Red Velvet Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago we were having some really nice weather, I think it was close to 80 degree's so Tom and I decided to have a little backyard BBQ and there is nothing we like better than sitting out on the patio enjoying good food and good friends.  We kept the menu pretty simple, some chicken wings for an appetizer, macaroni salad, bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers and Tom put together some kabobs and for dessert I made red velvet cupcakes from my grandma's cookbook with cream cheese frosting.  Our friend Lee Bradford brought his two daughters over and they were more than happy to sample the frosting and the cupcakes (all before dinner).

Here the ingredients for the cupcakes:

Seems like some of the recipe's in grandma's cookbook always contain something that isn't expected and Nesquik was not what what I expected, but it gave the cupcakes a nice chocolate flavor.
So, all the ingredients got all mixed up together:

and then filled up the cupcake holders:

These little goodies went into the oven and I whipped up some cream cheese frosting.  After the cupcakes cooled, I put a little dollup of frosting on top and the rest is history!  I think Lee's daughter's ate about three each.





Here is a little sample of what Tom cooked up on his smoker:

These are whole jalapeno's, stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon

These are the chicken wings, with some sort of secret sauce he tossed together with everything that was in the refridgerator.

and these are the kabobs, they were DELICIOUS!

I think Tom is turning out to be a great photographer, especially a great food photographer!  One of Lee's daughters thought we were silly for taking pictures of our food.  Sometimes Tom and I will go back and look at the pictures and remember how good everything tasted.