Just a Blue Moon and I

     Today at work was a "catch up on meetings/paperwork/getting things done" day for me, and therefore my students. While I was leading IEP meetings, working on paperwork, and getting caught up from all our snow days, my students were also catching up on finishing work they hadn't finished from this past week! Woo woooo productivity!

     Seeing as how that's the theme of the day, I thought I'd catch up and write a megaton of posts tonight. Or just 2. Also my husband is busy with work stuff this evening so it's just me. Correction: me and a blue moon. We are here, trying to keep ourselves occupied after dinner. So blog posts are just rolling in.

     I've got more food to show you!

Please enjoy these camouflage cupcake liners

Notice the crumb trail. I'm a mess.

     These are some of the best cupcakes I have ever made. And while you're scrolling through this post, looking for pictures of the rest of the dozen that I made....well they're gone. I ate them. Or shared a few. But mostly I ate them. I just ate this one, actually, immediately after I uploaded the pictures.

     Red Wine and Chocolate Cupcakes, with a "Red Wine" buttercream. These were my submission for last week's baking challenge.They are heavenly. Decadent but not too heavy, rich but not too dry, and the frosting is just sweet enough to balance out the robust red wine, chocolate, and cinnamon combination in the cupcake. I mixed these up with a hand mixer, since that's all I have, although the recipe says to cream with a stand mixer (Psh). Also, I think I'd want these to taste a little more chocolatey, so I might add 1/2 tsp. cinnamon next time, instead of 1/4 tsp. But that's just me! I still thought these were wholly scrumptious, though, so maybe I'll chicken out and keep the recipe the same the next time I make them...




     Here is a cupcake with my "Blue Moon" towel. I am an avid Manchester City Football (Futbol) fan. I figured I'd put the towel in the picture since I'm drinking a Blue Moon, and because I'm just weird when I'm at home alone on a Friday night.

You can find the recipe over at Tide and Thyme! I'll copy it below as well. Eat up!!

Chocolate and Red Wine Cupcakes

Recipe makes and frosts a dozen cupcakes

8 Tbsp butter, room temperature
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
3/4 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

For the frosting:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Then add in the egg and egg yolk, as well as the vanilla, beat well until combined.

Add in 1/2 of the dry ingredients, followed by the wine, then the remainder of the dry ingredients. Mix until well combined, scraping the bottom of the bowl if necessary.

Divide batter evenly into lined muffin pan. Bake for 18 minutes then remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

In the meantime, to make the frosting, whip the butter until light and fluffy. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar, as well as the wine and vanilla. Beat until no lumps remain. Frost cupcakes as desired.

Chapter 1: I'll probably forget about posting again for at least a week...

The World, as seen from somewhere in Jamaica (old honeymoon photo)

Hello world! 


      I have long wanted to begin an online presence to share art, poetry, ideas, recipes, or whatever else my little heart desired, but I've run into roadblocks. Not enough time, not having a functioning computer, forgetting to post, and, let's be real, a lack of material. I do not have the most interesting thoughts!

      Most of my thoughts revolve around a running to-do list in my brain, where my synapses are constantly sending a signal to one place and then another. It sounds like "don't forget to do laundry if you want your favorite running socks for your run tomorrow...I should actually put some socks on since my feet are cold!...speaking of cold, it will be spring and summer before you know it...oooh summer project list!...oooh summer travel list!...ooh lack of funds for most of the ideas that just got put on those lists....sigh...." and continues pretty much until I fall asleep. In the words of one of my good college friends, "WOMP." 

A "Work in Progress" snapshot.
Much Work.  Such focus. 

  So, now that the introduction to this blog is as thrilling as any I could spend months tweaking and working on, let's get started with material I DO have on hand. I've been participating in a "baking challenge" this year. Basically, I follow the 52weeksofbaking subreddit and each week they post a new challenge for the week. Could be an ingredient, maybe a theme, maybe a type of baked good; whatever it is I have a week to come up with my submission and upload a photo. 

      What reward is there? Is it a contest? I get these questions a lot. The answer is: several months ago I was griping to my husband about how the frosting on these cookies I made just did NOT look the way I wanted to. I had a white whine moment where I was all "these look SO ugly. This is not what I had pictured! HOW is this possible, I did all the things I should have done to make these turn out so cute, but they just look fugly. FUGLY!!" He did the traditional husband eyeroll and went straight into a very parental "Well, if you want to get good at decorating cookies, you're just going to have to practice more often." First, my brain did that synapse-running thing "I don't need practice! This is not a difficult task...although this is probably the 2nd time I've used this frosting and decorated sugar cookies with it...okay but really he just wants me to make cookies and cupcakes more often and he doesn't actually care what they look like..." etc. But approximately 30 seconds into that I thought, "Well, he's right!" 

1st photo attempt...The salt & pepper
are hiding a mousetrap. EW. What
was I thinking?!

     Hence the challenge. As the New Year began I was thinking of what my resolution would be. My resolution is usually something I decide to spend the year accomplishing. One year I set out to find facial cleansing products that did their job without destroying my skin or causing breakouts. One year it was do a better job cleaning out my closet (and bookshelves and whatever else I owned) and donating. This year, I decided, it would be to a) make better use of half the baking pans and trinkets I own but don't use very often, and b) try new baking things and get better at things I already do (such as decorating cookies).  This week's challenge was to  bake something that went with the theme of Chinese (or Lunar) New Year. I decided to make fortune cookies! 

      I used this recipe from ifood.tv mostly because the video was very helpful in learning to fold the cookies. The first round was definitely a little tricky, but after that it just got easier with each batch! This was definitely a fun challenge. Also a good snow day project- since you only make 3 at a time, well, it took a good part of the day to get them all done (It's not included on that website but one batch made about 45 cookies). 

Beautiful fortune cookies! Much better photo op. 

      I really should have ironed that cloth before taking those photos. Oops. So there's the first post. You got an idea of why you probably don't want to read this blog EVER again, then maybe I woo-ed you with a few nice photos (and one horrible one. I'm trying to show how multifaceted I am. Is it working? Guys?). And now you are thinking "Well, maybe the next post will be more graceful. I'll stick around to find out." Saaaaame thought my mother has had about me for 26 years, folks. But I'd appreciate it if you'd check out the next post just to check! Thanks for reading!