Better than Restaurant rice Mexican Rice

My goodness y'all...last weekend we had the elders over for dinner. My father made a delicious taco bar and asked me to make some queso (which I am the bomb.com at!), and some Mexican rice. Well I am here to tell you that my Mexican rice was better than any restaurant that I have been to, and I am here to share it with you! This recipe so super easy and makes a huge bowl full. It serves 6-8 people and is just made of deliciousness!

May all your Mexican rice dreams come true!

Ingredients:

• 1 Can tomatoes (peeled)
• 1 Medium onion (peeled and roughly chopped)
• 2 Cups chicken Stock
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/3 cup neutral cooking oil
• 2 Cups long-grain white rice
• 1 to 2 Chile peppers, seeded and minced (for flavor)
• 4 to 5 Garlic cloves, pressed
• 1/4 Cup finely chopped cilantro
• Juice from 2 limes, plus additional wedges for food decoration

Directions:

1. Place tomatoes and onion in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth
2. Transfer the tomato mixture to a medium sauce pan and stir in the chicken stock, salt, and cumin. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
3. While bringing tomato mixture to a boil, Heat oil in a heavy dutch oven over medium to medium-high heat. When oil is sizzling, add the rice and saute, stirring frequently until lightly toasted and golden (8-10 minutes) DO NOT burn.
4. Add green chilies and cook until they are softened (about 2 minutes) lowering the heat if necessary.
5. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds
6. Pour the boiling mixture over the rice and stir to combine
7. turn heat to low and cook covered until liquid has evaporated and rice is done (about 15 min) continue to mix every few minutes so it does not stick to the bottom.
8. Remove from heat and gently stir rice. Re-cover the pot and allow to rest undisturbed for 10 min.
9. Add cilantro and lime juice and lightly fluff.
10. Add lime wedges for beautiful food decoration
11. ENJOY!

You are welcome! Let me know how it goes!!

XOXO

Modern day LDS wife

Happy Birthday Confetti cake!

Yesterday was a wonderful day to celebrate my wonderful mother! She is so full of love and is my best friend! I can't wait to have a daughter one so that I can have a forever best friend!
To celebrate her day, I made her this amazing confetti cake with buttercream frosting and I just couldn't wait to share it with you! This is my first time EVER making a cake from scratch and, not to brag, I rocked it! This recipe is delicious!

Here is what you will need for the cake:

• 1 Cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 Large egg
• 1/2 Cup buttermilk
• 1/3 Cup sour cream (or plain greek yogurt)
• 1/4 Cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• Sprinkles!

Directions:

1. Prep: Preheat oven to 350, Spray an 8x8 baking pan with cooking spray (or butter) and layer with flour (so it is non stick!)
2. in a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, sour cream, oil, and vanilla
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry folding with a spatula. DO NOT worry about the small lumps! Don't overmix trying to get the smooth!
5. Gently stir in the sprinkles. don't overmix because the sprinkles will bleed into the batter.
6. pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 min. (check after 20 min with a toothpick.)
7. Place pan on wire rack and allow to cool

**this recipe makes enough for one pan! I made 3 separate cakes to make my beautiful layered cake! I just remade the recipe 3 times, I did not triple the recipe

While the cake is baking, lets make the frosting! This frosting is a delicious cream cheese buttercream frosting! This go around was my husbands favorite I have made!

Here is what you will need for the frosting:

• 1 Cup butter, softened
• 1 Package of cream cheese
• 2 Tsp Vanilla extract
• 1 Tsp Almond extract
• 4 Cups powdered sugar (or more)
• 3 Tbs Heavy Whipping cream
• pinch salt (unless using salted butter)

Directions:

1. Beat butter and cream cheese in a bowl with the whisk attachment on medium-high until light and fluffy
2. Add Vanilla and Almond extract
3. With mixer on low, slowly add in milk and salt; scrape down edges
4. Slowly add in powdered sugar, adding until your perfect consistency (fluffy is best!)
5. Whip frosting for 3 minutes after all ingredients are added
6. Add food coloring if desired (I like the gel coloring best!)

Decorating Tips!!!

I first spread the plain white frosting all over the cake and between layers. after it was thinly spread, I used the flat line tip (just like the sugar cookies, and pictured below). I put each color frosting, starting with the darkest, in a plastic bag with the tip and frosted 2 lines around the whole cake starting at the bottom. I repeated this with each color until the lightest one. I then slowly turned the cake (I actually took out the microwave plate that spins and put the cake on that). Take a long icing knife placed at the bottom, and spun the cake until frosting was blended!

***Oopsies! I didn't make enough white frosting so I didn't have enough for the top, so that made my frosting lopsided! But this cake was so fun to decorate and it is definantly my favorite!

This cake is so fun and so easy to make! If you try it, let me know how it goes!!

XOXO

The Modern Day LDS Wife

Sugar Cookies made with Love

It has been a long time coming on this blog! I have been a busy mommy working 3 jobs (that I LOVE) and raising a now 1 year old with my wonderful husband! I'd like to build this blog up again and to start that off, I would like to share with you my AMAZING (for lack of a better word!) sugar cookie recipe!

Last night my husband was craving sugar cookies. I have been practicing my baked goods decorating...I will not even show you how terrible I am with fondant but let's just say the bride of Frankenstein could probably beat me at a cake decorating contest!

These sugar cookies are to die for! But the frosting I might kill for ;) (all in jokes of course, I am as friendly as they come!) Because it is so delicious, I thought I would share it with you!

These wonderful cookies need NO chilling, are SUPER soft, have the most PERFECT baked edges, and KEEPS its shape!

Here is what you will need:

• 1 Cup unsalted butter, softened (I used salted and it was just as fine)
• 1 Cup granulated white sugar
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract (I used pure Mexican vanilla extract for a richer vanilla)
• 1/2 Teaspoon almond extract
• 1 egg
• 2 Teaspoons baking powder
• 2 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. In the bowl of your mixer, cream butter and sugar until smooth
3. Beat in the extracts and the egg.
4. In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups of flour and the baking powder together and add the mix to the wet ingredients slowly. The dough will become thicker. Add in the rest of the flour until you get a good consistency. DO NOT over add flour, if it becomes flakey or breaks off, you know you have added too much flour.
5. DO NOT chill the dough. divide the dough into workable batches, roll out onto a floured surface, roll out, and cut into desired shapes! You want the cookies to be thicker. (close to 1/4 in)
6. Bake at 350 for 6-10 minutes (depending on oven). Let cool on cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

**Oopsies I made! my first go around last night I added too much flour! That made the dough flake off and become unrollable. Make sure to not over add the flour! And the thicker the cookies the better!

***This Recipe made 18 cookies for me, But I did make mine on the thicker side.

***Do not wait for cookies to turn golden brown, If they have turned golden brown on the edges, you have cooked them too long.

BEST PART! Let us not forget the frosting! For my cookies, I made an absolutely delicious cream cheese frosting! Like it is amazing! This recipe makes an abundance of frosting. I had a ton left over which is awesome for graham cracker dipping!

Recipe for frosting:

• 8oz Cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 Cup butter, softened
• 1/2 Cup sour cream
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 1-2 Lb bag of powdered sugar

Directions:

1. In your mixer bowl, mix together the cream cheese and butter until blended.
2. Add in the sour cream and vanilla, mix well.
3. Turn the mixer on low and slowly add in the powdered sugar
4. Continue mixing until the ingredients are all incorporated and you have reached your perfect frosting consistency.
5. Add food coloring if desired (I like the gel coloring the best because it is easier to control)

***I used about 1.5 lbs of powdered sugar. You want your frosting to become fluffy and not runny. Be careful not to make it too thick.

My decorating tips! I like to use disposable frosting bags! If using one, get the plastic insert that has a frosting tip screw on (to keep them on). The frosting tip I used to frost my pumpkin cookies, was a medium straight line tip. (Like pictured below)

I then used the orange first and then just made a huge circle from the outside of the cookie, and swirled it to the center. Then I took the green frosting with the same tip and made a tiny stem. Easy Peesy!

These cookies were a hit in my home! My husband loved them...

 

and so did the little one!

 

When you try the recipe, let me know what you think! These are a for sure do again in my home!

XOXO

The Modern day LDS wife