A National Cathedral Must-Own For Me

The next time I visit The National Cathedral I will have enough money to splurge on something that caught my eye. First of all, I've visited this beautiful place more than three times already. I've been through the main worship area, spent some quiet times in the Bishop's Garden, took the elevator up to the top floor and enjoyed a festival or two during the summer months. But never did I realize that they had quite the gift shop downstairs had I taken a complete tour. What a goober!

Here are some trinkets and whatsits you can find in their gift shop the next time you visit:

Pretty ornate decorations, perfect for the upcoming holiday season. And the Child Angel is an adorable great gift for any angel collectors.

There is something to love about the simplicity of wooden figurines and especially if they are of revered saints. Left to Right: St. Jude, St. Julian of Norwich, St. John of the Cross.

You can't visit the National Cathedral without seeing her minion of gargoyles. Aren't they just the cutest things? And believe it or go see for yourself, there IS a Darth Vader head mounted there. My husband was determined to look for it one Sunday and sure enough there he was...Lord Vader.

Here are some more things I found serene and beautiful...

I'm not sure what they call this but I like to call it the Rosary Cross. I'm sure someone can give me the actual name. But this would be a great gift to give a friend of the faith. 

Finally, the thing I want most above all things from this gift shop would have to be this book, Cooking with the Saints (heavenly ahhs). C'mon, how neat is this book? I love cookbooks that are specific and have their own flare to it. Just like the postcards I bought from Graceland that had all of Elvis Presley's favorite foods. Now I can cook and eat what the saints ate. Awesome. If you have this book please do share with me your favorite recipe.

Well, my friends this has been the National Cathedral Gift Shop tour courtesy of The Full Time Wife. Until next time, Faith, Hope and Love...above all Love!

Red Velvet Cupcakery

I am back now after a long period of time and I don't really like to be away from my blogging if I don't have to be. But I had to due to huge life changes for my husband and I. We've moved from one coast to the other and it's been quite the adventure. Ask us and we'll tell you.

The week before we left the East Coast my husband's wonderful sister and her friend came to visit us and of course we gave them our Family Food Tour. Visiting the hotspots like Ben's Chili Bowl (of course!), 2 Amys & never missing a beat...Red Velvet Cupcakery.

I remember when I heard of their store opening at DC's Penn Quarter right next to their sister company TangySweet. In fact I think I signed up for some kind of daily deal online and that's how I found out about their premier. My first taste of Red Velvet's cupcakes was last spring and there has not been another cupcake store around DC to beat them since, at least that's what I firmly believe.

We entered the quaint storefront and were greeted with one of my favorite aromas in the world, chilled dairy mixed with spices of fall and chocolate. Oh it's such a wonderful experience every time. I'm telling you, it's so good you have to share this place with everyone you know.

My husband and I went all out and ordered 4 cupcakes: Southern Belle (a signature recipe of theirs and I promise you, you will not regret it), Devil's Food, Cookies N' Cream and their featured Poached Pear. My sister-in-law and her friend both ordered the Peanut Butter Cup. A delicious time was had by all.

So the next time you decide to visit DC definitely make it a must to visit Red Velvet Cupcakery. There are some other well-known cupcake stores in DC but not all stores live up to their hype. I know by personal experience and talking with locals about their favorite cupcake stores. Red Velvet is a gem you shouldn't pass up.

Current Locations found on their home page:

Washington, DC: Penn Quarter
501 7th St. NW
tel: 202-347-7895

Washington, DC: Dupont Circle
2029 P Street, NW
tel: 202-822-2066

Tucson, Arizona: Downtown
943 E University, Suite 165
tel: 520-829-7780

Tucson, Arizona: La Encantada
2905 E Skyline Drive, Suite 287
tel: 520-829-7780

Reston, VA Town Center
11939 Democracy Drive

They've announced on their website that plans are being made for two store openings in Northern Virginia. Lucky them, now can they please open one on the West Coast? We need lovin' too.

SPAM's Meal Makeover Challenge

Believe it or not, there are people out there who love SPAM just as much as I do and even more. That makes me so happy to know that I'm not alone.

Well guess what? SPAM is putting out a "Meal Makeover Challenge" and this challenge involves the main recipes of SPAM & Pasta. Wow, how fun.

Anyway, check out this link to read their official rules and good luck on winning the grand prize of $1000. Hurry you have until August 31, 2010.

"SPAM" photo courtesy of *yasuhiro from Flickr Creative Commons.

Meatloaf Muffins

Today my husband and I got home late from work, we still needed a grocery run and our stomachs were growling.  My mind was still set on using my veggies (carrots, bell pepper, onions, tomatoes...etc) and making meatloaf with them. So the plan was on a roll.

To cut time I used our mini food processor on all our vegetables and I've got to say that I just love it!

Here's how I make one of my most favorite comfort foods in the world:

Makes a dozen meatloaf muffins + 1 pan of meatloaf.

2 lbs of ground beef
1/2 cup of Miracle Whip (I realised I was out of eggs--way to think on my feet. Master Chef here I come.)
1 cup of bread crumbs (any slice, bun of bread will work just fine, rip into pieces)
1 egg, the only egg in my fridge
2 medium carrots
1 green bell pepper
1 medium onion
1 tomato, seeded
1 tablespoon of onion powder
2 teaspoons of garlic powder
2 teaspoons of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of black pepper
2 teaspoons of thyme, not ground
1/4 cup of worcestershire

• Preheat oven 350 degrees. Spray cupcake pan and loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.

• Process the veggies until they are small/minced well.

• Add all the ingredients together. Have fun and use your hands during this process.

• Make mixture into balls, not too big that they overwhelm the cupcake pan hallow. Turn the rest into a loaf. Place meat in respective pans. For the cupcake pan, place it on an edged cookie pan to keep the liquids from spillage.

• I baked each pan at time. Bake the cupcake pan for 50 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink. Bake the loaf pan for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. For each pan, before the last 10 minutes, pour on your favorite BBQ mix, ketchup or sweet n' tangy sauces and let it bake for the rest of the time. For more caramelized flavor leave it in for another 5-10 minutes.

For me, I pair my meatloaf with mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans in garlic...ooh gets me every time. Enjoy and hope it brings comfort and happiness to your bellies as much as it did mine tonight.

Puff the Magic Pastry

THIS is how they make Samosas. Mmmmmmmmmmm. 

Hmm I kinda like my title for today.

Well, last night I had a dream that I was in a cooking competition with Chef Ramsey hosting. The theme was puff pastry and we had about 14 minutes to make something delicious. I wish it wasn't 14 minutes because by the time I diced my onion and cooked the ground beef for my puff pastry filling, my sous chef was freaking out because the time was up and we hadn't even started filling the pastry. It was a nightmare but an inspiration as soon as I woke up.

I think I'll be making my puff pastry dream recipe sometime this week. The recipe...I'll reveal once I try it, taste it and hopefully like it. But for now here are a couple recipes I found online that I found tasty and hopefully I get to make them all.

The theme for my choice was "savory" puff pastries. The first one I found was on Savory Sweet Life's blog for a {Simple Yet Fancy}Caramelized Onion Tart recipe. I love me some yellow onions, butter, ricotta and parmesan cheese. What a great picture they posted as well.

Not only did I think of puff pastry today, I had hot dogs on the brain. I can't resist a good hot dog and what better way to celebrate this meat by wrapping it with pastry? Check out Pepperidge Farm's Franks Under Wraps. Tell me what you think.

Lately I've become a fan of Allrecipes.com. It's a great site for sharing recipes, reading reviews and feedback. One interesting recipe I found was a Steak Pie submitted by JIMZGRL (cute name). I don't think 10,889 people would have saved this recipe if it wasn't delicious. So that's on my menu for this fall when it's time to break out the savory, warm and filling dinners my family has come to enjoy when the weather gets colder.

Finally, it's still summer so why not learn to make some samosas for an outdoor cocktail party? I found a recipe that is vegetarian friendly on Mo + Ray's Kitchen blog. Their Samosa Puffs looks so appetizing and I'm pretty sure it tastes just as good.

So I have my kitchen time cut out for me. It's time I turn my dream into a reality of puff pastry magic in my mouth (that's what she said).

Have a great day! Stay cool.

"Best Samosas EVER!" photo courtesy of Alicia Nijdam from Flickr Creative Commons.

M&M Cupcakes Great for Birthdays

Wow, being a full time wife does take up time that I must learn how to divide and conquer in order to maintain blogs, social networking profiles and so forth.

But in my spare time I have found yet again another excuse for making cupcakes. Hehe. This time it was for a co-worker (my boss to be exact) who is supercool and such a lovely person. She's the kind of person you would want to meet and have in your life because it's rare nowadays to find such a sincere human being who really does care if you had a bad day. Anyway, this was for her birthday and I stayed up till 3 am making these so it would be ready for work the next day or a couple hours later.

I would've gone bold red and bold everything but my frosting and food coloring did not permit me to do so. I was disappointed at first but then looked at it on the bright side...they do look great as Easter cupcakes or just "Summer Fun" colors that would be prominent during this time of year.

I used regular confetti cake mix with white fluffy frosting. Next time I think I will try and add M&Ms to the batter and see how that turns out. Overall it was quite the office hit and by the end of the day I had empty pans/trays to take home which made me very happy. One less cupcake is a couple calories less to think about.  I really can't resist cupcakes.

Well enjoy and I hope you have a great week! Happy August!

Awesome Coconut Cake (And Yes, It Tastes Like Coconut)

Okay, are you ready to work your tail off for this delicious confection? I probably did it the hard way but I'm telling you, it was worth every effort when my husband and I took our first bite into this moist coconut cake.

How I went about this was through research and reading ingredients online and wondering if my coconut cake idea would work out with a particular white cake mix. After some time with reading reviews I found a white cake recipe that is absolutely best for this cake. I made a double layered cake and added coconut shavings in the middle frosting for texture.

What I'm about to share is a recipe derived from an Allrecipes member who calls this "Heavenly White Cake." Indeed, it is truly heavenly and sinfully decadent for a white cake especially when you compliment it with your favorite white/vanilla store bought or homemade buttercream frosting. My mind shut down on daily calorie intake while making this. It was a great new experience and I will keep this recipe as a family favorite.

Here's what you'll need to bake an Awesome Coconut Cake:

2 3/4 cups of sifted Cake Flour (I used an asian brand cake flour called Red Lotus.)
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 teaspoon of Salt
4 Egg Whites
1 1/2 cups of White Sugar (use the real thing)
3/4 cup of Butter (1 1/2 sticks of butter)
1 cup of Coconut Milk
1/2 cup of Milk
2 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract (for the first time used Madagascar Vanilla extract...good stuff)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease your pans of choice. The original recipe calls for a  15 x 10 x 1 pan. I used two 8 x 8 square pans.

• Sift dry ingredients three times: Cake Flour (yes it's sifted but sift again you must), baking powder and salt.

• In a bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Then gradually add 1/2 cup of sugar and keep beating till eggs form soft peaks. I recommend bringing your eggs to room temperature 30 minutes prior. Keep beating your eggs and do not give up hope, they do eventually get foamy.

• In another bowl, cream butter. Gradually add the rest of the sugar. Get the consistency to a creamy state. 

• Alternating, add the milks (coconut & milk) and sifted ingredients into the butter mixture. Continue to beat after each ingredient gets added. 

• Add your vanilla and beat well.

• Finally, fold in your eggs and mix well with a spatula.

• Pour mixture into your pan(s) and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes. Your cake should be done when you poke a toothpick (I had a thin steak knife) into the center of the cake and the toothpick/knife comes out clean.

• Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan and let cool on wire rack.

• For frosting, let cake cool completely. 

Just in case you want to know what the packaging looks like for the flour and coconut milk I used.