Sweet & Simple Sunday {fourteen}

Happy Sunday Everyone!! How's everyone doin' this weekend? Are you all obsessed with Team USA as much I am this weekend??

I love the Olympics! It is so inspiring to see all of these athletes who have dedicated their entire lives to get to the biggest stage, it's abosolutly amazing!

Did you all watch the Opening Ceremonies? I've decided that when the Olympics come to Ohio I am definitly volunteering to be part of the Opening Ceremony :o)

So this week we had a ton of fantastic recipes that were linked up, I had such a hard time choosing my favorites yet again, so I relied on all of your votes for your Top Pick!

Upside Down Brownies by Just Winging It

And because great drinks and cool treats are popular with me right now, I picked a few others to share!!

Shirley Temple Sweet Tea from Shaken Together

Limeade Sherbet Fizz by Shaken Together

Strawberry Mojito Frozen Yogurt Popscicles from Pink Recipe Box 

I love all of these and can't wait to make and try all of them!

Well, because the Olympics is on right now, I don't want to take up any more of your time, so on to the party!!

Have a great week everyone!!

Sweet & Simple Sunday {thirteen}

I'm baaaaack!! Did you miss me??

Well I think there was something about doing S & S {thirteen} that caused my world to go hay-wire!

It's been a little crazy here the last few weeks.

We started out the month of July crashing at my in-law's house because our house was hit with a crazy thunderstorm causing us to have no power for 4 days. You don't realize just how important everyday things are until they no longer work. Like, water. Like, A.C. Like, your oven! But we managed to survive, and at least no one got hurt.

Fast forward two weeks.

Dear Hubby ended up in the ER with severe back pain. Come to find out, he had a kidney stone almost 1/4 of an inch in diameter. He ended up having emergency surgery last Saturday night, and spent the weekend in the hospital.

So finally this weekend was the first that I've been able to sit down for five minutes at my computer to type up a post that acutally had some content to it.

So here we are.

Sweet & Simple {thirteen}

I know these posts were put up here a while back, but hey, they're still great and they still are making me very hungry, so I thought I still needed to share these with all of you.

Bubblegum Cookie Truffles by Back for Seconds

Lemon Kisses Mini Cupcakes by Pamela's Heavenly Treats

Peanut Butter and Jelly Rolls from Treat & Trick

Strawberry Banana Loaf from Addicted to Recipes

Super Easy Mini Chocolate Pies from Pink Recipe Box

So what do you guys think? Don't these look amazing?! I'm am so in need of some major sugar right now and I think all of these would be just perfect!

Congratulations to all of you that were featured.

Now, onto the party! Be sure to link up anything and everything you've been working on, I love to see all of the different projects that you're working on.

Thanks for stopping by and continuing to support Cups by Kim!!

A Traveling Blogger

Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm spending the day over at Pamela's Heavenly Treats! Why don't you come on over and check out what I've fixed up! And while you're there, check out the amazing desserts that Pamela has created!!!

See you there!!

Confessions of a Food Blogger- Part 1

I have a confession.

I am not as crafty as one might think.

 What I mean is, I suck at decorating.

My house is a hodge podge of mismatched furniture, outdoorsy, wildlife prints woven strategically together with plastic tea cups, foam blocks, and lego pieces.

See...

My latest items. Pintrest inspired.



Wildlife picture # 1 goes great with the college dorm room cabinet don't cha think?



My attempt at "themed" rooms. This would be the dusty, Ivy Dining Room.



My blah living room. Even the plant thinks it's boring.

So. There you go. I'm telling you people, I am so horrible at decorating. I have so many ideas on my Pin boards and no idea what to do.

My house is not country. My house is not modern. My house is...well..difficult to decorate.

I love our house, and I love where we live, but I'm not in love with the look.

 I just can't figure out what to do with a pre-fab living room without spending a fortune.

I need some help.

I need someone to interveen.

Any volunteers?

The job pays in cupcakes!

Someone please tell me that you can help.

Crazy Cooking Challenge- Fried Chicken Style

This has been one crazy week. I'll fill you in later on that. But now, I'm filling you up with this

This is my entry in this month's

When I heard that this month was going to be the Fried Chicken challenge I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but then I remembered that we had to find our recipe from another wonderful Blog out there in Blogland. Here's the one that I was going to use originally from My Name is Snickerdoodle, and trust me this is a GREAT recipe!

But then, to my surprise, the game changed!

Now we're allowed to use any Fried Chicken recipe we'd like. I knew exactly where to go!

A few years back Dear Hubby and I bought these books, and one of my most favorite recipes in it is the fried chicken.

In fact, I've used it so many times, my book falls open to that page every time I take it out of the cabinet!

I've had to change up the recipe a little bit, but it's still the perfect copy cat recipe for KFC Original Recipe Fried Chicken.

Here's how it's done!

3 cups Crisco vegetable shortening

1 egg, beaten

2 cups milk

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

1 teaspoon Accent

4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts

Place the shortening in a large electric skillet or frying pan. Heat to medium high heat (about 350).

In a small bowl combine the egg and milk.

In a seperate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

Dip each piece of chicken into the milk until fully moistenend.

Roll the moistened chicken in the flour mixture until completely covered.

Dip each piece back into the milk mixure and then back into flour mixture once again.

Place each piece into the melted oil.

Allow chicken to cook on each side about 15 minutes (do not keep turning, you only need to turn it a couple of times)

Remove from pan and allow to drain on a cooling rack.

Aside from my grandmother's and mom's fried chicken recipes this has to be my all time favorite recipe. It's amazing alone, on a sandwich with some mayo and pickles, or served up next to a big heaping pile of mashed potatoes,  I really hope that you enjoy this one as much as I do!

Now it's your turn! You want to be a part of the fun?! Check out the Crazy Cooking Page at Mom's Crazy Cooking for all of the details!

Let's see what everyone has been up to this month!

Power Outage

Sorry everyone, I'm just stopping by real quick to let all of you know that we'll be back up and running in a few days. We've had some bad storms here and we have been without power for 3 days.

Hope to see all of you later on this week!

Kim

The Ohio State Buckeye Ice Cream Cupcake

I've never considered myself a social butterfly.

I knew when I went to college that I'd be the paranoid friend.

"Well, how are we going to get home?"

"I'm underage!"

"I just don't feel comfortable using a fake ID to get into Canada. It would be my luck I'd be stuck there"

"My parents would kill me!!"

And even though I was the paranoid one when it came to, well...social events, I was first in line for the, "I'm finally 18, away from home, and have my own money, tattoo."

Yep. Out of all of my friends that night, I was the only one who came home with Ink.

That was my rebellious moment in college.

I loved college.

The fall football games. The dorms (yeah, I'm weird). The freedom from being away from home.

My lovelies of Alpha Xi Delta. It was great!

I'm from Ohio, and to most kids in Ohio the only college to go to is

The Ohio State University

but for me, that spell ANXIETY in every language.

So instead, I went to the great

University of Toledo.

I loved it and I miss that campus so much.

But I have to tell you, I am a huge OSU Football Fan!

And I am positive God knew what he was doing when he put me here on Earth in Ohio because I LOVE Buckeyes. And I'm not talking football or tree's here people.

The candy.

Have you tried them?

If you haven't, obviously you have not experienced one of the greatest candies in the world!
So when I saw the ad for this

 I decided to pay homage to my home state of Ohio and make a Buckeye inspired cupcake ! Or what I would like to refer to as

The Ohio State Buckeye Ice Cream Cupcake

This is the Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious 5th Annual Ice Cream Cupcake Contest!

A chance for bakers everywhere to showcase their Ice Cream Cupcake creations for a chance at $250.00 to their favorite cooking/baking store and many other "sweet" prizes!

I've seen this post on Cupcake Project for the last few years and decided this year I wanted in on the action. So I decided to go with

The Ohio State Buckeye Ice Cream Cupcake

It's a mix of my most favorite chocolate cupcake, homemade peanut butter ice cream, peanut butter and chocolate topping.

Yum with a capital Y!!

I am totally addicted to these!

And they're pretty simple to make. Here's what you'll need!

For the Cupcakes:

1 Devil's Food Cake Mix

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup sour cream, room temperature

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 small box of Chocolate Jell-O Instant Pudding

3/4 cup Guinness beer, room temperature

For the Peanut Butter Ice Cream:

1 cup Half and Half

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Toppings:
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter, melted but cooled.
Chocolate Magic Shell Ice Cream Topping

Here's what you do!

In a large mixing bowl combine eggs and sour cream. Mix well.

Add in Pudding Mix.

Slowly add in melted butter, mix well.

Alternatly add cake mix and beer, mix just until it is mixed together. Do not overmix.

Fill cupcake wrappers 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

Remove from pans and allow to cool completly.

In a small ziploc bag combine Half & Half and Sugar.

Fill a large (gallon) ziploc bag half full of ice. Pour salt into large bag.

Place small ziploc bag inside large bag, be sure both bags are sealed completely.

Shake bags for 5 minutes.

Remove small bag and carefully rinse bag with cold water.

Pour ice cream into a small bowl.

Mix in creamy peanut butter.

Place in freezer and allow to set for 30-40 minutes.

Once cupcakes have cooled, remove wrappers and slice in half. Place bottom slice of cupcake into a clean cupcake wrapper.

Spoon some ice cream onto bottom half of the cupcake and place the top half of the cupcake back on top.

Spoon some peanut butter topping over the cupcake top.

Place some of the ice cream into a piping bag and pipe a swirl of it on top of the cupcake.

Cover the ice cream "frosting" with Chocolate Magic Shell topping.

Dive in with a big spoon!!!

This was so much fun. I went through so many ideas in my head before I decided on this cupcake and although all of those ideas sound delicious,  I couldn't pass up the chance to mix peanut butter and chocolate!

I hope all of you enjoy these AH-MA-ZING Cupcakes!!!