Lately

So it's been a while since my last post. I've been busy. I've gone to Alaska, twice. Justin went with my on the first trip and I went solo and the second, but I was visiting clinics after some job interviews to help make a decision on the best fit for me. And - I've made my decision!! I'm going to be joining a private practice PT clinic in Anchorage. I'm very excited. Justin and I will move this summer, so that means we have lots of stuff to do to get ready. And that means emptying out our freezer... preheat the oven!

And just because I've been busy and off traveling doesn't mean I haven't been cooking. I made chocolate cupcakes for one of the residency guys. Now this was interesting. I got this cupcake book a couple months ago that has some fun and different recipes. I tried out their chocolate standard cupcake, but it's a vegan recipe. I followed the recipe to a tee - and I usually fudge a couple ingredients one way or another. I did everything just like the recipe and they turned out like crap. The batter was really thick and fudge-like, but after 10 minutes or so in the oven they completely fell and caved in. After they cooled, they were bitter and just awful. I support the vegan eaters and all, but I want eggs and milk in my recipes. Oh, and I made chocolate ganache. YUM!! So I made a different batch of chocolate cupcakes and topped them off with chocolate ganache. Lesson learned - eggs make a difference.

My aunt made italian wedding soup from scratch a while back so I thought I'd try my hand at it. I used some sweet italian sausage as the base for the meatballs. I added parsley, parmesan, egg, breadcrumbs, and of course - garlic. In the broth I cooked carrots, spinach, and then some mini bow tie noodles. After the meatballs were nice and browned and the noodles to the perfect al dente - combine and serve. Sooo good. Very simple meal that just hit the spot.

I've made desserts and goodies for Justin to take to work, and a fair amount over the past 3 years. You ask any one of the guys in the department and they will most likely say the salted nut roll bars are the best. I'm famous at the lab just for these treats. I could eat half a pan of these things. If you like the candy bar salted nut roll, or even the salty sweet combination in general, these are just right. I got this recipe from a coworker, and I've made them several times since. The base layer is yellow cake mix, eggs, and melted butter. You bake the crumbly mix for a bit, then toss mini marshmallows ove the top and let them get gooey in the oven for 2-3 min. You make this caramely peanut buttery syrup with rice crispies and peanuts mixed in and then spoon it over the top of the gooey mallows. Unfortunately, these take FOREVER to cool, so you are stuck with that awesome smell in the kitchen and no nibble for about 2 hours. But once they do... oh mama!! I brought a couple to campus, and sure enough, they got great reviews there as well!

So now that I'll be home for a bit - I'll try to keep more recent blog updates. Now to just start thinking what I want to make next...

Minted White Chocolate Cupcakes

I love cupcakes. Everything about them. They are the perfect size, and can take you back to your childhood days of bringing treats to school on your birthday and colored sprinkles. I personally tend toward selections that have a richer taste than powerered sugar frosting, and my last selection was this:

Minted White Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 regular sized cupcakes

5 Tbsp of fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, lightly softened

2 eggs

1 1/4 cup self-rising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

6 oz white chocolate, chopped

confectioner's sugar, for dusting

To start, preheat your oven to 350. I have recently discovered that my timer on my over for the preheat is completely off. I have an additional thermometer that hangs in the back, telling me the REAL temp. We've lived in this apartment for 3 1/2 years and I'm now getting the oven temperature right, I'm so ashamed. Anyway, line your muffin tin with papers. Put the mint into a heat-safe bowl, and pour boiling water over the mint and let stand for 30 seconds. Drain off the water (I used it to make tea, yum) and pat the mint dry. Put the mint and suger into a food processor, blend until finely chopped.
Beat the sugar-mint mix, butter, eggs, flour, and baking powder until light and creamy. Stir in 1/2 oz of the chocolate then divide the batter between the papers. Scatter the remaining chocolate of the batter.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cakes have risen and just firm to the touch. Let the cakes cool on a wire rack and lightly dust with sugar once cool.

Now I thought these cupcakes had a texture more like biscuts. Note no moisture in the recipe.. hmm. I might try them next time with just a 1/2 cup of milk or 1/4 cup oil. We'll see. Despite the texture, they were fabulous. The hint of mint and white chocolate are a nice little change up from chocolate, but only occasionally. Let's not get too crazy!

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!

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.