Almond-Hazelnut Cupcakes (Cupcake of the Month Series #11)

It figures that November, one of my busiest months as a teacher, would also happen to be the month of the most time consuming, labor intensive cupcake of the year.

These almond-hazelnut cupcakes weren't actually that difficult to make.  There were just a lot of steps, so the whole process took me a good three hours start to finish.

Now, the recipe card said I should get 24 cupcakes from this recipe, but the online recipe says only 16. I actually got 18 cupcakes total.  So who knows.

Alas, poor Twinkie, I knew thee well...

The big news today is that Hostess, makers of the ubiquitous Twinkie, are liquidating their company and selling off their brands.

Including everyone's favorite cream-filled oblong cake.

Now, it's probably been at least five years since I last partook in Twinkie and Hostess Cupcake goodness.  Maybe longer. But the thought that I may soon not have access to these little bundles of yumminess (and whatever it is that keeps them fresh for, like, decades) makes me really want a Twinkie.

My guess is that some company out there will buy up the Twinkie brand, and probably a few other Hostess goodies as well.  Recall the case of Zingers - little chocolate cakes filled with cream, with a layer of fudge spread across the top.  I don't know what company originally owned Zingers, but Hostess bought them a while back.  I maintain that the original Zingers were better - probably because they were bigger.  But I therefore expect to see Twinkies remain on the shelves at stores, or at least return after a certain time period, made by another company.  

Will they be the same?  Maybe, maybe not.  

Will people buy them?

You bet your buttons!  Come on, have you met America?

Anyway, on the off chance that Twinkies do end up going the way of dinosaurs and Bonkers candy (remember Bonkers?), I think I may have to experiment with a homemade Twinkie recipe.  There's probably more than a few out there on the internet. But wouldn't that be a fun food experiment?

Chicken Wing Dip

There are two really good reasons why you should try making this chicken wing dip, if you never have before.

Reason #1 - Football
Reason #2 - Holiday Parties

Somewhere between those two occurrences, you will discover how awesome this chicken wing dip is, will be asked to make it in copious amounts for every gathering, and even those copious amounts will prove inadequate to handle its life span of 2.76 seconds.

I wish I could take credit for creating this recipe, but I can't.  It's the good ol' Frank's RedHot Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip recipe.  Probably the only thing I sometimes do differently is use an alternate hot sauce, based on availability at the store, and I generally have to double or triple the amount because - as I mentioned - I'm often asked to make "vats" of this stuff.

I'm not kidding on the "vats" thing.

There are two ways to make this chicken wing dip. You can bake it, or you can use a slow cooker.  I'll give you directions for both.