Where does the time go?

I haven't been great about posting.  One would think with unemployment I'd have all sorts of free time, but my schedule at the Y is extremely spread out, so I'll teach a class, have one- or two-hour break, teach another class, etc.  It can get old, but at least they're paid hours.  Needless to say, those one- or two-hour breaks get eaten up pretty quickly.  One of these days I'll get back into a full-time job with a regular schedule...

Until then, I find myself regularly checking blogs.  One blog I've recently discovered & check obsessively is Refrigerator Soup.  It's a blog which features new recipes everyday - they're only requirements to be featured on the site are "great recipes accompanied by great photography."  They keep their displays limited to 40 per day to ensure the recipes will be displayed for a decent amount of time.  Looking through the various recipes, you'll see submissions by blogs from all over the world - fantastic!  Lots of variety too - if you like vegan, raw, gluten-free, whatever, you can probably find it here.  If you like to cook, bake, or make a mess in the kitchen while pretending to be a "cook" or "baker" (that's my forte), check out this website.  It's a great way to find new recipes & stumble upon recipe blogs that you may find becoming a personal favorite.

It's the site that brought me to a recipe for the breakfast pastry I'm shown making in the top two pictures.

Banana syrup(!?) and Tiramisu

I was at the store recently & happened upon this:

Banana syrup??  I was skeptical at first, but I read the ingredients list: white grape juice concentrate, banana puree, and xanthan gum (thickener).  I love bananas & thought this stuff would be excellent on pancakes (or ice cream!).  So I purchased said banana syrup, excitedly ran home, & the next morning whipped up some pancakes to try with banana syrup.  Below is the final product:

It was delicious!  I heated up the syrup & poured it over the pancakes, topping off with some walnuts.  Very tasty & a great way to add a lil' something different.

My next adventure was tiramisu for a beer-tasting party at a friend's house.  I found this recipe & decided to give it a go.  Steve had the excellent idea of replacing the coffee with his recently kegged homebrew stout - what an excellent idea!  We were going to a beer-tasting, so it was only appropriate to bring a beer-inspired dessert.  I also managed to find mascarpone & lady fingers at Safeway.  In our podunk town of Sheridan, WY, I was mighty surprised.  Especially for the mascarpone find.  A few pictures from the making (of course I forgot to take a picture of the final product, although it looked like the exact same as the website):

I think the lady fingers kind of look like fat worms in the top picture.

Close-up of second layer of ladyfingers before last topping of the mascarpone mixture (which, by the by, is de.li.cious.)

As our "kids," the pups get to help clean the beaters every so often.

Yum yum yum.

Overall, I was very happy with the recipe.  Guilty side note:  I ended up doubling the amount of the cream mixture but used the same size pan.  :)  Let's just say I didn't feel the first layer was quite enough, so I kept adding more until I had to make a whole other batch of the cream.  Also, you'll see I was using a springform pan.  Not for any particular reason other than I don't have any baking dishes.  Note to self: put baking dishes on wedding registry.

The only complaint I have stems from the lady fingers & I'm almost 99.9% positive the issue came from the quality of lady fingers.  I think they weren't great quality - they already looked wilted &; pathetic in the packaging.  Instead of blending seamlessly with the cream mixture, they kind of tasted like soggy cake & I barely dipped them in the stout/Irish cream mixture.  They definitely should not have tasted as soggy as they did after such a quick dip.  I'm fairly certain a better quality lady finger - one a bit drier & perhaps less "puffy" - would do the trick.

However, this dessert was very easy to make, and that, I like.

Rainbow Cupcakes, take two

As you might recall, I attempted rainbow cupcakes a few weeks ago with little success.  I decided to give them another go for a New Year's party.  Again, I used this batter recipe, but also tried the frosting recipe.  As you can see below, even trying a new technique with the batter (completely covering the previous layer), they didn't turn out as it shows on the website.  However, they did turn out better looking than the last round. The frosting, on the other hand, was a smashing success!  To keep the frosting festive, I followed the frosting technique from here.  Everyone at the party loved the look of the cupcakes.  I'm not sure if I'll continue trying rainbow batter, but the frosting is definitely to be used again.

New Years & Workouts

I'm not one for New Years resolutions - I never follow through with them, so why bother?  I think it's great if someone sets new goals for themselves, but working at a gym, it's apparent the failure rate of New Years resolutions.  It's sad, but true.  Everyone vows - no, swears - they'll get healthier.  The gym becomes absolute mayhem.  The early morning hours & evening hours (esp between 4-6 pm) are generally busier times, but after January 1, they become insane.  For those that workout on a regular basis, it is incredibly frustrating.  We show up at our regular times to workout, only to find the classes full & machines taken.  Give or take 1-2 months & everything begins to quiet down.  I wish people would make resolutions & stick to them or not make them at all.  I don't mind the gym being busy & will adjust my workout schedule if it were to be like that permanently (which would be great!)....but the chaos created with "Resolution Warriors" is annoying.

I have not planned any New Years resolutions, but instead continue to work on making a life together with Steve.  In my free time (at this point, I sadly have A LOT of free time), I'm attempting to work on my kitchen skills - baking & cooking.  *Gasp!*  You heard it folks.  I want to become comfortable with whipping up a yummy homemade meal without thought.  Part of this stems from a desire to eat from a more natural menu.  The key word here is homemade.  Just knowing how it was made & controlling what goes into the dish makes it that much healthier for you.  I would like to get more into menu planning so we always have a homemade meal for dinner & leftovers for lunch.  With today's crazy society & busy lives, it's so often we won't plan anything for dinner & by the time we're ready to eat, we're reaching for the same meals over & over; I want us to have more variety.  Variety is the spice of life, after all.  It's a work in progress, folks.

My kitchen skills have improved exponentially & I noticed the best thing in the kitchen is to be confident & comfortable.  I don't mind reading a recipe for baking, but when it comes to cooking, I prefer to read the recipe for a general idea of directions & then take off on my own.  If I'm too busy walking back & forth to read the recipe, measure ingredients, re-read the recipe, & so on, I get too stressed & it all goes to hell.  Instead, I let the food take over & go with the flow.

Here's to a new year of continued prosperity (a job would help, but at least we're prosperous in love), health & happiness!!  And continued "fun" & adventures in the kitchen.


Thurs
50 min self-taught "cycling class" (No classes until the New Year, so I hopped on an upright bike at the gym & did my own)  :)
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Jumping pull-ups & dips

Baking FAIL

Steve's birthday is on Monday & I have a work meeting/Christmas party at the Y the same night.  I signed up to bring a dessert & figured it would give me an excuse to bake something for Steve's birthday.  I came across this recipe for rainbow cupcakes.  FUN!  How cute do they look?  The recipe looked like something I could handle, especially considering my typically unskillful kitchen skills.  I figured I was taking them to a work party, so even if they didn't turn out as pretty as shown on the original website, as long as they tasted ok, they would be eaten.  Well, the following pictures will tell the story...

So colorful!  The batter separated & dosed with food coloring.

Continuing with the prettiness into the oven...

Epic FAIL.  My cupcakes look like the remnants of rainbow vomit.  I'll cover them up with frosting - I'm going to attempt this fun colorful idea for frosting - & no one will notice the difference (& hopefully they'll enjoy all the fun colors in the cupcake).  Don't get me wrong, they taste great.

With my perfectionist personality, I'm not going to let this fall by the wayside.  I want to try it again until I achieve the perfect rainbow cupcake.  I think one problem was pouring the different color batter in the cupcake tin; instead of pouring each color into the center of the previous color, I should try to cover the previous color entirely with the next color (not spreading it, as it says not to).  Other than that, I'm not sure what I did wrong.  Ah well, I'll keep trying.  Until then, I'll bake something different for Steve's birthday.