These are pretty, right?  Hot diggity dang, I think they’re precious.  

In the middle of frosting these cupcakes I looked down at my hands.  No big deal.  I was simply looking down at the cupcake in one hand, and frosting covered knife in the other.  I had to see what I was doing, right?  When I looked down at this particular moment, I saw… my grandmother’s hands.  There they were, the worn and wrinkled hands that had absolutely fascinated me as a child… only now spotted with powdered sugar and tinted with food coloring.  

When I was a kid I would hold my grandmother’s hand in my lap and study it like it like I might study my favorite picture book.  Somehow her hands weren’t at all different from reading an intricate a story.  

So there I was, frosting a cupcake with my grandmother’s hands.  The image was so strong that I even put down the cupcake and knife and bent my left index finger with my right hand.  It ached a little.  I don’t know why.  And just like that… those hands were gone from me.  

That was simultaneously perplexing and so comforting.  I had to share that with you…  I now only hope that I live long enough for my hands to be read like a story book.  

Now let’s talk cupcakes!

Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty.  Pretty… right?

I’m proud of these little gems.  I’m even more proud of the fact that it only took one stick (otherwise known as 8 tablespoons, 1/2 cup or 4 ounces) of butter to make both the cupcake aaaaaaaand the frosting.  That’s bonkers, right?  I know! Just three tablespoons of butter for the dozen cupcakes and 5 tablespoons for the buttercream. Who says you need a pound of butter for cupcakes?  

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

     adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

     makes 12 cupcakes

     Print this Recipe!

1 cup all-purpose flour

a scant 3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup whole milk

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or use a handheld beater and beat on slow speed until the mixture is a sandy consistency and everything is combined.  Gradually pour in half of the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.  

Whisk the egg, vanilla and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated.  Scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side or the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  Continue mixing until the batter is smooth.  Just a few minutes.  Do not overmix.

Spoon the batter into paper lined muffin tins, dividing between the 12 cups.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until light golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let the cupcakes cool slightly in the pan, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.  

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

     from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

     makes enough for 12 cupcakes, double this recipe to frost an 8-inch cake

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons whole milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the powdered sugar and butter together in an electric mixer fit with a paddle attachment on medium low speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.  Turn the mixer speed to low.  Combine the milk and the vanilla extract and slowly stream it into the butter and sugar mixture.  Once incorporated, turn the mixer to high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes.  The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.  If you find that your frosting is getting to warm in the summer months, stop beating and set in the fridge for a few minutes.  Once chilled, hook the frosting back up the the mixer and beat once more until you reach the desired consistency.

Lovely friends… hi.  Dear readers… hello.

Let’s talk about keeping it classy.  Hot dang! I try hard to keep it classy.  Holy smokes… do I ever fail sometimes.

Let’s discuss classy versus not classy, and what the heck chocolate dipped bananas have to do with anything.

Classy:  a tastefully short summer sundress.  Not class:  booty shorts that awkwardly bunch in the crotch.

Classy:  gracefully switching from wine to water at the company picnic.  Not classy:  maybe getting drunk and punching the sous chef in the face.  Oops.

Classy:  How much I love listening to public radio.  Not classy:  How much I love to watch The Real Housewives of  New Jersey.  Guilty… but why do they yell so much?

Classy: Enjoying mini chocolate dipped bananas on a summer afternoon.  Not as classy:  Trying to gnaw your way through a giant chocolate dipped banana.  It’s just not pretty friends.  Let’s try to avoid this scene this summer.  I think we all know why.

In case you’re wondering what I’ll be eating all summer, the answer is homemade kettle corn and these little lovelies.  Gracious heavens, how have I not come to these sooner!?  Use the best chocolate you can get your hands on.  I used a Valrhona 70% chocolate.  How about nuts!?  Heck yes!  I liked chopped honey roasted peanuts, but walnuts or toasted pecans would be lovely too.

Mini Chocolate Dipped Bananas

Print this recipe!

3 firm but ripe bananas

9- 12 wooden popsicle sticks or lollipop sticks

2 cups chocolate chips or chunks, melted

1/2 cup nuts of your choice, pulverized in the food processor or finely chopped.

Peel three firm bananas and slice each banana into thirds or fourths.  Each banana slice should be about 3 inches tall.

Place wooden sticks or lollipop sticks through the center of one end of the banana slice, about 2 inches deep.

Place of a tray or plate, making sure that the bananas do not touch, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for four hours, or overnight.

Using a food processor, pulse the nuts until they are chopped very fine.  You can also do this by hand, it just takes a bit longer.  Place in a bowl and set aside for the dipping.

Melt chocolate over a double boiler.  Simmer 3 inches of water in a pot, place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl and, once the water is simmering, place the bowl of chocolate over the simmering water.  The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl.  Stir the chocolate pieces  occasionally until they’re all melted.

Remove bananas from the freezer, dip in chocolate, roll in nuts and place on a foil lined baking sheet.  When all the bananas are dipped, return to the freezer for 30 minutes to harden.  Once hard, wrap individually in plastic wrap and store in the freezer until you’re ready to snack on them.  Yum!  I think they’re best eaten when thawed at room temperature for about 7 minutes.

I still write letters.

I still hand write letters in a festive card with a return address sticker.  I might even decorate the envelope with a rubbe-stamped dolphin stampede.

I still write letters and I still have pen pals.

My favorite pen pal?   My grandmother.  I call her Mommom.  She’s rad.  I don’t know how she would feel about me calling her rad.  She writes me short letters during the break she takes on her morning walk.  These letters are usually written from her favorite bagel shop.  Letters always include some sort of loving greeting, an update about her walking adventures and the bagel shop, something about an upcoming trailer trip, inquiries about my little sister, and an abrupt closing.  Short, sweet and to the point.

The best part about being pen pals with Mommom is that she will not let me slack off.  If  I haven’t written her a letter in a few weeks, I’ll get another letter urging me to, if I know what’s good for me, write my grandmother back.  If for some reason I don’t get to that letter in adequate time… well, I’m liable to hurt my grandmother’s feelings.  Hurt grandmother feelings, of course, leads to all sorts of guilt from all sorts of family members.  News of pen pal activity, or inactivity travels fast in my family.

Letter writing isn’t a chore.  It’s a nice break from simultaneously writing an email and checking my blog stats and watching stupid cat videos.   Letter writing is not technology multi-tasking.  It’s easy, breezy, simple… all about just sendin’ a little love.

Then there’s cobbler, which couldn’t be any more simple and delicious.  This easy cobbler is like letter writing, in baking form.  Spend a little time baking up a little love with this cobbler.  Sit down with a nice warm slice and write a letter to someone.  It’s supreme.

This cobbler just couldn’t be easier to throw together.  I used delicious golden nectarines as the filing, but feel free to use fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries or peaches in any combination.  You can also use frozen fruit, although it should be thawed and drained before incorporated.  Enjoy summer the easy way.

Easy Nectarine and Cream Cobbler

adapted from The Pastry Queen

Print this recipe!

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of cloves

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

3/4 cup milk (low fat milk will work fine)

3 cups sliced nectarines, skins left on

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Melt the butter in a medium saute pan set over medium high heat until it bubbles and turns a nut brown color.  Watch the butter closely, as it can go from browned to burnt in just a few seconds.  The butter will have all sorts of browned bits in it.  That’s good!

Pour the butter into an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking dish.  Do not try a pie baking dish.  I did.  Overflow!

In a medium bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, flour, baking powder and spices.  Add milk and stir.

Pour the mixture on top of the melted butter.  Here’s the hard part:  do not stir!  Without mixing, arrange the fruit evenly over the top of the batter.  Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake the cobbler for 40 to 45 minutes, until the top turns golden brown.  Amazingly, the batter will migrate from the bottom of the pan to cover the fruit.  Yum!  Serve warm with slightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Reason #457 why I love this warm weather, sunny spring that leads into summertime:  the ponytail.

It’s bouncy, it’s festive, it helps me look like I’m having a good time even when I’m just standing in line at the grocery store, and it makes me feel like a cheerleader… which is strangely satisfying.

The ponytail is simple and uncomplicated.  I think I’m going to make the ponytail, and the fun simplicity it represents, the theme for the lovely summer we’re working towards.

I think that summer fruit is so fun and just bursting with bright flavors.   Most need very little fuss when it comes to preparation.  Why complicate something that’s already lovely?

This Peach Brulee is just three ingredients and it’s a gorgeous way to start the day.  Make it for breakfast and top the warm peaches with thick Greek yogurt, or make enough peach halves to serve after a big dinner with friends and family.  For one or for many, this simple peach recipe shows off the best of what’s in store for us this summer.  Go forth and broil…. and please sport a ponytail this summer.  It’s rad.

Peach Brulee

for one serving, but can easily be increased according to your needs

adapted from Good Food on kcrw

Print this recipe!

1 peach, cut in half with pit removed

2 spoonfuls brown sugar

2 spoonfuls sour cream, creme fraiche, yogurt or whipped cream

Turn on the oven’s broiler.  Cut peach in half, remove pit and place in a broiler safe pan, cut side up.  Sprinkle brown sugar over the tops of he peaches.  Place in the broiler, very close to the flame.  Stand by the oven, you don’t have time to check the mail.  Check the peaches every minute, the sugar will brown in about 2 minutes, if not sooner.

Remove from the oven once the sugar has become brown and toasted.  Let cool for one minute.  Carefully place peach halves on a plate and dollop the center of the peach with a touch of sour cream or creme fraiche or yogurt.  Serve immediately.

Can you do me a favor?

I cringe any time someone asks me if I can do them a favor.  I always want to say… sure, yes, of course… only to be asked to do something like… I dunno… be a bridesmaid in their wedding and wear lavender and ruffles.  Ok… so that hasn’t been a favor asked of me just yet.  The thought obviously terrifies me.

I hope when I ask you to do me this favor you won’t completely cringe.

Do me a favor and make this popcorn this weekend.

I wouldn’t ask unless it was totally important, and totally delicious.

Believe me.  If you’ve never believed me before, now would be the time to start.  Make this popcorn.  It’s perfectly sweet and perfectly salty.  Make it for dinner.  Make it and sneak it into the movie theater in your giant purse.  Make it and sit out on your patio with a glass of cheap wine.  Find the time.  Find a way.  Just do me a favor and enjoy this popcorn as soon as possible.

It’s that good.

I know what you’re thinking.  Geez Joy… it’s just kettle corn.  What’s the big deal?

This popcorn will sneak up on you.  You’ll have one bite and think… meh, sweet and salty… so what!?  You’ll have another bite and think… yea, it’s pretty good.  You’ll have a third bite and realize I’ve introduced you to some sort of drug-like substance.  And then… you’ll have eaten the whole batch in a cool 15 minutes.

If it can happen to me.  It can happen to you.

Homemade Kettle Corn

Print this recipe!

1/2 cup popcorn
1/4 cup vegetable or grapeseed oil
3 tablespoons sugar
Salt to taste.  I think I used between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon.

Here’s a fun thing to do!  Take a few minutes to close your eyes and imagine yourself as an old person.  I’m not talking about late sixties.  That’s not old yet.  I’m talking about great great grandmother old.. pushing the mid-nineties.

Sounds crazy?  Why would you spend time picturing white hair in bobby pins, shuffling feet and rocking chairs?  I feel like getting old is a luxury.  Not everyone gets to do it, so why not sit and enjoy the thought a bit?

I imagine that I’m the kind of old lady that talks to her over fed cats, and yells across the house to her practically deaf husband.  I hope I’m the kind of old lady who has a piano in the house just so my grandchildren can come over and practice their scales while I shuffle around the kitchen baking them cookies.

I want to be the kind of old lady that always thinks a glass of champagne is a good idea.

I want to be the kind of old lady who always has something out on the living room table for that unexpected guest.  Maybe it’s those soft chalky mints.  Maybe a freshly baked pie.  Maybe it’s these Sweet and Spicy Baked Almonds.  These nuts, my friends, have me daydreaming of old lady times somehow… with a smile on my face.

So, you might be thinking… really Joy?  Nuts?  That’s all you’ve got for me today?  My answer to that… yes.  Nuts.  Live a little.

These nuts are simply almonds sprinkled in magic, aka fennel seeds.  They’re sweet.  They’re spicy.  They’re salty and crunchy.  They make a super yumtastic snack to have around the house, a snazzy hostess gift, or they’re great to bring to a cocktail party.  All around winners, that’s what these almonds are.

Sweet and Spicy Baked Almonds

from Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes

Print this recipe!

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon fennel seeds

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

2 cups raw almonds

2 Tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Mix sugar, fennel, salt and pepper flakes in a medium sized bowl.  Add the almonds and water and stir until coated.  Pour onto the foil lined baking sheet and spread out evenly.

Bake the almonds for 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven and stir almonds around.  Return to the oven and bake for another 17 minutes, checking and stirring the almonds 2 to 3 more times.  Almonds will turn beautifully dark brown.  Remove from the oven and separate with a fork.  Cool and remove from the pan to a serving bowl or an airtight container for storage.

Not every morning in my life is filled with Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes and Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread… not when things like my ten year class reunion and bathing suit season loom just around the corner.  For real friends, those are two scary things.  At least I don’t have to go to my ten year reunion in my bathing suit.  Can you imagine the horror!?   Yea… so there’s always a silver lining.

I’d like to introduce you to Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread.  If this bread were one of your dear friends from high school, it would be that friend who wore old lady shoes because they were the most practical, and played the trombone, and was the super smart editor of the school newspaper.  This bread would be the friend that was super sensible, and sweet and just downright made you feel good about your day.

Go ahead, think of this Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread as your friend… and then it eat.  No, there’s nothing weird about that.

This bread is packed full of happy, heart-healthy oats, cinnamon spice and crazy ripe bananas.  It’s just the thing to throw together over the weekend, slice up, wrap individually, and freeze for breakfast for the entire week.  I just grab a slice from the freezer as I’m running out the door, and by the time I have a chance to eat it, it’s perfectly defrosted.  Of course the microwave and toaster oven work wonders too.

Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread

adapted from the Weight Watchers site

Print this recipe!

makes 1 loaf  of  10 slices, 4 points per slice

- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp  salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 tsp canola or walnut  oil
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 medium egg whites, beaten
- 3 large bananas, ripe
- 1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients including the oats and cinnamon.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add oil and whole egg and mix thoroughly.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.  Batter will be fairly thick.

In a medium sized bowl, with an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until medium stiff peaks form.  Fold the egg whites into the batter in three additions.

Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes. Slice loaf into 10 equally sized slices.

Things that are awesome and things that are not awesome; an incomplete list.

Things that are awesome:

Summer dresses that look great with summer ponytails.

Bathing suits + Palm Springs + Rented Summer House + Sun Screen + Giant Sun Glasses + Mojitos x Infinity = Awesome.

Big, fat bumble bees… come on, they’re precious.

Pulling this beautiful Dutch Baby out of the oven on Easter morning,  sprinkling it with orange sugar and feeling like Julia Child… that’s awesome.

Things that are NOT awesome:

Otherwise perfect vintage dresses that are half a size too small.

Bathing suit shopping… exactly no one likes that, and why on earth are my legs so white!?

Bee stings on the butt.  It happens people.  It really happens.

Not pulling this Dutch Baby out of the oven on Easter morning… that’s not awesome at all.

A Dutch Baby is somewhere between a pancake and a pop over.  I whipped up a thin batter, poured it into a hot, butter-covered skillet, and let it bake for 18 minutes.  As soon as it came out of the oven I attacked it with orange sugar and cut it into giant slices.  It’s as delicious as breakfast gets.  So easy, so crispy with sugar, so perfectly spring.

Dutch Baby with Orange Sugar

adapted from Gourmet April 2009

Print this recipe!

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 3 large eggs at room temperature 30 minutes (run then under warm water if you’re in a hurry)
• 2/3 cup whole milk at room temperature  ( I used 2% and was happy)
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Put skillet on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

Stir together sugar and zest in a small bowl.

Beat eggs with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and frothy, then beat in milk, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and continue to beat until smooth, about 1 minute more (batter will be thin).

Add butter to hot skillet and melt, swirling to coat. Add batter and immediately return skillet to oven. Bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18 to 25 minutes.

Serve immediately, topped with orange sugar.