The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘FOOD!’

I seriously think I’m a 60-year-old woman trapped in the body of a 24-year-old girl (I still consider myself a girl, yes I do). I prefer to sit at home in my pjs, with a book and a cup of tea or coffee in hand than being at a rowdy party. I know, it’s a sign of growing up, but I went from 18 to 80 in the matter of a couple of years. I’m not complaining though. I get quality reading and writing time and quality picking on my husband time, which we all know if the best way to keep the marriage fresh. Nothing like a little staring contest on a Friday night. I stare at him, he does his best to ignore me

I get off on a tangent so easily! The point of this post is TEA! I guess I was trying to say in the above paragraph that I love tea! My dad makes a mean sweet tea that I’ve never been able to perfect and have given up on duplicating. But I am becoming a little queen of hot tea. Last Christmas, my sister-in-law got me a really cute red teapot that matches our kitchen. I used it a few times, but mainly just let it sit there and look cute.

But now….

This my friends, is my new teapot and new tea cup! These were souvenirs from when my husband went to Japan. I love them. The teapot has a strainer that fits right under the lid for tea leaves.

I apologize if I sound like a novice when explaining this, but, I am. I’ve always liked tea, but have been a tea bag in the cup kind of girl. But now, I’m getting into it! My only problem was, I didn’t have tea! And there weren’t many places in my area to get it. I’m sure if I searched far and wide and didn’t care to make a road trip out of it, I wouldn’t have a problem. But I wanted tea and I wanted it now. That’s where my friend Kelly came along. She’s been a tea kind of girl for years. I asked her what some good flavors were and she surprised me with these:

Kelly got these at a little shop in the Short North area of Columbus. I’m glad she dropped these off because even after I saw them, I wasn’t like “Oh yeah, that’s what I needed.” I would have been searching forever for tea leaves. It’s good to have good friends, with good taste and good tea.

I have tried a couple of these and loved them. I tried the Pomegranate White Tea, which I could drink every day for the rest of my life. It was so sweet and delicious! I also tried the Chamomile Lavender. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one and it was definitely different. I liked it and think with a lot my cups, I could love it. I was really spoiled by the Pomegranate first though.

Tonight my goal is to curl up with my Snuggie, my Nook, my laptop and a cup of tea and do some major reading and writing. And tonight, I think I’ll go with the chai! I’m actually a lot more excited than I think I should be!

So I decided if I am going to keep cooking, might as well come up with a new feature. I think Kari in the Kitchen works well! I hope you enjoy it, but don’t expect it very often!

Today I have you for, my adventure in making lemon cupcakes with strawberry icing.

All of my ingredients...almost

First we start with the ingredients. I always like to take a picture of these before I start, and of course this time, I left out the eggs and oil, but you get the point lol.

Ingredients for the cupcakes: 1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist white cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake box
3 tablespoons grated lemon peel

Lemon peel

This recipe made me a little nervous. I wasn’t quite sure how many lemons to get, or even if I had a grater. I found a really nice one, must have been a wedding present.

Finished cupcakes

I only got three lemons, I would suggest at least getting 5 to get the full 3 tablespoons. I ended up having about 2 tablespoons, but the cupcakes turned out pretty good and you could still taste the lemon.

Icing ingredients

Icing Ingredients: 4-6 medium strawberries, hulled
1 container Betty Crocker Whipped Fluffy White Frosting

I wasn’t quite sure what the making of the icing was going to be like. I had to look up what it meant to hull something:

To remove the green stalk and cup (calix) from fruits such as strawberries, or the pods from peas or broad beans.

Yeah, that doesn’t help much. All you do is take a knife and cut around the stem to get it out, you cut down towards the center of the strawberry.

Mixing the icing

Once the strawberries are hulled, you put them in your blender, or Magic Bullet in my case (I love that thing).

You mix them until you get a nice little liquid mixture like you can see to the left in my mixing bowl. When you have that, you just stir it into the fluffy icing – and bam, strawberry icing! Who knew it would be so easy to make a flavored icing?

And lets eat!

Friends, there you have the finished product.  The one problem with these cupcakes, there is no easy way to eat them. I ended up eating mine with a fork. The icing was pretty sticky and I always transport them in my cupcake pan. I should get a travel case.

I hope you guys have a chance to make these. They are the perfect summer cupcake! Let me know how they go!

Wordless Wednesday is exactly what is says – add a pic – you can explain if you want, if not, no biggie. That’s the joy of being wordless. If you stop by here a lot, you know wordless is not an option for me. I’m a talker. I talk all the time. Oh, picture? Yes, here we go.

Ahhh, the delicious strawberry preserve cupcakes I made this week. Very simple, very tasty. Click the picture to see all of my pictures on my cupcake adventure. And leave me a comment with your email address if you’d like the recipe.