Camp Cupcake: Strawberry-Jam Teacakes

I can't say I was thrilled to be making this recipe. Of the recipes in the book, it didn't sound very exciting.

However, it turned out to be pretty good, which is a good thing, since I have eaten a lot of them.

I made these on Wednesday night when I got home from work. I woke up on Thursday morning to glaze them before I headed into work, and, magically, Lubbock had turned into a winter wonderland overnight. Here's what happens when it snows in Lubbock:

-Everything is cancelled. Campus closes down. The Health Sciences Center where I work closes down. I think the stores stay open, but I can't really be sure because...

-I stay off the roads as much as possible. I am not a great driver, but that is only part of the reason I try not to drive. The other reason is that, because it doesn't snow here very often, Lubbock doesn't know how to handle it. There is no system for salting and plowing the roads here. Moreover, Lubbock drivers do not know how to drive when it is snowing and icy, so they fall into two camps: crawling along at 2 miles an hour, or trying to take the roads and normal speed and spinning out.

This is not a picture of the storm we just had. It was much worse. However, in my hermit-like state, I forgot to get a picture of it, so I had to settle for this one, which occurred about two years ago and was still enough to make them cancel classes.

So after I made 18 strawberry-jam teacakes with orange glaze, I didn't leave the house for two days. Classes were cancelled. Clients were cancelled. Meetings were cancelled. I ate a couple, but I ran out of milk and didn't want to drive to the store to buy more. I ended up taking them to the temple with me. It turns out that the Lubbock Temple is one of the few places I go all month that does not close, just because the weather is bad. Although, they thought about it.

This was the first time I have ever shared my cupcakes with the people at the temple. Given that I am the youngest person on both of my shifts by at least 20 years, some of the people I work with are beset by health problems, like diabetes, and bringing cupcakes to those people seems kind of cruel. However, I was worried about how much longer they would stay good, and concerned about the problem I have had in the past of baking one recipe before getting rid of all the cupcakes from the previous recipe, so I put them in the break room and didn't say anything to anyone. However, one of the counselors in the temple presidency saw me bring them in, and told me as I was leaving that he ate two of them. The next day, two of the matrons were also raving about them and trying to figure out what was in the recipe.

Wonder no more. Here it is:

Strawberry Jam Teacakes (makes 16)

1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for tins

3 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for tins

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 tsp. finely grated orange zest (I still have not bought a microplane zester, which, thanks to my sister, makes me feel shame).

4 large eggs, separated, room temperature

1/2 c. milk

1 c. strawberry jam or preserves. When I was describing this recipe to my mom, she said, "Oh, you should have used freezer jam." I pointed out that I don't have any, and I just went with the cheapest store-bought jam I could find. I would also like to point out that some members of my family made homemade jam over the summer without me. This is what I would like to blame for my lack of homemade jam.

Preheat oven to 350. Brush standard muffin tins with butter, dust with flour. Or, if you are lazy like me, spray them with Baker's Joy.

Whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, cream butter, sugar, and zest on high speed until pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until just combined after each.

In another bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks;

gently fold into batter. Spoon 2 tablespoons batter into each prepared cup. Make an indentation in the middle of each; fill with 1 tablespoon jam. Top with an additional 2 tablespoons batter, covering jam completely.

I use this genius device, which is a small cookie scoop to measure out approximately one tablespoon of batter. It is also the perfect size to measure out batter for mini-cupcakes.

Bake about 30 minutes, rotating tins halfway, if you feel you must. Run an offset spatula around the edges to loosen them, but allow the cupcakes to cool for a few minutes before removing them from the pan. Martha does not say to do this, but I found that if I tried to take them out immediately, molten jam leaked out the bottom of the too-warm cake.

Glaze these with citrus glaze (use orange juice and orange zest). Serve them with tea, if you're into that sort of thing, or milk, if you happen to have remembered to buy some before the blizzard sets in.

I apologize for my bad food photography, once again. Don't let their seeming ugliness deter you from making them the next time you feel like sitting down to tea in your white gloves and floppy hat.

Pie Are Squared: Susan Howell's Banana Coconut Pie

I didn't mention in my previous post that the recipe book I chose has a subtitle: An uncommon collection of womanish observations, with pie. The author of the book collected the recipes from friends and family members, along with recording their stories and memories. Hence, we get a nice taste of Saginaw, Michigan, life in addition to the nice taste of pie. So I'd like to add an excerpt from these womanly observations in each post, if I can:

"My good friend Susan tells me that she cooks every meal as though that particular meal will be the one her boyfriend, Edward, will always remember her for. She says it picks her up when Edward, who's normally not much of an eater asks, "Got any more of that?" Susan says she relishes the compliments she receives for her cooking skills, the way some women like to hear how good they look in their hair and makeup....For some women, cooking for a man is more than just a matter of throwing something together ans saying, 'eat this'; it's about tailoring what they cook to please his palate. It's about pouring a measure of themselves into what they cook--ultimately offering him servings of love and passion on his supper plate.
When you put that kind of ardor into your cooking, it's no more than right to expect the man you're cooking for to show a little appreciation."

The nice things about these observations is that, just when the feminist part of me is ready to discount what she's saying for being too June Cleaver, it comes back with a nice little comment to even things out a bit. If that makes sense. Anyway, on with the pie.

My reason for choosing this pie for my first pie experience was simple: I already had all the ingredients. Because of this pragmatic, if unexciting, thought process, I fully expected this pie to be just okay. The ingredients were simple and few. Banana is not a glamorous ingredient. But the results were super yummy. This is not a cream pie, as you'd typically expect a banana and/or coconut pie to be. It is a custard pie, baked and golden.
But the first obstacle was the crust. I have never made a pie crust I felt I could be proud of.

Until now.

While most other pie crust recipes I've seen call for water to bind the other ingredients together, this one calls for cream. Yummy cream. Also, instead of just using Crisco, I used butter straight from the fridge. The instructions also said to add only enough cream to make it start to stick, erring on the side of dryness. I really thought my crust was too dry, but I decided to trust Ms. Pinner, and she proved trustworthy. Finally, you refrigerate the ball of crust dough for at least 30 minutes.

Then, the rolling. I worried about the rolling, since I have encountered problems here in the past. But with the dry ball of dough and a spice shaker full of flour, I was able to conquer the rolling. Swish.

Then I came up against a problem: I had been following the instructions for a 9-inch pie so closely, I failed to realize that my pie plate is 10 inches. So there was not enough for pretty fluting. Boo. I'll know better next time.

On to the filling: cream butter and sugar.

Add banana, egg, milk, and coconut. Pour into shell.

Bake coconut.

Remove from oven.

Put it all together. Enjoy.
Have your husband use the leftover crust pieces to make a little ginger pear tart.


Ratings:

Flavor: 9-Even though it was cooked, it still tasted like fresh banana! It seriously was better than I expected.

Execution: 7-the crust tasted good and was a good texture, but I measured wrong, so it suffered aesthetically.

Difficulty: Very easy

Overall rating: **** 4 out of 5 stars.

The Emasculated Male bakes "Key Lime Cake"

Not everything we do in this life turns out the way we initially envision. Sometimes the failure comes early, before all the practice and hard work. And so we pick ourselves up and press on in search of a more favorable outcome, but to no avail. This basically sums up my experience with "Key lime cake."

While the picture is certainly attractive and tempting, this cake in reality, was not. (I took this picture. This is my cake) I'm slightly more than positive that this cake exists solely because someone thought, "I like key lime pie, but this is a cake book. I'll make a key lime cake."

I will admit that given the amount of freshly squeezed lime juice in this cake I was very excited for the finished product. As I juiced the key limes and measured out the correct amounts of sugar to make the lime glaze my taste buds were doing a veritable jig of anticipation. But it was all for naught. The cake was dry and crumbly. The parts that soaked up the lime glaze were a little better but bordered on being soggy when compared with the rest. Darn.

So I decided it was my technique and therefore the cake would improve upon my second attempt. Not so. I'll spare all the depressing details, because the second cake turned out no different. If this had been my very first cake-baking experience, I would have been convinced I did not have it in me to bake a decent cake. But after the "man catcher" I knew I had "IT." So I finally concluded this cake just plain sucks. I'll move on. Next week will be better.

Yoganista: Day 2-Where's my freaking gold star?!

As you can see from my two posts in one day, I'm behind. I sort of feel like I started off behind. Sadly, the feelings about my yoga blog are isomorphic to the feelings I have about my dissertation. (Couldn't I just be given a doctorate for knowing and corretly using the term isomorphic? Pretty please :0) I'm already behind, so what's the point? Might as well give up now. That and it takes me a disgusting amount of time to actually complete my blogs b/c my inner perfectionist comes out wielding her mighty mallet. Still working on lesson #1: Being ok with just being.

I was not so chipper getting up for class on the second day. In all honesty, it's not that early, but I'm a late night person and sleep in whenever I'm given the chance. I made it to class on time (early is on time in yogadom, so you can get your props and settle in). We started out focusing on our breathing. We practiced expanding our breaths starting from our stomach up through our ribcage. I got a little dizzy from all that deep breathing, but it was still pretty calming.

We got into our first position: child's pose. This is supposed to be the easiest position and very comfortable. Not so much for moi. I went home after day 1 and tried to practice, but couldn't really figure out how to get comfortable and that was super frustrating for me. Turns out that going into it on day 2 it felt much better, I think partially because I didn't think about it too much (Not to beat a dead horse, but seeing a theme much?).

Today involved more lecture and we spent the majority of our time learning "downward facing dog". We tried different variations of long dog and short dog and focused on how our bodies actually felt in each position.

The feedback our teacher gave us while in the pose was, "ok, not bad". Then she went on to explain that it was probably the highest form of praise we would get from her because she wasn't a big praiser. Other students who had taken classes from her confirmed this. That's when I realized how much I look for praise/constructive criticism to let me know how I'm doing in everything. When she wasn't saying anything to us, I was assuming that I was doing something wrong. Man! This yoga thing is a lot of work. I haven't even worked up a sweat in class yet, but feel like all this insight is draining! I've heard people suggest yoga to therapy clients as a way to help them calm down and center and never totally bought it before now. I'm realizing that there is power in silence.

Take Home Lesson #2: I am my own gold star.

SBD: 0
L&P: 0

Yoganista: Day 1

The night before was all kinds of giddy anticipation, not unlike the night before the first day of school. I showed up to the studio early, kicked off my shoes (love that part) and proceeded to hang out on a couch near the entrance waiting for my friend to show up and class to start. It was still an early hour for me so I wasn't feeling all that chatty, but a nice lady started talking so we bantered back and forth for awhile.

Truth be told I wasn't all that interested in meeting people since I already knew someone in the class. Well that was blown out of the water when my friend never showed (turns out she had a scheduling conflict). I guess I'd have to take part in forming our own yoga community (as our instructor so aptly put it). I realized that as an adult who will soon no longer be in school that classes such as this one are probably the best way to meet new people (outside of church of course). So wherever my next move takes me, I'll have to be creative and brave in joining new things to meet people (ahem, men) who might share in my similar interests. It's a win-win really.

Class started with a round of introductions and our teacher letting us know that she didn't like people who always stayed in the back row. I quickly learned that she liked things organized (2 rows of 6) and that once she was in the room and the door was closed nobody else was let in. I figured that a ringing cellphone probably wouldn't add much to the ambiance of the yoga class so it was on silent out in the front cubbies. Turns out that not everybody thought to plan ahead in this way as lo and behold a few minutes later someone's cellphone trilled. I had to keep from laughing as the teacher said something like, "Is that what I think it is"? Haha! Busted! (I should have learned my lesson that you shouldn't laugh at other people's misfortunes last year as I got my first speeding ticket a few seconds after laughing at the lady getting the sobriety test along the roadside- but alas, I'm a slow learner). Now I'm just waiting for karma to come back and bite me on that one.

The first class consisted of a lot of lecture, learning how to stand in mountain pose, and engaging the different energy loops in your body. The thing that stood out to me the most was the motto of "valuing a beginner's mind". It was interesting to see that there were some people in this beginner's class that had some substantial yoga experience and yet they were going back to better focus on the basics without shame or impatience with the process.

I'm a planner who spends very little time in the now and revel in crossing things off my list. So, not only am I not encouraged to cross things off my list, but I'm starting to feel like in yoga you shouldn't even have a list!

Take Home Lesson Week 1: Work on being ok with just being.

SBD: 0
L&P: 0
(Did I mention that my class is all women? I think this might impact my anal acoustics tally)

Soupa' Slow: Garlic Chicken with Artichokes

I LOVE artichokes, so I felt it worth the three (count them three) grocery stores I had to try to find frozen artichoke hearts. When I finally found them, they came in a little box-like thing, not a bag like most frozen vegetables. Just in case you are ever searching for frozen artichoke hearts.

This was a really easy recipe, although you do have to do some chopping and mincing. Since I was planning on throwing this together Sunday morning before 9 am meetings, I did that part the night before. The strangest ingredient, aside from the frozen artichokes, was tapioca. I'm not even sure what the tapioca did. You could probably make this without it, and it would be fine. And honestly, I actually did pretty much stick to the recipe this time.

Here is the recipe, as found in Better Homes and Gardens Red Checker Cookbook (found on page 239)...

Garlic Chicken with Artichokes
Twelve cloves of garlic may sound like a lot, but garlic's flavor mellows as it slowly cooks. (*I found this to be true*)

Low Fat

Prep: 20 minutes Cook: 6 to 7 hours Makes: 6 servings

12 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
1 tablespoon cooking oil or olive oil
1 8- or 9-ounce package frozen artichoke hearts
1 red sweet pepper, cut into strips
1/2 cup chicken broth (*I used half a cup of water and one bullion cube*)
1 tablespoon quick-cooking tapioca
2 teaspoons dried rosemary, crushed (*I didn't crush it*)
1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel (*I used lime*)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast, halves or thighs
4 cups hot cooked brown rice (*I made white rice...I was out of brown*)

1. In a small skillet cook garlic and onion in hot oil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes or until tender. In a 3 1/2 or 4- quart crockery cooker combine the garlic mixture, frozen artichoke hearts, sweet pepper, chicken broth, tapioca, rosemary, lemon peel, and black pepper. Add chicken; spoon some of the garlic mixture over chicken.
2. Cover and cook on lo-heat setting for 6 to 7 hours or on high heat setting for 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Serve with rice.

As is happens, by the time this morning rolled around, I had completely forgotten that I needed to put everything into my slow cooker to get dinner going before church, due to a baby who was sick and vomiting at four am. She woke up happy and health at 7:30, so when I decided that we were going to church around 8, I had half an hour to get both of us ready before we had to leave. I remembered dinner only when I opened the fridge to get milk for my cereal and was overpowered by the smell of garlic that I had minced the night before. I literally threw everything together in five minutes. The chicken was still frozen when I put it in, but it turned out just fine, so I might do that every time. this is the only picture I got...sorry I didn't take a delicious looking picture of it over rice on the serving plate like Maria did with her pasta...maybe next time

As for the results, we gave it a 7.5 (on a scale of 1-10). Honestly, the chicken and the artichoke hearts were really good, but I think the rosemary was a little strong. If I make it again, I'll half the rosemary, and unless you are a rosemary fanatic, I would suggest you do the same. Also, as mentioned before, I have no idea why I needed the tapioca. I thought it maybe would help thicken the "sauce", but it wasn't at all thick...it was really like a clear liquid, in fact. So now, I have an entire box (minus a tablespoon) of tapioca that I don't know what to do with. Any ideas? (Not a huge fan of the pudding...)

I did LOVE that dinner made itself, especially once I got my rice cooker going. And that, my friends, is the beauty of the slow cooker!

Shape Shifter: Wk. 1---I huff and I puff...

The Goal: To Run a 5K
This week I started off with a bang and then fizzled out.
Weapon of choice: Elliptical Machine

Monday---MLK holiday...went to the gym when I finally rolled myself out of bed. I completed 30 minutes on the elliptical, doing 'hills'.
Tuesday---Awoke at 5am to head to the gym and completed another 30 minutes on the elliptical, again choosing 'hills' because it made me work the hardest.
Wednesday---Repeat of Tuesday.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, & Today---nothing, but I still worked out three more days than I did the week before!
I received a running training plan from a friend and will begin it this week. I will walk 4 minutes and run 1 minute...repeating 3 times...and completing 3 times during the week. Goal is to work out 5Xs this week---on the days I am not doing the running plan, I will complete some other form of exercise.
Concerning pictures of my 'finished product'...ummm...a pic of me at 5am, drenched in sweat, face as red as a cherry...not something that will be posted. I don't know everyone, but I surly don't hate you and will not choose to subject you that!

The Emasculated Male bakes "The Man Catcher"

As a matter of full disclosure, I did not bake the cake to the left. I didn't manage to get a picture of my cake before it was devoured. But I'm sure we all find it very probable that mine looked very similar. Sure...

As mentioned previously, the first cake in the book was titled "The Man Catcher." Yep, the first cake I ever baked was beyond sissy. But I have to say, it was delicious! Just look at the picture. Mine wasn't too far off.

The thing I like about this cookbook is that it assumes I know nothing about baking. (Of course I know nothing. That's the whole point!) So the instructions are incredibly detailed. A full three paragraphs are devoted to the methodology for creaming the butter and sugar. Previous to reading the book I would have just dumped three frozen sticks of butter into the bowl along with 3 cups of sugar and turned the blender on High. Apparently there's a better way. The proper method involves putting the butter and eggs out on the counter a full hour before mixing so they will reach room temperature. And then the butter is cut into pats and put in the bowl. You mix just the butter for a while and then add in the sugar a half cup at a time, mixing for a full two minutes between each half cup. It seriously took me about 45 minutes just to cream the butter and sugar. But it was worth it. It came out whipped and dreamy. I'll get pictures for my next cake.

So the cake came out delectable. I took it in to work and everyone was justifiably skeptical. "You made a cake?!" (Cake is a very foreign subject for a team of borderline nerd engineers) But after trying it, I got many wonderful praises. The responses ranged from "Yep, it tastes just like I expected a lemon cake to taste" to "George! This is the best cake I've ever had!!" Consequently, the first individual will not be receiving any invitations to partake of my future cakes.

Mother Bird: Meatloaf Smeatloaf

I made this meatloaf on Sunday night, we ate most of it, and then Megan called me and told me she was going to launch the blog. So technically I tried this recipe before I had officially started this project, but it was too good not to share here. But anyway, that explains why the only pictures I have are of two slices of leftover meatloaf. And that also explains why the photo was taken in the crappy night lighting of my kitchen.

This recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond, my new favorite cookbook. In fact, as I have been compiling a list of recipes I'd like to try for this new goal of mine, I've noticed that many of them come from either Ree's book or her website thepioneerwoman.com. Though that is not intentional, it is definitely not without good reason. Her book and blog together comprise the most reliable source I've found for crowd-pleasing, relatively easy to prepare meals that can usually be made with ingredients you would have on-hand (as long as you keep lots and lots of butter in your fridge) or at the very least, ingredients that are all familiar. If you've never checked out her multi-faceted website, do it now! Her flawless taste also extends to clothing, home decor, photography... you name it!

Back to the meatloaf. I've tried a lot of different meatloaves, but I've never eaten one cloaked in bacon. Meat wrapped in different meat? Count me in! The recipe was a snap to put together--only about ten minutes prep time--and it was delicious. George said it was the best meatloaf he's ever had and my two year old (hereafter known as Picky-Picky) literally licked his plate clean. (Of course, he had to lick around the corn and rice.) The meat was seasoned well and the sauce was tangy and sweet with just a hint of spiciness. My only real disappointment was the bacon. You'll notice that the recipe calls for "thin bacon slices," but all I had was Costco bacon, which is about 1/8" thick. I was expecting the bacon to be a little bit crispy, but instead it looked like it had been steamed and was a little more rubbery than I like my bacon. Next time I'll either omit the bacon entirely or use the cheap, paper-thin variety I used to buy when we were poor students and brought home very little bacon. Here's the recipe, my new go-to. And if anyone is still reading, I promise my next post won't be this long.

Meatloaf
1 c. milk
6 bread slices
2 lbs. ground beef
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. seasoned salt, such as Lawry's
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 to 1/2 c. minced flat-leaf parsley
4 eggs, beaten
8 to 12 thin bacon slices

Tomato Gravy
1-1/2 c. ketchup
6 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
Dash or two of hot sauce--more if you like heat

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk over the bread and allow it to soak in for several minutes. Place ground beef, milk-soaked bread, cheese, salt, seasoned salt, pepper, and parsley in a large bowl. Pour in eggs and with clean hands, mix until well combined. Form mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan. Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf. Combine tomato gravy ingredients in a small bowl, mixing well. Pour one-third of mixture over the top of the meatloaf. Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another one-third of the remaining tomato gravy over the meatloaf. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Serve with the remaining tomato gravy on the side as a dipping sauce.

Camp Cupcake: Boston Creme Pie Cupcakes

This is possibly my favorite recipe that I've made to date.

It's a little on the ambitious side, as the cupcakes are filled with

pastry cream and topped with chocolate ganache glaze. However, they were well worth the effort. At least, to me they were.

People have asked me if I am getting sick of making cupcakes. Truthfully, there are times when I get the urge to make other things, like pudding, or hand pies, or cinnamon rolls. And I don't love having to wash the same dishes over and over again. But I don't think a week has gone by that I haven't looked forward to baking something. I never get over the thrill of taking

ingredients and making them into something that looks and tastes good, particularly during those weeks when the other areas of my life don't seem to be going the way I want them to. I still get excited to share whatever I've made with people I work with.

This week was no exception. I am in the process of getting my dissertation proposal revised so that I can finally start working on the actual data analysis. It's been slow-going, which is frustrating because I recognize that a lot rests on being able to get my dissertation proposed: graduation, job opportunities, leaving Lubbock. In addition, I had one client this week where, after hearing what was going on in her life, my gut reaction was to say something like, "Wow, that really sucks," because her situation was so bad, I wasn't sure what else I could say.

But all of that stuff tends to go away when I make cupcakes. These cupcakes were no exception. This was a recipe I had been looking forward to for a long time. I love things that are miniature, and the picture in the book was so pretty.

I made the cupcake base last night. Here is a link to the recipe. It tastes like the base of a

pastry, like an eclair or a cream puff. This is one of the few recipes I have made that instructs you to pour the batter directly into the pan without lining it first. I have learned by sad experience that getting the cupcakes out of the pan can be a little tricky. However, I decided to try Baker's Joy, which is a fabulous little spray that combines some sort of no-stick substance like Pam with flour. It turned out to be the best $1.88 I have ever spent. The cupcakes came out easily, and I didn't even have to run a knife around them first. Plus, I didn't have to mess with melting butter, brushing it inside the muffin tins and then dusting them with flour. I would highly recommend it for anyone making cakes or muffins or anything like that. George, if you haven't tried it yet, you'll be amazed.

Unfortunately, in the course of making the base of the cake, I managed to knock half a dozen eggs off the counter, which meant a) I spent some time mopping egg off my kitchen floor, and b) I had to run to the store this morning before I could make the pastry cream that goes along with this recipe.

I have to say, I am a big fan of pastry cream. It is, as far as I can tell, nothing more than really good, homemade vanilla pudding. I am embarrassed to admit that, after I was done filling the cupcakes with it, I ate the rest out of the bowl with a spoon. It's that good.

The last part of the recipe is the chocolate ganache glaze. The recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate, which makes it very rich. I wondered what it would have been like had I used milk chocolate, instead, but the pastry cream is so sweet that milk chocolate ganache might have been a little too much.

After all of the parts were finished, it was just a matter of assembling them together. I have never cut a cupcake in half, horizontally, so that was a little weird, but I am very proud of how they turned out. I had a little trouble transporting them, as the tops had a tendency to slide off, but they were still very pretty.

If you need to make a fancy dessert that can be served easily, this one is a real crowd pleaser. However, if you are looking for a cupcake that can be eaten without a napkin or a fork, this is probably not the recipe.

Pasta Mama: The First Attempt

I am currently waiting for my pasta maker to get here from Utah (my family will be bringing it in a couple of weeks). So I was going to wait on the homemade pasta until then...makes sense right? But then I thought, if I don't start blogging now, what will all my fans do, where will they turn? Not wanting to deprive my fans of a good blog (or my husband of a good dinner), I decided to have a go at it - rolling pin style. After much mixing, kneading, rolling, slicing, boiling, tossing and eating, I am proud to say that I made (and we actually consumed) my first homemade pasta dish. I decided on using a familiar recipe for the topping so that I could focus on the pasta part. So here is the pasta recipe (courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook). *Note - This will be the main pasta recipe that I use in most of my dishes, so I won't post it again. Also, if you get bored easily, I would only reccommend reading this recipe if you're planning to make the pasta.*

Homemade Pasta (page 414)
Prep - 1 hour (ahem, 2 if you're me)
Makes - 5 servings

Ingredients-
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried basil or sage, crushed
2 eggs
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cooking oil or olive oil

Steps -
1) In a large bowl stir together 2 cups of flour, basil, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. In a small bowl beat eggs; add water and oil. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir to combine.
2) Sprinkle a clean kneading surface with the remaining 1/3 cup flour. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic (8 to 10 min). Cover and let the dough rest for 10 min.
3) Divide the dough into four equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a 12-ince square (about 1/16 inch thick). Let stand, uncovered, about 20 min. Cut as desired. OR If using a pasta machine, pass each portion through machine according to manufacturer's directions until dough is 1/16 inch thick. Let stand, uncovered, about 20 min; cut as desired. (ex. cut into linguine or fettuccine strips, or cut into squares or circles for ravioli etc. Be creative).
4) To serve pasta immediately, cook according to chart in book. (for fettuccine or linguine, cook for 90 seconds to 2 min. Stuffed ravioli, 7-9 min. Lasagna noodles 2-3 min). p.s. when they say 90 seconds to 2 min they mean it!! DO NOT OVERCOOK, or you will have mushy-ish noodles. Just ask my husband.
5) To store cut pasta, hang it from a pasta-drying rack or spread it on a wire cooling rack. Let pasta dry about 1 hour or until completely dry. Place it in an airtight container and chill for up to 3 days, or in a freezer bag and freeze for up to 8 months. (really? that sounds like a long time)





While I was waiting for the pasta to set/dry a bit, I worked on the rest of the dish.
ZUCCHINI ALFREDO. And don't be scared by the Alfredo - it's really not as fattening as it sounds. (This Recipe courtesy of "Terry" and allrecipes.com). * my own additions*

Ingredients

• 1 (12 ounce) package uncooked egg noodles
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 ounces cream cheese, cubed *I used low-fat - still delicious*
  
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil *must be fresh!!*
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• grated Parmesan cheese (optional) *not optional* =)
  

Directions

1. 

   Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.*or go through much more trouble to make homemade noodles, also, you can really use any kind of noodles here - I like using bowtie*
   
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in garlic, and cook 2 minutes. Mix in zucchini, and cook 10 minutes, until some of the moisture has evaporated.
3. Pour the milk into the skillet, and stir in cream cheese until melted. Mix in basil. Season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Serve over the cooked pasta.*I like it tossed*

And voila! The finished (and only slightly mushy) product! Really though, if my first attempt had turned out perfectly, what would I blog about for the rest of the year? (I really do love the zucchini alfredo recipe, it's just the noodles I need a bit of work on). All in all, I would say a success. And with fresh papaya on the side, you really can't go wrong with any meal. Also, I've decided that it doesn't necessarily make sense to make the same pasta recipe over and over with different toppings, so I will be trying different things every now and again with store-bought pasta. For example I just came across a recipe for some delicious looking pad-thai...more on that next week?

*Note the adorable little sioux chef above helping me make (eat) pasta dough*
*I understand that I may have to improve the quality of my photos to keep any readers around...have no fear, I am working on it.*

Soupa' Slow: The 5 pm Solution

5 pm is the craziest time around our house. Baby is cranky, mom is cranky, dad is on his way home from work, and dinner is not ready. Usually half of it is on the cutting board and the other half is on the stove, but then the cranky baby demands to be held and by the time dad walks in the door mom hands over the baby without so much as a "hello" and runs to the kitchen to cry. (Okay, maybe it's not that bad.) Truthfully, though, 5 pm seems to be the worst time to make dinner. The solution? The slow cooker.

The Goal: The only thing I've ever made in a slow cooker is pot roast. We love pot roast, but I doubt we would want to (or be able to afford to) eat it every night (or even weekly). Since I LOVE the idea of making dinner while baby is napping in the morning (read: least stressful time of day) I plan to try out a new slow cooker (crock pot) meal each week. If I don't do it every single week, know that I was too stressed out every other night trying to make dinner at 5pm to plan for a slow cooker dinner.

The Contender: Moi. 28-year-old stay at home mom of a seven-month-old and former world traveler.

The Plan: Okay, if you really know me, you know that I can't follow a recipe to save my life. This is the opposite of my husband, who can't depart from a recipe to save his. That said, I'm not a half-bad cook (even my religiously recipe following husband will admit this). Therefore, the plan is to make something new in my slow cooker every week. I will probably use recipes from various sources as general guidelines, and I will very likely completely make some things up. I'll let you know how it goes here. Sound good? I'm not sure, but hopefully it will taste good.

And if you are wondering who my Hollywood stand-in will be....

Ta-Da!

Reese Witherspoon

Don't know if she looks like me or not, but at least it makes me feel good, unlike the conversation with my husband where I said "Hey honey, if my life were a movie, who do you think would play me?" and he responded "Um...I don't know...Rosie O'Donnell?" To his credit, after I said I would never speak to him again, he amended "uh, who's Rosie O'Donnell again?" Right. So Reese it is.

Bring It: Because I am easily influenced to join others

So I initially thought I would do this on my becoming a world famous cake designer. I was going to sign up for the cake decorating class and before long people would want to hire me to design elaborate cakes, I would quit my job, win a few Cake Challenges on the Food Network, and be on my way to working with Duff at Charmed City Cakes and featured on Ace of Cakes.

And then I realized that it really didn't fit into my schedule or my new years resolutions this year and I had to come up with something else. So I decided to spin my New Years Resolutions into something to Blog about. One of my resolutions is to get my real estate license by March. But that is rather boring and dull to blog about. My second is to complete the P90X training with my brothers and the third one I'm not really comfortable talking about on this blog were people like my Grandma might read it. (Hi Grandma!) But if you would like to find out what it is and follow my progress you can go to Goals! Sorry Megan I know you were hoping but I just can't do it... people might get the wrong idea about what kind of girl I am.


The Goal: To complete the 90 day P90x Program.


The Contender: A single, recently turned (gulp) 30, Assistant Property Manager, who will soon be in better shape than when she was a girl of 20.


The Plan: To follow the 90 day program to the letter. This includes every workout, the eating plan, and everything else it entails. I will blog about the workouts, the successes, the failures (because I'm sure I'll have plenty) and since I'm following the food plan I'll even post some healthy recipes on here. Things I will not be doing. I will NOT post my starting weight, inches, or those dreadful before pictures of me in my bathing suit because that does not need to be on the Internet ever! We'll see about the after pictures. But for now I will just give you vague ideas of my progress.

Background: I originally planned on running a half marathon in April. I've run a few 10k's and a marathon relay. Turns out I really don't like to run though. I get bored easily and with it being so cold I really don't like running outside and a treadmill makes me want to tear my hair out. So on Sunday my brother, Justin, and I saw an infomercial for P90x and he said he wanted it... it didn't take long for him to convince myself, Cameron, and Justin's girlfriend Jenna to go in on it and all of us do it together. See easily convinced!

And when our little project is turned into a movie I will be played by Jennifer Aniston. Not that I really think I look like her but I have hopes that I will be a little closer when I am finished.

And who knows... I could fail miserably at this. And when I do I will go back to decorating cakes...

Pie Are Squared: I am a huge nerd

The Goal: to bake pies on a fortnightly basis, in the hopes of making them both delicious and beautiful, since I have heretofore been a terrible pie maker. (Swish. Two olde English words in once sentence!)

The Contender: I am a 26-year-old stay-at-home mom/part-time therapist/editor-of-a magazine/soon-to-be pie maker.

I'm not sure if I ever would have considered Lucy Liu to look anything like me, except for three completely isolated incidents:
1. Shanghai Noon came out, and a high school friend told me he thought we looked alike. Of course, he still referred to me as "Kenta's sister" instead of my name, so that casts some doubt on our ability to trust him.
2. There was this guy at BYU who would shout "Lucy Liu!" every time he'd see me on campus. That was weird, especially since he didn't even know I was half-Japanese or anything.
3. Just last week, Joel's boss told me she'd watched Shanghai Noon and "gasped" at the resemblance.
So there you go. I'm the one in the middle, in case that wasn't glaringly obvious.

The Plan: I knew I would need some motivation to stay dedicated to this; I also knew that a pretty, shiny cookbook would be ample motivation for me. But guess what: Pie cookbooks are kind of hard to find. I went to Borders, and they had way more homemade ice cream cookbooks than pie cookbooks; I thought this was weird. They actually only had two books devoted to pies and one was $50. Anyway, a thorough internet search prompted me to order Sweety Pies by Patty Pinner. I'm excited to use it, though I can't promise that I won't occasionally stray to other, non-Sweety Pie recipes because 1) Sometimes I'll probably make some savory pies, and I'm not sure how many of those this book will have, 2) I just found a delicious looking recipe in a magazine, and I can't not make it now that I have a pie goal.
Beyond just wanting an excuse to buy a new book, I will also admit that I am not feigning humility when I say I am a terrible pie maker. A good crust--pretty much the make-it-or-break-it part of a pie--has always eluded me. Especially in comparison to my mother-in-law, an expert pie maker, my pies are not good. But I now vow to stop telling my husband that I will leave the pie making to his mother. I will make pie.
And, just to be true to the nerdy name I have given myself, maybe my pies will sometimes be square.

Yoganista

Yoganista: A grrl with a passion for fashion; flirting with yoga (read: not quite ready to commit to a lifetime of downward facing dogs, but willing to give it a good old college try).


Left: Me Right: Movie Stand-In Sara Rue

The Goal: Get stretchier while learning to stay in the now. I've got a lot of anxiety over finishing my dissertation and figuring out what to do with my life and I hope this helps me make time to be quiet and listen. I’d like to say that I’m trying yoga just for the sake of yoga itself, but that’s not the case. I also want to get some skiing time in this March and thought this would be a good way improve my endurance.

The Contender: A 30 year old PhD student trying to discover her passion and execute her next life move.

The Plan: Attend an 8-week beginning yoga series.

How it came to be: I admit it, I’m the person who loves to try new things, but then quickly drops the ball (bootcamp, 5K training, Zumba, craft projects, etc., etc.). I had tried a yoga class a few years back and liked it, but never got into it more consistently. My renewed interest had something to do with the time of year (New Year’s Resolution to shape up, anyone?) and a mention in one of my recent chick lit reads (single girl in NYC trying to meet guys by responding to roommate ads). The fates so aligned that when I was cruising the internet looking for possible yoga options in Lubbock, I stumbled upon a studio with a beginner’s class starting the next week. It fit my time schedule, was affordable, and a friend agreed to do it with me. Gulp! All of my potential excuses ripped right out of my grubby little hands. Nothing left to do, but hand over my credit card and dust off my yoga mat - literally, I live in West Texas.

Making this challenge more me: There are lots of positives associated with the practice of yoga (stress reduction, muscle toning, improvements in concentration). I’ll take a little (or a lot) of each of those please! While I look forward to seeing what benefits I gain, I also want it to be a good time. Therefore, I will be playing the role of fart detective in my class. Come on!? That many people bending and stretching themselves into awkward poses, someone is bound to let one slip! Therefore each post will close with an anal acoustics tally. There will be two categories: Silent, but deadly (SBD) and Loud and Proud (L&P).

Pose on!

Shape Shifter: At least it's the plan...

Name: Melynda Williams AKA Shape Shifter
Occupation: Elementary Teacher
Challenge: To run a 5K!

I felt that the name at least fit the 'super hero' schema of the blog. I have wanted to run a 5K for a long time...don't ask why...glutton for punishment I suppose. I will blog about what I am doing to reach that goal. An example: this morning I went to the gym and worked out on the elliptical for thirty minutes. Perhaps it will be a Pilates or yoga class...a little trek somewhere...who knows. I don't want to completely define the journey.

Of course, when this blog becomes a movie I will need someone to play the part of me. :) With some assistance, Martina McBride has been nominated. I am not sure how much acting experience she has...but I am sure that as an entertainer, she would play a better me than even I would. And wow...after seeing out pics next to each other, I think I need to get a few more UV rays among other things...





So here starts the journey...we'll see how it goes!