A couple more recipes

I'm not much of a baker, but i do enjoy it sometimes....when the recipe is short & (literally) sweet! Adam helped me make these Vanilla cupcakes and they are quite yum. With a whole Tablespoon of vanilla in the batter, it gives it great flavor. The icing is also very good.

Vanilla cupcakes

1 3/4 c. flour

1 TB baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup, plus 2 TB milk

1 TB vanilla extract

Mix ingredients together and beat until smooth. Spoon batter into cupcake papers so they are 1/2 full. You should get around 16 cupcakes. Bake 12 minutes at 375.

Choc. icing

4 T butter

2 c. 10x sugar

1/4 c. cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract

1/4 c. milk

I'm trying out a new magazine (found a few on ebay) called Cooks Country. I found an easy recipe for pork chops that i tried last night and we liked them...

Pork chops with spicy orange glaze

4 pork chops

1 tsp. plus 1 T oil

salt and pepper

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. sugar

2 garlic cloves

1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes

3/4 cup orange juice

Rub each chop with 1/4 tsp. oil and sprinkle w/ salt, pepper, and cumin. Sprinkle one side of each chop with 1/8 tsp. sugar.

Place chops, sugared side down, in large nonstick skillet and press meat into pan. Cook, w/out moving, over med. heat until lightly browned (6-9 min.) turn chops, reduce heat to low, cover and cook 5 min. transfer chops to dish.

Add remaining 1T oil, garlic, and pepper flakes to empty pan and cook over med heat until fragrant, (about 30 seconds). Add juice and simmer until slightly thickened (5 min) Tip accumulated juices from chops into skillet, cook 1 minute. pour sauce over chops and serve. (i had to cook the chops a little longer at the end, they were pretty thick).