Lemon Drop Cupcakes and a Photography Question

Emma-Caroline has been itching to make me some birthday cupcakes ever since she received a cupcake baking kit for her own birthday.  The kit came with several recipes, and we finally decided that we would try the Lemon Drop Cupcakes first. Emma-Caroline did all the work, with a slight help from me, and they are delicious. We used mini cupcake tins which made 30 mini cupcakes. Here is the recipe for you to try:

Now that you have the recipe (if you can't read the card above, I'll send you the recipe), here is my photography question.  OK check out both the cupcake photo above and this first one below. Both photos were taken with my Tamron, 18-270mm lens zoomed and uncropped. I took the last photo with my new Nikon 50mm 1.4 prime lens. It has been cropped. My question is this. I am finding that with the 50 mm 1.4 prime lens, I have to stand further back in order to have my image in focus. I can't get a true macro shot on my own with the lens unless I crop it down. I don't like that. Am I doing something wrong or am I expecting too much from my prime lens. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I just don't want to get frustrated with it because I am expecting it to do things it's really not capable of doing. Any thoughts/insights on this would be appreciated. What I have learned is that I love the new lens for close ups of my children and other people's children. I know that is one of it's best features. But I also really love my Tamron lens because I can make it work for what I want it to do. OK now take a look at the bottom two photos and tell me your thoughts. I've also posted their photo stats so you can see the difference in what I had to do to essentially get the same photo with different lenses.

Above photo taken with Tamron 18-270mm lens for Nikon. Stats: f 6.3, 1/100, ISO 1000

This photo was taken with my new Nikon 50 mm 1.4 prime lens. Photo Stats: f 1.4, 1/2000, ISO 200

I am linking to Patty at Finding Serendipity for Photo a la {M}ode. Come on over, she's having a give away!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I made this soup recently for Emma-Caroline's birthday weekend. I took this recipe from the William Sonoma Slow Cooker Cookbook which just came out this past December. This soup is perfect for a busy schedule, is very hearty and very savory. I served it with a tossed salad, mexi-cornbread, and tortilla strips. I'm getting hungry just typing this recipe!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 can tomato puree or crushed tomatos

1 yellow onion coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic smashed

1 to 2 jalapeno chilies seeded and chopped

44 fluid oz chicken stock

2 lbs chicken breast strips ( I cube the chicken, but you can shred it later  after it has cooked if you prefer)

3 limes

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon cumin

3 bay leaves

Salt and ground pepper

2 1/2 cups corn kernels

2 small avocados, halved, peeled, pitted and sliced

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

tortilla chips, sour cream, salsa for garnish

In a blender or food processor combine the tomatos, onion, garlic, jalapeno, and 1 cup of chicken stock. Process until smooth.

Pour into slow cooker.

Add chicken, remaining stock, juice of one lime, vinegar, cumin, bay leaves, 3/4 tsp salt, and several grinds of fresh pepper.

Cover and cook on low setting for 5 hours.

Shred chicken if that is your preference.

Add corn kernels and cook on low setting until tender.

Remove and discard bay leaves.

Cut the remaining lime into wedges.

Ladle soup into bowls.

Garnish with cilantro, lime, sour cream salsa, avocado and tortilla chips.

The BEST Blueberry Muffins!

 Y'all, you will never want to buy another box of muffin mix again after trying this recipe! It is easy and mouth-watering delicious!

 If you are going to try any made-from-scratch recipe, this one should be it. It comes from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook.

 The recipe for Blueberry Streusel Muffins:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 TBS all-purpose flour
1TBS sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 TBS all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 TBS butter (unsalted)

*Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, sifting them together. Make a well in the center of the mixture.
Combine egg, milk and oil; stir well. Add to dry ingredients stirring until moistened.
*Combine blueberries, 1 TBS flour and 1 TBS sugar stirring gently. Fold blueberry mixture into batter. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins filling 3/4 full.
*Combine 1/4 cup sugar, 2 1/2 TBS flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter in a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over batter in each muffin tin.
*Bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes or until golden.

 ENJOY!!!!

What I Wish I Were Cooking Wednesday!

 You know . . . you set a goal to cook healthy meals for your family and it's going really well, and then  . . . BAM!
 You throw your back out, you can only stand in the Hunch Back of Notre Dame position, and you are relegated to what's out there in the fast food world, because Heaven forbid you should set your hair on fire on the flames of the gas stove or cut some more fingers off because you can't stand up straight.

 Yes, friends, that is the state of my life at the moment: back out, legs propped up, cookbooks in hand, and forced to eating the easiest thing out there that requires only the effort of pushing a few buttons and answering the door bell.

I hope to be back into full swing soon, now that I have been to the doctor who perscribed muscle relaxers, physical therapy and rest. Until next week, I hope your dinner table is adorned with something more healthy than mine!

What's Cooking Wednesday!

At this point, you may think that all I cook or bake in my house is chicken and some sort of muffin or coffee cake. We do prepare a lot of chicken, but it's not all we eat. I do have another chicken dish recipe, though, for today, and I promise, it is worth it. It is again from the Weight Watcher's Cookbook. In the words of Howie, who is quite the food critic, "This is probably one of the BEST chicken recipes you have ever made!" It is quite tasty and we will put it on our list of "Must Make Again Recipes!"

Chicken with Apples and Cider

2 TBS Vegetable oil

1 Granny Smith Apple (I used a Gala Apple) cored and sliced

1 TBS packed brown sugar

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup apple cider

1/4 cup  vinegar

2 cups rice pilaf

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat 1 TBS of oil. Saute apple until lightly brown. sprinkle with brown sugar and cook five minutes longer. transfer to a plate.

2. On a sheet of wax paper, sprinkle chicken breasts with cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Heat remaining oil and saute chicken until browned on both sides (4-5 minutes per side). Transfer to another plate.

3. Bring cider and vinegar to a simmer in skillet. Return chicken and spoon mixture over chicken for another 8 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and liquid is reduced to half. Return apples to skillet and cook until heated through.

4. Prepare rice as directed.

5. Serve chicken and apples over rice with fresh salad greens.

Points Value: 8

What's Cooking Wednesday

This past weekend, I opened the pantry door to grab a box of muffin mix only to find that the box I thought was a box of muffin mix was a pie crust mix. So, as to not want to disappoint my girls, I pulled out my Betty Crocker's Healthy New Choices cookbook and found a muffin recipe for which I had the core ingredients, just not the fringe ingredient, coconut. They took some time, but in the end these little "Morning Glory" muffins turned out to be quite tasty. They are more like a bran muffin and dense, not your typical sweet muffin, but my girls thought they were great. They are also very filling. Now I am glad that we were out of muffin mix and I look forward to making more homemade muffins of all varieties.

Here is the recipe for the Morning Glory Muffins:
1 Cup Fiber One Ceral (I substituted the above cereal because it is what we had)
2/3 cup skim milk
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 Cup chopped unpeeled apple
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/4 cup flaked coconut (only ingredient omitted)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 egg whites
1 Tbs vegetable oil
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Heat Oven to 375 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 12 medium muffin cups. Crush cereal or pulse in food processor. Mix cereal in milk and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. Divide evenly into muffin cups.

Bake 22-25 minutes, 18-20 for a convection oven.

Immediately remove from pan and place on cooling rack.

Enjoy!

***I am participating in Patty's Manual Mode Linky Party. The above photo was taken with the following stats:

1/125, f 6, ISO 1600. I am shooting with a Nikon D90 and a Tamron lens 18-270mm. The position of the zoom dictates my aperture, so I compensate indoors with my ISO. Still eyeing my prime lens which will give me clearer images.

What's Cooking Wednesday!

One of the first memories I have of baking was when I was perhaps three and my Mema made an Apple Cake from Granny Taylor's recipe.

Who knows if it was an actual recipe or just a little of this and a little of that. But what I remember was the actual process of mixing up all of the ingredients, licking the bowl after the cake pan was filled and knowing that it was oh so good. It had to be if I still remember it this many years later, right?

So I have been on the perpetual search for an Apple Cake recipe that would mimic the one my Mema and I made that day with me propped on the kitchen counter. Supposedly there is a great one out there by Martha Stewart, and I will give that one a try next.

 But for today, I am going to share a recipe from the Knoxville Junior League Cookbook entitled "Sis' Applesauce Cake" This cake turned out to be more like a coffee cake than a regular cake and is still very good, but just not the same as the one I am looking for.

 And, since somehow I have misplaced my Junior League Cookbook, well, you are just going to see the process of the making of the cake instead of getting the actual recipe.
 Sorry about that, but you know I have already gone through and edited my photos for this post, and so that's what I am going to do, post the photos.

 One day, when I do find my cookbook somewehere in the girls toy box, I will post the actual recipe.

 Thank you for your patience with me on that! I hope for today though you have at least enjoyed seeing Emma-Caroline and Sophie loving being little bakers. Don't you just love Emma-Caroline's indoor snow cap? She insists on wearing it since we keep the house cold enough to hang meat in. If y'all have any good actual Apple Cake recipes, please let me know. I really do need one!

What's Cooking Wednesday!

I am trying to be more diligent about cooking healthy meals for my family this year. So in an effort to "beef up" (no pun intended) my healthy recipe file, I have decided to try and post one new recipe a week here on The Avery House blog that I have made and that my family has actually enjoyed. Today's recipe comes from the Weight Watcher's cookbook.

I substituted chicken breast instead of thighs. I am not a fan of dark meat, but that's not to say it wouldn't be very tasty.
So, in case you can not see that teeny tiny print in the picture from the actual cookbook. You will need: 4 chicken breast halves.
2 TBS orange juice, 2TBS Dijon mustard, 1/4 tsp salt. Mix above ingredients in a large bowl.
3/4 cup whole wheat cracker crumbs. I pulsed these in the food processor and added the 1 TBS orange zest, 1 finely chopped shallot, and 1/4 tsp ground pepper to the pulse.
Dip chicken breasts in orange/Dijon mixture, roll in cracker mix and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake in oven at 350 degrees for fifteen minutes per side or until chicken is cooked thoroughly.
Add some steamed green beans and you have a very healthy dinner!
Total Weight Watchers points for chicken breast 5. If I had thought of it, I would have added some orange peel to the green beans for a pop of color for this photo. But since I had two little hungry princesses and one hungry King waiting, I snapped this photo rather quickly before whisking the plate off to the dining room table. All of the royal court approved of this very tasty, and healthy meal. The Queen will definitely be making it again.

Stained Glass Sugar Cookies

This is an easy little recipe that is sure to delight those who partake in these yummy little cookies. You can use a sugar cookie recipe and truly make them from "scratch" or do it the Semi-Homemade way like I will show you here.
Howie and the girls gave me this wonderful mixer for Christmas and I broke it in with this recipe for Stained Glass Sugar Cookies.
You start with the following: 1. Package of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees or 340 degrees if using a convection oven.
2. One stick of unsalted butter softened
3. One egg
4. Strawberry Preserves (or any kind of preserves that you prefer)
Mix the first three ingredients together until a dough ball forms. Place a tablespoon full of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet for each cookie.
Using your thumb, make a print in the middle of each cookie to create a "well." Spoon a 1/2 teaspoon of preserves into each cookie well.
Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes or until sugar cookies are golden brown. Just keep an eye on them.
Cool on a wire rack.
Caution! Preserves stay VERY HOT even after the sugar cookie has cooled. They can scald your mouth if you decide to eat one while still warm.
We made these while being "snowed in" but these little yummies would make the perfect Valentine's Day goody for your special someone!
Enjoy!