Happy Friday! The end of the week has arrived. It threw me off that it was Friday already since we had a holiday in the middle of the week. As you remember on the holiday, I went over to my sister and brother in laws for a baking day! With that being said, you can guess what is coming up for today’s sweet treat.

Sugar Topped Rhubarb Cup Cakes. Now as you know I am high on the rhubarb kick as you can tell from my rhubarb pie. These muffins have a nice flavor of almond as well as the tartness of the rhubarb.

Tell me what you think of these and be honest!  I love them!
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Well before I get started with today’s post - I just want to announce and warn you that this may be the most exciting zesty post to date.  As I told you before that while we are building our house over the next coming months that I would take zesty on the road.  And with this post  that is exactly what I did.  Yesterday, I was invited over to my sister (and brother) in laws to take part in some baking.

We did a ton of baking along with a few photos of the event.  We all had a lot of fun and the results speak for themselves.  In the coming days you will see some amazing treats in addition to today’s Chocolate cream cheese cupcakes.  While at their house,  I thought I would take advantage of their gorgeous kitchen and show it off a bit.

So before we begin with the amazing recipe and picture overload, I want to send a big thank you to my family for helping out zesty in transition mode.
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Happy Canada Day!! A day off and I am so excited.  The weather has been somewhat damp over the last few days and honestly I think I could curl up in the bed for about 40 hours and be very happy.  But as they say, no time for rest - keep that body going!

I was sitting talking with my mother-in-law about what to post as I was late getting home from work.  I really just slapped together some dinner and got back to work on the computer.  We came up with some kitchen tips that are super handy to know.

Over the last few weeks she has shared some really great kitchen tips that I never knew about.  So I thought, well I better share these with you and see what you think.

5 Everyday Kitchen Tips

1.  Use Bread with Hard Brown Sugar - Ever have a bag of brown sugar that gets very hard and compact in your cupboard.  No need to throw it out ever again.  Open the bag and place a piece of bread in the top of the bag and seal it up.  Leave it for two days and then check your sugar.  It will be soft and brand new.  Once you are satisfied with the results - throw away the slice of bread.

2.  Clean your pots with Baking Soda and Vinegar - Leave your sauce pot boil dry by accident as you were in the dining room enjoying your dinner?  Not to worry.  This clean up is a piece of cake with the combination of vinegar and baking soda.  In the burnt pot, add some baking soda and vinegar in the bottom of the pot and let it sit for 10 minutes.  The reaction will start to remove the burnt texture on the pot.  You can then add some hot water and give it a light scrub and you will be very pleased.

3.  How to use Sour Milk - How often do you catch yourself throwing sour milk down the sink.  There is no need to do that!  Use it for baking.  It will make a great batch of biscuits.  So the next time you smell some funny milk - set it aside and whip out your zesty apron and get baking.

4. Egg peeling off - Make a small hole in the egg by piercing with a pin before boiling it. You will be able to remove the shell very easily.

5.  Revive your Lemon/Lime - If a lemon or lime is hard, put it in warm water for 5-10 minutes to make it easier to squeeze and revitalize the juice.

Happy Canada Day for all that are celebrating and I hope you have a great Wednesday.  Before you go, check out some more zesty posts make sure you enter in my latest giveaway and try and win some POM Wonderful Juice.

Take care

zesty

Happy Tuesday!  How about we start the day with a giveaway.  You up for that idea?  I thought it would be great since I did not get home until 7:30pm and didn’t really have time to cook anything. We ended up just eating leftovers at my Mom’s.

Just a recap on my POM post from previous.

POM is the only pomegranate juice that controls its juice from tree to bottle: bottle-to-bottle, batch-to-batch, year-to-year.

They grow and hand-pick our own fruit. And they squeeze our pomegranates using proprietary pressing equipment that we designed ourselves. This stringent quality control process results in 100% pomegranate juice with superior taste and a consistent dose of polyphenol antioxidants.

So with that being said, here it is:

POM Juice Giveaway

How To Enter:

• New and existing email subscribers will automatically get an entry on draw date. Note that only verified subscribers count (you will receive a verification email). (+1 entry)
• Leave a comment about what you think of this idea. (+1 entry)
• Earn an extra chance to win by linking back to this post on your own blog (if you have one). (+1 entry) (please email me if you link back)

The Rules:

• Please only 1 comment entry / person (please enter a valid email address). Your email will be kept private and never given/sold to third parties.
• The winners will receive a 473 ml FREE BOTTLE of POM WONDERFUL

So let me know what you think about this adventure in the comments below! A random generator will be used to pick the two winners. Contest will end at 5pm EST July 3rd, 2009.

I hope you have a great Tuesday and be sure to enter the contest.

Take care

zesty

Another action packed weekend, but what can you expect?  It is the summer and we are super busy.  Friday evening I sold the Honda Accord and on Saturday I knew it was time to start looking at vehicles immediately.  We were looking for a truck with an extended cab for the little turkeys.  I surfed the classified ads and lined up a number of vehicles to look at for Saturday.  When I was off to look at the first couple, my mother-in-law started making one of my favorite pies - Rhubarb Pie.

When I walked back in the house, all I could smell was fresh pastry and you could not whip the smile off my face.  It was ridiculously good.  Tart on the inside and flaky on the outside.  Topped with a little Vanilla Ice Cream ( or a lot), I was in heaven.  Remember just the other day when I did a post on rhubarb - it is very good for you!  You have to try it.  Here are the steps to make this treat.

Ingredients

• 2 – 4 tablespoons ice water
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
• Egg wash of 1 yolk whisked with 1 tablespoon water
• 4 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/3 cups white sugar
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter

Method

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Sift together the flour and salt; sift again. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
3. Add ice water a tablespoon at a time (approximately 3 tablespoons in all), stirring the dough around the bowl with a fork.
4. As soon as it is moist enough to gather into a ball, wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
5. Handle the dough as little as possible. Roll half of the pastry dough out on a floured surface to about 1/8-inch thickness.
6. The pastry should be about 1 1/2 inches larger than the the pie plate.
7. Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust.
8. Sprinkle top crust with sugar.
9. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes.
10. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes.
11. Serve warm or cold.
12. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Don’t over sugar the rhubarb as it is supposed to be tart.  Using a little flour in the filling will allow the rhubarb to create somewhat of it’s own sauce and not become too runny or loose.

Saturday afternoon proved to be exciting.  We made a decision on a new truck!  We ended up buying a Dodge Dakota Sport and so far we are very pleased.  Here are a couple of smaller pictures.  I have not had a chance to take any pictures as of yet.

So there you have it.  A zesty weekend summarized in 20 lines or less.  I hope you have a great kick off to your week and I will be back tomorrow.

Take care

zesty