Apartment Therapy Contest!

Hello all -

I have entered into the kitchn's Best Lick 2008 Ice Cream Contest! Please go vote for my entry here.

I'll bake you something good if you vote, promise.

Coconut Lavender Mambo!

I love potlucks.

I also love bringing food to potlucks.

These are my favorite potluck food because they're different, but as long as people love coconut they end up loving them. Actually, my absolute favorite might be funeral potatoes but I can't bring myself to blog about those.

Something's really wrong with me, and I think these cupcakes smell like bacon until you frost them. They get this really nice crunchy top on the cupcake and it makes me happy like some people are made happy by crushing leaves under their feet.



Most of all, I love potlucks because I get to use one of my favorite things in the world - my Cupcake Courier - Lemongrass that was received as a wonderful birthday gift by a fellow cupcake enthusiast and good friend.



Recipe for coconut lavender cupcakes from Never Bashful with Butter, to whom I am totally and utterly indebted because this recipe is in the lifetime recipe book.

Road Trip: Fredericksburg Bakery, Fredericksburg, TX (otherwise entitled How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Lose my Packing)

Sorry I've been absent this summer, folks. First I got a job, and then I experienced a lot of discomfort and eventually got my wisdom teeth out last week. Unless you really want lunettes' smashing recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie or possibly Packaged Pudding, you've been out of luck.

One of the neat things about my job this summer is I have the opportunity to road trip across Texas. This means that I get to eat at a lot of neat places, and I happened to bring my camera along on the last one (but not the macro lens, damnit!)

An early-morning pit stop led us to the Fredericksburg Bakery on Main Street in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Now, this is where the wisdom teeth come in. After eating nothing but smoothies for a few days, I still managed to have some complications where I needed packing placed in my teeth. I lost the packing while devouring the first solid food I'd really had in about five days.



It was so worth it.







The Fredericksburg Bakery contains a huge display case full of all sorts of German-themed and otherwise sugary baked goods. I got the cream cheese cinnamon roll, which had raisins and pecans (again, stupid choice) packed in. It was incredible, maybe even life-altering--but that may be the Vicodin talking.

Also available is an assortment of fudge and Blue-Bell Ice Cream.

Cash or check only, but even my face-sized cinnamon roll was only $3.



Fredericksburg is really a foodie masochist's paradise. You could easily gain ten pounds over one weekend, and it's on my 'to do' list of Texas stops along with a trip here.

Flavor Two: Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes - The Box Mix Experiment

You see how the frosting's kind of flipping you off?

That's how this cupcake tastes.

Blech.

Boxcakes, part 1

My sister lovingly spends her time trying to get me to post her pictures on my blog. She's a dear.

She sent a boxed cupcake mix she got from World Market from Cobblestone Kitchen. The three-pack of cupcakes promises 12 cupcakes each of lemon poppyseed, strawberry and chocolate caramel, each with frosting! It's almost too good to be true.

In interest of my ever-growing love of poppyseeds and my desire to find them somewhere locally, I decided to make the lemon poppyseed for work today. My coworkers loved them, but I had some problems.

1) 3/4 cup of what basically amounts to powdered sugar is not enough to frost twelve cupcakes.
2) There was not enough lemon. On a business trip a few days ago, I had the MOST LEMONY muffins ever and they ruined me for the week.
3) When the frosting did come together after I added an additional cup of sugar to the 4 tbsp shortening, the resulting picture did not look like this:



It instead looked slightly like spackle.



They were still pretty tasty, though. Just not homemade. Coworkers described the frosting as 'crunchy' and very sweet. I've yet to figure out why these need frosting in the first place, but the strawberry and chocolate should do better in that arena.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! Mr. O and I were at the grocer the other day and he found these darling wrappers! How could I resist?




I need to get out more, huh?

Sticky situations

I am so, so bad.

I started this blog in response to graduate school. My hobby list that first month included things like 'reading eight hundred pages on library collecting policies' and 'staring at my computer in hopes it would generate a 10,000 word paper'. I didn't have any social life, and this blog was a way for me to keep up with people I know and to show them that I'm still alive.

Well, summer happened. With summer comes a full-time job. That means I have time to see old friends, watch movies and other various and sundry things that one can do when the work week is only forty hours long.

And I neglected you, dear reader. I am sorry.



Here's my attempt at coming back. For a certain social occasion tonight, I threw in some thick, dark blackstrap molasses from McCutcheon's and prayed that my oft-neglected powdered ginger still had some kick, adding a bit more than the recipe called for.



These are spicy-good. When they come out of the oven, they are very soft but they harden up quickly once on the drying rack.

Mmm, spice.



"Blue Eyes" Blue Ribbon Gingersnaps
Marjorie Johnson's recipe, from Picky Palate

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup sugar (for dipping)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Cream shortening, brown sugar, molasses and egg in large bowl. In a separate bowl sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, blending until mixed. Dough can be chilled for easy handling.

3. Shape the dough into balls the size of whole walnuts. Roll balls in sugar, place on baking sheet. Bake 8-9 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool on sheet one minute before transferring to rack.

Makes 3-4 dozen.



Thanks, Picky Palate!

Triple chocolate pudding

There isn't too much of a good thing, right?

My first recipe book is almost always Google. However, with the recent influx in grocery prices and as a Victim of a Natural Disaster (tm), I was trying to make do with what I had in the fridge instead of going out and buying more. Let's just say I have come upon a chocolate inheritance of sorts. About four bags' worth of eating chocolate.

The first time I made this recipe, I used 2% milk, half a bag of Hershey's Kisses (Mr. O hates dark chocolate - the nerve!) and maybe a scant less than 1/4 cup cornstarch (for all the baking I do, I'm still not exact sometimes). It turned out like a very strong chocolate milk. I don't think I waited long enough. Actually, I waited a really long time for it to set but it just didn't. I swear, I stirred and stirred to no avail.

The second time I made it, I used a heaping 1/4 cup of cornstarch, 2% milk, 1/8 cup cocoa, 1/2 package Dove Dark chocolate pieces and 1/2 package Hershey's Kisses. No sugar needed in this recipe - the processed chocolate takes care of that.

The result was thick, luxurious and quite possibly deadly. Those humidity drops are the result of cold pudding meets humid Southern air. Also happens on iced tea glasses (which is why double-barreled glasses are a gift from God).

Silky Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from smitten kitchen who adapted hers from John Scharffenberger, via Wednesday Chef
(I know, this is getting a bit ridiculous)

Serves 6


1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
5 oz Hershey's kisses, unwrapped
5 oz Dove dark chocolate, unwrapped
1/8 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


1. Combine the cornstarch, cocoa, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler. (note: I love substituting this bowl over a medium saucepan. Thanks, mom!) Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients. Place over gently simmering water and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form. After 15 to 20 minutes, when the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate. Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

2. Place into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes. Lick the ladle. Lick the bowl. Note it's 9:00 in the morning. Feel moderately sick, but slightly giddy from the sugar high.

3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.