Cupcake Wars!

A couple of months ago J and I were hungry...Wait...we're always hungry....

And we also wanted to go on a date...

Seems simple enough--go get some food.

Unfortunately, we're also poor...

So we decided to have cupcake wars in our kitchen using things we had on hand.

I use the phrase "cupcake wars" loosely because it turned out to be J taking photos of me making cupcakes more than a competition.

We picked two cupcake recipes, Red Velvet and Lemon, out of a lifestyle magazine I get. Click here to read another recipe I adapted from the magazine. 

I'm not going to post the recipes here because they're pretty basic...just look on pinterest, it's been covered. The idea is, take your man to the kitchen and cook together!

Or as in our case, your husband will play with his new camera while you do most of the baking...still fun!

Here some of J's photos. I picked ones that highlight some cupcake simple baking tricks to make the cupcakes come out a little more delicious.

Invest in a stand mixer. It's not absolutely necessary but
it just makes everything easier and  more fun.

There are a lot of ways to separate eggs. This is my
technique. It's old fashioned but it gets the job done.
(Using the whites without the yolk makes the cake whiter,
fluffier and less fattening. ...I just added that last attribute
because it sounds good. If you care about fat, you probably
just shouldn't eat cupcakes.)

I squeeze a lemon just like anyone else, I just liked this photo.

I pipe icing out of a gallon baggie with the corner cut off.
To fill the baggie I put it in a glass then pour or scoop the
icing in.

Craftiness!

Hey y'all!

Yesterday I was in a crafty mood while waiting on edits from my thesis adviser. I saw this craft on Pinterest the other day. It said something about the doorbell being broken, but since we don't have one in our duplex, I thought it could be just as fitting.

I just drew the letters in pencil and painted it with acrylic paint. I mixed the colors myself to give it some depth.

Can you tell I'm tired of writing? Long thesis=short blog. ;) 

Have a great week, y'all!

5 Reasons Why I Hate Editing

Friday was reorganize chapter one day. 

I'm now in editing mode on my thesis. Here are a few reasons why I hate it.

1. I have a HUGE ego.

That's right ladies and gents, I have a hard time admitting that that 10 page paper I pumped out from 2am to 5am isn't a winner. What do you mean I used passive voice?! Passive voice has never been used by me!

2. I know what I said, so why do I have to read it again?

 I hate rereading things! I can hardly read my favorite book again five years after I read it the first time.My own writing is the worst, because I wrote it. I know what it says....don't I? Wait...I wrote what? What does that even mean...?

3. It takes FOREVER!

I'm a busy genius, who has no time to waste with such nonsense! I must be churning out more brilliant copy, or watching Gilmore Girls... I have no time for this tediousity! (And I'm an excellent word inventor!) Let the little people handle the editing...

4. I'm tired of working on the same thing.

This is a massive paper that I've spent the better part of two years working on in one form or another. Can't we just call it a day and give me my degree already?

5. I don't have a long enough attention span.....

Wait, what was I talking about....

So there you have it, folks. Why I hate editing in a nutshell. Now that I've procrastinated...I guess I'll go find something else to procrastinate with...

Work, work, work, CAKE!

As many of you know, I'm reaching crunch time for my master's program. 

My thesis needs to be completed in early May. My independent study course is coming along slugglishly. Over the next week and a half I will be buried under an avalanche of quizzes and tests needing to be graded. And over the past 6 days I've been working basically nonstop to make up for lost time. 

Finally, I've conquered the intro to my thesis, it's in the final stages before seeking my adviser's approval. 

I'm only one chapter shy of finishing what I hope will be the most difficult book of my independent study. 

And naturally, there's nothing I can do about grading until my students actually take their exams.

As J will soon be starting his "weekend" and I have a day off of teaching tomorrow. I've decided to take a little break from work.

To celebrate, and because I was craving chocolate, I'm baking a cake. This is the recipe.

It's a great, simple recipe and I highly recommend it to even the least experienced of bakers.

It smells delicious and has been taunting me with said delicious scent for the past 20 minutes.

Lick the beaters! Suggests my mother, but the batter was so runny there was none stuck to the beaters.

Ah, first world problems...

Soon it will emerge from the oven!

Then it will have to cool.

Then I will frost it!

Then I will probably be very sleepy.

No matter! I am determined to partake in the deliciousness that will be this cake!

Wish me lick...I mean luck!

Baby Fever

I don't know this baby, but he's cute!

Hey y'all!

It's me again...

I've been a little busy lately, but I was just thinking about something I want to share.

Y'all know me. I like to post about things that may or may not ever happen from time to time. Like when I posted about procrastinating. ...wait did I ever get around to that?

Anyway, lately I've been thinking about having kids. It's just one of those baby fever things that hits you like a ton of bricks when all your friends seem to magically get pregnant in the same year.

You find yourself looking at their sonograms, baby bump pictures and baby registries pretty much all the time. There should be a name for this phenomenon. Babidemic? Babypalooza? Ubiquibaby?

Nevermind, what I'm getting at is this: Now that I find myself surrounded by baby paraphernalia (why does that word have two Rs in it?), I consistently catch myself daydreaming about parenting.

Not wanting to loose the random thoughts and ideas I've had recently, I wanted to share a couple with you.

First, I was just thinking today about how I want to build things with my kids. Maybe a playhouse or a dog house for our future Collie that we'll probably name Lassie. (I'm still talking J into this one.)

I think this will be awesome for a lot of reasons. Mostly, I think it'll be fun. I also think it could be a great learning experience. They'll use problem solving, geometry and other basic math skills. They'll also get to be creative. I hope that we can design it together, they can pick paint colors and really make it their own. Finally, they'll also learn safety and how to use tools.

These hypothetical, super-smart, genius children are probably not what our actual children will be like, but it's a nice dream, right?

I also want our kids to read. I want them to read lots of different things that interest them. J and I actually have a running list of books we might want our kids to read. We're nerds. I know.

I hope our kids are nerds too.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll update this later, but between you and me, we know that's not likely to happen.

Babka's Lemon Cake

This is not going to be one of those sweet posts about some sweet old lady her sweet cake recipe that she so sweetly gave to me at her sweet house when I was just a sweet child.

Got it?

Sweet.

Instead this is about how I attempted to make a traditional Polish cake.

Well kinda... You see I have no Babka (that's polish for grandma). The closest thing I have to a Polish grandma is an 1/8 Norwegian grandma and that's not close at all.

Despite my lack of... Polishness? Polishiosity? Poligarchy? Essence-of-Poland? Anyway, although I am in no way Polish, I have a Polish last name and a Polish-looking husband. Somehow that creates in me the desire to do something, well, Polish.

When I got the itch to bake today, I asked dear, sweet, Polish-looking J what he might want. He said lemon cake. I'm not, in general, a huge fan of lemon dessert, but it sounded fun to make. When I ran across this recipe on Pinterest, I knew it would be my afternoon project.

In order to save money I adapted some ingredients to fit what I have.

First, I went with only all-purpose flour not potato or "plain" flour. (What is "plain" flour anyway?)

Second, I subbed in blueberries for raisins, because I can't stand raisins in dessert.

From there I just followed the directions as listed. It's pretty simple, until you get to the baking part.

On the recipe he says put the batter "in your tin." Maybe it's just me, but this was very ambiguous.

What is a tin exactly? Based on the picture of the final product I decided a bundt pan was the best bet.

How big is it? I only have one bundt pan, so this was kind of an irrelevant question.

Is it greased? I decided it was not because he said nothing about it, and the batter had 9 T. of Olive oil.

The cake is in the oven as we speak  I type. So I'll let you know later if these were good decisions or not. Maybe there'll be pictures as well. :)

Pictures indeed...

Update:

The cake was a little difficult to get out of the pan in one piece. However, I still don't think it needed to be greased. Instead I think a smaller pan (or more batter) would solve the problem.

You see, the cake I made is only about 2 inches tall. This is my first Babka cake, but I don't think that's how they're supposed to look.

Another problem--it's  a little dry. My oven cooks a little cool so I bumped it up about 20 degrees. This was too much for the midget cake apparently.

In sum, the cake tastes great, but next time I would double the recipe to make a bigger, moister cake.

10 Things I've Learned Lately

Whoa have I been busy lately! and not with anything of general interest either.

This is going to be a really boring post, but I'd like to share with you 10(ish) things I've learned or reaffirmed since we last spoke:

1. Buying a new car is a difficult and frustrating task. This is what has been taking a lot of my time, but finally it's done and J and I are happy with our purchase.

2. Father-in-laws can be very helpful. Shout out to J's step dad who really helped us understand the whole car buying process!

3. Fathers are also very helpful. Shout out to my dad for good advice and support!

4. My husband is a darling. (Already knew that one.)

5. My mom booked a photographer for family pics over Christmas break. She wants our outfits to coordinate. Ideas?

6. I am not going to kill myself to finish my thesis graduate on time. I'm going to relax and do a great job on it whenever I get done, I get done. This is a big deal for me because:

7. I am a control freak. Which means I have trouble coping when things don't go as I had planned. Usually I consider myself pretty adaptable. But when my performance or time allowance is the variable, I have very high standards and struggle when I can't meet them. So I'm working on not being too disappointed in myself.

8. See number 4.

9. I have a pretty full day ahead of me so I think I'll get to it. I hope you all have a fantastic Tuesday!

10. See number 9.

Love notes for the modern couple

A little over a week ago I was at home alone, daydreaming about J.

This image isn't mine, but I like it. :) I got it here.

I do that a lot.

Is that weird? Probably, but I enjoy it, so don't tell me if it is.

I decided I wanted to do something sweet for him rather keeping all my positive thoughts to myself.

So I started another blog. It's free. It's easy. So, if you wanted, you could do this too. Just go to blogger.com, and follow the steps. (Or some other free blog site. There are several out there.)

I wrote what I was thinking, as eloquently as I could think to write it and sent him the link at work.

I now update that blog every few days or so. It's fun to have a running log of love letters. I don't put either of our whole names in them because I think it's more romantic that way. And he's the only real person, as far as I can tell, that views it. Not that it matters since I don't put anything specific, just flowery love stuff. ;)

Recently, I've been thinking of fun ways to tell him I've updated it. Tonight, I put a note on his dinner that just has the URL and hearts. (That way he doesn't have to ask if he forgot the address.)

If I were to do something like this again, I think I might introduce it that way. Just a note with the URL and nothing else. It's what I imagine would happen if Humphrey Bogart made romantic movies in 2012.

There are really endless possibilities on how you could use something like this.

For example, it could be a fun date invite. If you were to write a lot of love notes over a period of time, then put an invitation in the last one. Maybe just a time and address...ooh romantic.

You could also do a series of photos with signs instead of writing out text.

You could use it to track a long distance relationship. Each of you could log in as authors and post pictures, notes and vlogs to each other. Then years later you would have it to remember how your relationship survived that distance.

I especially think it could be great for newlyweds to record all those newly committed feelings, and how your love grows over the first months and years. Then later, you can return to it and remember why you fell in love in the first place.

You could even use it to propose, but I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to that.

Anyway, that's my fairly unoriginal 21st century update of the old school love letter. Let me know if you try it for yourself. :)

How I Survive Not Being a Morning Person.

This month I am taking an 8am class, and I don't like it.

I am not what you would call a "morning person." I never took an 8am class in my undergrad, because I hate getting up in the morning. I was the girl in high school who always wore her hair in a ponytail, or cut it short so she wouldn't have to fix it in the morning; I only wore makeup if I had a crush on a boy (that's a whole different discussion that we can discuss later), and I would only shower at night. I did all of this so I could sleep until the very last minute, throw on a t-shirt and jeans and go to school.  

Never in my life do I remember being a morning person (other than Christmas when I was a kid). This was highly inconvenient at times since I grew up on a farm. Despite my parents best efforts (which once or twice included using ice water), I am, to this day, not a morning person. 

You may well wonder why I am taking an 8am class this semester. I wonder too. But at the time of enrollment it seemed like a good idea, so here I am.

This issue is compounded by the fact that J. often works late into the night. I like to wait up for him so we can have time together. But this sometimes limits my sleeping time to 3-5 hours/night. I realize a lot of people sleep 5 hours or less and function well. 

I do not. 

I get grumpy, sometimes down right mean when I haven't slept enough. I find it hard to control my facial expressions, which have a tendency to express sarcasm.

Do you see how this can be a problem?

So my solution to this problem has come out of desperation. 

Coffee! 

I know what you're thinking: "DUH!" But let's be honest. When it's already 90 degrees at 7:30 in the morning  (Yay Texas!!!) do you really want a hot cup of coffee to start your day off? (My great aunt Shirley would say, 'Yes, and keep a full cup in your hand until you fall asleep at night.') Most normal people would not. 

I am not going to pretend like I'm normal, but I would agree with the majority here. 

A lot of people get around this by drinking iced coffee, they would purchase some designer frap each morning. But I can't afford this. $5/day on coffee five days a week is about $100/month--that's a huge chunk of change for a pair of newly-weds living on a meager income. 

So, you may say make ice coffee at home. That would be cheap! And I agree. I thought about this for a long time. But do you remember how much I hate getting up? What would induce me to get up early enough to make coffee, cool it so it doesn't melt the ice and get watery, ice it and add in the things that make it palatable? (I don't like black coffee, yuck!) 

Nothing is worth getting up that early and working that hard first thing in the morning. 

Also, we have an old school 12 cup coffee maker, no cute little espresso machine that makes a cup at a time. For some reason, I never can get the right ratio of coffee grounds and water to make good coffee for one. 

So I had to figure out a way around this. 

I was perusing Pinterest in a sleepy haze a couple of weeks ago when I ran across one of those funny e-cards. It said something about freezing leftover wine in ice cube trays. The joke was that the person didn't know what leftover wine was. While I'm not the type of girl to guzzle a bottle of Merlot in one sitting, this e-card gave me inspiration. 

I could freeze coffee in ice cube trays and make frozen coffee drinks quickly. 

They even look cool!

So one afternoon, I fired up Mr. Coffee and made a whole pot! I poured some into our 2 ice cube trays, let that freeze a couple of hours in our little freezer, then I put the cubes in a bowl in the freezer and filled the trays again. I repeated this process until I used most of the coffee. Then, when my bowl was full of cubes and I was tired of refilling the trays, I just poured the rest out. It took a while, but if you have a bigger freezer and more trays you could do it all at once. 

Now in the mornings when I need a little pick me up, I take a blender cup and put the cubes in it like if I were going to pour some iced tea. Then I pour milk over them. (Calcium anyone?) I add a little sugar, and sometimes I add in a little vanilla extract. (I'm thinking about trying chocolate syrup on Monday.) Then I just blend it until the coffee cubes are broken down.

It tastes great and only takes about a minute--start to finish. 

It's also cost effective. None of the ingredients are expensive at all unless you want to buy expensive coffee. Even that is exponentially less than buying a drink from a coffee shop each morning. It also takes less time than you would spend waiting in line at one of those places. 

Other perks include, we never throw out expired milk anymore; I'm getting more calcium, which almost all women need; and I'm a happier person in class every morning. 

I don't drink coffee every day, because I don't want to become dependent. But on those morning where I feel like any little thing may set me off, it certainly helps to have something sweet and energizing to start the morning.

I hope this helps some kindred spirit out there who also hates the morning. If you have other suggestions for me, please comment. I'm all ears! (...unless it's 8am.)

Homework Withdrawal: A Bizarre Sensation

Today I'm going to write about the weirdest sensation plaguing students this time of year, homework withdrawal.

I think you all know what I'm talking about.

H.W.W. plagues students every May as they attempt to cope with the dramatic life change that accompanies the final day of class.

Planking may occur in severe cases of H.W.W. If a student
you love resorts to planking as a result of H.W.W., please go
out and purchase a coloring book or jigsaw puzzle for them.

Symptoms include:

• sudden panic attacks over imaginary missed due dates
• chronically sensing that one is forgetting something
• boredom and excessive sleeping
• renewed interest in random old hobbies
• leaping out of bed at 9:15 before remembering you don't have class
• forgetting what day of the week it is

Other symptoms may also occur. (Feel free to comment additional symptoms below.)

I think what makes H.W.W. so severe in some instances is the abundance of studying, assignments and final projects leading up and throughout to finals week. During these final days of a semester the student's life is often utterly consumed with school. All-nighters are not uncommon, which lower the student's ability to retain long term memories. These elements combine to leave the student in a generally confused and disoriented state on the final day of class. This mode of existence sometimes takes weeks to recover from allowing the effects of H.W.W. to occur. 

Things that help with H.W.W.:

• vacation-leaving the setting associated with school work will help the student cope with the sudden change.
• spending time with someone who is not a student-This helps because that person can usually remind the student what day it is and help them feel some sense of normalcy about life.
• swimming, eating snow cones, and other summer activities-These activities help the student reconnect with reality outside of school.

This is not an exhaustive list of cures by any means. (This is another opportunity for you to include suggestions in the comments section.)

I would like to include that although H.W.W. is a bizarre sensation, it is not altogether unpleasant. Certainly the chronic feeling of paranoia about forgetting an assignment is uncomfortable, but it is not more uncomfortable than homework itself. The cure for H.W.W. is certainly more pleasant than doing homework, which is generally the cure for having homework.

If you suffer from H.W.W., remember you are not alone. 

*face-palm*

So I'm going to admit it here and now...I'm a failure as a blogger. I have blogged once and dropped it just like a million other things I intend to do and never get around to.

Now let me make an excuse for myself that is no excuse at all--I have been busy.

There it is, that evil one-liner that everyone says whether or not it's true. So from now on when I think I'm too busy for this or that, I'm challenging myself to ask, "busy with what?" Busy with school? That one might be legitimate, but when I find time to read all the Hunger Games books, watch a couple of Harry Potter movies and browse Pinterest for several hours, I know that can be it.

Busy, for me, is just code for no self-discipline.

It's not that I don't want to do all these things I set out to do. It's that I get distracted. I find myself lost online or enveloped in  something that isn't necessary not remembering how I got there in the first place.

What I need to be working on this weekend. 

So starting today I'm going to be focused and goal-oriented. I'm going to get stuff done.

I think I need a plan to make this a reality:

1. I'm going to do things on purpose, and continuously ask myself throughout the day if what I'm doing is worth my time.
2. I'm going to keep better track of time throughout my day.
3. I'm going to get up earlier.
4. Use study breaks for productive endeavors--Pinterest and Facebook do not count as productivity.
5. Read Proverbs 31 every morning to be inspired by that model of time management.

For me more than 5 things to keep in mind is too many, so I'll stop there.

If you see me slacking, help me remember to stop failing at life!