I saw the cutest cupcakes on Cupcake Wars on the Food Network.  I was hoping to find the recipes for the cupcakes on the Food Network episode, but they only gave the recipe for the one that says “Turtle Power” on it which is a Quatro Leches Cupcake.  It has a whipped cream frosting.  It has 4 milks in the recipe, which are condensed, evaporated, whole milk and coconut milk.  That mixture Leches is poured into the cupcake in little poke holes after cupcake is baked and makes for a super moist and delicious cupcake.

Then the chocolate cupcake recipe, I had to really search for and do not know how I found it.  But it is just plain cute and would be awesome to have for a special occasion for kids.  It’s called “Turtle Power Turtle Cupcakes”.  The turtle is just green gumballs with fondant for headbands and hands.  It has royal icing for eyes and a chocolate cookie dusted with silver luster dust for the manhole cover.  The cupcake recipe is one that the $10,000.00 winners use in their bakery.  It sounds really good as it has 2 sticks of butter, semi sweet melted chocolate, cocoa, buttermilk, sour cream and walnuts for just some of the ingredients.  Then there is a recipe for the caramel sauce  and chocolate meringue buttercream frosting.  I pinned the recipes on my Cupcake Pinterest board.

On Etsy, they have the above cupcake toppers that would be cute on the cupcake recipes and would be super fast and easy to top the delicious cupcake recipes with.  But they cost $25.00 which is a little much for the set.  But they would be easy to make just by using fondant and a chocolate wafer cookie and from looking at the design.

I get lots of ideas from watching the Food Network.  I was really impressed with the “Alex’s Day Off- Steakhouse Dinner” episode.  I mean Alex Guamaschelli is a professional chef that has a restaurant in New York City.  She made a Steak house dinner that showed what a steak house restaurant in New York would serve, but she upped it up one notch by adding her own personal touches.

She used a 2-inch Porterhouse Steak and grilled it a crispy golden brown in a cast iron skillet and topped it with oozy maitre d butter and gave the recipe for the butter.  She showed what to look for in a Porterhouse Steak when they showed her visit to the butcher shop to get the steak.

Then the salad she made was awesome.  She grilled some of the Romaine and chopped up the rest of the Romaine and combined it with fresh basil leaves.  She made an awesome Caesar dressing in the blender and topped the whole thing with crumbled blue cheese.  She said that it was like a salad she had in a Steak house and recreated for herself.

Then the stuffed mushrooms looked really good the way she prepared them.  The stuffing was a blend of sauteed onions, garlic and sour cream.  Then she added Parmesan on top and baked the sauteed button mushroom caps that she put that stuffing mixture on top.

Alex made all that for herself on her day off.  And she said it was like going to a Steak house Restaurant with a combo of the steak her Dad used to make and her own touches.  What a very impressive and fun show to watch.  I pinned all the recipes just to have on my Pinterest boards.

And I like to watch Martha Stewart’s Cooking School.  Her episode on
Stews was on today.  I like how she made Coq au Vin.

Then from last week, I liked how Nancy Fuller on Farmhouse Rules, went to an Antique auction and bought some antique flutes for over $1,000.00.  I saw some crystal antique flutes on Ebay that looked a lot like the flutes she had the money for and they would be affordable to me for only $35.00.  And they are a set of 8.  I love them.

Nancy Fuller also bought an Antique table that I think was over $3,000.00.  I love the idea of a beautiful Antique table.  The one that I like is expensive but 1/3 of the price that Nancy liked and included chairs.  Still a little much for me, but on my dream list.

I would have a French Blue rug under it an cushions to match.   And that hutch is just beautiful.  It would be beautiful to display those antique looking flutes.

I saw the above cute chalkboard on Ebay.  The mason jar holds tea bags.  I just think that it is adorable and would be fun to have.

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I would love to have some  Lavender in a container like the above.

And I love the idea of having tea in the garden.

And that is my thoughts for today.