Monthly Archives: August 2009

Calgon, take me away!

I’ve had my period for 3 weeks.
My pipes burst last week causing two rainstorms in my dining room.
Today they found another pipe leaking in my master bath into my kitchen.
This morning our insurance mitigation inspector found a colony of bats living in my attic.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Day 10 CarrotCakes
This recipe is pretty standard, they turned out delicious.
Recipe:
2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 c sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c canola oil
1/4 c whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c grated carrots
1/2 c ground walnuts
Directions:
preheat 350.
Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices together. Separately, beat eggs, sugar, oil and milk. Add 2 together slowly until blended. Stir in vanilla, carrots, and nuts. Fill baking cups 2/3 full, my oven took 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack so they don’t dry out.

Bob HAD to taste-test.

Frosted with typical, homemade cream cheese frosting.

Julie and Julia

Last night my girlfriend, my sister-in-law, Maeve and I went to see Julie & Julia. I wanted to see it for a few reasons.

First, I saw Julie Powell do an interview. It intrigued me for sure, a blogger who cooked her way through a cookbook as therapy.

Second- Julia. My mother worked for a caterer in the 80s and was obsessed with all things cooking, especially Julia Child. She would pop her Julia Child videos into the vhs player in the kitchen and cook along with them, so the movie made me laugh. My mother did the same thing 20 years ago. Oh, and let’s not forget the mother factor! Julie Powell‘s mother thought that the “blogging” was a waste of time, much like MY mother does with me. Nothing inspires you more than a parent’s criticism.

“Why do you do that? Don’t you have better things to do???”

The Julia videos and book(s) are now mine, as you can see to the left.

The movie is really cute, I recommend it to any who loves to cook, blogs, both, or neither.

This is her Julie/Julia blog http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/09/01.html

And this is her current http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/

S’mores Cupcakes. FAIL.

Day 9 is Flop Number 2! S’MORE Cupcakes

They taste good, but there were some major disasters.
First, they sunk in the middle. I’ve never had this happen, I obviously forgot something.

The cupcake is basically graham cracker flavored. But these silly cupcake liners are NOT meant for vegan cupcakes. Seriously, if you are making a vegan cupcake, make sure you use really good liners, or spray them up with cooking spray. It’s so frustrating to have a third of your cupcake stick to the paper!
The next issue, again, frosting. I thought it would be fun to use fluff for the frosting. And you know, it makes the graham cracker cupcake taste super smore-ish, but what a freaking mess!
Here’s my Brother-in-law Sean taste-testing.

And the ganache re-liquefied onto of the marshmallow, refrigerated or not!

But the part that makes me laugh the most, Sean won’t let me throw them away and keeps trying to eat these little mess balls! haha!

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake.

Day 8 is the first Flop!
The Vegan Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake
Definitely disappointing. I mean, it tastes okay, kind of boring, and was more like a breakfast muffin than a cupcake.
The recipe is gummy and dry. I realized with this recipe, good old fashion milk and eggs probably would’ve made this a yummy cupcake….
The second problem was the pineapple frosting we made. My sister-in-law Debbie is here, and we followed the directions but it turned out like
c.r.a.p. See below for how that all worked out!
We ended up making a simple sour cream frosting and calling it a day. They’re now breakfast pineapple muffins, not really cupcakes.

AND these liners are terrible! :(

NEXT!