i like to cook for you...

mmmmm I love spring break so much! Many college kids go off adventuring to beaches or mountains or hang around Austin to catch all the SXSW excitement. Call me boring, but the two years I have had college spring breaks, I just LOVE coming home and doing nothing. Seriously. I slept 10 hours last night and that was beautiful. I have some OChem to do, but I have all the time in the world (or at least I pretend!) to get that done! I really like both of my parents and my whole family so seeing them is a treat.

Speaking of treats, cooking in a bigger kitchen with more counter space than my one at school is definitely a treat! My good friend, Sarah, came over and we made homemade poptarts, really just pie crust filled with jam. So much better than Kellogg's. I didn't eat them with the sugary glaze, but even without it, still good!

Then we had some good eggs and they were just beautiful. Twas a scrumptious breakfast!!

Then, Wednesday night, I got the treat of cooking for my sister and brother in law! I love love love cooking for people, and for people so special to me, this was a lot of fun! I looked all over www.foodgawker.com to find a great meal to make for the three of us. I finally settled on an easy salad, breadsticks, pasta with sausage, broccolini, and garlic crema, and of course, cupcakes!

I made the cupcakes at my house first to save some time. Oh man. I love cupcakes. Chocolate chip cupcakes with "cookie dough" icing. The icing ingredients were that of normal cookie dough, minus eggs and plus powdered sugar! So fun. These were an interesting challenge because normally I am sampling batter and icing the whole time and can taste test a final product, but as sweets are one of my biggest vices, something of which I have found comfort in my land of exile, and something I turn to often before Jesus, they are what I gave up for Lent. I relied on some time tested taste buds - my mom's - to tell me how each step was turning out. According to her, they were really good. And I can testify that they did smell very good!

Wet ingredients

 

All ingredients with the chocolate chips. Mini chocolate chips are the best!

cookie dough icing

 

They were very pretty! :O)

Once I got to my sister's house, I got started on making the bread sticks. I had only used yeast once or twice before, but I think I will start using it more. It is so fun (almost like magic!) watching it rise. 

the dough - you will see the final product at the end!

Then I got to play with this sweet little girl: my beautiful niece!! I just love her so much!

She really is the best baby ever. I am such a bragging aunt already - it is kind of ridiculous, but whatever, she is worth it. If you ever bring her up around me, beware, I will talk your ear off. I hope you like baby stories. :O)

So that my sister, Allison, could eat before Madeleine ate, I got started on the pasta dish! So Kroger does not have fancy pasta like "stozzapretti" which is why I got penne. Still good. I don't think I had ever seen broccolini before, but it is really cute, bright, and fun! And I just have always liked sausage. And garlic. yep. This, I could sample all the way through, so I was getting very excited about it the whole time. I like that anticipation of cooking! The combination of ingredients makes something so new and wonderful and although the pre-combined portions taste good, you just know the end product is going to be even better. 

sausageeeee.

Garlic crema - olive oil, shallots, garlic, italian seasoning, chicken stock, creme, and parmesean.

everything added together! seriously, how bright and fun is that broccolini??

The final product! YUM!

So, that was my cooking adventure of the week! Roommates, be expecting this for dinner soon! I hope you are all enjoying springtime! If you ever want me to cook for you, let me know!

cupcakes galore

As of late, I have realized how much of a common grace food is.  It feels good, it tastes good, it is fun to make. It is just such a gift that God created us with taste buds! Mine are perhaps more inclined towards sugar than most, as this post indicates.

(Two weeks ago was super busy with school, so my dinner for my roommates was just some BLT's - one of my favorite easy meals. Again, I love sandwiches! I am exploring the joys of my new cast iron skillet, which involves learning how to clean it, or not. I'm sure all elaborate more on that later.  All I know is the smell of bacon did not leave our apartment for several days. Sorry roomz.)

I was put in charge of a baking committee for the Ignite semi-formal this past week. I had a lot of fun getting to delegate out 400 baked goods to some very sweet (pun intended!) friends and also making quite a few of my own!

My challenges were yellow cupcakes (CI) with chocolate frosting (MS), snickerdoodle cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting, and cakeballs! YUM!

I loved "As the Cookie Crumbles" comparisons and just used her favorites, and I got the recommendation of the snickerdoodle recipes from one of my roommates!  Also, sidenote: I am still learning the art of taking pictures as I cook/bake. I get so caught up in it and then miss really pretty parts of the process. Hopefully I will learn!

 I kept adding more and more cinnamon to the dry ingredient mix... and the combined ingredients... and the icing. I just really love cinnamon.

 creamy butter and sugar.

They are such a lovely tan color.  I let them sit for a day (cupcakes on Wednesday, icing on Thursday, the day of the event) and it was so hard to not eat them for all meals.

 Tah-dah! Pretty little cupcakes! (Not my best icing work, but I'm learning!)

Just being real happy! cupcakes have that effect!

Of the two, I think these were my favorite. They are just so different from any cupcake I had ever had and snickerdoodles are one of my top 3 favorite cookies! The yellow ones were pretty delicious though, too! 

Egg whites are so fun. There is something so therapeutic about the whole process - making them all light and airy, having to be gentle when folding them in, I don't know... it's fun!

In they go!

Melted bittersweet chocolate (58% ish) in my makeshift double boiler. I am salivating.

I personally loved this icing as is, but as far as appealing to as many taste buds as possible, I added about 3/4 - 1 cup more powdered sugar and about a teaspoon more of vanilla. This made so much - I have a tupperware of it in my fridge and I am not complaining. This icing rocks!

They really are so pretty!

I wish I had taken a picture of all of them all set out, but I was running around like crazy trying to make sure the cupcakes got to the event location and that I got to my lab on time. Last, but certainly not least, cakeballs. I have been making cakeballs for 7 years now after being introduced to them by my sister. I made them for friends' birthdays all through high school, sold them for fundraisers and charity, etc. Cakeballs and Liz were sort of synonymous. Anyway, these were a simple butter cake with buttercream icing and chocolate almond bark coating with big fun sprinkles! 

Roll, dip, sprinkle, and set: This is usually my set-up for cakeball dipping, sometimes reversed. I am such a creature of habit.

The whole event was a success, baked goods being such a minuscule part of it. Everyone had a grand ol' time dancing, taking pictures, and just enjoying each others' company. And I got to take a few cupcakes home for my own personal enjoyment. :O)

For dinner this week, I just got some gnocchi from central market and combined it with zucchini, cherry tomatoes, shallots, nutmeg, salt, pepper and parmesean. Easy, delicious, and really quick!

Vegetables are so pretty!! 

Next week is spring break so I'm sure that will bring about a baking adventure or two. My current interest is making macarons after having some lovely lemon and lavender flavored ones at  La Patisserie.

Inspiration! We will see how that adventure unfolds!

Happy Spring and beautiful weather! There is so much of life to be enjoyed!