National Cupcake Day

Happy National Cupcake day!! Made 750 cupcakes for our celebration at work! They were all eaten!!!

2 years and 361 days

I’m giving myself until my 30th birthday (that’s 2 years and 361 days away, folks) to get myself up and going. Store front or not, I hope to have a customer base and be making a decent profit by then. Maybe by the end of September I’ll have moved into promoting my stuff via social networking.

So, for the next 2 years and 361 days, I will be baking my heart out…giving away a lot of it, in hopes that you’ll want to buy it for your next party. I’m also going to try to figure out how to mail a lot of this, as I have friends all over the country that should experience it too. Until then, I will take as many tips, hints, tricks, investments and orders that I can possibly handle. So please, please, please, order some damn cupcakes, for your next party; or even a loaf of bread so you can make a sandwich; because I’ll make you both!!

 

 

 

One Step closer.

My best friend got married last weekend, this is a snapshot from the Bachelorette party! So much fun!

During all this wedding hoopla, I got in contact with a friend from college who is a graphic designer and I asked her if she could help me out with something. I had this idea, and I can’t draw much past a doodle, and I wanted to see this idea on paper (and to actually have it look decent.)

I’ve gotten a rough draft of it back , and hopefully soon I’ll be able to share it all with you!! We’re working on finalizing it now, and I’m very excited that I’m one step closer to the dream I’ve always had. I’ve got a couple more posts in the works, and now that the BFF is happily married, I now have some spare time to post them!

See you soon!

Cake!

Something about baking while listening to good music, and just being by myself in a kitchen is incredibly therapeutic. It’s like what running does for those who chose to run.

I agreed a few months ago to bake a cake for a birthday party for a soon to be 1 year old. He is by far my favorite 1 year old, the son of some long time friends. What you thought I had kids? I am not even home enough to have a puppy. Someday right?!

 

I then agreed 2 weeks ago maybe to bake 2 more cakes. Before consulting the calendar, I figured it would not be an issue. 3 cakes, No. Big. Deal. Until that is I realized (put 2 and 2 together finally) that it was for the same weekend!

I spent forever trying to plan how I was going to manage to do this in my 1 counter tiny crowded kitchen. It’s not like I haven’t done any baking in my kitchen. Though, when you have to use your kitchen table to roll out cinnamon rolls and you have your roommates dog sitting right there waiting for you to drop stuff, it gets annoying.

 

She’s cute, and believes that she’s a lap dog, when she’s not. However, I’m not going to be the one to break it to her.

So I convinced a co-worker, which didn’t take a whole lot of effort really, to let me borrow her kitchen counters and oven to bake like a mad woman.

I loaded up my car with the Kitchen-Aid I’m playing foster parent to, the Food Processor, that is on loan from my Mom, (though in the 5 years she’s had it, I’m the first to use it) and every other thing I could think of to bake these things and headed 20 min west, to a tinier farm town then my tiny farm town. I did this for a week straight.

 

Usually I’m on summer leave, picking up hours here or there, but this week in particular I was scheduled more than I had planned on in the “I’m making 3 cakes plan.” Not like this is a bad thing, I need my job to pay the bills, since the cakes have yet to get me that far, it just made things interesting.

I was so focused on the final picture that I only managed to snap a few pictures. I was also trying my best to keep my co-workers 3 wonderful children out of my way. Her 3 year old insisted on helping often, which included an almost amputation of his hand because he wanted to help with the frosting. Word to the wise, keep your hands away from the stand mixer that is moving at high speeds. I didn’t feel like losing my frosting, needless to say he was not happy with me when I swatted him away.

So it’s a little crooked, and I may of possibly used a lot of frosting in certain parts where I was seriously lacking in cake; but this was my first layer cake that needed to resemble something outside of the pan that it was cooked in!

This guy didn’t mind though!

 

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day everyone!! I’ve got a post coming soon on the cake crazy-ness that ensued a week or so ago now, but until then, have a margarita and enjoy the weekend, that we wouldn’t ultimately have without the sacrifices made by those who protect our great country every day.

Nail-Biting Basketball

I was a freshmen in college, this being back in the day when we were still in the single digits of the 2000’s, (I’m not that old I promise) when my alma mater announced that they were going to make the transition to Division 1 athletics. There were skeptics and haters and I was uneducated to what this could potentially mean to our school, as I was just a band nerd and to be honest we had (and still do by the way) the best college marching band in the upper midwest.

I remember the last “rival” game between us and our foe and it was the most fun I had ever had at a basketball game since we won the state championships in High School, which was only the spring before!

It took us 8 years to get where we are now. Last night was the Summit League Championship game and the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits men and women were playing. It felt like the whole town of 18,000 was collectively holding our breath and crossing our fingers and watched, and waited. Followed by biting off every single fingernail because the women’s game went into overtime, and they won by 1. Repeat for the men, I was almost to the point where I would of gnawed off my hand. We were behind, then we tied, and this vicious circle of being down by 1 and leading by 1 continued until they went into overtime. My roommates dog was watching the game just intently as I was hoping that we would pull off the win and make history. Both teams from the same school going to the “big dance.” The women going for the 4th year in a row, and the men going for the first time ever.

(borrowed from the Google, no infringement intended!)

 

 

 

 

 

We won! The whole state was a buzz, friends who went to the rival school were just excited as we were!! South Dakota State was even trending on Twitter! Though Facebook, as it had been doing all day, kept grouping all of my friends, saying they were either talking about the Michigan Wolverines, or that other SDSU in the world. (San Diego State….)

(another google search!)

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Ross even joined in on the party! I about fell over from laughing SO hard. I have never been more proud to be a Jackrabbit! It’s a great day to be a Jackrabbit!!

In other news, I made banana bars today! Took me forever to find a decent recipe, finally found one on tasty kitchen Haven’t had any yet, but Bailey the dog was watching me closely the whole time I was frosting. I would of paused to take a picture but she probably would of pounced while I was distracted by her cute-ness. I did adapt her recipe just a little, but it was only because of the amount of bananas I had. I added 2 cups of mashed banana instead of the 1-1/2 cups she used.

They smelled amazing coming out of the oven, hopefully they will taste just as delicious.

 

BACK! THE! JACKS!!! (EXCLAMATION POINT!)

Nice to see you winter! Where have you been?!

Well, at seams that winter has finally showed up. On leap day no less. For about 2 days prior, weather reports were saying anything from 2 feet of snow to a half inch of ice AND 2 feet of snow. I think what really happened was about a half inch of rain, followed by just enough ice to make branches fall, and then 4 inches of snow. Made it really sloppy for sure.

I am off work for the next week because the college is on Spring Break, and so I’m hoping to clean the house, bake like mad and relax like none other. I’ll keep everyone posted about my baking plans as the week develops. I’m still in the planning process, but the goal is to get rid of all of the bananas that have collected in the freezer over the past few months. Anyone want banana bread/muffins/cake/whatever else you can make with bananas?

First up is some Tastefully Simple beer bread. It has also been talked about making some actual bread (that is not beer or banana)

Not much else beats a paid vacation

 

 

Too bad this can’t be the view from my backyard.

Long time no Blog.

I have been ridiculously busy. I’ve been working my butt off and work and when I get home, I basically hit the bed exhausted from the day, not sure if I’m ready for the next day.

So here I am, it’s been a while. I was able to salvage about 6 squash from the garden. It probably would of been more if there wasn’t that late September freeze; and I would of probably gotten tomatillos too. Even though I covered them, the freeze still took it’s toll on them. Oh well there is always next summer.

My fave and local garden center already has it’s dirt in for the seeding process. So even though there is no snow on the ground yet, I’m very much so looking forward to Spring.

I’ve got about 3 and a half ish weeks off starting in about a week, and even though it’s very nice to have this time off, sadly it’s not paid. Though in reality I’ll have about a week total off. So during my time off I’ll be at home with family for some of it, and then here in my new house still unpacking and purging more stuff.

There will also be a lot of baking. I’ve become a huge fan/follower of Pinterest. For those who haven’t heard of Pinterest yet, you’re seriously missing out. The whole point behind this website is to share things that you like, from searching the web by “pinning it” and sharing with the community. I haven’t even gotten to pinning much that I’ve seen from my ventures on the wed. I’m still “pinning” from other peoples’ pins. There is so much!!

So I’ll be making things from what I’ve pinned on my boards and see how things turn out! I have 2 boards dedicated just to food! I’m very excited, especially now since I’m fostering a stand mixer that is my sisters. I will share I promise!

As far as I know it’s still invite only, but you can request an invite from the website itself. I must also warn, that it’s incredibly addicting. Last count I have 16 boards and almost 1000 pins.

Too bad I can’t “pin” Christmas presents, and just have them magically appear. Sticking to my usual tradition of waiting until the weekend before. Awesome.  Hopefully there will be snow by Christmas.

First day of Fall

So it’s now officially fall. I love fall. I really do, but after this summer of working super hard in my garden, I wasn’t quite ready for the super early freeze that we had a little over a week ago.

For 3 days, we went out to the garden with fleece blankets and tarps to cover what was left. I had to try to save the tomatoes and the tomatillos. It was such a cool summer, and then right at the end of the summer we had a few super hot days (super hot being 90 and very windy) which got the plants producing enough to save. So I had to try to save them.

We managed to save them and I was excited and hopeful because it was going to warm up. The weather forecast said it was going to, from multiple sources, so someone had to be right. Right?

I was out there one of the nights, looking for squash with the only light being from my headlights and I started to get a little choked up, I had worked so hard, and at points had more produce than I knew what to do with, and here I am just short of sleeping out there to keep them company because they were my pride and joy of the summer and if I didn’t do something they were going to die.

I feel for Jackson, on Gilmore Girls, when he was sleeping out in his garden….

So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the few hours that it dipped below freezing overnight didn’t do much damage. They said it wasn’t supposed to get below freezing, so this is what I get for listening to them right? No frost advisories this time because we’ve already had the freeze. Blasphemy. I’m incredibly too optimistic sometimes and it’s biting me in the butt, yet again.

Did I say how much I love fall thought? Aside the fact that it’s a garden killer? It’s pumpkin and squash season and the air is crisp and fresh, and the changing colors are beautiful. It’s also pumpkin spice latte time at Starbucks. YUM

One of my dreams in life is to experience Fall in New England. And while I’m out there I’ll probably cross a few other things off the “bucket list” (yes, I’m aware, I’m 26 and I have a bucket list…I like to think of it as a things to accomplish in life)

I will be making lots of pumpkin and squash things here soon. I will keep you posted.

Harry Potter

It was 2007 and I was sitting in DeKalb, IL at the local Barnes & Noble; hating the fact that I was alone in a town where I had agreed to do this awesome corporate internship. The internship was far from awesome and all I wanted to do was to go home.

It was the night of the final Harry Potter book release. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The most anticipated book of the series, and I got in line around dinner time to make sure I got a copy. I found a chair (surprisingly, really) in the magazine section next to a nice older lady who agreed to watch my stuff and save my chair, when I got new magazines or had to go to the bathroom. I did the same for her, and after I read all the magazines I wanted to read, we both chatted over our knitting projects. I’ve been working on the same Year 1 Gryffindor scarf since I read the first book sometime in college. (it’s still not finished.)

More people started trickling in as it got to be after dinner and there were plenty of costumes, as the bookstore was holding a contest for the kids. My favorite (and ultimately the contest winner) was a girl who dressed up as a Howler. She even got her mom into it and she recorded what Mrs. Weasley said to Ron after they stole the car in Chambers of Secrets.

Best part is she got an autographed copy of the book. She probably has no memory from when the first book came out and she got an autographed copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I would of died.

I remember long before the date of the book release was announced how much speculation was going on about the book. I even bought a book that MuggleNet.com published about “What Will Happen In Harry Potter 7?” For something coming from a fan site, it was pretty spot on with some of it’s predictions. My sister refused to read it, but that was the only thing that could of spoiled book 7 for me, that I allowed myself to read.

Given the time differences once the book was released in the U.K. all sorts of people started trying to spoil the fun by scanning the last few pages of the book and posting them on the internet. Needless to say, I wasn’t on the internet that much until I got the book. Even though I was super curious!

Once I got the book I immediately started reading it. I finished the book in 14 hours flat, a new personal record and I laughed and cried, and was completely wowed by all the amazing thoughts that must go through J.K. Rowling’s mind; and how awesome it would be to have a cup of tea with her and pick her brain.

Harry Potter has been this huge part of my life and has been a huge part of my generation. I’m anxious to see how they’re going to end it in the films, but at the same time I want more books to come out and more movies to come out and I want to know more about the story lines of all the characters. I’m curious to see how difficult this movie is going to be to watch, given I read somewhere that Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) couldn’t sit through the London premier. I don’t blame him really.

Thank you J.K. Rowling for writing on napkins on the train to London. You created an absolutely fantastic series and proved that reading is fun once again.