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Remember those White Chocolate Sour Cream Amaretto cupcakes?




And remember how I posted the recipe for the cupcakes and the frosting here in cyberspace?

Well, I recently made these bad boys again for our annual beach trip and this time I made the frosting myself. (Last time I used a co-worker's left over frosting.) Turns out milk is NOT an acceptable substitute. Stick with the half and half. Trust me. Major difference. And while we're amending things, I think the vanilla extract gives a sweeter taste than the almond extract. Just saying.

That's all.

Carry on then.

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Catch Up Blogging

So we have some long overdue blogging. Forgive us, but life has been busy in a super fun way. So let's jump right in shall we?

Once upon a time, all the way back in early April, there was this holiday called Easter. With rabbits, eggs and Crucifixions, oh my! We headed to Staunton, Virginia to visit the family and good times of course ensued. The weather was a wee bit chilly, so that kept us indoors a bit more than we would have liked. But the dreary weather didn't stop this wee one from braving the elements.


My self esteem took a beating when I realized that a 2 1/2 year old can outlast me in cold weather. I am totally screwed if Survivor ever took an Artic theme.

Anyhoo, on Saturday, Bob Andrew, Somanna and I ventured into Harrisonburg to dine at Taste of Thai, which specializes in seriously fabulous Thai food. I hope the pictures will convey what words, sadly, cannot.





Bros before Ho's!


My Favorite Curry:)

Andrew drove us to Harrisonburg with his new permit skillz in the new-to-my-rents Lincoln town car. I opted to sit in the front passenger seat, trying my darndest to look as young as possible, quite a challenge when you are riding in the AARP's official mode of transportation.

Hey there little guy, I'm gonna need to see some identification if you want that Senior Citizen discount!

And since I opted to sit up front, it thus became my responsibility to supervise Andrew's driving. I actually had a tough time with this because a.) Andrew's a good driver and b.) that town car is one smooooth ride. Bob & Somanna passed out five minutes after we got on the interstate. Meanwhile I'm peeling my eyelids back Joan Rivers style trying to stay awake. Thanks for the support fellas!

After we returned from our scrumptious meal, we lounged around and shot the breeze. Later on we watched Bolt, a super cute and very funny animated film. Sunday we went to church and afterwards celebrated Elder Bob's birthday with some homemade carrot cake.

In case you were wondering, uh YES, it was as good as it looks!

Overall, we had a nice relaxing trip and it's always fun to hang with la familia.

Plus Bob & Rosie shared with us, rather Joe shared with us, that they are indeed knocked up so for those of you counting that's baby # 4 and we are all hoping for a girl! Because believe me, they have run out of boy names that they can agree on.

Congrats yall and yay for babies!! (from other people! Yay!!)

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A Hodgepodge Post

Some recent observations:

1.) My obsession with food continues to grow. I not only walk around most of the time physically hungry, but lately I find myself mentally hungry. I want to know more about how food works, where it comes from, how you cook it, how you grow it, how it interacts with our bodies, how it tastes. I don't know much about these things, which when you really think about it, is downright bizarre isn't it? I eat food everyday and yet I don't even know where it comes from or how it is made? Hence, my recent reads, which you can check out here, here or here.

This obsession strikes me as both a bit odd and yet a natural progression. I've always had a "healthy appetite" in the colloquial sense. (Translation: I happily stuff my face.) But "healthy" in the dietary or environmental sense? Psshaawww. This has been a more recent undertaking.
But I'm learning that
a.) it's more do-able than you think
b.) more fun
c.) food tastes better!

And that is really all I'm after: Deliciousness 3.5x's a day.

2.) Having a kitchen larger than your dorm room closet is much more conducive to cooking at home. So that's what I've been doing more of: cooking. And I need all the practice I can get. One day I plan to do a post on kitchen disasters because I have a higher than average percentage, trust me. All highly comical.

3.) The world of cooking shares several commonalities with the world of fashion. Snobbery is abundant, trends rampant and common sense hit or miss. There's whole lot of Ego in the kitchen and I'm not referring to the waffles.

4.) I made my first omelet ever this week! On a whim and in an effort to use up some of the goodies in our fridge, I threw together some of the fresh eggs from my dad's chickens (another post) with some onions, tomatoes, spinach, and of course, cheese. Shaloot said it was purty good. (His jaw dropped when he found me cooking up bacon. I believe his exact words were "Did hell freeze over or did I miss an American holiday that I knew nothing about?")

Of course, there's always room for improvement, but I am rather proud since I can't stand eggs. I hear you already, how do you not like eggs? I just......don't. Never have.

According to my birth mother, eggs were fed to me....once. And promptly ended up back on her shirt. A couple more cycles of that and she got the hint. I do not like eggs Sam I am. But girl pass me the ham!

5.) Cupcakes are DA BOMB! Especially White Chocolate Sour Cream Amaretto Cupcakes!



A co-worker of mine recently made these delicious little bad boys for a baby shower at work and I knew instantly that I had to have this recipe. So I geared up to labor (get it?!) and make cupcakes from scratch for my friend Elise's baby shower, only to get the recipe and find that it calls for pre-made cake mix!

Are ya friggin kiddin me? Cupcakes that taste that good and I don't have to sift flour, sugar and baking soda? Sign me and my carpal tunnel wrists up!

And I'm signing you up by giving you the recipe below. Enjoy and be sure let your ego soak in all those compliments you'll get when you make these!

White Chocolate Amaretto Sour Cream Cake:
1 box French Vanilla Cake Mix
1 box white chocolate instant pudding
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teasp. salt
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup amaretto
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sour cream
1 teasp. pure vanilla extract
1 teasp. almond extract

Now here are the directions:
Take all those ingredients and Mix them in big-ass bowl. Then turn on your mixer while jamming out to some classic '80's tunes on your Pandora station (musical style optional).
Then pour the batter into your cupcake pans, filling about 3/4 of the way.
Bake at 350 for about 15 mins or so.

For the Frosting:
3 sticks of butter (oh you know its gonna be good!)
1/2 cup of Crisco (my arteries shudder, but it tastes so good!)
(1) 2 lb bag of powdered sugar
6-8 Tbsp Milk (or half-n-half....if you're completely abandoning your diet)
2 tsp. vanilla (or almond) extract.

Combine butter and Crisco with vanilla and mix well. Add half bag of powdered sugar and 3 tbsp of milk. Mix until thoroughly blended. Add remaining sugar and 3 tbsp of milk. Mix until thoroughly blended. Test for consistency. If it's really thick, add more milk (up to 8 tbsp.) This can be refrigerated until ready to ice cupcakes.

Happy Baking!

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P is for Pasta. P is for Perfection!

Sister Dearest Brittany visited us recently and ever so tactfully made the following observation:
"Yall sure do eat a lot of pasta."

Why yes. Yes, we do eat a lot of pasta. If any of you suffer from carb-o-phobia, forgive me while I snort and roll my eyes. Because we all know that a diet rich in saturated fat, grease and meats is sure to keep your ticker running tip top. Riiiigghhhttt. If there was ever a money making scheme, the Atkins diet most certainly takes the cake, quite literally. (Unless you count Scientology, but that's a whole other post!)

Anyhoo, here in the Wyche-Muthanna, Muthanna-Wyche, Wythanna (just giving it a little test run...) Household, we're big, big fans of da pasta.

And here's why:

1.) It's yummy, filling and relatively healthy. (We get the whole wheat kind. Thanks Biggest Loser!)

2.) It's cheap.

3.) Versatility! Pasta provides the perfect canvas. Dress up it up with veggies, or meat, or both. Make it the main course. Make it a hearty side dish. Throw it in a soup. Have it light and flavorful or creamy and indulgent. Stuff it, toss it, bake it, stir fry it. Pair it with a variety of sauces: pestos, cream based sauces, tomato based sauces. Or serve it naked underneath some other culinary masterpiece. Go Asian! Go Italian! Go Italian-American! Heck go Mexican! The pastabillities are endless!

4.) Pasta es El-cheapo.

5.) It comes in fun and different shapes. I have a particular fondness for Rotini and the super cute squiggles. Rotini seems rather girly doesn't it? Whereas Linguine comes off a little bit transgendered depending on how it's prepared. However, lasagna with meat sauce seems very masculine, no? How do foods and styles of cooking reflect gender? Hmmm, I smell a Master's thesis coming on!

6.) Did I mention it was cheap? Just wanted to make that point.

7.) It is easy-peasy to cook. Most versions have more or less, the same instructions: Boil water. Add Salt. Add pasta. Drain. DONE.

8.) It is cheap. Hello! We are in a down economy people!

9.) Pasta frequently hooks up with Cheese. And we all know that Cheese, Chocolate and Sex are what make life worth living. 'Nuff said.

10.) Finally, Pasta screams comfort food. It's warm, nourishing and can be as complicated or as easy as you feel like making it. And for those busy weeknights when you find your energy low, hunger high and time nonexistent, nothing makes you feel more rewarded, more accomplished than serving a home cooked, heaping bowl full o' pasta, made just the way you like it.


Stuffed Shells with Spinach & Ricotta Cheese


Pasta with Eggplant Courtesy of The Pioneer Woman


Itiza Spaghetti and Da Meatballs!

And so our love affair with pasta shall continue for many happy, yummy years to come.

Happy Pasta Eats to you & yours!

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Merry Christmas!

and Happy New Year! But is it too late to talk about Christmas? Or the tree we got at the farmer's market? Of course not!

So like I said, we headed to the good ole farmer's market. There were a lot of trees from numerous farms, which was a bit surprising and overwhelming at first. It was great though because good deals could be had and it afforded me the chance to haggle a bit, not to mention everything smelled fantastic!

Anyways after about 20 minutes of checking out the trees, we decided to make a choice, since after awhile, they all look the same and we were in danger of pine-peeping (photography pun alert!) the trees.

So here is Beth giving the seal of approval on our choice:




Our tree hailed from Ashe County, woohoo Western N.C.!


The tree was tied to the top of our jalopy wagon by the lumberjack.

Shucks, I miss my beard!

And here I am giving the tree my seal of approval too!

So back to house to put the tree up and then decorate it with ornaments, lights, ribbon, of which we previously had none. (We also got an amazing wreath from the farmer's market, but I can't seem to find the photo anywhere!)

After numerous trips to the store, kind gifts from friends and one boss, the tree finally was ready!






The view from outside:






We played host this year, and had Beth's grandmother, her sister Brittany, her parents and younger bro Andrew over for Christmas and the weekend. It was great to have the house filled with people, although the cats disagree with us on that!

Our main event was Christmas Day lunch, where we started out with spinach stuffed mushrooms topped with cheese, followed by a pear and walnut salad with mustard vinaigrette and blue cheese:






The main course was broiled salmon with garlic lemon pepper crust:




With sides of mashed potato gratin with goat cheese, garlic and scallions:






and steamed fresh asparagus sprinkled with Parmesan cheese:





For dinner, we had honey baked ham, sweet potato casserole, brown rice and stuffing. Of course, the rest of the weekend was spent eating leftovers of all of above.

And wouldn't you know it, after all the preparation and build up, it was all over with too quickly! Luckily, we had New Year's to look forward to, as we were headed to Whiteville for the big family oyster roast!

More on that to follow, hope everyone had a good holiday!

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Thanksgiving Part II!

I bet you didn't think we could possibly eat more did you? HA! You were wrong. Do not test our eating skillz people! Somanna is a human garbage disposal and I come from a long and proud family of food connoisseurs.

So whilst we were in the burgh de Pitt, we swung by Sewickley's newest burrito joint: Azul



We kicked off our meal with guacamole and chips. The guacamole destroyed my willpower with its most excellent flavor, a proper balance of red onion and cilantro with a hint of lime.


Somanna ordered the chicken burrito, wet which means it comes with salsa, sour cream and holy guacamole Batman! I ordered the steak burrito and Bob ordered the pulled pork, both wet of course. Who eats burritos without sour cream and guac, dieters aside, I ask you?


Nice job catching my grubby fingers hitting the chips there Somanna!


As you can also see, Somanna sampled the Bohemia cerveza and found it a little heavy and bitter, but still a tasty accompaniment to his meal.

Bob advised us to order the salsa verde (green salsa) as it was far superior to the salsa rojo (red salsa). And right he was, but we had to try both of course. The California style burritos were excellent, stuffed with rice, beans and grilled veggies. And with Azul being less than 10 minutes from Bob's house, it is dangerously close.

And hey the local artwork on the wall even caught our attention:




Zihuatanejo, Mexico is where we collasped, err honeymooned after the wedding.

Best of all, we had leftovers which we gladly dropped off at Brittany's as we rolled down the highway back to NC.

As for our weight gain, don't worry. I've have managed to coerce the commitment of my husband, sister and younger brother in doing our first 5k in February. Muahahaha! At this point I think Andrew is in the lead, as he is the only one that's actually been training thanks to his track star lifestyle.

Stayed tuned folks: Holiday Merriment is upon us and you don't want to miss our first attempts at Griswald style decorating!

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It's Thanksgiving Charlie Brown!

Well despite this post's tardiness, here it is nonetheless.

For el dia de turkey, mi esposo y moi headed north to Pittsburgh to converge on my brother's house with the rest of the family (minus Brittany, who had to work. Bah Humbug! But she was with us in spirit and thus spared the annual holiday weight gain.)

All in all, Bob & Rosie hosted ten extra peoples, plus their five and they did it in their trademark smoothness. Maybe if I give them a shout out here, they will write a book on the art of hosting and will give me a shout out for repeated guest perfection. One can hope...

I could bore you with details of our trip, but let's cut to it shall we? After all, the whole point of Thanksgiving is to gorge oneself on endless amounts of food right?

So here is the purrty Turkey that Rosie cooked this year. And believe me, it was as tasty as it looks! Not only that, the table was gorgeous enough to make Martha Stewart drool. Big ups to Rosie! She was rocking the domestic front!

Now here is where I would put a picture of the spread, but apparently my personal photographer was busy doing something else and slackin on his duties. Tsk , tsk.

(If Shaloot makes it back to the stairs on the right, he regains his super human powers by which he can hurl small children onto fluffy couches with great might.)

So instead I give you the beautiful setting in which we feasted with little self control.

You ain't got nothing on Rosie, Martha!

But do not fret my dear reader (it's a little early to assume we have more than one of you at this point.) But we.ate. good. And eat we did.

For starters, there were 3 kinds of stuffing to suit your fancy: crab stuffing, oyster stuffing and veggie stuffing.

And of course there was brown rice (a Wyche staple) gravy, sweet potato casserole with pecan topping (My favorite!!), asparagus casserole, jalapeno cornbread, salty ham ( a MacKenzie staple, I think), roasted green beans, cranberry sauce straight from the can (Erin, I'm right there with you honey!) as well as the freshly made kind.

And for dessert we had pumpkin pie and raspberry crumble.

And ice cream. To go with the pie of course. Duh.

And Aunt Margaret's Mexican dip on Friday. And FRESH fried oysters on Friday too.

And smoked salmon....and chex snack mix, which we kountrily refer to as "Trash."

And I'm going to stop because suddenly I'm self conscious both about the size of this food list and that I lovingly shovel "trash" into my mouth and never questioned this title until I had to write it out. Hmmm.....

So yes, we all gained weight. And before you even ask I'm going to go ahead and bite the bullet and acknowledge, that yes, there were NO mashed potatoes. I know it's like American sacrilege or something.

I can't speak for the MacKenzies, but the Wyches have always been rice folks. We have brown rice, red rice, yellow rice, white rice with gravy, and Jesus loves them all, plus all the little children of the world. Maybe that's why I ended up marrying an Indian man....with all my rice lovin ways, curry was bound to enter the menu rotation at some point.

So when we weren't eating, we were hangin out w/ the family, maximizing our weight gain by being as sedentary as possible. Somanna and I finally managed to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Yea, I know it came out like in 2000 or something, but you know what? Our netflix queue is absurdly long and we're a little behind, alright? So just back off! That Planet Earth series is a LOT OF FRIGGIN DISCS ok?!!

But we finally saw it and now we can truly sleep at night knowing Jack is reunited with his beloved Black Pearl. I of course was relieved to have uninterrupted viewing of Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. So it's all good,(except for Kiera Knightly's acting, but we still love her for her amazing abs don't we?)

And when we weren't busy doing all that , it was time to play with the three cutest boys in 'Merica. So now I give you what you have hopefully been chasing all this time: a barrage of photos of The Wyche Boys.


Joe. ....Bob's own personal Mini me.


Mac n Cheese + dinosaur pj's = childhood bliss.

Jackers is really the sweet one of the bunch, but apparently he is not feeling the camera love on this one!

Sweet Jack

Wasss up! Bennett rockin the stripes and trying on Shaloot's kicks.

(They are playing the latest Gameboy contraption which is called a PSP or something...I don't know ...it made me feel way old and inept at technology. Great self esteem booster when a six year old rolls his eyes at you because duh, its sooo easy Aunt Beth.)

"I would never misbehave Aunt Beth, look how cute and sweet I am?"

"See?"......Flirt!

P.S. they now refer to Shaloot as Uncle Shaloot. Very cute and something to be thankful for indeed.

(the b&w picks were made on film by Shaloot's old skool camera, the Pentax K1000. Check out the other shots on his flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaloot/sets/72157610578095695/detail/ )

Nice plug there Somanna.....

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