Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

 
I decided to bake some sweets for my sister and brother-in-law's anniversary last week. This is partly because I had no idea what to get them, partly because I love baking, and partly because my sister loves cupcakes. To spare my brother-in-law from his least favorite dessert flavor, anything lemony, I made him a chocolate cake, but the lemon cupcakes turned out better. Actually, they turned out much, much better. The cake was a crumbly disaster, with the only redeeming factor being the frosting, so I was relieved I made cupcakes as well.

These cupcakes are great and adorable. They're moist, and light, and the cream cheese frosting is a perfect way to top them off. I wasn't sure what to expect when I first made these as I'd never tried the recipe before, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. I love lemon desserts to begin with, so finding another good lemon recipe is always a plus. These cupcakes will remain moist for a few days if you want to prepare them ahead of time, just make sure to keep them covered.

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Linguine with Pea Pesto

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved sugar snap peas. My mom used to buy them at the grocery store or farmer's market and I'd snack on them the entire drive home. For some reason I have never really cooked with frozen peas until recently. I don't know why I avoided them, especially since they can be used in great dishes, like this linguine, and require much less work that fresh peas (I'm possibly the world's slowest pea sheller, and usually end up eating half of them in the process). I didn't have fresh peas around when I made this, and was still very happy with the results.

I wasn't expecting to love this linguine when I first read the recipe. I thought it would be good, but was not expecting it to be as delicious as it was. I was very pleasantly surprise by the flavor of the pesto and even though I wasn't all that hungry when I ate this, I still managed to clear my plate. Don't forget to add salt and pepper to the linguine at the end, otherwise it will taste slightly bland. My sister and I made this together and kept adding salt and pepper until the pasta reached a flavor we liked. This still tastes great on the second day, so don't worry if you have leftovers.

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Sesame Soy Marinated Tuna

 
When you want a really quick, easy dinner, it doesn't get much better than having fish. This tuna takes about 5 minutes to put together, and even though it needs to marinate, you can work around it. I've often marinated the tuna overnight. It's even easy enough to do in the morning if you can set aside a couple of minutes. If you want to make your life simpler, you can use a pre-minced ginger and garlic, like Gourmet Garden, and spare yourself the chopping and grating.

There have been a few occasion when I've even taken this fish on a camping trip. I just put it in a Ziploc bag, leave it in the cooler, and grill it when hunger strikes. It's a nice change to the usual hot dogs and chili, and in my mind it justifies me eating lots of s'mores later in the evening. If you're making this at home, you can make some extra marinade, or reserve some from the main batch before adding the fish, and drizzle it over the tuna before you serve it. It's really flavorful on its own, but if you're a person who loves sauce, that would  be the way to go. If you like your food spicier, add some crushed red pepper flakes or finely chopped jalapeños to the marinade.

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Snickerdoodle Muffins

I realize cinnamon is not really a summer flavor, but I made these last week and loved them. I didn't feel like running out to buy ingredients and had all the ones in this recipe on hand, so I decided to give these muffins a try. Once these were baked, I ate three within 2 hours before realizing I needed to share the rest of them. They're easier to make than I initially thought and make a great, albeit not so balanced, breakfast.

These muffins are really delicate, so I would suggest using muffin liners. Since the tops are sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, it not only makes them a little heavier, but the sugar might spread and stick to your muffin tin. Be careful when removing the muffins and gently cut loose any part of the muffin that sticks to the tin. Also, they taste great for about 2 days, but don't last much longer than that.

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Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

 
Earlier this summer, I tried making mint ice cream, but it was a total disaster. It tasted like frozen heavy cream with a hint of mint, which was not what I was going for. Since mint chocolate chip is one of my favorite ice cream flavors, I was determined to find one that actually tasted good. I decided I wanted to try a recipe that used mint extract to get a stronger mint flavor in the ice cream. My first attempt at mint ice cream required fresh mint leaves, which sounded really good, but the mint flavor was not intense enough.

I accidentally found this recipe while looking for some outdoor/camping cooking recipes. I knew I wanted to try it since the ingredients sounded promising and the pictures looked great. This ice cream reminds me of the mint chocolate chip flavor I grew up with. I'm not a huge fan of using food coloring (mostly because I never have it and usually forget to buy it), so I kept the color natural, but you could easily add a couple drops of green color to get the more traditional mint ice cream look.

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