after keith and i visited my mother in law in the hospital (see the "come on people blog), we walked to a small "farmer’s market" near the hospital. i didn’t like it because it did not have great stuff. and the people selling the vegetables were were annoyed when i asked whether the produce was organic and local (some was local but NONE were organic).
vegetables.
it was a bit depressing really.
then i went home to bake (and be home for my daughter’s playdate etc.)!
my son’s birthday is thursday so i baked cupcakes for his class and put them in the freezer. i will make the icing and frost thursday morning so they taste good.
he wants devil’s food cake with white icing.
here are the ingrdients:
i doubled the recipe and had to write it out… im such a math moron!
and i had too much batter in my mixer.
but cupcakes looked good out of the oven!
and there were extra mini cakes for sampling. all were pleased in my house.
i hope i can frost them well. i would like to do something other than the swirl!
and this morning i set out to make egg white/spinach salad. and i failed! it is so gross. i am trying to put vinegar or mustard in it to see if it can be saved but i am not hopeful. i used fresh spinach, low fat mayo, salt and pepper and lots of eggwhites. and it is gross.
luckily i also had arugula in the house.
look at pretty heart leaf!
so i just put salt and pepper and fresh parmigian on the arugula and that will be a delicious lunch. and i am bringing some nuts for after work. (alexis and i have to do something after the show so there won’t be time for dinner.)
i reused the organic lettuce container to bring salad to work.
tomorrow i will have my "mohs" surgery on the squamous cell carcinoma (see blog "ear excavation" below). i will ask the nurse and/or doctor to take pictures for the blog.
xxx
jennifer
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facebook: jennifer koppelman hutt
From what I understand, it is difficult for growers to become “certified organic”. We have farm stands in my area that do not use any pesticides and grow everything naturally but are not “certified”.
How much batter do you put in each cupcake paper to get such beautiful flat tops? Mine always rise up in the center! What am I doing wrong? Thanks
I know egg whites are suppose to be good for me but I have a hard time eating just the whites.
I’m also on Weight Watchers and I found a couple of web sites that are really helpful.
Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone
https://www.dwlz.com/restaurants.html
Hungry Girl
https://www.hungry-girl.com/
I signed up for the Hungry Girl Newsletter and I love it!
The cupcakes look yummy but I have a feeling they aren’t a low point food item… lol…
Could you give us a picture of the mini bundt pan you use? Those little cakes are so cute!
Since when is the ear thing cancer??? I shouldn’t have read this! I’m getting ready to go to the derm for my annual skin cancer check-up!! I’ve never had skin cancer but have been told to get a check every year and I always assume I will get awful news about some bump or dot. D’oh. Gonna take half an Ativan now.
I love that you had to write everything out for doubling the recipe. I am a month moron as well. Once in college I was cooking dinner and my roomate said I should double the receipe since we liked it so much. I yelled at her and was like I don’t know how to do that. I still laugh at that all the time! Cupcakes look yummy!
Suprised your son’s school allows home baked goods for birthday celebrations. I am in favor of it but know many schools that simply don’t allow. Everything has to be individually packaged.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVED the blogs!!! Both you and Alexis are always so generous w/ sharing “stuff”. Thanks! : )
i only WISH there was a farmer’s market like that near me whether it was organic or not! i live in a really crappy tiny town in alabama (ick! i’m so ashamed! i’m a northern gal!) and you would be absolutely appalled to see the produce they have at the grocery store… which is the only place you can get it here. everyone in this stupid town shops for groceries at wal-mart and i REFUSE to go there.
I was just going to post what Lisa said. We are not allowed to bring anything homemade to school in South Florida. Only store bought. I hate it.
BTW – those cupcakes look great. I, too, would like to know your secret to flat topped cupcakes.
The tomatoes already suck and the Farmers Market people say vine ripened/
and i know it is the freaky kind not the good kind i already miss my BRANDYWINE tomatoes makes me want to move where I can grow vine tomatoes all year round…
hi, the reason the cupcakes are flat is i use a large cookie scoop full of batter for each cupcake so they are all uniform (or almost all uniform) in size. and it just happened that the it was the perfect amount of butter/per cup. although really i like a big muffin top on my cupcakes! i will post a link to the scoop later. it is by oxo.
jen, I LOVE that heart shaped cupcake!!
they tasted good right/
then looks do not count…
sounds ok plus zucchini would be good in it plus apple sauce?
throw the whole dinner in a cake even tomatoes and stuff
make a pizza cake….
Jennifer says blah, blah, Palin, blah. Alexis says blah, blah, blah, John McCain. We just saw Obama being chased by Osama on a llama. The audacity of the hype. NOBAMA.
YOU ARE BLOGGING AGAIN!!!!!
Yay!!!!!
Cupcakes look great. You did a great job. Please post the final product. Good luck with your Mohls surgery tomorrow. Are you getting a localor conscious sedation? Amy
Jen, is there a difference between regular sugar and organic sugar for baking? I’m making my husband his favorite birthday cake this week.
Never seen so much batter in the kitchen aid bowl before – but the cupcakes came out GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy frosting on Thursday!
Jennifer I noticed that the recipe called for a not dutch processed cocoa now have you ever used Dutch-processed cocoa and what are the differences?
also this egg white thing do you add raw egg whites to the salad what is up with that lots of raw egg whites if you don’t like something ahh don’t do it have you ever had a sub with the vinegar the red wine vinegar the Italian seasonings salt and fresh fresh cracked pepper with thinly sliced onions now that makes a good salad leave out the sub ( The bread meat stuff but hey a few salty olives sliced black olives good stuff)t but the red wine vinegar does it for me the other thing I have read is fish now broiled salmon well in my oven it gets blackened and just 13 minutes or so under the broiler the next day when it is cold served on a salad gosh get out of the way here i come we need the texture the crunch the contrast in flavors to teach our palates what proper food is—- the education of a palate
Moh’s clinic is not a fun day so i hope yours was short. The left ear is usually known as “driver’s ear”, the side that gets the unprotected sun damage. Do you do a lot of driving? By now you have probably been lectured about either applying sun screen or covering that side of your ear/head when driving.
Last Friday I had my thyroid biopsy. I’m sure we will both be fine. Take a teddy bear to cuddle while they cut!
Hugs,
Kathy
The Maverick and the Barracuda said
SO FUNNY!!!!
Jen I’m sorry that you have to go through the surgery tomorrow, but am glad you are having it treated before it becomes more invasive. There are a couple of prescription skin creams, Aldara and Efudex, that they can give you to help prevent skin cancer in the future. They are simple creams that disrupt growth of cancerous cells. I have a family member who has used Aldara with great success. Best of luck to you. I’ll say a prayer or two for your quick recovery with little to no pain.
Hope your surgery went well. I actually have a similar thing in my ear and have never even thought it might be cancer-related (I know – dumb me). Anyhow, I’m going to check in with my derm about it. So thank you!
A question: When you freeze the cupcakes, how long do they need to be out before frosting them? Do they thaw completely, then you frost?
Thanks! I have four kids and I like the idea of getting some of these things done ahead of time.
Peace.
Jenny,
WTF??? I go away for a few and you go in for surgery???? Secondly, a squamous cell carcinoma to boot??? Cheese Louise!!!
Mi-sheberakh avoteinu v’imoteinu, Avraham v’Sarah, Yitzhak v’Rivkah, Ya’akov, Rachel v’Leah hu y’varekh et Jennifer Koppelman Hutt v’yavi aleihem refuat hanefesh u’refuat haguf yachad im kol cholei amo Yisrael. Barukh atah Hashem, rofeh ha’cholim.
Please keep me posted and be well!!
PS- Don’t make this black Jew go ghetto on you! :o)
I am going to follow up on what the first post says. Becoming certified organic by the USDA is a very expensive process, and many small farmers just do not have the money and time to go through the process. Often at farmer’s markets, the produce will be sustainably grown without pesticides but they can not say that it is “organic” because they are not USDA certified organic. So don’t get too caught up on the wording. Talk to the growers to see what methods they use and that will tell you more about the produce then an often misused buzzword.
Great idea to recycle the lettuce container!
Hi Jennifer,
I just wanted to say that I too, have to write out on the recipe measurements when I am cutting down…or doubling it. And here I thought I was the only one. Ha, ha. Keep on baking!
I can’t multiply in recipes either. If I don’t write it out, I will forget that I’m doubling half-way through and only put in half the amount of something. Then, I’ll forget which ingredient I need to add extra too, and it becomes a huge train wreck.