"Iced Coffee" Cupcakes and portfolio "building"

Tuesday was cupcake day. I had chosen an iced coffee cupcake to go with an ice coffee frappe. It sounds fancy, right? Welp, remember how I said I needed to find the recipe box? Since I didn't have recipe on me, I hadn't gone shopping for the ingredients. So, I had basically nothing to make these fancy sounding little cakes. Sadness ensued.

Luckily, I pulled it together and decided to wing it! I smashed the recipe for the iced coffee cupcakes and Hershey's chocolate cake together. And it worked!!

Here's what I did:

STEP 1- Preheat oven to 350F. Line (about 20) muffin cups.

STEP2- Beat 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 3 eggs, 1 (4 ounce) package of instant chocolate pudding and pie filling mix, 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1 tsp vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Make sure it's at low speed so all the flour doesn't create a snow storm in your kitchen!

STEP 3- Speed it up to medium speed for a bit until it's all blended.

STEP 4- Spoon into muffin cups, filling 3/4 full.

STEP 5- Bake 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

STEP 6- Place a scoop of coffee flavored ice cream (I didn't have any so, Caramel Turtle Cheesecake it was!) on top while it's still warm. Drizzle on magic shell topping (Again, I didn't have any so I used regular chocolate sauce) and toasted pecans.

STEP 7- Devour the chocolaty goodness.

In other, non-food related, news, I am still currently career-less. I got some advice yesterday from my neighbor about building an online portfolio in order to boost my credibility. Easier said than done! First, I had to find a website. Then, I had to figure out said website. I tend to think of myself as tech-savvy but, Portfoliobox, the site I ended up choosing, just boggled my mind! It literally took my all of yesterday and a bit of today to figure it out. I guess it didn't help that my work wasn't already readily accessible...

After hours of frustration, I am only sort-of proud of the result. It's something and something is better than nothing. But I don't think that the little bit of something that is online right now accurately represents the caliber and type of work that I am capable of doing. I just uploaded everything I had done from school that could be quickly formated as an image file. That leaves it looking a bit empty.

However, it doesn't look really fancy and professional! While I am not confident that my portfolio as it is will make quite the difference in my job search as I would have hoped, I hope it doesn't turn away potential employers. Maybe I'll try to mock up some more random stuff to fill it out more... I'd rather it be published work though...

Here's the link: brianafetrow.portfoliobox.me. Tell me what you think!

Weekend Recap

What a weekend! The beginning felt so rushed and hectic!

Friday
I worked Friday evening. After that I had to hop on the highway, heading around the city to the south side, to my boyfriend's house. It was around 11:30 by time I got to his house. The next day was the Butterfly Dreams 5K. While it normally wouldn't be bad to head to his house late after work, with a race the next day I knew I'd be exhausted and my feet would hurt from standing on the concrete for hours.

Saturday
We woke up around 5:30 (i think- my boyfriend just came and got me and I just hopped in the car, I really wasn't coherent until 7). I had looked up the race before and my fears were confirmed once we got there. People who had run the course before were talking about how hilly it was and how the last mile was killer. Great. I don't know about everyone else but, I get all jittery before the race starts and then I feel like there's so much adrenaline pulsing through my body, my legs feel tired and tingly before I even hit mile one. And then the hills came... and they were awful. I thought it would take forever to hit the halfway turn-around point! But the turn-around point was the best turn-around cone, ever! There was a little orange traffic cone AND two girls with a PONY!!! It was definitely good motivation! For a little while, at least. Then the hill came, that last mile that everyone was talking about. I felt like I was walking, it was awful! You don't know how happy I was to round the corner and see the final hill. Yes, that does sound a little bit like a typo but after that hill was a tenth of a mile downhill to the finish line. My boyfriend was waiting for me a little before the 3 mile marker. He gave me a pep-talk as he jogged with me to the finish. After all those hills and how slow I felt I was going imagine how shocked I was to see 25 minutes on the clock above the finish line! That's the best I've ever run, EVER! I sprinted under the finish line at 25:38. woot woot!

With that fantastic time, I managed to come in first in my age group.

And my boyfriend won the whole thing! He's amazing.

After the race ended we headed home for a quick nap and tailgate preparation! The Dawgs played Clemson Saturday and we wanted to ring in the football season with a proper party. It was just family but we made a whole mass of food!

There was a cheese ball,
Chesapeake snack mix,
Paula Deen's All-American burgers (made in slider size),
veggies and dip,
chips and salsa,
and Paula Deen's Lemon Bars.
(We like Paula Deen, can you tell?)

It was all really good but the sliders stole the evening. My boyfriend and I were the only ones who stayed awake to see the disappointing loss...I still have high hopes for the rest of the season though. GO DAWGS!

Sunday
The day of rest. All we did this day was run some errands, swim, and relax.

Monday
Labor Day. I had to work. I left his house at noon and worked till 5:30 on a national holiday. Boo. When I got home I checked my email and I still haven't heard anything from any potential employers. So now it's back to stressing about finding a full time job... wish me luck!

Thank you note and Tuesday Things

Hello again, 

I meant to post about this thank you card last week when I went on my crafting rampage. haha But then I got busy. More about that stuff later. 

Anyways, since I was in a crafty mood, I decided to design my own thank you note for graduation gifts I've received. I thought it would show off my talent and be more personal.

After drafting a few choices, I settled on this one:

I love this script font, the open space it sort of captures with the swirls in the "t" and the "y", and the fact that it looks handwritten (read: personal) without being too messy. I not sure of the actual paper type because it was something I found laying around but, it was textured and slightly heavy/thick. The ink didn't stick to it too well and I was afraid it would rub off in the mail. So I sprayed it with some workable fixatif that I've had since art school. It actually gave the card a nice finished shine to it, which was an added bonus!



Now to the list of things that have been going on:

• I started back at work yesterday. It's just my part-time I've had since high school but, it's better than nothing and the people make it worth while. 
• I saw the last of the Hangover series this Friday. It actually wasn't bad. I liked it better than the second one because it had a different story line. There were definitely some gross parts in it but, it's The Hangover.
• My boyfriend came to see me this weekend. We made a chicken philly cheesesteak pizza, it was fabulous!! I miss him so much during the week, it's great to spend time with him on the weekends. 
• I have a 5k this Saturday that I'm nervous about. Looking at the previous year's times, it looks like a slow course... in other words, it's gonna have some hills. yuck. In preparation, I ran my last practice 5k today (26:22. yes!). I'll run 2 miles with my puppy tomorrow and Friday and a 10k Thursday. Hopefully, that'll get my legs ready but not feeling too tired. We shall see...
• I have too much stuff! I just realized that I have three boxes of stuff from my apartment still sitting in my parents basement! I'm never gonna get it all organized until I move out. Which probably means I shouldn't buy more stuff... sad day.
• I still don't have a job and I had started feeling pretty crumby about myself until I went to church on Saturday. The readings for this week seemed like they were talking specifically to me and I knew I should keep my head up and keep working towards my dreams. In particular this part of HEB 12:5-7, 11-13, "So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed." and this part of the gospel, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate,for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
  but will not be strong enough...And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” stood out and resonated the most with me. I've repeated these parts to myself in my head over the past few days when I feel weak and hopeless and I've been happier. 
• It's sunny and almost feels like summer around here now. Now, that's it's about to be fall...
• Is it Christmas yet??

That's all for now folks! If I kind my box of cupcake recipes I might be making more cupcakes today! First I have to find the recipe box.. it should be in one of those boxes from my apartment in my parents' basement... 

Etching Projects

Yesterday I went to Goodwill and bought some glassware with which to get crafty. Today, I continued my crafting journey into the world of glass etching. It's a dangerous and scary place, let me tell you! Anything that warns you to use plastic gloves to protect your hands is ridiculous! But, I guess if you think about it, the etching cream is permanently changing the surface of glass, so I suppose it has to be pretty powerful (just image what it would do to your skin-ouch!)

I found out the hard way that cutting out my own stencil with a box cutter was going to be pert near impossible. So decided to try something new today- painting on the etching cream by hand. Risky, I know. Luckily, I have a pretty steady hand and eye for detail. It probably also helps that this wasn't my first time at the painting rodeo, I was an art major (briefly), after all.

My first project was the tall rectangular vase-looking-thing. (You see, the one on the far right. That one). This one was going to be pretty simple. Just an initial.

Unfortunately, my first go with this didn't work too well... I left the cream on all night; not that it makes a difference, I just wanted to be sure it was visible. Somehow the edges still turned out all wrinkly and raw looking. I was kind of disappointed- this letter "G" was so much easier to make than that milk bottle, I thought it'd be a shoe in for success. But, I guess that's the way it goes, nothing worth having is ever easy (that was deep.). So I repainted it and left it for another couple of hours to see if it would kind of fill itself out.

Below is the final product, if you can see it. Not too bad... It honestly looks better in the pictures than it does in real life but, it's ten times better than that milk bottle!

So I placed a pretty candle in it, filled in with rocks from the back yard (yay, free things!) and called it complete. I must say, it looks awfully professional in these pictures!

But! The best is yet to come! Of all the glass projects that I planned during my Goodwill hunting trip (see what I did there?), this next one was my favorite. I had designed a logo for my boyfriends farm last week and printed a black and white copy of it yesterday. Unfortunately, it was pretty intricate, so I  got discouraged when I realized the box-cutter thing wasn't going to work. After the "G" project, though, I had a pretty brilliant idea, if I do say so myself! I taped the logo to the inside of the glass and traced the type with a paint brush! Oh, my goodness! It made eyes go cooky looking at for so long as I painted but looked so promising!

Again, I left it on for longer than it probably needed but there was no way I was redoing it if it didn't show up the first time! Luckily, it looks fabulous! This is my favorite of all the glass projects I've done. The etching is still fairly light and I taped it on slightly croocked but, other than that- I could probably pass this off as professionally made! Go me! I have one more of these little vases to do, to make them a set, but, I want to give my eyes a break. Haha

DIY Milk Bottle

I supposed I couldn't really call myself a crafty person if I've never completed a craft in my life. But, I admire crafty things! I have a whole board on Pinterest for "When I'm feeling crafty". I've felt crafty quite a few times but, as of yesterday, I still hadn't made a single thing on that board (isn't that the way Pinterest works though? haha)

However, since I've had nothing but spare time with my lack of career, I decided I deserved some time to do something fun to help me relax. Things that take away my stress: running, cooking, concentrating really hard on something other than what's making me stressed. Well, I already have have a blueberry buttermilk bundt cake sitting in the kitchen so baking is kind of out of the question. I had already run 3.1 miles yesterday and, although I could run some more, I still wouldn't feel accomplished afterwards. At least baking would produce a final product I could be proud of (and eat!). It was another rainy day in Georgia yesterday so, I thought, well, what the heck, let's craft something!

So I went to my handy dandy Pinterest board and narrowed it down to decorative pumpkins (to put me in the mood for Fall) or monogramed glass ornaments (eh, who needs Fall. Let's skip straight to Christmas!) In the end I chose glass etching because I am an unemployed graduate don't really have a whole lot of money to spend and I'd rather buy pumpkins and glass ornaments when they go on sale. Regularly, etching cream would be expensive but, it's 80% off at the Michael's near me currently.

So I got some cheap glassware from Goodwill, paint and etching cream from Michael's and Con-Tact paper from Home Depot.

Here are the glasses I bought:

I have plans for etching the small vases and the tall rectangular one later. For now, I wanted to start with a cute vintage milk bottle.

Step 1: Spray paint! Honesty time. This was my first time spray painting. It was so much fun!!! I was kinda sad when it was all done and there was nothing left to paint... The paint I used was Krylon colormaster in Ivory.

The bottle said it only took ten minutes to dry but, I needed more time to cut out my stencil so it ended up drying for hours. I made my design myself and printed it on copy paper. Then I cut a piece of contact paper, laid it over the design and traced it as best as I could. I messed up once and had to do it again. Honestly, I didn't think this through very well. My design was way too small and intricate to be cut by hand, especially with a box cutter on crummy cardboard. To say this is an amateur project is an understatement. It was almost comical to watch me try and cut those delicate lines.

In the end, I settled for an imperfect stencil because I knew there was only so much I could do. I painstakingly placed it on the "milk bottle"  and painted over it with Martha Stewart glass paint (vanilla bean). The bottle said to let it air cure for 21 days. 21 DAYS!!! So I left it dry over night before I pealed the stencil off.

From far away, it doesn't look too bad! (I hadn't put the lettering on yet).

Up close, however, is a different story... This thing looks like an old woman with a shaky hand painted it while she was sneezing!

The final product, words and all. Not too bad but, not fantastic either...

My mom and I looked up some machines that would make the delicate cuts for me, using my own design and boy, are they expensive!! Overall, I'm glad I finished something and I don't completely hate it. The design looks fantastic, if I do say so myself, and the idea was inspired! In the end, it did what it was supposed to- I concentrated hard on something other than my stress and produced something I can be proud of. I'm also encouraged to keep practicing and making cool projects! I'll post about the actual etching later!

Call me crazy

You know how normal people are obsessed with things like Johnny Depp or photography or something? Well, I'm obsessed with fonts (and cupcakes). I could literally spend hours determining the perfect font for a simple powerpoint. Sure, I want it too look good and I want good grades but, what I really care about is the texture the font brings to the overall look of the slides; does it create movement, does it flow, does it's character jive with the subject matter. You know, all really important things. I swear, if someone wanted to appoint me designated font-picker for anything ever, and pay me, I'd be happy.

My love of fonts and desire to put them together and make something beautiful out of them can be overwhelming. You know how I just ran the Peachtree, on the 4th of July? Well, I entered their t-shirt design contest. Of course, I didn't win- I spelled the name of the race wrong! But, I guess besides that, my design wasn't clean enough. So, I've decided to take another shot at it; this time, I'm gonna make it immaculate! I was so excited about playing with fonts again to possible make a winning design, I literally started last night. That's probably way to early.... But I told you, I'm obsessed!

Well, it didn't last long. My design looks a whole lot better as a sketch than a full blown piece. I'm still not done with it but, I sent it to my boyfriend as I was working, you know to get his opinion and praise for my brilliance, and he kinda brought me down. He said my design was too intricate, it wouldn't be chosen. He was right, of course. My favorite design style is Victorian so I used that as my inspiration and wound up with way too many swirls and ornaments for a t-shirt. So now it's back to square one and I'm bummed. I don't really know what I want it to look like now... good thing I have a year!

So this is it...

Yesterday was my last first day, EVER. With the completion of this class, I'll earn my masters degree and move back into my parents' house. Hmm, I feel like that's an oxymoron..

I'm ready to get out there! I wanna go work for somebody and show 'em what I've got! I literally feel like my brain is busting with all the knowledge Grady has shoveled me for the past three years! Yes, I'm completely scared to fall flat on my face and embarrass myself but, at the same time, I've worked so hard for that moment and that opportunity, it's driving me crazy to be jobless one month from graduation.

On a positive note- I recently ran my first 10k! It was the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia. My boyfriend's family has been running the race since before he was born. So have thousands of other runners because this race is the world's largest 10k with 60,000 runners. Can we just take a moment to contemplate that number? 60,000. Runners. I lucked out to be placed in B group, meaning I was the second group to start, after the wheelchair, seeded and sub-seeded runners.

After the Boston Massacre Marathon, I was terrified at what might happen along the route or at then end, inside Piedmont Park. This is probably because I'm such a hypochondriac. I was also afraid the mass number of runners would run me right over. I was in B group, remember? That means super fast. I do not run super fast. I wouldn't even say I run, I just jog. Slowly. Especially up hills. PLUS, we were late getting to the start line so I didn't get a chance to stretch before we took off, zig zagging around hoards of people to make it into our groups before time started. My legs were cramping, it was drizzling a little, and I barely got to kiss my boyfriend goodbye before he darted off to the sub-seeded group. (His one of those really fast people).

Before we started, under the American flag, the announcer recognized those who help(ed) keep us free and safe. Then he counted down and I held my breath. I started five minutes after group A and I remember looking at the start clock, watching it tick closer to 5:00 and wishing it would just stop or get there faster, enough with all this waiting business! And then they waved a flag (which I couldn't see over all the people) and off we went.

The whole thing was kind of a blur because I was so nervous. It's strange, I felt a little like a celebrity having people lining the streets, cheering and staring and applauding me. I tried to stay along the right side because that's where the slow people like to hang out. Unfortunately, businesses like to hang out free things to people along the left side of the street. Boo.

If you've heard about the Peachtree, you may have heard about Heartbreak Hill. My boyfriend told me it was called that because the hill was so terrible people died on it every year. He's such a stinker! This is definitely not true. I think the hill is only a small incline but boy, it lasts forever! Like half a mile forever! Also, it goes right passed the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital. That's were the name really comes from- seeing those people cheering you on who can't be out there themselves. It didn't really break my heart to see them, it made me smile, because they were smiling. It was extra motivation to keep pushing. Also providing motivation were all the people who started walking on the hill. All of a sudden, I felt like I was flying just because I kept pushing while they all dropped off like flies hitting an invisible wall.

After that hill, my knees started hurting a little and the cramps I had before the start started to come back. All the people along the side helped me push on and forget that I was running 6.2 miles (oh my goodness, 6.2 miles!!!!!). Once you hit about 5.7-5.8 miles (this is me guessing- I'm terrible at guessing!) the number of people lining the streets swelled, the music was louder and more frequent and the cheering, bells, and clapping became constant white noise. That was really energizing. I've never felt that kind of accomplishment before. It was really something special that I don't know I can explain properly. It was something like exhaustion, motivation, pride, relief, inspiration, thankfulness, excitement, and power, all at the same time.

So when the time came that I rounded the last corner, started the down-hill stretch and same the 6 mile sign, I was able to kick it into 3rd gear and sprint under the finish line just under an hour. BOOM!
That's how I felt.
Maybe a little bit more like "boom". haha

I think the worst part of the experience would be after the finish, when I ruined my shoes in the park. It's been raining for two weeks in Atlanta and Piedmont was super muddy. I tried to wash my Nikes when we got home but, they'll never be the same. sob.

Other than that monumentous event and weeping over my lack of job, the only other thing I've been doing is cooking. Tons of cooking. My boyfriend's family has a garden which seems to be over producing zucchini and squash. I think I have those two vegetables coming out of my ears!! Time to get creative I guess!

Personal Cupcake Challenge

You know that feeling when you're awake at 4:30 in the morning working on a project and you just wanna quit but you're so close to finishing the excitement of seeing all your hard work pay off pushes you through?

No?

Just me?

Ok, what about when you're running, the race is almost over, you're pretty much spent and then you see the finish line and people are cheering you on and you get that one last burst of speed you didn't know you had- that feeling. Maybe a couple more people with that one.

Anyways, I got that feeling yesterday from making cupcakes. Unless you're on Cupcake Wars, I don't think people normally get an adrenaline rush from making cupcakes. But my sister gave me a challenge: make banana split cupcakes (from a recipe she gave me) with fewer calories. She's trying to loose weight but, like any sane person, doesn't wanna be stuck eat cardboard. Did I mention the recipe she gave me was 600 calories!!!! Holy crap!!!

Banana Split Cupcakes; theirs and mine

If you look really quickly, mine look like little ice creams, so that's a plus. On the downside, they look NOTHING like the originals...

However, I'd have to say, I killed this challenge! You wanna know how many calories are in these miniature little beauties? 87. EIGHTY SEVEN!!! That means you could have six of these little things and still not have taken in as many calories as only one of the original recipe!! snap, I did good.

Some notes:

-dipping didn't go well, maybe i needed more nonpareils. Or maybe I needed to let the chocolate set longer. Either way, the chocolate kept falling off into nonpareils so that only the first ones looked cute.

-the vanilla frosting that I used, while it was less caloric, fell right off the little cupcakes- I would recommend something else. 

-overall, the biggest change I made was to the batter itself, my go to cake recipe for anything and everything is Better Homes and Garden's Busy Day Cake. It never fails! 

- i ended up making 43 cupcakes instead of just 40, which is what the following numbers are for.

Here are the ingredients and calorie counts: 

Here's the original recipe if you're not on a diet and loves bananas: Banana Split Cupcakes

Maymester

So that's it! Finished my first and last Maymester class! To be honest, it was a little bitter sweet. Of all the classes I've taken for my masters and in my undergrad, this one has been one of my favorites. So it was sad to have it end so quickly... especially since I have another stupid research class to take in July... fun...

The class I just took was Social Network Analysis. Doesn't the name sound daunting and exciting at the same time?! I thought so. And, even the first couple of days in the class, I really had no idea what I was doing. My teacher was talking a mile a minute about all of the fancy calculations and analyzations you could do with this program to find out all sorts of information about social networks and it just went right over my head! Luckily, the more I played with it, the more I understood it. And now I think it's the coolest program in the world- besides Pinterest- I'd die without Pinterest. (Just kidding, but really.)

Here's an example of what kinds of things I've been looking at:

runDisney Twitter-sphere

The above graph is a visual representation of runDisney's Twitter community. Using the program NodeXL, I've been able to see the different groups of people who tweeted about runDisney. The sizes reflect their importance in the network. I also got to analyze their Facebook fan page and their YouTube presence. It was so cool!

I know this post is a little on the nerdy side but it was seriously so interesting! I think it was one of the most useful classes I've taken so far- which might be because the whole social/ digital/ interactive media thing is kinda my scene (do I even have a scene as a student?).

Lemon Ice Box Pie

So last week I made these cupcakes. One of the problems with them, despite the mismatched decorations, was the copious amounts of leftover frosting. I supposed that could be seen as somewhat of a blessing- you know for those cold, lonely, nights when you're curled up in bed watching the Notebook, by yourself. But alas, it just takes up too much space in my fridge! Sooooo... I made a pie with it!!! One of my better ideas I must say.

Welp, I didn't have enough frosting to make a denser pie and, and to be honest, I didn't have a blender to make a proper crust either. I don't know what you would call this then, a wonder in the making, maybe. Seriously, it is that good!

The crust was made of chocolate spritz I had made weeks and weeks ago. They were particularly bland so I thought they were make a good crust. Unfortunately, I don't have a food processor or blender or rolling pin anything fancy like that to crumble up the cookies with so, I just put them in a plastic bag and attempted to crush them with my hands... that didn't work so well... they just kinda broke into small pieces. That made for a pretty crunch and rugged crust. That's why I said it was a wonder in the making! ;)

The frosting was made of powered sugar, butter, lemon juice and yellow food coloring. To it, I added whipped heavy cream and actual whipped cream, like from my freezer. It had a creamy consistency and I knew it would never solidify in the fridge so, in the freezer it went!

And it came out delicious!! My boyfriend, who doesn't like sweets, said I was converting him with it! ha! It was only a matter of time, Mwahaha!!

Cupcakes and Cocktails

Hi!

Well, as per usual, this post is almost too after the fact for it to be worth it but, I made that silly promise to myself so, here it goes!

I had a premonition last week. I'm sure that I'm using that word wrong because people don't normally have premonition about cupcakes, do they? I guess, if you're a dessert loving foodie, you probably do!

Anyway, because my boyfriend was going to be working last Thursday and I was going to be alone (which would have been simply terrible- being alone makes me depressed and moody!) I decided it would be brilliant to have a little girls evening with my sister. What makes this a premonition? Well, I haven't gotten to that part yet!!

Drum roll please!!!


Image this-- sweet, buttery cupcakes, matched perfectly to a girlish cocktail! oh, my goodness!!

I can't actually take all the credit for this idea. I actually signed up for a Thirsty Thursday newsletter. That's when the idea hit me; I would match a recipe from the newsletter to a cupcake recipe! Well, that's all well and good if the newsletter actually comes, which it didn't. Not to happy with Cooking Channel right now.

So then it was up to me. BTWs, I know nothing about mixing cocktails. I don't even drink that often because I'm such a super lightweight that I would barely enjoy it before I fell into a tipsy rant about oh, I don't know how freaking HOT the apartment is.

So yea, I was pretty sad that my whole cute idea was about to be spoiled because I didn't get an inspirational newsletter. Silly ,silly me. The Internet is one giant inspiration vacuum! I'm even on Pinterest for heavens sake! So I off I went into the wilds of the Internet hoping something yummy would just jump out at me!

What I found was Skinny Girl Vodka. That means lo-cal liquor to compliment my hi-cal cupcakes (if that's not a match made in heaven, I don't know what is!). AND! They have recipes right there on the site! The one I decided on kinda depended on what I already had in my kitchen. I ended up going with the tangerine flavored vodka and a drink they called they pom-tangerine (mostly because I have some crystal light cherry pomegranate in my cupboard). To match, I decided we'd go with a citrus theme and do lemon cupcakes!

The Pom-Tangerine

No, it doesn't have Blue Moon in it. That's just the only clear glass I own... (I'm actually pretty proud of that glass. It was a prize from some party Mellow Mushroom had in Athens last year.) Sorry about the picture quality, it was night-time in my apartment (aka the lighting was dodgy) and I took it with my smartphone. Oops! All in all, it was pretty good. The first time I made it though, I put in wayy too much of the sparking water. I know because that's about all it tasted like. The second time was much better though! As for the vodka itself- we sampled that too (you know for research purposes...) It was pretty good. That doesn't make me that comfortable however, knowing that I spent $22 on it and it was only "pretty good." It wasn't overwhelmingly tangerine-y but it wasn't as full and smooth as I expected a $22 bottle of vodka to be. I guess the "you get what you paid for" saying still rings true because I did pay for a low calorie, flavored vodka; so with that in mind, I guess it would have to be a little bit pricey. And I guess that explains why it wasn't full-bodied; it was full calorie-d.

So on to the cupcakes!

I'm sure you can tell, they are pretty different. Like, I didn't even decorate them the same! I thought (and I don't think you can tell this from the picture) that the recipe had a glaze below the frosting- it didn't. And I couldn't find lemon-shaped hard candies at the store, anywhere! So I improvised. :) What I ended up with was blue and yellow sprinkles and orange lifesavers. Tipsy Girls Approved! And, no worries, all the left overs were pretty good too! 

Till next time!

Valentine's Day Recap

In three words: less than perfect. Me and my boyfriend have been having a hard time because of all the hours he works. (Does that make me selfish, that I feel like he doesn't have time for me between work and school?)

Anyway, it started off pretty rough and slowly got better. I guess the reason why I still describe it as less than perfect is because the bad stuff sort of tainted my whole day.

What he got for me:

• three pink balloons
• peanut m&ms
• a teddy bear

What I got for him:

• breakfast,
• lunch,
• dinner!!

Basically, i guess, he wins because I didn't really get him anything. I just made him food- tons and tons of heart shaped food all day long, because I can.

Breakfast, which I didn't take a picture of because it was just too darn early to be awake anyway, was a bagel with cheese and a heart-shaped egg. This was the general idea:

It's safe to say that's nothing how mine turned out. In fact, it took me three tries until I finally got something that cooked all the way through and looked remotely like a heart!

Lunch was a whole heck of a lot bit easier. It was just pizza! I shaped it into a heart though and cut all the meat and veggies in hearts too! Again, because I can. ;) 

I also took the liberty of making a separate dessert just for lunch. They were called boyfriend brownies- appropriate! Yea, well, they turned out nothing like the picture! I was more than a little disappointed until I ate one- the sugar coma convinced me they were delicious despite their odd appearance.

Dinner was my favorite (mostly because it was THE BEST dinner that I think I've ever made). I made a WHOLE roasted chicken, parmesan green beans, heart-shaped roasted potatoes (you knew that was coming) and italian herb bread with roasted garlic.

Paula Deen's Lemon-Pepper and Rosemary Chicken

Because the chicken was Paula Deen's recipe, it was obviously delicious (could be the mass amounts of butter, but who cares about health on a holiday!) The meat was so moist and juicy and the skin was perfectly crispy. By the way, this was the very first whole chicken that I have ever cooked, EVER. It was a disgusting process. Do you know what an uncooked chicken feels like- cold and wet and it's heavy like a little baby (which basically means I was contemplating vegetarianism at this point). It seriously took everything I had to clean and stuff and lather that thing with butter as fast as I could so I could be rid of it! Good thing it turned out better than I ever could have hoped because that probably would have been my first and last whole chicken otherwise, Thanks Paula!

Roasted Potatoes

I added the link for the potatoes because she had them in a marinade for a while, normally I just through them on a pan with some seasoning, toss, and go! I didn't, however, follow her seasoning suggestions. To be honest, I completely forgot what I put on these little cuties (but seriously, how precious is that heart shape, c'mon!). I think it was something like chives and onion salt and oregano. It was basically a little of everything tasty that I have in my puny small cabinet. And they turned out wonderful! Yea!

Here the rest of the spread:

Yes, those are Christmas china and why yes, everything is on a coffee table. Welcome to college! I think flowers spruced it up a little though ;)

Dessert was a drink I found called "love potion." It was so tantalizingly perfect, I had to make it. *Not my image (duh, it's too professional looking!)

Sprite, raspberry sherbet, pink lemonade, and vodka

And for dessert, I tackled... molten chocolate lava cake! ohmygoodness!!!

Molten Lava Cake

 Definitely SO GOOD!!! Because it was Valentine's Day, I didn't want just good, I wanted great. So instead of making a couple individual cakes, I decided to make one, giant lava cake, for us to share (awww, isn't that cute!) I couldn't really find a recipe for just one cake, or a recipe that would allow me to divid all of the ingredients without wanting to pull my hair out (how am I supposed to divid 5 eggs by two, they don't make half-eggs!). This is the recipe that I ended up finding and using. It's by lululu at home. Originally the recipe was supposed to make 6 cakes. Well, halved the recipe and poured the entirety of that into one large mug, and stuck it in the oven. Of course, it takes longer to cook now than 15 minutes (it's more like 20-25) but I just waited for it to rise and for the top to be set, as she says in the recipe, and VOILA! a perfectly giant lava cake for two! The picture up there is the final devastation. Yep, we weren't able to finish it because we had eaten so much dinner already and that lava cake was ginormous! 

So that was the end. It was a pretty good day all in all, and most certainly a delicious one. I hope everyone else enjoyed their special days! If anyone actually read this, this is the time I would ask how your Valentine's day went. But, as of yet, no one is out there... so... yea.

ttfn!

So I suck at this blogging thing

Maybe I should have made "keeping up with my blog" one of my New Year's Resolutions; maybe then I would have been better at it! And I have SO many thoughts I wanna share (with whom, I have no idea since no one reads this thing!). Since I have to this point in time missed the mark on how blogging works, and New Year's is way over, I'm going to make a new promise, right here, to:

• Write at least 3 times a week
• Be relevant, try not to always write about things that happened WAY in the past
• pictures are good
• music is cool too
• links, gotta love links

That's all I've got so far, kinda did that on the fly too! And since absolutely no one (and I mean no one...) reads this, I don't need to worry about responding to comments on anything... (sad crickets chirping...)

Anyways, going along with this whole promising to write three times a week thing- I'm gonna try and write about Valentine's Day tomorrow morning (totally breaking my whole "stay relevant" rule but, hey, who's out there to read this and find out!? Yea... that's what I thought.)

Good Night!

When life gives you lemons... bake!

I've had a really really bad weekend. Actually, it's been a rough past five days.

Let me start by saying, I'm a people person. The more crowded a place, the more at home I feel. The more the merrier, I guess. And I absolutely hate being alone! Bad things happen when I'm alone, like I get depressed. Even if it's a sunny, beautiful day, if I'm alone, I'll just sit inside and mope about how lonely I am and how I have no friends and how unfair life is. I'm probably the only one like this but, after I've sat in a dark, lonely apartment for a day, everything after that just compounds to make me even more depressed and I just can't seem to shake the awful feeling of worthlessness.

That's how my life has been since Wednesday. I haven't really been surrounded by people so I've lapsed into utter depression and helplessness. After I while I start to believe that I am the source of all my problems- duh! I kinda am! And so, on top of being lonely, I blame myself for any rift that comes between me and my boyfriend.

Out of everyone in the entire world, he is the one I tell everything to. I feel so at home with him, so comfortable, so safe.

So then here's how it goes: 1) I get depressed 2) He does something small to make me sadder like doesn't hold my hand in public 3) automatically I assume he doesn't love me- cuz that makes sense (NOT!) 4) Everything is ruined. I cry which makes him sad. 5) I blame myself for making him sad and being the worst girlfriend EVER.

It's a bitter cycle and I'm not proud of it. How does it ever get fixed? To be honest, I'm not really sure it does get fixed. We just both decide to forget anything ever happened and move on. Nothing changes and I get depressed again and mess things up again. My only salvation: cooking (or rather, baking!)

I absolutely LOVE baking!! When I'm stressed or sad, baking is where I turn to make things seem a little sweeter (pun intended, yes I went there). This weekend was so bad, I made cookie bars and quick bread, the same day, one after the other! Needless to say, my apartment smelled delicious!!

I don't have any of my own pictures but I made these two recipes (off of Pinterest): Caramel-glazed Apple bread and Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars. First things first, yum!!

This is the picture of the bread from Pass the Sushi. Apples!! It has apples in it which means it's gotta be healthy, right! (apples totally negate all the butter and sugar and pecans, right?) And I loved it! It wasn't as moist as I expected but the taste- good gracious it's good!! Seriously, forget slicing it, I'm just gonna take a fork to the whole loaf!

Also not my image. This comes from Two Peas and Their Pod. There's no pretending this is healthy. And I'm ok with that. Because it was sooo good, I could've eaten the whole pan!! My only problem was that I had the wrong kind of salt. Did you know not all sea salt was created equal? I didn't. This recipe definitely needs the chunky kind, like the kind that Starbucks used to decorate their Salted Caramel Mocha Frappuccino (my fav drink by the way). Fine salt just makes the whole thing taste like I added too much salt. Sad day. That being said, it was still wonderful and extremely addictive.

So, where does that leave me. Slightly heavier than I was at the beginning of the week but still not happy. I think I'll make something pumpkin today! I have class again tomorrow and hopefully being back into my routine will pull me out of my funk.