Marinara Sauce, Fresh Blueberry Fruit Syrup, and Citrus Cupcakes

 I'm so glad I don't have to cook today-well maybe except some candied yams. Still got Thanksgiving leftovers. I didn't make a full plate for Thanksgiving...I made collard greens, cranberry sauce (spiked with orange cognac), candied yams, a little piece of a Turkey, and that's it.  I definitely should have made Mac n Cheese and Honey Butter rolls but since I've been working out a ton lately, I wanted to save some calories. Also I planned on making cupcakes which I didn't actually do until yesterday. 

Anyway, on to the other things I've made in the past couple weeks. Marinara Sauce. I love making my own tomato sauce but the last few batches didn't really come out exactly how I wanted it to. I think I was missing the tomato paste. Never skip the tomato paste. This was different too because it uses balsamic vinegar. Makes a difference. This sauce was a keeper. I let mine simmer for hours though. Probably a splash of wine would be good in it too.

I also made meatballs, just freestyle. They are some the best I ever had. Definitely let your meatball mix sit overnight before cooking. Makes all the difference. Recipe here.

I can't find the recipe for the Fresh Fruit Syrup anywhere online. It's just fresh fruit, a bit of sugar, and some lemon juice. This wasn't syrup at all...it was more like a blueberry baby good. Kinda like the fruit that comes in those fruit pouches for kids. It was alright. I made some vanilla almond oatmeal and added this "syrup" and blueberries to it. Nice hit of anti-oxidants. 

And last but not least. These were from the Harry Potter cookbook, they are supposed to be mango filled citrus cake. I decided to make them into cupcakes. I didn't make the whipped cream topping because it's your basic whipped cream I've had over and over again. I did make the mango filling but it was disgusting. I'm kinda mad I basically wasted a really good Mango. It just tastes eggy. It's sitting in the refrigerator now but it needs to sit in the trash. The actual cake was pretty good. Needed more citrus flavor, the orange and lemon peel and juice didn't flavor it enough. But the texture of the cake was great! It was light while all the other cake recipes in that book have been heavy, heavy. It used cake flour- I made my own. And the method where you whip egg whites to stiff peaks and fold it into the batter. I think that's the first time I used that method. It was amazing. I just topped it with store bought whipped cream. Tried to add orange zest but the zester was not cooperating.

And that's all....