Flowers and Sausages

Culinary School

2011-01-13T21:44:00.001-08:00

Hey guys! I'm a jerk and started a tumblr and then never posted about it here. Anyway, if you want to follow my culinary school adventure, my new blog is here:

http://erikastrada.tumblr.com/

10 weeks until my externship starts, hoping to go to Paris. Wish me luck, enjoy the photos!

Hot Garlic Pickles

2010-07-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

It's no secret I like canning and preserving, so when I found a recipe for Hot & Spicy Garlic Pickles in this month's Better Homes and Gardens (yeah, I know), I was way too excited. Unfortch they need to sit for a week before I can see how they turned out, but I'm going to share the recipe with you anyway because they look and smell delicious already. I'm not going to get into canning instructions, so if you are new to it, the National Center for Home Food Preservation has some great information on the process.

Hot Garlic Pickles

from Better Homes and Gardens, July 2010

3 to 3 1/4 lbs small pickling cucumbers

4 cups water

4 cups cider vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup pickling salt

6 tbsp dill seeds

chili peppers (1 per jar)

garlic (1 to 2 cloves per jar, halved)

Some notes before we begin:

-Pickling (canning) salt is the same thing as kosher salt - free of iodine and anti-clumping agents, but a much finer grain, so you can't pack kosher salt as tightly when you measure it. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I found a couple sources that suggested putting the kosher salt in a food processor for a couple seconds to get it a bit finer and then measure it, and that totally worked!

-I found pickling cucumbers at Ralph's only because the farmer's market was yesterday and I slept through it (my dude had a late show the night before, so it's forgivable!). Not as cheap as regular old cucumbers, but they make for crunchier pickles, which you definitely want.

-The recipe I have calls for cayenne peppers, but of course the grocery stores I went to had none. I went with red Fresno peppers, which are really similar to jalapeños. I used pint jars instead of quart jars, so I figured the less intense heat was better for a smaller jar.

-I bought a canning kit last year at Target for $7 and it has saved me SO much time and trouble, so I highly suggest picking one up at Target, Walmart or ordering from Amazon to spare yourself boiling water incidents. I also saw a canner at Walmart for $18, but unfortunately I am still unemployed which means I have to stick to my stock pot and tongs method for a while longer, saaaaad. But moving on!

First things first, gather your main players.

I like to do everything assembly line style, but I also like to pretend I'm on the food network, so whatevs.

While you are preparing and sterilizing your jars, rinse the cucumbers & peppers and peel & halve the garlic cloves. Cut off a thin slice from the end of each cucumber and slice into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices. In a large nonreactive pot, combine water, vinegar, sugar, and pickling salt, and bring to a boil.

Pack cucumbers loosely into hot pint canning jars, leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1 to 2 peppers, 1 to 2 garlic cloves (halved) and 1 tbsp dill seeds to each jar. Pour hot vinegar mixture into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Discard any remaining vinegar mixture (I had none!). Wipe jar rims and top with lids.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes - start the timer when the water returns to a boil. The water should cover the jars by at least 1" and the water should be a rolling boil. Remove cans from water bath and let stand for 1 week.

But seriously, how good do those look???

Breakfast

2010-05-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

Bell Pepper Egg-in-a-Hole

1. Heat oil in frying pan over medium heat.

2. Slice bell pepper into rings.

3. Place bell peppers in frying pan, break eggs into rings.

4. Cover and cook until eggs are done.

5. Serve on toast with salt and pepper on a bed of spinach.

Pretty sure this is all I want to eat for breakfast for the rest of summer. Thanks Martha Stewart!

Home Improvement

2010-04-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

I was looking through some old emails and blogs and stumbled upon this and it made me really happy, so I'm sharing it here.

My dad emailed me yesterday. My grandpa had a stroke - he's okay now and getting better, but here is part of the email:

"I don't know how well you know my dad, but one of the things that has always stuck out is that he never ever complains. But today he talked to me about his condition and what's going to happen to him. It's the first time I've ever heard my dad sound afraid or scared. He was trying to keep from crying when he told me that all he can do is put himself in God's hands. We talked for a while, and most of the reason I called was to try to cheer him up a little, and I was clearly not succeeding. So to lighten it up a bit, I read him your blog on home improvement. My dad laughed so hard I thought he was gonna die right there... But thanks, that really did the trick for my dad today."

I have never been so touched, I got all misty reading that. Here is what I wrote that made my grandpa's day:

Home Improvement the Erika way!

I have lived in many apartments over the years, and it seems that each one gets more bland than the last. Since my surroundings usually bore me, I've spent a significant chunk of my time perfecting the art of building furniture from kits, assembling various products, and perfecting my hammering skills. I decided it would be helpful if I wrote down some tips for you, so that one day you all can become as good as me.

1. Go to the store totally unprepared. There is really no need to know how wide any of your windows are, how big your door is for moving in furniture, or how much space you have on the wall. You can do it all from memory - "60 inches? I'm 60 inches, and I'm longer than that, I'm sure it will fit!" Don't look at the website of the store you're going to to see if they have what you want, and CERTAINLY don't waste your time by calling ahead! Every store has everything in stock, all the time. Also don't worry if it fits in your car or if you can lift it, you'll be able to cram it in there with no trouble.

2. Buy it now!! Target only has half of what you need, but it's on sale - why waste time and money when you can get half now for $2 less??? You can totally live in a half finished bedroom or bathroom, no one really cares. Your guests won't notice anything, and if they do too bad it's your fucking house, so cram it.

3. Any tools you need will either be included or you have them at home, don't bother checking if you'll need anything because you'll always have everything, all the time. God, stop wasting time already and get home so you can assemble it!

4. Open the item with total disregard for where anything goes. In fact, try to take up as much space as you can with the contents. Sure, you'll be able to find all those small nails embedded in your carpet later, it's fine really. Besides, you're probably due for a tetanus shot anyway.

5. Instructions are for pussies and should only be used as a last resort. You're smart enough to figure it out by yourself, and you've probably already spilled something on them anyway.

6. Compensate! Don't have a drill? Try using a hammer. Need a Phillips head screwdriver? Try using a hammer!! Oh no, did you break something you need with the hammer?? Good use of duct tape and push pins will fix that in a second. Really, a hammer is all you should need. Oh also, make sure to store your hammer on a high shelf next to some freestanding books - it totally won't fall on you every time you open your closet door.

7. Levels are also for pussies. You can probably guess if its straight. If its not, one of your friends is probably anal retentive about that shit and will fix it for you when they come over and view your wonderful home. Also if you're hanging separate items on the same wall, don't bother marking with a pen where they will go or measuring anything. Just hammer that shit in place and if it looks wrong, just try again, who cares if its 3am?

8. Crying will definitely help you figure out where you have gone wrong. Yelling and throwing things will help too - in fact, just put a curse on the whole thing. Also make sure to call someone and yell at them - it's totally their fault you hammered the wrong pieces together. The more irrational you are, the more they will want to come over and assist you.

9. Take a break. Take as long as you want - you can break for a half hour, 12 hours, hell take 3 weeks. Make sure you don't put anything away though - just leave it right where it is, that way everyone will know that you are just taking a break and aren't lazy or anything.

10. When you are finally finished, make sure to gloat about it to everyone that comes to your house, all the time. Make sure they are aware of your extremely awesome hammering skills and the fact that you put it together yourself. You can leave out the parts about crying though, or the fact that you had to bribe someone into carrying it into your apartment for you, however you may want to mention that they probably shouldn't touch it in the event that it might fall down.

After reading this, I assure that you are now ready to go out and build your own furniture and assemble anything you can imagine!! I hope that this has helped you, and don't forget to call me rejoicing after you have successfully used my methods to achieve your own greatness!!

Oops

2010-03-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun story for you. I have both my ears double pierced, but only one pierced three times. It's been a while since there has been an earring in there and I couldn't remember if it was the right or the left ear, so I tried both. Um... earrings went into both ears.

Pretty sure I just pierced one of my ears last night. Oops...

King John's Christmas

2009-12-23T11:31:00.000-08:00

I was listening to Mark and Brian on the radio this morning and they asked "What tradition makes it really feel like Christmas to you?" I thought a lot about Christmases as a kid, and there isn't really one particular thing that made it, it was all of them. Christmas was always the best time of year when I was growing up - there was something magical about it that made us all get along.

Christmas 1989 with Evan and Lizzie (sorry Ellyn).

The days leading up to were filled with baking cookies and buckeyes with mom, dancing to Christmas music, playing in the snow, counting the presents under the tree (because love is counted in presents according to Lizzie) and anxiously awaiting the arrival of all our visitors. By Christmas Eve we had a full house, people sleeping in the basement, on pull out couches, on air mattresses on the floor. This made getting ready for church next to impossible - when there are 14 people in line for the shower it is important to be first before the hot water is gone, especially in December in Ohio.

I was never a big fan of church, but Christmas Eve is a different story. The way a Catholic church smells during Christmas Eve mass is one of my favorite smells in the world. I was also not a big fan of singing loud enough for anyone else to hear me, but we would all sing the Christmas hymns extra loud, in particular "Away in a Manger" because it always made my youngest sister Ellyn weep uncontrollably saying, "it's too sad!!" We all wanted to be extra good, and sometimes we even listened to the homily instead of scouting out who we were and were not going to shake hands with during the peace offering.

After church on Christmas Eve is perhaps my favorite tradition. My mom would set out an enormous spread of cheese and crackers, sugar cookies, fudge, buckeyes, and eggnog while my dad lit a fire for us to sit by. My mom would read us the Polar Express followed by King John's Christmas, a poem by A.A. Milne, which I took over reading some time in high school. At some point Waltz of the Flowers would come on and my mom and I would dance together laughing about whatever absurdities occurred in that year's Nutcracker performance, and later about how much we missed it. After we were sent to bed, there were always excuses as to why we needed to be up because who could sleep with all that excitement? We could hear our parents and aunts and uncles still carrying on downstairs and none of us could stand to be left out. Lizzie and I shared a room so we would stay up as late as we could stand speculating about what Santa would leave us in the morning, playing games and making pillow forts.

The rule was we could get our stockings left outside our door at 6:30am. We could enjoy them in our rooms for a half hour, and then at 7 we were allowed to wake our parents and we would all go downstairs together. That last half hour was just torture as kids "Daaad why do you need to shower noooow?" Finally after what seemed like an eternity we were allowed to go downstairs and see what Santa had left us. There are two things I remember very clearly - one, the Elephant Slide which was used first as a rocking chair when tipped on it's back, then as a bar when on it's side. The second was PJ Sparkles. I wanted that doll so bad when I was six it practically killed me, and discovering Santa had brought it for me was probably the happiest he ever made me (especially since I found out he was not real the next year, confirming my suspicions).

Then came the long awaited opening of the presents. My sisters and I passed them out to everyone, and we took turns opening them one at a time, youngest to oldest and making sure to show everyone what you received. You knew it was almost over when you started getting your presents out of The Bag. The Bags were sent to each of the children by Grandma Peterson and were usually filled with thoughtful but useless crap, bless her heart. Post it notes, stickers, rubber stamps Christmas themed pencils, and one year even a pair of Keds adorned with bows, buttons, lace, doilies, you name it, it was sewn on them.

Once all the presents were opened, we were sent upstairs to get ready for breakfast. This involved trying on every new article of clothing, eating handfuls of chocolate from our stockings in our bedrooms with the door closed, and fighting over who got to wear one of the matching shirts Lizzie and I had no doubt received. We both got these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sweaters one year, but looks like I won that day, forever documenting the misspelling of Donatello.

Breakfast on Christmas morning was second only to breakfast on Easter Sunday. My mom would make Some Kinda Eggs, bacon, sausage, and cinnamon rolls from scratch. Breakfast was followed by a day of assembling new toys, excessive intake of candy, arguing about who got more candy canes and why, and board games (we still are not allowed to play the game of Life after an argument between a 4 year old Lizzie and 30 year old uncle Steve). At Christmas dinner, we would all discuss which was our favorite present we got that year. As we got older, the question turned into what was our favorite gift ever, and my sisters and I will still agree after all these years that the Elephant Slide was for sure a winner.

I hope to continue these traditions and that one day my children will look back on Christmas as fondly as I do.

Happy Holidays to you and yours <3

King John's Christmas, by A.A. Milne

King John was not a good man –
He had his little ways.
And sometimes no one spoke to him
For days and days and days.
And men who came across him,
When walking in the town,
Gave him a supercilious stare,
Or passed with noses in the air –
And bad King John stood dumbly there,
Blushing beneath his crown.

King John was not a good man,
And no good friends had he.
He stayed in every afternoon…
But no one came to tea.
And, round about December,
The cards upon his shelf
Which wished him lots of Christmas cheer,
And fortune in the coming year,
Were never from his near and dear,
But only from himself.
King John was not a good man,
Yet had his hopes and fears.
They’d given him no present now
For years and years and years.
But every year at Christmas,
While minstrels stood about,
Collecting tribute from the young
For all the songs they might have sung,
He stole away upstairs and hung
A hopeful stocking out.
King John was not a good man,
He lived his live aloof;
Alone he thought a message out
While climbing up the roof.
He wrote it down and propped it
Against the chimney stack:
“TO ALL AND SUNDRY - NEAR AND FAR -
F. Christmas in particular.”
And signed it not “Johannes R.”
But very humbly, “Jack.”
“I want some crackers,
And I want some candy;
I think a box of chocolates
Would come in handy;
I don’t mind oranges,
I do like nuts!
And I SHOULD like a pocket-knife
That really cuts.
And, oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all,
Bring me a big, red, india-rubber ball!”
King John was not a good man –
He wrote this message out,
And gat him to this room again,
Descending by the spout.
And all that night he lay there,
A prey to hopes and fears.
“I think that’s him a-coming now!”
(Anxiety bedewed his brow.)
“He’ll bring one present, anyhow –
The first I had for years.”
“Forget about the crackers,
And forget the candy;
I’m sure a box of chocolates
Would never come in handy;
I don’t like oranges,
I don’t want nuts,
And I HAVE got a pocket-knife
That almost cuts.
But, oh! Father christmas, if you love me at all,
Bring me a big, red, india-rubber ball!”
King John was not a good man,
Next morning when the sun
Rose up to tell a waiting world
That Christmas had begun,
And people seized their stockings,
And opened them with glee,
And crackers, toys and games appeared,
And lips with sticky sweets were smeared,
King John said grimly: “As I feared,
Nothing again for me!”
“I did want crackers,
And I did want candy;
I know a box of chocolates
Would come in handy;
I do love oranges,
I did want nuts!
I haven’t got a pocket-knife —
Not one that cuts.
And, oh! if Father Christmas, had loved me at all,
He would have brought a big, red,
india-rubber ball!”
King John stood by the window,
And frowned to see below
The happy bands of boys and girls
All playing in the snow.
A while he stood there watching,
And envying them all …
When through the window big and red
There hurtled by his royal head,
And bounced and fell upon the bed,
An india-rubber ball!

And oh Father Christmas,
My blessings on you fall
For bringing him a big, red,
India-rubber ball!

circa 1910

2009-12-21T15:53:00.001-08:00

circa 1910
Originally uploaded by organ splitter

John and I taking a cruise through Old Timey Town, taken by Chloe. This is one of my favorite pictures of us ever.

Homeward Bound

2009-11-08T10:59:00.001-08:00

I'm going home to visit my family in Ohio for 8 days, I'm so excited!! Lula and I leave tomorrow morning at 5:30am. I've only been home once in the past year and that's just not acceptable, especially with my sister and her little monster Aden who is already 8 months. This will be the longest I've been home since I moved here almost 4 years ago, and the longest vacation I've had since 2004 when the Peterson and Bartelt girls piled in the Daewoo for a 9 hour drive to the Georgia cabin, so needless to say I'm super stoked.

This week in pictures:

On Halloween I was a chicken and Lula was an unhappy turtle/monster/frog.

You make a lot of people smile when you pass them on your bike with a puppy in your basket.

Animal Testing Breaks Hearts for Peta2.

And now I have red hair.

Ok, recipe time. John has been instructed to follow a strict candida diet for the next couple months. Not sure if you know what a candida diet is, but basically it's to get rid of a yeast imbalance and it's very restrictive. You can't have wheat, sugar in any form, starchy vegetables, fruit, milk, mushrooms, vinegar, caffeine, alcohol, any condiments... it's pretty crazy. We spent quite a while researching what foods he CAN have and then spent about an hour at Whole Foods reading labels. Then we came home and I invented a quinoa salad for him, and it turned out DELISH! I would make this any day, candida or no! It's super versatile, too - you can add pretty much any combo of vegetables. I'm going to toss some sweet corn in once he can have it again.

QUINOA BLACK BEAN SALAD:

1 cup quinoa

1 1/2 cups cold water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 stalks celery, chopped

2-4 cloves garlic, mashed and diced

1/2 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 stalk broccoli, chopped

1 teaspoon cumin

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, cilantro OR parsley

Dressing:

2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

Dash black pepper & paprika

To make the quinoa: Soak quinoa for 5-10 minutes in hot water. Rinse thoroughly a few times under cold water in fine mesh strainer. Place quinoa in pot, add 1 1/2 cups cold water. Bring to a boil, turn down to low, cover tightly and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit 5 minutes covered. Fluff gently with fork and set aside to cool.

Sauté celery, onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons olive oil until garlic is browned and celery is softened. Add rest of vegetables, sauté until vegetables are cooked. Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, salt and dash of pepper and paprika in a small bowl. Once quinoa is cooked, add quinoa, sautéed vegetables, rinsed black beans, and chopped parsley (or cilantro/basil) in a large bowl. Cover with dressing, combine.

******

Alright, packing time for me and Lula! I hear the weather is pretty cold in Ohio, think these awesome boots will keep me warm enough??

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

2009-10-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

John's in the studio again this week which means I get to make more tasty cupcakes for him to bring in. Vanilla and chocolate seemed too boring, so I created my own yummy fall-appropriate treats.

VEGAN PUMPKIN SPICE CUPCAKES

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 cup flour

2 tbsp corn starch

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

*Line muffin tin with liners and preheat oven to 350° F.

*Mix together soy milk and apple cider vinegar, set aside to curdle.

*In a medium bowl, sift together flour, corn starch, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

*In a large bowl, mix together the soy milk mixtuer, oil, sugar and extracts.

*Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mixing until it is mostly smooth - a few lumps are okay.

*Pour mixture in liners, fill 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake for 20-22 min until a toothpick comes out clean.

CINNAMON BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup earth balance vegan margarine

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted for lumps

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 tablespoons soy milk

1-2 tsp cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

*Beat together the shortening and margarine until well combined and fluffy.

*Add the powdered sugar in 1 cup increments, beat for about 3 minutes.

*Add vanilla extract. Add soy milk a tiiiiny bit at a time - too much will make your frosting runny and not stiff!! I usually use only a teeny dribble to make it smooth. Add cinnamon to taste - I ended up using about 2 or 3 tsp in the end, and a few shakes of nutmeg to give it a light and not overpowering flavor. Beat for 5-7 minutes until frosting is fluffy and smooth.

*When cupcakes are cooled completely, frost with cinnamon frosting. Dust with cinnamon and white jimmies and enjoy with a cup of tea, apple cider or pumpkin spice latte.

Morning, Glory

2009-10-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Do you have ever one of those mornings where as hard as you try, nothing goes right?

This morning I was awoken by our funny little foster dog Hadley LICKING HIS BALLS. That's right, this dog licks his balls so loudly that it can wake me from a dead sleep. Anyway, between the ball-licking, the huffing and puffing and jumping on and off the bed, I figured he probably needed to go out. I take him outside, come back in and hop in the shower. No problem there, but getting out proved to be the problem - my shower cap got stuck to one of my earrings. It's pretty hard to detangle a tiny earring trapped in two layers of elastic on the side of your head when the mirrors are all fogged up from the steam, but after 10 minutes struggling with the scissors I finally chopped myself free and head upstairs just in time for Lula to come out of her crate and promptly throw up on the just-cleaned carpet. Awesome.

So now Hadley is running around in circles jumping on and off the bed, Lula is throwing up in the corner, John's phone is ringing because the landlord is calling him to tell us they are shutting off the water in an hour, I'm in a towel with no makeup, its 8:50 and I'm supposed to be at work by 9. I mean nothing terrible, but definitely one of those mornings where you're looking around for the hidden cameras.

PS - the little one is alright, had to go to the vet later in the day but she's back to her normal hilarious self now :)

Chicken

2009-09-26T08:30:00.001-07:00

Halloween is still a month away, but I've already got my costume.

First of all I've never been one of those girls to put on a slutty costume and parade myself around on Halloween. I like my costumes to be hilarious and definitely not store bought, and I'm the type to go all out and not half-ass it. Last year I was Jane Fonda, complete with sky high bangs, shiny stirrup tights, high waisted leotard and Velcro Reeboks.

Look at the size of that claw!!!! Obviously, I needed something rad for this year, too.

I got the idea from a Martha Stewart costume for kids and decided to modify it. I started out with a white halter leotard from American Apparel and two of the biggest feather boas I could find - wound up at a Halloween store, as the ones at Michael's and JoAnn's weren't fluffy enough.

I sewed two feather boas to the leotard -

each one covered one side. I tacked down the boas about every four inches, closer than that in places where it has to stretch the most. If you ever sew things to a leotard, make sure the leotard is stretched out when you are sewing - otherwise the stitches will pop right out when you try it on. I found for most parts the easiest thing to do was sew it while it was on me so I could see where it was going (although I did lose the needle a couple times, whoops). You could also stuff it with a pillow so that it stays stretched while you tack down the boas.

For the hat, I made a comb out of two pieces of red felt sewn together. Flipped it right side out, stuffed it with some batting, and attached it to a white pilot hat. Any kind of white cotton hat will do, but I like that you can tie this one below your chin. I'm also debating adding feathers to the hat, but I can't decide if that will be overkill.

I picked up some yellow tights at Target for $5 and a little chicken beak from the Halloween store to seal the deal. The only thing I haven't done yet are the feet - I have some yellow rubber gloves and some batting to stuff them with, but I'm not really sure about the best way to attach them to some kind of shoe would be. Maybe staple them to a pair of $1 flops? When I wore it last week I just wore my red and yellow Tom's, which might end up being the final footwear.

Completed costume:

I did all of this by hand, and surprisingly it didn't take very long. I finished the leotard in about 2 1/2 hours, and that included tacking down the feathers in the chest and neck area. The red comb took about 15 minutes, plus another 20 to attach it to the hat, and that's about it!!

Hooray for homemade costumes!!

What are you going to be for Halloween??

Black Bottom

2009-09-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

First things first - check out my awesome assortment of cupcake liners that came today!

I ordered them from Bake it Pretty last week along with some pearlized white jimmies, so of course I had to make something to put in them right away.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

These were so good that I got 5 text messages from John describing their deliciousness. Makes 12 cupcakes.

Filling:

8 oz (1 package) cream cheese, room temp

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 large egg white

1 tbsp sour cream

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Cupcakes:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup water, room temp

6 tbsp sour cream, room temp

4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position. Preheat oven to 400° F. Fill greased tray with liners, set aside.

2. For the filling: Use and electric mixer to beat together the cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth. Add the egg white and sour cream until combined, about 30 seconds, Mix in chocolate chips and set aside.

3. For the cupcakes: Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Combine water, sour cream, melted butter and vanilla extract in a smaller bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until just combined.

4. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 to 2/3 with batter. Use all the batter - these don't rise too much. Drop a rounded tablespoon of the cheesecake mixture onto the center of each cupcake.

5. Bake 18-22 minutes, until the tops begin to crack. Rotate pan halfway through baking (although I forgot this and mine turned out fine). Let cool 5-10 minutes in pan before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

They may not look like much but damn, they are irresistible!!

10 Songs

2009-08-26T21:01:00.001-07:00

10 songs I never skip when my iPod is on shuffle, in no particular order:

1. Modest Mouse - Bankrupt on Selling

2. Great White - Once Bitten Twice Shy

3. LL Cool J - Doin' it

4. Jackson 5 - I'll Be There

5. The Eagles - Witchy Woman

6. Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack

7. Weezer - My Name is Jonas

8. The Lonely Island - I'm on a Boat

9. REO Speedwagon - Take it on the Run

10. Any song from Jesus Christ Superstar

These aren't even my favorite songs, I just find myself stopping on them when my iPod is on shuffle, or if I hear them on the radio. I wonder what that says about me.

What are yours?

Pink Lemonade

2009-08-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

I found a recipe for pink lemonade cupcakes yesterday and thought it sounded good but wrote it off when I couldn't find any good vegan versions, but then today I found some pink food coloring at Ralph's and decided to make one myself.

I combined two recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World to come up with these. John's currently trying to cut out refined sugar, so I wanted to make them with agave nectar and no sugar except for the frosting. I didn't leave them in for quite long enough so they sank a bit in the middle, but who cares, they are soooo yummy!!

Vegan Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

2/3 cup soy milk

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2/3 cup agave nectar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup canola oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract (or more vanilla)

1 1/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp lemon zest

pink food coloring (can use a few drops of red if you can't find pink)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line muffin tin with liners.

In a large bowl, combine soy milk and apple cider vinegar, and set aside to curdle.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add agave, canola oil, lemon juice and extracts to soy milk mixture, mix well.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 batches. Fold in lemon zest, and add a few drops of pink food coloring.

Spoon into tins. I use an ice cream scoop with the little release trigger thingy - perfect amount every time. Bake for 20-22 minutes (maybe even a little longer) - they are done when a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to wire cooling rack to cool completly. Makes about 12 cupcakes.

Lemony Buttercream Frosting

1/4 cup vegan margarine (hooray for Earth Balance!)

1/4 cup shortening

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

yellow food coloring

Cream margarine and shortening together. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. After each addition of powdered sugar, mix in a splash of lemon juice. Add vanilla and lemon zest and a few drops of yellow food coloring and beat for 5 minutes until fluffy. Refrigerate until ready to pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Pretty much the best summer cupcake ever. Enjoy!!

Jam Session

2009-08-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

I started making jam last week, and now I can't stop. It's so easy, and SO YUMMY!!!

I started by making a half batch of strawberry to see if we could make the canning process work without a canner (yes we CAN!), then on Monday night cooked up a mostly-raspberry concoction. Red, white, and black raspberries, blackberries and a few strawberries all from the farmers market = super delish.

Next up is apricot vanilla bean! What's your favorite kind of jam?

Parrot talk

2009-08-11T17:13:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking about trying out my new Calphalon springform pan tonight - John bought it for me me this weekend, love it!! If you know of any exceptional cheesecake recipes, definitely let me know - I have one that's pretty good, but Cheesecake Factory level delicious would totes be appreciated. Either way, I'll let you know how that works out.

Last night I made a pretty delish dinner in about 15 minutes - Morningstar Farms veggie riblets, macaroni and cheese, and a spinach salad with goat cheese, dried cranberries and almonds with balsamic vinaigrette.

The Morningstar Farms riblets are way better than the poor Gardenburger ones could ever hope to be - cooked evenly and the sauce was delish! John really wanted macaroni and cheese so I used real cheese to make the cheese sauce from Skinny Bitch. Turned out pretty good, but I think next time I'll use a sharp cheddar to make it a bit cheesier.

In other news, how cute are these boots???

I'm not really a shoe person, but if there ever were a pair of shoes made just for me, these would be them. Are they worth spending $150 on though??

Because I say definitely.

So Long, Little Buddy

2009-07-18T00:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight I said goodbye to a very dear friend.

This was my little Beetle, and I could no longer keep her. I mean, who needs a manual transmission turbo engine to drive in LA rush hour traffic? Anyway, she was a great little car and will always have a special place in my heart - we drove 110mph across the desert together when I moved from Ohio to California... that my friend, is true love.

New car (love this picture, it was taken in front of the house I grew up in).

Westward bound with Lizzie.

i took care of her through the good times and the bad.

in front of the Brady Bunch house.

Lula enjoying the view.

So long, little buddy - I hope you find someone who loves you as much as I did.

Pacific Northwest

2009-07-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

This past weekend John and I went up to Hood River, Oregon for his best friend's wedding. I knew it was going to be beautiful up there, but oh man... just gorgeous.

We flew into Portland on Friday afternoon, got in our rented Toyota Yaris (note to self, terrible car, do not buy) and it took us about an hour to get to our bed and

breakfast in Hood River. We had looked at many hotels in White Salmon and Hood River, but they were all either too expensive or too full, so I started searching bed and breakfasts which is how I found Villa Columbia. So glad we stayed there, definitely made the trip!

Saturday morning we went down for breakfast at 9am and everything had already been set out for us - huge spread of yogurt and fresh fruit parfaits, granola, orange juice, tea, jam and marmalade, and that was only the first course. After that was blueberry toast and individual little Italian frittatas, and

everything was mind-blowingly delicious. This was when John decided that from now on we only stay at bed and breakfasts, no more stale bagels with a tube of frozen cream cheese from the Holiday Inn!!

After breakfast we walked around Hood River and found a little store called "The Enchanted Alpaca." The lady that owned it also owned an alpaca farm in White Salmon and let us know about a festival in a lavender field about 15 minutes away where we could see some of the alpacas, so we went straight there! John has been calling various alpaca farms in the LA area to see if we can schedule a visit, but so far none have gotten back to us, so we were both super stoked - alpacas are the best!! This little one is Destiny, she is 10 months old. She was born 6 weeks premature and weighed only 7lbs - most babies are at least 18lbs, so they didn't think she was going to make it. They raised her in their house for the first few months and now she's just as big as the rest of the ones her age, so cute!! She really liked me and let me get really close to take some pictures.

We headed across the river to White Salmon, Washington where the actual wedding was going to be. John played a George Harrison song during the ceremony, so pretty. The ceremony was short and sweet, very simple. One of my favorite things at weddings is watching the grooms face as the bride comes down the aisle... perhaps one of the happiest things in the world, always makes me teary. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of us from the actual wedding, and unfortunately we look entirely too much like my parents when they were younger, not to mention the hair problems and the open mouth. Moving on.

I really love this picture, it depicts the mood of the whole day perfectly.

Sunday we woke up at 6:30 to drive to Portland to make our flight. There were a couple detours off the highway, so we opted to take the historical scenic route for a few miles to check out the awesome waterfalls. The one in the picture is Horsetail Falls, it was huge!!! Something about the drizzly, misty morning made the waterfalls look even more majestic, so we stopped a few times and took a lot of pictures.

I'll freely admit that I bitched a lot about the trip costing us an arm and a leg, but to be completely honest, it was well worth it. Not just for the wedding or the scenery or the alpacas, but for the company too. John and I function on opposite schedules most of the time, and even though we live together, it is always so refreshing to take a trip together. We try to take a trip for our anniversary instead of presents, so this trip doubled as our third anniversary present to each other. We spent most of the weekend by ourselves and it was one of those times where you take yourselves off auto pilot and fall in love all over again. We were laughing so hard on the plane on the way back that the woman next to us was clearly annoyed, it was perhaps my favorite part of the trip.

7am in front of Multinomah Falls, which I did a really good job of getting none of in the photo.

As exciting as it's been to do so much traveling lately, I must say I'm pretty glad to be home. My body is sick of eating greasy restaurant food - when you are vegetarian and eating out, your options are pretty much, bread, cheese, pasta or some combination of the three. Even most salads come with some kind of meat (damn you, bacon!) and it's just easiest to order something that doesn't need to be altered, especially in non English-speaking countries.

One more thing - I bought these boots today and I am in love, but according to my sisters (and most of my friends) I have terrible taste in shoes so I must ask you this: Are these shoes fugly, or cute?

Seriously, with some skinny jeans and a thin tshirt, I feel like that's going to be my new fall wardrobe.

Prague

2009-07-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have returned from Prague, and all I can think about are all the amazing people I met, the gorgeous city, and how I can't wait to go do it all again. It's amazing to me how such strong friendships form over only a few days, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

My trip started with an 11 hour flight from LA to Paris that left Wednesday night. It was pretty full so I was prepared for it to be miserable, but by some miracle, I wound up with two empty seats next to me! I was afraid to take the Tylenol PM John gave me since I never take Tylenol or sleep aids other than melatonin, so I had two glasses of wine and was able to sleep for 4 hours! In Paris, I met up with Gizela who was on my flight to Prague.

I had two bags - one of SG merch for the girls, and one for my personal stuff. Guess which bag got lost? The lady at the customer service counter didn't seem to care too much that all my shit was lost, so we said fuck it and headed to the cottages. No point in being upset over something you can't change, right? Plus, I had over 100 SG shirts to get me through the next 5 days, haha!!

The cab driver had no idea where the cottage was so it took us about an hour to get there, but when we finally did, so many girls ran out of the cottage to say hello - such a wonderful, warm welcome. We were pretty far away from any markets, let alone the city, so dinner the first night was bread, cream cheese, and Czech beer. Dwam, Tie and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning (actually, this happened pretty much every night), but when they finally went to bed, I couldn't sleep because my schedule was such a disaster. That was when I decided I'd just sleep whenever I felt like it and not try to adapt to any kind of time change, which ended up working out really well in the end.

The next morning, my luggage had still not arrived and I was pretty desperate to change my clothes, so I went to the city with some of the UK girls. Sky had lived there for a few months in 2006, so she was our tour guide and took us around. I got a change of clothes and a toothbrush, in addition to loads of pictures of Old Town. When we got back to the cottages, I was finally able to take a shower (did I mention the hot water was all used up all night?) and brush my teeth, so I felt pretty damn good.

That night Morrigan made dinner for us - pasta with bleu cheese sauce, peas and green onions!! We headed over to the other cottage for a bit to watch Honey shooting a set with tons of girls in it, during which Clio arrived!! I met Clio in Vegas a few months ago, so it was really cool see her in Prague as well. After that, it was another night of several of us around the dinner table sharing stories and talking until 4am. Surprising how little sleep one needs to scrape by.

The next day was a bit more laid back. My luggage finally arrived that afternoon, so that was a huge relief!! Dom drove Clio and I into town so I could get some cash, and we had a nice lunch at a pizzeria (the first of many, apparently that's all you can eat there). Just as we got in the car to head back, a few rain drops here and there turned into a massive thunderstorm. By the time we got back to the cottages, the power was out so pretty much all shooting had stopped and everyone was napping since there was nothing else to do. Clio and I napped for a couple hours and then were joined by Sinnah and Dwam. I love this picture of them... so tender.

Everyone had dinner together that night at a little pub next to one of the cottages. Lots of picture taking and even more laughing. A few of the girls were vegan, so Key and I had picked a salad off the menu for them instead of the cheese-covered pasta, assuming "salad" would actually turn out to be a salad... not so much. Bow's dinner was a bowl of sliced tomatoes and onions floating in water, no joke. We found her a plate of french fries instead, but it was like... in what country, ANYWHERE, is this considered edible??? Well, turns out pretty much all Czech food is not very good, so everyone went back to the cottages to celebrate our last night together.

I was outside talking with some

of the girls when Eden came up to me and said "IT'S TIME!!!" She is a piercer and I had mentioned to her earlier in the week that I've wanted the cartilage inside my ear pierced since I was 17 but always been too afraid, so she convinced me to let her do it. Pretty much everyone in the cottage was in the room watching me, so I made them promise not to laugh at me if I cried. I let everyone down though - as you can see by the picture, I sat there and didn't move or make

a noise. Eden said "Can you at least pretend it hurts, and scream a liiiittle bit??!" In hindsight, I'm not entirely sure what I was scared of - I mean, I've sat for over 65 or so hours for tattoos and all. It really didn't hurt that much, it was more uncomfortable for a few seconds than anything else. I am really happy that she convinced me to man up and stop being a pussy, now I have a sweet little souvenir to remind me of my trip!

Our last night in the cottages was super fun. Dwam was tattooing, sets were being shot, and all the girls taught me how to say some really dirty things in 5 different languages. Another night that ended with me, Dwam, Sinnah and Tie around the kitchen table at 4am. After I went to bed, I woke up at 8am to find all of them back in the kitchen... no sleep for the wicked.

After a lot of sad goodbyes, a bunch of us headed into the city to check into our hotel and get some lunch. Once again the only place to eat was a pizzeria, but we were hungry so no one really cared. However, Tie and I did end up with the most pathetic excuse for a cheesecake I have ever seen in my life. It was definitely whipped cream with chunks of cookies in it, topped with jam and strawberry preserves. I'm sorry, but that is not fucking cheesecake, anywhere, ever.

Everyone was pretty exhausted by that time, so we retired to the hotel to take a real shower and nap. Clio and I tried repeatedly to take a good picture of us together and failed, we were just too tired so this was as good as it got. After Clio left for the airport, Tie and I napped for a bit so we could have enough energy to do some sight seeing that evening - you can't just be like, "What'd you do in Prague?" "Oh just watched VH1 in my hotel room..."

Key, Deison, Dom, Dwam, Tie and I met up in the early evening to get some dinner and see some of the city. We got to see the astronomical clock turn 8 o'clock and the moving figures come out... it was pretty creepy!! We ate dinner at another pizzeria (shocking) and then headed to the St. Charles Bridge. Deison asked me if I wanted to see a castle, and of course I said yes - we don't have those in America! It was really fascinating, and I took loads of pictures. Back at the hotel, Dom took some photos of me for a tattoo magazine, and Tie and I stayed up til 3am watching Czech television... lots of overdubbed tv shows and movies in German, interrupted only by ads for prostitutes and sex hotlines. Fascinating!! The next morning I had to leave for the airport at 7:30am, so we all said goodbye very early before I headed off.

I love this picture of us because I feel like this happened a lot. No idea what we were laughing at or why, but it makes me happy. Like I said before, it's always surprising to me the friendships that form over only a few days. At first everyone is a little shy and a little worried they won't get to know everyone (well, at least I was), but by the end, you've got dozens of new friends and stories and jokes to go with each one of them.

I posted all my photos on in a set on Flickr if you want to check them out. The jet lag isn't as bad as I thought it would be, I stayed up until my normal bed time on Monday when I got back so I wouldn't be all out of whack. However, staying up for 26 hours takes quite a toll on your body, so I'm off to bed now - have to rest up for a wedding in Portland this weekend, so goodnight!! <3

S for Speed

2009-06-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I ended up getting a 3gs. The Apple store near me opened at 7am on Friday so I figured I'd leave my house at 7 and have two hours before I needed to be at work, right? Haha. No. I got there at 7:15 and there were about 40 people in front of me... not bad, so I thought. They told us that they had just let a group of people in and as soon as the mall would allow, they'd let us in and we'd be in and out in no time, so I stayed.

They let us inside at 8 and separated us into two lines - those who had reserved a phone, and those who had registered for the upgrade but not reserved a phone (which was my line, since it was a last minute decision). I had been texting with Missy all morning - she was in the reserved line at the Grove and apparently that was the place to be! They got free cinnamon rolls and coffee bean, and umbrellas for shade. All we got was a mall cop yelling at everyone in line to stand up, there was no sitting in the mall!! I mean I could understand if the mall was even open, but we were the only people there until 10:30 when it opened!

Anyway, after much commotion, they told us around 9 or so that it would be about a two hour wait. At that point I had already been there for two hours so it was like... well, I can't leave now, right?? They let in 7 people from the reserved line and 3 people from the registered line at a time, so you can imagine how slowly my line crawled. I guess AT&T's servers were super bogged down with all the activity so that's what was taking so long, not the volume of people. I finally got in the store at 11:30 and was out by noon (had to return some cables and get a case, so that took an extra few minutes).

Obviously had I known it was going to be a 5 hour wait or that if you pre-ordered online you'd have your phone delivered that day, I would have definitely opted for that. However I had already promised my old phone to a friend who needed it and once you've waited for a while you can't just wuss out.

Moving on: this weekend Rambo was in town! Rachel and I picked her

up Saturday morning and we all made breakfast together. Scrambled eggs with feta, roma tomatoes and green onions, potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce and chocolate chip pancakes, and somehow we were all hungry an hour later. Super delicious though. Yesterday the weather was pretty crappy so we went to the enormous Forever 21 at the Americana where I resisted buying more plaid shirts. Went to Prizzi's for dinner and Birds for a few drinks, and spent the rest of the night in the hot tub drinking wine.

I spent allll morning cleaning, which admittedly I probably should have done last week. I really do like cleaning, but today, ugh just not good. Plus I saw a coyote hanging out just outside my bedroom window earlier in the morning and it totally freaked me out so I couldn't do my usual routine leaving all the doors and windows open to air it out because I was terrified he was going to walk in the door and eat Lula for a snack. Finally got everything back together though, and it is guest-appropriate (thank god).

John just got home from playing a wedding in Berkley, so time to put in another disc of How I Met Your Mother. Here's a question: I got this shirt and scarf yesterday, the shirt is red with gold, green, black and white and the scarf is yellow and orange. I thought it looked kinda cute together in that almost matches but not quite kind of way, but my sister told me not to wear them together. What do you think? The scarf is more gold than orange, the picture is a little deceiving but you get the idea.

As John always says... tough to say, tough to say.

Travel

2009-06-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

First things first - I found out today I'm going to Prague the first week of July!! Holy crap, I could not be more excited. I've never been to Europe before despite spending years daydreaming about study abroad programs and teaching English in France, so this is totally a dream come true for me. A bunch of SuicideGirls in Europe organized a long weekend there, so I'm going to meet them all and help shoot sets and that kind of stuff - seriously, could not be more excited. It was cheaper to fly back on a Monday than Sunday, so I have one day in the city and I'm looking for a hotel or a hostel to stay in. My friend Wendy suggested the Clown and Bard, but most likely I'll be staying wherever the other girls are that night. Where should I absolutely go when I'm in the city? I would loooove to do some shopping in the few hours I have, haha!

I have been so ridiculously busy lately it's not even funny. Last week I finally finished my sleeve, HOORAY!! I'll have better pictures once it's healed, but unfortunately in this picture it is a little flaky, my apologies. Nate Kostechko is back in LA now so I already have my next one planned out... this will be very bad for my wallet. Anyway, then I had my friend Bully in town all weekend, and we went to Agent Provocateur (ooooomg want), had lunch at Zach's in Studio City (best cheesy rolls ever), watched Bolt, hung out with some puppies and went to a show at CIA in North Hollywood.

Our carpet was installed on Monday! Oh man, there is nothing like walking barefoot on new carpet. Our house is still kind of a disaster since we had to move the whole upstairs downstairs, so this is the only picture I've taken since the rest looks pretty sad right now. It's a super light beigey color that John picked out, and thankfully it matches all the rooms and the hallway (which I spent all day Sunday painting - never realized how many scuff marks there were!) I'm also enjoying the smell of new carpet... it is a glorious thing.

This is my calendar for July so far, and that's just the beginning. Prague, Portland for a wedding, Comic Con in San Diego cut short by another wedding, then Cherry in LA for a week! That's not even figuring in John's shows or filming the rest of the Vegas DVD, or all the car selling/test driving I need to do. My little beetle has been costing me an arm and a leg recently for repairs... I'm talking thousands of dollars a year, way more than I can afford right now, so I'm looking into leasing a used Prius for a couple years so I can save the money I would be spending on repairs and use it for a down payment on a new car in 3-5 years when (hopefully) I can afford the upkeep. Man... it's gonna be busy!

That's all I've got for now, I really do plan on updating more than once a week, but who knows with all this traveling coming up. My sister Ellyn just posted a really long blog with pictures of my ridiculously adorable nephew, so I'm off to fawn over them for a while. Hope everyones having a nice week - the sun finally came out in LA today, lets hope it keeps up!!!

Something out of Nothing

2009-06-08T22:17:00.000-07:00

I did nothing this weekend, and it was amazing. Well... I did some things, but not much of anything, if that makes sense. John and Nate had a show in Santa Barbara, so Saturday afternoon I shot a set on my iPhone and spend Saturday night editing it, and then Sunday I made a little video about how to make vegan cupcakes. I posted it on SG, you can see it here. Debating posting it on youtube though... what do you think??

Tonight I was going to paint the hallway in preparation for new carpet, but I discovered Oregon Trail online during a break from cleaning and ugh, it was all over. I actually made it to Oregon, which was a first! Lula died, John had two broken legs and a broken arm, no one ate for three weeks and we were all in poor health, but I made it! My favorite thing to do is name the extra people things like Someone, No One, Everyone and Guess Who. Then you get fun things like this:

Guess who died!!!

In other news, pretty sure I want a new iPhone, but I'm a little hesitant to just dismiss my OG one like that, like I owe it to my phone to use it til it's on it's last legs. I get way too attached to inanimate objects. Ugh, $199 for 16 gigs though... crap. Who else is getting the new one??

Green

2009-06-04T20:10:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I got sick of looking at our barren, dirt filled planters and planted some impatiens and some grass seed. After almost a week of watering constantly and nothing to show for it, the neighbors must have thought I was insane standing out there twice a day watering the dirt, but eventually my little seeds proved us all wrong and started sprouting up!

I have been trying to figure out how to trim it because I noticed it was getting a little long, but then today John kindly let me know that it had become unruly and offered to help figure something out because it definitely needed some (okay a lot of) help. I got bored after dinner, so I went outside with my kitchen shears and my tiny rake (yes, it's for children, whatever, I'm small) and went to town.

Here is me "mowing" my "lawn".

It took about an hour, but damn does it look good now! Unfortch there are still some bald spots, but thankfully I still had 1/3 of a bag of grass seed left so hopefully those will fill in within the next week or so. This is what it looks like at the moment:

Not too shabby!

I'd love to plant some more things, especially with the massive amount of deck space and direct sunlight we have available, but since they redid our deck last year we are not allowed to have any pots directly on the deck. This means we have to figure out some way around it, which means at the very least buying something to put the plants on, and unfortch there is just not a budget for that right now. We do have one table though, so I've got some basil, green onions and parsley, and John's got some jalapeños, but since when is that enough? I mean really. I'd use the planter, but it only gets about an hour of sunlight a day... not enough for tomatoes, that's for certain.

Oh well, it's not like Los Angeles has a shortage of sunshine and warm weather, so maybe later in the summer we'll be able to get some good herbs and vegetables going. For now, does anyone have a good jalapeño popper recipe for me?? I'll love you forever!!

Success

2009-06-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

Dudes, I am so over this "June gloom" crap. If it's gonna be cloudy, at least rain and make it interesting! Luckily today it did just that, I even caught some thunder and lightning! It was pretty chilly too, so Lula spent a good portion of the day like this:

Dear Lula: You are a delight.

Yesterday I went over to Rachel's and we made even more cupcakes. Chocolate with fresh berries on top, chocolate mint with mint icing and chocolate ganache, and some peanut butter and jelly muffins for Emmett. The chocolate mint ones made me really sad - in the picture, the icing was all fluffy and perfect, but the finished product turned out absolutely nothing like that, even after we refrigerated it for quite some time. Not the worst thing to ever happen, they were still delish, but the photo in the cookbook was totally misleading!!

Today on the way home from work, I realized that after making 60 cupcakes in less than 24 hours, I had none to go home to and well, that will never do, so I picked up some more red food coloring at Ralph's and tried the red velvet again. Success!!!! They rose perfectly and did not sink in the middle and aren't mushy like the last batch, so that was really exciting. I found a pastry bag yesterday at Gelson's and was super excited to try it, but it ended up being pretty anti-climactic and honestly, I'm not sure I'll use this one again. The frosting all gets stuck in the weird tip and you can't squeeze it out, and when you do it just doesn't look like its supposed to look. I suspect because the bag and plastic tips were only $5, but hey I'll try anything for only $5!! Dear $5 pastry bag from Gelson's - I'm sorry things didn't work out, but it's not you, it's me. I have higher expectations of my pastry bags, maybe some day we will meet again but for now you will find a comfy home in the back of the far cabinet. Sorry. I suppose I should start looking on Amazon for a nicer pastry bag, probably one with a set of metal tips instead of cheapy plastic. Oh well, it was a good experiment!

Oh, and one more thing - if you have one of those ice cream scoopers with the trigger (like this one), use it for cupcakes!! I picked one up today and it's the perfect amount to fill a cupcake liner, I can't believe I've been using crappy spoons for this long!! Anyway, I'm going to go hang out with this little monster now.

I'm still not sure I want to write about cupcakes all the time, so if you have any ideas or topics or burning questions what have you, I'm open to suggestions, just leave me a comment!

Cupcakes

2009-06-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why I'm starting this blog or what direction I want to go with it, so for now I'll just talk about cupcakes because everyone likes those.

John is in the studio this week and asked me to make some cupcakes to take in because they're always a huge hit. I couldn't decide whether to make red velvet or chocolate, sooo I just made both.

First I made vegan chocolate peanut buttercream filled cupcakes with chocolate ganache and peanut buttercream frosting:

And second I made vegan red velvet cupcakes with old fashioned velvet icing:

Both recipes are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World which is the best vegan cookbook possibly in the world, and everything I have made from it has been dreamy dreamington.

I was really worried about over-baking the red velvet ones, which unfortunately caused me to remove them before they were all the way done, so they sank (kind of a lot) in the middle. I also didn't use my trusty Calphalon pan, which I suspect had something to do with the undone-ness, but whatever. I piped some icing on them and you really can't tell a difference, although they are definitely on the moister side. I topped them with some heart shaped sprinkles I had left over from Valentine's day, they are pretty adorable.

Last week I made these little gems:

Golden vanilla cupcakes with blackberry preserves, fresh raspberries and lemony cream cheese frosting!! Not quite vegan since I was out of Earth Balance and used Brummel & Brown spread, but I forgive myself. They were so delicious, but sadly didn't last long - the preserves made them a little soggy after a day or two. A good summer cupcake though - sweet, but not overly sugary.

Here's a question - where does one get a good pastry bag?? I'm not sure whether to get disposables or not. You can reuse some of the disposables, but how hard is it to clean them??

That's all I've got for now, but I'm sure I'll have more to post soon!