Koi Cupcakes

I'm bringing treats to work tomorrow - my coworkers have been on me for bringing in cake, so I borrowed an idea from a book I found. I gave the 1st edition of the book my friend, and as I was flipping through the 2nd at Border's I came across this idea. They are just yellow cup cakes and blue frosting, but the decoration makes them so cute!! I bought two bags of circus peanuts last week for me to make these, but some how in the last week the first two bags disappeared... and Justin doesn't like them.
They were a complete cinch to make, one circus peanut on top with an edge taken off for the face, then an other peanut sliced in half for top and bottom, then each cut at a diagonal for the fins. The eyes are peanut butter M&M's, the mouth a Cheerio. They don't look quite as good as the picture in the book, but I'm pretty sure those stay-at-home moms who created the book have more time to dink around and practice these sorts of things. I think if I made these again in the future, more frosting is needed to shove the decorations to help them stay, and maybe only every other cupcake is a fish, the others bubbles or waves? I don't know, we'll have to see!

Week wrap-up

This last week went by very quickly. School is back in session, so Tuesdays for residency go by fast. We taught the students this week about neuro screens, which consists of testing sensation, muscle strength by nerve innervation groups, and reflexes. It is crazy to think back 3 years and imagine myself in that same lab. The PT1's are off to a great start. It's nice to see their enthusiasm and desire to learn, even in some of the simplest of skills.

Other news, I got my Subaru Forester 2.5x!!! I have been needing a new car, mine seemed to find one more thing each day to fall apart. From the suspension, to the electronic sensors, to the cruise control, and lastly the handle to the driver door - it was time. I have been wanting a Forester forever, but can't seem to find too many used ones for sale. Hmm... popular, reliable car maybe?? I was looking for a bit older (just to not have as high of car payments) but Justin wanted me safe. Love him! Even after coming home from the dealership that night he says, "I would have paid a lot more to know you're driving a safe car." Do I deserve this man? :) Anyway, it's beautiful, rides smooth, excellent fuel economy, and I can just start to imagine the adventures Justin and I will have.

Justin has been starting to get a bit more creative in the kitchen these days. He has been taking a few venison tenderloins and curing them. He is starting to experiment with different salt/sugar and spice ratios to have a different flavor of the meats. And they are so delicious and tender! A couple crackers and some nice cheese... And it is pretty cool knowing where the deer was from, that my dad prepared them, and all the work was done without mass production. Justin has been quite proud of his culinary accomplishments, and I'm happy to say that I am enjoying the end result!

This morning for breakfast we had Eggs Benedict with whole wheat English muffins and pancetta instead ham. AMAZING!! Just after finishing, I saw my dad's FB post about eating 10 eggs for breakfast. Justin and I didn't even come close. But our stomachs are quite content with all the buttery lemon sauce and salty pancetta and eggs. Nap time!

Today's agenda is cupcakes. I have a bit of laundry and prep work to do for this week, but it's time for me to get the baking back on schedule. I mistakenly promised my coworkers a cake 2 weeks ago and fell through, thank you busy schedule! So now every day at lunch their asking when the cake is coming. Ok, so no cake today, but cupcakes are on the way. Blog post with pics to come soon.

Chicago

I made a long weekend trip to Chicago this last weekend. I stayed with my good friend Renee and her new fiance, Peter. It was a great escape from the daily routine. Saturday I putzed around a small shopping square not too far from their place and then rode the L into the city a bit further for some more shopping. I noticed a crazy amount of second hand stores - I think Chicago has more second-hand stores per capita then Starbucks in New York. I could tell they have some great buys, but I just don't have the patience to sort through everything. I found a cute little book shop that I bought a knitting book with directions on how to knit little flowers, I'm pumped that you can make them without crochet!! I will now be donning scarves, coffee wraps, baby hats, etc with little cute flowers! I also came across Justin's dream - Gene's sausage shop. This German delicatessen had TONS of selections of, well, sausage, hams, pates, brisquets, cold cuts, you name it. It also had a bunch of other products from Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, and England. I found Justin a book, From Nose to Tail, written by Fergus Henderson. We have been watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, and he hails this guy. Henderson is know for offal, or use of the parts of animals most through out. Not that I'm excited to try many of these dishes, but Justin enjoys reading about them. He was definitely surprised and pleased with his souvenier when I got back.

Among some other sites we had to stop at, the famous bean was one of them. After taking a few pics, we rushed across the street to grab some hot lattes and mochas to warm back up. Unfortunately my brain lapsed and I didn't turn off my flash, so the pics didn't turn out. Guess I have to go back!

I finally finished her scarf!! This was a very long-lasting project, but finally came to completion. Next time I will read the pattern the whole way through before committing to it! Here is Renee showing off the final product.

Renee and I have a tradition of making funfetti cupcakes whenever we get together. In the past we have always just put funfetti frosting on the top, but since I found this fun cupcake decorating book and gave it to her for Christmas, we decided to put our decorating skills to the test and make our cupcakes look like owls. They were fun to make, and actually didn't take that much effort. All we needed was oreos, M&M's (see note below), chocolate frosting, and chocolate covered sunflower seeds. The ears are one half of the orea, the ears are also peice of oreo, then the eyes and nose are the M&M's and sunflower seeds. We initially thought they would be too cute to eat, but then we changed our minds. Yum!

So about the M&M's, the grocery store by their place is primarily hispanic, but also carry a lot of other foreign products. They had M&M's, but they were labeled in a plastic container as "M&M's without the M". Nice.