All in the name of research

I just started interning with Jen, a cake decorator from my church who is AWESOME! Seriously, go check out her webpage: No More Boring Cakes. If I can produce anything half as impressive, I will be pretty stoked! Anyway, we were talking the other night about different types of buttercream frosting and she mentioned Italian Buttercream which is a really light and fluffy frosting. It works really well for wedding cakes in the summer because it holds up well in heat and doesn't lose it's shape. I don't really like traditional buttercream all that much, I usually scrape off most of it. It feels a bit heavy and greasy to me, it is kind of a necessary evil when it comes to cake decorating. I am very interested in other alternatives.

Jen mentioned a cupcake shop in Vista that uses primarily Italian Buttercream on their cupcakes. Little Cakes Cupcake Kitchen. I LOVE cupcake shops! Cupcakes are so cute and fun. In fact, a few years ago I had the bright idea to open a cupcake shop but upon doing some research I discovered that they already existed and were actually really trendy. I abandoned my bright idea since apparently someone had already thought of it. It is really too bad, too, because these places must make a killing! When Sprinkles in La Jolla opened up they had a line around the block of people waiting for a tiny piece of cake! Crazy!!!

Since I am doing Dave and Ellie's cake this fall, I decided that I needed to do some "frosting research" if I was going to be a responsible cake decorator. I owed it to them to taste some of this Italian Buttercream. So I took myself on over to Little Cakes Cupcake Kitchen to try the goods.

OH EM GEE!!!

I never use that phrase because, well, I am not 13 year old girl. But in this case, it is the only phrase that fits! These were the best cupcakes I have ever tasted! They blew Sprinkles right out of the water! Over the last few months I have become somewhat of a cake connoisseur and I feel like I can give an educated review. The cake was perfectly moist. Not too heavy, not too dry, seriously... perfect. And the Italian Buttercream? I am sold! It is so yummy! It almost has the consistency of whipped cream. It is not too sweet and it is very light and airy. I always wondered about cupcakes with the frosting piled high on it. It seemed like WAY too much! Not so with Italian Buttercream - load it on!

I am definitely going to try my hand at making it. I think it would be perfect for the wedding cake. (although I might have to taste it a few more times... just to make sure. I want to be thorough in my research) Do yourselves a favor and go get a cupcake. Now. You won't be sorry! Here are a few pictures from their website to whet the pallat:

YUM!

Where have all the good men gone?

I am a single woman in my 30's. For the most part, I am ok with this. Do I want to fall in love, get married and have a family? Of course! Whenever it happens, it happens and it will be great when it does. Until then, I am enjoying my life as it is. What cracks me up is when people try to "fix my problem" and tell me how to go about snagging a man. I get all kinds of advice. In fact, I should compile a list of all the things people suggest to me. It would be quite humorous, believe me! A few years ago I was home visiting my family in Idaho and a friend of my mom's went on and on about how I should move to Alaska to find a husband.

Apparently the odds are good in Alaska! Something like ten single men for every single woman. In fact, there are books and magazines on the subject (check out this article that I found: How to marry an Alaskan man) and dating sites and even Oprah had an episode devoted to helping these poor Alaskan men find a wife. It seems that Alaska is an untapped resource, overflowing with an abundance of single men! Hmm.... why on earth am I in Southern California?

Yesterday, I was with my friend, Marby, and she was telling me how she totally sees me with a rugged, mountain man type. It makes sense I guess. I grew up in the mountains of Idaho so I am familiar with living in the middle of nowhere and having to drive an hour to go to the store. I am not freaked out by the idea of camping, fishing, hunting game, and having to learn how to make venison taste good. And I have to say that I happen to think every man looks sexy in a pair of Carhartts!

See what I mean? *swoon!*

Yeah, I can totally see my self living in the wild wilderness with some Alaskan hunk of a man. So thank you for the suggestion, ladies! Next step in life - move to Alaska and go on a man hunt! Any single ladies want to join me? There will be plenty to go around. Although, I will pass along one word of caution that I picked up from others that have gone on this journey before me, "The odds may be good, but the goods are odd!"
Maybe there is a reason all of those men are single! YIKES!

Lemon and Lime

I have been in the kitchen a lot lately making all kinds of treats for various events. It was more enjoyable than usual this week because I got to break in my new KitchenAid mixer! I have no idea how I have survived so long without one of these. Let me tell you, making five batches of frosting was WAY easier with this than my wimpy old hand mixer! I know a mixer shouldn't be this exciting, but it is. LOVE IT!!!

This week I made a couple of desserts: Lemon Crinkle Cookies for the cake decorating party and Key Lime Pie for last night's Mexican fiesta. Both turned out very yummy. I love light, citrus-y flavors for the summer. The cookies were very light and airy. If you didn't pick them up carefully they would break in half. I have decided that this is a very good quality for a cookie to have. It is definitely a recipe that I plan on using again. The Key Lime Pie was very good too. I never used to think that I liked Key Lime Pie but I proved myself wrong. Deeelightful! Here are the recipes:

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1½ cup flour
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking powder
⅛ tsp. baking soda
½ cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again.
Sift together all dry ingredients (except powdered sugar) and add to the wet mixture slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly.
Chill dough for about 30 minutes. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar.
Freeze formed cookie balls overnight. This keeps them from spreading too much when they bake.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottom of cookies begin to barely brown and cookies have a matte finish (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

(this picture is compliments of Google because I spaced on picture taking when I made these. But this is what they looked like - ok, these ones are prettier)

Key Lime Pie
2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
½ cup butter, melted
2 14 oz. cans sweetened condensed milk
½ cup sour cream
¾ cup key lime juice (about 20 limes)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
⅛ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350° F. Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until well blended. Press mixture into a 9” pie plate. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Refrigerate until cool.
In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, and lime juice. Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust. Bake in preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. Chill pie thoroughly. In a large bowl, whip cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Top chilled pie with whipped cream and serve.

So much talent in one room!

In the summer our Community Groups kind of go on hiatus and we split up into guys and girls and meet that way. Our girl's group does Bible study every other week and on the other weeks we do something creative or crafty. Last year we made pie, learned how to line dance and made wine charms (just to name a few). I must say, we are very well rounded women.

Last night it was my turn to host the craftiness and I decided to share the wealth of my cake decorating knowledge. I attempted to squeeze about a month worth of classes into one night. It definitely wasn't comprehensive but we had a lot of fun. There was icing everywhere (sorry for the mess, Tricia!) and because it is summer and a bit on the warm side, the icing didn't stay stiff enough to work with easily. It was very soft and floopy, but in spite of that, everyone did great. I was especially impressed with Aubree's roses. Roses are a bit challenging. It was her first time making them and in spite of the floopy icing, they looked totally legit!

I will showcase the beautiful cakes that were made for your viewing pleasure:

Kelly's cake:
(notice the detailed basket weave, very impressive! This would be a perfect cake for Easter)

Cheryl's cake:
(I love the writing, it is looks whimsical and childlike but in a deliberate way, unlike my writing which usually looks like a 5 year old did it, literally)

Tricia's cake:
(LOVE the abundance of flowers, this is just such a happy cake!)

Aubree's cake:
(Notice the very professional roses. I let her use some of my sparkle dust. If you look closely you can see that the peach roses have a gold shimmer, it is a very cool effect).

There you have it, cake decorating 101 - success! Give a round of applause for the very talented ladies! Oh, and Abby and Ellie we totally missed you!

I am too old for this!

Last night my Community Group went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 at midnight. We decided to do this back in November after seeing part 1 and agreeing that this was an important cultural event. It is the Star Wars of this generation and this kids deserved to be a part of it (as well as us adults). The idea of doing a midnight movie always sounds great when it is months down the road but truth be told when the time came, I gulped as I purchased my ticket thinking of my 5:00 a.m. work shift the next day and anticipating the price I would have to pay for staying out past my 9:00 o'clock bedtime. I figured it would be worth it though... I mean, it is the epic finale of a 10 year journey!

*SPOILER ALERT* And worth it, it was! I just spent the last week re-reading book 7 so I could be fully prepared to complain about all of the parts that didn't do justice to the book (just kidding). But honestly, the movie was amazing! The only thing I would have liked to have seen was Snape's memory montage a bit more fleshed out. I feel like we missed some of the intensity of who he was and his love for Lily Potter that was presented in the book. But all in all, I left the theater feeling very satisfied. It was a great ending to a great series. *END SPOILER*

When the movie was over it was pumpkin time and I had to face reality. I got home at 3:15 and I usually wake up at 4:15 for work so I decided that getting one hour of sleep would render me useless and the alarm buzzing at 4:15 would be one of the most painful experiences of my life so I decided to just stay awake until I had to go to work. I didn't want to just sit around, though, because I was afraid I would get really sleepy, so I decided to run some errands. I had to go to Kinkos and Walmart, which are both places that I dread because it seems to take forever to get in and out of there! After 45 minutes of errand running I decided that I was brilliant because both of those places are MUCH more pleasant at 3:30 a.m. In fact, I think I will do all of my shopping in the middle of the night from now on, it is much more time efficient when you have the whole place to yourself!

Before I knew it, it was time to go to work. It was an interesting day to say the least. When I sat down at my desk, I discovered that the IT department upgaded my computer on my day off and neglected to leave me a new password to get on. I had to start working anyway, so I started doing consultations blindly without my computer. About a half an hour later they got me logged on only for me to discover that I was no longer connected to a printer, my email templates were gone (for good), I had lost a few Word documents that were pretty important, and all of my settings were messed up. Thanks, IT guys!

Every spare minute between my calls was spent trying to reclaim and recover my computer. It was stressful, aggravating, and BUSY. The silver lining is that while on any normal day, this situation would have really made me mad, today it gave me so much to do that I had no time to feel tired. I was good to go all day long! A blessing in disguise :)

Then... I came home and sat on the couch. Bad move, Tamara, bad move. I should never have stopped moving. Now, every molecule in my body is begging me to crawl up to my bed and slide under the covers. I won't succumb though, I won't! If I take a nap I will completely ruin the chances of a good night's sleep and I have to get up at 4:15 tomorrow as well so I want a solid night's sleep. I just need to power through until bed time.

I am left to wonder, though, how early can bedtime be? It is 4:00 now... is that too early? I think so, the sun is still in the middle of the sky. What about 6:00. Can that be bedtime? That would give me ten hours of sleep. Not unheard of, right? Yeah... 6:00 is a good bedtime. I just have to hold on for two more hours. To be honest, the whole reason for this loooong and detailed post about my last 24 hours is to keep me awake. I was slipping in and out of consciousness and was about to lose to this battle and give in to my bed. I must. stay. awake.

All nighters? What am I thinking, I am seriously too old for this.

I love me some curry!

Last night we had an Indian themed potluck and I brought some yellow chicken curry. We also had samosas, lentils, tikka masala, naan, and a coconut almond fudge dessert. It was delicious, I LOVE Indian food and curry is my favorite! I would like to try out some recipes for green or red curry, but so far, all I have tried is the yellow curry. I realized that I really need to invest in a crock pot designed for traveling with a lid that seals on because it was a long, slow ride down to Del Mar with constant fear that hot curry would overflow onto Ellie's legs and the car! But we did make it with only a minor spill. Success!

Anyway, here is the recipe for all of you cooks to enjoy! It makes a nice big pot, perfect for a crowd. It is pretty mild so if you like more of a kick, just add some more cayenne.

Yellow Chicken Curry

3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large onion, ½ minced, ½ chopped into large pieces
¼ tsp. minced fresh ginger root
5 Tbs. curry powder
5 Tbs. water
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 cups plain yogurt
1 can coconut milk
3 large chicken breasts
1 large potato
½ small butternut squash
1 cup thickly sliced carrots
⅛ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf

In a small bowl, grind together garlic, onion, and ginger. In a separate small bowl, mix together curry powder and 5 tablespoons water.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Sauté garlic, ginger and onion until browned; add curry paste and saute together until smell is strong and fragrant.
Add yogurt, coconut milk along with 1 cup of water, and stir all together. Then add potatoes, squash and chicken and bring to a boil; reduce heat and add the rest of veggies and spices. Simmer until potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through, about 20-25 minutes.
Serve over jasmine rice.

I'm a big girl now!

So, I work on commission which is no fun. Well, I take that back. It is really fun when times are good and not so much fun the other times. It's generally about half and half for me. Six months out of the year I do awesome and the other six, I really have to tighten the belt a little. I should probably be more adult about this and save my money when I do well for the times that are tighter but I haven't gotten there yet. Mainly because I have a list of things I would like to purchase and do so whenever extra funds come in. I have been working on my list ever since I finished school and got a job. It is not a huge list, in fact, I am almost done. (Then I will start being responsible, I promise!) My list is comprised mostly of furniture for my apartment.

I am 34 years old and I have never had proper furniture. I was a missionary for seven years and during that time you just took whatever anyone offered you. When I lived in Madison, we went "sidewalk shopping" every fall and spring. That was when the University students were moving out or in and they would put all of the stuff they didn't want on the sidewalk for anyone to pick up. I remember carrying a couch five blocks once. I also got my bed that way. (I cringe thinking about it now! I slept on a random mattress I found on the street? Ewww!!!)

Anyway, over the last few years I have gotten some great finds on Craigslist and my apartment was almost fully furnished. The only thing left were couches. They were hand-me-downs that were covered in slip covers and were just awful. So uncomfortable and every time you sat down the slip covers got all messed up. For someone with OCD tendencies that was a problem. Couch shopping was a bit of a challenge because most things these days are plush and oversized, which is super comfortable but way too big for my apartment. I finally found a set that I liked that fit well in my space and purchased them. They came last week and I am a happy little worker bee. (all of those days of overtime in June was worth it!)

Here are pictures. I know my new furniture isn't all that interesting to many of you, but a few people have asked to see them so I will go ahead and post. That is the fun thing about a blog, you can post whatever you want, no matter how mundane and people will read it! :)

Sometimes I write

I stumbled across a poem that I wrote a while ago and thought, "Hey, I have a blog. I should post it!" It is kind of melancholy but my thoughts don't tend toward rainbows and butterflies when I write.
So here it is, my poem, enjoy... (yet be appropriately melancholy)


She tries...

She sits and ponders who she is to be.
She has been told that she is too much...

“You’re too beautiful, cover up.
You’re too intelligent, dumb down.
You’re too outspoken, be quite.
You’re too complex, too mysterious.
You’re too emotional, too needy.
You require too much work to figure out.
You’re too much for me to handle.
You’re not worth the effort.”

She tries...
She hides her true feelings so as not to be “that needy, emotional girl”.
She hides her intelligence so as not to intimidate or emasculate those around her.
She tries to be sweet and soft spoken so that she appears appropriately feminine.
She tries to be that perfect woman. She wants to be worth the effort.
She tries...

She sits and ponders who she is to be.
She has been told that she is not enough...

“You’re not beautiful or sexy enough.
You’re not thin enough.
You’re not voluptuous enough.
You’re not feminine enough.
You’re not “Proverbs 31” enough.
You’re not enough to satisfy me.
You’re not worth the risk.”

She tries...
She spends hours on her hair and makeup trying to look like the cover of a magazine.
She spends hundreds of dollars on designer clothes in order to turn a head.
She starves or purges herself trying to attain that perfect figure.
She works herself until she is exhausted trying to keep up with Ms. Proverbs 31.
She tries to be that perfect woman. She wants to be worth the risk.
She tries...

Time and again her heart gets broken as she is continually told that
She is not worth the effort, she is not worth the risk.
This beautiful flower closes up and hides,
She withers and dies,
As she tries...

Patriotic Food

I am going to a 4th of July party today and since I am the "dessert girl" of my social circle, I am bringing cupcakes. I thought I would be festive and make red and blue velvet cupcakes. Red velvet can actually be any color so you can make cake for any occasion. I do have to say, though... red food is more appealing than blue food. I find that I am much more inclined to eat the red cupcakes. I leave the blue ones for the kids (and anyone else that doesn't mind having a blue mouth)


This recipe is really good. The cake is really moist and the marshmallow cream in the frosting keeps it from tasting too cream-cheesy. Here is the recipe:


Red Velvet Cupcakes:

Cake:

2 cups sugar

2 sticks of butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 oz. red food coloring

2½ cups cake flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk w/ 1 Tbs. vinegar)

1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vinegar

Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup marshmallow cream

1 lb. powdered sugar

Cake:

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into cupcake tins. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

Blend cream cheese and butter together in a mixing bowl. Add marshmallow cream and sugar and blend.

And there you have it: red, white, and blue deliciousness!