Est Parfait!

Follow Me On Bloglovin'

2014-09-18T12:41:00.001-07:00

It has been my experience, as I’ve been feverishly flipping through teen blog after teen blog (instead of studying), that Bloglovin is somewhat obnoxious, asking you again and again, would you like to follow this blog? You don’t follow this blog. Do you want to? Do ya- do ya- do ya??

I don’t plan on making it that obnoxious on my site. But my thoughts were, Man, I gotta get myself on Bloglovin!

Mission success.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

P.S. I will be adding all of my blogs onto the site individually. It requires I do that as proof that I'm the writer.

Pioneering Muffins

2014-06-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have been sucked into the world of Pinterest. I'm still learning how to use it. But I've made about a dozen boards already, and it's so much fun.

Through Pinterest, I found a recipe for "Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins (With Cream Cheese Frosting)."

I pinned and clicked and wanted to see what the recipe called for. I have a weakness for pumpkin. I love pumpkin pie. Pumpkin bread. Pumpkin scents. . .

Mmm.

The link shot me over to the site of the Pioneer Woman from Food Channel! My mom loves her stuff. I scrolled, and (sorry about my scepticism) but I was surprised to find that I liked it!

She had a picture to go with each step. And for those like me who are challenged, this is the most helpful thing. It's why I like doing step by step pictures on my blog. It's helpful.

Anyway, I was hooked. And the pictures gave me confidence. I thought, "I can do this."

And we had all the ingredients. All I needed to get was canned pumpkin.

On the other hand, when I was telling people I was making pumpkin muffins, they would give me this look and feel compelled to remind me that it isn't fall.

People. I wear dark colors in spring. I don't care!

Pumpkin muffins. I think you just don't understand the enormity of this glorious circumstance. PUMPKIN MUFFINS!

We were having the Singles/College and Career Sunday school over at our house for a fellowship, so I decided to make these muffins for the event.

I've saved myself so many times by taking all the ingredients I'll need and putting them on the counter. It wouldn't be the first time that half way through the recipe I realize we're missing vanilla or butter. Butter happens more often. And then I'm stuck with awkward batter in a bowl and don't know what to do with it.

These are all the ingredients you'll need for the recipe. (PS, I am in no way saying this recipe is mine. I've made it clear that I'm following Pioneer Woman.)

So, obedient to the recipe, I started by sifting a cup of flour.

Half a cup of sugar.

I was totally trying this whole capturing-slow-motion-pouring thing.

A teaspoon of baking powder (not to be confused with baking soda, which usually comes in an orange box).

Then the three musketeers, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, which obviously refused to stay still because the picture came out fuzzy in all of them.

Then you bang the heck out of the strainer against your hand until it all falls through, fluffy and perfect.

Pioneer Woman says that if she has little kernels still at the bottom of her strainer, she'll rub them through with her fingers.

Or you can be like me who gave up and thought that my muffins could definitely survive without those pieces and thus tapped the strainer to the side of the sink until all the pieces fell out.

We can't all be Pioneer Woman.

Next was butter.

Four table spoons, which you then slice into smaller pieces. My butter was soft by the time I got to this, so my slicing was slow, as if it was for revenge.

If that wasn't enough, I tossed the chunks into my bowl and mashed the life out of it until it was no longer there.

This is what it looks like "fully incorporated."

In a seperate bowl, you plop your heaping cup of pumpkin. I made a mess.

Then evaporated milk.

Which you're supposed to "shake well" before opening. Of course, I didn't notice that until I already pierced the side. I attempted to hold my thumb there as I shook it but it still got everywhere.

Then vanilla.

Finally an egg. Then you mix it all up until it's this ugly pale orange color.

It apparently offended my camera because my camera refused to focus.

Next you dump this mixture into your dry mixture and stir it in. Pioneer Woman put it this way, "don't beat it to death. Have a heart." That made me laugh.

Especially after my Revenge Of The Butter episode.

I'm uber professional, so I use an ice cream scooper to fill up my muffin (well cupcake) tins. I had greased them with Crisco before hand.

Before I had begun, I realized my initial mistake: the recipe only made ten muffins, it said. And we were having a bunch of college age people coming. My mom's solution was that we'd cut them in half.

So anyway, about at this point, I was feeling very good about myself. I slid them into the oven and set the timer. Then came back a few minutes later and thought I'd take a picture of them in the oven.

Then I started on the dishes.

About which time, I started yelling...

"OH NO! No! No, no, no!" I scrambled to dry my hands and grab my phone, and I checked the recipe and sure enough. I forgot to add the cinnamon sugar topping before sticking them in the oven.

I snatched them out of the oven. They had six minutes to go and were already fluffed and perfect... minus the topping.

I gathered all my baking skills together and tried not to kick myself because this is exactly where we went wrong last time. Except this time I didn't overdose on the salt.

I tried an egg white glaze, painting it on, then sprinkling the sugar mixture.

I stuck it back in the oven, but I knew the muffins were done and there was no way the sugar was going to melt in such a short period of time.

The sugar wasn't sticking the way I wanted it to.

As I final precaution, I got a spoon of water and used my finger to flick droplets onto the muffins.

This saved me the most. It actually looked like I iced them a little afterwards.

Now, I have an explanation on why it went wrong.

I was over-using my phone. This is seriously my excuse? This is seriously my excuse. I was using my phone to look at the recipe, I was using my phone to take the pictures, I was using the phone to listen to Spotify, I was using the phone to text people how I was making muffins. Overload.

Simple fix! I'll print out the recipe next time. And I ended up quitting spotify and turning on the radio in the front room instead.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

They were good, though. Not as sweet as I would like, but the topping did help. I skipped the cream cheese icing since this was for an outdoor party, and that sounded too messy. But the muffins were a hit. They didn't last very long.

But they definitely were moist. I told Jake there weren't any carbs in them so he tried one. He said they were delicious, and yes I can cook, and I had his blessing that I was now ready and prepared to find a man, which I found way funnier than it actually was so I yelled, "Yaye, I can find a man!!" in an excited voice that was definitely too loud to be socially acceptable.

So this was a success/fail.

I guess my desserts never look like the picture anyway..

How Not To Bake (With Julie)

2014-02-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

Because Julie and I have a lot of guy friends (which you may have picked up on if you read my other blogs), we decided we desperately needed a girls' day to catch up, to which she replied.

"Well I'm making breakfast muffins, wanna come over and help me?"

Just like that, I finished up the blog post I was writing for The Rebekah Koontz Site, changed out of my PJs, and hopped in my car with the random piece of scrap paper I used to scribble (and doodle) the directions Julie gave me to get to her house. I used two arches to describe "past McDonalds" and a movie reel to indicate "left after the movie theater".

I got there without any trouble, and was very proud of myself.

After an initial tour of her kitchen and bedroom, and makeup collection, and ceremonial meeting of her pet bearded dragon, Eclipse, and cute little guinea pig, Panda (perfect name for a guinea pig!), I was filled in on the muffin-making process.

The oats were supposed to soak for half an hour, she told me, which she forgot to do, but waiting for the time to pass wasn't very hard once we got to talking. Then soon it was time to start the batter. She showed me the recipe and pictures on her phone.

What they're supposed to look like when we're done. .

So we got started! I set up all the ingredients on the kitchen table. The muffins had cranberries, and blueberries, and applesauce, and cinnamon, and brown sugar.

Julie said that we'd be making two batches of muffins. We decided one batch would be blueberry and the other would be cranberry cinnamon. Sounded pretty good to me. We added those ingredients by eye.

Julie's mom was teasing her, asking if she knew how to separate eggs, so here's the proof of Julie being the good homemaker, separating eggs. We needed the egg whites for the muffins. Then she dumped the yolks in a separate bowl and before I could scream "NO!", she flicked the egg shells in there too.

I don't know why I have this need to save and recycle everything, especially eggs. (PS you can use egg whites on your face as a mask. It'll harden and be stiff and after you wipe it off with a warm rag, your face feels super soft.)

I scared Julie into a hilarious confusion with my sudden scream and we both started laughing. I quickly saved the egg yolks from their fate.

Egg yolk hero

As she separated eggs, I measured out the applesauce for each batch.

Not sure if this was taken before or after the egg fiasco. .

Then it was time to mix it up.

Which Julie does like a pro.

I was in charge of the dry ingredients. .

Which might've been a mistake on their part. .

We were talking about how strange it was that the muffins have no sugar IN them (they're supposed to be healthy). When Julie's mom said, "yeah that is strange. . And that looks like way too much salt too, Rebekah."

"It says a tablespoon." I said, shrugging, and dumped it in the bowl.

At that, Julie grabbed the recipe. "It says teaspoon!"

I spent the next couple minutes trying to evenly distribute that little mound of salt between the two bowls.

Then I got to whisk it together.

We combined the dry ingredients to the wet, as the recipe instructed, then Julie mixed them together, being sure not to over-mix "or else the muffins will be tough," whatever that meant.

We started joking around about our hair being down. Have you realized how many girl bakers and cooks have their messy hair falling all over the place? Even if it's up, there's still some hanging down. It drives my mom crazy.

I guess they still want to be glamorous and flip their hair all around. As Jake would say: "thristy."

My final job was making the cinammon-brown-sugar crumble for the top, then we coated and filled the muffin tins.

Then we popped them in the oven. . . and started to talk.

In retrospect, this is probably where we went wrong. It isn't as though we left them unattended in the kitchen and they burnt to a crisp. We were right there, talking next to the oven the entire time, leaning against the counter and smelling the yummy muffin smells.

Julie's mom came in and asked, between our laugher and whispering and giggling, if we were watching the muffins. Julie replied yes and opened the oven door to prove it. "They still look a little pale," she said.

That's what reminded me. "Oh no! The cinnamon crumble!!"

I ran over to the kitchen table where the bowl still sat, laughing at me, and brought it back. We took the muffins out of the oven and proceeded an attempt of salvaging them.

Julie came up with the idea of pricking them with a fork and then padding the sugar on it, so we started a system. I took over the pricking and she packed on the sugar, then they finished their time in the oven.

Luckily we had a second chance with the next batch and did those ones right, even after realizing we used up ALL the cinnamon-sugar mix, for both the batches, on the first one, and had to make more.

Here's the difference in the two batches.

Soon it was time for taste testing and we cut each in half to try them.

There was some silence as we munched.

"Hmm."

"Hmm."

"They taste good."

"Yeah."

I think it was Julie's mom who was the most honestly blunt. "Are they supposed to be so rubbery?"

Ha. .

I think we figured out what it meant for muffins to be "tough". However they did taste good! And not too salty either! X-D

Christmas Eve Cookies

2013-12-27T23:30:00.000-08:00

It has been months since I've baked anything. Mostly due to the fact that our ancient oven broke, and we did have the new one sitting in the car port, but they took forever sending a guy to come and install it.

Also, I just started my new job. =-) You can read all about it, I'll be posting more, on my main site/blog.

Anyway, it only makes sense that I'd be itching to bake something. Dying even. Yesterday, I finally got my chance.

My family always has people over Christmas Eve. And the desserts, starting from Thanksgiving, become more frequent and more varied all the way up to New Years, where we go heart-attack crazy with sweets.

This Christmas, everyone in the family participated, right down to my little brother who made strawberry danishes.

My mom baked raspberry muffins and her first cheesecake (which turned out perfect!). And my older brother, back from school, was put to work making my Abuelita's recipe. . . which I just realized I can't describe. It's layered cookies between evaporated milk and lemon, and I'm sure other things, and once it's set, the cookies are moist and you cut it like a cake and it's creamy and lemony.

I didn't plan my desserts at all. I jotted on an envelope some recipes that inspired me on Pinterest, but that was about it.

I somehow mentioned mint cookies though, because my mom was expecting me to make those. So I used a recipe for mint star cookies I've made on this blog before.

It uses butter, superfine sugar, flour, an egg yolk, peppermint of course, salt, and chocolate for the drizzle.

You begin by creaming the butter and sugar, so, I believe you should get into the habit of immediately pulling out your butter sticks, first. That way they can thaw to room temperature by the time you've found your cook book, tied your apron, fixed your hair, spanked a child -- whatever it is you do.

Otherwise, you'll have to pop them in the microwave.

I did mine about twenty seconds.

So cream the butter and sugar. The book says use a wooden spoon, but *hair flip* I'm too professional for that now.

Sift flour and salt before adding it to the mix.

Then shape into two balls and pray you find room in the fridge. There mine went, right by my older brother's dessert with the cookies I was telling you about.

The dough didn't take me long to make and it had to sit in the fridge for about an hour, so I thought, why not make something else?

My mom said we didn't have anything chocolate. Bingo.

This, is where things get crazy.

Recipes in my cookie book all require 3/4th a cup of sugar, two sticks of butter, and 2 1/4th cup of flour, I believe.

Here's what I could scrounge up; about a fourth of superfine sugar, one stick of butter (not even shown in the picture), and about 1 1/4th cup of flour.

I could do this!!

I cut the whole thing in half.

One stick of butter.

This is trippy. I thought, heck I'll use regular sugar instead of superfine, who's gonna see the difference?

. . Everybody, my dense friend, everybody. .

Turns out, there is a difference between superfine and regular sugar. Honestly. Who knew?

Cream what you've got.

Add vanilla. The recipe calls for two teaspoons, so I put two teaspoons. Then gasped, covered my mouth, and suddenly giggled, because I forgot I was doing everything in half.

Why is there vanilla in a chocolate cookie anyway?

So, I figured the vanilla mistake would be my little secret.

Sift what you've got. Mine was about a cup.

For the coco powder, I learned the hard way why you use liquid measuring cups for measuring liquid and the other ones for measuring everything else.

No way of leveling. .

You live an learn.

I mixed it all together then added mini chocolate chips. They're so cute, they raised my voice a few octaves. If you've never seen a mini chocolate chip, drop everything and go buy a bag right now. You haven't lived. They're sooo small! Like chocolate chip babies. Or if a chocolate chip pooped, a chocolate chip.

I used a mini ice cream scooper to form balls and squished them slighly.

The double chocolate chip cookies were a little more than one baking sheet's worth, so I finished up on those and moved back to the mint stars.

For a surface, I stretched a piece of plastic cross a cutting board and tucked it into the other side, without cutting it from the box it rolled out of. I put the ball of dough on the plastic and used the plastic the dough was wrapped in for the top layer - so it'd be completely between two sheets of plastic - and rolled it out that way so it wouldn't stick to the rolling pin. Then I cut stars.

For the very last star, I press the cookie cutter in the middle like usual, then peel off the sides and press it into the cookie cutter by hand.

You can do this with an empty star (without initially having dough cut into it), if you don't mind your awkward cookie to be thin. In this case, my awkward cookie would be thick, if that makes sense.

To finish off these cookies, you add a chocolate drizzle and they look pretty.

Like this.

So I put my chocolate chips in my melting pot and waited. . I was waiting so long that my mom told me she could melt the chocolate chips on the stove in no time flat, which sounded nice, so she took over.

I saw her add a few spoonfuls of water, then she began mixing forever.

Long story short, we don't know what happened. It was thick and ugly. I added oil, trying to smooth it out and the oil refused to incorporate. It got worse the more it cooled, so I quickly dumped it into a zip lock back and tried to pipe some form of drizzle on the cookies, and the bag busted, the chocolate was so thick.

This chocolate was alive. And angry. We wouldn't have been surprised if it swallowed us alive. But after the bag busted open, I was done with it.

My mother, on the other hand, wasn't. She went into her Super Mama Safe The Day, Fix The Unfixable! mood.

Her first idea; spreading.

Then the cookie broke in her hand.

Next idea: make. . . truffles?

She formed them into balls and stuck them in the fridge and was very proud at that. She even tasted and must've been pleased, because she served them at the party. I have yet to try them.

Unfortunately for the frosted cookie. .

Ultimate segregation.

My little brother asked what happened. I said, "this is what happens when a cookie's bad."

So in the end, we had double chocolate chip cookies that actually turned out! I was shocked.

And naked, no drizzle, mint star cookies.

They plated nicely, though, I think.

So all, around, good baking day! I was also inspired.

This is the book I got my recipes from, I've mentioned it before. The reason I got this book is because I thought, "all I need to do is get the hang of one recipe (or one dough) and I can make one hundred different cookies!"

For a baker like me, that idea sounds preetty darn good.

Well, as I was baking these cookies, I thought, why not go through the whole book, cookie by cookie, starting at One?

Kind of like in that movie Julie and Julia. So. What do you say? Good idea? Boring idea? Any comment?

I think it's cool. It's not a project for a culinary master, but for anyone. And for you guys at home, you can buy yourselves a copy of this book and bake along if you want. =-)

I'm selling myself on this idea.

So yeah. There's that. X-) Right now, I really need to sleep. I have a cold, and work tomorrow. Oh the joys!

Comment below if you can!

Why?

2013-09-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be wondering. Why? Why do bad things happen? Why did your cake sink in the middle? Why hasn't Rebekah stinkin' been posting?!

Because my oven is broken. Broken. Kaput. Dead. A piece of junk.

I do apologize for taking this long to tell you though. It's easy to forget to post about nothing. How nothing's happening. So I'm sorry.

I'll be looking for oven-less recipes for a while until we get a new one, though. Unless someone out there has a favorite, oven-less recipe they'd like to share? That'd be nice. =-)

Floppy Cakes

2013-08-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first job interview. And as with any first time experience, I walked
away feeling positive, energized, and knowing without a doubt. . that I did a horrible job.

This is the way my brain operates. It might be a security mechanism so I don't get too disappointed if I'm rejected. Or it could be because I haven't had any other experiences to compare it to. It's probably the second one. Either way, I came home ready to pout and feel sorry for myself and just be an all-around big baby.

Obviously I'm over it now. That's why I can write and laugh about it. And no, there's nothing wrong with me emotionally, or mentally. On the contrary, I'm a very stable human being. I think anyone, after a nerve wrecking, whole new experience, where they've tried, and more or less achieved, keeping calm, rational, and charming, has earned the right to come out of that situation and throw their head back, groaning loudly "oh that went horrible."

Thus, I came home prepared to mope and pout. And then my mom said, "you're making the dessert for tonight, aren't you?"

Once a month on Thursday night, my church has a "Ladies' Fellowship". They separate us by last name on who brings a salad, main dish, or dessert.
So I moped my way into the kitchen and started loading up the kitchen aid.

I was being so dramatic. I thought it only fitting that a loser like me use a cake mix instead of making it from scratch.

I added one cup of water.

Then oil.

And eggs.

Around egg-time, I started feeling better, losing the attitude and realizing the good things I had said during the interview, instead of all the times I stumbled over my words or got mush mouth-y.

I exhaled and smiled a little and got out my mini ice cream scooper to start filling the cupcake sheets.

Then I turned around, bad mood almost gone, and whipped open the oven to slide the sheet in, and stopped in my tracks. No heat. I felt no wave. Nothing. I stuck my hand in, then touched a rack.

The oven wasn't turning on. Upon further inspection, the pilot light was out.

My mom had said it smelled like gas, but when she checked that morning, the pilot was lit. Now it wasn't. And both of us were too afraid of blowing up to light it manually.

In comes my mom, with her never-say-die ingenuity.

We have a conventional oven called a "New Wave". Maybe you've heard of it. If you haven't, it looks like a big plastic bubble with a metal rack inside. We use it more than the microwave, and it's supposed to be healthier for you.

Well my mom wasn't giving up, even though I have to say, the dead oven was the straw that broke the camels back. I was about done with the whole thing and started eating the chocolate chips that we were going to put inside the cupcakes.

She got the pan for the new wave and tried to set the cupcakes upright on it, realizing we needed something in the middle, and got a mini bunt pan as the center base. I was already figuring that if this didn't work, the most logical decision would be to just make a bunch of mini bunts.

We sprinkled a few chocolate chips in the middle and baked them for about ten minutes until they were done.

The side of the cupcake closets to the bunt would raise, leaving each cupcake very topsy-turvy, to the point that it looked like we did them that way on purpose. They were moist and tasted great, though. So we plated them and brought our dessert.

In the end, though, it turns out that A-G was supposed to bring dessert. We're G-M: which was main dishes. . Oops.

Granny Would Be Proud Pies

2013-08-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

So my mom just sent me a cute little newsletter with a Perfect Pies! Granny Would Be Proud! pdf attached that I'd like to share.

It has helpful pictures too (I like pictures). =-)

http://homemakersmentor.s3.amazonaws.com/freebiefiles/PIES.pdf

You can sign up for your own newsletters with cool "freebies" and tips here: www.TheHomemakersMentor.com

Enjoy!

Vanilla Pound Cake

2013-08-06T14:28:00.001-07:00

So, if you read my previous post. You know that I was excited about making the vanilla pound cake I read about on Martha Stewart's site. And I was.

This recipe was so easy a ten year old could do it. At least, one claimed to in the comments. So, challenge accepted.

It's actually really cool that if you want, you can try the recipe with me. Just follow the link to the recipe in my previous post, "On The Hunt", and let's try this thing.

If you do decide to try this out, I'm going to add in tips on things I figured out the hard way, so you don't have to mess up like me.
You begin by creaming the butter and sugar. Yeah, I didn't do this so well. However, my kitchen aid was all messed up. The paddle kept hitting against the bump in the bottom of the bowl (why is that bump there, anyway?) and I had to dig up the instructions booklet and figure out how to raise it. The paddle, not the bump.

It said to get a screwdriver and tighten or loosen that middle screw in the notch. That hard to reach one? Yeah. Then it said to turn it slightly. I think it was: left to raise it, right to lower it. Well, I did turn it slightly. Like, fifty times until it almost went full circle. And ten minutes or more later, I finally got the paddle to beat the butter without bumping into the bowl.

Make sure you don't have any chunks of butter in your bowl before you move on. I guess that's a given when they said "beat until light and fluffy" but I need someone to tell it to me straight. Because I did find a stray chunk of butter at last minute (I'll show you in a sec) and it hurts the ego when something like that happens to you.

Next it says to add the eggs one at a time. This recipe requires four eggs. So before you even THINK about wanting to make the pound cake, check to see if you have enough eggs.

It said to add the eggs one at a time, "beating well after each addition". I kept my kitchen aid stirring while a cracked a egg in the bowl and waited for the mix to reach the same consistency every time before adding the next egg. I was so busy over thinking this whole "beating well" thing that I forgot to take pictures, sorry. But it really just looks like yellow snot or something. . . Oh. Sorry again, that wasn't very appetizing sounding. .

Moving on! Next comes the flour. It said to add it gradually until it was just combined and "DO NOT OVERMIX!!!!" Okay, it's written "(do not overmix)", like a meek little suggestion. But the exclamation points - and like - "overmix and die!" are what I see.

So I was maybe a little paranoid through this whole Vanilla Pound Cake process. But give me a break, a ten year old said how perfect hers was. Not that I was thinking about that the whole time. But it may have affected my subconscious.

Once it looked nice and mixed, I scraped the bowl with a spatula, making sure that everything was combined - or so I thought. Then dumped it into a crisco-and-flour coated loaf pan. (The recipe actually says butter, but I was naughty and used crisco).

Do you see it??! The picture isn't that good. But if you look closely, toward the left in the middle is a pale-ish chunk. . . of butter. I don't know how it survived, the darn thing. But it did. Unbelievable. But don't worry, I squished the heck out of it until it agreed to commit to the rest of the loaf and not be an individual anymore. Team work is necessary.

After smoothing it out with a knife, making sure it got into all the corners of the pan, I slid it into the oven, where it stayed for fifty minutes.

After fifty minutes, I slid a knife in the center and it didn't come out clean, so I left it in for ten more minutes, which I believe might've been too much.

The corners were already a threateningly dark brown. And very dark and crunchy. The loaf came away from the pan easy enough and after letting it cool I sliced it.

It actually does look like the picture, which is pretty cool, but there's a distinct dark browning happening on the corners there. So yeah. I overcooked it a bit. But that didn't mean I wasn't going to try it.

*insert big smile*

Ever since I was little we would make something called "Cafe con leche". It's translated to the oh so descriptive term meaning: coffee with milk. . . Cafe con leche sounds way smoother and attractively mysterious, doesn't it?

Cafe con lecheeee . . Oolala.

Ha, I'm done. So anyway. My Abuelita would tear up slices of just regular sandwich bread and put them in a bowl, then pour cafe con leche in there with a little sugar, cause we were kids (oh and it's decaf instant coffee, nothing weird or anything) and it would be like a bread pudding breakfast, I guess you'd describe it. Or bread cereal. Anyway. It was good.

So nowadays. I have a more adult version of it. Which is making cafe con leche in a mug and dunking sweet breads into it. Yes, it's way more mature.

Anyhow. All you do is fill a mug with milk and pop it in the microwave for a few seconds 'till it's warm.

Then you add as much coffee as you like. I don't even use a tea spoon. I'm so used to my kid version. And hey, it makes me happy, so whatever.

Then you stir and taste it to be sure it's good. I usually add sugar, but the pound cake is pretty sweet so I skipped that.

About at this time, I whined how my milk was still cold, and my mom (a more frequent cafe con leche-er than me) said I needed to put it in the microwave for a minute.

You can imagine the necessary steps I needed to repeat.

Hot enough after thirty more seconds. I then sat down with my cafe con leche and a few slices of pound cake and had a little party at the kitchen table.

And at the end of eating one slice, I found that. . .one slice was enough. This pound cake is no light dessert. You feel that one slice collide to the bottom of your stomach and fill you up. It was very thick.

It tasted good too, don't get me wrong. I just can't stop thinking that maybe if I gave it five minutes less next time, it'll be more moist and then hit perfection.

So I wouldn't call this a fail. More like a work in progress. Anyone else out there try this recipe?

On the hunt

2013-08-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

So I just wanted to confirm how I'm not being a bum in the baking world. And to tell
you how I'm on the hunt for a good pound cake recipe!

Why?

I'm hungry. And pound cake sounds really good right now. Haha, any arguments?

I've actually just now visited Martha Stewart's web site. Funny that I've never been there before. I don't know, Martha Stewart has always been . . . weird, in my opinion. Maybe because she isn't really a smiler, which makes no sense to me because she's around home-made cookies and sparkle glue all day.

I dunno. That's how my brain works. But anyway, I may find a friend in her yet.

She has a bunch of pound cake recipes!!

From the original "use one pound of flour" one, to chocolate-peanut butter, and lemon, and cream cheese.

What really got me exited were the videos where she shows you how to do stuff. I'm visual and they're so prettily made, too.

I was going to go with the "Classic Pound Cake" (they seem to all be called "classic pound cake", but the ingredients are different, so you know), because I was looking for one that didn't require a pound of everything. But then I saw in the comments, some woman said how she still liked the Vanilla Pound Cake better.

Vanilla Pound Cake? 8-D

Boom. Heck yes, I want to try the vanilla pound cake. And it only uses two cups of flour!

All I need to do is go to the store for unsalted butter and I have the ingredients for this recipe. It uses all my regular staples otherwise - eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt - which I think makes a recipe even better, and easier, when you don't need to buy some weird ingredient that neither you nor the people at the supermarket know where to find. (Hopefully that sentence comes out right, I thought about it too much.)

I read reviews for the Vanilla Pound Cake to find a ten year old commented and said how this recipe is "super easy" and "it turned out perfect".

A ten year old got it perfect. Oh it's on.

No pressure on me of course.

Facing the soup pie and turning it into lemon meringue

2013-07-13T12:07:00.002-07:00

Third time's a charm.

I know what you're thinking: gosh, can you GET OVER the stinkin' lemon meringue pie already. For goodness sake there are a million other pies to try.

No. I cannot.

You don't understand. This is personal. And, I have new ammunition: a new recipe.

It was funny how the recipe came about, because I was at a ladies fellowship function at my church. And, of course, when the conversation turns to baking, I have nothing intelligent to say, so I tell a funny story of how badly I messed something up.

And that's what I was doing. I chuckled and told one of the ladies how lemon meringue pies are my vice and I've gone two Thanksgivings in a row trying, and failing, and having to tell my family and friends that there would be no lemon meringue pie. But instead of laughing, she looked at me with such great concern, which turned into determination, and she immediately told me how she's going to send me the recipe she uses for lemon meringue pie.

She had a resolute purpose on helping me. And it was pretty catching, so here I am.

Trying. Again.

So my new friend, Lisa, had also sent me the recipe and instructions on how to make my own pie shell and pastry, but I figured I'd start easy the first time and simply baked a frozen one in the oven.

I did that first. And didn't burn it. =-)

Then, I decided I'd do everything right this time and read the whole recipe before I began. (Hehe) I took out all my ingredients, measured some so they'd be ready and on hand. And shredded my lemon peel and separated my eggs, whacking them three times with a fork so they were "lightly beaten" and put them in the heat-proof bowl.

So, via the recipe, I started by pouring my cornstarch and so much sugar that you don't even want to know into a pot and mixed it.

After you "gradually" add the water and stir, you put it on medium heat and stand there, still stirring, (because it has to be "constant") while your life wastes away.

It really feels like all you're doing is stirring water and this must be some practical joke. But after a while, globs begin to form in the bowl of your spoon, you play with them a little, and BAM the thing comes to life and thickens so quick it scares you.

You're supposed to mix this for a minute, which goes by fast, considering you spent a lifetime chained to this stove top. Then you're supposed to pour half of it into the egg yolks waiting in the bowl from before. (I believe this is so the yolks don't just boil by themselves and make Chinese egg soup the second you put them in the hot goop stuff.) You mix it, then pour it all back in the pot and mix that.

Then this is supposed to boil for another minute, which might be where I messed up, because I turned off the heat to pour the cornstarch into the yolks without leaving an open flame. So it took a little longer than usual to return to a boil once I turned the fire back on.

After that minute, you put your margarine, lemon juice, and lemon peel in and mix, then you're supposed to pour the whole thing into your pie shell and spread your meringue over the warm custard (which you've magically prepared, between stirring the custard constantly?).

The meringue thing threw me for a loop. I don't think I can make it before I make the custard, because when I did my first soup pie, the meringue was melting on the counter. I could be wrong, which might be the case, and meringue can stay on the counter forever without dying. But anyway, I had my little brother stirring the custard, while I quickly dumped all the ingredients for the meringue in my kitchen aid (whisk attachment) and turned it on. That thing works like a beauty.

In a few minutes, I had meringue ready, though I might've overdone it a bit. It was so thick that it barely spread anywhere. When I tried to spread it on the custard, after pouring the custard in the shell, it would push the custard down and make it spill out of the shell. I had to kind of cut the meringue to place it on top, then molded it into a dome.

I was having fun and made little spike designs on it then put it in the oven until the top was a light "delicate" brown.

Gosh it was beautiful.

I let it cool before putting it in the fridge, and waited until after dinner to have the moment of truth: actually cutting into and tasting it.

I was pretty nervous. I cut it and pulled the first slice out.

It was foreboding and mushy. And there were some air pockets in the meringue from where it didn't spread properly. But it was the most serve-able pie I've ever made, so I cut everyone a piece.

I'll admit. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't absolutely perfect. I was feeling pretty optimistic and was shaking with nerves the whole time, making sure I didn't mess up.

Then we tasted it. My little brother is a lemon lover. He got the first piece, inhaled it, and was quickly back for more. My dad had the second piece and said I nailed it on taste. But when my mom and I sat down and tried it, we practically cringed in unison.

It was so sweet. You had one piece and felt like a layer of sugar was sticking to the roof of your mouth and tongue. I commented on it, and a few seconds later, my mother, who clearly wasn't listening from being distracted by her own sugar experience announced, "the sweetness sticks to the pallet".

My dad and brother disagreed. But I think next time I might not put sugar in the meringue too, even though last night was the first time my little brother actually ate it. He usually pushes it to the side.

I do think I'm on to something, though. Now that I have an idea of how things'll go, a little more practice and I might actually be prepared for next thanksgiving. Watch out! =-P

Starting to ooze. .

Thank you, Lisa, for the recipe!

Lemon buzz crush

2013-06-10T11:37:00.001-07:00

So. Things came up, and I haven't been in the writing mood lately. But I've decided to tell myself to suck it up and just write.

If there are any aspiring writers out there looking for advice, mine would be: just stinkin' suck it up and write.

Best advice I've given myself, let me tell ya.

Anyhow, yesterday afternoon, we had the worship leader from my new church and his family over for lunch. It was kinda like having a celebrity over. Well, for me at least - because I'm dramatic. Anyway, on Saturday, I started feeling a little better, which was good, because I was supposed to make dessert.

It's pretty trippy actually, because I had a dream about a lemon cake with cream cheese filling and lemon icing. More like a vision. But somehow I new what kind of cake it was.

. . . Hungry for more?

I've Fallen. .

2013-04-22T21:27:00.001-07:00

I've fallen. . . From the face of the earth.

So sorry.

I very much so left you all hanging about the birthday thing. My apologies. I think the real problem was that I not responding" is fun. Just think if kids did that, if they just decided that today they weren't going to respond. And, not only that but, just to be even more irritating, they'd respond every once and a while, until boom: "not responding" again. There would be a lot of beatings at that house.
didn't have a true catastrophe to motivate me to write a blog post. And then, my laptop decided that playing "tag! I'm

I wanted to KILL my laptop.Yes. Sadly, I do admit to having some very unChristian thoughts towards it. . . I was frustrated to the point of tears, and to such an extent that the only thing that made me feel good was pulling the plug. (You know. Literally?) And then I sat there, disappointed, as it calmly went through the process of shutting down, as opposed to the dramatic bizz! black screen, I wanted. . So then I vented to a friend over text and text *beat the heck out of the darn thing* in the *backyard* and said how much I "hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate it" (Excuse my profanity) until I felt better and went and stuffed myself on crackers and chocolate.

. . . Hungry for more?

My birthday!

2013-03-21T11:27:00.001-07:00

My birthday was on Tuesday. Yup that's right, I'm so special I share birthdays with Bruce Willis. (Betcha didn't know that!) I always knew we had a connection.

My birthday was pretty awesome, because I got presents that correspond with each of my blogs (keep an eye out for those posts!). I got three different kinds of pants (From My Second Hand Closet). I got a book (If Anyone Cares. .), annd I got a hard core Kitchen Aid Stand alone mixer (this blog you're reading, syk).

And, the mixer's orange!

. . . Hungry for more?

White Chocolate Bon-bons

2013-03-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

Feel free to eat the cream, if you want.

Honestly, I wanted to make the red velvet cupcakes again. But I got some. . . Kindly dismissive answers from my dad.

He groaned aloud. "Oh please don't."

He was acting like I was making them for him. They'd actually be for my girls' bible study group, but for whatever reason, he pleaded with me to spare those poor girls the privilege of seeing the Lord face-to-face before their time.

Fine. So I made my famous white chocolate bon-bons. . I got myself into a good little system too.

. . . Hungry for more?

Georgetown's Purple Velvet cupcakes

2013-02-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

So, I made the Georgetown cupcakes the other day. . .

Haha gosh, yeah. That's the best I can do for an opening line, short as it may be.

Okay, so. First of all, I followed the recipe. . For the most part.

. . . Hungry for more?

Valentine's, cupcakes, and DC

2013-02-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

Valentine's day is almost upon us! So it's really this huge coincidence that I happened upon a site called LilSugar while researching recipes from Georgetown Cupcakes.

You just can't help it. When you're watching a show where these two sisters are making cupcakes, even if they're cussing each other out or something goes horribly wrong, you kind of flash a dumb smile and go, "hey that looks like fun!" Baking's a strangely contagious thing, I guess.

Well anyway, so I was looking for recipes by them. And struck gold.

. . . Hungry for more?

Merry Christmas! And, by the way, I hate molasses

2012-12-29T10:31:00.000-08:00

Heather flipping her hair. Don't worry,
she's away from the food.

I've been sitting around the house, wondering what to do with myself since I've been a busy body these past few days. So I figure. I might as well blog and tell all you wonderful people (um. . *squints into the darkness* marco? Marco . . Is anyone out there?) about things.

So I had that Christmas party Saturday! Before I tell you how that went though, I'll tell you about the Friday before. (Because I know you absolutely can not wait to hear about the Friday before. You're practically begging me to please, for the love of everything good and holy, tell you what I did the Friday before. Well beg no more, dear heart. I'm here for you. I'm here for you.)

As usual, I stayed up late finishing the desserts. .Yeah. .

"But how can you say that," you may be asking, "when you started so early?"

Well, well. I'm glad you asked. See, things didn't exactly go the way I planned. Which was typical. So, looking back, I should just plan THAT. And that way, things will go the way I planned. Heh, I'll try it next time.

. . . Hungry for more?

Double oven. . . not. And getting ready for a shindig

2012-12-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

So, as I told you yesterday, I moved. Whoo hurray. And I was actually getting kind of excited because our new kitchen's oven, although smaller, is a double! Yeah! I thought that was going to be really fun. Until I was informed that it wasn't actually a double oven. It's an oven on top and apparently (I say apparently because I'm an optimist and I still haven't been thoroughly convinced of this) there's a broiler on the bottom. Bo-rring. That doesn't even make sense. My old oven was an oven AND a broiler put together. I mean, come on! Who's with me on this? It may be an old house. But still. There's a possibility of it being an oven too, right? Can I hear an amen? . . Please?

I obviously have issues with this. Sorry. I'll get over it in a few years, I guess. . Well anywho. Double oven or not. I'm having a Christmas party tomorrow and I have several desserts lined up to make! I'm very excited to get started. Our kitchen is so cute -- even though I can hardly ever find what I'm looking for the first time. (My mom moved the location of the oven mitts THREE times, it was driving me crazy.)

We made a mad dash to the grocery store yesterday to find everything we needed. We only had forty-five minutes because the gardeners were supposed to come at twelve. So we sped over, came back an hour later. And they still hadn't showed up. They came at like one. So I ended up running all over the store for last minute candy canes and pretzels (trust me, I was a wreck. My hair was flying everywhere, my bangs were sticking up, I was hot and sweaty. All I needed was to bump into someone I knew to make it complete), and I did it all FOR NOTHING since they were late anyway. -_-

Well the good thing is I got everything I needed from the store except frozen puff pastry, which I couldn't find anywhere. But that's just for one recipe, so I feel pretty good.

. . . Hungry for more?

I, um, DIDN'T put sprinkles in it. .

2012-12-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

So, the reason behind my disappearance for the past, I don't know how many, months is because I've moved! Yeup. It's breaking news. Unless you've read my other blog, www.frommysecondhandcloset.blogspot.com, then it's not exactly breaking news. . But! For the rest of you, just breathe in and out. Change is good. Life is change. Things can always get better. Now smile. C'mon, smile. Gooooooood. =-) Now. Don't you feel better? =-)

Haha, okay I'm done being weird now.

So, I'm afraid you have missed a few things. Nothing real crazy. But like, for Thanksgiving, I made brownies. I know, right? I'm talking, yawn, brownies from a box, yawn. *tries to think of some way to break it to you gently*. . . Yeahh, I screwed them up.

. . . Hungry for more?

My two disast -- I mean dinners

2012-07-20T14:16:00.001-07:00

Since my mom and brothers are off to camps (my mom and older brother are staffing and my little brother's a camper), it would be just my dad and I at home. So I thought it'd be nice to clean the the house a bit and then make dinner for when my dad came home from work. I kinda saw it as housewife practice. To see how I would make do. After I've had a career as a famous creative writer and have written a vast array of stories that set fire to the hearts of the nation, both young and old; stories that inspire, evoke in even the most dullest of spirits adventure, romance, and daring feats, and take imaginations on journeys to places they have yet to dream of . . Or I'll just starve, have a million part-time jobs, write what I love, and haven't a care in the world.

Okay, sorry, returning from the rabbit trail. . Tuesday was my first disas -- dinner. The plan was to make chicken sandwiches, until I realized we didn't have bread. So, a good little house wife in training is always flexible, I'll make chicken strips with french fries instead.

. . . Hungry for more?

"I would like chocolate cookies"

2012-04-18T13:46:00.002-07:00

That dog likes heights

I was doing my schoolwork today and saw my little brother, who obviously didn't have anything better to do, sitting around. (Sorry the picture to the right isn't the best.) So I came to his rescue by telling him I would like chocolate cookies with maybe some sort of filling.

"I don't know how to make cookies." Was his excuse.
"Well learn." Aren't I helpful?
I have a way of selling people on "delicious, mouth watering chocolate cookies with rich and creamy vanilla icing." Eventually, he caught up to me as I was coming out of my room.
"I'm ready to make the cookies," he said.
"Good, I'd like chocolate ones. Oh! And if we have chocolate chips, that'd be good too."
"Um. I thought you were going to teach me."
I told him to find a recipe. But when he asked me where he could find a cookbook (there's a huge bookshelf in our front room, you can't miss it), I realized we'd need more help than I thought. But, genius that I am, I thought up a brilliant idea.
"Go find a box of chocolate cake mix," I said, then left him in the kitchen with a confused look on his face. A minute later, I returned with a proud grin, a cookbook in hand, and a crooked chefs hat on my head.

. . . Hungry for more?

Happy happy birthday from all of us to you

2012-02-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

My dad's birthday was here once again. And this year. . . I nailed it.
It was beautiful.

He didn't want a German chocolate this year so you'll see a new type of cake with "Papi" on it.
Devil's food cake with white frosting. Yum!

Even though I did well I do have a story -- because my mom had some last-minute card buying to do. And we needed an stealthy excuse to go out, without giving our intentions away.

. . . Hungry for more?

Heart attack on toast

2012-01-12T23:38:00.000-08:00

Sadly, I haven't been able to bake at all lately. But that doesn't mean I've successfully avoided cooking mistakes.

No. I just have that skill.

So, I have to tell you about this horrid breakfast I was able to put together one morning.

. . . Hungry for more?

Well what do ya know

2011-12-30T00:06:00.000-08:00

As you know, I hadn't the slightest idea of what to do for Christmas Eve desserts. It was the day before baking that I magically came up with a faint plan.
Hmmm.
You know what? The plan was so faint I don't even remember what it was. I barely remember anything, actually. So I'll start by telling you what I made.

. . . Hungry for more?

Help!

2011-12-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

Because of crazy finals, I haven't been able to try any new recipes for Christmas Eve this year. I thought I'd have time between Thanksgiving and now, but here I am, less than a week away, with zippo.

One word: help.

I don't want to repeat any desserts. But do I have any choice right now? What do I do? I have to produce before Saturday!

If there's anyone out there, I could really use some Rose-proof recipes. Anyone. Anyone at all?

Man, just when I thought I wouldn't have to hit the books for a couple weeks, this comes up. . . . . Where'd I put that cookbook anyhow?