Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Cookie Monster Cupcakes!!

I'm getting out of control this summer with my creative food making.  The way I see it, I've got just over a week until school starts (EEEEK!) and I've got to maximize my kitchen time!  So today's project was Cookie Monster Cupcakes.  As usual, the internet gave me the idea, I just ran with it and was so delighted that I thought I'd share.

I started with a shopping trip on a quest to find Candy Melts for the eyes.  They have these at the craft store Michael's.  The array of baking and candy making supplies  - found in the wedding department (?) - was dizzying and gave me inspiration.  I escaped with white Candy Melts (a product by Wilton) and a small tube of black icing.  Simply smearing a bit of the icing on the underside of a candy = googly eye!



As for the baking side of things, I've been lazy on the cake making lately - this is another box mix.  The Hy-vee ones are really pretty good.  I made a buttercream by ad-libbing, then made my homemade chocolate chip cookies, including some extra small ones (~1-1.25" diameter).  I let everything cool, then I assembled.






1.  Lightly frost the cooled cupcake with blue icing, then cut a slit where the cookie will go.  Insert cookie.  I eventually found an angle is best.

 2.  Pipe icing around the cookie and all over the top of the cupcake.  I tried all squiggles, all stars (as shown to the side), and all smeary stars.  The fact is, as long as the top looks a little messy, is blue, has googly eyes and has a cookie, it will clearly be the cookie monster.  See the last picture for a couple of the different icing efforts.

3.  Add googly eyes.  Eat.

I think tinting the icing green, using silver cupcake liners, and just putting on a black line for the mouth would make a great Oscar.  I've seen Elmo, too, but I don't think I'd bother with him for myself as he was after my time.  Overall, it was great fun, though definitely time consuming baking everything and piping all the detail.  Worth it at least once!

Shark Week Food Fun

Watermelon Shark!

So we had a Shark Week soiree to attend, and I decided to Google "shark week recipes" and found the watermelon shark.  My gut reaction was "I could never do that!" but then I read a post by someone who said he'd never carved watermelon before and couldn't believe how easy it was.  I began to believe, despite never having carved a watermelon before either.  It was easy.  All I needed was a big sharp knife, a small sharp knife, some black grapes, and a big spoon to scoop out the innards.

Directions:  Find an oblong watermelon - this may be harder than you think.  I found a lot of fat near-spheres.  The end without the big scar should likely be the nose, so lop off the other end at an angle.  Cut mouth cavity, then switch to small knife and score a line for teeth.  Others suggested a dry erase marker to pre-mark this.  Run knife just under the green skin - between the green and white layers.  Peel off strip of green for teeth region, cleaning up any little .  Scoop out innards, leaving a couple inches on the bottom for a base, but cutting pretty close to the white right by the teeth.  Cut teeth - I was sure I'd be pretty bad at this and I was, but it doesn't matter, does it?  Carve out small eye holes and stick in black grapes, then use a toothpick to secure a triangle of rind from the piece that was cut off as a dorsal fin.  Fill shark mouth with chunks of melon from the scooped/sliced off melon and grapes and serve.  I put mine on a bed of kale since it was all wavy and I thought it looked like ocean water (hey - if a watermelon can be a shark, kale can be water).

I made awesome "Life's a Beach" cupcakes, too.  Again, I found these by Google, so I'm not too original.  I did labor over what flavors to use, though.  I opted for a caramel cake mix from the grocery store (I do cheat sometimes) with homemade cream cheese frosting.  The sand is just graham cracker crumbs.  Frost half, dip in crumbs, frost the other half in blue.  Add "shark fin" chocolate chip.  The flavors worked very well together!

When the party is over and the fruit is eaten, lure a cat to stick its head into the watermelon shark with a treat.  It's hilarious.  

Ratatouille Tart

In my opinion, this is the best thing I've ever made.  I don't say that lightly.  Not to be overly boastful, but I've made a lot of good things.  But this is the one dish that rules them all.  Maybe it's the french shallots, maybe the fresh garden tomatoes, maybe the hardneck garlic...  Take the time to make it and decide for yourself.  It's a modified version of Ellie Krieger's Ratatouille Tart.

To experience this bliss, you'll need:  cornmeal, flour, salt, butter, vegetable oil, water, eggplant, squash or zucchini, tomato, olive oil, cooking spray, french shallots (or regular), hardneck garlic (or regular), white wine, herbs of choice - thyme and rosemary are suggested, goat cheese, and parmesan.  And definitely some time.  It's worth it.

Crust:
2/3 c cornmeal
1/3 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 t or less salt (see note)
2 T cold butter
2 T vegetable oil
3 T water
Note:  Amount of salt should vary with how much parmesan you want to add later.  Both will add saltiness to this and you don't want to lose the flavor of the other ingredients.  If you're big on parmesan, I'd expect you can cut the salt in the crust entirely.
Preheat oven to 350F.  Pulse dry ingredients in food processor a few times until mixed.  Add fats and pulse just until mixed.  Add water and pulse just until it comes together.  Press into a tart pan or a 8" springform pan, covering bottom and ~1/4" or 1/2" up the side.  Gently press foil down onto tart dough to cover, and then weigh the foil down with pie weights (or dry rice or dry beans that you save for this purpose).  Bake covered for 10 minutes.  Carefully uncover, then continue to bake for another 5 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool.  While crust is baking, prep vegetables.  Change oven temp to 400F.

Veggies:
Thinly (~1/8" thick) slice:
1 japanese eggplant (a thinner, longer variety similar in shape to a zucchini)
1 yellow squash or a zucchini
2-3 small diameter tomatoes - make these slices a bit thicker, ~1/4"
Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray and then lay these slices out as a single layer.  Spray with olive oil or more non-stick cooking spray and very lightly sprinkle with salt.  Allow to sit for a few minutes and then put in the oven for ~15 minutes or until soft but not brown.  Cool.  I have a lot of veggies in these pictures because I doubled the recipe!

Return oven to 350F

As veggies are roasting, prepare the remainder of the filling:
2 shallots, very thinly sliced - I recommend french shallots
1 clove hardneck garlic
A dash of white wine (optional)
A pinch of dried thyme leaves
A few leaves of fresh rosemary, chopped finely
Olive oil
Note:  French shallots, pictured here, just have a richer flavor and are indescribably better than regular shallots (which I also love).  The hardneck garlic I've had is much stronger than the standard garlic varieties you can buy at the grocery store.  If you cannot find hardneck garlic, then you may want to amp up the amount used if you're a fan of garlic.  If you're in the Iowa City area, then Adelyn's Garden (run by Dave and Katharine Campbell) has a stall at the Farmer's Market with excellent garlic, squash, eggplant and even the french shallots, for that matter!
Another note:  The herbs are my choice.  This would also be great with basil or I think even a bit of sage or fresh oregano could have its place here though I haven't tried them.  Chives could be good, too.
Saute shallots on med-low heat in just a bit of olive oil until soft.  Add minced garlic, cook for ~30 seconds.  Add dash of white wine and herbs.  Allow to cook until wine has evaporated.  Feel free to repeat addition/evaporation of wine if time/patience.

Assembly:
Cooled crust
Cooled baked veggies
Sauteed shallot mix
small round of goat cheese
FRESHLY shredded parmesan

Take a minute to carefully distribute the shallot mixture across tart crust so that every bite gets a bit of it.  It's worth the minute.  Top with a thin layer of freshly shredded parmesan.  Layer veggies in a pretty way - I usually alternate eggplant-squash-tomato around the outside, then whatever I have the most of will determine how I pattern the inner layers.  I like to put a couple of slices of tomato over the top at the end.  Dot the vegetables with small chunks of goat cheese, just break off chunks that are ~1/4" square and put all around the tart about 1" apart.  Top with a generous layer of freshly shredded parmesan.  Bake at 350F for ~20-30 minutes or until cheese is melty and you're salivating because it smells so good.  Allow to cool a bit (tortuous) but serve warm.

The crust is flaky-crumbly-slightly crunchy.  The parmesan lends saltiness (as does the salt in the crust), the goat cheese is creamy.  Fresh tomatoes from my garden are amazing and, to me, the quintessential summer food.  The dash of white wine and those french shallots add a tangy...  I can't really explain it.  Just make it.  It's delicious.