Cup to the Cake

Cupcakes!

Nobody can possibly have a sense of royalty in his or her life if he or she does not have cupcakes!

* which he or she has made him or herself

I recommend the Joy of Cooking recipe for sour cream cupcakes...I kind of made a combination of yellow cupcakes and those. They were awesome. I will not try to instruct you in that; it was just a cool thing that happened, really, but study the two recipes and try them. :)

The Joy of Cooking fudge frosting was good too, but if you would like them to be done quickly and you're like me, you may involve the powdered sugar and corn starch.... it's all good...

Soup Reviews V: Other

Amy's Hearty Spanish Rice and Red Bean -- sweet, crunchy corn, tasty beans, rice with fantastic texture, good flavor and good with Tabasco. A+ and could be drained of water and used for purposes other than soup.





Imagine Potato and Leek -- Pretty good. a little strangeness about the flavor, which is eradicated by a dose of Tony Chachere's. I would eat it again, but not often. I don't know if it's weird or if it's just that potato and leek is a little weird, somewhat specialized. B-

Soup Reviews IV: Vegetable

Amy's (Chunky Vegetable) --

Tomato base, nice gentle-yet-firm tomato-y aromatic flavor. Tasty tomatoes, lima beans, green beans, peas,and corn with good texture, just a little springiness. Onions, carrots, and spinach with no texture, but those veggies rarely have any texture in any canned soups. It's enough for them to be there. A

365, Whole Foods Brand
Nice, sweet, springy corn, pretty good potatoes and tomatoes. Nondescript celery, onions, peas, spinach, and carrots. However, the carrots were impressively large, as though from some really awesome carrots. (The original meaning of "awesome.") Broth was peppery and just the right amount of salty. Otherwise, there wasn't a lot of flavor or excitement. But it was fine. B

Soup Reviews III: Chicken

365 (Whole Foods) Chicken Noodle -- nice, big pieces of chicken, nice noodles, nondescript veggies (carrots and celery), good tasting broth. A

Organics Chicken Noodle -- nice pieces of chicken, okay noodles, okay broth, vegetables? well, sort of. maybe those bland little pieces were vegetables... B-

Imagine Chicken Pot Pie -- interesting creamy soup with very tasty chicken, large dumpling-ish noodles (I suppose that's the "pie") A

Soup Reviews II: Minestrone

365 (Whole Foods Brand) -- not the most flavorful minestrone in the world, but good, and very spicy, sinus cleansing. Fresh-tasting, buoyant carrots, white beans, tomatoes, onions, spinach, pasta, peas in tomato broth. A

Imagine -- Pretty flavorful broth but a little strange, like too sweet or something and confusing in flavor-- not quite tomato-y? The vegetables were fine but not memorable. B

Soup Reviews I: Butternut Squash

Wolfgang Puck -- rich and creamy, good taste. A

Organics -- thin, almost like just broth with a little bit of squash, but presence of actual onions? a little bland, I added Tony Chachere's. C+

Imagine -- Not quite as rich and creamy or tangy as WP, but similar and a little squashier; the squashiest one so far. A-

Someone Knows How To Treat a Lady

The someone is me. I am the someone and I am the lady. I am someone's industrious lady. I treated myself to these these roses, which I myself grew. I also presented myself with a lovely mushroom three-cheese pizza, for which I made tomato sauce and tomato pizza dough.