Blue Moon Cuppy Cakes

Forwarning: I am the only one to have tried these cuppy cakes, even though they were made for a fellow grad student's birthday.  No, sad to say I did not devour them all.. I caught the flu and food was not allowed to leave my apartment..  So I sent him a picture!  It's the thought that counts, right?

Blue Moon happens to be one of our groups favorite beers, so hell, why not make a cup cake with it?!  Here goes, and please, if anybody makes this, let others know they are delicious!

Blue Moon Cuppy Cakes
Cuppy Cake Ingredients:
3/4 C unsalted butter, softened (Crisco)
1 3/4 C sugar
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, room temp (quickly brought to this temp by walking around with them in my sweatshirt pouch!)
1tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp orange zest
1 C Blue Moon beer
1/4 C milk

How To:
1. Preheat oven to 375.  Prep muffin tins with grease or liners.
2. In large bowl, beat the butter until a bit fluffy.  Add the sugar a bit at a time, beating until all is incorporated. Then beat a few minutes longer!
3. Add eggs.  Beat.
4. Add vanilla and orange zest and keep on mixing!
5. Add milk.
6. Add beer.
7. Add flour!
8. Fill cupcake tins 2/3 full.  Bake 18 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frothy White Frosting Ingredients:
2 egg whites, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 C sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/3 C water

How To:
1. In saucepan, mix sugar, water, and cream of tartar.  Cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is bubbly.
2. In large bowl, beat egg whites, vanilla, and OJ until soft peaks form.  Slowly add hot sugar mixture while beating continuously.  Beat until stiff peaks form (5-10 minutes).
3. Frost the cooled cupcakes.  To be honest, when I did this, I could not get the frosting to spread!  So, I just dipped my cupcakes upside down into the frosting and they came out with cute little hats!

*If this recipe sounds like it's not your thing, you can try a cream cheese frosting like I will next time!

Slow Cooker Corned Beef & Cabbage

Since we couldn't be in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day like we were 2 years ago, we needed to find a way to celebrate it at home!  Paul wanted Corned Beef.  Oh Yum (NOT! - I had boneless chicken wings).  We invited the "Neighbors" over to celebrate and help Paul eat the Corned Beef & Cabbage.  The main recipe came from Allrecipes.com and then he added a few minor changes.  Penny & Jeff brought us a wonderful bottle of Jameson to enjoy with Gingerale & Lime Juice.  We also had wine and Guinness Beer.  And a Guinness Cake! 

The recipe for the Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage is:

Original recipe makes 8 servings

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchstick pieces

10 baby red potatoes, quartered

1onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

4 cups water

1 (4 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet

6 ounces beer

1/2 headcabbage, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Place the carrots, potatoes, and onion into the bottom of a slow cooker, pour in the water, and place the brisket on top of the vegetables. Pour the beer over the brisket. Sprinkle on the spices from the packet, cover, and set the cooker on High.
2. Cook the brisket for about 8 hours. An hour before serving, stir in the cabbage and cook for 1 more hour.

Cheeseburger Soup (with Beer)

The weekend was a weekend for cooking and baking!  All new recipes.  Thanks for everyone who tried them out.  :)  We had a Packer - Viking gathering!  (we were out numbered by viking fans!)  Thank goodness the Packers won! 

So what better to make on a Packer - Viking game than CHEESEburger Soup (with beer).  The original recipe didn't call for beer but the soup thickened while cooking and beer cheese soup was another recipe I always wanted to try.  The soup was a hit!  It was gone by the end of the game.

Try and enjoy!

Beer Cheese Wild Rice Soup with beer!

Ingredients
1-2 lbs ground beef (browned)
1 container of Philadelphia Cooking Creme
10 slices of bacon (browned & crumbled - I used microwave bacon)
1 bag frozen hashbrowns
2 lb block of Velveeta Cheese
2-3 cups chicken broth stock
1 can beer

Instructions
1.  Brown hamburger
2.  Cook bacon until crisp then crumble
3.  Melt velveeta cheese and add cooking cream, mix together.
4.  Add chicken broth and beer to cheese, mix well
5.  Mix hamburger, bacon and hashbrowns into cheese, broth, beer mixture. 
6.  Pour into crockpot. 
7.  Cook on high 4-5 hours. 
8.  Serve with fried onions and addtional crumbled bacon if desired. 

Original recipe (without beer) can be found on this website.  http://livinglifeofriley.com/category/my-life/cooking/  Thank you for sharing this!

Beer Bread

Pork Chops O'Brien could go without a loaf of Beer Bread!

It is so yummy!  The best beer bread is from Tastefully Simple! Add a can of beer (I used Bud Light) and drizzle a 1/4 cup of butter of the top.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Warm beer bread and butter is delicious!

Drunken Pork Chops

Well another evening for a pinterest recipe and two willing guys to try it out!  The recipe called for Rice or Mashed Potatoes to to accompany the pork chops but I thought Riced Potatoes would be pretty tasty.  We had Shoepeg corn, toasted English Muffin Bread and the guys had a salad.  This recipe is worth making again.  (Possibly with chicken or venison).

Drunken Pork Chops

5-6 Pork chops (bone in or boneless - I used 2 of each)
salt & pepper to taste
1 bottle of beer (the darker the better - I used Nordeast because that was the darkest we had)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup

Put a little bit of olive oil in the bottom of a skillet. Season the chops with salt and pepper and brown both sides. While pork chops are browning, combine beer, ketchup, and brown sugar in a bowl. Pour sauce mixture over the pork chops and simmer for 40-45 minutes. Remove pork chops and thicken the sauce a bit. In a small cup, combine 1 TBSP of cornstarch in 1/4 cup of water. Whisk into boiling sauce.  Put pork chops back in the thickened sauce, flip to coat. Serve over mashed potatoes or rice (or riced potatoes).