Baked Alaska, penuche and cat treats

It's a little surprising how peaceful the lake can be even during the winter. Last weekend I went to my dad's place out at a lake about two hours from where I live. Despite it being pretty chilly (and we certainly stayed away from the water), the air was clear and the water beautiful. 

I got some reading done, I enlisted my dad to help me with some baking (which I'll share with you next week), I cooked kebabs for lunch one day, and generally hung out with my dad and stepmom. Also, it was an excellent place to watch the second episode of Sherlock, which was scary enough in broad daylight! If you haven't watched this show yet, go find the first season on Netflix. Excellent British television, and each episode is a like a mini movie.

Baked Alaska is one of those things that's always seemed a little weird and intriguing to me. After all, you're baking ice cream, and that's not totally normal. So on a recent trip to Aunt Betty's, we made it.

Courtesy of Joy of Cooking, we made the chocolate genoise cake bottom, molded the cookies and cream fro-yo and piped on the meringue, which insulates the ice cream so it doesn't melt like you think it would. And actually, as far as desserts go, it's not that terrible for you. I think next time, though, I'll make it for a dinner party or something. Definitely a dessert for many.

Back when I visited Keane in Salt Lake City, we went to a chocolate and candy shop where I met my new favorite candy: penuche. Basically, it's brown sugar fudge. I was definitely one of those kids who tried to sneak tastes of brown sugar when my mom made cookies when I was little. So having a brown sugar-flavored fudge is like heaven. This is also a Joy of Cooking recipe that includes pecans mixed in. And I will definitely make it again.

Aunt Betty suggested we try making cat treats because, you know, we're cat people. Well, animal people. Anyway, this is Archie, her black kitty, investigating the treats. We made tuna treats and modified the recipe a bit so it wasn't too runny and would actually form treats. Basically, they're tuna-flavored patties that you bake to dry them out. Honestly, they weren't much of a hit with both Archie and my cat, Melvin. Oh well. Worth a shot!

Happy Veterans Day! Plus a chocolate pistachio tart, blueberry yogurt granola pie and homemade Oreos

I know I start every post with a food picture, and I suppose that's fitting since it's a food blog. But even more important is that today's Veterans Day. In honor of that, some very special photos:

To my Grandpa Hawley, who was in the Army Air Corps during World War II and based in Utah. I got to visit his base just a month ago. He was the next in line to be shipped out to Europe, but luckily wasn't. He mostly flew B-24s and A-25s but also flew some other planes, like the Memphis Belle.

And to my Grandpa Hofmeister, who was already in his 30s when he went to Germany and France under Gen. Patton in World War II. I always remember him as a quiet man, but he saw some crazy stuff when he was overseas. I'm so grateful to have a few records of it. This is my post from last year, that has more photos of both of them.

And finally, to my cousin Jon, who went to Iraq very soon after the U.S. went in there. Sometimes it doesn't cross my mind, but I'm lucky to be able to see him fairly easily now, especially when Aunt Betty, Uncle David and I drop sweets by at his and his fiance's house. For the longest time, we couldn't see him. So happy Veterans Day to all of them.

All right, back to the food. This is one of my most favorite desserts I've ever made. Seriously. Salty+sweet is one of my favorite things, and this chocolate pistachio tart fit the bill. Thank Martha, yet again. The crust is chocolate with chopped pistachios, and then you make the pistachio paste layer (I made a lot more than the recipe called for because it made it a lot easier to spread). Then the top layer is a basic chocolate custard. I think this might be my birthday cake (tart?) next year!

I made that tart at Aunt Betty's, and this second pie we made at her house as well. This one is a yogurt blueberry pie with granola crust. Yet another Martha recipe. The granola we used was from the Merc and it was a maple pecan one, which I think I might use in a future crust. It made for a nice crunch and some good flavor. I think this looks like breakfast, no?

And for my only non-pie-style dessert this week, homemade Oreos. I made these once but was a little too impatient with the dough, I think, and didn't roll it out as well. But I'd forgotten how good these are, and so much better than the commercial versions. The cookies themselves are almost salty, but with the filling, it works out perfectly. I don't have the patience to follow the recipe and let the filling sit for six hours (!) so I let it go for a while and then add in sifted powdered sugar, which makes a more frosting-y texture rather than the ganache, which the recipe wants. I prefer it that way. And so does everyone at work, because I'm at three requests for the recipe. Always good to know people are satisfied.

Halloween 1: Halloween Oreo cheesecakes, plus funk cupcakes and beignets

Sometimes, I just start itching for travel. Okay, not sometimes, often. I admit it, I'm a travel addict. I love going places to visit friends, sample food, just do whatever. In the last year, because I've transitioned jobs, I haven't traveled as much as I did during college. But I have been to Chicago and New York City in 2011 so far. But this week, I add another city, one I haven't been to since my sophomore year of high school: Salt Lake City. Apparently, there's a chance of snow in the area this week. It was like 87 here yesterday. But one of my best friends, Keane, lives there, so we're going to hang out for a few days. I can't wait! Plus, I know the area is beautiful, I bet especially right now when we're still in autumn.

My first journalism internship was at the Lawrence Journal-World, where I would end up working. I worked up on the features desk, writing stories like this one about all the animals in downtown Lawrence businesses and about the kids who grew up with Harry Potter. Later I would be hired full-time down in the news section, but I've always loved my features desk I started with. One of my editors from back then, Christy, left the JW a couple weeks ago, and Trevan, another editor who works with her, asked me to make her cupcakes. It seemed only natural to make funk cupcakes, which Christy had suggested once before. These are a little more wild and brightly colored than the last ones, but still the same concept: red velvet cupcakes (crushed velvet), rainbow frosting and some interesting wrappers. (Posting these funk cupcakes on Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)

Something I wanted to try when I made my 2011 baking goals (which I've fallen miserably behind on) was beignets. I've never been to New Orleans, but that's supposedly the place to have the best beignets. They're basically doughnuts, only smothered in powdered sugar. What could be wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. I'm glad I made them with Aunt Betty, because they definitely take two people. You put them in the oil and flip them continuously (and they puff up!) for just a couple minutes before you take them out and douse them in sugar. They were amazing. Now I just need to go taste the real thing in NOLA.

I'm hoping to do a bunch of Halloween treats during the month of October. Here's my first: Halloween Oreo cheesecakes. I've made the cheesecakes before, and these are just made with Halloween Oreos. Definitely worth a try. Also, with each Halloween baked good, I've got a photo to post of a childhood costume that I found while visiting Mom last time. So here goes: 

Pirate girl. I remember a lot of those pieces making appearances later on in dress-up games. So happy Halloween month!

Back to elementary school: Dirt 'n' worms cupcakes, plus vanilla bean pound cake and purple velvet cupcakes

I'm sure I've talked before about how I love old movies. So many of them are wonderful stories without having to blow shit up, like so many new movies do. I especially love watching them with my Grandma, for which they're just normal and not old. Last weekend, I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time. Yes, I know it's past Christmas. And no, I don't care. I think that movie sealed the deal for me too — Jimmy Stewart could very well be my favorite actor. He's so down-home and lovable in every movie, whether he's talking to a 6-foot-tall imaginary rabbit or a reporter. Seriously, if you've never seen a movie with him in it, go get one. Now. I recommend "The Philadelphia Story" or "Harvey."

I'd been itching to make this vanilla bean pound cake for weeks, and had never gotten around to it. When I visited Grandma, I decided to make it there. It's always a little interesting finding what I need there, because she doesn't really cook any more. It never fails, though, that when she sits out in the kitchen with me, she brings up her mom's mile-high angel food cake. Mmmm. This pound cake was pretty good, especially the glaze with amaretto in it.

Remember being in elementary school and for special parties you'd get dirt 'n' worms? I wanted to make that into a cupcake. The anatomy of one of these is as follows: Oreo on the bottom + my favorite chocolate cupcake + instant chocolate pudding for filling + fudge frosting + Oreo crumbles (via food processor) + a couple gummy worms = dirt 'n' worms cupcakes. They definitely weren't lacking in chocolate, but they were incredibly messy to eat. Guess that's the point of being a kid, eh?

My web editor at work, Whitney, is putting together a bridal shower for her brother's fiance. She asked me to make cupcakes, and that's what I did! The bride's colors are black and purple (I will try to not think about what state school those go with). I got my favorite baking cups from Bake It Pretty and made purple velvet cupcakes. Pretty snazzy!

Comfort baking: Butterfinger cupcakes, homemade Oreos, red velvet cheesecake cake, stuffed bread and stuffed pretzels

Does anyone watch the show "American Pickers" on the History Channel? I think I'm hooked. Dad turned it on one day when we were visiting my grandma in the hospital after her vertigo spell during the holidays. My dad loves the History Channel, but I'd always seen him watching shows about the war and that sort of thing. This seems a slightly different take on history. What they "pick" is historical items found all over the country, mostly in those places you see on the side of road that have stuff just piled in the lots. They find some crazy stuff...in the episode I just watched, they bought a motorcycle motor from "Hobo Jack" that ended up being more than 100 years old. In case you haven't noticed, I'm fascinated by this sort of history and Americana, as evidenced by all I write about my family history on here. Also by the stories I like writing best, most recently about a local man who restores pinball machines. So cool!. I know what show is going to fill up my DVR for the next few months!


After all the stress of my holiday season, I needed some serious baking with Aunt Betty. I'm still not completely on my A-game, but I'm getting closer. This stuff helped. Like these Butterfinger cupcakes from my Food Network magazine. Unfortunately, there's no recipe online, and it's from my year-old magazine...I've been wanting to make them for a while. That being said, I'm going to make some serious changes next time I try them. The chocolate cake was good, but too light a crumb for a cupcake. The frosting was actually a ganache, and waaaay too thick for piping like I wanted to. Next time: a light peanut butter frosting. The killer was the brittle on top, which was just sugar, peanut butter and butterscotch chips and tasted exactly like the inside of a Butterfinger. I'm going to make just that sometime soon, dip it in chocolate and make homemade candy. All those went with my Uncle David for his retirement party.


Next on our list was something that reminded me of one of my favorite places to get dessert, the Cheesecake Factory (mainly because there are so many options). Who doesn't love red velvet cake? Who doesn't love cheesecake (besides Kelly)? Put them together, and you get red velvet cheesecake cake. Pretty tasty, although once again, I'd prefer a cake with heavier crumb. It's modeled on the coolest cake spatula thingy my stepmom Cathie got me. It's a high heel with a magnetic heel! Neato. I brought this cake to work and I'd say it was a hit. A few minutes after I brought it in, I told someone upstairs it was there. He said he already knew it was there because he saw a Twitpic. Ah, the joys of journalism and technology.


Our last project for the day was to make a bread I've been wanting to make for a while from Flour Girl. It's a stuffed braided bread, and actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. The dough was basic pizza dough made in the food processor and didn't even need to rise. The recipe called for bacon, but anyone who knows my eating habits knows that I don't eat any pork products, including bacon, and no, I'm not Jewish. I just don't eat it. So we used turkey bacon. Also inside was spinach we cooked down with some olive oil, provolone cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Dip it in marinara and it made a pretty tasty dinner.


When my newest Food Network Magazine magazine came, on the front it talked about pretzels, which is one of my favorite things to make. What caught my eye especially was pesto-stuffed pretzels. I loooove pesto, especially when it's extra garlicy and cheesy. I think I'm going to need some more practice stuffing pretzels, because you can't taste the flavor of the pesto and the cream cheese that's inside them too much. But the dip I made with the extra pesto and cream cheese is excellent. I will definitely make that again. Also, this was the christening voyage for my new food processor. Verdict: amazing.


Last, I wanted to make some sort of sweet for the night, and Kelly suggested homemade Oreos. I had all the stuff to make them, so I did it. The cookie dough looked like dirt, and was a really strange consistency. The middle is supposed to be white chocolate ganache, which I edited a bit to be more frosting-like. All-in-all, very tasty, especially when dipped in milk. Mmmmm. Next up? Tiramisu cake for a girls' dinner. I get to try out my new cake stand on that one!

Birthday baking and some Halloween treats

I now have four distinct periods of my life: grade/middle school, high school, college/Kansan and work. I was lucky enough to see people from all four times on Saturday for my birthday. It was an absolute blast, and I saw some people I hadn't in years. There might have been a little drinking involved too, but hey, it was my birthday! Dad and Cathie came to town and then we went out to dinner. Later, it was the customary trip to the Sandbar and Louises. It was great fun. More on that later, though.


I think that once places start displaying their Halloween goods for baking, it's okay for me to start making Halloween treats. Even if that means it's the last week of September. That's what I did last week, at least. They put out lime green candy melts — lime green people! If you know anything about me, you know I had to buy them right then and make the cake pops I'd been wanting to make again. Green with Halloween-ish sprinkles. I tried yellow cake this time. Not too shabby, but red velvet is definitely still my favorite. Now I just have to take that next step and start making shapes out of them...intimidating.


Also, a fun fact about me is that I get suckered in by advertising easily. If I see an ad on TV for some tasty food, I will generally start craving it. And if I walk by a bag of new Halloween Oreos in the grocery store, I'm going to buy them. And make mini Oreo cheesecakes. These are SO good and I forget how much I like them between the times I make them. But I've stocked up on fall-y cupcake liners, so it seemed like a good use for them. I'm going to have to go into cupcake overdrive to use up all those liners though.


Then there was my birthday cake. I debated for a while if I should make my own, but I figured if I could make an ice cream cake for my mom and for my ex-boyfriend, then I could make one for myself. Plus, Kelly helped, so it wasn't totally me! I went for my favorite yellow cake-turned-funfetti layered with cheesecake ice cream from Cold Stone (with more sprinkles and graham crumbs mixed in), fudge and Oreo crumbles. Kelly made the green icing for the cake. Altogether, totally yummy. And I still have some in my freezer up for grabs....

Like I said, it was a great bday weekend. A few snapshots:


My friend Jennifer came all the way from Manhattan just for my birthday celebration (that's her on the left)! On the right is my friend Elizabeth, who's still local but I don't see that often. The tiara was courtesy of the Sandbar.


I also saw some high school friends, including Marshall on the far left. Haven't seen him in a few years either. I don't have that many pictures from the night, but it was a great time!


The day after my birthday, Kelly and I drove down to St. Louis to see Vampire Weekend in concert and also visit my cousin. It was an AMAZING concert. They were so good live, it was like listening to their album.


Last but not least, for graduation, I was supposed to get a dog. Seems unrelated, yes? Well, the dog plan fell through, so on my birthday, my dad gave me my graduation present: a new Canon SLR camera!! Needless to say, I was SUPER excited! Now I can actually take decent pictures for my blog, and of life in general. Oh, and cat pictures, because that's what I'm best at :) I haven't had too much time to play with it yet, but I have gotten some great photos. Case in point: Melvin being obnoxious. I can't wait to mess with it more!

Michigan and lake baking (2 of 8 goals met)

It’s been a fairly long week, well, couple weeks. I’ve had a major life change, which has taken most of my time lately. Not that I haven’t been baking, but I haven’t had time to write. Today I’m coming home from Michigan, where I was visiting my mother a couple days. On the upside (I guess), work has been picking up. It was slow all last week, until Saturday night, when all the crime that was waiting to happen, happened. Oh, and other big news, I made it onto Foodgawker and Tastespotting for the first time EVER a couple weeks ago! I came home and my hits had jumped by the hundreds, and I thought Google Analytics was wrong. Nope, it wasn’t, and I was super duper excited! Now, to keep getting pictures up there.


Before all this stuff happened, though, I visited my dad and stepmom out on the lake. He got an awesome new boat and it was a good couple of days away. My friend Sarah gave me some vegan recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World to try, so I decided that for the lake, s’mores cupcakes would work out. This was my second venture into vegan cupcake-making, the first being for Sarah’s birthday. This was definitely a little bit more difficult. One of the main sweeteners in the cake was molasses, and frankly, I dislike that strong a flavor. More graham cracker crumbs and that was fixed. Vegan buttercream was also an experiment (especially when the vegan shortening misspelled carefully as “carefulyl”). Ultimately, though, they were tasty, and a great addition at camp.


Last week, I had an intense baking/dinner session with Aunt Betty. Three desserts in about three hours, plus meeting a new kitty cat — definitely a highlight! The first was a tray of cheesecake brownies, a request from my friend Jon at work (I love requests — they keep things interesting!). This will be one of the first desserts I didn’t get a picture of because they were gone so quickly at work. They were super easy and from one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. Maybe I’ll make them again this week. Also on the list was a recipe I heard one morning — or afternoon, however you look at it — when I woke up. Sometimes I leave the Food Network on while I sleep, and Sunny Anderson’s show was on. She had a recipe for apple pound cake, and it looked super tasty. The picture is what apple pound cake looks like after the newsroom has had some :)


The third item was my first stab at macarons, my second try at a baking goal. Aunt Betty and I used actual almonds ground up in a food processor, and we left them sort of chunky. Apparently you have to be careful not to process them too much or you’ll get almond butter. Anyway, French macarons are these almond-based cookies that are basically a meringue, so it’s too humid almost every day in Kansas, except for this one. These were eaten immediately, and oh-so-good.


Now, in Michigan, I tried making them with almond flour, pre-ground and much finer. I don’t think I’ll try making them again any time soon — a bag was $12.50! Anyway, I’m not sure I have the whole egg-white-whipping thing down, so it might be a while before I make lemon meringue pie. Here, I made two varieties — vanilla with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, and chocolate with either maple Swiss meringue buttercream or vanilla buttercream. They’re super yummy, but I’m not sure they’re worth all the effort. At least until I get better at them.


I also wanted to make cupcakes while in Michigan, so I made cookies and cream cupcakes I’ve had my eye on. There’s half an Oreo (with cream) in the bottom, plus a super heavy vanilla batter with coarsely chopped Oreos mixed in. Cream cheese icing and the other Oreo half on top, and we’ve got ourselves a tasty cupcake. Let’s just say, Mom’s got a fridge-full of desserts.


So now, I just need something to look forward to. I’m one of those people who needs a long-term goal, even if that’s my birthday (which is a month and a week away!). I actually will get to go out on a Saturday night – woo hoo! I hope to enjoy some shark attacks (like in this photo from my last bday, with one of my best friends Erin). Beyond that, it’s time to figure out some new things to look forward to.

In-depth story equals super easy baking

Well I made it through my awful week, just barely. And I didn't set anything on fire this week! I took my test, wrote my feminist theory about Dexter (it's a really interesting way to watch the show, but I think I'll go back to just watching it for entertainment), finished the yearbook....AND most of all, finished my major project.

I was super nervous about it — would it be true to its sources? How many people would it anger? Just basically, was it written well? Best feeling ever to finish it though. There was definitely some blowback from it, because as I found, that just seems to come with a historical piece. Everyone has a different memory of the time, you know? Forty years from now, I will feel differently about my time in college than all my friends. Just a fact of life. Another criticism I heard was it didn't show the "other side," the kids who weren't involved in the activism. That wasn't the point of my story, but it is a story that could be written. Anyway, it's finished! One thing that made me really happy was people were telling me they read it the whole way through, which for a 3,000+ word historical story is a pretty big compliment. Here's the story: http://www.kansan.com/news/2010/apr/20/generation-ablaze/ Tell me what you think if you get a chance to read it! There's also multimedia up now too. Pretty neat.

So since last week was so crazy, this week, after work, I've been sleeping a lot. I had to finish up the Jayhawker though, which took forever. I've been making real dinners, too! Last night was Asian beef kabobs — yummy! I used to never nap during the day, and now I do all the time, and for like 3-hour increments. My kitty likes it though; he gets to sleep in his warm spot during the day too.

I've actually baked quite a bit this week, but I don't think I actually tried anything new. I made Oreo cupcakes, like I had before. I was getting ready to pipe the frosting and couldn't find the tip I like. Turns out the garbage disposal ate it, so they're ugly :( Drew really likes them though, so he's taking care of them.

Liz's birthday was Monday, so Sunday we went to dinner at Tortas Jalisco. They have super yummy chips and salsa and margaritas. They're kind of like flour chips, which are my favorite. But of course I wanted to make dessert, so I made brownie cups with peanut butter, which is a recipe from one of the blogs I follow, Cookies and Cups. These are SUPER rich but super yummy too and not terribly hard to make. Basically you use a lot of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips and a muffin tin. They're best warm, but what kind of dessert isn't?

A few weeks ago I did a Sunday cookout with Taylor, Liz and Sonya, and Sonya mentioned dump cake. Since then I've kind of been craving it. Not sure how many people know what it is, but it's made just how it sounds. You dump into a 9x13 pan a can of pineapple chunks (not drained), a can of cherry pie filling and a can of apple pie filling (some people don't include this but I think it's the best part). You make sure the ingredients are spread out, then pour one box of yellow cake mix on top as evenly spread as possible. Then you cut up a stick of butter and cover the top with slices. Then bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes till the top is golden brown. Obviously this isn't the healthiest dessert ever (but it has fruit, which is good, right? That's what I tell myself). Doesn't look all that pretty either. But it sure is easy, and it's soooo yummy! My grandma taught me how to make it. I'm pretty sure it's one of those things that comes from being a 1950s/1960s mother and trying to cook things as simply as possible. Just like all her recipes using Jello. Funny story, I was going through her cookbooks over Christmas and actually found a cooking with Jello cookbook — complete with lemon Jello Salmon. Ewwwwww. Anyway, every once and a while I like to make it. If nothing else it reminds me of my grandma. I called her yesterday and we started talking about her coming to graduation. It's so weird to think that in November she turns 90! She's lived through the stock market crash, the Great Depression, World War II, everything. I hope when I get to her age (if I do) that I am still as healthy as she is.

Anyway, I only have one week left of normal school, then finals, then I'm done. Mom is coming down on her birthday for graduation, so I'm going to make my second ice cream cake. I'm going to need a good chocolate cake recipe, so let me know if you have one.

Cupcake fever

Now that I've started working nights, I have daytime free during the week. I used to intern on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, and now I have all that time. On Monday, I used it to take a three-hour nap (I've also found that my sleep schedule is officially screwed up). It's nice to be home in the afternoon though and have that block of time for homework, sleep or whatever, especially with the gorgeous weather we've started having!

My sleep schedule is totally screwed up now, though. Basically I'll be awake during the day for four days per week and awake at nights for three, but I've discovered that it's making me sleep considerably more. Like yesterday, when I was going to do a whole lot of homework. I got seven hours of sleep at night, went to class, and then came home to take a quick nap...which turned into another three-hour nap. Throughout the day I took like three more naps, something I've never needed to do. Maybe my body is catching up on the last four years when I've repeatedly deprived myself of sleep. Or something like that.

In between homework and naps, I've been baking cupcakes. Sometimes I get on cupcake kicks; right now I really like making tasty icing for them. I made cupcakes twice so far this week, and just keep adding to the kinds I want to make. I've been making half recipes in case they aren't tasty, but so far, they've been successful.

First, I made margarita cupcakes. You might remember that I made margarita cheesecake once, but I thought that I'd take a shot at the cupcake category. I looked all over the Interwebs for a recipe, and found basically two options: one using cake mix and one that was vegan. Since starting baking, I've almost completely stopped using cake mix. If I can make it from scratch, why not? So that option was out. So I went with the vegan recipe, from Baking Bites, which uses soy milk and all that. Then I started making the icing recipe on that site — and didn't like it. So instead I made basic buttercream and added lime juice and tequila. Altogether, these were super tasty! I put a lime gummy on top, and the tequila added a little bite. My only complaint was that they stuck to the cupcake liners pretty badly, which probably has something to do with the vegan part. Or, I just screwed up. Either is totally possible. Point is, they were yummy.

Next I went with the classics — rice krispie treats, Easter-style. I'm not big into Easter, although Cadbury creme eggs are wonderful. But I'd been craving rice krispie treats for a while, so I decided to make eggs, which I'd seen on a commercial. Yes, product placement does work with me sometimes. It had been a long time since I'd made them, so it was rather nostalgic. I made the treats, then Drew measured them out into 1/4 cup portions and I shaped them into egg shapes. I had to butter my hands to do it. SO gross. Then dip them in a chocolate/shortening mixture (which wasn't as thick as I would have liked) and roll in sprinkles. It was a pretty easy springtime dessert. And newsroom folk liked it too.

So then I made cupcakes again. I got this book, 500 Cupcakes, a couple weeks ago. The book has base recipes and then three or so variations for each one, so I'm assuming that adds up to 500 recipes. Pretty pictures too, and a pictures-of-what-I'm-making-in-my-cookbook kind of girl. So there was a recipe in there for cookies and cream cupcakes. The batter was cookie-like in consistency, so I was a little worried about how they'd turn out, but they ended up being just a denser cupcake, which makes sense I guess. Basically it's a white cupcake with Oreo pieces mixed in. For the icing, they had a buttercream that you sprinkled chopped Oreos on top of, but I wanted it to be more cookies and cream-y. So I put some Oreos in the food processor and took them down to crumb size and mixed it into the icing. It was so tasty — kind of like what an icing version of cookies and cream ice cream would be. It was great flavor too. Put half an Oreo on top, and then I was done! I'll definitely be making those again.

I have one more cupcake I'd like to make before Easter, the Cadbury eggs cupcakes from the blog Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Those eggs aren't cheap though, so I'll have to think about it.

There are a lot of people coming into town this weekend, but I'm not sure I'll get to see them all. Mark will be here, and Mary from NYC, and Drew's brother. I'm super excited to see Mary, who I haven't seen in a few months (which is a loooong time considering we used to spend every waking hour together in the newsroom). Not sure I'll get to see the other two, because I start my job on my own tonight! Well, I did a shift by myself Sunday, but not overnight. We'll see how it goes. Fingers crossed!

Now I'm off to study for my impending computer science test. Ugh.