Faygo Cupcakes for Opening Day!

I love baseball!

I whine every single year that Opening Day should be a national holiday. I inevitably rush home after work and manage to catch the bottom of the 9th, rather than getting to enjoy the entire game. Sure, I could take the day off - but really, there's stuff to do at work and that just seems a bit frivolous. I know others do it, or they call in sick, or they just sit at their desks watching games on MLB.com rather than paying attention to what they should be. Thus, my annual proclamation that Opening Day should be a holiday!

But this year, I have the day off. One isn't permitted to work during the first two or the last two days of Passover; today is the 7th of Passover's 8 days, and thus a paid holiday for me since I work in the Jewish community ... yay!!! The Tigers take on the Twins in Minnesota this afternoon, and I get to watch the whole game ... whee!

So, in honor of this occasion, what festive food are we making? Baseball, hot dogs, peanuts, and Cracker Jacks all go together. I'm certainly not going to make my own hot dogs - that's a chore even I'm not fool enough to bother with! I can't grow my own peanuts up in the cold of Michigan. I could make my own Cracker Jacks, but I'm not a huge fan of popcorn so I'm disinclined to bother; it's so much easier to buy a small box and have the actual product on hand to bestow good luck upon the season.

Then I thought about cupcakes because ... well ... cupcakes are a good thing to think about! They make everyone happy. And since I had made ginger ale-infused Vernors Cupcakes last fall in honor of the Tigers representing the American League in the World Series, I thought I'd riff on that a bit and use another Detroit soda for today's recipe: Faygo, which comes in many flavors and colors, and can thus be coordinated with any team. (Admittedly, my cupcakes came out to be more Mets-colored than Tigers! But it's the thought that counts. Jeremy said they're "(Friggin') fantastic" and that they taste like Creamsicles; that's really all that matters.)

These festive cupcakes would also be perfect to serve on Friday, for the Tigers' home opener against the Yankees - my two favorite teams, having grown up in New York but having lived in Michigan since I was 16.

Baseball's back! I'm a happy, happy girl ... :)

Opening Day 2011

Opening Day 2012

Faygo Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup orange Faygo soda
4 tablespoons oil
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In a measuring cup, combine the soda, oil, vanilla, and eggs; whisk together.

Pour liquid ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Divide the batter among the lined cups, and bake for 18-20 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Frosting:
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon blue food coloring
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, combine the butter and food coloring. Slowly beat in 1 cup of the confectioners' sugar, then add milk; beat in remaining confectioners' sugar. Continue beating 'til frosting is the desired consistency.

Spread frosting onto cupcakes, then serve.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Frugal Floozie Friday - Beezy's Cafe

Jeremy and I had a lovely lunch recently at Beezy's, on a beautiful fall day. I hadn't been there in ages, so it was good to have a chance to eat there again.

We were given a tremendous greeting by Jesse, who was wonderfully welcoming and friendly. In just the few minutes it took to place our order, we exchanged names, discussed fashion and thrift shops, and had a grand time!

Jeremy chose the Roasted Chicken Club sandwich for $6.95: "Sliced Amish chicken breast with bacon, tomato, red onion and spring greens with blue cheese pesto mayo."

The sandwich is huge and can easily be split, even among two hungry people. Jeremy - a 21-year-old male, among the world's heartiest eaters - could only finish half of it. And if you buy two bags of Michigan-made Better Made products for 99-cents each, this lunch would, indeed, be "all that and a bag of chips" for two people while staying within our mandatory Frugal Floozie Friday budget of $5 per person.

The air was just crisp enough (for me, anyway, since I'm always cold) that it warranted soup. So I ordered a bowl of the Creamy Chicken and Garlic soup for $3.50. As you can see, it was thick and rich with huge chunks of meat and carrots. Warm and delicious, this was a perfect antidote to the slight chill.

I also ordered a small Washington Street salad for $4.95; this offered "greens tossed in maple vinaigrette and topped with sliced roasted Amish chicken breast, sliced apple, raisins, and spiced pecans." In other words, it offered sweet and savory, tenderness and crunch, a variety of tastes and textures all on one plate.

Beezy's offers a number of options for vegetarians, and each of the salads is available in a small portion for less than $5. They promote Michigan products like the chips mentioned above, as well as Faygo sodas. The Redpops Jeremy and I each ordered were bright and fruity, and just seemed the perfect choice to complement our lunches.

For friendly service, good ol'-fashioned wholesome food, and a genuine feel for community - both in terms of being a gathering place and a supporter of both Ypsilanti and Michigan - Beezy's is the place to go!

Beezy's
20 N. Washington St.
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
734-485-9625
Monday - Saturday: 7 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.



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Frugal Floozie Friday - Biercamp

Biercamp Artisan Sausage and Jerky offers an excellent 16-hour pulled pork sandwich for $4.99. Since this falls within our mandatory $5 or less per person Frugal Floozie Friday budget, that makes the shop a perfect place to feature today!

As soon as you walk in the door of Biercamp, you are immersed in the fragrance of the barbecue. The pork is spicy and tender, the onions are a perfect sweet and crunchy complement to the sauce, and the pickles are crisp and bright.  Whether you enjoy your sandwich on the picnic benches out front or take some home with you, you must try this!

There is also a wide variety of jerkies and sausage sticks to choose from; prices vary per pound, so you can choose as much or as little as you want to stay within our budget when buying a snack. One each of several varieties would be a great way to sample items.

All of these items are made in-house by the wonderfully friendly owners Walter Hansen and Hannah Cheadle, who told me that they use some family recipes but often just create foods that they, themselves, want to eat.  (And as you listen to them talk about their vocation, Walter's eyes light up with a passion for his work and his products.)  They were offering samples of beef jerky when I was there last, and it was so flavorful and even tender!  It in no way resembled the desiccated leathery meats that we usually think of when we hear the word "jerky."

I highly recommend the rich and creamy Biercamp Jerky Pate, a cream cheese-based spread with lots of flavors shining through; beef jerky, green and red peppers, garlic, lemon, and Dijon mustard all dance in each bite.  At $9.99 per pound, I was able to buy a container of the pate for less than $5.  Thus I still had a bit of a budget to acquire crackers or vegetables to spread this on, though frankly I will admit to simply eating it off a spoon because it's so good.

There is a refrigerated case offering cheeses purchased from local artisans and smoked at Biercamp, a spread featuring corned beef jerky with my favorite Balaton cherries, baked beans and other side dishes.  Products from Ann Arbor's own The Brinery are proudly sold at the store along with other Michigan items, such as Faygo sodas and Better Made potato chips.  And another case offers an assortment of sausages, from Hillbilly breakfast sausage to Italian- and Indian-influenced varieties, that you can bring home to cook with.

So stop by Biercamp, where you can buy hand-crafted sausages and jerkies - and many other delicious items - still within a frugal budget.


Biercamp Artisan Sausage and Jerky
1643 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-995-BIER (2437)
Monday - Saturday: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Closed Sunday


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Frugal Floozie Friday - Cafe Ollie

I've had the great good fortune to visit Cafe Ollie twice recently - once with my very dear friend Sarah (who just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl this past weekend!), and once with Jeremy and his best buddy, Mitch.  Since the restaurant is so warm and wonderful, and such a supporter of Michigan products, it was time to feature it today for Frugal Floozie Friday.

Sarah and I each enjoyed a refreshing dish of Guernsey Farms Dairy's McGuire's Irish Mint ice cream, produced not too far from Ann Arbor in Northville, which was perfect on one of those way-too-early-to-be-summer days that found their way to Michigan before it was even officially Spring.  A single scoop - in either a cone or a lovely sundae glass - costs only $2.75, leaving plenty of room in our mandatory $5 per person budget to buy a local favorite: Faygo soda "made with real sugar in glass bottles."

Cafe Ollie also features daily soups, an assortment of coffees and teas, and baked goods made from scratch (like the fabulous sweets pictured above).  Sarah and I had originally intended to treat ourselves to cupcakes, but the ice cream was calling more loudly on a hot afternoon.  We met just after 4 p.m., and were having such a grand time - truly, talking about everything from family to antique heating grates to Jewish law! - that we ended up closing the place just before 8 p.m., with only the gentlest nudge from the very sweet waitress just as she started to clean up.  Many places would be loathe to let you loiter for quite that long, but we were welcomed stay right until the end of the day.

The next week, Jeremy and Mitch and I sat in the sun on the deck and enjoyed a late lunch of sandwiches, which are served with Detroit's own Better Made potato chips and Perkins Pickles.  For the exceptional price of $7, Jeremy and Mitch split the Reubenesque, Cafe Ollie's own Reuben sandwich.  (Regular readers know that Jeremy will inevitably order a Reuben if he finds one on a menu, and can pontificate at great length about the pros and cons of each one!)  Jeremy gave this sandwich high points for generosity of filling, tenderness of meat, and - most importantly - excellent flavor.

Cafe Ollie features a menu filled with creative sandwiches and salads, and caters to carnivores, vegetarians, and even vegans specifically.  So whether you're looking for a light meal, a sweet treat, or some combination thereof - and no matter what your dietary preferences - you can absolutely find something delicious to eat.

And once you've finished eating, you want to meander next door to the fabulous shop that's also owned by Cafe Ollie's owners, Danielle Scherwin-Teachout and her husband, Mark Teachout.  (If you don't find them on one side of the doorway, you'll find them on the other.)  I first told you about the Michigan General Store in my post about Buffalo Celery Sticks, in which I used some Cajun-flavored chips I'd found at the shop to create a great variation on the famous wings.  You can find so many, many exceptional items at this store, from salsas and mustards to wines and beers to smoked fish and cherry caramels, all made proudly here in Michigan.

So stop by Cafe Ollie and the Michigan General Store.  Enjoy delicious food and a warm welcome, and support both a local business and the Great Lakes State!

Cafe Ollie
42 E. Cross St.
Ypsilanti, MI 48198
734-482-8050

Monday: Closed
Tuesday - Friday: 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.



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"Chopped" Challenge - Piccadillo

It's Day 4 of my "Chopped" challenge, in which I had asked readers to suggest ingredients that I would then have to use in creating dishes.  Today's dare came from Sarah, giving me a grand Michigan-inspired challenge:

"Oh this is so much fun! My husband and I joke that so often our kitchen resembles a 'Chopped' kitchen since I will go to the pantry and come up with something, even when it seems like there is nothing in the house that could even resemble ingredients for a full meal. I have ... come up with the following challenge - for the dinner round - orange Faygo pop, ground turkey and barley. I can't wait to see all of the scrumptious dishes that you come up with!! Time starts now . . ."

Well, I wasn't just told to use plain ol' orange soda; I was specifically given Faygo as one of the secret ingredients in my basket.  Faygo is a Michigan classic, the company having been founded in Monroe in 1907.  So immediately my thoughts turned to incorporating other foods from my state into whatever I was going to make.

I started thinking about Michigan's beautiful fruits, the tart cherries and blueberries that we are so noted for, which are grown primarily on the west side of the state.  Perhaps a barley pilaf that would feature a touch of sweetness and color?

As I considered possibilities for combining the required ingredients with the dried fruit that I was now determined to include, I had an epiphany one evening: picadillo.


Picadillo [peek-ah-DEE-yo], which translates to "make mincemeat of," is a dish that can be found throughout Latin America, with variations from one country to the next.  According to Wikipedia: "Cuban versions include peppers, onions, garlic, oregano, cumin, tomato sauce, stock, olives and on occasion raisins, potatoes, and capers, and is usually sauteed in olive oil and white wine, depending on the region."

According to Epicurious, "Picadillo is ... made with ground meat, tomatoes, and regional ingredients."  Well, how much more regional can it get than to use the Faygo orange soda instead of stock, as well as substituting blueberries and tart cherries for the traditional raisins?


I cooked with some Michigan wine - Leelanau Cellars' semi-sweet Winter White - and served the picadillo over the required barley rather than over rice.  Each bite brings a little sweet, a little salty, a hint of spice, a unique melange.  It's a fabulously flavorful dish with a Great Lakes State flair!


Picadillo


2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers
4 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin seed
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 19.2-ounce package ground turkey
juice of half lemon
1/2 cup Faygo orange soda
1/4 cup + 1 cup semi-sweet white wine
1/4 cup dried blueberries
1/4 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
1/4 cup green olives with pimiento, chopped
3 cups water
2 cups quick-cook barley

Make the picadillo: Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan.  Add the onion, garlic, red peppers, tomatoes, oregano, cumin, salt, and red pepper flakes; cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, to soften the onion.

Add the turkey and the lemon juice; cook for 10 minutes until the turkey is no longer pink, stirring to break up the meat.

Add the soda, 1/4 cup of the wine, the blueberries, cherries and olives; bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Make the barley: Bring 1 cup wine plus the water to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add the barley, turn heat to "low," cover the saucepan, and cook for 10 minutes.  Turn off heat and let barley rest for 10 minutes until the liquid had been fully absorbed.

To serve: Place barley onto a serving platter and top with the picadillo.

Serves 4-6.

Corned Beef, Piled High

Now that I've got your attention ... :)

Tom and I went to The Bread Basket Deli recently, the one in Ann Arbor rather than any of the myriad ones in the Detroit 'burbs. It serves all the old familiar favorites: sandwiches big enough to feed families of 4, blintzes, matzah ball soup, knishes. They even offer foods that I wouldn't consider favorites (although I'm happy to know that there's respect for tradition), such as chopped liver and pickled tongue.

We were hearing the call of corned beef, loudly and insistently. We'd been meaning to eat at The Bread Basket for ages, so it was a perfect Saturday afternoon adventure. And we were warmly welcomed by the staff in this very informal and casual place which, I must add, just won AnnArbor.com's contest last week naming it "Best Place to Buy a Sandwich." Everyone, including me, thought the winner would be the famous Zingerman's Deli; but Jeremy is still ranting, months later, about a $15 Reuben he bought there that he claims was the worst he's ever eaten; and I had a sandwich from there last year that was fine, but nothing stellar ... certainly not worth the extortionist prices or the inflated reputation. But, as often happens, I digress ....

As we walked into the Deli, we were greeted with one of the items Michigan is most proud of: Better Made potato chips, perfect to be served with the gargantuan sandwich offerings. In the cooler, we also found another Michigan stalwart, Faygo sodas. We knew we were among kindred spirits!




The menu offered so, so many choices for sandwiches; but we'd come on a mission to devour some corned beef, and so our decision-making process was a bit easier. Rye bread is a given -- no other viable options, don't even bother debating it with me! But did we want cheese? Not really. Cole slaw? Okay, and that version (#17) comes with Russian dressing. Sometimes you just want corned beef with mustard, but that day a little extra would hit the spot. Throw in a bag of barbecue chips, and we had a complete meal!

So we sat down at one of the festive red tables, and very quickly our sandwich was brought out to us. We were planning to split it, because neither of us would have survived eating an entire one! And the sandwiches are served with one spear each of new (for Tom) and old (the only real kind, as far as I'm concerned) pickles, though both varieties are available to purchase whole if you're really feeling indulgent.

Tom doesn't normally eat anything this huge, rich and fatty; in fact, he ate about a month's worth of meat in that sitting! I, of course, am currently living in a vegetarian home, so I was thrilled beyond description to wallow in this carnivorous feast.

The corned beef is sliced so thin, and is so tender, that it practically melts. The cole slaw is perfectly seasoned to complement the meat, and is not soupy or creamy at all. In fact, with the exception of a few morsels of cabbage trickling out, the cole slaw is exactly the right consistency to actually help hold the sandwich together rather than the norm of having the filling slip every which way out of the bread. This, I must say, is an impressive feat!

And then -- as though you could possibly have room for anything more! -- there are the desserts, which are just as enormous as the sandwiches: old-fashioned Jewish comfort foods like cheesecake, as well as others such as banana pudding and sweet potato pie. Of course, you'd have to have even a heartier appetite than mine -- and I'm an excellent eater! -- to not only eat an entire sandwich, but to then polish off sweets afterwards ... oy! The folks at The Bread Basket give more generous servings than I do!

So the next time you want to throw any notions of diet and restraint away for awhile, be sure to head to The Bread Basket Deli. Indulge in a sandwich or in a sweet, or even both; and know that you'll be welcomed and well fed.

Day-Glo Faygo Cupcakes

Soft, moist, flavorful, and vivid enough to resemble colors of nail polish that lil' ol' quirky and whimsical moi would wear ... welcome to the wonderful world of Faygo cupcakes!

These are a uniquely Michigan product -- created by the Just Baked bakery in Livonia (30 minutes or so from Ann Arbor, with a store here in town) using a legendary soda made in Detroit. They come in three flavors: Orange, Grape, and Redpop (strawberry).

I'd heard about them for several weeks -- they're being sold not only at the Just Baked shops, but also at locally-owned grocery store chains Hiller's and Busch's. So, of course, near-omnivore that I am with a hearty sweet tooth, I had to give them a try!

Tom and I went into the bakery the other day, and asked if we could buy a couple of them; no, sorry, they're packaged by the half-dozen for mass retail sales so they can't be sold individually. Well, we didn't need 6 cupcakes no matter how festive they were. So we were thrilled to have the sales clerk offer to give us a sample, and to even ask which flavors we'd like to taste. Hmmm ... ye olde decision-making brain fizzle! Tom chose Orange and I chose Redpop, and we set to tasting and sharing.

Each of the cupcakes had a distinct flavor of the soda they are made with; and our charming hostess told us that no food colorings are used in creating the depth of color in the treats -- the soda alone provides the hue. They were moist, they were flavorful, they were very sweet, and the frosting was silky smooth ... sigh ... :)

These cupcakes would be perfect for a kids' party, in particular. They would also be a perfect way to support multiple Michigan businesses at once, if one were serving state-themed goodies for the Michigan-Ohio State game at noon on Saturday -- show some love to the Great Lakes State against its superarchrival, yeah!!! (Maize 'n' Blue food is perfectly alright, but buying these cupcakes would be an investment in our economy ... and no, that's not just my way of rationalizing a sugar fix!)

Of course, after being treated so hospitably we didn't have the heart to leave the shop without buying anything ... what a couple of mentsches ([MENT-shez] = good people) we are, huh???

So we decided to try one Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake -- chocolate cake filled with peanut butter frosting, topped with more peanut butter frosting that is then coated in chocolate -- and a Samoa cupcake with chocolate-drizzled coconut and caramel over a yellow cupcake, in honor of the famous Girl Scout cookie of the same name. Yeah, what a way to spend a Saturday afternoon, huh???


The Samoa cupcake was a bit dry, though the coconut-caramel-chocolate topping was sweet and sticky and wonderful to savor even when it separated from the crumbly cake. The Chocolate Peanut Butter one was rich and smooth and absolutely luscious ... definitely one I would eat more (lots more!) of.


In closing, let me just brag about my state and its delicious goodies and great businesses one more time ... humor me, please. Detroit gets so much bad press that I want to really tout this particular tidbit of news, 'cause it's just a happy little item. Serious Eats, an enormous NYC-based site devoted to all things food (recipes, articles, chatting, photos, etc.) recently did a taste test of regionally produced root beers. Well, you only get one guess as to which was the winner ... come on, you know the answer ... FAYGO, yay!!! Truly, we are a proud bunch here ... :)