the savory cupcake.

Oh how I love my eggs for breakfast on the weekends! But lately, I've been skipping the starch.  This means bread in all forms.  No toast to sopp up those runny yolks.  So I've been getting creative with breakfast.  The latest concoction was bacon and egg cups...or a savory cupcake.  The beauty of this dish is how quick and easy it is to throw together, and the culinary freedom it offers.  Got veggies you need to use up? Bam! Throw 'em in. Got cheese you've been meaning to use? Boom! Done!

The Savory Cupcake
Makes 3

You will need:
muffin pan
4 slices of bacon
3 eggs
a few veggie pieces (i used a few mushroom pieces)
a sprinkling of cheese (i used gorgonzola)

Heat oven to 350
Grease/spray/butter (whatever your greasing method of choice is) your muffin pan.  Cut one slice of bacon into three pieces.  Use pieces to line bottom of three muffin holes.  Line sides with a piece of bacon each.  Put in veggies (there won't be too much room, so don't go crazy).  Crack yo egg in each one.  Sprinkle tops with cheese and slide on into the oven.
Cook about 20 min, until eggs are set.

Remove and pop savory cupcakes out.  Then, enjoy.

-shauna

beer obsession continued.

Lately I've been a bit obsessed with beer. Beer brewing, brewery hopping, and now beer has crept into my cooking adventures. Last year before the holidays, I came across a recipe for Beer and Pretzel Soft Caramel Candies on one of my favorite baking blogs, Brown Eyed Baker. Mom tried them out, and they were awesome, but I never got around to doing it myself.

Fast forward to Father's Day this year. What do you get for a dad who has everything? Food, of course. And since he had taken a liking to The Drunken Monk, I thought this would be a great opportunity to test out my beer caramel-making skills.

For my first time attempting caramel, I'd say things went as smooth as possible (except for realizing I was out of sugar after beginning to melt the butter - oops!). At Mom's suggestion I added sea salt to the bottom of the caramels, and I decided to use a little more beer than was called for too.

These suckers are tooooo tempting to keep around the house. And if you do, believe me, they won't last for long. I took a sampling to work and people were busting down my hypothetical-cube-door for a taste!

Then came the true test.... I sent them off to Dad and.... Drumroooooll... Dad loved them! We've got a winner here folks! I hear he even hid the 3 lb box of candies from everyone in house. I guess on Father's Day, you don't have to share.

I was on a baking roll, so later that week I decided to make some mini-cupcakes for a potluck at work. I happened upon this post by joy the baker and couldn't resist. I decided to make them mini, and went for cream cheese frosting instead of meringue marshmallow frosting (let's not get too crazy here...). Let's take a look...

Aw look at those cute little babies! And man oh man, were these delicious!

-shauna