No good, horrible, very bad day

The saddest thing happened to me last week. (disclaimer: when I say this, I am referring to my rich white girl problems and in the grand scheme of life this is not quite as horrible as I am making it out to be given my relatively charmed life. However, this is my blog and I can cry if I want to, so I will keep writing in spite of this) 

So, as I was saying, the saddest thing happened to me last week. On Wednesday, I was eating lunch and browsing Pinterest like any other day, I reached over to grab a drink of water and the unthinkable happened, the glass tipped over! Water spilled directly on my laptop and flicker... flicker... BLANK! That's all she wrote! The computer was a goner. I took it to the Apple store to have them look at it and make sure that it was dead. They confirmed the worst, it was dead as a doornail.

My laptop was a 15" Macbook Pro. It was beautiful. It was an expensive machine that I saved for for at least a year. It was relatively new and as it was one of my favorite possessions, I kept it in mint condition and in one quick motion it was ruined. I sat on the couch for the rest of the day wallowing in my depression. I am not gonna lie, Ben and Jerry came to my pity party and helped drown my sorrows.

After waiting a few days, just to make SURE that my laptop wasn't going to spontaneously revive itself. I sucked it up and went to the Apple store to buy a new one. Thank goodness for interest free financing! I don't exactly have an extra $2,000 just lying around. I came home with my new computer and desperately looked for something new and different to excite me about having to repurchase my computer. The only difference I could find between the new one and my old one is that the power cord looks a little sleeker. Um... woo hoo? I mean, seriously, it is the exact same machine. Utterly anticlimactic.

I have been pretty much wallowing in self pity for the last four days. But, it is now time to put my big girl pants on and move on. I have a new laptop that I will spend the next year paying for and will probably drink from sippy cups from now on, but other than that, life is grand!

Sardines and Biscuits

I can't believe it is already Easter. This year is going by so fast! I love Easter, it is one of my favorite holidays. It starts early, that is for sure! My church has a sunrise service at 6:30 am! Then after that my community groups come over for brunch. This is the 3rd year running so it is becoming a tradition. I won't repost recipes since I made the same food at last year (recipes here) I pretty much have the meal down pat and I am really happy with most of the recipes so I just stick with what works. I have to say though, I am a little frustrated with biscuits. I have tried a few recipes. Last year, my mom even FedEx'ed me some sourdough starter so I could make her fail-proof sourdough buttermilk biscuits. When I make them they turn out okay... the flavor is fine but they aren't buttery, flakey, or golden brown, so I must be doing something wrong. I even spent time Googling tips for making the best biscuits and tried to do everything perfectly. No matter what I do, I end up with something that is mediocre. When it comes to food, I hate mediocre. If anyone makes amazing biscuits, I am open for tips.

Biscuits aside, brunch was a success! My CG's keep growing so it gets bigger every year. Today we had 25 adults and 3 babies in my apartment. (my 900 square foot apartment) People were packed in here like sardines. I was a bit stressed this morning before everything started because about 7-8 people RSVP'ed this weekend (after the food had been purchased and prepped) and while I am all about "the more the merrier" as the texts kept rolling in, I was wondering if we would all fit and if there would be enough food. But amazingly enough, there was the perfect amount of food and although people were shoved into every nook and cranny, nobody seemed to mind. Success! After everyone left, I started looking for patio sets online because I really need to set up my back porch for overflow. People were sitting all the way up the stairs. I just have too many friends! ha ha...

Even though Tyler and Cheryl might hate me for posting this picture, I have to share because I am pretty sure this is exactly how everyone felt after being up since 5:00 am and digesting a huge meal :)

Oh, and thanks to a few people bringing lovely bouquets my house is now flowery and Springy - seriously look at all of these flowers. Delightful! :)

Barbacoa

Last night my Community Group girls made Mexican food for dinner. I brought the barbacoa - shredded braised beef - for tacos. I found a Chipotle copy-cat recipe online and tried it, and it was spot on! I love Carnitas too but sometimes you just need beef. When that happens, try this recipe!

Barbacoa Beef

Ingredients:

1/3 cup cider vinegar

3 Tbs. lime juice

3 canned chipotle chiles

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

3 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

2 tsp. dried Mexican oregano

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1 1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. vegetable oil

3-4 lbs. boneless chuck roast, excess fat removed

3/4 cup chicken broth, plus more as needed

3 bay leaves

Directions:

Combine the cider vinegar, lime juice, chipotle chiles, garlic cloves, cumin, oregano, clove, black pepper and salt in the bowl of a food processor or blender and puree until completely smooth — about a minute or so. Transfer the spice paste to a bowl and set aside.

Dry the roast all over with paper towels. Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a very large pot set over high heat until it begins to shimmer. Sear the beef on both sides until deeply browned, about 3-4 minutes on either side. 

Add the chile puree to the pot and stir until the beef is well-coated. Add the chicken stock and bay leaves and bring the liquid to a boil.
Place the meat and liquid into a crock pot and cook on low for 5-6 hours, removing the lid during the last hour or so to allow the simmering liquid to reduce slightly. Allow the beef to cool slightly, spoon off any easily removable fat from the braising liquid and then use two forks to pull/shred the beef into bite size pieces.

Best Fail Ever!

Last night I made birthday dessert for my friend, Sasha. She said she liked cookies rather than cake and liked peanut butter, other than that, I was on my own. I found a recipe on Pinterest for a chocolate peanut butter cookie pie. Perfect! When it was done baking it looked good but it wiggled a bit and I knew it wasn't quite done in the middle. I figured it would be OK but after it cooled I cut into it and the insides gushed out and I realized that it was REALLY underdone. Well, what do you do at that point other than serve it with a "Hey, I tried" shrug. I dumped spoonfuls of the goop in bowls and topped it with vanilla ice cream.

I sat down to take a bite and when I did I realized that I had made the best mistake ever! It was warm and gooey and sweet and amazing. You know something is rich when ice cream is necessary to cut the sweetness. Anyway, if you want to give this a try, it is a yummy dessert. If you want it set, I would recommend baking it a bit longer, if you want it to gush everywhere, follow the recipe as written :)

Pretzel Crusted Peanut Butter Cup Pie

Ingredients:

2 cups crushed pretzels

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 stick of butter, melted

2 sticks of butter, room temp

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt

2 1/4 cup flour

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 (8 oz) bag Reese's minis

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F

Combine crushed pretzels, 1/2 cup melted butter and 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl. Press mixture firmly into the bottom and up sides of a 10" pie or tart pan.

Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven.

While crust is baking make the pie filling.

Cream butter, 3/4 cup granulated sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar with your mixer.

Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined and smooth.

On low speed add in your baking soda, salt and flour until incorporated evenly.

Still on low, add in your chocolate chips and Reese's Minis until evenly distributed.

Press mixture on top of baked crust.

Place pie back in oven for 30-35 minutes until just set.

Let cool on wire rack before serving.

Cut open and watch it gush out into sweet chocolatey goodness!

May the Odds be EVER in your favor...

I went and saw the Hunger Games. Twice. Yes, it has only been out three days. For those of you who haven't seen it yet and don't want any spoilers, stop reading now.  You can come back to this after you go see the movie. What are you waiting for? Go see the movie. Now!

Ok...are you back? Alright, settle in, here are my thoughts:

I first heard about the Hunger Games Trilogy from Aubree, the 13 year old daughter of my friends, Ben and Tricia. She started to explain the plot to me and as she talked I just stared at Tricia in amazement. Kids, picked at random and forced to fight to the death in an arena and it is required viewing for the entire country and considered entertainment for many? And she is reading this in school? Whaaaa??? Tricia assured me that though the subject matter is pretty intense, it is a great series and worth the read. I trust her judgement and so I borrowed the books. 

When I get into things, I really get into things. I read through the series twice. I loved them!  Although, Suzanne Collins really doesn't know how to end a book. The books are great right up until the last 10 pages and then she just rushes through the ending. But that is a whole other blog post. 

Anyway, back to the movie. To be honest, I really wish I hadn't seen it at midnight.  (no offense, Tricia and Aubree, I enjoyed hanging out with you!) I normally get a kick out of going to the midnight showings. I have done that most recently with Harry Potter and Twilight. Yes, I am one of the oldest people in line, but it is still fun. The die-hard fans are there and they are full of energy and excitement. There is a lot of screaming and it makes going to a movie a real experience. For example, in Twilight, when Jacob takes off his shirt all of the teenage girls scream and squeal in delight. It is a bit ridiculous but whatever, I get it. In fact, truth be told, I am holding back a bit of a squeal myself. Let's be honest, Taylor Lautner is pretty ripped! I'm just saying...

What was interesting was that in this movie, whenever one of the kids would get killed in the game, all of the teenagers would squeal with delight. It was sooooo creepy! It is one thing to get excited over some werewolf muscles, it is another to get excited about someone's neck getting snapped. It was so disturbing and honestly quite ironic. The movie is about The Capitol of Panem - a sick society of people that force others to watch their kids kill each other for entertainment and here we were watching the same thing acted out and being entertained by it. Being surrounded by such excitement made me almost feel as though I was a part of The Capitol watching the games. Highly unsettling to say the least. 

Another thing that I realized was that the reason books will always be superior to their movie counterpart is because our imagination can create so much more than even the most advanced technology. The story is richer and more intense when read rather than watched. I never thought about this but the opposite is true as well, our imagination can filter quite a bit when reading. As I read about the brutal deaths in the Hunger Games, I didn't have to imagine all the gory details, I was able to kind of breeze over it. In the movie, the scenes that I might not have fleshed out were unavoidable. That being said, the subject matter (which is disturbing no matter how you look at it) was much more unsettling to me when watching the movie, especially while surrounded by a screaming mob of excited teenagers. I left the movie pondering the desensitization of a society in regards to the value of human life and wondering where we were at on that scale. 

I saw the movie again last night with my friends, Brooke and Charley and it was much better the second time around. Mainly because I knew what to expect and it was an older audience that reacted more appropriately to events in the movie so I didn't have that same feeling of being surrounded by a blood thirsty mob. I got to enjoy the movie for what it was. Putting everything that I previously said aside, it was a great movie! The characters were all very well cast, I can't think of a single one that I would have changed. Lenny Kravitz did amazingly well as Cinna and Woody Harrelson was just perfect as Haymitch! I was a bit bummed out that they didn't include Katniss' prep team. I really liked them. And they didn't really capture the depth in Peeta and Katniss' relationship but I think they did the best they could. I would imagine it is nearly impossible to adapt a first person narrative to screen without losing a lot of the emotion and depth that is portrayed in the book. All in all... it is a good movie, a great book and I recommend both. I am very excited for Catching Fire!

Then and now

This week, my friends Jimmy and Amanda have birthdays. They are also getting married on Sunday - busy week for them! I realized when I was baking Jimmy's favorite carrot cake (recipe here) that it was last year on his birthday that I decided to take cake decorating lessons because while my cakes tasted good, they looked like a Kindergarten project!

I have to credit the classes at Michaels because a year makes a big difference!

I also realized that I have been blogging for over a year now so a lot of recipes are repeats. People need to start branching out with their birthday requests so I can try new recipes!

Oh, and guess what my friends did for me last week? All 25 or so people from my two community groups got together and sent me flowers at work! They said, "You make us feel special on our birthday's all year long, we wanted to make you feel special today, we love you!" Isn't that soooo sweet? I get to do what I love doing all year long and get flowers out of the blue for it! It totally made my day. I love my friends!

Cancer Cupcakes

That title got your attention, didn't it? Well, tomorrow at work we are having a bake sale to fundraise for Breast Cancer. One of the girls I work with is a Breast Cancer survivor at 36, she has a pretty crazy and amazing story and she is quite an inspiration. My reputation as a baker has leaked out at work so I was asked to contribute. I decided to make cupcakes, three kinds of cupcakes: chocolate with cream filling, vanilla bean with chocolate/hazelnut filling, and red velvet. I have been baking all day long and just finished. I ended up making 6 dozen cancer cupcakes, now hopefully they will sell. 

The first recipe I made was red velvet. I won't re-post the recipe since I have made them before and posted it here but I will show you a picture because I used adorable little heart sprinkles and I think they turned out super cute! 

I also made the chocolate cream cupcakes that I tried last week. This time I nailed it. The frosting turned out right and I squeezed more cream filling in the middle of the cake so it is nice and full. Again, I won't repost the recipe since it is already here but I will show you some pictures of what they were supposed to look like. 

To fill the cupcakes I go into the top since it will be covered up with frosting anyway so it doesn't matter if it looks messy:

Once they are filled I dip them in the chocolate frosting and they look beautiful!

I was going to write "hope" across the top but writing a word in frosting and having the look good rather than like a 3 year old wrote it is harder than it looks so I just went with the standard "Hostess Loop".

I cut one open to make sure I got enough cream and indeed, I did. Look at this - yummy! Now that is what I was going for. 

The last recipe I made was the vanilla bean cupcakes. I have an ongoing quest to make vanilla awesome and I was pleased with how these cupcakes turned out. I don't think you can see it well in the pictures but the frosting has tons of flecks of vanilla bean in it. They look so good. I haven't made these before so I will post the recipe here. 

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Chocolate Hazelnut Filling

Cake:

2 cups vanilla sugar

2 sticks butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

1 Tbs. vanilla bean paste

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tsp. salt

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

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vinegar

Preheat oven to 350°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. 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 two 8" round greased and floured pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before filling.

Filling:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cups Nutella

1 pound powdered sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup heavy cream 

In your large mixer bowl, beat together the butter and Nutella until well combined.  Slowly add in the sugar and mix until combined.

Add in the vanilla & half of the cream, beating until well mixed.  Add more cream, a bit at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.  Continue to beat until light and fluffy. Fill cupcakes.

Frosting:

2 sticks butter at room temperature

5 cups powdered sugar

4 Tbs. milk 

1 Tbs. vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean

Mix the butter until creamy and smoothed out. Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar and mix until creamy. Add the remaining sugar and mix until creamy. Add vanilla extract. Add milk.  Add the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean and mix until evenly distributed.

And here is the finished collection of cupcakes for tomorrow's bakes sale. I feel very accomplished. 

Tax Time!

I used to HATE taxes. A lot. They were never easy and I never got anything back. For years I worked for a non-profit organization, so that was a bit complicated. Then I was a self-employed nanny - self employment tax is outrageous! And then my student loans made things a bit complicated. I always seemed to mess it up somehow. And did I mention that I never got anything back? The year that I finally worked at a normal job and taxes were going to be simple and I was actually going to get a refund, I discovered that I accidentally claimed too many dependents and I owed the government several hundred dollars. Foiled again!

This year, I finally got it right. I set it all up properly and everything was in line for taxes to be uncomplicated and actually pay off. Tax time was fun this year! I finally got a refund - YAY! I decided to treat myself to a new bedroom set. Over the last few years I have been slowly furnishing my apartment and getting rid of all the hand-me-down stuff that I had. My bedroom was the last thing to be done, mainly because nobody sees it but me. My inner designer was cringing at the "college-dorm" look that my room had and my 30+ body was starting to rebel at the cheap twin sized mattress that I got off of Craigslist six years ago.

So here it is, my lovely new bedroom. I am now enjoying a few perks of the single life. 1) Being able to pick out anything I wanted for my room without worrying about it being too girly or whatever. 2) Having an amazingly comfortable queen sized bed all to myself. If I ever get married I will have to retrain myself to share I suppose, but I will worry about that then. Right now, I plan to sprawl. And the last few nights in my new bed have been amazing! I love pampering myself. :)

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

I made chocolate cupcakes yesterday for my friend, Danielle's, birthday (yes, my friends have birthdays every week!) Since it was the day after Valentine's Day I was still in the mood to make something Valentine-y. I have been wanting to try these cupcakes that I saw on Pinterest. 156 people pinned them after me so apparently a lot of people want to try them!

So cute, right? They are a homemade version of cream filled Hostess cupcakes. I had some glitches with mine so I will have to try again but everyone loved them anyway so I'll call it a win.

I started with a basic chocolate cake recipe (this one made 20 cupcakes)

Chocolate Cake:

1 cup boiling water

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk (or use 1 cup milk mixed with 1 Tbs. vinegar)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

Heat the oven to 350°F. Prepare cupcake pan with liners. Bring some water to boil and keep it simmering while you make the batter. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup boiling water and carefully stir until the water is mixed in; beat for 1 1/2 minutes. Pour 1/3 cup of batter into the each cupcake tin (batter will be thin). Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or just until the top springs back when lightly touched.

Then you fill the cupcakes with cream filling. YUM!

Cream Filling:

2 tsp. very hot water, not boiling

1/4 tsp salt

1 jar marshmallow creme

1/2 cup shortening

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Dissolve salt into hot water and set aside to cool. Whip marshmallow creme, shortening, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Add water once cool and whip well.

Fill a pastry bag with cream filling. Once your cupcakes have cooled completely, Take your pastry bag full of cooled filling and insert the tip of the pastry bag into the center of the cupcake's top.

It's alright if a little filling is still on the top, that'll get covered with the ganache. But go back in there and clean up what you can so they don't mix and you have a clean finish.

Make sure that you squeeze a generous amount into the cupcake. I cut one of mine in half and this is what I saw... pathetic! Next time I will make sure to squeeze harder!

Then you top the filled cupcakes with a chocolate ganache.

Ganache:

4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth.
Allow the glaze to cool slightly, spoon a little bit of the cooled ganache on each cupcake, and spread lightly. 

Place cupcakes in the fridge and cool for at least 15 minutes

Ganache is kind of finicky and sometimes it doesn't come out all silky and smooth. Mine ended up being totally lumpy and ugly which completely ruined the look of the cupcakes. 

I scrapped my original idea and had to improvise. How to deal with ugly looking chocolate? Cover it with more chocolate! I covered the cupcakes with mini-chocolate chips and called them "double chocolate" cupcakes and no one was the wiser - until now, of course. 

Um, yeah... I meant to do that. 

Valentine's Dessert

Valentine's Day. Dessert. What comes to mind? Red velvet cake of course! I think that has to be the Valentiny-ist dessert there is. It just so happened to be my friend, Lorelei's birthday and she requested it. I won't repost the recipe since I already made red velvet cake and posted the recipe here but I will post a picture of the finished product. I saw this technique on Pinterest and it looked easy enough yet impressive so I figured I would try it. I have to say, this was the easiest way to decorate a cake and it got a lot of compliments. I have decided that cake decorating is 10% skill and 90% tools. If you have the right gadgets it is a breeze! For this look I used the Wilton 1M tip and made "roses" all over the cake by basically making swirls. Simple, simple! Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!