Italian Quesadillas

Y'all. I promise I'm trying to remember to post stuff on the correct days. I will explain my tardiness better on Sunday when I post about the previous week. ;)

ANYWHO!

Today (Yesterday) is Tutorial Tuesday! Today I am going to share one of my family's favorite dinners: Italian Quesadillas! This recipe was actually taken from the side of a Classico Alfredo Sauce jar a few years ago and modified by me! :D Below you will find the instructions to make it!

Italian Quesadillas

Ingredients:

1-2 chicken breasts or the equivalent in another form of meat (ANY meat works GREAT in this recipe. :3), chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1/4 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
My Alfredo Recipe
Shredded Cheese of any kind (my favorite is the Colby Jack mix. :3)
Tortillas (I usually use flour ones, but corn ones might work well too. :) )
Optional Ingredients:
- Peppers
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Just about anything you want.

Directions:

1) Chop up your meat, and season it. :3

I gave the scraps to Chrissy and Andrew. :3 

2) Chop up your bell pepper, onion, and garlic! (I didn't have any garlic when I made this... It's OK. I only cried about it a little bit. :( )

 I got cool colorful bell peppers this time! :D 

I decided yellow would be a nice contrast to the beef. ;)

3) Cook your meat! When it's nice and brown, add your chopped veggies. :3 Then cook it until it's dead. :)

4) Make some of my awesome Alfredo Sauce!!! :D

5) Shred your cheese (or buy already shredded cheese....) and gather your ingredients! It's time to throw these bad boys together! (If you have peppers or lettuce or whatever, this is when you grab those. :) )

6) In the tortilla, put your meat and cheese (and whatever else you want) on one half. Then cover it with the Alfredo Sauce! :D Then fold it in half, and make another one until you have made as many as you can (or want)! :D

 7) When all of your quesadillas are folded and ready for the pan, heat a skillet to medium heat. You can grease the pan however you want, but I don't usually do that because no grease/butter makes the tortillas crispy and the quesadillas cook faster. :) Cook them for about 2 mins on each side or until they are toasty and brownish! :D

8) EAT THEM. :) They are SO GOOD. I promise. :)

Don't they look amazing?! :D I can never eat just one. :3

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Homemade Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Ok.. ok... Today is totally NOT Tuesday. :/ But I have a reason for my tardiness! :D Mostly I forgot to take tutorial pictures when I made these the first time... BUT! I remade them JUST FOR YOU (and also my husband who was very upset that he couldn't eat any of the first batch because they were special)! :D

Here's the scoop: July 2nd is/was one of my bestest friend's birthday! Since Aimee ADORES her doggie daugther, Kiki the Corgi, (and because she requested) I decided to make her some special Corgi Cupcakes! :D One of her favorite noms is anything with peanut butter, so when I found this recipe over at The Pioneer Woman's Blog, I knew she had to have THOSE cupcakes. I also knew she needed to have my chocolate buttercream icing (slightly modified from Lauren's Latest) to go on top because who doesn't like to imagine eating Reeses cake for their birthday, right? So for Tutorial Tuesday (Wednesday?), I will share BOTH recipes with you guys and the modifications I made! :D

BUT FIRST! Corgi Cupcake Pictures!! :D

 Aren't they freaking adorable?!?! 

The corgi candies are made from white candy melts and milk chocolate chips! 

A friend drew an outline of a corgi for me,

and I just filled it in! :D

The Pioneer Woman's Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Side Note: On The Pioneer Woman's Blog, she also explains how to use this recipe to make chocolate cake. O.O' I am so excited! :D

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 whole eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 sticks butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup boiling water

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. ;)

2) Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.

3) Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and baking soda in small bowl.

4) In medium saucepan (a.k.a. a pot), melt the butter on medium heat. Then stir in the peanut butter until it's smooth. While peanut butter mixture is still on heat, add the boiling water, and let it bubble for like 10 seconds. Then remove the pot from the heat. :)

I like to boil my water in my kettle because it makes me feel fancy. :) 

The bubbles!! 8D 

5) First pour the peanut butter mixture onto the dry mixture. Combine until about half mixed. Then add the buttermilk mixture. Combine until it's smooth. THEN I learned to let the batter cool a bit before baking the cupcakes/cake. You can either let it cool in the bowl or in the pan the batter will be baked. Either way, letting it cool allows the batter to rise better while baking and makes for prettier cupcakes/cake. :)

6) Bake the cupcakes/cake for about 20 minutes or until they look like the most beautiful peanut butter cookies you have ever seen. :3 The toothpick test can also determine if the cupcakes are done. :D

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Side Note: If you ever want to make plain Buttercream Icing, simply don't add the cocoa! 8D Isn't that neat!? Also if you want pure white icing, use clear vanilla or almond extract instead of the brown vanilla! :D You are welcome. ;)

Ingredients:

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 tbsp milk (I don't even measure this. I just pour until it looks right. xD)

Directions:

1) Cream together butter and cocoa until smooth. :)

2) Mix in vanilla and powdered sugar. I usually let it do one cup at a time. As you mix in the powder, you can also mix in the milk. I usually just estimate the milk and pour until the icing looks right.

3) Put in gallon ziplock or icing bag, and pipe it onto your cupcakes! Or put the icing on however you want. :) I just like to find excuses to use my icing tips. ;)

Once I got finished making these, I realized I had some candy molds I had never used before! Since I had plenty of candy melts and chocolate chips from Aimee's batch of cupcakes, I decided to use those neglected molds! :D Check it out!

Used a mixture of candy melts and milk chocolate chips to fill in the hearts and mouths of the bears... :) 

...aaaand the centers of the daisies! :) 

Then I filled them all in with candy melt! :D 

 Once they were filled, I put them in the fridge for a few minutes to make sure the candy stuff hardened. :)

 My Rose candy. :)

 My Bear candy. :)

My Daisy candy! :D

 The finished products! :D

Mounds Cake

Here is my first Tutorial Tuesday!! I hope you guys like getting recipes and tutorials every Tuesday! :D

My mom's 60th birthday was on June 26th! We had an awesome time with family and friends that day! All mom wanted was a special menu of food (though we did buy her the Scrabble board game too because that lady could play Scrabble until her eyes bled!) :3 So we had hot dogs with chili and cheese, Peach Mango Lemonade, and Mounds Cake! The cake was an immediate hit! I even got a request to make one for a bake sale! :D Here is the recipe for the Mounds Cake!

Mounds Cake

Ingredients:

1 box chocolate cake mix (I prefer Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge. :) )
Eggs, oil, and water necessary for your specific cake mix
2 cups sugar (divided)
24 large marshmallows
1 1/2 cups Milk (divided)
14 oz. package of coconut flakes (optional since not everyone likes coconut. ;) )
1 stick of butter
1 1/2 cups of milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1) Gather ingredients! Here are some of them. :3 I forgot to take a picture of the others.

2) Bake cake mix according to instructions on the box. ;)

3) Combine 1 cup sugar, marshmallows, and 1 cup milk in saucepan. Cook over low-med heat until marshmallows are melted. :) Add optional coconut flakes! Then poor mixture on top of cake. :D (Warning: This may be more topping that you really need for the cake, but it goes great with ice cream so just save it! :D)

Be sure to eat the extra marshmallows. :) This is very important.

This looks so yummy. <3

This looks so gross. D: LOL!

4) Combine butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup milk in saucepan. Cook on med heat until butter is all melted and mixture is warm. Add in chocolate chips, and stir until melted. Then pour it on top of the coconut mixture! (Warning: This may be more chocolate topping than you actually need for your cake. It also goes great with ice cream so save it! :D)

This looks yummy too. :O

Like I said... might be more than you need... xD Notice my chocolate stove?

5) While still warm, eat a piece of cake with some delicious ice cream. :D (This is the most important step. Just so you know. :) ) This cake is also amazing chilled in the fridge. :) I did NOT get a picture of this step because everyone ate the cake before I could!! D: I guess that's a good thing. ;)