Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

Hello! Quick little post tonight - little KitchenAid mixer experiment!
After working every day/night since getting my new mixer, I finally got a chance to play with it tonight!
Found an interesting chocolate cupcake recipe online, and decided to be daring and give it a shot. (Also easily made vegan if that floats your boat! My boat however floats on different waters!)

Just the one picture, because I wasn't expecting to post this... but once they were made, I just HAD to share! Enjoy!


(Adapted from Food.com)
Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Shaws brand. Good, but I should really invest in some of the good stuff. Godiva maybe!)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk (The original recipe called for water. If you want to keep it vegan, go ahead and use water, should turn out just as fine! The milk just made it a little richer)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar

NO EGGS. Weird right? Almost scared me off, but I am glad I made it!

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Mix all ingredients together until moist / well blended (This is where my mixer made life sooooooooooo easy!)
• Put in paper cupcake liners and bake for 20-25 minutes
• Frost with whatever you deem to be best!

I found a yummy frosting recipe on Food Network. I thinned it out with a little extra cream and a tablespoonful of warm water. Added some chocolate jimmies, and there you have it!

Grilled Marinated Flank Steak

Hello and welcome back! 
My deepest apologies for not posting since April. A number of factors led to me really not cooking very much. This all culminated in me eating a whole bunch of terrible food, and not having anything of substance to post. 
However, stress level is significantly lower, so culinary adventures have resumed!
Tonight's specialty is some grilled, marinated flank steak.

Couldn't come up with a more creative name for this... Sorry folks, but sometimes it is what it is, and this time, it is just delicious.

And how easy! I stuck this in the marinade last night, let it hang out overnight, and slapped it on the grill tonight! Served it with a baked potato and some corn on the cob. Love summer food!

Enjoy!


(Adapted from Simply Recipes)
Ingredients:

Look at that adorable honey bear. SO CUTE.

• 2 lb flank steak
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic (or 2 cloves of elephant garlic! Yup. It's real.) crushed/minced
• 2 tablespoonsful red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce (I opted for low sodium. I didn't want to overpower the steak with saltiness, plus, healthier!)
• 1/4 cup honey (I got the kind that is in a bear shape. Because it was TOO ADORABLE to pass up!)
• 1/2 teaspoonful ground black pepper

Directions:

• Score the flank steak with cuts about 1/4 inch thick

Hard to see, but I did it crisscross. You can choose to just do it one way if you'd like.

• Combine all the ingredients (mix well!)

I wish I had 10 whisks like this. Love it!

• Trim the steak if you need to. Mine was really fatty
• Put the steak in the marinade either in a container or a freezer bag to marinate. I did it overnight, but if you're not going to do that, do it for at least 2 hours. The longer, the juicier!

• Grill! Use high heat. We cooked it sort of indirectly, on the cooler spot of the grill, because we were a little nervous the honey would burn. Cook it until it is the level of done-ness that you prefer!

• Let it rest for a few minutes before slicing, and make sure you slice on the diagonal.

Enjoy!

P.S. Kitchenaid mixed due in the mail in a few days. There will be LOTS of baking ahead! Also, I do take requests/suggestions!