The Places I Have Been

Why hello there! I promise I'm still alive, the last couple weeks have been busyyyyy.  I'll briefly update on some recent events and post more in depth on some things later.

Where did I leave off?...

For Easter weekend I headed back home to celebrate my friend Shannon's 25th birthday as well as enjoy Easter with my family.  We celebrated during the day at Malibu Wines (which I've blogged about before).  Wine and good friends made for a fun and drunken day.  The weather was absolutely perfect too!  I love this place -- live music, good wine, and your can bring in your own food. We continued celebrating at the birthday girls' house after our winery fun was over...Oh, and we pet a camel. Nope, not drunk at all...

On Easter, we went to church and then had brunch with my mom's side of the family.  Then it was out to my dad's house for more Easter celebrations.  One of the greatest things was seeing the foster kittens my dad and stepmom our caring for.  They were about 4 weeks old when I was there.

The greatest news of all...Shaun and I will be the proud new parents of one of these kittens in the next week or two!  Hurray!

Since I last blogged, I've also gone to Coachella...but that deserves to be its own blog post.  For now, let's just say music, friends, and a free feeling that I can only get from the music festival in the desert. 

Can I go back there, please?

And since my fun adventure, it's been work, work, work.  My internship is actually going really well and everything is looking great as far as my research progress.  I sadly can't divulge more, but yayyy science!

Last weekend I also participated in the So Cal Color Run with my college roommates.  This too will be getting it's own well-deserved post.  It's basically a 5k non-timed, non-competitive fun run where everybody wears white and by the end your are covered in a variety of colors, thanks to the colored powders in each of the "color zones" along the way.  Seriously, one of the most fun runs I've ever done!  Just a preview to keep you hooked...

Life Lately: A Crazy Week in Februrary

Pardon my recent absence, but between Shaun's Day, V-day, friends visiting, and my 25th birthday, life has been more than a little crazy!  But, it's a welcome crazy.  I'll let this pictures do (most of) the the talking. 

Take a look at the crazy week:

Shaun's Day: His Birthday/Valentine's

Friends Visiting + a day in La Jolla

25th Birthday @ ShoutHouse (dueling piano bar!)

The Birthday Girls

Piano Embarrassment/ Hilarity

Sorry for the picture-heavy post, but I think I'm still recovering from the craziness...these old bones can't party like they used too ;)

In regards to my birthday, I'm so grateful for the friends who came from near and far to help me celebrate.  I also loved the phone calls, texts, and digital love from those that couldn't be physically with me but were still thinking of me.  A big thanks to everybody who made it a night for the books (and to mostly remember)!

Valentine's Day and Survival Tips

Happy Valentine's Day!

or as we call it in our residence, Shaun's Day!  Just one of the perks of having a boyfriend whose birthday is on this love-filled day.  I actually don't mind it and I like making him feel like the center of attention (as long as I get to eat some chocolates in return!)   He's great about it though and still does little things to surprise me.

 

I know some people may not be a fan of this day, but think of it as a day to show your love for all, friends, family, and significant others.  And if that doesn't work, here are some tips to get through the day:  

1.  Think if it as a day to not feel bad about indulging in one-too-many sweets (I have a thing for yellow candy hearts) and drinking your share of adult beverages. 

 

2.  Celebrate with your lady friends a la Leslie Knopes.  

 

 3.  Do you have a ladyboner for Ryan Gosling?  Check him out in all his valentine's day glory: http://www.ryantinesday.com/

I hope those tips can help get you through the day.  Do you have any VDay survival tips to share?

xoxo

September Birthday Baking- Continued

BLUE MOON CUPCAKES!!!

blue moon + cupcake = awesome

Did that grab your attention?!  That's right, beer cupcakes.  Now, I'm not new to this baking with alcohol thing.  I've done it before and I am most certainly a fan.  This, however, was my first time using beer and not some type of hard liquor.

I knew I wanted to make a beer-based cupcake because it was my brother's 21st.  After some research I decided on using the recipe from The Bitchin' Kitchen and slightly adapting it. To be honest, they weren't the prettiest cupcakes; I put a little blue food coloring in the batter to give it a festive color...so that might be the reason (I advice against it) and I could have used some prettier cupcake liners.  But, they tasted pretty darn good! I'd describe the cupcake portion as a little wheat-y, not in a bad way, and definitely orange-y.  The frosting was perfectly orange flavored as well.  You're not going to get drunk of these cupcakes, but the beer essence is there.

Blue Moon Cupcakes (about 15 cupcakes)
6 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs, room temp
4 oz buttermilk

6 oz Blue Moon beer
2 tsp vanilla
orange zest, from 1 orange
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp baking soda

Can I be honest? I definitely added a little more beer than that.  Not too much more and not enough to change the consistency but, hello, if we're working with beer we might as well make sure we know it's there.  I'd say I used between 9-10 oz. 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Melt butter in microwave and set aside
• Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, Blue Moon, vanilla, and orange zest
• In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, flour, coriander, and baking soda
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in portions and mix in between
• Fill baking cups with batter and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until done.
• Let cool

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
4-5 cups confectioners sugar
1.5 - 3oz. Blue Moon

Directions:

• In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese, butter, orange juice, orange zest, and Blue Moon until creamy.
• Add sugar, cup by cup, and continue to blend
• Chill frosting and then decorate

I chilled the frosting, like the directions called for, and even though the frosting was firm, it definitely wouldn't form pretty peaks.  I chose to simply frost them and skip that fancy stuff.  Add a slice of orange or even some orange zest and voila! you have yourself a Blue Moon Cupcake!

Enjoy!

September Birthday Baking

You: September birthdays? Wait, isn't it mid-October?

Me: Yes, yes it is, but since I just started this blog I haven't been able to tell you about the cupcakes I made for two birthdays last month. So there.

Both my brother and my cousin turned 21 last month and I wanted to make a little something special for each of their birthdays.  

For my cousin's birthday I decided to make S'more Cupcakes (adapted from The Doctor's Dishes, Desserts & Decor).  I doubled the original recipe to make more cupcakes (about 30).  

First, pre-heat oven to 350F.

 

Graham Cracker Cupcakes

1 cup butter, room temp.

2 cups sugar

6 eggs, room temp.

2 cups milk

2 cups flour

3 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

Beat the butter until creamed and add in sugar until the texture is light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, until well mixed.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and baking soda.

Add 1/3 of the dry mixture to the butter/egg mixture and then add 1/2 of the milk and mix.  Continue adding ingredients in the following order dry mix, milk, dry mix.  Mix until combined.

Scoop mixture into cupcake liners and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until done.

Chocolate Frosting

*note: This recipe has been doubled too and I still had more than chocolate for enough for 30 cupcakes

1 1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup flour

6 tbsp. cocoa powder (unsweetened)

2 cups milk

2 cups butter, softened

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melt chocolate chips and then set aside to cool.  I like to melt mine in 20 second increments and stir inbetween.

In a saucepan whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and milk.  Bring to a boil and whisk, whisk, whisk.  Boil until mixture is "pudding-like" about 1-3 minutes. Make sure you don't over cook.  Remove the pan from heat and cool completely (i.e. stick it in the fridge).  My only advice is to make sure you really watch your chocolate when your cooking it because nobody likes burnt chocolate. 

Beat the butter until creamed.  Mix in cooled chocolate mixture.  Add the melted chocolate and beat until fluffy.  If you want you can add more cocoa powder, but it really depends on your personal preference.

Marshmallow Buttercream

2 cups butter, room temp.

4-6 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

marshmallow fluff (I probably used about 12 oz. but it's really up to the baker to decide how mashmallowey (new word?) they want the frosting to be.)

Now put it all together:  Core the cupcakes and fill the center with chocolate frosting.  Frost the cupcakes with marshmallow buttercream frosting.  I topped my cupcakes with a piece of hershey's, I mean what is a s'more without it?

left: cored cupcake filled with chocolate right: final product

S'more Cupcake

These cupcakes were definitely a labor of love because they are pretty time intensive.  The end result was worth it though.  I thoroughly enjoyed these cupcakes and received some great feedback on them as well!  Who doesn't love a s'more? Even better,  a cupcake that tastes like a s'more :)

In order to prevent this post from being any longer, I will save the other "September Birthday Baking" cupcake recipe for a new day...a little something to look forward too!