In the last few days, weeks, months, there have been quite a few tricky decisions needing to be made. Thankfully not just by me, but by some of my closest family and friends. "Tricky" is a nice way of saying Oh-My-God-What-Should-I-Do!!!??? Most of the decisions have been made, at least for now. Now we're all at the point when we just sit back and wait to see how it all unfolds. We'll call this period the unfolding part. This part can be just as tricky as the part when you have to actually make the decision, but it's also kind of exciting.
For the last several years, my parents have talked about moving. On Monday, they finally are. This was a tough decision because they live in a great house where we have all shared a million memories. They aren't moving because of a job change or anything like that, but they just feel like it's time to do something different. I think that just wanting to do something different can be one of the harder decisions to make, mainly because other people just don't get it. Their new house is super nice and in a great neighborhood. They can get to Target in 3 minutes flat, which is really different than the 30-minute drive it has always taken. I know it's silly that Target is what I mention in a post about my parents moving to a new house, but my sister and I have created a sort of tradition of going to Target and for coffee on weekend nights whenever we are both home, so it matters. I'm trying to figure out whether or not I'm sad that they are moving out of a house that I grew up in. Tons of stuff happened in that house, and if I stop and mull over it, I would probably get all nostalgic and sad. I'm choosing not to do that though, and instead I'm really excited about all of the stuff that will happen in this new house.
One of my best pals had to make a decision about moving across the country recently. I'm not sad at all about this one because she's going to be our new roomie, but I'm sure that deciding to move away from home has been more than tricky for her. But it also has the potential to be a huge, life-changing adventure which probably outweighs the trickiness, though it's still scary. I just read this post recently about moving across the country. Even if it was a scary decision to make, it will most likely turn into something exciting.
And then there are the decisions I've been making that include all kinds of things like whether or not to apply for different jobs (and not getting them even when I do), what kind of timeline to map out for my dissertation study and writing, what to cook for dinner (ha!), and a couple of other things that are actually unbelievably tricky. For me, making decisions is a process that involves a long period of freaking out about what to do. The most ridiculous part of this process is that from the very beginning, I know the decision that I'll make in the end. However, I still have to go through the motions of freaking out, making lists, asking people their opinions, freaking out some more, calling my mom, calling my sister, driving Will crazy, talking to strangers, crying in front of people I didn't expect to cry in front of, and then, miraculously, I accept the fact that I made a decision already, months earlier. Really, the only thing this doesn't apply to is what to cook for dinner. That's not such a process, though maybe if it were I'd weigh less, which would be neat.
Here's my lesson about making decisions that are tricky and life-changing: Most likely, you already know what you want to do, which is also most likely the right thing to do or you wouldn't be wanting to do it in the first place. Hmmm, not sure that makes sense. Let me try again: Trust yourself.
And here's the thing about taking risks: If the risk is to do something different, even if it does change your life forever and isn't the most predictable or expected thing you could do, do it anyway. Because really, what's the worst that can happen? You have fun, you learn something, and you have a whole new story to tell.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Watch This!
In my real life, I am a literacy coach. Along with my other literacy coach pals, I used this video in some teacher training a few years ago when we were trying to convince teachers to stop doing round robin or popcorn reading. You know, where every kid has to read a paragraph? It's painful for all involved. This is the best proof of that and SO funny.
I had to post it because with all of the honey-related talk in my house, I keep making this joke and no one (Will or the dogs) gets it. I keep saying "the be-ar lick-ed-a the ho-nee" over and over though and cracking myself up.
Give it a watch.
I had to post it because with all of the honey-related talk in my house, I keep making this joke and no one (Will or the dogs) gets it. I keep saying "the be-ar lick-ed-a the ho-nee" over and over though and cracking myself up.
Give it a watch.
Honey
In the last couple of weeks, the bees have started to earn their keep: honey from my backyard. It's seriously tasty and light compared to store-bought honey, and I really think it tastes like apple juice, but that might just be me.
Last weekend, Will realized that a few frames in one hive were full of honey but something was going on (insert beekeeping jargon here) that caused the bees to swarm and leave the hive (but they came back later), and if he didn't get the honey out, the hive would probably get robbed by other bees. Yep, they really do that. Thieves. So he lugged this heavy thing of frames into the kitchen and started harvesting (Is that the right terminology? No clue.)the honey. I sat at the table and chewed on my nails because in my imagination this was going to result in the kitchen being covered in honey. I mean, can you even imagine cleaning honey off of faux brick? (We've really got to renovate the kitchen soon. I'm obsessing about those fake bricks.)Surprisingly though, the process was not that messy and we ended up with several jars of honey.
Before the next batch, Will got a honey extractor which makes the job much easier. First, you have to uncap the hives (I think that's what it's called.) It looks like this:
Then you put the frames in the extractor and spin it. The honey is extracted and drips out the bottom into a bucket. Then, you let it sit for a day in the heat, all the leftover wax floats up, and you fill jars by pouring off the bottom. Here are a couple of snaps.
Will has been selling the jars, but I get dibs on as much as I want, so this afternoon, I made honey cupcakes. (OF COURSE!) I did some googling and apparently back in 2009 the executive pastry chef at the White House made some honey cupcakes too. I used his recipe:
Bill Yosses's White House Honey Cupcakes
Ingredients
1/4 cup softened butter
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
For the Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup honey
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake papers.
2. In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, on high speed. Mix in honey, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla until blended, on medium speed.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, then mix into the batter until just blended. Scoop the batter into the cupcake cups evenly.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes; cupcakes are done when tops spring back lightly to the touch.
To prepare icing
In a small sauce pan, whisk ingredients over medium heat until sugars dissolve together; keep whisking to avoid clumps. Using a spoon, drizzle over the tops of cupcakes, or carefully pour over cupcakes.
Makes one dozen cupcakes.
I did not use this icing recipe though because I didn't want a glaze. I clearly wanted major frosting. I decided that peanut butter icing made the most sense, so I used this recipe which I kind of made up after looking at a bunch of recipes online:
1/4 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1-2 cups powdered sugar
1-2 T milk
You kind of have to play with the amount of the sugar and milk until you get the consistency you want. Then I chopped up some peanuts to sprinkle on top.
The picture I took of them was lame so you'll have to picture it in your mind. I will say though that the cupcakes poofed the perfect amount so they had a nice rounded top. I hate a flat cupcake, but these turned out just right. They were pretty tasty and would be good plain sans icing as a muffin, so that's an option too.
Last weekend, Will realized that a few frames in one hive were full of honey but something was going on (insert beekeeping jargon here) that caused the bees to swarm and leave the hive (but they came back later), and if he didn't get the honey out, the hive would probably get robbed by other bees. Yep, they really do that. Thieves. So he lugged this heavy thing of frames into the kitchen and started harvesting (Is that the right terminology? No clue.)the honey. I sat at the table and chewed on my nails because in my imagination this was going to result in the kitchen being covered in honey. I mean, can you even imagine cleaning honey off of faux brick? (We've really got to renovate the kitchen soon. I'm obsessing about those fake bricks.)Surprisingly though, the process was not that messy and we ended up with several jars of honey.
Before the next batch, Will got a honey extractor which makes the job much easier. First, you have to uncap the hives (I think that's what it's called.) It looks like this:
Then you put the frames in the extractor and spin it. The honey is extracted and drips out the bottom into a bucket. Then, you let it sit for a day in the heat, all the leftover wax floats up, and you fill jars by pouring off the bottom. Here are a couple of snaps.
Will has been selling the jars, but I get dibs on as much as I want, so this afternoon, I made honey cupcakes. (OF COURSE!) I did some googling and apparently back in 2009 the executive pastry chef at the White House made some honey cupcakes too. I used his recipe:
Bill Yosses's White House Honey Cupcakes
Ingredients
1/4 cup softened butter
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
For the Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup honey
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake papers.
2. In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, on high speed. Mix in honey, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla until blended, on medium speed.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, then mix into the batter until just blended. Scoop the batter into the cupcake cups evenly.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes; cupcakes are done when tops spring back lightly to the touch.
To prepare icing
In a small sauce pan, whisk ingredients over medium heat until sugars dissolve together; keep whisking to avoid clumps. Using a spoon, drizzle over the tops of cupcakes, or carefully pour over cupcakes.
Makes one dozen cupcakes.
I did not use this icing recipe though because I didn't want a glaze. I clearly wanted major frosting. I decided that peanut butter icing made the most sense, so I used this recipe which I kind of made up after looking at a bunch of recipes online:
1/4 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1-2 cups powdered sugar
1-2 T milk
You kind of have to play with the amount of the sugar and milk until you get the consistency you want. Then I chopped up some peanuts to sprinkle on top.
The picture I took of them was lame so you'll have to picture it in your mind. I will say though that the cupcakes poofed the perfect amount so they had a nice rounded top. I hate a flat cupcake, but these turned out just right. They were pretty tasty and would be good plain sans icing as a muffin, so that's an option too.
Jimmy Buffett Knows What's Up
Why hello, new friend...
This is our newest roommate, a Margaritaville Margarita Maker. (Please excuse the canister of oatmeal and faux brick of my kitchen. Love it! Not.) It's maybe the coolest thing we've ever purchased. Ever. I do know that Jimmy Buffett most likely did not invent this machine, though I wish he did. He has people who do that for him I'm sure, but he probably would appreciate that we now believe it's five o'clock all day long.
After a couple of years at the beach of watching me and our other new roommate, Amanda, use cheap plastic blenders to make daquiris and pina coladas (which last year turned into a burned out blender that smelled so bad we had to air out the house), Will decided this should be our summer purchase. It has been worth every penny. It's smarter than a regular bartender (well, maybe not, but it's smarter than any of the annual beach trip attendees when it comes to making a drink at least). It has two very important switches. The first is how many servings you want--1, 2, or 3. The second is the type of drink--ritas, daquiris, slides, or smoothies. (Yep, I can even make smoothies. This machine doesn't require alcohol, though it seems like it should.) Then you put whatever you want in the blender and flip the switch. The machine knows how much ice to shave and blends it up to perfection.
I should go on QVC or something and promote this thing. If you want me to bring it to your house for a party, just call me. I'll be there!
This is our newest roommate, a Margaritaville Margarita Maker. (Please excuse the canister of oatmeal and faux brick of my kitchen. Love it! Not.) It's maybe the coolest thing we've ever purchased. Ever. I do know that Jimmy Buffett most likely did not invent this machine, though I wish he did. He has people who do that for him I'm sure, but he probably would appreciate that we now believe it's five o'clock all day long.
After a couple of years at the beach of watching me and our other new roommate, Amanda, use cheap plastic blenders to make daquiris and pina coladas (which last year turned into a burned out blender that smelled so bad we had to air out the house), Will decided this should be our summer purchase. It has been worth every penny. It's smarter than a regular bartender (well, maybe not, but it's smarter than any of the annual beach trip attendees when it comes to making a drink at least). It has two very important switches. The first is how many servings you want--1, 2, or 3. The second is the type of drink--ritas, daquiris, slides, or smoothies. (Yep, I can even make smoothies. This machine doesn't require alcohol, though it seems like it should.) Then you put whatever you want in the blender and flip the switch. The machine knows how much ice to shave and blends it up to perfection.
I should go on QVC or something and promote this thing. If you want me to bring it to your house for a party, just call me. I'll be there!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Spelling Lesson
There are two words that I cannot spell, no matter how hard I try: vinaigrette and balsamic. I spell them like this:
vinagerette
balsalmic
I think it’s because I’m from the south. Down here, we say vin-a-ger-ette and bal-sal-mic. Makes sense. The English language is exhausting.
So today in honor of those words, I want to share my favorite vinaigrette recipe that does not include balsamic.
This recipe makes enough for one salad, so double it up if you are making rabbit food for a friend.
The Best Vinegar-ette of All Time Vinaigrette
2-3 T white wine vinegar
1 t Dijon mustard
1 t olive oil
A little salt and pepper
A little oregano
*add a pinch of sugar if it’s too tangy for you
Mix it up, shake it up, eat it up.
vinagerette
balsalmic
I think it’s because I’m from the south. Down here, we say vin-a-ger-ette and bal-sal-mic. Makes sense. The English language is exhausting.
So today in honor of those words, I want to share my favorite vinaigrette recipe that does not include balsamic.
This recipe makes enough for one salad, so double it up if you are making rabbit food for a friend.
The Best Vinegar-ette of All Time Vinaigrette
2-3 T white wine vinegar
1 t Dijon mustard
1 t olive oil
A little salt and pepper
A little oregano
*add a pinch of sugar if it’s too tangy for you
Mix it up, shake it up, eat it up.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Secret's in the Sauce
I've been making homemade pizza for a long time. When I started, it was a sad kitchen experience consisting of Boboli crusts, Ragu sauce, bag cheese and pepperoni. I've evolved though...thank goodness.
Last year, I figured out how to make dough, which puts a Boboli to shame. Here's a link to the recipe I use. Scroll down and look where it says Pizza!
This year, I learned to make my own sauce. I went through a phase where I was convinced that Trader Joe's had the best pizza sauce, and they probably do if you have to stick with jar sauce. If you aren't committed to the jar, try this:
Pizza Sauce
1 large can whole roma tomatoes (I get whichever brand has an Italian-sounding name.)
1/4 of a white onion, chopped
1 T minced garlic (This came out of a jar, but if you like to mince your own, go for it. Maybe I'll get there one day.)
1 T oregano
salt & pepper to taste
1 t red pepper flakes
1 t olive oil
Heat olive oil in a pot, add onions, garlic, oregano, salt/pep, and pepper flakes. After 2-3 minutes, drain the tomatoes, and then throw them in the pot. With a knife, chop the tomatoes up as they cook. You could probably chop them before you put them in, but I just chop them up once they are in the pot. Keep the heat high and let it all come to a boil. Stir and mash around the tomatoes every so often until the liquid has cooked out and you have a chunky "sauce" to spread around on your pizza.
*You could probably use a can of diced tomatoes, but I like the whole ones best.
To make a margherita pizza, spread this sauce on your dough, top with pieces of fresh mozz. Bake at 500 for 10-12 minutes. After you take it out of the oven, top with fresh basil leaves until they wilt. Slice it up. Done and done.
Last year, I figured out how to make dough, which puts a Boboli to shame. Here's a link to the recipe I use. Scroll down and look where it says Pizza!
This year, I learned to make my own sauce. I went through a phase where I was convinced that Trader Joe's had the best pizza sauce, and they probably do if you have to stick with jar sauce. If you aren't committed to the jar, try this:
Pizza Sauce
1 large can whole roma tomatoes (I get whichever brand has an Italian-sounding name.)
1/4 of a white onion, chopped
1 T minced garlic (This came out of a jar, but if you like to mince your own, go for it. Maybe I'll get there one day.)
1 T oregano
salt & pepper to taste
1 t red pepper flakes
1 t olive oil
Heat olive oil in a pot, add onions, garlic, oregano, salt/pep, and pepper flakes. After 2-3 minutes, drain the tomatoes, and then throw them in the pot. With a knife, chop the tomatoes up as they cook. You could probably chop them before you put them in, but I just chop them up once they are in the pot. Keep the heat high and let it all come to a boil. Stir and mash around the tomatoes every so often until the liquid has cooked out and you have a chunky "sauce" to spread around on your pizza.
*You could probably use a can of diced tomatoes, but I like the whole ones best.
To make a margherita pizza, spread this sauce on your dough, top with pieces of fresh mozz. Bake at 500 for 10-12 minutes. After you take it out of the oven, top with fresh basil leaves until they wilt. Slice it up. Done and done.
Cupcake Biz
Things have been rocking in terms of cupcake baking. In the last month, I've had several customers...the kind who pay me! I decided yesterday, though, that I should do a little more research on ingredients and the money I'm spending to see if I can actually turn a profit. I'm still working on that. My life revolves around words/letters, not numbers, so these types of real-world math problems take me days to solve. Not necessarily because I can't figure it out but because it brings back bad middle-school-math memories, and I feel like I'm getting a case of the hives.
I looked into a couple of other cupcake places, and it seems that $30/dozen is a trend. That seems high to me, but maybe that's just because I would never pay that much for cupcakes. I carried on about this yesterday, and Will reminded me that it's because I actually know how to/enjoy making cupcakes. If I didn't, I might drop $30/dozen. Hmmm. What do you think?
Here are a couple of the latest cakes:
Banana Split Cupcakes using this recipe.
Here's a rainbow cake.
These have been all over the blogosphere lately it seems. All you do is divide up some light-colored batter into separate bowls and add food coloring. Then, layer the colors in each cupcake cup. On the interweb, the colors look perfectly layered. I used a gel color rather than liquid. This could be why mine did not turn out in the layered fashion but instead with more of a tie-dyed effect. My colors were pink, yellow, green, blue, and purple. That's all I had and as close to ROYGBIV as I gould get. I used the same banana cupcake recipe from above, minus the fillings. They tasted great, and if you are around the age of six, you'd probably be impressed.
I looked into a couple of other cupcake places, and it seems that $30/dozen is a trend. That seems high to me, but maybe that's just because I would never pay that much for cupcakes. I carried on about this yesterday, and Will reminded me that it's because I actually know how to/enjoy making cupcakes. If I didn't, I might drop $30/dozen. Hmmm. What do you think?
Here are a couple of the latest cakes:
Banana Split Cupcakes using this recipe.
Here's a rainbow cake.
These have been all over the blogosphere lately it seems. All you do is divide up some light-colored batter into separate bowls and add food coloring. Then, layer the colors in each cupcake cup. On the interweb, the colors look perfectly layered. I used a gel color rather than liquid. This could be why mine did not turn out in the layered fashion but instead with more of a tie-dyed effect. My colors were pink, yellow, green, blue, and purple. That's all I had and as close to ROYGBIV as I gould get. I used the same banana cupcake recipe from above, minus the fillings. They tasted great, and if you are around the age of six, you'd probably be impressed.
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