Cinnamon Bisquick Muffins - Recipe

I started wondering if I could save some money today by using Bisquick and other ingredients I already have at home to make some cupcakes/muffins, and... I also really wanted to attempt making Skyrim's 'sweet-rolls', ahaha. So, I came up with this simple and tasty cinnamon cupcake/muffin recipe, enjoy!

1 ½ Cups - Bisquick

¾ Cup – Sugar, granulated

¾ Cup - Milk

2 Large – Eggs

1 Tsp – Vanilla Extract

¼ Cup – Vegetable Oil

1 Tbsp - Cinnamon, ground

1. Heat oven to 400°F.

2. Line a cupcake pan with paper baking cups. 

3. In a large bowl beat all ingredients with an electric mixer on medium speed for 4 minutes.

4. Evenly fill baking cups 1/3 full, cupcakes will rise while baking.

5. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

6. Remove cooked cupcakes from pan and let cool.

Makes: 14 Cupcakes

LL Hawaiian Mac Recipe

I recently made a Hawaiian Mac Salad recipe that I posted on here and I happened to discover that L&L actually has a cookbook out (so I bought it off Amazon.com for about $10) and... it has a recipe for it! I'm actually surprised as to what's in it and how they make it, but I think I gave it a fair shot so here's the actual recipe for it per the cookbook, enjoy.

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1/2 gallon of water

1 pound of macaroni

1/2 cup of onion (diced)

1/2 cup of carrot (shredded)

3 cups of mayonnaise*

1/2 teaspoon of white pepper

2 teaspoons of salt

1 small can of oil based tuna (drained)

1. Put water into a pot and bring to a boil.

2. Put macaroni into the pot and boil for 12 minutes or until cooked.

3. Drain water and cool macaroni thoroughly.

4. Combine all remaining ingredients and chill for at least 1 hour.

Serves 5 to 6 people

*For best-tasting macaroni salad, use Best Foods or Hellman's mayonnaise.

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I've yet to try out this cookbook recipe myself and honestly I'm not sure I'm totally convinced this is even the one used for there plated lunches (as I don't notice or detect tuna and onion in the stuff), but I'll give it a go and update this post once I try it for myself ;)

I am a Rebel - Beginners Review

So, this post is super delayed on my end but... those of you following me on Twitter already know that I had a huge choice/debate to make when it came to getting my first DSLR camera. It was a biiiiggg toss up between the Nikon 5100 and the Canon Rebel T3i (aka 600D).

I did a ton of research on both of these DSLR cameras and most people pointed toward the Nikon for photographers and the Canon for videographers. I'm more of a photographer although I have been wanting the T3i for some time now so that's why I ultimately picked the Canon over the Nikon...  not to mention the fact the guy working over at BestBuy told me "Nikon is the soccer mom camera of the two" which was enough to make me not want to get it, lol... although he was referring to the height/grip of the camera, and I liked that it seemed to have more manual functionality which can come in handy for aquarium photos/videos :P My dad on the other hand was pushing me toward the Nikon but... I 'Rebel'ed alright, haha. Other reasons why I didn't pick the Nikon was because the shutter was pretty powerful as it would shake a bit going off and would make me lose position a bit when not using a tripod, the camera body itself didn't seem as nice of quality, it's also only 16MP where as the T3i is 18MP (not a huge difference there), and it did cost $70 more than the Canon (although price really wasn't a major factor for me). The Nikon however may have a slightly better ISO as it's expandable past what it can do and the white balance seemed more true than Canon's (although that may be adjustable and nothing some basic editing skills can't fix later on), ISO may be more important if you're taking night photo's (and I honestly don't know that I'll be taking constant dark/night photos), also one of the Nikon lenses went to 300mm where as Canon's went to 250mm so if you're into really close-up or macro shots Nikon may be the way to go (I hope I don't kick myself in the arse for getting the Canon, lol).

Cost and Bundle info

I got my T3i at Costco which was a huge bundle that was on sale for $730. This bundle came with the camera body, 2 lenses (18-55mm and 55-250mm), 8G memory disk (Dane-Elec Pro200x), battery and charger w/ plug attachment, TV cable, USB computer cable, a huge Canon Rebel camera bag w/ strap, camera neck strap, and 3 CD's of software. Also having bought it at Costco it offers a coupon for 100 free 4 x 6 prints (which you order from there website and pick-up in store) and another coupon for $5 off Custom Photobooks (30 to 100 pages).

What do I think of my new DSLR camera thus far... 

It's much more complex than my Panasonic DMC-FZ28 which was an over-sized point and shoot camera. I actually have to use the view finder to take a lot of the photos rather than just the viewing screen (they're interchangeable on the device), unless of course you're doing videos and then the flip-out screen is awesome and super helpful for viewing. So, I do feel I have to put in a bit more effort into shooting images (luckily I do already have a tripod!) especially since I'm still learning how to use everything. The good thing about having the Canon T3i though is that there are a lot of YouTube videos and tutorials so, hopefully I'll learn how to use this DSLR more quickly in case I do ever graduate to using a different DSLR in the future.

Hawaiian Macaroni Salad - Recipe

Having traveled around Hawaii before I've recently been trying to recreate L&L Hawaiian Barbecue macaroni salad. There are a million different ways people have tried to replicate this but they've all fallen flat in my opinion. That being said, this recipe I put together tastes the most similar to it in my opinion... so, until the actual recipe for it is ever divulged I hope you can at least enjoy mine in the mean time!

Ingredients
1 1/2 Cups - Elbow Noodles
1/2 Gallon (plus more for rinsing) - Water
1 Tbsp - Sea Salt (or 1/2 Tbsp - Table Salt)
1/2 Cup - Hellmann's Mayonnaise/Best Foods Mayonnaise
1/4 Cup - Carrots, pre-shredded matchsticks (chop slightly)
1 Tbsp - Morton's 'Seasoned Salt'
1 Tbsp - White Sugar
1 Tbsp - Half and Half (or Whole Milk)
2/3 Tbsp - McCormick's 'Molasses Bacon' seasoning *Optional*

Directions
Pour the water into a large pot and bring to a rapid boil on High-Med heat. Add the salt and noodles, bring water to a rapid boil again (be sure to stir noodles occasionally to prevent sticking). Rapid boil the noodles for around 25 minutes (or until fat and soft).

Noodles are almost done cooking

Drain noodles from the hot water and run under cold running water until noodles are cool, and drain well.

Sauce Mix

Combine the other ingredients in a bowl, stir until blended, and wait several minutes to allow the sugar to dissolve. Add in the noodles to the mix and stir together. Refrigerate for at least an hour or until the mac salad 'sets'. Stir the mac salad before serving.

Side Notes:
I believe I've mentioned before on this blog that all mayonnaise does not taste the same. If you live in Hawaii, their version of 'Hellmann's' mayonnaise is called 'Best Foods' mayonnaise although, I believe certain mainland states they also have it labeled as Best Foods mayonnaise.

With this recipe I made it's really easy to add in additional ingredients to alter this to your personal liking... such as some diced hard-boiled egg, sweet relish, etc. My personal favorite is to add in McCormick's grill mates in Molasses Bacon to the sauce mix (as you may have noticed in my above recipe), which makes for a great side dish to accompany some BBQ (although this is not in a typical Hawaiian mac salad... although I think it should be, haha). If you want your mac salad a bit more on the tangy side than cut down on the mayo a bit and add in some sour cream in its place.

The hardest part to making this dish is the noodles, it's very easy to have them be under-cooked for a mac salad as the cold water does seem to make them firm up and shrink a bit (most the time I cook my boxed noodles for 15 min, but that wasn't working for my mac salad so, you end up having to basically overcook the noodles).

If you're asking yourself "what's so Hawaiian about this dish?" well, to people in Hawaii there version of "Hawaiian" doesn't mean it has to consist of pineapple, Asian ingredients, fish, etc. Sometimes it's more about simplicity, cost, and how to feed the masses. Besides, you'd probably get burnt out on the stereotypical Hawaiian ingredients if you lived in Hawaii... or not? ALOHA!