Pesto Avocado Pasta

Slather some chicken thighs with mustard and pesto.  Make sure to get some underneath the skin too!  

Bake at 425 for 50 minutes. 

Mix up some olive oil, pesto, and half an avocado.

Toss it with some angel hair pasta.

Saute some garlic in olive oil, then add bok choy and steam til done.

Eat up. 

Lemon-Rosemary Cupcakes

Yet another adaptation of the amazing Rosemary Olive Oil Cake.  The last adaptation I made was absolutely delicious and a big hit among the friends I shared it with (Olive Oil & Beer Cake).  Today's adaptation was very similar to that one, but I cut the recipe in half, used lemonade instead of beer, and made mini-cupcakes instead of cake.

Lemon-Rosemary Cupcakes

1/2 c lemonade

1/2 c olive oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 heaping tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1/4 c whole wheat flour

1 c flour

1 tsp crushed rosemary

makes approx. 30 mini cupcakes

Bake at 350 for 15 min 

Delightfully light, airy, and refreshing.  

These cupcakes are coming with me to a birthday party for one of my friends. 

Olive Oil & Beer Cake

A few months ago I made a Rosemary Olive Oil Cake.  It was yummy, but way too sweet for my tastes.  Tonight, I was itching to bake something, but couldn't decide what, so I organized my recipe box while I was thinking about it.  I came across the recipe for the Olive Oil Cake and decided it was time to try it again.  However, the original recipe called for white wine, and I don't have any right now.  But I did have a bottle of beer that I didn't particularly want to drink.  So I decided to substitute beer for wine.  I also changed the flour and sugar types/amounts from the original recipe.

ingredients listed in the order that I added them to the mixing bowl

1 c Shock-Top Raspberry Wheat Beer 

1 c olive oil

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1+ tbs crushed rosemary

1/2 c brown sugar

1 c white sugar

1/2 c wheat flour

2 c white flour

pour batter into a 9x9 pan

bake at 350 for 50 min

I had to cut the cake into 4 pieces in order to remove it from the pan

 For my taste-test...I ate the pieces that stuck to the pan

Delicious.

Olive Oil Rosemary Cake

I came across this recipe a few months ago, copied it down, and set it aside.  Unfortunately, I did not write down the source.  I thought it was saved in my "favorites," but I can't find it anywhere.  And a google search did not reveal any websites I recognized.  So, I can't give credit to whoever I got the recipe from.  Oops.  

Strangely for me,  I didn't add or omit any ingredients from the original recipe.  The only thing I did was cut  the recipe in half so that it would fit in my 9x9 cake pan.  

Here's the recipe (after I cut everything in half):

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c olive oil

1/2 c white wine

1 1/4 c flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/8 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

1+ tbsp rosemary

bake at 350 for 30 minutes

I mixed the dry ingredients in a glass bowl, and combined the wet ingredients, minus the eggs, in a liquid measuring cup.  Then, I mixed the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  I beat the eggs separately and added them last.  I greased the cake pan with butter. 

In case you were wondering...this cake is delicious.