161: Balsamic Braised Cabbage with Apples

Recipes for Health for the win, per usual.

Apparently I'm obsessed with balsamic vinegar. Paired with figs, shallots/liver, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, and now cabbage. Some more successfully than others.

This is a super simple recipe, the hardest part is the time it takes to make. I pretty much followed it as written- though cut in half due to the size of my cabbage. Didn't have allspice, felt like having fun so used some garam masala.

I overdid the balsamic a bit in this one, but with the apples and the warm spices though it's a perfect fall dish. Definitely recommended with a lighter touch.

160: Mustard Green Salad with Apples

So, shocker, when you follow recipes, things can taste good. Nice simple salad- mustard greens, carrots and apples. Complicated dressing- mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, vinegar- all this loveliness can be found here. Made it for a nice detox dinner. I'd say my only complaint is that I would've liked to taste the greens more. I dressed it on the light side, too, it's just that all the flavors in the dressing masked the bitterness of the greens.

Definitely in the make again pile though,

159: Radish and Avocado Sandiwches

This is insanely easy. No harm in that. Used a recipe from Martha, though as you can see it was less a recipe than a list of ingredients. You pick your proportions.

Needed a quick lunch so this was ideal. I made a vinaigrette with lemon juice, zest, olive oil, salt and pepper. Just mixed them until they tasted good. Sliced my radishes at home and a few pieces of amazing sourdough from She Wolf Bakery. Bought an avocado on my way to work.

Assembled by tossing my radishes in the vinaigrette, then the avocados. Mashing the avocados onto the bread, topping with radishes.

I had a few problems with this- namely my whole lemons in savory aversion, especially creamy savory. Next time I'd try this with vinegar as my acid. I couldn't taste the radishes; I would've loved more of their peppery bite. And finally as much as I love the hell out of this bread, it's not the best sliced for sandwiches. Maybe hoagie style. And I had a bunch with pate. Just not a sandwich bread.

158: Bok Choy and Mushroom Soup

Soup! Made a mix between a few recipes, as I didn't have the meat in the one I linked to in the delivery post. 

Ingredients 

Mushroom broth (32 oz container)

3 portobello mushrooms, sliced

1 head Bok Choy, greens sliced into ribbons, stems chopped and kept separate

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2" piece of fresh ginger, grated

1 Tbs Thai basil vinegar (or your preference)

1 Tbs soy sauce

~ oil

~ salt, pepper

1 bundle of noodles (still had some buckwheat / sweet potato, but again, your preference here)

~ sesame oil

1 scallion, sliced fine

~ sriracha 

Started a pot with about half a container of mushroom broth. Stemmed my portobellos and threw those in the pot (not really necessary but thought it couldn't hurt). Let that simmer while I worked on the rest. 

Brought a pot of water to boil, cooked my noodles per package instructions, then ran them under cold water and tossed with a little sesame oil to keep from sticking. It didn't really work, but added nice flavor to the dish so I'd still recommend it.

My thought with this soup was to make everything I could vaguely noodly. So I cut my mushrooms into strips and my bok choy greens into ribbons. 

I put some onions in a pan with oil and salt, and cooked off my mushrooms in batches til they got a little color on them, then added to the pot of stock. When all the mushroom was done, deglazed with some of the remaining stock and added that to the pot as well. 

Sautéed the rest of my onions with the chard stems until the stems were a little tender. Then added my garlic and ginger, stirring continuously so they didn't burn, and once those smelled fragrant, added my leaves. Mixed those until they wilted, then added those to the stock pot. Deglazed the pan with the remaining stock, added that to the pot as well. 

Then the tricky part, where I tried to make my soup well seasoned. Added approx a tablespoon each of my Thai basil vinegar and soy sauce. Salt and pepper as needed. Remove those mushroom stems. 

Put my noodles in a bowl and poured my soup over, then topped with the scallions and some parsley, which you can see in my pics but I wouldn't recommend. Maybe basil instead? I still felt like it was missing something. That something turned out to be sriracha.

I'd love to do a trial sometime where I start with the same soup base and try different vinegars and other additions to see what difference it makes to the final product. Project for another day!

157: Wilted Chard and Bulgar with Mustard

There are nights you have the best of intentions of going home early, making some dinner, and getting a lot of sleep. Of course that doesn't happen though, you have an event then go to a second location (not with a hippie, but still not the best idea), and then don't get home til 1am. I still needed to make lunch, I still had chard from last week's share, so I cooked up something the in morning before work.

This probably wouldn't have happened if I didn't already have leftover diced onions from the pate. Part of me always wants to have those on hand now, as I was able to put this together in about 15 minutes.

I sauteed the onions in a pan with some oil and salt. Let them go a little too long as I didn't have the rest of my mise set up. Added some grated garlic and chopped chard. Stirred until the greens wilted. Meanwhile, mixed some mustard and olive oil and tossed the greens in that as soon as they came out of the pan. I kept the dressing to a minimum, as I wanted the flavor of the chard to come through. Made use of some bulgur leftover from my stuffed squash to accompany.

It was another case of not tasting the final product and paying for it a bit. The mustard was a fine level for just the greens, but got lost when everything was mixed with the bulgar. Still very good though!

156: Sage Liver Pate and Shallot Jam

What happened to eating healthy? Not sure. But that picture is of something super delicious: chicken liver pate and shallot jam on bread. Last night I hate some on a sage biscuit. Sugar on butter on butter.

I used this recipe from The Bitten Word, subbing out sage for thyme. I'm not getting much sage from the final dish though, I'll add more if I do this again. Also I sliightly overcooked my livers- digging into the pate this morning I was hoping to see a little pink, but no luck. But there was bad lighting at home, because guess what I saw when I had some at work:



Slight but there! Yay! Maybe next time I get liver friendly herbage I'll be spot on.

The winner for me in all of this is the shallot jam. Remnicient of my fig jam, it's made with balsamic vinegar, but with brown sugar for extra caramelly depth. The shallots swing it nicely savory and ugh...I could, have, and will continue to just eat it with a spoon. It would be amazing on sandwiches. I need to make more sandwiches.

Delivery 16

Lactino Kale - 1 bunch

Tomatillos - 10
French Breakfast/Cherriette Radishes - 1 bunch
Parsley - 1 bunch
Mustard Greens - 1 bunch
Bok Choy - 1 head
Broccoli - 3 These were feeling rather limp, so I hit up the swap table for more tomatillos!
Shallots - 4
Red Cabbage - 1
Peppers - 2

Hot Peppers - Serranos take if you like

Lactino Kale 

Why are people calling this Lactino Kale when it's also known as DINOSAUR kale. Seriously, so much more awesome and totally apt. Here's a raw salad, and some stuffed sweet potatoes.

Bok Choy

Hash, super easy saute, and I'm still feeling in need of soup.

Tomatillo

You could buy 10 lb bags of these from the farm that supplies the CSA. It was tempting, but I somehow refrained. I want to do something vastly different with these guys. Here's a tart, or some curd, a drink, or braised chicken. Ok and a guac, just in case I feel like dipping.

Radishes

I've had this salad on the list for ages, but now I actually have share radishes to make it with, so it will definitely happen soon. Greens are also nice! If I want to go simple here's a sandwich, or roasted. A few salads: detox and with mangos. And out of the blue a bit: curry!

Red Cabbage

No red cabbage on the swap table today. This is a little guy, so this won't hit as many recipes as the usual cabbage. Simple sweet and sour, a salad with white beans, a few slaws, cooked with apples, and a plain ol sear.

 

Mustard Greens 

There was a surprising amount of mustard greenage on the swap table, maybe people aren't as enamored of it as I am? I keep cooking them, this time I have to keep it raw. Here's a salad with anchovies and one with apples.

Peppers

So the long guys are probably cubanelles- I've just been eating them as easy snacks and will probably continue to do so. This looks really good, though anything with eggs is a winner for me. They're also often stuffed. I have a blacklog of hot peppers, maybe I'll finally get around to pickling them.

Shallots

I'll be posting something amazing with shallots soon, but, again, will mostly just try to use in place of onions/garlic in a few standard recipes.

Parsley

A few recipes mention parsley (at least one of the slaws has it), but here it is wilted on toast (with an egg- scroll down!)...and even further down the page there's a simple salad with lentils and a mustardy vinaigrette. Tabbouleh, a roulade (not gonna happen but cool), eggplant dip, potato cake.

155: Catchall Soup

So I still had a ton of stuff left from the last delivery, and honestly I'm worn out. I started an internship at a local brunchy place on the weekends- so I do my normal 9-5 during the week, then head down to work on prep Friday afternoons, and then work from 8-6 Saturday and Sunday. Line cooking. Standing, making toast and potatoes, doing the particular dance required of four people moving around each other in a space smaller than my apartment's kitchen. I'm loving the hell out of the work, just not the lack of time off. And I'm going through a bout of insomnia. Meh. Grumpy McComplainerson.

I felt/feel a cold coming on: soup was in order. Just to warn you, a have a feeling soup will be my new salad. Simple seeming but totally baffling for me. This was fine but largely meh. I used leftover veggie broth (supplimented with some turkey stock I had in the freezer), shallots, garlic, zucchini, potatoes, chard, sage, parsley and a little thyme. Tasted, it was pretty bland.

Added lots of pepper, more salt some smoked paprika. Still, I wasn't feeling it. There was a decent improvement with some of my basil vinegar and some liquid aminos, but overall it's not worth my posting a recipe.

My standard soup for feeling sick is simple: chicken broth, lots of onion, rosemary, and either zucchini or butternut squash. This was missing something, and I'm pretty sure it was copious amounts of onion. But next time I'll actually look up a recipe before embarking on a soup adventure.

154: Stuffed Squash

Stuffin stuff again...just thought this would look really cute, and it does.

Cooking for myself can involve a bunch of moving pieces. I only had one little winter squash left from my share this week, and I had the idea of making a nice mustard green and bulgur stuffing. But not being sure I'd like it and not wanting to be stuck with a ton of this specific stuffing for the rest of the week, I made a batch, cooked up my greens mixture separately, and mixed about what I needed. Now I have some leftover greens and bulgur to use up in vastly different ways if I'd like. It's a good technique to use for other grains as well.

Ingredients:

Bulgur:

1.5 cups veggie stock

1 cup bulgur

Greens:

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 portobello cap, chopped

1 bunch of mustard greens, stemmy bits removed (and nommed while cooking), chopped

~ veggie stock

~ salt, pepper

And last (but not least) 1 winter squash, cap removed, seeded (like a jack-o-lantern)

I started my squash (and cap) in a 350 degree oven, turned upside down. Meanwhile I brought the stock to a boil then poured over the bulgur (which was hanging out in a heat proof bowl). Covered and let that sit while I prepped everything else.

Sweat my onions (in a dry pan with a little salt), then added garlic and portobello. Once those had cooked sufficiently I added my chopped greens and mixed until they wilted. Deglazed with a bit of veggie stock, seasoned as needed. Mixed a small amount of bulgur in and adjusted the seasoning again.

By that time my squash had been in about a half hour, so I took it out, flipped it over, poked a bunch of fork holes in the flesh of the squash, then added my stuffing, popped the cap on, then threw it in the oven.

About a half hour later (a little longer, probably) I took my adorable squash out and nommed. It was good, though I have some reservations. There's something texturally a little meh to me about this kind of squash. I love how smooth butternut gets when roasted, this just felt a little...mealy? Though maybe it needed longer.

It also needed more seasoning, and I realized that while adorable, this style of containerizing the squash is very difficult to eat (though obviously easier once I'd cut it in half). I also would've liked more stuffing- the ratio was a little off. Next time I'd cut it half pole to pole, then mound it in. Actually (per my experimenting), I'd probably just harvest the squash and mix in with the stuffing, but yeah, this was totally adorable and worth it for the one.

153: Honey Mustard Squash

I've been on a bit of a mustard kick lately, so when I saw this recipe I thought I'd give it a shot with my Winter Squash. Cut them in half, seeded, and mixed up the butter, honey and mustard per recipe instructions. Mine needed longer than the hour to get nice and roasty but they were good. I'd probably use more mustard next time though- or try out stone ground instead of dijon.

I also toasted up the seeds with a little salt. Easy snack to just throw in the oven while the squash is already doing its thing in there.

All in all a lovely reminder of why I love fall.

152: Sage Biscuits

Finally: biscuits. I've caved. With the cupcakes and the soon-to-be pate, I'm just going all out butter and sugar lately. It's ok, I had yogurt and veggies for lunch.

Something was a little off in the proportions for this recipe. They wanted me to make a 7"x7"x1" shape with the dough, but that definitely wasn't happening with what the ingredients created. And I'm still (per usual) having browning issues with my oven, despite leaving the dough a good extra 7 minutes to do its thing in there.

But biscuits = butter = delicious, so it's little petty squabbling. They're mighty tasty, and I'm hoping that letting them hang out overnight will help that sage flavor infuse a little more. Any leftovers will get thrown in the freezer for future breadless breakfasts.

151: Spicy Braised Eggplant and Tofu

No Baignan this week. It's ok. I'm enjoying this. I used this recipe from Macheesmo, though instead of rice noodles I used sweet potato / buckwheat noodles (someone felt like being fancy at Whole Foods this week. That person is me by the way). I'd probably recommend something less strong, as you really want the star to be the eggplant and tofu. Oh, I also used portobello mushrooms instead of shiitake. I even have an extra for snacking/scrambling.

My only complaint that it was a bit salty, to be expected with lots of soy sauce and sriracha, but it was tasty. Super simple to prepare, and I have a ton of leftovers, which will be nice for lunches.

Oh and apparently it wasn't spicy enough, so of course this happened.

150: Greek Cabbage Pie with Dill and Feta

So once again my oven has browning issues, the broiler was used...and the result not the prettiest. I used this recipe from the NY Times, happy with the simplicity of the ingredients, slightly daunted by the time it took to make. Though I was able to use the recipe's suggestion of cooking the filling ahead of time, then assembling and cooking the pie the next day.

I had a wonderful flavor memory from the filling of this pie. Stirring the dill and parsley in at the end, at first it didn't taste like much, but given a little time to meld and bloom...I took a bite, and bam! The rice pilaf from George's Roasters. That exact flavor. Well now I know how to make it, and make it a little healthier with cabbage. And also now I want their rotisserie chicken. I think they coat it in crack.

Anyway, after my last fillo experiment I felt a little more confident using it- laid on the butter and oil, tried to keep everything fairly tight without ripping it (much), and in the oven it went. For an hour. Once again, hardly any browning. Definitely need to pick up a thermometer and test my oven out. 

I forgot to slash the top to let steam out, which probably didn't help my top layers stay together, but the overall flavor is very good, especially when warm. I sometimes have trouble with seasoning for these kinds of recipes, as I can't taste the final product (raw egg), but this turned out fairly well. Maybe needed a little more pepper. I still have a small square left (yay for events where I can load off some food!), will definitely try it with a little squirt of lemon.

Would definitely make this again...when I have a day to kill. We'll see when that happens.

149: Swiss Chard Tzatziki

So this may not deserve another number, as it's the exact same recipe I've done before, but hey- this time there's a picture! Not a pretty one, but as I was cooking all day for an event I was going to, wasn't much time. Was surprised how quickly this came together. Blanching the greens took the most time, but beyond that it assembles in a few minutes.

147: Herb Scrambled Eggs and 148: Smoky Chard Stems

It's hard for me to make a simple breakfast, or I can, but need bread. Without it I'm a little lost. Also the daylight situation in my kitchen in the mornings is throwing off my photos.

Eggs were easy- wanted to use up herbage, so I chopped up some sage and thyme. Eggs in a pan with (too much health-wise, enough delicious-wise) oil and butter, started the eggs, then tossed in the herbs soon after. My scrambles tend to be on the stove for less than a minute, product of a love of soft eggs and a super hot burner.

Accompaniment was a little harder. I decided on a quick saute of chard stems. Started some onion petals in a pan with oil, cooked until they were getting soft, then turned up the heat and threw in the chard stems (thick part had been cut in half). Kept stirring so they wouldn't stick, then tossed in a little smoked paprika towards the end for good measure.

The eggs were delicious. Not completely sold on the stems. They're fibrous and a little hard to eat. Flavors were good though.

146: Roasted Bok Choy

I got home yesterday, super tired, a little braindead, wanting something simple. Bok Choy was never really my favorite, so a dish without a lot of fuss is what I needed. I saw this recipe, and as I already had the oven going for something off-share, I tossed my bok choy with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, laid it out on a sheet pan and threw it in the oven.

It roasted for ~10 minutes each side. When I went to turn I realized I had no lemon juice, so I sprinkled a little thai basil vinegar I'd made weeks ago for a pepper jam that never happened. For the record: still on the fence about thai basil (boo anise), but totally loving that vinegar.

I cooked until the leaves started to char a bit. My vinegar application was rushed and uneven, the leaves at the end barely got hit, and I wasn't sold- too much of the Bok Choy bitterness coming through. The middle leaves were so delicious though, nicely roasted and sweet, the tang of the vinegar mellowing out the acerbic greens.

Minigoal: season more things with vinegar

Minigoal 2: make more flavored vinegars

Delivery 15

Bright Lights Swiss Chard - 1 bunch

Winter Squash - 2

Orient Express Eggplant - 2

Sage-1 bunch

Mustard Greens - 1 bunch

Bok Choy - 1 bunch

Shallots - 4

Cabbage - 1

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Peppers - 2

Hot Peppers - take if you like

Bok Choy

Not my favorite, but happy to have greens again. May give this away (I know one of my roommates is a fan) or will do something simple. Like a stir fry or roast. Here's a little roundup.

Chard

Have a dinner, so may remake that dip I forgot to take pics of. Also this comic is lovely and has a few ways of cooking the veg (and I'm starting to get a little obsessed with Dirt Candy). It'd also be a good mix with the squash and sage. Here it is creamed from smitten kitchen- a preparation I haven't tried yet.

Sage

Excited, as it means I get to buy chicken liver again. Liking the looks of this recipe, especially that it includes a recipe for shallot jam! I may have a little thyme in the fridge as well. Beyond that: a huuge roundup of recipe ideas. Also: biscuits.

Shallots

The aforementioned shallot jam, but otherwise using in everything, as shallots are so tasty.

Orient Express Eggplant

I'm considering something beyond Baynan Bharta. I think it's time for a longer break until I can taste the original. I have a cool recipe for jam from the Dirt Candy cookbook, or maybe babaganoush. Here's a stir fry, and a few from Macheesmo. More roasty from Bon Appetit.

Cabbage

Peanut Slaw from Cook's Illustrated (via Martha). I'm continuing to run low on ideas haha. Also the swap table was ENTIRELY cabbage, which was fairly hilarious. Here's a roundup (these are my favs, skimming). Also: fritters.

Potatoes

I have a ton of recipes from potato's earlier appearances in deliveries. Here's some bread (tired Kelly is a carb-craving Kelly)

Squash

Roasty toasty. These are most likely carnival squash. These would be good stuffed. Oh hey here's a pinterest board of recipes! Fav, skimmin: stuffed with spaghetti (sucker for an egg yolk!). Here's a preparation for acorn that I'd totally try out with this.

Peppers

Happy I remembered spicy peppers this time- not 100% sure what the big peppers are, but will probably just dice them and throw them into something.

Mustard Greens

Yay! So happy to see this guy again. I love this spicy green, may just do a raw salad. Here are a few from Martha. Here's an Indian dish! Salad with bulgur, another with garlic mayo, and another Indian preparation to round out the ideas.

145: Broccoli Spanakopita

I bought some fillo dough for another purpose- one ill post about soon. But as I haven't used the stuff before, thought it would be a good idea to do a simple, trial run to make sure I had a feel for how it acted, cooked etc. One of the few times I've decided to do a handy trial run, and glad I did.

I settled in this recipe for spanakopoita, but with broccoli, so I'm sure it should be called something different. 

Sautéed up some diced onion with salt, added a head of finely chopped broccoli and a few cloves of garlic, and as I had them, about a tablespoon each of fresh dill and parsley. Let that cool, then added some crumbled feta (about 2 oz) a beat egg and a some pepper. 

Now for the fillo! I bought some frozen, thankfully remembered to pop it in the fridge before I went to bed, then out on the counter 2 hrs before I wanted to work on the things. 

Laid out a sheet. They're thin and you have to handle them with a reasonable amount of care, but they're definitely workable. Brushed as best I could with oil then laid out another sheet. A bit of the mix got placed center bottom, folded over the sides then rolled up.

Pictures would be helpful here, huh? The recipe has great ones if you want to attempt. 

I baked these in the oven for about 20 minutes. I think my oven is crazy low, these didn't brown at all, had to pop them under the broiler for a minute to get a bit of color. 

The filling was good! The fillo was a bit dry and crazy flaky. Next time I'll really lay on that butter/oil, or wrap everything a bit tighter. 

Simple assembly for a nice looking final product. Excited to use it for the recipe I purchased, and again for other things. 

Off Share: Boozy Peach Jam

End of summer/beginning of fall is the start of "Kelly goes a little crazy canning" season. There may be a flurry of jam activity when apples get nice and cheap, but definitely a lot when citrus (especially blood orange!) comes around. Expect marmalade then (thinking of going for the crazy citrus this time- buddha's hand anyone?), and then a nice lull until next year.

I like pickles more than jam, but they never take for me. The process of jam and marmalade is much more my speed. My brain gets itchy with ideas when I walk through whole foods this time of year, I can't help it.

Anyway, I was gifted 11 peaches so of course I made some jam. I can't find the recipe I used now- I did it in a sleep deprived blur- but it was close to this, except I didn't have that vanilla bean so I used extract.

Yielded a perfect amount of jam for me- 2 half pints and then enough for some taste testing.

Here it is in action on some walnut bread from Balthazar Bakery. In love with this bread, and I'll have a dangerous amount of access to loaf ends for the next few months. You'll see it a lot, for sure.

I thought I wouldn't like this jam, to be honest. Peaches make me think of peaches and cream, and other super sugary concoctions. But I like this! I'm not sure I taste the bourbon or the vanilla as much as I'd like, but the overall mix isn't cloying at all, so win!

144: Peperonata

I know, I know, this again? What can I say...it's good stuff and easy to boot. I used the two peppers from my share and a yellow from the gifted. One medium/large onion cut to resemble the pepper pieces (i.e. wedges), a few cloves of garlic and some borrowed basil. Tomatoes were a pint from canning last year- still good, though very lemony. Salt, pepper, olive oil, and red pepper flake for good measure.

Good batch, though I seriously burned the roof of my mouth on potatoes this weekend, so I had to let it cool down a decent degree. More liquid than I'm used to in this recipe- so this was a braise of the peppers in the tomatoes- not a saute as in earlier batches. I liked the texture of this batch more as a result. The yellow pepper added a little more sweetness, though it was greatly outmatched by the amount of green peppers so it wasn't significant.

The bowl above is very tiny, so I did a second serving with the best over easy egg I've ever done. It looked like a cartoon egg, it was so perfect. Tiny cast iron skillet ftw!

143: Stuffed Carrot Cupcakes

I love carrot cake, but this is my first time making it. I used a mix of two recipes. The cake batter is Cook's Illustrated (via another site) and the frosting stuffing idea is from King Arthur Flour. It was not the easiest mix of recipes- the batter is delicious but very thick/heavy. Not a bad thing...unless you're trying to not smush a soft filling into a flat layer. I'd say it worked for the most part, though next time I may try to fridge the frosting a bit to solidify.

Ingredients:

Cake:

8.75 oz AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
8.75 oz light brown sugar
1/4 cup walnut oil

1/2 cup canola oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
10 oz shredded carrots (almost 3 big)
2/3 cup dried currants

2/3 cup toasted shredded/dried coconut

Frosting:

8 oz package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

Main additions to the recipe were switching out some of the oil for walnut oil (I was running out of canola and ideally think this cake should have nuts in it, too), and the addition of coconut. That I just bought, thinking "of course this cake has coconut in it"...when none of the recipes I was thinking about using had that in there. Whatever, it was a nice tasty addition.

Preheat your oven to 350. Mix the frosting up, set aside. Mix up your dry, set aside. 

Mix your wet ingredients, then add your mix ins (carrot, currants, coconut), once combined add the dry. It's a very dense batter but it will come together. This yielded 15 cupcakes, though 12 of them were a little overfilled, so if done well you'll probably get more. Put a spoon of batter down, add a small spoon of filling to the center of each, then cover (carefully) with the batter. You may have to finesse it a bit- adding your batter carefully around the filling before putting some on top- maybe even creating a little dimple in that initial spoonful for the filling to live.

I had a bit of an oven preheating mishap, so my cupcakes went in to a warm-ish oven and took about a half hour. Your mileage with vary, just take them out when the tops have a little cush to them. Or you can do the toothpick test along the side. It's one of those things I just know by feel.

I think my oven issues lead to my cupcakes being a little flat- though if they had not been over-filled I don't think it would be as obvious. Overall though I'm in love. Frosted cupcakes are one of the most annoying things to transport, leading to space-taker-uppers like this caddy here. NYC apartments are too small to own something like that for the handful of times a year I make cupcakes. Filling is super easy, leads to less frosting overall (a good thing, frosting is kind of gross), and most importantly: you get a good cross section. I'm a sucker for that.