Catch up day! 3rd Day of Cookies

So, I've been making the cookies but have been failing to write about them! Oh no!! It's ok though because today is the last day of classes, after 5:10 today I will have nothing to do but study, bake, and write! Oh Joy!! So just to catch up: The 3rd Day of Cookies was Brown Sugar Shortbread! They were very tasty and super easy to make!


Brown Sugar Shortbread:
1 c butter, softened
1/2 c packed brown sugar
2 1/4 c ap flour
(yes, that is the whole ingredient list)

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually stir in flour and mix well. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead 'til smooth (about 3 minutes) Pat into a rectangle(ish) 1/3 in thick, 11in x 8 in.

Cut into 2 in x 1 in strips. Place 1 inch apart on baking sheet. Prick with fork.

Bake at 300F for 25 minutes (mine took 18) or until lightly browned. Cool!

2nd Day of 25 Days of Cookies!!

Thursday was my second day of cookies, I had no inspiration for what cookie to pick so my roommate chose for me. She picked a white chocolate peppermint drop. They turned out quite tasty I must say even if I did mess up the recipe (shhh!)

Here's the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens:

8 oz white baking chocolate with cocoa butter, chopped
1/2 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 c ap flour
2/3 c crushed candy canes

Preheat oven to 375F, in a small saucepan melt 4 oz of the white chocolate over low heat, cool slightly.
In a large bowl beat butter for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in melted white chocolate. Gradually beat in flour. Using a wooden spoon stir in remaining white choclate and crushed candy canes.
Drop dough by rounded teaspoon onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or lightly browned edges. Transfer cookies to cooling rack.

25 DAYS OF COOKIES!!!!

Since today is the first day of December I decided it should also be the first day of 25 of cookies! The general idea being that I am going to make one type of cookie a day until December 25th. On December 25th I will either make a 25th type or make the favorite of the previous 24, haven't decided on that part yet.

Anyways my first cookie is a gingerbread "snowflakes". I didn't have a snowflake cookie cutter so mine are gingerbread snowmen, angels and christmas trees.

Here's the recipe!
1 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 c molasses
1/4 c water
5 c ap flour
2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and water. Combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, salt; gradually add to butter, mix well. Cover and refrigerate 1 hr or until easy to handle.
On lightly floured surface roll out to 1/4in thickness. Cut with cookie cutters dipped in flour. Place on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes or until edges are firm. Let cool on racks.

Frosting:
3 3/4 c powdered sugar
1/4 c water
1 1/2 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In small bowl combine frosting ingredients. Beat until smooth. Transfer to plastic bag, cut a small hole in the corner of the bag, pipe onto cookies.

Christmas Countdown

I know it seems like I've forgotten I have a blog...ok maybe I did for a little while! But hey I'm back now!! I've been sooo busy with school and graduation plans and after graduation plans etc etc. Anyways enough of my excuses on why I've neglected you. So it's something like 7 weeks til Christmas and I've decided that every week will be a new cookie or dessert for Christmas. I don't have one picked out yet, but I should have it by Wednesday since that's when I plan on baking. So if I'm not back tomorrow I will definitely be writing on Wednesday! Until then...BYE!!

The beginning of the end

I began my last semester of undergraduate today. During my two classes I didn't feel any pangs of nervousness or anxiety about the prospect of graduating, probably because it doesn't seem real to me without an accepted degree application.

But now it does feels strange, it's not the senior year of high school, can't wait to get out and into college feeling. It's more like what in the world am I getting myself into feeling. What do I do once this is over? I have so many choices and options its slightly overwhelming. Although I do still plan on attending law school, it won't be for at least a year, so what do I do in the meantime? Work on a graduate degree? Teach? Get some other sort of grown up job? I have no idea, I don't even know where to begin really.

But I'm sure all that knowledge will come as the semester wears on and the novelty of the beginning of the end has faded. It will be back to the grindstone of reading and writing papers, translating an ancient language and translating a language of symbols.

Who knows maybe I'll discover something else I want to do, or take a dramatic turn and go to pastry school. It's all just a couple of months away, yet far enough in the future that I'm not overly concerned right now.

Back to bed then, to start a new day, attend new classes, and meet new people.

New City Same Story

Welp, I've been "settling in" to Austin now for about 3 weeks. although I'm sure there is much to do here, I've haven't been able to experience any of it thanks to my INTENSIVE greek class. It's worse than a full time job, after work you go home and rest, after Greek you go home and do more Greek! But I'm learning tons and getting much better at Greek! Even being an Aggie at the other school hasn't been too bad, there's only classmate who makes a big deal about it, but we all just ignore him :) All in all, Austin is growing on me, I like it here. And once I get to go out and do things I'm sure it will be even better!

AT THE BEACH!!!!

We have successfully made our yearly migration to the beach! By we I mean my mom, two of my sisters and my and grandma. We are also about a month early. All these things have to do with my summer schedule. I am taking an intensive greek class at that school in Austin ALL summer long. My mom didn't want me to miss out on the beach so we decided that us (college) girls would head to the beach early! YAY!

Catherine and I flew out of Midland International Airport Sunday morning, we met my mom and grandma in Dallas, they had flown from the San Angelo airport. Then we flew to Norfolk, VA where we met Candace who had flown from Houston to Miami to Norfolk. Quite an exciting way to meet up don't you think?

Well from Norfolk we jumped in our rental car and headed to Nags Head, NC, home of our beach house. It's only a 90 mile drive, but it was already dark and it's been raining since we got here...not much beach time :(

Oh well I'm still sitting in my bedroom with my windows open, listening to the ocean roll in and out, the rain hitting the shingles, and my sisters cleaning downstairs (hahaha), waiting on my mom to get back with some delicious Dixie BBQ, pork not brisket as we are in the South and not in Texas. All in all it's going to be an awesome 2 weeks (if it stops raining).

Pet Addiction?

So if you've even glanced over any of the pictures on here you might have noticed that I have pets. My two lovely labs Lizzy and Dixie and my fluff cat Pliny (Iske's brother), Pliny's mother returned home a couple of weeks ago, the prodigal pregnant cat. She was very very preggers so I brought her in, went and bought kitten food and made her a box in the garage. The next morning I come out to 5 tiny mewing babies. They are adorable, but really...I now have 7 cats.

Which brings me to my point, my pet addiction. I've found a new hobby as of late, I can't help myself but to stop anytime I see a lost animal running around. I pick it up, take it home, feed it and love it, and post on Craigslist that I've found it.

The first time this opened was about a month ago, I rescued 3 puppies that were chained together running down Victoria, well really the lab puppy and pit mix puppy were dragging the dachshund puppy along with them. I had them for 2 days and a night when their very grateful owners called me from my ad and came and picked them up.

Well it happened again last night, I was outside with Dixie admiring my new walkway lights when two big dogs came bounding down the street. A big German Shepherd mix and a Yellow Lab mix. They had collars but no tags, so I brought them in and put them in the backyard. My neighbor went walking Peanut and Dixie and happened upon the missing dogs owners out looking for them. Another happy ending!! I just can't help it, it's addicting to take in these animals, care for them, make sure they're not out in the elements and then reunite them happily with their owners. Is this wrong? I could get in trouble in the long run if owners don't show...then what do I do with the babies? Oh well, to quote Ms. Scarlett O'Hara, "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."

Lemon Poke Cake

I know, I know, I've been away for a while. I've been busy and distracted and bla bla bla...really I've just been too lazy to post anything. Sad. Well today I was pretty productive and made a seafood gumbo and a lemon poke cake. I used to make this lemon cake when I was 14 or 15 over the summer at the beach, so just the smell held some awesome memories for me. Well here's the recipe, and hopefully if there is any cake left I'll get some pictures up.

3/4 c water
1 .3 oz pck lemon jello
4 eggs
1 bx lemon cake mix
3/4 vegetable oil
juice of 2 lemons
2 c powdered sugar

Mix water, jello and eggs. Beat 1 minute on medium. Add cake mix, beat 2 minutes. Add oil and beat 1-2 minutes until smooth. Bake in a 9*13in pan at 325 F for 35-40 minutes. While cake is still warm poke lots of small holes all over the cake, mix lemon juice and powdered sugar, drizzle all over cake.

Aloha Baby!

Spring Break 2010 was an amazing week of adventures. The family and Sparky (Candace's BF) flew out to Oahu, Hawaii on Sunday.

The majority of the family drove from Monahans, Tx to Midland, Tx and caught a flight to Dallas. I drove from College Station to Stephenville, dropped off my pups and Cafrine and I drove to Dallas to meet them at the airport. From Dallas we flew to LAX, had an hour layover and then flew to Honolulu, Hawaii.

We arrived around 8pm...which back home in Texas is 1AM and not a good time to call the boyfriend :). My mom had a special surprise for us and she had rented 2 Sebring convertibles! A red one and a white one. I rode in the red one all week! Being thoroughly exhausted we drove to our hotel, got somewhat settled and then the family headed out to P.F. Changs for dinner.
The next week was full of activities, adventures, learning experiences, and no end of hilarious moments! To summarize:
Monday: loaded up the family in the convertibles, put the tops down and drove completely around the island. We stopped at beach on Northshore where Cassandra lost a battle with the waves. Grabbed lunch at a local surfer grill and shared our lunch with the numerous cats and chickens roaming the patio. We also drove to the military base...they won't let you in...then we made a stop at the Dole Plantation, I found pearls in some oysters, had some of the best pineapple ice cream I've ever tasted and enjoyed listening to the history of the plantation. We stopped for a photograph moment at a small cove, I fell out of a tree, and then headed back to the hotel for Happy Hour!! We definitely got happy...everyone was pretty toasty for the rest of the night, so we walked to dinner at Duke's.
Tuesday: We made a more historical visit this day, we went to Pearl Harbor. We boarded the USS Missouri, took a boat to the Arizona and learned about the Zeros that bombed Hawaii at the Pacific Aviation Museum. We headed back to the hotel for yet another Happy Hour and had dinner at Tony Roma's...not Tony Romo's because as my dad said...we would choke.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday we went to the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium. Lots of shopping, but not a lot of money spent :) my favorite! The rest of the day was spent at the beach where we ate a fresh pinapple! Then more happy hour and dinner at the Yard House, and because it was St. Patty's day, Sparky and I had an Irish Carbomb. I had fish and chips and the rest of the family had Shepherds Pie. I also enjoyed a Maui Brewing Coconut Porter.
Thursday:
Thursday started out as a beach day, we rented an outrigger and with the help of the captain and his first mate, rowed somewhat in sync out into the breakers. I was the lead...and believe me, it's a lot harder than it sounds to get everyone in rhythm. We caught a few waves, and turned it. Then we loaded up and headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center to learn about the history of the Polynesian Islands from natives (with a BYUofH spin of course), we enjoyed a luau and then watched HA! The Breath of Life. This lasted until around 9:30 so afterwards we just went to bed.
Friday:
We had made plans for a "hole in the wall" food tour with Michael Gray for Friday, and believe me it was the best idea ever! We stopped at some cool bakeries, walked around Chinatown and learned alot about the history of the food we were eating. It was amazing! Then more happy hour, and we ate at a surfer grill that I can't remember the name of right at the moment.
Saturday:
Saturday was adventure day! We went to the beach and surfed, then went parasailing. That what truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life! I suggest you try it! After that we changed and headed up the Diamond Head. The hike up Diamond Head is supposed to be 45 minutes, well we made it up in 18. Talk about being in pain...the burn was powerful and I felt bad for the soldiers and mules who used to make the climb daily. After Diamond Head we...you know where this is going...went to Happy Hour. For dinner that night we went to a local diner. It was probably some of the best food we'd had the entire trip.
Sunday:
Sunday was a rush of packing, repacking, and hustling to get to the airport by 11AM. We flew out of Honolulu at 12:45 and landed in San Francisco for a 2 hour layover. We landed in Dallas at 5:40AM Monday morning. Quite a trip.

Pictures should be up soon!

Pliny Thursday

Pliny guarding his closet fort

Cute Little Boutiques

Have you ever driven by one of those cute little boutique stores with their antiques and adorable home decor?

Well I made the mistake of driving down Longmire yesterday and was tempted by one such store called the Checkered Corner. I went in to peruse the merchandise and left with some purchases.

One purchase is the mug you see here. Isn't it adorable with my initial and everything!! I just couldn't pass it up! And it was on sale (shhhhhh)! My other purchase was a candle whose title is "sandcastle". I don't know if it actually smells like sandcastles, but it does remind me of the beach so I'm happy with it.

These little antique stores are really my weakness, I can't pass up the original art and other unique things they have!

Well I'm off to enjoy a fresh cup of tea in my new mug!

Craving Coconut

As I was sitting in my kitchen messing with my computer I had a sudden urge for coconut, so I thought about what I could make and macaroons immediately came to mind! So here's my recipe! And they are tasty and satisfied my urge! Also...I have no idea what to do with the 4 left over egg yolks...any suggestions?

Super Easy Macaroons
1 14oz package angel flake coconut
2/3 c sugar
6 tbs flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg whites
1 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 325F.
Mix coconut, sugar, flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir in egg whites and almond extract until well blended.
Drop onto a parchment lined coookie sheet. I use my tablespoon to do thing, makes them all even and pretty.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until edges are golden brown, watch them after about 12 minutes, I burned my first batch.
Immediately move to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.
If you feel crafty, drizzle some melted chocolate over them, or dip them half way in chocolate...the possibilities are endless

Nutella Fudge Brownies

Nutella Fudge Brownies
4 oz unsweetened chocolate (I use Bakers)
1 c butter (2 sticks)
1 lb 4.5 oz sugar (about 2.5 c)
4 lg eggs
1 tbs PURE vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
5.5 oz ap flour (about a cup)
1 c nuts or choc chips
1/2-1 13 oz jar Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 F
Grease a 9*13 glass pan.
Melt chocolate and butter in large saucepan over medium heat. DON'T BURN!! Remove from heat.
Using spatula or wooden spoon add sugar and mix well.
Add eggs, vanilla and salt, mix well.
Fold in flour just until smooth. Fold in chips or nuts (or both!) Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes then spread however much Nutella you want over brownies, sprinkle with any additional toppings, cool completely then cut into squares.

Breakfast Sundays!!!

Yesterday night boyfriend said he wanted waffles for breakfast. I obliged and looked up a recipe, then went to bed and forgot about it, thinking he would too. BUT NO!!! This morning I was rudely awoken to "where are my waffles?!?"

So I pulled out my waffle iron that I've never used before (YAY!!) pulled up the same recipe and went to work. The only problem being that soon the boyfriend completely took over the process :( Not that I'm against having him cook, but I was making the waffles. Oh well, they turned out very good even though we ran out of buttermilk and substituted regular milk instead. They were light and fluffy and super tasty just like a waffle should be, topped with pure maple syrup. Plain and simple amazing!

I love breakfast on Sundays!

my pups

Dixie really really likes the camera

Hello my name is Lizzy

Oral Fixation, Intoxication, or Addiction?

Everyone knows I have a sweet tooth, it's obvious from my nickname, my love of baking, and baked goods. To get more to the point though on Sunday I saw a commercial for Milano cookies, I love Milano cookies and haven't had them in a while so of course a craving ensued. I jumped into the car with a friend and headed to the store to grab cookies and some beer of course. Outside of the store those sweet innocent girl scouts were advertising the last day to buy girl scout cookies. These girls seem like angels but in reality they're sirens singing their sweet song of cookies and luring you to your destruction. Their song was completely effective and I fell to my sugary death buying 6 boxes of Samoans. Then we continued our trek into the store where I bought three bags of Milanos. This wouldn't be a big deal if I possessed an ounce of self control, unfortunately when it comes to cookies I don't. Here comes the kicker, I later drove to my house and ate almost a whole bag of milanos without even realizing I was eating them, I had no idea until boyfriend pointed out the empty bag later that day. So this leads to my question, do I constantly munch on cookies because I have to have something in my mouth, because I'm high (haha...my mom suggested this, it's completely fictional), or because I have a cookie/sugar addiction?

I'm on the downhill side of the second day of my cookie free week challenge and it's not going so well. I was grouchy and shaky yesterday until I had some frozen yogurt. Today I've gotten over the shaky feeling but still feel somewhat grouchy and unmotivated. Overall I am not happy about my lack of sweets, but I guess I will appreciate the supposed health benefits of it.

Anyway, I will be updating on whether or not the cookie free week has succeeded or not and how my mood deals with the loss of sugar.

Home Improv continued!

the horses needed a temporary home

Well as promised here are pictures of the ongoing home improvement at my casa!

Home Improvement

So yesterday instead of doing my paper proposal I decided to jump headfirst into some home improvement plans I've had for a while. For starters I have assembled a compost pile in my backyard. This is amazing because my backyard is a wreck of weeds, trash, stuffing (from small dog toys), and doggie poo. Well I dived in and pulled weeds, picked up trash and stuffing, and bagged as much poo as I could. I only did one corner of the yard and it took 3 hours. Afterwards I couldn't lift the bag of poo and trash so it's still sitting back there, waiting. But the yard looks better and the next warm spell to hit will have me back there at work again!
The other plan I've had in mind to attempt is to paint the inserts that line half of my living room. At this point they are the same bland beige as the rest of the walls. But not for long! Primer has been done, at least on most of it, since my arm got tired halfway through the longest section, and as soon as I get off work I will finish that primer and then go on to coat the walls a wonderful shade of green, green caper to be exact. It matches my couches.
I will be posting pictures of these developments soon, however my camera decided to die yesterday as I was taking the first picture so patience will have to ensue.
But either way, both should be fun projects, and hopefully the compost pile in the backyard will lead to a successful vegetable and herb garden (out of the reach of curious puppies of course).

Superbowl feast...more like superbowl sugar-induced coma

"The theme for the Super bowl party is smoked meat"
"What should Cami bake then?"
"She's never made anything bad so whatever she wants"

That's a whole lot of freedom on my part if you think about it. I can make whatever I want on the treat side of the Superbowl menu. I've started out big, a yellow cake giant cupcake that I intend to ice white and blue and draw a horseshoe on...am I a Colts fan, yes. Do I enjoy annoying Dan, yes. So this cake is a win win situation.

Of course I'll make Andes mint cookies and then chocolate sour cream cupcakes. The two new things I'll add to my menu will be my new favorite cheesecake and a Texas sheet cake whose recipe is so old it still calls for Oleo. For those of you who don't know what Oleo is, it's margarine, but it's the term used for margarine in sometime around the 60's I think.

Anyways hopefully I'll remember to take pictures of all these goodies, and if you happen to be invited to the superbowl party then you'll get to partake in them as well!

Cheesecake! oh wonderful cheesecake!

So the boyfriend was beggin for cheesecake, but more importantly he was begging for cheesecake for his grandfather's birthday party/everyone in his family who was born in January. Well, I can't remember ever having made a cheesecake before so I decided to practice first. I used a recipe from Alton Brown for a sourcream cheesecake. It came out amazing, but was missing some extra something to make it mine. So the boyfriend suggested adding orange zest and ginger. This turned out amazing!! We also decided to forgo the traditional graham cracker crust and instead made ours out of ginger snaps. Delicious!

Well here's about the recipe we used:

Crust:
38 ginger snaps, crushed but still with big chunks.
1 stick of butter, melted

Filling:
1 1/4c sour cream
20 oz cream cheese (2.5 packages)
1 c sugar
2 eggs
5 egg yolks
1/3 c heavy cream
1 tbs vanilla extract
1/2 tbs cinnamon
1/2 tbs nutmeg
1 tbs orange zest
1/2 tbs grated ginger

Preheat your oven to 300. Butter a springform pan or line a regular pan with parchment paper. Mix ginger snaps and butter til coated and spread evenly in bottom of pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 300 F. Lower oven temp to 250

In a stand mixer mix sour cream on low for about 30 seconds. Add cream cheese and sugar, mix on low until sugar is wet. Then turn up to medium and mix until smooth. In another bowl mix together eggs, cream, and vanilla. Pour this mixture slowly into mixer, scraping down bowl halfway through. Once this is smooth add the cinnamon and nutmeg. The mix should be speckled. Then add the orange zest and ginger and mix it well making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to get any bits that the paddle misses. Once the mixture is super smooth pour it into the pan with the crust. Put this pan into a larger pan. If you are using a springform surround it with foil to prevent leaks. Fill the larger pan with warm water just covering the crust line of the smaller pan. Place in oven and bake for 1 hour at 250 F. After an hour, turn off the oven and open the door for 1 minute. Then shut the oven door and leave in oven 1 more hour. Place in refridgerator for another 3-4 hours or overnight if you can.

That's all I did, but feel free to garnish with more gingersnaps or orange slices if you would like!