Week One

Well, week one has started strong. After the oven debacle, I thought perhaps I was doomed, but the first batch is done, and they turned out pretty good! Ryan bought a tailgating trailer affectionately called the Mobile Man Cave(MMC) and we hosted an I-Cubs tailgate that I brought them to. Across the board positive reviews. I started with a Chocolate/Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcake. I did sub butter for shortening in the recipe, which worked out fine. Over all, people requested additional frosting, but that was most of my feedback. It's actually not frosting at all, but this Nestle Quick & Peanut Butter concoction that my mother used to make when I was little, reworked a little to make a frosting. Unfortunately, being a family recipe, it's less 1 cup of sugar, 2 Tablespoons of chocolate, and more a little bit of this, a little bit of that. When I try it again, I'll keep track of how much I'm adding of everything and try to put one together. Now for my changes, I've always found cupcakes to be a little too light and airy, so I will be attempting something more dense and rich, like a muffin. When I was researching how to do this, I discovered a lot of conflicting advice: Use more oil, use less liquid, add flour, remove 1/2 cup of flour. Confusing to say the least. I've decided the one I thought made the most sense was to add eggs, so that's what I'm going with. We'll see how it goes! Sweet times, Sara

early set backs

Well, I did admit I'm a novice, right? Just when I'm ready to get started, ingredients purchased, equipment acquired, I stopped myself before I could even begin. You see, it all began when I was preparing a home cooked meal for Ryan and myself, otherwise known as frozen pizza. Now, because I don't have an ounce of self control in my body, I like to top off my Tombstone with extra cheese, and on this particular night, when I pulled the pizza pan out of the oven, I must have set it on something plastic on the counter. The offending orange disc (perhaps a chip dip lid, don't judge our culinary choices,) stuck to the bottom of the pan when I was putting it back into the oven and proceeded to melt all over the inside of the oven. Now Ryan, being the sweet capable man that he is, did get a lot of the mess taken care of, but I can't seem to get it completely off the racks, and every time I turn the heat on, it melts off ad into the bottom of the oven again. I'm gonna make some lucky man really happy one day, aren't I? Sweet times, Sara

getting started

I'm Sara, and I need some new goals. Four and a half years ago, I started to drastically alter my life. I went from a boozing, apartment renting, roommate having, single waitress, (not a complaint or sign of sad life, I loved being a boozy, renting, single waitress/roommate,) to falling for a man with prospects. This was new for me, and it made me want some prospects of my own. Flash forward to today, and I now find that I've traded my best friend-roommate for the love of my life, Ryan, and all his prospects, my rented apartment for the condo we own, with our two dogs Winston Churchill & Betty Davis, my booze for – ok, there's still a fair amount of booze, but it ends earlier; and my waitressing job for the bistro I opened a few years ago. In the process of all this change, I've been busy, too busy. I've lost all my hobbies – my personal growth – in my professional growth. All my plans, learning to knit, joining a book club, running a 5K, none of them have been accomplished. This changes today. I'm starting with cupcakes. Although I can't cook a lick, I've discovered I'm actually a pretty good baker. Not great, but good, and I'm about to get better. I'm going to perfect my cupcakes, week by week, style by style, one delicious morsel after another. I'll go for one year, and 52 types of cakes from now, I should have one hell of a recipe, a new skill, a new hobby, and ideally a new goal to start on next year. However, I need to set some boundaries. I'll tackle a new type of cupcake each week, baking two batches each week, one at the start and one at the end. Each one is from scratch only, no cake mix starters here. And there have to be some changes in the recipe from the beginning of the week to the end, trying to improve, trying to find the best methods, so advice is welcome. However, do you think I need to create every ingredient? For instance, I have some cheesecake cupcakes with apricot preserves that I'm going to try this fall, do I need to make the preserves? Or does it vary by the difficulty/simplicity of said ingredient? I have another hazelnut truffle recipe, and I wouldn't even know where to begin with making those. And many call for graham crakers, which I can make, but it seems like an awful waste of time. And there's no giving up. Even if the only readers are Lynn, Marie, Baronness and my mother, I still keep going. See you Monday.