Mom knows best

My mom is a great cook. But one of my favorite things she made for me and my sister was her "Get Well Soup". The soup is really easy to make and its deliciously simple. Although when I was older I found out it was a typical Greek soup recipe, I still love it and call it Mom's Get Well Soup. So when you are feeling a little under the weather, whip up a batch of this soup and you'll be feeling better before you know it!

Mom's Get Well Soup

2 Quarts of Chicken Broth
1/2 cup of rice (although I always add extra!)
4 eggs
Juice of 2 lemons ( less than 1/4 cup)

Cook rice in chicken broth until almost tender. Mix eggs and lemon juice in a separate bowl. You may want to start with less lemon juice because you can always add more to taste later. When rice is done, remove soup from heat. Slowly add soup to egg and lemon mixture while stirring constantly to raise temperature of egg/lemon mixture without curdling. When egg/lemon and broth mixture is close to soup mixture combine with rest of soup mixture. Do not bring soup to a boil after this step because eggs will curdle. The soup should just be nice a cloudy without big clumps.

The Deliciousness of Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Let me first give credit where it is due: the best cupcake I've ever eaten, The Cookie Monster Cupcake at Molly's Cupcakes in Chicago, is what I based this cupcake off of. After lots of Internet investigation and trial and error, I've found the what I think is the best way to replicate the deliciousness that is the Cookie Monster Cupcake.

Here we go. Okay I've had a bad experience in the past baking cupcakes from scratch, so i stick with cake mix. Betty Crocker, every time. Bake as instructed, I put abut 1/3 cup of batter in each cup which seemed to work best:

Next, cut out cones from the tops of the cupcakes. This takes a little practice in order to not cut too deep or too shallow, but don't worry too much about getting it perfect. But DON'T EAT IT! You'll need it in later steps.

Now you'll need to make some eggless cookie dough. Although I've never personally been sick from eating dough with raw eggs in it, I wouldn't risk making a whole party sick. Here's an example. I like to use mini chocolate chips so the chocolate isn't too overwhelming.

Now drop about a teaspoon of cookie dough into the hole you've cut out. I haven't figured out a good way to do this without using my fingers (wash those hands!). Don't worry about it being perfect, you'll be covering up the tops with icing anyways.

Next take those little cupcake cones (that you didn't eat!), and cut off the pointy part of the cone, leaving just a cupcake hat.

Now cover the cookie dough filled holes with the hats. I like to only do about 6 cupcakes at a time so that I can keep track which hat goes with which cupcake.

Finally make some icing. The best recipe that I've found is Wilton's Butter cream but I like to use less butter and more shortening. The butter makes the icing significantly sweeter and most people can't eat it. Add a few tablespoons of water to make the icing a little less thick. I use another Wilton product, the Dessert Decorator Pro, which makes icing the cupcakes super quick and professional looking.

To add the finishing touch, use your left over cookie dough to make small cookies to top your cupcakes, and to let your friends and family know there is something extra special about the cupcake they are about to eat! And wah-lah! Cupcake heaven!