allow to cool on a rack. When cooled, refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 6 hours.

Spoon pudding cake into shallow bowls. Pour whipping cream around cake and top with berries.

Serve.


There you go. It sounds a bit fussy but it's truly very easy. Of course we had a cookng tragedy the last time we made this, but that's a story for another day.

Well crablings, I'm off to stand by the front door, longingly listening for the downshift of a UPS truck. Computer should be here soon. Until next time, remember you can do it, you can cook.


Crabby Quiz: Name the opening joke's owner.