Baking > Term Paper

I have a paper due Monday, so today I baked.

I tried not to go CRAZY like last week. I made one cookie recipe. But it was a big recipe and ended up making 60+ cookies. Luckily I'm going to a party tonight so I can bring them with, and so now my roommate and I won't eat them all, like this week. Oye.


I had to run to CVS to buy eggs this morning, I grabbed a bottle of wine for the party tonight, it was $3.50, I love Virginia. Here's to a fun night, and a TERRIBLE headache tomorrow!


Also, Life update, I want to move into D.C. asap. ALSO, with all of these Cupcake shops popping up, I have a new idea, a Cookie Store, complete with milk on tap. Genius? I think so.


Any who, now for my second made up recipe (which my mother informed me after Giada makes them)..

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

(makes a little over 5 doz. yeah, ridiculous)

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

1/2 of baking soda 

1 1/4 packed light brown sugar

1 1/1 cups of white sugar

2 sticks (1 cup) of softened butter

2 large eggs

1 cup of Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Mix together flour, salt & baking soda, set aside.

2. Mix sugars and butter until combined

3. Mix in eggs & vanilla. Then add Peanut Butter 

4.  Once combined, add flour mixture to the Peanut Butter mixture slowly. 

5. Drop cookies on a greased cookie sheet, any size you want. 

6. Bake for 18-20 minutes. 

They were a little slippery and my cookie sheet is bent.

Sunday, Sunday

Life snuck up on me, and I was taken over by work, stress and school. But, life has it's way of working itself out I found, and I'm happy with everything I've accomplished this semester and everything I'm going to do in the next year!

I went home to visit my family for Thanksgiving, and for the past 2 years, I've been making something "funky" to add to our Thanksgiving meal. Last year was pumpkin gravy. My sister and I liked it, but it didn't really catch on. So I decided to try a dessert this year. I made Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Marshmallow frosting!

They were fantastic! I got the recipe from my favorite food blogger at howsweeteats.com, she's amazing and I will blindly follow any recipe she posts because I KNOW for a fact it will be delicious.


Today I was feeling bake-y, so I made Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pumpkin Muffins anddddddd

Introducing, my first real baking creation:

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, with Marshmallow Frosting

(nom)

oh, heaven. is that you?

Pre-heat oven to: 350 

1 1/4 Cup of Flour

3/4 teaspoon of Baking Soda

1 pinch of Salt

5 tablespoons of Butter 

2/3 cups of Milk

3 packets of Hot Chocolate (I used Swiss Miss)

1 cup of White Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Egg Yoke

1 teaspoon of Vanilla 

1. Combine flour baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside. 

2. Heat butter and milk, on low heat in a sauce pan.

3. When butter is melted stir in 3 Hot Chocolate packets to the milk/butter mixture.

4. Beat sugar, eggs, yoke and vanilla. 

5. Add flour mixture to the sugar/egg mixture. 

6. Once combined pour in warm Milk and Hot Chocolate mixture. 

7. Stir until combined, pour into cupcake liner. 

8. Bake for 25 minutes

For Marshmallow frosting (Taken from how sweet eats). 

1 teaspoon of Vanilla

1/2 cup butter, (softened)

1 1/2 cups Marshmallow Fluff

3 cups of powdered sugar 

1-2 teaspoons milk, if needed

Beat butter and sugar together, add vanilla and combine until it forms a ball. Add in fluff and combine. If it's too thin add more sugar, if it's too thick add milk. 

Allow cake to cool before frosting. 

Tada. ;) 

Failures and Successes

So you could probably tell from my lack of blogging about it, I gave up on the juicing thing. It's not because I couldn't do it (I couldn't) it's because it made me feel horrible, and gain weight... yes, I'm the opposite of people. And it just made me hungry all the time! I usually have to remind myself to eat but when I started juicing I was hungry 24/7. Who knows why, I'm sure their's medical reasons for it!


That was my failure, my Success however are way cooler,

1. My dinner, which I didn't take a picture of, was sweet, I really think I discovered something amazing here. So I wanted breaded chicken but realized that  I didn't have any eggs left! So I was confronted with a problem... what liquid could I use to replace egg, allow for the bread crumbs to stick, and make it delicious.  I don't know if this is a known fact about me yet but I have a serious addiction to Franks Red Hot! It makes me happy and it's yummy. So, instead of flour -- egg -- bread crumbs, I did, flour -- hot sauce -- bread crumbs. And they worked perfectly together because the hot sauce got a little thick from the flour which made the bread crumbs stick even more. I like to think I made it up, but I'm sure it's been done before. But it made for a nicer, less messy buffalo chicken bite! So instead of covering the outsides, but throw it inside and it's a convenient little package!

2. My job, is, awesome. I just got invited to work with the Chief of Critical Care on a super sweet project. Score.

3. I'm 2 presentations, and a term paper away from being done with my first semester of grad school!

4. Bismark Von Longbody is coming back to me! I was suppose to be getting another foster, he name is Bailey, but Bismark's family said he was too mean to their cats (stupid cat people).

Day 1 of Juicing.

again, not steroids.


So I bought a cheap juicer off amazon, and it works great! Only $25 and juices like a champ! Silly people buying $400 juicers.

Today I slept in a little and I have to go to sleep extra early for work tomorrow so I only made 2 juices today.

Breakfast juice was 3 carrots, 2 apples and 1 brown asian pear.

guts. 

My first juice!! It needed ice, lots of ice, because at first it was a little warm, and that was terrible. But after chilling it for a little it wasn't bad! Very appley, very carroty. Basically everything you put in it, is exactly how it tastes, which makes sense because there's no hidden ingredients! It's really nice to know EXACTLY what you're putting into your body!

Dinner Juice - GREEN - 1 cucumber, 5 stalks of celery, some broccoli, and a few handfuls of spinach, and again lots of ice. It's reallllly green. And tastes, like this morning, exactly what I put in, the strongest taste however is broccoli. So it's a little bitter. I read though if somethings too bitter to put lemon juice in to equalize it. But I think I'll stick it out this time, and learn from my juicing experience! 

Call me motivated....

carrots, pineapple, pears, mangos, lettuce, celery, cucumber, radishes, spinach, bananas, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, grapefruit, broccoli, bananas, red peppers, apples, apple-pears, lemons.

WHY?!

 One of my friends recommended a documentary to me called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". 

Synopsis (from the website).

100 pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe Cross is at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. In the mirror he saw a 310lb man whose gut was bigger than a beach ball and a path laid out before him that wouldn't end well— with one foot already in the grave, the other wasn't far behind.

With doctors and conventional medicines unable to help long- term, Joe turns to the only option left, the body's ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle.

Joe kicked his disease and lost a BUNCH of weight!

So, I decided to juice, for a week. To restart my body and be healthier! My friend who recommended the movie is also doing it. At first I wasn't sure that I wanted to do it, I'm a super picky eater and I have an aversion to fruits that aren't apples or bananas. But then I looked it the mirror and told myself to stop being such a big baby, and do it! 

So today I bought what you see in the picture. And I'm going to do it! Starting tomorrow (Sunday), I will wake up, plug in my juicer and never look back!

I'm sure it'll make me blog more too, I'll share my recipes. And how everything tastes. Probably disgusting...

Sir Bismark Von Longbody

 Bismark (Biz), has to be the sweetest dog I've ever met. And I'm so happy, that even though we only spent 2 short weeks together, that I got a chance to have him in my life.

I recently started fostering for the Dachshund Rescue of North America (DRNA), their goal is to rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home dachshunds in need. I decided to foster because, although I would LOVE to own a dog of my own, I'm unsure of my living conditions for the future, and I'm not in a financial state to have a dog that may need vetting needs. So I decided that fostering, not only would be great for me financially, but it would also help out the dogs as well.

At first I planned on joining a local dog fostering organization. With this I would get a variety of dogs, I got to specify around what size, but I could have received anything from a Chihuahua to a Great Dane. Through more research online though, I decided the smaller the dog the better. I'm not a huge fan of tiny dogs, but there's just something about dachshund's little hot dog-like bodies that makes me happy. So I emailed the local organizer of the DRNA and I was in business. After returning from my conference in Las Vegas, Biz was dropped off.

He was scared at first, he was just taken from him previous home the day before. He is 6 years old, and lived with a family his whole life, until now. His human could no longer take care of him due to her age.  When he came to me he was described as to only using Wee Mats to go to potty. Which meant he would pee and poo on the mat and not outside. I wasn't into this, so I kept a mat in my room but took him on many walks a day. He was describe to never go potty outside and on his 3 days with me he had no accidents inside and went potty outside 100% of the time!

He was the best little cuddler as well. His first home wouldn't allow him on furniture or in the bed. I immediately threw that out the window, this little guy was sleeping with me! Every morning he would some how end up next to my head, even though when I was asleep he was at the foot of the bed. 

 Biz was adopted much quicker than usual. I was originally quoted 6-12 months with him. But who wouldn't want this little guy! Look at that face!

Hopefully with in the next week I will be getting my next little foster buddy! I'm hoping this one's potty trained! :) 

Sometimes the littlest things take up the most room in your heart - Piglet

I like little things:
Like Bismark (who went to his new home this past weekend, I'll post a entry about him and my fostering "soon"). This is where he laid while I cooked, he just likes to watch!

 

Unlike Bear: Who wedges himself between my leg and the cabinet.

 Any who, my roommate had left over apples and I decided to make apple pie, so I went to the store and bought a pie crust, and at home I knew I have everything else.

 

Ingredients:

Pie crust.

For Filling

1/4 cup of flour

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

(I didn't add the lemon juice, if you're using sweet apples don't worry about it but if you're using a more bitter apple I'd add it.)

 

Peeling apples stinks!

 So here's the little part! I realized I didn't have a pie pan. Ut Oh, Welp, I have a muffin pan, and that's all I'll ever need. 

So after mixing up the apples and all the ingredients, I sprayed my muffin tin with PAM and then rolled out my pie crust a little thinner

  I also don't have any round cookie cutters, so I used a martini glass (inspired by someone who used wine bottles as dumbbells).

 

I laid the circles cut out into the muffin pan, then filled with the apples, then covered with scraps I had from cutting out the circles. After baking at 425 for 15 minutes, and then at 350 for 20 minutes these adorable little pies came out perfect! 

 

I MAY have eaten one for breakfast the next morning...

Some Craft Stuff!

Okay so I've had pictures saved on my computer for like a MONTH. So it's time to show some of my crafts. I have a hard time finishing crafts, example: I've been crocheting a blanket for 3 years. So I have some half stuff done, and I feel like that's how I'm getting with my blog, but I'm going to fight it!

 Here's a blurry, but silly picture of Bear, he was watching me make my craft!

This project is simple, fun and looks very sweet.

So if you have to know anything about me, I LOVE coloring, but I have a problem, well a few problem with crayons.

1. I EXCLUSIVELY use Crayola. Yup, I'm a crayon supremest, but there's something just so terrible and waxy about any other crayon.

2. I don't share my crayons, every time I share my crayons someone breaks them and it just makes me angry, the only person who hasn't broken one of my crayons is my boyfriend. But if he ever does he will NOT be able to use my crayons.

3. Lastly, I HATE dull crayons, I really should just use colored pencils because I prefer accuracy in my coloring, but I like sharp crayons. 

I sound crazy... but I'm just particular. Coloring really is a great way to de-stress and revert back to childhood. ACTUALLY, during my conference of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, I attended a lecture on how coloring is good for you because it activates certain areas of the brain, it's actually GREAT way to fight off Alzheimer's.

But the conclusion I'm trying to get to is that I have A LOT of dull and/or broken crayons, I don't know why I don't just throw them away but, I'm glad now that I kept them, there are a TON of crafts for used crayons. 

So for this project you'll need:

 - a box of 64 Crayons (use Crayola).

- a blank canvas (or a black one!)

- glue gun

- a blow dryer

 Step One: Get your crayons and canvas

 Step 2: Arrange your crayons in color order, I did rainbow (Roy G. Biv), but I'm sure you could so anything or just do specific colors if you're going for a certain look.

 Step 3: Glue the crayons on.

Step 4: Hit it with a blow dryer, I propped my up against a wall and put the blow dryer on the hottest heat, starting with the Red, and working down through the rest. 

And then TADA! It's finished! Super easy and it looks so sweet. I hung it up on my wall even before it finished drying!

Over a month in now...

and I still haven't perfectly adjusted to my new life, but I'm working on it. Since I moved I've ordered way too much stuff from Amazon, spent WAY too much money at the mall, (I LOVE Tyson's Corner Mall), went to visit Brian in Australia, started graduate school, got an internship at Children's National Hospital in Georgetown, and next week I'm going the to Human Factors and Ergonomics in Las Vegas! OH, and I got approved to foster dachshunds!

So the first thing, my obsession with Amazon, it's mostly an obsession with free two-day shipping. But also, a friend pointed out to me the other day my obsession with novel kitchen items. Let's review why he said that, here's some things I own:

Wine bottle opener :)

I have the spoon, wisk (christmas gift from Brian), and the pastry brush.

 

Pizza cutter, it's really adorable.

  I also buy novel food items, like mini pepperonis for mini pizza cups (GREAT RECIPIE, will post later) and anything that's "new", but what gets me the most is the Piccolini mini pasta from Barilla! They took classic pastas like, penne, rotini, fusilli and farfalle and made them tiny! I'm obsessed. 

So, Tyson's Corner Mall is beautiful, they have so many stores, I've gone twice and only managed to make it through half the mall. Recently my roommate, a friend and I went to go dress shopping. There's a store there called Arden B. I've never seen one before, and I loved it! But, they're super expensive. They did have a GREAT sale, but of course out of all the dresses I tried on, the one that I fell in love with, wasn't on sale, and I just couldn't get myself to buy it, but I WILL keep my eyes on it until it goes on sale, because some day I will have some reason to wear this....

Feather Dress

Yes, those are feathers.

Australia needs to be it's own post, it was amazing, I've never had so much fun in my whole life. I've never traveled out of the country before and this experience just makes me want to travel all around the world! As long as Brian comes too, cause this distance thing is really getting annoying.

 Grad school is, a lot of reading, and little boring. But not has hard as I thought, I only have one test all semester. Lots of reading and paper writing, but I much prefer paper writing to test studying. The sweet thing is all the field trips stuff we get access to that I normally wouldn't. Like tomorrow I'm going to the Pentagon, had to get security clearance and everything! Hopefully I get a sweet badge or something.

Another school function, I get to go to Las Vegas! For a whole week! I leave this Sunday, and get back next Saturday. I'm super excited, and feel so adult going to Vegas! I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about that after I get home, I'll probably also want to sleep a lot as well.

I'm super excited about my new job, which I will start when I get back from Las Vegas. I get to be an intern, woo, but I also get do my own project. Whatever I want. I get to work with doctors and nurses to help reduce mistakes and errors they make. So hopefully I get to save some little lives!

Lastly, and probably the most exciting thing going on is my involvement with the Dachshund Rescue of North America (DRNA). The DRNA is a national rescue organization that works with dachshunds. They're a no-shelter rescue group that takes in doxies from other shelters, puppies farms, and owner surrenders, and places them in foster homes until they can be adopted. So I will be a foster mommy, I even got my first "assignment". He's a 5 year old longhaired red, who's an owner surrender. I wasn't told his name but AS SOON as I get him there will be pictures galore! I promise! 

I'll be sure to update more now that I have a set schedule, and stuff to write about!