adventures in midnight baking

I am addicted to cake and cupcake shows, and after watching Cupcake Wars on TV tonight, decided I wanted cupcakes. I was going to just go buy some tomorrow, but instead decided to make them, at 930pm, which first involved a trip to the grocery store for ingredients. I also decided I wanted to try to make homemade frosting, yummm. The cupcake mix was a generic box brand which I made funfetti with sprinkles, yumm. Once in the oven, I set to make some frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

foodnetwork.com

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup butter (softened)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 Tbsp whipping cream/milk

3-4 Tbsp cocoa powder if making chocolate frosting

cream butter, mix in sugar slowly until well-blended, add in vanilla and 1Tbsp of whipping cream at a time and blend to reach desired spreading consistency. To make chocolate frosting, take out vanilla extract (can leave in if desired) and add in 3-4 Tbsp of cocoa powder.

recipe frosts approximately 24 cupcakes

I used this recipe from the foodnetwork.com to make vanilla and chocolate frosting. It was relatively easy, but I learned a few things for next time:

1- make sure your butter is softened or it is rather difficult to cream!

2- a stand mixer would have been so much easier than a hand mixer, but that's all I have so hand-mixed it I did! (however, stand mixer is #1 on wedding registry!)

3- I halved the recipe and it frosted approx 12-14 cupcakes, so definitely make the whole batch or even double the recipe for a whole batch of cupcakes.

4- the recipe was a little too buttery (yes, I know it is a buttercream), a little too sweet, and a little too vanilla-y, but I really dont know how to fix that! I could try to add more suagr to offset the butteriness, but that would make it sweeter... I could add less vanilla, but that would make it taste more buttery........ some reviews of the recipe suggested adding a pinch of salt (I did use salted butter already) and decreasing the amt of sugar slightly, and adding 1 T orange juice.... still dont know how that would all work out without ruining the batch of frosting, but I might play next time and see if I can work something out...

5- I added cocoa powder to a second batch for chocolate frosting, and it turned out GREAT! (fiance agrees....) it actually tasted like something store bought but better, and better for yes (as far as less preservatives go....) I probably might add a touch of coffee or maybe even vanilla to offset the chocolate and bring it out more, as just cocoa powder alone was a little flat tasting, but still turned out good!

6- the frosting is really soft, and smooth and creamy, so I scoped it in ziplock baggies, put the frosting in the refrigerator for 10min before frosting to set it up a little, then cut a small corner off the bag to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes and it was perfect!

All in all, a great buttercream recipe, and yummy cupcakes! I will definitely use this frosting in the future for cupcakes and cakes, and maybe even brownies and cookies! end time of midnight cupcakes: midnight... blog posting time: 1am.... sweet dreams!

more (food) adventures!

What a great week and weekend so far! This week was my second week on the floor at work, on dayshift, and it was a week thats for sure! There's soo much to learn when you start a new job- where things are, the equipment used, different policies and procedures, doctors and nurses names, phone numbers, who to call for what, the general flow of things, and the general feel of working there! It's so overwhelming! Things I normally could do so quickly and easily take so much longer and so much more effort! It's overwhelming, and stressful, and really makes me feel inadequate at times! But I know eventually it will get better once I am there more and feel more comfortable about how the floor works!

With that said, what a week! We went out last night for Tim's last night in Austin, and I got to experience a tiny bit of 6th street fun! We headed to Union Park, and had a great time! Here's a pic of Chris, Tim, and myself


Last weekend, Chris had some friends come over for drinks and card games, which was a blast! It felt good to kick back, relax, and enjoy some of the games from college! As well as staying up really late, trying to get back into a more nighht-shift oriented schedule! Kaylee decided that she wanted in on some of the action.....

Today Chris had the high school band camp final concerts, and all the bands did so well! Chris had to fill in some parts during his group's concert, but he got to come sit with me during the final Honor's Band (which was an exclusive by invite only all-state group of kids) and they were AMAZING! completely blew me away! I felt like we were listening to a professional symphony orchestra! After the concerts we got to eat some Pok-e-jos BBQ (which is traditional game day food for the UT Longhorn Marching band...) After BBQ, Chris and I headed home to change into swimsuits where we then headed to Deep Eddy Pool (a spring-fed pool thats a consistant 67-72*!!!!!) it was sooooo nice there! it will definitely be a saving grace this summer when the temps hit 100*+... After pool time, we made some miniburgers with a fabulous new miniburger grilling basket, and some homecooked buffalo chips! It felt like we were in Bdubs, but at home!

Annnndd, last but cdertainly not least, for a quick dinner after I got out of work late, Chris and I make a homemade pizza, yummm! My next food adventure is going to be attempting real homemade pizza dough I think... but the next best thing is buying real pizza dough from an Italian market/restaurant called Mandola's!

It's still very interesting to me how much of our togetherness revolves around food- thinking about it, planning meals, shopping for meals, cooking, eating, etc... Is this something that happens to every couple when they first start living together? I think we're just so excited to finally be able to cook for more than one person, and be able to cook some of the things we love to eat, that it's exhilarating when we prepare a meal that is not only healthy, but tastes good and turns out good too! It's just exciting to see what we can accomplish together! =)

A Catch All Dinner

Now that Chris and I are totally responsible for buying groceries and making sure food doesn't go bad, I've found some creative ways to use leftovers.... one ingenious idea was combining a iceburg lettuce and cabbage for a salad- you could barely tell the cabbage was in there, except the salad had more flavor and more crunch! a good change to me! A few nights ago we had a rotisserie chicken, and then I ate some leftovers for lunch, and Chris has a container of leftovers for lunch, but there was still some leftover! Soooo, tonight for dinner we have a very catch-all dinner, and a keeper catch-all at that! We combined leftover spaghetti sauce with leftover fresh basil, fresh mushrooms, and the remaining chicken for a chicken mushroom spaghetti sauce! It was amazing! Lighter than a normal beef meat sauce, but chunkier than a normal marinara sauce. yum!

In addition to our catch-all spaghetti sauce, we also had catch-all pasta with the remains of 3 different types of pasta, and catch-all lettuce with a cabbage/lettuce mix! Top that off with some good 'ole Texas toast and we had ourselves a quick, delicious catch-all dinner!

Chris also surprised me with some funky green and pink roses just because!

Home Foodie

After some inspiration from other daily bloggers about food and what not, I decided to try to keep up with my own blog more!

I always knew Chris and I both shared a love of food and cooking, but it have become much more apparent since moving to Texas and living together, planning shopping and cooking meals! Wow- planning meals was harder than I thought it was going to be! When Chris and I sat down to plan our first week of meals, we had a hard time thinking of things to make! Growing up, my mom always asked if there was anything particular I wanted for dinner that week because she always tried to plan the week out for grocery shopping. Well, Chris and I tried to do that after we arrived here, and found it difficult! Not that we didnt have things we wanted to cook, but just that we couldnt think of anything to cook! I guess we both wanted dinners to be special that first week! So we had a great first few weeks of dinner with some old favorites and some new recipes!

Here I am cooking an old favorite side dish- parsley potatoes!
Chris cooked filet mignon perfectly!
it was sooo good!
BBQ ribs and corn on the cob for Memorial Day!
Dinner #1 garlic italian style shrimp with basil and spaghetti compliments of Rachel Ray!

We also had oven fry chicken (one of my favorites), orange roughy (a new dish for Chris- he liked it!), chicken and pork lo mein (also a Rachel Ray recipe and a new one for both of us- was not so good...), and rotisserie chicken!

After 2 weeks of excellent dinners, we have found ourselves in a lull, eating pizza, leftovers, sandwiches, etc! It's exhausting, timeconsuming, and expensive to cook! But so much fun, and I love eating!

This evening to entertain myself while Chris was at a rehearsal I decided to start a second batch of cake balls and make some banana blueberry almond pancakes! Bakerella has some amazing ideas! Check her out at http://www.bakerella.com/

Here's the final result of the cake balls! I still need to work on getting the chocolate thinner and tapping more excess chocolate off the balls, as well as finding a device to dip the balls with so fork marks aren't left in the balls! But they taste fabulous regardless of how they look!

So here's to a great past 2 weeks of meals!

wow has it been awhile!

I have such a hard time writing in journals whether it be online or paper! blagh.... but I have so much news! I just got back from an amazing trip to Austin, TX to visit Chris and to get some moving details started! I went on 2 interviews with Dell Children's Medical Center- one in the heme/onc unit, one in the ED, and both were promising, just need to wait a littl longer! Chris and I decided on a place to live- his apartment community just in a larger apartment! It will be really easy to transfer his lease and move his stuff, and he knows the area already, so we are on a waiting list for a 2bedroom 2bathroom to open up! While I was there, Chris and I picked out our wedding bands and have them in layaway! double yayyy! they;re from Kay's, and the actual store he got my engagement ring from! Here's some pics...




and here's my engagement ring in case you didnt see or forgot!



Other wedding plans are going well! We have the reception hall picked out, just waiting on church final confirmation to put the deposit down! We have a few more cake tastings scheduled, but it's looking like it's going to be Tapp's Cake Emporium! yummmm we also have invitations, just need all the details so we can print them! I have my dress, my wedding jewelry, and my headpiece- still need shoes, veil, slip, garters... =) still need to pick out bridesmaids dresses, but at least know the color- cobalt blue, and fun green shoes! and wedding colors- cobalt blue and cypress/lime/grass green! have some flower ideas, but not positive yet on what exactly... going to use the hall centerpieces with some of our own added flair =) and we have our photographer- check out imagesbyjess.com! lots of details are falling into place, but the church really needs to get back to us because I'm starting to get worried! anyways, wedding plans are going well, and moving plans are going well- i cant believe it's so soon! the past year has really flown by quickly! i am really excited to start a new path of life in Austin with Chris and see what the world has to offer!

Itsa...wednesday? Really?

So, it's been a goooooood long while since I posted here, and I don't know how many are reading this, but here it is nonetheless!

Things have been going steady here-I've been way more busy with the drumline than I thought I would(even though I knew this would happen), and it's starting to cut into my practice time way more than I want it to(again, saw this coming). It's hard-this assistantship is the reason I'm here, yet it's intereferring with what I want to do here...sounds crazy, right? But, I wouldn't trade it for the world, cept the fact that Nikki isn't here yet. More on that later.

Recently starting reading a really good book about how social networking can really affect how your career runs. I've always kinda known this and heard it in the business classes I took in undergrad, but now that the big 'job search' is coming upon me quicker every day, it's about time I really start to get my name cemented and out there. So, I joined up with twitter, I'm going to revamp my facebook, and per the suggestion of Dr. Burritt(my percussion prof), I'm going to start a blog. Not a blog about daily stuff and what not(that's what I have this one for!), but about percussion and education and the like. I'm working out the details in my head still, but I want to run it in the direction of a discussion between young educators of my generation, who've yet to get that first teaching job, but need a place to start getting their ideas out there, or to bounce ideas off other people. Again, all early thoughts, but I'm excited about where it could lead(hopefully I'll actually do it!)

Aside from that, the only big bummer right now is the lack of Nikki being here. Chicago the past few years was hard, but at least we were able to see each other on a monthly basis. The next time I see her, it'll have been close to 3 months. 3 MONTHS. Crazy long amount of time to go without seeing someone you. I think that we've done good so far, but as of late it's started to get really hard. This last month here needs to fly by, or else we may go crazy! But, once I get home, I have a feeling that it will shape up to be a very memorable visit :)

That's all I got for now...time for class, then practice/rehearsal all day. No marching band today, so I'ma catch up on stuff, and with Doc out of town at PASIC, I'm gonna practice in his office the next few days. Score.

-Chris

itsa monday-nikki

today was interesting... good or bad interesting is left up for debate! im on vacay from the clinic, which is nice, because i have a week full of orientation for rainbow! today was corporate orientation day 1 which = sitting and listening to why UH hospitals are so awesome and why we're so lucky to work there... all day... shoot me now! it's amazing the rivalry between hospitals here- no one knew i was from the clinic or work there as my primary job, and there were little things here and there digging at the clinic from sooo many of the people there! i'm sorry, but last time i checked the clinic was a top ranked institution just like UH is, and is as large as UH is, and employs as many people in cleveland just like UH does.... if cleveland didnt have the clinic and UH, our economy situation would be SO much worse! i dont understand the digging at each other when we're all there to provide pt care and help people feel better- in addition to trying to stimulate our economy the only ways we can! i just had to bite my tongue with each comment, because there's good and bad each place, and the doctors and nurses who work in each place are human beings too, who have feelings and make mistakes and live lives just like our patients do... we are expected to be and act perfect, and to know everything, and i know we have lives at our hands, but it is the one industry with no room for mistakes which carrys a lot of responsibility and stress and feeling like needing to be absolutely perfect in everything! ok, sorry, got a little out of hand, lost my train of thought...

anyways, today was a monday- corporate orientation, got a vaccination record and successfully (i think) faxed it after 10 or so attempts, took my cat- hair filled comforter to the dry cleaners ($20 down the drain) and took a post-class diabetes test I almost forgot about (but if i pass i earn 16 CEUs! so im glad i remembered to take the class!) then i caught up on grays and flash forward, both amazing episodes but i think grays was sooo perfect, i scooped cat boxes, and stretched cuz i hurt my left hip somehow... (i really need to get to the gym) now im posting here and should be getting ready for bed soon! it is still sooo nice out- very comfortable and would be perfect sitting out and talking and drinking tea kinda night.... i miss my bf terribly- its only been 6.5 weeks since i last saw him and its going to be another 5 weeks, ughhh halfway through i guess but 5 weeks is a long time! i really cant wait for this to be over- this is soo hard! i really hope i can get my clinic and rainbow scheduled to mesh bc it will keep me busy enough for the time to fly (i hope!) and not drag- but who knows, it could drag too.... anyways, i miss him and need him in my life more than he is- we need it to be our time to grow and just be happy, but its not yet.... he's my best friend, and my future, and i want it to be now! ok, this is getting long and im just being whiney.... gnight world

update- nikki

not too much to write about- I start Rainbow orientation Monday- still trying to get some pieces together for it though like my TDAP immunization record and my N95 fit tested results (stupid Flu A requirement for the isolation those patients are on...) This week is my vacation week from the Clinic, so it worked out really well for half of the Rainbow orientation! The next week I'll be back at the Clinic- on nights, ick- and trying to work in 20 some hours of clinical time at Rainbow- no fun! BUT, this will be my life for the next 5 months, and I need to get used to it! other news- my grandma passed away Wednesday morning, funeral was yesterday. It was pretty unexpected even though she's been sick the past few years off and on. She always went into the hospital for one reason or another, and always came home- but not this time, well, she didnt come to OUR home, she went to God's home! It really was all surreal though- sick with asthma/flu/pneumonia for 2.5 weeks then gone forever.... wakes you up a little to make sure you're living every day as full and loving as possible because anything can happen! with that in mind, i headed out last night to the NR home playoff game which was really exciting the first half, then NR made lots of mistakes and lost... then I went out to Lakewood with Kamala, Sam, Mary B and Grace- we had an awesome time! stupid nikki move of the night- left my phone in Sam's car! she's going back to Il today so it was a mini crisis! but crisis averted! so now I'm going to shower and get ready for the day- lots to do- cleaning, laundry, and it's beautiful out so maybe a walk!

hacking up a lung cough-nikki

ugh- ive been sick the past few days with a cough that sounds like im coughing up a lung! no fever, and no feel like ive been run over by a bus- so i dont think its the flu. just some stupid cold. its hard to go to work because the cough is pretty uncontrollable and meds arent helping much. i worked a lot of OT last week- and felt great! was trying to see what working the rainbow job with mine might feel like- and it went well until i got sick and had to call off the last 12 i was scheduled- thus ruining my experiment and half the OT i should have gotten! owell- such if life i guess....... anyways, im just hanging out around home being completely and totally bored out of my mind!

its been awhile-nikki

Sorry for not getting on here for a few, I actually forgot about it, lol, that and I didn't have a very exciting week... I had an in-person interview for the Rainbow Babies PRN job on Friday the 16th, and it went ok- I thought I annwered all the questions really well, positive, and truthful! Then the clinical manager took me on a tour of the floor- which is HUGE and includes three separate halls of patient rooms- three stock rooms and three med rooms with a total of 33 patient beds... and I felt like she pushed me out the door after the tour! It was very undsettling. I still havent heard if I got the position or not, but I know that they ran my backround check and called my manager now and some references. I am ASSuming that all means I got the job, because why go through all that if it doesnt, but who knows. I hope I hear something very soon because I want to start planning for it! The uniforms there are anything goes, as long as it's kid friendly, so I need to buy some new scrubs as mine are all white, or Cleveland Clinic handprints right now... I've always been really excited to buy fun scrubs someday, but interestingly enough when I went looking to see what I might want I was completely overwhelmed! I really didnt know where to start! I know what pants I want bc I have a specific brand/style I like, but as far as tops and patterns and prints go, whoah! It's also going to be rather expensive bc with working 5 12s a week, I'm not going to be able to do laundry as often, so I need to get more than just 1 or 2 sets and I really dont want to be spending $$ on that right now with Xmas so close! So, fingers crossed I hear very soon!

On another note, Ive been trying to schedule an appointment at the Holiday Inn to see their banquet rooms for the past 5 weeks or so and no one has called me back yet! I personally went in to try to schedule it thefirst time, and called the second time, and no go yet. They don't reserve the room until 9 months before, so I actually have almost a year before I can reserve the room, but I at least want to see what its like and get more info so I can start deciding where we want to have the reception and just be prepared to put the deposit down when it's time! frustrating! Also, there's this BEAUTIFUL wedding dress at the Salvation Army of all places, and it's only $75 for a sweetheart strapless beaded gown with a chapel train and a veil and is in fabulous condition- but it's a size 4, and totally doesnt fit =( not to mention that I already have a wedding dress, but still, I really like this one... sigh...

Work has been work- working nightshift for the past who knows how long- it feels like forever! Has been going just ok- very busy lately, and TONS of H1N1 flu which means sticky hot noisy blue plastic gowns and suffocating face masks and eye shield and gloves and isolation for each patient room with a +Flu A result. We've had over half the floor on this kind of isolation for +Flu A (which means you very most likely have H1N1) and it's getting exhausting! Any kind of extended activity you need to do in all this isolation stuff like making a bed, gets you completely sweaty and gross! not to mention what it does to your hair- goodbye any kind of good hair day! I'm back on dayshift next week and the week after, then more nights, funfun... tonight is a really good crew though, and has been relatively enjoyable!

And last, but not least, after going to two clambakes and eating mussels twice at a bar- I really like mussels much much better than clams!

time to go check on my patients- peace!

interview- nikki

I am applying to a prn job at Rainbow babies and childrens hospital for their winter bonus program. They hire extra nurses during flu/rsv season, offer a premium rate of pay, and give a bonus at the end of the winter for completing the work requirement.

So, I had a phone interview today, and passed it so I have an in person interview on Friday! yay! The work requirement is 24hrs/week for 20weeks- starts Nov 30th and goes through April. That means I will be working 5- 12's (60+ hours a week) for 5 months straight! SHOOT ME NOW..... lol! BUT, it is an excellent $$ opportunity and experience opportunity! So I really hope this can work out and I can stay sane through it all! It looks like I will be working on either a peds pulmonary or peds cardiology floor... I will update after the Friday interview!

GAME DAY-Chris

So, the fun part about going to three different schools is that I've got three different teams to watch/root for on gameday! And luckily, none of them play each other during the regular season! SOOOOO-Hook 'em Horns, Go Bucks, and Go 'Cats!\

I'll post something more substantial in a day or so-but figured this would be an appropriate first post!

-Chris

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies-Nikki

So, in honor of Maria who is in Pitea, Sweeden right now doing music study abroad, I am going to attempt to make chocolate chip pumpkin cookies for Fall and for her! So it's fall, right? and it's fall in Sweeden too with the trees changing and all, and what is fall? well it's pumpkin of course! and there is no pumpkin pie or canned pumpkin to cook with or anything pumpkin in Sweeden apparently. So it'd be almost a sin to not have pumpkin anything during the fall, so the easiest pumpkin mailable thing to Sweeden would have to be cookies! and Maria just tried to make chocolate chip pumpkin cookies to no avail in Sweeden, so that's what I'm going to try to make and send to her! My timing is terrible though becaused I'm starting a 3 night work stretch so I have to wait until Sunday to make them =( and now they sound really good to me so I might make a double or triple batch so I can eat lots, and I can send them to my boy in Texas too =) So goal for the weekend after work- make chocolate chip pumpkin cookies! yummmm

oh yeah, Chris is going to start blogging on here too so look for the name of who's blog post each entry is!

wow

so apparently i cant spell.... chris so lovingly pointed that out to me today ;-)

inspiration

as promised earlier, here are the inspiration pics for the wedding... the first is one with milk glass vases filled with flowers as centerpieces
the second picture is a color and flower inspiration- i love the blue/green combo, and the hydrangeas- actually i love everything about this cake!

the third pic is a centerpiece inspiration that i fell in love with years ago when my best friend was planning her wedding!

the forth pic is inspiration for color and centerpiece idea- i love the peacock feather! they would look amazing in the glass vases, especially the milk glass!

mmmm, lavender! i love everything about lavender and hope to have it in wedding bouquets!

this last picture is the main inspiration for the wedding colors! the bright cobalt sapphire blue in contrast to the bright green is so amazing!

my wedding idea is almost always changing, but i hope these inspiration ideas never change because i love them all!

thrifting

i was supposed to work overtime this afternoon but it got cancelled, so instead of working and making $$ i went thrifting and spent $$! i made it to 4 thrift stores and got some really great green, blue, and milk glass vases! i think i got 9 vases.... anyways, it was really exciting and got all of them for $20! I took some pics but they're on the internal memory of my camera and i cant transfer pics from internal memory for some reason, so then i took some pics on my phone but dont know how to upload them from phone to computer because i dont have a usb cord for it.... so, they're stuck! ahhh, i figured it out! i heart verizon! so here's the pics of my fab finds today! I saw a really neat picture using milk glass vases as centerpieces, and thought that by combining the tea tin centerpiece idea with the milk glass idea could look pretty neat! I'll post the pics I saw that inspired my idea at the end of the blog!

These are the milk glasses- don't know if they're authentic or not, but the bowl has a company's name stamped on the bottom so I'm thinking that's a true milk glass. In case you don't know the history behind milk vases- they were made starting in the 16th century in venice through present times, though today's are mainly reproductions of popular earlier styles, and are considered collectible items if in original forms.

Here are some sweet green vases glasses I found. The tall light green glass vase on the left was made in Italy! Garfield was enjoying sniffing all the vases even though I just washed them all!

Here's some really pretty blue glass containers. There's nothing extremely special I noticed about these, but they were pretty and if I decide to use them in the wedding will match the main color of cobalt/sapphire blue!

And I actually need to go, but I will blog about the inspiration pics later tonight!

Adios!

i really should be sleeping

so this is a new idea for me- well actually it is an old revisisted idea. i used to try to blog, or online journal as it used to be known, through livejournal and other things i cant remember the names of- but it didnt work out so well! im not sure if it was even remotely therapeutic. owell, this is slightly different as i'm going to try to make it less journal/diary-like and more random thinkings and feelings, similar to the thought and emotions that regularly pop into my head! also a place to spill some thoughts without overloading my saved document files! as you all might know, or not know, chris and i are planning for our future together. no, we are not engaged yet! and i know, crazy, right? but we both know, and have known for years, that we would get there in God's time, and time is what we're taking! The past 3.5 years have been amazing, and hopefully the next 35 will be just as amazing, and every year after that! so, we are planning for our marriage and wedding and all these thoughts and ideas are swimming around my head all the time driving me completely insane! its literally all i think about, and i have to filter my thoughts to get any work done! this blog will probably turn into an outlet for all the wedding-ness, so be prepared! anywho, it really is getting late so im off to bed, but the wedding and whatever else updates will be blogged soon enough! as soon as i learn more about this website and how to post pics and all sorts of fun stuff!

yay! i figure out how to add pics! that's chris, btw if you don't know him- he's getting read to eat an amazing dinner at salt lick bbq in austin, tx which i am now craving- yummmm!