Who came up with the phrase "if at first you don't succeed; try, try again?" Clearly, they have not met me, because if they had, the phrase would be: "If at first you don't succeed; stop what you are doing, find the nearest exit, and keep your head down so no one recognizes you." So as you know, I've been trying my hand at homemade pizza and, as you also know, it hasn't gone very well. I keep hoping that the next time will go better, but that's not been the case. Two weeks ago, I decided to make homemade margarita pizza. I won't go in to details, but let's just say it ended with a house full of smoke, a very well-hidden kitty, and me balling my eyes out on my basement stairs and vowing I would never, EVER make homemade pizza again...until five minutes later, when I remembered that my pizza dough recipe made enough for two pizzas, and I had a ball of dough in my freezer. Eff. I've been avoiding that ball of dough like the plague. A very cold plague, squatting in my freezer, glaring at me every time the door is open. You're a bitch, pizza dough. Anyway, I decided that I should just make a final pizza, and then I could bid farewell to my homemade pizza days. So, tonight I went all out and made a chicken alfredo pizza. Homemade sauce, fried bacon, lots of cheese. LOTS of cheese.
My damn good alfredo sauce. It's damn good.
As always, the prep went fine. And actually, getting the pizza in the oven went fine too. But then my damn good alfredo sauce decided to share the love with the bottom of the oven and well, the rest is history. Thank goodness I'm an expert at disarming my smoke alarm! Twenty minutes later, in a very cold kitchen (did I mention I had to open all the kitchen and mudroom windows? Oh, well I did...) I got to eat my pizza. And it was actually very good! But now, homemade pizza, I bid you farewell. From now on, I'm only sticking to pizza of the frozen or delivery variety.
My pretty pizza!
So, after ten months of cupcake making, I've found my specialty! And it's not at all what I expected. My (current) cupcake specialty, the recipe responsible for another item crossed of my list is....BUFFALO CHICKEN CUPCAKES! Ok, I know what you're thinking: chicken and buffalo sauce in a cupcake? Nasty! Well good news: they are nothing like that at all. I found this recipe on one of my favorite cooking blogs: The Girl Who Ate Everything. (I highly, highly recommend her blog, especially if you're in a cooking rut. I've found some of my favorite recipes there.) Anyway, these cupcakes are basically a wonton shell, layered with a mixture of chicken, cream cheese, buffalo sauce, ranch, and cheddar cheese, layered with another wonton, layered with more mixture, topped with cheese. Yum. I've made them three times in ten days. They are SO. GOOD.
Cupcakes pre-oven
Deliciousness! (Please ignore the giant bite out of the one on the right)
So, how did I come to the revelation that these were my cupcakes? My special cupcakes? The cupcakes that defined my year of being 25? Well, in the past year, I've developed an obsession with buffalo chicken anything...dip, chili, nachos, you name it. So these seemed a perfect fit. I've also found, in all of my baking extravaganzas, that I'm simply not capable of eating an entire batch of cupcakes. But with these, I can refrigerate the chicken mixture and make them up at my own convienience. I can also refrigerate the leftover cupcakes and they reheat well. (Which is saying something, because I hate leftovers.) And, to top it all off, I felt that these were "outside the box" and I like thinking outside the box. So, there you go. But fear not. This is not the end of my cupcake making adventures. I got three cupcake cookbooks for Christmas as well as a frosting and decorating kit. Oh, and I'm baking cupcakes tomorrow for a baby shower. Yes, a baby shower. For the first time, my cupcakes will be going on the road. Here's hoping I don't burn down my kitchen...and if I do, you'll get to read about it on Sunday.
:)
ReplyDelete