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!