Mushroom Stroganoff

Growing up one of my favorite meals was beef stroganoff. You know, the one with the sauce made of browned beef, onions, cream of mushroom soup, milk, and sour cream served over egg noodles. My mouth waters just thinking about it. Slathering the leftover sauce over toast the next day... Fogettaboutit.

I however had never made it.... for two main reasons:

1. It was one of those dishes that was always made by the same person and will never ever taste the same. Ever. No matter what. Ever.

2. I don't even have a can of cream of mushroom soup in my pantry.

Not to mention, up until about 3 months ago I thought I loathed mushrooms so buying some at the store for cooking was out of the question. Then I took a cooking class and learned how to properly prepare mushrooms for cooking and I've been hooked ever since.

After browsing through the recipes on Gina's site and coming across one for mushroom stroganoff (using real mushrooms!) I had to give it a try.

Flavor-wise this dish was fabulous! Was it the stroganoff I remember from my childhood? No, but I wasn't expecting that either. It hit the spot and thats all I care about.

The best part of all: the sauce tastes even better leftover on top of rice.

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes with Graham Cracker Frosting

Mini cupcakes for taste testing. Always a must!

I can be a sneaky person. You see, I organized a little Q1 bake-off at work and marketed it as a way to bring all of us closer together. While that was part of the reason, the main thing was getting people to bring in food which I then eat.

It had so-so results but remember I'm sneaky. So what did I do? Created a "finals" round of course!

The finals start this week and will have three competitors, myself included. I was originally going to make homemade oatmeal cream pies, but in lieu of a coworker transferring at the end of the week I decided to go with something she would enjoy.

Given key lime pie is her favorite dessert and I'm pretty awesome at making cupcakes (not that it shows on here) I created key lime pie cupcakes with graham cracker frosting. I will win based on this frosting alone.

Humble, I am not..... When it comes to cupcakes or frosting.