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