Nutter Butter Rice Krispie treats, KU cookies and dog treats

I don't often miss college. The fact that I get to come home after work and go to the gym, cook myself dinner, bake or finish the first season of Downton Abbey (seriously, watch it) instead of read some book a teacher assigned me is awesome. But I do miss the friends who are constantly around, especially on the newspaper staff. A lot of those friends have moved far away, and more still are doing that now. But on the flip side, catching up with those friends makes me unequivocally happy. This week, I've gotten to do it twice: with my friend Jodi, who's in Pittsburgh, and my friend Taylor, who's in Las Vegas. There's nothing that can really brighten up a day like talking on the phone for more than an hour with a friend you haven't seen in months but you can talk to like you saw yesterday. I hope I'm able to continue that kind of relationship with my friends as more move away.

I went to Lawrence a bit ago to watch the KU-Mizzou game with a bunch of friends. I haven't decided yet what I think about that rivalry ending, by the way. As a born-and-bred Jayhawk (I went to preschool on campus!), I've grown up hating Mizzou. I don't think that will go away, even when we don't play them anymore. But it is one hell of a rivalry, and I am a little sad it's ending for the sake of conference realignment. But I digress. To watch this game, I brought some basic chocolate chip cookies with red and blue M&Ms. Sweet and simple. Rock chalk!

Lois the puppy was soooo cute waiting for her treats. I love that she licks her lips. On the same trip to Lawrence, I was visiting my friends Joe and Brianne and wanted to bring their adorable dog a present, so I made her homemade dog treats. I actually had all the ingredients at home already — peanut butter, oats, honey, etc. — and was able to just whip them up, roll them out, cut them out and bake them. And, if you can't tell, Lois really, REALLY liked them. 

Sometimes, Rice Krispie treats are just the best choice. I recently joined Pinterest, despite resisting it for months. I'm not addicted, but it's definitely a good place to remember my bookmarks. These Nutter Butter Rice Krispies were one of the first things I pinned from one of my favorite bloggers, Cookies and Cups. And the best thing? They're super simple. And super tasty. Basically a peanut butter-y krispie treat. Mmmm.

Halloween 2: Fall Brenna brownies

Back when I was on the Kansan, these babies were known as Brenna Brownies. They're a Martha Stewart recipe, a pretty easy one at that, and one with two kinds of chocolate baked in initially. What's fun about them (besides the fact that they're amazing) is that every time you make them, you can customize them. Like these, with the fall peanut M&Ms. And chocolate chips. And yumminess. So even though there aren't any distinctive fall flavors in them, I still count them as a Halloween dessert. After all, the colors are right!

And for today's Halloween costume of yesteryear, princess Jasmine in a particularly cold year, hence the turtleneck. We've established I'm a Disney fan, right? And if you couldn't guess, Mom was a witch.

Last, my blog turned two years old last week! But I'm busy making Halloween desserts. So more about that later.

First Fall flavors: Ginger molasses cupcakes, salted caramel brownies and monster cookies

Last weekend, what was going to be a lazy Friday night turned into something way, way cooler. I'd spent my week writing coverage of the opening of Kansas City's new fancy schmancy Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Seriously, it's way cool. As the kid of a professional musician, I grew up listening to classical music, going to the ballet and learning composers' styles. For work, I'd gotten to do a tour of the place as well as talk to the companies that will be using it regularly. But 20 minutes before work ended Friday, my boss gave me the chance of a lifetime: a ticket to the grand opening. Lemme tell you, I was WAY out of my element at my first black tie affair, but it was very fun to people watch and see all those fabulous gowns. Inside the theater was just as fabulous, though. Broadway, opera, ballet...you name it, they did it. I'm so happy I went, and I've already got tickets to a few things at the center. I'm so excited it's open!

A number of my friends right now are transitioning from old jobs to new, and this brownie was for my friend Joe, who was my counterpart on the beloved overnight shift. It was his "real boy" party, as in he now has hours of a normal person and we can all see him outside of vampire hours. So exciting! These were salted caramel brownies, surprisingly enough from Cooking Light Magazine. That makes them healthy, right?

I've made a lot more cookies lately than I normally do. I guess I think they're boring sometimes, but other times they're just perfect and hit the spot. My love for monster cookies came from a high school job in a coffee shop/bakery. This recipe is courtesy of Paula Deen, full of peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips and M&Ms but absent of raisins (yuck!). They spread out a lot, and I was really disappointed with them when they came out of the oven. But I left them out overnight, and they were perfect the next day. Good things come to those who wait, I suppose.

On my trip to the Louisburg Cider Mill last weekend, I found some awesome Halloween stuff the mill was selling, including these awesome fall leaf sprinkles. Yes, I sometimes choose what cupcakes I bake on the sprinkles I buy. So I decided I definitely needed a fall-flavored cupcake, and went with a recipe from Martha I'd never tried before: ginger molasses cupcakes. Forget that Kansas/Missouri decided to ratchet the temperature back up to the 80s after some nice days in the 50s and 60s. But the cupcakes brought back fall for sure and had a great bite to them. Instead of topping them with whipped cream like the recipe calls for, I went with basic vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, which I thought would nicely offset the spicy, and it did. I almost thought I ruined the icing because it was super runny, but I just beat the crap out of it, and then it was fine. I like desserts that work out that way!!

(Posting to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)

Farewell to the LJ baking: Cake pops, brownie cups and birthday cupcakes

Today marks my first Monday not as a Journal-World employee. It's quite strange, particularly because I'm hanging out with family on a night when I should be trying to fall asleep before work. I'm on to my next job, but have been sad to leave the people at my last one. I had a wonderful going away party last Friday, but I know it won't be the end of seeing them all. Excitement on the other side of this, though, is that I've found myself an apartment in Kansas City, which makes this new job (that starts Thursday!) all the more real. It's only a few minutes from my office, it's a one-bedroom and it's in a renovated warehouse/factory sort of building...way cool! Now I need to work on updating all my college-crappy stuff to slightly less crappy stuff. Wish me luck!

So last week I wrote about the first of my work going-away treats, my soda cupcake trio. My next treat was these chocolate cake pops. I've never done chocolate before, and as expected, they were rich and wonderful. They're my good friend Nick's favorite dessert, so I saved him all my rejects as my farewell from work. His going away present to me? A 1937 Tonganoxie community cookbook he got at the swap meet. I was a little terrified when he said he got me something at the swap meet, which could have meant a carburetor or some trashy t-shirt, but luckily he didn't do that. My favorite terrible old recipe in it: laxative fig and date bon bons. Ew. But there are plenty of good recipes in it too!

For Friday's going-away sweet, I went with my friend Whitney's request: peanut butter brownie cups. These made an appearance on her Friday blog, along with a farewell message to me (it was so sweet!). I had two bake sales to bake for: our Relay for Life team one and the Blogger's Bake Sale. These are super simple desserts (they're actually easier to make without a KitchenAid mixer!) and they are soooo good. And rich. Beware of that little detail.

And last, but not least, on Friday I also made some special cupcakes for my coworker Mark Fagan. Fagan has two children who have become a couple of my absolutely favorite dessert consumers. He always brings back reviews of what I've made, sometimes accompanied with photos or video. One time I even got a card! Well, Saturday was his daughter's birthday, and she wanted me to make cupcakes. The parameters: vanilla cupcakes, the creamsicle cupcake icing (marshmallow-flavored), favorite colors of green and purple, and a love of peace signs. I found these perfect peace sign barretts, then just went with a multi-colored frosting. My 9-year-old self was pleased. And from what I hear, she liked them too! (P.S. - Posting these to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday!)

Zombies and another birthday

First things first, there's another birthday to be celebrated. As of October 9, this blog is a year old. I can't believe it! I feel like I only recently started really thinking about it regularly. Strange to know that...especially because I started this as sort of a whim, as an I-should-start-a-blog-because-I'm-a-journalist thing. Luckily, I've moved past that and now it sort of gives me goals, which, if you know me, you know I definitely need now that I don't have school.

It's been a really tough week. More specifically, a tough day at work. I know people complain regularly about how journalism is all grim and dreary and all bad news. I'm not one who subscribes to that line of thought, and I like reading and writing the good and the bad. But the other night, I got my first real taste of how depressing the world can be. In one shift, I had a triple-fatality accident and a shooting. On top of all that, I was pretty darn tired. The accident was especially tough to deal with because it reminded me of my own high school friend who died last year in a car accident. A dear friend of mine knew the family from the other day, and it tore me up knowing how it was affecting her. Listening to the scanner can bring up some pretty depressing stuff sometimes too. Needless to say, yesterday I got out of bed and went shopping and to dinner with a friend at work. Last night was my Friday, and today I get to do a day of baking with my aunt. So that will make it all better! It hit me yesterday how quickly the world changes, and sometimes I have to be there to cover it. But the coverage is important too, I think. I'll spare you the thinking behind that.


This silly Kansas weather has yet to decide if it's fall yet. Last week the temperature got up into the 80s and almost hit 90 — in October! I'm waiting for the week when it goes from 70 one day to 30 the next. That's about par for the course here. Nonetheless, most of my desserts will be Halloween- or fall-themed for a while, because I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. The other day I just craved some Brenna Brownies, so I made them (they were so aptly named this by the Kansan staff). I love how easy they are. I didn't even share them, except with Kelly. Sometimes I think it's okay to be selfish :)


A few days ago, there was a zombie walk downtown. Yup, about 300 people fully decked out in blood and gore and lots of makeup staggered down Mass. The eccentricities of this town are always interesting. Anyway, I had blood splatter wrappers and little bone sprinkles, so I thought zombie cupcakes would be a good idea. A quick yellow cake with red sprinkles mixed in (you know, more blood) and a basic buttercream with a red streak and I was set! My stupid carrier let them all fall over in the car (which sort of defeats its purpose!), but if there are any cupcakes that can be less than perfect, I think zombies fall into that category.


Then came the sour cream chocolate bundt cake. I've had this on my list for a while now, and I'm totally glad I made it. It was super moist and just a little powdered sugar on top was the perfect addition. I'm not a chocolate person by nature, but this was definitely good. When I brought it to work, I needed to bring a gallon of milk with it I think.


So now it's the weekend. My goals are to bake some awesome treats with my aunt, go out with some friends, and take my new pretty camera out to get some shots of the trees changing. There are some really pretty reddish orange trees right now, and I don't want to miss them. Because right now, all I've got on my camera are food photos and cat photos like that one. I think I need some more subject material!

Red, white and baking (and a semi-fail!)

Well, I just finished my work week and have a three-day weekend. Woot! But now, like a crazy person, I'm still awake. Transitioning to be awake during the days is kind of tough. I got a lot of cleaning done this morning, and played with the cat, and made some cupcakes. So I suppose I did well. AND I cleaned out my trusty (or not-so-trusty, depending on the day) Taurus, which will no longer be mine, as of tonight. That's right, I'm getting a new car! Or, a different car, more accurately. My graduation present from my grandma was her car, because she doesn't drive any more. It's got roughly 70,000 fewer miles than my car and in pristine condition. Minor detail, it's a stick shift. Guess I'll have to learn on the fly. I'm getting a little sentimental about parting with the Taurus, but it's definitely got it's issues. My favorite? Sometimes, when I turn the left blinker on, the windshield wipers turn on. But the brakes are going bad, as is all of the wiring, and the steering shaft makes weird noises, and the engine does too...it's time to retire that poor car. So I'm exchanging that car with my Dad today when I head to the lake, which I'm also excited about! No internet (except on my phone) and some downtime to just read and hang out. It's going to be nice. It's my belated Fourth of July, except without fireworks, which I don't like anyway, so it all works out.


I did my share of baking for the Fourth, including my very first semi-successful foray into cake pops. They might be the messiest things I've ever made. First, you bake a 13x9 cake, then crumble it up into a bowl, which isn't exactly clean. Then, you mix the cake with frosting, and the easiest way to do it is with (newly washed) hands. Then you roll the mix into little balls and stick a lollipop stick in. Then refrigerate and cover with candy melts. I had a few problems, mainly I've never worked with candy melts before and apparently you're not supposed to mix liquid (read: food coloring) in with them or it changes their consistency. Lesson learned. That, and next time I will make my pops smaller so they're easier to both decorate and eat. But I definitely need to practice them more, and it doesn't hurt that they taste so yummy too! :)


I made the pops for the actual Fourth of July, and then remembered I had Fourth of July cupcake liners that I had to use. After all, what good are fireworks liners after the holiday? At least, that was my reasoning :) First I made my good old faithful peanut butter brownie cups patriotism-style...meaning red and blue M&Ms with white sanding sugar. Seriously, if you ever need an easy dessert to make, these are it. Very little labor involved, and they're soooo yummy.


The other dessert I wanted to make was red white and blue cupcakes. I did something like that last year, but since then, I've gotten a lot better at baking...or so I thought. I tried a new white cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen, which is where my favorite yellow cake recipe is from. I tend to prefer yellow cake for some reason...plus, white cake confuses me. Why isn't it yellow? It had plenty of egg yolks in it! Anyway, I had no idea how many cupcakes this would make, so I made the batter, split it into three parts, made the other two red and blue and had Drew help me layer it in. Well, the cups were a little too full, and we overflowed a bit in the oven. Baking semi-fail.


Some were salvageable, though, so I did a fairly limited amount of icing compared with what I normally do, stuck some sprinkles and an M&M on top and called it a day. It's really interesting to see the middle of these, because they kind of reflect on how cake batter rises. If you're interested, we put red in first, then white, then blue, layered flat. Hm.

So I'd say it was a fairly successful holiday of baking. Now, to go get some sleep.

Drinks in desserts: pink lemonade pie and cherry limeade cupcakes

Today is my day off. So far I've caught up on sleep and gotten a haircut. Pretty active day, eh? Oh well, that's what weekends (since this is mine) are all about.

It's been fairly active in Lawrence lately. We had a monster of a storm yesterday; it was raining so hard you couldn't see more than three feet out the window. Parts of Lawrence flooded, I-70 was closed and KC got hit really hard too. Just another Kansas summer. I guess it's not boring, though.


It's been a week since I got back from my trip out to Lewis, which is always a good time, but also kind of sad. I love going on the road trip with just my dad and grandma, because we don't do stuff limited to just family very often. But it's also filled with sad memories — death of my maternal grandfather, death of my cousin's little girl, death of my dad's brother when my dad was 11. I mean, I guess that's how life goes, but it's so sad to think about all that in one day. After we plant flowers, we always do a mini-tour of the area around Lewis of places back in my grandma's and dad's life, the first being a farmhouse that was the first place my dad lived. He went inside it and it was abandoned, run-down, smelled bad, everything. It's weird to think that if I went inside the house my dad built for me to grow up in I'd probably be really apprehensive too. It's not abandoned, but it's been completely changed. Anyway, point is, the trip is always very sad, but happy too. I still have my grandma to go with, and that's definitely always an experience. Plus, every time I go I learn more about her life. We went through her cedar chest and found both her wedding gown and a plaque from her college sorority days...in 1941. Those letters in the picture are ones my grandpa wrote her before they were married and he was stationed at various army bases, dated 1940-1942. Incredible.


The weekend after coming home from that, I really wanted an easy dessert to make. I was browsing the LJWorld sites and found a food blog they have called the Flying Fork. Somehow I stumbled upon a pink lemonade pie that looked really yummy and easy. Originally I wanted to make pink lemonade cheesecake, but the recipes all called for chilling overnight, and I didn't really want to wait. So I ended up with an easy pink lemonade pie — four ingredients! Okay, so it wasn't technically as much baking as it was chilling, but it was dessert and tasted really yummy. That night AC came to town, and we all went to see the A-Team, which I actually liked. I know critics hated it, but for a movie about a show that was already really ridiculous, they did a good job. The casting didn't bother me either, and I thought it would. Murdock is still my favorite :)

Saturday I worked dayside at the newspaper, and I got the best assignment ever. I got to cover the cat show! I know that sounds horrible to some people, but I have no issue spending part of the day with kitty cats. One Maine Coon was the biggest I'd ever seen; he was longer than the torso of the guy carrying him. There were definitely some characters there, including one guy whose Maine Coons were named things like Francoonstein and Coonzilla. Creativity, yes! So I went to the show and then wrote the story for the paper and put together an audio slideshow. It was a fun day at work.


If you couldn't tell, I've been on a cupcake kick lately, and that continued after my cat extravaganza. I made cherry limeade cupcakes to take into the newsroom. Man, those cupcakes are lime-y. The recipe uses limeade concentrate out of the freezer — the whole can! They'd be really tasty as just lime-flavored cupcakes too. Then on the frosting I departed from her recipe and kind of just made my own grenadine frosting. All in all, I thought they were pretty good, but I'd kick up the cherry flavor a bit next time.

A couple days ago I made brownies just for fun. No picture of those, though. They were eaten before I could shoot a pic.

Now it's time for me to head to the gym to counteract all this baking. I joined Body Boutique this week, so now I just have to make sure I actually go on a regular basis. I guess the nice thing about working in a newsroom (among many other things) is that when I bake, there are always a bunch of people willing to eat the desserts. Plus, cupcakes always brighten my day, so I hope they brighten other people's as well.

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.

The most involved cupcakes I've made yet (plus better than Cheez-it crackers!)

So it's spring break! Eeeeeeeee!!! So happy!!!

Okay. Excitement over. Not really, but on Sunday I leave for Vegas. Can't wait! I'm excited most about two things: Cirque du Soleil's "Love" and the amazing food we're going to eat. Well, and going with Liz and Alex. And seeing Case and Traci. And going out. And seeing all the sports book people show up Wednesday for the NCAA Tournament. And not worrying about stuff going on here!

It was a tough week, but I strategically placed some baking time in there to de-stress myself (translation: avoid studying). First, I tried baking these Parmesan crackers. I've never made crackers before, but these were super easy to make. Getting them thin was another story, but whatever. They were still tasty. You basically just throw flour, salt, butter and freshly grated Parmesan cheese (mmmmmmm) into a food processor, add half-and-half and you have dough. Then comes the rolling it out part. Like SmittenKitchen says, you have to go waaaay thinner than 1/2 inch like the regular recipe calls for. I tried as thin as I could, but even after poking holes in the crackers with a fork, some still puffed up. Oh well. They were really yummy snacks!! I'm usually not a cheese cracker fan, but Parmesan makes everything better. Can you tell that I like Parmesan?

Tuesday night I had to study for a test. It was one of those tests that's in a lower-level class but the teacher wants you to know everything about the topic plus how to change your car's tire while it's moving. As in, ridiculous amounts for something that's not worth it. Tuesday's my long day of classes too. So naturally, I get home and both of my food magazines are here: Food Network Magazine (my absolute favorite and you should totally go subscribe) and Martha Stewart Living. I read those. Then I decide to make brownies. Both things that help me accomplish my studying. But Easter candies are out and I had to make Easter M&Ms/Easter sprinkles brownies, right? Well that's what I was telling myself.

So this test was yucky. It did have a feminist question, though, so I owned that, courtesy of my yucky test last week. Something totally new and different happened to me, though, while studying for it. I was going strong, and then got tired at 1 a.m. Anyone who knows me knows that I stay up late...always. But this semester I've had to get up early for class or work every day and don't really have any sleep-in days, which I guess has thrown me off of that ability. So I went to bed at 1 a.m. the night before my test. SO weird. Even weirder, I got up at 6:45 to study again. Yeah. I don't do early mornings. But I did, and I took it. Maybe that means I'm getting older. Hmph.

Thursday night was my last school commitment of the week. I had to turn in computer class homework, but I wanted to do some cupcake-ing before I did. So I used the marsala I got when I was with Mom and tried these tiramisu cupcakes (the first photo is courtesy of Tanner Grubbs, again). They are quite yummy, but look closely at the directions if you want to make them. They're super involved: you heat up milk and vanilla bean pods and then let it cool and strain it, sift together dry ingredients and in the meantime beat together lots of eggs and sugar. Then you have to whisk that over simmering water, and beat that again till it's light, and then combine the dry ingredients in, and put some of that in your milk mixture and then put it back in the batter....it's a lot. Then you have a coffee-marsala-sugar syrup you brush over the top and marscapone frosting. Tasty but not easy.

And now it's break! And I got to sleep in today for the first time in...I don't know how long. I'm so happy about that. I also just bought a book to read for pleasure rather than school. It's such a foreign concept! I should probably do homework too, but whatever. Kitty is going to be mad at me for leaving him, but he's got good people to take care of him. And with that, a final thought, courtesy of "Ace of Cakes."

"Dogs have owners, cats have staff." — Mary Alice

Mobbing the brownies

Well I'm officially overwhelmed with schoolwork and all the stuff I'm doing. So naturally I decide to blog. Specifically, I'm setting a goal for myself to blog once per week. We'll see if it keeps up.

It's birthday time right now. Last weekend Drew and I went to KC to celebrate his mom's birthday. Technically, her birthday was more than a week ago, but she and Drew's dad went to St. John's. So jealous. Anyway, we ate at Blue Koi (which has like the best dumplings ever!). Then we watched the KU-K-state game and drove home, where I made Snickerdoodle cupcakes. See, I've made a variation before for my Fourth of July baking bonanza. But I'd never made Martha's version, and I think we all know how much I like Martha's recipes. This was also my first baked item using the beater blade, a special mixer attachment for my KitchenAid that scrapes the edges of the bowl while it's mixing. I can't tell you how excited I was to get this! Originally I bought it on a trip to Nebraska Furniture Mart after lunch with Tara, but I managed to buy one that didn't fit my machine. Judging from a bin of opened and discounted mixers, a lot of other people have too. But yes, I get unnaturally excited about attachments for my mixer. ANYWAY, Weston has been bugging me about snickerdoodle cupcakes forever, but I don't really like carrying cupcakes around campus, so only wanted to bring them up on a Sunday. The recipe calls for some weird meringue-like frosting, but I'm more of a buttercream type of lady, so I went with a cinnamon buttercream frosting instead. The finished product, which are light and fluffy because you beat the hell out of the butter for the batter, actually include five sticks of buttter between the cakes and frosting. That's why they tasted SO good. Butter makes everything better. Drew really liked them, as did Weston, and also Drew's roommate.

I was definitely late to my class Monday. I think it's going to be one of those weeks. It's a class where you have to get there right at 9 a.m. and take a quiz. If you're late, you get 1 out of 5 points for writing down your name. I'm always super tired, though, and often get bored. Traffic was naturally bad and I got behind two super slow vehicles on the way to campus, so got up to campus at like 8:59. So I just didn't go. Apparently I've entered the close-to-completely-apathetic stage of my senior year. Grades don't matter, right? ;) No, I know they do. But sometimes productivity rules. This morning, sleep ruled. I skipped my second class of the semester, during which apparently we didn't even do what we were supposed to. Sigh. I'm currently researching an in-depth project, assigning out projects for our yearbook and interning at the local paper.

I'm noticing this is leaving very little time. Naturally, last night I filled that time with baking a new recipe. My friend Emily pointed out the blog Smitten Kitchen to me, specifically this peanut butter brownie. It's kind of a cakey-blondieish brownie. Lots of peanut butter and chocolate chips. On top is a dark chocolate ganache (I made double what they said; didn't use it all but definitely liked it with more than the recipe called for). So I brought these in to the newsroom today, and I think my pan literally got mobbed. Taylor had to hold it up high above everyone so I could cut them. I think it's safe to say people liked them, and I got my professional blog photographer, Tanner Grubbs, to take the photo again mid-pan.

My next project is going to be for Drew's birthday, which is this Friday. He turns 23. We're all going out, obviously. His mom made him cookie cake, a holiday staple at their house. So I'm considering making (or attempting to make) ice cream cake. Drew only reads sports blogs so I'm safe to say that on here. But if you know him, don't tell him. I'm thinking of getting his favorite ice cream combo from Cold Stone (cake batter with cookie dough mixed in) and putting it with some kind of cake, although I'm not what flavor to make the cake part of it. I'm going to have to research how to make this kind of thing too. If I can't figure it out, I guess we'll eat ice cream with cookie dough AND cake chunks mixed in.

The best bread ever, Kansas style

I haven't baked brownies in two days. I think that might be a record right now! Too bad, because it will be broken on Thursday, when I bake brownies for the LJWorld newsroom.

I started my internship there today. It was fun to be back. I think it's always fun for a journalist to start reporting again after a hiatus. It was also super nice to see my friends there.

I'm staying away from the Kansan newsroom right now. Not intentionally, but because I don't need to go that far over on campus often, and it's REALLY cold outside, and I'm finding I have a ton of other stuff I need to accomplish. I have been taking some baked goods there, but it seems to be on the same night each time: Thursday. Probably because that's my easiest day in general.

So last Thursday, Stephen asked for something with blueberries. I was going to make blueberries and cream cupcakes a la Martha, but didn't feel like going through the whole process of cupcaking. So I a la Marthaed a different dessert — blueberry sour cream pound cake with lemon whipped cream. It's a good thing it made two loaves too. I didn't really like the recipe for the whipped cream, because it only used lemon zest. It was kind of weird, so I put lemon juice in as well and then it was super lemony. Went over well though. I didn't get a photo before the last piece, and since I was in the newsroom, the most obvious choice to take the photo was a photographer. So, here is the most professional photo this blog will ever have, shot and imaged by Mr. Tanner Grubbs.

Then I made brownies, but that's old news. The smoked turkey, scalloped potatoes and pasta salad that went with it weren't. Super yummy.

Monday I made monster cookies. When I worked at Capers in high school, a place that served coffee as well as baked goods, it was one of their best-selling cookies. How could it not be? Oats, peanut butter, chocolate chips and M&Ms could hardly be a losing combination. This is the recipe I use, although I leave out the raisins. Yuck. I've made them in the past, though, and they've always come out a little too crunchy for me. This time I accidentally put in too much peanut butter and they were yummy and chewy and wonderful. Plus, they had Valentine's Day M&Ms. I'm such a sucker for holiday baking items.

Like I said, today I started back at the Lawrence Journal-World. I worked there this summer in the features department, and this time I'm doing news stuff. Well I was reading an article that my good friend from the features department Sarah wrote on baking bread. Then I read the chat that came from the article. Included at the bottom were recipes for loaves. I've been mildly successful with sandwich bread, but the recipe for Kansas Sunflower Bread caught my eye. I love sunflower seeds and that kind of thing, so it just looked so yummy. Plus, I'm in Kansas. How could I resist? I like shopping at the Merc when I'm trying out a recipe like this, because buying in bulk for one batch is actually easier. Plus, this called for wheat bulgur. I'd heard of it, but figured the Merc would be the only place to find it. I went through bulk about 4 times before finally asking someone to help me find it...right in front of my eyes. Apparently you have to soak bulgur in water, so I did that and then made my first batch, only to realize my water might have been too hot for the yeast and might have killed it. So I made another batch. Guess which one rose? The first. Figures. I made sure to let it rise extra high, and now I've got a giant loaf. I just tried it, and I think it might be my favorite bread ever. Seriously. I love the crunchiness of the oats and sunflower seeds inside, and because I let it rise for so long, it's nice and fluffy. I will definitely be making it again.

Sigh. Time to get back to homework.

Back to school baking

Come tomorrow, it feels like school will really have started. We had classes on Thursday (and Friday, but I don't have Friday classes!), but it was really just a syllabus day. So I decided for most of the weekend that it was still winter break. Both a good and bad decision.

My classes on Thursday were POLS 600, Contemporary Feminist Political Theory and EECS: Concepts of computers or something stupid like that. I really like the politics teacher, so I'm super excited for that. The computer one, not so much. But I have to fill a spot to graduate, and that was the lucky winner. At least I'm taking it with Brianne so I won't go quite so crazy.

The wackiest thing about Thursday was that I got out of class at noon and got to go home! This may sound a bit ridiculous, but I haven't gotten to go home after classes since my first semester freshman year. Every other semester I've had to go to the newsroom after class and hang out. It was the weirdest feeling ever. So I got home....and decided to bake to fill my time. On the menu: red velvet cupcakes and Brenna brownies, as they've affectionately come to be known.

It seems I've gotten back on my cupcake kick, courtesy of Stephen asking me to. I go back and forth between loving making cupcakes, because you can be so creative, and making mostly cookies, because they take considerably less time (when you figure in the time needed to cool and ice the cupcakes). Anyway, the last time I made red velvet was for the fourth of July. I have a great relationship with red velvet; it became my favorite cake while working at Capers, a local coffee and pastry shop, in high school. And I'm a firm believer that cream cheese ice cream makes everything better. But when I made red velvet for the fourth of July, it wasn't in traditional form. It was a red velvet cookie sandwich, with the top red, the bottom blue and the cream cheese icing in the middle. The icing kind of sucked, which made me sad, but with these cupcakes, Martha knew her stuff. The cream cheese icing was perfect. In fact, it might be my favorite icing ever. The cupcakes were pretty tasty as well.

Along with the red velvet cupcakes, I made Martha's double chocolate brownies, which is one of my favorite things to make. I modify them a bit though and make them quadruple chocolate by adding in chocolate chips and white chocolate chips as well. They make a super chunky batter but I bake them just under the time you're supposed to and they are unbelievable. I don't mind that they're known as Brenna Brownies now. :)

So, after making 24 cupcakes and 16 brownies, I started handing them out. Some of the cupcakes went with Drew's roommate Eric to his newsroom. The rest I took to the Kansan, and they were gone really quick. But I bake for the fun, not the eating, otherwise I'd be the size of a hippo.

I made the brownies a second time this weekend, then took them to game night filled with Catchphrase and Apples to Apples. Then the next night, I felt antisocial and went for more. I made my favorite homemade pretzels, modeled after the Auntie Anne's pretzel places in the mall. They're super easy and made a really yummy (if not slightly unhealthy) dinner. You can put any kind of topping on them, but I usually do a mixture of grated Parmesan, garlic powder and this time added a pinch of cayenne.

Then, for dessert, I tried yet another Martha cupcake recipe, brown sugar pound cakes. They're pretty heavy, but I guess pound cake's supposed to be that way. Instead of doing the glaze, I decided to do cream cheese frosting again and went with her brown sugar cream cheese frosting. Also excellent. They're almost breakfast-y cupcakes.

So regular classes start tomorrow. My time will start filling up soon, but for now, guess I'll keep baking. Now I'm going to go make more brownies for just us to enjoy.

Two days of baking, seven Christmas treats

Ah the holidays. How....uncomfortable you can be.

I drove back to Salina yesterday to beat the weather....that still hasn't hit Salina. It's come to Lawrence though, so I suppose leaving early was actually a good idea. Coming back, though, I'm still not so sure about. For one, I had a completely full car, including seven varieties of baked goods (yup! I said seven), all my Christmas presents for family, two blankets and a pillow, clothes, and the ever-whiny cat. Couple that with rainy/foggy weather, and it's can be an interesting 2-hour drive.

The older I get, though, the more I realize I only like part of the holidays. I love the baking, decorating and gift purchasing. I hate the actual day. Last night I went out to a bar in Salina, and throughout the course of the night there were at least 100 people from my high school there. Some were people I hadn't seen in forever and was happy about, but others were people I sort of recognized but couldn't place their names. I also found out my ex-boyfriend got engaged, which is doubly weird. We dated for four years, and for a while thought we would get married. It could have been me getting that ring last night, although I'm glad it wasn't. There are so many people getting engaged right now that I feel like I should be; after all, Drew and I have been together for as long as my ex and his girlfriend have. But I know I'm not ready for that. Not for a while.

I had nothing to do a couple days ago, and decided to go on a baking extravaganza. Last Christmas I brought cookies home that Drew's mom had made, but I wanted to bring home my own this year. I started with chocolate chunk cookies that I found in the Food Network magazine. They were one of the most labor-intensive cookies I've ever made because the dough isn't very sticky. I had to form each individual cookie, because it was more chunk (chocolate, white chocolate, M&M and cashew) than cookie. They were yummy though.

The next day was my big baking day. First it was pizzelles again to take to my grandma. I had Drew put them on the iron, and I've found he has quite a talent for it. I think I know what his job will be from now on. :)

Then it was my mom's old no-bake butterscotch cookies (essentially these minus the peanuts). We used to make them when I was little. They're super easy and only four ingredients, but get really hard to stir. You melt butterscotch chips in a pan, then add peanut butter and later marshmallows. The marshmallows make it really tough to stir, and then you add chow mein noodles. They're soooo rich but so yummy.

Then came one of my favorite recipes: peanut butter brownies. This is easily one of my favorite recipes, one I found on another baking blog. They go pretty quick too once you set people on them. They're basically brownies with chocolate and peanut butter chips in them. You bake them in muffin tins, then let them fall and fill the void with peanut butter. Top them off with chocolate and peanut butter chips and you're set! I went for the more festive vibe and did Christmas M&Ms.

I made three things I never had before as well. As you can tell, I baked for like a solid five hours. First were pineapple cookies with pineapple glaze from my Golden Book of Cookies. They are super moist from the crushed pineapple in them. Then I made biscotti a la Bobby Flay. It has blue and yellow cornmeal and pistachios. It's supposed to have Sambuca, a licorice-flavored liqueur, but I didn't have any of that and wasn't about to buy it (yuck!) so did Triple Sec instead. Last, I made chocolate-dipped pretzels. Mmmm.

Now I just need to figure out who's going to eat all this food. I'm not sure I'll be here as long as was planned.