Monday, November 1, 2010

Pumpkin time!

So Sunday night we had zero trick-or-treaters. Probably because we live in an apartment complex. Oh well. At about 8:30, Maren, Nate and I decided we needed to carve pumpkins. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. We went to Wally World and they had zero (the box labeled FREE was empty). We went to HyVee and they had them for $5.00/pumpkin. Maren talked the guy down and we got them for $2.00/pumpkin. (ps. I went to HyVee tonight to grocery shop and all the pumpkins were free. Damn.) We didn't have a pumpkin carving kit so we used steak knives. We don't have a printer so we free hand drew our designs on and rocked them!!

Maren started out with a autumnally labeled wine. Yes I did make that word up. But autumnal is a word, so there! (ps. Mar- the pouring pics didn't work. My camera focused on the AFA mug. Oh well)








Clean 'em out!


Nate drawing on his design.


Maren drawing on her design.


Nate's off to a good start.


I couldn't decide on a design for awhile, but then I just went with the theme.


Nate's making progress now.


Nate and I finished first.


A little cinnamon to make things smell delightful (Nate's suggestion, believe it or not)


Finished!

Halloween 2010 - Part 1 NSFW

How was your Halloween? I had a splendid time at a party on Saturday night at my friends' Aaron & Georgie's. Many good costumes including a peacock, Brett Favre, bumble bee, lady bug, Mr. Toad & Princess Peach, a fairy. Not many of the photos I took are appropriate for this family-friendly (ha! yeah right) blog. Still, NSFW. These photos are in no particular order :0

I went as Dr. Acula!


A nice photo of Dr. Acula and Princess Peach


Uh, thanks for creeping Kyle while I try to get my teeth in order.


Arrgh!


Bret and Mr. Toad having a little chat.


Kyle is afraid. Very afraid.


Kyle wearing Aaron's hat


Armana shaking her tail feathers.


When Aaron put on the beard, it completed his outfit.


Aaron shaking his leg like Jack does when you rub his belly.


A bunch of teachers (Alan with Carlos, a witch, The Situation, and Mr. Toad) taking shots. Of vodka. Barf.


Next up, carving pumpkins with MarMar and Nate on Sunday!

Friday, October 29, 2010

My first food blog...braaaaainnnss

So, I decided I was going to bring brains cupcakes to this Halloween party I am going to tomorrow. Little did I know, doubling a recipe that calls for 12 will actually create 48. Shit. Anyhoo, this recipe is Anne Thornton's and can be found here.


Here's a lovely shot of my kitchen with all of the ingredients out on the counter.


I like to measure out my dry goods before mixing them all together. Alton Brown taught me that.


Eggs first - 4 of them. Good thing I had 7 left. I didn't exactly figure out if I had the ingredients to double the recipe before deciding to.


Now, the veg oil.


Next, is buttermilk. I don't keep that on hand but always have plenty of milk. My mom taught me how to make buttermilk by adding 1 T lemon juice to 1 C milk. Voila!


So one time awhile back, I put hot liquids in my plastic liquid measuring cup. Then rinsed it with cold water. It cracked. I didn't realize it was cracked all the way through until now. Oops. Buttermilk down!


Okay, added the "buttermilk" to the oil & eggs.


Next comes the last three wet ingredients, vinegar, vanilla & red food coloring. I bought gel food coloring last time. It colors frosting well, but I wish I had the liquid stuff for the actual batter. Oh well.


All the liquids together! Pre-mixed.


...and mixed! Red velvet here we come!


Hello dry goods, sifted and mixed together lovingly in another mixing bowl.


Jeez, good thing I used my biggest mixing bowl... It is at this point in my baking enterprise, I realize that I have forgotten to preheat the oven. Shit (again).


Do not judge my sweet old-school kitchen.


Zoey is bored and wants to play with the laser toy, but I don't have time now Zoey! Must finish braaaaainnns cupcakes!


Anne suggested using an ice cream scoop to put the batter in the baking cups. Mine isn't the same kind, but what the hell.


She also said it would be messy...


I got some really cute cups, but they were kind of cheap so they did that foldy thing which annoys me.


But they were so damn cute I couldn't resist!


Time to crack open #firstbeer - @Lakefront Brewery's IPA. YUM! I also listened to Getting Tanked with Frank throughout the baking process. Love those fools.


Ooh, looking good in the oven!


And out! Lovely!


Time to make some frosting!

Dry goods!


Wet goods (and my lovely written down grad school note taking style recipe copied down whilst watching her show)!


Butter + powdered sugar. Cream together.


There was a point where I was wondering if it was ever going to "cream." Then I remembered to add the milk:


Added vanilla and food coloring to make the gray brains color. I added a few drops of red, green and blue gel food coloring. It was pretty before it became brainy.


swirls!


Close up!


And it all comes together to form a delightful brain gray.


I may have messed up the frosting a little and am nearing delirium at this point. I am sad because the decorating is only beginning. Not to mention the fact that I had only baked like 1 dozen at this point. *yawn*


Guess it's time for a second beer!


These are the best ones I did. I have a ton of bad ones to go with these. Not like I care. People are just going to eat them, right? And I hope they taste good!



So there you have it: my first food blog. I know this is nothing compared to some of the girls' blogs I read (Megan at The Runner's Kitchen, Monica at Run Eat Repeat, and Skinny Runner) but it was fun. And it took forever! It is now nearly 1 AM, I've been up since 6 AM and I'm exhausted. Enjoy!

Gotta run!