P52 14/52: Easter Cupcakes

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

P52 14 of 52 Easter Cupcakes

Thanks to Betty Crocker these were a breeze to make. 🙂 I found the little Bunny decorations at Michael’s several weeks ago. They’re made by Wilton.

I’m really looking forward to Easter this year because #1 Grandson will be more into it, and he should love the Easter Egg Hunt, and his Easter Basket.

Happy Easter!

If you don’t celebrate it I hope you have a great Sunday!

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 105mm Micro lens| SB600 camera right| SU800 wireless trigger| Hand-held

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I made an Irish Tea Cake as a nod to the Irish today. We’re all Irish today right? 🙂  So, here’s a slice of Irish Tea Cake,

I’m having Chamomile tea with mine, what would you like?

Irish Tea Cake and TeaI used a recipe I found on allrecipes. com  It’s delicious and super simple to make. You probably have all the ingredients

in your pantry already!

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time 30 to 40 minutes

Ready in 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings: 10

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract- (I used Madagascar vanilla bean paste.)

1 3/4 all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk ( I used whole milk)

1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar for dusting

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9-inch round pan.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing until

fully incorporated; stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. If the batter is too stiff a tablespoon or two of milk may be added. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 30-35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a wire rack, then turn out onto a serving plate. Dust with confectioner’s sugar right before serving.

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 85mm f1.4| SB910 camera left high bounced off ceiling @1/4 pwr| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Hand-held

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P52 10/52 Pacific Red Snapper with Wine, Butter, Lemon Sauce

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

P52 10 of 52  Pacific Red Snapper in Lemon, Butter, Wine Sauce

The recipe:
Serves 2

1/2 pound Filet of Pacific Red Snapper cut in half
4 heaping TBSpoons of Flour
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 whole Lemon
2 TBSP Butter ( I use unsalted)
1/4 cup Chardonnay
2 TBSP Vegetable Oil

Preheat Oven to 270 degrees.
Put flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl and stir til mixed then dredge both halves of the Snapper in flour mixture on both sides.

Heat 2 TBSP of Vegetable Oil in sauté pan then add flour coated Snapper halves to heated pan with oil and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat then turn, and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
Remove the Snapper from the pan and put in oven proof dish or pan and place in  preheated oven to continue cooking while you prepare the sauce.

Over low to medium heat add  the Wine to the sauté pan scrapping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce the wine by half. Once the wine has reduced by half add the butter, and juice from the lemon. I used the whole lemon but you may add less if you’d like less lemon flavor. Reduce wine, butter, lemon mixture by half again then remove from heat.  Remove the Snapper from the oven then plate the Snapper, and spoon sauce over the fish and garnish as you like.

I used Mini Bell Pepper curls as my garnish b/c the colors look nice with fish. To make the curls:
Cut off top and bottom off Bell Pepper. Then make one cut down the any side of the pepper and open it and press it as flat as you can then remove the seeds, membrane, and as much flesh as you can from the bell peppers, and discard or use the flesh in a salad. Next Julianne or chiffonier the skin into thin strips then place the strips in ice water for at least an hour to form curls.

I served the Snapper with baked potato, and a green salad with tomatoes, avocado, shaved Parmesan cheese, baked croutons, tossed with balsamic vinegar no oil!  The rest of the Chardonnay we drank over dinner.  🙂

Nikon Df| AF-D 105mm Micro lens| Hand-held| SB910 camera front @ 1/4pwr bounced off ceiling| Hoodman STEEL Ultra Speed Digital Film| Developed in CS6

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P52 6/52: The Nut Job

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

P52 6 of 52 The Nut Job

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 micro| SB910 camera front 11o’clock @ 1/2 pwr bounced off ceiling| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Hand-held| Strobes triggered w/SU800

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P52 3/52 Caramel Macarons

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

P52 3/52 Caramel Macarons

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 28-105@ 105mm + 36mm Kenko Extension Tube| SB910 camera left slightly in front of Hero at 1/2 pwr bounced off ceiling| Hand-Held| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film

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Smores

Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

A sweet gift from my Son and his Girlfriend.

Smores

They bought them at Tout Sweet Patisserie San Francisco, CA.  The one I had was super rich, and delicious!

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 85mm f1.4@ f4| Center weighted metering| 1/30s| ISO 500| SB910 & SB600 triggered w/SU800

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A non Traditional Christmas Dinner

Copyright © 2014 Deborah M Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!

I gave my family several choices to chose from for the Main Course for Christmas dinner. They chose Chicken Parmigiana.

So, I built my entire menu around that.

The first course was my homemade Minestrone Soup that is so packed with goodies it’s more like a stew.

Minestrone Soup

The second course was a simple green salad (not shown), and Crab Crostini. I didn’t make the Crab Salad. To

save time I bought it from a deli. It’s delicious! The French Bread is baked daily at my market so I picked up a couple of baguettes for the Crostini.

Seafood Crostini

Then we arrive at the main course: Chicken Parmigiana. I used Lidia’s Italy in America recipe. It’s wonderful! The chicken breasts are stuffed with ricotta and Parmesan cheese seasoned to taste. I seasoned mine with salt, pepper, oregano, and basil.

Chicken Parmigiana

I served it over a bed of Spaghetti with a basic marinara sauce.

The fourth course I had two types of Panettone cakes: a butter cake, and a fruiti cake, and birthday cake from #1 Grandson’s 2nd Birthday which was on Friday, but we were so stuffed no one wanted any dessert.

The conversation at the table is always laced with stories new and old and there’s always a lot of laughter.

It’s been a wonderful day of joy, great food, and togetherness. It’s the Christmas I wished for.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8g| SB910| Hand-held

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