Baby Got Back...aka I'm Back!

I know way back when that I had said I'd keep up with my blogging once the school year started, but I've been back at school for just about a month and this is my first post...oops! I promise to keep them coming more frequently, and I feel like as my workload picks up so will my blogging due to my crazy proneness to procrastination.

I'll probably be doing more witty commentary on life than anything else, but for tonight's post I decided to dig into my archives (ahem photos on my camera from this summer) and pull up a picture of the last cupcake I baked over the summer. Unfortunately I have lost track of the recipe that I used (which isn't that unfortunate since the cupcakes turned out nothing like I would have expected or ever wanted), but I have a picture and some thoughts! I had really wanted to make and master a yellow cake recipe. I did the first part of that statement and am definitely still working on the second. I also wanted more of a fudge icing (which as you can tell by the picture I didn't necessarily produce). Long story short -- I ended up with cupcakes that were slightly crumbly and tasted oddly similar to corn muffins (I didn't hate it, but it definitely wasn't a highlight for me). You can see the photo below!

I really hope y'all enjoy the scenic shot as much as I enjoyed setting it up (totally sarcastic...but it does look pretty...at least I think so!)!

Lastly for a brief life update: Gus is now six months old and already a whopping 58 pounds...he's definitely going to be a big boy! He's taken to following my mom around the house and has risen to the title of full-fledged spoiled brat in that he gets to sleep out of his crate now and basically gets whatever he wants whenever he wants it. I'm loving life lately with my roommates, and you can be sure that you'll be hearing about many of our late night pow wows, great movies that we watch (might I recommend "Phat Girlz" starring Mo'nique...it's definitely one for the ages), and general fun that we all have together!

Wednesday OBSESSEDday

Now if you've ever received an email from me, there's a good chance that it has been in a list format. I don't know if it's going back to my days of debate (get your laughs out now, everyone) or my OCD type A personality taking over, but I love things to be in orderly lists. When I'm bored in class you'll see my planning out my day through in depth to-do LISTS. I recently starting sending one of my friends (here's a shout out to you Elizabeth!) random listed emails about things I currently love, and I decided to carry those lists over to my blog! So here goes my first Wednesday OBSESSEDday entry!

Things I'm obsessing over currently:

1. Blazers! When I received my Fall J Crew catalog last week the first thing I noticed was all of the amazing new blazers that can be seen here. I love the school boy blazer, and I mean what can be better to help add a bit of pizzazz to an outfit than a blazer...not to mention it's the perfect way to transition some summer dresses into the fall!
2. Eyeshadow! Anyone who has ever gotten ready with me for a night out knows that I'm fairly low maintenance (yes, low maintenance...but only when it comes to my make-up). Lately, however, I've taken a liking to neutral/shimmery smokey eyes and purchased this Stila palette (got it in the mail the other day, and I LOVE it!).
3. White Collar and Covert Affairs! My friend Whitney turned me on to USA last summer while we were suffering through physics together, and we watched the first season of Covert Affairs. Now in its second season I still love Covert Affairs, and I've picked up a new love that is White Collar. Plus who can say no to the eye candy that is Matt Bomer.

Exciting Things to Come!

I hope everyone had a great weekend (yes, I know I'm a day late). I'm going to try and start  keeping up with my blog a bit more so comment with anything you'd like to see me cover! Once I'm back in Charlottesville, I'll be reviewing restaurants, fashion, every day life, and of course baking and Gus. I'm excited to be more invested in this and to try and bring some daily happiness to everyone! As far as today goes, here are two of my favorite pictures from my impromptu Gus photo shoot this past weekend!

 Gus in my mom's favorite prim and proper pose

Here's lookin' at you, kid

The Puppy Prince

I don't know if it's just me getting older (yea 21...crazy old) or even less patient than I used to be (and trust me there was very little patience to begin with), but this summer has seemingly flown by. I'm wrapping up my time at my internship this week and have two and a half weeks of summer left after this to enjoy before heading back up to Charlottesville and my lack of remaining summer has me frantically looking back. As I mentioned in my last post, Gus has started his intermediate training classes and is finally starting to really catch on to everything he's been learning. While all of this is incredibly exciting, it's getting sad for me as I watch him grow up (yea I'm a sentimental person...the little guy is my baby I can't help it). The summer has indeed flown by and with it Gus's puppyhood. I figured today we'd take a trip down memory lane as I lament over the growth of my favorite little guy.

Gus at 7 weeks old...the last time I saw him in Virginia before he headed off to Florida!

Gus at 10 weeks old...right after I got home from school for summer!

Gus chilling in his favorite spot...our coffee table. Still lies up there to this day despite how much he's grown.

Gus this past weekend...I can still hold him but not for long (sad face)!

A Bit of Chocolate

One of my main goals when I set out on this cupcake journey was to become really comfortable with the basics. I let myself get slightly sidetracked by the more glamorous sounding cupcakes (I mean butterbeer cupcakes...come on now people who could pass that up?), but this past weekend I was determined to go back to my original goal. I set out to make the perfect chocolate cupcake. The recipe (another which was suggested to me by my wonderful great grand big, Christina) is Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake which had rave reviews on the Food Network site. I was a little apprehensive at first because the recipe called for coffee to be used in both the cake and icing and while I'm a coffee lover and had heard that it brings out the flavor of chocolate I was nervous as to how potent it would end up being and if it would in reality overwhelm the chocolate flavor.

I was house/pet sitting for a family friend this past weekend and Chris was hanging out with me so we decided what better way to pass time (in addition to watching several DVDs...side note: Chris had me watch The A-Team, and I really enjoyed it) than to bake! Thankfully this batter did not curdle (although have you ever seen buttermilk measured out in the same measuring cup as oil? NOT a pretty sight); however, it was pure liquid.which terrified me as I ladled it into the cupcake liners. I gleefully watched (Chris mocked me for enjoying watching cupcakes bake...but let me tell you it was actually pretty cool) as the cupcakes rose in the oven quashing my fears of a screw up (Chris accidentally turned one of the ovens on to convection bake instead of normal bake so one patch baked on convection the other normally...I have heard that baking cupcakes on convection can be better because it circulates the air in the oven more resulting in more even baking...so I guess he did well by pressing the wrong button). The cupcakes baked up perfectly and looked moist and delicious so it was time to tackle the frosting.

The frosting actually turned out really well although my biggest fear came into reality when the coffee flavor seemed to grow stronger every day that the frosting sat (...not the biggest fan of that). All in all I'd say it was a pretty successful chocolate venture that received especially high praises from my mom who thought that the frosting was the best yet! As you can see below, I'm starting to get artsy with my cupcake shots too...several cupcakes did not make the icing cut to be photographed so I decided to go with the star of the pack. Hope you enjoy! Also there's a Gus update coming your way tomorrow so check back for that (he's becoming huge and is the rising star of his intermediate training class!)

Accio Cupcakes!

For those of you who just rolled your eyes after reading the title...sorry I'm not sorry. Several things first:

A. The credit goes to the older brother (now known by the endearingly annoying nickname O. Bro Bro...you're smart figure it out) for the witty title. 

B. Yes, I saw HP7 part 2. No, I did not go at midnight. Yes, I was very upset by the fact that I did not go at midnight. 

C. Yes, I have been to Wizarding World of Harry Potter (twice), and yes, you should be jealous.

D. Yes, I hated Harry Potter when the first book was first published.

AND last but certainly not least

E. Yes, I skipped the first 50 pages or so of the first book in order to tolerate it.

Now that all of that is out of the way, I can begin. Unless you've been living under a rock for a very long time, I'm sure that you're aware that the Harry Potter franchise (by franchise I'm only referring to the books and movies), has finally come to an end. When I say finally I don't mean it in a grateful way I mean it in a "I never wanted it to end, but unfortunately JK Rowling decided she was content with her multibillion dollars and breaking the hearts of multibillion people" (yes, the second multibillion is incorrectly used, but I thought it was quite witty). I have read all of the books several times and have seen the movies just as many (although as most die-hard book fans will attest: the books are WAY better), and I truly felt like I was growing up with these characters. I'm saddened yes, but life will move on. In honor of the finale, however, I made butterbeer cupcakes as a tribute (and because one of my favorite people in the world Katie posted the recipe on my facebook wall, and I'm not one to say no to a challenge/request). Unfortunately the cupcakes were not ready for the day that I finally saw the movie (Saturday at 7pm...I was trying to be a responsible working adult), and my mom ended up buying dessert for Sunday which left yesterday for cupcake making.

I won't bore you with the baking details, but since I'm in the list making mood, I'll charm you with a few anecdotes.

i. Chris (the little bro) "helped" me make the cupcakes. More importantly he was my photographer (the kid is pretty talented).

ii. Adding extra cream soda and deciding to put some of your own flavoring in batter is never a bad idea.

iii. This is the third cupcake recipe that I've made where the batter has appeared to curdle and scared the living crap out of me.

iv. I am seriously talented at making frostings. Really though...

v. This was the first batch of cupcakes that baked PERFECTLY!

vi. Most importantly...my biggest critic (Chris) said that these were the best yet!

Check out how they turned out below (they're Gryffindor themed...duh)! I also threw in a picture of the butterbeer cart at Wizarding World...photo credit to the one and only JGlide.

Made in America

My family has always been moderately fanatic about the fourth of July. We don't really decorate much for it, but ever since I can remember every fourth (or some years the fifth) we've partaken in some sort of firework spectacular. Back in the day when we still had annual passes to Disney, we'd go to Epcot for the fourth, and I'd stand absolutely in awe of the artificial daylight that was created by the massive amount of explosions. I think I was a glorified pyromaniac by the time I was 8 years old. My family started our Independence Day tradition when I was probably 12 or 13, and I always got a kick out of getting to light off the mortars and see the pretty colors that would stretch across the sky as a result of the small fuse that I had lit. My older brother would always have friends over who would light the fireworks with us, and my little brother soon followed in our pyro ways. Below you can see a video of the sparkler bomb that Chris made. I recorded it, and Chris has since proudly displayed it on his facebook with the caption "Sparklers+Fire Crackers + water bottle+ a roll of electrical tape + 3 guys with nothing to do = KABOOM!" I unfortunately am not included in the 3 guy count but still greatly enjoyed watching it explode.

Obviously, such an amazing holiday with such great family participation would require a tremendous dessert. Last year I baked a watermelon cake (no, it was not watermelon flavored, BUT it was shaped like a watermelon...you can see a picture of it below), but this year cupcakes were the way to go. I had purchased mini cupcake liners in red and blue over a month back in preparation for making some patriotically themed cupcake for the fourth and was very excited to use them. ALSO Chris and I had gone to the outlets to meet up with our relatives who were visiting from Australia, and I was absolutely ecstatic to see that Calphalon (only my favorite store for all things cooking) was having a sale on their bake ware! I purchased a new mini muffin tin AND a jumbo muffin tin (the guy in the store said that you didn't need to use liners for any of them since they're non-stick, but I was definitely a non-believer until I baked the jumbo ones!).  I had picked out the type of cupcake I was going to make well in advance deciding on an Arnold Palmer Cupcake recipe that I found on the Food Network website (it was Paula Deen's recipe...I mean how can you say no to that??). Seeing as I very readily associate Arnold Palmers (named for the golfing great as it was his favorite type of drink...half iced tea half lemonade) with relaxing in the summer, I figured what better type of cupcake to make for the fourth.

Long story short, I had a scare in the process after adding the milk to the batter (you steep tea in warm milk to get the tea flavor which translates as more of a spiced flavor int he actual cupcake) when it appeared that the tea milk made the batter curdle, but it was all for naught when everything smoothed out with the addition of the flour (I had bought more all purpose flour so no need to substitute cake flour this time around). I put them in the oven and watched them closely. The last obstacle was definitely the icing. A typical butter cream icing consists primarily of butter (who woulda thunk haha) and confectioner's sugar. This recipe called for some added lemon juice AND the remained of the tea milk concoction. The added liquid resulted in my having to do some serious damage control (in the form of an extreme amount of additional powdered sugar) and some heavy improvising. In the end the icing turned out to be a delightful lemony flavored icing with just a hint of spice from the tea. My eight year old Australian cousin helped me ice some of them, but being the perfectionist that I am, I'm only showing you a select few that I thought I iced pretty well :) Below you can see the pictures of my watermelon cake from last year and this year's cupcakes!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the cupcakes (including my two young cousins...one of whom tried to conquer a jumbo cupcake on her own). I don't know how much justice, however, was done to the Arnold Palmer, but it definitely produced a yummy cupcake regardless. We ended up capping off our week of patriotism with me taking the day off from work and heading down to Cocoa Beach with Chris and the Australian relatives to watch the last shuttle launch. My family has always made a great effort to go to as many launches as we can since they're only an hour or so of a drive away from home so it only seemed fitting to be there for the last one. It was great even though the clouds prevented us from seeing the boosters fall off and from getting very many good pictures, but at least the memories will always be there! I promise there will be another post in the very near future so just keep checking back!!