Recipe 25: Chocolate Eclairs

The Chocolate Eclairs is one of the things I made at Baking Boot Camp back in April. I have never been much into pastry cream, but these eclairs turned out quite tasty even with the cream, although I would prefer to make them without cream and hope to eventually try a caramel filling. I was also surprised how much I actually liked the chocolate we dipped the eclairs in. I liked that it ended up being more like dark chocolate.

Recipe 24: Apple Pie

Apple pie is another thing I made for the first time in the Baking Boot Camp class. It was pretty simple and good, but I think next time I will do apple with some sort of berries in a pie.

Recipe 23: Hamburger Buns

The last weekend in April I took a Baking Boot Camp class in Chicago, which helped me get back on track for new recipes this year. The first of these recipes was hamburger buns. Now I do not eat meat and am not much into veggie burgers, but these buns were pretty tasty as far as buns go. Kind of more effort than I would go through being I have little need for buns, but definitely better tasting than store bought buns. Also, they served them with just portabello mushrooms for me and that was pretty good.

Recipe 22: Fruit Tart

Another recipe I made back in March was a fruit tart. This was a very simple one using an Oreo cookie crust and white chocolate instant pudding. I added blueberries and raspberries on top from my supply of frozen fruit. It would definitely have been better with fresh berries, but none were on sale that week and it seemed a waste to pay full price when I had stocked so much from sales.

Recipe 21: Shrimp and Tofu Dumplings

I am way behind on my posts, although only slightly behind being on track to do 100 new recipes this year. The shrimp and tofu dumplings I made back in March. I made a huge batch and froze them. They turned out pretty well. It took a whole day to make them, but they have lasted until now.

Recipe 20: Marinated Mushrooms

Last week mushrooms were part of a Buy 5 save $5 deal at Safeway and I got some for $1 a thing. I decided to marinate some of them. I simply made up the marinade myself. I just put the mushrooms in balsamic vinegar, added some garlic powder, and shook it in a bowl that had a lid. Then I let it marinade for a day before eating. They ended up pretty tasty.

Recipe 19: Rainbow Cupcakes

I have not done any cooking since the Olympic stuff. The lastest issue of FamilyFun came last week and inspired me to get back into it, although I still am not as much into as earlier in the year partially because I have been more into reading. Anyways, yesterday I tried the rainbow cupcake recipe from FamilyFun, which is also on their website here.

I made the cupcakes from a mix, but it still took a lot more work than normal cupcakes since you have to divide the batter into six bowls, color the batter different colors, and then put them in the cupcake holders one at a time. I did not do a good job of dividing the batter because I ended up with a lot of purple and not enough of most of the other colors, so I only ended up with about ten actual rainbow cupcakes.

They do take a lot of work, but they look really cool. I made cream cheese frosting (from a red velvet cupcake recipe I have made) to top them, as it is the only kind of frosting I like.