Somebody's Hero

Today is my Mama's birthday and I just wanted to share some special pictures with everyone. My Mama is such a special person. She loves her family more than life itself and is willing to fight for them. Life has not always been easy but she has survived, teaching me and my brother how to be strong adults. So much of who I am is because of her. She has always encouraged me to follow my dreams and supported me the entire way. For this I cannot thank her enough.

Happy Birthday Mama! I love you!!

Mama, Grandma June and Aunt Treasa 

Mama and Aunt Treasa. Same red hair as when they were little

She is finally a Grandma

Sometimes she is a little crazy but I still love her

She loves to fish.

Always there to support me

A Mama and Nana

Our family cleans up pretty well

Yep, we are Oklahoma Sooners

Mama is on the left.  This picture was taken before I was born while Mom was still in college.

Camping with Friends. 

For a Redhead she tans better than almost anyone I know. 

For one summer she also go to be a host Mom to Akari.

This was the first Christmas after Levi joined the Army, December 2000.

On a trip to Denver with good family friends the Mariah and Marsha Ross

Last Fourth of July in Arizona

Mama, Uncle Carl, Grandma June, Uncle Robert and Aunt Treasa

Mama (on the right)  is younger than I am now in this picture. Isn't she beautiful. My Aunt Treasa, Grandpa and Great Grandma are also in the photo. 

But Fate Ordains that Dearest Friends Must Part

 

Today is the last day at the Boulder Beau Jo of one of my very good friends, Jamie.  This is the girl that keeps me sane at work. Without her, I probably would have ended up killing someone, either a coworker or a customer. We are both known for being fairly outspoken at work and don't necessarily get along with everyone, but for some reason we click. Maybe it's because we both know how to do or jobs or aren't afraid to tell others how things are, either way we don't have those constant clashes that seem to happen between people, which makes working with her lots of fun.

Jamie is the person who keeps me up to date on what is actually going on in the restaurant. Without her, I would probably be clueless about what the new drama/gossip is (and trust me there is always something new going on). Now I will just continue cluelessly, which might be a good thing, but not nearly as interesting.


It is hard to believe that we have worked together for close to three years. In that time we have learned a lot about each other, from the type of guy each one goes for, that we use the same mascara (Maybelline Lash Stiletto), and that our go to Starbucks drink is a caramel Frappuccino. This drink is the inspiration for her going away cupcakes. 

So these cupcakes are spectacular!!!!! I think this is probably the best thing I have every baked (and I have made some pretty good stuff). If you make these cupcakes be prepared to lie to your friends, and yourself, about how bad they are for you. The amount of butter in the cupcakes is in a word SINFUL, but so good. 




To make these cupcakes, I used a coffee cupcake, hollowed out the middle, and then layered caramel and vanilla cream in the middle. I used a Kahlua infused buttercream frosting and then drizzled with more caramel. These taste like a Caramel Frappuccino. 

Coffee Cupcake
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 The original recipe from My Buttery Fingers made around 14 cupcakes. I knew that wasn't going to be enough so I doubled it and ended up with 36 cupcakes. Next time I make these I think I will use 1.5 times the ingredients and hopefully end up with 24 cupcakes.


5 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1.5 cups strongly brewed coffee, cooled to warm
1/2  cup milk
2 tbsp Kahlua
1.5 Cups or 3 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
2 cup sugar
6 eggs
2 rounded tsp instant espresso


1. Place rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 F. Place paper liners in muffin tin.
2. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Combine coffee, milk, and Kahlua in a cup and set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl with a hand mixer on medium speed, until light and fluffy. 
4. Beat eggs in one at a time.
5. Reduce speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture, then half of the liquid mixture. Scrape down sides, then beat in another third of flour mixture, then the rest of the liquid, then the remaining flour mixture. 
6.Mix in the instant espresso.
7. Fill cupcake liners until 3/4 full. 
8. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Turn pans halfway through baking to ensure cupcakes are evenly cooked.

9. Let completely cool.

Vanilla Cream Filling

Recipe comes from Baking Bites

3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Whisk together the flour and milk and cook in a small saucepan over medium heat until thick. Stir continuously to prevent the mixture from clumping and do not bring all the way to a boil. This should only take a few minutes.

2. When thickened (consistency will be that of a thin pudding or custard), strain with a mesh strainer into a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool completely to room temperature.

3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl until light. 

4. Add in the milk/flour mixture and the scraped vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla extract) and beat at high speed with an electrick mixer for 7 minutes, until light and fluffy. 

5. Scrape into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, or a large ziplock bag with the corner cut off, and set aside until ready to fill your cupcakes.

Butter Cream Frosting infused with Kahlua
Approximately 6 cups confections sugar*
2 stick (1 cup ) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 tablespoons Kahlua 
4 tablespoons Heavy Whipping Cream


Make the frosting: 
1.Whip the butter in a large bowl with a hand mixer, for several minutes. It should be very light and fluffy.
2. Beet in the confectioners sugar 1/4 a cup at a time.
3. When it gets to a spreadable consistency add in the Kahlua and the heavy whipping cream. This will most likely water down the frosting so you will want to add more confectioners sugar.

Assembly

1. When the cupcakes are completely cooled, take a 1 inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer and cut a hole in the middle of the cupcake. You my need to use a knife to help you get the center out. Save the center for later use.

2. Squeeze a small amount of caramel* into the hollow center of the cupcake. Layer on top of that the vanilla cream. Add one more layer of caramel.

3. Cut off any extra cake from your cupcake cutouts and replace them in the holes to hold the caramel and cream in place.

4. Decorate with buttercream frosting and drizzle caramel on top.

Serve immediately or store in an air tight container in the fridge. 

*Note: I used a store bought ice cream topping for my caramel because I hate making candy but you could easily make your own caramel sauce. 

With caramel

With caramel, cream and toppers

With Cream

           




*Note: You might not use all of the confectioners sugar if your frosting thickens quickly or you might need to use more. My Buttery Fingers has a recipe that you could use.

Title of Post from Edward Young's Poem "Love of Fame"

Guacamole Pico de Gallo and Homemade Chips

Avocados. Are they a fruit or a vegetable? I tend to eat them with other vegetables (salads, sandwiches etc) and therefore usually  just think of them as a vegetable. However, they are a fruit.  They grow on trees and have the seed (the pit) inside.  Either way, I LOVE avocados. Nothing is better to me than homemade guacamole and warm tortilla chips. On Sunday night I made my favorite style which is a combination of pico de gallo and guacamole. Instead of a creaming the avocado, I dice it.

Guacamole Pico de Gallo

Ingredients

4 Avocado

3 Tomatos

1 Small yellow onion

1 Jalapeno

Cilantro 

Garlic Powder

Salt

Pepper

Lime juice

Instructions:

1. Dice onions, jalapenos, tomatos and avocados (I do it in that order because I prefer to cut the messy ingredients last). Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a large spoon.

2. Mince the cilantro. How much you use depends on personal taste. I like a very strong flavor so I use a bunch. Add to other ingredients.

3. Add Garlic Powder, Salt and Pepper to taste.

4. Use a small amount of Lime Juice to mixture. This will help keep the avocados from turning brown.

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Ingredients:

Corn Tortillas 

Spray Cooking Oil

Salt

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Spray cooking oil on both sides of tortillas.

3. Stack 6 tortillas and cut into quarters.

4. Place tortillas quarters onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt.

5. Bake until golden brown and edges start to turn up (about 7 minutes).

Bleeding Teal and Glitter

Rowena was not very happy about helping me show off my nails.

I don't often do my nails but when I do they either a basic color or a French manicure. Well I have decided to mix it up a bit. Today, I did a sparkly teal French Manicure. This was incredibly easy to create. I painted my nails a pretty natural looking color. I used  NYC French Manicure 144A Swept Away. It is not the best nail polish but it is all I had on hand.

I, then, took a glitter glue I picked up from Walmart for a dollar and drew the line on the tip of the nail. Make sure you the line goes with the shape of your nail. It should be a nice crescent moon. How thick the line is depends on how long your nails are/how deep your nail beds are. I have short nails but really deep nail beds and can therefore have a little bit larger line.

You don't want to put the glitter glue on too thick. I did two thin layers and then touched up any spots I missed. When the glue is dry use your favorite top coat to finish the look.

The idea to use glitter glue came from Love Maegan, one of my favorite blogs. She uses a collection of different Martha Stewart glitter glues to do all kinds of fun nail tutorials. Go check it out for some inspiration.

I Have Always Depended on the Kindness of Strangers

Blanch DuBois famously said in A Streetcar Named Desire: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers", well today it was my turn to depend on the kindness of strangers. As I was driving home from my internship my car ran out of gas. I was stopped in the middle of a fairly busy street with out anyway to move my car. As I frantically called my Dad to ask him what I should, two men who were working on construction came over and helped me push the car into a near by parking lot. I offered to buy them lunch for their help but they just smiled and said it was not a problem, just do something kind for someone else. Sometimes it is hard to believe in this world that people are willing to take time from their busy day to help out a complete stranger. It restores my belief in the goodness of people.



Now for something a little more fun. Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes!

The original recipe comes from The Mess Pot but I made a few changes. 

 I used 2 bottles of Guinness and reduced it down to the one cup required for the recipe. This gave the cupcakes a little stronger taste. To do this just boil the beer on medium heat until you have the required amount needed. It took about  20 minutes or so to do this.

The Guinness Boiling

 I used half the amount of white sugar and the other half with light brown sugar. I did this because I ran out of sugar but it also helped to increase the moistness of the cupcakes as well.

Cupcake liners filled 3/4 of the way

The center cut out of the cupcake to fill with chocolate.

I used more Jameson and Bailey's then the recipe called for. I really wanted the cupcake to taste like a food version of the drink. And I think it did.

This was my first time decorating with cake decorating tips/bags. It was surprisingly easy and I think they turned out well. Wilton.com has some great tutorials on cake decorating. I used this one for 1M Swirl.

My Mess After Baking :)

Old Time is Still A-Flying

Sometimes it amazed me how fast time goes by. While at times it seems as if the days cannot go fast enough, I often look back and wonder where they went. This was one of those weeks. I was busy all week with work and my internship that I lost track of the days, yet I was so looking forward to the weekend that the days could not go by fast enough. And now that it is Monday again, I am wondering where did last week go? Actually, where has the last month gone? How is it already halfway through March?

The title of this post comes from one of my favorite poems: "To the Virgins, to make much of Time" by Robert Herrick.

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,	5
The higher he 's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he 's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;	10
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,	15
You may for ever tarry.

I try to remember this poem on weeks like this. To stop and have fun. While I worked very hard this week, I was able to play just as hard. Here is a glimpse of my weekend:

Light Up Shamrock Necklaces. So much fun on the dance floor!

Alli and Me rocking our St. Patty's Day Gear

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes. Post on how to make these will be up soon! 

My Brother and His Beautiful Daughter Trinity. 

Look at Those Baby Blues!

My Family. I wish I could have been there with them.

I spent today at my internship for a pasta party and swing dance. This is the first event I have helped planned and it was a great success. I will put up photo's from this soon.